CONSERVATION OF GAME BIRDS. 521 



were very marked, and the shooting improved greatly in the 

 fall. When spring shooting was forbidden by law in New 

 York State the number of Black Ducks so increased on Fishers 

 Island that the young which they raised provided good shoot- 

 ing there in the fall, while on the nearby shore of Connecticut 

 where spring shooting was allowed at that time, there were 

 practically no breeding Ducks. The cessation of spring shoot- 

 ing in the interior of New York soon resulted in a general in- 

 crease of wild-fowl. 



In 1907 the Connecticut Assembly passed a law protecting 

 wild-fowl and shore birds between January 1 and September 1. 

 The following extract from a letter from Mr. E. Hart Geer, 

 secretary of the Fish and Game Commission of Connecticut, 

 under date of February 19, 1910, shows the results secured 

 under that law: — 



"The encouraging conditions prevailing in Connecticut at 

 the present time, as the direct result of stopping spring shoot- 

 ing, justify me in saying that the same conditions would 

 obtain the entire length and breadth of the United States and 

 Canada if uniform laws regarding spring shooting were enacted. 



"During a period of nearly forty years of my own observa- 

 tion of wild-fowl on the Connecticut River, I have not for 

 many years seen or heard of so many Ducks as have been on 

 the river during the past year. 



"Black Ducks have been more numerous and in larger 

 flocks during the past year than I have known of for many 

 years past. At one time last December eighteen Black Ducks 

 were taken out of a flock of thirty -five with four barrels — two 

 guns — in the hands of two hunters. This has been almost an 

 impossibility for a number of years past to accomplish*. Broad- 

 bills were on the river in immense numbers all the time last 

 fall, and I have seen flocks, estimated to contain more than 

 one thousand, feeding within sight of my house. 



"It is indeed gratifying to see the wild-fowl increasing in 

 such numbers, and there is but one way to account for it, and 

 that is that during the past two springs they have not been 

 shot into and driven away from our shores when on their 

 annual passage. 



