GAME PRESERVES 151 



preserving the game, to the need of preventing the slaughter 

 of birds for miUinery purposes and of stopping all wanton 

 and useless shooting of song and other birds. This is the 

 prime need. We need to put a stop to the entire feather 

 trade, excepting as regards the feathers of domestic or semi- 

 domestic birds, such as barnyard fowls, common pheas- 

 ants, and ostriches. We need to prevent the sale of game 

 and to put a stop in most places to market shooting and, of 

 course, to every species of butchery. But the partial suc- 

 cess of the movement has developed another need; because 

 this very success developed within its ranks an enemy who 

 masqueraded as a friend. This enemy is the mushy emo- 

 tionalist, the purely hysterical creature who is under the 

 impression that his or her heart is soft, whereas the softness 

 is really merely of the head. These people need to remem- 

 ber that in nature animals outbreed their subsistence unless 

 they are kept down by natural foes. If the protection for 

 them is perfect, the result is that there must be some killing 

 off or else they will die miserably by disease and starvation. 

 In most places, and as regards most species, our whole 

 anxiety as yet is to see the animals re-establish themselves 

 and increase in numbers. But as regards certain species in 

 certain places, this result has already been achieved, and the 

 chief trouble is now their overincrease. The prime need at 

 the moment as regards the wapiti of the Yellowstone Park 

 and the deer of Vermont is to provide for a big additional 

 killing. At present, the former perish by thousands of cold 

 and starvation, and the latter are becoming a serious prob- 

 lem to the farmers. The men who protest against this kill- 

 ing occupy a position of unpardonable folly. In the same 

 way, in East Africa, it has been necessary to provide for 



