The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1913-02-18
FEDERAL PROTECTION
 orr MIGRATORY BIRDS
Edward Howe Forbush, Macs, State
 Ornitholog1sr

Edward Howe Forbusf, Macs, State
 Ornithologlsr
 Editor Farmer, sir:1The Mclean bi1l for the protection of migratory ted States Senate at Washington, is now in the House and may be called mp for action. at any time. Such ac- tf0n by the Federal Government as. only possible way in which certain migratory birds can be saved from to protect these and other species from extermination and to increase thee number of the beneficial birds, which, in the nature of things, the states cannot protect. The attitude of state legislatures towards migra- tory species is fully expressed in the Committee of the Senate of Ohio in 1858 on a bill proposing protection of the passenger pigeon.
 The passenger pigeon needs no pro tection. Wonderfully prolific, having the vast forests of the North as it's breeding grounds, travelling hun dreds Of miles in search of food, it is here today and elsewhere tomorrow, and no ordinary destruction can lessen them, or be missed from the nhyriads that are yearly produced
 Less than fifty years later, the wild or passenger pigeon known, except those in captivity, was killed and there is every reason to believe that the species is extinct. Nine more species of American birds have been exterminated and many others are now in danger of extinction. The to kill their share of each migratory species while 1t is going that uniform State protection is impossible. No one state can save such birds from ex- finetion by protecting them at all times when other States fail to give them any protection. Experience has shown that while the people of some States will at least attempt to pro- tect the local and resident birds from extinction no State has ever given any adequae protection to certain mi gratory birds until they were menaced with extermination, and in every such case this partial protection has come tinction The wood duck and the up- land plover, now in danger of ex- tinction, are protected at all times in few States but they are not pro tected at all in some other States and elsewhere their protection is made quate. For this reason they are cer- tain to be exterminated unless federal protection can be extended to them. Under the present system many mi gratory birds will be exterrninauted according to law.
 The experience of centuries, having shown conclusively that no adequate protection of migratory birds can be secured from State action until it is too late to save them. the whole sys- tenn of protection by State laws fails to the ground. As it is evident that the States are incompetent alone to preserve these birds from extinction it becomes the province Of the Nation al Government to enact 1eg1s1ation on the subject It may be argued that the fact that the States have not en- acted uniform legislation for the pro- lection of migratory birds does not prove the contention that they are in Competent to do so and that Ma tjonaI Association. like the RockefeI- Ter foundation we'll organized and en- dowed with millions of money, might k4 able in the course Of many years fr Ia nR0DIn of all the United States as to secure uniform legislation properly protecting these bfrd@ In the meantime, however, many of them would have become ex-