1048 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



some reason has never been changed. Now the sale of 

 game is prohiljited and what family can dispose of 350 

 poimds of duck meat, the result of a week's shooting? 

 Alost sportsmen would be content to kill but eight or ten 

 in a da_v, but so long as the limit is retained at twenty-five 

 human nature is such that every hunter shoots the limit 

 whenever possible, either to show his skill or to keep up 

 with the "other fellow." and certainly it is conducive to 

 the surreptitious selling of game among a large class of 

 hunters. 



IN ADDITION to the restrictions of hunting made by 

 the Federal law, the Government has likewise set 

 aside, through its provisions, protected migration 

 routes along the three great rivers of the United States, 

 the Ohio, ^Missouri, and Mississippi, where no shooting is 

 allowed, so that some birds as least will find safe passage 

 tc and from their breeding grounds and serve as a per- 

 manent breeding stock for supplying other parts of the 

 C(juntry. 



But even more effective than these protected routes for 

 the preservation of our waterfowl are the bird reserva- 

 tions, both private and national, which have been estab- 

 lished. There now exist in the United States and its 

 territorial possessions nearly sixty Federal bird reserva- 

 tions, where no shooting whatsoever is allowed, and 

 many private preserves where shooting is greatlv re- 

 stricted. Some of the Federal reservations, the two in 

 North Dakota and the one at the mouth of the ^'ukon 

 in Alaska, f(.ir ex.iniple, are in the breeding grounds of 

 the waterfowl, while others, such as Breton Island, 

 Louisiana, are favorite spots for spending the winter. 

 These little oases are doing much toward preserving and 

 increasing our ducks, geese and swans and other migra- 

 tory game. 



The way in which the ducks and geese recognize this 

 protection and respond to it is very convincing of the 

 practicability of this form of conservati< in, fur witliin 

 tlie protected areas the birds become almost as tame as 

 domestic poultry, while outside of it the same birds are 

 extremely wary. Kvun in other parts nf the countrv, 

 where there are no reservations, after the hunting sea- 

 son is oxer, the ducks respond very quickly to anv pro- 

 tection shown them and will soon learn tii come and be 

 fed. Take, for example, the far-famed canvasbacks 

 which a score of years ago thronged the Chesapeake and 

 made it famous as a hunting resort but which todav have 

 almost desertcil the region and have become extremelv 

 wild. On tlte lakes nf central New York, where thev 

 are hunted only uiuil the fifteenth of Jamiary, the\- are 

 becoming much nmre numerous and after the hunting 

 season, when they are often fed to keep them from >tarv- 

 ing, tliey lose their fear and tlock along the sbiire> for 

 the corn tlirnw)! mit fur them. The bluebills, in the -ame 

 region, birds that ha\e Ijeen shot at fur o\-er three 

 months, inatiy nf them bearing scars ivmn inefi:"ective 

 bullets, before they lea\-e in the spring will almost feed 

 from one's hand. 



THE future of the waterfowl is much more pleas- 

 ant to contemplate than that of any other game. 

 If the Federal law can remain and be properly 

 enforced and receive the approving sentiment of all the 

 people; if all the markets can be closed to the sale of 

 game, and if the "bag limits" can be appreciably reduced, 

 there is no question but that future generations will 

 enjoy just as good hunting, if not better, than we of 

 today. For even though the breeding grounds of the 

 waterfowl in the United States are being more and more 

 restricted by improved agriculture, there will always 

 remain the vast areas along Hudson Bay and from there 

 westward to the Great Slave Lake, into which agriculture 

 will never penetrate, but which, with its lakes and 

 marshes, is admirably suited to the needs of the water- 

 fowl. This vast extent of territory will send each fall 

 its great tlocks of ducks and geese to the L'nited States 

 and the protected migration routes, the reservations, and 

 the limited open seasons will cm down the numbers killed. 

 In this way the breeding stock will remain unimpaired 

 and the great army of hunters, each year receiving rein- 

 forcements, will still be able to find legitimate, health- 

 giving sport about our lakes and marshes, and our gt)v- 

 ernment will be conserving one of its great national 

 assets. 



THE AUDUBON SOCIETIES 



IT WOULD not be right to discuss the conservation of 

 our wild life without mentioning the Audubon Move- 

 ment, which has done more than anything else to 

 bring about our present statutes and the establishment of 

 bird and game reservations. The name .\udubon So- 

 ciety was first used by l-)r. George Bird Grinnel, editor 

 of forest and Stream, in ISSiI and under this title began 

 an organization for the protection of birds. The National 

 Association of Audubon Societies was organized in I'JOo 

 with ^Ir. William Dutcher as president and Mr, T. 

 Gilbert Pearson as secretary and linancial agent, and the 

 activities of the association under their direction have 

 so increased that, as Mr. Ernest Ingersoll has written — 



"The National Association of Audubon Societies is 

 today a strong, far-reaching institution. Its platform is 

 wide. While engaging actively in preserving wild life, 

 it recognizes fully the claims of the sportsman, and has 

 no fight with the man who legally kills game-birds and 

 game-animals. In summer it guards, by means of paid 

 wardens, \irtually every important colony of sea-birds 

 on our Atlantic and Gulf coasts, as well as on many 

 lakes of the interior. It owns or leases many islands 

 where ducks and sea-birds breed, and these places are 

 wonderful bird-sanctuaries. It originated the system of 

 Federal bird reservations, and cooperates financially with 

 the Government in protecting them. It publishes and 

 distributes annually o\er (1,0(10, OdO pages of bird- 

 ])rotective literature, and the home office, where twenty 

 clerks are engaged, has become a general clearing house 

 for all kinds of information in reference to the stud}' and 

 conservation of wild birds and animals. The association 

 is ])articularly active in legislative work, and has been 

 responsible for the enactmeiu of many laws for the 

 establishment of state game commissions: for sliortening 

 seasons for shooting wildfowl and upland game-bir<!s: 



