The Prairie-Hen 175 



the nests and killing the young, causes by far the 

 greatest damage, man is responsible for the really 

 heavy mortality. If all the chickens which annu- 

 ally fall victims to the legitimate use of the gun 

 could be piled in one heap, the mountain of meat 

 would be quite large enough to make most people 

 gasp in amazement. Yet so productive are the 

 birds, and so broad their yet available ranges, 

 that with rational game laws, rigidly enforced, the 

 sport they afford might be indefinitely prolonged. 

 Unfortunately, too many men are slow to under- 

 stand the necessity for only killing in reason and 

 in season. In far too many instances the man 

 who abides by the law and fares forth upon the 

 first lawful day finds that some sneaking ruffian 

 has been over the ground in advance of the legiti- 

 mate hour. Nor must it be imagined that only 

 the needy poacher or the merciless market hunter 

 is to blame. To their shame be it said that a 

 host of well-to-do and apparently respectable citi- 

 zens appear to look upon a game law as though 

 they imagined it to be a sort of legal sieve, ex- 

 pressly designed for something to be strained 

 through it. Just why some men, who perhaps 

 would spend their last blood in resenting an open 

 attack upon their honor, can sink to the level of 

 a sneak thief when it comes to a question of 

 obeying a game law, I am unable to fathom. 

 They can well afford to wait, they cannot truth- 



