ECONOMIC VALUE OF OUR BIRDS 75 



It can not be answered by a roll-call, but it could 

 be answered by vigorous action. 



Our treatment of the grouse of the East and the 

 Middle West is a sore subject. Draw a line around 

 the former range of our old friend, the pinnated 

 grouse or prairie-chicken, and you will include the 

 hog-and-corn area of the United States. That, also, 

 is the area of the most complete local extermination 

 of wild life, both birds and mammals! It includes 

 the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, 

 Kansas, Nebraska, Kentucky and Tennessee. In 

 that hog-and-corn belt you will find more spring 

 shooting, more sale of game, more extermination 

 and less real wild-life protection than in any other 

 area of the United States. 



On the island of Mauritius, it was swine that 

 exterminated the dodo. In the United States, 

 hogs and game extermination still go hand in hand. 

 Since the days of the dodo, however, a new species 

 of swine has been developed. It is now widely 

 known as the game-hog, and its existence and its 

 activities have been officially recognized by both 

 bench and bar. Although the name is rude and 

 jarring, it is now a necessary term; and it has come 

 to stay. 



Take the case of Ohio as a horrible example, a 

 state once abundantly stocked with a great variety 

 and a great number of game birds and mammals. 

 I think that Ohio comes the nearest of all the states 

 to being gameless. With but slight exceptions, her 



