AMERICAN GAME BIRDS 
SPORTSMEN AS CONSERVATORS OF GAME 
There are many good citizens in the 
United States who believe that hunting 
is wrong and who consider all sportsmen 
arch enemies of wild life. There are 
sportsmen and sportsmen, and the genu- 
ine lover of gun and dog will almost in- 
variably be found to be a lover of nature 
and at heart a conservationist of wild life. 
Be the sportsman what he may, the 
sportsmen of the United States, as a 
body, constitute a very important factor 
in the present struggle to keep wild crea- 
tures from total extinction. Many of us 
who love wild life and who long ago 
abandoned the use of the gun, neverthe- 
less believe that game exists for reasons 
other than esthetic. Only extremists in- 
sist that all animal life 1s sacred and must 
on no account be taken. Birds, in addi- 
tion to their esthetic value and their im- 
portance as allies of the farmer in his 
warfare on insects, are important as food. 
They are also important because they 
furnish a healthful and exhilarating pur- 
suit to an army of men who at certain 
seasons take to the woods and fields and 
because of their outdoor life make better 
men and better citizens. 
BOTH FEDERAI, AND STATE LAWS 
NECESSARY 
Since game birds have such strong 
claims on our interests, it cannot be 
doubted that both State and Federal laws 
are necessary for their protection, and 
the more cordial and complete the co- 
operation between State and Federal 
officers, the more effective will be the 
administration of the laws. Even more 
essential in the long run is the recognition 
of the importance of our wild life by the 
people at large and their hearty sympathy 
and active cooperation as individuals with 
efforts for its protection. 
Ner should sportsmen and sportmen s 
clubs be backward in cordial cooperation, 
since they are among the chief benefi- 
ciaries of measures for the preservation 
and increase of game birds. The need is 
not for more laws, but rather for fewer, 
simpler, and more comprehensive stat- 
utes, It is the multiplicity of legal enact- 
ments subject to constant change, coupled 
with their non-enforcement, that has been 
159 
largely responsible in the past for the 
general decline in the number of our 
game birds. Fewer laws with better 
enforcement should be the rule for the 
future. 
THE PRESERVATION AND INCREASE OF 
GAME BIRDS IS FEASIBLE 
A few words may be added on certain 
practical means, other than restrictive 
measures, for the preservation and in- 
crease of our game birds. One of the 
most effective is the establishment of 
sanctuaries where birds may safely resort 
to nest and feed during migration. 
The Federal Government has already 
demonstrated the utility of this method 
and has established no fewer than 68 bird 
reservations in different parts of the 
United States, including Alaska. If the 
national parks, large game preserves, and 
national monuments are added to the hst, 
the government now has more than 100 
sanctuaries, some of which include thou- 
sands of acres, where birds of all kinds 
are protected at ail seasons. 
The example thus set by the govern- 
ment has stimulated both State authori- 
ties and private individuals. Several of 
the States now have extensive game pre- 
serves or refuges of their own, and a 
large number of private sanctuaries have 
been set apart, aggregating many square 
miles in extent. 
Conspicuous examples of these are the 
Ward-MclIlhenny preserve, dedicated to 
wild-life conservation by Charles Willis 
Ward and E. A. Mellhenny; Marsh 
Island, acquired through the generosity 
of Mrs. Russell Sage; and the Rocke- 
feller preserve. All these are in Louisi- 
ana. That private means are being thus 
devoted to the public welfare through 
the protection of birds speaks well for 
the future. 
In furtherance of the sanctuary plan, 
there would seem to be excellent reasons 
why the several States, in the interests of 
their citizens, should set apart tracts of 
land, and specifically designate them as 
bird sanctuaries, where all shooting 
should be prohibited, as. it is in the 
greater part of the District of Columbia. 
Such tracts, especially if public parks, 
not only serve the important end of 
