518 GAME BIRDS. WILD-FOWL AND SHORE BIRDS. 



Rev. Herbert K. Job informs me that Canada Geese bred 

 in Louisiana the past season (1909). Mr. Caspar Whitney, 

 editor of Outing, stated some years ago that Teal bred in large 

 numbers on club preserves in Currituck Sound, N. C, where 

 they were protected in spring, and that many Black Ducks 

 also bred on preserves there. In a special despatch to the 

 newspapers in Waco, Tex., April 17, 1905, it is stated that in 

 Refugio County, Wild Ducks lingered so late that they nested 

 numerously, and it was expected that thousands of young 

 Ducks would be hatched. Mr. Homer Wells of Waco stated 

 that in 1904 many Ducks nested in the country about Mid- 

 land, Tex. 



Shooting and chasing the wild-fowl in the late winter while 

 they were mating, and in the early spring when they had 

 paired or nested, has resulted either in exterminating them 

 or driving them out of nearly all the great regions in the 

 United States where they formerly bred. Col. John E. Thayer 

 says that he is positive that Mallards, Black Ducks, Gadwalls, 

 Green-winged Teal, Blue-winged Teal, Shovellers and Pin- 

 tails begin mating at Currituck Sound, N. C, by February 15, 

 and are mated by March 1.^ Audubon believed that all wild- 

 fowl that nested in the United States were mated when they 

 came north. 



The question often is asked, "why is it more destructive 

 to shoot birds in the spring than in the fall.^^" If this were 

 properly put it would need no answer. The question should 

 be, why is it more destructive to shoot birds in fall, winter and 

 spring, thus denying them all protection, than to shoot them 

 in the fall? (Those who desire to shoot birds in the spring 

 expect the privilege of shooting them in the fall and winter 

 also.) There are several answers that may be made to this 

 question; (1) a long shooting season of eight or ten months, 

 extending through the fall, winter and spring, gives the birds 

 practically no protection, and is far more destructive than a 

 fall season of only three or four months. (2) Fall shooting, if 

 not excessive, merely destroys a part of the annual increase 

 of the birds, most of which, if not shot, would succumb to the 



1 Cooke, W. W.: Bull. No. 26, Biol. Surv., U. S. Dept. of Agr., 1906, p. 12. 



