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animals were saved. Is it any wonder that deer are increasing almost everywhere?”

The great horned owl has been and still is a great scourge to the upland game birds, partly because when game is abundant “they become fastidious, and eat only the brains of their prey.” The destruction of 3,139 of them on the Lower Mainland during the last two years has made these owls sing very small, and says the warden, “Is it any wonder that grouse are again increasing?”

I have discussed with the Provincial Game Warden the advisability of putting a limit of one on the grizzly bear, but Mr. Williams advances good reasons for the opinion that it would be impracticable to do so at present. I am quite sure, however, that the time has already arrived when a limit of one is necessary. During the present year three of my friends who went hunting in British Columbia, _each killed 3 grizzly bears!_ Hereafter I will “locate” no more bear hunters in that country until the bag limit is reduced to one grizzly per year. Since 1905 the trapping of bears south of the main line of the Canadian Pacific Railway has been stopped; and an excellent move too. A Rocky Mountain without a grizzly bear is like a tissue-paper rose.

The bag limit on the big game of British Columbia is at least twice too liberal,–five deer, two elk, two moose (one in Kootenay County), three caribou and three goats. There is no necessity for such wasteful liberality. Few sportsmen go to British Columbia for the sake of a large lot of animals. I know many men who have been there to hunt, and the great majority cared more for the scenery and the wild romance of camping out in ground mountains than for blood and trophies.

MANITOBA.–What are we to think of a “bag limit” of fifty ducks per day in October and November? A “limit” indeed! Evidently, Manitoba is tired of having ducks, ruffed grouse, pinnated and other grouse pestering her farmers and laborers. While assuming to fix bag limits that will be of some benefit to those species, the limit is distinctly off, and nothing short of a quick and drastic reform will save a remnant that will remain visible to the naked eye.

NEW BRUNSWICK.–This is the banner province in the protection of moose, caribou and deer, even while permitting them to be shot for sport. Of course, only males are killed, and I am assured by competent judges that thus far the killing of the finest and largest male moose has had no bad effect upon the stature or antlers of the species as a whole.

NOVA SCOTIA.–If there is anything wrong with the game laws of Nova Scotia, it lies in the wide-open sale of moose meat and all kinds of feathered game during the open season. If that province were more heavily populated, it would mean a great destruction of game. Even with conditions as they are, the sale permitted is entirely wrong, and against the best interests of 97 per cent of the people.

As previously mentioned, the law against the waste of moose meat is both novel and admirable. The saving of any considerable portion of the flesh of a full-grown bull moose, along with its head, is a large order; but it is right. The degree of accountability to which guides are held for the doings of the men whom they pilot into the woods is entirely commendable, and worthy of imitation. If a sportsman or gunner does the wrong thing, the guide loses his license.

SASKATCHEWAN.–This is another of the too-liberal provinces having no real surplus of big game with which to sustain for any length of time an excess of generosity. I am told that in this province there is now a great deal of open country around each wild animal. And yet, it cheerfully offers two moose, two elk, two caribou and two _antelope_ per season to each licensed gunner or sportsman. The limit is too generous by half. Why throw away an extra $250 worth of game with each license? That is precisely what the people of Saskatchewan are doing to-day.

And that antelope-killing! It should be stopped at once, and for ten years.

YUKON.–This province permits the sale of all the finest and best wild game within its borders,–moose, elk, caribou, _bison_, musk-ox, sheep and goats! The flesh of all these may be sold during the open season, and for sixty days thereafter. Of the species named above, the barren ground caribou is the only one regarding which we need not worry; because that species still exists in millions. The Osborn caribou (_Rangifer osborni_), can be exterminated in our own times, because it is nowhere really numerous, and it inhabits exposed situations.

* * * * *

CHAPTER XXXVIII

PRIVATE GAME PRESERVES

Primarily, in the early days of the Man-on-Horseback, the self-elected and predatory lords of creation evolved the private game preserve as a scheme for preventing other fellows from shooting, and for keeping the game sacred to slaughter by themselves. The idea of conserving the game was a fourth-rate consideration, the first being the estoppel of the other man. The old-world owner of a game preserve delights in the annual killing of the surplus game, and we have even heard it whispered that in the Dark Ages there were kings who enjoyed the wholesale slaughter of deer, wild boar, pheasants and grouse. If we may accept as true the history of sport in Europe, there have been men who have loved slaughter with a genuine blood-lust that is quite foreign to the real nature-loving sportsman.

In America, the impulse is different. Here, there is raging a genuine fever for private game preserves. Some of those already existing are of fine proportions, and cost fortunes to create. Every true sportsman who is rich enough to own a private game preserve, sooner or later acquires one. You will find them scattered throughout the temperate zone of North America from the Bay of Fundy to San Diego. I have had invitations to visit preserves in an unbroken chain from the farthest corner of Quebec to the Pacific Coast, and from Grand Island, Lake Superior to the Gulf of Mexico. It was not necessarily to hunt, and kill something, but to _see_ the game, and the beauties of nature.

The wealthy American and Canadian joyously buys a tract of wilderness, fences it, stocks it with game both great and small, and provides game keepers for all the year round. At first he has an idea that he will “hunt” therein, and that his guests will hunt also, and actually kill game. In a mild way, this fiction sometimes is maintained for years. The owner may each year shoot two or three head of his surplus big game, and his tenderfoot guests who don’t know what real hunting is may also kill something, each year. But in most of the American preserves with which I am well acquainted, the gentlemanly “sport” of “hunting big game” is almost a joke. The trouble is, usually, the owner becomes so attached to his big game, and admires it so sincerely, he has not the heart to kill it himself; and he finds no joy whatever in seeing it shot down by others!

In this country the slaughter of game for the market is not considered a gentlemanly pastime, even though there is a surplus of preserve-bred game that must be reduced. To the average American, the slaughter of half-tame elk, deer and birds that have been bred in a preserve does not appeal in the least. He knows that in the protection of a preserve, the wild creatures lose much of their fear of man, and become easy marks; and shall a real sportsman go out with a gun and a bushel of cartridges, on a pony, and without warning betray the confidence of the wild in terms of fire and blood? Others may do it if they like; but as a rule that is not what an American calls “sport.” One wide-awake and well-armed grizzly bear or mountain sheep outwitted on a mountain-side is worth more as a sporting proposition than a quarter of a mile of deer carcasses laid out side by side on a nice park lawn to be photographed as “one day’s kill.”

In America, the shooting of driven game is something of which we know little save by hearsay. In Europe, it is practiced on everything from Scotch grouse to Italian ibex. The German Crown Prince, in his fascinating little volume “From My Hunting Day-Book,” very neatly fixes the value of such shooting, as a real sportsman’s proposition, in the following sentence:

“The shooting of driven game is merely a question of marksmanship, and is after all more in the nature of a shooting exercise than sport.”

I have seen some shooting in preserves that was too tame to be called sport; but on the other hand I can testify that in grouse shooting as it is done behind the dogs on Mr. Carnegie’s moor at Skibo, it is sport in which the hunter earns every grouse that falls to his gun. At the same time, also, I believe that the shooting of madly running ibex, as it is done by the King of Italy in his three mountain preserves, is sufficiently difficult to put the best big-game hunter to the test. There are times when shooting driven game calls for far more dexterity with the rifle than is ordinarily demanded in the still-hunt.

In America, as in England and on the Continent of Europe, private game preserves are so numerous it is impossible to mention more than a very few of them, unless one devotes a volume to the subject. Probably there are more than five hundred, and no list of them is “up to date” for more than one day, because the number is constantly increasing. I make no pretense even of possessing a list of those in America, and I mention only a few of those with which I am best acquainted, by way of illustration.

One of the earliest and the most celebrated deer parks of the United States was that of Hon. John Dean Caton, of two hundred acres, located near Ottawa, Ill., established about 1859. It was the experiments and observations made in that park that yielded Judge Caton’s justly famous book on “The Antelope and Deer of America.”

The first game preserve established by an incorporated club was “Blooming Grove Park,” of one thousand acres, in Pennsylvania, where great success has been attained in the breeding and rearing of white-tailed deer.

In the eastern United States the most widely-known game preserve is Blue Mountain Forest Park, near Newport, New Hampshire. It was founded in 1885, by the late Austin Corbin, and has been loyally and diligently maintained by Austin Corbin, Jr., George S. Edgell and the other members of the Corbin family. Ownership is vested in the Blue Mountain Forest Association. The area of the preserve is 27,000 acres, and besides embracing much fine forest on Croydon Mountain, it also contains many converted farms whose meadow lands afford good grazing.

This preserve contains a large herd of bison (86 head), elk, white-tailed deer, wild boar and much smaller game. The annual surplus of bison and other large game is regularly sold and distributed throughout the world for the stocking of other parks and zoological gardens. Each year a few surplus deer are quietly killed for the Boston market, but a far greater number are sold alive, at from $25 to $30 each in carload lots.

