THE LEGITIMATE USE OF GAME 101 



the flying fox as incapable of injury to the United 

 States, but the mongoose is a four-footed terror, 

 to be kept out at all costs. I think that this govern- 

 ment could better afford to spend $1,000,000 in 

 repression than to permit one vigorous pair of 

 mongoose to become acclimatized in any of our sub- 

 tropical states. As a destroyer of poultry and 

 fruit, there is no animal in the American hemi- 

 sphere that is at all comparable with the vicious and 

 irrepressible mongoose of the East Indies. 



Concerning upland game-birds, we reach the con- 

 clusion that for Americans the highest wisdom and 

 the first duty lies in providing for our own native 

 species, especially the quail, grouse, ptarmigan and 

 wild turkey, the protection to which they are justly 

 entitled, and which, if given, will enable them to 

 multiply beyond all numbers that reasonably could 

 be expected of any foreign species. If we protect 

 our quail properly, we will not need the impossible 

 Hungarian partridge. If we protect our pinnated 

 grouse, we will not need the Japanese or English 

 pheasant. If we wish millions of upland game- 

 birds for nothing, all we need to do is to give them 

 the protection that any sane and reasonably intelli- 

 gent people should be willing and glad to accord. 

 The great question is, Can the American people 

 measure up even to a very ordinary standard of 

 self-repression and self-denial in order to reap 

 large benefits in the future? The extent to which 

 the destroyers of our forests are not reforesting 



