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OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE WISCONSIN, ILLINOIS AND MICHIGAN AUDUBON SOCIETIES 
One Year 25 Cents 
Single Copy 5 Cents 
Published by the Wisconsin Audubon Society at Madison, Wisconsin 
Entered as second class matter August 23.J909, at Madison, Wis., under the act of Congress of March 3, 1879 
VOL,. XII. 
MARCH, 1911 
NO. 9 
FACTS ABOUT SPRING SHOOTING 
By G. A. Raeth, Milwaukee, Wis. 
Although defeated in their endeavors 
f to secure spring shooting before the last 
[• legislature, a number of so-called sports- 
| men and pot-hunters of Wisconsin will 
make another attempt this year. This 
jl is, perhaps, one of the most lamentable 
j forms of ignorance and deplorable ex- 
\ position of selfish greed the law has had 
to contend with in recent years. 
‘‘The killing of any species of birds 
while on the migration to the breeding 
grounds or after they have reached 
there, is indefensible, and, in these days 
of increasing intelligence respecting the 
value of birds, both economic and aes¬ 
thetic, is becoming more and more repug¬ 
nant to the self-respecting sportsman. 
Until spring shooting is absolutely pro¬ 
hibited, both by law and sentiment, the 
wild fowl of this continent, as well as all 
other migratory game birds, will de¬ 
crease.” —Wm. Dutcher, Pres. The Na¬ 
tional Association of Audubon Societies. 
‘‘If all spring and) summer shooting 
| could be stopped throughout the United 
States and Canada, we should be nearer 
the solution of the problem of bird pro¬ 
tection than we shall be likely soon to get 
in any other way.”—Edward Howe For- 
bush, ornithologist, Mass. State Board 
of Agriculture. 
“Spring shooting , the market hunter 
and the cold storage plant are responsi¬ 
ble for the destruction of more game 
than all other causes combined.”—Edi¬ 
tor, Outers Book, Dec., 1910. 
A writer in Shield's Magazine of Jan¬ 
uary, 1911, says: “The elimination of 
spring shooting of water fowl accounts 
for the large number of ducks and geese 
last season, according to sportsmen who 
have made a careful study of the situa¬ 
tion." State of Washington. 
A condition of affairs which might 
again occur in Wisconsin should spring- 
shooting be allowed may be gained from 
the following lines: 
“To illustrate the methods practiced 
by these ‘gun clubs/ I will repeat a story 
I heard at Black Hawk Island, Koshko- 
nong Lake. Some years when spring 
shooting was allowed, Mr. Kunz, the 
proprietor of the place at which I 
stopped, informed me that a few days 
previous to my arrival, a “gun club” was 
obliged to- throw away 600 ducks, which 
spoiled on account of the warm 
weather.”—Albert H. Amann, in the 
Milwaukee Free Press, 1907. 
Sometime in January, 1911, Mr. E, L. 
Phillip of Milwaukee had this to say 
about duck shooting under the caption 
of “Duck Hunting* Lore” in a Milwau¬ 
kee newspaper. 
“Every sportsman feels that the birds 
should have greater protection. We 
