Men are not the only onend'ers in the matter of slaughtering game.
as this club of women almrods shows. The dead bird
represent one morning’s shooting
. By J. Olin Howe
KIN the memory of men now
living certain representatives of our
native wild creatures have disappeared
and many others will certainly follow
unless steps are taken immediately to
Prevent their extinctioa. So speaks Dr.
William T. Hornaday, noted naturalist
and ardent friend of all wild creatures.
The bison" which roamed the plains in
uncounted numbers, has shrunken to a
few protected herds because of wanton
slaughter. The wild pigeon, which once
darkened the skies in spring and fall
migrations, is gone. Not a feather is
left, and all because they were killed
with the same reckless abandon which is
now directed toward aquatic birds.
These, too, will follow unless something
is done to protect them, says Dr. Horas-
day.
’Tis a tight to a finish, with quarter
neither asked nor given, to prevent the
extinction on the North American con-
tinent‘ of our wild ducks, wild geese,
brsnt and other migratory game birds.
As a popular naturalist, Dr. Horns-
day probably stands without a peer in
’America, possibly in all the world. He
is director of the New YorieZoologicsl .
Park, familiarly known as “the Bronx
Zoo,” which has the greatest collection
of wild life on earth. But William
Temple Homaday, great-hearted lover of
the open spaces and the denizens of the
wild, is far more than that, big a job
‘ as' the directorship of the~park actual-
ly is. .
Ye‘s ago, when a sophomore in an
Iowa college, he determined upon the
life career which he has followed—that
of soologist and naturalist—and after
graduation Dr. Hornaday explored the
wildest reaches of mountain, forest and
desert over the globe to qualify for
that. Thus he became the authority on
the subject he is today. His vision is
world-wide and ever has been.
Yet always the wild things of his
homeland have held their place nearest
his heart since early days in that Iowa
country of which Herbert Quick has
written so engagingly. He sees what
the careless, wasteful extravagance of
American hunters is doing—~how our
gunners, with typically American im-
providence, are squandering the most
. marvelous inheritance in wild game any
nation ever had.
‘ HAVE turned the,corner," Dr.
Hornsday said to me but yester-
day. “From now on we are going rapid-
ly downward toward final extinction of
all the game birds on this continent.
Every winter will see less and less wild
ducks and geese on the cold-weather
feeding grounds—every summer fewer
and fewer pairs mating in their breeding
places in Northern forests."
Dr. Hornaday spoke slowly new, and
most impressively. ’ ,
“As things are going today.” he said.
“the birds are doomed. In a genera-
tion all the difl'erent species of wild
duck, the noble Canada goose, the brant,
the wild turkey, the bob-white quail, the
woodcock, even the gentle mourning
dove, will have disappeared oil the face
of America, so far as the average man
who loves to take gun and dog and go
afield is concerned. . '
“Except for a few game refuges and
the preserves of the wealthy, all this bird
life, all these game birds, will be as ex-
tinct as the wild pigeon, slaughtered to
snake a headless hunter's holiday.
“Not even killed to eat!” cried the
doctor. “For what man or group of
men, what family even, could eat twenty.
five ducks a day, which in most 8 tea
the law still permits each man a
gun to kill between sunrise and sunset?
_ “Why, do you know." Dr. Hornsday
Unclaimed, “if the five or six million
hunters who are annually licensed in this
country were actually to shoot their
[gal beg limits daily throughout the
open season. which averages perhaps a
. ‘ I
hundred days in the different States, all
our wild birds would be wiped out in one
season!
“And yet." he continued, with an ex-
pressive gesture, "the men behind the
guns would be quite within the law! This
Would mean the death of perhaps l‘5,000,-
000,000 wild ducks alone in these one
hundred days! Does any one imagine
there are fifteen billion wild ducks on the
American continent?
"It is the apathy of people generally
that \makes the trouble.” said the
naturalist. “Only about ii per cent of
our people care enough about shooting
to take out game licenses in the forty~
eight States-wand the remainder either
think everything: is going along all right
or don't care whether it is or not.
“Peoplp know that we no longer have
the sale of game in this country and
that the Weeks-McLean law, which con-
tains that Nnt'on-wide prohibition, also
stopped all spring shooting and regulated
bag limits, leaving it to the United
States Biological Survey to make fur-
ther reductions.
“If conditions could remain what they
were when this law was enacted,“ Dr.
Hornaday said, \“there might be some
ureason for this confidence that all is
well which results in such apathy. But
meantime automobiles are increasing in
this country by millions annually and
the repeating shotgun is everywhere—-
and the birds have‘no chance when a
party can easily run out a hundred and
fifty or two hundred miles to shooting
grounds overnight and tire seven shotgun
loads without taking the gun from the
shoulder. ‘
\
“ T mine is but a voice crying in
the wilderness," said the great
nature lover. “We must have reduction
of the legal daily bag limits on all wild
birds, shorter open seasons and close-
seasons on some species—or our own
sons will find this a land denuded of its
wild life more surely than of its forests.
Who canlawaken America to its criminal
wastefulnesa 1"
Who can, I ask ‘you, it Dr. Hornaday‘
cannot?
