INTRODUCTION 



The astonishingly rapid increase of population in 

 the United States has resulted in an equally startling 

 decrease in America's larger fauna, especially in those 

 mammals, birds and fishes which are useful for food. 

 The story of the extermination of large animals over 

 vast areas is familiar to all, and men not yet beyond 

 middle life have themselves seen the extermination of 

 food birds over much of the country east of the Mis- 

 sissippi and north of the Ohio River. Even young 

 men can remember when the prairie chickens abounded 

 in Iowa, Minnesota and Nebraska, in regions where 

 now there are but few. 



As the game became more scarce the importance of 

 preserving it began gradually to be appreciated. Yet 

 in a thickly settled region it is very difficult to effi- 

 ciently protect the game. Obviously, the best way to 

 accomplish this is to interest the general public in it, 

 to point out the economic value of the game birds, 

 and to secure for the authorities, whose work it is to 

 enforce the laws, the backing of public opinion in be- 

 half of those laws. 



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