WILDLIFE CONSERVATION 789 



given complete protection under the Federal Migratory Bird Act. 

 The season, bag limit, and manner of hunting of all the other species 

 are rigorouslj^ regulated. 



We can only guess at the numbers attained by some of the smaller 

 animals, but it is certain that, in many instances, they were very large 

 indeed. In some parts of the country the squirrels are important ob- 

 jects of sport. They function also as tree planters and as possible 

 balance wheels on the increase of certain other forms of wildlife. Bas- 

 ing his figures on the known abundance of the gray squirrel in some 

 localities and on the extent of its geographic range, Seton estimated 

 that the gray squirrel population may easily have numbered several 

 billions in eastern North America at the beginning of the nineteenth 

 century. 



Bailey, of the United States Biological Survey, in 1905 made a study 

 of the prairie dog (Fig. 335) in western Texas. Usually, as he pointed 

 out, the animals were found in scattered colonies, "... but over an ex- 

 tensive area lying just east of the 'Staked Plains' they cover the whole 

 country in an almost continuous and thickly inhabited dog town, ex- 

 tending from San Angelo north to Clarendon in a strip approximately 

 100 miles wade by 250 miles long," a 25,000 square mile colony con- 

 taining 400,000,000 prairie dogs. Their numbers have been extremely 

 depleted by poisoning. 



The whales of the sea were formerly numerous enough to support 

 an extensive industry maintained by nationals representing various 

 maritime countries. The American share in this business centered in 

 the village of New Bedford, Massachusetts, and reached large propor- 

 tions. Like most other wildlife resources, the whales were subjected 

 to unreasonable slaughter ; indeed, the history of the whaling indus- 

 try as a whole has been a rather sad story of declining possibilities 

 and steadily more restricted opportunities, owing to the remorseless 

 pursuit and crassly unbusinesslike exploitation to which these greatest 

 of living creatures have been subjected by man. 



The Natural Range of "Wild Animals 



As indicated in the foregoing paragraphs, the natural range of 

 many game animals of great potential value was formerly much more 

 extensive than it is at present. The buffalo which ranged so widely 

 over the continent is now virtually extinct in a wild state. The prong- 