In the Adirondacks of northern New York, there are a great many private game preserves. Dr. T.S. Palmer, in his pamphlet on “Private Game Preserves” (Department of Agriculture) places the number at 60, and their total area at 791,208 acres. Some of them have caused much irritation among some of the hunting, fishing and trapping residents of the Adirondack region. They seem to resent the idea of the exclusive ownership of lands that are good hunting-grounds. This view of property rights has caused much trouble and some bloodshed, two persons having been killed for presuming to assert exclusive rights in large tracts of wilderness property.

“In the upland preserve under private ownership.” says Dr. Palmer, “may be found one of the most important factors in the maintenance of the future supply of game and game birds. Nearly all such preserves are maintained for the propagation of deer, quail, grouse, or pheasants. They vary widely in area, character, and purpose, and embrace some of the largest game refuges in the country. Some of the preserves in North Carolina cover from 15,000 to 30,000 acres; several in South Carolina exceed 60,000 acres in extent.” The Megantic Club’s northern preserve, on the boundary between Quebec and Maine, embraces nearly 200 square miles, or upward of 125,000 acres.

Comparatively few of the larger preserves are enclosed, and on such grounds, hunting becomes sport quite as genuine as it is in regions open to free hunting. In some instances part of the tract is fenced, while large unenclosed areas are protected by being posted. The character of their tenure varies also. Some are owned in fee simple; others, particularly the larger ones, are leased, or else comprise merely the shooting rights on the land. In both size and tenure, the upland preserves of the United States are comparable with the grouse moors and large deer forests of Scotland.

Of the game preserves in the South, I know one that is quite ideal. It is St. Vincent Island, near Apalachicola, Florida, in the northern edge of the Gulf of Mexico. It was purchased in 1909 by Dr. Ray V. Pierce, and his guests kill perhaps one hundred ducks each year out of the thousands that flock to the ten big ponds that occupy the eastern third of the island. Into those ponds much good duck food has been introduced,–_Potamogeton pectinatus_ and _perfoliatus_. The area of the island is twenty square miles. Besides being a great winter resort for ducks, its sandy, pine-covered ridges and jungles of palms to and live oak afford fine haunts and feeding grounds for deer. Those jungles contain two species of white-tailed deer (_Odocoileus louisiana_ and _osceola_), and Dr. Pierce has introduced the Indian sambar deer and Japanese sika deer _(Cervus sika_), both of which are doing well. We are watching the progress of those big sambar deer with very keen interest, and it is to be recorded that already that species has crossed with the Louisiana white-tailed deer.

[Illustration: MAP OF MARSH ISLAND AND ADJACENT WILD-FOWL PRESERVES]

During the autumn of 1912, public attention in the United States was for a time focused on the purchase of Marsh Island, Louisiana, by Mrs. Russell Sage, and its permanent dedication to the cause of wild-life protection. This delightful event has brought into notice the Louisiana State Game Preserve of 13,000 acres near Marsh Island, and its hinterland (and water) of 11,000 acres adjoining, which constitutes the Ward-McIlhenny Wild Fowl Preserve. These three great preserves taken together as they lie form a wild-fowl sanctuary of great size, and of great value to the whole Mississippi Valley. Now that all duck-shooting therein has been stopped, it is safe to predict that they shortly will be inhabited by a wild-fowl population that will really stagger the imagination.

DUCK-SHOOTING “PRESERVES.”–A ducking “preserve” is a large tract of land and water owned by a few individuals, or a club, for the purpose of preserving exclusively for themselves and their friends the best possible opportunities for killing large numbers of ducks and geese without interference. In no sense whatever are they intended to preserve or increase the supply of wild fowl. The real object of their existence is duck and goose slaughter. For example, the worst goose-slaughter story on record comes to us from the grounds of the Glenn County Club in California, whereon, as stated elsewhere, two men armed with automatic shotguns killed 218 geese in one hour, and bagged a total of 452 in one day.

I shall not attempt to give any list of the so-called ducking “preserves.” The word “preserve,” when applied to them, is a misnomer. Thirteen states have these incorporated slaughtering-grounds for ducks and geese, the greatest number being in California, Illinois, North Carolina and Virginia. California has carried the ducking-club idea to the limit where it is claimed that it constitutes an abuse. Dr. Palmer says that one or two of the club preserves on the western side of the San Joaquin Valley contain upward of _40 square miles, or 25,000 acres each_! With considerable asperity it is now publicly charged (in the columns of _The Examiner_ of San Francisco) that for the unattached sportsmen there is no longer any duck-shooting to be had in California, because all the good ducking-grounds are owned and exclusively controlled by clubs. In many states the private game preserves are a source of great irritation, and many have been attacked in courts of law.[N]

[Footnote N: “Private Game Preserves and their Future in the United States,” by T.S. Palmer, United States Department of Agriculture, 1910.]

But I am not sorrowing over the woes of the unattached duck-hunter, or in the least inclined to champion his cause against the ducking-club member. As slaughterers and exterminators of wild-fowl, rarely exercising mercy under ridiculous bag-limits, they have both been too heedless of the future, and one is just as bad for the game as the other. If either of them favored the game, I would be on his side; but I see no difference between them. They both kill right up to the bag-limit, as often as they can; and that is what is sweeping away all our feathered game.

Curiously enough, the angry unattached duck-hunters of California are to-day proposing to have revenge on the duck-clubbers by _removing all restrictions on the sale of game_! This is on the theory that the duckless sportsmen of the State of California would like to _buy_ dead ducks and geese for their tables! It is a novel and original theory, but the sane people of California never will enact it into law. It would be a step just _twenty years backward_!

THE PUBLIC vs. THE PRIVATE GAME PRESERVE.–Both the executive and the judiciary branches of our state governments will in the future be called upon with increasing frequency to sit in judgment on this case. Conditions about us are rapidly changing. The precepts of yesterday may be out of date and worthless tomorrow. By way of introspection, let us see what principles of equity toward Man and Nature we would lay down as the basis of our action if we were called to the bench. Named in logical sequence they would be about as follows:

1. Any private game “preserve” that is maintained chiefly as a slaughter-ground for wild game, either birds or mammals, may become detrimental to the interests of the people at large.

[Illustration: EGRETS AND HERONS IN SANCTUARY ON MARSH ISLAND]

2. It is not necessarily the duty of any state to provide for the maintenance of private death-traps for the wholesale slaughter of _migratory_ game.

3. An oppressive monopoly in the slaughter of migratory game is detrimental to the interests of the public at large, the same as any other monopoly.

4. Every de facto game preserve, maintained for the preservation of wild life rather than for its slaughter, is an institution beneficial to the public at large, and therefore entitled to legal rights and privileges above and beyond all which may rightly be accorded to the so-called “preserves” that are maintained as killing-grounds.

5. The law may justly discriminate between the actual game preserve and the mere killing-ground.

6. Whenever a killing-ground becomes a public burden, it may be abated, the same as any other public infliction.

In private game preserves the time has arrived when lawmakers and judges must begin to apply the blood-test, and separate the true from the false. And at every step, _the welfare of the wild life involved_ must be given full consideration. No men, nor body of men, should be permitted to practice methods that spell extermination.

* * * * *

CHAPTER XXXIX

BRITISH GAME PRESERVES IN AFRICA AND AUSTRALIA

This brief chapter is offered as an object-lesson to the world at large.

In the early days of America, the founders of our states and territories gave little heed, or none at all, to the preservation of wild life. Even if they thought of that duty, undoubtedly they felt that the game would always last, and that they had no time for such sentimental side issues as the making of game preserves. They were coping with troubles and perplexities of many kinds, and it is not to be wondered at that up to forty years ago, real game protection in America went chiefly by default.

In South Africa, precisely the same conditions have prevailed until recent times. The early colonists were kept so busy shooting lions and making farms that not one game preserve was made. If any men can be excused from the work and worry of preserving game, and making preserves, it is those who spend their lives pioneering and state-building in countries like Africa. Men who continually have to contend with disease, bad food, rains, insect pests, dangerous wild beasts and native cussedness may well claim that they have troubles enough, without going far into campaigns to preserve wild animals in countries where animals are plentiful and cheap. It is for this reason that the people of Alaska can not be relied upon to preserve the Alaskan game. They are busy with other things that are of more importance to them.

In May, 1900, representatives of the great powers owning territory in Africa held a conference in the interests of the wild-animal life of that continent. As a result a Convention was signed by which those powers bound themselves “to make provision for the prevention of further undue destruction of wild game.” The principles laid down for universal observance were as follows:

1. Sparing of females and immature animals. 2. The establishment of close seasons and game sanctuaries. 3. Absolute protection of rare species. 4. Restrictions on export for trading purposes of skins, horns, tusks, etc.
5. Prohibition of the use of pits, snares and game traps.

The brave and hardy men who are making for the British people a grand empire in Africa probably are greater men than far-distant people realize. To them, the white man’s burden of game preservation is accepted as all in the day’s work. A mere handful of British civil officers, strongly aided by the Society for the Preservation of the Fauna of the British Empire, have carved out and set aside a great chain of game preserves reaching all the way from Swaziland and the Transvaal to Khartoum. Taken either collectively or separately, it represents grand work, characteristic of the greatest colonizers on earth. Those preserves are worthy stones in the foundation of what one day will be a great British empire in Africa. The names of the men who proposed them and wrought them out should, in some way, be imperishably connected with them as their founders, as the least reward that Posterity can bestow.

