•JO Ni:\V YORK /(xiI.oCICAI, S()Cn;TV. 



possess at least one j^un. Cnuiitkss thousands of birds and small 

 (inadrnjic-ds are annually slaughtered by lx)ys, for no higher 

 ])ur|)ose than anuisenient. A still greater number are killed 

 by sportsmen, " for sport, " with the table as a fair excuse for 

 the really conscientious ; and throughout the length and 

 breadth of the land, the market-hunters slay and spare not. 



Of the mannnalia, only the very smallest are safe from the 

 ])ursuit of the modern furrier, who now regards as his special 

 prey every thing that wears hair, h'rom the vanishing buffalo, 

 fur seal, beaver, otter and mink, the demand for mcjre fur has 

 descended initii now the once despised muskrat, skunk and 

 ral)bit are eagerl>- .sought for their " fur " ; and even the mole 

 can no longer boast of a future that is .secure. 



Birds that are not available for the table are shot for the 

 sake of their feathers : and the results of the dyeing, the mix- 

 ing and the general perversion of wings, heads and tails to 

 serve the ends of feminine fashion, are .sad to contemj^late. 

 Florida, once teeming with bird life, is now .so barren of birds 

 that a creature on wing is a rare sight. 



In every part of the globe that is inhabited by ci\ilized 

 nian, animal life is being destroyed far faster than it multiplies. 

 It is almost an impossibility to de\use game laws that can pre- 

 \ent the permanent residents of game districts from killing the 

 animals around them, in season and out of sea.son. Nearly 

 every man who lives in a game country is a hunter and ex- 

 terminator. 



In the.se days of quick tran.sportation and cheap fares, no 

 animal is so remote or so inacce.ssible as to be even rea.sonably 

 safe from attack. Once the grizzly bear satisfied the ambition 

 of the most enterprising hunter. The rock-dwelling mountain 

 goat next temj^ted the sportsman to feats of endurance in moun- 

 taineering. Now, however, the chase of the mountain goat is 

 considered too tame. The silence of the desolate Barren 

 (".rounds is i)roken by the crack of the repeating rifle, and the 

 shaggy nuisk-ox learns that he, also, is now marked for destruc- 

 tion. Thousands of men slaughter, but only scores preserve. 

 The time is coming when the whole temperate zone, the pasture 

 regions (^f the tr()])ics, and the greater portion of the arctic 



