Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1912-11-22

law at the next session of Congress.
1t is Senate Bill 6497, and on the Sen
ate calendar it is No. COG. We cannot
afford to wait until 1914 or 1915, and
Congress has full power to act next
winter.
A Wholesale Slaughter. How many
people in the North know that the ne
groes and poor whites of the South
annually slaughter millions of valuable
insect eating birds for food? Around
Avery Island, La. during the robin sea-
son lin January when the berries are
ripe). E. A. McIlhenny says that
during ten days or two weeks at least
ten thousand robins are each day
slaughtered for the pot. Every negro
man and boy who can raise a gun is,
after them.
There are seven States in which the
robin is regularly and legally being
killed as camel They are Louisiana
Mississippi, Maryland, North Carolina,
Tennessee, Virginia and Florida.
There are five States that expressly
permit the killing of blackbirds as.
game: Louisiana, South Carolina,
Tennessee, District of Columbia and
Pennsylvania
Cranes are killed and eaten in Colo
RADIO, Nevada, Nebraska, North Dakota
and Oklahoma
In twenty-six States doves are regu-
larly killed as game-much to the loss
of the farmers.
The bobwhite quail is a great de
stroyer of the seeds of noxious weeds.
In our fauna he has no equal. And yet
this fact is ignored. Throughout the
North and most of the South that species
is mercilessly shot, and as result it is
fast becoming extinct. In New York
State it will soon be as extinct as the
mastodon given ten-year close.
season at once. Its value as plentiful
game bird is gone.
Insect Eating Shore Birds. - The
shore birds are being fast exterminat-
ed by sportsmen and pothunters, who
kill them for food, according to law!'
The Esquimau curlew is totally extinct,
and other species are fast going over
the same road. Nothing in this world
will save this group of birds except a
law for the federal protection of migra-
tory birds, such as the Mclean bill,
now before Congress. The way the
whole group of shore birds is being ex-
terminated is nothing less than crime
And yet at least thirty members of
this group are of great value to all of
us, because of the great numbers of
crop destroying insects that they an
nualy consume.
THE DUTY OF THE HOUR.
The only way in which all these val
liable migratory birds can be saved to
US is through the strong arm of the
national government and federal law
for the protection of all migratory
birds. Protection of game birds alone
will not answer. Too many other birds
are being killed for food, especially in
the South.
Senator McLean's bill is the best one
of the three now before Congress. Cali
upon in person or write to your Senator
and Representative at once and
ask him to vote for and work for
that bill until it becomes a law.
The next session sof Congress is
short session, ending March 5. The
people of the nation should call upon
all their Senators and Representatives
to take up the Mclean bill as an emer-
gency measure and railroad it through
before Marcia. If enough constituents
demand this it will be done.
Now is the time to do some thing
practical and get a tangible result
A great effort will be required, but sure
ly we are equal to emergency. Will
liam T. Hornaday, Chairman.