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Title: Our Vanishing Wild Life: Its Extermination and Preservation

Author: William T. Hornaday

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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OUR
VANISHING WILD LIFE: ITS EXTERMINATION AND
PRESERVATION ***

OUR VANISHING
WILD LIFE
ITS
EXTERMINATION AND
PRESERVATION

BY
WILLIAM T. HORNADAY, Sc.D.
DIRECTOR OF THE NEW YORK ZOOLOGICAL PARK;
AUTHOR OF "THE AMERICAN NATURAL HISTORY";
EX-PRESIDENT OF THE AMERICAN BISON SOCIETY

WITH MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS

"Hew to the line! Let the chips fall where they will."—Old Exhortation.

"Nothing extenuate, nor set down aught in malice."—Othello.

NEW YORK
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
1913

Copyright, 1913, by

WILLIAM T. HORNADAY
First Publication, Jan, 1913

SPECIAL NOTICE

For the benefit of the cause that this book represents, the
author freely extends to all periodicals and lecturers the
privilege of reproducing any of the maps and illustrations in this
volume except the bird portraits, the white-tailed deer and
antelope, and the maps and pictures specially copyrighted by
other persons, and so recorded. This privilege does not cover
reproductions in books, without special permission.

TO

William Dutcher
FOUNDER AND PRESIDENT OF THE
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF AUDUBON
SOCIETIES, AND
LIFE-LONG CHAMPION OF AMERICAN BIRDS

THIS VOLUME IS DEDICATED BY
A SINCERE ADMIRER
"I drink to him, he is not here,
Yet I would guard his glory;
A knight without reproach or fear
Should live in song and story."
—Walsh.

FOREWORD

The preservation of animal and plant life, and of the general beauty of
Nature, is one of the foremost duties of the men and women of to-day. It is
an imperative duty, because it must be performed at once, for otherwise it
will be too late. Every possible means of preservation,—sentimental,
educational and legislative,—must be employed.
The present warning issues with no uncertain sound, because this great
battle for preservation and conservation cannot be won by gentle tones, nor
by appeals to the aesthetic instincts of those who have no sense of beauty,
or enjoyment of Nature. It is necessary to sound a loud alarm, to present the
facts in very strong language, backed up by irrefutable statistics and by
photographs which tell no lies, to establish the law and enforce it if needs
be with a bludgeon.
This book is such an alarm call. Its forceful pages remind me of the
sounding of the great bells in the watch-towers of the cities of the Middle
Ages which called the citizens to arms to protect their homes, their liberties
and their happiness. It is undeniable that the welfare and happiness of our
own and of all future generations of Americans are at stake in this battle for
the preservation of Nature against the selfishness, the ignorance, or the
cruelty of her destroyers.
We no longer destroy great works of art. They are treasured, and regarded
as of priceless value; but we have yet to attain the state of civilization where
the destruction of a glorious work of Nature, whether it be a cliff, a forest,
or a species of mammal or bird, is regarded with equal abhorrence. The
whole earth is a poorer place to live in when a colony of exquisite egrets or
birds of paradise is destroyed in order that the plumes may decorate the hat
of some lady of fashion, and ultimately find their way into the rubbish heap.
The people of all the New England States are poorer when the ignorant

whites, foreigners, or negroes of our southern states destroy the robins and
other song birds of the North for a mess of pottage.
Travels through Europe, as well as over a large part of the North
American continent, have convinced me that nowhere is Nature being
destroyed so rapidly as in the United States. Except within our conservation
areas, an earthly paradise is being turned into an earthly hades; and it is not
savages nor primitive men who are doing this, but men and women who
boast of their civilization. Air and water are polluted, rivers and streams
serve as sewers and dumping grounds, forests are swept away and fishes are
driven from the streams. Many birds are becoming extinct, and certain
mammals are on the verge of extermination. Vulgar advertisements hide the
landscape, and in all that disfigures the wonderful heritage of the beauty of
Nature to-day, we Americans are in the lead.
Fortunately the tide of destruction is ebbing, and the tide of conservation
is coming in. Americans are practical. Like all other northern peoples, they
love money and will sacrifice much for it, but they are also full of idealism,
as well as of moral and spiritual energy. The influence of the splendid body
of Americans and Canadians who have turned their best forces of mind and
language into literature and into political power for the conservation
movement, is becoming stronger every day. Yet we are far from the point
where the momentum of conservation is strong enough to arrest and roll
back the tide of destruction; and this is especially true with regard to our
fast vanishing animal life.
The facts and figures set forth in this volume will astonish all those
lovers of Nature and friends of the animal world who are living in a false or
imaginary sense of security. The logic of these facts is inexorable. As
regards our birds and mammals, the failures of supposed protection in
America—under a system of free shooting—are so glaring that we are
confident this exposure will lead to sweeping reforms. The author of this
work is no amateur in the field of wild-life protection. His ideas concerning
methods of reform are drawn from long and successful experience. The
states which are still behind in this movement may well give serious heed to
his summons, and pass the new laws that are so urgently demanded to save
the vanishing remnant.

The New York Zoological Society, which is cooperating with many other
organizations in this great movement, sends forth this work in the belief that
there is no one who is more ardently devoted to the great cause or rendering
more effective service in it than William T. Hornaday. We believe that this
is a great book, destined to exert a world-wide influence, to be translated
into other languages, and to arouse the defenders and lovers of our
vanishing animal life before it is too late.

HENRY FAIRFIELD OSBORN,

10 December, 1912. President of the New York Zoological Society

PREFACE

The writing of this book has taught me many things. Beyond question,
we are exterminating our finest species of mammals, birds and fishes
according to law!
I am appalled by the mass of evidence proving that throughout the entire
United States and Canada, in every state and province, the existing legal
system for the preservation of wild life is fatally defective. There is not a
single state in our country from which the killable game is not being rapidly
and persistently shot to death, legally or illegally, very much more rapidly
than it is breeding, with extermination for the most of it close in sight. This
statement is not open to argument; for millions of men know that it is
literally true. We are living in a fool's paradise.
The rage for wild-life slaughter is far more prevalent to-day throughout
the world than it was in 1872, when the buffalo butchers paved the prairies
of Texas and Colorado with festering carcasses. From one end of our
continent to the other, there is a restless, resistless desire to "kill, kill!"
I have been shocked by the accumulation of evidence showing that all
over our country and Canada fully nine-tenths of our protective laws have
practically been dictated by the killers of the game, and that in all save a
very few instances the hunters have been exceedingly careful to provide
"open seasons" for slaughter, as long as any game remains to kill!
And yet, the game of North America does not belong wholly and
exclusively to the men who kill! The other ninety-seven per cent of the
People have vested rights in it, far exceeding those of the three per cent.
Posterity has claims upon it that no honest man can ignore.
I am now going to ask both the true sportsman and the people who do not
kill wild things to awake, and do their plain duty in protecting and

preserving the game and other wild life which belongs partly to us, but
chiefly to those who come after us. Can they be aroused, before it is too
late?
The time to discuss tiresome academic theories regarding "bag limits"
and different "open seasons" as being sufficient to preserve the game, has
gone by! We have reached the point where the alternatives are long closed
seasons or a gameless continent; and we must choose one or the other,
speedily. A continent without wild life is like a forest with no leaves on the
trees.
The great increase in the slaughter of song birds for food, by the negroes
and poor whites of the South, has become an unbearable scourge to our
migratory birds,—the very birds on which farmers north and south depend
for protection from the insect hordes,—the very birds that are most near and
dear to the people of the North. Song-bird slaughter is growing and
spreading, with the decrease of the game birds! It is a matter that requires
instant attention and stern repression. At the present moment it seems that
the only remedy lies in federal protection for all migratory birds,—because
so many states will not do their duty.
We are weary of witnessing the greed, selfishness and cruelty of
"civilized" man toward the wild creatures of the earth. We are sick of tales
of slaughter and pictures of carnage. It is time for a sweeping Reformation;
and that is precisely what we now demand.
I have been a sportsman myself; but times have changed, and we must
change also. When game was plentiful, I believed that it was right for men
and boys to kill a limited amount of it for sport and for the table. But the old
basis has been swept away by an Army of Destruction that now is almost
beyond all control. We must awake, and arouse to the new situation, face it
like men, and adjust our minds to the new conditions. The three million
gunners of to-day must no longer expect or demand the same generous
hunting privileges that were right for hunters fifty years ago, when game
was fifty times as plentiful as it is now and there was only one killer for
every fifty now in the field.
The fatalistic idea that bag-limit laws can save the game is to-day the
curse of all our game birds, mammals and fishes! It is a fraud, a delusion

and a snare. That miserable fetish has been worshipped much too long. Our
game is being exterminated, everywhere, by blind insistence upon "open
seasons," and solemn reliance upon "legal bag-limits." If a majority of the
people of America feel that so long as there is any game alive there must be
an annual two months or four months open season for its slaughter, then
assuredly we soon will have a gameless continent.
The only thing that will save the game is by stopping the killing of it! In
establishing and promulgating this principle, the cause of wild-life
protection greatly needs three things: money, labor, and publicity. With the
first, we can secure the second and third. But can we get it,—and get it in
time to save?
This volume is in every sense a contribution to a Cause; and as such it
ever will remain. I wish the public to receive it on that basis. So much
important material has drifted straight to it from other hands that this
unexpected aid seems to the author like a good omen.
The manuscript has received the benefit of a close and critical reading
and correcting by my comrade on the firing-line and esteemed friend, Mr.
Madison Grant, through which the text was greatly improved. But for the
splendid encouragement and assistance that I have received from him and
from Professor Henry Fairneld Osborn the work involved would have borne
down rather heavily.
The four chapters embracing the "New Laws Needed; A Roll-Call of the
States," were critically inspected, corrected and brought down to date by Dr.
T.S. Palmer, our highest authority on the game laws of the Nation and the
States. For this valuable service the author is deeply grateful. Of course the
author is alone responsible for all the opinions and conclusions herein
recorded, and for all errors that appear outside of quotations.
I trust that the Reader will kindly excuse and forget all the typographic
and clerical errors that may have escaped me in the rush that had to be made
against Time.

University Heights, New York, W.T.H.

December 1, 1912.

CONTENTS

Part I.—Extermination
Chapter Page
I. Former Abundance Of Wild Life 1
II. Extinct Species Of North American Birds 7
III. The Next Candidates For Oblivion 17
IV. Extinct And Nearly Extinct Species Of Mammals 34
V. The Extermination Of Species, State By State 42
VI. The Regular Army Of Destruction 53
VII. The Guerrillas Of Destruction 63
VIII. The Unseen Foes Of Wild Life 73
IX. Destruction Of Wild Life By Diseases 82
X. Destruction Of Wild Life By The Elements 88
XI. Slaughter Of Song-Birds By Italians 94
XII. Destruction Of Song-Birds By Southern Negroes And Poor Whites 105
XIII. Extermination Of Birds For Women's Hats 114
XIV. The Bird Tragedy On Laysan Island 137
XV. Unfair Firearms And Shooting Ethics 143
XVI. The Present And Future Of North American Big Game—I 156
XVII. The Present And Future Of North American Big Game—II 171
XVIII. The Present And Future Of African Game 181
XIX. The Present And Future Of Game In Asia 188
XX. Destruction Of Birds In The Far East. By C. William Beebe 195
XXI. The Savage Viewpoint Of The GunneR 203

Part II.—Preservation
XXII. Our Annual Losses By Insects 208
XXIII. The Economic Value Of Birds 213
XXIV. Game And Agriculture: Deer As A Food Supply 234
XXV. Law And Sentiment As Factors In Preservation 244
XXVI. The Army Of The Defense 247
XXVII. How To Make A New Game Law 258
XXVIII. New Laws Needed: A Roll-Call Of The States—I 265

XXIX. New Laws Needed: A Roll-Call Of The States—II 275
XXX. New Laws Needed: A Roll-Call Of The States—III 283
XXXI. New Laws Needed: A Roll-Call Of The States—IV 292
XXXII. Need For A Federal Migratory Bird Law, No-Sale-Of-Game Law, And Others 304
XXXIII. Bringing Back The Vanished Birds And Game 313
XXXIV. Introduced Species That Have Been Beneficial 324
XXXV. Introduced Species That Have Become Pests 330
XXXVI. National And State Game Preserves And Bird Refuges 335
XXXVII. Game Preserves And Game Laws In Canada 350
XXXVIII. Private Game Preserves 358
XXXIX. British Game Preserves In Africa 364
XXL. Breeding Game And Fur In Captivity 369
XLI. Teaching Wild-Life Protection To The Young 376
XLII. Ethics Of Sportsmanship 382
XLIII. The Duty Of American Zoologists To American Wild Life 386
XLIV. The Greatest Need Of The Cause; And The Duty Of The Hour 393

ILLUSTRATIONS
The Folly of 1857 and the Lesson of 1912 Frontispiece
Shall We Leave Any One of Them Open? 6
Six Recently Exterminated North American Birds 9
Sacred to the Memory of Exterminated Birds 15
Whooping Cranes in the Zoological Park 19
California Condor 22
Primated Grouse, or "Prairie Chicken" 25
Sage Grouse 26
Snowy Egrets in the McIlhenny Preserve 27
Wood-Duck 29
Gray Squirrel 32
Skeleton of a Rhytina 36
Burchell's Zebra 37
Thylacine, or Tasmanian Wolf 38
West Indian Seal 39
California Elephant Seal 40
The Regular Army of Destruction 55
G.O. Shields 58
Two Gunners of Kansas City 61
Why the Sandhill Crane is Becoming Extinct 62
A Market Gunner at Work on Marsh Island 64
Ruffed Grouse 65
A Lawful Bag of Ruffed Grouse 66
Snow Bunting 68
A Hunting Cat and Its Victim 76
Eastern Red Squirrel 79
Cooper's Hawk 80

Sharp-Shinned Hawk 81
The Cat that Killed Fifty-eight Birds in One Year 81
An Italian Roccolo on Lake Como 95
Dead Song-Birds 104
The Robin of the North 107
The Mocking-Bird of the South 107
Northern Robins Ready for Southern Slaughter 108
Southern-Negro Method of Combing Out the Wild Life 111
Beautiful and Curious Birds Destroyed for the Feather 115
Trade—I
Sixteen Hundred Hummingbirds at Two Cents Each 116
Beautiful and Curious Birds Destroyed for the Feather 118
Trade—II
Beautiful and Curious Birds—III 123
Fight in England Against the Use of Plumage 128
Young Egrets, Unable to Fly, Starving 132
Snowy Egret Dead on Her Nest 132
Miscellaneous Bird Skins, Eight Cents Each 135
Laysan Albatrosses, Before the Great Slaughter 138
Laysan Albatross Rookery, After the Great Slaughter 139
Acres of Gull and Albatross Bones 140
Shed Filled with Wings of Slaughtered Birds 141
Four of the Seven Machine Guns 144
The Champion Game-Slaughter Case 147
Slaughtered According to Law 149
A Letter that Tells its Own Story 151
The "Sunday Gun" 154
The Prong-Horned Antelope 160
Hungry Elk in Jackson Hole 168
The Wichita National Bison Herd 179
Pheasant Snares 197
Pheasant Skins Seized at Rangoon 198
Deadfall Traps in Burma 199
One Morning's Catch of Trout near Spokane 205
The Cut-Worm 209
The Gypsy Moth 211
Downy Woodpecker 214
Baltimore Oriole 217
Nighthawk 218
Purple Martin 219
Bob-White 221
Rose-Breasted Grosbeak 223
Barn Owl 225
Golden-Winged Woodpecker 227
Kildeer Plover 230
Jacksnipe 230
A Food Supply of White-Tailed Deer 235
White-Tailed Deer 239

Notable Protectors of Wild Life: Madison Grant, Henry 249
Fairfield Osborn, John F. Lacey, and William Dutcher
Notable Protectors: Forbush, Pearson, Burnham, Napier 251
Notable Protectors: Phillips, Kalbfus, McIlhenny, Ward 255
Band-Tailed Pigeon 273
Six Wild Chipmunks Dine with Mr. Loring 315
Chickadee, Tamed 316
Chipmunk, Tamed 316
Object Lesson in Bringing Back the Ducks 317
Gulls and Terns of Our Coast 321
Egrets and Herons in Sanctuary on Marsh Island 363
Bird Day at Carrick, Pa 379
Distributing Bird Boxes and Fruit Trees 381

MAPS
The Wilderness of North America 155
Former and Existing Ranges of the Elk 164
Map Showing the Disappearance of the Lion 183
States and Provinces Requiring Resident Licenses. 303
Eighteen States Prohibit the Sale of Game 307
Map Used in Campaign for Bayne Law 309
United States National Game Preserves 339
Bird Reservations on the Gulf Coast and Florida 349
Marsh Island and Adjacent Preserves 361
Most Important Game Preserves of Africa 366

OUR VANISHING WILD LIFE

PART I. EXTERMINATION

CHAPTER I
THE FORMER ABUNDANCE OF WILD LIFE

"By my labors my vineyard flourished. But Ahab came. Alas! for
Naboth."
In order that the American people may correctly understand and judge the
question of the extinction or preservation of our wild life, it is necessary to
recall the near past. It is not necessary, however, to go far into the details of
history; for a few quick glances at a few high points will be quite sufficient
for the purpose in view.
Any man who reads the books which best tell the story of the
development of the American colonies of 1712 into the American nation of
1912, and takes due note of the wild-life features of the tale, will say
without hesitation that when the American people received this land from
the bountiful hand of Nature, it was endowed with a magnificent and all-
pervading supply of valuable wild creatures. The pioneers and the early
settlers were too busy even to take due note of that fact, or to comment
upon it, save in very fragmentary ways.
Nevertheless, the wild-life abundance of early American days survived
down to so late a period that it touched the lives of millions of people now
living. Any man 55 years of age who when a boy had a taste for
"hunting,"—for at that time there were no "sportsmen" in America,—will
remember the flocks and herds of wild creatures that he saw and which
made upon his mind many indelible impressions.

"Abundance" is the word with which to describe the original animal life
that stocked our country, and all North America, only a short half-century
ago. Throughout every state, on every shore-line, in all the millions of fresh
water lakes, ponds and rivers, on every mountain range, in every forest, and
even on every desert, the wild flocks and herds held sway. It was impossible
to go beyond the settled haunts of civilized man and escape them.
It was a full century after the complete settlement of New England and
the Virginia colonies that the wonderful big-game fauna of the great plains
and Rocky Mountains was really discovered; but the bison millions, the
antelope millions, the mule deer, the mountain sheep and mountain goat
were there, all the time. In the early days, the millions of pinnated grouse
and quail of the central states attracted no serious attention from the
American people-at-large; but they lived and flourished just the same, far
down in the seventies, when the greedy market gunners systematically
slaughtered them, and barreled them up for "the market," while the foolish
farmers calmly permitted them to do it.
We obtain the best of our history of the former abundance of North
American wild life first from the pages of Audubon and Wilson; next, from
the records left by such pioneers as Lewis and Clark, and last from the
testimony of living men. To all this we can, many of us, add observations of
our own.
To me the most striking fact that stands forth in the story of American
wild life one hundred years ago is the wide extent and thoroughness of its
distribution. Wide as our country is, and marvelous as it is in the diversity
of its climates, its soils, its topography, its flora, its riches and its poverty,
Nature gave to each square mile and to each acre a generous quota of wild
creatures, according to its ability to maintain living things. No pioneer ever
pushed so far, or into regions so difficult or so remote, that he did not find
awaiting him a host of birds and beasts. Sometimes the pioneer was not a
good hunter; usually he was a stupid fisherman; but the "game" was there,
nevertheless. The time was when every farm had its quota.
The part that the wild life of America played in the settlement and
development of this continent was so far-reaching in extent, and so
enormous in potential value, that it fairly staggers the imagination. From the

landing of the Pilgrims down to the present hour the wild game has been the
mainstay and the resource against starvation of the pathfinder, the settler,
the prospector, and at times even the railroad-builder. In view of what the
bison millions did for the Dakotas, Montana, Wyoming, Kansas and Texas,
it is only right and square that those states should now do something for the
perpetual preservation of the bison species and all other big game that needs
help.
For years and years, the antelope millions of the Montana and Wyoming
grass-lands fed the scout and Indian-fighter, freighter, cowboy and
surveyor, ranchman and sheep-herder; but thus far I have yet to hear of one
Western state that has ever spent one penny directly for the preservation of
the antelope! And to-day we are in a hand-to-hand fight in Congress, and in
Montana, with the Wool-Growers Association, which maintains in
Washington a keen lobbyist to keep aloft the tariff on wool, and prevent
Congress from taking 15 square miles of grass lands on Snow Creek,
Montana, for a National Antelope Preserve. All that the wool-growers want
is the entire earth, all to themselves. Mr. McClure, the Secretary of the
Association says:
"The proper place in which to preserve the big game of the West is in city
parks, where it can be protected."
To the colonist of the East and pioneer of the West, the white-tailed deer
was an ever present help in time of trouble. Without this omnipresent
animal, and the supply of good meat that each white flag represented, the
commissariat difficulties of the settlers who won the country as far
westward as Indiana would have been many times greater than they were.
The backwoods Pilgrim's progress was like this:
Trail, deer; cabin, deer; clearing; bear, corn, deer; hogs, deer; cattle,
wheat, independence.
And yet, how many men are there to-day, out of our ninety millions of
Americans and pseudo-Americans, who remember with any feeling of
gratitude the part played in American history by the white-tailed deer? Very
few! How many Americans are there in our land who now preserve that
deer for sentimental reasons, and because his forbears were nation-builders?
As a matter of fact, are there any?

On every eastern pioneer's monument, the white-tailed deer should
figure; and on those of the Great West, the bison and the antelope should be
cast in enduring bronze, "lest we forget!"
The game birds of America played a different part from that of the deer,
antelope and bison. In the early days, shotguns were few, and shot was
scarce and dear. The wild turkey and goose were the smallest birds on
which a rifleman could afford to expend a bullet and a whole charge of
powder. It was for this reason that the deer, bear, bison, and elk disappeared
from the eastern United States while the game birds yet remained abundant.
With the disappearance of the big game came the fat steer, hog and hominy,
the wheat-field, fruit orchard and poultry galore.
The game birds of America, as a class and a mass, have not been swept
away to ward off starvation or to rescue the perishing. Even back in the
sixties and seventies, very, very few men of the North thought of killing
prairie chickens, ducks and quail, snipe and woodcock, in order to keep the
hunger wolf from the door. The process was too slow and uncertain; and
besides, the really-poor man rarely had the gun and ammunition. Instead of
attempting to live on birds, he hustled for the staple food products that the
soil of his own farm could produce.
First, last and nearly all the time, the game birds of the United States as a
whole, have been sacrificed on the altar of Rank Luxury, to tempt appetites
that were tired of fried chicken and other farm delicacies. To-day, even the
average poor man hunts birds for the joy of the outing, and the pampered
epicures of the hotels and restaurants buy game birds, and eat small portions
of them, solely to tempt jaded appetites. If there is such a thing as "class"
legislation, it is that which permits a few sordid market-shooters to
slaughter the birds of the whole people in order to sell them to a few
epicures.
The game of a state belongs to the whole people of the state. The
Supreme Court of the United States has so decided. (Geer vs. Connecticut).
If it is abundant, it is a valuable asset. The great value of the game birds of
America lies not in their meat pounds as they lie upon the table, but in the
temptation they annually put before millions of field-weary farmers and

desk-weary clerks and merchants to get into their beloved hunting togs,
stalk out into the lap of Nature, and say "Begone, dull Care!"
And the man who has had a fine day in the painted woods, on the bright
waters of a duck-haunted bay, or in the golden stubble of September, can fill
his day and his soul with six good birds just as well as with sixty. The idea
that in order to enjoy a fine day in the open a man must kill a wheel-barrow
load of birds, is a mistaken idea; and if obstinately adhered to, it becomes
vicious! The Outing in the Open is the thing,—not the blood-stained
feathers, nasty viscera and Death in the game-bag. One quail on a fence is
worth more to the world than ten in a bag.
The farmers of America have, by their own supineness and lack of
foresight, permitted the slaughter of a stock of game birds which, had it
been properly and wisely conserved, would have furnished a good annual
shoot to every farming man and boy of sporting instincts through the past,
right down to the present, and far beyond. They have allowed millions of
dollars worth of their birds to be coolly snatched away from them by the
greedy market-shooters.
There is one state in America, and so far as I know only one, in which
there is at this moment an old-time abundance of game-bird life. That is the
state of Louisiana. The reason is not so very far to seek. For the birds that
do not migrate,—quail, wild turkeys and doves,—the cover is yet abundant.
For the migratory game birds of the Mississippi Valley, Louisiana is a grand
central depot, with terminal facilities that are unsurpassed. Her reedy
shores, her vast marshes, her long coast line and abundance of food furnish
what should be not only a haven but a heaven for ducks and geese. After
running the gauntlet of guns all the way from Manitoba and Ontario to the
Sunk Lands of Arkansas, the shores of the Gulf must seem like heaven
itself.
The great forests of Louisiana shelter deer, turkeys, and fur-bearing
animals galore; and rabbits and squirrels abound.
Naturally, this abundance of game has given rise to an extensive industry
in shooting for the market. The "big interests" outside the state send their
agents into the best game districts, often bringing in their own force of
shooters. They comb out the game in enormous quantities, without leaving

to the people of Louisiana any decent and fair quid-pro-quo for having
despoiled them of their game and shipped a vast annual product outside, to
create wealth elsewhere.
At present, however, we are but incidentally interested in the short-
sightedness of the people of the Pelican State. As a state of oldtime
abundance in killable game, the killing records that were kept in the year
1909-10 possess for us very great interest. They throw a startling
searchlight on the subject of this chapter,—the former abundance of wild
life.
From the records that with great pains and labor were gathered by the
State Game Commission, and which were furnished me for use here by
President Frank M. Miller, we set forth this remarkable exhibit of old-
fashioned abundance in game, A.D. 1909.

Official Record Of Game Killed In Louisiana During The Season (12
Months) Of 1909-10
Birds
Wild Ducks, sea and river 3,176,000
Coots 280,740
Geese and Brant 202,210
Snipe, Sandpiper and Plover 606,635
Quail (Bob-White) 1,140,750
Doves 310,660
Wild Turkeys 2,219
---------
Total number of game birds killed 5,719,214
Mammals
Deer 5,470
Squirrels and Rabbits 690,270
---------
Total of game mammals 695,740
Fur-bearing mammals 1,971,922
---------
Total of mammals 2,667,662
---------
Grand total of birds and mammals 8,386,876

Of the thousands of slaughtered robins, it would seem that no records
exist. It is to be understood that the annual slaughter of wild life in

Louisiana never before reached such a pitch as now. Without drastic
measures, what will be the inevitable result? Does any man suppose that
even the wild millions of Louisiana can long withstand such slaughter as
that shown by the official figures given above? It is wildly impossible.
But the darkest hour is just before the dawn. At the session of the
Louisiana legislature that was held in the spring of 1912, great
improvements were made in the game laws of that state. The most
important feature was the suppression of wholesale market hunting, by
persons who are not residents of the state. A very limited amount of game
may be sold and served as food in public places, but the restrictions placed
upon this traffic are so effective that they will vastly reduce the annual
slaughter. In other respects, also, the cause of wild life protection gained
much; for which great credit is due to Mr. Edward A. McIlhenny.
It is the way of Americans to feel that because game is abundant in a
given place at a given time, it always will be abundant, and may therefore
be slaughtered without limit. That was the case last winter in California
during the awful slaughter of band-tailed pigeons, as will be noted
elsewhere.
It is time for all men to be told in the plainest terms that there never has
existed, anywhere in historic times, a volume of wild life so great that
civilized man could not quickly exterminate it by his methods of
destruction. Lift the veil and look at the stories of the bison, the passenger
pigeon, the wild ducks and shore birds of the Atlantic coast, and the fur-
seal.

SHALL WE LEAVE ANY ONE OF THEM OPEN?

As reasoning beings, it is our duty to heed the lessons of history, and not
rush blindly on until we perpetrate a continent destitute of wild life.

CHAPTER II
EXTINCT SPECIES OF NORTH AMERICAN
BIRDS

For educated, civilized Man to exterminate a valuable wild species of
living things is a crime. It is a crime against his own children, and posterity.
No man has a right, either moral or legal, to destroy or squander an
inheritance of his children that he holds for them in trust. And man, the
wasteful and greedy spendthrift that he is, has not created even the humblest
of the species of birds, mammals and fishes that adorn and enrich this earth.
"The earth is THE LORD'S, and the fulness thereof!" With all his wisdom,
man has not evolved and placed here so much as a ground-squirrel, a
sparrow or a clam. It is true that he has juggled with the wild horse and
sheep, the goats and the swine, and produced some hardy breeds that can
withstand his abuse without going down before it; but as for species, he has
not yet created and placed here even so much as a protozoan.
The wild things of this earth are not ours, to do with as we please. They
have been given to us in trust, and we must account for them to the
generations which will come after us and audit our accounts.
But man, the shameless destroyer of Nature's gifts, blithely and
persistently exterminates one species after another. Fully ten per cent of the
human race consists of people who will lie, steal, throw rubbish in parks, and
destroy forests and wild life whenever and wherever they can do so without
being stopped by a policemen and a club. These are hard words, but they are
absolutely true. From ten per cent (or more) of the human race, the high
moral instinct which is honest without compulsion is absent. The things that
seemingly decent citizens,—men posing as gentlemen,—will do to wild

game when they secure great chances to slaughter, are appalling. I could fill
a book of this size with cases in point.
To-day the women of England, Europe and elsewhere are directly
promoting the extermination of scores of beautiful species of wild birds by
the devilish persistence with which they buy and wear feather ornaments
made of their plumage. They are just as mean and cruel as the truck-driver
who drives a horse with a sore shoulder and beats him on the street. But they
do it! And appeals to them to do otherwise they laugh to scorn, saying, "I
will wear what is fashionable, when I please and where I please!" As a
famous bird protector of England has just written me, "The women of the
smart set are beyond the reach of appeal or protest."
To-day, the thing that stares me in the face every waking hour, like a grisly
spectre with bloody fang and claw, is the extermination of species. To me,
that is a horrible thing. It is wholesale murder, no less. It is capital crime, and
a black disgrace to the races of civilized mankind. I say "civilized mankind,"
because savages don't do it!
There are three kinds of extermination:
The practical extermination of a species means the destruction of its
members to an extent so thorough and widespread that the species
disappears from view, and living specimens of it can not be found by seeking
for them. In North America this is to-day the status of the whooping crane,
upland plover, and several other species. If any individuals are living, they
will be met with only by accident.
The absolute extermination of a species means that not one individual of it
remains alive. Judgment to this effect is based upon the lapse of time since
the last living specimen was observed or killed. When five years have passed
without a living "record" of a wild specimen, it is time to place a species in
the class of the totally extinct.
Extermination in a wild state means that the only living representatives
are in captivity or otherwise under protection. This is the case of the heath
hen and David's deer, of China. The American bison is saved from being
wholly extinct as a wild animal by the remnant of about 300 head in northern
Athabasca, and 49 head in the Yellow-stone Park.

It is a serious thing to exterminate a species of any of the vertebrate
animals. There are probably millions of people who do not realize that
civilized (!) man is the most persistently and wickedly wasteful of all the
predatory animals. The lions, the tigers, the bears, the eagles and hawks,
serpents, and the fish-eating fishes, all live by destroying life; but they kill
only what they think they can consume. If something is by chance left over,
it goes to satisfy the hunger of the humbler creatures of prey. In a state of
nature, where wild creatures prey upon wild creatures, such a thing as
wanton, wholesale and utterly wasteful slaughter is almost unknown!
When the wild mink, weasel and skunk suddenly finds himself in the
midst of scores of man's confined and helpless domestic fowls, or his caged
gulls in a zoological park, an unusual criminal passion to murder for the joy
of killing sometimes seizes the wild animal, and great slaughter is the result.
From the earliest historic times, it has been the way of savage man, red,
black, brown and yellow, to kill as the wild animals do,—only what he can
use, or thinks he can use. The Cree Indian impounded small herds of bison,
and sometimes killed from 100 to 200 at one time; but it was to make sure of
having enough meat and hides, and because he expected to use the product. I
think that even the worst enemies of the plains Indians hardly will accuse
them of killing large numbers of bison, elk or deer merely for the pleasure of
seeing them fall, or taking only their teeth.

SIX RECENTLY EXTERMINATED NORTH AMERICAN
BIRDS:
Great Auk Labrador Duck
Eskimo Curlew Pallas Cormorant
Passenger Pigeon Carolina Parrakee

It has remained for the wolf, the sheep-killing dog and civilized man to
make records of wanton slaughter which puts them in a class together, and
quite apart from other predatory animals. When a man can kill bison for their
tongues alone, bull elk for their "tusks" alone, and shoot a whole colony of
hippopotami,—actually damming a river with their bloated and putrid
carcasses, all untouched by the knife,—the men who do such things must be
classed with the cruel wolf and the criminal dog.
It is now desirable that we should pause in our career of destruction long
enough to look back upon what we have recently accomplished in the total
extinction of species, and also note what we have blocked out for the
immediate future. Here let us erect a monument to the dead species of our
own times.
It is to be doubted whether, up to this hour, any man has made a list of the
species of North American birds that have become extinct during the past
sixty years. The specialists have no time to spare from their compound
differential microscopes, and the bird-killers are too busy with shooting,
netting and clubbing to waste any time on such trifles as exterminated
species. What does a market-shooter care about birds that can not be killed a
second time? As for the farmers, they are so busy raising hogs and prices
that their best friends, the birds, get scant attention from them,—until a hen-
hawk takes a chicken!
Down South, the negroes and poor whites may slaughter robins for food
by the ten thousand; but does the northern farmer bother his head about a
trifle of that kind? No, indeed. Will he contribute any real money to help put
a stop to it? Ask him yourself.
Let us pause long enough to reckon up some of our expenditures in
species, and in millions of individuals. Let us set down here, in cold blood, a
list of the species of our own North American birds that have been totally
exterminated in our own times. After that we will have something to say

about other species that soon will be exterminated; and the second task is
much greater than the first.

ROLL CALL OF THE DEAD SPECIES OF AMERICAN
BIRDS
The Great Auk, —Plautus impennis, (Linn.), was a sea-going diving bird
about the size of a domestic goose, related to the guillemots, murres and
puffins. For a bird endowed only with flipper-like wings, and therefore
absolutely unable to fly, this species had an astonishing geographic range. It
embraced the shores of northern Europe to North Cape, southern Greenland,
southern Labrador, and the Atlantic coast of North America as far south as
Massachusetts. Some say, "as far south as Massachusetts, the Carolinas and
Florida," but that is a large order, and I leave the A.O.U. to prove that if it
can. In the life history of this bird, a great tragedy was enacted in 1800 by
sailors, on Funk Island, north of Newfoundland, where men were landed by
a ship, and spent several months slaughtering great auks and trying out their
fat for oil. In this process, the bodies of thousands of auks were burned as
fuel, in working up the remains of tens of thousands of others.
On Funk Island, a favorite breeding-place, the great auk was exterminated
in 1840, and in Iceland in 1844. Many natives ate this bird with relish, and
being easily captured, either on land or sea, the commercialism of its day
soon obliterated the species. The last living specimen was seen in 1852, and
the last dead one was picked up in Trinity Bay, Ireland, in 1853. There are
about 80 mounted and unmounted skins in existence, four skeletons, and
quite a number of eggs. An egg is worth about $1200 and a good mounted
skin at least double that sum.
The Labrador Duck, —Camptorhynchus labradoricus, (Gmel.).—This
handsome sea-duck, of a species related to the eider ducks of arctic waters,
became totally extinct about 1875, before the scientific world even knew that
its existence was threatened. With this species, the exact and final cause of
its extinction is to this day unknown. It is not at all probable, however, that
its unfortunate blotting out from our bird fauna was due to natural causes,
and when the truth becomes known, it is very probable that the hand of man
will be revealed.

The Labrador duck bred in Labrador, and once frequented our Atlantic
coast as far south as Chesapeake Bay; but it is said that it never was very
numerous, at least during the twenty-five years preceding its disappearance.
About thirty-five skins and mounted museum specimens are all that remain
to prove its former existence, and I think there is not even one skeleton.
The Pallas Cormorant, —Carbo perspicillatus, (Pallas).—In 1741,
when the Russian explorer, Commander Bering, discovered the Bering or
Commander Islands, in the far-north Pacific, and landed upon them, he also
discovered this striking bird species. Its plumage both above and below was
a dark metallic green, with blue iridescence on the neck and purple on the
shoulders. A pale ring of naked skin around each eye suggested the Latin
specific name of this bird. The Pallas cormorant became totally extinct,
through causes not positively known, about 1852.
The Passenger Pigeon, —Ectopistes migratoria, (Linn.).—We place this
bird in the totally-extinct class, not only because it is extinct in a wild state,
but only one solitary individual, a twenty-year-old female in the Cincinnati
Zoological Gardens, now remains alive. One living specimen and a few
skins, skeletons and stuffed specimens are all that remain to show for the
uncountable millions of pigeons that swarmed over the United States, only
yesterday as it were!
There is no doubt about where those millions have gone. They went down
and out by systematic, wholesale slaughter for the market and the pot, before
the shotguns, clubs and nets of the earliest American pot-hunters. Wherever
they nested they were slaughtered.
It is a long and shameful story, but the grisly skeleton of its Michigan
chapter can be set forth in a few words. In 1869, from the town of Hartford,
Mich., three car loads of dead pigeons were shipped to market each day for
forty days, making a total of 11,880,000 birds. It is recorded that another
Michigan town marketed 15,840,000 in two years. (See Mr. W.B. Mershon's
book, "The Passenger Pigeon.")
Alexander Wilson, the pioneer American ornithologist, was the man who
seriously endeavored to estimate by computations the total number of
passenger pigeons in one flock that was seen by him. Here is what he has
said in his "American Ornithology":

"To form a rough estimate of the daily consumption of one of these
immense flocks, let us first attempt to calculate the numbers of that above
mentioned, as seen in passing between Frankfort and the Indiana territory. If
we suppose this column to have been one mile in breadth (and I believe it to
have been much more) and that it moved at the rate of one mile in a minute,
four hours, the time it continued passing, would make its whole length two
hundred and forty miles. Again, supposing that each square yard of this
moving body comprehended three pigeons; the square yards in the whole
space multiplied by three would give 2,230,272,000 pigeons! An almost
inconceivable multitude, and yet probably far below the actual amount."

"Happening to go ashore one charming afternoon, to purchase some milk
at a house that stood near the river, and while talking with the people within
doors, I was suddenly struck with astonishment at a loud rushing roar,
succeeded by instant darkness, which, on the first moment, I took for a
tornado about to overwhelm the house and every thing around in destruction.
The people observing my surprise, coolly said, 'It is only the pigeons!' On
running out I beheld a flock, thirty or forty yards in width, sweeping along
very low, between the house and the mountain or height that formed the
second bank of the river. These continued passing for more than a quarter of
an hour, and at length varied their bearing so as to pass over the mountains,
behind which they disappeared before the rear came up.
"In the Atlantic States, though they never appear in such unparalleled
multitudes, they are sometimes very numerous; and great havoc is then made
amongst them with the gun, the clap-net, and various other implements of
destruction. As soon as it is ascertained in a town that the pigeons are flying
numerously in the neighborhood, the gunners rise en masse; the clap-nets are
spread out on suitable situations, commonly on an open height in an old
buckwheat field, four or five live pigeons, with their eyelids sewed up, [A] are
fastened on a movable stick, a small hut of branches is fitted up for the
fowler at the distance of forty or fifty yards. By the pulling of a string, the
stick on which the pigeons rest is alternately elevated and depressed, which
produces a fluttering of their wings, similar to that of birds alighting. This
being perceived by the passing flocks, they descend with great rapidity, and
finding corn, buckwheat, etc, strewed about, begin to feed, and are instantly,
by the pulling of a cord, covered by the net. In this manner ten, twenty, and

even thirty dozen have been caught at one sweep. Meantime the air is
darkened with large bodies of them moving in various directions; the woods
also swarm with them in search of acorns, and the thundering of musquetry
is perpetual on all sides from morning to night. Wagon loads of them are
poured into market, where they sell from fifty to twenty-five and even
twelve cents per dozen; and pigeons become the order of the day at dinner,
breakfast and supper, until the very name becomes sickening."

The range of the passenger pigeon covered nearly the whole United States
from the Atlantic coast westward to the Rocky Mountains. A few bold
pigeons crossed the Rocky Mountains into Oregon, northern California and
Washington, but only as "stragglers," few and far between. The wide range
of this bird was worthy of a species that existed in millions, and it was
persecuted literally all along the line. The greatest slaughter was in
Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania. In 1848 Massachusetts gravely passed a
law protecting the netters of wild pigeons from foreign interference! There
was a fine of $10 for damaging nets, or frightening pigeons away from them.
This was on the theory that the pigeons were so abundant they could not by
any possibility ever become scarce, and that pigeon-slaughter was a
legitimate industry.
In 1867, the State of New York found that the wild pigeon needed
protection, and enacted a law to that effect. The year 1868 was the last year
in which great numbers of passenger pigeons nested in that State. Eaton, in
"The Birds of New York," said that "millions of birds occupied the timber
along Bell's Run, near Ceres, Alleghany County, on the Pennsylvania line."
In 1870, Massachusetts gave pigeons protection except during an "open
season," and in 1878 Pennsylvania elected to protect pigeons on their nesting
grounds.
The passenger pigeon millions were destroyed so quickly, and so
thoroughly en masse, that the American people utterly failed to comprehend
it, and for thirty years obstinately refused to believe that the species had been
suddenly wiped off the map of North America. There was years of talk about
the great flocks having "taken refuge in South America," or in Mexico, and
being still in existence. There were surmises about their having all "gone out
to sea," and perished on the briny deep.

A thousand times, at least, wild pigeons have been "reported" as having
been "seen." These rumors have covered nearly every northern state, the
whole of the southwest, and California. For years and years we have been
patiently writing letters to explain over and over that the band-tailed pigeon
of the Pacific coast, and the red-billed pigeon of Arizona and the southwest
are neither of them the passenger pigeon, and never can be.
There was a long period wherein we believed many of the pigeon reports
that came from the states where the birds once were most numerous; but that
period has absolutely passed. During the past five years large cash rewards,
aggregating about $5000, have been offered for the discovery of one nesting
pair of genuine passenger pigeons. Many persons have claimed this reward
(of Professor C.F. Hodge, of Clark University, Worcester, Mass.), and many
claims have been investigated. The results have disclosed many mourning
doves, but not one pigeon. Now we understand that the quest is closed, and
hope has been abandoned.
The passenger pigeon is a dead species. The last wild specimen (so we
believe) that ever will reach the hands of man, was taken near Detroit,
Michigan, on Sept. 14, 1908, and mounted by C. Campion. That is the one
definite, positive record of the past ten years.
The fate of this species should be a lasting lesson to the world at large.
Any wild bird or mammal species can be exterminated by commercial
interests in twenty years time, or less.
The Eskimo Curlew, —Numenius borealis, (Forst.). This valuable game
bird once ranged all along the Atlantic coast of North America, and wherever
found it was prized for the table. It preferred the fields and meadows to the
shore lines, and was the companion of the plovers of the uplands, especially
the golden plover. "About 1872," says Mr. Forbush, "there was a great flight
of these birds on Cape Cod and Nantucket. They were everywhere; and
enormous numbers were killed. They could be bought of boys at six cents
apiece. Two men killed $300 worth of these birds at that time."
Apparently, that was the beginning of the end of the "dough bird," which
was another name for this curlew. In 1908 Mr. G.H. Mackay stated that this
bird and the golden plover had decreased 90 per cent in fifty years, and in
the last ten years of that period 90 per cent of the remainder had gone. "Now

(1908)," says Mr. Forbush, "ornithologists believe that the Eskimo curlew is
practically extinct, as only a few specimens have been recorded since the
beginning of the twentieth century." The very last record is of two specimens
collected at Waco, York County, Nebraska, in March, 1911, and recorded by
Mr. August Eiche. Of course, it is possible that other individuals may still
survive; but so far as our knowledge extends, the species is absolutely dead.

In the West Indies and the Guadeloupe Islands, five species of macaws
and parrakeets have passed out without any serious note of their
disappearance on the part of the people of the United States. It is at least
time to write brief obituary notices of them.
We are indebted to the Hon. Walter Rothschild, of Tring, England, for
essential facts regarding these species as set forth in his sumptuous work
"Extinct Birds".
The Cuban Tricolored Macaw, —Ara tricolor, (Gm.). In 1875, when
the author visited Cuba and the Isle of Pines, he was informed by Professor
Poey that he was "about ten years too late" to find this fine species alive. It
was exterminated for food purposes, about 1864, and only four specimens
are known to be in existence.

Gosse's Macaw, —Ara gossei, (Roth.).—This species once inhabited the
Island of Jamaica. It was exterminated about 1800, and so far as known not
one specimen of it is in existence.
Guadeloupe Macaw, —Ara guadeloupensis, (Clark).—All that is known
of the life history of this large bird is that once it inhabited the Guadeloupe
Islands. The date and history of its disappearance are both unknown, and
there is not one specimen of it in existence.
Yellow-Winged Green Parrot, —Amazona olivacea, (Gm.).—Of the
history of this Guadeloupe species, also, nothing is known, and there appear
to be no specimens of it in existence.
Purple Guadeloupe Parrakeet, —Anodorhynchus purpurescens,
(Rothschild).—This is another dead species, that once lived in the
Guadeloupe Islands, and passed away silently and unnoticed at the time,
leaving no records of its existence, and no specimens.
The Carolina Parrakeet, —Conuropsis carolinensis, (Linn.), brings us
down to the present moment. To this charming little green-and-yellow bird,
we are in the very act of bidding everlasting farewell. Ten specimens remain
alive in captivity, six of which are in the Cincinnati Zoological Garden, three
are in the Washington Zoological Park and one is in the New York
Zoological Park.
Regarding wild specimens, it is possible that some yet remain, in some
obscure and neglected corner of Florida; but it is extremely doubtful whether
the world ever will find any of them alive. Mrs. Minnie Moore Willson, of
Kissimee, Fla. reports the species as totally extinct in Florida. Unless we
would strain at a gnat, we may just as well enter this species in the dead
class; for there is no reason to hope that any more wild specimens ever will
be found.
The former range of this species embraced the whole southeastern and
central United States. From the Gulf it extended to Albany, N.Y., northern
Ohio and Indiana, northern Iowa, Nebraska, central Colorado and eastern
Texas, from which it will be seen that once it was widely distributed. It was
shot because it was destructive to fruit and for its plumage, and many were
trapped alive, to be kept in captivity. I know that one colony, near the mouth
of the Sebastian River, east coast of Florida, was exterminated in 1898 by a

local hunter, and I regret to say that it was done in the hope of selling the
living birds to a New York bird-dealer. By holding bags over the holes in
which the birds were nesting, the entire colony, of about 16 birds, was
caught.
Everywhere else than in Florida, the Carolina parrakeet has long been
extinct. In 1904 a flock of 13 birds was seen near Lake Okechobee; but in
Florida many calamities can overtake a flock of birds in eight years. The
birds in captivity are not breeding, and so far as perpetuation by them is
concerned, they are only one remove from mounted museum specimens.
This parrakeet is the only member of its order that ranged into the United
States during our own times, and with its disappearance the Order
Psittaciformes totally disappears from our country.

