382 READINGS IN BIOLOGICAL SCIENCE 



age, and intensive grazing combined with recent droughts and market and 

 sport hunting have reduced migratory waterfowl to a critical point. 



Early conservationists foresaw that protection of migratory waterfowl 

 could not be successfully accomplished by the states. The ducks and geese 

 knew no state lines. The Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 19 18 provided 

 special protection for birds migrating between the United States and 

 Canada. 



In 1929 Congress supplemented this legislation by passing an act authoriz- 

 ing the purchase of inviolate refuges for migratory waterfowl but each 

 year thereafter it consistently failed to provide the funds authorized. Dis- 

 couraged, conservationists in 1934 secured the passage by congress of "The 

 Duck Stamp Law" placing a license charge of $1 on all hunters of migra- 

 tory birds, the revenue to be used in the purchase of breeding grounds. 



Continuation of the program contemplates the acquisition and restora- 

 tion of about 3,000,000 acres of land as sanctuaries for waterfowl and other 

 forms of wildlife. A considerable portion of the total area will be within 

 the region formerly used by the migrants as nesting grounds, but other 

 refuges will be established along the principal flyways to the gulf. The 

 work will have considerable effect in the stabilizing of water levels and 

 the reduction of soil damage by flood and erosion. 



FINISHING THE MAMMALS * 



ROSALIE EDGE 



KILLING WHOLESALE 



Man the Destroyer 



Ages ago, the reptile group dominated the animal world — on the earth, 

 in the air, and in the sea. Yet this dominance came to an end; and the great 

 reptiles were eliminated in a way we can never fully understand. They 

 were succeeded as "lords of creation" by the mammals, once almost as wide- 

 spread and dominant as the reptiles, and now clearly being exterminated — 

 but in a way we can understand, for it is we ourselves who are causing their 

 extermination. 



Scientists state that the fur trade is definitely bringing to a close the Age 

 of Mammals. If the fur trade alone is so pow^erful a menace, then the end 

 must indeed be near, for the fur trade is only one of several mighty forces 

 that are visibly combining to annihilate mammalkind. Occupation by man 

 of more and more of the environment available for mammals is contribut- 



* Reprinted from Finishing the Marmnals by Rosalie Edge with the permission of 

 the Emergency Conservation Committee, 1936. 



