Duck-sbooting 65 



coming in the fall to the end of their stay in the 

 spring, the result has been inevitable. Many of 

 the most famous resorts are devastated, and the 

 existing haunts exposed to such incessant perse- 

 cution that local extinction is threatened unless 

 prompt measures of relief are afforded. 



Excessive shooting can be assigned as the 

 prime cause of destruction, and under this head 

 comes, first of all, spring shooting. Until recently, 

 throughout all of our Western states and adjacent 

 Canada, wild fowl have been shot until May. At 

 this time they are preparing to breed, some actu- 

 ally nesting, and it can be readily seen that de- 

 struction under such circumstances bears directly 

 on future supply. Birds at this time are usually 

 thin and hardly fit for the table, yet the market 

 gunner gets his price, and the ruthless sportsman 

 runs up his score. Until within the past few 

 years the suggestion of abolishing spring shooting 

 has been received with considerable opposition ; 

 it was argued that over a large tract of country 

 the only shooting was at this time. The claim 

 was also made, and more reasonably, that unless 

 spring shooting was forbidden in all Western 

 states, and along the entire migratory course, 

 legislation in a single state would have but little 

 or no result. The effect of stopping spring shoot- 

 ing, even in isolated states, has been attended 

 with such satisfactory improvement in the fall 