CHAPTER III
THE NEXT CANDIDATES FOR OBLIVION

In the world of human beings, murder is the most serious of all crimes.
To take from a man that which no one ever can restore to him, his life, is
murder; and its penalty is the most severe of all penalties.
There are circumstances under which the killing of a wild animal may be
so wanton, so revolting and so utterly reprehensible that the act may justly
be classed as murder. The man who kills a walrus from the deck of a
steamer that he knows will not stop; the man who wantonly killed the whole
colony of hippopotami that Mr. Dugmore photographed in life; the man
who last winter shot bull elk in Wyoming for their two ugly and shapeless
teeth, and the man who wantonly shot down a half-tame deer "for fun" near
Carmel, Putnam County, New York, in the summer of 1912,—all were
guilty of murdering wild animals.
The murder of a wild animal species consists in taking from it that which
man with all his cunning and all his preserves and breeding can not give
back to it,—its God-given place in the ranks of Living Things. Where is
man's boasted intelligence, or his sense of proportion, that every man does
not see the monstrous moral obliquity involved in the destruction of a
species!
If the beautiful Taj Mehal at Agra should be destroyed by vandals, the
intelligent portion of humanity would be profoundly shocked, even though
the hand of man could at will restore the shrine of sorrowing love. To-day
the great Indian rhinoceros, certainly one of the most wonderful four-footed
animals still surviving, is actually being exterminated; and even the people
of India and England are viewing it with an indifference that is appalling.
Of course there are among Englishmen a great many sportsmen and several

zoologists who really care; but they do not constitute one-tenth of one per-
cent of the men who ought to care!
In the museums, we stand in awe and wonder before the fossil skeleton
of the Megatherium, and the savants struggle to unveil its past, while the
equally great and marvelous Rhinoceros indicus is being rushed into
oblivion. We marvel at the fossil shell of the gigantic turtle called
Collosochelys atlas, while the last living representatives of the gigantic land
tortoises are being exterminated in the Galapagos Islands and the Sychelles,
for their paltry oil and meat; and only one man (Hon. Walter Rothschild) is
doing aught to save any of them in their haunts, where they can breed. The
dodo of Mauritius was exterminated by swine, whose bipedal descendants
have exterminated many other species since that time.
A failure to appreciate either the beauty or the value of our living birds,
quadrupeds and fishes is the hall-mark of arrested mental development and
ignorance. The victim is not always to blame; but in this practical world the
cornerstone of legal jurisprudence is the inexorable principle that
"ignorance of the law excuses no man."
These pages are addressed to my countrymen, and the world at large, not
as a reproach upon the dead Past which is gone beyond recall, but in the
faint hope of somewhere and somehow arousing forces that will reform the
Present and save the Future. The extermination of wild species that now is
proceeding throughout the world, is a dreadful thing. It is not only injurious
to the economy of the world, but it is a shame and a disgrace to the civilized
portion of the human race.
It is of little avail that I should here enter into a detailed description of
each species that now is being railroaded into oblivion. The bookshelves of
intelligent men and women are filled with beautiful and adequate books on
birds and quadrupeds, wherein the status of each species may be
determined, almost without effort. There is time and space only in which to
notice the most prominent of the doomed species, and perhaps discuss a few
examples by way of illustration. Here is a

Partial List Of North American Birds Threatened With
Early Extermination

Whooping Crane Pectoral Sandpiper
Trumpeter Swan Black-Capped Petrel
American Flamingo American Egret
Roseate Spoonbill Snowy Egret
Scarlet Ibis Wood Duck
Long-Billed Curlew Band-Tailed Pigeon
Hudsonian Godwit Heath Hen
Upland Plover Sage Grouse
Red-Breasted Sandpiper Prairie Sharp-Tail
Golden Plover Pinnated Grouse
Dowitcher White-Tailed Kite
Willet

The Whooping Crane. —This splendid bird will almost certainly be the
next North American species to be totally exterminated. It is the only new
world rival of the numerous large and showy cranes of the old world; for
the sandhill crane is not in the same class as the white, black and blue giants
of Asia. We will part from our stately Grus americanus with profound
sorrow, for on this continent we ne'er shall see his like again.
The well-nigh total disappearance of this species has been brought close
home to us by the fact that there are less than half a dozen individuals alive
in captivity, while in a wild state the bird is so rare as to be quite
unobtainable. For example, for nearly five years an English gentlemen has
been offering $1,000 for a pair, and the most enterprising bird collector in
America has been quite unable to fill the order. So far as our information
extends, the last living specimen captured was taken six or seven years ago.
The last wild birds seen and reported were observed by Ernest Thompson
Seton, who saw five below Fort McMurray, Saskatchewan, October 16th,
1907, and by John F. Ferry, who saw one at Big Quill Lake, Saskatchewan,
in June, 1909.
The range of this species once covered the eastern two-thirds of the
continent of North America. It extended from the Atlantic coast to the
Rocky Mountains, and from Great Bear Lake to Florida and Texas.
Eastward of the Mississippi it has for twenty years been totally extinct, and
the last specimens taken alive were found in Kansas and Nebraska.

WHOOPING CRANES IN THE ZOOLOGICAL PARK
Very Soon this Species will Become Totally Extinct.

The Trumpeter Swan. —Six years ago this species was regarded as so
nearly extinct that a doubting ornithological club of Boston refused to
believe on hearsay evidence that the New York Zoological Park contained a
pair of living birds, and a committee was appointed, to investigate in
person, and report. Even at that time, skins were worth all the way from
$100 to $150 each; and when swan skins sell at either of those figures it is
because there are people who believe that the species either is on the verge
of extinction, or has passed it. The pair referred to above was acquired in
1900. Since that time, Dr. Leonard C. Sanford procured in 1910 two living
birds from a bird dealer who obtained them on the coast of Virginia. We
have done our utmost to induce our pair to breed, but without any further
results than nest-building.
The loss of the trumpeter swan (Olor americanus) will not be so great,
nor felt so keenly, as the blotting out of the whooping crane. It so closely
resembles the whistling swan that only an ornithologist can recognize the
difference, a yellow spot on the side of the upper mandible, near its base.

The whistling swan yet remains in fair numbers, but it is to be feared that
soon it will go as the trumpeter has gone.
The American Flamingo, Scarlet Ibis And Roseate Spoonbill are
three of the most beautiful and curious water-haunting birds of the tropics.
Once all three species inhabited portions of the southern United States; but
now all three are gone from our star-spangled bird fauna. The brilliant
scarlet plumage of the flamingo and ibis, and the exquisite pink rose-color
and white of the spoonbill naturally attracted the evil eyes of the "milliner's
taxidermists" and other bird-butchers. From Florida these birds quickly
vanished. The six great breeding colonies of Flamingoes on Andros Island,
Bahamas, have been reduced to two, and from Prof. E.A. Goeldi, of the
State Museum Goeldi, Para, Brazil, have come bitter complaints of the
slaughter of scarlet ibises in South America by plume-hunters in European
pay.
I know not how other naturalists regard the future of the three species
named above, but my opinion is that unless the European feather trade is
quickly stopped as to wild plumage, they are absolutely certain to be shot
into total oblivion, within a very few years. The plumage of these birds has
so much commercial value, for fishermen's flies as well as for women's
hats, that the birds will be killed as long as their feathers can be sold and
any birds remain alive.
Zoologically, the flamingo is the most odd and interesting bird on the
American continent except the emperor penguin. Its beak baffles
description, its long legs and webbed feet are a joke, its nesting habits are
amazing, and its food habits the despair of most zoological-garden keepers.
Millions of flamingos inhabit the shores of a number of small lakes in the
interior of equatorial East Africa, but that species is not brilliant scarlet all
over the neck and head, as is the case with our species.
If the American flamingo, scarlet ibis and roseate spoonbill, one or all of
them, are to be saved from total extinction, efforts must be made in each of
the countries in which they breed and live. Their preservation is distinctly a
burden upon the countries of South America that lie eastward of the Andes,
and on Yucatan, Cuba and the Bahamas. The time has come when the
Government of the Bahama Islands should sternly forbid the killing of any

more flamingos, on any pretext whatever; and if the capture of living
specimens for exhibition purposes militates against the welfare of the
colonies, they should forbid that also.
The Upland Plover, Or "Bartramian Sandpiper." —Apparently this
is the next shore-bird species that will follow the Eskimo curlew into
oblivion. Four years ago,—a long period for a species that is on the edge of
extermination,—Mr. E.H. Forbush [B] wrote of it as follows:
"The Bartramian Sandpiper, commonly known as the Upland Plover, a
bird which formerly bred on grassy hills all over the State and migrated
southward along our coasts in great flocks, is in imminent danger of
extirpation. A few still breed in Worcester and Berkshire Counties, or
Nantucket, so there is still a nucleus which, if protected, may save the
species. Five reports from localities where this bird formerly bred give it as
nearing extinction, and four as extinct. This is one of the most useful of all
birds in grass land, feeding largely on grasshoppers and cutworms. It is one
of the finest of all birds for the table. An effort should be made at once to
save this useful species."
The Black-Capped Petrel, (Aestrelata hasitata). —This species is
already recorded in the A.O.U. "Check list" as extinct; but it appears that
this may not as yet be absolutely true. On January 1, 1912, a strange thing
happened. A much battered and exhausted black-capped petrel was picked
up alive in Central Park, New York, taken to the menagerie, and kept there
during the few days that it survived. When it died it was sent to the
American Museum; and this may easily prove to be the last living record
for that species. In reality, this species might as well be listed with those
totally extinct. Formerly it ranged from the Antilles to Ohio and Ontario,
and the causes of its blotting out are not yet definitely known.
This ocean-going bird once had a wide range overseas in the temperate
areas of the North Atlantic. It is recorded from Ulster County, New York,
New Hampshire, Kentucky, Ohio, Virginia and Florida. It was about of the
size of the common tern.
The California Condor, (Gymnogyps californianus). —I feel that the
existence of this species hangs on a very slender thread. This is due to its
alarmingly small range, the insignificant number of individuals now living,

the openness of the species to attack, and the danger of its extinction by
poison. Originally this remarkable bird,—the largest North American bird
of prey,—ranged as far northward as the Columbia River, and southward for
an unknown distance. Now its range is reduced to seven counties in
southern California, although it is said to extend from Monterey Bay to
Lower California, and eastward to Arizona.
Regarding the present status and the future of this bird, I have been
greatly disturbed in mind. When a unique and zoologically important
species becomes reduced in its geographic range to a small section of a
single state, it seems to me quite time for alarm. For some time I have
counted this bird as one of those threatened with early extermination, and as
I think with good reason. In view of the swift calamities that now seem able
to fall on species like thunderbolts out of clear skies, and wipe them off the
earth even before we know that such a fate is impending, no species of
seven-county distribution is safe. Any species that is limited to a few
counties of a single state is liable to be wiped out in five years, by poison,
or traps, or lack of food.

CALIFORNIA CONDOR
Now Living in the New York Zoological Park

On order to obtain the best and also the most conservative information
regarding this species, I appealed to the Curator of the Museum of
Vertebrate Zoology, of the University of California. Although written in the
mountain wilds, I promptly received the valuable contribution that appears
below. As a clear, precise and conservative survey of an important species,
it is really a model document.

The Status Of The California Condor In 1912
By Joseph Grinnell
"To my knowledge, the California Condor has been definitely observed
within the past five years in the following California counties: Los Angeles,
Ventura, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Monterey, Kern, and Tulare. In
parts of Ventura, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Kern counties the
species is still fairly common, for a large bird, probably equal in numbers to
the golden eagle in those regions that are suited to it. By suitable country I
mean cattle-raising, mountainous territory, of which there are still vast
areas, and which are not likely to be put to any other use for a very long
time, if ever, on account of the lack of water.
"While in Kern County last April, I was informed by a reliable man who
lives near the Tejon Rancho that he had counted twenty-five condors in a
single day, since January 1 of the present year. These were on the Tejon
Rancho, which is an enormous cattle range covering parts of the Tehachapi
and San Emigdio Mountains.
"Our present state law provides complete protection for the condor and
its eggs; and the State Fish and Game Commission, in granting permits for
collectors, always adds the phrase—'except the California condor and its
eggs.' I know of two special permits having been issued, but neither of these
were used; that is, no 'specimens' have been taken since 1908, as far as I am
aware.
"In my travels about the state, I have found that practically everyone
knows that the condor is protected. Still, there is always the hunting

element who do not hesitate to shoot anything alive and out of the ordinary,
and a certain percentage of the condors are doubtless picked off each year
by such criminals. It is possible, also, that the mercenary egg-collector
continues to take his annual rents, though if this is done it is kept very quiet.
It is my impression that the present fatalities from all sources are fully
balanced by the natural rate of increase.
"There is one factor that has militated against the condor more than any
other one thing; namely, the restriction in its food source. Its forage range
formerly included most of the great valleys adjacent to its mountain
retreats. But now the valleys are almost entirely devoted to agriculture, and
of course far more thickly settled than formerly.
"The mountainous areas where the condor is making its last stand seem
to me likely to remain adapted to the bird's existence for many years,—fifty
years, if not longer. Of course, this is conditional upon the maintenance and
enforcement of the present laws. There is also the enlightenment of public
sentiment in regard to the preservation of wild life, which I believe can be
depended upon. This is a matter of general education, which is, fortunately,
and with no doubt whatever, progressing at a quite perceptible rate.
"Yes; I should say that the condor has a fair chance to survive, in limited
numbers.
"Another bird which in my opinion is far nearer extinction than the
condor, so far as California is concerned, is the white-tailed kite. This is a
perfectly harmless bird, but one which harries over the marshes, where it
has been an easy target for the idle duck-hunter. Then, too, its range was
limited to the valley bottoms, where human settlement is increasingly close.
I know of only two live pairs within the state last year!
"Finally, let me remark that the rate of increase of the California condor
is not one whit less than that of the band-tailed pigeon! Yet, there is no
protection at all for the latter in this state, even in the nesting season; and
thousands were shot last spring, in the unprecedented concentration of the
species in the southern coast counties. (See Chambers in The Condor for
May, 1912, p. 108.)"

The California Condor is one of the only two species of condor now
living, and it is the only one found in North America. As a matter of
national pride, and a duty to posterity, the people of the United States can
far better afford to lose a million dollars from their national treasury than to
allow that bird to become extinct. Its preservation for all coming time is
distinctly a white man's burden upon the state of California. The laws now
in force for the condor's protection are not half adequate! I think there is no
law by which the accidental poisoning of those birds, by baits put out for
coyotes and foxes, can be stopped. A law to prevent the use of poisoned
meat baits anywhere in southern California, should be enacted at the next
session of California's legislature. The fine for molesting a condor should
be raised to $500, with a long prison-term as an alternative. A competent,
interested game warden should be appointed solely for the protection of the
condors. It is time to count those birds, keep them under observation, and
have an annual report upon their condition.
The Heath Hen. —But for the protection that has been provided for it by
the ornithologists of Massachusetts, and particularly Dr. George W. Field,
William Brewster and John E. Thayer, the heath hen or eastern pinnated
grouse would years ago have become totally extinct. New York, New Jersey
and Massachusetts began to protect that species entirely too late. It was
given five-year close seasons, without avail. Then it was given ten-year
close seasons, but it was too late!
To-day, the species exists only in one locality, the island of Martha's
Vineyard, and concerning its present status, Mr. Forbush has recently
furnished us the following clear statement:

"The heath hens increased for two years after the Massachusetts
Fish and Game Commission established a reservation for them, but in
1911 they had not increased. There are probably about two hundred
birds extant.
"I found a great many marsh hawks on the Island and the
Commission did not kill them, believing them to be beneficial. In
watching them, I concluded that they were catching the young heath
hens. A large number of these hawks have been shot and their
stomachs sent to Washington for examination, as I was too busy at the

time to examine them. So far as I know, no report of the examination
has been made, but Dr. Field himself examined a few of the stomachs
and found the remains of the heath hen in some.
"The warden now says that during the past two years, the heath hen
has not increased, but I can give you no definite evidence of this. I am
quite sure they are being killed by natives of the island and that at least
one collector supplies birds for museums. We are trying to get
evidence of this.
I believe if the heath hen is to be increased in numbers and brought
back to this country, we shall have to have more than one warden on
the reservation and, eventually, we shall have to establish the bird on
the mainland also."

From the "American Natural History"

PINNATED GROUSE, OR "PRAIRIE CHICKEN"

The Pinnated Grouse, Sage Grouse And Prairie Sharp-Tail. —In
view of the fate of the grouse of the United States, as it has been wrought
out thus far in all the more thickly settled areas, and particularly in view of
the history of the heath hen, we have no choice but to regard all three of the

species named above as absolutely certain to become totally extinct, within
a short period of years, unless the conditions surrounding them are
immediately and radically changed for the better. Personally, I do not
believe that the gunners and game-hogs of Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska,
Idaho, Washington, Oregon and California will permit any one of those
species to be saved.
If the present
open seasons
prevail in the
states that I have
mentioned above,
no power on earth
can save those
three species of
grouse from the
fate of the heath
hen. To-day their
representatives
exist only in small
shreds and
patches, and from
fully nineteen-
twentieths of their
original ranges
they are forever
SAGE GROUSE gone.
The First of the Upland Game Birds that will Become Extinct

The sage grouse
will be the first species to go. It is the largest, the most conspicuous, the one
most easily found, and the biggest mark for the gunner. Those who have
seen this bird in its native sage-brush well understand how fatally it is
exposed to slaughter.
Many appeals have been made in behalf of the pinnated grouse; but the
open seasons continue. The gunners of the states in which a few remnants
still exist are determined to have them, all; and the state legislatures seem
disposed to allow the killers to have their way. It may be however, that like

New York with the heath hen, they will arouse and virtuously lock the
stable door—after the horse has been stolen!
The Snowy Egret And American Egret, (Egretta candidissima and
Herodias egretta). —These unfortunate birds, cursed for all time by the
commercially valuable "aigrette" plumes that they bear, have had a very
narrow escape from total extinction in the United States, despite all the
efforts made to save them. The "plume-hunters" of the millinery trade have
been, and still are, determined to have the last feather and the last drop of
egret blood. In an effort to stop the slaughter in at least one locality in
Florida, Warden Guy Bradley was killed by a plume-hunter, who of course
escaped all punishment through the heaven-born "sympathy" of a local jury.
Of the bloody egret slaughter in Florida, not one-tenth of the whole story
ever has been told. Millions of adult birds,—all there were,—were killed in
the breeding season, when the plumes were ripe for the market; and
millions of young birds starved in their nests. It was a common thing for a
rookery of several hundred birds to be attacked by the plume-hunters, and
in two or three days utterly destroyed. The same bloody work is going on
to-day in Venezuela and Brazil; and the stories and "affidavits" stating that
the millions of egret plumes being shipped annually from those countries
are "shed feathers," "picked up off the ground," are absolute lies. The men
who have sworn to those lies are perjurers, and should be punished for their
crimes. (See Chapter XIII).
By 1908, the plume-hunters had so far won the fight for the egrets that
Florida had been swept almost as bare of these birds as the Colorado desert.
Until Mr. E.A. McIlhenny's egret preserve, at Avery Island, Louisiana,
became a pronounced success, we had believed that our two egrets soon
would become totally extinct in the United States. But Mr. McIlhenny has
certainly saved those birds to our fauna. In 1892 he started an egret and
heron preserve, close beside his house on Avery Island. By 1900 it was an
established success. To-day 20,000 pairs of egrets and herons are living and
breeding in that bird refuge, and the two egret species are safe in at least
one spot in our own country.

Photo by E.A. McIlhenny

SNOWY EGRETS IN THE McILHENNY EGRET PRESERVE
It is at This Period That the Parent Birds are Killed for Their Plumes, and the
Young Starve in the Nest

Three years ago, I think there were not many bird-lovers in the United
States, who believed it possible to prevent the total extinction of both egrets
from our fauna. All the known rookeries accessible to plume-hunters had
been totally destroyed. Two years ago, the secret discovery of several small,
hidden colonies prompted William Dutcher, President of the National
Association of Audubon Societies, and Mr. T. Gilbert Pearson, Secretary, to
attempt the protection of those colonies. With a fund contributed for the
purpose, wardens were hired and duly commissioned. As previously stated,
one of those wardens was shot dead in cold blood by a plume hunter. The
task of guarding swamp rookeries from the attacks of money-hungry
desperadoes to whom the accursed plumes were worth their weight in gold,
is a very chancy proceeding. There is now one warden in Florida who says
that "before they get my rookery they will first have to get me."
Thus far the protective work of the Audubon Association has been
successful. Now there are twenty colonies, which contain all told, about
5,000 egrets and about 120,000 herons and ibises which are guarded by the

Audubon wardens. One of the most important is on Bird Island, a mile out
in Orange Lake, central Florida, and it is ably defended by Oscar E.
Baynard. To-day, the plume hunters who do not dare to raid the guarded
rookeries are trying to study out the lines of flight of the birds, to and from
their feeding-grounds, and shoot them in transit. Their motto is—"Anything
to beat the law, and get the plumes." It is there that the state of Florida
should take part in the war.
The success of this campaign is attested by the fact that last year a
number of egrets were seen in eastern Massachusetts—for the first time in
many years. And so to-day the question is, can the wardens continue to hold
the plume-hunters at bay?
The Wood Duck (Aix sponsa), by many bird-lovers regarded as the most
beautiful of all American birds, is threatened with extinction, in all the
states that it still inhabits with the exception of eight. Long ago (1901) the
U.S. Biological Survey sounded a general alarm for this species by the issue
of a special bulletin regarding its disappearance, and advising its protection
by long close seasons. To their everlasting honor, eight states responded, by
the enactment of long close-season laws. This, is the

Roll Of Honor
Connecticut New Jersey
Maine New York
Massachusetts Vermont
New Hampshire West Virginia

And how is it with the other states that number the wood-duck in their
avian faunas? I am ashamed to tell; but it is necessary that the truth should
be known.
Surely we will find that if the other states have not the grace to protect
this bird on account of its exquisite beauty they will not penalize it by extra
long open seasons.
A number of them have taken pains to provide extra long OPEN seasons
on this species, usually of five or six months!! And this for a bird so

exquisitely
beautiful that
shooting it for the
table is like dining
on birds of
paradise. Here is a
partial list of them:

WOOD DUCK
Regularly Killed as "Food" in 15 States

Wood-Duck-Eating States (1912)
Georgia kills and eats the Wood-duck from Sept. 1, to Feb. 1.
Indiana, Iowa and Kansas do so " Sept. 1, to Apr. 15.
Kentucky, (extra long!) does so " Aug. 15, to Apr. 1.
Louisiana (extra long!) " " " Sept. 1, to Mar. 1.
Maryland " " " Nov. 1, to Apr. 1.
Michigan " " " Oct. 15, to Jan. 1.
Nebraska (extra long!) " " " Sept. 1, to Apr. 1.
Ohio " " " Sept. 1, to Jan. 1.
Pennsylvania, (extra long!) " " " Sept. 1, to Apr. 11.
Rhode Island, " " " " " Aug. 15, to Apr. 1.
South Carolina " " " " " Sept. 1, to Mar. 1.
South Dakota " " " " " Sept. 10, to Apr. 10.
Tennessee " " " " " Aug. 1, to Apr. 15.
Virginia " " " Aug. 1, to Jan. 1.
Wisconsin " " " Sept. 1, to Jan. 1.

The above are the states that really possess the wood-duck and that
should give it, one and all, a series of five-year close seasons. Now, is not
the record something to blush for?
Is there in those fifteen states nothing too beautiful or too good to go into
the pot?

The Woodcock (Philohela minor), is a bird regarding which my bird-
hunting friends and I do not agree. I say that as a species it is steadily
disappearing, and presently will become extinct, unless it is accorded better
protection. They reply: "Well, I can show you where there are woodcock
yet!"
A few months ago a Nova Scotian writer in Forest and Stream came out
with the bold prediction that three more years of the usual annual slaughter
of woodcock will bring the species to the verge of extinction in that
Province.
It is such occurrences as this that bring the end of a species:
"Last fall [1911, at Norwalk, Conn.] we had a good flight of woodcock,
and it is a shame the way they were slaughtered. I know of a number of
cases where twenty were killed by one gun in the day, and heard of one case
of fifty. This is all wrong, and means the end of the woodcock, if continued.
There is no doubt we need a bag limit on woodcock, as much as on quail or
partridge." ("Woodcock" in Forest and Stream, Mar. 2, 1912.)
As far back as 1901, Dr. A.K. Fisher of the Biological Survey predicted
that the woodcock and wood-duck would both become extinct unless better
protected. As yet, the better protection demanded has not materialized to
any great extent.
Says Mr. Forbush, State Ornithologist of Massachusetts, in his admirable
"Special Report," p. 45:
"The woodcock is decreasing all over its range in the East, and needs the
strongest protection. Of thirty-eight Massachusetts reports, thirty-six state
that "woodcock are decreasing," "rare" or "extinct," while one states that

they are holding their own, and one that they are increasing slightly since
the law was passed prohibiting their sale."
Let not any honest American or Canadian sportsman lullaby himself into
the belief that the woodcock is safe from extermination. As sure as the
world, it is going! The fact that a little pocket here or there contains a few
birds does not in the slightest degree disprove the main fact. If the
sportsmen of this country desire to save the seed stock of woodcock, they
must give it everywhere five or ten-year close seasons, and do it
immediately!
Our Shore Birds In General. —This group of game birds will be the
first to be exterminated in North America as a group. Of all our birds, these
are the most illy fitted to survive. They are very conspicuous, very unwary,
easy to find if alive, and easy to shoot. Never in my life have any shore
birds except woodcock and snipe appealed to me as real game. They are too
easy to kill, too trivial when killed, and some of them are too rank and fishy
on the plate. As game for men I place them on a level with barnyard ducks
or orchard turkeys. I would as soon be caught stealing a sheep as to be seen
trying to shoot fishy yellow legs or little joke sandpipers for the purpose of
feeding upon them. And yet, thousands of full-grown men, some of them
six feet high, grow indignant and turn red in the face at the mention of a law
to give all the shore-birds of New York a five-year close season.
But for all that, gentlemen of the gun, there are exactly two alternatives
between which you shall choose:
(1) Either give the woodcock of the eastern United States just ten times
the protection that it now has, or (2) bid the species a long farewell. If you
elect to slaughter old Philohela minor on the altar of Selfishness, then it
will be in order for the millions of people who do not kill birds to say
whether that proposal shall be consummated or not.
Read if you please Mr. W.A. McAtee's convincing pamphlet (Biological
Survey, No. 79), on "Our Vanishing Shore Birds," reproduced in full in
Chapter XXIII. He says: "Throughout the eastern United States, shore birds
are fast vanishing. Many of them have been so reduced that extermination
seems imminent. So averse to shore birds are present conditions [of
slaughter] that the wonder is that any escape. All the shore birds of the

United States are in great need of better protection.... Shore birds have been
hunted until only a remnant of their once vast numbers are left. Their
limited powers of reproduction, coupled with the natural vicissitudes of the
breeding period, make their increase slow, and peculiarly expose them to
danger of extermination. So great is their economic value that their
retention in the game list and their destruction by sportsmen is a serious loss
to agriculture."
And yet, here in New York state there are many men who think they
"know," who indignantly scoff at the idea that our shore birds need a five-
year close season to help save them from annihilation. The writer's appeal
for this at a recent convention of the New York State Fish, Game and Forest
League fell upon deaf ears, and was not even seriously discussed.
The shore-birds must be saved; and just at present it seems that the only
persons who will do it are those who are not sportsmen, and who never kill
game! If the sportsmen persist in refusing to act, to them we must appeal.
Besides the woodcock and snipe, the species that are most seriously
threatened with extinction at an early date are the following:

Species In Great Danger
Catoptrophorus
Willet
semipalmatus
Dowitcher Macrorhamphus griseus
Knot: Red-Breasted
Tryngites subruficollis
Sandpiper
Upland Plover Bartramia longicauda
Golden Plover Charadrius dominicus
Pectoral Sandpiper Pisobia maculata

Of these fine species, Mr. Forbush, whose excellent knowledge of the
shore birds of the Atlantic coast is well worth the most serious
consideration, says that the upland plover, or Bartramian sandpiper, "is in
imminent danger of extinction. Five reports from localities where this bird
formerly bred give it as nearing extinction, and four as extinct. This is one
of the most useful of all birds in grass land, feeding largely on grasshoppers
and cutworms.... There is no difference of opinion in regard to the
diminution of the shore birds; the reports from all quarters are the same. It

is noteworthy that practically all observers agree that, considering all
species, these birds have fallen off about 75 per cent within twenty-five to
forty years, and that several species are nearly extirpated."
In 1897 when the Zoological Society published my report on the
"Extermination of Our Birds and Mammals," we put down the decrease in
the volume of bird life in Massachusetts during the previous fifteen years at
twenty-seven per cent. The later and more elaborate investigations of Mr.
Forbush have satisfactorily vindicated the accuracy of that estimate.
There are other North American birds that easily might be added to the
list of those now on the road to oblivion; but surely the foregoing citations
are sufficient to reveal the present desperate conditions of our bird life in
general. Now the question is: What are the great American people going to
do about it?

THE GRAY SQUIRREL, A FAMILIAR FRIEND WHEN PROTECTED

The Gray Squirrel. —The gray squirrel is in danger of extermination.
Although it is our most beautiful and companionable small wild animal, and
really unfit for food, Americans have strangely elected to class it as "game,"

and shoot it to death, to eat! And this in stall-fed America, in the twentieth
century! Americans are the only white people in the world who eat
squirrels. It would be just as reasonable, and no more barbarous, to kill
domestic cats and eat them. Their flesh would taste quite as good as squirrel
flesh and some of them would afford quite as good "sport."
Every intelligent person knows that in the United States the deadly shot-
gun is rapidly exterminating every bird and every small mammal that is
classed as "game," and which legally may be killed, even during two
months of the twelve. The market gunners slaughter ducks, grouse, shore
birds and rabbits as if we were all starving.
The beautiful gray squirrel has clung to life in a few of our forests and
wood-lots, long after most other wild mammals have disappeared; but
throughout at least ninety-five per cent, of its original area, it is now extinct.
During the past thirty years I have roamed the woods of my state in several
widely separated localities,—the Adirondacks, Catskills, Berkshires,
western New York and elsewhere, and in all that time I have seen only three
wild gray squirrels outside of city parks.
Except over a very small total area, the gray squirrel is already gone from
the wild fauna of New York State!
Do the well-fed people of America wish to have this beautiful animal
entirely exterminated? Do they wish the woods to become wholly lifeless?
Or, do they desire to bring back some of the wild creatures, and keep them
for their children to enjoy?
There is no wild mammal that responds to protection more quickly than
the gray squirrel. In two years' time, wild specimens that are set free in city
parks learn that they are safe from harm and become almost fearless. They
take food from the hands of visitors, and climb into their arms. One of the
most pleasing sights of the Zoological Park is the enjoyment of visitors,
young and old, in "petting" our wild gray squirrels.
We ask the Boy Scouts of America to bring back this animal to each state
where it belongs, by securing for it from legislatures and governors the
perpetual closed seasons that it imperatively needs. It is not much to ask.
This can be done by writing to members of the legislatures and requesting a

suitable law. Such a request will be both right and reasonable; and three
states have already granted it.
The gray squirrel is naturally the children's closest wild-animal friend.
Surely every farmer boy would like to have colonies of gray squirrels
around him, to keep him company, and furnish him with entertainment. A
wood-lot without squirrels and chipmunks is indeed a lifeless place. For
$20 anyone can restock any bit of woods with the most companionable and
most beautiful tree-dweller that nature has given us.
The question now is, which will you choose—a gray squirrel colony to
every farm, or lifeless desolation?
We ask every American to lend a hand to save Silver-Tail.

CHAPTER IV
EXTINCT AND NEARLY EXTINCT SPECIES
OF MAMMALS

When we pause and consider the years, the generations and the ages that
Nature spends in the production of a high vertebrate species, the
preservation of such species from extermination should seriously concern
us. As a matter of fact, in modern man's wild chase after wealth and
pleasure, it is only one person out of every ten thousand who pauses to
regard such causes, unless cornered by some protectionist fanatic, held fast
and coerced to listen.
We are not discussing the animals of the Pleistocene, or the Eocene, or
any period of the far-distant Past. We are dealing with species that have
been ruthlessly, needlessly and wickedly destroyed by man during our own
times; species that, had they been given a fair chance, would be alive and
well to-day.
In reckless waste of blood and treasure, the nineteenth century has much
for which to answer. Wars and pillage, fires, earthquakes and volcanoes are
unhappily unavoidable. Like the poor of holy writ, we have them with us
always. But the destruction of animal life is in a totally different category
from the accidental calamities of life. It is deliberate, cold-blooded,
persistent, and in its final stage, criminal! Worst of all, there is no limit to
the devilish persistence of the confirmed destroyer, this side of the total
extinction of species. No polar night is too cold, no desert inferno is too hot
for the man who pursues wild life for commercial purposes. The rhytina has
been exterminated in the far north, the elephant seals on Kerguelen are
being exterminated in the far south, and midway, in the desert mountains of

Lower California a fine species of mountain sheep is rapidly being shot into
oblivion.

Large Mammals Completely Exterminated
The Arizona Elk, (Cervus merriami). —Right at our very door, under
our very noses and as it were only yesterday, a well-defined species of
American elk has been totally exterminated. Until recently the mountains of
Arizona and New Mexico were inhabited by a light-colored elk of smaller
size than the Wyoming species, whose antlers possessed on each side only
one brow tine instead of two. The exact history of the blotting out of that
species has not yet been written, but it seems that its final extinction
occurred about 1901. Its extermination was only a routine incident of the
devilish general slaughter of American big game that by 1900 had wiped
out nearly everything killable over a large portion of the Rocky Mountain
region and the Great Plains.
The Arizona elk was exterminated before the separate standing of the
species had been discovered by naturalists, and before even one skin had
been preserved in a museum! In 1902 Mr. E.W. Nelson described the
species from two male skulls, all the material of which he knew. Since that
time, a third male skull, bearing an excellent pair of antlers, has been
discovered by Mr. Ferdinand Kaegebehn, a member of the New York
Zoological Society, and presented to our National Collection of Heads and
Horns. It came from the Santa Catalina Mountains, Arizona, in 1884. The
species was first exterminated in the central and northern mountains of
Arizona, probably twenty years ago, and made its last stand in northwestern
New Mexico. Precisely when it became extinct there, its last abiding place,
we do not know, but in time the facts may appear.
The Quagga, (Equus quagga). —Before the days of Livingstone,
Gordon-Cumming and Anderson, the grassy plains and half-forested hills of
South Africa were inhabited by great herds of a wild equine species that in
its markings was a sort of connecting link between the striped zebras and
the stripeless wild asses. The quagga resembled a wild ass with a few zebra
stripes around its neck, and no stripes elsewhere.

There is no good reason why a mammal that is not in any one of the
families regularly eaten by man should be classed as a game animal. White
men, outside of the western border of the continent of Europe, do not eat
horses; and by this token there is no reason why a zebra should be shot as a
"game" animal, any more than a baboon. A big male baboon is dangerous; a
male zebra is not.
Nevertheless, white men have elected to shoot zebras as game; and under
this curse the unfortunate quagga fell to rise no more. The species was shot
to a speedy death by sportsmen, and by the British and Dutch farmers of
South Africa. It became extinct about 1875, and to-day there are only 18
specimens in all the museums of the world.
The Blaubok, (Hippotragus leucophaeus). —The first of the African
antelopes to become extinct in modern times was a species of large size,
closely related to the roan antelope of to-day, and named by the early Dutch
settlers of Cape Colony the blaubok, which means "blue-buck." It was
snuffed out of existence in the year 1800, so quickly and so thoroughly that,
like the Arizona elk, it very nearly escaped the annals of natural history.
According to the careful investigations of Mr. Graham Renshaw, there are
only eight specimens in existence in all the museums of Europe. In general
terms it may be stated that this species has been extinct for about a century.
David's Deer (Elaphurus davidianus). —We enter this species with those
that are totally extinct, because this is true of it so far as its wild state is
concerned. It is a deer nearly as large as the red deer of Europe, with 3-tined
antlers about equal in total length to those of the red deer. Its most striking
differential character is its long tail, a feature that among the deer of the
world is quite unique.
Originally this species inhabited "northern Mongolia" (China), but in a
wild state it became extinct before its zoological standing became known to
the scientific world. The species was called to the attention of zoologists by
a Roman Catholic missionary, called Father David, and when finally
described it was named in his honor.
At the outbreak of the Boxer Rebellion, in 1900, there were about 200
specimens living in the imperial park of China, a short distance south of

Pekin; but during the rebellion, all of them were killed and eaten, thus
totally exterminating the species from Asia.
Fortunately, previous to that calamity (in 1894), the Duke of Bedford had
by considerable effort and expenditure procured and established in his
matchless park surrounding Woburn Abbey, England, a herd of eighteen
specimens of this rarest of all deer. That nucleus has thriven and increased,
until in 1910 it contained thirty-four head. Owing to the fact that all the
living female specimens of this remarkable species are concentrated in one
spot, and perfectly liable to be wiped out in one year by riot, war or disease,
there is some cause for anxiety. The writer has gone so far as to suggest the
desirability of starting a new herd of David's deer, at some point far distant
from England, as an insurance measure against the possibility of calamity at
Woburn. Excepting two or three specimens in European zoological gardens
that have been favored by the Duke of Bedford, there are no living
specimens outside of Woburn Park.

SKELETON OF A RHYTINA, OR ARCTIC SEA-COW
In the United States National Museum

The Rhytina, (Rhytina gigas). —The most northerly Sirenian that (so far
as we know) ever inhabited the earth, lived on the Commander Islands in
the northern end of Behring Sea, and was exterminated by man, for its oil
and its flesh, about 1768. It was first made known to the world by Steller, in
1741, and must have become extinct near the beginning of the nineteenth
century.
The rhytina belonged to the same mammalian Order as the manatee of
Florida and South America, and the dugong of Australia. The largest
manatee that Florida has produced, so far as we know, was thirteen feet
long. The rhytina attained a length of between thirty and thirty-five feet, and

a weight of 6,000 pounds or over. The flesh of this animal, like that of the
manatee and dugong, must have been edible, and surely was prized by the
hungry sailors and natives of its time. It is not strange that such a species
was quickly exterminated by man, in the arctic regions. The wonder is that
it ever existed at a latitude so outrageous for a Sirenian, an animal which by
all precedents should prefer life in temperate or warm waters.

BURCHELL'S ZEBRA, IN THE U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM
Now Believed to be Totally Extinct

Burchell's Zebra, (Equus burchelli typicus). —The foundation type of
what now is the Burchell group of zebras, consisting of four or five sub-
species of the original species of burchelli, is an animal abundantly striped
as to its body, neck and head, but with legs that are almost white and free
from stripes. The sub-species have legs that are striped about half as much
as the mountain zebra and the Grevy species.

While there are Chapman zebras and Grant zebras in plenty, and of
Crawshay's not a few, all these are forms that have developed northward of
the range of the parent species, the original Equus burchelli. For half a
century in South Africa the latter had been harried and driven and shot, and
now it is gone, forever. Now, the museum people of the world are hungrily
enumerating their mounted specimens, and live ones cannot be procured
with money, because there are none! Already it is common talk that "the
true Burchell zebra is extinct;" and unfortunately there is no good reason to
doubt it. Even if there are a few now living in some remote nook of the
Transvaal, or Zululand, or Portuguese East Africa, the chances are as 100 to
1 that they will not be suffered to bring back the species; and so, to
Burchell's zebra, the world is to-day saying "Farewell!"

THYLACINE OR TASMANIAN WOLF
Now Being Exterminated by the Sheep Owners of Tasmania

Species Of Large Mammals Almost Extinct
The Thylacine Or Tasmanian Wolf, (Thylacinus cynocephalus). —
Four years ago, when Mr. W.H.D. Le Souef, Director of the Melbourne
Zoological Garden (Australia), stood before the cage of the living thylacine

in the New York Zoological Park, he first expressed surprise at the sight of
the animal, then said:
"I advise you to take excellent care of that specimen; for when it is gone,
you never will get another. The species soon will be extinct."
This opinion has been supported, quite independently, by a lady who is
the highest authority on the present status of that species, Mrs. Mary G.
Roberts, of Hobart, Tasmania. For nearly ten years Mrs. Roberts has been
procuring all the living specimens of the thylacine that money could buy,
and attempting to breed them at her private zoo. She states that the
mountain home of this animal is now occupied by flocks of sheep, and
because of the fact that the "Tasmanian wolves" raid the flocks and kill
lambs, the sheep-owners and herders are systematically poisoning the
thylacines as fast as possible. Inasmuch as the species is limited to
Tasmania, Mrs. Roberts and others fear that the sheepmen will totally
exterminate the remnant at an early date. This animal is the largest and also
the most interesting carnivorous marsupial of Australia, and its untimely
end will be a cause for sincere regret.

WEST INDIAN SEAL
In the New York Aquarium

The West Indian Seal, (Monachus tropicalis). —For at least fifty years,
all the zoologists who ever had heard of this species believed that the oil-
hunters had completely exterminated it. In 1885, when the National
Museum came into possession of one poorly-mounted skin, from Professor
Poey, of Havana, it was regarded as a great prize.
Most unexpectedly, in 1886 American zoologists were startled by the
discovery of a small herd on the Triangle Islands, in the Caribbean Sea, near
Yucatan, by Mr. Henry L. Ward, now director of the Milwaukee Public
Museum, and Professor Ferrari, of the National Museum of Mexico. They
found about twenty specimens, and collected only a sufficient number to
establish the true character of the species.
Since that time, four living specimens have been captured, and sent to the
New York Aquarium, where they lived for satisfactory periods. The indoor
life and atmosphere did not seem to injure the natural vitality of the
animals. In fact, I think they were far more lively in the Aquarium than
were the sluggish creatures that Mr. Ward saw on the Triangle reefs, and
described in his report of the expedition.
It is quite possible that there are yet alive a few specimens of this odd
species; but the Damocletian sword of destruction hangs over them
suspended by a fine hair, and it is to be expected that in the future some
roving sea adventurer will pounce upon the Remnant, and wipe it out of
existence for whatever reason may to him seem good.

CALIFORNIA ELEPHANT SEAL
Photographed on Guadalupe Island by C.H. Townsend.

The California Elephant Seal, (Mirounga angustirostris). —This
remarkable long-snouted species of seal was reluctantly stricken from the
fauna of the United States several years ago, and for at least fifteen years it
has been regarded as totally extinct. Last year, however (1911), the
Albatross scientific expedition, under the control of Director C.H.
Townsend of the New York Aquarium, visited Guadalupe Island, 175 miles
off the Pacific coast of Lower California and there found about 150 living
elephant seals. They took six living specimens, all of which died after a few
months in captivity. Ever since that time, first one person and then another
comes to the front with a cheerful proposition to go to those islands and
"clean up" all the remainder of those wonderful seals. One hunting party
could land on Guadalupe, and in one week totally destroy the last remnant
of this almost extinct species. To-day the only question is, Who will be
mean enough to do it?
Fortunately, those seals have no commercial value whatsoever. The little
oil they would yield would not pay the wages of cook's mate. The proven
impossibility of keeping specimens alive in captivity, even for one year, and
the absence of cash value in the skins, even for museum purposes, has left

nothing of value in the animals to justify an expedition to kill or to capture
them. No zoological garden or park desires any of them, at any price. Adult
males attain a length of sixteen feet, and females eleven feet. Formerly this
species was abundant in San Christobal Bay, Lower California.
At present, Mexico is in no frame of mind to provide real protection to a
small colony of seals of no commercial value, 175 miles from her mainland,
on an uninhabited island. It is wildly improbable that those seals will be
permitted to live. It is a safe prediction that our next news of the elephant
seals of Guadalupe will tell of the total extinction of those last 140
survivors of the species.
The California Grizzly Bear, (Ursus horribilis californicus). —No
one protects grizzly bears, except in the Yellowstone Park and other game
preserves. For obvious reasons, it is impossible to say whether any
individuals of this huge species now remain alive, or how long it will be
until the last one falls before a .405 Winchester engine of extermination. We
know that a living specimen can not be procured with money, and we
believe that "Old Monarch" now in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, is the
last specimen of his species that ever will be exhibited alive.
I can think of no reason, save general Californian apathy, why the
extinction of this huge and remarkable animal was not prevented by law.
The sunset grizzly (on a railroad track) is the advertising emblem of the
Golden State, and surely the state should take sufficient interest in the
species to prevent its total extermination.
But it will not. California is hell-bent on exterminating a long list of her
wild-life species, and it is very doubtful whether the masses can be reached
and aroused in time to stop it. Name some of the species? Certainly; with all
the pleasure in life: The band-tailed pigeon, the white-tailed kite, the sharp-
tailed grouse, the sage grouse, the mountain sheep, prong-horned antelope,
California mule deer, and ducks and geese too numerous to mention.

CHAPTER V
THE EXTERMINATION OF SPECIES, STATE
BY STATE

Early in 1912 I addressed to about 250 persons throughout the United
States, three questions, as follows:

1. What species of birds have become totally extinct in your state?
2. What species of birds and mammals are threatened with early
extinction?
3. What species of mammals have been exterminated throughout your
state?

These queries were addressed to persons whose tastes and observations
rendered them especially qualified to furnish the information desired. The
interest shown in the inquiry was highly gratifying. The best of the
information given is summarized below; but this tabulation also includes
much information acquired from other sources. The general summary of the
subject will, I am sure, convince all thoughtful persons that the present
condition of the best wild life of the nation is indeed very grave. This list is
not submitted as representing prolonged research or absolute perfection, but
it is sufficient to point forty-eight morals.

Birds And Mammals That Have Been Totally Exterminated In
Various States And Provinces
Alabama:
Passenger pigeon, Carolina parrakeet; puma, elk, gray wolf, beaver.
Arizona:

Ridgway's quail (Colinus ridgwayi); Arizona elk (Cervus merriami),
bison.
Arkansas:
Passenger pigeon, Carolina parrakeet, whooping crane; bison, elk,
beaver.
California:
No birds totally extinct, but several nearly so; grizzly bear (?), elephant
seal.
Colorado:
Carolina parrakeet, whooping crane; bison.
Connecticut:
Passenger pigeon, Eskimo curlew, great auk, Labrador duck, upland
plover, heath hen, wild turkey; puma, gray wolf, Canada lynx, black bear,
elk.
Delaware:
Wild turkey, ruffed grouse, passenger pigeon, heath hen, dickcissel,
whooping crane, Carolina parrakeet; white-tailed deer, black bear, gray
wolf, beaver, Canada lynx, puma.
Florida:
Flamingo, roseate spoonbill, scarlet ibis, Carolina parrakeet, passenger
pigeon.
Georgia:
Passenger pigeon, Carolina parrakeet, whooping crane, trumpeter
swan; bison, elk, beaver, gray wolf, puma.—(Last 3, Craig D. Arnold.)
Idaho:
Wood duck, long-billed curlew, whooping crane; bison.—(Dr. C.S.
Moody.)

