EDITORIAL 



61 



the Red Race is in the path of the stam- 

 pede ! The poor Indian, obeying the prim- 

 eval instinct to stock his larder with the 

 game of his forefathers, is corralled and sent 

 back to his government home from whence, 

 still obeying his instinct, he raids the herds 

 of his white neighbors. 



A tremendous wail arises heavenward, the 

 cattle men protest, the game protectors pro- 

 test, the Indian Commissioner writes letters, 

 and' the wheel begins to turn again. 



But, contrary to the popular and accepted 

 theory, we believe that Indians are human 

 and blessed with a certain amount of rudi- 

 mentary horse sense. We also believe that 

 if some one who is in sympathy with the 

 Indians will explain to them that enforcing 

 the laws made for the preservation of game 

 is the only way to keep up the supply, that 

 the Indians will then, not only obey the 

 laws, but become strenuous in their support 

 of game protection. 



AN ORIENTAL SUBSTITUTE. 



From the Journal of Crookstown, Minn., 

 we learn that Mr. S. F. Fullerton, game war- 

 den, says that the prairie chicken as a game' 

 bird will disappear from the state within 

 fifteen years. We also learn that he is very 

 enthusiastic over the introduction of the ring- 

 necked pheasant and the state pheasant hatch- 

 ery. 



When a game warden states that the bird 

 will be extinct it looks as if the pinnated 

 grouse's fate was sealed; but why should the 

 prairie chicken disappear from Minnesota? 

 Are the pe©ple of that community so un- 

 American, so un-patriotic, and devoid of sen- 

 timent as to allow the total extinction of 

 their finest game bird and the substitution 

 of the half-domesticated ring-necked Orien- 

 tal? Has the lesson of the introduction of 

 the English sparrow faded from their minds? 

 Will sportsmen of Minnesota consent to be- 

 come effete butchers of half-domesticated 

 poultry? 



We are inclined to think that there are 

 enough men yet left in the state, men with the 

 bark on them and the blood of the pioneers 

 coursing through their veins, who will resent 

 this substitution. 



lithe same amount of pains and care is 

 taken to preserve the prairie chicken that is 

 necessary to introduce the foreign birds in a 

 few years, the prairie lands and open country 

 of Minnesota will be again populated 

 with the native game birds, and the pioneers 

 may take their children out in the spring 

 and show them the cock grouse as they strut 

 around, with their yellow air-sack on the 

 sides of their necks inflated like bladders, 

 bowing and scraping to their dapper little 

 mates, and shouting their boo-who-whooes 

 until, as one author states, "The sound will 

 roll over the earth in great waves." And then 



they can say, "This is the way it was when 

 we came to this country." 



It will not be necessary for the people of 

 Minnesota to send to the wild animal man or 

 to Europe to get birds with which to stock 

 their open land, because there are even now 

 enough seed birds left to do this if the peo- 

 ple will only allow Nature to take its course. 

 This idea of substitution of European ani- 

 mals and European birds for the husky and 

 beautiful natives of our soil is repugnant to 

 the feelings of any real American, whether 

 he be a sportsman, naturalist, a nature lover, 

 or simply endowed with a sentimental rever- 

 ence for his own country and its character- 

 istic and natural surroundings. 



The marketmen of Chicago, St. Paul and 

 Minneapolis and their patrons, the pallid 

 gourmands, with bags under their eyes and 

 rings on their fingers, swelled feet and bald 

 heads, whose vitiated appetites call loudly 

 for a hot bird and a cold bottle, are the ones 

 who are exterminating the prairie chicken 

 in Minnesota and the adjoining states. 



We cannot believe that the great state of 

 Minnesota will sacrifice this bird, so dear to 

 the heart of the farmer's boy and true sports- 

 man, either for the sake of satiating the ap- 

 petites of useless roues, or for the petty 

 amount of money the sale of these birds 

 brings to the coffers of Minnesota's market 

 hunters. 



TO RELEASE PET BIRDS. 



The Huntington (Ind.) Democrat says 

 that, according to the interpretation of Sec- 

 tion 602 of the new criminal code by the 

 state game commissioner it is unlawful for 

 any person to have any caged wild bird, be 

 it a martin, red-bird, blue-bird, wren, canary 

 or parrot, and it is hinted that the game com- 

 missioner will set free all caged birds, in- 

 cluding canaries and parrots. 



This, we think, is a mistake or simply 

 a newspaper story, because the canary and 

 the parrot will perish if freed. The canary 

 is not a wild bird, it having been domesti- 

 cated for so many generations that it is un- 

 able to care for itself if the cage door is left 

 open and it is allowed its freedom. They 

 have not the migratory instinct which would 

 carry them South in the Winter and would 

 perish, not from lack of food, but from 

 lack of knowing where to hunt for their 

 food. The experiment has been tried many 

 times. Furthermore, the canary has learned 

 to be happy in its little prison and, if they 

 are to be released at all it should be in a cli- 

 mate adapted to their needs and where they 

 could be cared for until they learned to care 

 for themselves. 



A gentleman in England is said to have 

 canaries nesting in the bushes and vines 

 around_ his portico ; but he takes care of these 

 birds in the winter time and has taught 



