THE OOLOGI8T 



119 



this weird and ghostly, imaginary 

 flight of 72,628,296 Chimney Swifts, 

 the phantom shadows of a long line 

 of prodgeny of a certain flock of 100 

 ancestors cruelly slaughtered, jurt a 

 little over twenty years ago, for the 

 pleasure of destructive instincts 

 within some human hearts. 



First, let us select a little intro- 

 duction to the subject, and for thi ■, I 

 iflnd a fitting thought in the title 

 quoted above ("How Long Will They 

 La.'-t"), which no doubt, you gave to 

 the nine line item on page 155 of the 

 November, 1922 OOLOGIST, in anti- 

 cipation, perhaps, of possible destruc- 

 tion wrought flocks of Valley Quail 

 by three shot guns carried by the 

 members of a "business trip" party to 

 Lower Claifornia, Mexico. 



I saw the item, and reading be- 

 tween the lines, caught the meaning 

 of your thoughts in the title you 

 chose. But as nothing was said as 

 to the numbers of birds falling foul 

 of thore three shot guns, we are left 

 to speculate: If the guns were in 

 the hands of poor mraksmen, we 

 glory in their inability to kill; but if 

 in the hands of expert shots, as Ave 

 fear was the case, we may well shud- 

 der at the possible destruction 

 wrought those Lower California 

 Quail. Every pair of Valley Quail 

 killed by those guns, curtailed or 

 checked future reproduction in an 

 appalling measure! 



Let us suppose that the hunters 

 were "gentlemanly" sportsmen, and 

 only killed enough birds to prevent 

 ten to twenty broods that year. Just 

 take a pencil and paper and calculate 

 the possibilities of future prodgeny 

 of these ten to twenty pairs, had 

 they been left to reproduce their 

 kind, allowing only one-half the eggs 

 to hatch and come to maturity; and 

 for the next ten years, deduct about 

 twenty-five per cent for natural loss 



to the increasing broods, each year, 

 and see what enormous numbers have 

 been swept away by three shot guns 

 in the space of a few short hours of 

 self satisfaction! 



Any oologist would have been 

 ashamed to have gone among those 

 Valley Quail, in the breeding sea- 

 son, and carried away ten sets of 

 eggs , although such robbery would 

 not have checked reproduction in the 

 lea-t; for each p'^ir of birds, thu3 

 robbed, would have set about to re- 

 newed housekeeping duties. 



And now we will pass from the in- 

 troduction to another feature of this 

 subject, but before progressing be- 

 yond the borders of that Lower Cali- 

 fornia prairie, where three gunners 

 fornd it easy to fl ;.^h "from one to 

 fifty Valley Quail every three or fo-ir 

 minutes," we will erect a substantial 

 sign post, dedicated to the item re- 

 ferred to on page 155 of the Novem- 

 ber OOLOGIST, to stand for twenty 

 years, and to ibear, upon its four 

 sides, that all who kill may be 

 v.'arned, this legend: 



"IN THE LIFE OF THE BIRD, DOES 



ALL REPRODUCTION DEPEND" 



and 



"IN THE ABSOLUTE DEATH OF 



THE BIRD, ALL IS OVER FOR 



ALL TIME TO COME" 



Robbery of a nest of eggs may be 

 committed, but without destroying 

 the means of reproduction, or check- 

 ing reproduction itself. This is a 

 simple statement which will permit 

 of no contrary argument! It is a law 

 of Nature, absolute in its function 

 and unalterably stolid and unrelent- 

 ing in its workings today as when it 

 was first chronicled for Man's bene- 

 fit, nearly 3,500 years ago. Note the 

 following: 



Deuteronomy, XXII Chapter, sixth 

 and seventh verses: 



