34 GAME CLUBS, PARKS, AND PRESERVES 



Ducks have a strong protective instinct and have 

 been known to reason well. They soon learn where 

 they are safe, and an inexpensive refuge in what is 

 now a worthless marsh would save them from the 

 destruction which awaits them across the Rio 

 Grande. 



Louisiana has recently prohibited non-residents 

 from shooting in the State. Far more good would 

 be accomplished by the State preserves. There 

 should be parks of refuge in Oregon and Washington, 

 where the wild-fowl still remain to nest; on the Sacra- 

 mento marshes in California, and in southern Califor- 

 nia, where the slaughter in the winter is immense. 

 Woodcock, snipe, plover, and many other shore-birds, 

 cranes, and rails aS resort to the marshes, and such 

 parks as are here proposed would surely save these 

 birds. 



State parks in the north of Maine, at Albemarle 

 or Pamlico in North Carolina, and in the Everglades 

 would save the wild fowl which now travel through 

 the Eastern States in sadly diminished numbers, and 

 ,,probably restore them to New England lakes. Had 

 there been public refuges a few years ago the pas- 

 senger pigeons which came like clouds in the sky to 

 the forests would not now be extinct. Had there 

 been State parks in Ohio and Kentucky, the prairie- 

 grouse would be found in their fields to-day. 



For many reasons the game-refuges should be un- 

 der the control of the National Government. Since it 

 has been legally held that the ownership of the game 

 is in the State, uniform national laws for its preserva- 

 tion, which have been proposed from time to time, can- 



