32 WILD LIFE CONSERVATION 



destruction and extermination of our wild birds. 

 The destruction of game-birds by sportsmen is 

 trifling in comparison with the slaughter by com- 

 merce. Quite recently there was published in a 

 sportsmen's magazine the records of individual 

 slaughter that had been made and kept for forty 

 years by a professional market-hunter. Having a 

 liking for bookkeeping, the hunter kept accurate 

 and continuous records. Here are the main items, 

 and the grand total: In a three-months' shoot in 

 Iowa and Minnesota, he killed 6,250 game-birds. 

 In one winter's duck hunting in the South, he killed 

 4,450 ducks. During his forty years' market- 

 hunting he killed 61,752 ducks, 5,291 prairie- 

 chickens, 8,117 useful blackbirds, 5,291 quail, 5,066 

 snipe and 4,948 plover. His grand total of slaugh- 

 ter was 139,628 game-birds and sundries, represent- 

 ing twenty-nine species, several of them not game 

 and useful. 



During the past fifteen years, many states have 

 gradually been cleaning house in the matter of the 

 commercial slaughter of their game, and many good 

 half-way laws have been enacted. The original 

 rule was for a state to protect its own game, but to 

 permit the sale of game slaughtered in other states. 

 This essentially selfish basis led to an immense 

 amount of mutual poaching and selling, and the 

 results were most disastrous. 



In 1911, the state of New York led the way in a 

 sweeping reform. The legislature enacted the 