For here is the man who saved for
posterity the American buffalo—and who
has since shown Europe, awakening at
last to the fact that it had only seventy-
two had of European bison left, how
to save the species through them.
Here is the man who has saved for
as the antelope; the Rocky Moun-
tain goat, the bighorn mountain sheep.
83 for Dr. Homaday the Alaskan fur
a would be only a sad memory today.
grounds, known to the hunter. and are there killed-in vast numbers
D all aquatic,
The great herd of 8,000.000 which'ex-
isted on the Pribilofi’ Islands when we
acquired Alaska had'dwindled to a mere
remnant' of 120,000. when in 1910 he
{node the fight when ended pelagic scalv
mg for all-time and gave the seals a
flVe.year close season in which to re-
cuperate. ‘
Beginning single-handed and amid
varied.dlscours’gemehts, Dr. Hornaday
drove the market gunners from the field
and stopped the sale of game in New
York City, then the greatest game mar-
ket in the world. , ‘ *
“You have gone too far this time,"
said even his friends. ' ' '"
“Very well," he retored. “if I‘go' down, ‘
I’ll go down fighting,”
There were 200,000 dead birdffin'coid‘
storage in New York- City at thetime
and the game .liuichcrs ot'fhfirituck
Sound,. .Barnegat Bay and tha~.l.ong
Island shore had sit the support the
dealers could give them, but this de-
termined man won out. '
Massachusetts and California soon fell
into line with New York State on this
and later the ‘ Weeks-Mel..cun . law r has.
passed covering the country". It Was
Dr. iiornadsy who stopped the sale of
Wild bird plumage for milliiiery and other
uses in this country, and Canada, Eng-
land and indie have prohibited its exi-
portation. He drew the clause in'the
tariff of 1913 which settled this matter—‘—
and the lawyers of the feather millinera
have never yet been able to find a hole '
init.
IN THIS fight for the wild birds Dr.
Hernaday has the support of the
Permanent Wild Life Protection Fund,
which was formed some time since by
Mrs: Russell Sage, Andrew Carnegie
and other friends of wild life, and has
some prominent people among its found-
ers. Henry Ford is one of them“. Dr.
Bernaday is its chairman. This fight-for
protection of the wild birds is made in
the name of the fund.‘ ‘ ~ - ' '
Numerous other organizations are in
it. Indeed, a year ago President Cool-
idge‘s National Conference on Odtdoor'f,
Recreation declared that "the decrease
of hunting grenade. the rapid increase
of hunters. liberal killing privileges and
other destructive influences are now op
crating to diminish and extefininatt
Aquatic birds duller the mostat the hands of ‘the ”gunner,'forhthe bag'permlttcd hinder the lav? I ‘
is the largest and feeding habits make the members of the web-footed tribe easy victims. — They ‘- ' ‘:
settle in front of baited blinds and then the g'uas take their toll, or they visit“ wild—feeding
u. v . s
U . William T. Hornaday. the {dozens naturalist, ism‘skingia'
. - strenuous light to preserve our
’ at.tlie hands'of sportsmen
game birds‘, animals and flshes,"‘and
resolved in favor of prompt steps "to
secure reductions in bag'llmits and open
seasons.” _ ‘ ' ’ ’
'State game commissions and coinin-
“We”. some protective associations - x
from coast to coast, the Isaak.Walton2
.League. the Audubon Society, the Amer-
ican Bison Society. humane societies, the '
United Anglers’ League, even State fed-
erations of.women’s clubs, and many ‘in-
dividual sportsmen—all these are on)
‘ Dr Hornaday’s side; . -
.For five years now the Permanent-
‘Wild Life Protection Fund has been
fighting this battle against theftotal=
d
. it
,5 :Miérratory Birdsof North America Are. Going—Going
‘. #Nequy' Cone. Says DrWiIlidm T. Homaday, ,
A Noted Naturalist, andin a Generation W Ill Be
Deomed to" Complete Disappearance Unless §teps
" ‘ , V Are‘Tak'en to'Curtoil the
_.{,Rel‘entless 'Massacre '
..
aquatic birds from‘extinc‘tlon . 1’,
» i
I
destruction of American game. Its great
Purpose is “to preserve legitimate sport"
on d continuing basis." To accomplish
~ that the fund should have the support.
not only“,of every sportsman in the
country. but of the mothers and the non- _
shooting fathers and the Boy Scouts and
every .one else.
1‘ T, said Dr. Homaday. “ostens-
. nately, especially in the eastern-
psrt‘ of the United States, apathy and 0p-
position :to‘ reductions in the killing privi-
lege' are barring all progress. The com-
mercial interests have the upper hand. .
They have millions of dollars to back
, them. and millions more at stake: They .
are able‘tc’block the
_' _ pdassge'of legislai
tion theydo not like.
“The defenders of wild life who stand
for reform are without largelunds.
they are comparatively unorganized, and
they are utterly unableto have pervnal
representation in State Legislatures to
- introduce—and back up laws for the. better
protection of ' the birds.
"‘iHow unable we have as. yet been
to wake up State Legislatures to pass
laws further limiting the'daily bag of
[ migratory game-birds during the open
season is shown by ‘the'factfthat in forty.
