164 WILD LIFE CONSERVATION 



Now, that is a grim and ugly picture. I wish it 

 were untrue ; but it is not. Seventy-five per cent of 

 the men who shoot game in America, in Europe, 

 Asia and Africa are thoroughly sordid, selfish and 

 merciless, both toward the game and toward pos- 

 terity. As a rule, nothing can induce any of them 

 to make any voluntary sacrifices for the preserva- 

 tion cause. They stop for nothing save the law. 



The time was when I was proud of being known 

 as a sportsman ; but that time has gone by, forever. 

 The conscientious and duty-doing sportsmen of 

 the world are now so hopelessly mixed up with the 

 motley array of game-hogs and gunners-at-large 

 as to be almost unrecognizable. There are in the 

 United States about six clubs of sportsmen to 

 which it is an honor to belong, but that is all. 



This ugly sore spot is laid bare in order that the 

 real friends of wild life may know the worst, and 

 may at the outset realize the painful fact that the 

 men who hunt and kill wild game are not preserv- 

 ing wild game to-day for any other reason than that 

 they may kill it to-morrow. The army of destruc- 

 tion will not preserve our birds and mammals as a 

 duty to posterity. The people who do not shoot 

 have far too long left the protection of our birds 

 and quadrupeds to the men who do shoot! As a 

 result, look at Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, 

 Minnesota and Kansas, almost gameless ! 



We must make an end to the folly of abandoning 

 154 species of our finest birds to the merciless treat- 



