162 WILD LIFE PROTECTION FUND 



Now, most of the undersigned happen to hail from the 

 Central West, and we shot ducks there for years. We 

 appreciate, and freely acknowledge, that cornbelt shooting 

 is affected oftener by fall drouths than elsewhere. We 

 should, therefore, have acceded to the Biological Survey's 

 concession of March 10 as just to all, and without claiming 

 a like privilege for New Mexico. But this concession, as 

 your readers know, was contemptuously rejected by our 

 Missouri brethren. They want March 31 or nothing. 

 "Late winter" shooting, by the way, seems a delightfully 

 humorous euphemism for March 31. It seems to us that 

 "spring shooting" would be at once more frank and more 

 accurate. And any concession of "spring shooting" we, for 

 one, will fight to the last ditch. 



Secondly, consider the very interesting argument that 

 the stoppage of spring shooting has crippled the state game 

 fund, and is making it impossible to protect the quail and 

 other non-migratory game. We venture the statement that 

 no four men in the United States regard the Bob-White 

 with greater affection, or think of him with more pleasure, 

 than we, the undersigned. Long may he live in the land! 

 But are we to sacrifice our equally precious wild fowl to 

 pay for his protection? That would be like a factory 

 owner, who finds that he has been paying his night watch- 

 man out of his capital account instead of out of his income. 

 Granted he needs the night watchman, and needs him 

 badly. But should he burn up half of his factory, and col- 

 lect the insurance, that he might pay him? Or, to use a 

 more homely simile, a cattleman, trying to build up his 

 herd, finds he has been paying his cowpuncher by selling 

 heifers. He needs that cowpuncher. But should he sell 

 off the rest of his heifers to pay him? Must we, brother 

 sportsmen, cut off our right thumb, and charge admission 

 to the spectacle, to buy a glove for our left one? Hardly! 



Thirdly, the Missouri League contend for March 31, and 

 in the name of game conservation, because forsooth, they 

 have stopped the sale of game. Far be it from us to mini- 



