SECOND BIENNIAL STATEMENT 167 



from it. But I do say that no restoration of American game 

 birds can succeed without it! 



And now we come to the present attitude of the American 

 Game Protective and Propagation Association, as set forth 

 very clearly by its Second Vice-President, Mr. E. A. Quarles, 

 in its official Bulletin for February, 1917, in the following 

 terms : 



"It is to be regretted from the standpoint of effective 

 wild life conservation that in many sections of the coun- 

 try closed seasons for long periods are being urged on 

 ruffed grouse and quail, without due regard to local 

 conditions. The motives of those voicing this demand 

 are excellent, but they err in regarding this as a pana- 

 cea for the existing scarcity of these birds. Their ef- 

 forts should be vigorously combated. In many in- 

 stances such a course of action would not only prove 

 ineffectual, but there would be grave danger of its 

 working actual harm where good was expected/ 



I think the policy denned above is a mistake, and if ad- 

 hered to will be disastrous to American game. Mr. Burn- 

 ham says that he is in favor of enacting long close sea- 

 sons in regions wherein they are clearly necessary ; and that 

 is precisely where we stand, also. We do not ask for them 

 where they are not needed, but so far as upland game birds 

 are concerned, will some one show me a place north of Ma- 

 son and Dixon's line in which today they are not needed? 



The making of long closed seasons to save distressed spe- 

 cies should be made a leading industry in game conservation. 

 It should not be neglected for any game-breeding that could 

 or should be done, that might succeed and might not. The 

 long close season represents first aid to the injured, and that 

 particular tourniquet should be applied quickly and reso- 

 lutely, before the patient bleeds to death. 



If the upland game birds of the West cannot be saved 

 and brought back chiefly through the instrumentality of long 

 close seasons, then they are doomed, like the heath hen, to 

 disappear. This prospect is just as fixed and certain as 

 death and taxes ; and the people of the West can take that 

 fact and make use of it, or they can let it alone. 



