PUBLIC PARKS OF IOWA 245 



deavor, should be removed by the support of all true sportsmen. Total 

 prohibition against shooting, for the present at least, and possibly for 

 many years to come, would be a logical course to pursue with respect 

 to such birds as are in danger of being depleted or exterminated. It re- 

 minds one of another evil in the world for which various expedients have 

 been recommended and adopted, but all in vain, and the nation is calling 

 in loud and ever accentuated voice for the only adequate remedy pro- 

 hibition. 



Assuming for a moment that the so-called sport, as applied to shoot- 

 ing of birds, is legitimate, is it not fair that one individual should have 

 equal rights with another in pursuing it? If this is so we are immediately 

 confronted with a host of nimrods floir whom our hunting territory is 

 much too contracted, and where the available supply of birds will by no 

 means go round. Par better that the boy from the beginning should 

 be taught that the shotgun is often a menace to the enjoyment of out- 

 door life and that the true, heroic, the allsatisfying thing is to protect, 

 increase and propagate the beautiful in nature. But we hear some say- 

 ing in following this doctrine we would be overrun with our denizens of 

 the air to our great detriment nowever this would not happen in a year, 

 nor in twenty years. Let us at any rate practice prohibition until the 

 demand for Paris green, hellebore and the like has materially decreased, 

 and the birds are with us in sufficient numbers to police our crops, as of 

 old, thereby restoring outraged nature's balance. 



And now for a moment, to return to Dr. Hornaday's question, "What 

 is to be done to protect our birds in Iowa?" On page 281 of Dr. Hornaday's 

 book he has this to say of Iowa: "It is said that the Indian word 'Iowa' 

 means the 'drowsy' or 'sleepy ones.' Politically and educationally, Iowa 

 is all right, but in the protection of wild life she is ten years behind 

 the times in almost everything save the prohibition of the sale of game. 

 Iowa knows better than to pursue the course that she does! She boasts 

 about her corn and hogs, but she is deaf to 'the appeals of the states sur- 

 rounding her on the subject of spring 'Shooting. For years Minnesota has 

 set her a good example, but nothing moves her to step up to where she 

 belongs in the phalanx of intelligent game-protecting states. 



"The foregoing may sound harsh, but in view of what other states 

 have endured from Iowa's stubbornness regarding migratory game, the 

 time for silen/t treatment of her case is gone by. She is today in the 

 same class as North Carolina, South Carolina and Maryland at the tail 

 end of the procession of states. She cares everything for corn and 

 hogs, but little for wild life." 



She will not take up this challenge and, as we claim in so many 

 things to be first, place our state in the forefront as regards the pro- 

 tection of ooir bird life? There are two things to fte done-^education and 

 legislation. A definite and permanent plank should appear in the com- 

 mon school curriculum, especially in rural districts, where from the very 

 first the children should be trained in the economic importance of bird 

 life. The National Association of Audubon Societies has a standing 

 offer to every public school teacher in the country to supply very attrac- 

 tive bird literature on easy and inviting terms, but our Iowa State Board 