In Major J. Stevenson-Hamilton’s fine work, “Animal Life in Africa,”[O] the author has been at much pains to publish an excellent series of maps showing the locations of the various British game preserves in Africa, and the map published herewith has been based chiefly on that work. It is indeed fortunate for the wild life of Africa that it has today so powerful a champion and exponent as this author, the warden of the Transvaal Game Preserves.

[Footnote O: Published by Heinemann, London, 1912.]

Events move so rapidly that up to this date no one, so far as I am aware, has paused long enough to make and publish an annotated list of the African game preserves. Herein I have attempted to _begin_ that task myself, and I regret that at this distance it is impossible for me to set down under the several titles the names of the men who made these preserves possible, and actually founded them.

To thoughtful Americans I particularly commend this list as a showing of the work of men who have not waited until the game had been _practically exterminated_ before creating sanctuaries in which to preserve it. In view of these results, how trivial and small of soul seems the mercenary efforts of the organized wool-growers of Montana to thwart our plan to secure a paltry fifteen square miles of grass lands for the rugged and arid Snow Creek Antelope Preserve that is intended to help save a valuable species from quick extermination.

At this point I must quote the views of a high authority on the status of wild life and game preserves in Africa. The following is from Major Stevenson-Hamilton’s book.

“It is a remarkable phenomenon in human affairs how seldom the experience of others seems to turn the scale of action. There are, I take it, very few farmers, in the Cape Colony, the Orange Free State, or the Transvaal, who would not be glad to see an adequate supply of game upon their land. Indeed, the writer is constantly dealing with applications as to the possibility of reintroducing various species from the game reserves to private farms, and only the question of expense and the difficulty of transport have, up to the present, prevented this being done on a considerable scale. When, therefore, the relatively small populations of such protectorates as are still well stocked with game are heard airily discussing the advisability of getting rid of it as quickly as possible, one realizes how often vain are the teachings of history, and how well-nigh hopeless it is to quote the result of similar action elsewhere. It remains only to trust that things may be seen in truer perspective ere it is too late, and that those in whose temporary charge it is may not cast recklessly away one of nature’s most splendid assets, one, moreover, which once lightly discarded, can never by any possibility, be regained.

[Illustration: THE MOST IMPORTANT GAME PRESERVES OF AFRICA The Numbers Refer to Corresponding Numbers in the Text]

“It is idle to say that the advance of civilization must necessarily mean the total disappearance of all wild animals. This is one of those glib fallacies which flows only too readily from unthinking lips. Civilization in its full sense–not the advent of a few scattered pioneers–of course, implies their restriction, especially as regards purely grass-feeding species, within certain definite bounds, both as regards numbers and sanctuaries. But this is a very different thing from wholesale destruction, that a few more or less deserving individuals may receive some small pecuniary benefit, or gratify their taste for slaughter to the detriment of everyone else who may come after. _The fauna of an empire is the property of that empire as a whole, and not of the small portion of it where the animals may happen to exist; and while full justice and encouragement must be given to the farmer and pioneer, neither should be permitted to entirely demolish for his own advantage resources which, strictly speaking, are not his own_.”–(“Animal Life in Africa.” p. 24.)

* * * * *

AFRICAN GAME PRESERVES

BRITISH EAST AFRICA:

1.[P] _The Athi Plains Preserve_.–This is situated between the Uganda Railway and the boundary of German East Africa. Its northern boundary is one mile north of the railway track. It is about 215 miles long east and west by 105 miles from north to south, and its area is about 13,000 square miles. It is truly a great preserve, and worthy of the plains fauna that it is specially intended to perpetuate.

[Footnote P: These numbers refer to corresponding numbers on the map of Africa.]

2. _The Jubaland Preserve_.–This preserve lies northwest of Mount Kenia. Its southwestern corner is near Lake Baringo, the Laikipia Escarpment is its western boundary up to Mt. Nyiro, and from that point its northern boundary runs 225 miles to Marsabit Lake. From that point the boundary runs south-by-west to the Guaso Nyiro River, which forms the eastern half of the southern boundary. Its total area appears to be about 13,000 square miles.

In addition to the two great preserves described above the government of British East Africa has established on the Uasin Gishu Plateau a centrally located sanctuary for elands, roan antelopes and hippopotamii. There is also a small special rhinoceros preserve about fifty miles southeastward of Nairobi, around Kiu station, on the railway.

EGYPTIAN SUDAN:

3. A great nameless sanctuary for wild life exists on the eastern bank of the Nile, comprising the whole territory between the main stream, the Blue Nile and Abyssinia. Its length (north and south) is 215 miles, and its width is about 125 miles; which means a total area of about 26,875 square miles. Natives and others living within this sanctuary may hunt therein–if they can procure licenses.

SOMALILAND:

4. _Hargeis Reserve_, about 1,800 square miles.

5. _Mirso Reserve_, about 300 square miles.

UGANDA:

6. _Budonga Forest Reserve_.–This small reserve embraces the whole eastern shore and hinterland of Lake Albert Nyanza, and is shaped like a new moon.

7. _Toro Reserve_.–This small reserve lies between Lakes Albert Nyanza and Albert Edward Nyanza, touching both.

NYASALAND, OR THE BRITISH CENTRAL AFRICA PROTECTORATE.–A small territory, but remarkably well stocked with game.

8. _Elephant Marsh Preserve_.–A small area in the extreme southern end of the Protectorate, on both sides of the Shire River, chiefly for buffalo.

9. _Angoniland Reserve_.–This was created especially to preserve about one thousand elephants. It is forty miles west of the southwestern arm of Lake Nyasa.

TRANSVAAL:

10. _Sabi-Singwitza-Pongola Preserve_.–This great preserve occupies the whole region between the Drakenberg Mountains and the Lebombo Hills. Its total area is about 10,500 square miles. It lies in a compact block about 210 miles long by 50 miles wide, along the Portuguese border.

11. _Rustenburg Reserve_.–This is situated at the head of the Limpopo River, and covers about 3,500 square miles.

SWAZILAND:

12. _The Swaziland Reserve_ contains about 1,750 square miles, and occupies the southwestern corner of Swaziland.

RHODESIA:

13. _The Nweru Marsh Game Reserve_ is in northwestern Rhodesia, bordering the Congo Free State. The description of its local boundaries is quite unintelligible outside of Rhodesia.

_Luangwa Reserve_.–The locality of this reserve cannot be determined from the official description, which gives no clue to its shape or size.

* * * * *

GAME PRESERVES IN AUSTRALASIA

NEW ZEALAND:

_Little Barrier Island_ in the north, and _Resolution Island_, in the south; and concerning both, details are lacking.

AUSTRALIA:

_Kangaroo Island_, near Adelaide, South Australia, is 400 miles northwest of Melbourne. Of the total area of this rather large island of 300 square miles, 140 square miles have been set aside as a game preserve, chiefly for the preservation of the mallee bird (_Lipoa occelata_). It is believed that eventually the whole island will become a wild-life sanctuary, and it would seem that this can not be consummated a day too soon for the vanishing wild life.

_Wilson’s Promontory_. Adelaide, is a peninsula well suited to the preservation of wild life, especially birds, and it is now a sanctuary.

Many private bird refuges have been created in Australia.

TASMANIA:

_Eleven Bird Refuges_ have been created, with a total area of 26,000 acres,–an excellent record for Tasmania!

_Freycinet’s Peninsula_.–At present this wild-life sanctuary is not adequately protected from illicit hunting and trapping; but its full protection is now demanded, and no doubt this soon will be provided by the government. I am informed that this offers a golden opportunity to secure a fine wild-life sanctuary at ridiculously small cost to the public. The whole world is interested in the preservation of the remarkable fauna of Tasmania. The extermination of the thylacine would be a zoological calamity; but it is impending.

* * * * *

CHAPTER XL

BREEDING GAME AND FUR IN CAPTIVITY

GAME BREEDING.–The breeding of game in captivity for sale in the markets of the world is just as legitimate as the breeding of domestic species. This applies equally to mammals, birds, reptiles and fishes. It is the duty of the nation and the state to foster such industries and facilitate the marketing of their products without any unnecessary formalities, delays or losses to producers or to purchasers.

Already this principle has been established in several states. Without going into the records, it is safe to say that Colorado was the pioneer in the so-called “more-game” movement, about 1899; but there is one person who would like to have the world believe that it started in the state of New York, about 1909. The idea is not quite as “old as the hills,” but the application of it in the United States dates back through a considerable vista of years.

The laws of Colorado providing for the creation of private game preserves and the marketing of their product under a tagging system, are very elaborate, and they show a sincere desire to foster an industry as yet but slightly developed in this country. The laws of New York are much more simple and easy to understand than those of Colorado.

