Address and Illustrated Lecture, “Federal Protection of Migratory Birds”
We will now listen to a discussion of “Federal Protection of Migratory Birds,” by Dr. W. T. Hornaday, Director of the New York Zoölogical Park.
Dr. Hornaday—Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: The subject presented to this Congress by the Committee on Conservation of Wild Life is one of the most practical subjects that you could possibly imagine. It touches the market basket and the dinner pail, and I know of nothing that can come much closer home to a family than that. Within the last three months, in the City of New York, we have had riots in our streets on account of the high cost of certain articles of food.
Whenever I have an opportunity to stand before an audience and speak in behalf of wild life, “I would that my tongue could utter the thoughts that arise in me.”
We have reached the period now when it is absolutely necessary for us to adjust our ideas according to new conditions. I am trying to place before you conditions as they exist throughout the United States today, and I think when that has been done the facts will suggest to you the logical conclusion. The trouble is that our system of protecting wild life is nine-tenths absolutely wrong. We are confronted today by a slaughter of wild life throughout the whole United States, throughout the whole continent of North America, and throughout the world, that is absolutely appalling.
Now, in the City of New York there are several national organizations which make it their business to keep in touch with the conditions of wild life throughout the world. Unless a person takes pains to keep in touch with those conditions, as those national organizations do, you lose sight of the things that are actually going on and which ought to be of common knowledge. But our lives are so busy, there is so much to do, the days are so short, and we are so pressed for time that we grasp only the things that come close to us.
Now, take the slaughter of bird life, it is not like the cutting down of a forest. When a forest is cut down the stumps are left to be constant reminders of the destruction for days, for weeks and for years. When your bird life is destroyed, it simply fades from view. It fails to return in the spring and you go about your day’s business and you see the beauties of the forest and field, but you forget to what extent the birds have disappeared. It is a difficult thing to obtain an accurate estimate of the decrease in the general volume of wild bird life throughout a given year, but it is possible to obtain such estimates. Now, there is in the United States a tremendous force at work destroying wild life. The force that is preserving wild life is not nearly so large and not nearly so active. I will show you presently a picture especially designed to bring this home to you. Dr. Pearson has set before you many beautiful pictures showing bird life in protected areas. That points an important moral which I do not wish to forget. It means that if we are diligent, if we reform our system and our laws we can to a very large extent bring back the vanished bird life. There is hope for the future. Today we are confronted by the prospect of a country gameless and birdless everywhere except in the protected areas. We all know how important the game preserves and the protected bird areas are. We cannot have too many of them; they cannot be too large. But there is a vast volume of bird life that cannot be protected in the preserves, the migratory phase of bird life, which we cannot control except for short periods of the year.
I believe that the subject we are now bringing before you is one in which it is possible for the members of this Conservation Congress to achieve a practical result of the greatest magnitude and in the shortest possible time and with the least effort of any subject that will be presented to this Congress. I know that is a large order, but I think that before I conclude you will agree with me that my proposition is not exaggerated.
When I was assured that I could have the honor and the privilege of speaking to this Congress on the subject of wild life, the first thought that occurred to me was to endeavor to place before you some ocular proof of the slaughter of wild life that is now going on at so terrific a rate. I gathered from my side table a collection of pictures that had dropped into my hands from various portions of the United States and outside, and those pictures I wish you to see now. They will tell a story of their own with very few words from me, and after that we will come to the logical conclusion.
Dr. Hornaday here gave an illustrated lecture which was thoroughly enjoyed.