DEPLETION OF WILD LIFE 315 



The state movement is very important. Most 

 states now maintain at public expense conservation 

 departments of much and increasing efficiency which 

 consider bird and wild animal preservation from 

 economic and sport points of view. The national 

 control of migratory birds aroused at the start many 

 points of disagreement between state and nation, 

 and state and national politics are still often at odds 

 over game questions. But on the whole, the over- 

 lapping and yet quite distinct functions of state and 

 national conservation bureaus are bringing about 

 agreements and co-operation which point to a future 

 efficiency which is national in the fullest sense. 



At best no marked recovery of wild life is pos- 

 sible. We should recognize that fact. We overran 

 too far. Within the limits of the United States we 

 shall be very fortunate indeed if, on the average of 

 the whole, wild life can be made to hold its own. 

 This is done in several countries abroad by a some- 

 what elaborate and minute game administration 

 which considers flocks, groups and sometimes even 

 individual creatures, regulating hunting with aston- 

 ishing strictness and detail. In so large a country 

 as this, politically controlled, it may be impossible to 

 duplicate the achievements of lands in which game is 

 largely concentrated in immense private estates 

 where often it is handled as one of numerous com- 

 ponent inter-related economic products. A more en- 

 lightened and co-operative future may work out a 

 method approximating similar efficiency with the 



