8 NORTH AMERICAN DUCKS, GEESE, AND SWANS. 
So rapidly are some species diminishing in numbers in certain States 
that the market supply Is already threatened, and Minnesota has found 
it necessary to pass laws prohibiting not only the export of ducks, 
but even their silc within the State Limits. Such radical legislation 
in a State where only a few years since waterfowl abounded on every 
lake and waterway, reveals how Imminent is the danger and how press- 
ing the value and Importance of prohibitive laws, and it becomes evi- 
dent that if any considerable number of waterfowl are to he preserved, 
spring shooting must be abolished and the sale of wild fowl limited to 
the States where killed. 
The enforcement of moderately stringent protective laws, however, 
and the establishment of preserves in the States where waterfowl can 
be sure of shelter and safety, are likely to result not only in averting 
the threatened extinction of certain species, but in the increase of all 
waterfowl to a point somewhere near their recent abundance. Should 
the lessons of the past be unheeded and protection be withheld for a 
few years, then measures of the most radical kind will be necessary. 
Of the 64 species and subspecies of ducks, geese, and swans which 
occur in North America north of Mexico, 24 breed in the United States. 
The species most important to us are the wood duck, mallard, black 
duck, teal, canvasback, redhead, and Canada goose. Several of these 
species breed only in the Northern States; but the cinnamon teal and 
ruddy duck nest as far south as southern California, and the wood duck 
breeds almost cveiywhere throughout the United States, and, more- 
over, the great bulk of this species winters within our boundaries. 
It is a sad commentary on our present system of game protection that 
the wood duck, one of the handsomest of our native birds and one 
whose breeding range is almost entirely within our boundaries, is the 
species which has suffered most. So persistently has this duck been 
pursued that in some sections it has been practically exterminated. 
Even in States in which it still breeds commonly, as in Delaware and 
Maryland on the Atlantic coast and in Illinois in tin 1 Mississippi Valley, 
public sentiment fails to recognize the importance of adequately pro- 
tecting the bird, and the laws still permit it to be destroyed late in the 
spring. As a result the wood duck is constantly diminishing in 
numbers, and soon Is likely to be known only from books or by 
tradition. 
I'KOXECTION. 
Wherever waterfowl already breed, or where the conditions are 
Such as to favor their remaining during the summer, every effort 
should be made to Increase the number of breeding birds by adequate 
protection both in the spring and during the nesting season, and, 
wherever possible, game refuges or preserves suitable for breeding 
purposes should be established. 
