178 WILD LIFE PROTECTION FUND 



sion the occupants of one machine used up 400 cartridges 

 during a trip. It is safe to say that nearly, if not all, these 

 shots were fired at harmless and useful birds. When we 

 consider that similar conditions exist in the vicinity of 

 other towns and cities throughout the State, we begin to 

 realize the magnitude of this senseless destruction of one 

 of the State's most valuable natural assets at a time when 

 the need for conserving wild life is vitally important. 



"Besides their ruthless destruction by man, now greatly 

 facilitated by motor power and machine guns, a terrible 

 toll is also exacted of birds by their natural enemies and 

 from other causes, including hurricanes, storms, prolonged 

 drougths, forest fires, floods, severe freezes, poison, the de- 

 struction of forests and woodlands, stray cats and half- 

 trained bird dogs allowed to roam about by irresponsible 

 owners. . . . 



"It is unfortunate that our State bird and game laws 

 are constantly being violated with impunity, and that much 

 opposition to the federal migratory bird law (one of the 

 best moves for bird conservation ever made in this coun- 

 try) still exists in certain quarters. 



"Farmers who do not protest when their feathered 

 friends are being exterminated unlawfully are as much to 

 blame as those who do the killing." 



The very latest bird news from Texas is to the effect that 

 Col. Sterett, the State Game Commissioner, has been very 

 busy trapping quail in the counties wherein quail still exist 

 and shipping them, for colonization purposes, to counties in 

 which quail have been EXTERMINATED! 



This, and huge losses to Texas cotton planters from the 

 boll weevil, are the logical results of senseless quail slaugh- 

 ter in Texas. But 



"Let the galled jade wince. Our withers are unwrung! 



!" 