There is one important principle now fully recognized in the New York laws for game breeding that other states will do well to adopt. It is the fact that certain kinds of wild game _can not be bred and reared in captivity on a commercial basis_; and this being true, it is clearly against public policy to provide for the sale of any such species. Why provide for the sale of preserve-bred grouse and ducks which we know can not be bred and reared in confinement in marketable numbers? For example, if we may judge by the numerous experiments that _thus far_ have been made,–as we certainly have a right to do,–no man can successfully breed and rear in captivity, on a commercial basis, the canvasback duck, teal, pintail duck, ruffed grouse or quail. This being the case, no amount of clamor from game dealers and their allies ever should induce any state legislature to provide for the sale of any of those species _until it has been fully demonstrated_ that they _have been_ and _can be_ bred in captivity in large numbers. The moment the markets of a state are thrown open to these impossible species, from that moment the state game wardens must make a continuous struggle to prevent the importation and sale of those birds contrary to law. This proposition is so simple that every honest man can see it.

All that any state legislature may rightfully be asked to do is to provide for the sale, under tags, of those species which _we know_ can be bred in captivity in large numbers.

When the Bayne law was drafted, its authors considered with the utmost care the possibilities in the breeding of game in the United States on a commercial basis. It was found that as yet only two wild native species have been, and can be, reared in captivity on a large scale. These are the white-tailed deer and mallard duck. Of foreign species we can breed successfully for market the fallow deer, red deer of Europe and some of the pheasants of the old world. For the rearing, killing and marketing of all these, the Bayne law provides the simplest processes of state supervision that the best game protectors and game breeders of New York could devise. The tagging system is expeditious, cheap and effective. Practically the only real concession that is required of the game-breeder concerns the killing, which must be done in a systematic way, whereby a state game warden can visit the breeder’s premises and affix the tags without any serious sacrifice of time or convenience on either side. The tags cost the breeder five cents each, and they pay the cost of the services rendered by the state.

By this admirable system, which is very plainly set forth in the New York Conservation Commission’s book of game laws, all the _wild_ game of New York, _and of every other state_, is absolutely protected at all times against illegal killing and illegal importation for the New York market. Now, is it not the duty of Connecticut, Maryland, Virginia, the Carolinas and every other state to return our compliment by passing similar laws? Massachusetts came up to public expectations at the next session of her legislature after the passage of our Bayne law. In 1913, California will try to secure a similar act; and we know full well that her ducks, geese, quail, grouse and band-tailed pigeon need it very much. If the California protectors of wild life succeed in arousing the great quiet mass of people in that state, their Bayne bill will be swept through their legislature on a tidal wave of popular sentiment.

_Elk_.–For people who own wild woodlands near large cities there are good profits to be made in rearing white-tailed deer for the market. I would also mention elk, but for the fact that every man who rears a fine herd of elk quickly becomes so proud of the animals, and so much attached to them, that he can not bear to have them shot and butchered for market! Elk are just as easy to breed and rear as domestic cattle, except that in the fall breeding season, the fighting of rival bulls demands careful and intelligent management. Concerning the possibilities of feeding elk on hay at $25 per ton and declaring an annual profit, I am not informed. If the elk require to be fed all the year round, the high price of hay and grain might easily render it impossible to produce marketable three-year-old animals at a profit.

_White-tailed Deer_.–Any one who owns from one hundred to one thousand acres of wild, brushy or forest-covered land can raise white-tailed (or Virginia) deer at a profit. With smaller areas of land, free range becomes impossible, and the prospects of commercial profits diminish and disappear. In any event, a fenced range is absolutely essential; and the best fence is the Page, 88 inches high, all horizontals of No. 9 wire, top and bottom wires of No. 7, and the perpendicular tie-wires of No. 12. This fence will hold deer, elk, bison and wild horses. In large enclosures, the white-tailed deer is hardy and prolific, and when fairly cooked its flesh is a great delicacy. In Vermont the average weights of the deer killed in that state in various years have been as follow:–in 1902, 171 lbs.; in 1903, 190 lbs.; in 1905, 198 lbs.; in 1906, 200 lbs.; in 1907, 196 lbs.; in 1908, 207 lbs.; and in 1909, 155 lbs. The reason for the great drop in 1909 is yet to be ascertained.

In 1910, in New York City the wholesale price of whole deer carcasses was from 22 to 25 cents per pound. Venison saddles were worth from 30 to 35 cents per pound. On the bill of fare of a first class hotel, a portion of venison costs from $1.50 to $2.50 according to the diner’s location. It is probable that such prices as these will prevail only in the largest cities, and therefore they must not be regarded as general.

Live white-tailed deer can be purchased for breeding purposes at prices ranging from $25 to $35 each. A good eastern source of supply is Blue Mountain Forest, Mr. Austin Corbin, president (Broadway and Cortlandt St., New York). In the West, good stock can be procured from the Cleveland-Cliffs Iron Company, through C.V.R. Townsend, Negaunee, Mich., whose preserve occupies the whole of Grand Island, Lake Superior.

The Department of Agriculture has published for free distribution a pamphlet entitled “Raising Deer and Other Large Game Animals” in the United States, by David E. Lantz, which contains much valuable information, although it leaves much unsaid.

All breeders of deer are cautioned that during the fall and early winter months, all adult white-tailed bucks are dangerous to man, and should be treated accordingly. A measure of safety can be secured in a large park by compelling the deer always to keep at a respectful distance, and making no “pets,” whatever. Whenever a buck finds his horns and loses his fear of man, climb the fence quickly. Bucks in the rutting season sometimes seem to go crazy, and often they attack men, wantonly and dangerously. The method of attack is to an unarmed man almost irresistible. The animal lowers his head, stiffens his neck and with terrible force drives straight forward for your stomach and bowels. Usually there are eight sharp spears of bone to impale you. The best defense of an unarmed man is to seize the left antler with the left hand, and with the right hand pull the deer’s right front foot from under him. Merely holding to the horns makes great sport for the deer. He loves that unequal combat. The great desideratum is to put his fore legs out of commission, and get him down on his knees.

Does are sometimes dangerous, and inflict serious damage by rising on their hind feet and viciously striking with their sharp front hoofs. These tendencies in American deer are mentioned here as a duty to persons who may desire to breed deer for profit.

_The Red Deer of Europe_.–Anyone who has plenty of natural forest food for deer and a good market within fair range, may find the European red deer a desirable species. It is of size smaller, and more easily managed, than the wapiti; and is more easily marketed because of its smaller size. As a species it is hardy and prolific, and of course its venison is as good as that of any other deer. Live specimens for stocking purposes can be purchased of S.A. Stephan, Agent for Carl Hagenbeck, Cincinnati Zoological Gardens, or of Wenz & Mackensen, Yardley, Pa., at prices ranging from $60 to $100 each, according to size and age. At present the supply of specimens in this country on hand for sale is very small.

_The Fallow Deer_.–This species is the most universal park deer of Europe. It seems to be invulnerable to neglect and misuse, for it has persisted through countless generations of breeding in captivity, and the abuse of all nations. In size it is a trifle smaller than our white-tailed deer, with spots in summer, and horns that are widely flattened at the extremities in a very interesting way. It is very hardy and prolific, but of course it can not stand everything that could be put upon it. It needs a dry shed in winter, red clover hay and crushed oats for winter food; and no deer should be kept in mud. As a commercial proposition it is not so meaty as the white-tail, but it is _less troublesome to keep_. The adult males are not such vicious or dangerous fighters as white-tail bucks. Live specimens are worth from $50 to $75. The Essex County Park Commissioners (Orange, New Jersey) have had excellent success with this species. In 1906 they purchased twenty-five does and four bucks and placed them in an enclosure of 150 acres, on a wooded mountain-side. In 1912 they had 150 deer, and were obliged to take measures for a disposal of the surplus. Messrs. Wenz & Mackensen, keep an almost continuous supply of fallow deer on hand for sale.

_The Indian Sambar Deer_.–I have long advocated the introduction in the southern states, _wherever deer can be protected_, of this great, hulking, animated venison-factory. While I have not delved deeply into the subject of weight and growth, I feel sure from casual observations of the growth of about twenty-five animals that this species produces more venison during the first two years of its life than any other deer with which I am acquainted. I regard it as the greatest venison-producer of the whole Deer Family; and I know that is a large order. The size of a yearling is almost absurd, it is so great for an animal of tender years. When adult, the species is for its height very large and heavy. As a food-producing animal, located in the southern hill forests and taking care of itself, “there’s millions in it!” But _it must be kept under fence_; for in no southern (or northern) state would any such mass of juicy wild meat long be permitted to roam at large unkilled. Through this species I believe that a million acres of southern timber lands, now useless except for timber growth, could be made very productive in choice venison. The price would be,–a good fence, and protection from poachers.

The Indian sambar deer looks like a short-legged big-bodied understudy of our American elk. It breeds well in captivity, and it is of quiet and tractable disposition. It can not live in a country where the temperature goes down to 25 degrees F. and _remains there for long periods_. It would, I am firmly convinced, do well all along the Gulf coast, and if acclimatized along the Gulf, with the lapse of time and generations it would become more and more hardy, grow more hair, and push its way northward, until it reached the latitude of Tennessee. But then, in a wild state it could not be protected from poachers. As stated elsewhere, Dr. Ray V. Pierce has successfully acclimatized and bred this species in his St. Vincent Island game preserve, near Apalachicola, Florida. More than that, the species has crossed with the white-tailed deer of the Island.

