THE LEGITIMATE USE OF GAME 87 



On every eastern pioneer's monument, the white- 

 tailed deer should figure ; and on those of the Great 

 West, the bison and the antelope should be cast in 

 enduring bronze, "lest we forget!" 



The game-birds of America played a different 

 part from that of the deer, antelope and bison. In 

 the early days, shot-guns were few, and shot was 

 scarce and dear. The wild turkey and goose were 

 the smallest birds on which a rifleman could afford 

 to expend a bullet and a whole charge of powder. 

 It was for this reason that the deer, bear, bison and 

 elk disappeared from the eastern United States 

 while the game-birds yet remained abundant. With 

 the disappearance of the big game came the fat 

 steer, hog and hominy, the wheat-field, fruit- 

 orchard and poultry galore. 



The game-birds of America, as a class and a mass, 

 have not been swept away to ward off starvation or 

 to rescue the perishing. Even back in the sixties 

 and seventies, very, very few men of the North 

 thought of killing prairie-chickens, ducks and 

 quail, snipe and woodcock, in order to keep the 

 hunger wolf from the door. The process was too 

 slow and uncertain; and besides, the really poor 

 man rarely had the gun and ammunition. Instead 

 of attempting to live on birds, he hustled for the 

 staple food products that the soil of his own farm 

 could produce. 



First, last and nearly all the time, the game-birds 

 of the United States as a whole have been sacrificed 