Illinois:
Passenger pigeon, whooping crane, Carolina parrakeet, trumpeter
swan, snowy egret, Eskimo curlew; bison, elk, white-tailed deer, black
bear, puma, Canada lynx.
Indiana:
Passenger pigeon, whooping crane, northern raven, wild turkey, ivory-
billed woodpecker, Carolina parrakeet, trumpeter swan, snowy egret,
Eskimo curlew; bison, elk, white-tailed deer, black bear, Canada lynx,
beaver, porcupine.—(Amos W. Butler.)
Iowa:
Wild turkey, Eskimo curlew, whooping crane, trumpeter swan, white
pelican, passenger pigeon; bison, elk, antelope, white-tailed deer, black
bear, puma, Canada lynx, gray wolf, beaver, porcupine.
Kansas:
American scaup duck, woodcock, ruffed grouse, wild turkey, pileated
woodpecker, parrakeet, white-necked raven, American raven (all Prof.
L.L. Dyche); golden plover, Eskimo curlew, Hudsonian curlew, wood-
duck (C.H. Smyth and James Howard, Wichita). Bison, elk, mule deer,
white-tailed deer, gray wolf, beaver (?), otter, lynx (?) (L.L.D.)
(Reports as complete and thorough as these for other localities no
doubt would show lists equally long for several other states.—(W.T.H.))
Kentucky:
Passenger pigeon, parrakeet; bison, elk, puma, beaver, gray wolf.
Louisiana:
Passenger pigeon, Carolina parrakeet, Eskimo curlew, flamingo,
scarlet ibis, roseate spoonbill; bison, ocelot.
Maine:

Great auk, Labrador duck, Eskimo curlew, oystercatcher, wild turkey,
heath hen, passenger pigeon; puma, gray wolf, wolverine, caribou.—(All
Arthur H. Norton, Portland.)
Maryland:
Sandhill crane, parrakeet, passenger pigeon; bison, elk, beaver, gray
wolf, puma, porcupine.
Massachusetts:
Wild turkey, passenger pigeon, Labrador duck, whooping crane,
sandhill crane, black-throated bunting, great auk, Eskimo curlew.—
(William Brewster, W.P. Wharton); Canada lynx, gray wolf, black bear,
moose, elk.
Michigan:
Passenger pigeon, wild turkey, sandhill crane, whooping crane, bison,
elk, wolverine.
Minnesota:
Whooping crane, white pelican, trumpeter swan, passenger pigeon,
bison, elk, mule deer, antelope.
A strange condition exists in Minnesota, as will be seen by reference to
the next list of states. A great many species are on the road to speedy
extermination; but as yet the number of those that have become totally
extinct up to date is small.
Mississippi:
Parrakeet, passenger pigeon; bison. (Data incomplete.)
Missouri:
Parrakeet, ivory-billed woodpecker, passenger pigeon, whooping
crane, pinnated grouse; bison, elk, beaver.
Montana:

Although many Montana birds are on the verge of extinction, the only
species that we are sure have totally vanished are the passenger pigeon
and whooping crane. Mammals extinct, bison.
Nebraska:
Curlew, wild turkey, parrakeet, passenger pigeon, whooping crane, and
no doubt all the other species that have disappeared from Kansas.
Mammals: bison, antelope, elk, and mule deer.
Nevada:
By a rather odd combination of causes and effects, Nevada retains
representatives of nearly all her original outfit of bird and mammal
species except the bison and elk; but several of them will shortly become
extinct.
New Hampshire:
Wild turkey, heath hen, pigeon, whooping crane, Eskimo curlew,
upland plover, Labrador duck; woodland caribou, moose.
New Jersey:
Heath hen, wild turkey, pigeon, parrakeet, Eskimo curlew, Labrador
duck, snowy egret, whooping crane, sandhill crane, trumpeter swan,
pileated woodpecker; gray wolf, black bear, beaver, elk, porcupine,
puma.
New Mexico:
Notwithstanding an enormous decrease in the general volume of wild
life in New Mexico, comparatively few species have been totally
exterminated. The most important are the bison and Arizona elk.
New York:
Heath hen, passenger pigeon, wild turkey, great auk, trumpeter swan,
Labrador duck, harlequin duck, Eskimo curlew, upland plover, golden
plover, whooping crane, sandhill crane, purple martin, pileated

woodpecker, moose, caribou, bison, elk, puma, gray wolf, wolverine,
marten, fisher, beaver, fox, squirrel, harbor seal.
North Carolina:
Ivory-billed woodpecker, parrakeet, pigeon, roseate spoonbill, long-
billed curlew (Numenius americanus), Eskimo curlew; bison, elk, gray
wolf, puma, beaver.—(E.L. Ewbank, T. Gilbert Pearson, H.H. and C.S.
Brimley.)
North Dakota:
Whooping crane, long-billed curlew, Hudsonian godwit, passenger
pigeon; bison, elk, mule deer, mountain sheep.—(W.B. Bell and Alfred
Eastgate.)
Ohio:
Pigeon, wild turkey, pinnated grouse, northern pileated woodpecker,
parrakeet; white-tailed deer, bison, elk, black bear, puma, gray wolf,
beaver, otter, puma, lynx.
Oklahoma:
Records for birds insufficient. Mammals: bison, elk, antelope, mule
deer, puma, black bear.
Oregon:
The only species known to have been wholly exterminated during
recent times is the California condor and the bison, both of which were
rare stragglers into Oregon; but a number of species are now close to
extinction.
Pennsylvania:
Heath hen, pigeon, parrakeet, Labrador duck; bison, elk, moose, puma,
gray wolf, Canada lynx, wolverine, beaver.—(Witmer Stone, Dr. C.B.
Penrose and Arthur Chapman.)
Rhode Island:

Heath hen, passenger pigeon, wild turkey, least tern, eastern willet,
Eskimo curlew, marbled godwit, long-billed curlew.—(Harry S.
Hathaway); puma, black bear, gray wolf, beaver, otter, wolverine.
South Carolina:
Ivory-billed woodpecker, Carolina parrakeet; bison, elk, puma, gray
wolf.—(James H. Rice, Jr.)
South Dakota:
Whooping crane, trumpeter swan, pigeon, long-billed curlew; bison,
elk, mule deer, mountain sheep.
Tennessee:
Records insufficient.
Texas:
Wild turkey, passenger pigeon, ivory-billed woodpecker, flamingo,
roseate spoonbill, American egret, whooping crane, wood-duck; bison,
elk, mountain sheep, antelope, "a small, dark deer that lived 40 years
ago." (Capt. M.B. Davis.)
Utah:
Records insufficient.
Virginia:
Records insufficient.
Washington:
Very few species have become totally extinct, but a number are on the
verge, and will be named in the next state schedule.
West Virginia:
Pigeon, parrakeet; bison, elk, beaver, puma, gray wolf.
Wisconsin:

Whooping crane, passenger pigeon, American egret, wild turkey,
Carolina parrakeet; bison, moose, elk, woodland caribou, puma,
wolverine.
Wyoming:
Whooping crane, trumpeter swan, wood-duck; mountain goat.

CANADA
Alberta:
Passenger pigeon, whooping crane; bison.
British Columbia:
A. Bryan Williams reports: "Do not know of any birds having become
extinct."
Manitoba:
Pigeon; bison, antelope, gray wolf.
New Brunswick:
Pigeon.
Nova Scotia:
Labrador duck, Eskimo curlew, passenger pigeon.
Ontario:
Wild turkey, pigeon, Eskimo curlew.
Prince Edward Island:
(Reported by E.T. Carbonell): Eskimo curlew, horned grebe, ring-
billed gull, Caspian tern, passenger pigeon, Wilson's petrel, wood-duck,
Barrow's golden-eye, whistling swan, American eider, white-fronted
goose, purple sandpiper, Canada grouse, long-eared owl, screech owl,

black-throated bunting, pine warbler, red-necked grebe, purple martin
and catbird; beaver, black fox, silver gray fox, marten and black bear.
Quebec:
Pigeon.
Saskatchewan:
Pigeon; bison.

Birds And Mammals Threatened With Extinction
The second question submitted in my inquiry produced results even more
startling than the first. None of the persons reporting can be regarded as
alarmists, but some of the lists of species approaching extinction are
appallingly long. To their observations I add other notes and observations of
interest at this time.
Alabama:
Wood-duck, snowy egret, woodcock. "The worst enemy of wild life is
the pot-hunter and game hog. These wholesale slaughterers of game
resort to any device and practice, it matters not how murderous, to
accomplish the pernicious ends of their nefarious campaign of relentless
extermination of fur and feather. They cannot be controlled by local laws,
for these after having been tried for several generations have proven
consummate failures, for the reason that local authorities will not enforce
the provisions of game and bird protective statutes. Experience has
demonstrated the fact that no one desires to inform voluntarily on his
neighbors, and since breaking the game law is not construed to involve
moral turpitude, even to an infinitesimal degree, by many of our citizens,
the plunderers of nature's storehouse thus go free, it matters not how
great the damage done to the people as a whole."—(John H. Wallace, Jr.,
Game Commissioner of Alabama.)
Alaska:
Thanks to geographic and climatic conditions, the Alaskan game laws
and $15,000 with which to enforce them, the status of the wild life of

Alaska is fairly satisfactory. I think that at present no species is in danger
of extinction in the near future. When it was pointed out to Congress in
1902, by Madison Grant, T.S. Palmer and others that the wild life of
Alaska was seriously threatened, Congress immediately enacted the law
that was recommended, and now appropriates yearly a fair sum for its
enforcement. I regard the Alaskan situation as being, for so vast and
difficult a region, reasonably well in hand, even though open to
improvement.
There is one fatal defect in our Alaskan game law, in the perpetual and
sweeping license to kill, that is bestowed upon "natives" and
"prospectors." Under cover of this law, the Indians can slaughter game to
any extent they choose; and they are great killers. For example: In 1911
at Sand Point, Kenai Peninsula, Frank E. Kleinchmidt saw 82 caribou
tongues in the boat of a native, that had been brought in for sale at 50
cents, while the carcasses were left where they fell, to poison the air of
Alaska. Thanks to the game law, and five wardens, the number of big
game animals killed last year in Alaska by sportsmen was reasonably
small,—just as it should have been.—(W.T.H.)
Arizona:
During an overland trip made by Dr. MacDougal and others in 1907
from Tucson to Sonoyta, on the international boundary, 150 miles and
back again, we saw not one antelope or deer.—(W.T.H.)
California:
Swan, white heron, bronze ibis. California valley quail are getting very
scarce, and unless adequate protection is afforded them shortly, they will
be found hereafter only in remote districts. Ducks also are decreasing
rapidly.—(H.W. Keller, Los Angeles.)
Sage grouse and Columbian sharp-tailed grouse are so nearly extinct
that it may practically be said that they are extinct. Among species likely
to be exterminated in the near future are the wood-duck and band-tailed
pigeon.—(W.P. Taylor, Berkeley.)
Colorado:

Sage grouse and sharp-tailed grouse; nearly all the shore birds.
Connecticut:
All the shore birds; quail, purple martin.
Delaware:
Wood duck, upland plover, least tern, Wilson tern, roseate tern, black
skimmer, oystercatcher, and numerous other littoral species. Pileated
woodpeckers, bald eagles and all the ducks are much more rare than
formerly. Swan are about gone, geese scarce. The list of ducks, geese and
shore-birds, as well as of terns and gulls that are nearing extinction is
appalling.—(C.J. Pennock, Wilmington.)
Wood-duck, woodcock, turtle dove and bob-white.—(A.R. Spaid,
Wilmington.)
Florida:
Limpkin, ivory-billed woodpecker, wild turkey (?).
Georgia:
Ruffed grouse, wild turkey.
Idaho:
Harlequin duck, mountain plover, dusky grouse, Columbian sharp-
tailed grouse, sage grouse. Elk, goats and grizzly bears are becoming
very scarce. Of the smaller animals I have not seen a fisher for years, and
marten are hardly to be found. The same is true of other species.—(Dr.
Charles S. Moody, Sand Point.)
Illinois:
Pinnated grouse, except where rigidly protected. In Vermillion County,
by long and persistent protection Harvey J. Sconce has bred back upon
his farm about 400 of these birds.
Indiana:

Pileated woodpecker, woodcock, ruffed grouse, pigeon hawk, duck
hawk.—(Amos W. Butler, Indianapolis.)
In northern and northwestern Indiana, a perpetual close season and
rigid protection have enabled the almost-extinct pinnated grouse to breed
up to a total number now estimated by Game Commissioner Miles and
his wardens at 10,000 birds. This is a gratifying illustration of what can
be done in bringing back an almost-vanished species. The good example
of Indiana should be followed by every state that still possesses a
remnant of prairie-chickens, or other grouse.
Iowa:
Pinnated grouse, wood-duck. Notwithstanding an invasion of Jasper
County, Iowa, in the winter of 1911-12 by hundreds of pinnated grouse,
such as had not been known in 20 years, this gives no ground to hope that
the future of the species is worth a moment's purchase. The winter
migration came from the Dakotas, and was believed to be due to the extra
severe winter, and the scarcity of food. Commenting on this
unprecedented occurrence, J.L. Sloanaker in the "Wilson Bulletin" No.
78, says:
"In the opinion of many, the formerly abundant prairie chicken is
doomed to early extinction. Many will testify to their abundance in those
years [in South Dakota, 1902] when the great land movement was taking
place. The influx of hungry settlers, together with an occasional bad
season, decimated their ranks. They were eaten by the farmers, both in
and out of season. Driven from pillar to post, with no friends and
insufficient food,—what else then can be expected?"
Mr. F.C. Pellett, of Atlantic, Iowa, says: "Unless ways can be devised
of rearing these birds in the domestic state, the prairie hen in my opinion
is doomed to early extinction."
The older inhabitants here say that there is not one song-bird in
summer where there used to be ten.—(G.H. Nicol, in Outdoor Life
March, 1912.)
Kansas:

To all of those named in my previous list that are not actually extinct, I
might add the prairie hen, the lesser prairie hen, as well as the prairie
sharp-tailed grouse and the wood-duck. Such water birds as the avocets,
godwits, greater yellow-legs, long-billed curlew and Eskimo curlew are
becoming very rare. All the water birds that are killed as game birds have
been greatly reduced in numbers during the past 25 years. I have not seen
a wood-duck in 5 years. The prairie chicken has entirely disappeared
from this locality. A few are still seen in the sand hills of western Kansas,
and they are still comparatively abundant along the extreme southwestern
line, and in northern Oklahoma and the Texas panhandle.—(C.H. Smyth,
Wichita.)
Yellow-legged plover, golden plover; Hudsonian and Eskimo curlew,
prairie chicken.—(James Howard, Wichita.)
Louisiana:
Ivory-billed woodpecker, butterball, bufflehead. The wood-duck is
greatly diminishing every year, and if not completely protected, ten years
hence no wood-duck will be found in Louisiana.—(Frank M. Miller, and
G.E. Beyer, New Orleans.)
Ivory-billed woodpecker, sandhill crane, whooping crane, pinnated
grouse, American and snowy egret where unprotected.—(E.A.
McIlhenny, Avery Island.)
Maine:
Wood-duck, upland plover, purple martin, house wren, pileated
woodpecker, bald eagle, yellow-legs, great blue heron, Canada goose,
redhead and canvasback duck.—(John F. Sprague, Dover.)
Puffin, Leach's petrel, eider duck, laughing gull, great blue heron, fish-
hawk and bald eagle.—(Arthur H. Norton, Portland.)
Maryland:
Curlew, pileated woodpecker, summer duck, snowy heron. No record
of sandhill crane for the last 35 years. Greater yellow-leg is much scarcer
than formerly, also Bartramian sandpiper. The only two birds which show

an increase in the past few years are the robin and lesser scaup. General
protection of the robin has caused its increase; stopping of spring
shooting in the North has probably caused the increase of the latter. As a
general proposition I think I can say that all birds are becoming scarcer in
this state, as we have laws that do not protect, little enforcement of same,
no revenue for bird protection and too little public interest. We are
working to change all this, but it comes slowly. The public fails to
respond until the birds are 'most gone, and we have a pretty good lot of
game still left. The members of the Order Gallinae are only holding their
own where privately protected. The members of the Plover Family and
what are known locally as shore birds are still plentiful on the shores of
Chincoteague and Assateague, and although they do not breed there as
formerly, so far as I know there are no species exterminated.—(Talbott
Denmead, Baltimore.)
Massachusetts:
Wood-duck, hooded merganser, blue-winged teal, upland plover;
curlew (perhaps already gone); red-tailed hawk (I have not seen one in
Middlesex County for several years); great horned owl (almost gone in
my county, Middlesex); house wren. The eave swallows and purple
martins are fast deserting eastern Massachusetts and the barn swallows
steadily diminishing in numbers. The bald eagle should perhaps be
included here. I seldom see or hear of it now.—(William Brewster,
Cambridge.)
Upland plover, woodcock, wood-duck (recent complete protection is
helping these somewhat), heath hen, piping plover, golden plover, a good
many song and insectivorous birds are apparently decreasing rather
rapidly; for instance, the eave swallow.—(William P. Wharton, Groton.)
Michigan:
Wood-duck, limicolae, woodcock, sandhill crane. The great whooping
crane is not a wild bird, but I think it is now practically extinct. Many of
our warblers and song birds are now exceedingly rare. Ruffed grouse
greatly decreased during the past 10 years.—(W.B. Mershon, Saginaw.)
Minnesota:

The sandhill crane has been killed by sportsmen. I have not seen one in
three years. Where there were, a few years ago, thousands of blue herons,
egrets, wood ducks, redbirds, and Baltimore orioles, all those birds are
now almost extinct in this state. They are being killed by Austrians and
Italians, who slaughter everything that flies or moves. Robins, too, will
be a rarity if more severe penalties are not imposed. I have seized 22
robins, 1 pigeon hawk, 1 crested log-cock, 4 woodpeckers and 1
grosbeak in one camp, at the Lertonia mine, all being prepared for eating.
I have also caught them preparing and eating sea gulls, terns, blue heron,
egret and even the bittern. I have secured 128 convictions since the first
of last September.—(George E. Wood, Game Warden, Hibbing,
Minnesota.)
From Robert Page Lincoln, Minneapolis.—Partridge are waning fast,
quail gradually becoming extinct, prairie chickens almost extinct. Duck-
shooting is rare. The gray squirrel is fast becoming extinct in Minnesota.
Mink are going fast, and fur-bearing animals generally are becoming
extinct. The game is passing so very rapidly that it will soon be a thing of
the forgotten past. The quail are suffering most. The falling off is
amazing, and inconceivable to one who has not looked it up. Duck-
shooting is rare, the clubs are idle for want of birds. What ducks come
down fly high, being harassed coming down from the north. I consider
the southern Minnesota country practically cleaned out.
Missouri:
The birds threatened with extermination are the American woodcock,
wood-duck, snowy egret, pinnated grouse, wild turkey, ruffed grouse,
golden eagle, bald eagle, pileated woodpecker.
Montana:
Blue grouse.—(Henry Avare, Helena.)
Sage grouse, prairie and Columbian sharp-tailed grouse, trumpeter
swan, Canada goose, in fact, most of the water-fowl. The sickle-billed
curlew, of which there were many a few years ago, is becoming scarce.
There are no more golden or black-bellied plover in these parts.—(Harry
P. Stanford, Kalispell.)

Curlew, Franklin grouse (fool hen) and sage grouse.—W.R. Felton,
Miles City.
Sage grouse.—(L.A. Huffman, Miles City.)
Ptarmigan, wood-duck, sharp-tailed grouse, sage grouse, fool hen and
plover. All game birds are becoming scarce as the country becomes
settled and they are confined to uninhabited regions.—(Prof. M.J. Elrod,
Missoula.)
Nebraska:
Grouse, prairie chicken and quail.—(H.N. Miller, Lincoln.)
Whistling swan.—(Dr. S.G. Towne, Omaha.)
New Hampshire:
Wood-duck and upland plover.
New York:
Quail, woodcock, upland plover, golden plover, black-bellied plover,
willet, dowitcher, red-breasted sandpiper, long-billed curlew, wood-duck,
purple martin, redheaded woodpecker, mourning dove; gray squirrel,
otter.
New Jersey:
Ruffed grouse, teal, canvasback, red-head duck, widgeon, and all
species of shore birds, the most noticeable being black-bellied plover,
dowitcher, golden plover, killdeer, sickle-bill curlew, upland plover and
English snipe; also the mourning dove.—(James M. Stratton and Ernest
Napier, Trenton.)
Upland plover, apparently killdeer, egret, wood-duck, woodcock, and
probably others.—(B.S. Bowdish, Demarest.)
North Carolina:
Forster's tern, oystercatcher, egret and snowy egret.—(T. Gilbert
Pearson, Sec. Nat. Asso. Audubon Societies.)

Ruffed grouse rapidly disappearing; bobwhite becoming scarce.—
(E.L. Ewbank, Hendersonville.)
Perhaps American and snowy egret. If long-billed curlew is not
extinct, it seems due to become so. No definite, reliable record of it later
than 1885.—(H.H. Brimley, Raleigh.)
North Dakota:
Wood-duck, prairie hen, upland plover, sharp-tailed grouse, canvas-
back, pinnated and ruffed grouse, double-crested cormorant, blue heron,
long-billed curlew, whooping crane and white pelican.—(W.B. Bell,
Agricultural College.)
Upland plover, marbled godwit, Baird's sparrow, chestnut-collared
longspur.—(Alfred Eastgate, Tolna.)
Ohio:
White heron, pileated woodpecker (if not already extinct). White heron
reported a number of times last year; occurrences in Sandusky, Huron,
Ashtabula and several other counties during 1911. These birds would
doubtless rapidly recruit under a proper federal law.—(Paul North,
Cleveland.)
Turtle dove, quail, red-bird, wren, hummingbird, wild canary
[goldfinch] and blue bird.—(Walter C. Staley, Dayton.)
Oklahoma:
Pinnated grouse.—(J.C. Clark); otter, kit fox, black-footed ferret.—
(G.W. Stevens.)
Oregon:
American egret, snowy egret.—(W.L. Finley, Portland.)
Pennsylvania:
Virginia partridge and woodcock.—(Arthur Chapman.)

Wood-duck, least bittern, phalarope, woodcock, duck hawk and barn
swallow.—(Dr. Chas. B. Penrose.)
Wild turkey; also various transient and straggling water birds.—
(Witmer Stone.)
Rhode Island:
Wood-duck, knot, greater yellow-legs, upland plover, golden plover,
piping plover, great horned owl.—(Harry S. Hathaway, South Auburn.)
South Carolina:
Wood duck, abundant 6 years ago, now almost gone. Wild turkey
(abundant up to 1898); woodcock, upland plover, Hudsonian curlew,
Carolina rail, Virginia rail, clapper rail and coot. Black bear verging on
extinction, opossum dwindling rapidly.—(James H. Rice Jr.,
Summerville.)
South Dakota:
Prairie chicken and quail are most likely to become extinct in the near
future.—(W.F. Bancroft, Watertown.)
Texas:
Wild turkey and prairie chickens.—(J.D. Cox, Austin.)
Plover, all species; curlew, cardinal, road-runner, woodcock, wood-
duck, canvas-back, cranes, all the herons; wild turkey; quail, all varieties;
prairie chicken and Texas guan.—(Capt. M.B. Davis, Waco.)
Curlew, very rare; plover, very rare; antelope. (Answer applies to the
Panhandle of Texas.—Chas. Goodnight.)
Everything [is threatened with extinction] save the dove, which is a
migrating bird. Antelope nearly all gone.—(Col. O.C. Guessaz, San
Antonio.)
Utah:

Our wild birds are well protected, and there are none that are
threatened with extinction. They are increasing.—(Fred. W. Chambers,
State Game Warden, Salt Lake City.)
Vermont:
If all states afforded as good protection as does Vermont, none; but
migrating birds like woodcock are now threatened.—(John W. Tilcomb,
State Game Warden, Lyndonville.)
Virginia:
Pheasants (ruffed grouse), wild turkey and other game birds are nearly
extinct. A few bears remain, and deer in small numbers in remote
sections. In fact, all animals show great reduction in numbers, owing to
cutting down forests, and constant gunning.—(L.T. Christian,
Richmond.)
West Virginia:
Wood-duck, wild turkey, northern raven, dickcissel.—(Rev. Earle A.
Brooks, Weston.)
Wild turkeys are very scarce, also ducks. Doves, once numerous, now
almost nil. Eagles, except a few in remote fastnesses. Many native song-
birds are retreating before the English sparrow.—(William Perry Brown,
Glenville.)
Wood-duck and wild turkey.—(J.A. Viquesney, Belington.)
Wisconsin:
Double-crested cormorant, upland plover, white pelican, long-billed
curlew, lesser snow goose, Hudsonian curlew, sandhill crane, golden
plover, woodcock, dowitcher and long-billed duck; spruce grouse, knot,
prairie sharp-tailed grouse, marbled godwit and bald eagle. All these,
formerly abundant, must now be called rare in Wisconsin.—(Prof.
George E. Wagner, Madison.)
Common tern, knot, American white pelican, Hudsonian godwit,
trumpeter swan, long-billed curlew, snowy heron, Hudsonian curlew,

American avocet, prairie sharp-tailed grouse, dowitcher, passenger
pigeon. Long-billed dowitcher and northern hairy woodpecker.—(Henry
L. Ward, Milwaukee Public Museum.)
Wood-duck, ruddy duck, black mallard, grebe or hell-diver, tern and
woodcock.—(Fred. Gerhardt, Madison.)
Wyoming:
Sage grouse and sharp-tailed grouse are becoming extinct, both in
Wyoming and North Dakota. Sheridan and Johnson Counties (Wyoming)
have sage grouse protected until 1915. The miners (mostly foreigners)
are out after rabbits at all seasons. To them everything that flies, walks or
swims, large enough to be seen, is a "rabbit." They are even worse than
the average sheep-herder, as he will seldom kill a bird brooding her
young, but to one of those men, a wren or creeper looks like a turkey.
Antelope, mountain sheep and grizzly bears are going, fast! The moose
season opens in 1915, for a 30 days open season, then close season until
1920.—(Howard Eaton, Wolf.)
Sage grouse, blue grouse, curlew, sandhill crane, porcupine practically
extinct; wolverine and pine marten nearly all gone.—(S.N. Leek,
Jackson's Hole.)

CANADA
Alberta:
Swainson's buzzard and sandhill crane are now practically extinct. Elk
and antelope will soon be as extinct as the buffalo.—(Arthur G. Wooley-
Dod, Calgary.)
British Columbia:
Wild fowl are in the greatest danger in the southern part of the
Province, especially the wood-duck. Otherwise birds are increasing
rather than otherwise, especially the small non-game birds. The sea otter
is almost extinct.—(A. Bryan Williams, Provincial Game Warden,
Vancouver.)

Manitoba:
Whooping crane, wood-duck and golden plover. Other species begin to
show a marked increase, due to our stringent protective measures. For
example, the pinnated grouse and sharp-tailed grouse are more plentiful
than in 15 years. Prong-horned antelope and wolf are threatened with
extinction.—(J.P. Turner, Winnipeg.)
The game birds indigenous to this Province are fairly plentiful. Though
the prairie chicken was very scarce some few years ago, these birds have
become very plentiful again, owing to the strict enforcement of our
present "Game Act." The elk are in danger of becoming extinct if they are
not stringently guarded. Beaver and otter were almost extinct some few
years ago, but are now on the increase, owing to a strict enforcement of
the "Game Act."—(Charles Barber, Winnipeg.)
New Brunswick:
Partridge, plover and woodcock. Moose and deer are getting more
plentiful every year.—(W.W. Gerard, St. John.)
Nova Scotia:
The Canada grouse may possibly become extinct in Nova Scotia,
unless the protection it now enjoys can save it. The American golden
plover, which formerly came in immense flocks, is now very rare.
Snowflakes are very much less common than formerly, but I think this is
because our winters are now usually much less severe. The caribou is
almost extinct on the mainland of Nova Scotia, but is still found in North
Cape Breton Island. The wolf has become excessively rare, but as it is
found in New Brunswick, it may occur here at any time again. The
beaver had been threatened with extinction; but since being protected, it
has multiplied, and is now on a fairly safe footing again.—(Curator of
Museum, Halifax.)
Ontario:
Quail are getting scarce.—(E. Tinsley, Toronto.)

Wood-duck, bob white, woodcock, golden plover, Hudsonian curlew,
knot and dowitcher [are threatened with extinction.]—(C.W. Nash,
Toronto.)
Prince Edward Island:
The species threatened with extinction are the golden plover, American
woodcock, pied-billed grebe, red-throated loon, sooty shearwater,
gadwall, ruddy duck, black-crowned night heron, Hudsonian godwit,
kildeer, northern pileated woodpecker, chimney swift, yellow-bellied
flycatcher, red-winged blackbird, pine finch, magnolia warbler, ruby-
crowned kinglet.—(E.T. Carbonell, Charlottetown.)
In closing the notes of this survey, I repeat my assurance that they are not
offered on a basis of infallibility. It would require years of work to obtain
answers from forty-eight states to the three questions that I have asked that
could be offered as absolutely exact. All these reports are submitted on the
well-recognized court-testimony basis,—"to the best of our knowledge and
belief." Gathered as they have been from persons whose knowledge is
good, these opinions are therefore valuable; and they furnish excellent
indices of wild-life conditions as they exist in 1912 in the various states and
provinces of North America north of Mexico.

CHAPTER VI
THE REGULAR ARMY OF DESTRUCTION

In order to cure any disease, the surgeon must make of it a correct
diagnosis. It is useless to try to prescribe remedies without a thorough
understanding of the trouble.
That the best and most interesting wild life of America is disappearing at
a rapid rate, we all know only too well. That proposition is entirely beyond
the domain of argument. The fact that a species or a group of species has
made a little gain here and there, or is stationary, does not sensibly diminish
the force of the descending blow. The wild-life situation is full of surprises.
For example, in 1902 I was astounded by the extent to which bird life had
decreased over the 130 miles between Miles City, Montana, and the
Missouri River since 1886; for there was no reason to expect anything of
the kind. Even the jack rabbits and coyotes had almost totally disappeared.
The duties of the present hour, that fairly thrust themselves into our faces
and will not be put aside, are these:
First,—To save valuable species from extermination!
Second,—To preserve a satisfactory representation of our once rich
fauna, to hand down to Posterity.
Third,—To protect the farmer and fruit grower from the enormous losses
that the destruction of our insectivorous and rodent-eating birds is now
inflicting upon both the producer and consumer.
Fourth,—To protect our forests, by protecting the birds that keep down
the myriads of insects that are destructive to trees and shrubs.

Fifth,—To preserve to the future sportsmen of America enough game and
fish that they may have at least a taste of the legitimate pursuit of game in
the open that has made life so interesting to the sportsmen of to-day.
For any civilized nation to exterminate valuable and interesting species
of wild mammals, birds or fishes is more than a disgrace. It is a crime! We
have no right, legal, moral or commercial, to exterminate any valuable or
interesting species; because none of them belong to us, to exterminate or
not, as we please.
For the people of any civilized nation to permit the slaughter of the wild
birds that protect its crops, its fruits and its forests from the insect hordes, is
worse than folly. It is sheer orneryness and idiocy. People who are either so
lazy or asinine as to permit the slaughter of their best friends deserve to
have their crops destroyed and their forests ravaged. They deserve to pay
twenty cents a pound for their cotton when the boll weevil has cut down the
normal supply.
It is very desirable that we should now take an inventory of the forces
that have been, and to-day are, active in the destruction of our wild birds,
mammals, and game fishes. During the past ten years a sufficient quantity
of facts and figures has become available to enable us to secure a
reasonably full and accurate view of the whole situation. As we pause on
our hill-top, and survey the field of carnage, we find that we are reviewing
the Army of Destruction!
It is indeed a motley array. We see true sportsmen beside ordinary
gunners, game-hogs and meat hunters; handsome setter dogs are mixed up
with coyotes, cats, foxes and skunks; and well-gowned women and ladies'
maids are jostled by half-naked "poor-white" and black-negro "plume
hunters."
Verily, the destruction of wild life makes strange companions.
Let us briefly review the several army corps that together make up the
army of the destroyers. Space in this volume forbids an extended notice of
each. Unfortunately it is impossible to segregate some of these classes, and
number each one, for they merge together too closely for that; but we can at
least describe the several classes that form the great mass of destroyers.

The Gentlemen Sportsmen. —These men are the very bone and sinew
of wild life preservation. These are the men who have red blood in their
veins, who annually hear the red gods calling, who love the earth, the
mountains, the woods, the waters and the sky. These are the men to whom
"the bag" is a matter of small importance, and to whom "the bag-limit" has
only academic interest; because in nine cases out of ten they do not care to
kill all that the law allows. The tenth and exceptional time is when the bag
limit is "one." A gentleman sportsman is a man who protects game, stops
shooting when he has "enough"—without reference to the legal bag-limit,
and whenever a species is threatened with extinction, he conscientiously
refrains from shooting it.
The true sportsmen of the world are the men who once were keen in the
stubble or on the trail, but who have been halted by the general slaughter
and the awful decrease of game. Many of them, long before a hair has
turned gray, have hung up their guns forever, and turned to the camera.
These are the men who are willing to hand out checks, or to leave their
mirth and their employment and go to the firing line at their state capitols,
to lock horns with the bull-headed killers of wild life who recognize no
check or limit save the law.
These are the men who have done the most to put upon our statute books
the laws that thus far have saved some of our American game from total
annihilation, and who (so we firmly believe) will be chiefly instrumental in
tightening the lines of protection around the remnant. These are the men
who are making and stocking game preserves, public and private, great and
small.

Drawn by Dan Beard

THE REGULAR ARMY OF DESTRUCTION, WAITING FOR THE FIRST
OF OCTOBER
Each Year 2,642,274 Well-Armed Men Take the Field Against the Remnant of Wild Birds
and Mammals In the United States

If you wish to know some of these men, I will tell you where to find a
goodly number of them; and when you find them, you will also find that
they are men you would enjoy camping with! Look in the membership lists
of the Boone and Crockett Club, Camp-Fire Club of America, the Lewis
and Clark Club of Pittsburgh, the New York State League, the Shikar Club
of London, the Society for the Preservation of the Wild Fauna of the British
Empire, the Massachusetts Fish and Game Protective Association, the
Springfield (Mass.) Sportsmen's Association, the Camp-Fire Clubs of
Detroit and Chicago, and the North American Fish and Game Protective
Association.
There are other bodies of sportsmen that I would like to name, were
space available, but to set down here a complete list is quite impossible.

The best and the most of the game-protective laws now in force in the
United States and Canada were brought into existence through the initiative
and efforts of the real sportsmen of those two nations. But for their activity,
exerted on the right side, the settled portion of North America would to-day
be an utterly gameless land! Even though the sportsmen have taken their
toll of the wilds, they have made the laws that have saved a remnant of the
game until 1912.
For all that, however, every man who still shoots game is a soldier in the
Army of Destruction! There is no blinking that fact. Such men do not stand
on the summit with the men who now protect the game and do not shoot at
all! The millions of men who do not shoot, and who also do nothing to
protect or preserve wild life, do not count! In this warfare they are merely
ciphers in front of the real figures.
The Gunners, Who Kill To The Limit. —Out of the enormous mass of
men who annually take up arms against the remnant of wild life, and are
called "sportsmen," I believe that only one out of every 500 conscientiously
stops shooting when game becomes scarce, and extinction is impending. All
of the others feel that it is right and proper to kill all the game that they can
kill up to the legal bag limit. It is the reasoning of Shylock:
"Justice demands it, and the law doth give it!"
Especially is this true of the men who pay their one dollar per year for a
resident hunting license, and feel that in doing so they have done a great
Big Thing!
This is a very deadly frame of mind. Ethically it is entirely wrong; and at
least two million men and boys who shoot American game must be shown
that it is wrong! This is the spirit of Extermination, clothed in the robes of
Law and Justice.
Whenever and wherever game birds are so scarce that a good shot who
hunts hard during a day in the fields finds only three or four birds, he
should stop shooting at once, and devote his mind and energies to the
problem of bringing back the game! It is strange that conditions do not
make this duty clear to every conscientious citizen.

The Shylock spirit which prompts a man to kill all that "the law allows"
is a terrible scourge to the wild life of America, and to the world at large. It
is the spirit of extermination according to law. Even the killing of game for
the market is not so great a scourge as this; for this spirit searches out the
game in every nook and cranny of the world, and spares not. In effect it
says: "If the law is defective, it is right for me to take every advantage of it!
I do not need to have any conscience in the matter outside the letter of the
law."
The extent to which this amazing spirit prevails is positively awful. You
will find it among pseudo game-protectors to a paralyzing extent! It is the
great gunner's paradox, and it pervades this country from corner to corner.
No: there is no use in trying to "educate" the mass of the hunters of America
out of it, as a means of saving the game; for positively it can not be done!
Do not waste time in trying it. If you rely upon it, you will be doing a great
wrong to wild life, and promoting extermination. The only remedy is
sweeping laws, for long close seasons, for a great many species. Forget the
paltry dollar-a-year license money. The license fees never represent more
than a tenth part of the value of the game that is killed under licenses.
The savage desire to kill "all that the law allows" often is manifested in
men in whom we naturally expect to find a very different spirit. By way of
illumination, I offer three cases out of the many that I could state.
Case No. 1. The Duck Breeder. —A gentleman of my acquaintance has
spent several years and much money in breeding wild ducks. From my
relations with him, I had acquired the belief that he was a great lover of
ducks, and at least wished all species well. One whizzing cold day in winter
he called upon me, and stated that he had been duck-hunting; which
surprised me. He added, "I have just spent two days on Great South Bay,
and I made a great killing. In the two days I got ninety-four ducks!"
I said, "How could you do it,—caring for wild ducks as you do?"
"Well, I had hunted ducks twice before on Great South Bay and didn't
have very good luck; but this time the cold weather drove the ducks in, and
I got square with them!"

Case No. 2. The Ornithologist. —A short time ago the news was
published in Forest and Stream, that a well-known ornithologist had
distinguished himself in one of the mid-western states by the skill he had
displayed in bagging thirty-four ducks in one day, greatly to the envy of the
natives; and if this shoe fits any American naturalist, he is welcome to put it
on and wear it.
Case No. 3. The Sportsman. —A friend of mine in the South is the owner
of a game preserve in which wild ducks are at times very numerous. Once
upon a time he was visited by a northern sportsmen who takes a deep and
abiding interest in the preservation of game. The sportsman was invited to
go out duck-shooting; ducks being then in season there. He said:
"Yes, I will go; and I want you to
put me in a place where I can kill a
hundred ducks in a day! I never have
done that yet, and I would like to do
it, once!"
"All right," said my friend, "I can
put you in such a place; and if you can
shoot well enough, you can kill a
hundred ducks in a day."
The effort was made in all
earnestness. There was much
shooting, but few were the ducks that
fell before it. In concluding this story
my friend remarked in a tone of
G. O. SHIELDS disgust:
A notable defender of Wild Life
"All the game-preserving
sportsmen that come to me are just like that! They want to kill all they can
kill!"
There is a blood-test by which to separate the conscientious sportsmen
from the mere gunners. Here it is:
A sportsman stops shooting when game becomes scarce; and he does not
object to long-close-season laws; but

A gunner believes in killing "all that the law allows;" and he objects to
long close seasons!
I warrant that whenever and wherever this test is applied it will separate
the sheep from the goats. It applies in all America, all Asia and Africa, and
in Greenland, with equal force.
The Game-Hog. —This term was coined by G.O. Shields, in 1897, when
he was editor and owner of Recreation Magazine, and it has come into
general use. It has been recognized by a judge on the bench as being an
appropriate term to apply to all men who selfishly slaughter wild game
beyond the limits of decency. Although it is a harsh term, and was
mercilessly used by Mr. Shields in his fierce war on the men who
slaughtered game for "sport," it has jarred at least a hundred thousand men
into their first realization of the fact that to-day there is a difference
between decency and indecency in the pursuit of game. The use of the term
has done very great good; but, strange to say, it has made for Mr. Shields a
great many enemies outside the ranks of the game-hogs themselves! From
this one might fairly suppose that there is such a thing as a sympathetic
game-hog!
One thing at least is certain. During a period of about six years, while his
war with the game-hogs was on, from Maine to California, Mr. Shields's
name became a genuine terror to excessive killers of game; and it is
reasonably certain that his war saved a great number of game birds from the
slaughter that otherwise would have overtaken them!
The number of armed men and boys who annually take the field in the
United States in the pursuit of birds and quadrupeds, is enormous. People
who do not shoot have no conception of it; and neither do they comprehend
the mechanical perfection and fearful deadliness of the weapons used. This
feature of the situation can hardly be realized until some aspect of it is
actually seen.
I have been at some pains to collect the latest figures showing the number
of hunting licenses issued in 1911, but the total is incomplete. In some
states the figures are not obtainable, and in some states there are no hunters'
license laws. The figures of hunting licenses issued in 1911 that I have
obtained from official sources are set forth below.

The United States Army Of Destruction
Hunting Licenses issued in 1911
Alabama 5,090 Montana 59,291
California 138,689 Nebraska 39,402
Colorado 41,058 New Hampshire 33,542
Connecticut 19,635 New Jersey 61,920
Idaho 50,342 New Mexico 7,000
Illinois 192,244 New York 150,222
Indiana 54,813 Rhode Island 6,541
Iowa 91,000 South Dakota 31,054
Kansas 44,069 Utah 27,800
Louisiana 76,000 Vermont 31,762
Maine 2,552 Washington, about 40,000
Massachusetts 45,039 Wisconsin 138,457
Michigan 22,323 Wyoming 9,721
Missouri 66,662 _______
Total number of regularly licensed gunners 1,486,228

The average for the twenty-seven states that issued licenses as shown
above is 55,046 for each state.
Now, the twenty-one states issuing no licenses, or not reporting,
produced in 1911 fully as many gunners per capita as did the other twenty-
seven states. Computed fairly on existing averages they must have turned
out a total of 1,155,966 gunners, making for all the United States 2,642,194
armed men and boys warring upon the remnant of game in 1911. We are not
counting the large number of lawless hunters who never take out licenses.
Now, is Mr. Beard's picture a truthful presentation, or not?
New York with only deer, ruffed grouse, shore-birds, ducks and a very
few woodcock to shoot annually puts into the field 150,222 armed men. In
1909 they killed about 9,000 deer!
New Jersey, spending $30,000 in 1912 in efforts to restock her covers
with game, and with a population of 2,537,167, sent out in 1911 a total
army of 61,920 well-armed gunners. How can any of her game survive?
New Hampshire, with only 430,572 population, has 33,542 licensed
hunters,—equal to thirty-three regiments of full strength!
Vermont, with 355,956 people, sends out annually an army of 31,762 men
who hunt according to law; and in 1910 they killed 3,649 deer.

Utah, with only 373,351 population, had 27,800 men in the field after her
very small remnant of game! How can any wild thing of Utah escape?
Montana, population 376,053, had in 1911 an army of 59,291 well-armed
men, warring chiefly upon the big game, and swiftly exterminating it.
How long can any of the big game stand before the army of two and one-
half million well-armed men, eager and keen to kill, and out to get an
equivalent for their annual expenditure in guns, ammunition and other
expenses?
In addition to the hunters themselves, they are assisted by thousands of
expert guides, thousands of horses, thousands of dogs, hundreds of
automobiles and hundreds of thousands of tents. Each big-game hunter has
an experienced guide who knows the haunts and habits of the game, the
best feeding grounds, the best trails, and everything else that will aid the
hunter in taking the game at a disadvantage and destroying it. The big-game
rifles are of the highest power, the longest range, the greatest accuracy and
the best repeating mechanism that modern inventive genius can produce. It
is said that in Wyoming the Maxim silencer is now being used. England has
produced a weapon of a new type, called "the scatter rifle," which is
intended for use on ducks. The best binoculars are used in searching out the
game, and horses carry the hunters and guides as near as possible to the
game. For bears, baits are freely used, and in the pursuit of pumas, dogs are
employed to the limit of the available supply.
The deadliness of the automobile in hunting already is so apparent that
North Dakota has wisely and justly forbidden their use by law, (1911). The
swift machine enables city gunmen to penetrate game regions they could
not reach with horses, and hunt through from four to six localities per day,
instead of one only, as formerly. The use of automobiles in hunting should
be everywhere prohibited.
Every appliance and assistance that money can buy, the modern
sportsman secures to help him against the game. The game is beset during
its breeding season by various wild enemies,—foxes, cats, wolves, pumas,
lynxes, eagles, and many other predatory species. The only help that it
receives is in the form of an annual close season—which thus far has saved

in America only a few local moose, white-tailed deer and a few game birds,
from steady and sure extermination.
The bag limits on which vast reliance is placed to preserve the wild
game, are a fraud, a delusion and a snare! The few local exceptions only
prove the generality of the rule. In every state, without one single exception,
the bag limits are far too high, and the laws are of deadly liberality. In many
states, the bag limit laws on birds are an absolute dead letter. Fancy the 125
wardens of New York enforcing the bag-limit laws on 150,000 gunners! It
is this horrible condition that is enabling the licensed army of destruction to
get in its deadly work on the game, all over the world. In America, the over-
liberality of the laws are to blame for two-thirds of the carnival of slaughter,
and the successful evasions of the law are responsible for the other third.

TWO GUNNERS OF KANSAS CITY
Who Believe in Killing all That the Law Allows. They are not so Much to Blame as the
System That Permits Such Slaughter. (Note the Pump Guns)

WHY THE SANDHILL CRANE IS BECOMING EXTINCT
Nineteen of Them Killed as "Game" by Three Gunners. Note the Machine Gun.

The only remedy for the present extermination of game according to law
that so rapidly and so furiously is proceeding all over the United States,
Canada, Alaska, and Africa, is ten-year close seasons on all the species
threatened with extinction, and immensely reduced open seasons and bag
limits on all the others.
Will the people who still have wild game take heed now, and clamp down
the brakes, hard and fast before it is too late, or will they have their game
exterminated?
Shall we have five-year close seasons, or close seasons of 500 years? We
must take our choice.
Shall we hand down to our children a gameless continent, with all the
shame that such a calamity will entail?
We have got to answer these questions like men, or they will soon be
answered for us by the extermination of the wild life. For twenty-five years
we have been smarting under the disgrace of the extermination of our bison
millions. Let us not repeat the dose through the destruction of other species.

