CONSERVATION OF GAME BIRDS. 569 



value, and the game birds possess qualities and attributes 

 which in this respect place them high among other species. 



The hunting instinct will not down. It is in the blood of 

 the European and the American. Game birds are among its 

 legitimate objects. Exterminate the game birds and other 

 species most certainly will follow. Protect and increase the 

 game birds and those most concerned in killing them, the 

 sportsmen, become the best friends of the nongame birds. 



The greatest beneficiaries of an increased game supply and 

 the establishment of game preserves are the birds themselves. 

 They are well taken care of, well fed, and, as stated elsewhere, 

 game preserving increases the numbers of both game and 

 nongame birds. 



Where the game birds are now most hunted they most 

 need protection to prevent extinction. I say most emphati- 

 cally to the bird protectionist, conserve the gajiie birds. Here 

 is where all bird protection begins. Game conservation will 

 reduce the numbers of birds of prey, but it will not exterminate 

 them, as all intelligent game preservers eventually learn that 

 it is unwise to exterminate any bird. 



Game conservation will increase the numbers of insectiv- 

 orous birds because of the better conditions it makes for 

 their protection. It gives them safe refuges from the hunter 

 and reduces their natural enemies. The great number of 

 small birds in the northwestern European countries — a much 

 greater number relatively than is found in the United States — 

 is in part the result of the system of game preserving, which so 

 protects and increases the smaller birds that, in spite of the 

 fact that millions of them are killed for food and sport in 

 southern Europe, they still are produced annually in such 

 enormous numbers that the slaughter in the south has no 

 noticeable effect in the north. The insectivorous birds are the 

 chief beneficiaries of the system of game preserving. 



Methods of Attracting Water-fowl. 



Those who are accustomed to the presence of water-fowl 

 fiind that the inland waters of New England have lost much of 

 their attractiveness. They seem dreary and blank in their 



