42 Bird - Lore 



WIk'ii ihc Ahillard begins to decrease precei^lihh' on tlie northern breeding 



grounds it is time to inquire the cause of such depletion. 



Prof. W. W. Cooke oi the Biological Survey gives as the 



l)rincipal causes of the diminished numbers of water-fowl, market 

 Depletion 



hunting, spring shooting, and the destruction of the breeding 



grounds for farming purposes. The great prairies of the West and Northwest, 



where the Mallard formerly bred in immense numbers, have been settled and put 



under the plow. Marshes and sloughs have been drained and used as ])astures. 



This agricultural occujjation and improvement of the land, which has broken 



u]) the l)reeding gnjunds from Arkansas to Athabaska, has been accom])anied 



by unlimited destruction of the l)irds for food and other ])urposes. Thus hunting, 



particularly the spring shooting, has di-iven the birds out of the United States and 



away from settled lands to the far north, greatly reducing their breeding area 



and their opportunities for reproduclion. Looked at from the slandjxjint of the 



present day, the waste of bird life in the last centur}- was ai)palling. Hundreds 



of tons of ducks were killed in the South and West for their feathers by negroes, 



Indians, half-breeds and whites and the bodies thrown awav. 



Unrestricted market hunting was carried on also for manv years and is still 

 continued in some regions. Prof. W. W. Cooke, of the Biological Survey, avers that 

 even as late as the winter of 1893-94 a single gunner at Big Lake, Arkansas, sold 

 8,000 Mallards, and 120,000 were sent to market during that season, from that 

 jjlace alone. Sportsmen deceived by the apparendy inexhaustible numbers of 

 wild fowl destroyed great numbers. 



Mr. W. I,. Miiley who has recently (1908) explored Malheur Lake, (Jregon. 

 says that fornurl\ , \\ hen the wild ft)wl were ver\- numerous there, a party of 

 hunters could easily secure a wagon-load in a short time. On their return to town 

 the wagon was generally stopped on the corner of some street and passers-by 

 were allowed lo he!]) themselves as long as the supply lasted. One sportsman in 

 Minnesota boasted of having killed upward of 1,000 Mallards in a single fall. 



Notwithstanding the decrease of the birds, modern guns and methods now 

 render the guinier more destructive than ever before. In 1900 I visited a gunning 

 preserve in I'lorida where northern sportsmen were shooting ducks by the lum- 

 drcd and giving them away to their friends and to settlers. 



OiH' of these gentlemen arnud with repeating guns and supplied with a man 

 to load and others lo drive the bircJs to his decoys is said to have killed on a wager 

 over one hundred ducks in less than two hours. Even within the last two years 

 reports of reliable observers on the (Julf coast aver that market hunters there 

 have been killing 100 birds each i)er dav. 



The Houston (Texas) Vosi of Januar\- 29, 1908, asserted tiiat during the [)revi- 

 ous week five citizens while hunting came upon a small lake into which the fowl 

 were flocking in great numbers. Using their repeating guns and acting by a 

 praerranged signal they flushed the game, emi)tied their guns and gathered 107 

 killed, not (ounling th.e wounded and missinji. Tlic birds were mainh Mallards. 



