BIRDS AS FOOD 229 



Island told the writer in 1907 that he had made as 

 much as $2500 in six weeks by killing ducks. At 

 that time redheads brought two dollars apiece 

 from the consumer and canvas-backs five ; on the 

 market scaup ducks were worth fifty cents and 

 common scoters that much a pair. Yellowlegs 

 and black-breasted plover brought three dollars 

 a dozen. 



Too many men were in the business, and birds 

 grew scarce. Ruffed grouse a century before had 

 been sold at two cents each; now they brought 

 two dollars, and there were not sufficient to meet 

 the demand. By 1910 a dozen quail were valued at 

 five dollars, whereas a few generations ago it 

 would have been difficult to obtain a few cents for 

 them. Wild turkeys, which in Audubon's day 

 brought twenty-five cents apiece, were no longer 

 on the market. Professional hunters had actually 

 ruined their own business by outdoing themselves 

 in slaughter. 



And by 1900 their last day was in sight. The 

 public had suddenly awakened to the facts of the 

 situation. The game-birds of America had virtu- 

 ally been destroyed. Then it was that the various 

 States enacted laws to prohibit the sale of native 

 game within their borders. But they failed to 

 prohibit the marketing of that which had been 

 killed outside their boundaries. 



A heavy illicit trade in game was the result. 

 Thousands of quail, grouse, and ducks shot in New 



