ive
weapons should arouse our sympathy, if nothing else does. Leaving out of
account a few predatory animals that destroy large numbers of other
animals, we should most earnestly try to protect those that remain.

The beauty of the birds, their sweet music, the companionship which they
afford, and, last but not least, their great value to the farmer and
fruit grower, should arouse our earnest efforts in their behalf.

In our country alone an army of five million men and boys go out to hunt
wild creatures every year. The animals are so defenseless against man's
weapons that it is not a fair fight, in which the quicker or sharper
escape, but a slaughter.

If these hunters were savages armed only with bows and arrows, then the
wild creatures would have a chance for their lives. Besides, savages do
not kill for sport, nor do they purposely destroy Nature's most valuable
gifts to them.

The forest that has been cut down will grow again. The soil that has
been made poor will, if let alone, sometime become fertile again. But
those species of birds, animals, and fish which we have completely
destroyed will never be restored to us.

[Illustration: _Nat'l Ass'n Audubon Societies_
The sage grouse, which is in danger of extinction.]

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

THE TRAGEDIES OF MILADY'S HAT AND CAPE

Our savage ancestors depended largely for food upon animals, birds, and
fish which they obtained. They used the skins and furs for clothing and
the plumes for decorating themselves. They allowed no part of the bodies
of the animals they killed to go to waste.

We do not now have to depend upon the wild creatures for food, because
our flocks and herds supply all that we require. But Dame Fashion has
decreed that furs and feathers are still the proper thing to wear. Thus
it has come about that those animals that have soft, furry coats and
those birds that have bright plumage are hunted more eagerly now than
they were long ago when food was the most important thing.

The demand for furs has always been great and the trapping industry has
employed thousands of men ever since our land was discovered, but in
recent years feathers have become almost as important. No region where
fur-bearing animals have their lairs, or birds of beautiful plumage have
their nests, is too far away or too difficult for the hunters and
trappers to go and hunt.

The business of killing wild creatures for money makes beasts out of men
and has le