THE SLAUGHTER OF NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS 593 



Now, how long can our remaining game birds and mammals 

 endure before even two and one-half million well-armed men 

 and boys, eager and keen to "kill something," and gel a dead- 

 game equivalent for their annual expenditure in guns, ammu- 

 nition, travel and subsistence? 



In addition to the hunters themselves, they arc assisted 

 by thousands of expert unities, thousands of horses, thousands 

 of dogs, hundreds of automobiles and hundreds of thousands 

 of tents. Each big-game hunter has an experienced guide 

 who knows the haunts and habits of the game, the best 

 feeding-grounds, the best trails and eveiything else that will 

 aid the hunter in taking the game at a disadvantage and des- 

 troying it. The big-game rifles are of the highest power, the 

 longest range, the greatest accuracy and the best repeating 

 mechanism that modern inventive genius can produce. It 

 is said that in Wvomine the Maxim silencer is now being 

 used. England has produced a weapon of a new type, called 

 "the scatter rifle," which is intended for use on ducks. The 

 best binoculars are used in searching out the game, and horses 

 carry the hunters and guides as near a- possible to the game. 

 For hears hails are freely wsnl. and in the pursuit of pumas 

 dogs arc employed to the limit of the available supply. 



The deadliness of the automobile in hunting already is so 

 apparent thai North Dakota has wisely and justly Forbidden 

 its use by law (li)ll . The swifl machine enables city 

 hunters to penetrate game regions they could not reach with 

 horses, and hunt through from four to six localities per day, 

 instead of one only, as formerly. die use of automobiles in 

 hunting should be everywhere prohibited. 