CHAPTER VII
THE GUERRILLAS OF DESTRUCTION

We have now to deal with The Guerrillas Of Destruction.
In warfare, a guerrilla, or bushwhacker, is an armed man who recognizes
none of the rules of civilized warfare, and very often has no commander. In
France he is called a "franc-tireur," or free-shooter. The guerrilla goes out to
live on the country, to skulk, to war on the weak, and never attack save
from ambush, or when the odds clearly are on his side. His military status is
barely one remove from that of the spy.
The meat-shooters who harry the game and other wild life in order to use
it as a staple food supply; the Italians, negroes and others who shoot song-
birds as food; the plume-hunters and the hide-and-tusk hunters all over the
world are the guerrillas of the Army of Destruction. Let us consider some of
these grand divisions in detail.
Here is an inexorable law of Nature, to which there are no exceptions:
No wild species of bird, mammal, reptile or fish can withstand
exploitation for commercial purposes.
The men who pursue wild creatures for the money or other value there is
in them, never give up. They work at slaughter when other men are
enjoying life, or are asleep. If they are persistent, no species on which they
fix the Evil Eye escapes extermination at their hands.
Does anyone question this statement? If so let him turn backward and
look at the lists of dead and dying species.

The Division Of Meat-Shooters contains all men who sordidly shoot
for the frying-pan,—to save bacon and beef at the expense of the public, or
for the markets. There are a few wilderness regions so remote and so
difficult of access that the transportation of meat into them is a matter of
much difficulty and expense. There are a very few men in North America
who are justified in "living off the country," for short periods. The genuine
prospectors always have been counted in this class; but all miners who are
fully located, all lumbermen and railway-builders certainly are not in the
prospector's class. They are abundantly able to maintain continuous lines of
communication for the transit of beef and mutton.
Of all the meat-shooters, the market-gunners who prey on wild fowl and
ground game birds for the big-city markets are the most deadly to wild life.
Enough geese, ducks, brant, quail, ruffed grouse, prairie chickens, heath
hens and wild pigeons have been butchered by gunners and netters for "the
market" to have stocked the whole world. No section containing a good
supply of game has escaped. In the United States the great slaughtering-
grounds have been Cape Cod; Great South Bay, New York; Currituck
Sound, North Carolina; Marsh Island, Louisiana; the southwest corner of
Louisiana; the Sunk Lands of Arkansas; the lake regions of Minnesota; the
prairies of the whole middle West; Great Salt Lake; the Klamath Lake
region (Oregon) and southern California.

A MARKET GUNNER AT WORK ON MARSH ISLAND
Killing Mallards for the New Orleans Market. The Purchase of This Island by Mrs.
Russell Sage has now Converted it Into a Bird Sanctuary

The output of this systematic bird slaughter has supplied the greedy game
markets of Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Washington, Baltimore,
Chicago, New Orleans, St. Louis, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, Portland,
and Seattle. The history of this industry, its methods, its carnage, its profits
and its losses would make a volume, but we can not enter upon it here.
Beyond reasonable doubt, this awful traffic in dead game is responsible for
at least three-fourths of the slaughter that has reduced our game birds to a
mere remnant of their former abundance. There is no influence so deadly to
wild life as that of the market gunner who works six days a week, from
sunrise until sunset, hunting down and killing every game bird that he can
reach with a choke-bore gun.
During the past five years, several of the once-great killing grounds have
been so thoroughly "shot out" that they have ceased to hold their former
rank. This is the case with the Minnesota Lakes, the Sunk Lands of
Arkansas, the Klamath Lakes of Oregon, and I think it is also true of
southern California. The Klamath Lakes have been taken over by the
Government as a bird refuge. Currituck Sound, at the northeastern corner of
North Carolina, has been so bottled up by the Bayne law of New York State
that Currituck's greatest market has been cut off. Last year only one-half the
usual number of ducks and geese were killed; and already many
"professional" duck and brant shooters have abandoned the business
because the commission merchants no longer will buy dead birds.
Very many enormous bags of game have been made in a day by market
gunners: but rarely have they published any of their records. The greatest
kill of which I ever have heard occurred under the auspices of the Glenn
County Club, in southern California, on February 5, 1906. Two men, armed
with automatic shot-guns, fired five shots apiece, and got ten geese out of
one flock. In one hour they killed two hundred and eighteen geese, and their
bag for the day was four hundred and fifty geese! The shooter who wrote
the story for publication (on February 12, at Willows, Glenn County,
California) said: "It being warm weather, the birds had to be shipped at once
in order to keep them from spoiling." A photograph was made of the "one
hour's slaughter" of two hundred and eighteen geese, and it was published

in a western magazine
with "C.H.B.'s" story,
nearly all of which will be
found in Chapter XV.
The reasons why
market shooting is so
deadly destructive to wild
life are not obscure.
The true sportsman
hunts during a very few
days only each year. The
market gunners shoot
early and late, six days a
RUFFED GROUSE week, month after month.
A Common Victim of Illegal Slaughter When game is abundant,
the price is low, and a
great quantity must be killed in order to make it pay well. When game is
scarce, the market prices are high, and the shooter makes the utmost
exertions to find the last of the game in order to secure the "big money."
When game is protected by law, thousands of people with money desire it
for their tables, just the same, and are willing to pay fabulous prices for
what they want, when they want it. Many a dealer is quite willing to run the
risk of fines, because fines don't really hurt; they are only annoying. The
dealer wishes to make the big profit, and retain his customers; "and
besides," he reasons, "if I don't supply him some one else will; so what is
the difference?"
When game is scarce, prices high and the consumer's money ready, there
are a hundred tricks to which shooters and dealers willingly resort to ship
and receive unlawful game without detection. It takes the very best kind of
game wardens,—genuine detectives, in fact,—to ferret out these cunning
illegal practices, and catch lawbreakers "with the goods on them," so that
they can be punished. Mind you, convictions can not be secured at both
ends of the line save by the most extraordinary good fortune, and usually

the shooter and shipper escape, even when the dealer is apprehended and
fined.

From "Rod and Gun in Canada"

A PERFECTLY LAWFUL BAG OF 58 RUFFED GROUSE FOR TWO MEN

Here are some of the methods that have been practiced in the past in
getting illegal game into the New York market:
Ruffed grouse and quail have both been shipped in butter firkins, marked
"butter"; and latterly, butter has actually been packed solidly on top of the
birds.
Ruffed grouse and quail very often have been shipped in egg crates,
marked "eggs." They have been shipped in trunks and suit cases,—a very
common method for illegal game birds, all over the United States. In

Oklahoma when a man refuses to open his trunk for a game warden, the
warden joyously gets out his brace and bitt, and bores an inch hole into the
lower story of the trunk. If dead birds are there, the tell-tale auger quickly
reveals them.
Three years ago, I was told that certain milk-wagons on Long Island
made daily collections of dead ducks intended for the New York market,
and the drivers kindly shipped them by express from the end of the route.
Once upon a time, a New York man gave notice that on a certain date he
would be in a certain town in St. Lawrence County, New York, with a
palace horse-car, "to buy horses." Car and man appeared there as
advertised. Very ostentatiously, he bought one horse, and had it taken
aboard the car before the gaze of the admiring populace. At night, when the
A.P. had gone to bed, many men appeared, and into the horseless end of that
car, they loaded thousands of ruffed grouse. The game warden who
described the incident to me said: "That man pulled out for New York with
one horse and half a car load of ruffed grouse!"
Whenever a good market exists for the sale of game, as sure as the world
that market will be supplied. Twenty-six states forbid by law the sale of
their own "protected" game, but twenty of them do not expressly prohibit
the sale of game stolen from neighboring states! That is a very, very weak
point in the laws of all those states. A child can see how it works. Take
Pittsburgh as a case in point.
In the winter and spring of 1912 the State Game Commission of
Pennsylvania found that quail and ruffed grouse were being sold in
Pittsburgh, in large quantities. The state laws were well enforced, and it was
believed that the birds were not being killed in Pennsylvania. Some other
state was being robbed!
The Game Commission went to work, and in a very short time certain
game-dealers of Pittsburgh were arrested. At first they tried to bluff their
way out of their difficulty, and even went as far as to bring charges against
the game-warden whom the Commission had instructed to buy some of
their illegal game, and pay for it. But the net of the law tightened upon them
so quickly and so tightly that they threw up their hands and begged for
mercy.

It was found that those
Pittsburgh game-dealers were
selling quail and grouse that
had been stolen in thousands,
from the state of Kentucky!
Between the state game laws,
working in lovely harmony
with the Lacey federal law
that prohibits the shipment of
game illegally killed or sold,
the whole bad business was
laid bare, and signed
confessions were promptly
SNOW BUNTING
A Great "Game Bird"! Of These, 8,058 Were Found in
obtained from the shippers in
1902 in one New York Cold-Storage Warehouse Kentucky.
At that very time, a good bill for the better protection of her game was
before the Kentucky legislature; and a certain member was vigorously
opposing it, as he had successfully done in previous years. He was told that
the state was being robbed, but refused to believe it. Then a signed
confession was laid before him, bearing the name of the man who was
instigating his opposition,—his friend,—who confessed that he had illegally
bought and shipped to Pittsburgh over 5,000 birds. The objector literally
threw up his hands, and said, "I have been wrong! Let the bill go through!"
And it went.
Before the passage of the Bayne law, New York City was a "fence" for
the sale of grouse illegally killed in Massachusetts, Connecticut,
Pennsylvania, New Jersey and I know not how many other states. The
Bayne law stopped all that business, abruptly and forever; and if the ruffed
grouse, quail and ducks of the Eastern States are offered for sale in
Chicago, Cincinnati, Baltimore and Washington, the people of New York
and Massachusetts can at least be assured that they are not to blame. Those
two states now maintain no "fences" for the sale of game that has been
stolen from other states. They have both set their houses in order, and set
two examples for forty other states to follow.

The remedy for all this miserable game-stealing, law-breaking business is
simple and easily obtained. Let each state of the United States and each
province and Canada enact a Bayne law, absolutely prohibiting the sale of
all wild native game, and the thing is done! But nothing short of that will be
really effective. It will not do at all to let state laws rest with merely
forbidding the sale of game "protected by the State;" for that law is full of
loop-holes. It does much good service, yes; but what earthly objection can
there be in any state to the enactment of a law that is sweepingly effective,
and which can not be evaded, save through the criminal connivance of
officers of the law?
By way of illustration, to show what the sale of wild game means to the
remnant of our game, and the wicked slaughter of non-game birds to which
it leads, consider these figures:
Dead Birds Found In One Cold Storage House In New York In 1902
Snow Buntings 8,058 Grouse 7,560
Sandpipers 7,607 Quail 4,385
Plover 5,218 Ducks 1,756
Snipe 7,003 Bobolinks 288
Yellow-legs 788 Woodcock 96

The fines for this lot, if imposed, would have amounted to $1,168,315.
Shortly after that seizure American quail became so scarce that in effect
they totally disappeared from the banquet tables of New York. I can not
recall having been served with one since 1903, but the little Egyptian quail
can be legally imported and sold when officially tagged.
Few persons away from the firing line realize the far-reaching effects of
the sale of wild game. Here are a few flashes from the searchlight:
At Hangkow, China, Mr. C. William Beebe found that during his visit in
1911, over 46,000 pheasants of various species were shipped from that port
on one cold-storage steamer to the London market. And this when English
pheasants were selling in the Covent Garden market at from two to three
shillings each, for fresh birds!
In 1910, 1,200 ptarmigan from Norway, bound for the Chicago market,
passed through the port of New York,—not by any means the first or the

last shipment of the kind. The epicures of Chicago are being permitted to
comb the game out of Norway.
In 1910, 70,000 dozen Egyptian quail were shipped to Europe from
Alexandria, Egypt. Just why that species has not already been exterminated,
is a zoological mystery; but extermination surely will come some day, and I
think it will be in the near future.
The coast of China has been raked and scraped for wild ducks to ship to
New York,—prior to the passage of the Bayne law! I have forgotten the
figures that once were given me, but they were an astonishing number of
thousands for the year.
The Division of Negroes and Poor Whites who kill song and other birds
indiscriminately will be found in a separate chapter.
The Division Of "Resident" Game-Butchers. —This refers to the men
who live in the haunts of big game, where wardens are the most of the time
totally absent, and where bucks, does and fawns of hoofed big game may be
killed in season and out of season, with impunity. It includes guides,
ranchmen, sheep-herders, cowboys, miners, lumbermen and floaters
generally. In times past, certain taxidermists of Montana promoted the
slaughter of wild bison in the Yellowstone Park, and it was a pair of rascally
taxidermists who killed, or caused to be killed in Lost Park, in 1897, the
very last bison of Colorado.
It seems to be natural for the minds of men who live in America in the
haunts of big game to drift into the idea that the wild game around them is
all theirs. Very few of them recognize the fact that every other man, woman
and child in a given state or province has vested rights in its wild game. It is
natural for a frontiersman to feel that because he is in the wilds he has a
God-given right to live off the country; but to-day that idea is totally
wrong! If some way can not be found to curb that all-pervading propensity
among our frontiersmen, then we may as well bid all our open-field big
game a long farewell; for the deadly "residents" surely will exterminate it,
outside the game preserves. The "residents" are, in my opinion, about ten
times more destructive than the sportsmen. A sportsman in quest of large
game is in the field only from ten to thirty days; all his movements are
known, and all his trophies are seen and counted. His killing is limited by

law, and upon him the law is actually enforced. Often a resident hunts the
whole twelve months of the year,—for food, for amusement, and for
trophies to sell. Rarely does a game warden reach his cabin; because the
wardens are few, the distances great and the frontier cabins are widely
scattered.
Mr. Carl Pickhardt told me of a guide in Newfoundland who had a shed
in the woods hanging full of bodies of caribou, and who admitted to him
that while the law allowed him five caribou each year, he killed each year
about twenty-five.
Mr. J.M. Phillips knows of a mountain in British Columbia, once well
stocked with goats, on which the goats have been completely exterminated
by one man who lives within easy striking distance of them, and who finds
goat meat to his liking.
I have been reliably informed that in 1911, at Haha Lake, near Grande
Bay, Saguenay District, P.Q., one family of six persons killed thirty-four
woodland caribou and six moose. This meant the waste of about 14,000
pounds of good meat, and the death of several female animals.
In 1886 I knew a man named Owens who lived on the head of Sunday
Creek, Montana, who told me that in 1884-5 he killed thirty-five mule deer
for himself and family. The family ate as much as possible, the dogs ate all
they could, and in the spring the remainder spoiled. Now there is not a deer,
an antelope, or a sage grouse within fifty miles of that lifeless waste.
Here is a Montana object lesson on the frame of mind of the "resident"
hunter, copied from Outdoor Life Magazine (Denver) for February, 1912. It
is from a letter to the Editor, written by C.B. Davis.
November 27, 28, 29, and 30, 1911, will remain a red letter
day with a half thousand men for years to come. These half
thousand men gathered along the border of the Yellowstone
National Park, near Gardiner, Montana, at a point known as
Buffalo Flats, to exterminate elk. The snow had driven the elk
down to the foothills, and Buffalo Flats is on the border of the
park and outside the park. The elk entered this little valley for
food. Like hungry wolves, shooters, not hunters, gathered along

the border waiting to catch an elk off the "reservation" and kill
it.
On November 27th about 1500 elk crossed the line, and the
slaughter began. I have not the data of the number killed this
day, but it was hundreds.
On the 28th, twenty-two stepped over and were promptly
executed. Like Custer's band, not one escaped. On the evening
of the 28th, 600 were sighted just over the line, and the army of
125 brave men entrenched themselves for the battle which was
expected to open next morning. Before daylight of the 29th the
battle began. The elk were over the line, feeding on Buffalo
Flats. One hundred and twenty-five men poured bullets into this
band of 600 elk till the ground was red with blood and strewn
with carcasses, and in their madness they shot each other. One
man was shot through the ear,—a close call; another received a
bullet through his coat sleeve, and another was shot through the
bowels and can't live.
My informer told me he participated in the slaughter, and
while he would not take fifty dollars for what he saw, and the
experience he went through, yet he would not go through it
again for $1,000. When my informer got back to Gardiner that
day there were four sleigh loads of elk, each load containing
from twenty to thirty-five elk, besides thirty-two mules and
horses carrying one to two each. This was only a part of the
slaughter. Hundreds more were carried to other points; and this
was only one day's work.
Hundreds of wounded elk wandered back into the park to die,
and others died outside the park. The station at Livingston,
Montana, for a week looked like a packing house. Carcasses
were piled up on the trucks and depot platform. The baggage
cars were loaded with elk going to points east and west of
Livingston.
Maybe this is all right. Maybe the government can't stop the
elk from crossing the line. Maybe the elk were helped over; but

it strikes me there is something wrong somewhere.
The Division Of Hired Laborers. —The scourge of lumber-camps in
big-game territory, the mining camps and the railroad-builders is a long
story, and if told in detail it would make several chapters. Their awful
destructiveness is well known. It is a common thing for "the boss" to hire a
hunter to kill big game to supply the hungry outfit, and save beef and pork.
The abuses arising from this source easily could be checked, and finally
suppressed. A ten-line law would do the business,—forbidding any person
employed in any camp of sheep men, cattle men, lumbermen, miners,
railway laborers or excavators to own or use a rifle in hunting wild game;
and forbidding any employer of labor to feed those laborers, or permit them
to be fed, on the flesh of wild game mammals or birds. "Camp" laborers are
not "pioneers;" not by a long shot! They are soldiers of Commerce, and
makers of money.
A Mountain Sheep Case In Colorado. —The state of Colorado
sincerely desires to protect and perpetuate its slender remnant of mountain
sheep, but as usual the Lawless Miscreant is abroad to thwart the efforts of
the guardians of the game. Every state that strives to protect its big game
has such doings as this to contend with:
In the winter of 1911-12, a resident poacher brought into Grant,
Colorado, a lot of mountain sheep meat for sale; and he actually sold it to
residents of that town! The price was six cents per pound. A lot of it was
purchased by the railway station-agent. I have no doubt that the same man
who did that job, which was made possible only by the co-operation of the
citizens of Grant, will try the same poaching-and-selling game next winter,
unless the State Game Commissioner is able to bring him to book.
A Wyoming Case In Point. —As a fair sample of what game wardens,
and the general public, are sometimes compelled to endure through the
improper decisions of judges, I will cite this case:
In the Shoshone Mountains of northern Wyoming, about fifty miles or so
from the town of Cody, in the winter of 1911-12 a man was engaged in
trapping coyotes. It was currently reported that he had been "driven out of
Montana and Idaho." He had scores of traps. He baited his traps with the

flesh of deer, elk calves and grouse, all illegally killed and illegally used for
that purpose. A man of my acquaintance saw some of this game meat
actually used as described.
The man was a notorious character, and cruel in the extreme. Finally a
game warden caught him red-handed, arrested him, and took him to Cody
for trial. It happened that the judge on the bench had once trapped with him,
and therefore "he set the game-killer free, while the game-warden was
roasted."
That wolf-trapper once took into the mountains a horse, to kill and use as
bear-bait. The animal was blind in one eye, and because it would not graze
precisely where the wolfer desired it to remain, he deliberately destroyed
the sight of its good eye, and left it for days, without the ability to find
water.
Think of the fate of any wild animal that unkind Fate places at the mercy
of such a man!

CHAPTER VIII
UNSEEN FOES OF WILD LIFE

Quite unintentionally on his part, Man, the arch destroyer and the most predatory
and merciless of all animal species except the wolves, has rendered a great service to
all the birds that live or nest upon the ground. His relentless pursuit and destruction of
the savage-tempered, strong-jawed fur-bearing animals is in part the salvation of the
ground birds of to-day and yesterday. If the teeth and claws had been permitted to
multiply unchecked down to the present time, with man's warfare on the upland game
proceeding as it has done, scores upon scores of species long ere this would have been
exterminated.
But the slaughter of the millions of North American foxes, wolves, weasels, skunks,
and mink has so overwhelmingly reduced the four-footed enemies of the birds that the
balance of wild Nature has been preserved. As a rule, the few predatory wild animals
that remain are not slaughtering the birds to a serious extent; and for this we may well
be thankful.
The Domestic Cat. —In such thickly settled communities as our northern states,
from the Atlantic coast to the sandhills of Kansas and Nebraska, the domestic cat is
probably the greatest four-footed scourge of bird life. Thousands of persons who never
have seen a hunting cat in action will doubt this statement, but the proof of its
truthfulness is only too painfully abundant.
Unhappily it is the way of the hunting cat to stalk unseen, and to kill the very birds
that are most friendly with man, and most helpful to him in his farming and fruit-
growing business. The quail is about the only game bird that the cat affects seriously,
and to it the cat is very destructive. It is the robin, catbird, thrush, bluebird, dove,
woodpecker, chickadee, phoebe, tanager and other birds of the lawn, the garden and
orchard that afford good hunting for sly and savage old Thomas.
When I was a boy in my 'teens, I had a lasting series of object lessons on the cat as a
predatory animal. Our "Betty" was the most ambitious and successful domestic-cat
hunter of wild mammals of which I ever have heard. To her, rats and mice were mere
child's-play, and after a time their pursuit offered such tame sport that she sought fresh
fields for her prowess. Then she brought in young rabbits, chipmunks and thirteen-

lined spermophiles, and once she came in, quite exhausted, half dragging and half
carrying a big, fat pocket gopher. With her it seemed to be a point of honor that she
should bring in her game and display it. Little did we realize then that in course of
time the wild birds would become so scarce that their slaughter by house cats would
demand legislative action in the states.
In considering the hunting cat, let us call in a credible witness of the effects of
domestic cats on the bob white. The following is an eye-witness report, by Ernest B.
Beardsley, in Outdoor Life for April, 1912. The locality was Wellington, Sumner
County, Kansas.
In the meantime, old Queen was having a high old time up ahead,
some hundred feet by then, running up the bank and back down in the
draw. We had hardly caught up when up goes Mr. Savage's gun and he
gives both barrels. I had seen nothing up to date, but I didn't have long to
wait, for by the time I got up to him and the dog, they were both in the
high grass and had a great, big, common gray maltese house-cat; and
Queen had a half-eaten quail that Mr. Cat was busy with when disturbed.
Well, we followed the draw across the field and got nine of a covey of
sixteen that had been ahead of Mr. Cat; and about four o'clock that
evening we killed another white-and-gray cat. While driving home that
night, Mr. Savage told me that he had killed fifty or more in three or four
years. They will get in a draw full of tumble-grass, on a cold day when
quail don't like to fly, and stay right with them; and even after feeding on
two or three, they will lie and watch, and when the covey moves, they
move. When eating time comes around they are at it again, and to a covey
of young birds they are sure death to the whole covey.
Well, Will told me never to overlook a house-cat that I found as far as a
quarter of a mile from a farm or ranch, for if they have not already turned
wild, they are learning how easy it is to hunt and live on game, and are
almost as bad. We found Mr. Black-and-White Hunter had eaten two
quail just before we killed him that evening. I would rather not write what
Mr. Savage said when we found the remains of a partly-eaten bird.
My advice is, don't let tame cats get away when found out hunting; for
the chances are they have not seen a home in months, and maybe years,
—and say! but they do get big and bad. When you meet one, give it to
him good, and don't let your dog run up to him until he is out for keeps. I
learned afterwards that was how Will knew it was a cat. Queen had
learned to back off and call for help on cats some years before.

In the New York Zoological Park, we have had troubles of our own with marauding
cats. They establish themselves in a day, and quickly learn where to seek easy game
and good cover. In the daytime they lie close in the thick brush, exactly as tigers do in
India, but if not molested for a period of days, they become bold and attack game in
open view. One bird-killing cat was so shy of man that it was only after two weeks of
hard hunting (mornings and evenings) that it was killed.
We have seen cats catch and kill gray squirrels, chipmunks, robins and thrushes, and
have found the feathers of slaughtered quail. Once we had gray rabbits breeding in the
park, and their number reached between eighty and ninety. For a time they fearlessly
hopped about in sight from our windows, and they were of great interest to visitors and
to all of us. Then the cats began upon them; and in one year there was not a rabbit to
be seen, save at rare intervals. At the same time the chipmunks of the park were almost
exterminated.
That was the last straw, and we began a vigorous war upon those wild and predatory
cats. The cats came off second best. We killed every cat that was found hunting in the
park, and we certainly got some that were big and bad. We eliminated that pest, and
we are keeping it eliminated. And with what result?
In 1911 a covey of eleven quail came and settled in our grounds, and have remained
there. Twenty times at least during the past eight months (winter and spring) I have
seen the flock on the granite ledge not more than forty feet from the rear window of
my office. Last spring when I left the Administration Building at six o'clock, after the
visitors had gone, I found two half-grown rabbits calmly roosting on the door-mat. The
rabbits are slowly coming back, and the chipmunks are visibly increasing in number.
The gray squirrels now chase over the walks without fear of any living thing, and our
ducklings and young guineas and peacocks are safe once more.
That cats destroy annually in the United States several millions of very valuable
birds, seems fairly beyond question. I believe that in settled regions they are worse
than weasels, foxes, skunks and mink combined; because there are about one hundred
times as many of them, and those that hunt are not afraid to hunt in the daytime. Of
course I am not saying that all cats hunt wild game; but in the country I believe that
fully one-half of them do.
I am personally acquainted with a cat in Indiana, on the farm of relatives, which is
notorious for its hunting propensities, and its remarkable ability in capturing game.
Even the lady who is joint owner of the cat feels very badly about its destructiveness,
and has said, over and over again, that it ought to be killed; but the cat is such a family
pet that no one in the family has the heart to destroy it, and as yet no stranger has come
forward to play the part of executioner. The lady in question assured me that to her
certain knowledge that particular cat would watch a nestful of young robins week after
week until they had grown up to such a size that they were almost ready to fly; then he

would kill them and devour them. Old "Tommy" was too wise to kill the robins when
they were unduly small.
In a great book entitled Useful Birds and Their Protection, by E. H. Forbush, State
Ornithologist of Massachusetts, and published by the Massachusetts State Board of
Agriculture in 1905, there appears, on page 362, many interesting facts on this subject.
For example:
Mr. William Brewster tells of an acquaintance in Maine, who said that
his cat killed about fifty birds a year. Mr. A.C. Dike wrote [to Mr.
Forbush] of a cat owned by a family, and well cared for. They watched it
through one season, and found that it killed fifty-eight birds, including
the young in five nests.
Nearly a hundred correspondents, scattered through all the counties of
the state, report the cat as one of the greatest enemies of birds. The
reports that have come in of the torturing and killing of birds by cats are
absolutely sickening. The number of birds killed by them in this state is
appalling.
Some cat lovers believe that each cat kills on the average not more
than ten birds a year; but I have learned of two instances where more than
that number were killed in a single day, and another where seven were
killed. If we assume, however, that the average cat on the farm kills but
ten birds per year, and that there is one cat to each farm in Massachusetts,
we have, in round numbers, seventy thousand cats, killing seven hundred
thousand birds annually.
In Mr. Forbush's book there is an illustration of the cat which killed fifty-eight birds
in one year, and the animal was photographed with a dead robin in its mouth. The
portrait is reproduced in this chapter.
Last year, a strong effort was made in Massachusetts to enact a law requiring cats to
be licensed. On account of the amount of work necessary in passing the no-sale-of-
game bill, that measure was not pressed, and so it did not become a law; but another
year it will undoubtedly be passed, for it is a good bill, and extremely necessary at this
time. Such a law is needed in every state!
There is a mark by which you may instantly and infallibly know the worst of the
wild cats—by their presence away from home, hunting in the open. Kill all such,
wherever found. The harmless cats are domestic in their tastes, and stay close to the
family fireside and the kitchen. Being properly fed, they have no temptation to become
hunters. There are cats and cats, just as there are men and men: some tolerable, many
utterly intolerable. No sweeping sentiment for all cats should be allowed to stand in
the way of the abatement of the hunting-cat nuisances.

Of all men, the farmer cannot
afford the luxury of their existence! It
is too expensive. With him it is a
matter of dollars, and cash out of
pocket for every hunting cat that he
tolerates in his neighborhood. There
are two places in which to strike the
hunting cats: in the open, and in the
state legislature.
While this chapter was in the hands
of the compositors, the hunting cat
and gray rabbit shown in the
accompanying illustration were
brought in by a keeper.
Dogs As Destroyers Of Birds. —
I have received many letters from
protectors of wild life informing me
that the destruction of ground-nesting
birds, and especially of upland game
birds, by roaming dogs, has in some
localities become a great curse to bird
life. Complaints of this kind have
come from New York, Massachusetts,
Connecticut, Pennsylvania and
elsewhere. Usually the culprits are
hunting dogs—setters, pointers and A HUNTING CAT AND ITS VICTIM
hounds. This Cat had fed so bountifully on the Rabbits and
Squirrels of the Zoological Park, that it ate only
Now, surely it is not necessary to the Brain of this Gray Rabbit

set forth here any argument on this
subject. It is not open to argument, or academic treatment of any kind. The cold fact is:
In the breeding season of birds, and while the young birds are incapable of quick
and strong flight, all dogs, of every description, should be restrained from free
hunting; and all dogs found hunting in the woods during the season referred to should
be arrested, and their owners should be fined twenty dollars for each offense.
Incidentally, one-half the fine should go to the citizen who arrests the dog. The method
of restraining hunting dogs should devolve upon dog owners; and the law need only
prohibit or punish the act.
Beyond a doubt, in states that still possess quail and ruffed grouse, free hunting by
hunting dogs leads to great destruction of nests and broods during the breeding season.

Telegraph And Telephone Wires. —Mr. Daniel C. Beard has strongly called my
attention to the slaughter of birds by telegraph wires that has come under his personal
observation. His country home, at Redding, Connecticut, is near the main line of the
New York, New Haven and Hartford Railway, along which a line of very large poles
carries a great number of wires. The wires are so numerous that they form a barrier
through which it is difficult for any bird to fly and come out alive and unhurt.
Mr. Beard says that among the birds killed or crippled by flying against those wires
near Redding he has seen the following species: olive-backed thrush, white-throated
sparrow and other sparrows, oriole, blue jay, rail, ruffed grouse, and woodcock. It is a
common practice for employees of the railway, and others living along the line, to
follow the line and pick up on one excursion enough birds for a pot-pie.
Beyond question, the telegraph and telephone wires of the United States annually
exact a heavy toll in bird life, and claim countless thousands of victims. They may
well be set down as one of the unseen forces destructive to birds.
Naturally, we ask, what can be done about it?
I am told that in Scotland such slaughter is prevented by the attachment of small
tags or discs to the telephone wires, at intervals of a few rods, sufficiently near that
they attract the attention of flying birds, and reveal the line of an obstruction. This
system should be adopted in all regions where the conditions are such that birds kill
themselves against telegraph wires, and an excellent place to begin would be along the
line of the N.Y., N.H. & H. Railway.
Wild Animals. —Beyond question, it is both desirable and necessary that any
excess of wild animals that prey upon our grouse, quail, pheasants, woodcock, snipe,
mallard duck, shore birds and other species that nest on the ground, should be killed.
Since we must choose between the two, the birds have it! Weasels and foxes and
skunks are interesting, and they do much to promote the hilarity of life in rural
districts, but they do not destroy insects, and are of comparatively little value as
destroyers of the noxious rodents that prey upon farm crops. While a few persons may
dispute the second half of this proposition, the burden of proof that my view is wrong
will rest upon them; and having spent eighteen years "on the farm," I think I am right.
If there is any positive evidence tending to prove that the small carnivores that we
class as "vermin" are industrious and persistent destroyers of noxious rodents—pocket
gophers, moles, field-mice and rats—or that they do not kill wild birds numerously,
now is the time to produce it, because the tide of public sentiment is strongly setting
against the weasels, mink, foxes and skunks. (Once upon a time, a shrewd young man
in the Zoological Park discovered a weasel hiding behind a stone while devouring a
sparrow that it had just caught and killed. He stalked it successfully, seized it in his
bare hand, and, even though bitten, made good the capture.)

The State of Pennsylvania is extensively wooded, with forests and with brush which
affords excellent home quarters and breeding grounds for mammalian "vermin." The
small predatory mammals are so seriously destructive to ruffed grouse and other
ground birds that the State Game Commission is greatly concerned. When the hunter's
license law is enacted, as it very surely will be at the next session of the legislature
(1913), a portion of the $70,000 that it will produce each year will be used by the
commission in paying bounties on the destruction of the surplus of vermin. Through
the pursuit of vermin, any farmer can easily win enough bounties to more than pay the
cost of his annual hunting license (one dollar), and the farmers' boys will find a new
interest in life.
In some portions of the
Rocky Mountain region, the
assaults of the large
predatory mammals and
birds on the young of the
big-game species
occasionally demand special
treatment. In the Yellowstone
Park the pumas multiplied to
such an extent and killed so
many young elk that their
number had to be
systematically reduced. To
that end "Buffalo" Jones was
sent out by the Government
to find and destroy the
intolerable surplus of pumas.
In the course of his campaign
he killed about forty, much to THE EASTERN RED SQUIRREL
the benefit of the elk herds. A Great Destroyer of Birds
Around the entrance to the
den of a big old male puma, Mr. Jones found the skulls and other remains of nine elk
calves that "the old Tom" had killed and carried there.
Pumas and lynxes attack and kill mountain sheep; and the golden eagle is very
partial to mountain sheep lambs and mountain goat kids. It will not answer to permit
birds of that bold and predatory species to become too numerous in mountains
inhabited by goats and sheep; and the fewer the mountain lions the better, for they, like
the lynx and eagle, have nothing to live upon save the game.
The wolves and coyotes have learned to seek the ranges of cattle, horses and sheep,
where they still do immense damage, chiefly in killing young stock. In spite of the

great sums that have been paid out by western states in bounties for the destruction of
wolves, in many, many places the gray wolf still persists, and can not be exterminated.
To the stockmen of the west the wolf question is a serious matter. The stockmen of
Montana say that a government expert once told them how to get rid of the gray
wolves. His instructions were: "Locate the dens, and kill the young in the dens, soon
after they are born!" "All very easy to say, but a trifle difficult to do!" said my
informant; and the ranchman seem to think they are yet a long way from a solution of
the wolf question.
During the past year the destruction of noxious predatory animals in the national
forest reserves has seriously occupied the attention of the United States Bureau of
Forestry. By the foresters of that bureau the following animals were destroyed in
fifteen western states:
213 Bears 6,487 Coyotes
88 Mountain Lions 870 Wild-Cats
172 Gray Wolves 72 Lynxes
69 Wolf Pups -----
7,971
In 1910 the total was 9,103.

The Red Squirrel. —Once in a great while, conditions change in subtle ways, wild
creatures unexpectedly increase in number, and a community awakens to the fact that
some wild species has become a public nuisance. In a small city park, even gray
squirrels may breed and become so fearfully numerous that, in their restless quest for
food, they may ravage the nests of the wild birds, kill and devour the young, and
become a pest. In the Zoological Park, in 1903, we found that the red squirrels had
increased to such a horde that they were driving out all our nesting wild birds, driving
out the gray squirrels, and making themselves intolerably obnoxious. We shot sixty of
them, and brought the total down to a reasonable number. Wherever he is or whatever
his numerical strength, the red squirrel is a bad citizen, and, while we do not by any
means favor his extermination, he should resolutely be kept within bounds by the rifle.
When a crow nested in our woods, near the Beaver Pond, we were greatly pleased;
but with the feeding of the first brood, the crows began to carry off ducklings from the
wild-fowl pond. After one crow had been seen to seize and carry away five young
ducks in one forenoon, we decided that the constitutional limit had been reached, for
we did not propose that all our young mallards should be swept into the awful vortex
of that crow nest. We took those young crows and reared them by hand; but the old
one had acquired a bad habit, and she persisted in carrying off young ducks until we
had to end her existence with a gun. It was a painful operation, but there was no other
way.
Bird-Destroying Birds. —There are several species of birds that may at once be
put under sentence of death for their destructiveness of useful birds, without any

extenuating circumstances worth mentioning. Four of these are Cooper's Hawk, the
Sharp-Shinned Hawk, Pigeon Hawk and Duck Hawk. Fortunately these species are not
so numerous that we need lose any sleep over them. Indeed, I think that today it would
be a mighty good collector who could find one specimen in seven days' hunting. Like
all other species, these, too, are being shot out of our bird fauna.
Several species of bird-eating birds are trembling in the balance, and under grave
suspicion. Some of them are the Great Horned Owl, Screech Owl, Butcher Bird or
Great Northern Shrike. The only circumstance that saves these birds from instant
condemnation is the delightful amount of rats, mice, moles, gophers and noxious
insects that they annually consume. In view of the awful destructiveness of the
accursed bubonic-plague-carrying rat, we are impelled to think long before placing in
our killing list even the great horned owl, who really does levy a heavy tax on our
upland game birds. As to the butcher bird, we feel that we ought to kill him, but in
view of his record on wild mice and rats, we hesitate, and finally decline.

COOPER'S HAWK SHARP-SHINNED HAWK
A Species to be Destroyed A Species to be Destroyed

Snakes. —Mr. Thomas M. Upp, a close and long observer of wild things wishes it
distinctly understood that while the common black-snakes and racers are practically
harmless to birds, the Pilot Black-Snake,—long, thick and truculent,—is a great
scourge to nesting birds. It seems to be deserving of death. Mr. Upp speaks from
personal knowledge, and his condemnation of the species referred to is quite
sweeping. At the same time Mr. Raymond L. Ditmars points out the fact that this
serpent feeds during 6 months of the year on mice, and in doing so renders good
service. In the South it is called the "Mouse Snake."

Photo by A.C. Dyke

THE CAT THAT KILLED 58 BIRDS IN ONE YEAR
From Mr. Forbush's Book

CHAPTER IX
THE DESTRUCTION OF WILD LIFE BY
DISEASES

Every cause that has the effect of reducing the total of wild-life
population is now a matter of importance to mankind. The violent and
universal disturbance of the balance of Nature that already has taken place
throughout the temperate and frigid zone offers not only food for thought,
but it calls for vigorous action.
There are vast sections in the populous centres of western civilization
where the destruction of species, even to the point of extermination, is fairly
inevitable. It is the way of Christian man to destroy all wild life that comes
within the sphere of influence of his iron heel. With the exception of the big
game, this destruction is largely a temperamental result, peculiar to the
highest civilization. In India where the same fields have been plowed for
wheat and dahl and raggi for at least 2,000 years, the Indian antelope, or
"black buck," the saras crane and the adjutant stalk through the crops, and
the nilgai and gazelle inhabit the eroded ravines in an agricultural land that
averages 1,200 people to the square mile!
We have seen that even in farming country, where mud villages are as
thick as farm houses in Nebraska, wild animals and even hoofed game can
live and hold their own through hundreds of years of close association with
man. The explanation is that the Hindus regard wild animals as creatures
entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, and they are not anxious
to shoot every wild animal that shows its head. In the United States, nearly
every game-inhabited community is animated by a feeling that every wild
animal must necessarily be killed as soon as seen; and this sentiment often
leads to disgraceful things. For instance, in some parts of New England a

deer straying into a town is at once beset by the hue and cry, and it is chased
and assaulted until it is dead, by violent and disgraceful means. New York
State, however, seems to have outgrown that spirit. During the past ten
years, at least a dozen deer in distress have been rescued from the Hudson
River, or in inland towns, or in barnyards in the suburbs of Yonkers and
New York, and carefully cared for until "the zoo people" could be
communicated with. Last winter about 13 exhausted grebes and one loon
were picked up, cared for and finally shipped with tender care to the
Zoological Park. One distressed dovekie was picked up, but failed to
survive.
The sentiment for the conservation of wild life has changed the mental
attitude of very many people. The old Chinese-Malay spirit which cries
"Kill! Kill!" and at once runs amuck among suddenly discovered wild
animals, is slowly being replaced by a more humane and intelligent
sentiment. This is one of the hopeful and encouraging signs of the times.
The destruction of wild animals by natural causes is an interesting
subject, even though painful. We need to know how much destruction is
wrought by influences wholly beyond the control of man, and a few cases
must be cited.
Rinderpest In Africa. —Probably the greatest slaughter ever wrought
upon wild animals by diseases during historic times, was by rinderpest, a
cattle plague which afflicted Africa in the last decade of the previous
century. Originally, the disease reached Africa by way of Egypt, and came
as an importation from Europe. From Egypt it steadily traveled southward,
reaching Somaliland in 1889. In 1896 it reached the Zambesi River and
entered Rhodesia. From thence it went on southward almost to the Cape.
Not only did it sweep away ninety percent of the native cattle but it also
destroyed more than seventy-five per cent of the buffalos, antelopes and
other hoofed game of Rhodesia. It was feared that many species would be
completely exterminated, but happily that fear was not realized. The buffalo
and antelope herds were fifteen years in breeding up again to a reasonable
number, but thanks to the respite from hunters which they enjoyed for
several years, finally they did recover. Throughout British East Africa the
supply of big game in 1905 was very great, but since that time it has been
very greatly diminished by shooting.

Caribou Disease. —From time to time reports have come from the
Province of Quebec, and I think from Maine and New Brunswick also, of
many caribou having died of disease. The nature of that disease has
remained a mystery, because it seems that no pathologist ever has had an
opportunity to investigate it. Fortunately, however, the alleged disease never
has been sufficiently wide-spread or continuous to make appreciable
inroads on the total number of caribou, and apparently the trouble has been
local.
Scab In Mountain Sheep. —"Scab" is a contagious and persistent skin
disease that affects sheep, and is destructive when not controlled. Fifteen
years ago it prevailed in some portions of the west. In Colorado it has
several times been reported that many bighorn mountain sheep were killed
by "scab," which was contracted on wild mountain pastures that had been
gone over by domestic sheep carrying that disease. From the reports current
at that time, we inferred that about 200 mountain sheep had been affected. It
was feared that the disease would spread through the wild flocks and
become general, but this did not occur. It seems that the remnant flocks had
become so isolated from one another that the isolation of the affected flocks
saved the others.
Lumpy-Jaw In Antelope And Sheep. —It is a lamentable fact that some,
at least, of the United States herds of prong-horned antelope are afflicted
with a very deadly chronic infective disease known as actinomycosis, or
lumpy-jaw. It has been brought into the Zoological Park five times, by
specimens shipped from Colorado, Texas, Wyoming and Montana. I think
our first cases came to us in 1902.
In its early stage this disease is so subtle and slow that it is months in
developing; and this feature renders it all the more deadly, through the
spread of infection long before the ailment can be discovered.
One of our antelope arrivals, apparently in perfect health when received,
was on general principles kept isolated in rigid quarantine for two months.
At the expiration of that period, no disease of any kind having become
manifest, the animal was placed on exhibition, with two others that had
been in the Park for more than a year, in perfect health.

In one more week the late arrival developed a swelling on its jaw,
drooled at the corner of the mouth, and became feverish,—sure symptoms
of the dread disease. At once it was removed and isolated, but in about 10
days it died. The other two antelopes were promptly attacked, and
eventually died.
The course of the disease is very intense, and thus far it has proven
incurable in our wild animals. We have lost about 10 antelopes from it, and
one deer, usually, in each case, within ten days or two weeks from the
discovery of the first outward sign,—the well known swelling on the jaw.
One case that was detected immediately upon arrival was very persistently
treated by Dr. Blair, and the animal actually survived for four months, but
finally it succumbed. From first to last not a single case was cured.
In 1912, the future of the prong-horned antelope in real captivity seems
hopeless. We have decided not to bring any more specimens to our
institution, partly because all available candidates seem reasonably certain
to be affected with lumpy-jaw, and partly because we are unwilling to run
further risks of having other hoofed animals inoculated by them. Today we
are anxiously wondering whether the jaw disease of the prong-horn is
destined to exterminate the species. Such a catastrophe is much to be
feared. This is probably one of the reasons why the antelope is steadily
disappearing, despite protection.
In 1906 we discovered the existence of actinomycosis among the black
mountain sheep of northern British Columbia. Two specimens out of six
were badly affected, the bones of the jaws being greatly enlarged, and
perforated by deep pits. The black sheep of the Stickine and Iskoot regions
are so seldom seen by white men, save when a sportsman kills his allotment
of three specimens, we really do not know anything about the extent to
which actinomycosis prevails in those herds, or how deadly are its effects.
One thing seems quite certain, from the appearance of the diseased skulls
found by the writer in the taxidermic laboratory of Frederick Sauter, in New
York. The enormous swelling of the diseased jaw bones clearly indicates a
disease that in some cases affects its victim throughout many months. Such
a condition as we found in those sheep could not have been reached in a
few days after the disease became apparent. Now, in our antelopes, the
collapse and death of the victim usually occurred in about 10 days from the

time that the first swelling was observed: which means a very virulent
disease, and rapid progress at the climax. The jaw of one of our antelopes,
which was figured in Dr. Blair's paper in the Eleventh Annual Report of the
New York Zoological Society (1906) shows only a very slight lesion, in
comparison with those of the mountain sheep.
The conclusion is that among the sheep, this disease does not carry off its
victims in any short period like 10 days. The animal must survive for some
months after it becomes apparent. At least two parties of American
sportsmen have shot rams afflicted with this disease, but I have no reports
of any sheep having been found dead from this cause.
This disease is well known among domestic cattle, but so far as we are
aware it never before has been found among wild animals. The black sheep
herds wherein it was found in British Columbia are absolutely isolated from
domestic cattle and all their influences, and therefore it seems quite certain
that the disease developed among the sheep spontaneously,—a remarkable
episode, to say the least. Whether it will exterminate the black mountain
sheep species, and in time spread to the white sheep of the northwest, is of
course a matter of conjecture; but there is nothing in the world to prevent a
calamity of that kind. The white sheep of Yukon Territory range southward
until in the Sheslay Mountains they touch the sphere of influence of the
black sheep, where the disease could easily be transmitted. It would be a
good thing if there existed between the two species a sheepless zone about
200 miles wide.
I greatly fear that actinomycosis is destined to play an important part in
the final extinction that seems to be the impending fate of the beautiful and
valuable prong-horned antelope. In view of our hard experiences, extending
through ten years (1902-1912), I think this fear is justified. All persons who
live in country still inhabited by antelope are urged to watch for this
disease. If any antelopes are found dead, see if the lower jaw is badly
swollen and discharging pus. If it is, bury the body quickly, burn the ground
over, and advise the writer regarding the case.
The Rabbit Plague. —One of the strangest freaks of Nature of which
we know as effecting the wholesale destruction of wild animals by disease
is the rabbit plague. In the northern wilderness, and particularly central

Canada, where rabbits exist in great numbers and supply the wants of a
large carnivorous population, this plague is well known, and among
trappers and woodsmen is a common topic of conversation. The best
treatment of the subject is to be found in Ernest T. Seton's "Life Histories of
Northern Animals", Vol. I, p. 640 et seq. From this I quote:
"Invariably the year of greatest numbers [of rabbits] is followed by a year
of plague, which sweeps them away, leaving few or no rabbits in the land.
The denser the rabbit population, the more drastically is it ravaged by the
plague. They are wiped out in a single spring by epidemic diseases usually
characterized by swellings of the throat, sores under the armpits and groins,
and by diarrhea."
"The year 1885 was for the country around Carberry 'a rabbit year,' the
greatest ever known in that country. The number of rabbits was incredible.
W.R. Hine killed 75 in two hours, and estimated that he could have killed
500 in a day. The farmers were stricken with fear that the rabbit pest of
Australia was to be repeated in Manitoba. But the years 1886-7 changed all
that. The rabbits died until their bodies dotted the country in thousands. The
plague seemed to kill all the members of the vast host of 1885."
The strangest item of Mr. Seton's story is yet to be told. In 1890 Mr.
Seton stocked his park at Cos Cob, Conn., with hares and rabbits from
several widely separated localities. In 1903, the plague came and swept
them all away. Mr. Seton sent specimens to the Zoological Park for
examination by the Park veterinary surgeon, Dr. W. Reid Blair. They were
found to be infested by great numbers of a dangerous bloodsucking parasite
known as Strongylus strigosus, which produces death by anemia and
emaciation. There were hundreds of those parasites in each animal. I
assisted in the examination, and was shown by Dr. Blair, under the
microscope, that Strongylus puts forth eggs literally by hundreds of
thousands!
The life history of that parasite is not well known, but it may easily
develop that the cycle of its maximum destructiveness is seven years, and
therefore it may be accountable for the seven-year plague among the hares
and rabbits of the northern United States and Canada.

