To Kill a Mockingbird
by Paula Bosse
by Paula Bosse
“…Remember, it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.” That was the only time I ever heard Atticus say it was a sin to do something, and I asked Miss Maudie about it.
“Your father’s right,” she said. “Mockingbirds don’t do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don’t eat up people’s gardens, don’t nest in corncribs, they don’t do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That’s why it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.”
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Pauline Periwinkle in The Dallas Morning News, Jan. 29, 1900
DMN, Nov. 29, 1905
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RIP, Harper Lee — and thank you.
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Copyright © 2016 Paula Bosse. All Rights Reserved.
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Actually, it is a crime to kill non-game birds, except those actively predating on crops or causing property damage, and then only with a permit from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, anywhere in the U.S. The law making bird killing a crime is The Migratory Bird Act, and it was enacted in the 1930s. It does make an exception for blackbirds and crows as crop predators and destroyers of property, but as stated above, one must obtain a permit.
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