32 GAME CLUBS, PARKS, AND PRESERVES 



shooters in a day in California, would not indicate a 

 desire to save the ducks. The fact that at many of 

 the upland clubs the partridges must be renewed each 

 year, proves that they fare no better. The Lake Erie 

 group of clubs are recently reported as arrayed against 

 legislation prohibiting the shooting of wild-fowl in the 

 spring, when, of course, the birds should be allowed to 

 mate. The killing of canvas-backs at the Lake Sur- 

 prise preserve in Texas for the market is only equalled 

 by the disgraceful performances on the haciendas in 

 Mexico, which are described later. The recent claim 

 of the members of the Blooming Grove Park Associa- 

 tion that they have a right to ignore the State and 

 federal laws, and kill and ship game out of season, as- 

 serted in a federal court, does not indicate a desire to 

 save the birds. 



The decrease in value of the shares in game-pre- 

 serves on the Chesapeake and elsewhere, and many 

 other facts, might be cited to prove that private game- 

 preserves do not sufficiently protect the game. 



Clubs there are,^ as we have observed, which have 

 rules limiting the size of the bag, but so long as the 

 birds show a rapid decrease year by year it is evident 

 that the private game-preserve is not a sufficient safe- 

 guard for their preservation. Ornithological writers 

 continue to predict the extermination of all game. 



The National Park in Wyoming has done much to 

 save the elk and deer, the bison, mountain sheep, 

 and bears from extermination. The last named are 

 already amusingly tame and are taken by the touring 

 kodaks every year. 



The State parks of New York, in the Adirondacks 



