250 
with weeds bordering a grain field, beside 
a pond that the settler has made by an 
artificial dam, or, failing in this, on a sunny 
slope in the heart of a broad prairie. From 
the time the young birds leave the nest in 
May or June they are without concealment 
or hiding places save that which the grasses 
of their prairie home give them. Fre- 
quently—more often than not—the grass is 
not of sufficient height to cover the half- 
grown birds standing erect, and they are 
plainly visible objects to the man afield, or 
by a roadside to the occupants of a passing 
vehicle. Later, if the birds escape the rain of 
leaden hail through September, the neigh- 
boring corn fields may give them shelter 
from the pursuit, but against a good pair of 
well-trained dogs, a pair of stout legs and a 
well-aimed gun, there can only be one 
ending. The prairie chicken has but one 
recourse—thatis, toleave the country. Other- 
wise he is sooner or later to meet his fate. 
The ease with which a certain section—say 
a township of thirty-six square miles—can 
be cleaned up of prairie chickens in two 
weeks can only be realized by those who 
have been on the ground and seen it done. 
A similar territory in extent in Tennessee 
Ohio, North Carolina, Arkansas or Mis- 
souri, well stocked with ruffed grouse or quail, 
would stand up under seasons of hard 
shooting with no preceptible diminution of 
the supply. The wonder of it is that the 
prairie chicken has lasted as long as it has. 
Were it not one of the hardiest game birds 
that flies it would have been extinct so many 
years ago that what is here written would be 
history long past and forgotten of sportsmen. 
It is sorrow to think it; it is positive 
erief to write it, but I can see no hope for 
the prairie chicken. Under the best game 
laws that can be devised and under the 
most rigid enforcement that any community 
or State could enact and provide, the life of 
the birds is bound to be a precarious one 
in the face of the rapid settlement of the 
lands where it is making its final stand. 
But the end may be long postponed if those 
where the birds are now found in the greatest 
numbers can be made to see the benefit of 
protecting them and forced by public senti- 
ment into enacting more effective laws. It 
is the history of every State in the Union 
that really efficient game laws have only 
RECREATION 
been placed on the statute books after the 
game the laws sought to conserve was 
diminished to a point where an increase 
was hopeless. The man and the gun are 
not the only enemies of the game birds. A 
large per cent. meet the fate that comes to 
all wild life where one preys upon another. 
The Western States of Nebraska, Kansas, 
the Dakotas, Minnesota, Colorado and 
Nevada should join in a movement to make 
the open season the same in each State and 
limit the pursuit of the birds to the single 
month of September. As matters nowstand, 
the open season varies from State to State, 
from September 1 to October 15 in some 
States, to September 1 to January 1 in others. 
It is likely that South Dakota will take the 
initiative the coming winter in limiting the 
season to September, and with it frame a 
law prohibiting all hunting on the Sabbath 
Day. This latter proposition will, if en-- 
acted into a law, do more for the protection 
of the prairie chickens than any one feature 
of a game law that can be placed on the 
statute books. 
The people of the Western prairies 
should realize that all game laws are not in 
the interest of the few—as some would have 
them believe—but in the interest of the 
many, of which they constitute the major 
part. The prairie chickens should be pro- 
tected with reasonable assurance of main- 
taining the supply if for no other reason 
than the food they furnish to the farmer, to 
the stockman and to the rancher. With this, 
the pursuit of them furnishes the youth of 
the prairie homes about the only recreation — 
with dog and gun that the country affords. 
The rich and well-to-do can either stock 
private game preserves or journey afar off 
to distant lands where game is plentiful. 
To this latter class the going or coming of 
the prairie chicken is of small moment, for 
the whole world is theirs in the pursuit of 
pleasure. Notwithstanding this, and the 
further fact that the prairie chicken is the 
best friend in bird life that the farmer has, 
destroying, as it does, myriads of bugs and 
grasshoppers and never molesting standing 
grain, nine-tenths of the opposition to 
effective game laws in every legislative 
assembly comes from the farmer members. 
There is a feeling among this class of men 
that game protection is in the sole interest 
