224 
F O R E S T AND S T REA M 
April, 1918 
Bulletin —AMERICAN GAME 
PROTECTIVE ASSOCIATION 
“More Game!’’ 
E. A. QUARLES, Editor 
THE SWAN SONG OF OHIO'S QUAIL 
AST year the Ohio legislature, under 
the urging of the farmers of that state 
and against the protests of its sportsmen, 
enacted a law declaring the bobwhite quail 
a song bird and removing it from the cate¬ 
gory of birds that are fair quarry for the 
sportsman’s gun. In vain did the sports¬ 
men urge that the experience of this coun¬ 
try showed that game birds, quail especial¬ 
ly, in most instances throve better under 
shooting conditions than where their pur¬ 
suit was wholly forbidden. Equally vain 
was their well considered argument that 
heavy, crusted snows, wet nesting seasons, 
lack of caver and natural food, together 
with the vermin that know no closed sea¬ 
son in their preying on game, are all po¬ 
tent in diminishing the supply. 
Predictions that the contemplated action 
would cause an immediate cessation in the 
interest hitherto shown by organized 
sportsmen in carrying quail through the 
stress of winter by feeding, were answered 
with the statement that the farmers and 
the non-sportsmen bird-lovers generally 
would see that such work was carried on. 
Probably few, if any, who made such 
confident assertions of the interest in bob- 
white of citizens outside the ranks of 
sportsmen, realized that their words would 
be put to so early and severe a test as they 
have during this winter of almost unprec¬ 
edented cold and snows. 
What is the result ? Alas for what were 
doubtless the best of intentions! Bob- 
white, deprived of the protection of the 
sportsmen, has been almost annihilated in 
Ohio this winter, if credence is to be placed 
in the reports from those well qualified to 
judge. 
A few weeks since, the wardens of the 
state were assembled in annual meeting at 
Columbus and, among other things, called 
on for reports as to how the quail had 
wintered. One man only in the entire 
warden force reported that farmers in his 
district were feeding quail and that the 
birds were doing well. 
A few wardens, some two or three, re¬ 
ported that a few farmers were doing win¬ 
ter feeding. In the great majority of in¬ 
stances, however, the report was that no 
feeding was being done by farmers, though 
in every instance the warden himself stated 
that he was doing all the feeding he possi¬ 
bly could. 
When it is remembered that there had 
been short closed seasons in recent years, 
holding out the hope to sportsmen that a 
brief open season would be declared when 
the situation justified it, and that bobwhite 
had multiplied greatly in the southern part 
of the state under the protection afforded 
him by the organized sportsmen, the de¬ 
gree of the tragedy that has come about 
is all the greater. 
Probably there has never been in the 
history of this country a clearer demon¬ 
stration of the fact that game life can be 
increased in most instances only through 
constructive effort. Such effort translated 
into terms of sport means “preserving.” In 
other countries, which shot out their native 
game generations ago, that word is better 
understood than in ours, but it is a term 
that, if we are to keep our game, is des¬ 
tined to be made much use of in the Unit¬ 
ed States. Preserving means constant, or¬ 
ganized warfare on the natural enemies of 
wild life; it includes the provision of cover 
in which wild things may hide from their 
enemies and where they may at all times 
find food; it means organized efforts at 
feeding in winter and the provision of fre¬ 
quent sanctuaries where wild life may at 
all times breed undisturbed. 
Preserving plus the intensive production 
of game birds—breeding them in captivity 
—is the one way in which a continuing 
supply of game may be assured in civilized 
lands. 
That is the reason that so many states 
have established their own game farms, 
whose product is annually distributed and 
planted and cared for by organizations of 
sportsmen. 
The temptation to say “I told you so” 
will probably be too great in the present 
instance for the Ohio sportsmen to resist, 
yet it is not the purpose of this article 
to indulge in any such triumph. Rather 
would we seek to make it an opportunity 
for showing to those who look upon the 
quail as being properly placed in the song 
bird list that the reasons for objecting to 
this action at Columbus last winter were 
sound. If ,the situation is so used as to 
convince those hitherto opposed to an open 
season on quail of the honesty and sound¬ 
ness of the sportsman’s view, the cause 
of the latter will be helped. “Rubbing it 
in on the other fellow” will only prejudice 
the situation further for the sportsmen. 
Legitimate sport and the conservation 
of such species of wild life as are valuable 
to the farmer through their destruction of 
insects and weed seeds thrive best where 
farmer and sportsman are working united¬ 
ly in each other’s interest. It is on the 
farmers’ lands in large part that wild life 
finds its living and it is' from the funds 
provided by sportsmen (the hunter’s li¬ 
cense fees) that systematic, organized pro¬ 
tection is provided for game and non-game 
birds. Here is a fair exchange. Co-opera¬ 
tion can be and has been effected in numer¬ 
ous instances where farmer and sportsman 
have come to realize how closely their 
interests are related. 
Sportsmen are quick to bring to justice 
violators of game laws. Long closed sea¬ 
sons keep them out of the field and clear 
the way for the law breaking pot hunter 
and the alien who kills non-game as well 
as game birds. 
The writer is far from believing that im¬ 
mediate, wide-spread co-operation can be 
effected- in Ohio. Too many animosities 
were bred in the recent fight before the 
legislature to make that possible. Seldom, 
if ever, has there been a more bitter con¬ 
test. Sportsmen were freely pictured as 
red-handed butchers longing to slay, to the 
last individual, all the feathered race. 
Farmers were characterized in no gentle 
terms by the sportsmen. Despite the open 
wounds, the big men on both sides should 
make a start toward getting together and 
the initiative in our view clearly lies with 
the sportsmen. n 
It were, perhaps, too much to expect of 
flesh and blood that, seeing the doom of 
the bobwhite this winter in Ohio through 
lack of attention by the farmer, the sports¬ 
men’s associations should have set on foot 
a state-wide movement to supply the care 
that the recent comer to the song bird' list 
needed and lacked; yet such action would 
have been a brilliant stroke for the sports¬ 
mens’ cause. It would have evidenced an 
indelible love for wild life for the sake of 
the creature itself that could not have 
failed to win to the sportsmen’s side con¬ 
verts by the thousands. Too frequently, 
we fear, the individual sportsman has been 
inclined to view with philosphic calm the 
tragedy caused by failing to follow the 
road he pointed out as the safe one to 
travel. 
THE PUBLIC DOES APPRECIATE 
ITS NATIONAL PARKS 
HE fact that, in spite of the war, in 
spite of the uncertainty of the future, 
in spite of the certainty of extraordinary 
taxes, the attendance at our national parks 
last summer increased thirty-six per cent, 
over the record summer of 1916, is both 
startling and significant. Only two parks 
fell below their best former figures, Crater 
Lake by 620, and Yellowstone by 449. All 
the others were over by thousands, at least 
one by more than five thousand; while 
Rocky Mountain more than doubled its 
last year’s figures. 
Now when it is considered that most re- 
