BIRDS AS FOOD 231 



friends, and, when lumped together, they demon- 

 strate that game-birds still have an economic im- 

 portance as a food product. 



There were in 1911, according to Dr. W. T. 

 Hornaday, more than two million and a half 

 licensed gunners in the United States. Massa- 

 chusetts and New York together issued 195,000 

 licenses. By 1920 that number had been increased 

 in those two States by 70 per cent. — ^to a quarter 

 of a million in New York and nearly one hundred 

 thousand in Massachusetts. The quota of licensed 

 gunners had increased in the other States in pro- 

 portion, so that their total in 1920 may have ap- 

 proached four and a half million. 



About 435,000 game-birds were killed in Penn- 

 lylvania during the season of 1919. As there were 

 m that State less than four hundred thousand 

 licensed shooters, the average to the gun was 

 slightly more than one bird. The total weight of 

 birds shot was estimated by the State Game Com- 

 mission as 314 tons, an average of two pounds to 

 the gun. 



In Massachusetts, during the same year, each 

 licensed gun obtained only one seventh of a bird, 

 but as these were mainly pheasants, ducks, or 

 geese, the weight to the gun was equivalent to half 

 a pound of meat. The gunners of one inland 

 county in New York shot slightly more than one 

 pound apiece. 



If every licensed gunner in the United States 



