Various

“ Long ago our forefathers declared that all men possess the natural right to "Life Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness." Certainly no one will deny that any creature has a right to life so long as in its life it contributes more toward the welfare of the world than in its death. It also has a right to liberty so long as it can do more good at liberty than as a captive. Granting that the lower animals are capable of happiness, no one would think of denying them the right of the pursuit of their happiness except for some higher good. ”

“ You have heard of what a dirty thing the Chicago river is, how unpleasant it is both to the sense of sight and to the sense of smell. It is very much the same with many of the other rivers that flow through our great cities, and even smaller towns. Some day the children of our public schools, who are now studying these things, will grow up, and they will find out how to purify our streams. They will restore their beauty. They will love the fish in the water so much that they will prefer seeing them alive to eating them when dead. ”

“ All this civilization along the Nile would have been impossible had it not been for the Nile. The great stones that went into the pyramids were floated down the river. Soldiers and workingmen were transported on the river. The fields were made fertile by the river, and the leisure and the wealth that were made possible by the fertile fields on the river's bank gave men time to think and to feel, to invent the beautiful picture writings, to cut out the great tomb temples, and to think the great thoughts of religion, God-thoughts, love-thoughts, and duty-thoughts. ”

“ In our imagination we see the troop of harvest hands, arisen from an early breakfast, taken after an hour's labor at chores, moving to the fields often before the sun has kissed the dew from the lilies that beckon them on the way, young women as well as young men; though with a hard day's labor before them, they are chatting as merrily as when gathering at school in the winter, when the labors on the farm are not so great. ”

“ Or we may fish in the rush and roar of the Des Chutes or the Buttermilk, tramping high through the pines to Agua Bonita, or far across the desert to Trapper's Lake, or struggling through the wooded reaches to the Saranac. We may come back at night tired enough to lie flat on the floor and "drip off the edges" of it, but withal at peace with all the world—it matters not whether we have fish or not. ”

“ Winter is the pigeon's time of retirement. He is not compelled to race, for racing is only profitable when wind is fair and the air is absolutely clear. Whatever the wonderful power that guides the pigeon home over hundreds of miles of unknown country, it is certain that sight plays an important part, for the least sign of haziness in the air will put the pigeon in the position of a derelict ship.
A bird of good quality costs from $5 to $20 when one month old, and a practiced racer one year old generally brings from $25 to $100. ”

“ The good man will never slay fish wantonly. We creatures of God on the earth together should enjoy each other, and the beautiful world, which is ours alike.
Because man is the wisest of all, with greatest power of knowledge and capacity for happiness, it is all the more incumbent on him to preserve the world as fair as he found it, and to respect the rights so far as may be of every other man and beast. ”

“ From the time of bronze in Egypt, to the centuries following the dark ages, the reaping hook was probably the only implement used in the harvest.
When comes the beginning of the end of barbarism in a nation, then industrial progress germinates, and in proportion as barbarism has decreased, the efforts for improvements in methods adapted to reduce human labor have been successful. The cloud that cast its shadow over Europe during the so-called dark ages, practically suppressed all efforts, and it is only since then that the energies directed to mechanical progress have had a fair field. ”

“ The history of a flower does not end with the opening of the blossom. If the stigma has succeeded in receiving some pollen, and the pollen has succeeded in doing its work, the ovules within the ovary become gradually transformed into seeds, and the ovary becomes transformed into the fruit, the outer sets of the flower usually disappearing. ”

“ But we are the highest of the type—that is, we men—and the rest of the tribe are all lower. And the lowest of all backboned animals we call fishes. And we shall know a fish when we see one because the hard parts or skeleton are on the inside, and he stays in the water, breathing the air which is dissolved in it, and he has never any toes or claws or feathers. He breathes with gills and he swims with fins. He has no hair or feathers on his body and when he has any cover on his skin at all it takes the shape of scales. A fish is a water backboned animal. ”

“ Our nighthawk makes a booming sound with its wings by extending its outer quills as it dives earthward. A weapon is also found by some birds in their wings, the pigeon, hen and other of our common birds using their wings to strike with.
The foot shares with the wing the duties of locomotion. Birds with highly developed wings have poor feet. The swallow, an aerial bird, is an example. The chimney-swift has a tiny foot, but enormously developed wings, and if placed on a flat surface is unable even to support itself. All aquatic and terrestrial birds have excellently developed feet. ”

“ The fine hairs on the body of a water insect act in the same way as those on the feet, and thus keep the insect dry when below the surface. These insects are thus able to breathe as land insects, on account of their being on the surface, and consequently their respiratory systems are not as greatly modified as in many of the insects living beneath the surface. It must be borne in mind that an insect breathes by means of the air which enters the body by small openings and is led by means of tubes, which become very finely divided, like veins, to all parts of the body. ”

“ Clearly the bird at liberty to perform the part which Nature intended for him can fully accomplish that part only when at liberty to go his own way. But it would be idle to declare that the caged bird is in nowise useful to the world. There are some things which can be learned about birds only from caged ones. If a bird be caged for the purpose of learning these things the very few that will be needed for this purpose will be fulfilling a high good, and if given their freedom again when the lessons have been learned the harm, if there be any, will be fully repaid. ”

“ The fish-eating duck grasps its prey with a saw bill. The pelican catches its fish by diving from the air, often from distances of forty feet, and catches its fish in a bill an inch and a half in width. As it throws its head out in diving, it widens the rim of its bill and catches the prey in its curious pouch. The flamingo catches, with its food, mud and sand, which it expels through a curious straining apparatus. The woodcock has the power of curving up the upper portion of its bill, giving it the grasping power of a finger, which greatly aids it in probing for worms. ”

