vi PREFACE 



sportsman, who beats the covert in search of 

 health and sport, and of the working naturalist, 

 that they meet on this common ground and work 

 loyally together in an effort to save our wild life 

 from the extermination which threatens. The 

 protection of our wild creatures, particularly 

 of our game birds, seems to be the most im- 

 portant question in the sportsman's outlook 

 upon the future — a question calling for much 

 foresight and no little self-denial in its proper 

 solution. The present generation is feeling the 

 results of that selfishness of the past, so well 

 summed up in its two stock arguments: ^'0, 

 well, if I don't kill them someone else will, and 

 the game will last my time, anyhow!" 



Will it, you who listen to our old men's tales 

 of shooting days in the not-so-long-ago I Will 

 it, you who have gunned the marsh? Where 

 are the plover flocks which once swept across its 

 wide expanse? Will it, market hunter and 

 slayer of the wild pigeon? Will it, chicken hun- 

 ter, you who left your dead to rot in August's 

 sun? Will it, hide hunter of the buffalo days? 



If the reader can look with indifference upon 

 the works of these, let him permit things to take 

 their ruinous course, — let him do nothing to re- 



