HOW TO BRING THE WILD CREATURES BACK AGAIN

In the preceding chapters we have learned something of the destructive warfare that men have carried on against wild creatures. We have learned that some species are already extinct and that many others have been so reduced in numbers that they are threatened with the same fate.

Nothing that we can do will bring back those that are gone, but we can save those that are left. Throughout our own country as well as many foreign countries, people are waking up to the necessity of protecting wild life. Thousands of men and women are spending their time and money trying to save birds and other animals. Among the things they are doing is the establishing of refuges and game preserves, working for better laws, and teaching boys and girls to be careful of life and not wantonly to destroy it.

The most important thing that we can do to bring wild creatures back again is to let them alone. Man is their worst enemy, and, if he can be kept from hunting, nearly all will be able to take care of themselves and increase in numbers. We can help Nature by supplying them with food when it is scarce and by protecting them from a few predatory animals and birds. The worst of these are the cougar or mountain lion, wild cat, lynx, wolves, and coyotes; the blue jay, butcher bird, and several of the hawks and owls. The cougar is the worst of all, for it has been estimated that one of these animals kills on the average fifty deer a year. Many of the states offer bounties for the killing of the mountain lion and coyote.

Ordinarily birds are able to secure their own food; but sometimes during long, snowy winters those that do not fly away South need food. There are also many trees which bear fruit that is not much used by us but which is very attractive to the birds. The planting of such trees aids in bringing birds to our homes and encourages their increase.

The settlement of the lands suitable to farming has deprived some of the hoofed animals, such as the elk, of their natural feeding grounds. The elk that are found in the summer in the meadows of the Yellowstone Park migrate in winter to the lower valleys outside of the park. These valleys are mostly fenced up, and to keep the elk from getting into trouble with the farmers it is often necessary for the government to buy hay and feed them.

In order to make sure that the wild animals shall be free to live and increase safe from the hunter, we have established great game preserves in different parts of the country. These are usually regions that are wild and unsettled and not useful for other purposes. All the great National Parks which we are trying to keep in their natural condition with their animals, birds, and plants are now game preserves. Among them are the Yellowstone, Yosemite, Rainier, and Crater Lake parks. Visitors to these preserves are not allowed to carry any guns, and wardens constantly patrol them.

The life of the Yellowstone Park is wonderfully interesting. Here we find droves of many of the animals that were in danger of becoming extinct. Among them are the buffalo, elk, and antelope. Here the grizzly and all the lesser bears are safe from the hunter. They have almost lost their fear of man and come about the camps and hotels for food, as the domestic animals do. In the park are some colonies of beaver, too, which will never again be disturbed by the fur hunter. On the higher peaks are a few Rocky Mountain sheep.

Another way in which we are protecting the wild animals is by making it legal to hunt them during only a short time each year. This is called the “open season.” In the case of some of the animals that are nearly extinct we have made a “closed season” extending through a number of years. With this protection we are hoping that they will be saved and sometime become numerous again. All our states have made game laws which give more or less protection to the deer, elk, moose, antelope, squirrel, and other animals. In the case of some of these animals the females are absolutely protected, and the number of the males as of the deer, for example that may be killed in a season is often as small as two, and in two states it is only one. A heavy fine is imposed upon any one killing the protected animals or having their meat in his possession.

We are trying to protect the birds in much the same manner as the wild animals. But because of their migrations this is much more difficult. Many kinds of birds travel with the changing seasons from north to south across different countries. If the people of one country protect them and those of another do not, they may easily become exterminated. Some species have become extinct in the last fifty years, and others have been reduced to a few pairs in regions where they were once seen in thousands.

There are three things that have brought about this slaughter of the birds. The first is hunting them for food. This was not so serious until the market hunters began their work. Then the small game birds that were salable quickly began to disappear. In most of our states the sale of game birds in the market is now prohibited.

Another cause for the decrease in the birds is the wanton shooting of some just for sport, and the hunting of others that are mistakenly supposed to be harmful. We cannot wholly stop this until we teach people to respect the birds, to love them for their music, and to appreciate the great good which many of them do by their destruction of insects and small animal pests.

Many of the birds which we have too often tried to kill or drive away are among the best friends we have. When we have learned all about their habits and their food, we shall find that only a very few are really harmful, and that the others abundantly repay the toll that they take of our produce. The farmer and the fruit grower should be particularly interested in protecting and encouraging the birds. If the birds pull up the sprouting seeds in your garden, do not kill them but protect the plants with wire screens. It is likely that these very birds feed largely upon the insects that are so harmful to your crops.

If the children in our schools could spend a little of their time in the interesting study of bird life, we are sure that when they grow up the wanton destruction of birds will almost cease. The Boy Scouts and the Camp Fire Girls are learning to love and respect life in the wilds and would not for anything injure its inhabitants. The children of the Agassiz Associations and the Junior Audubon Societies can also be proud of the work they are doing. They are not only saving the birds about our homes but are attracting others by putting out food, planting trees that bear attractive fruit, and making nesting places for the birds.

The third important thing which has been bringing about the decrease of the birds is hunting them for their plumes. For fifty years the demand for plumes for millinery purposes has been growing. The trade has spread until it now reaches the most remote islands of the sea. No bird, be its home in the most remote and inaccessible jungles, has until recently been safe from the plume hunter.