Possibly Strongylus strigosus is all that stands between Canada and a pest
of rabbits like that of Australia. Just why this parasite is inoperative in
Australia, or why it has not been introduced there to lessen the rabbit evil,
we do not know. Mr. Seton declares that the rabbits of his park were
"subject to all the ills of the flesh, except possibly writer's paralysis and
housemaid's knee."
Parasitic Infection Of Wild Ducks. —The diseases of wild game,
especially waterfowl, grouse and quail, have caused heavy losses in
America as well as in European countries, and scientists have been
carefully investigating the cause and the general nature of the maladies, as
well as probable methods of prevention and cure. Mr. Geo. Atkinson, a
well-known practical naturalist of Portage la Prairie, Manitoba, writes as
follows to a local paper on this subject, which I find quoted in the National
Sportsman:
The question which has developed these important
proportions during the past year is that of the extent of the
parasitic infection of our wild ducks and other game, and the
possibilities of the extended transmission of these parasites to
domestic stock, or even humanity, by eating.
The parasites in question are contained in small elliptical
cases found underlying the surface muscles of the breast, and in
advanced cases extending deeper into the flesh and the muscular
tissues of the legs and wings. They are not noticeable in the
ordinary process of plucking the bird for the table, and are not
found internally, so that the only method of discovering their
presence is by slitting the skin of the breast and paring it back a
few inches when the worm-like sacs will be seen buried in the
flesh.
These parasites have come to my notice periodically during
the process of skinning birds for mounting during the past
number of years, but it was only when they appeared in unusual
numbers last fall that I made inquiries of the biological bureaus
of Washington and Ottawa for information of their life history
and the possibilities of their transmission to other hosts.

Replies from these sources surprised me with the information
that very little was known of the life history of any of the
Sarcosporidia, of which group this was a species. Nothing was
known of the method of infection or the transference from host
to host or species to species, and both departments asked for
specimens for examination.
Authorities are a unit in opinion that the question is one of
great importance to game conservation, and although opinions
of the dangers from eating differ somewhat, a record is given of
a hog fed upon affected flesh developing parasites in the
muscles in six weeks' time, while a case of a man's death from
dropsy was found to be the result of development of these
parasites in the valves of the heart.
The ability of these low forms of life to withstand extremes of
heat makes it necessary for more than ordinary cooking to be
assured of killing them, and since their presence is unnoted in
the ordinary course of dressing the birds for the table, there is
little doubt that very considerable numbers of these parasites are
consumed at our tables every season, with results at present
unknown to us.
The species I have found most particularly infected have been
mallards, shovellers, teal, gadwall and pintails, and the birds,
outwardly in the best condition, have frequently been found
loaded with sacs of these parasites and only the turning back of
the breast skin can disclose their presence.
The greatest slaughter of wild ducks by disease occurred on Great Salt
Lake, Utah. Until the "duck disease" (intestinal coccidiosis) broke out there,
in the summer of 1910, the annual market slaughter of ducks at the mouth
of Bear River had been enormous. When at Salt Lake City in 1888 I made
an effort to arouse the sportsmen whom I met to the necessity of a reform,
but my exhortations fell on deaf ears. Naturally, the sweeping away of the
remaining ducks by disease would suggest a heaven-sent judgment upon the
slaughterers were it not for the fact that the last state of the unfortunate
ducks is if anything worse than the first.

On Oct. 17, 1911, the annual report of the chief of the Biological Survey
contained the following information on this subject:
Epidemic Among Wild Ducks on Great Salt Lake.—Following
a long dry season, which favored the rearing of a large number
of wild ducks, but materially reduced the area of the feeding
ponds, resulting in great overcrowding, a severe epidemic broke
out about August 1, 1910, among the wild ducks about Great
Salt Lake, Utah. Dead ducks could be counted by thousands
along the shores and the disease raged unabated until late fall.
Shooting clubs found it necessary to declare a closed season.
Some of the dead ducks were forwarded to the Biological
Survey and were turned over for examination to the Bureau of
Animal Industry, by the experts of which the disease was
diagnosed as intestinal coccidiosis.
Various plans of relieving the situation were tried. The
irrigation ditches were closed, thus providing the sloughs and
ponds with fresh water, and lime was sprinkled on the mud flats
and duck trails. Great improvement followed this treatment, and
experiments proved that ducks provided with abundant fresh
water and clean food began to recover immediately. These
methods promised success, but later it was proposed that the
marshes be drained and exposed to the sun's rays—a course
which cannot be recommended. That coccidia are not always
killed by exposure to the sun is shown by their survival on the
sites of old chicken yards. An added disadvantage of the plan is
that draining and drying the marshes would have a bad effect on
the natural duck food, and upon the birds themselves.

CHAPTER X
DESTRUCTION OF WILD LIFE BY THE
ELEMENTS

It is a fixed condition of Nature that whenever and wherever a wild
species exists in a state of nature, free from the trammels and limitations
that contact with man always imposes, the species is fitted to survive all
ordinary climatic influences. Freedom of action, and the exercise of several
options in the line of individual maintenance under stress, is essential to the
welfare of every wild species.
A prong-horned antelope herd that is free can drift before a blizzard, can
keep from freezing by the exercise, and eventually come to shelter. Let that
same herd drift against a barbed-wire fence five miles long, and its whole
scheme of self-preservation is upset. The herd perishes then and there.
Cut out the undergrowth of a given section, drain the swamps and mow
down all the weeds and tall grass, and the next particularly hard winter
starves and freezes the quail.
Naturally the cutting of forests, clearing of brush and drainage of
marshes is more or less calamitous to all the species of birds that inhabit
such places and find there winter food and shelter. Red-winged blackbirds
and real estate booms can not inhabit the same swamps contemporaneously.
Before the relentless march of civilization, the wild Indian, the bison and
many of the wild birds must inevitably disappear. We cannot change
conditions that are as inexorable as death itself. The wild life must either
adjust itself to the conditions that civilized man imposes upon it, or perish. I
say "civilized man," for the reason that the primitive races of man are not
deadly exterminators of species, as we are. I know of not one species of

wild life that has been exterminated by savage man without the aid of his
civilized peers.
As civilization marches ever onward, over the prairies, into the bad lands
and the forests, over the mountains and even into the farthest corner of
Death Valley, the desert of deserts, the struggle of the wild birds, mammals
and fishes is daily and hourly intensified. Man must help them to maintain
themselves, or accept a lifeless continent. The best help consists in letting
the wild creatures throughly alone, so that they can help themselves; but
quail often need to be fed in critical periods. The best food is wheat
screenings placed under little tents of straw, bringing food and shelter
together.
In the well settled portions of the United States, such species as quail,
ruffed grouse, wild turkey, pinnated grouse and sage grouse hang to life by
slender threads. A winter of exceptionally deep snows, much sleet, and a
late spring always causes grave anxiety among the state game wardens. In
Pennsylvania a very earnest movement is in progress to educate and
persuade farmers to feed the quail in winter, and much good is being done
in that direction.
Mr. Erasmus Wilson, of the Pittsburgh Gazette-Times is the apostle of
that movement.
Quail should be fed every winter, in every northern state. The methods to
be pursued will be mentioned elsewhere.
By way of illustration, here is a sample game report, from Las Animas,
Colorado, Feb. 22, 1912:
"After the most severe winter weather experienced for twenty years we
are able to compute approximately our loss of feathered life. It is seventy-
five per cent of the quail throughout the irrigated district, and about twenty
per cent of meadow-larks. In the rough cedar-covered sections south of the
Arkansas River, the loss among the quail was much lighter. The ground
sparrows suffered severely, while the English sparrow seems to have come
through in good shape. Many cotton-tail rabbits starved to death, while the
deep, light snow of January made them easy prey for hawks and coyotes."
(F.T. Webber).

It would be possible to record many instances similar to the above, but
why multiply them? And now behold the cruel corollary:
At least twenty-five times during the past two years I have heard and read
arguments by sportsmen against my proposal for a 5-year close season for
quail, taking the ground that "The sportsmen are not wholly to blame for the
scarcity of quail. It is the cold winters that kill them off!"
So then, because the fierce winters murder the bob white, wholesale, they
should not have a chance to recover themselves! Could human beings
possibly assume a more absurd attitude?
Yes, it is coldly and incontestably true, that even after such winter
slaughter as Mr. Webber has reported above, the very next season will find
the quail hunter joyously taking the field, his face beaming with health and
good living, to hunt down and shoot to death as many as possible of the
pitiful 25 per cent remnant that managed to survive the pitiless winter. How
many quail hunters, think you, ever stayed their hands because of "a hard
winter on the quail?" I warrant not one out of every hundred! How many
states in this Union ever put on a close season because of a hard winter? I'll
warrant that not one ever did; and I think there is only one state whose
game commissioners have the power to act in that way without recourse to
the legislature. This situation is intolerable.
Thanks to the splendid codified game laws enacted in New York state in
1912, our Conservation Commission can declare a close season in any
locality, for any length of time, when the state of the game demands an
emergency measure. This act is as follows; and it is a model law, which
every other state should speedily enact:

THE NEW YORK CLOSE-SEASON LAW.
152. Petition for additional protection; notice of hearings;
power to grant additional protection; notice of prohibition or
regulation; penalties.
1. Petition for additional protection. Any citizen of the state
may file with the commission a petition in writing requesting it

to give any species of fish, other than migratory food fish of the
sea, or game protected by law, additional or other protection
than that afforded by the provisions of this article. Such petition
shall state the grounds upon which such protection is considered
necessary, and shall be signed by the petitioner with his address.
2. Notice of hearings. The commission shall hold a public
hearing in the locality or county to be affected upon the
allegations of such petition within twenty days from the filing
thereof. At least ten days prior to such hearing notice thereof,
stating the time and place at which such hearing shall be held,
shall be advertised in a newspaper published in the county to be
affected by such additional or other protection. Such notice shall
state the name and the address of the petitioner, together with a
brief statement of the grounds upon which such application is
made, and a copy thereof shall be mailed to the petitioner at the
address given in such petition at least ten days before such
hearing.
3. Power to grant additional protection. If upon such hearing
the commission shall determine that such species of fish or
game, by reason of disease, danger of extermination, or from
any other cause or reason, requires such additional or other
protection, in any locality or throughout the state, the
commission shall have power to prohibit or regulate, during the
open season therefor, the taking of such species of fish or game.
Such prohibition or regulation may be made general throughout
the state or confined to a particular part or district thereof.
4. Notice of prohibition or regulation. Any order made by the
commission under the provisions of this section shall be signed
by it, and entered in its minute book. At least thirty days before
such prohibition or regulation shall take effect, copies of the
same shall be filed in the office of the clerk issuing hunting and
trapping licenses for the district to which the prohibition or
regulation applies. It shall be the duty of said clerks to issue a
copy of said prohibition or regulation to each person to whom a
hunting or trapping license is issued by them; to mail a copy of

such prohibition or regulation to each holder of a hunting and
trapping license theretofore issued by them and at that time in
effect, and to post a copy thereof in a conspicuous place in their
office. At least thirty days before such prohibition or regulation
shall take effect the commission shall cause a notice thereof to
be advertised in a newspaper published in the county wherein
such prohibition or regulation shall take effect.
5. Penalties. Any person violating the provisions of such
prohibition, rule or regulation shall be guilty of a misdemeanor
and shall, upon conviction, be subject to a fine of not to exceed
one hundred dollars, or shall be imprisoned for not more than
thirty days, or both, for each offense, in addition to the penalties
hereinafter provided for taking fish, birds or quadrupeds in the
close season.

I want all sensible, honest sportsmen to stop citing the killing of game
birds by severe winters as a reason why long close seasons are not
necessary, and why automatic guns "don't matter." And I want sportsmen to
consider their duty, and not go out hunting any game species that has been
slaughtered by a hard winter, until it has had at least five years in which to
recover. Any other course is cruel, selfish, and shortsighted; and a word to
the humane should be sufficient.
The worst exhibitions ever made of the wolfish instinct to slay that
springs eternal in some human (!) breasts are those brought about through
the distress or errors of wild animals. By way of illustration, consider the
slaughter of half-starved elk that took place in the edge of Idaho in the
winter of 1909 and 1910, when about seven hundred elk that were driven
out of the Yellowstone Park at its northwestern corner by the deep snow,
fled into Idaho in the hope of finding food. The inhabitants met the starving
herds with repeating rifles, and as the unfortunate animals struggled
westward through the snow and storm, they were slaughtered without
mercy. Bulls and cows, old and young, all of the seven hundred, went
down; and Stoney Indians could not have acted any worse than did those
"settlers."

On another occasion, it is recorded that the prong-horned antelope herd
of the Mammoth Hot Springs wandered across the line into Gardiner, and
quickly met a savage attack of gunners with rifles. A number of those rare
and valuable animals were killed, and others fled back into the Park with
broken legs dangling in the air.
In the interest of public decency, and for the protection of the reputation
of American citizenship, one of two things should be done. The northern
boundary of the Park should be extended northward beyond Gardiner, or
else the deathtrap should be moved elsewhere. The case of the town of
Gardiner is referred to the legislature of Montana for treatment.
Beyond question, the highest sentiments of humanity are those that are
stirred by the misfortunes of killable game. During the past thirty years, I
have noticed some interesting manifestations of the increased sympathy for
wild creatures that steadily is growing in a large section of the public mind.
Thirty years ago, the appearance of a deer or moose in the streets of any
eastern village nearly always was in itself a signal for a grand chase of the
unfortunate creature, and its speedy slaughter. Today, in the eastern states,
the general feeling is quite different. The appearance of a deer in the
Hudson River itself, or a moose in a Maine village is a signal, not for a wild
chase and cruel slaughter, but for a general effort to save the animal from
being hurt, or killed. I know this through ocular proof, at least half a dozen
lost and bewildered deer having been carefully driven into yards, or barns,
and humanely kept and cared for until they could be shipped to us. Several
have been caught while swimming in the Hudson, bewildered and panic-
stricken. The latest capture occurred in New York City itself.
A puma that escaped (about 1902) from the Zoological Park, instead of
being shot was captured by sensible people in the hamlet of Bronxdale,
alive and unhurt, and safely returned to us.
In some portions of the east, though not all, the day of the hue and cry
over "a wild animal in town" seems to be about over. On Long Island some
humane persons found an injured turkey vulture, and took it in and cared
for it,—only to be persecuted by ill-advised game wardens, because they
had a forbidden wild bird "in their possession!" There are times when it is

the highest (moral) duty of a game warden to follow the advice of Private
Mulvaney to the "orficer boy," and "Shut yer oye to the rigulations, sorr!"
Such occurrences as these are becoming more and more common. The
desire of "the great silent majority" is to SAVE the wild creatures; and it is
in response to that sentiment that thousands of people are today in the field
against the Army of Destruction.
It is the duty of every sportsman to assist in promoting the passage of a
law like our New York law which empowers the State Game Commission to
throw extra protection around any species that has been slaughtered too
much by snow or by firearms, by closing the open season as long as may be
necessary. Can there be in all America even one thinking, reasoning being
who can not see the justice and also the imperative necessity of this
measure? It seems impossible.
Give the game the benefit of every doubt! If it becomes too thick, your
gun can quickly thin it out; but if it is once exterminated, it will be
impossible to bring it back. Be wise; and take thought for the morrow.
Remember the heath hen.
Slaughter Of Bluebirds. —In the late winter and early spring of 1896
the wave of bluebirds was caught on its northward migration by a period of
unseasonably cold and fearfully tempestuous weather, involving much icy-
cold rain and sleet. Now, there is no other climatic condition that is so hard
for a wild bird or mammal to withstand as rain at the freezing point, and a
mantle of ice or frozen snow over all supplies of food.
The bluebirds perished by thousands. The loss occurred practically all
along their east-and-west line of migration, from Arkansas to the Atlantic
Coast. In places the species seemed almost exterminated; and it was several
years ere it recovered to a point even faintly approximating its original
population. I am quite certain that the species never has recovered more
than 50 per cent of the number that existed previous to the calamity.
Duck Cholera In The Bronx River. —In 1911, some unknown but
new and particularly deadly element, probably introduced in sewage,
contaminated the waters of Bronx River where it flows through New York
City, with results very fatal in the Zoological Park. The large flock of

mallard ducks, Canada geese, and snow geese on Lake Agassiz was
completely wiped out. In all about 125 waterfowl died in rapid succession,
from causes commonly classed under the popular name of "duck cholera."
The disease was carried to other bodies of water in the Park that were fed
from other sources, but made no headway elsewhere than on lakes fed by
the polluted Bronx River.
Fortunately the work of the Bronx River Parkway Commission soon will
terminate the present very unsanitary condition of that stream.
Wild Ducks In Distress. —In the winter of 1911-12, many flocks of
wild ducks decided to winter in the North. Many persons believe that this
was largely due to the prevention of late winter and spring shooting; which
seems reasonable. Unfortunately the winter referred to proved exceptionally
severe and formed vast sheets of thick ice over the feeding-grounds where
the ducks had expected to obtain their food. On Cayuga, Seneca and other
lakes in central New York, and on the island of Martha's Vineyard, the
flocks of ducks suffered very severely, and many perished of hunger and
cold. But for the laws prohibiting late winter shooting undoubtedly all of
them would have been shot and eaten, regardless of their distress.
Game wardens and humane citizens made numerous efforts to feed the
starving flocks, and many ducks were saved in that way. An illustrated
article on the distressed ducks of Keuka Lake, by C. William Beebe and
Verdi Burtch, appeared in the Zoological Society Bulletin for May, 1912.
Fortunately there is every reason to believe that such occurrences will be
rare.
Wild Swans Swept Over Niagara Falls. —During the past ten years,
several winter tragedies to birds have occurred on a large scale at Niagara
Falls. Whole flocks of whistling swans of from 20 up to 70 individuals
alighting in the Niagara River above the rapids have permitted themselves
to float down into the rapids, and be swept over the Falls, en masse. On
each occasion, the great majority of the birds were drowned, or killed on the
rocks. Of the very few that survived, few if any were able to rise and fly out
of the gorge below the Falls to safety. It is my impression that about 200
swans recently have perished in this strange way.

CHAPTER XI
SLAUGHTER OF SONG-BIRDS BY ITALIANS

In these days of wild-life slaughter, we hear much of death and
destruction. Before our eyes there continually arise photographs of hanging
masses of waterfowl, grouse, pheasants, deer and fish, usually supported in
true heraldic fashion by the men who slew them and the implements of
slaughter. The world has become somewhat hardened to these things,
because the victims are classed as game; and in the destruction of game,
one game-bag more or less "Will not count in the news of the battle."
The slaughter of song, insectivorous and all other birds by Italians and
other aliens from southern Europe has become a scourge to the bird life of
this country. The devilish work of the negroes and poor whites of the South
will be considered in the next chapter. In Italy, linnets and sparrows are
"game"; and so is everything else that wears feathers! Italy is a continuous
slaughtering-ground for the migratory birds of Europe, and as such it is an
international nuisance and a pest. The way passerine birds are killed and
eaten in that country is a disgrace to the government of Italy, and a standing
reproach to the throne. Even kings and parliaments have no right in moral
or international law to permit year after year the wholesale slaughter of
birds of passage of species that no civilized man has a right to kill.
There are some tales of slaughter from which every properly-balanced
Christian mind is bound to recoil with horror. One such tale has recently
been given to us in the pages of the Avicultural Magazine, of London, for
January, 1912, by Mr. Hubert D. Astley, F.Z.S., whose word no man will
dispute. In condensing it, let us call it
The Italian Slaughter Of The Innocents

This story does not concern game birds of any kind. Quite the contrary.
That it should be published in America, a land now rapidly filling up with
Italians, is a painful necessity in order that the people of America may be
enabled accurately to measure the fatherland traditions and the fixed mental
attitude of Italians generally toward our song birds. I shall now hold a
mirror up to Italian nature. If the image is either hideous or grotesque, the
fault will not be mine. I specially commend the picture to the notice of
American game wardens and judges on the bench.
The American reader must be reminded that the Italian peninsula reaches
out a long arm of land into the Mediterranean Sea for several hundred miles
toward the sunny Barbary coast of North Africa. This great southward
highway has been chosen by the birds of central Europe as their favorite
migration route. Especially is this true of the small song-birds with weak
wings and a minimum of power for long-sustained flight. Naturally, they
follow the peninsula down to the Italian Land's End before they launch
forth to dare the passage of the Mediterranean.

AN ITALIAN ROCCOLO, ON LAKE COMO
A Death-Trap for Song-Birds. From the Avicultural Magazine

Italy is the narrow end of a great continental funnel, into the wide
northern end of which Germany, Austria, France and Switzerland annually
pour their volume of migratory bird life. And what is the result? For answer
let us take the testimony of two reliable witnesses, and file it for use on the
day when Tony Macchewin, gun in hand and pockets bulging with
cartridges, goes afield in our country and opens fire on our birds.
The linnet is one of the sweet singers of Europe. It is a small, delicately
formed, weak-winged little bird, about the size of our phoebe-bird. It
weighs only a trifle more than a girl's love-letter. Where it breeds and rears
its young, in Germany for example, a true sportsman would no more think
of shooting a linnet than he would of killing and eating his daughter's
dearest canary.
To the migrating bird, the approach to northern Italy, either going or
returning, is not through a land of plenty. The sheltering forests have mostly
been swept away, and safe shelters for small birds are very rare. In the open,
there are owls and hawks; and the only refuge from either is the thick-leafed
grove, into which linnets and pipits can dive at the approach of danger and
quickly hide.
A linnet from the North after days of dangerous travel finally reached
Lake Como, southward bound. The country was much too open for safety,
and its first impulse was to look about for safe shelter. The low bushes that
sparsely covered the steep hillsides were too thin for refuge in times of
sudden danger.
Ah! Upon a hilltop is a little grove of trees, green and inviting. In the
grove a bird is calling, calling, insistently. The trees are very small; but they
seem to stand thickly together, and their foliage should afford a haven from
both hawk and gunner. To it joyously flits the tired linnet. As it perches aloft
upon a convenient whip-like wand, it notices for the first time a queer,
square brick tower of small dimensions, rising in the center of a court-yard
surrounded by trees. The tower is like an old and dingy turret that has been
shorn from a castle, and set on the hilltop without apparent reason. It is two
stories in height, with one window, dingy and uninviting. A door opens into
its base.

Several birds that seem very near, but are invisible, frequently call and
chirp, as if seeking answering calls and companionship. Surely the grove
must be a safe place for birds, or they would not be here.
Hark! A whirring, whistling sound fills the air, like the air tone of a flying
hawk's wings. A hawk! A hawk!
Down plunges the scared linnet, blindly, frantically, into the space
sheltered by the grove!
Horrors! What is this?
Threads! Invisible, interlacing threads; tangled and full of pockets,
treacherously spanning the open space. It is a fowler's net! The linnet is
entangled. It flutters frantically but helplessly, and hangs there, caught. Its
alarm cry is frantically answered by the two strange, invisible bird voices
that come from the top of the tower!
The grove and the tower are A ROCCOLO! A huge, permanent,
merciless, deadly trap, for the wholesale capture of songbirds! The tower is
the hiding place of the fowler, and the calling birds are decoy birds whose
eyes have been totally blinded by red-hot wires in order that they will call
more frantically than birds with eyes would do. The whistling wings that
seemed a hawk were a sham, made by a racquet thrown through the air by
the fowler, through a slot in his tower. He keeps by him many such
racquets.
The door of the tower opens, and out comes the fowler. He is lowbrowed,
swarthy, ill kept, and wears rings in his ears. A soiled hand seizes the
struggling linnet, and drags it violently from the threads that entangled it. A
sharp-pointed twig is thrust straight through the head of the helpless victim
at the eyes, and after one wild, fluttering agony—it is dead.
The fowler sighs contentedly, re-enters his dirty and foul-smelling tower,
tosses the feathered atom upon the pile of dead birds that lies upon the dirty
floor in a dirty corner,—and is ready for the next one.
Ask him, as did Mr. Astley, and he will tell you frankly that there are
about 150 dead birds in the pile,—starlings, sparrows, linnets, greenfinches,
chaffinches, goldfinches, hawfinches, redstarts, blackcaps, robins, song

thrushes, blackbirds, blue and coal tits, fieldfares and redwings. He will tell
you also, that there are seven other roccolos within sight and twelve within
easy walking distance. He will tell you, as he did Mr. Astley, that during
that week he had taken about 500 birds, and that that number was a fair
average for each of the 12 other roccolos.
This means the destruction of about 5,000 songbirds per week in that
neighborhood alone! Another keeper of a roccolo told Mr. Astley that
during the previous autumn he took about 10,000 birds at his small and
comparatively insignificant roccolo.
And above that awful roccolo of slaughtered innocents rose a wooden
cross, in memory of Christ, the Merciful, the Compassionate!
Around the interior of the entwined sapling tops that formed the fatal
bower of death there hung a semicircle of tiny cages containing live decoys,
—chaffinches, hawfinches, titmice and several other species. "The older
and staider ones call repeatedly," says Mr. Astley, "and the chaffinches
break into song. It is the only song to be heard in Italy at the time of the
autum migration."
And the King of Italy, the Queen of Italy, the Parliament of Italy and His
Holiness the Pope permit these things, year in and year out. It is now said,
however, that through the efforts of a recently organized bird-lovers' society
in Italy, the blinding of decoy birds for roccolos is to be stopped.
In Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, the protection of these birds
during their breeding season must be very effective, for otherwise the
supply for the Italian slaughter of the Innocents would long ago have fallen
to nothing.
The Germans love birds, and all wild life. I wonder how they like the
Italian roccolo. I wonder how France regards it; and whether the nations of
Europe north of Italy will endure this situation forever.
To the American and English reader, comment on the practices recorded
above is quite unnecessary, except the observation that they betoken a
callousness of feeling and a depth of cruelty and destructiveness to which,
so far as known, no savages ever yet have sunk. As an exhibit of the
groveling pusillanimity of the human soul, the roccolo of northern Italy

reveals minus qualities which can not be expressed either in words or in
figures.
And what is the final exhibit of the gallant knight of the roccolo, the
feudal lord of the modern castle and its retainers?
The answer is given by Dr. Louis B. Bishop, in an article on "Birds in the
Markets of Southern Europe."
In Venice, which was visited in October and November, during the fall
migration, he found on sale in the markets, as food, thousands of songbirds.
"Birds were there in profusion, from ducks to kites, in the early morning,
hung in great bunches above the stalls, but by 9 A.M. most of them had
been sold. Ducks and shorebirds occurred in some numbers, but the vast
majority were small sparrows, larks and thrushes. These were there during
my visit by the thousands, if not ten thousands. To the market they were
brought in large sacks, strung in fours on twigs which had been passed
through the eyes and then tied. Most of these small birds had been trapped,
and on skinning them I often could find no injury except at their eyes. [C]
One of these sacks which I examined on November 3, contained hundreds
of birds, largely siskins, skylarks and bramblings. As a rule the small birds
that were not sold in the early morning were skinned or picked, and their
tiny bodies packed in regular order, breasts up, in shadow tin boxes, and
exposed for sale."
"During these visits to the Venetian markets, I identified 60 species, and
procured specimens of most. As nearly as I can remember, small birds cost
from two to five cents apiece. For example I paid $2.15 on Nov. 8, for
1 Woodcock, 1 Skylark,
1 Jay, 1 Greenfinch,
2 Starlings, 1 Bullfinch,
2 Spotted Crakes, 1 Redpoll.
1 Song Thrush, 3 Linnets,
1 Gold-Crest, 2 Goldfinches,
1 Long-Tailed Titmouse, 6 Siskins,
1 Great Titmouse, 3 Reed Buntings,
1 Pipit, 3 Bramblings,
1 Redstart, —and 5 Chaffinches.

"On November 10, I paid $3.25 for
2 Coots, 1 European Curlew,
1 Water Rail, 2 Kingfishers,
1 Spotted Crake, 2 Greenfinches,
1 Sparrow Hawk, 2 Wrens,
2 Woodcock, 2 Great Titmouse,
1 Common Redshank, 2 Blue Titmouse,
1 Dusky Redshank, 1 Redbreast, and
2 Dunlins."

Of course there were various species of upland game birds, shore-birds
and waterfowl,—everything, in fact, that could be found and killed. In
addition to the passerine birds listed above. Dr. Bishop noted the following,
all in Venice alone:
Skylark ("in great numbers"),
Crested Lark, Crossbill,
Calandra, House Sparrow,
Tree Sparrow, Stonechat,
Hawfinch, Coal,
Yellow-Hammer, Goldcrest,
Blackbird, Rock Pipit,
Fieldfare, White Wagtail,
Song Thrush, Redwing.

"In Florence," says Dr. Bishop, "I visited the central market on
November 26, 28, 29, 30, December 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9, and found
birds even more plentiful than in Venice." Besides a variety of game birds,
he found quantities of the species mentioned above, seen in Venice, and also
the following:
Green Sandpiper, Brown Creeper,
Dotterel, Nuthatch,
Magpie, Black-Cap Warbler,
Corn Bunting, Black-Headed Warbler,
Migratory Quail, Fantail Warbler,
Green Woodpecker, Missel Thrush,
Spotted Woodpecker, Ring Ouzel,
Wood Lark, Rock Sparrow, and
Gray Wagtail.

"Here, too [at Florence] we saw often, bunches and baskets of small
birds, chiefly redbreasts, hawked through the streets.... Every Sunday that

we went into the country we met numbers of Italians out shooting, and their
bags seemed to consist wholly of small birds.
"At Genoa, San Remo, Monte Carlo and Nice, between December 13 and
29, I did not visit the central markets, if such exist, but saw frequently
bunches of small birds hanging outside stores.... A gentleman who spent the
fall on an automobile trip through the west of FRANCE from Brittany to the
Pyrenees, tells me he noticed these bunches of small birds on sale in every
town he visited.
"That killing song-birds for food," continues Dr. Bishop, "is not confined
to the poor Italians I learned on October 27, when one of the most
prominent and wealthy Italian ornithologists—a delightful man—told me
he had shot 180 skylarks and pipits the day before, and that his family liked
them far better than other game. Our prejudice against selling game does
not exist in Europe, and this same ornithologist told me he often shot 200
ducks in a day at his shooting-box, sending to the market what he could not
use himself. On November 1, 1910, he shot 82 ducks, and on November 8,
103, chiefly widgeon and teal."
An "ornithologist" indeed! A "sportsman" also, is he not? He belongs
with his brother "ornithologists" of the roccolos, who net their "game" with
the aid of blind birds! Brave men, gallant "sportsmen," are these men of
Italy,—and western France also if the tale is true!
If the people of Europe can stand the wholesale, systematic slaughter of
their song and insectivorous birds, we can! If they are too mean-spirited to
rise up, make a row about it, and stop it, then let them pay the price; but, by
the Eternal, Antonio shall not come to this country with the song-bird tastes
of the roccolo and indulge them here!
The above facts have been cited, not at all for the benefit of Europe, but
for our own good. The American People are now confronted by the Italian
and Austrian and Hungarian laborer and saloon-keeper and mechanic, and
all Americans should have an exact measure of the sentiments of southern
Europe toward our wild life generally, especially the birds that we do not
shoot at all, and therefore are easy to kill.

When a warden or a citizen arrests an alien for killing any of our non-
game birds, show the judge these records of how they do things in Italy, and
ask for the extreme penalty.
I have taken pains to publish the above facts from eye-witnesses in order
that every game commissioner, game warden and state legislator who reads
these pages may know exactly what he is "up against" in the alien
population of our country from southern Europe. For unnumbered
generations, the people of Italy have been taught to believe that it is
perfectly right to shoot and devour every song-bird that flies. The Venetian
is no respecter of species; and when an Italian "ornithologist" (!) can go out
and murder 180 linnets and pipits in one day for the pot, it is time for
Americans to think hard.
We sincerely hope that it will not require blows and kicks and fines to
remove from Antonio's head the idea that America is not Italy, and that the
slaughter of song birds "don't go" in this country. I strongly recommend to
every state the enactment of a law that will do these things:

1. —Prohibit the owning, carrying or use of firearms by aliens, and
2. —Prohibit the use of firearms in hunting by any naturalized alien from
southern Europe until after a 10-years' residence in America.

From reports that have come to me at first hand regarding Italians in the
East, Hungarians in Pennsylvania and Austrians in Minnesota, it seems
absolutely certain that all members of the lower classes of southern Europe
are a dangerous menace to our wild life.
On account of the now-accursed land-of-liberty idea, every foreigner
who sails past the statue on Bedloe's Island and lands on our liberty-ridden
shore, is firmly convinced that now, at last, he can do as he pleases! And as
one of his first ways in which to show his newly-acquired personal liberty
and independence in the Land of Easy Marks, he buys a gun and goes out to
shoot "free game!"
If we, as a people, are so indolent and so somnolent that Antonio gets
away with all our wild birds, then do we deserve to be robbed.

Italians are pouring into America in a steady stream. They are strong,
prolific, persistent and of tireless energy. New York City now contains
340,000 of them. They work while the native Americans sleep. Wherever
they settle, their tendency is to root out the native American and take his
place and his income. Toward wild life the Italian laborer is a human
mongoose. Give him power to act, and he will quickly exterminate every
wild thing that wears feathers or hair. To our songbirds he is literally a
"pestilence that walketh at noonday".
As we have shown, the Italian is a born pot-hunter, and he has grown up
in the fixed belief that killing song-birds for food is right! To him all is
game that goes into the bag. The moment he sets foot in the open, he
provides himself with a shot-gun, and he looks about for things to kill. It is
"a free country;" therefore, he may kill anything he can find, cook it and eat
it. If anybody attempts to check him,—sapristi! beware his gun! He
cheerfully invades your fields, and even your lawn; and he shoots robins,
bluebirds, thrushes, catbirds, grosbeaks, tanagers, orioles, woodpeckers,
quail, snipe, ducks, crows, and herons.
Down in Virginia, near Charlottesville, an Italian who was working on a
new railroad once killed a turkey buzzard; and he selfishly cooked it and ate
it, all alone. A pot-hunting compatriot of his heard of it, and reproached him
for having-dined on game in camera. In the quarrel that ensued, one of the
"sportsmen" stabbed the other to death.
When the New York Zoological Society began work on its Park in 1899,
the northern half of the Borough of the Bronx was a regular daily hunting-
ground for the slaughter of song-birds, and all other birds that could be
found. Every Sunday it was "bangetty!" "bang!" from Pelham Bay to Van
Cortlandt. The police force paid not the slightest attention to these open,
flagrant, shameless violations of the city ordinances and the state bird laws.
In those days I never but once heard of a policeman on his own initiative
arresting a birdshooter, even on Sunday; but whenever meddlesome special
wardens from the Zoological Park have pointedly called upon the local
police force for help, it has always been given with cheerful alacrity. In the
fall of 1912 an appeal to the Police Commissioner resulted in a general
order to stop all hunting and shooting in the Borough of the Bronx, and a
reform is now on.

The war on the bird-killers in New York City began in 1900. It seemed
that if the Zoological Society did not take up the matter, the slaughter would
continue indefinitely. The white man's burden was taken up; and the story
of the war is rather illuminating. Mr. G.O. Shields, President of the League
of American Sportsmen, quickly became interested in the matter, and
entered actively into the campaign. For months unnumbered, he spent every
Sunday patroling the woods and thickets of northern New York and
Westchester county, usually accompanied by John J. Rose and Rudolph Bell
of the Zoological Park force, for whom appointments as deputy game
wardens had been secured from the State.
The adventures of that redoubtable trio of man-hunters would make an
interesting chapter. They were shot at by poachers, but more frequently they
shot at the other fellows. Just why it was that no one was killed, no one
seems to know. Many Italians and several Americans were arrested while
hunting, haled to court, prosecuted and fined. Finally, a reign of terror set
in; and that was the beginning of the end. It became known that those three
men could not be stopped by threats, and that they always got their man—
unless he got into a human rabbit-warren of the Italian boarding-house
species. That was the only escape that was possible.
The largest haul of dead birds was 43 robins, orioles, thrushes and
woodpeckers, captured along with the five Italians who committed the
indiscretion of sitting down in the woods to divide their dead birds. We
saved all the birds in alcohol, and showed them in court. The judge fined
two of the Italians $50 each, and the other three were sent to the
penitentiary for two months each.
Even yet, however, at long intervals an occasional son of sunny Italy tries
his luck at Sunday bird shooting; but if anyone yells at him to "Halt!" he
throws away his gun and stampedes through the brush like a frightened
deer. The birds of upper New York are now fairly secure; but it has taken
ten years of fighting to bring it about.
Throughout New York State, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Connecticut,
Massachusetts, and even Minnesota, wherever there are large settlements of
Italians and Hungarians, the reports are the same. They swarm through the
country every Sunday, and shoot every wild thing they see. Wherever there

are large construction works,—railroads, canals or aqueducts,—look for
bird slaughter, and you are sure to find it. The exception to this rule, so far
as I know, is along the line of the new Catskill aqueduct, coming to New
York City. The contractors have elected not to permit bird slaughter, and the
rule has been made that any man who goes out hunting will instantly be
discharged. That is the best rule that ever was made for the protection of
birds and game against gang-working aliens.
Let every state and province in America look out sharply for the bird-
killing foreigner; for sooner or later, he will surely attack your wild life. The
Italians are spreading, spreading, spreading. If you are without them to-day,
to-morrow they will be around you. Meet them at the threshold with drastic
laws, throughly enforced; for no half way measures will answer.
Pennsylvania has had the worst experience of alien slaughterers of any
state, thus far. Six of her game wardens have been killed, and eight or ten
have been wounded, by shooting! Finally her legislature arose in wrath, and
passed a law prohibiting the ownership or possession of guns of any kind by
aliens. The law gives the right of domiciliary search, and it surely is
enforced. Of course the foreign population "kicked" against the law, but the
People's steam roller went over them just the same. In New York, we
require from an alien a license costing $20, and it has saved a million
(perhaps) of our birds; but the Pennsylvania law is the best. It may be taken
as a model for every state and province in America. Its text is as follows:
Section I. Be it enacted, &c., That from and after the passage
of this act, it shall be unlawful for any unnaturalized foreign-
born resident to hunt for or capture or kill, in this
Commonwealth, any wild bird or animal, either game or
otherwise, of any description, excepting in defense of person or
property; and to that end it shall be unlawful for any
unnaturalized foreign-born resident, within this Commonwealth,
to either own or be possessed of a shotgun or rifle of any make.
Each and every person violating any provision of this section
shall, upon conviction thereof, be sentenced to pay a penalty of
twenty-five dollars for each offense, or undergo imprisonment in
the common jail of the county for the period of one day for each
dollar of penalty imposed. Provided, That in addition to the

before-named penalty, all guns of the before-mentioned kinds
found in possession or under control of an unnaturalized
foreign-born resident shall, upon conviction of such person, or
upon his signing a declaration of guilt as prescribed by this act,
be declared forfeited to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,
and shall be sold by the Board of Game Commissioners as
hereinafter directed.
Section 2. For the purpose of this act, any unnaturalized
foreign-born person who shall reside or live within the
boundaries of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania for ten
consecutive days shall be considered a resident and shall be
liable to the penalties imposed for violation of the provisions of
this act.
Section 3. That the possession of a shotgun or rifle at any
place outside of a building, within this Commonwealth, by an
unnaturalized foreign-born resident, shall be conclusive proof of
a violation of the provisions of section one of this act, and shall
render any person convicted thereof liable to the penalty as fixed
by said section.
Section 4. That the presence of a shotgun or rifle in a room or
house, or building or tent, or camp of any description, within
this Commonwealth, occupied by or controlled by an
unnaturalized foreign-born resident shall be prima facie
evidence that such gun is owned or controlled by the person
occupying or controlling the property in which such gun is
found, and shall render such person liable to the penalty
imposed by section one of this act.
Other sections provide for the full enforcement of this law.
It is now high time, and an imperative public necessity, that every state
should act in this matter, before its bird life is suddenly attacked, and
serious inroads made upon it. Do it NOW! The enemy is headed your way.
Don't wait for him to strike the first blow!

Duty of the Italian Press and Clergy.—Now what is the best remedy for
the troubles that will arise for Italians in America because of wrong
principles established in Italy? It is not in the law, the police, the court and
the punishment. It is in educating the Italian into a knowledge of the duties
of the good citizen! The Italian press and clergy can do this; and no one else
can do it so easily, so quickly and so well!
Those two powerful forces should enter seriously upon this task. In every
other respect, the naturalized Italian tries to become a good citizen, and
adjust himself to the laws and the customs of his new country. Why should
he not do this in regard to bird life? It is not too much to ask, nor is it too
much to exact. Does the Italian workman, or store-keeper who makes his
living by honest toil enjoy breaking our bird laws, enjoy irritating and
injuring those with whom he has come to live? Does he enjoy being
watched, and searched, and chased, and arrested,—all for a few small birds
that he does not need for food? He earns good wages; he has plenty of good
food; and he must be educated into protecting our birds instead of
destroying them. The Italian newspapers and clergy have a serious duty to
perform in this matter, and we hope they will diligently discharge it.

DEAD SONG-BIRDS
These jars contain the dead bodies of 43 valuable insectivorous birds that were
taken from two Italians in October, 1905, in the suburbs of New York City, by game
wardens of the New York Zoological Society.

CHAPTER XII
DESTRUCTION OF SONG BIRDS BY
SOUTHERN NEGROES AND POOR WHITES

Before going farther, there is one point that I wish to make quite clear.
Whenever the people of a particular race make a specialty of some
particular type of wrong-doing, anyone who pointedly rebukes the faulty
members of that race is immediately accused of "race prejudice." On
account of the facts I am now setting forth about the doings of Italian and
negro bird-killers, I expect to be accused along that line. If I am, I shall
strenuously deny the charge. The facts speak for themselves. Zoologically,
however, I am strongly prejudiced against the people of any race, creed,
club, state or nation who make a specialty of any particularly offensive type
of bird or wild animal slaughter; and I do not care who knows it.
The time was, and I remember it very well, when even the poorest gunner
scorned to kill birds that were not considered "game." In days lang syne,
many a zoological collector has been jeered because the specimens he had
killed for preservation were not "game."
But times have changed. In the wearing of furs, we have bumped down
steps both high and steep. In 1880 American women wore sealskin, marten,
otter, beaver and mink. To-day nothing that wears hair is too humble to be
skinned and worn. To-day "they are wearing" skins of muskrats, foxes,
rabbits, skunks, domestic cats, squirrels, and even rats. And see how the
taste for game,—of some sections of our population,—also has gone down.
In the North, the Italians are fighting for the privilege of eating
everything that wears feathers; but we allow no birds to be shot for food
save game birds and cranes. In the South, the negroes and poor whites are

killing song-birds, woodpeckers and doves for food; and in several states
some of it is done under the authority of the laws. Look at these awful lists:

IN THESE STATES, ROBINS ARE LEGALLY SHOT AND EATEN:
Louisiana North Carolina Tennessee Texas
Mississippi South Carolina Maryland Florida

IN THESE STATES, BLACKBIRDS ARE LEGALLY SHOT AND EATEN:
Louisiana Pennsylvania Tennessee
District of Columbia South Carolina

CRANES ARE SHOT AND EATEN IN THESE STATES:
Colorado North Dakota Nevada Oklahoma Nebraska

In Mississippi, the cedar bird is legally shot and eaten!
In North Carolina, the meadow lark is shot and eaten.
IN THE FOLLOWING STATES, DOVES ARE CONSIDERED "GAME,"
AND ARE SHOT IN AN "OPEN SEASON:"
Alabama Georgia Minnesota Ohio
Arkansas Idaho Mississippi Oregon
California Illinois Missouri Pennsylvania
Connecticut Kentucky Nebraska South Carolina
Delaware Louisiana New Mexico Tennessee
Dist. of Columbia Maryland North Carolina Texas
Utah Virginia

The killing of doves represents a great and widespread decline in the
ethics of sportsmanship. In the twenty-six States named, a great many men
who call themselves sportsmen indulge in the cheap and ignoble pastime of
potting weak and confiding doves. It is on a par with the "sport" of hunting
English sparrows in a city street. Of course this is, to a certain extent, a
matter of taste; but there is at least one club of sportsmen into which no
dove-killer can enter, provided his standard of ethics is known in advance.
With the killing of robins, larks, blackbirds and cedar birds for food, the
case is quite different. No white man calling himself a sportsman ever
indulges in such low pastimes as the killing of such birds for food. That
burden of disgrace rests upon the negroes and poor whites of the South; but
at the same time, it is a shame that respectable white men sitting in state
legislatures should deliberately enact laws permitting such disgraceful

practices, or permit such disgraceful and ungentlemanly laws to remain in
force!
Here is a case by way of illustration, copied very recently from the
Atlanta Journal:
Editor Journal:—I located a robin roost up the Trinity River,
six miles from Dallas, and prevailed on six Dallas sportsmen to
go with me on a torch-light bird hunt. This style of hunting was,
of course, new to the Texans, but they finally consented to go,
and I had the pleasure of showing them how it was done.
Equipped with torch lights and shot guns, we proceeded.
After reaching the hunting grounds the sport began in reality,
and continued for two hours and ten minutes, with a total
slaughter of 10,157 birds, an average of 1,451 birds killed by
each man.
But the Texans give me credit for killing at least 2,000 of the
entire number. I was called 'the king of bird hunters' by the
sportsmen of Dallas, Texas, and have been invited to command-
in-chief the next party of hunters which go from Dallas to the
Indian Territory in search of large game.—F.L. CROW, Dallas,
Texas, former Atlantan.
Dallas, Texas, papers and Oklahoma papers, please copy!
As a further illustration of the spirit manifested in the South toward
robins, I quote the following story from Dr. P.P. Claxton, of the University
of Tennessee, as related in Audubon Educational Leaflet No. 46, by Mr. T.
Gilbert Pearson:—
"The roost to which I refer," says Professor Claxton, "was situated in
what is locally known as a 'cedar glade,' near Porestville, Bedford Co.,
Tennessee. This is a great cedar country, and robins used to come in
immense numbers during the winter months, to feed on the berries.
"The spot which the roost occupied was not unlike numerous others that
might have been selected. The trees grew to a height of from five to thirty
feet, and for a mile square were literally loaded at night with robins.

