556 GAME BIRDS. WILD-FOWL AND SHORE BIRDS 



logical conclusion its advocates must believe that an open 

 season of one week would be more fatal to the birds than a 

 perpetual open season, with all protection withdrawn, — a 

 proposition which hardly appeals to common sense. The 

 short open season may be more destructive to the birds than 

 the former extended hunting time, but if so it is because of the 

 increased number of hunters, dogs and decoys, and because 

 of the modern improvements in firearms, means of communica- 

 tion, and transportation, which make the gunner more destruc- 

 tive than formerly and put him quickly on the hunting grounds. 



Guns Most Destructive. 



It is impossible to consider the conservation of game birds 

 apart from the sport or the business of hunting them. Any 

 plan for increasing their numbers must take the shooter into 

 account. In this connection we must recognize the fact that 

 shooting will be continued so long as there is any game left. 

 The birds must be conserved in spite of it. 



The following statements cannot be successfully refuted: 

 (1) American wild game is in danger of extinction unless effec- 

 tive measures for replenishing the supply are adopted and 

 enforced throughout the land. (2) The decrease has gone on 

 progressively ever since the country was settled, and is due to 

 civilized man. (3) The most destructive agency generally 

 employed by civilized man to-day is the gun. While there are 

 other contributory causes of game destruction, any attempt to 

 minimize the effect of shooting is an injury to the cause of 

 game protection. 



A few years ago experts of the Biological Survey estimated 

 that there were then from two and one-half million to three 

 million hunters in this country. Their estimate was based 

 on the statistics of hunting licenses issued in the States where 

 such licenses were then required. In 1910 the editor of the 

 American Sportsman estimated that there were then five 

 million hunters in the country, — an army much larger than 

 all the troops that were enrolled on both sides during the 

 American civil war. 



