THE OOLOOI8T 



From One Generation to the Next 



Pot hunters and some folk who 

 call themselves sportsmen are in an 

 organized effort to defeat the pur- 

 poses of the federal migratory bird 

 law. St. Louis is a center of this ac- 

 tivity because in and near St. Louis 

 are many men with shot guns who 

 want spring shooting. Spring duck 

 hunting is in favor in the waters of 

 Missouri and southern Illinois. 



The act is in the Supreme court, 

 where it may find that a good intent 

 does not protect a bad method, but 

 true sportsmen and real friends of the 

 nation are hoping that the method of 

 protection is as good as the purpose. 



Opponents of the law are not rely- 

 ing wholly upon the legal issue. If 

 the law remains a law they want to 

 prevent its enforcement. One way of 

 doing this is by persuading congress 

 to withhold an appropriation for en- 

 forcement. 



"What the opposition wants is spring 

 shooting of game birds. The spring 

 migration is towards the breeding and 

 nesting grounds. The bird the shot- 

 gun gets in the spring is the one which 

 ceases to be a factor in the continu- 

 ation of the breed. Very obvious, and 

 it might seem just as obvious that if 

 the breed be worth while which it is. 

 it would be worth while for it to be 

 given a chance to continue. 



The issue is one of present-day 

 selfishness against future good, and it 

 is a much larger and more generous 

 issue than the simple one of whether 

 there shall be malards, wood duck, 

 etc., twenty years from now. 



The question is whether the land is 

 going to be passed on in any such 

 rich, interesting, and beautiful fashion 

 as it was received. Upon reflection 

 it will seem a very sordid, ugly sort 

 of nastiness for a generation which 

 received a great deal to leave nothing. 



There are other forms of selfishness 



which can be respected, but this form 

 is in effect a crime against children. 

 It reveals a human in a naked sort of 

 soullessness which is highly unpleas- 

 ant to behold or consider. The whole 

 issue of conservation is one committ- 

 ing on one side a high order of intel- 

 ligent unselfishness and on the other 

 a particularly ugly sort of selfishness. 

 The protection of migratory birds is 

 only a part of the scheme, but it is a 

 sound and important part. 



The decorations of life cannot be 

 ignored with wisdom any more than 

 the purely material interests can be. 

 This generation which begins to see 

 the waste of natural resources and 

 natural beauties must be governed by 

 self-restraint if the next generation is 

 to find the land as well worth living 

 in as we have found it. 



It would seem to be only an elemen- 

 tary sort of decency so to leave it. 



Forty Years Ago and Now 



I am in receipt of a letter from a 

 gentleman in New Jersey saying that 

 forty years ago he found the Carolina 

 Paroquet plentiful in Florida and 

 breeding freely and that he would like 

 to secure a few clutches of their eggs. 

 Now there are but three of these birds 

 known to be in Florida and as they 

 have been in the same locality for a 

 number of years and have not in- 

 creased, they are supposed to be all 

 of one sex. 



Forty years I was just twenty and 

 looking forward to the future, now I 

 am looking back over the past. Forty 

 years ago I saw the woods alive with 

 what we called the "Wild Pigeon," 

 now extinct. Forty years ago I shot 

 Wild Turkey in Georgia, none there 

 now. Forty years ago the Ivory-billed 

 Woodpecker was plentiful in Florida, 

 as late as twenty years ago I counted 

 twelve of these birds in a small patch 

 of dead pine trees; the last one I saw 



