MMJMIL MStDSY 
Bird and Game Animal Extermination 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
One of the greatest economic problems which 
civilized man has to solve is that of preventing 
the extinction of useful animals. 
Ihe nineteenth century marked the greatest 
extermination o^ birds and mammals known to 
history. Already since the beginning of the 
twentieth century two species of North American 
birds have disappeared and many others are now 
in imminent danger of extinction. A careful 
study of the subject shows that the extermina¬ 
tion of most animals that have disappeared in 
tecent times is attributable to the white man. 
Savage tribes have undoubtedly contributed to 
the extinction of species, but mainly to supply 
a demand for food, hides, fur or feathers created 
by the whites. 
Granting man, by reason of superior intellect, 
the right to decide the fate of the lower animals, 
we admit that in self-defence he must extermi¬ 
nate those creatures that destroy human life and 
property or hinder the march of civilization, 
f rom this point of view the destruction of the 
American bison, the grizzly bear and the rattle¬ 
snake becomes desirable. In India, where all 
animal life is held sacred by the native popula¬ 
tion, 20,256 people and 48,701 cattle were killed 
by wild animals and poisonous snakes in 1878, 
and this was not an unusual year. Such statis¬ 
tics justify the extermination of carnivorous 
beasts, but nothing can excuse the wanton de- 
-truction of useful animals. If man is the chief 
atise of the extermination of species, the remedy 
ests with the State and can be applied by the 
''tate whenever the causes are understood. The 
one study of these causes is next in order. 
The extirpation of species proceeds most 
apidly and is best observed on islands in the 
ea which are inhabited by animals not found 
dsewhere. Flightless birds are quickly exter- 
mnated. Many are killed by man for food, but 
mong the exterminative factors must be reck- 
ned the introduction of domestic animals, which 
te allowed to run wild, particularly dogs, cats 
nd hogs, all of which destroy the eggs and 
oung of birds. Cats exterminated the flight- 
-ss rails on Aldabra and the rabbits on Sable 
slands. Eight species found on a single Antil- 
■an island disappeared after its settlement and 
x vanished from another. Many Hawaiian 
pecies, a cormorant used for food by the settlers 
1 Behring Sea, an auk, and a duck on the At- 
ntic coast, a crane, a spoonbill and a bustard, 
i the British Islands, and many other birds and 
amrnals on islands were exterminated during 
e nineteenth century. 
Many ancient forms of birds and other ani- 
als of New Zealand, found nowhere else in the 
'rid, were exterminated, partly by man direct 
d partly through his mistaken introduction of 
obits, and the further error of introducing 
rrets and other carnivorous animals to prey 
'on the rabbits. In some cases the removal of 
f? for ^ sts or the breaking up of the land; in 
lers fire * and in others still, the hunting of 
birds for their plumage contributed to the final 
result. 
d he causes of the extinction of animals on 
islands, effective as they are in small areas, can¬ 
not nevertheless serve to explain the disappear¬ 
ance of species from the continent of North 
America or from large parts of it. Nor can we 
account for such extensive destruction by storm, 
famine, disease or other natural causes over such 
great areas, for when such visitations occur there 
are always survivors to perpetuate the species. 
In 1895 for example, nearly all the bluebirds of 
New England were killed in migration by a cold 
wave in the South, but within six or seven years 
there were as many bluebirds here as before this 
catastrophe. 
_ Those American animals that have disappeared 
since the settlement of the country have vanished 
before the advance of civilization. A species is 
first extirpated from the East and then from the 
West. With very few exceptions the extermi¬ 
nated species are those that injured man’s prop¬ 
erty or those that he killed for food or profit. 
Hence we find most rapidly disappearing the 
eagle, the wolf, the bear and the game birds and 
mammals or those having the most valuable fur 
or feathers. The larger mammals and game 
birds go first because of their greater size and 
value. Therefore the wild turkey and wild swan 
are extirpated, while the grouse and the smaller 
wildfowl remain; but eventually the increase of 
population, the breaking up of the breeding- 
grounds, and the added demands of the mar¬ 
kets insure the destruction of most of the valu¬ 
able food ducks, the grouse and the larger shore 
birds, as well as the larger edible and fur-bear¬ 
ing mammals, except in regions where hunting 
is severely restricted. 
