FIRST BIENNIAL STATEMENT 19 



one game bird, mammal or fish now can be found. The 

 amount of local extermination of our game birds of all 

 species has been particularly terrible, and its full realiza- 

 tion is difficult. 



The preservers of the non-game birds have much more 

 to show for their labors. They have fought for the gulls 

 and terns, the song birds, the plume birds, all the insect 

 eaters and weed destroyers, and even the useful birds of 

 prey. But for their efforts, put forth in the highest spirit 

 of conservation of the nation's resources for the whole 

 people, practically all our best non-game birds would by 

 this time have been annihilated! Let him who doubts this, 

 pause and think of the narrow margin of escape of our 

 gulls and terns, herons, egrets, song birds fit for "millinery 

 purposes," and our useful hawks and owls. 



Let every man who for the first time is asked to help 

 replenish the paymaster's chest, pause before he gives his 

 answer and consider these questions : 



7s not our bird life of positive benefit, direct or indirect, 

 to every man, woman and child in America? 



What coidd compensate the people of America for the 

 loss of their birds? 



Is it, or is it not, our duty to continue the fight to save 

 what remains of our national assets in wild life? 



The Beginning of a Period. — In the ever memorable cam- 

 paign of 1909-10, the importance of campaign funds to the 

 cause of wild life protection became painfully apparent. 

 The enemies of the game birds of New York and neighbor- 

 ing states were prepared to resist all further encroach- 

 ments upon their killing and selling privileges, with the 

 aid of money and hired men. Every anti-protection organi- 

 zation had its paid attorneys always on the spot, and their 

 expenditures for expenses were liberal and continuous. 



In 1910 it became unmistakably evident that without a 

 superhuman effort several of New York's best bird laws 

 would be repealed, and the cause of protection would be set 

 back a decade or more. An advance survey of the whole 

 field convinced the writer that nothing short of a campaign 

 waged literally regardless of expense could save the day, 



