16 I: RUESAU, DiGsB CO NEB UNS Evigians 
Conservation: Notes and Comment 
For once we do not have to begin our annual message and review 
with a wail and a groan. For once the cause of conservation has 
received a decided impetus instead of the body-blows we are used to. 
For once we may indulge in a shout of triumph instead of depreca- 
tion. J. N. Darling, the chief of the United States Bureau of Biolog- 
ical Survey, to which by common consent of the governing and sports- 
men’s bodies was left the giving of the final rules in the desperate 
duck and wildfowl situation, promulgated seven far-reaching reforms, 
just before retiring from his post. They are the following: the stop- 
page of baiting game to kill it; no more live decoys are to be used; 
the stoppage of using sink-boxes in deep water; the reduction of pos- 
session bag limit to one day’s bag; no more early and late shooting; 
the reduction of the open season to thirty days; reducing the number 
of birds to be taken per day. 
Now the question is, can and will these rules be enforced. A bad 
augury lies in the fact that Chief Darling resigned his position in 
disgust right after their promulgation, because he did not get the 
necessary cooperation from the several departments concerned with 
conservation, and of his being hampered at every turn by the inter- 
ference of pestiferous politicians. Let every one therefore write to Mr 
Ira N. Gabrielson, the new head of the Biological Survey at Washing- 
ton, congratulating the bureau on this achievement and urging him not 
to recede from this new position, and promise him your support. Let- 
ters with similar content may with advantage be sent to our congress- 
men. 
Unfortunately, the above limitations have been grossly ignored 
in our state during the last hunting season, mainly along that via 
dolorosa of wildfowl, the Illinois River. And to climax this infamy we 
have been reliably informed that not only some leaders among sports- 
men have cooly and flagrantly set aside these necessary regulations, 
but some of the leading officials of our state conservation department 
likewise. That should bring about their impeachment. 
This deplorable condition, however, should impress upon the mind 
of all Audubonites and all conservation-minded people the next most 
important and desirable objective to be worked for by them, viz. the 
divorcing of the department from politics. In other civilized countries 
and the more progressive of our states they have experts at the head 
of such bureaus and departments, but we reward incompetence, brazen- 
ness and buffoonery with highly responsible positions. Think how dif- 
ferent things would be in Illinois if the administration of conserva- 
tion were in the hands of the State Natural History Survey at Urbana, 
with notice to the politicians: Hands off! 
What can we do toward the achievement of such a goal? Elections 
are near again: let us contact the candidates for offices, especially for 
those of governor and legislators, and urge upon them the necessity of 
the divorcing of the conservation department from politics and poli- 
