ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 



"Acknowledgment" is a poor word to fully convey the authors' {eelinp of debt to the many 

 individuals and organizations who have given freely of their time and knowledge, as well 

 as furnishing material aid. in helping to make this book possible. To each and every one 

 we extend our sincere thanks for the understanding and generous coopcratii>ii which has 

 been so vital to the progress and completion of this Heport. May this public recognition, 

 therefore, represent the gratitude we owe them. We regret that each (atmot be cited indi- 

 vidually. Yet we trust that they will fiiul a real measure of reward in the knowledge of hav- 

 ing shared in the undertaking. 



Preeminent among those to whom we are indebted are those who initiated the Investigation 

 and have been its cooperative backbone ever since. We refer to the sportsmen and to our asso- 

 ciates in the Conservation Department of New York State. \^'ithout George A. Law\er and 

 his committee of s|)ortsmcii. who met at the Department oflices one blistering August day in 

 1929 to find wa)s and means of helping the "partridge" stage a comeback, the Investigation 

 might never have been initiated. Without the help of a legion of understanding friends both 

 within and without the various sporlsm(>n's organizations, the study coulil ne\er have been 

 carried to maturit). 



The Investigation was a Conservation I)c|iaitinciil picijccl. Hut siiici' individuals constitute 

 ihe De|)artinciil. the degree of success attained by the project is indeed a measure of the ex- 

 ceptional cooperation which each anil cvcr> one of our associates ga\e the authors tiirough- 

 out the entire course of their work. To the oflicers of the Department, through the years, 

 headed b\ Commissioners Alexander MacDonald. Henr\ Morgenthau. Lithgow Osborne. John 

 A. White, and Ferry B. Duryea. we are especial!) grateful for that inspiration and leader- 

 ship so essential to success. Th<- encouragement and sympathetic interest in the work given 

 us by the Director. William C. Adams, of the Division of Fish and Came, has been unfailing. 



Throughout the Department cooperation has been complete and whole-hearted. Particular 

 credit is due l)eput\ Commissioners Vi<tor Skiff. John T. Gibbs. Herbert E. Gaston and 

 Carl E. Ladd. Secretary John L. Halpin, William G. Howard. Director of the Division of 

 Lands and Forests. Louis J. Flanigan. Chief Finance Officer, and their respective staffs, worked 

 overtime to furnish us with the solution to main a knolt\ problem. John T. McCormick. 

 Llewellyn Legge and Morris W. Brackett. as well as Superintendent of Law Enforcement 

 Henry A. Teal, joined with their force of game protectors in gathering invaluable field 

 data. Without their assistance progress would have been halting at best. 



The real "hewers of wood and carriers of water" ha\e been our associates in the Bureau 

 of Game who. through long hours of hard work and lo>al assistance have patiently assisted 

 in gathering and compiling the basic data without which the Report could not have been writ- 

 ten. Theirs was not a spectacular job. Yet the whole web of continuity depended upon its 



