REMEDIES AGAINST BIRD DESTRUCTION.

Forest and Bird, Issue 20, 1 March 1930, Page 10

REMEDIES AGAINST BIRD DESTRUCTION.

(Extracted from “The Practical Value of Birds,” by Junius Henderson.)

Many things can be done not only to prevent undue destruction of birds, but also to encourage them and increase their numbers where advisable. Foremost among these is the creation of a healthy public sentiment by the dissemination of accurate information. An astonishing number of otherwise well-informed people are totally ignorant of the practical value of birds —their relation to human welfare. Much is being done to correct this (in the United States). Much more should be done. The interest of thousands of school teachers has been enlisted and they have introduced the study of birds into the curricula of their schools, but there are large areas where nothing of this kind has yet been done. The Audubon Societies, with their junior organisations, are doing splendid work along this line, a work that should be pushed into every corner of the land. In a great many localities the Boy Scout, Girl Scout, and kindred movements are doing good work in interesting the youth of the land in Nature, including the birds. It is quite customary in some portions of the country to call upon the Boy Scouts to post notices in the forests and along the highways, urging people to protect the birds and spare the wild flowers. Such organisations should be given every possible encouragement and every effort should be made to get executives for the organisations who are themselves well trained, in order that the information they pass along to the boys and girls may be accurate. Many newspapers are willing to give space to articles bearing upon this subject, and such articles should be prepared by men and women who have made sufficient study of the subject to avoid misleading statements. Much may be done by those interested in the study of birds to encourage the newspapers of their localities to devote more space to the subject, in connection with other phases of natural science, and to furnish the editors with information.

Such a campaign of education is essential to the passage of wise laws for the protection of birds, but the passage of laws cannot solve the problem. Laws will not be enforced without enthusiastic public sentiment behind them. A sufficient police force to patrol the whole country and watch for violations of the law is not practicable. Futhermore, the great majority of officers charged with the enforcement of laws do not even know there are any laws for the protection of any but the game birds, have not the slightest knowledge of the need of such protection or of the importance of birds, and are totally devoid of any interest in the subject. Hence our chief hope lies in the educational campaign,

the dissemination of knowledge, the creation of public sentiment based upon that knowledge. A number of sportsmen’s associations in the United States are engaged in intelligent patriotic efforts to conserve game birds. Many of their members are also interested in the protection of non-game birds. They should receive support in all proper endeavours. It is not at all advisable to prevent hunting, but it is quite important to place it under proper control; otherwise in a short time there will be no hunting. Extreme sentimentalists who demand complete cessation of hunting in most cases eat the flesh of fishes and mammals killed in quite as cruel ways as is the game killed by the hunter. The need is of intelligent conservation in the interests of all the people, and that is what most sportsmen’s organisations are seeking. They may sometimes make mistakes, as we all do, but their motives are usually good and mistakes can usually be corrected if detected in time. The early bird laws of the United States provided for the destruction of birds by means of bounty acts, instead of their protection. Especially were laws directed against such gregarious birds as the Blackbirds and Crows, because they were generally supposed to be altogether harmful to crops, and against the Hawks and Owls, because they were all suspected of being enemies of the poultry. Subsequent investigation has shown that the Blackbirds and Crows do a great deal of good to offset the damage they do, and only a few species of Hawks and Owls cause trouble in the poultry yards, while the great majority do a vast amount of good in the destruction of injurious rodents and insects. Consequently, such laws are not now very much in vogue.

Through the efforts of the United States Department of Agriculture, the American Ornithologists’ Union, the National Association of Audubon Societies and other organisations and individuals, most States have enacted laws for the protection of all except a few species of non-game birds, while the national government has negotiated treaties with adjacent countries providing for protection of migratory birds, and Congress has enacted a law providing for the regulation of hunting migratory birds, under the terms of the treaties.

A number of very important bulletins and other publications dealing with methods of attracting birds have been published during the past few years. Among the suggestions offered, an important one is the provision of feeding places and food for birds during bad weather and times of scarcity of food. Another is the planting of wild fruits and other non-commercial fruits attractive to the birds and affording them a substitute for cultivated fruits in order that they may not be so strongly tempted by ripening cherries.

The provision of better nesting places is very necessary where natural nesting sites are scarce. For species that nest in holes,, enclosed bird boxes may be provided, of different sizes and especially with openings of different sizes for various species. In many places small piles of brush may be so placed as to provide nesting cover for ground-nesting species. The value of encouraging the nesting of birds has been demonstrated on more than one occasion. For example, Forbush tells us that an invasion of army worms in Massachusetts did no harm on farms where provision has been made for nesting sites. Hewitt says that in 1905,. in a large area in Germany, where insects were defoliating the trees, the wood of Baron von Berlepsch, in which birds had been encouraged by numerous nesting boxes, was almost untouched by the insects, which were kept in check by the birds. The Baron has written a book on Methods of Attracting and Protecting Wild Birds, and Wharton has from his own observations given us a shorter account of the methods adopted. The necessity of protecting birds, particularly during the nesting season, from stray house cats has been discussed at some length in another chapter. As therein indicated, a large proportion of young birds about farms, villages, towns and cities, upon leaving the nests, become victims of cats. If all the cats could be kept in confinement during the nesting season, it would immediately result in a large increase in the numbers of insectivorous birds. Manicuring the cats has also been found effective. Catproof wire fences, which prevent the cats from entering enclosures where birds are nesting, and guards for the trunks of trees, which prevent cats from climbing them after young birds in the nest, have been devised. Anti-cat ordinances have been passed in some cities and proposed in others, but they have not proved popular, because of ignorance of the facts, and are bitterly opposed by those who believe that their cats should be allowed to run at large regardless of the rights of their neighbours.

The establishment of properly guarded private and public bird preserves—areas in which the destruction of birds of all kinds is prohibited at all seasons —is another means of encouraging the birds and maintaining their existence or even increasing their numbers locally. Numbers of such refuges have been provided. but the plan is capable of great extension and doubtless much more will be done in that direction in the future. The setting aside of their breeding places as refuges is an especially valuable method of preventing the extermination of such birds as the Egrets. The desperate character of the market hunters is revealed by the fact that wardens of some such preserves have been killed by the collectors of plumage for the hats of the fair sex—a business unintentionally encouraged by those who demand the plumage.