less wild things, and _you must do it_!"

In a good cause, there is great virtue in "Must."

Really, we are losing each year an immense amount of available wild-life
protection. The doctrine of imperative individual duty never yet has
been taught in our schools as it should be taught. A few teachers have,
indeed, covered this ground; but I am convinced that their proportion is
mighty small.

TEXT BOOKS.--The writers of the nature study text books are very much to
blame because nine-tenths of the time this subject has been ignored. The
situation has not been taken seriously, save in a few cases, by a very
few authors. I am glad to report that in 1912 there was published a fine
text book by Professor James W. Peabody, of the Morris High School, New
York, and Dr. Arthur E. Hunt, in which from beginning to end the duty to
protect wild life is strongly insisted upon. It is entitled "Elementary
Biology; Plants, Animals and Man."

Hereafter, no zoological or nature study text book should be given a
place in any school in America unless the author of it has done his full
share in setting forth the duty of the young citizen toward wild life.
Were I a member of a board of education I would seek to establish and
enforce this requirement. To-day, any author who will presume to write a
text book of nature study or zoology without knowing and doing his duty
toward our vanishing fauna, is too ignorant of wild life and too
careless of his duty toward it, to be accepted as a safe guide for the
young. The time for criminal indifference has gone by. Hereafter, every
one who is not for the preservation of wild life is against it and it is
time to separate the sheep from the goats.

From this time forth, the preservation of our fauna should be regarded
as a subject on which every candidate for a teacher's certificate should
undergo an examination before receiving authority to teach in a public
school. The candidate should be required to know _why_ the preservation
of birds is necessary; why the slaughter of wild life is wrong and
criminal; the extent to which wild birds and mammals return to us and
thrive under protection; why wild game is no longer a legitimate food
supply; why wild game should not be sold, and why the feathers of wild
birds (other than game birds) never should be used as millinery
ornaments.

As sensible Americans, and somewhat boastful of our intelligence, we
should put the education of the young in wild-life prote