380 READINGS IN BIOLOGICAL SCIENCE 



pigeons died in the Cincinnati zoo September i, 19 14, a race exterminated 

 by trapping and other methods of the market hunter. Many men living 

 today witnessed the wholesale slaughter and carload shipments of these 

 magnificent birds to satiate the demands of city markets. William B. 

 Mershon in "The Passenger Pigeon" estimates that in the last great nesting 

 in Michigan from three to five million birds were slaughtered. Hunting as 

 a business accounted for millions upon millions of birds and animals an- 

 nually between 1840 and 19 10. Dr. William T. Hornaday, in one of his 

 books, cites a professional market hunter who admitted having killed more 

 than 139,628 game birds and mammals. 



The buffalo, passenger pigeon, antelope, elk, deer and many other species 

 were persecuted and destroyed by the carload, not only to fill the demands 

 of city markets, but also to feed the many railroad construction crews and 

 other outposts of the advancing frontier in its sweep westward. Song and 

 non-game birds were killed by the millions for their plumage, demanded 

 by the millinery trade. Market hunting was unquestionably one of the most 

 devastating factors in the decimation of our wildlife. The wonder of it 

 all is that any birds, mammals or other valuable fur-bearers are left today. 



GAME LAWS 



In the beginning there were no game laws. Wildlife was so abundant 

 that restrictions were not deemed necessary. But gradually the need for 

 protective legislation became evident, and the statutes on the subject now 

 fill many volumes. The first game law recorded called for a closed season 

 on deer in Massachusetts in 1694. In 1739, the first game wardens in Amer- 

 ica were appointed in the Bay state as "deer wardens." Delaware prohibited 

 Sunday hunting in 1750. By the time of the revolution, most of the colonies 

 had a few game laws. 



The first Federal law, passed in 1776, decreed a closed season on deer 

 in all the colonies except Georgia. Alassachusetts in 18 18 prohibited the 

 killing of robins in the spring of the year. New York in 1 864 was the first 

 state to adopt a hunting Ucense law, and Iowa in 1878 the first state to fix 

 a bag hmit on game of any species. About 1885 the American Ornithologist 

 Union, organized in 1883, became active in promoting the protection of 

 North American non-game birds, preparing a model law for states to adopt. 

 Both New York and Pennsylvania adopted the law within five years and 

 by the close of the century more than a dozen states had written it into their 

 statutes. 



These meagre beginnings have been, especially since the opening of 

 the twentieth century, elaborated and extended in an effort to prevent the 

 destruction of game by legislation. Today the game codes of the states 

 are a veritable maze of inhibitions. But recognizing that legislation alone 

 will not bring back the vanished legions of Colonial days, the federal gov- 

 ernment and many states have in recent years extended their wildlife 