Hunting them while they
roosted was a favorite
sport. A man would climb
a cedar tree with a torch,
while his companions
with poles and clubs
would disturb the
sleeping birds on the
adjacent trees. Blinded by
the light, the suddenly
awakened birds flew to
the torch-bearer; who, as
he seized each bird would
quickly pull off its head,
THE ROBIN OF THE NORTH and drop it into a sack
Our best-beloved Song Bird, now being legally shot as
"game" in the South. In the North there is now only suspended from his
one robin for every ten formerly there.
shoulders.
"The capture of three of
four hundred birds was an
ordinary night's work. Men
and boys would come in
wagons from all the
adjoining counties and
camp near the roost for the
purpose of killing robins.
Many times, 100 or more
hunters with torches and
clubs would be at work in
a single night. For three
years this tremendous
slaughter continued in
winter,—and then the
survivors deserted the
roost."
No: these people were
not Apache Indians, led by

a Geronimo who knew no
THE MOCKING-BIRD OF THE SOUTH
mercy, no compassion. We This sweet singer of the South is NOT being shot in
imagine that they were the North for food! No northern lawmaker ever will
permit such barbarity.
mostly poor white trash, of
Tennessee. One small hamlet sent to market annually enough dead robins to
return $500 at five cents per dozen; which means 120,000 birds!
Last winter Mr. Edward A. McIlhenny of Avery Island, La. (south of New
Iberia) informed me that every winter, during the two weeks that the holly
berries are ripe thousands of robins come to his vicinity to feed upon them.
"Then every negro man and boy who can raise a gun is after them. About
10,000 robins are slaughtered each day while they remain. Their dead
bodies are sold in New Iberia at 10 cents each." The accompanying
illustrations taken by Mr. McIlhenny shows 195 robins on one tree, and
explains how such great slaughter is possible.

NORTHERN ROBINS READY FOR SOUTHERN SLAUGHTER

195 Birds at Avery Island, La. in January 1912, Photographed Daring the Annual
Slaughter, by E.A. McIlhenny

An officer of the Louisiana Audubon Society states that a conservative
estimate of the number of robins annually killed in Louisiana for food
purposes when they are usually plentiful, is a quarter of a million!
The food of the robin is as follows:
Insects, 40 per cent; wild fruit, 43 per cent; cultivated fruit, 8 per cent,
miscellaneous vegetable food, 5 per cent.
Special Work Of The Southern Negroes. —In 1912 a female colored
servant who recently had arrived from country life in Virginia chanced to
remark to me at our country home in the middle of August: "I wish I could
find some birds' nests!"
"What for?" I asked, rather puzzled.
"Why, to get the aigs and eat 'em!" she responded with a bright smile and
flashing teeth.
"Do you eat the eggs of wild birds?"
"Yes indeed! It's fine to get a pattridge nest! From them we nearly always
git a whole dozen of aigs at once,—back where I live, in Virginia."
"Do the colored people of Virginia make a practice of hunting for the
eggs of wild birds, and eating them?"
"Yes, indeed we do. In the spring and summer, when the birds are around,
we used to get out every Sunday, and hunt all day. Some days we'd come
back with a whole bucket full of aigs; and then we'd set up half the night,
cookin' and eatin' 'em. They was awful good!"
Her face fairly beamed at the memory of it.
A few days later, this story of the doings of Virginia negroes was fully
corroborated by a colored man who came from another section of that state.
Three months later, after special inquiries made at my request, a gentleman
of Richmond obtained further corroboration, from negroes. He was himself
much surprised by the state of fact that was revealed to him.

In the North, the economic value of our song birds and other destroyers
of insects and weed seeds is understood by a majority of the people, and as
far as possible those birds are protected from all human enemies. But in the
South, a new division of the Army of Destruction has risen into deadly
prominence.
In Recreation Magazine for May, 1909, Mr. Charles Askins published a
most startling and illuminating article, entitled "The South's Problem in
Game Protection." It brought together in concrete form and with eye-
witness reliability the impressions that for months previous had been
gaining ground in the North. In order to give the testimony of a man who
has seen what he describes, I shall now give numerous quotations from Mr.
Askins' article, which certainly bears the stamp of truthfulness, without any
"race prejudice" whatever. It is a calm, judicial, unemotional analysis of a
very bad situation: and I particularly commend it alike to the farmers of the
North and all the true sportsmen of the South.
In his opening paragraphs Mr. Askins describes game and hunting
conditions in the South as they were down to twenty years ago, when the
negroes were too poor to own guns, and shooting was not for them.

SPECIAL WORK OF THE SOUTHERN
NEGROES.
It is all different now, says Mr. Askins, and the old days will
only come back with the water that has gone down the stream.
The master is with his fathers or he is whiling away his last days
on the courthouse steps of the town. Perhaps a chimney or two
remain of what was once the "big house" on the hill; possibly it
is still standing, but as forlorn and lifeless as a dead tree. The
muscadine grapes still grow in the swale and the persimmons in
the pasture field, but neither 'possum nor 'coon is left to eat
them. The last deer vanished years ago, the rabbits died in their
baby coats and the quail were killed in June. Old "Uncle Ike"
has gone across the "Great River" with his master, and his
grandson glances at you askance, nods sullenly, whistles to his
half breed bird dog, shoulders his three dollar gun and leaves

you. He is typical of the change and has caused it, this grandson
of dear old Uncle Ike.
In the same way the white man is telling the black to abide
upon the plantation raising cotton and corn, and further than this
nothing will be required of him. He can cheat a white man or a
black, steal in a petty way anything that comes handy, live in
marriage or out of it to please himself, kill another negro if he
likes, and lastly shoot every wild thing that can be eaten, if only
he raises the cotton and the corn. But the white sportsmen of the
South have never willingly granted the shooting privilege in its
entirety, and hence this story. They have told him to trap the
rabbits, pot the robins, slaughter the doves, kill the song birds,
but to spare the white sportsman's game, the aristocratic little
bobwhite quail.
In the beginning not so much damage to southern game
interests could be accomplished by our colored man and brother,
however decided his inclinations. He had no money, no
ammunition and no gun. His weapons were an ax, a club, a trap,
and a hound dog; possibly he might own an old war musket
bored out for shot. Such an outfit was not adapted to quail
shooting and especially to wing shooting, with which
knowledge Dixie's sportsmen were content. Let the negro
ramble about with his hound dog and his war musket; he
couldn't possibly kill the quail. And so Uncle Ike's grandson
loafed and pottered about in the fields with his ax and his hound
dogs, not doing so much harm to the quail but acquiring
knowledge of the habits of the birds and skill as a still-hunting
pot-hunter that would serve him well later on. The negro
belongs to a primitive race of people and all such races have
keener eyes than white men whose fathers have pored over lines
of black and white. He learned to see the rabbit in its form, the
squirrels in the leafy trees, and the quails huddled in the grass.
The least shade of gray in the shadow of the creek bank he
distinguished at once as a rabbit, a glinting flash from a tree top
he knew instantly as being caused by the slight movement of a
hidden squirrel, and the quiver of a single stem of sedge grass

told him of a bevy of birds hiding in the depths. The pot-hunting
negro has all the skill of the Indian, has more industry in his
loafing, and kills without pity and without restraint. This
grandson of Uncle Ike was growing sulky, too, with the
knowledge that the white man was bribing him with half a loaf
to raise cotton and corn when he might as well exact it all. And
this he shortly did, as we shall see.
The time came when cotton went up to sixteen cents a pound
and single breech-loading guns went down to five dollars
apiece. The negro had money now, and the merchants—these
men who had said let the nigger alone so long as he raises cotton
and corn—sold him the guns, a gun for every black idler, man
and boy, in all the South. Then shortly a wail went up from the
sportsmen, "The niggers are killing our quail." They not only
were killing them, but most of the birds were already dead. On
the grounds of the Southern Field Club where sixty bevies were
raised by the dogs in one day, within two years but three bevies
could be found in a day by the hardest kind of hunting; and this
story was repeated all over the South. Now the negro began to
raise bird dogs in place of hounds, and he carried his new gun to
church if services happened to be held on a week day. Finally
the negro had grown up and had compassed his ambition: he
could shoot partridges flying just the same as a white man, was
a white man except for a trifling difference in color; and he
could kill more birds, too, three times as many. It was merely a
change from the old order to the new in which a dark-skinned
"sportsman" had taken the place in plantation life of the dear old
"Colonel" of loved memory. The negro had exacted his price for
raising cotton and corn.

Reproduced from Recreation Magazine. By permission of the Outdoor World.

THE SOUTHERN-NEGRO METHOD OF COMBING OUT THE WILD LIFE
"Our colored sportsman is gregarious at all times, but especially so in the matter
of recreation. He may slouch about alone, and pot a bevy or two of quail when in
actual need of something to eat, or when he has a sale for the birds, but when it
comes to shooting for fun he wants to be with the 'gang'."—Charles Askins.

Our colored sportsman is gregarious at all times, but
especially so in the matter of recreation. He may slouch about
alone and pot a bevy or two of quail when in actual need of
something to eat, or when he has a sale for the birds, but when it
comes to shooting for fun he wants to be with the "gang." I have
seen the darkies at Christmas time collect fifty in a drove with
every man his dog, and spread out over the fields. Such a
glorious time as he has then! A single cottontail will draw a half-
dozen shots and perhaps a couple of young bucks will pour
loads into a bunny after he is dead out of pure deviltry and high
spirits. I once witnessed the accidental killing of a young negro
on this kind of a foray. His companions loaded him into a
wagon, stuck a cigar in his mouth, and tried to pour whiskey
down him every time they took a drink themselves as they rode
back to town. This army of black hunters and their dogs cross
field after field, combing the country with fine teeth that leave
neither wild animal nor bird life behind.

There comes a time toward the spring of the year after the
quail season is over when the average rural darky is "between
hay and grass." The merchants on whom he has depended for
supplies make it a practice to refuse credit between January first
and crop time. The black has spent his cotton money, his sweet
potato pile has vanished, the sorghum barrel is empty, he has
eaten the last of his winter's pork, and all that remains is a bit of
meal and the meat his gun can secure. He is hunting in grim
earnest now, using all the cunning and skill acquired by years of
practice. He eats woodpeckers, jaybirds, hawks and skunks,
drawing the line only at crows and buzzards. At this season of
the year I have carried chicken hawks up to the cabins for the
sake of watching the delight of the piccaninnies who with
glowing eyes would declare, "Them's mos' as good as chicken."
What happens to the robins, doves, larks, red birds, mocking
birds and all songsters in this hungry season needs hardly to be
stated.
It is also a time between hay and grass for the rabbits and the
quail. The corn fields are bare and the weed seeds are exhausted.
A spring cold spell pinches, they lose their vitality, become thin
and quite lack their ordinary wariness. Then the figure-four trap
springs up in the hedgerow and the sedge while the work of
decimation goes more rapidly along. The rabbits can no longer
escape the half-starved dogs, the thinning cover fails to hide the
quail and the song birds betray themselves by singing of the
coming spring.
With the growing scarcity of the game now comes the season
of sedge and field burning. This is done ostensibly to prepare the
land for spring plowing, but really to destroy the last refuge of
the quail and rabbits so that they can be bagged with certainty.
All the negroes of a neighborhood collect for one of these
burnings, all their dogs, and of course all the boys from six years
old up. They surround the field and set it on fire in many places,
leaving small openings for the game to dash out among the
motley assembly. I have seen quail fly out of the burning grass
with flaming particles still attached to them. They alight on the

burnt ground too bewildered to fly again and the boys and dogs
pick them up. Crazed rabbits try the gauntlet amidst the barking
curs, shouting negroes and popping guns, but death is sure and
quick. The few quail that may escape have no refuge from the
hawks and nothing to eat, so every battue of this kind marks the
absolute end of the birds in one vicinity; and the next day the
darkies repeat the performance elsewhere.
At this season of the year, the first of May, the blacks are
putting in some of their one hundred working days while the
single breech-loader rusts in the chimney corner. Surely the few
birds that have escaped the foray of the "gang," lived through
the hungry days, and survived their burned homes can now call
"Bob White" and mate in peace. But school is out and the
summer sun is putting new life into the bare feet of the half-
grown boys, and the halfbreed bird dogs are busier than they
were even in winter. The young rabbits are killed before they get
out of the nest, and the quail eggs must be hidden rarely well
that escape both the eyes of the boys and the noses of the dogs.
After all it is not surprising that but three bevies remained of the
sixty. Doubtless they would not, except that nature is very kind
to her own in the sunny South.
Not every white man in the South is a sportsman or even a
shooter; many are purely business men who have said let the
"nigger" do as he likes so long as he raises cotton and buys our
goods. But Dixie has her full share of true men of the out-of-
doors and they have sworn in downright Southern fashion that
this thing has got to end. Nevertheless their problem is deep and
puzzling. In Alabama they made an effort and a beginning. They
asked for a law requiring every man to obtain written permission
before entering the lands of another to hunt and shoot; they
asked for a resident license law taxing every gun not less than
five dollars a year; for a shortened season, a bag limit, and a
complete system of State wardens. Unfortunately, a lot of white
farmers were in the same range as the blacks, and being hit, too,
they raised a great outcry. The result was that the Alabama
sportsmen got everything they asked for except the foundation

of the structure they were trying to build, the high resident
license or gun tax which alone could have shut out three dollar
guns and saved the remnant of the game. Under the new law the
sale of game was forbidden, neither could it be shipped out of
the State alive or dead; the ever popular non-resident license
was provided for; the season was shortened and the bag limited;
the office of State game warden was created with deputies to be
paid from fines; hunting upon the lands of another without
written permission became a misdemeanor; and then the whole
thing was nullified by reducing the resident license to nothing
where a man shot upon his own land, one dollar in his own
county, and two dollars outside of it. In its practical workings
the new law amounts to this: A few northern gunners have paid
the non-resident license fee, and enough resident licenses have
been taken out by the city sportsmen to make up the handsome
salary of the State warden. The negro still hunts upon his own
land or upon the land of the man who wants corn and cotton
raised, with perfect indifference to the whole thing. Who was to
enforce the law against him? Not the one disgusted deputy with
three big counties to patrol who depended for his salary upon
the fines collected from the negroes. It would take one man to
every three miles square to protect the game in the South.
The one effective way of dealing with the situation in
Alabama was to have legislated three dollar guns out of
existence with a five dollar tax, adding to this nearly a like
amount on dogs. Hardly a sportsman in the South will disagree
with this conclusion. But sportsmen never had a majority vote
either in the South or in the North, and the South's grave
problem is yet unsolved.
I do not favor depriving the black man of his natural human
right to hunt and shoot. If he is the owner of land, or if he leases
or rents it, or if he does not, he should have exactly the same
privilege of hunting that the white man has. That is not the
question now, however, but how to restrict him to legal
shooting, to make him amenable to the law that governs the
white man, to deprive him of the absolute license he now enjoys

to kill throughout the year without mercy, without
discrimination, without restraint. If only for selfish reasons, we
of the North should reach to southern sportsmen a helping hand,
for by and by the last of our migratory song birds will go down
into Dixie and never return.

Mr. Askins has fairly stated a profoundly disturbing case. The remedy
must contain at least three ingredients. The sportsmen of the South must
stop the unjustifiable slaughter of their non-migratory game birds. As a
matter of comity between states, the gentlemen of the South must pass laws
to stop the killing of northern song-birds and all crop-protecting birds, for
food. Finally, all men, North and South, East and West, must unite in the
work that is necessary to secure the immediate enactment by Congress of a
law for the federal protection of all migratory birds.

CHAPTER XIII
EXTERMINATION OF BIRDS FOR WOMEN'S
HATS [D]

It is high time for the whole civilized world to know that many of the
most beautiful and remarkable birds of the world are now being
exterminated to furnish millinery ornaments for women's wear. The mass of
new information that we have recently secured on this traffic from the
headquarters of the feather trade is appalling. Previously, I had not dreamed
that conditions are half as bad as they are.
It is entirely fitting that on this subject New York should send a message
to London. New York is almost a Spotless Town in plume-free millinery,
and London and Paris are the worst places in the world. We have cleaned
house. With but extremely slight exceptions, the blood of the slaughtered
innocents is no longer upon our skirts, and on the subject of plumage
millinery we have a right to be just as Pharisaical as we choose.
Here in New York (and also in New Jersey) no man may sell, own for
sale or offer for sale the plumage of any wild American bird other than a
game bird. More than that, the plumage of no foreign bird belonging to any
bird family represented in the fauna of North America can be sold here!
There are only a few kinds of improper "millinery" feathers that it is
possible to sell here under the law. Thanks to the long and arduous
campaign of the National Association of Audubon Societies, founded and
for ten years directed by gallant William Dutcher, you now see on the
streets of New York very, very little wild-bird plumage save that from game
birds.

It is true that a few servant girls are now wearing the cast-off aigrettes of
their mistresses; but they are only as one in a thousand. At Atlantic City
there is said to be a fine display of servant-girl and ladies-maid aigrettes. In
New York and New Jersey, in Pennsylvania for everything save the sale of
heron and egret plumes (a privilege obtained by a bunko game), in
Massachusetts, and in many other of our States, the wild-birds'-plumage
millinery business is dead. Two years ago, when the New York legislature
refused to repeal the Dutcher law, the Millinery Association asserted, and
brought a cloud of witnesses to Albany to prove, that the enforcement of the
law would throw thousands of operatives out of employment.

BEAUTIFUL AND CURIOUS BIRDS NOW BEING DESTROYED FOR THE
FEATHER TRADE—(I)
Belted Kingfisher Greater Bird of Paradise
Victoria Crowned Pigeon Common Tern
Superb Calliste Cock of the Rock

The law is in effect; and the aigrette business is dead in this state. Have
any operatives starved, or been thrown out of employment? We have heard
of none. They are now at work making very pretty hat ornaments of silk and
ribbons, and gauze and lace; and "They are wearing them."

1600 HUMMINGBIRD SKINS AT 2 CENTS EACH!

Part of Lot Purchased by the Zoological Society at the Regular Quarterly London
Millinery Feather Sale, August, 1912.

But even while these words are being written, there is one large fly in the
ointment. The store-window of E. &. S. Meyers, 688 Broadway, New York,
contains about six hundred plumes and skins of birds of paradise for sale
for millinery purposes. No wonder the great bird of paradise is now almost
extinct! Their sale here is possible because the Dutcher law protects from
the feather dealers only the birds that belong to avian families represented
in the United States. With fiendish cunning and enterprise, the shameless
feather dealers are ferreting out the birds whose skins and plumes may
legally be imported into this country and sold; but we will meet that with a
law that will protect all foreign birds, so far as we are concerned. Now it is
time for the universal enactment of a law which will prohibit the sale and
use as ornaments of the plumage, feathers or skins of any wild bird that is
not a legitimate game bird.
London is now the head of the giant octopus of the "feather trade" that
has reached out its deadly tentacles into the most remote wildernesses of the
earth, and steadily is drawing in the "skins" and "plumes" and "quills" of
the most beautiful and most interesting unprotected birds of the world. The
extent of this cold-blooded industry, supported by vain and hard-hearted
women, will presently be shown in detail. Paris is the great manufacturing
center of feather trimming and ornaments, and the French people
obstinately refuse to protect the birds from extermination, because their
slaughter affords employment to a certain numbers of French factory
operatives.
All over the world where they have real estate possessions, the men of
England know how to protect game from extermination. The English are
good at protecting game—when they decide to set about it.
Why should London be the Mecca of the feather-killers of the world?
It is easily explained:
(1) London has the greatest feather market in the world; (2) the feather
industry "wants the money"; and (3) the London feather industry is willing
to spend money in fighting to retain its strangle-hold on the unprotected
birds of the world.

Let us run through a small portion of the mass of fresh evidence before
us. It will be easier for the friends of birds to read these details here than to
procure them at first hand, as we have done.
The first thing that strikes one is the fact that the feather-hunters are
scattered all over the world where bird life is plentiful and there are no laws
to hinder their work. I commend to every friend of birds this list of the
species whose plumage is to-day being bought and sold in large quantities
every year in London. To the birds of the world this list is of deadly import,
for it spells extermination.
The reader will notice that it is the way of the millinery octopus to reach
out to the uttermost ends of the earth, and take everything that it can use.
From the trackless jungles of New Guinea, round the world both ways to
the snow-capped peaks of the Andes, no unprotected bird is safe. The
humming-birds of Brazil, the egrets of the world at large, the rare birds of
paradise, the toucan, the eagle, the condor and the emu, all are being
exterminated to swell the annual profits of the millinery trade. The case is
far more serious than the world at large knows, or even suspects. But for the
profits, the birds would be safe; and no unprotected wild species can long
escape the hounds of Commerce.
But behold the list of rare, curious and beautiful birds that are today in
grave peril:

BEAUTIFUL AND CURIOUS BIRDS NOW BEING DESTROYED FOR THE
FEATHER TRADE—(II)
Lyre Bird Resplendent Trogan
White Ibis Silver Pheasant
Golden Eagle Toco Toucan

List Of Birds Now Being Exterminated For The London And Continental
Feather Markets:
Species. Locality.
American Egret Venezuela, S. America, Mexico, etc.
Snowy Egret Venezuela, S. America, Mexico, etc.
Scarlet Ibis Tropical South America.
"Green" Ibis Species not recognizable by its trade name.
Herons, generally All unprotected regions.
Marabou Stork Africa.
Pelicans, all species All unprotected regions.
Bustard Southern Asia, Africa.
Greater Bird of Paradise New Guinea; Aru Islands.
Lesser Bird of Paradise New Guinea.
Red Bird of Paradise Islands of Waigiou and Batanta.
Twelve-Wired Bird of Paradise New Guinea, Salwatti.
Black Bird of Paradise Northern New Guinea.
Rifle Bird of Paradise New Guinea generally.
Jobi Bird of Paradise Island of Jobi.
King Bird of Paradise New Guinea.
Magnificent Bird of Paradise New Guinea.
Impeyan Pheasant Nepal and India.
Tragopan Pheasant Nepal and India.
Argus Pheasant Malay Peninsula, Borneo.
Silver Pheasant Burma and China.
Golden Pheasant China.
Jungle Cock East Indies and Burma.
Peacock East Indies and India.
Condor South America.
Vultures, generally Where not protected.
Eagles, generally All unprotected regions.
Hawks, generally All unprotected regions.
Crowned Pigeon, two species New Guinea.
"Choncas" Locality unknown.
Pitta East Indies.
Magpie Europe.
Touracou, or Plantain-Eater Africa.
Velvet Birds Locality uncertain.
"Grives" Locality uncertain.

Mannikin South America.
Green Parrot (now protected) India.
"Dominos" (Sooty Tern) Tropical Coasts and Islands.
Garnet Tanager South America.
Grebe All unprotected regions.
Green Merle Locality uncertain.
"Horphang" Locality uncertain.
Rhea South America.
"Sixplet" Locality uncertain.
Starling Europe.
Tetras Locality not determined.
Emerald-Breasted Hummingbird West Indies, Cent, and S. America.
Blue-Throated Hummingbird West Indies, Cent, and S. America.
Amethyst Hummingbird West Indies, Cent, and S. America.
Resplendent Trogon, several species Central America.
Cock-of-the-Rock South America.
Macaw South America.
Toucan South America.
Emu Australia.
Sun-Bird East Indies.
Owl All unprotected regions.
Kingfisher All unprotected regions.
Jabiru Stork South America.
Albatross All unprotected regions.
Tern, all species All unprotected regions.
Gull, all species All unprotected regions.

In order to throw a spot-light on the most recent transactions in the
London wild-birds'-plumage market, and to furnish a clear idea of what is
to-day going on in London, Paris, Berlin and Amsterdam, I will set out in
some detail the report of an agent whom I engaged to ascertain the London
dealings in the plumage of wild birds that were killed especially to furnish
that plumage. As one item, let us take the sales in London in February, May
and October, 1911, because they bring the subject well down to date. My
agent's explanatory note is as follows:
"These three sales represent six months. Very nearly double this quantity
is sold by these four firms in a year. We must also take into consideration
that all the feathers are not brought to the London market, and that very
large shipments are also made direct to the raw-feather dealers and
manufacturers of Paris and Berlin, and that Amsterdam also gets large
quantities from the West Indies. For your purpose, I report upon three sales,

at different periods of the year 1911, and as those sales do not vary much,
you will be able to judge the consumption of birds in a year."
The "aigrettes" of the feather trade come from egrets, and, being very
light, it requires the death of several birds to yield one ounce. In many
catalogues, the word "albatross" stands for the jabiru, a nearly-exterminated
species of giant stork, inhabiting South America. "Rhea" often stands for
vulture plumage.
If the feather dealers had deliberately attempted to form an educational
list of the most beautiful and the most interesting birds of the world, they
could hardly have done better than they have done in the above list. If it
were in my power to show the reader a colored plate of each species now
being exterminated by the feather trade, he would be startled by the exhibit.
That the very choicest birds of the whole avian world should be thus blotted
out at the behest of vain and heartless women is a shame, a disgrace and
world-wide loss.

LONDON FEATHER SALE OF FEBRUARY, 1911
Sold by Hale & Sons Sold by Dalton & Young
Aigrettes 3,069 ounces Aigrettes 1,606 ounces
Herons 960 " Herons 250 "
Birds of Paradise 1,920 skins Paradise 4,330 bodies
Sold by Figgis & Co. Sold by Lewis & Peat
Aigrettes 421 ounces Aigrettes 1,250 ounces
Herons 103 " Paradise 362 skins
Paradise 414 skins Eagles 384 "
Eagles 2,600 " Trogons 206 "
Condors 1,580 " Hummingbirds 24,800 "
Bustards 2,400 "
LONDON FEATHER SALE OF MAY, 1911
Sold by Hale & Sons Sold by Dalton & Young
Aigrettes 1,390 ounces Aigrettes 2,921 ounces
Herons 178 " Herons 254 "
Paradise 1,686 skins Paradise 5,303 skins
Red Ibis 868 " Golden Pheasants 1,000 "
Junglecocks 1,550 "
Parrots 1,700 "
Herons 500 "
Sold by Figgis & Co. Sold by Lewis & Peat
Aigrettes 201 ounces Aigrettes 590 ounces
Herons 248 " Herons 190 "
Paradise 546 skins Paradise 60 skins

Falcons, Hawks 1,500 " Trogons 348 "
Hummingbirds 6,250 "
LONDON FEATHER SALE OF OCTOBER, 1911
Sold by Hale & Sons Sold by Dalton & Young
Aigrettes 1,020 ounces Aigrettes 5,879 ounces
Paradise 2,209 skins Heron 1,608 "
Hummingbirds 10,040 " Paradise 2,850 skins
Bustard 28,000 quills Condors 1,500 "
Eagles 1,900 "
Sold by Figgis & Co. Sold by Lewis & Peat
Aigrettes 1,501 ounces Aigrettes 1,680 ounces
Herons 140 " Herons 400 "
Paradise 318 skins Birds of Paradise 700 skins

If I am correctly informed, the London feather trade admits that it
requires six egrets to yield one "ounce" of aigrette plumes. This being the
case, the 21,528 ounces sold as above stand for 129,168 egrets killed for
nine months' supply of egret plumes, for London alone.
The total number of bird corpses auctioned during these three sales is as
follows:
Aigrettes, 21,528 ounces = 129,168 Egrets.
Herons, 2,683 " = 13,598 Herons.
20,698 Birds of Paradise.
41,090 Hummingbirds.
9,464 Eagles, Condors, etc.
9,472 Other Birds.
-------
Total number of birds 223,490

It is to be remembered that the sales listed above cover the transactions of
four firms only, and do not in any manner take into account the direct
importations from Paris, Berlin and Amsterdam of manufacturers and other
dealers. The defenders of the feather trade are at great pains to assure the
world that in the monthly, bi-monthly and quarterly sales, feathers often
appear in the market twice in the same year; and this statement is made for
them in order to be absolutely fair. Recent examinations of the plume
catalogues for an entire year, marked with the price paid for each item,
reveals very few which are blank, indicating no sale! The subtractions of
the duplicated items would alter the result only very slightly.

The full extent of England's annual consumption of the plumage of wild
birds slaughtered especially for the trade never has been determined. I
doubt whether it is possible to ascertain it. The information that we have is
so fragmentary that in all probability it reflects only a small portion of the
whole truth, but for all that, it is sufficient to prove the case of the
Defenders of the Birds vs. the London Chamber of Commerce.

IMPORTS OF FEATHERS AND DOWN (ORNAMENTAL) FOR THE YEAR
1910
Pounds. Value.
Venezuela 8,398 $191,058
Brazil 787 5,999
Japan 2,284 3,830
China 6,329 16,308
Tripoli 345 900
Egypt 21,047 89,486
Java, Sumatra, and Borneo 15,703 186,504
Cape of Good Hope [E] 9,747,146
709,406
British India 18,359 22,137
Hong-Kong 310 3,090
British West Indies 30 97
Other British Colonies 10,438 21,938

The above does not take into account the feathers from game birds
received in England from France, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Belgium and
the Netherlands.
As a final side-light on the quantity of egret and heron plumes offered
and sold in London during the twelve months ending in April, 1912, we
offer the following exhibit:

"OSPREY" FEATHERS (EGRET AND HERON PLUMES) SOLD IN
LONDON DURING THE YEAR ENDING APRIL. 1912
Offered Sold.
Venezuelan, long and medium 11,617 ounces 7,072 ounces
Venezuelan, mixed Heron 4,043 " 2,539 "
Brazilian 3,335 " 1,810 "
Chinese 641 " 576 "
-------------- --------------
19,636 ounces 11,997 ounces
Birds of Paradise, plumes (2 plumes = 1 bird) 29,385 24,579

BEAUTIFUL AND CURIOUS BIRDS NOW BEING DESTROYED FOR THE
FEATHER TRADE—(III)
Griffon Vulture Condor
Herring Gull Emeu
Jabiru Indian Adjutant

Under the head of "Hummingbirds Not Wanted," Mr. Downham is at
great pains to convey [F] the distinct impression that to-day hummingbirds
are scorned by the feather trade, and the demand for them is dead. I
believed him—until my agent turned in the following statement:
Hummingbirds sold by Lewis & Peat, London, February, 1911 24,800
Hummingbirds sold by Lewis & Peat, London, May, 1911 6,250
Hummingbirds sold by Hale & Sons, London, October, 1911 10,040
-------
Total 41,090

It is useless for anyone to assert that these birds were merely "offered,"
and not actually sold, as Mr. Downham so laboriously explains is the
regular course with hummingbird skins; for that will deceive no intelligent
person. The statement published above comes to me direct, from an
absolutely competent and reliable source.
Undoubtedly the friends of birds, and likewise their enemies, will be
interested in the prices at which the skins of the most beautiful birds of the
world are sold in London, prior to their annihilation by the feather industry.
I submit the following exhibit, copied from the circular of Messrs. Lewis &
Peat. It is at least of academic interest.

PRICES OF RARE AND BEAUTIFUL BIRD SKINS IN LONDON
Condor skins $3.50 to $5.75
Condor wing feathers, each .05
Impeyan Pheasant .66 " 2.50
Argus Pheasant 3.60 " 3.85
Tragopan Pheasant 2.70
Silver Pheasant 3.50
Golden Pheasant .34 " .46
Greater Bird of Paradise:
Light Plumes: Medium to giants 10.32 " 21.00
Medium to long, worn 7.20 " 13.80
Slight def. and plucked 2.40 " 6.72

Dark Plumes: Medium to good long 7.20 " 24.60
12-Wired Bird of Paradise 1.44 " 1.80
Rubra Bird of Paradise 2.50
Rifle Bird of Paradise 1.14 " 1.38
King Bird of Paradise 2.40
"Green" Bird of Paradise .38 " .44
East Indian Kingfisher .06 " .07
East Indian Parrots .03
Peacock Necks, gold and blue .24 " .66
Peacock Necks, blue and green .36
Scarlet Ibis .14 " .24
Toucan breasts .22 " .26
Red Tanagers .09
Orange Oriels .05
Indian Crows' breasts .13
Indian Jays .04
Amethyst Hummingbirds .01½
Hummingbird, various 3/16 of .01 " .02
Hummingbird, others 1/32 of .01 " .01
Egret ("Osprey") skins 1.08 " 2.78
Egret ("Osprey") skins, long 2.40
Vulture feathers, per pound .36 " 4.56
Eagle, wing feathers, bundles of 100 .09
Hawk, wing feathers, bundles of 100 .12
Mandarin Ducks, per skin .15
Pheasant tail feathers, per pound 1.80
Crown Pigeon heads, Victoria 1.68 " 2.50
Crown Pigeon heads, Coronatus .84 " 1.20
Emu skins 4.56 " 4.80
Cassowary plumes, per ounce 3.48
Swan skins .72 " .74
Kingfisher skins .07 " .09
African Golden Cuckoo 1.68

Many thoughts are suggested by these London lists of bird slaughter and
loot.
It will be noticed that the breast of the grebe has almost wholly
disappeared from the feather market and from women's hats. The reason is
that there are no longer enough birds of that group to hold a place in the
London market! Few indeed are the Americans who know that from 1900 to
1908 the lake region of southern Oregon was the scene of the slaughter of
uncountable thousands of those birds, which continued until the grebes
were almost exterminated.

When the wonderful lyre-bird of Australia had been almost exterminated
for its tail feathers, its open slaughter was stopped by law, and a heavy fine
was imposed on exportation, amounting, I have been told, to $250 for each
offense. My latest news of the lyre-bird was of the surreptitious exportation
of 200 skins to the London feather market.
In India, the smuggling outward of the skins of protected birds is
constantly going on. Occasionally an exporter is caught and fined; but that
does not stop the traffic.
Bird-lovers must now bid farewell forever to all the birds of paradise.
Nothing but the legal closing of the world's markets against their plumes
and skins can save any of them. They never were numerous; nor does any
species range over a wide area. They are strictly insular, and the island
homes of some of them are very small. Take the great bird of paradise
(Paradisea apoda) as an illustration. On Oct. 2, 1912, at Indianapolis,
Indiana, a city near the center of the United States, in three show-windows
within 100 feet of the headquarters of the Fourth National Conservation
Congress, I counted 11 stuffed heads and 11 complete sets of plumes of this
bird, displayed for sale. The prices ranged from $30 to $47.50 each! And
while I looked, a large lady approached, pointed her finger at the remains of
a greater bird of paradise, and with grim determination, said to her shopping
companion: "There! I want one o' them, an' I'm agoin' to have it, too!"
Says Mr. James Buckland in "Pros and Cons of the Plumage Bill":
"Mr. Goodfellow has returned within the last few weeks from a second
expedition to new Guinea.... One can now walk, he states, miles and miles
through the former haunts of these birds [of paradise] without seeing or
hearing even the commonest species. When I reflect on this sacrilege, I am
lost in wonder at the apathy of the British public."
Mr. Carl Hagenbeck wrote me only three months ago that "the condors of
the Andes are all being exterminated for their feathers, and these birds are
now very difficult to obtain."
The egret and heron plumes, known under the trade name of "osprey,
etc., feathers," form by far the most important item in each feather sale.
There are fifteen grades! They are sold by the ounce, and the prices range

all the way from twenty-eight cents per ounce for "mixed heron" to two
hundred and twenty-five shillings ($45.60) per ounce for the best Brazilian
"short selected," on February 7, 1912! Is it any wonder that in Philadelphia
the prices of finished aigrettes, ready to be worn, runs from $20 to $125!
The plumes that run up into the big figures are the "short selected"
coming from the following localities, and quoted at the prices set down here
in shillings and pence. Count the shilling at twenty-four cents, United States
money.
PRICES OF "SHORT SELECTED" EGRET AND HERON PLUMES, IN
LONDON ON FEBRUARY 7, 1912
(Lewis & Peat's List)
East Indies per ounce, 117/6 to 207/6 = $49.80 max.
Rangoon " " 150/0 " 192/6 = 46.20 "
China " " 130/0 " 245/0 = 58.80 "
Brazil " " 200/0 " 225/0 = 54.00 "
Venezuela " " 165/0 " 222/6 = 53.40 "

The total offering of these "short selected" plumes in December 1911,
was 689 ounces, and in February, 1912, it was 230 ounces.
Now with these enormous prices prevailing, is it any wonder that the
egrets and herons are being relentlessly pursued to the uttermost ends of the
earth? I think that any man who really knows the habits of egrets and
herons, and the total impossibility of any quantity of their shed feathers
being picked up in a marketable state, must know in his heart that if the
London and continental feather markets keep open a few years longer, every
species that furnishes "short selected" plumes will be utterly exterminated
from off the face of the earth.
Let the English people make no mistake about this, nor be fooled by any
fairy tales of the feather trade about Venezuelan "garceros," and vast
quantities of valuable plumes picked off the bushes and out of the mud.
Those carefully concocted egret-farm stories make lovely reading, but the
reader who examines the evidence will soon decide the extent of their
truthfulness. I think that they contain not even ten per cent of truth; and I
shall not rest until the stories of Leon Laglaize and Mayeul Grisol have
been put to the test in the regions where they originated.

A few plumes may be picked out of the jungle, yes; but as for any
commercial quantity, it is at present beyond belief. Besides, we have direct,
eye-witness testimony to the contrary.
It must not be inferred that the friends of birds in England have been idle
or silent in the presence of the London feather trade. On the contrary, the
Royal Society for the Protection of Wild Birds and Mr. James Buckland
have so strongly attacked the feather industry that the London Chamber of
Commerce has felt called upon to come to its rescue. Mr. Buckland, on his
own individual account, has done yeoman service to the cause, and his
devotion to the birds, and his tireless energy, are both almost beyond the
reach of praise in words. At the last moment before going to press I learn
that the birds'-plumage bill has achieved the triumph of a "first reading" in
Parliament, which looks as if success is at last in sight. The powerful
pamphlet that he has written, published and circulated at his own expense,
entitled "Pros and Cons of the Plumage Bill," is a splendid effort. What a
pity it is that more individuals are not similarly inspired to make
independent effort in the protection cause! But, strange to say, few indeed
are the men who have either the nerve or the ability to "go it alone."
On the introduction in Parliament of the bill to save the birds from the
feather trade, it was opposed (through the efforts of the Chamber of
Commerce), on the ground that if any bill against the sale of plumes should
pass, and plumes could not be sold, the London business in wild-bird skins
and feathers "would immediately be transferred to the continent!"
In the face of that devastating and altogether horrible prospect, and
because the London feather dealers "need the money," the bill was at first
defeated—to the great joy of the Chamber of Commerce and Mr.
Downham; but the cause of birds will win in the end, because it is Right.
The feather dealers have been shrewdly active in the defense of their
trade, and the methods they have employed for influencing public opinion
have quite outshone those put forth by their brethren in America. I have
before me a copy of a booklet bearing the name of Mr. C.F. Downham as
the author, and the London Chamber of Commerce has loaned its good
name as publisher. Altogether it is a very shrewd piece of work, even

though its arguments in justification of bird slaughter for the feather market
are too absurd and weak for serious consideration.
The chief burden of the defender of bird slaughter for millinery purposes
is on account of the destruction of egrets and herons, but particularly the
former. To offset as far as possible the absolutely true charge that egrets
bear their best plumes in their breeding season, when the helpless young are
in the nest and the parent birds must be killed to obtain the plumes, the
feather trade has obtained from three Frenchmen—Leon Laglaize, Mayeul
Grisol, and F. Geay—a beautiful and plausible story to the effect that in
Venezuela the enormous output of egret plumes has been obtained by
picking up, off the bushes and out of the water and mud, the shed feathers of
those birds! According to the story, Venezuela is full of egret farms, called
"garceros,"—where the birds breed and moult under strict supervision, and
kindly drop their feathers in such places that it is possible to find them, and
to pick them up, in a high state of preservation! And we are asked to believe
that it is these very Venezuelan picked-up feathers that command in London
the high price of $44 per ounce.

THE FIGHT IN ENGLAND AGAINST THE USE OF WILD BIRD'S
PLUMAGE IN THE MILLINERY TRADE
Sandwich-men Employed by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, that
Patroled London Streets in July, 1911.

Mr. Laglaize is especially exploited by Mr. Downham, as a French
traveler of high standing, and well known in the zoological museums of
France; but, sad to say, when Prof. Henry Fairfield Osborn cabled to the
Museum of Natural History in Paris, inquiring about Mr. Laglaize, the cable
flashed back the one sad word; "Inconnu!" (Unknown!)
I think it entirely possible that enough shed feathers have been picked up
in the reeking swamps of Venezuela, on the upper tributaries of the Orinoco,
to afford an excuse for the beautiful story of Mr. Laglaize. Any shrewd
individual with money, and the influence that money secures, could put up
just such a "plant" as I firmly believe has been put up by some one in
Venezuela. I will guarantee that I could accomplish such a job in Venezuela
or Brazil, in four months' time, at an expense not exceeding one thousand
dollars.
That the great supply of immaculately perfect egret plumes that annually
come out of Venezuela could by any possibility be picked up in the swamps
where they were shed and dropped by the egrets, is entirely preposterous
and incredible. The whole proportion is denounced by several men of
standing and experience, none of whom are "inconnu."
As a sweeping refutation of the fantastic statements regarding "garceros,"
published by Mr. Downham as coming from Messrs. Laglaize, Grisol and
Geay, I offer the written testimony of an American gentleman who at this
moment owns and maintains within a few yards of his residence a large
preserve of snowy egrets and herons, the former representing the species
which furnishes egret plumes exactly similar to those shipped from
Venezuela and Brazil. If the testimony of Mr. McIlhenny is not sufficient to
stamp the statements of the three Frenchmen quoted by Mr. Downham as
absolute and thoroughly misleading falsehoods, then there is no such thing
in this world as evidence. I suggest a perusal of the statements of the three
Frenchmen who are quoted with such confidence by Mr. Downham and
published by the Hon. Chamber of Commerce at London, and then a careful
reading of the following letter:

Avery Island, La., June 17, 1912.
Dear Mr. Hornaday:—
I have before me your letter of June 8th, asking for information as to
whether or no egrets shed their plumes at their nesting places in
sufficient quantities to enable them to be gathered commercially. I
most emphatically wish to state that it is impossible to gather at the
nesting places of these birds any quantity of their plumes. I have
nesting within 50 yards of where I am now sitting dictating this letter
not less than 20,000 pairs of the various species of herons and egrets,
and there are fully 2,500 pairs of snowy herons nesting within my
preserve.
During the nesting season, which covers the months of April, May
and June, I am through this heronry in a small canoe almost every day,
and often twice a day. I have had these herons under my close
inspection for the past 17 years, and I have not in any one season
picked up or seen more than half a dozen discarded plumes. Such
plumes as I have picked up, I have kept on my desk, and given to the
people who were interested. I remember that last year I picked up four
plumes of the snowy heron that were in one bunch. I think these must
have been plucked out by the birds fighting.
This year I have found only one plume so far. I enclose it herewith.
You will notice that it is one of the shorter plumes, and is badly worn
at the end, as have been all the plumes which I have picked up in my
heronry.
I am positive that it is not possible for natural shed plumes to be
gathered commercially. I have a number of times talked with plume
hunters from Venezuela and other South American countries, and I
have never heard of any egret feathers being gathered by their being
picked up after the birds have shed them.
I have heard of a number of heronries in South America that are
protected by the land owners for the purpose of gathering a yearly crop
of egret plumes, but this crop is gathered always by shooting a certain

percentage of the birds. This shooting is done by experts with 22-
calibre rifles, and does not materially disturb the nesting colony. I have
known of two men who have been engaged in killing the birds on large
estates in South America, who were paid regular salaries for their
services as egret hunters.
Very truly yours,
E.A. McIlhenny.

I am more than willing to set the above against the fairy tale of Mr.
Laglaize.
Here is the testimony of A.H. Meyer, an ex-plume-hunter, who for nine
years worked in Venezuela. His sworn testimony was laid before the
Legislature of the State of New York, in 1911, when the New York
Milliners' Association was frantically endeavoring to secure the repeal of
the splendid Dutcher law. This witness was produced by the National
Association of Audubon Societies.
"My attention has been called to the fact that certain commercial interests
in this city are circulating stories in the newspapers and elsewhere to the
effect that the aigrettes used in the millinery trade come chiefly from
Venezuela, where they are gathered from the ground in the large garceros,
or breeding-colonies, of white herons.
"I wish to state that I have personally engaged in the work of collecting
the plumes of these birds in Venezuela. This was my business for the years
1896 to 1905, inclusive. I am thoroughly conversant with the methods
employed in gathering egret and snowy heron plumes in Venezuela, and I
wish to give the following statement regarding the practices employed in
procuring these feathers:
"The birds gather in large colonies to rear their young. They have the
plumes only during the mating and nesting season. After the period when
they are employed in caring for their young, it is found that the plumes are
virtually of no commercial value, because of the worn and frayed condition
to which they have been reduced. It is the custom in Venezuela to shoot the

birds while the young are in the nests. A few feathers of the large white
heron (American egret), known as the Garza blanca, can be picked up of a
morning about their breeding places, but these are of small value and are
known as "dead feathers." They are worth locally not over three dollars an
ounce; while the feathers taken from the bird, known as "live feathers," are
worth fifteen dollars an ounce.
"My work led me into every part of Venezuela and Colombia where these
birds are to be found, and I have never yet found or heard of any garceros
that were guarded for the purpose of simply gathering the feathers from the
ground. No such condition exists in Venezuela. The story is absolutely
without foundation, in my opinion, and has simply been put forward for
commercial purposes.
"The natives of the country, who do virtually all of the hunting for
feathers, are not provident in their nature, and their practices are of a most
cruel and brutal nature. I have seen them frequently pull the plumes from
wounded birds, leaving the crippled birds to die of starvation, unable to
respond to the cries of their young in the nests above, which were calling
for food. I have known these people to tie and prop up wounded egrets on
the marsh where they would attract the attention of other birds flying by.
These decoys they keep in this position until they die of their wounds, or
from the attacks of insects. I have seen the terrible red ants of that country
actually eating out the eyes of these wounded, helpless birds that were tied
up by the plume-hunters. I could write you many pages of the horrors
practiced in gathering aigrette feathers in Venezuela by the natives for the
millinery trade of Paris and New York.
"To illustrate the comparatively small number of dead feathers which are
collected, I will mention that in one year I and my associates shipped to
New York eighty pounds of the plumes of the large heron and twelve
pounds of the little recurved plumes of the snowy heron. In this whole lot
there were not over five pounds of plumes that had been gathered from the
ground—and these were of little value. The plume-birds have been nearly
exterminated in the United States and Mexico, and the same condition of
affairs will soon exist in tropical America. This extermination will come
about because of the fact that the young are left to starve in the nest when

the old birds are killed, any other statement made by interested parties to
the contrary notwithstanding.
"I am so incensed at the ridiculously absurd and misleading stories that
are being published on this question that I want to give you this letter, and,
before delivering it to you, shall take oath to its truthfulness."
Here is the testimony of Mr. Caspar Whitney, of New York, formerly
editor of Outing Magazine and Outdoor America:
"During extended travel throughout South America, from 1903 to 1907,
inclusive, I journeyed, on three separate occasions, by canoe (1904-1907),
on the Lower Orinoco and Apure rivers and their tributaries. This is the
region, so far as Venezuela is concerned, in which is the greatest slaughter
of white herons for their plumage, or more specifically for the marital
plumes, which are carried only in the mating and breeding season, and are
known in the millinery trade as 'aigrettes.'
"There is literally no room for question. The snowy herons are killed
exactly as I describe. It is the custom of all those who hunt for the millinery
trade, and is recognized by the natives as the usual method."
Here is the testimony of Mr. Julian A. Dimock, of Peekamose, N.Y., the
famous outdoor photographer, and illustrator of "Florida Enchantments":
"I know a goodly number of the plume-hunters of Florida. I have camped
with them, and talked to them. I have heard their tales, and even full
accounts of the 'shooting-up' of an egret rookery. Never has a man in
Florida suggested to me that plumes could be obtained without killing the
birds. I have known the wardens, and have visited rookeries after they had
been 'shot-up,' and the evidence all pointed to the everlasting use of the gun.
It is certainly not true that the plumes can be obtained without killing the
birds bearing them.
"Nineteen years ago, I visited the Cuthbert Rookery with one of the men
who discovered the birds nesting in that lake. He and his partner had sold
the plumes gathered there for more than a thousand dollars. He showed me
how they hid in the bushes and shot the birds. He even gave me a chance to
watch him kill two or three birds.

