146 WILD LIFE PROTECTION FUND 



Magazine, and the New York and Massachusetts State 

 Audubon Societies. 



To my mind, the year mentioned saw the real beginning 

 of the present wide-spread effort to establish a universal 

 code of ethics and statute laws to govern the hunting of 

 American game. On this point, however, there will be 

 more opinions than there are different kinds of firearms; 

 which is saying much. Curiously enough, it was in 1894 

 that the Bird Protection Committee of the American Orni- 

 thologists' Union solemnly "asked to be discharged, the 

 need for such committee being considered no longer urgent, 

 of late its functions having been merely advisory, and its 

 services not often required!" (The Auk, Vol. XI, page 

 87.) 



In 1897 Mr. Shields editorially coined the word "game- 

 hog"; and he used that harsh and jarring term with such 

 fearful effect that tens of thousands of hunters who were 

 hit by it immediately began to salve their soreness by hat- 

 ing the author and user of the word. And, strange to say, 

 thousands of men who were not themselves game-hogs be- 

 came deeply sympathetic in behalf of their friends who 

 were; and they joyously joined in hating the author of 

 their friends' woes, until very many American sportsmen 

 and game-hogs finally met on that common ground ! It is, 

 however, a satisfaction to record the fact that Mr. Shields 

 has survived and held his own, latterly on the lecture plat- 

 form, before which the great Common People hear him 

 gladly. 



We repeat that during the past twenty years of concen- 

 trated effort in game destruction and game defense, mil- 

 lions of valuable game mammals and birds have been 

 wrongfully slaughtered because of the absence of ethics in 

 hunting. Even down to the present hour, the various states 

 of our nation form a veritable crazy quilt of good game 

 laws, indifferent laws, bad laws, and shameful lack of laws. 

 In every state with imperfect laws, the underlying and 

 outcropping reason for that condition is a lack of personal 

 and state sense of honor and responsibility in dealing with 



