AMERICAN GAME BIRDS 



Avian Fleets Which Hover Over Our Forests and Fre- 

 quent the Shores of Our Streams, Lakes, and 

 Seaboard Constitute a Great National Asset, 

 But They Must Be Protected, Otherwise 

 Extermination Threatens Many 



By HENRY W. HENSHAW 



J-Vitli Illustrations from Paintings by Louis Agassi:: Fuertes 



FROM the time of the earliest set- 

 tlement of tlie country the wild 

 game of America has proved a na- 

 tional asset of extraordinary value. No- 

 where in the world, except in Africa, was 

 there ever greater ahnndance and variety 

 of wild life. 



The forests of America were filled with 

 game birds and animals, large and small ; 

 its streams, lakes, and ponds were cov- 

 ered with waterfowl, and its rivers and 

 shores furnished highways for myriads 

 of shorebn'ds as they passed north and 

 south. Nature would appear to have 

 stocked the continent with lavish hand. 

 Indeed, but for the wild game our prede- 

 cessors, the Indians, would not have been 

 able to maintain existence, much less to 

 advance as far as they did in the arts 

 that lift peoples toward the plane of civil- 

 ization. 



And at first our own forebears were 

 scarcely less dependent than the aborig- 

 ines upon game for food. Many years of 

 toil and struggle had to pass before the 

 rude husbandry of the colonists sufficed 

 to free them measurably from depend- 

 ence on venison and wild fowl. 



Nor will any student of American his- 

 tory doubt that, but for the services of 

 our pioneer hunters and trappers who 

 literally hunted and trapped their way 



from the Atlantic to the Pacific, the 

 course of empire westward would have 

 been halted for decades. As a conse- 

 quence, the settlement of much of our 

 fair land would have been long delaved, 

 if, indeed, the land had not passed into 

 the possession of other peoples. 



Moreover, it was in the pursuit of 

 game that the hardy frontiersmen devel- 

 oped skill as marksmen and acquired 

 many of the rude border accomplish- 

 ments which later made them effective 

 soldiers in the war for independence. 



Game existed everywhere, for the In- 

 dian, th(')Ugh wasteful of wild life and 

 knowing naught of game laws, took what 

 toll he would of the game about him, and 

 yet made no apparent impression on its 

 quantity ; so that it passed into the hands 

 of his successors, along with his lands, 

 practically in its original state. 



AMERICAN W.-VTERFOWL AND SHOREISIRDS 



And what a rich heritage it was ! In 

 addition to the upland game birds of the 

 forests and open glades, great numbers 

 of ducks and shorebirds found on our 

 western prairies and in the innumerable 

 lakes and ponds the food, solitude, and 

 iafet}' necessary during the nesting pe- 

 riod. More important still as a nursery 

 for wild fowl and shorebirds were, and 



lOS 



