514 



ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN. 



THREE 



GREAT CHAMPIONS 



OF WILD 



LIFE. 



WILLIAM DUTCHER. 



THERE are three men who will be remembered 

 gratefully by millions of Americans for a century 

 after the ephemeral celebrities of to-day have been 

 forgotten en masse. It is well that these men should 

 be fully known and appreciated while they are alive. 



Dr. Theodore S. Palmer, Assistant Chief of the 

 Biological Survey of the Department of Agriculture, 

 is always to be found where the fight is fiercest. He 

 is an expert on game laws, a shrewd and careful man- 

 ager, a trained diplomat, and also a resourceful 

 fighter. Whenever state workers get into a fierce 

 campaign. Dr. Palmer is appealed to for aid. He has 

 appeared in the legislatures of perhaps twenty dif- 

 ferent states, and helped to win many a campaign for 

 wild life. 



It was he who relentlessly and tirelessly pursued 

 the infamous Binkley and Purdy gang of poachers 

 in the Yellowstone Park, and with the vigorous back- 

 ing of the Department of Justice dealt the poachers 

 a crushing blow. The four poachers who once were 

 so bold and defiant were utterly ruined, one being 

 to-day in the penitentiary, and the other three fugi- 

 tives from justice. This victory was of far-reaching 

 importance. 



Besides his active campaigning for good laws, and 

 against bad ones, Dr. Palmer is the Government's 

 expert on the making of reserves for big game, and 

 island refuges for birds. The new Mt. Olympus game 

 and forest reserve in Washington is his latest and 

 most important achievements, and in every sense it is 

 a monument to him, none too great to stand as a per- 

 petual memorial of the man and his work. 



Mr. William Dutcher, of New York, President 

 and general manager of the National Audubon So- 

 ciety, deserves all the honor the lovers of birds, and 

 the recipients of their beneficial services, ever could 

 bestow upon one individual. His career began in 1898, 

 as chairman of the A. O. U. Committee on Bird Pro- 

 tection. His special work has been the protection of 

 song-birds, the gulls and terns of the seashore, the 

 "plume birds" and insectivorous birds, generally. 



Inspired by Mr. Dutcher's zeal and work, the late 

 Mr. Albert Wilcox bequeathed his entire fortune, of 

 $331,000, to Mr. Dutcher's National Association, for 

 bird protection work, and in 1906 it became available. 

 The impetus which the income of this fund has given 



GEORGE O. SHIELDS. 



to systematic work in behalf of birds has been, very 

 great. Mr. Dutcher now is enabled to keep constant- 

 ly in the field five splendid workers, where their ser- 

 vices are most needed, and pay all their expenses. 

 Fortunately, Mr. Dutcher's private business is on a 

 basis so thoroughly automatic that he is enabled to 

 devote a great deal of his time to managing cam- 

 paigns in behalf of birds. The Francis bill recently 

 pending at Albany against "the white badge of 

 cruelty" was his measure, and as usual the alien mil- 

 liners were solidly arrayed against him, on the plea 

 that his bill would hurt their business ! 



The farmers of America little realize what they owe 

 to William Dutcher. Perhaps eighty per cent, of 

 them have not yet heard of him; but with them all 

 his name should be a household word. 



Mr. George O. Shields, formerly editor of Recrea- 

 tion, now editor of Shields' Magazine, founder and 

 for ten years president of the League of American 

 Sportsmen, bears a name that for many years has 

 been a symbol of terror to "game-hogs," and the ex- 

 terminators of wild life. He did not hesitate to use 

 drastic methods in influencing the men who shoot 

 and fish not wisely but too well, whenever their 

 skins proved impenetrable to appeals to reason and 

 decency. By the game-hog element, Mr. Shields has 

 been both feared and hated; but his influence in be- 

 half of wild life has covered practically the whole 

 United States, and has been of enormous value to 

 that cause. He has played an important part in se- 

 curing new legislation, but also in enforcing protec- 

 tive laws. 



For years this veteran game protector has battled' 

 early and late, in season and out, tirelessly, and at 

 times even recklessly, so far as Iris own fortunes were 

 concerned, to stop the slaughter of wild creatures, 

 and reform the inconsiderate and wanton game kill- 

 ers. The work he did, and still is doing, will live- 

 and be remembered by his countrymen long after his 

 active labors are done. 



During the past four months Mr. Shields has made 

 a tour across the continent, in which he delivered 

 seventy-four lectures and over 300 addresses to 

 schools, each one of which was a powerful appeal in 

 behalf of wild life. The tour was practically a con- 

 tinuous ovation, and its influence upon the public will; 

 be not only great, but continuous. 



