SECTION III 



THE DECREASE OF GAME BIRDS 



PKAIRIE-CHICKENS, partridges, and quails are always 

 more or less abundant, unless they are hunted too much, 

 or cannot find some shelter in timber during winter. 

 For the protection of all our gallinaceous game birds, we 

 need good and rigidly enforced game laws. The case 

 of aquatic game birds I shall illustrate by a concrete 

 example. 



About twenty years ago, Loon Lake in Minnesota, 

 covered an area of about fifteen square miles, and was 

 from two to twenty -five feet deep. At that time swans 

 and pelicans visited the lake in fall and spring, but no 

 longer bred there. Canada geese, ducks, and coots 

 nested on the lake. The lake teemed with pickerel, 

 pike, and bullhead. On the tall trees of one of the 

 many wooded peninsulas the great blue heron, the black- 

 crowned night heron, and the black cormorants had 

 established a large, flourishing heronry. 



In the fall of 1880 the lake was lower than usual. 

 In the following winter a very heavy layer of snow 

 covered the ice and in the spring of 1881 thousands of 

 dead pickerel were cast ashore. This general destruc- 

 tion was caused by lack of air. Pelicans were not 



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