Eee sAUID UB ONY BULLETIN 25 
Taking Inventory 
A Resumé of Conditions by the President of the Society, C. W. G. Eifrig 
Looking over the past year in its bearing on the conservation of wild 
life, the outlook is still discouraging and worse. The wild ducks in the 
North and Northwest had another bad season owing to disastrous drought, 
the third consecutive one. ‘This is what game commissioners Etter of 
Saskatchewan, Lawton and Leffler of Alberta, where the bulk of North 
American ducks must be bred, and Mr. Jack Miner of Ontario told the 
International Association of Game Commissioners assembled at ‘Toronto. 
They gave “descriptions of the terrors of heat, dust, no water and no food 
on the vast breeding grounds of the north central prairie region. Mr. 
Etter declared a loss of 90 per cent of the young ducks hatched in 1930, 
and Mr. Leffler declared that since 1928 the whole visible supply of ducks 
had decreased by 50 per cent. Later on it was officially reported from 
Canada that the losses in young ducks in the Spring hatch of 1931 was 
O9ouper cent!” 
At the same time the army of seven million hunters has not materially 
decreased according to the number of hunting licenses “sold.’”’ This promis- 
cuous selling of such killing licenses by every petty city or village official, 
even by sundry store-keepers, to anyone who pays the $1.00 is a nuisance 
that would not be tolerated in any other civilized country. Such licenses 
should be looked upon as marks of distinction, to be given only to reput- 
able, well-known citizens of integrity and above 21 years of age. Look 
what is allowed to parade in Illinois with the ownership of a hunting 
license! 
The situation with respect to the ducks became so threatening that 
President Hoover felt called upon to issue a proclamation reducing the 
hunting season. 
But for all that, double orgies of killing were held again in our 
own State of Illinois. It seems as though civic iniquity among. poli- 
ticians and officials were holding a carnival. Owing to an oversight 
of several sets of officials, who are paid handsomely to guard the state 
against such oversights, the law protecting Pheasants and other gallinaceous 
birds during most of the year, and the killing of hen Pheasants at all times 
was allowed to lapse in September. As though it had been broadcast by 
someone, an army of game-hogs,—-let us not call them sportsmen, or even 
hunters—went out and shot any and all of these unfortunate birds they 
could. JI was informed that certain of these game butchers brought in 
dozens of hen Pheasants. Naturally, Quail, Grey Partridge, and Prairie 
Chickens fared just as badly, although the last named will soon be as rare 
