We know. We know.
"We are Americans just the same as you are. Some of us, like some of
you, came across the great sea. But most of the birds like us have lived
here a long while; and the birds like us welcomed your fathers when they
came here many, many years ago. Our fathers and mothers have always done
their best to please your fathers and mothers.
"Now, we have a sad story to tell you. Thoughtless or bad people are
trying to destroy us. They kill us because our feathers are beautiful.
Even pretty and sweet girls, who, we should think, would be our best
friends, kill our brothers and children so that they may wear our
plumage on their hats. Sometimes people kill us for mere wantonness.
Cruel boys destroy our nests and steal our eggs and our young ones.
People with guns and snares lie in wait to kill us; as if the place for
a bird were not in the sky, alive, but in a shop window or in a glass
case. If this goes on much longer all our song-birds will be gone.
Already we are told in some other countries that used to be full of
birds they are now almost gone. Even the nightingales are being killed
in Italy.
"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.
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