“ When we remember the great service that the rivers have rendered man, the beautiful stories that cluster around them, the beautiful life that has sported in their waters, floated upon their surface, and [Pg 24] gathered on their banks, is it not a pity that they are being so despoiled by thoughtless and reckless men, who wantonly cut down the forests, waste the trees that grow upon their banks? ”

“ Besides contributing to the daily bill of fare she became the common beast of burden, drawing the rudest of plows, sleds and carts, and in fact she does the same to-day to some extent in many parts of the world.
The common straight-backed cattle, as we know them in our country, remain an important factor even in this stage of civilization; while they are not generally used as beasts of burden, they furnish millions of gallons of milk and numberless pounds of butter, and finally sacrificing their entire bodies to the use of man. ”

“ Another method of securing fresh air, but differing from that of any of the insects previously mentioned, is by means of elongated breathing tubes, thus allowing the insect to remain submerged and yet secure a fresh supply of air from the surface. This method is used by some predaceous water bugs, as shown in the plate, Ranatra fusca. As with all of our Predaceous water bugs, which have the elongated respiratory tube at the end of the body, the Water-scorpion has its fore legs adapted for capturing and holding its prey, which consists generally of small fish and insects. ”

“ Along the banks of this Nile, in history, we see how human life was developed; all human life beginning away back there, so far back we cannot count it by years; when man made knives of flints and hatchets of stone. And then, because the [Pg 23] Nile gently overflowed its banks two or more times a year, leaving after each freshet a soft layer of fertile mud on either side, primitive man began to plant his seed in this field plowed by a river, and to raise his millet, and peas, and beans, and some kind of wheat and corn. ”

“ Locomotion and breathing, either one or both of these functions, are, as a rule, very different in land and water insects.
The variety of aquatic insects, if we consider only the adults, is not great when compared with the land insects. But when we compare fresh and salt water forms it is surprising how few kinds there are which live in the sea, in spite of its vast area and great food supply. So few are the insects found in the sea, or other salt waters, that, to most of us, to speak of aquatic insects only calls to mind fresh water forms. ”

“ Like other boys the lad, Obed Hussey, took to the sea, but tiring, turned his attention to a machine for reaping grain. He made a model of the machine, and in 1832-1833 constructed a machine which he operated in the harvest fields near Cincinnati, Ohio. He "builded better than he knew," for his cutting apparatus sings his praise in the harvest fields of every continent, and will probably do so until man ceases to exist. ”

“ Without discussing these general principles further let us see how they will apply to the birds as natural rights.
Has the bird a right to live? According to our first principle he has if he is more useful alive than dead. What, then, does he do that can be called really useful? If he is a diver, a gull, a tern, or any one of the really seafaring birds, he eats fish, water insects, offal and whatever small animals resort to the water, doing little or no harm and a great deal of good. ”

“ If he is a snipe, sandpiper or plover, he destroys large numbers of insects, worms and such small animals as are to be found in wet places, and is always a very useful help to the farmer. If he is a bird of the fowl kind or a pigeon, he eats grain mostly, but also many insects. He may sometimes do a little damage to the ripe grain, but he usually gathers that which has gone to waste. If he is a vulture, hawk, eagle or owl, he destroys great quantities of animals that are harmful to man, not often visiting the poultry yard, and so does great good. ”

“ When a beetle plunges beneath the surface, as he often does when frightened, he carries down a small bubble of air between the ends of his horny wings and the tip of his body. On account of his body being lighter than water it takes some effort to dive, but none to rise to the surface. The two hind pairs of legs which are used so much in swimming are very much flattened and plate like, making excellent paddles, as is shown by their exceedingly rapid movements. ”

“ If he is a duck, goose or swan, he feeds upon fish, the plants which grow in the water and at its margins, upon the insects and worms which inhabit the ooze at the bottom, and sometimes upon grains in the fields and about the marshes. He does a great deal of good and rarely any harm. If he is a heron, crane, rail, coot or gallinule, his food is frogs, snakes, insects and worms, and so he is useful. ”

“ And then along the river the grass grows greenest, and this afforded good grazing for his cows, and his horses, and, may be, his camels. What kind of food does the camel like best, anyhow? Primitive man must have learned to swim early, and it must have been fun for the little boys of barbarism, as it is for the little boys of civilization, to plunge into the cooling water on a hot day. Man must have found out very early how to make a raft which would carry him down stream, and soon after he learned how to make a canoe that he could paddle up stream. So the river became his first road. ”

“ The duty of the style, when it is present, seems to be to put the stigma into a favorable position to receive the pollen. It must not be supposed that the stigma always resembles a knob-like top to the style. It is really only a surface prepared to receive pollen, so it may be upon the top of the style, or may run like a line down one side of it, or may display itself in some other way.
The pistil of the lily, however, is not a single structure. If the ovary be cut across, it will be found to be made up of three compartments, each one of which contains ovules. ”

“ One good reason is that you may learn to know fish. Isaac Walton tells us that "it is good luck to any man to be on the good side of the man that knows fish." This is true, but you cannot learn to know fish unless you go forth to find them. There are about 15,000 kinds of fish in the world; 4,000 of them in North America, north of Panama. Now no man knows them all, not even on one continent, though some have written books upon them. ”

“ But let us say seventy-five cents to do full justice to the greater excellence of the bird's flesh as food. We must consider, however, that the most of the birds which are not good for food, civilized food, are among our largest birds. The size of the average edible bird would therefore be greatly reduced, so our estimate is a very liberal one. But during the average lifetime of the average bird it would destroy many times its own weight of injurious animals. Careful investigations have shown that these injurious animals would do many times more damage than the worth of the bird's flesh. ”

“ A good way to study what a river does for man is to find out all you can about the life that gathered about some particular river, for that will tell you more or less of what happened along the banks of all the great rivers. The best of all rivers for such study is the Nile. ”