THE PERSISTENCY OF PESTS 



to load the air with a fragrance that in- 

 cites the ambitious trapper to further 

 conquest. 



All the year round, farmers and their 

 boys wage war upon the crows, but each 

 returning autumn sees the columns of 

 the black army moving southward with 

 apparently unthinned ranks, while, year 

 by year, the harried platoons of ducks 

 and geese return fewer and less fre- 

 quent. Those detested foreigners, the 

 English sparrows, increase and multi- 

 ply in spite of bitter winters and right- 

 eous persecution, while our natives, the 

 beloved song-birds, diminish in num- 

 bers. On every hand we find the un- 

 desirable in animated nature, the birds 

 and beasts that we would gladly be rid 

 of, maintaining their numbers, while 

 those whose increase we desire are 

 losing ground and tending toward extinc- 

 tion. 



The prospect for the sportsman of the 

 future is indeed gloomy, unless he shall 

 make game of the pests and become a 

 hunter of skunks and a shooter of crows 

 and sparrows. Who can say that a hun- 

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