“Now we humbly pray that you will stop all this and will save us from this sad fate.  You have always made a law that no one shall kill a harmless song-bird or destroy our nests or our eggs.  Will you please make another one that no one shall wear our feathers, so that no one will kill us to get them?  We want them all ourselves.  Your pretty girls are pretty enough without them.  We are told that it is as easy for you to do it as for a blackbird to whistle.

[Illustration: 

No. 1.  Hummingbird.
    2.  Whippoorwill.
    3.  Bobolink.
    4.  Scarlet Tanager.
    5.  Baltimore Oriole.
    6.  Song-Sparrow.]

“If you will, we know how to pay you a hundred times over.  We will teach your children to keep themselves clean and neat.  We will show them how to live together in peace and love and to agree as we do in our nests.  We will build pretty houses which you will like to see.  We will play about your garden and flower-beds—­ourselves like flowers on wings—­without any cost to you.  We will destroy the wicked insects and worms that spoil your cherries and currants and plums and apples and roses.  We will give you our best songs, and make the spring more beautiful and the summer sweeter to you.  Every June morning when you go out into the field, oriole and bluebird and blackbird and bobolink will fly after you and make the day more delightful to you.  And when you go home tired after sundown, vesper-sparrow will tell you how grateful we are.  When you sit down on your porch after dark, fifebird and hermit-thrush and wood-thrush will sing to you, and even whippoorwill will cheer you up a little.  We know where we are safe.  In a little while all the birds will come to live in Massachusetts again, and everybody who loves music will like to make a summer home with you.”

The signers are: 

Brown thrasher,              Kingbird,
Robert o’ Lincoln,           Swallow,
Hermit-thrush,               Cedarbird,
Vesper-sparrow,              Cowbird,
Robin redbreast,             Martin,
Song-sparrow,                Veery,
Scarlet tanager,             Vireo,
Summer redbird,              Oriole,
Blue heron,                  Blackbird,
Hummingbird,                 Fifebird,
Yellowbird,                  Wren,
Whippoorwill,                Linnet,
Water-wagtail,               Peewee,
Woodpecker,                  Phoebe,
Pigeon-woodpecker,           Yokebird,
Indigo-bird,                 Lark,
Yellowthroat,                Sandpiper,
Wilson’s thrush,             Chewink. 
Chickadee,

The bill which was drawn up in response to this petition provides that any one who shall wear birds or feathers for the purpose of dress or ornament shall be fined $10, and that the same fine shall be exacted from all persons who take or kill certain specially mentioned song-birds.

The police are rather worried over the new law, because they are not sure whether they have the right to arrest ladies who are wearing feathers in their hats.