well known that nature preserves a delicate balance and that 

 if for any reason additional causes of destruction or checks to 

 the increase of any species be added, the species quickly will 

 become reduced in numbers, and that soon it will become 

 extinct, if the check to increase be serious. A little shooting 

 by many guns, for example, surely will put an end to the game 

 if none of the natural enemies be controlled to make a place for 

 the shooting. The converse of the proposition is well stated 

 by Darwin: "Reduce the checks to increase even slightly and 

 the species will increase quickly, to any amount." It is evident 

 why the game remains abundant where it is protected from its 

 enemies and why it vanishes in America, so that, often, it 

 becomes necessary to enact laws prohibiting shooting. I 

 know many game keepers in all parts of America who keep the 

 shooting good because they control the vermin. Thousands 

 of quail can be and are safely shot in places where the hawks, 

 crows, foxes, snakes, weasels, and many other natural enemies 

 are trapped and shot persistently. 



Horace G. Hutchinson, in writing about the Scotch grouse, 

 said, "The death of one stoat means the life of many grouse." 

 Our prairie grouse are preyed upon by hawks as well as by foxes 

 and many other furry and winged enemies, and skunks take 

 many birds and eggs. The result is we have no grouse shooting. 

 The woodland grouse, the wild fowl and waders, the partridges or 

 quails, all suffer similar losses and we can not shoot many birds 

 without causing them rapidly to decrease in numbers. The intro- 

 duced pheasants and partridges suffer even more from vermin 

 than our indigenous birds do, because they come from places 



is 6r_ wit! 



