166 WILD LIFE PROTECTION FUND 



We contend that the only possible way by which any state 

 can maintain a supply of game birds that properly and 

 rightly may be shot for sport by its citizens lies in conserv- 

 ing the native species of game birds on a continuing basis, — 

 that is to say, a basis of annual increase at least equal to the 

 annual decrease. For example, the states that still contain 

 sage grouse, or pinnated grouse, should devote their very 

 best thoughts and efforts to coddling those birds "to the 

 limit," and increasing the dozens to hundreds, instead of 

 wasting large sums of good money in efforts to breed those 

 impossible species while the gunners are getting the last of 

 the wild stock. 



And all the states that still contain a sprinkling of quail 

 should strain every nerve to protect, and aid and comfort 

 those quail, and get THEM to restock the state, instead of 

 trying to induce feeble little Mexican quail to migrate 2,000 

 miles northward, into a sub-arctic climate, and multiply as 

 "gun-fodder." 



It is our belief that for every Mexican quail that succeeds 

 north of Mason and Dixon's line, a hundred will go down 

 and out. 



We believe in the Massachusetts' plan, — the plan of Dr. 

 George W. Field, Mr. William Brewster, Mr. John E. Thayer 

 and the State Department of Agriculture, — by which the 

 heath hen was saved. With a remnant of only 22 birds, but 

 on their own ground, they saved the species! They gave 

 those 22 birds a long close season; they enforced the law 

 for their protection ; they killed the infernal hunting cats ; 

 they killed their furred and feathered enemies, of the earth 

 and the air ; and they fed them a la carte in winter. Now 

 they have nearly 2,000 birds instead of 22, and they are 

 sending out birds to colonize elsewhere on their own natural 

 range. 



This is the sort of game breeding in which I believe for 

 restocking purposes. This is why our first demand in the 

 saving of a vanishing species is for a long close season, as 

 a beginning for recuperation. We do not say, however, that 

 that is the Alpha and the Omega of game restoration. Far 