Living specimen of the Indian Sambar deer are worth from $125 to $250, according to size and other conditions. Just at present it seems difficult for Americans to procure a sufficient number of _males!_ We have had very bad luck with several males that we attempted to import for breeding purposes.

_The Mallard Duck_.–A great many persons have made persistent attempts to breed the canvasback, redhead, mallard, black duck, pintail, teal and other species, on a commercial basis. So far as I am aware the mallard is the only wild duck that has been bred in sufficient numbers to slaughter for the markets. The wood duck and mandarin can be bred in fair numbers, but only sufficient to supply the demand for _living_ birds, for park purposes. One would naturally suppose that a species as closely allied to the mallard as the black duck _is_ known to be, would breed like the mallard; but the black duck is so timid and nervous about nesting as to be almost worthless in captivity. All the species named above, except the mallard, must at present, and in general, be regarded as failures in breeding for the market.

Of all American ducks the common mallard is the most persistent and successful breeder. It quickly becomes accustomed to captivity, it enjoys park life, and when given even half a chance it will breed and rear its young.

Unquestionably, the mallard duck can be reared in captivity in numbers limited only by the extent of breeder’s facilities. The amount of net profit that can be realized depends wholly upon the business acumen and judgment displayed in the management of the flock. The total amount of knowledge necessary to success is not so very great, but at the same time, the exercise of a fair amount of intelligence, and also careful diligence, is absolutely necessary. Naturally the care and food of the flock must not cost extravagantly, or the profits will inevitably disappear.

As a contribution to the cause of game-breeding for the market, and the creation of a new industry of value, Mr. L.S. Crandall and the author wrote for the New York State Conservation Commission a pamphlet on “Breeding Mallard Ducks for Market.” Copies of it can be procured of our State Conservation Commission at Albany, by enclosing ten cents in stamps.

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BREEDING FUR-BEARING ANIMALS

When hundreds of persons wrote to me asking for literature on the breeding of fur-bearing animals for profit, for ten years I was compelled to tell them that there was no such literature. During the past three years a few offerings have been made, and I lose not a moment in listing them here.

“_Life Histories of Northern Animals_”, by Ernest T. Seton (Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2 volumes, $18), contains carefully written and valuable chapters on fox farming, skunk farming, marten farming, and mink farming, and other valuable life histories of the fur-bearing animals of North America.

_Rod and Gun in Canada_, a magazine for sportsmen published by W.J. Taylor, Woodstock, Ontario, contained in 1912 a series of articles on “The Culture of Black and Silver Foxes,” by R.B. and L.V. Croft. _Country Life in America_ has published a number of illustrated articles on fox and skunk farming.

With its usual enterprise and forethought, the Biological Survey of the Department of Agriculture has published a valuable pamphlet of 22 pages on “Silver Fox Farming,” by Wilfred H. Osgood, copies of which can be procured by addressing the Secretary of Agriculture. In consulting that contribution, however, it must be borne in mind that just now, in fox farming, history is being made more rapidly than heretofore.

I do not mean to say that the above are the only sources of information on fur-farming for profit, but they are the ones that have most impressed me. The files of all the journals and magazines for sportsmen contain numerous articles on this subject, and they should be carefully consulted.

BLACK-FOX FARMING.–The ridiculous prices now being paid in London for the skins of black or “silver” foxes has created in this country a small furore over the breeding of that color-phase of the red fox. The prices that actually have been obtained, both for skins and for live animals for breeding purposes, have a strong tendency to make people crazy. Fancy paying $12,000 in real money for one pair of live black foxes! That has been done, on Prince Edward Island, and $10,000 per pair is now regarded as a bargain-counter figure.

On Prince Edward Island, in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, black-fox breeding has been going on for ten years, and is now on a successful basis. One man has made a fortune in the business, and it is rumored that a stock company is considering the purchase of his ten-acre fox ranch at a fabulous figure. The enormous prices obtainable for live black foxes, male or female, make diamonds and rubies seem cheap and commonplace; and it is no wonder that enterprising men are tempted to enter that industry.

The price of a black fox is one of the wonders of a recklessly extravagant and whimsical age. All the fur-wearing world knows very well that fox fur is one of the poorest of furs to withstand the wear and tear of actual use. About two seasons’ hard wear are enough to put the best fox skin on the wane, and three or four can be guaranteed to throw it into the discard. Even the finest black fox skin is nothing superlatively beautiful! A choice “cross” fox skin costing only $50 _is far more beautiful, as a color proposition_; but London joyously pays $2,500 or $3,000 for a single black-fox skin, to wear!

Of course, all such fads as this are as ephemeral as the butterflies of summer. The Russo-Japanese war quickly reduced the value of Alaskan blue foxes from $30 to $18; and away went the Alaskan fox farms! A similar twist of Fortune’s fickle wheel may in any year send the black fox out of royal favor, and remove the bottom from the business of producing it. Let us hope, however, that the craze for that fur will continue; for we like to see our friends and neighbors make good profits.

PHEASANT REARING.–This subject is so well understood by game-breeders, and there is already so much good literature available regarding it, it is not necessary that I should take it up here.

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CHAPTER XLI

TEACHING WILD LIFE PROTECTION TO THE YOUNG

Thousands of busy and burdened men and women are to-day striving hard, early and late, to promote measures that will preserve the valuable wild life of the world. They desire to leave to the boys and girls of tomorrow a good showing of the marvelous bird and animal forms that make the world beautiful and interesting. They are acting on the principle that the wild life of to-day is not ours, to destroy or to keep as we choose, but has been given to us _in trust_, partly for our benefit and partly for those who come after us and audit our accounts. They believe that we have no right to squander and destroy a wild-life heritage of priceless value which we have done nothing to create, and which is not ours to destroy.

DUTY OF PARENTS.–This being the case, it is very necessary that the young people of to-day should be taught, early and often, the virtue and the necessity of wild-life protection. There is no reason that the boy of to-day should not take up his share of the common burden, just as soon as he is old enough to wander alone through the woods. Let him be taught in precise terms that he must _not rob birds’ nests_, and that he _must not shoot song-birds, woodpeckers and kingfishers_ with a 22-calibre rifle, or any other gun. At this moment there lies upon my side table a vicious little 22-calibre rifle that was taken from two boys who were camping in the woods of Connecticut, and amusing themselves by shooting valuable insectivorous birds. Now those boys were not wholly to blame for what they were doing; but their fathers and mothers were _very much to blame_! They should have been taught at the parental knee that it is very wrong to kill any bird except a genuine game bird, and then only in the lawful open season. Those two fathers paid $10 each for having failed in their duty; and it served them right; for they were the real culprits.

Small-calibre rifles are becoming alarmingly common in the hands of boys. _Parents must do their duty in the training of their boys against bird-shooting!_ It is a very serious matter. A million boys who roam the fields with small rifles without having been instructed in protection, can destroy an appalling number of valuable birds in the course of a year. Some parents are so slavishly devoted to their children that they wish them to do everything they please, and be checked in nothing. Such parents constitute one of the pests of society, and a drag upon the happiness of their own children! It is now the bounden duty of each parent to teach each one of his or her children that the time has come when the resources of nature, and especially wild life, must be conserved. To permit boys to grow up and acquire guns without this knowledge is very wrong.

THE DUTY OF TEACHERS AND SCHOOLS.–A great deal of “nature study” is being taught in the public schools of the United States. That the young people of our land should be taught to appreciate the works of nature, and especially animal life and plant life, is very desirable. Thus far, however, there is a screw loose in the system, and that is the shortage in definite, positive instruction regarding _individual duty_ toward the wild creatures, great and small. Along with their nature studies all our school children should be taught, in the imperative mood:

1. That it is wrong to disturb breeding birds, or rob birds’ nests;

2. That it is wrong to destroy any harmless living creature not properly classed as game, except it be to preserve it in a museum;

3. That it is no longer right for civilized man to look upon wild game as _necessary_ food; because there is plenty of other food, and the remnant of game can not withstand slaughter in that basis;

4. That the time has come when it is the duty of every good citizen to take an active, aggressive part in _preventing_ the destruction of wild life, and in _promoting_ its preservation;

5. That every boy and girl over twelve years of age can do _something_ in this cause, and finally,

6. That protection and encouragement will bring back the almost vanished birds.

We call upon all boards of education, all principals of schools and all teachers to educate our boys and girls, constantly and imperatively, along those lines. Teachers, do not say to your pupils,–“It is right and nice to protect birds,” but say:–“It is your _Duty_ to protect all harmless wild things, and _you must do it_!”

In a good cause, there is great virtue in “Must.”

Really, we are losing each year an immense amount of available wild-life protection. The doctrine of imperative individual duty never yet has been taught in our schools as it should be taught. A few teachers have, indeed, covered this ground; but I am convinced that their proportion is mighty small.

TEXT BOOKS.–The writers of the nature study text books are very much to blame because nine-tenths of the time this subject has been ignored. The situation has not been taken seriously, save in a few cases, by a very few authors. I am glad to report that in 1912 there was published a fine text book by Professor James W. Peabody, of the Morris High School, New York, and Dr. Arthur E. Hunt, in which from beginning to end the duty to protect wild life is strongly insisted upon. It is entitled “Elementary Biology; Plants, Animals and Man.”

