PART III.— VARIOUS PAPERS 



THE END OF SPORT AND GAME IN AMERICA? 



WILL AMERICAN SPORTSMEN SEE THEIR 

 SPORT EXTERMINATED? 



The raven became known as a bird of ill omen because 

 on a certain occasion it became his duty to act as the bearer 

 of a disagreeable message. 



Notwithstanding all the fine victories that in the recent 

 past have been won for the protection of North American 

 birds and mammals, game and not game, the sportsmen of 

 America still are facing some ominous prospects and dis- 

 agreeable probabilities. They involve the permanence or 

 the extinction of sport with the gun. 



Ever since the enactment of the migratory bird law and 

 treaty, we have been rejoicing in the return of the ducks 

 and geese, and the revival of sport with wild-fowl. We 

 have been joyously deluding ourselves by the belief that at 

 last the future of bird-shooting sport in America is secure. 



Even a brief review of the situation as a whole reveals 

 the fact that in the United States and Alaska, our killable 

 game is by no means on a continuing basis. Moreover, it 

 is very likely that the measures absolutely necessary to the 

 making of legitimate sport permanent for even fifty years 

 to come will be found by sportsmen to be so disagreeable 

 that they never will be developed by them to an adequate 

 extent. 



It is a common thing for a sick man to resent the idea of 

 the surgeon's knife; but we know that rejection sometimes 

 convinces the patient that a permanent cure is the only 

 one that is worth while. 



