THIRD BIENNIAL STATEMENT 51 



bucks having horns that rise at least three inches above the 

 hair of the crown. Necessarily it follows that in the ob- 

 servance of this law a hunter may not kill or wound a female 

 deer or a fawn, and therefore he must not fire at any deer 

 until he actually sees horns upon it, three (or four) inches 

 high. 



The warning slogan of the New Mexico Game Protective 

 Association is exceedingly apt and forceful : 



As we have said a hundred times, the economic and ethical 

 reasons for a buck law, and a law against doe-killing, are 

 categorically as follows : 



1. — The preservation of the deer species from extinction ; 



2. — The preservation of legitimate deer-hunting sport ; 



3. — The preservation of human life; 



4. — The preservation of state honor, and 



£T. — The preservation of the rights of the American boy. 



In and before the New York legislature the foes of the 

 buck law fought us on the first three of these principles, and 

 were silent on the last two. 



Because two or three deer hunters were killed during the 

 reign of the buck law, our opponents vehemently denied our 

 claims under Principle 3, and vehemently insisted, early 

 and late, that "the buck law does NOT save human life." 



In 1916, the second year of Governor Charles S. Whit- 

 man's first term, we had a great fight at Albany over the 

 buck law repeal bill of Assemblyman Kasson. That bill was 

 easily put through the Assembly, and through some sharp 

 practice in the Senate, based on the "short roll-call" at the 

 dangerous "last moment," it went into the official records as 



