284 THE IMPORTANCE OF BIRD LIFE 



There are still a few on Long Island, and these 

 are permitted to be shot. By the time the Long 

 Island birds are extirpated, the closed season in 

 the rest of the State will be off. Now the question 

 arises : Will there be enough quail in upper New 

 York in 1925 to take the place of the exterminated 

 Long Island birds? The answer is emphatically 

 na. Without extensive restocking, there will be 

 but a mere handful in the upper State. Thus, 

 under the present system, the quail will soon be 

 entirely eradicated from the State calendar of 

 game-laws. 



Although the different species of game scat- 

 tered over the United States call for a wide vari- 

 ety of open and closed seasons, legislation con- 

 cerning them need not differ in principle. As 

 each year passes. States are coming to realize 

 this more and more, and the time is not far dis- 

 tant when all game-laws will be in entire concomi- 

 tance with one another throughout the Union. 

 No thinking citizen or sportsman would desire to 

 have an open season on his prairie chickens when 

 those birds are protected by closed seasons in the 

 surrounding States. The influx of eager gunners 

 from those States would soon leave him with no 

 game at all. 



It is doubtful if, under the Constitution of the 

 United States, the Federal Government can ever 

 3.ssume control of native upland game-birds. And 



