566 GAME BIRDS, WILD-FOWL AND SHORE BIRDS. 



un-American, for under the American plan of free shooting 

 everywhere for everybody we destroy' the game and do noth- 

 ing to replenish the supply. There is so much land in this 

 country that millions of acres might be spared for preserves 

 and there would still remain enough for public hunting grounds, 

 where the supply of game from native breeding birds and the 

 overflow from the preserves would be greater than that which 

 the whole country now maintains. 



The prejudice against game preserves arises largely from 

 the fact that too many preserves in this country are merelj^ 

 lands from which the public is shut out, and on which the 

 owner enjoys exclusive opportunity of shooting wild game 

 which is, in law, the property of the people. In many cases 

 the landowner does nothing whatever to propagate the birds 

 or to increase them; but, instead, attracts them to his pre- 

 serve that he may shoot them. This is not the kind of game 

 preserving which should be advocated. The public has some 

 rights. The law should be so drawn that a person desiring 

 to establish a game preserve should be reciuired to make it a 

 game farm. In that case he must secure his stock from some 

 private source, — some breeder of game birds in his own or 

 some other State, — ^ and must engage in propagating the birds; 

 then they are as much his own as are poultry or cattle under 

 the same conditions, and there is no reason why he should not 

 prohibit other people from shooting them on his land, nor is 

 there any reason why he should not be allowed to sell them in 

 the market under proper restrictions. All birds which escape 

 from his land and run wild become public property, subject to 

 the same laws as any other wild game, and thus he becomes a 

 public benefactor. On the other hand, the public must recog- 

 nize the justice of the trespass laws, and the fact that the land- 

 owner has the legal right to exclude trespassers from his 

 holdings. The shooting public should be more considerate of 

 the rights of the property owner. If they were more regard- 

 ful of such rights far less land would be posted against tres- 

 passers. Any man who goes unbidden on the land of another 

 should regard himself as a trespasser, and should take no undue 

 liberty thereon. 



