Montana's bounty law. 161 



that any man who should give his entire time to the business could 

 make a fortune at the rate of a cent apiece. It is useless to assure such 

 persons that the Sparrow is watchful, suspicious, cunning, and quickly 

 becomes so shy that it is one of the most difficult of all birds to kill; 

 but ordinarily a single day's experience with trap or gun will convince 

 even the most skeptical. 



Another point to be considered in connection with the question of 

 bounties is the desirability of a premium on the Sparrow's eggs. 



That the destruction of the eggs is one of the most effective checks 

 upon increase is unquestionable, but the practical difficulties which 

 stand in the way of a bounty on eggs are so numerous as to make its 

 trial a measure of doubtful utility. The discovery of an accessible uest 

 makes it easy in most cases to kill the parent birds, but if there is a 

 bounty on the eggs the juvenile Sparrow-hunter is tempted to take the 

 eggs without disturbing the birds, well knowing that a week later he 

 is almost certain to find another set of eggs in the same nest. By re- 

 moving a part of the eggs at a time the bird may be induced sometimes 

 to lay thirty or forty eggs in succession, and such a discovery is a ver- 

 itable bonanza to an enterprising boy. 



Charlie H. Shaw, of West Berlin, Ohio, states that in 1887 a neighbor 

 took foi ty eggs in succession from one English Sparrow's nest; and Dr. 

 Coues refers to the case of an English Sparrow which laid thirty-five 

 eggs in as many days. Between April 22 and June 27 (1SS4) Eli W. 

 Blake, 3d, of Providence, B. I., took nine hundred and fifty-three Spar- 

 row's eggs from some fifty-five or sixty nests in the ivy on a church, and 

 nine hundred and seventy eggs were taken at one time from the nests 

 on another church in that city. 



The eggs of the English Sparrow vary so much in size and markings, 

 that it is impossible always to distinguish tliem from eggs of some of 

 our native birds; hence a bounty on Sparrow's eggs might lead to the 

 destruction of the eggs of many valuable birds, while it would be cer- 

 tain to encourage among boys a habit of nest-robbiug, which would be 

 likely to endure and extend to the nests of native birds after the Spar- 

 rows had become scarce. 



The histories of two recent bounty laws in the United States possess 

 more than ordinary interest as bearing directly on the questions dis- 

 cussed here. 



Montana's bounty law on prairie dogs and ground squirrels. 



Early in 1837 the Territory of Montana offered a bounty of 10 cents each 

 on prairie dogs and 5 cents each on ground squirrels. The act went into 

 effect March 5, 1887, and the bounties paid during the next six months 

 amounted to more than $50,000. On September 12, 1887, the record of 

 payments stood as follows : 



153,709 prairie dogs, at 10 cents eacli $15, 3/0. 90 



698,971 ground squirrels, at 5 cents each 34, 948. 55 



Total 50,319.45 



8404— Hull. 1 -11 



