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interferes, the result is sometimes extinction.. Nature has 

 seldom caused the extinction of species since the modern era, 

 but through human agencies alone has disappeared the great 

 auk, the passenger pigeon and the Carolina parroquet. 



From man the bobwhite, however, has little to fear, and for 

 this reason he seems to have brighter prospects than the other 

 game birds about us. The day is past when he furnishes the 

 zest for the hunting trip. Through wise legislation, the time 

 for shooting him has been diminished, until now he is protected 

 nearly eleven months of the year. 



Another point in his favor is the growing sentiment that he 

 should not be considered a game bird. His economic value has 

 been established, and this with his inocent harmless life has 

 appealed to those who used to seek his life, and many hunters 

 now will allow a fine covey to flush at their feet with never the 

 temptation to lift a gun. As one qld hunter said, "Did you 

 ever dress a pretty little quail and find its crop bursting with 

 weed seeds of which it had kindly cleared your land? And did 

 you stop to think that for the fun of killing and for two or 

 three ounces of meat — delicious, it is true — you had destroyed 

 a friend that was working hard every day in your interest? 

 Well, that is my experience, and I must say it took some of 

 the zest of quail shooting away, when I thought of what I 

 had done." 



The prairie hen has had a harder row to hoe. That noble 

 bird has been forced to adapt itself to a violent change of con- 

 ditions since the days when it felt so much at hoane in the 

 broad expanse of rolling ])rairies.. llie fates have l)cen unkind 

 to it and its enemies relentless. Wig and strong and swift 

 of wing, it has furnished rare sport for the hunter, and the 

 flavor of its flesh has found great favor with llie epicure. 



With its enemies so much in evidence, the natives seeking 

 it for food, the hunter shooting it for sport, and the pot- 

 hunters slaughtering it for gain, it has been running a continual 

 gauntlet. 



Add to this the constant danger confronting the young 

 prairie chickens from their natural enemies, the foxes, minks, 