Hereafter, no zoological or nature study text book should be given a place in any school in America unless the author of it has done his full share in setting forth the duty of the young citizen toward wild life. Were I a member of a board of education I would seek to establish and enforce this requirement. To-day, any author who will presume to write a text book of nature study or zoology without knowing and doing his duty toward our vanishing fauna, is too ignorant of wild life and too careless of his duty toward it, to be accepted as a safe guide for the young. The time for criminal indifference has gone by. Hereafter, every one who is not for the preservation of wild life is against it and it is time to separate the sheep from the goats.

From this time forth, the preservation of our fauna should be regarded as a subject on which every candidate for a teacher’s certificate should undergo an examination before receiving authority to teach in a public school. The candidate should be required to know _why_ the preservation of birds is necessary; why the slaughter of wild life is wrong and criminal; the extent to which wild birds and mammals return to us and thrive under protection; why wild game is no longer a legitimate food supply; why wild game should not be sold, and why the feathers of wild birds (other than game birds) never should be used as millinery ornaments.

As sensible Americans, and somewhat boastful of our intelligence, we should put the education of the young in wild-life protection on a rational business basis.

STATE EFFORTS.–In several of our states, systematic efforts to educate children in their duty toward wild life are already being made. To this end, an annual “Bird Day” has been established for state-wide observance. This splendid idea is now legally in force in the following states:

California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Louisiana, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin.

Bird Day is also more or less regularly observed, though not legally provided for, in New York, Indiana, Colorado and Alabama, and locally in some cities of Pennsylvania. Usually the observance of the day is combined with that of Arbor Day, and the date is fixed by proclamation of the Governor.

Alabama and Wisconsin regularly issue elaborate and beautiful Arbor and Bird Day annuals; and Illinois, and possibly other states, have issued very good publications of this character.

THE PHILLIPS EDUCATIONAL CAMPAIGN FOR THE BIRDS.–Quite recently there has come under my notice an episode in the education of school children that has given the public profound satisfaction. I cite it here as an object lesson for pan-America.

In Carrick, Pennsylvania, just across the Monongahela River from the city of Pittsburgh, lives John M. Phillips, State Game Commissioner, nature-lover, sportsman and friend of man. He is a man who does things, and gets results. Goat Mountain Park (450 square miles), in British Columbia, to-day owes its existence to him, for without his initiative and labor it would not have been established. It was the first game preserve of British Columbia.

Three years ago, Mr. Phillips became deeply impressed by the idea that one of the best ways in the world to protect the wild life, both of to-day and the future, would be in teaching school children to love it and protect it. His fertile brain and open check-book soon devised a method for his home city. His theory was that by giving the children _something to do_, not only in protecting but in actually _bringing back_ the birds, much might be accomplished.

[Illustration: BIRD DAY AT CARRICK, PA. Marching Behind the Governor]

In studying the subject of bringing back the birds, he found that the Russian mulberry is one of the finest trees in the world as a purveyor of good fruit for many kinds of birds. The tree does not much resemble our native mulberry, but is equally beautiful and interesting. “The fruit is not a long berry, nor is it of a purple color, but it grows from buds on the limbs and twigs something after the manner of the pussy-willow. It is smaller, of light color and has a very distinct flavor. The most striking peculiarity about the fruit is that it keeps on ripening during two months or more, new berries appearing daily while others are ripening. This is why it is such good bird food. Nor is it half bad for folks, for the berries are good to look at and to eat, either with cream or without, and to make pies that will set any sane boy’s mouth a-watering at sight.”–(Erasmus Wilson).

Everyone knows the value of sweet cherries, both to birds and to children.

Mr. Phillips decided that he would give away several hundred bird boxes, and also several hundred sweet cherry and Russian mulberry trees. The first gift distribution was made in the early spring of 1909. Another followed in 1910, but the last one was the most notable.

On April 11, 1912, Carrick had a great and glorious Bird Day. Mr. Phillips was the author of it, and Governor Tener the finisher. On that day occurred the third annual gift distribution of raw materials designed to promote in the breasts of 2,000 children a love for birds and an active desire to protect and increase them. Mr. Phillips gave away 500 bird boxes, 500 sweet cherry trees and 200 mulberry trees. The sun shone brightly, 500 flags waved in Carrick, the Governor made one of the best speeches of his life, and Erasmus Wilson, faithful friend of the birds, wrote this good story of the occasion for the _Gazette-Times_ of Pittsburgh:

The Governor was there, and the children, the bird-boxes, and the young trees. And was there ever a brighter or more fitting day for a children and bird jubilee! The scene was so inspiring that Gov. Tener made one of the best speeches of his life.

The distribution of several hundred cherry and mulberry trees was the occasion, and the beautiful grounds of the Roosevelt school, Carrick, was the scene.

Mr. John M. Phillips, sane sportsman and enthusiastic friend of the birds, has been looking forward to this as the culmination of a scheme he has been working on for years, and he was more than pleased with the outcome. The intense delight it afforded him more than repaid him for all it has cost in all the years past.

But it was impossible to tell who were the more delighted,–he, or the Governor, or the children, or the visitors who were so fortunate as to be present. County Superintendent of Schools Samuel Hamilton was simply a mass of delight. And how could he be otherwise, surrounded as he was by 2,000 and more children fairly quivering with delight?

Children will care for and defend things that are their very own, fight for them and stand guard over them. Realizing this Mr. Phillips undertook to show them how they could have birds all their own. Being clever in devising schemes for achieving things most to be desired, he began giving out bird-boxes to those who would agree to put them up, and to watch and defend the birds when they came to make their homes with them. And he found that no more faithful sentinel ever stood on guard than the boy who had a bird-house all his own.

Here was the solution to the vexed problem. Provide boxes for those who would agree to put them up, care for the birds, and study their habits and needs. The children agreed at once, and the birds did not object, so Mr. Phillips had some hundreds, four or five, blue-bird and wren boxes constructed during the past winter. These were passed out some weeks ago to any boys or girls who would present an order signed by their parents, and countersigned by the principal of the school.

He knows enough about a boy to know that he does not prize the things that come without effort, nor will he become deeply interested in anything for which he is not held more or less responsible. Hence the advantage in having him write an order, have it indorsed by his parents, and vouched for by his school principal.

That he had struck the right scheme was proven by the avidity with which the girls and boys rushed for the boxes. The fact that a heavy rain was falling did not dampen their ardor for a moment, nor did the fact that they were tramping Mr. Phillips’ beautiful lawn into a field of mud.

Mr. Phillips, seeing the necessity of providing food for the prospective hosts of birds, and wishing to place the responsibility on the boys and girls, offered to provide a cherry tree or mulberry tree for every box erected, provided they should be properly planted and diligently cared for.

This was practically the culmination of the most unique bird scheme ever attempted, and yesterday was the day set apart for the distribution of these hundreds of fruit trees, the products of which are to be divided share and share alike with the birds.

Nowhere else has such a scheme been attempted, and never before has there been just such a day of jubilee. The intense interest manifested by the children, and the earnest enthusiasm manifested, leaves no doubt about their carrying out their part of the contract.

[Illustration: DISTRIBUTING BIRD BOXES AND FRUIT TREES]

Up to date (1912) Mr. Phillips has given away about 1,000 bird boxes, 1,500 cherry and Russian mulberry trees, and transformed the schools of Carrick into seething masses of children militantly enthusiastic in the protection of birds, and in providing them with homes and food. As a final coup, Mr. Phillips has induced the city of Pittsburgh to create the office of City Ornithologist, at a salary of $1200 per year. The duty of the new officer is to protect all birds in the city from all kinds of molestation, especially when nesting; to erect bird-houses, provide food for wild birds, on a large scale, and report annually upon the increase or decrease of feathered residents and visitors. Mr. Frederic S. Webster, long known as a naturalist and practical ornithologist, has been appointed to the position, and is now on active duty.

So far as we are aware, Pittsburgh is the first city to create the office of City Ornithologist. It is a happy thought; it will yield good results, and other cities will follow Pittsburgh’s good example.

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CHAPTER XLII

THE ETHICS OF SPORTSMANSHIP

I count it as rather strange that American and English sportsmen have hunted and shot for a century, and until 1908 formulated practically nothing to establish and define the ethics of shooting game. Here and there, a few unwritten principles have been evolved, and have become fixed by common consent; but the total number of these is very few. Perhaps this has been for the reason that every free and independent sportsman prefers to be a law unto himself. Is it not doubly strange, however, that even down to the present year the term “sportsmen” never has been defined by a sportsman!

Forty years ago, a sportsman might have been defined, according to the standards of that period, as a man who hunts wild game for pleasure. Those were the days wherein no one foresaw the wholesale annihilation of species, and there were no wilderness game preserves. In those days, gentlemen shot female hoofed game, trapped bears if they felt like it, killed ten times as much big game as they could use, and no one made any fuss whatever about the waste or extermination of wild life.

Those were the days of ox-teams and broad-axes. To-day, we are living in a totally different world,–a world of grinding, crunching, pulverizing progress, a world of annihilation of the works of Nature. And what is a sportsman to-day?

