THE OREGON SPORTSMAN 173 



tion," and furnishes to the public accurate data and information 

 regarding game and game conservation in California. Many of the 

 articles appearing in this publication have been reprinted in news- 

 papers throughout the state. A series of articles under the general 

 heading, "Game Resources of California," published in the San Fran- 

 cisco Call-Post, were regularly reprinted in about twenty newspapers. 

 Numerous other newspaper items have given publicity to the work of 

 the commission and to the status of game. 



Legislation will never afford wild life complete protection any 

 more than legislation will totally prevent murder, for it does not 

 meet the problem at its source and prevent it there. Pure enforcement 

 of law is an attempt to remedy the result with no consideration of the 

 cause. Education must be joined to legislation if either is to be 

 effective. This is particularly applicable to the problem of conserva- 

 tion. Unless backed by strong public co-operation, laws avail but 

 little. Without a knowledge of the need for a game law and without 

 sympathy for it, there can be no consistent obedience of that law. 

 Consequently this new step taken by the California Fish and Game 

 Commission is sure to bring about the most adequate type of game 

 conservation. 



It is hoped that the people of the State of California will, through 

 the results of this campaign of education, become so interested in 

 the wild life of their state that public sentiment will demand proper 

 game conservation and game laws will then have become an expression 

 of the will of the people and the function of the game warden will 

 have become the positive one of conserving game rather than the 

 negative one of prosecuting the violator. By encouraging such a senti- 

 ment the Fish and Game Commission can assume its proper role. 



It took many years to develop a public sentiment that would 

 properly protect our forests. It may take even a longer time to 

 develop a public sentiment favorable to proper game conservation. 

 But the California Fish and Game Commission feels that in thus 

 making use of an educational propaganda they are using the best 

 method to attain this ideal. It is inevitable that a public which is 

 properly instructed as to where its best interests lie will co-operate 

 with those whom they delegate to further these interests. 



THE MALLARD. 



The Wild Duck That Can Be Raised in Captivity With Ease 



and Profit 



Many sportsmen have the idea that the great number of Mallards 

 scattered along the Columbia River and through the Willamette Valley 

 every year are birds that come from the far North. This is not so. 

 The Mallard is largely a local bird. Formerly large numbers of them 

 bred along all our waterways and about our marshes and ponds. A 

 great many of these birds still breed in various parts of Oregon, 

 especially along the Columbia River and through the Willamette Val- 

 ley. In a single field near Gaston, in Washington County, I saw the 

 nest of a Cinnamon Teal and a Mallard last spring. Of course, the 

 greatest breeding ground for Mallards and other ducks in Oregon, and. 

 in fact, in the whole western part of the United States, is in the vast 

 lake region of southern Oregon in Klamath, Lake and Harney Counties. 



