NATURE-STUDY AND THE PRESERVATION OF 

 AMERICAN GAME BIRDS 



By C. F. HODGE 

 Clark University, Worcester, Mass. 



I feel that I would willingly give $10.00 just to see a flock of 

 wild swan flying over Worcester this spring, a dollar just to see, 

 and hear, a flock of wild geese once more, $10.00 just to know 

 where in Massachusetts I could go off into the woods and get a 

 glimpse of a flock of wild turkeys in their ancient native haunts, 

 and a $20.00 bill just for a glimpse of a flock of wild pigeons 

 straggling across the sky. I can hardly say what I would not 

 give and how far I would not travel just to hear the prairie chick- 

 ens booming again, as I used to hear them when a boy. 



One by one, as the country has been settled to the west, our 

 magnificent game birds have been exterminated. For more than 

 a century all manner of game laws have been tried to stay the 

 destruction and have been found wanting. Why not try public 

 education? What could not twenty million school children and 

 their teachers do, if they determined to reestablish and preserve 

 all American game birds in their native habitats? Our educa- 

 tional system could mould public opinion and nationalize the 

 effort as no other organization in the country could. Is it not 

 legitimate work for the modern nature-study movement? 



Not to deal further with the theory, I wish in the present brief 

 note to call attention to a few of the most urgent problems in this 

 field. 



Passenger Pigeon — Fifty years ago this pigeon existed in 

 countless millions. Mr. Mershon writes me (Feb. 13, 1908) that 

 he does not believe that this magnificent species is represented by 

 a single living wild specimen on the American Continent. John 

 Burroughs writes me (Feb. 15, 1908) that he is convinced that a 

 considerable flock was seen last April and again last fall in Sullivan 

 County, X. Y., and President Roosevelt saw a small flock at 

 Pine Knot, West Virginia, last May. Might not the schools of the 

 courtly give us some reliable information through The Nature- 

 Study Review ? What a satisfaction it would be to know that 

 every school child on the Continent is watching the sky a little on 

 his way to school and wishing even against hope that lie might see 



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