MAP SHOWING BREEDING GROUND, WINTER HOME, AND CURIOUS MIGRATION ROUTES 



OF THE WHITE-WINGED SCOTER 



'•'Its breeding grounds cover an immense area in Canada. ... In the fall some of 

 these scoters go west and southwest to winter along the whole Paciric coast of the United 

 States. . . . But most scoters in the fall take an easterly flight, and they are particularly 

 abundant in winter on the Atlantic coast from Cape Cod to southern New Jersey, especially 

 in the neighborhood of Long Island Sound" (see text, page 367). 



but of the whole people, as represented 

 by the State, and the modern doctrine of 

 the conservation of natural resources re- 

 quires that the laws be so framed that 

 the State — /. e., the people — shall receive 

 the largest practicable return ior each 

 bird. 



Experience of the last few years has 

 shown conclusively that a duck killed for 

 the home consumption of the gininer, 

 or, as it is ordinarily called, "killed for 

 sport," yields a manifold larger rettu'u 

 to the State and to the community than 

 one killed by a market gunner as a means 

 of obtaining a livelihood : or. to put it in 

 the baldest way. a market gunner adds 

 nothing to the wealth of the community 

 and obtains his living by an unnecessarily 

 high drain on the State's assets. 



WHAT IS THE MOST URGENT NEED? 



Hence the most urgent need at this 

 time is to forbid bv law, at least for a 



time, all purchase or sale of domestic 

 game birds. With this as the universal 

 law in Canada and all of the United 

 States — as it is already in 19 of the 

 States — the business of the market gun- 

 ner is gone ; he need no longer be taken 

 into account, and it seems probable that 

 this single restriction will be sufficient to 

 stop to a great extent, if not entirely, the 

 present falling off in our waterfowl 

 census. 



To impress this idea on the general 

 community is the most important single 

 item in the struggle for game protection. 

 It gives a solid cash basis to the appeal 

 for restrictive laws, and when once the 

 public come to see this matter in its true 

 light, the fight for game ])rotection is 

 won. 



Some birds protect themselves. For 

 instance, the abundant and well-known 

 white-winged scoter — or white-winged 

 "coot," as it is more commonlv known 



365 



