512 GAME BIRDS. WILD-FOWL AND SHORE BIRDS. 



destruction of our wild game as to allow it to be sold in the 

 market. The wild birds which now stand in greatest danger of 

 extinction are mainly those whose flesh or feathers bring the 

 highest prices in the markets of the world. All that is necessary 

 to insure the extermination of a species is to put a liberal price 

 upon its head. It will then be pursued to the "uttermost 

 parts of the earth." Laws will be broken, the officers of the 

 law will be evaded or intimidated, or, if efficient, will be over- 

 powered or murdered, and the demands of the market will be 

 supplied so long as the birds last. The experience of centuries 

 may be cited in proof of this statement. Market hunters are 

 not necessarily villains or lawbreakers. In many cases they 

 are "good fellows," upright, law-abiding citizens, respectable 

 and respected; but in putting a price upon the heads of wild 

 game we offer a premium to the idle, the vicious, the irrespon- 

 sible and the criminal, who roam the woods, fields and shores 

 for the reward they may gain by killing and selling game. 

 The market hunter may not kill any more game in a day than 

 some expert sportsman, but where the sportsman shoots 

 occasionally the market hunter shoots continually. It is his 

 business to kill as many as possible while the birds last, and 

 to spare none. He feels that there is nothing reprehensible 

 in this, for if he does not kill them "some other fellow will." 

 Market hunting stimulates the use of devices for capturing 

 game by wholesale. The snare, the net, the battery, the 

 "swivel cannon," repeating and automatic guns, traps, live 

 decoys and all devices for killing or capturing large numbers of 

 birds are used to supply the market, and so long as wild birds 

 can be sold legally, illegal and destructive methods will be 

 used in procuring them. 



It is difficult to enforce laws forbidding the use of such 

 devices until the sale of wild game is prohibited and the in- 

 centive for market hunting thereby removed. Many a law- 

 breaker will kill birds from dawn to dark, in season and out of 

 season, year in and year out, anywhere and in any way, so 

 long as there is a market to which he can ship his game. 



Mr. Edward L. Parker tells me that market hunters on 

 the coast of Texas formerly were able to average more than 



