March, 1921 
FOREST AND STREAM 
119 
MIGRATORY BIRD PROTECTION 
'"T HE passage of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, 
* it is estimated, has resulted in a total return, in 
actual food value to the hunters of the United 
States, of more than $20,000,000. State officials 
have notified the Biological Survey of the United 
States Department of Agriculture that in Minne- 
sota alone hunters report 2,058,400 ducks killed in 
1919. As each of these birds may be considered 
to have a food value of at least 75 cents, the total 
return from them in food to this one State was 
about $1,500,000. If it had been possible to sell 
these birds, they would have brought twice that 
amount. The great value of game to the country is 
thus made evident. 
That the passage and enforcement of the law- 
preventing spring shooting and marketing of mi- 
gratory game birds are now producing excellent re- 
sults is pointed out by officials of the Biological Sur- 
vey. Without such restrictions they say the game 
birds not only would be greatly reduced in numbers 
but in many instances would be brought near ex- 
tinction. The Biological Survey, which is charged 
with the enforcement of the Federal law and regu- 
lations protecting migratory birds, is receiving re- 
ports from all sections of the country showing that 
with the protection now enjoyed by the birds, their 
numbers are increasing each year, and that they are 
returning in spring to numerous breeding grounds 
which they have deserted for several years. 
In addition to the food value of the game thus 
assured by continued protection, the restrictions on 
shooting made by the law tend to perpetuate hunt- 
ing as a sport. This has a recreational value through 
outdoor pursuit in building up the physical health 
and strength of the more than 7,000,000 hunters in 
the United States who go out with guns every fall. 
ECONOMIC USE OF SOME WILD CREATURES 
JW[ AN, the greatest destroyer of animal life, views 
with especial hostility all other destroyers of 
that life. Those mammals and birds which subsist 
on vegetation he kills chiefly as food, but he kills 
still more eagerly those which subsist on other 
birds and mammals, alleging — in these days — that 
the carnivorous birds and mammals destroy crea- 
tures beneficial to man. Yet of these carnivorous 
birds and mammals many are very useful to the 
agriculturist, for their services outweigh many 
times the depredations which they may commit. 
The poultry-eating fox or hawk is comparatively 
rare, though the occasional misdeeds of either are 
heralded far and wide, for popular prejudice has 
given them bad names. 
In civilized communities there is no place for 
wolves and panthers, which, in the absence of their 
natural prey, must destroy live stock. There are, 
however, many places where — provided poultry and 
sheep are properly protected at night — coyotes and 
wild cats might well enough be left without inter- 
ference, since these animals keep down the rabbits 
and gophers which damage various crops and de- 
stroy fruit trees. There are places in the Western 
country where the services of these animals are 
appreciated at their true value. Moreover, there 
are times when the coyote feeds largely on harmful 
insects, such as beetles, crickets and grasshoppers, 
just as at times it feeds largelv on fruits. The 
big timber wolf is sometimes a fruit eater, and in 
British Columbia feasts on salmon berries. 
If chickens are housed at night in tight houses. 
there is little danger to them from the fox, whose 
prey is largely field mice, rabbits, ground squirrels 
and insects. It is true that foxes kill a certain 
number of game birds, but their food is chiefly the 
animals just mentioned, together with an occa- 
sional gray squirrel or young woodchuck. 
The mink and weasel, while living chiefly on 
mice, the former also killing many muskrats, fish, 
crayfish and birds, sometimes form the poultry 
habit, and in such cases should be destroyed, but, 
as a rule, these animals prey chiefly on the farmer’s 
worst enemies — the rodents. 
The skunk has a bad name as a destroyer of 
poultry, yet its chief food is injurious insects and 
mice, varied with fruits of one kind and another. 
The services which it performs in its destruction 
of insects are incalculable. 
Certain domestic animals, like the house cat and 
its natural enemy, the rat, do an enormous amount 
of damage in the way of destroying poultry and 
useful birds — probably far more than that wrought 
by all the smaller wild animals put together. Of 
course, there are not a few cats running wild in 
the fields or hunting from the house, which catch 
an occasional mouse or mole or red squirrel; but 
for each such service they probably destroy a hun- 
dred useful birds. 
The conclusion to be drawn from all this is that 
these small wild animals should not be thought- 
lessly killed, since often they are man’s useful 
friends; and further, that the domestic creatures 
on which they are commonly thought to prey should 
be protected — especially at night — from any pos- 
sible attacks by animals wild or domestic. 
WE MUST PULL TOGETHER 
CIGNS multiply that at last sportsmen generally 
feel the necessity of doing something to increase 
and conserve our game supply. 
For a long time people were content to talk about 
the need of better game laws, for it is characteristic 
°f Americans to believe that to remedy an evil con- 
dition it is only necessary to pass a law against the 
abuse. We are learning now that laws, however 
good they may be, accomplish nothing unless en- 
forced, and that they will not be enforced unless 
they have the support of public opinion. Sports- 
men are beginning to realize that they themselves 
must work actively in behalf of the measures that 
heretofore they have only talked about, and then 
work to see that they are vigilantly executed. 
An evidence of the growing public interest in all 
these matters is the remarkable increase in the 
number of the readers of Forest and Stream that 
has taken place within the last year. As people 
become more interested in game and fish protection 
they wish to learn more about it. They realize that 
intelligent work on any subject can be done only 
by those who understand that subject. 
In other words, they realize that Forest and 
Stream is not only fighting the battle of the in- 
telligent sportsmen, but is doing splendid mission- 
ary work among the indifferent and uninformed. 
The best service that can be performed by any one 
interested in game and fish is to induce other gun- 
ners and anglers to inform themselves on these sub- 
jects. If each reader of Forest and Stream would 
see to it that some gunning or angling friend also 
reads the paper, the number of intelligent workers 
for protection and propagation would at once be 
doubled, the influence exerted more than doubled, 
and the results desired would be brought nearer. 