States the eflort'to‘psive the birds by
legislation is at an pad for this year-—
without action. We have. been. in; cor-
respondence with every Governor lathe
forty-eight States, and many of them
are heartily
gible results) . -. L ,
"As yet, State lawmakers seem an-
‘ able to see the threatened extinction of»
wild dueka'geese, brant and other mi-
gratory birds now being slaughtered by
millioasiof sportsmen. la‘oaly three
tunaia there etill'hope of any
, milliliiof'sueeesa la'thls at thhtime.
masons. the birds are passion".
remarked 'Dr. Hornsday with‘emphasis.
“Reports from the last huntiag‘aeaaon
separation of the United States re-
.s
‘ ’ tho-Way of til. ions
~ > sports club in
with us,4but nothing tea? _
.@
veal a thoroughly elamlng diminution
in the numbers of migratory game birds.
Even now we approach the t when it
grows too late to save them.” a urged.
“Unbiased observers in the South and
in California, where wild fowl usually
“masts is .vast numbers for win-
ter feeding, during the last gunning sea-
-son beer out the belief that our migrs- :
tor! game birds are doomed," said the
doctor: . “The last shooting season in
California is described btds‘toai'teatoln:
am convinced our game list a! ”my
' American mammalls and wild birds -
ready locally extinct over wide areas.
“ 'IiE awmakers do not‘ even seem in-
T cli‘ned to save thefn. Ungzg‘alz-
ised as they are nature overs a -
able to prevail 'agsinst the powerful.
thoroughly organised and wealthy m nor-V
ity ‘who put lawmakers to sleep time
optimistic talk and at the same
fool the public.
“I should like you,” said Dr. Horns-
t this ‘oint. “to glance over a let-
:yviihich I lfave just received from line‘s-
bert‘ R. McCherry, of New York. ir.
McCherry's business interests requthr:
him to spend a good deal of time .n h
South. lie is just back from six mpnt s
in the Southwestern Louisiana marsh-l
. We heard and read much in cer-
lthiiimquarters of the plentiful supply 3:
wild duck on the winter feeding groun d
M along the South Atlantic seaboard an
on the Gulf shore. If this were trust,
it would but mean the concentration 0
, survivors at a few points.
what Mr. McCherry says: ‘ _
observations warrant me in
stiiiiyng that the duck situation on the
American continent lie-comes more
. K alarming every year. 7'1 his last atcr
Athere war: ccnmaratn'ely few. _rge
flights in Southwestern Louisiana,
wh'ere in former years duck ponnSs
fairly teemsd with :im\'_.sbacks,
lards.‘ nln'ails and teal.
Shaft!“ club: riteifflllllg there were
compe'lvl to iced the (in: ks very heavi-
ly with lite. and pump water into the
levees. in order to keep the ducks on
those :ttzirshes from migrating fur-
ther south Despite the. heavy bait-
ing. only a few hundred ducks were
seen the'iutter parrot December. The
‘Louisiana shioting season on ducks
ends January 31, and in January few
flights of ducks were seen. never num- p
' more than fifty to a flight.
belmc‘igplore the tactics of the alleged
baiting their blinds and
laborers in the blinds over
‘ in
.‘V light'fo keep‘ the ducks from feed,
| water. and rest till sunup and the up.
. trance of the‘wealthy members of the
a club into the blinds.
But note
a-
2.
“ ‘In fact, large a close season on .
wild fowl shooting in the South. Dar.
ticularly in Louisiana, because of the
many duck clubs which are 'croppiag up
in the country adjoining, or between, the
Marsh ‘Island Refuge and the Audubon
. society and Paul Raiaey. Reserves:
writes Mr. 'McCherry. J
“ACCORDING to available records,
more than $000,000 hunting
licenses were issued in our forty-eight
Staten last year (this is much too small
milgure, interposed Dr. Hornadsy. It
is nearly 50 per cent too low), and,
based on an average kill of but ten ducks
per licensee, a total of forty million ducks
would fall each year.
“‘1 pm aureyou will agree.’ writes
Mr. MeCherry, “that too ducks per per-
son over a three months’ shooting sea-
son is an underestimate. From personal
observation! would make it a hundred
ducks each per season—but there are
not that many wild duck left on this
continent, nor ever will be again!
“‘Unless we get some legislation be-
fore long, closing Southern States to
duck shooting for “a few years and re-
duciiig bag limits in other States, the
wild -fowl of this continent face cer.
tain onl' "
I wish could have use Dr. Horn-
adsy’s face as he read this striking
message from a disinterested. observer.
“Gee I a“ whine tosses graphic
picture!" the great naturalist asked me.
“navelnotpnvedmyease? Icould
read yeudrom dosing ofslmilar letters.
from varioasparte‘of this couatu and
_eveahom9aaada.sllbeeringthesame
. m tidings, but ‘tvmuld be only repeti-
tion. ThemigraterywlldfowlofAmes-
ice are, going—going—goingl
“We must awake to their desperate
slisht. or soon they will be gonel"
‘ ow U Nile below M
large game preserves thaw-notably the '
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Norwalk Chronicler