3*0 



RECREATION. 



Hon. John F. Lacey to prepare and intro- 

 duce a bill looking to the purchase of the 

 Allard herd of buffalo and the care thereof, 

 for all future time, by the general govern- 

 ment. 



Your President recently called on Presi- 

 dent Roosevelt, in Washington, and out- 

 lined to him the provisions of these several 

 bills. Mr. Roosevelt expressed his hearty 

 approval of all of them. We may, there- 

 fore, rest assured that if we can induce 

 Congress to pass these measures, they will 

 be promptly approved by the President. 



One branch of our work grows larger as 

 time progresses. That is as to the num- 

 ber of reports that come to the President 

 of violations of game and fish laws in the 

 various States. Every such case is taken 

 up in detail and turned over to the chief 

 warden of the League, if we have one in 

 the State from which the report comes. 

 If not, then it is reported to the State 

 game warden, with the request that the 

 offender be arrested and punished. Thou- 

 sands of offenders have been convicted in 

 this latter way, for which the League gets 

 no credit and not even a record. In thou- 

 sands of cases where it is found impossible 

 to reach the offender by law, a personal let- 

 ter is written him, informing him that 

 we have evidence of his unlawful acts, 

 cautioning him against a repetition of 

 them, and asking for a pledge that he will 

 obey the law in the future. Many of these 

 men reply that they will quit their unlaw- 

 ful work. In most of these cases, we hear 

 afterward, from the person who made the 

 original complaint, that since receiving 

 our warning the offender has led a different 

 life, and that there is no further cause for 

 complaint against him. 



My greatest regret is that we find it so 

 difficult to arouse the Southern people to 

 the necessity for the enactment and en- 

 forcement of rigid laws for the protec- 

 tion of bird life during the winter. 

 These people are slow to act n this work 

 of reform. We have not yet been able to 

 secure enough members to enable us to 

 organize divisions in North or South 

 Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi or Louisi- 

 ana. These States afford winter homes to 

 thousands of migratory song and insect- 

 ivorous birds, as well as wild fowl, and 

 thoughtless people there kill them all winter 

 long without regard to law or decency. The 

 laws of most of these States permit the kill- 

 ing of quails up to March, and a few of them 

 afford any protection, at any time of the 

 year, for doves or robins. We are doing 

 a vast amount of work in an effort to stir 

 up these good Southern people; to get them 

 into the League; to induce them to enforce 

 such laws as they have and to secure the en- 

 actment of needed amendments thereto; 

 but it is an uphill job, and we need all the 

 co-operation we can possibly get from the 



faithful few. Nearly all Northern sjoortb 

 men have friends and acquaintances in the 

 South. Thousands of Northern men go 

 South in the fall and winter, to shoot; and 

 all such should make use of every oppor- 

 tunity to talk with our Southern brethren 

 to urge on them the necessity of join- 

 ing this League, and working with it. We 

 should have 1,000 members in each of the 

 Southern States. Our work is needed 

 there even more than in the North, be- 

 cause of the great number of migratory 

 birds that center in small districts in the 

 South, and thus become an easy prey for 

 the man with a gun. 



No Northern man thinks of shooting a 

 robin at any time. Yet in the South, 

 white man and negro alike slaughter these 

 innocent and beautiful birds at every op- 

 portunity, and without regard to any law 

 that may exist. Let us do everything 

 possible to convince these Southern people 

 that the robin and the dove are not game 

 birds and should not be killed at any time. 



I frequently get a letter from some 

 League member complaining that he is not 

 kept informed as to what the League is 

 doing. This is because we have not money 

 enough to issue monthly or even bi-month- 

 ly reports to members, and to send them 

 out by mail as we should like to do. I dis- 

 like to talk shop, but I trust I maybe par- 

 doned for saying that the official organ 

 gives a great deal of information every 

 month as to the work of the League. It 

 takes 20 to 25 tons of paper to print each 

 issue of this magazine and it is impossible 

 for anyone outside of my office to realize 

 the amount of good it is doing in the cause 

 of game protection. It is read by at least 

 325,000 people each month, only a small 

 fraction of whom are League members, 

 and thus it has its effect on all these people. 

 This is one of the reasons why the League 

 is doing so much more good than its mem- 

 bers realize. And it is one of the reasons 

 why more special bulletins are not sent out. 



ANOTHER MENACE TO GAME PROTEC- 

 TION. 



A bill has been introduced in the State 

 Senate which aims to legalize the posses- 

 sion of game in cold storage all through the 

 year. Every worker in the cause of game 

 protection knows what this means. You 

 know that if game dealers and cold stor- 

 age men are allowed to possess game in 

 close season they will sell it clandestinely, 

 and no power on earth can prevent them. 



The bill is numbered 367 and is entitled, 

 "An Act to amend the Forest, Fish, and 

 Game Law by adding a section to be known 

 as Section 141." 



This is one of the most infamous and in- 

 iquitous measures introduced in Albany 

 since this League was organized. It is in- 



