214 
WILD LIFE PROTECTION FUND 
release him from his duty when the license money ceases to 
accrue. 
Shall the non-game birds of beauty and value be penal¬ 
ized, and slaughtered whenever there is no longer any game 
to kill under license ? 
The idea is repulsive. Surely the people of America gen¬ 
erally never will adopt such a policy, even though Delaware 
is practicing it today, and certain other states have no paid 
game wardens. 
No! A thousand times no! The protection of the non¬ 
game birds, and our tattered remnants of game birds, never 
should be made contingent upon the receipt of blood money 
derived from the sale of hunting licenses. We must not 
descend low enough to occupy such mean and sordid ground 
as the acceptance of that principle would imply. 
It is the duty of the people of all states yet inhabited by 
grouse to accord all grouse species the long close seasons 
that their circumstances now demand, entirely regardless of 
the license question; and if ever it comes to pass that the 
hunting-license fees are inadequate for the maintenance of 
state game commissions and wardens, then all the shortages 
must be made up by taxation. The American people are not 
yet so poverty-stricken that they can not afford to protect 
their song birds. 
Why should not all the people who are benefited by the 
labors of the insectivorous birds pay something to protect 
those feathered allies and servants from wicked annihi¬ 
lation? 
GROUNDS FOR SOME HOPEFULNESS. 
There are signs that many of the American people really 
are awakening to the dangers that threaten their upland 
game birds—even though that awakening is very sadly be¬ 
lated in its arrival. I feel sure that in some districts it 
has come too late; but better late than never. 