"I know personally the man chiefly responsible for the slaughter of the
birds at Alligator Bay. He laughed at the idea of getting plumes without
killing the birds! I well know the man who shot the birds up Rogers River,
and even saw some of the empty shells left on the ground by him.

YOUNG EGRETS, UNABLE TO FLY, STARVING
The Parent Birds had Been Killed by Plume Hunters

SNOWY EGRET, DEAD ON HER NEST
Wounded in the Feeding-Grounds, and Came Home to Die. Photographed in a Florida
Rookery Protected by the National Association of Audubon Societies

I have camped with Seminoles, whites, blacks, outlaws, and those within
the pale, connected with plume-hunting, and all tell the same story: The
birds are shot to get the plumes. The evidence of my own eyes, and the
action of the birds themselves, convinces me that there is not a shadow of
doubt concerning this point."
This sworn testimony from Mr. T.J. Ashe, of Key West, Florida, is very
direct and to the point:
"I have seen many moulted and dropped feathers from wild plumed birds.
I have never seen a moulted or dropped feather that was fit for anything. It
is the exception when a plumed bird drops feathers of any value while in
flight. Whatever feathers are so dropped are those that are frayed, worn out,
and forced out by the process of moulting. The moulting season is not
during the hatching season, but is after the hatching season. The shedding,
or moulting, takes place once a year; and during this moulting season the

feathers, after having the hard usage of the year from wind, rain and other
causes, when dropped are of absolutely no commercial value."
Mr. Arthur T. Wayne, of Mount Pleasant, S.C., relates in sworn testimony
his experience in attempting to secure egret plumes without killing the
birds:
"It is utterly impossible to get fifty egret plumes from any colony of
breeding birds without shooting the birds. Last spring, I went twice a week
to a breeding colony of American and snowy egrets, from early in April
until June 8. Despite the fact that I covered miles of territory in a boat, I
picked up but two American egret plumes (which I now have); but not a
single snowy egret plume did I see, nor did my companion, who
accompanied me on every trip.
"I saw an American egret plume on the water, and left it, purposely, to
see whether it would sink or not. Upon visiting the place a few days
afterwards, the plume was not in evidence, undoubtedly having sunk. The
plumes are chiefly shed in the air while the birds are going to or coming
from their breeding grounds. If that millinery plume law is repealed, the
fate of the American and snowy egrets is sealed, for the few birds that
remain will be shot to the very last one."
Any man who ever has been in an egret rookery (and I have) knows that
the above testimony is true! The French story of the beautiful and
smoothly-running egret farms in Venezuela is preposterous, save for a mere
shadow of truth. I do not say that no egret plumes could be picked up, but I
do assert that the total quantity obtainable in one year in that way would be
utterly trivial.
No; the "ospreys" of the British feather market come from slaughtered
egrets and herons, killed in the breeding season. Let the British public and
the British Parliament make no mistake about that. If they wish the trade to
continue, let it be based on the impregnable ground that the merchants want
the money, and not on a fantastic dream that is too silly to deceive even a
child that knows birds.
The use or disuse of wild birds' plumage as millinery ornaments is
another of those wild-life subjects regarding which there is no room for

argument. To assert that the feather-dealers want the business for the money
it brings them is not argument! We have seen many a steam roller go over
Truth, and Right, and Justice, by main strength and red-hot power; but
Truth and Right refuse to stay flat down. There is on this earth not one wild-
animal species—mammal, bird or reptile—that can long withstand
exploitation for commercial purposes. Even the whales of the deep sea, the
walrus of the arctic regions, the condors of the Andes and alligators of the
Everglade morasses are no exception to the universal rule.
In Mr. Downham's book there is much fallacious reasoning, and many
conclusions that are not borne out by the facts. For example, he says that no
species of bird of paradise has been diminished in number by slaughter for
the feather trade; that Florida still contains a supply of egrets; that the
decrease in bird life should be charged to the spread of cities, towns and
farms, and not to the trade; that the trade was "in no way responsible" for
the slaughter of three hundred thousand gulls and albatrosses on Laysan
Island!
I have space to notice one other important erroneous conclusion that Mr.
Downham publishes in his book, on page 105. He says:
"The destruction of birds in foreign countries is something that no trade
can direct or control."
This is an amazing declaration; and absolutely contrary to experience.
Let me prove what I say by a fresh and incontestable illustration:
Prior to April, 1911, when Governor Dix signed the Bayne law against
the sale of wild native game in the State of New York, Currituck County,
N.C., was a vast slaughter-pen for wild fowl. No power or persuasion had
availed to induce the people of North Carolina to check, or regulate, or in
any manner mitigate that slaughter of geese, ducks and swans. It was
estimated that two hundred thousand wild fowl were annually slaughtered
there.
We who advocated the Bayne law said: "Close the New York markets
against Currituck birds, and you will stop a great deal of the slaughter."
We cleaned our Augean stable. The greatest game market in America was
absolutely closed.

Last winter (1911) the annual killing of wild fowl was fully fifty per cent
less than during previous years. In one small town, twenty professional
duck shooters went entirely out of business—because they couldn't sell
their ducks! The dealers refused to buy them. The result was exactly what
we predicted it would be; and this year, it is reported over and over that
ducks are more plentiful in New England than they have been in twenty
years previously! The result is wonderful, because so quick.
Beyond all question, the feather merchants of London, Paris and Berlin
absolutely control the bird-killers of Venezuela, China, New Guinea.
Mexico and South America. Let the word go forth that "the trade" is no
longer permitted to buy and sell egret and heron plumes, skins of birds of
paradise and condor feathers, and presto! the killing industry falls dead the
next moment.

MISCELLANEOUS BIRD SKINS, 8 CENTS EACH
Purchased by the New York Zoological Society from the Quarterly Sale in London,
August, 1912

Yes, indeed, members of the British Parliament: it is easily within your
power to wipe out at a single stroke fully one-half of the bird slaughter for

fancy feathers. It can be done just as we wiped out one-half the annual duck
slaughter in wickedly-wasteful North Carolina!
The feather trade absolutely does control the killing situation! Now, will
the people of England clean house by controlling the feather trade? If a
hundred species of the most beautiful birds of the world must be
exterminated for the feather trade, let the odium rest elsewhere than on the
people of England.
The bird-lovers of America may rest assured that the bird-lovers of
England—a mighty host—are neither careless nor indifferent regarding the
wild-birds' plumage business. On the contrary, several bills have been
brought before Parliament intended to regulate or prohibit the traffic, and a
measure of vast importance to the birds of the world is now before the
House of Commons. It is backed by Mr. Percy Alden, M.P., by the Royal
Society for the Protection of Birds, by the Selbourne Society, and by Mr.
James Buckland—a host in himself. For years past that splendidly-equipped
and well-managed Royal Society has waged ceaseless warfare for the birds.
Its activity has been tremendous, and its membership list contains many of
the finest names in England. The address of the Honorary Secretary, Frank
E. Lemon, Esq., is 23 Queen Anne's Gate, London, S.W.
Naturally, these influences are opposed by the Textile Trade Section of
the London Chamber of Commerce, and their only argument consists of the
plea that if London doesn't get the money out of the feather trade, the
Continent will get it! A reasonable, logical, magnificent and convincing
excuse for wholesale bird slaughter, truly!
Mr. Buckland has been informed from the Continent that the people of
France, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium are waiting and watching to
see what England is going to do with the question, "To slaughter, or not to
slaughter?" For England has no monopoly of the birds' plumage trade, not
by any means. Says Mr. Buckland ("Pros and Cons of the Plumage Bill,"
page 17):
"As regards the vast majority of fancy feathers used in millinery, the
Continent receives its own supplies. The feathers of the hundreds of
thousands of albatrosses which are killed in the North Pacific all go to
Paris. Of the untold thousands of 'magpies,' owls, and other species which

CHAPTER XIV
THE BIRD TRAGEDY ON LAYSAN ISLAND

This chapter is a curtain-dropper to the preceding chapter. As a clearly-
cut, concrete case, the reader will find it unique and unsurpassed. It should
be of lively interest to every American because the tragedy occurred on
American territory.
In the far-away North Pacific Ocean, about seven hundred miles from
Honolulu west-b'-north, lies the small island of Laysan. It is level, sandy,
poorly planted by nature, and barren of all things likely to enlist the
attention of predatory man. To the harassed birds of mid-ocean, it seemed
like a secure haven, and for ages past it has been inhabited only by them.
There several species of sea birds, large and small, have found homes and
breeding places. Until 1909, the inhabitants consisted of the Laysan
albatross, black-footed albatross, sooty tern, gray-backed tern, noddy tern,
Hawaiian tern, white tern, Bonin petrel, two shearwaters, the red-tailed
tropic bird, two boobies and the man-of-war bird.
Laysan Island is two miles long by one and one-half miles broad, and at
times it has been literally covered with birds. Its bird life was first brought
prominently to notice in 1891, by Henry Palmer, the agent of Hon. Walter
Rothschild, and in 1902 and 1903 Walter K. Fisher and W.A. Bryan made
further observations.
Ever since 1891 the bird life on Laysan has been regarded as one of the
wonders of the bird world. One of the photographs taken prior to 1909
shows a vast plain, apparently a square mile in area, covered and crowded
with Laysan albatrosses. They stand there on the level sand, serene, bulky
and immaculate. Thousands of birds appear in one view—a very
remarkable sight.

Naturally man, the ever-greedy, began to cast about for ways by which to
convert some product of that feathered host into money. At first guano and
eggs were collected. A tramway was laid down and small box-cars were
introduced, in which the collected material was piled and pushed down to
the packing place.
For several years this went on, and the birds themselves were not
molested. At last, however, a tentacle of the feather-trade octopus reached
out to Laysan. In an evil moment in the spring of 1909, a predatory
individual of Honolulu and elsewhere, named Max Schlemmer, decided that
the wings of those albatross, gulls and terns should be torn off and sent to
Japan, whence they would undoubtedly be shipped to Paris, the special
market for the wings of sea-birds slaughtered in the North Pacific.

By the Courtesy of Hon. Walter Rothschild

LAYSAN ALBATROSSES, BEFORE THE GREAT SLAUGHTER

LAYSAN ALBATROSS ROOKERY, AFTER THE GREAT SLAUGHTER
The Same Ground as Shown in the Preceding Picture, Photographed in 1911 by Prof.
Homer R. Dill

Schlemmer the Slaughterer bought a cheap vessel, hired twenty-three
phlegmatic and cold-blooded Japanese laborers, and organized a raid on
Laysan. With the utmost secrecy he sailed from Honolulu, landed his bird-
killers upon the sea-bird wonderland, and turned them loose upon the birds.
For several months they slaughtered diligently and without mercy.
Apparently it was the ambition of Schlemmer to kill every bird on the
island.
By the time the bird-butchers had accumulated between three and four
car-loads of wings, and the carnage was half finished, William A. Bryan,
Professor of Zoology in the College of Honolulu, heard of it and promptly
wired the United States Government.
Without the loss of a moment the Secretary of the Navy despatched the
revenue cutter Thetis to the shambles of Laysan. When Captain Jacobs
arrived he found that in round numbers about three hundred thousand birds
had been destroyed, and all that remained of them were several acres of
bones and dead bodies, and about three carloads of wings, feathers and
skins. It was evident that Schlemmer's intention was to kill all the birds on
the island, and only the timely arrival of the Thetis frustrated that bloody
plan.

The twenty-three Japanese poachers were arrested and taken to Honolulu
for trial, and the Thetis also brought away all the stolen wings and plumage
with the exception of one shedful of wings that had to be left behind on
account of lack of carrying space. That old shed, with one end torn out, and
supposed to contain nearly fifty thousand pairs of wings, was photographed
by Prof. Dill in 1911, as shown herewith.

ACRES OF GULL AND ALBATROSS BONES
Photographed on Laysan Island by H.R. Dill, 1911

Three hundred thousand albatrosses, gulls, terns and other birds were
butchered to make a Schlemmer holiday! Had the arrival of the Thetis been
delayed, it is reasonably certain that every bird on Laysan would have been
killed to satisfy the wolfish rapacity of one money-grubbing white man.
In 1911, the Iowa State University despatched to Laysan a scientific
expedition in charge of Prof. Homer R. Dill. The party landed on the island
on April 24 and remained until June 5, and the report of Professor Dill (U.S.
Department of Agriculture) is consumedly interesting to the friends of birds.
Here is what he has said regarding the evidences of bird-slaughter:

"Our first impression of Laysan was that the poachers had stripped
the place of bird life. An area of over 300 acres on each side of the
buildings was apparently abandoned. Only the shearwaters moaning in
their burrows, the little wingless rail skulking from one grass tussock

to another, and the saucy finch remained. It is an excellent example of
what Prof. Nutting calls the survival of the inconspicuous.
"Here on every side are bones bleaching in the sun, showing where
the poachers had piled the bodies of the birds as they stripped them of
wings and feathers. In the old open guano shed were seen the remains
of hundreds and possibly thousands of wings which were placed there
but never cured for shipping, as the marauders were interrupted in their
work.

SHED FILLED WITH WINGS OF SLAUGHTERED BIRDS ON LAYSAN
ISLAND

"An old cistern back of one of the buildings tells a story of cruelty
that surpasses anything else done by these heartless, sanguinary
pirates, not excepting the practice of cutting wings from living birds
and leaving them to die of hemorrhage. In this dry cistern the living
birds were kept by hundreds to slowly starve to death. In this way the
fatty tissue lying next to the skin was used up, and the skin was left
quite free from grease, so that it required little or no cleaning during
preparation.

"Many other revolting sights, such as the remains of young birds
that had been left to starve, and birds with broken legs and deformed
beaks were to be seen. Killing clubs, nets and other implements used
by these marauders were lying all about. Hundreds of boxes to be used
in shipping the bird skins were packed in an old building. It was very
evident they intended to carry on their slaughter as long as the birds
lasted.
"Not only did they kill and skin the larger species but they caught
and caged the finch, honey eater, and miller bird. Cages and material
for making them were found."—(Report of an Expedition to Laysan
Island in 1911. By Homer R. Dill, page 12.)

The report of Professor Bryan contains the following pertinent
paragraphs:

"This wholesale killing has had an appalling effect on the colony....
It is conservative to say that fully one-half the number of birds of both
species of albatross that were so abundant everywhere in 1903 have
been killed. The colonies that remain are in a sadly decimated
condition. … Over a large part of the island, in some sections a
hundred acres in a place, that ten years ago were thickly inhabited by
albatrosses not a single bird remains, while heaps of the slain lie as
mute testimony of the awful slaughter of these beautiful, harmless, and
without doubt beneficial inhabitants of the high seas.
"While the main activity of the plume-hunters was directed against
the albatrosses, they were by no means averse to killing anything in the
bird line that came in their way. … Fortunately, serious as were the
depredations of the poachers, their operations were interrupted before
any of the species had been completely exterminated."

But the work of the Evil Genius of Laysan did not stop with the slaughter
of three hundred thousand birds. Mr. Schlemmer introduced rabbits and
guinea-pigs; and these rapidly multiplying rodents now are threatening to
consume every plant on the island. If the plants disappear, many of the
insects will go with them; and this will mean the disappearance of the small
insectivorous birds.

In February, 1909, President Roosevelt issued an executive order creating
the Hawaiian Islands Reservation for Birds. In this are included Laysan and
twelve other islands and reefs, some of which are inhabited by birds that are
well worth preserving. By this act, we may feel that for the future the birds
of Laysan and neighboring islets are secure from further attacks by the
bloody-handed agents of the vain women who still insist upon wearing the
wings and feathers of wild birds.

CHAPTER XV
UNFAIR FIREARMS, AND SHOOTING ETHICS

For considerably more than a century, the States of the American Union
have enacted game-protective laws based on the principle that the wild game
belongs to the People, and the people's senators, representatives and
legislators generally may therefore enact laws for its protection, prescribing
the manner in which it may and may not be taken and possessed. The
soundness of this principle has been fully confirmed by the Supreme Court
of the United States in the case of Geer vs. Connecticut, on March 2, 1896.
The tendency of predatory man to kill and capture wild game of all kinds
by wholesale methods is as old as the human race. The days of the club, the
stone axe, the bow and arrow and the flint-lock gun were contemporaneous
with the days of great abundance of game. Now that the advent of breech-
loaders, repeaters, automatics and fixed ammunition has rendered game
scarce in all localities save a very few, the thoughtful man is driven to
consider measures for the checking of destruction and the suppression of
wholesale slaughter.
First of all, the deadly floating batteries and sail-boats were prohibited.
To-day a punt gun is justly regarded as a relic of barbarism, and any man
who uses one places himself beyond the pale of decent sportsmanship, or
even of modern pot-hunting. Strange to say, although the unwritten code of
ethics of English sportsmen is very strict, the English to this day permit
wild-fowl hunting with guns of huge calibre, some of which are more like
shot-cannons than shot-guns. And they say, "Well, there are still wild duck
on our coast!"
Beyond question, it is now high time for the English people to take up the
shot-gun question, and consider what to-day is fair and unfair in the killing

of waterfowl. The supply of British ducks and geese can not forever
withstand the market gunners and their shot-cannons. Has not the British
wild-fowl supply greatly decreased during the past fifteen years? I strongly
suspect that a careful investigation would reveal the fact that it has
diminished. The Society for the Preservation of the Fauna of the Empire
should look into the matter, and obtain a series of reports on the condition of
the waterfowl to-day as compared with what it was twenty years ago.
In the United States we have eliminated the swivel guns, the punt guns
and the very-big-bore guns. Among the real sportsmen the tendency is
steadily toward shot-guns of small calibre, especially under 12-gauge. But,
outside the ranks of sportsmen, we are now face to face with two automatic
and five "pump" shotguns of deadly efficiency. Of these, more than one
hundred thousand are being made and sold annually by the five companies
that produce them. Recently the annual output has been carefully estimated
from known facts to be about as follows:
Winchester Arms Co., New Haven, Conn.
(1 Automatic and 1 Pump-gun) 50,000 guns.
Remington Arms Co., Ilion, N.Y.
(1 Automatic and 1 Pump-gun) 25,000 "
Marlin Fire Arms Co., New Haven, Conn. 1 Pump-gun 12,000 "
Stevens Arms Co., Chicopee Falls, Mass. 1 Pump-gun 10,000 "
Union Fire Arms Co., 1 Pump-gun 5,000 "
------------
103,000 guns

FOUR OF THE SEVEN MACHINE GUNS

The Ethics Of Shooting And Shot-Guns. —Are the American people
willing that their wild birds shall be shot by machinery?
In the ethics of sportsmanship, the anglers of America are miles ahead of
the men who handle the rifle and shot-gun in the hunting field. Will the
hunters ever catch up?
The anglers have steadily diminished the weight of the rod and the size of
the line; and they have prohibited the use of gang hooks and nets. In this
respect the initiative of the Tuna Club of Santa Catalina is worthy of the
highest admiration. Even though the leaping tuna, the jewfish and the sword-
fish are big and powerful, the club has elected to raise the standard of
sportsmanship by making captures more difficult than ever before. A higher
degree of skill, and nerve and judgment, is required in the angler who would
make good on a big fish; and, incidentally, the fish has about double "the
show" that it had fifteen years ago.
That is Sportsmanship!
But how is it with the men who handle the shot-gun?

By them, the Tuna Club's high-class principle has been exactly reversed!
In the making of fishing-rods, commercialism plays small part; but in about
forty cases out of every fifty the making of guns is solely a matter of dollars
and profits.
Excepting the condemnation of automatic and pump guns, I think that few
clubs of sportsmen have laid down laws designed to make shooting more
difficult, and to give the game more of a show to escape. Thousands of
gentlemen sportsmen have their own separate unwritten codes of honor, but
so far as I know, few of them have been written out and adopted as binding
rules of action. I know that among expert wing shots it is an unwritten law
that quail and grouse must not be shot on the ground, nor ducks on the water.
But, among the three million gunners who annually shoot in the United
States how many, think you, are there who in actual practice observe any
sentimental principles when in the presence of killable game? I should say
about one man and boy out of every five hundred.
Up to this time, the great mass of men who handle guns have left it to the
gunmakers to make their codes of ethics, and hand them out with the loaded
cartridges, all ready for use.
For fifty years the makers of shot-guns and rifles have taxed their
ingenuity and resources to make killing easier, especially for "amateur"
sportsmen,—and take still greater advantages of the game! Look at this
scale of progression:
Fifty Years' Increase In The Deadliness Of Firearms.
KIND OF GUN. ESTIMATED DEGREE OF DEADLINESS.
Single-shot muzzle loader xx 10
Single-shot breech-loader xxxxxx 30
Double-barrel breech-loader xxxxxxxxxx 50
Choke-bore breech-loader xxxxxxxxxxxx 60
Repeating rifle xxxxxxxxxxxx 60
Repeating rifle, with silencer xxxxxxxxxxxxxx 70
"Pump" shot-gun (6 shots) xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 90
Automatic or autoloading" shot-guns, 5 shots xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 100

The Output of 1911. —At a recent hearing before a committee of the
House of Representatives at Washington, a representative of the gun-making
industry reported that in the year 1911 ten American manufacturing concerns
turned out the following:

391,875 shot-guns,
666,643 rifles, and
580,042 revolvers.

There are 66 factories producing firearms and ammunition, employing
$39,377,000 of invested capital and 15,000 employees.
The sole and dominant thought of many gunmakers is to make the very
deadliest guns that human skill can invent, sell them as fast as possible, and
declare dividends on their stock. The Remington, Winchester, Marlin,
Stevens and Union Companies are engaged in a mad race to see who can
turn out the deadliest guns, and the most of them. On the market to-day there
are five pump-guns, that fire six shots each, in about six seconds, without
removal from the shoulder, by the quick sliding of a sleeve under the barrel,
that ejects the empty shell and inserts a loaded one. There are two automatics
that fire five shots each in five seconds or less, by five pulls on the trigger!
The autoloading gun is reloaded and cocked again wholly by its own recoil.
Now, if these are not machine guns, what are they?
In view of the great scarcity of feathered game, and the number of deadly
machine guns already on the market, the production of the last and deadliest
automatic gun (by the Winchester Arms Company), already in great
demand, is a crime against wild life, no less.
Every human action is a matter of taste and individual honor.
It is natural for the duck-butchers of Currituck to love the automatic shot-
guns as they do, because they kill the most ducks per flock. With two of
them in his boat, holding ten shots, one expert duck-killer can,—and
sometimes actually does, so it is said,—get every duck out of a flock, up to
seven or eight.
It is natural for an awkward and blundering wing-shot to love the deadliest
gun, in order that he may make as good a bag as an expert shot can make
with a double-barreled gun. It is natural for the hunter who does not care a
rap about the extermination of species to love the gun that will enable him to
kill up to the bag limit, every time he takes the field. It is natural for men
who don't think, or who think in circles, to say "so long as I observe the
lawful bag limit, what difference does it make what kind of a gun I use?"

It is natural for the Remington, and Winchester, and Marlin gun-makers to
say, as they do, "Enforce the laws! Shorten the open seasons! Reduce the bag
limit, and then it won't matter what guns are used! But,—DON'T touch
autoloading guns! Don't hamper Inventive Genius!"
Is it not high time for American sportsmen to cease taking their moral
principles and their codes of ethics from the gun-makers?
Here is a question that I would like to put before every hunter of game in
America:
In view of the alarming scarcity of game, in view of the impending
extermination of species by legal hunting, can any high-minded sportsman,
can any good citizen either sell a machine shot-gun or use one in hunting?
A gentleman is incapable of taking an unfair advantage of any wild
creature; therefore a gentleman cannot use punt guns for ducks, dynamite for
game fish, or automatic or pump guns in bird-shooting. The machine guns
and "silencers" are grossly unfair, and like gang-hooks, nets and dynamite
for trout and bass, their use in hunting must everywhere be prohibited by
law. Times have changed, and the lines for protection must be more tightly
drawn.

THE CHAMPION GAME SLAUGHTER CASE
One Hour's Slaughter (218 Geese) With Two Automatic Shot-Guns

The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania (Judge Orlady) has decided that the
Pennsylvania law against the use of automatic guns in hunting is entirely
constitutional, because every state has a right to say how its game may and
may not be killed.
It is up to the American People to say now whether their wild life shall be
slaughtered by machinery, or not.
If they are willing that it should be, then let us be consistent and say—
away with all "conservation!" The game conservators can endure a gameless
and birdless continent quite as well as the average citizen can.
How They Work. —There are a few apologists for the automatic and
pump guns who cheerfully say, "So long as the bag limit is observed what
difference does it make how the birds are killed?"
It is strange that a conscientious man should ask such a question, when the
answer is apparent.

We reply, "The difference is that an automatic or pump gun will kill fully
twice as many waterfowl as a double-barrel, if not more; and it is highly
undesirable that every gunner should get the bag limit of birds, or any
number near it! The birds can not stand it. Moreover, the best states for
ducks and geese have no bag limits on those birds! To-day, on Currituck
Sound, for example, the market hunters are killing all the waterfowl they can
sell. On Marsh Island, Louisiana, one man has killed 369 ducks in one day,
and another market gunner killed 430 in one day.
The automatic and the "pump" shot-guns are the favorite weapons of the
game-hog who makes a specialty of geese and ducks. It is no uncommon
thing for a gunner who shoots a machine gun to get, with one gun, as high as
eight birds out of one flock. A man who has himself done this has told me
so.
The Champion Game-Slaughter Case. —Here is a story from California
that is no fairy tale. It was published, most innocently, in a western
magazine, with the illustration that appears herewith, and in which please
notice the automatic shot-gun:
"February 5th, I and a friend were at one of the Glenn County Club's
camps. … Neither of us having ever had the pleasure of shooting over live
decoys, we were anxious, and could hardly wait for the sport to commence.
On arriving at the scene we noticed holes which had been dug in the ground,
just large enough for a man to crawl into. These holes were used for hiding
places, and were deep enough so the sportsmen would be entirely out of
sight of the game. The birds are so wild that to move a finger will frighten
them. …
"The decoys are wild geese which had been crippled and tamed for this
purpose. They are placed inside of silk net fences which are located on each
side of the holes dug for hiding places. These nets are the color of the ground
and it is impossible for the wild geese flying overhead to detect the
difference.
"After we had investigated everything the expert caller and owner of the
outfit exclaimed: 'Into your holes!'
"We noticed in the distance a flock of geese coming. Our caller in a few
seconds had their attention, and they headed towards our decoys. Soon they

were directly over us, but out of easy range of our guns. We were anxious to
shoot, but in obedience to our boss had to keep still, and soon noticed that
the birds were soaring around and in a short time were within fifteen or
twenty feet of us. At that moment we heard the command, 'Punch 'em!' and
the bombardment that followed was beyond imagining. We had fired five
shots apiece and found we had bagged ten geese from this one flock.
"At the end of one hour's shooting we had 218 birds to our credit and were
out of ammunition.
"On finding that no more shells were in our pits we took our dead geese to
the camp and returned with a new supply of ammunition. We remained in
the pits during the entire day. When the sun had gone behind the mountains
we summed up our kill and it amounted to 450 geese!
"The picture shown with this article gives a view of the first hour's shoot.
A photograph would have been taken of the remainder of the shoot, but it
being warm weather the birds had to be shipped at once in order to keep
them from spoiling.

SLAUGHTERED ACCORDING TO LAW
A Result of a Faulty System. Such Pictures as this are Very Common in Sportsmen's
Magazines. Note the Automatic Gun

"Supper was then eaten, after which we were driven back to Willows; both
agreeing that it was one of the greatest days of sport we ever had, and
wishing that we might, through the courtesy of the Glenn County Goose
Club, have another such day. C.H.B."
Another picture was published in a Canadian magazine, illustrating a story
from which I quote:
"I fixed the decoys, hid my boat and took my position in the blind. My
man started his work with a will and hustled the ducks out of every cove,
inlet or piece of marsh for two miles around. I had barely time to slip the
cartridges into my guns—one a double and the other a five shot automatic—
when I saw a brace of birds coming toward me. They sailed in over my
decoys. I rose to the occasion, and the leader up-ended and tumbled in
among the decoys. The other bird, unable to stop quick enough, came
directly over me. He closed his wings and struck the ground in the rear of the
blind.
"More and more followed. Sometimes they came singly, and then in twos
and threes. I kept busy and attended to each bird as quickly as possible.
Whenever there was a lull in the flight I went out in the boat and picked up
the dead, leaving the wounded to take chances with any gunner lucky
enough to catch them in open and smooth water. A bird handy in the air is
worth two wounded ones in the water. Twice I took six dead birds out of the
water for seven shots, and both guns empty.
"The ball thus opened, the birds commenced to move in all directions.
Until the morning's flight was over I was kept busy pumping lead, first with
the 10, then with the automatic, reloading, picking up the dead, etc."
And the reader will observe that the harmless, innocent, inoffensive
automatic shot gun, that "don't matter if you enforce the bag limit," figures
prominently in both stories and both photographs.
A Story of Two Pump Guns and Geese: —It comes from Aberdeen, S.D.
(Sand Lake), in the spring of 1911. Mr. J.J. Humphrey tells it, in Outdoor
Life magazine for July, 1911.
"Smith and I were about a hundred yards from them [the flock of Canada
geese], when Murphy scared them. They rose in a dense mass and came

directly between Smith and me. We were about gunshot distance apart, and
they were not over thirty feet in the air when we opened up on them with our
pump guns and No. 5 shot. When the smoke cleared away and we had
rounded up the cripples we found we had twenty-one geese. I have heard of
bigger killings out in this country, but never positively knew of them."
So then: those two gunners averaged 10-1/2 wild geese per pump gun out
of one flock! And yet there are wise and reflective sportsmen who say, "What
difference does the kind of gun make so long as you live up to the law?"
I think that the pump and automatic guns make about 75 per-cent of
difference, against the game; that is all!
The number of shot-guns now in use in the United States is almost beyond
belief. About six years ago a gentleman interested in the manufacture of such
weapons informed me, and his statement has never been disputed, that every
year about 500,000 new shot-guns were sold in the United States. The
number of shot cartridges annually produced by our four great cartridge
companies has been reliably estimated as follows:
Winchester Arms Co 300,000,000
Union Metallic Cartridge Co 250,000,000
Peters Cartridge Co 150,000,000
Western Cartridge Co 75,000,000
_____________
775,000,000

We must stop all the holes in the barrel, or eventually lose all the water.
No group of bird-slaughterers is entitled to immunity. We will not "limit the
bag, and enforce the laws," while we permit the makers and users of
autoloading and pump guns to kill at will, as they demand.

A Letter That Tells Its Own Story

Yes; we will "limit the bag" and "enforce the laws;" but the machine guns
and the alien shooters shall be eliminated at the same time! Each state has
the power to regulate, absolutely, down to the smallest detail, the manner in
which the game of The People shall be taken or not taken; and such laws are
absolutely constitutional. If we can legislate punt guns and dynamite out of
use, the machine guns and silencers can be treated similarly.
No immunity for wild-life exterminators.
The following unprejudiced testimony from a New York business man
who is a sportsman, with a fine game preserve of his own, should be of
general interest. It was written to G.O. Shields, March 21, 1906.

Dear Sir:
Regarding the use of the automatic shot-gun, would say that I am a
member of two southern ducking clubs where these guns are used very
extensively. I have seen a flock of ducks come into a blind where one,
two, or even three of these guns were in use, and have seen as many as
eleven shots poured into a single flock.
We have considerable poaching on one of these clubs, the territory
being so extensive that it is impossible to prevent it. We own 60,000
acres, and these poachers, I am told, nearly all use the automatic guns.
They frequently kill six or eight ducks out of one flock—first taking a
raking shot on the water, and then getting in the balance of the
magazine before the flock is out of range. In fact, some of them carry
two guns, and are able to discharge a part of the second magazine into
the same flock.
As I told you the other evening, I am not so much against the gun
when in the hands of gentlemen and real sportsmen, but, on account of
its terrible possibilities for market hunters, I believe that the only safe
way is to abolish it entirely, and that the better class should be willing
to give up this weapon as being the only means of putting a stop to this
willful game slaughter.

Very truly yours,
Arthur Robinson.

HOW GENTLEMEN SPORTSMEN REGARD AUTOMATIC
AND PUMP GUNS
Each one of the following organizations, chiefly clubs of gentlemen
sportsmen, have adopted strong resolutions condemning the use of automatic
guns in hunting, and either requesting or recommending the enactment of
laws against their use:
Henry Fairfield Osborn,
New York Zoological Society
President
The Camp-Fire Club of America Daniel C. Beard, President
Boone and Crockett Club W. Austin Wadsworth, President
New York State Fish, Game and Forest League 81 Clubs and Associations
New York Association for the Protection of Fish and
Alfred Wagstaff, President
Game
Lewis and Clark Club John M. Phillips, President
League of American Sportsmen G.O. Shields, President
Wild Life Protective Association W.T. Hornaday, President

WHERE AUTOMATIC GUNS ARE BARRED OUT BY LAW
PENNSYLVANIA, 1907 BRITISH COLUMBIA, 1911
NEW JERSEY, 1912 ONTARIO, 1907
SASKATCHEWAN, 1906 MANITOBA, 1909
NEW BRUNSWICK, 190 ALBERTA, 1907
PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND, 1906

SPORTSMEN'S CLUBS WHEREIN THEY ARE BARRED BY CODES OF
ETHICS AND RULES
Adirondack League Club, New York Tobico Hunting Club, Kawkawlin, Mich.
Blooming Grove Park Hunting and Fishing Club,
Turtle Lake Club, Turtle Lake, Mich.
Penn.
Greenwing Gun Club, Ottawa, Ill. Au Sable Forest Farm Club, Mich.
Wallace Ducking Club, Wild Fowl Bay,
Western Ducking Club, Detroit, Minn.
Mich.
Bolsa Chica Club, Los Angeles, Cal. Lomita Club, Los Angeles, Cal.
Westminster Club, Los Angeles, Cal. Golden West Club, Los Angeles, Cal.
Los Patos Club, Los Arigeles, Cal. Recreation Club, Los Angeles, Cal.
Pocahontas Club, Va.

A MODEL BILL TO PROHIBIT THE USE OF
AUTOMATIC AND REPEATING SHOT GUNS IN HUNTING

Section 1. It shall be unlawful to use in hunting or shooting birds or
animals of any kind, any automatic or repeating shot gun or pump gun,
or any shot-gun holding more than two cartridges at one time, or that
may be fired more than twice without removal from the shoulder for
reloading.
Section 2. Violation of any provision of this act shall be punished by
a fine of not less than twenty-five nor more than one hundred dollars
for each offence; and the carrying, or possession in the woods, or in any
field, or upon any water of any gun or other weapon the use of which is
prohibited, as aforesaid, shall be prima facie evidence of the violation
of this act.

The English 3-barrel "Scatter Rifle," for Ducks. —All gunners who find
machine guns good enough for them will be delighted by the news that an
Englishman whose identity is concealed under the initials "F.M.M." has
invented and manufactured a 3-barreled rifle specially intended to kill ducks
that are beyond the reach of a choke-bore shotgun. The weapon discharges
all three barrels simultaneously. In the London Field, of Dec. 9, 1911, it is
described by a writer who also thoughtfully conceals his identity under a
nom-de-plume. After a trial of 48 shots, the writer declares that "the 3-
barreled is a really practicable weapon," and that with it one could bag wild-
fowl that were quite out of reach of any shot-gun. Just why a Gatling gun or
a Maxim should not be employed for the same purpose, the writer fails to
state. The use of either would be quite as sportsmanlike, and as fair to the
game. There are great possibilities in ducking mortars, also.
The "Sunday Gun." —A new weapon of peculiar form and great
deadliness to song birds, has recently come into use. Because of the manner
of its use, it is known as the "Sunday gun." It is specially adapted to
concealment on the person. A man could go through a reception with one of
these deadly weapons absolutely concealed under his dress coat! It is a
weapon with two barrels, rifle and shot; and it enables the user to kill
anything from a humming-bird up to a deer. What the shot-barrel can not

kill, the rifle will. It is not a gun that any sportsman would own, save as a
curiosity, or for target use.
The State Ornithologist of Massachusetts, Mr. E.H. Forbush, informs me
that already the "Sunday gun" has become a scourge to the bird life of that
state. Thousands of them are used by men and boys who live in cities and
towns, and are able to get into the country only on Sundays. They conceal
them under their coats, on Sunday mornings, go out into the country, and
spend the day in shooting small birds and mammals. The dead birds are
concealed in various pockets, the Sunday gun goes under the coat, and at
nightfall the guerrilla rides back to the city with an innocent smile on his
face, as if he had spent a day in harmless enjoyment of the beauties of
nature.
The "Sunday gun" is on sale everywhere, and it is said to be in use both
by American and Italian killers of song-birds. It weighs only two pounds,
eight ounces, and its cost is so trifling that any guerrilla who wishes one can
easily find the money for its purchase. There are in the United States at least
a million men and boys quite mean enough to use this weapon on song-birds,
swallows, woodpeckers, nuthatches, rabbits and squirrels, and like other
criminals, hide both weapon and loot in their clothing. So long as this gun is
in circulation, no small bird is safe, at any season, near any city or town.
Now, what are the People going to do about it?
My recommendation is that each state enact a law in the following terms:
Be it enacted, etc.—That from and after the passage of this act it shall be
unlawful for any person to use in hunting, or to carry concealed on the
person, any shotgun, or rifle, or combination of shotgun and rifle, with a
barrel or barrels less than twenty-eight inches in length, or with a skeleton
stock fixed on a hinge.
The carrying of any rifle or shotgun concealed on the person shall
constitute a felony.
The penalties for hunting with any gun specially adapted to concealment
should be not less than $50 fine or two months imprisonment at hard labor,
and the carrying of such weapons concealed should be $100 or four months
at hard labor.

Incidentally, we wonder what will be the next devilish device for the
destruction of wild life that American inventive genius will produce.

THE "SUNDAY GUN!"
A Deadly Combination of Concealable Rifle-and-Shot-Gun.

THE WILDERNESS OF NORTH AMERICA (SHADED) AND THE ARCTIC
PRAIRIES, WELL STOCKED WITH BIG GAME

CHAPTER XVI
THE PRESENT AND FUTURE OF NORTH
AMERICAN BIG GAME

The subject of this chapter opens up a vast field of facts and conclusions,
quite broad enough to fill a whole volume. In the space at our disposal here
it is possible to offer only a summary of the subject, without attempting to
prove our statements by the production of detailed evidence.
To say that all over the world, the large land mammals are being
destroyed more rapidly than they are breeding, would not be literally true,
for the reason that there are yet many areas that are almost untouched by the
destroying hand of civilized man. It is true, however, that all the unspoiled
areas rapidly are growing fewer and smaller. It is also true that in all the
regions of the earth that are easily penetrable by civilized man, the wild life
is being killed faster than it breeds, and of necessity it is disappearing. This
is why the British are now so urgently bestirring themselves to create game
preserves in all the countries that they own.
It is one of the inexorable laws of Nature, to which I know of not one
exception, that large hoofed animals which live on open plains, on open
mountains, or in regions that are thinly forested, always are easily found
and easily exterminated. All such animals have a weak hold on life. This is
because it is so difficult for them to hide, and so very easy for man to creep
up within the killing range of modern, high-power, long-range rifles. Is it
not pitiful to think of animals like the caribou, moose, white sheep and bear
trying to survive on the naked ridges and bald mountains of Yukon Territory
and Alaska! With a modern rifle, the greatest duffer on earth can creep up
within killing distance of any of the big game of the North.

The gray wolf is practically the only large animal that is able to hide
successfully and survive in the treeless regions of the North; but his room is
always preferable to his company, because he, too, is a destroyer of big
game.
I am tempted to try to map out roughly what are to-day the unopened and
undestroyed wild haunts of big game in North America. In doing this,
however, I warn the reader not to be deceived into thinking that because
game still exists in those regions, those areas therefore constitute a
permanent preserve and safe breeding-ground for large mammals. That is
very, very far from being the case. The further "opening up " of the
wilderness areas, as I shall call them for convenience, can and surely will
quickly wipe out their big game; for throughout nine-tenths of those areas it
holds to life by very slender threads.
To-day the unopened and undestroyed wilderness areas of North
America, wherein large mammals still live in a normal wild state, are in
general as follows:
The Arctic Barren Grounds , or Arctic Prairies, north of the limit of
trees, embracing the Barren Grounds of northern Canada, the great arctic
archipelago, Ellesmere, Melville and Grant Lands and Greenland. This
region is the home of the musk-ox and three species of arctic caribou.
The Alaska-Yukon Region , inhabited by the moose, white mountain
sheep, mountain goat, four species of caribou, and half a dozen species of
Alaska brown, grizzly and black bears.
Northern Ontario, Quebec, Labrador And Newfoundland , inhabited
by moose, woodland caribou, white-tailed deer and black bear.
British Columbia , inhabited by a magnificent big-game fauna
embracing the moose, elk, caribou of two species, white sheep, black sheep,
big-horn sheep, mule deer, white-tailed deer, mountain goat, grizzly, black
and inland white bears.
The Sierra Madre Of Mexico , containing jaguar, puma, grizzly and
black bears, mule deer, white-tailed deer, antelope, mountain sheep and
peccaries.

I have necessarily omitted all those regions of the United States and
Canada that still contain a remnant of big game, but have been literally
"shot to pieces" by gunners.
In the United States and southern Canada there are about fifteen localities
which contain a supply of big game sufficient that a conscientious
sportsman might therein hunt and kill one head per year with a clear
conscience. All others should be closed for five years! Here is the list of
availables; and regarding it there will be about as many opinions as there
are big-game sportsmen:

HUNTING GROUNDS IN AND NEAR THE UNITED
STATES AND SOUTHERN CANADA WHEREIN IT IS
RIGHT TO HUNT BIG GAME
The Maine Woods : Well stocked with white-tailed deer.
New Brunswick : Well stocked with moose; a few caribou, deer and
black bear.
White Mountains Of New Hampshire And Vermont : For deer.
The Adirondacks, New York : Well stocked with white-tailed deer,
only.
Pennsylvania Mountains : Contain many deer and black bears, and soon
will contain more.
Northern Minnesota : Deer and moose.
Northern Michigan And Wisconsin : White-tailed deer.
Northwestern Wyoming : Thousands of elk in fall and winter; a few
deer, grizzly and black bears, but no sheep that it would be right to kill.
Western And Southwestern Montana : Elk in season, mule and white-
tail deer; no sheep that it would be right to kill.
Northwestern Montana : Mule and white-tailed deer, only. No sheep,
bear, moose, elk or antelope to kill!

Wyoming, East Of Yellowstone Park : A few elk, by migration from
the Park; a few deer, and bear of two species.
Northern Woods Of Ontario And Quebec : Moose; deer.
Southern British Columbia : Goat, a few sheep and deer; grizzly bear.
Moose, caribou and elk should not be killed.
Northern British Columbia : Six fine species of big game.
Northwestern Alberta : Grizzly bear, big-horn and mountain goat.

Under existing conditions I regard the above-named hunting grounds as
nearly all in which it is right or fair for big-game hunting now to be
permitted, even on a strict basis. Nearly all others should immediately be
closed, for large game, for ten years.
Of course such a proceeding, if carried into effect, would provoke loud
protests from sportsmen, gunners, game-hogs, pot-hunters and others; but I
only wish to high heaven that we had the power to carry such a program as
that into effect! Then we would see some game in ten years; and our grand-
children would thank us for some real big-game protection at a critical
period.
Except in the few localities above-mentioned, I regard the big-game
situation in the United States and southern Canada as particularly desperate.
Unless there is an immediate and complete revolution in this country from
an era of slaughter to an era of preservation, as sure as the sun rises on the
morrow, outside of the hard and fast game preserves, and places like Maine
and the Adirondacks, this generation of Americans and near-Americans will
live to see our country swept clean of big game!
Two years ago, I did not believe this; but I do now. It is impossible to
exaggerate the wide extent or the seriousness of this situation. In a country
where any and every individual can rise and bluster, "I'm-just-as-good-as-
you-are," and bellow for his "rights" as a "tax-payer," there is no stopping
the millions who kill whenever there is an open season. And to many
Americans, no right is dearer than the right to kill the game which by even

the commonest law of equity belongs, not to the shooter exclusively, but
partly to two thousand other persons who don't shoot at all!
Unless we come to an "About, face!" in quick time, all our big game
outside the preserves is doomed to sure and quick extermination. This is not
an individual opinion, merely: it is a fact; and a hundred thousand men
know it to be such.
Last winter (1911-12), because the deer of Montana were driven by cold
and hunger out of the mountains and far down into the ranchmen's valleys,
eleven thousand of them were ruthlessly slaughtered. State Game Warden
Avare says that often heads of families took out as many licenses as there
were persons in the family, and the whole quota was killed. Such people
deserve to go deerless into the future; but we can not allow them to rob
innocent people.

OUR SPECIES OF BIG GAME
The Prong-Horned Antelope , unique and wonderful, will be one of
the first species of North American big game to become totally extinct. We
may see this come to pass within twenty years. They can not be bred in
protection, save in very large fenced ranges. They are delicate, capricious,
and easily upset. They die literally "at the drop of a hat." They are quite
subject to actinomycosis (lumpy-jaw), which in wild animals is incurable.
Already all the states that possess wild antelope, except Nevada, have
passed laws giving that species long close seasons; which is highly
creditable to the states that have done their duty. Nevada must get in line at
the next session of her legislature!
In 1908, Dr. T.S. Palmer published in his annual report of "Progress in
Game Protection" the following in regard to the prong-horned antelope:
"Antelope are still found in diminished numbers in fourteen western
states. A considerable number were killed during the year in Montana,
where the species seems to have suffered more than elsewhere since the
season was opened in 1907.

