CONSERVATION OF GAME BIRDS. 589 



petually after it has become extinct, or to establish a close 

 season of a few months each year to protect a bird that is 

 nearing extirpation. 



Again, our game laws have failed because they have had 

 no uniformity and no stability; they are constantly changing. 

 One State protects a certain migratory bird during stated 

 months; another, near by, does not protect it at all at any 

 time. It is only during recent years, through the co-opera- 

 tion of national bodies, such as the Biological Survey and the 

 National Association of Audubon Societies, that some sem- 

 blance of uniformity has been brought about in some of the 

 northern States. Through these agencies, and the efforts of 

 progressive sportsmen, game laws in the United States have 

 been improved considerably in the last decade. Shooting 

 seasons have been shortened; sale and export of game have 

 been prohibited; hunters' license laws, which provide funds 

 for the enforcement of game laws, have swept the country; 

 game commissions have been appointed; game reservations 

 have been established, and in many ways the situation has 

 been much improved, but there is still great chance for im- 

 provement. 



Much of the money collected for hunting licenses has 

 been diverted to other uses than the protection of birds 

 and the conservation and propagation of game. The system 

 of appointing game commissioners and wardens is wrong. 

 Under our present system a man need never hope to be a 

 game commissioner unless he is an astute, capable politician, 

 or has powerful political friends. The appointee may be a 

 good game commissioner (many of them are), but he must 

 be a keen politician first, last and all the time to secure and 

 retain the place. Having obtained it, he must be constantly 

 on guard, or he may lose it through some political change. 

 The effect which such a system produces on the appointment 

 of game wardens is well known. 



The system of appointing game commissioners and war- 

 dens should be changed. Civil service principles should rule 

 in appointments. The game laws never will be properly 

 enforced until this is done, and until every good citizen who 