A SPORTSMAN is a man who loves Nature, and who in the enjoyment of the outdoor life and exploration takes a reasonable toll of Nature’s wild animals, but not for commercial profit, and only so long as his hunting does not promote the extermination of species.

In view of the disappearance of wild life all over the habitable globe, and the steady extermination of species, the ethics of sportsmanship has become a matter of tremendous importance. If a man can shoot the last living Burchell zebra, or prong-horned antelope, and be a sportsman and a gentleman, then we may just as well drop down all bars, and say no more about the ethics of shooting game.

But the real gentlemen-sportsmen of the world are not insensible to the duties of the hour in regard to the taking or not taking of game. The time has come when canon laws should be laid down, of world-wide application, and so thoroughly accepted and promulgated that their binding force can not be ignored. Among other things, it is time for a list of species to be published which no man claiming to be either a gentleman or a sportsman can shoot for aught else than preservation in a public museum. Of course, this list would be composed of the species that are threatened with extermination. Of American animals it should include the prong-horned antelope, Mexican mountain sheep, all the mountain sheep and goats in the United States, the California grizzly bear, mule deer, West Indian seal and California elephant seal and walrus.

In Africa that list should include the eland, white rhinoceros, blessbok, bontebok, kudu, giraffes and southern elephants, sable antelope, rhinoceros south of the Zambesi, leucoryx antelope and whale-headed stork. In Asia it should include the great Indian rhinoceros and its allied species, the burrhel, the Nilgiri tahr and the gayal. The David deer of Manchuria already is extinct in a wild state.

In Australia the interdiction should include the thylacine or Tasmanian wolf, all the large kangaroos, the emu, lyre bird and the mallee-bird.

Think what it would mean to the species named above if all the sportsmen of the world would unite in their defense, both actively and passively! It would be to those species a modus vivendi worth while.

Prior to 1908, no effort (so far as we are aware) ever had been made to promote the establishment of a comprehensive and up-to-date code of ethics for sportsmen who shoot. A few clubs of men who are hunters of big game had expressed in their constitutions a few brief principles for the purpose of standardizing their own respective memberships, but that was all. I have not taken pains to make a general canvass of sportsmen’s clubs to ascertain what rules have been laid down by any large number of organizations.

The Boone and Crockett Club, of New York and Washington, had in its constitution the following excellent article:

“Article X. The use of steel traps, the making of large bags, the killing of game while swimming in water, or helpless in deep snow, and the unnecessary killing of females or young of any species of ruminant, shall be deemed offenses. Any member who shall commit such offenses may be suspended, or expelled from the Club by unanimous vote of the Executive Committee.”

In 1906, this Club condemned the use of automatic shotguns in hunting as unsportsmanlike.

The Lewis and Clark Club, of Pittsburgh, has in its constitution, as Section 3 of Article 3, the following comprehensive principle:

“The term ‘legitimate sport’ means not only the observance of local laws, but excludes all methods of taking game other than by fair stalking or still hunting.”

At the end of the constitution of this club is this declaration, and admonition:

“_Purchase and sale of Trophies_.–As the purchase of heads and horns establishes a market value, and encourages Indians and others to “shoot for sale,” often in violation of local laws and always to the detriment of the protection of game for legitimate sport, the Lewis and Clark Club condemns the purchase or the sale of the heads or horns of any game.”

In 1906 the Lewis and Clark Club condemned the use of automatic shotguns as unsportsmanlike.

The Shikar Club, of London, a club which contains all the big-game hunters of the nobility and gentry of England,[Q] and of which His Majesty King George is Honorary President, has declared the leading feature of its “Objects” in the following terms:

“To maintain the standard of sportsmanship. It is not squandered bullets and swollen bags which appeal to us. The test is rather in a love of forest, mountains and desert; in acquired knowledge of the habits of animals; in the strenuous pursuit of a wary and dangerous quarry; in the instinct for a well-devised approach to a fair shooting distance; and in the patient retrieve of a wounded animal.”

[Footnote Q: This organization contains in its list of members the most distinguished names in the modern annals of British sport and exploration. Its honorary membership, of eight persons, contains the names of three Americans: Theodore Roosevelt, Madison Grant and W.T. Hornaday; and of this fact at least one person is extremely proud!]

In 1908 the Camp-Fire Club of America formally adopted, as its code of ethics, the “Sportsman’s Platform” of fifteen articles that was prepared by the writer and placed before the sportsmen of America, Great Britain and her colonial dependencies in that year. In the book of the Club it regularly appears as follows:

* * * * *

CODE OF ETHICS
OF THE
CAMP-FIRE CLUB OF AMERICA
_Proposed by Wm. T. Hornaday and adopted December 10, 1908_

1. The wild animal life of to-day is not ours, to do with as we please. The original stock is given to us _in trust_, for the benefit both of the present and the future. We must render an accounting of this trust to those who come after us.

2. Judging from the rate at which the wild creatures of North America are now being destroyed, fifty years hence there will be no large game left in the United States nor in Canada, outside of rigidly protected game preserves. It is therefore the duty of every good citizen to promote the protection of forests and wild life and the creation of game preserves, while a supply of game remains. Every man who finds pleasure in hunting or fishing should be willing to spend both time and money in active work for the protection of forests, fish and game.

3. The sale of game is incompatible with the perpetual preservation of a proper stock of game; therefore it should be prohibited by laws and by public sentiment.

4. In the settled and civilized regions of North America there is no real _necessity_ for the consumption of wild game as human food: nor is there any good excuse for the sale of game for food purposes. The maintenance of hired laborers on wild game should be prohibited everywhere, under severe penalties.

5. An Indian has no more right to kill wild game, or to subsist upon it all the year round, than any white man in the same locality. The Indian has no inherent or God-given ownership of the game of North America, anymore than of its mineral resources; and he should be governed by the same game laws as white men.

6. No man can be a good citizen and also be a slaughterer of game or fishes beyond the narrow limits compatible with high-class sportsmanship.

7. A game-butcher or a market-hunter is an undesirable citizen, and should be treated as such.

8. The highest purpose which the killing of wild game and game fishes can hereafter be made to serve is in furnishing objects to overworked men for tramping and camping trips in the wilds; and the value of wild game as human food should no longer be regarded as an important factor in its pursuit.

9. If rightly conserved, wild game constitutes a valuable asset to any country which possesses it; and it is good statesmanship to protect it.

10. An ideal hunting trip consists of a good comrade, fine country, and a _very few_ trophies per hunter.

11. In an ideal hunting trip, the death of the game is only an incident; and by no means is it really necessary to a successful outing.

12. The best hunter is the man who finds the most game, kills the least, and leaves behind him no wounded animals.

13. The killing of an animal means the end of its most interesting period. When the country is fine, pursuit is more interesting than possession.

14. The killing of a female hoofed animal, save for special preservation, is to be regarded as incompatible with the highest sportsmanship; and it should everywhere be prohibited by stringent laws.

15. A particularly fine photograph of a large wild animal in its haunts is entitled to more credit than the dead trophy of a similar animal. An animal that has been photographed never should be killed, unless previously wounded in the chase.

This platform has been adopted as a code of ethics by the following organizations, besides the Camp-Fire Club of America:

The Lewis and Clark Club, of Pittsburgh, John M. Phillips, President.

The North American Fish and Game Protective Association (International)

Massachusetts Fish and Game Protective Association, Boston.

Camp-Fire Club of Michigan, Detroit.

Rod and Gun Club, Sheridan County, Wyoming.

The platform has been endorsed and published by The Society for the Preservation of the Wild Fauna of the British Empire (London), which is an endorsement of far-reaching importance.

Major J. Stevenson-Hamilton, C.M.Z.S., Warden of the Government Game Reserves of the Transvaal, South Africa, has adopted the platform and given it the most effective endorsement that it has received from any single individual. In his great work on game protection in Africa and wild-animal lore, entitled “Animal Life in Africa” (and “very highly commended” by the Committee on Literary Honors of the Camp-Fire Club), he publishes the entire platform, with a depth and cordiality of endorsement that is bound to warm the heart of every man who believes in the principles laid down in that document. He says, “It should be printed on the back of every license that is issued for hunting in Africa.”

I am profoundly impressed by the fact that it is high time for sportsmen all over the world to take to heart the vital necessity of adopting high and clearly defined codes of ethics, to suit the needs of the present hour. The days of game abundance, and the careless treatment of wild life have gone by, never to return.

* * * * *

CHAPTER XLIII

THE DUTY OF AMERICAN ZOOLOGISTS AND EDUCATORS TO AMERICAN WILD LIFE

The publication of this chapter will hardly be regarded as a bid for fame, or even popularity, on the part of the author. However, the subject can not be ignored simply because it is disagreeable.

Throughout sixty years, to go no further back, the people of America have been witnessing the strange spectacle of American zoologists, as a mass, so intent upon the academic study of our continental fauna that they seem not to have cared a continental about the destruction of that fauna.

During that tragic period twelve species of North American birds have been totally exterminated, twenty-three are almost exterminated, and the mammals have fared very badly.

If “by their works ye shall know them,” then no man can say that the men referred to have been conspicuous on the firing line in defense of assaulted wild life. In their hearts, we know that in an academic way the naturalists of America do care about wild-life slaughter, and the extermination of species; and we also know that perhaps fifty American zoologists have at times taken an active and serious interest in protection work.

