20 SEVENTH REPORT OF THE FOREST, FISH AND GAME COMMISSION. 



The pursuit which takes us afield and gives us rest and exercise combined, and 

 increases our resources by broadening our interest in nature, is not merely a pastime, 

 but a recreation benefiting both mind and body, and better preparing us for our 

 duties as citizens of the State. No one would think of asserting that the value of 

 New York's game animals was to be reckoned in the terms of the bill-of-fare. A 

 few thousand dollars would express their wealth to the butcher or restaurateur, but 

 to the true sportsman they are an exhaustless mine of wealth. A day with dog and 

 gun, rod or rifle may bring small return from a pecuniary point of view, but who 

 can calculate the amount of physical good and pure enjoyment it has afforded ? 

 Game bag and creel may, indeed, be empty, while our mind is full of stimulating 

 experiences, all increasing our eagerness to take to the field again. 



So the hunter of birds with opera glass and camera finds an even deeper pleas- 

 ure in his excursions into their haunts and study of their ways ; a pleasure which 

 no accounting of the value of birds to the State can ignore. 



WI)at tbc 3tate Docs for ti)Z r}ird. 



In view of the economic importance of birds to our agricultural interests it may 

 now well be asked what is the attitude of the State toward creatures whose welfare 

 is so closely connected with that of its citizens? Does it take proper measures to 

 protect them ? Does it urge the employment of methods designed to aid in their 

 increase ? 



It is true that the State formally recognizes the value of its assets in bird-life by 

 the passage of laws intended to give birds legal protection, but no adequate means 

 are provided for their enforcement. Where one person is prevented from killing a 

 bird a thousand commit murder unchecked ; nor can this evil be remedied without 

 a material increase in the force of game wardens. The latter, as their official title 

 implies, are appointed chiefly to enforce the laws relating to game while the laws 

 concerning the far more numerous, and economically more valuable, non-game birds 

 are generally dead letters. 



So-called sportsmen shoot these birds in pure wantonness, pot-hunters slaughter 

 them for market, foreigners kill them for food, milliners' agents collect them to 

 supply fashion's demands, boys find them a tempting mark for bean-shooters and 

 air-guns ; while birds' eggs are taken as the legitimate prize of nearly every child 

 who finds a nest. To these unnatural and remediable causes for the destruction of 

 our birds should be added the ravages of the so-called domesticated cat. There are 

 probably not less than two million cats in the State of New York. While many of 



