LET US GO AFIELD 



should be a big corn crop in Iowa, and little or no 

 crop in any other state of the West; and as if we 

 should stand in the middle of that corn crop and say 

 there was just as much corn as there ever was. You 

 would not think that human beings could be so fool- 

 ish; but we were just as foolish as that. 



We never took into consideration the scarcity of 

 birds elsewhere, and we never investigated the enor- 

 mous lessening of the best breeding grounds of this 

 continent. The more intelligent of us perhaps, if 

 pressed too hard on the question, would have said : 



"Pshaw! What is the use worrying about it? 

 There are millions of acres of breeding grounds in 

 Northern Canada, in the Arctic wilderness, where 

 no one will ever bother the birds." 



It is in regard to this latter supposition, and be- 

 cause of it, that the writer wishes to offer this study 

 of the wildfowl supply of the American continent. 

 Now it is not true that we shall ever again have 

 in the Far North, or anywhere else, as good breed- 

 ing grounds as those which have largely been wiped 

 out just south of and just north of the dividing line 

 between this country and Canada ; that was the best 

 nesting ground on this continent and we have noth- 

 ing to take its place. I say this after a journey 

 from the American line to the Arctic Ocean, along 

 the natural flyway of our wildfowl, which follows 



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