Excerpt from Bird Guide: Land Birds East of the Rockies From Parrots to Bluebirds

There are parts that each one of us can play in lessening the unnatural dan gers that lurk along a bird's path in life. Individually, our efforts may amount to but little, perhaps the saving of the lives of two or three, or more, birds during the year, but collectively, our efforts will soon be felt in the bird-world.

How Can We Protect the Birds? - Nearly all states have fairly good game laws, which, if they could be enforced. Would properly protect our birds from man, but they cannot be; if our boys and girls are educated to realize the economicvalue of the birds, and are encouraged to Study their habits, the desire to shoot them or to rob them of their eggs will be very materially lessened. It is a com mon practice for some farmers to burn their land over in the Spring, usually about nesting time. Three years ago, and as far back of that as I can remember, a small ravine or valley was teeming with bird life; it was the most favored spot that I know of, for the variety and numbers of its bird tenants. Last year, towards the end of May, this place was deliberately burned over by the owner. Twenty-seven nests that I know of, some with young, others with eggs, and still others in the process of construction, were destroyed, besides hundreds of others that I had never seen. This year the same thing was done earlier in the season, and not a bird nested here, and, late in Summer only a few clumps of ferns have found courage to appear above the blackened ground. Farmers also cut off a great many patches of underbrush that might just as well have been left, thus, for lack of suitable places for their homes, driving away some of their most valuable assist ants. The cutting off of woods and forests is an important factor in the decrease of bird life, as well as upon the climate of the country.

About the Publisher

Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com

This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.