in Connecticut. Therefore it seems advisable to make a 

 preliminary report forthwith upon such facts as can be 

 obtained in order to compare the Connecticut results with 

 her neighboring states, Massachusetts, New York, New 

 Jersey and Pennsylvania. 



For the sake of clarity this report will deal first with 

 game birds and mammals and their enemies and second 

 with fish both fresh and salt water. 



Broadly speaking, all lovers of nature throughout the 

 United States and Canada long to have the forests and 

 streams restocked with wild life. Every one subscribes 

 to the principles enunciated in the New York State con- 

 servationist's creed : "That in a great democracy of free 

 peoples the protection of wild life and the preservation 

 of all other natural resources, which underlie national 

 prosperity and happiness, must depend finally, as does 

 the stability of the government itself, upon the support 

 and willing service of every citizen." 



In common with probably every one of the sportsmen 

 in the United States, we should go a step beyond the pro- 

 tection and preservation of wild life. We believe that a 

 man is a better man if he longs to go afield with rod and 

 gun and dog, and the camera should be included ; and that 

 the realization of that longing brings him into close con- 

 tact with the best, the most uplifting things in life. This 

 is the best form of re-creation. The ultimate goal of 

 nearly every true sportsman is to become almost uncon- 

 sciously not only a lover of all nature, but an amateur field 

 naturalist. 



The real sportsmen of America are our best citizens — 

 clean of mind and body, resourceful, strong and coura- 

 geous. The sportsmen of the allied countries rid the 

 world of imperialistic militarism, and the sportsmen of 

 the civilized nations today stand as a solid bulwark against 

 all forms of impractical and destructive radicalism. The 

 love of nature — of clean, vigorous sport in the open — is 

 the antidote to the softening, weakening influences of 

 modern civilization. Our battle then is to recover the 

 lost heritage which our ancestors wasted and failed to 

 protect, ajid having regained it to protect it for our chil- 

 dren and our children's children. 



This is a many sided and a far-reaching question. It 

 is nothing short of restoring the balance of nature inter- 

 rupted by the growth of large towns and cities. Much 

 progress has already been made toward this end, but the 

 real progress has been made only in the last generation 

 and a half, most of it in the last ten years and by a hand- 



