PKAIRIE CHICKENS — PINNATED GROUSE. 305 



the character of man, and sunk themselves into human 

 ghouls, who reveled in animal blood for the sake of a few 

 dollars, killing, killing, ever killing, and allowing the 

 carcasses to lie and rot on the plains, or serve as food for 

 the howling wolves or the scavenger crows and buzzards. 

 Then the wild pigeon — that beautiful bird that used to 

 darken the setting sun with myriad flocks, while the rus- 

 set of the male and the blue of the female seemed to 

 make the sky alive in variegated shades of colors; they, 

 too, are gone, exterminated from the face of the earth, 

 not for sport, but for gain, the death of each bird telling 

 its destroyer that he had made a few pennies, or that one 

 more drop had fallen to quench his thirst for the blood 

 of these innocents. Because the buffaloes and the pigeons 

 have been exterminated, it doesn't follow that the prairie 

 chicken must necessarily go the same way; on the con- 

 trary, not only can they be saved, but they can be multi- 

 plied; but this can be done only by moderation and strict 

 observance of existing laws. I appeal now to the heart 

 of every true sportsman, the most generous class of men 

 on earth, to practice moderation in your shooting; do 

 not, when you are in the midst of a covey of birds, kill 

 for the sake of killing, or to see how many you can bag; 

 you know what you are going to do with them, what 

 friends you wish to remember. In other words, within 

 your mind is fixed the number of your friends who wiU 

 appreciate the birds. When you have gotten your num- 

 ber, you have a quantum sufficit; then stop. I have -Wit- 

 nessed too much of this trying to make big scores in 

 shooting prairie chickens, and have seen them in heaps at 

 the roadside, rotting in the August sun, because they 

 could not be shipped, and the parties shooting them 

 knew at the time of shooting that, of necessity, the birds 

 must spoil. Shame! shame! on the man who will do 

 this. Many hunters will go out in advance of the open 



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