BIRD NEWS 



property of the nation, and if pre- 

 served it forms a valuable public 

 asset. To protect it is not only good 

 statesmanship, but it is also one of 

 the bounden duties of good citizen- 

 ship. 



No wild game can long endure 

 slaughter for commercial purposes! 

 As the supply of legitimate game 

 sinks lower and lower the market 

 shooters and caterers encroach more 

 and more on the list of birds that 

 once were forbidden. Fancy a sora- 

 rail or a reed-bird as a thing to eat! 

 When a large cold-storage house in 

 New York City was searched in 19 06, 

 the officers of the State Gome Com- 

 mission found the following dead 

 birds: 8,058 snow-buntings, 7,607 

 sand-pipers, 5,218 plover, 7,003 snipe, 

 788 yellow-legs, 7,560 grouse, 4,385 

 quail, 1,756 ducks, 288 bobolinks, 

 96 woodcocks. 



The protection of wild life is partly 

 a matter of business, and partly a 

 campaign of sentiment. Every Amer- 

 ican farmer with a grain of reading 

 intelligence now knows very well that 

 the killing of insectivorous birds 

 means certain financial losses for him. 

 The most intelligent farmers know 

 that only the Cooper and Sharp- 

 shinned hawks are so destructive to 

 other bird life that they deserve to 

 be shot on sight. Next, it is to be 

 hoped that every farmer will learn 

 that surplus house cats are very des- 

 tructive to bird life, and should not 

 be tolerated where birds live and 

 breed. Maine has learned, and so 

 has British Columbia, that big game 

 can be a very valuable asset, and 

 that the bag limit should be reduced 

 to the lowest point. 



Today, precisely as it was twenty- 

 flve years ago, the great need of the 

 hour is the education of the masses 

 to the necessity for wild-life con- 

 servation, and the creation of a fifty 

 times better public sentiment in fa- 



vor of the enforcement of exisiting 

 laws. The game wardens need the 

 support of the law-abiding people of 

 their respective communities to an 

 extent that now is rarely found. Very 

 often it is the Game Warden vs. the 

 Whole Country! Wardens complain 

 that in many country places it is 

 almost impossible to secure a con- 

 viction of an offender against the 

 games laws. Many men who con- 

 sider themselves decent citizens con- 

 sider it a smart thing to evade the 

 game laws. But the worst discourage- 

 ment of all comes from the "sym- 

 pathetic" juries. 



Unless a great change takes place 

 in public sentiment, twenty years 

 from now there will be no wild game 

 of any consequence left alive in the 

 United States outside of the absolute- 

 ly protected game preserves. 



Despite adequate game laws and 

 the untiring, unselfish endeavors of 

 sportsmen, the outlook, it must be 

 confessed, is not reassuring. The rea- 

 son is simple and all-sufficient — the 

 American people as a whole are so 

 slow to kindle to a supporting senti- 

 ment — that the wild life may be gone 

 like the bison before they wake up. 



A not uncommon custom on our 

 marshes is observed by the crack- 

 shot with the pump-gun, to secure 

 the limit bag as rapidly as possible, 

 then continue his efforts until all in 

 the party are provided witli the limit. 

 As Mr. Hornaday says, it is a "smart 

 thing to evade the game laws" and 

 equally brave, to "play fair" and de- 

 prive the birds of even the courtesies 

 of war. — B. N. 



"Box-moulting," where the bird is 

 placed cage and all inside of a wood- 

 en box, never has met with our ap- 

 proval and all its claimed advantages 

 can be secured by other more ration- 

 al and humane methods. 



