The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1902-06-06
9tood River Glacier.
FRIDAY, JUNE 8, 1902.
Don't XIII the Birds.

Too often we hear the remark, "the
vicious. cruel boys kill all the birds in
the community" would like to re-
pudiate the accusation. tits not vicious
and cruel boys who always do the
killing, perhaps some may, but the ma
iority of the boys are as tender-hearted
and kindly dispositioned, more so, than
many who decry them The fault lies
not with the vicious boy, but with
the ignorant careless or vicious parents.
Show your boys how the robins eat the
hurtful worms and bugs among the
berries and vegetables; how every robin
is worth ten dollars year on a
farm how the meadow larks alone in
/. crease the grain and hay crop as much
as 25 per cent more than it would be did
they not exist; how the wood-peckers,
flickers, nuthatches, wrens, martins,
swallows, and so many other of our
commonest and least appreciated birds,
do more to preserve ourfruits and grains
than anything man can do; get them to
watch the birds feeding, building nests,
caring for their young, land get them in
terested from monetary as well as a
humane standpoint in the welfare and
protection Of the birds, by thus showing
them the benifcent effect of their lives
upon the prosperity OF man, and the
bewitching beauties OF bird life in all its
kaleidoscope variations, and there will
be no more complaints about the boys.
But it is the brutal man | hate. He
who has had robin every spring morn
ing just fairly bursting its throat in the
gadness of its song TO cheer him, that
has spent the remainder Of every day OF
the springtime, wet or dry, in gathering
the moths, the slugs, the grubs, the cut
worms, a whole bushel basketful for
every robin on his farm, and then, after
all this, when the robin is carrying food
to his mate and little ones and seeing
the first ripe cherries selects the ripest
one-which is his by right, and earned
and paid for thousand fOld-to take
his mate, when this brute in human
shape, void of all sense of gratitude,
graciousness or even common honesty,
fit associate OF the fiends of Dante's in
ferno, shoots his cheering, faithful friend,
widows its mate and makes orphans of
its little ones. Could anything be more
cruel, more vicious, more fiendish? All
people deserving the name should
contemn such man. He ought, and
probably does, hate himself.
Again don't kill the snakes (venomous
ones excepted), nor toads, nor lizards,
nor even the much despised bat. All
these make it their life work to destroy
insects, mice, rats, young digger squirrels,
more or less noxious to the crops and
pocketbook OF the farmer. II it were
not for these, man could not exist. His
food supply would disappear from the
face of the whole earth. Many people
kill all snakes indiscrimately. In Hood
River we have butone poisonous variety,
the rattlesnake. All others are as harm
less as .birds and their food consists
wholly { insect and animal life and they
should be protected.
Now boys, and girls, too, if your parents
have been SO thoughtless as to not learn
for themselves and teach to you the
good and true, faithful friends we have
in the birds, and even the snakes, toads,
bats and lizards, just spend every spare
moment you have this summer watching
them at their work, keeping yourselves
as quiet and well hidden as possible, and
you will be surprised at the good they
do, and you will find it the most inter
esting and delightful pastime you ever
enjoyed.
1t was wise thought to introduce a
textbook on birds into our public schools
and it is to be hoped that this study may
be extended so as to embrace noxious
insects and the native reptiiian enemies
OF such. AN OLD Boy