140 WILD LIFE CONSERVATION 



because they were pests, and irrespective of the 

 feather millinery trade. We demanded to be shown 

 a commercial product, from any source, of genuine 

 "pest" bird feathers. Nothing of the kind could 

 either be shown or described. The hawk, eagle and 

 condor feathers that enter the feather markets of 

 Europe come from birds that are sought out and 

 killed especially for the feather trade. 



The first reply to make to every demand for the 

 destruction of wild bird and mammal pests is this: 

 "Show me the proof! Give me facts that would be 

 regarded as evidence in a court of law; then I will 

 believe it, but not before." 



We now come to our third proposition, which 

 embraces the wild species that everywhere are so 

 destructive to valuable property that they deserve 

 to be destroyed, and concerning which there is no 

 dispute. 



At the head of this list of evil-doers stands the big 

 Gray Wolf or "Timber" Wolf, strong of limb and 

 jaw, insatiable in appetite, a master of cunning and 

 the acme of cruelty. The states that still possess 

 gray wolves have done well in placing a high cash 

 bounty, varying from $10 to $25 on the head of this 

 four-footed fiend. At this moment, many a forest 

 ranger west of the great plains is on the alert for 

 signs that will show the location of the dens of 

 breeding pairs of gray wolves, in order that if 

 possible the parents may be destroyed before the 

 young are born; or, failing that, that the young 



