‘Gulf States; 
NATORAL 
and that never should be killed by sports- 
men because of their beauty, or their 
quality as songsters, or their value to ag- 
riculture as insect eaters. The birds 
which may be properly classed as game 
birds, and which are found in your state 
are: 
Web-footed wild fowl, 
The grouse family, 
The sandpipers, 
The plover family, 
The snipe family, 
The quail, 
The curlew family, 
The wood duck is usually classed as a 
game bird and is eagerly pursued by 
sportsmen, but as a matter of fact, it 
should never be killed. Within the past 
few years it has become exceedingly rare 
and is threatened with early extinction. 
Still, it is one of the most beautiful plu- 
mage birds on this continent. Its eco- 
nomic value as an article of food is so 
small that it should never be hunted or 
shot at by any true sportsman. I hope to 
live to see the time when all states will 
have laws protecting the wood duck at all 
seasons. 
In fact all migratory water fowls are 
threatened with extermination and unless 
all the states and all the Canadian prov- 
inces speedily enact and enforce protect- 
ive laws, a dozen species of ducks will 
disappear from the continent within Io 
years. The Indians in the far North 
hunt the nests of the mother birds and 
destroy the eggs by thousands. Almost 
as soon as the. young are hatched, and 
before they are able to fly, these savages 
pursue and kill them with clubs. A na- 
tive will eat, at a single meal, a dozen 
young wild geese, none of which are per- 
haps larger than his fist; while if they 
were let alone any one of them would 
make him a meal 6 months later. 
As soon as the young fowls are able to 
fly they, with their parents, start on their 
Southern migration. _When they cross 
the border into Michigan, Minnesota, 
North Dakota, Montana or Washing- 
ton, an army of sportsmen assails them. 
As the winter season advances, the birds 
move South and at every stopping point 
they encounter a new division of. this 
army of shooters. Even when _ they 
reach their winter feeding grounds, about 
the Gulf of Mexico, they are still pur- 
sued and slaughtered. 
A still more savage enemy greets them 
at the international boundary. I refer 
now to the market hunters. These men 
move South with the birds, clear into the 
camp with them all winter 
and then follow them North to the in- 
ternational boundary line again on the 
spring flight. 
A game dealer in Chicago, for instance, 
HISLTORE. 303 
recéives a shipment of wild geese and 
ducks from a market hunter in Minneso- 
ta or North Dakota in August. In Sep- 
tember he receives other shipments 
from the same man 100 miles farther 
South. He keeps on receiving daily or 
weekly shipments from this same man 
clear down the Mississippi Valley 
into Louisiana or Texas, all through the 
winter. Then the shipments begin to 
come from the same man from points far- 
ther North, and continue with unceasing 
regularity through March, April and up 
into May, the last shipment coming again 
from North Dakota or Minnesota. 
Is it any wonder, therefore, that be- 
tween the warfare kept up by sports- 
men and their guerilla allies, the water 
fowl should steadily decrease from 
year to year? The wonder is they have 
been able to withstand these terrific on- 
slaughts so long. It is only because they 
are stich prolific breeders; and in spite 
of this they are doomed, under existing 
conditions. The remedy is: 
First: Shorter open seasons. These 
should be limited to 30 days. 
Second: The season should open 
on the same day and close on the same 
day in all states within given parallels 
of latitude. For instance, in all States 
North of the goth parallel the season 
should open September Ist and close Sep- 
tember 30th. In all states South of the 
4oth degree, and North of the 35th de- 
gree, it should open October Ist, and 
close October 31st. In all states on or 
South of the 35th parallel it should open 
November ist and close December 31st. 
I would accord the extra 30 days of open 
season to the Southern states becatse in 
some instances the water fowl would not 
reach these states until late in Novem- 
ber, or even in December. 
Third: All states should pass laws limit- 
ing the bag for any one shooter to I0 
ducks or 3 geese for any one day, and to 
50 ducks or I5 geese for any one -year. 
Fourth: The sale of game of all kinds 
should be rigidly prohibited at all times. 
The broad principle should be established 
that game is and should be the property 
of the man who can go afield and kill it. 
He should be permitted to give to his 
friends, to a reasonable extent, but not 
to sell it to any one. 
Fifth: The entire prohibition of Spring 
shooting. 
Sixth: A rigid and impartial enforce- 
ment of game laws everywhere and at all 
times. 
Much that has been said as to the pro- 
tection of water fowls applies with equal 
force to all birds of the grouse family, to 
woodcock, quail, and to the snipe and 
plover families. 
Laws should be made to open on all 
