Winter Meeting. 345 



'£> 



short time of the year. But continued slaughter has reduced their num- 

 bers to such an extent that many a duck hunter does not even get the 

 sight of a duck on liis liunting expedition and, though exceptionally some 

 true sportsman may in such a case go home without discharging his gun, 

 the majority who go out not so much for the sake of obtaining food as 

 for the fun of killing, will console themselves for lack of game by shoot- 

 ing at most any bird that comes within range of their guns. And even 

 in the presence of game very few hunters can resist the temptation to 

 shoot at any large bird or flock of small birds that comes within range. 

 It is for such reasons that bird protectionists have to regard all hunting 

 as more or less incompatible with their cause and landowners will do well 

 . to curtail the privilege of shooting on their property as much as possible. 

 This will be an efficient way of checking wanton destruction of bird life, 

 but as long as hunting without license is permitted in our State, it should 

 be the special task of the Audubon Society to see that the present laws are 

 obeyed. On page 182 of the Laws of 1895 it says in section i : "It is 

 further declared unlawful to kill any wild song bird or insectivorous bird 

 at any season of the year, or to disturb, rob or destroy' the nest of such 

 birds, or take therefrom any egg or eggs. And any person offending 

 against any of the provisions of this section shall be deemed guilty of a 

 misdemeanor, and subject to a fine of not less than ten dollars nor more 

 than fifty dollars." Approved April 8, 1895. This law protects a good 

 many birds^ but the trouble with it is that it does not provide means for 

 enforcing it. Some states have paid game wardens to look after the en- 

 forcement of the law, but Missouri has not, and it should be the business 

 of the Audubon Society to call the attention of our Legislature to this 

 want. 



But the worst is that not one in a thousand Missourians knows of 

 the existence of this law, not even the officers of the law themselves. One 

 of our first tasks would therefore be to make this law known throughout 

 the State. Newspaper publicity would be very desirable, but the past 

 apathy among many editors in regard to promulgation and enforcement 

 of this law does not promise the best results. A simple and not very ex- 

 pensive method would be the distribution of cardboard posters bearing 

 an abstract of the law -and nailed up in every postoffice, every court 

 house, every railroad station and possibly every school house of the State. 

 After this first step the next would be to enforce the law in the neighbor- 

 hood of cities through deputy sheriffs employed for this particular pur- 

 pose. A few cases successfully carried through the courts and the g-uilcv 

 parties properly fined would have a most wholesome effect, since tht 

 newspapers would not fail to bring the interesting news, just the kind of 

 publicity we want. Should the State laws concerning game and bird pro- 



