98 COMMISSION OF CONSERVATION 



Bird Act giving us uniform seasons for killing, and the laws prohibit- 

 ing the sale of game*. We now have laws prohibiting the sale of all 

 or part of the protected game in forty-seven out of forty-eight states, 

 and, in thirty-five states, the laws cover practically all the protected 

 species. These laws are having a most admirable effect. The game, 

 which was formerly diminishing at an alarming rate, is beginning to 

 increase. We get reports from our field agents all over the country, 

 telling us that ducks are breeding on the ponds in the Middle West in 

 a way they have not done for many years. On the feeding grounds on 

 the Atlantic coast, especially Currituck sound, Narragansett bay and 

 Great South bay, the ducks are appearing in very much greater num- 

 bers. An interesting result of these laws is that the birds are trying to 

 winter in places where they never thought of wintering before, Cayuga 

 lake and lake Champlain in New York, and some of them had a hard 

 time of it because of the cold weather and ice conditions. It shows how 

 quickly birds respond when they are protected. This cutting-off of 

 the market for game has eliminated fully one-half of the killing. 



CuTiiNG Off ths Market for Game 



The pot-hunter, as you know, is not covered by the ordinary restric- 

 tions of the sportsman ; you cannot govern him by bag limits or by the 

 ordinary restrictive measures. If the bag limit prevents him from mar- 

 keting all he kills, he calls in " his sisters and his cousins and his aunts " 

 and each one of them markets the limit. It is only by cutting off 

 his market that this slaughter can be stopped. I do not know what 

 the figures are with regard to Canada, but your hotels must be 

 using great quantities of game. When I was in Edmonton this 

 autumn, there were wild ducks on the table d'hote bill of fare. When 

 such a novelty appears, everybody orders it, and that means that 

 every day they appear on the menu several hundreds of wild birds 

 are sacrificed. The dining cars are using great quantities of game. 

 Unless we stop all these causes of destruction, game will inevitably 

 be carried rapidly towards extinction. 



Hunting for Food Creates Scarcity 



Just as an example of the difference between sections where game 

 is killed under restrictions and sections where it is killed for food, com- 

 pare New Brunswick with the Peace River country. New Brunswick 



♦The constitutionality of the Migratory Bird Act has been questioned 

 and is now before the U.S. Supreme Court for determination but, whatever the 

 outcome, the no-sale-of-game laws will continue their eflfective work. 



