258 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONERS OF FISHERIES, GAME AND FORESTS. 



grouse are not able to take care of themselves. I know of two men who killed four- 

 teen grouse the first day of the open season, and four of these were knocked out of 

 the bushes with sticks ; another told me he shot five without moving out of his tracks. 



Now, Brother Sportsmen, we have got to be up and doing if we wish our children's 

 children to know anything about native game birds. Here is where I stand: Close 

 the season on all birds from December 1st to October 1st. Why can't my boy hunt 

 meadow larks in Columbia county while other boys are hunting them on Long Island ? 

 Another man says, "he is a crank ; why, he would deprive us of duck shooting in the 

 spring." Yes, I would; for every pair of ducks shot in the spring there are ten ducks 

 less to return in the fall; just so with snipe and geese. Our short-sighted friends are 

 living only for self and present ; they can't see that "they are killing in the spring the 

 goose that would lay the golden eggs in the fall." My friends, after we are gone the 

 ducks will come and go just the same, but not so many of them. The position we 

 take and the protection we desire will keep up the numbers in the future. It has been 

 said by legislators that we are selfish ; that the sportsmen from any ten counties in 

 the State would never be able to agree upon a game law. This may be so. Some 

 have friends who have hotels and must have game for the table ; must have the season 

 open early so they can advertise good shooting and fishing on the back stoop. Some 

 may have friends that are market shooters (they call them sportsmen; I can't), and I 

 don't believe while there is a money consideration at the end of a day's sport a man 

 can be called a sportsman. I don't believe_ that a man who sells game will enjoy the 

 sport and go out as much, when he can't count up at night ten partridges worth five 

 dollars, and the market shooters in Columbia and Dutchess counties kill more game in 

 the season, ten to one, than the sportsmen. They hunt every day, from early morning 

 until late at night, from the opening of the season until the close. Why? Because 

 there are dollars in it.' 



Now, Brother Sportsmen, this, I believe, is a matter upon which each of us must 

 sacrifice some of our individual opinions in order that the game may be protected and 

 the whole body of sportsmen thereby benefited. If you believe that I am too severe, 

 I ask you this question, Is it not better to err upon the side of severity, and thereby 

 save and perpetuate the game, rather than by too lenient laws cause its destruction 

 and perhaps extermination? Let us be united and protect the game at all hazards. 