"A striking illustration of the decrease of the antelope is afforded by
Colorado. In 1898 the State Warden estimated that there were 25,000 in the
state, whereas in 1908 the Game Commissioner places the number at only
2,000. The total number of antelope now in the United States probably does
not exceed 17,000, distributed approximately as follows:
Colorado 2,000 Yellowstone Park 2,000
Idaho 200 Other States 2,000
Montana 4,000 ------
New Mexico 1,300 Saskatchewan 2,000
Oregon 1,500 ------
Wyoming 4,000 19,000

To-day (1912), Dr. Palmer says the total number of antelope is less than it
was in 1908, and in spite of protection the number is steadily diminishing.
This is indeed serious news. The existing bands, already small, are steadily
growing smaller. The antelope are killed lawlessly, and the crimes of such
slaughter are, in nearly every instance, successfully concealed.
Previously, we have based strong hopes for the preservation of the
antelope species on the herd in the Yellowstone Park, but those animals are
vanishing fearfully fast. In 1906, Dr. Palmer reported that "About fifteen
hundred antelope came down to the feeding grounds near the haystacks in
the vicinity of Gardiner." In 1908 the Yellowstone Park was credited with
two thousand head. To-day, the number alive, by actual count, is only five
hundred head; and this after twenty-five years of protection! Where have
the others gone? This shows, alas! that perpetual close seasons can not
always bring back the vanished thousands of game!

PRONG-HORNED ANTELOPE

Here is a reliable report (June 29, 1912) regarding the prong-horned
antelope in Lower California, from E.W. Nelson: "Antelope formerly
ranged over nearly the entire length of Lower California, but are now gone
from a large part of their ancient range, and their steadily decreasing
numbers indicate their early extinction throughout the peninsula."
In captivity the antelope is exasperatingly delicate and short-lived. It has
about as much stamina as a pet monkey. As an exhibition animal in
zoological gardens and parks it is a failure; for it always looks faded,
spiritless and dead, like a stuffed animal ready to be thrown into the discard.
Zoologists can not save the prong-horn species save at long range, in
preserves so huge that the sensitive little beast will not even suspect that it
is confined.

Two serious attempts have been made to transplant and acclimatize the
antelope—in the Wichita National Bison Range, in Oklahoma, and in the
Montana Bison Range, at Ravalli. In 1911 the Boone and Crockett Club
provided a fund which defrayed the expenses of shipping from the
Yellowstone Park a small nucleus herd to each of those ranges. Eight were
sent to the Wichita Range, of which five arrived alive. Of the seven sent to
the Montana Range, four arrived alive and were duly set free. While it
seems a pity to take specimens from the Yellowstone Park herd, the
disagreeable fact is that there is no other source on which to draw for
breeding stock.
The Provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan, in Canada, still permit the
hunting and killing of antelope; which is wholly and entirely wrong.
The Big-Horn Sheep. —Of North American big game, the big-horn of
the Rockies will be, after the antelope, the next species to become extinct
outside of protected areas. In the United States that event is fast
approaching. It is far nearer than even the big-game sportsmen realize.
There are to-day only two localities in the four states that still think they
have killable sheep, in which it is worth while to go sheep-hunting. One is
in Montana, and the other is in Wyoming. In the United States a really big,
creditable ram may now be regarded as an impossibility. There are now
perhaps half a dozen guides who can find killable sheep in our country, but
the game is nearly always young rams, under five years of age.
That Wyoming, Montana, Idaho and Washington still continue to permit
sheep slaughter is outrageous. Their answer is that "The sportsmen won't
stand for stopping it altogether." I will add:—and the great mass of people
are too criminally indifferent to take a hand in the matter, and do their duty
regardless of the men of blood.
The seed stock of big-horn sheep now alive in the United States
aggregates a pitifully small number. After twenty-five years of unbroken
protection in Colorado, Dillon Wallace estimates, after an investigation on
the ground, that the state possesses perhaps thirty-five hundred head. He
credits Montana and Wyoming with five hundred each—which I think is far
too liberal a number. I do not believe that either of those states contains

more than one hundred unprotected sheep, at the very utmost limit. If there
are more, where are they?
In the Yellowstone Park there are 210 head, safe and sound, and slowly
increasing. I can not understand why they have not increased more rapidly
than they have. In Glacier Park, now under permanent protection, three
guides on Lake McDonald, in 1910, estimated the number of sheep at seven
hundred. Idaho has in her rugged Bitter Root and Clearwater Mountains and
elsewhere, a remnant of possibly two hundred sheep, and Washington has
only what chemists call "a trace." It has recently been discovered that
California still contains a few sheep, and in southwestern Nevada there are
a few more.
In Utah, the big-horn species is probably quite extinct. In Arizona, there
are a few very small bands, very widely scattered. They are in the Santa
Catalina Mountains, the Grand Canyon country, the Gila Range, and the
Quitovaquita Mountains, near Sonoyta. But who can protect from slaughter
those Arizona sheep? Absolutely no one! They are too few and too widely
scattered for the game wardens to keep in touch with them. The
"prospectors" have them entirely at their mercy, and the world well knows
what prospectors' "mercy" to edible big game looks like on the ground. It
leads straight to the frying-pan, the coyotes and the vultures.
The Lower California peninsula contains about five hundred mountain
sheep, without the slightest protection save low, desert mountains, heat and
thirst. But that is no real protection whatever. Those sheep are too fine to be
butchered the way they have been, and now are being butchered. In 1908 I
strongly called the attention of the Mexican Government to the situation;
and the Departmento de Fomento secured the issue of an executive order
forbidding the hunting of any big game in Lower California without the
written authority of the government. I am sure, however, that owing to the
political and military upheaval it never stopped the slaughter of sheep. In
such easy mountains as those of Lower California, it is a simple matter to
exterminate quickly all the mountain sheep that they possess. The time for
President Madero and his cabinet to inaugurate serious protective measures
has fully arrived.

Both British Columbia and Alberta have even yet fine herds of big-horn,
and we can count three large game preserves in which they are protected.
They are Goat Mountain Park (East Kootenay district, between the Elk and
Bull Rivers); the Rocky Mountains Park, near Banff, and Waterton Lakes
Park, in the southwestern corner of Alberta.
In view of the number of men who desire to hunt them, the bag limit on
big-horn rams in British Columbia and Alberta still is too liberal, by half.
One ram per year for one man is quite enough; quite as much so as one
moose is the limit everywhere. To-day "a big, old ram" is regarded by
sportsmen as a much more desirable and creditable trophy than a moose;
because moose-killing is easy, and the bagging of an old mountain ram in
real mountains requires five times as much effort and skill.
The splendid high and rugged mountains of British Columbia and Alberta
form an ideal home for the big-horn (and mountain goat), and it would be
an international calamity for that region to be denuded of its splendid big
game. With resolute intent and judicial treatment that region can remain a
rich and valuable hunting ground for five hundred years to come. Under
falsely "liberal" laws, it can be shot into a state of complete desolation
within ten years, or even less.
Other Mountain Sheep. —In northern British Columbia, north of Iskoot
Lake, there lies a tremendous region, extending to the Arctic Ocean, and
comprehending the whole area between the Rocky Mountain continental
divide and the waters of the Pacific. Over the southern end of this great
wilderness ranges the black mountain sheep, and throughout the remainder,
with many sheepless intervals, is scattered the white mountain sheep.
Owing to the immensity of this wilderness, the well-nigh total lack of
railroads and also of navigable waters, excepting the Yukon, it will not be
thoroughly "opened up" for a quarter of a century. The few resolute and
pneumonia-proof sportsmen who can wade into the country, pulling boats
through icy-cold mountain streams, are not going to devastate those
millions of mountains of their big game. The few head of game which
sportsmen can and will take out of the great northwestern wilderness during
the next twenty-five years will hardly be missed from the grand total, even
though a few easily-accessible localities are shot out. It is the deadly

resident trappers, hunters and prospectors who must be feared! And again,
—who can control them? Can any wilderness government on earth make it
possible? Therefore, in time, even the great wilderness will be denuded of
big game. This is absolutely fixed and certain; for within much less than
another century, every square rod of it will have been gone over by
prospectors, lumbermen, trappers and skin-hunters, and raked again and
again with fine-toothed combs. A railway line to Dawson, the Copper River
and Cook Inlet is to-day merely the next thing to expect, after Canada's
present railway program has been wrought out.
Yes, indeed! In time the wilderness will be opened up, and the big game
will all be shot out, save from the protected areas.
The Mountain Goat. —Even yet, this species is not wholly extinct in
the United States. It survives in Glacier Park, Montana, and the number
estimated in that region by three guide friends is too astoundingly large to
mention.
This animal is much more easily killed than the big-horn. Its white coat
renders it fatally conspicuous at long range during the best hunting season;
it is almost devoid of fear, and it takes altogether too many chances on man.
Thanks to the rage for sheep horns, the average sportsman's view-point
regarding wild life ranks a goat head about six contours below "old ram"
heads, in desirability. Furthermore, most guides regard the flesh of the goat
as almost unfit for use as food, and far inferior to that of the big-horn. These
reasons, taken together, render the goats much less persecuted by the
sportsmen, ranchmen and prospectors who enter the home of the two
species. It was because of this indifference toward goats that in 1905 Mr.
John M. Phillips and his party saw 243 goats in thirty days in Goat
Mountain Park, and only fourteen sheep.
Unless the preferences of western sportsmen and gunners change very
considerably, the coast mountains of the great northwestern wilderness will
remain stocked with wild mountain goats until long after the last big-horn
has been shot to death. Fortunately, the skin of the mountain goat has no
commercial value. I think it was in 1887 that I purchased, in Denver, 150
nicely tanned skins of our wild white goat at fifty cents each! They were
wanted for the first exhibit ever made to illustrate the extermination of

American large mammals, and they were shown at the Louisville
Exposition. It must have cost the price of those skins to tan them; and I was
pleased to know that some one lost money on the venture.

MAP OF THE FORMER AND EXISTING RANGES OF THE AMERICAN
ELK
From "Life History of Northern Animals," Copyright 1909 by E.T. Seton

At present the mountain goat extends from north-western Montana to the
head of Cook Inlet, but it is not found in the interior or in the Yukon valley.
Whenever man decides that the species has lived long enough, he can
quickly and easily exterminate it. It is one of the most picturesque and
interesting wild animals on this continent, and there is not the slightest
excuse for shooting it, save as a specimen of natural history. Like the
antelope, it is so unique as a natural curiosity that it deserves to be taken out
of the ranks of animals that are regularly pursued as game.

The Elk. —The story of the progressive extermination of the American
elk, or wapiti, covers practically the same territory as the tragedy of the
American bison—one-third of the mainland of North America. The former
range of the elk covered absolutely the garden ground of our continent,
omitting the arid region. Its boundary extended from central Massachusetts
to northern Georgia, southern Illinois, northern Texas and central New
Mexico, central Arizona, the whole Rocky Mountain region up to the Peace
River, and Manitoba. It skipped the arid country west of the Rockies, but it
embraced practically the whole Pacific slope from central California to the
north end of Vancouver Island. Mr. Seton roughly calculated the former
range of canadensis at two and a half million square miles, and adds: "We
are safe, therefore, in believing that in those days there may have been ten
million head."
The range of the elk covered a magnificent domain. The map prepared by
Mr. Ernest T. Seton, after twenty years of research, is the last word on the
subject. It appears on page 43, Vol. I, of his great work, "Life Histories of
Northern Animals," and I have the permission of author and publisher to
reproduce it here, as an object lesson in wild-animal extermination. Mr.
Seton recognizes (for convenience, only?) four forms of American elk, two
of which, C. nannodes and occidentalis, still exist on the Pacific Coast. The
fourth, Cervus merriami, was undoubtedly a valid species. It lived in
Arizona and New Mexico, but became totally extinct near the beginning of
the present century.
In 1909 Mr. Seton published in the work referred to above a remarkably
close estimate of the number of elk then alive in North America. Recently, a
rough count—the first ever made—of the elk in and around the Yellowstone
Park, revealed the real number of that largest contingent. By taking those
results, and Mr. Seton's figures for elk outside the United States, we obtain
the following very close approximation of the wild elk alive in North
America in 1912:

Locality Number Authority
Yellowstone Park and vicinity 47,000 U.S. Biological Survey.
Idaho (permanently), 600
Washington 1,200 Game Warden Chris. Morgenroth.
Oregon 500

California 400
New York, Adirondacks 400 State Conservation Commission.
Minnesota 50 E.T. Seton.
Vancouver Island 2,000 E.T. Seton.
British Columbia (S.-E.) 200 E.T. Seton.
Alberta 1,000 E.T. Seton.
Saskatchewan 500 E.T. Seton
In various Parks and Zoos 1,000 E.T. Seton.
------
Total, for all America. 54,850

In 1905, a herd of twenty of the so-called dwarf elk of the San Joaquin
Valley, California, were taken to the Sequoia National Park, and placed in a
fenced range that had been established for it on the Kaweah River.
The extermination of the wapiti began with the settlement of the
American colonies. Naturally, the largest animals were the ones most
eagerly sought by the meat-hungry pioneers, and the elk and bison were the
first game species to disappear. The colonists believed in the survival of the
fittest, and we are glad that they did. The one thing that a hungry pioneer
cannot withstand is—temptation—in a form that embraces five hundred
pounds of succulent flesh. And let it not be supposed that in the eastern
states there were only a few elk. The Pennsylvania salt licks were crowded
with them, and the early writers describe them as existing in "immense
bands" and "great numbers."
Of course it is impossible for wild animals of great size to exist in
countries that are covered with farms, villages and people. Under such
conditions the wild and the tame cannot harmonize. It is a fact, however,
that elk could exist and thrive in every national forest and national park in
our country, and also on uncountable hundreds of thousands of rough, wild,
timbered hills and mountains such as exist in probably twenty-five different
states. There is no reason, except man's short-sighted greed and foolishness,
why there are not to-day one hundred thousand elk living in the Allegheny
Mountains, furnishing each year fifty thousand three-year-old males as free
food for the people.
The trouble is,—the greedy habitants could not be induced to kill only
the three-year-old-males, in the fall, and let the cows, calves and breeding
bulls alone! By sensible management the Rocky Mountains, the Sierra

Nevadas and the Coast Range would support enough wild elk to feed a
million people. But we Americans seem utterly incapable of maintaining
anywhere from decade to decade a large and really valuable supply of wild
game. Outside the Yellowstone Park and northwestern Wyoming, the
American elk exists only in small bands—mere remnants and samples of
the millions we could and should have.
If they could be protected, and the surplus presently killed according to
some rational, working system, then every national forest in the United
States should be stocked with elk! In view of the awful cost of beef (to-day
10-1/2 cents per pound in Chicago on the hoof!), it is high time that we
should consider the raising of game on the public domain on such lines that
it would form a valuable food supply without diminishing the value of the
forests.
Just now (1912) the American people are sorely puzzled by a remarkable
elk problem that each winter is presented for solution in the Jackson Hole
country, Wyoming. Driven southward by the deep snows of winter, the elk
thousands that in summer graze and grow fat in the Yellowstone Park march
down into Jackson Hole, to find in those valleys less snow and more food.
Now, it happens that the best and most of the former winter grazing grounds
of the elk are covered by fenced ranches! As a result, the elk that strive to
winter there, about fifteen thousand head, are each winter threatened with
starvation; and during three or four winters of recent date, an aggregate of
several thousand calves, weak yearlings and weakened cows perished of
hunger. The winters of 1908, 1909 and 1910 were progressively more and
more severe; and 1911 saw about 2500 deaths, (S.N. Leek).
In 1909-10, the State of Wyoming spent $7,000 for hay, and fed it to the
starving elk. In 1911, Wyoming spent $5,000 more, and appealed to
Congress for help. Thanks to the efforts of Senator Lodge and others,
Congress instantly responded with a splendid emergency appropriation of
$20,000, partly for the purpose of feeding the elk, and also to meet the cost
of transporting elsewhere as many of the elk as it might seem best to move.
The starving of the elk ceased with 1911.
Outdoor Life magazine (Denver, Colo.) for August, 1912, contains an
excellent article by Dr. W.B. Shore, entitled, "Trapping and Shipping Elk." I

wish I could reprint it entire, for the solid information that it contains. It
gives a clear and comprehensive account of last spring's operations by the
Government and by the state of Montana in capturing and shipping elk from
the Yellowstone Park herd, for the double purpose of diminishing the elk
surplus in the Park and stocking vacant ranges elsewhere.
The operations were conducted on the same basis as the shipping of
cattle—the corral, the chute, the open car, and the car-load in bulk. Dr.
Shore states that the undertaking was really no more difficult than the
shipping of range cattle; but the presence of a considerable proportion of
young and tender calves, such as are never handled with beef cattle, led to
8.8 per cent of deaths in transit. The deaths and the percentage are nothing
at which to be surprised, when it is remembered, that the animals had just
come through a hard winter, and their natural vitality was at the lowest
point of the year.
The following is a condensed summary of the results of the work:

Killed or Died After
Destination Number of Elk Hours on Road
Died in Car Unloading
60: calves,
Startup,
1 Car. yearlings and two- 94 11 7
Washington
year olds
1 " Hamilton, Montana 43: cows & calves 30 4 1
Thompson Falls,
1 " 40 — 2 0
Montana
Stephensville,
1 " 36 — 1 1
Montana
Deer Lodge,
1 " 40 24 2 0
Montana
1 " Hamilton, Montana 40 — 0 0
4 days;
Mt. Vernon,
1 " 46 unloaded & fed 7 0
Washington
twice
--- --- ---
305 27 9
The total deaths in transit and after, of 36 elk out of 305, amounted to 11.4 per
cent.
All those shipped to Montana points were shipped by the state of Montana.

In order to provide adequate winter grazing grounds for the Yellowstone-
Wyoming elk, it seems imperative that the national government should
expend between $30,000 and $40,000 in buying back from ranchmen

certain areas in the Jackson valley, particularly a tract known as "the
swamp," and others on the surrounding foothills where the herds annually
go to graze in winter, A measure to render this possible was presented to
Congress in the winter of 1912, and without opposition an appropriation of
$45,000 was made.
The splendid photographs of the elk herds that recently have been made
by S.N. Leek, of Jackson Hole, clearly reveal the fact that the herds now
consist chiefly of cows, calves, yearlings and young bulls with small
antlers. In one photograph showing about twenty-five hundred elk, there are
not visible even half a dozen pairs of antlers that belong to adult bulls.
There should be a hundred! This condition means that the best bulls, with
the finest heads, are constantly being selected and killed by sportsmen and
others who want their heads; and the young, immature bulls are left to do
the breeding that alone will sustain the species.

HUNGRY ELK IN JACKSON HOLE, WYOMING
Part of a Herd of About 2,500 Head, being fed on hay, in the Winter of 1910-11
Note the Absence of Adult Bulls. Copyright, 1911, by S.N. Leek

It is a well-known principle in stock-breeding that sires should be fully
adult, of maximum strength, and in the prime of life. No stockbreeder in his

senses ever thinks of breeding from a youthful, immature sire. The result
would be weak offspring not up to the standard.
This inexorable law of inheritance and transmission is just as much a law
for the elk, moose and deer of North America as it is for domestic cattle and
horses. If the present conditions in the Wyoming elk herds continue to
prevail for several generations, as sure as time goes on we shall see a
marked deterioration in the size and antlers of the elk.
If the foundation principles of stock-breeding are correct, then it is
impossible to maintain any large-mammal species at its zenith of size,
strength and virility by continuous breeding of the young and immature
males. By some sportsmen it is believed that through long-continued killing
of the finest and largest males, the red deer of Europe have been growing
smaller; but on that point I am not prepared to offer evidence.
In regard to the in-breeding of the elk herds in large open parks and
preserves throughout North America, there are positively no ill effects to
fear. Wild animals that are closely confined generation after generation are
bound to deteriorate physically; but with healthy wild animals living in
large open ranges, feeding and breeding naturally, the in-breeding that
occurs produces no deterioration.
In the twin certainties of over-population, and deterioration from
excessive killing of the good sires, we have to face two new problems of
very decided importance. Nothing short of very radical measures will
provide a remedy. For the immediate future, I can offer a solution. While it
seems almost impossible deliberately to kill females, I think that the present
is a very exceptional case, and one that compels us to apply the painful
remedy that I now propose.

1. —There are at present too many breeding cows in the
Premises: Yellowstone herds.
2. —There are far too few good breeding bulls.

Conclusion:—For five years, entirely prohibit the killing of adult male
elk, and kill only females, and young males. This would gradually diminish

the number of calves born each year, by about 2,500, and by the end of five
years it would reduce the number, and the annual birth, of females to a
figure sufficiently limited that the herds could be maintained on existing
ranges.
Corollary.—At the end of five years, stop killing females, and kill only
young males. This plan would permit a large number of bull elk to mature;
and then the largest and strongest animals would do the breeding,—just as
Nature always intends shall be done.

South America
Of all the big-game regions of the earth, South America is the poorest. Of
hoofed game she possesses only a dozen species that are worth the attention
of sportsmen; and like all other animal life in that land of little game, they
are desperately hard to find. In South America you must work your heart
out in order to get either game or specimens that will be worth showing.
At present, we need not worry about the marsh deer, the pampas deer, the
guemal, or the venado, nor the tapir, jaguar, ocelot and bears. All these
species are abundantly able to take care of themselves; and to find and kill
any one of them is a man's task. In Patagonia the natives do wastefully
slaughter the guanacos; and there are times also when great numbers of
guanacos come down in winter to certain mountain lakes, presumably in
search of food, and perish by hundreds through starvation. (H. Hesketh
Prichard.)

Mexico
About ten years more will see the extinction of the mountain sheep of
Lower California,—in the wake of the recently exterminated Mexican
sheep of the Santa Maria Lakes region. In 1908, I solemnly warned the
government of President Diaz, and at that time the Mexican government
expressed much concern.
It is a great pity that just now political conditions are completely
estopping wild-life protection in Mexico; but it is true. If the code of

proposed laws that I drew up (by request) in 1908 and submitted to Minister
Molina were adopted, it would have a good effect on the fauna of Mexico.
In Mexico there is little hoofed game to kill,—deer of the white-tail
groups, seven or eight species; the desert mule deer; the brocket; the prong-
horned antelope, the mountain sheep and the peccary. The deer will not so
easily be exterminated, but the antelope and sheep will be utterly destroyed.
They will be the first to go; and I think they can not by any possibility last
longer than ten years. Is it not too bad that Mexico should permit her finest
species of hoofed and horned game to be obliterated before she awakens to
the desirability of conservation! The Mexicans could protect their small
stock of big game if they would; but in Lower California they are leasing
huge tracts of land to cattle companies, and they permit the lessees to kill all
the wild game they please on their leased lands, even with the aid of dogs.
This is a vicious and fatal system, and contrary to all the laws of nations.

CHAPTER XVII
PRESENT AND FUTURE OF NORTH
AMERICAN BIG GAME

(Concluded)

The White-Tailed Deer. —Five hundred years hence, when the greed
and rapacity of "civilized" man has completed the loot and ruin of the
continent of North America, the white-tailed deer will be the last species of
our big game to be exterminated. Its mental traits, its size, its color and its
habits all combine to render it the most persistent of our large animals, and
the best fitted to survive. It neither bawls nor bugles to attract its enemies, it
can not be called to a sportsman, like the moose, and it sticks to its timber
with rare and commendable closeness. When it sees a strange living thing
walking erect, it does not stop to stare and catch soft-nosed bullets, but
dashes away in quest of solitude.
The worst shooting that I ever did or saw done at game was at running
white-tailed deer, in the Montana river bottoms.
For the reasons given, the white-tail exists and persists in a hundred
United States localities from which all other big game save the black bear
have been exterminated. For example, in our Adirondacks the moose were
exterminated years and years ago, but the beloved wilderness called the
"North Woods" still is populated by about 20,000 deer, and about 8,000 are
killed annually. The deer of Maine are sufficiently numerous that in 1909 a
total of 15,879 were killed. With some assistance from the thin sprinkling of
moose and caribou, the deer of Maine annually draw into that state, for
permanent dedication, a huge sum of money, variously estimated at from

$1,000,000 to $2,000,000. In spite of heavy slaughter, and vigorous
attempts at extermination by over-shooting, the deer of northern Michigan
obstinately refuse to be wiped out.
There is, however, a large group of states in which this species has been
exterminated. The states comprising it are Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, and
adjacent portions of seven other states.
As if to shame the people of Iowa, a curious deer episode is recorded. In
1885, W.B. Cuppy, of Avoca, Iowa, purchased five deer, and placed them in
a paddock on his 600-acre farm. By 1900 they had increased to 32 head;
and then one night some one kindly opened the gate of their enclosure, and
gave them the freedom of the city. Mr. Cuppy made no effort to capture
them, possibly because they decided to annex his farm as their habitat.
When a neighbor led them with a bait of corn to their owner's door, he
declined to impound them, on the ground that it was unnecessary.
By 1912, those deer had increased to 400, and the portion of this story
that no one will believe is this: they spread all through the suburbs and
hinterland farms of Avoca, and the people not only failed to assassinate all
of them and eat them, but they actually killed only a few, protected the rest,
and made pets of many! Queer people, those men and boys of Avoca.
Nearly everywhere else in the world that I know, that history would have
been ended differently. Here in the East, 90 per cent of our people are like
the Avocans, but the other 10 per cent think only of slaying and eating, sans
mercy, sans decency, sans law. Now the State of Iowa has taken hold, to
capture some of those deer, and set them free in other portions of the state.
Elsewhere I shall note the quick and thorough success with which the
white-tailed deer has been brought back in Vermont, Massachusetts,
Connecticut, and southern New York.
No state having waste lands covered with brush or timber need be
without the ubiquitous white-tailed deer. Give them a semblance of a fair
show, and they will live and breed with surprising fecundity and
persistence. If you start a park herd with ten does, soon you will have more
deer than you will know how to dispose of, unless you market them under a
Bayne law, duly tagged by the state. In close confinement this species fares
rather poorly. In large preserves it does well, but during the rutting season

the bucks are to be dreaded; and those that develop aggressive traits should
be shot and marketed. This is the only way in which the deer parks of
England are kept safe for unarmed people.
Dr. T.S. Palmer has taken much pains to ascertain the number of deer
killed in the eastern United States. His records, as published in May, 1910,
are as follows:

State 1908 1909 1910
Maine 15,000 15,879 15,000
New Hampshire (a) (a) (a)
Vermont 2,700 4,736 3,649
New York 6,000 9,000 9,000
New Jersey (a) 120
Pennsylvania 500 500 800
Michigan 9,076 6,641 13,347
Wisconsin 11,000 6,000 6,000
Minnesota 6,000 6,000 3,147
West Virginia 107 51 49
Maryland 16 13 6
Virginia 207 210 224
North Carolina (a) (a) (a)
South Carolina 1,000 (a) (a)
Georgia (a) 367 369
Florida 2,209 2,021 1,526
Alabama 152 148 132
Mississippi 411 458 500
Louisiana 5,500 5,470 5,000
Massachusetts 1,281
------ ------ ------
Total 59,878 57,494 60,150
(a) No statistics available.

At this date deer hunting is not permitted at any time in Indiana, Illinois,
Iowa, Nebraska and Kansas,—where there are no wild deer; nor in Rhode
Island, Connecticut, Delaware, Tennessee or Kentucky. The long close
seasons in Massachusetts, Connecticut and southern New York have caused
a great migration of deer into those once-depopulated regions,—in fact,
right down to tide-water.
The Mule Deer. —This will be the first member of the Deer Family to
become extinct in North America outside of the protected portions of its

haunts. Its fatal preference for open ground and its habit of pausing to stare
at the hunter have been, and to the end will be, its undoing. Possibly there
are now two of these deer in the United States and British Columbia for
every 98 that existed forty years ago, but no more. It is a deer of the bad
lands and foothills, and its curiosity is fatal.
The number of sportsmen who have hunted and killed this fine animal in
its own wild and picturesque bad-lands is indeed quite small. It has been
four-fifths exterminated by the resident hunter and ranchman, and to-day is
found in the Rocky Mountain region most sparingly. Ten years ago it
seemed right to hunt the so-called Rocky Mountain "black-tail" in
northwestern Montana, because so many deer were there it did not seem to
spell extermination. Now, conditions have changed. Since last winter's great
slaughter in northwestern Montana, of 11,000 hungry deer, the species has
been so reduced that it is no longer right to kill mule deer anywhere in our
country, and a universal close season for five years is the duty of every state
which contains that species.
The Real Black-Tailed Deer, of the Pacific coast, (Odocoileus
columbianus) is, to most sportsmen of the Rocky Mountains and the East
actually less known than the okapi! Not one out of every hundred of them
can recognize a mounted head of it at sight. It is a small, delicately-formed,
delicately-antlered understudy of the big mule deer, and now painfully
limited in its distribution. It is the deer of California and western Oregon,
and it has been so ruthlessly slaughtered that today it is going fast. As
conditions stand to-day, and without a radical change on the part of the
people of the Pacific coast, this very interesting species is bound to
disappear. It will not be persistent, like the white-tailed deer, but in the
heavy forests, it will last much longer than the mule deer.
My information regarding this deer is like the stock of specimens of it in
museum collections,—meager and unsatisfactory. We need to know in
detail how that species is faring to-day, and what its prospects are for the
immediate future. In 1900, I saw great piles of skins from it in the fur
houses of Seattle, and the sight gave me much concern.
The Caribou, Generally. —I think it is not very difficult to forecast the
future of the Genus Rangifer in North America, from the logic of the

conditions of to-day. Thanks to the splendid mass of information that has
been accumulated regarding this group, we are able to draw certain
conclusions. I think that the caribou of the Canadian Barren Grounds and
northeastern Alaska will survive in great numbers for at least another
century; that the caribou herds of Newfoundland will last nearly as long,
and that in fifty years or less all the caribou of the great northwestern
wilderness will be swept away.
The reasons for these conclusions are by no means obscure, or farfetched.
In the first place, the barren-ground caribou are to-day enormously
numerous,—undoubtedly running up into millions. It can not be possible
that they are being killed faster than they are breeding; and so they must be
increasing. Their food supply is unlimited. They are protected by two
redoubtable champions,—Jack Frost and the Mosquito. Their country never
will contain a great human population. The natives are so few in number,
and so lazy, that even though they should become supplied with modern
firearms, it is unlikely that they ever will make a serious impression on the
caribou millions. The only thing to fear for the barren-ground caribou
throngs is disease,—a factor that is beyond human prediction.
It is reasonably certain that the Barren Grounds never will be netted by
railways,—unless gold is discovered over a wide area. The fierce cold and
hunger, and the billions of mosquitoes of the Barren Grounds will protect
the caribou from the wholesale slaughter that "civilized" man joyously
would inflict—if he had the chance.
The caribou thousands of Newfoundland are fairly accessible to
sportsmen and pot-hunters, but at the same time the colonial government
can protect them from extermination if it will. Already much has been done
to check the reckless and wicked slaughter that once prevailed. A bag limit
of three bull caribou per annum has been fixed, which is enforced as to non-
residents and sportsmen, but in a way that is much too "American" it is
often ignored by residents in touch with the game. For instance, the guide of
a New York gentleman whom I know admitted to my friend that each year
he killed "about 25" caribou for himself and his family of four other
persons. He explained thus: "When the inspector comes around, I show him

two caribou hanging in my woodshed, but back in the woods I have a little
shack where I keep the others until I want them."
The real sportsmen of the world never will make the slightest perceptible
impression on the caribou of Newfoundland. For one thing, the hunting is
much too tame to be interesting. If the caribou of that Island ever are
exterminated, it will be strictly by the people of Newfoundland, themselves.
If the government will tighten its grip on the herds, they need never be
exterminated.
The caribou of New Brunswick, Quebec and Ontario are few and widely
scattered. Unless carefully conserved, they are not likely to last long; for
their country is annually penetrated in every direction by armed men, white
and red. There is no means by which it can be proven, but from the number
of armed men in those regions I feel sure that the typical woodland caribou
species is being shot faster than it is breeding. The sportsmen and
naturalists of Canada and New Brunswick would render good service by
making a close and careful investigation of that question.
The caribou of the northwestern wilderness are in a situation peculiarly
their own. They inhabit a region of naked mountains and thin forests,
wherein they are conspicuous, easily stalked and easily killed. Nowhere do
they exist in large herds of thousands, or even of many hundreds. They live
in small bands of from ten to twenty head, and even those are far apart. The
region in which they live is certain to be thoroughly opened up by railways,
and exploited. Fifty years from now we will find every portion of the now-
wild Northwest fairly accessible by rail. The building of the railways will
be to the caribou—and to other big game—the day of doom. In that wild,
rough region, no power on earth,—save that which might be able to deprive
all the inhabitants and all visitors of firearms,—can possibly save the game
outside of a few preserves that are diligently patroled.
The big game of the northwest region, in which I include the interior of
Alaska, will go! It is only a question of time. Already the building of the
city of Fairbanks, and the exploitation of the mining districts surrounding it,
have led to such harassment and slaughter of the migrating caribou that the
great herd which formerly traversed the Tanana country once a year has
completely changed its migration route, and now keeps much farther north.

The "crossing" of the Yukon near Eagle City has been abandoned. A
hundred years hence, the northwestern wilderness will be dotted with towns
and criss-crossed with railways; but the big game of it will be gone, except
in the preserves that are yet to be made. This will particularly involve the
caribou, moose, and mountain sheep of all species, which will be the first to
go. The mountain goat and the forest bears will hold out longer than their
more exposed neighbors of the treeless mountains.
The Moose. —In the United States the moose is found in five states,—
Maine, Minnesota, Montana, Wyoming and Idaho. There are 550 in the
Yellowstone Park. In Maine and Minnesota only may moose be hunted and
killed. In the season of 1909, 184 moose were killed in Maine,—a large
number, considering the small moose population of that state. In northern
Minnesota, we now possess a great national moose preserve of 909,743
acres; and in 1908 Mr. Fullerton, after a personal inspection in which he
saw 189 moose in nine days, estimated the total moose population of the
present day at 10,000 head. This is a moose preserve worth while.
Outside of protected areas, the moose is the animal that is most easily
exterminated. Its trail is easily followed, and its habits are thoroughly
known, down to three decimal places. As a hunter's reward it is Great.
Strange to say, New Brunswick has found that the moose is an animal that it
is possible, and even easy, to protect. The death of a moose is an event that
is not easily concealed! Wherever it is thoroughly understood that the
moose law will be enforced, the would-be poacher pauses to consider the
net results to him of a jail sentence.
In New Brunswick we have seen two strange things happen, during our
own times. We have seen the moose migrate into, and permanently occupy,
an extensive area that previously was destitute of that species. At the same
time, we have seen a reasonable number of bull moose killed by sportsmen
without disturbing in the least the general equanimity of the general moose
population! And at this moment, the moose population of New Brunswick
is almost incredible. Every moose hunter who goes there sees from 20 to 40
moose, and two of my friends last year saw, "in round numbers, about 100!"
Up to date the size of adult antlers seem to be maintaining a high standard.

In summer, the photographing of moose in the rivers, lakes and ponds of
Maine and New Brunswick amounts to an industry. I am uneasy about the
constant picking off of the largest and best breeding bulls of the Mirimachi
country, lest it finally reduce the size and antlers of the moose of that
region; but only the future can tell us just how that prospect stands to-day.
In Alaska, our ever thoughtful and forehanded Biological Survey of the
Department of Agriculture has by legal proclamation at one stroke
converted the whole of the Kenai Peninsula into a magnificent moose
preserve. This will save Alces gigas, the giant moose of Alaska, from
extermination; and New Brunswick and the Minnesota preserve will save
Alces americanus. But in the northwest, we can positively depend upon it
that eventually, wherever the moose may legally be hunted and killed by
any Tom, Dick or Harry who can afford a twenty-dollar rifle and a license,
the moose surely will disappear.
The moose laws of Alaska are strict—toward sportsmen, only! The
miners, "prospectors" and Indians may kill as many as they please, "for
food purposes." This opens the door to a great amount of unfair slaughter.
Any coffee-cooler can put a pan and pick into his hunting outfit, go out
after moose, and call himself a "prospector."
I grant that the real prospector, who is looking for ores and minerals with
an intelligent eye, and knows what he is doing, should have special
privileges on game, to keep him from starving. The settled miner, however,
is in a different class. No miner should ask the privilege of living on wild
game, any more than should the farmer, the steamboat man, the railway
laborer, or the soldier in an army post. The Indian should have no game
advantages whatever over a white man. He does not own the game of a
region, any more than he owns its minerals or its water-power. He should
obey the general game laws, just the same as white men. In Africa, as far as
possible, the white population wisely prohibits the natives from owning or
using firearms, and a good idea it is, too. I am glad there is one continent on
which the "I'm-just-as-good-as-you-are" nightmare does not curse the
whole land.
The Musk-Ox. —Now that the north pole has been safely discovered,
and the south pole has become the storm-center of polar exploration, the

harried musk-ox herds of the farthest north are having a rest. I think that
most American sportsmen have learned that as a sporting proposition there
is about as much fun and glory in harrying a musk-ox herd with dogs, and
picking off the members of it at "parade rest," as there is in shooting range
cattle in a round-up. The habits of the animal positively eliminate the real
essence of sport,—difficulty and danger. When a musk-ox band is chased
by dogs, or by wolves, the full-grown members of it, bulls and cows alike,
instantly form a close circle around the calves, facing outward shoulder to
shoulder, and stand at bay. Without the aid of a gunner and a rifle, such a
formation is invincible! Mr. Paul Rainey's moving pictures tell a wonderful
story of animal intelligence, bravery and devotion to the parental instinct.
For some reason, the musk-ox herds do not seem to have perceptibly
increased since man first encountered them. The number alive to-day
appears to be no greater than it was fifty years ago; and this leads to the
conclusion that the present delicate balance could easily be disturbed the
wrong way. Fortunately, it seems reasonably certain that the Indians of the
Canadian Barren Grounds, the Eskimo of the far north, and the stray
explorers all live outside the haunts of the species, and come in touch only
with the edge of the musk-ox population as a whole. This leads us to hope
and believe that, through the difficulties involved in reaching them, the
main bodies of musk-ox of both species are safe from extermination.
At the same time, the time has come for Canada, the United States and
Denmark to join in formulating a stiff law for the prevention of wholesale
slaughter of musk-ox for sport. It should be rendered impossible for another
sportsman to kill twenty-three head in one day, as once occurred. Give the
sportsman a bag of three bulls, and no more. To this, no true sportsman will
object, and the objections of game-hogs only serve to confirm the justice of
the thing they oppose.
The Grizzly Bear. —To many persons it may seem strange that anyone
should feel disposed to accord protection to such fierce predatory animals
as grizzly bears, lions and tigers. But the spirit of fair play springs eternal in
some human breasts. The sportsmen of the world do not stick at using long-
range, high-power repeating rifles on big game, but they draw the line this
side of traps, poisons and extermination. The sportsmen of India once
thought,—for about a year and a day,—that it was permissible to kill

troublesome and expensive tigers by poison. Mr. G.P. Sanderson tried it,
and when his strychnine operations promptly developed three bloated and
disgusting tiger carcasses, even his native followers revolted at the
principle. That was the alpha and omega of Sanderson's poisoning
activities.
I am quite sure that if the extermination of the tiger from the whole of
India were possible, and the to-be or not-to-be were put to a vote of the
sportsmen of India, the answer would be a thundering "No!" Says Major J.
Stevenson-Hamilton in his "Animal Life in Africa:" "It is impossible to
contemplate the use against the lion of any other weapon than the rifle."
The real sportsmen and naturalists of America are decidedly opposed to
the extermination of the grizzly bear. They feel that the wilds of North
America are wide enough for the accommodation of many grizzlies,
without crowding the proletariat. A Rocky Mountain without a grizzly upon
it, or at least a bear of some kind, is only half a mountain,—commonplace
and tame. Put one two-year-old grizzly cub upon it, and presto! every cubic
yard of its local atmosphere reeks with romantic uncertainty and fearsome
thrills.
A few persons have done considerable talking and writing about the
damage to stock inflicted by bears, but I think there is little justification for
such charges. Certainly, there is not one-tenth enough real damage done by
bears to justify their extermination. At the present time, we hear that the
farmers (!) of Kadiak Island, Alaska, are being seriously harassed and
damaged by the big Kadiak bear,—an animal so rare and shy that it is very
difficult for a sportsman to kill one! I think the charges against the bears,—
if the Kadiak Islanders ever really have made any,—need to be proven, by
the production of real evidence.
In the United States, outside of our game preserves, I know of not one
locality in which grizzly bears are sufficiently numerous to justify a
sportsman in going out to hunt them. The California grizzly, once
represented by "Monarch" in Golden Gate Park, is almost, if not wholly,
extinct. In Montana, outside of Glacier Park it is useless to apply for wild
grizzlies. In the Bitter Root Mountains and Clearwater Mountains of Idaho,
there are grizzlies, but they hide so effectually under the snow-bent willows

on the "slides" that it is almost impossible to get a shot. Northwestern
Wyoming still contains a few grizzlies, but there are so many square miles
of mountains around each animal it is now almost useless to go hunting for
them. British Columbia, western Alberta and the coast mountains at least as
far as Skaguay, and Yukon Territory generally, all contain grizzlies, and the
sportsman who goes out for sheep, caribou and moose is reasonably certain
to see half a dozen bears and kill at least one or two. In those countries, the
grizzly species will hold forth long after all killable grizzlies have vanished
from the United States.
I think that it is now time for California, Montana, Washington, Oregon,
Idaho and Wyoming to give grizzly bears protection of some sort. Possibly
the situation in those states calls for a five-year close season. Even British
Columbia should now place a bag limit on this species. This has seemed
clear to me ever since two of my friends killed (in the spring of 1912) six
grizzlies in one week! But Provincial Game Warden A. Bryan Williams says
that at present it would be impossible to impose a bag limit of one per year
on the grizzlies of British Columbia; and Mr. Williams is a sincere game-
protector.
The Brown Bears Of Alaska. —These magnificent monsters present a
perplexing problem, which I am inclined to believe can be satisfactorily
solved by the Biological Survey only in short periods, say of three or four
years each. Naturally, the skin hunters of Alaska ardently desire the skins of
those bears, for the money they represent. That side of the bear problem
does not in the least appeal to the ninety odd millions of people who live
this side of Alaska. The skins of the Alaskan brown bears have little value
save as curiosities, nailed upon the wall, where they can not be stepped
upon and injured. The hunting of those bears, however, is a business for
men; and it is partly for that reason they should be preserved. A bear-hunt
on the Alaska Peninsula, Admiralty or Montagu Islands, is an event of a
lifetime, and with a bag limit of one brown bear, the species would be quite
safe from extermination.

THE WICHITA NATIONAL BISON HERD
Presented by the New York Zoological Society

In Alaska there is some dissatisfaction over the protection accorded the
big brown bears; but those rules are right as far as they go! A governor of
Alaska once said to me: "The preservation of the game of Alaska should be
left to the people of Alaska. It is their game; and they will preserve it all
right!"
The answer? Not by a long shot!
Only three things were wrong with the ex-governor's view:
1.—The game of Alaska does not belong to the people who live in Alaska
—with the intent to get out to-morrow! It belongs to the 93,000,000 people
of the Nation.
2.—The preservation of the Alaskan fauna on the public domain should
not be left unreservedly to the people of Alaska, because
3.—As sure as shooting, they will not preserve it!

Congress is right in appropriating $15,000 for game protection in Alaska.
It is very necessary that the regulations for conserving the wild life should
be fixed by the Secretary of Agriculture, with the advice of the Biological
Survey.
The Black Bear is an interesting citizen. He harms nobody nor
anything; he affords good sport; he objects to being exterminated, and
wherever in North America he is threatened with extermination, he should
at once be given protection! A black bear in the wilds is harmless. In
captivity, posed as a household "pet," he is decidedly dangerous, and had
best be given the middle of the road. In big forests he is a grand stayer, and
will not be exterminated from the fauna of the United States until
Washington is wrecked by anarchists.
The American Bison. —I regard the American bison species as now
reasonably secure against extermination. This is due to the fact that it
breeds persistently and successfully in captivity, and to the great efforts that
have been put forth by the United States Government, the Canadian
Government, the American Bison Society, the New York Zoological
Society, and several private individuals.
The species reached its lowest ebb in 1889, when there were only 256
head in captivity and 835 running wild. The increase has been as follows:
1888—W.T. Hornaday's census 1,300
1902—S.P. Langley's census 1,394
1905—Frank Baker's census 1,697
1908—W.T. Hornaday's census 2,047
1910—W.P. Wharton's census (in North America) 2,108
1912—W.P. Wharton's census (in North America) 2,907

To-day, nearly one-half of the living bison are in very large governmental
parks, perpetually established and breeding rapidly, as follows:

In The United States
Yellowstone Park fenced herd, founded by Congress 125
Montana National Bison Range, founded by The American Bison Society 69
Wichita Bison Range, founded by The New York Zoological Society 39
Wind Cave Bison Range, S. Dakota, founded by Am. Bison Society To be stocked
Niobrara (Neb.) National Bison Range, now in process of creation To be stocked
In Canada

Buffalo Park, Wainwright, Alberta 1,052
Elk Island Park, Alberta 53
Rocky Mountains Park, Banff, Alberta 27
-----
Total National and Provincial Preserves 1,365

Of wild bison there are only three groups: 49 head in the Yellowstone
National Park, about 75 Pablo "outlaws" around the Montana Bison Range,
and between 300 and 400 head in northern Athabasca, southwest of Fort
Resolution, existing in small and widely scattered bands.
The efforts of man to atone for the great bison slaughter by preserving
the species from extinction have been crowned with success. Two
governments and two thousand individuals have shared this task,—solely
for sentimental reasons. In these facts we find reason to hope and believe
that other efforts now being made to save other species from annihilation
will be equally successful.

CHAPTER XVIII
THE PRESENT AND FUTURE OF AFRICAN
GAME

Thanks to the diligence with which sportsmen and field naturalists have
recorded their observations in the haunts of big game, it is not at all difficult
to forecast the immediate future of the big game of the world. We may
safely assume that all lands well suited to agriculture, mining and grazing
will become populated by rifle-bearing men, with the usual result to the
wild mammals and birds. At the same time, the game of the open mountains
everywhere is thinly distributed and easily exterminated. On the other hand,
the unconquerable forest jungles of certain portions of the tropics will hold
their own, and shelter their four-footed inhabitants for centuries to come.
On the open mountains of the world and on the grazing lands most big
game is now being killed much faster than it breeds. This is due to the
attacks of five times too many hunters, open seasons that are too long, and
bag limits that are far too liberal. As an example, consider Africa Viewed in
any way it may be taken, the bag limit in British East Africa is appallingly
high. Notice this astounding array of wild creatures that each hunter may
kill under a license costing only $250!
2 Buffalo 3 Gnu
2 Rhinoceros 12 Grant Gazelle
2 Hippopotamus 4 Waller's Gazelle
1 Eland 10 Harvey's Duiker
2 Grevy Zebra 10 Isaac's Duiker
20 Common Zebra 10 Blue Duiker
2 Fringe-eared Oryx 10 Kirk's Dik-dik
4 Beisa Antelope 10 Guenther's Dik-dik
4 Waterbuck 10 Hinde's Dik-dik
1 Sable Antelope 10 Cavendish Dik-dik