188 WILD LIFE PROTECTION FUND 



Any state that opens the shooting season on any grouse 

 or quail by so much as one day before September 15 thereby 

 ignores the ethics of legitimate sport. Fancy opening grouse 

 shooting on August i, as is done in Colorado and Wyoming ; 

 or, worse still, on July 15, as is done in Oregon, when many 

 of the young birds are only just able to fly ! Of sage grouse 

 in August Mr. William C. Bradbury, of Denver, says that 

 he has "seen flocks of young birds, little if any larger than 

 quail, and barely able to get on to wing ; and on these trips 

 I have seen many a game-hog claiming to be a sportsman 

 shoot any of these birds that could rise into the air!" 



In New York we have on ruffed grouse a daily bag limit 

 of 4 birds only. No one makes any fuss about it; and the 

 difficulty of killing grouse in thick timber and tall brush 

 makes this bag limit of real benefit to the birds. If the 

 birds were as easily killed as are all grouse of the plains, 

 the bag limit would not save them. 



Bear in mind, men and boys of the West, that a wild spe- 

 cies easily reaches so low a point in numbers, and in power 

 of self-protection, that even long close seasons can not save 

 it from its natural enemies, and enable it to breed back. 



INFLUENCES NOW EXTERMINATING WESTERN 

 GROUSE AND QUAIL. 



1. The immense number of sportsmen and game-hogs. 



2. The deadliness of the automatic and pump guns. 



3. The deadly usefulness of the automobile and good 



roads. 



4. The unwariness of the grouse generally, and the ease 



with which they are found and killed. 



5. The wicked and in some cases brutal open seasons. 



6. The deadly bag "limits" — which as "limits" are in 



one-half the western states only a joke! 



7. The fatal scarcity of game wardens. 



8. The lawlessness of many hunters. 



9. The trampling of nests and young by cattle and sheep. 



