The Project Gutenberg EBook of Birds Illustrated by Colour Photography,
Vol II. No. 4, October, 1897, by Various

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Title: Birds Illustrated by Colour Photography, Vol II. No. 4, October, 1897

Author: Various

Release Date: November 27, 2009 [EBook #30552]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BIRDS ILLUSTRATED BY COLOUR ***

Produced by Chris Curnow, Joseph Cooper, Anne Storer, some
images courtesy of The Internet Archive and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

Transcriber's Note: Title page added.

* * * * *

BIRDS

A MONTHLY SERIAL

ILLUSTRATED BY COLOR PHOTOGRAPHY

DESIGNED TO PROMOTE

KNOWLEDGE OF BIRD-LIFE

VOLUME II.

CHICAGO.
NATURE STUDY PUBLISHING COMPANY.

COPYRIGHT, 1897
BY
NATURE STUDY PUBLISHING CO.
CHICAGO.

BIRDS.
ILLUSTRATED BY COLOR PHOTOGRAPHY
================================
VOL. II. OCTOBER NO. 4
================================

BIRDS IN CAPTIVITY.

It was our intention in this article to give a number of instances of
a pathetic nature concerning the sufferings of the various species of
birds which it has been, and still is, a habit with many people to keep
confined in cages totally inadequate for any other purpose than that of
cruelty. The argument that man has no moral right to deprive an innocent
creature of liberty will always be met with indifference by the majority
of people, and an appeal to their intelligence and humanity will rarely
prove effective. To capture singing birds for any purpose is, in many
states, prohibited by statute. But the law is violated. Occasionally an
example is made of one or more transgressors, but as a rule the officers
of the law, whose business it should be to prevent it, manifest no
interest whatever in its execution. The bird trappers as well know that
it is against the law, but so long as they are unmolested by the police,
they will continue the wholesale trapping. A contemporary recently said:
"It seems strange that this bird-catching industry s