



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