ght the hoot of the owls is most entertaining.

Would you for anything have the birds leave us? Would you for anything
lose these airy creatures whose music, bright plumage, and graceful
movements not only add so much to the pleasure of our daily lives but
also serve us in so many ways? The woods, fields, and waters would be
lonely without them.

Did you ever think that it is possible, that it is indeed likely, that
many of these beautiful creatures will leave us for all time if we do
not treat them kindly and give them every protection in our power? Did
you ever think of all the enemies that are constantly on the watch for
the birds,--the thoughtless boy who robs their nests, the angry farmer
who mistakenly believes they injure him, the hunter who thinks only of
how good they taste, the sleek cat lying so innocently by your fireside,
which loves a bird above everything else, and last of all, the blue jay,
butcher bird, and some of the hawks and owls?

To realize how our home would seem without birds, let us take an
imaginary journey far across the water to "sunny Italy." Here you will
rarely hear bird music upon spring mornings, unless it be that of some
poor caged creature. If you will walk through the country, you will see
few birds where once they must have been abundant. But upon every
holiday you will see the fields filled with hunters, who with keen eyes
are watching for any stray birds that have happened to stop on their
journey across the country to rest and to hunt worms or taste a bit of
fruit. The Italian does not know the good the birds do his garden and
that it would be the part of wisdom for him to let them have a little of
his corn and fruit.

We will now journey to Spain and learn something about the treatment of
our bird friends there. This country was once rich and prosperous. From
it came many of the early explorers of our own land. The people of the
central highlands of Spain never loved to hear the birds sing, because
they were always thinking of the grain which the birds took. Thinking to
save their crops, they not only killed and scared away all the birds
they could, but they also cut down the trees so that the birds would
have no places to nest.

Thus the people freed themselves from the birds, but what was the
harvest that they reaped? When the trees were gone they had no fuel, the
soil dried out more quickly, and the insects increased until they
destroyed far more of the grain and fruit t