96 WILD LIFE CONSERVATION 



necticut and Rhode Island the sale of game should 

 at once be stopped. 



In the state of New York, through the efforts 

 of a really drastic and fairly respected bag-limit 

 law, the ruffed grouse has shown a decided increase 

 in number. I mention it with pleasure as one of 

 the few instances wherein a bag-limit law on birds 

 has accomplished visible results. The bag limit is 

 four birds in one day, or twelve per season. In 

 another five years, that species may become once 

 more sufficiently established that shooting may be 

 resumed, even by conscientious sportsmen. To-day, 

 however, no ruffed grouse should be shot in New 

 York, even though the law offers a margin of four 

 birds per day. 



For fifty years, to go no farther back, the 

 American people have been meting out to their 

 quail, pinnated grouse, ruffed grouse, sage-grouse, 

 wild turkey and other upland game-birds a line of 

 treatment that has been wasteful, improvident, 

 cruel and positively idiotic! Every person who 

 knows even the rudiments of the habits and mental 

 traits of our upland game-birds knows full well that 

 under real protection all species of them become 

 amazingly tame. By this I mean that after two or 

 three years of genuine immunity from shooting and 

 other forms of molestation, flocks of quail, ruffed 

 grouse, pinnated grouse and even the wild turkey 

 elect to live in cultivated fields and around the 

 barns and stacks of the farmer. I can cite a few 



