542 GAME BIRDS. WILD-FOWL AND SHORE BIRDS. 



exhaust the food supply of the game and bring about starva- 

 tion. This the natural enemies of the game prevent by holding 

 its increase within a safe limit. Here we see the working out 

 of nature's laws for the conservation of the game. 



The larger natural enemies befriend the game by holding 

 in check the smaller enemies. The Hawk, Eagle and fox 

 keep minks, weasels, rats, field mice, shrews and other small 

 destructive mammals in check, which otherwise would destroy 

 most of the eggs and young of game birds. The natural 

 enemies of the game, therefore, are necessary to its prosperity. 

 Where they are too numerous they should be reduced in 

 number, but never exterminated. Hunters naturally kill 

 game enemies, and therefore the numbers of so-called vermin 

 are depleted as those of the game are reduced, and by the 

 same cause. All the fur-bearing animals which are regarded 

 as vermin by the sportsman and the gamekeeper are the game 

 of the trapper, and furs now bring so high a price that these 

 animals, including even the lowly skunk and muskrat, are 

 growing scarce. The decrease of the game cannot be laid at 

 their door. Nevertheless, these natural enemies, or vermin as 

 they are called, certainly help to keep down the numbers of 

 the game wherever man attempts to increase the game on a 

 small area to numbers far beyond what nature provides, as on 

 the game farm or preserve. 



Many hunters regard the skunk as one of the most de- 

 structive game enemies because it sometimes steals the eggs 

 or young of game birds; but the skunk is very useful on the 

 farm, and feeds largely on mice, also on potato beetles, white 

 grubs, grasshoppers, crickets, cutworms and other destructive 

 insect pests, of which it destroys large numbers, and indirectly 

 it is one of the chief protectors of young wild Ducks. The 

 following statement by Dr. A. K. Fisher of the Biological Sur- 

 vey illustrates the close and intimate relations that diverse 

 forms of animal life bear to one another, and how harm, rather 

 than good, may sometimes result from the destruction of the 

 natural enemies of birds. Skunks frequent the shores of lakes, 

 rivers and sloughs in spring, and devour most of the turtles' 

 eggs that are deposited there. 



