CONSERVATION OF GAME BIRDS. 595 



Game protective associations should employ detectives to 

 enforce the game laws, and to see that they are enforced by 

 the game wardens. 



Most gunners are too much interested in dead birds and 

 too little in living ones. The most important work that can 

 be done for bird and game protection, and law enforce- 

 ment, is to teach, with both the spoken and the written word, 

 the value of the bird to man, — its educational, sesthetic and 

 recreative value. The study of the living bird will check the 

 evils of the present day. All who become interested in the 

 bird alive eventually become interested in its protection. 

 We must popularize the study of birds, bird drawing and bird 

 photography; stop legalized extermination, and enact and en- 

 force laws that are designed not to protect the gunner but to 

 protect the birds; we must promulgate the game laws and 

 post them in all public places; foster such organizations as 

 the Audubon Societies and other protective leagues that are 

 striving to interest the people in the bird alive, and to teach 

 popular ornithology. 



Is it not far better, friend of the keen eye and ready hand, 

 to pick a few difficult shots and go home w^ith a light bag well 

 earned, than to clean up all the birds, and not only spoil your 

 own sport for the future but also that of your brother sports- 

 men? The ethics of sportsmanship should consist of some- 

 thing better and higher than the making of a record or the 

 gratification of pampered stomachs. A photograph of the 

 living bird in all its strength and beauty is a far better and 

 more lasting trophy than the torn and mangled carcass of a 

 feathered friend. 



Some self-denial on the part of the sportsman and an 

 aroused public interest and public sentiment, with liberality 

 in encouraging the propagation of game birds, will bring 

 about respect for the laws, and make the North American 

 continent again the greatest game bird country in the world. 

 If this volume shall contribute anything toward that end it 

 will have served its purpose. 