The implements most destructive to birds to¬ 
day are nets, snares and modern guns in the 
hands of capable but unscrupulous men. The 
improvement in guns and the improved facili¬ 
ties for transportation such as railroads, trol¬ 
leys, automobiles and motor boats, together with 
the great increase in the number of gunners and 
hunting dogs, make possible a tremendous and 
unprecedented destruction of game. 
The foremost authority on game protection in 
this country, Dr. T. S. Palmer, of the Bureau 
of Biological Survey, United States Department 
of Agriculture, has determined accurately from 
ihe statistics of hunting licenses obtained from 
different States that fully three per cent, of the 
people are given to hunting. On that basis the 
census of 1900 would give us more than 167,000 
gunners in the New England States alone. Dr. 
Palmer estimates that there are from two and 
one-half to three million hunters in this country. 
With this host (an army far larger than that 
which conquered the South in 1865) in the field 
during th e hunting season we need not wonder 
at the extermination of game. The laws of the 
United States and those of the Canadian Prov¬ 
inces are beginning to show a recognition of the 
great danger to birds and game that this mul¬ 
titude of hunters represents, and restrictions 
upon shooting are constantly being multiplied. 
Conditions have so changed in the past fifty 
jears that the man behind the gun" is now the 
chief danger which must be guarded against if 
we hope to prevent the extermination of our 
wild creatures. The sportsmen have done much 
to secure protection for the upland game birds, 
but unless far more stringent protective laws are 
enacted and enforced in this country than those 
now upon the statute books of some of the New 
England States, the present century will inevit¬ 
ably see the extinction of most of the migratory 
game birds of the East. 
Edward Howe Forbush. 
New England Agent, Organizer and 
Eectiirer for the National Association 
01 Audubon Societies. 
Snake Rattles and Antidotes. 
Wymore, Neb., Jan. 20 .—Editor Forest and 
Stream: I never write a letter to Forest and 
Stream without learning that there are a whoie 
lot of things that I do not know, and that I 
know a whole lot of things that “ain’t so”; but 
I suspected when I wrote my inquiry last Sep¬ 
tember to Forest and Stream as to how a rat¬ 
tlesnake carried his rattles, that I might learn 
something before I got through with it, and sure 
enough I have. 
I refer to the splendid letter of Dr. Donald¬ 
son in the current issue on the subject of the 
proper treatment for snake bite. I take off my 
hat to the doctor, and hope to see many more 
such letters in Forest and Stream. I see that 
I was wrong, and also just where I made my 
mistake. As long as I stuck to subjects about 
which I had learned by observation I was all 
right, but as soon as I entered the field that 
properly belongs to the educated physician, I 
mired right down. But I got just what I de¬ 
served, and hereafter I shall try to stay in my 
own class. And I am getting some real pleasure 
out of it too; first, that enjoyed by a man when 
Jie has a chance to acknowledge he was wrong; 
and second, the consolation of knowing that it 
is not a bad idea to have a bottle along when 
I go after snakes. 
The next time I go to Cherry county after 
snakes I shall get a rattlesnake skin, with the 
rattles attached, and send to our mutual friend, 
Mr. E. P. Jaques, as a peace offering. He may 
have been careless in some of his observations 
in the snake country in the dim and distant past, 
but he certainly writes some very interesting 
letters to Forest and Stream, and until now I 
have always looked upon him as one who knew 
what he was talking about, and it was just like 
getting a joke on dad to find that he had made 
a little' mistake about the way a rattler carried 
his rattles. 
But maybe I had better not “holler” too much 
until I am out of the woods for sure, because 
I have a medical friend here who tells me I may 
have another think coming when I hear from 
Mr. Allen Kelly about a man’s toe nails not 
being “horny hardenings of the skin.” 
A. D. McCandless. 
