296 THE IMPORTANCE OF BIRD LIFE 



of suspicion are also passing. It is now almost 

 universally recognized that witbout human aid 

 our game-birds wiU soon no longer exist. The 

 private game preserve must henceforth be thought 

 of as a means of increasing our wild life, of sup- 

 porting, in some degree, our food supply, and of 

 utilizing, to a much greater extent, waste places 

 which are now of little value to ajiy one. There 

 are, for example, at least eighteen million acres 

 suitable for this purpose in Connecticut, New Jer- 

 sey, West Virginia, and Maine alone, a small frac- 

 tion of which has already been taken over by the 

 various States or by private owners as preserves. 

 In New York more than a million acres have been 

 dedicated as preserves, and the total in one or two 

 other States reaches twice that area. 



Private game sanctuaries run a parallel course 

 with the shooting-preserves and really are of 

 more importance to the longevity of the birds. 

 Their popularity in America has arisen in the com- 

 paratively short space of ten years and doubtless 

 wiU continue to increase as the public learns more 

 and more how to care for its valuable bird life. 

 In 1918 and 1919 "The People's Home Journal," 

 a magazine deeply interested in the conservation 

 of wild life, instituted campaigns among its sub- 

 scribers for sanctuaries. The results were sur- 

 prising and showed what a firm hold the idea of 

 conservation already had on the minds of the 

 American people. By 1920, merely through the 



