THIRD BIENNIAL STATEMENT 131 



The 18,628 hunting licenses issued on Long Island in 

 1918 were good for the killing of 5,889,600 quail out of the 

 2,500 still alive on that island. 



In 1918, 460,000 deer might have been killed in New York 

 State out of a total deer population of about 50,000 head, 

 all at 55 cents each, excepting a few at $5.25. 



But we are not yet through with the follies of the Empire 



State. 



In addition to all the above possibilities for slaughter 

 under state hunting licenses, we find in the state game laws 

 the following paternal provisions : 



That a land-owner, the members of his immediate family, 

 and tenants actually occupying cultivated farm lands may 

 hunt thereon without license during the entire open season! 



We decline to try to figure out the number of persons 

 who hunt annually in New York under the above provision 

 without licenses, but in Pennsylvania the number of free 

 farmer hunters is estimated at 200,000. 



The plain fact in the New York case is that legal per- 

 mission is each year bought, paid for and delivered to kill 

 about 10,000 times as many head of game as there are alive 

 in the state all told. This means that had the 230,000 

 licensed hunters of 1918 hunted with sufficient diligence 

 they could have killed, in 1918, every wild game bird and 

 mammal in the Empire State, and left no game alive any- 

 where save in the game preserves and the zoological parks. 



And, furthermore: 



With similar laws on the books of all the other states of 

 this nation, the licensed and authorized hunters of the United 

 States could, had they been sufficiently enterprising, have 



