92 WILD LIFE CONSERVATION 



The time has come when every sportsman should 

 admit that it is not wise or sportsmanlike or right 

 to hunt wild game of any species in a locality 

 wherein it is on the road to extermination by exces- 

 sive shooting. No game should be killed more 

 rapidly than it breeds. Shooting on any other 

 principle means extermination; and from this grim 

 conclusion there is no escape. 



In view of the fact that over nearly all the hunt- 

 ing-grounds of America the wild game is being 

 shot much more rapidly than it is breeding, the 

 overwhelming necessity for sweeping reforms and 

 for long close seasons that will bring back the game 

 in abundance, should be apparent to the dullest man 

 that ever carried a gun. In fact, we believe that the 

 logic of the situation is quite apparent to all; but 

 the selfish ones wish to kill as long as the game lasts, 

 quite contemptuous of the rights of posterity. 



As one who has been a sportsman when game was 

 plentiful, I do not wish to see hunting with the gun 

 degenerate, as it has in Italy, to the killing of 

 sparrows and pipits and sandpipers. I wish legi- 

 timate sport to continue for five hundred years; 

 and it is for this reason that I now insist upon long 

 close seasons for disappearing species, in order that 

 they may recover and come back in millions. 



As an educator of public opinion and a leader of 

 thought, what position should be assumed by the 

 college man regarding the utilization of wild life? 