Now some of the foremost nations have passed laws for the protection of many of the water and jungle birds, which, unfortunately for themselves, are so beautiful that milady longs to have them for her bonnet. Nearly all the states of our own land offer more or less protection to birds of beautiful plumage. There is, however, much yet to be done, for in parts of our country birds that should be protected are still at the mercy of the plume hunter.

The Migratory Bird Law recently passed by Congress is one of the most important things which we have ever done for the birds. This law protects the multitude of water birds as well as land birds, that migrate with the changing seasons. It is especially important that all such birds be protected in the regions where they nest.

In the case of the water birds the nests are often grouped in colonies in certain places and not scattered singly here and there as with most land birds. Thus when a colony, say of the heron, tern, or flamingo, is found it is very easy for the hunter to break it up and destroy all the birds. Among the water birds the gulls, terns, grèbes, herons, egrets, osprey, flamingos, and pelicans have been so hunted for their plumes that some of them are almost extinct. Several of these species love the rocky coasts, where their nests are found upon the almost bare ledges of the cliffs. Others establish colonies about the marshy lagoons of the Gulf and South Atlantic coasts and about the marshy shore of the lakes of the interior.

During recent years many bird refuges have been established in various parts of the country. Such refuges are now scattered all along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, as well as at various other localities throughout the country which are favorite nesting places for the birds. Some of these refuges have been established and are guarded by the government; others have been donated by wealthy persons who love birds and want to see them preserved.

The most beautiful of the water birds have been so relentlessly hunted by the plume gatherers that at the time of the establishment of the refuges some of them were almost extinct and it was feared the birds would not be able to survive. But in most cases the effect of protection was magical. The bird refuges in the Southern coast islands and marshes which were almost deserted are now alive again with birds. Here we can get some idea of the wonderful richness of life before the bird hunters began their work. Even now, in spite of the watchful patrols, the hunters sometimes succeed in getting at the colonies. In order to insure full protection the refuges must be extended and more patrols employed, for such is the value of the plumes that desperate men will undergo great risks for the sake of obtaining them.

In order fully to stop this work, all those countries where plumes are in demand must forbid their sale. Only when there is no more demand can we get rid of the hunters.

In our efforts to protect bird life, we must not forget to take into account the instincts of our friend Pussy. It hardly seems as though the quiet house cat could do much harm, but if you will watch one out of doors when the birds are around you will be convinced that Pussy is one of the worst enemies that small birds have. Cats destroy many thousands of birds throughout the country. It is believed that they each average at least fifty birds killed every year. If you will multiply this number by the number of cats in your neighborhood, you will get some idea of the great losses among the birds due to the cats. We must choose between Pussy and the birds.

Arbor Day and Bird Day in our schools help call to mind the claims Nature has upon us. We might celebrate them by planting trees which furnish food that the birds like, for the trees and birds go together.

How pleasant it will be when that happy time comes in which the wild creatures will cease to regard man as their worst enemy! How pleasant it will be to go out through the fields and woods and along the shores and find that they look upon us as friends!

THE PRECEPTOR’S PLEA FOR THE BIRDS

Plato, anticipating the Reviewers,
From his Republic banished without pity
The Poets; in this little town of yours,
You put to death, by means of a Committee,
The ballad-singers and the Troubadours,
The street musicians of the heavenly city,
The birds, who make sweet music for us all
In our dark hours, as David did for Saul.

The thrush that carols at the dawn of day
From the green steeples of the piny wood;
The oriole in the elm; the noisy jay,
Jargoning like a foreigner at his food;
The bluebird balanced on some topmost spray,
Flooding with melody the neighborhood;
Linnet and meadow lark, and all the throng
That dwell in nests, and have the gift of song.

You slay them all! and wherefore? for the gain
Of a scant handful more or less of wheat,
Or rye, or barley, or some other grain,
Scratched up at random by industrious feet,
Searching for worm or weevil after rain!
Or a few cherries, that are not so sweet
As are the songs these uninvited guests
Sing at their feast with comfortable breasts.

Do you ne’er think what wondrous beings these?
Do you ne’er think who made them, and who taught
The dialect they speak, where melodies
Alone are the interpreters of thought?
Whose household words are songs in many keys,
Sweeter than instrument of man e’er caught!
Whose habitations in the treetops even
Are halfway houses on the road to heaven!

Think, every morning when the sun peeps through
The dim, leaf-latticed windows of the grove,
How jubilant the happy birds renew
Their old, melodious madrigals of love!
And when you think of this, remember too
’Tis always morning somewhere, and above
The awakening continents, from shore to shore,
Somewhere the birds are singing evermore.

Think of your woods and orchards without birds!
Of empty nests that cling to boughs and beams
As in an idiot’s brain remembered words
Hang empty ’mid the cobwebs of his dreams!
Will bleat of flocks or bellowing of herds
Make up for the lost music, when your teams
Drag home the stingy harvest, and no more
The feathered gleaners follow to your door?

What! would you rather see the incessant stir
Of insects in the windrows of the hay,
And hear the locust and the grasshopper
Their melancholy hurdy-gurdies play?
Is this more pleasant to you than the whir
Of meadow lark, and its sweet roundelay,
Or twitter of little fieldfares, as you take
Your nooning in the shade of bush and brake?

You call them thieves and pillagers; but know
They are the winged wardens of your farms,
Who from the cornfields drive the insidious foe,
And from your harvests keep a hundred harms;
Even the blackest of them all, the crow,
Renders good service as your man-at-arms,
Crushing the beetle in his coat of mail,
And crying havoc on the slug and snail.

HENRY W. LONGFELLOW, The Birds of Killingworth