I am speaking now of the general body of museum directors and curators; professors and teachers of zoology in our institutions of learning–a legion in themselves; teachers of nature study in our secondary schools; investigators and specialists in state and government service; the taxidermists and osteologists; and the array of literary people who, like all the foregoing, _make their bread and butter out of the exploitation of wild life_.

Taken as a whole, the people named above constitute a grand army of at least five thousand trained, educated, resourceful and influential persons. They all _depend upon wild life for their livelihood_. When they talk about living things, the public listens with respectful attention. Their knowledge of the value of wild life would be worth something to our cause; but thus far it never has been capitalized!

These people are hard workers; and when they mark out definite courses and attainable goals, they know how to get results. Yet what do we see?

For sixty long years, with the exception of the work of a corporal’s guard of their number, this grand army has remained in camp, partly neglecting and partly refusing to move upon the works of the enemy. For sixty years, with the exception of the non-game-bird law, as a class and a mass they have left to the sportsmen of the country the dictating of laws for the protection of all the game birds, the mammals and the game fishes. When we stop to consider that the game birds alone embrace _154 very important species_, the appalling extent to which the zoologist has abdicated in favor of the sportsman becomes apparent.

It is a very great mistake, and a wrong besides, for the zoologists of the country to abandon the game birds, mammals and fishes of North America to the sportsmen, to do with as they please! Yet that is practically what has been done.

The time was, thirty or forty years ago, when wild life was so abundant that we did not need to worry about its preservation. That was the golden era of study and investigation. That era ended definitely in 1884, with the practical extermination of the wild American bison, partly through the shameful greed and partly through the neglect of the American people. We are now living _in the middle of the period of Extermination!_ The questions for every American zoologist and every sportsman to answer now are: Shall the slaughter of species go on to a quick end of the period? Shall we give posterity a birdless, gameless, fishless continent, or not? Shall we have close seasons, all over the country, for five or ten years, or for five hundred years?

If we are courageous, we will brace up and answer these questions now, like men. If we are faint-hearted, and eager for peace at any price, then we will sidestep the ugly situation until the destroyers have settled it for us by the wholesale extermination of species.

If the zoologist cares to know, then I will tell him that to-day the wild life of the world _can_ be saved by law, but _not by sentiment alone!_ You cannot “educate” a poacher, a game-hog, a market-gunner, a milliner or a vain and foolish woman of fashion. All these must be curbed and controlled _by law_. Game refuges alone will not save the wild life! _All_ species of birds, mammals and game fishes of North America must have more thorough and far-reaching protection than they now have.

Do not always take your cue from the sportsmen, especially regarding the enactment of long close seasons! If you need good advice, or help about drafting a bill, write to Dr. T.S. Palmer, Department of Agriculture, Washington, and you will receive prompt and valuable assistance. The Doctor is a wise man, and there is nothing about protective laws that is unknown to him. Go to _your_ state senator and _your_ assemblyman with the bills that you know should be enacted into law, and assure them that those measures are necessary for the wild life, and beneficial to 98 per cent of the people _who own the wild life_. You will be heard with respectful attention, in any law-making body that you choose to enter.

People who cannot give time and labor must supply you with money for your campaigns. _Ask_, and you will receive! I have proven this many times. With care and exactness account to your subscribers for the expenditure of all money placed in your hands, and you will receive continuous support.

In times of great stress, print circulars and leaflets by the ten-thousand, and get them into the hands of the People, calling for _their_ help. Our 42,000 copies of the “Wild Life Call” (sixteen pages) were distributed by organizations all over the state of New York, and along with Mr. Andrew D. Meloy’s letters to the members of the New York State League, aroused such a tidal wave of public sentiment against the sale of game that the Bayne bill was finally swept through the Legislature with only one dissenting vote! And yet, in the beginning not one man dared to hope that that very revolutionary measure could by any possibility be passed in its first year in New York State, even if it ever could be!

It was the aroused Public that did it!

This volume has been written (under great pressure) in order to put the whole situation before the people of America, including the zoologists, and to give them some definite information, state by state, regarding the needs of the hour. Look at the needs of your own state, in the “Roll Call of States,” and you will find work for your hand to do. Clear your conscience by taking hold now, to do everything that you can to stop the carnage and preserve the remnant. Twenty-five or fifty years hence, if we have a birdless and gameless continent, let it not be said that the zoologists of America helped to bring it about by wicked apathy.

At this juncture, a brief survey of the attitude toward wild life of certain American institutions of national reputation will be decidedly pertinent. I shall mention only a few of the many that through their character and position owe specific duties to this cause. _Noblesse oblige_!

* * * * *

The Biological Survey of the U.S. Department of Agriculture is a splendid center of activity and initiative in the preservation of our wild life. The work of Dr. T.S. Palmer has already been spoken of, and thanks to his efforts and direction, the Survey has become the recognized special champion of preservation in America.

The U.S. Forestry Bureau is developing into a very valuable ally, and we confidently look forward to the time when its influence in preservation will be a hundred times more potent than it is to-day. _That will be when every national forest is made a game preserve, and every forest ranger is made a game warden_. Let us have both those developments, and quickly.

In 1896 the AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY became a center of activity in bird protection, and the headquarters of the New York State Audubon Society. The president of the Museum (Professor Henry Fairfield Osborn) is also the president of that organization.

In several of the New York State movements for bird conservation, especially those bearing on the plumage law, the American Museum has been active, and at times conspicuous. No one (so I believe) ever appealed to the President of the Museum for help on the firing line without receiving help of some kind. Unfortunately, however, the preservation of wild life is not one of the declared objects of the American Museum corporation, or one on which its officers may spend money, as is so freely and even joyously done by the Zoological Society. The Museum’s influence has been exerted chiefly through the active workers of the State Audubon Society, and it was as president of that body that Professor Osborn subscribed to the fund that was so largely instrumental in creating the New York law against the sale of game.

There is room for an important improvement in the declared objects of the American Museum. To the cause of protection it is a distinct loss that that great and powerful institution should be unable to spend any money in promoting the preservation of our fauna from annihilation. An amendment to its constitution is earnestly recommended.

The activities of the NEW YORK ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY began in 1896, and they do not require comment here. They have been continuous, aggressive and far-reaching, and they have been supported by thousands of dollars from the Society’s treasury. It is true that the funds available for protection work have not represented a great annual sum, such as the work demands, but the amount being expended from year to year is steadily increasing. In serious emergencies there is _always something available_! During the past two years, to relieve the Society of a portion of this particular burden, the director of the Park secured several large subscriptions from persons outside the Society, who previously had never entered into this work.

The MILWAUKEE PUBLIC MUSEUM has entered actively and effectively into the fight to preserve the birds of Wisconsin from annihilation by the saloon-loafer element that three years ago determined to repeal the best bird laws on the books, and throw the shooting privilege wide open. Mr. Henry L. Ward, Director of the Museum, went to the firing line, and remained there. Last year the saloon element thought that they had a large majority of the votes in the legislature pledged to vote their way. It looked like it; but when the decent people again rose and demanded justice for the birds, the members of the legislature stood by them in large majorities. The spring-shooting, bag-limit and hunting-license laws were _not_ repealed.

THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS (Lawrence) scored heavily for the cause of wild-life protection when in 1908 it gave to the Governor of the state the services of a member of its faculty, Professor Lewis Lindsay Dyche, who was wanted to fill the position of State Fish and Game Commissioner. Professor Dyche proved to be a very live wire, and his activities have covered the State of Kansas to its farthest corners. We love him for the host of enemies he has made–among the poachers, game-butchers, pseudo-“sportsmen” and lawbreakers generally. The men who thought they had the “pull” of friendship for lawbreaking were first warned, and then as second offenders hauled up to the bar, one and all. The more the destroyers try to hound the Commissioner, the more popular is he with the great, solid mass of good citizens who believe in the saving of wild life.

THE MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY has at last made a beginning in the field of protection. Last winter, while the great battle raged over the Wharton no-sale-of-game bill, several members of the Museum staff appeared at the hearings and otherwise worked for the success of the measure. It was most timely aid,–and very much needed. It is to be hoped that that auspicious beginning will be continued from year to year. The Museum should keep at least one good fighter constantly in the field.

THE BOSTON SOCIETY OF NATURAL HISTORY takes a very active part in promoting the preservation of the fauna of Massachusetts, and in resisting the attempts of the destroyers to repeal the excellent laws now in force. Its members put forth vigorous efforts in the great campaign of 1912.

THE BROOKLYN INSTITUTE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES is well represented in the field of protection by Director Franklin W. Hooper, now president of the American Bison Society, and an earnest promoter of the perpetuation of the bison. When, the Wind Cave National Bison Herd is fully established, in South Dakota, as it practically _is already_, the chief credit for that coup will be due to the unflagging energy and persistence of Professor Hooper.

THE BUFFALO ACADEMY OF SCIENCES in 1911 entered actively and effectively, under the leadership of Dr. Lee H. Smith, into the campaign for the Bayne bill. Besides splendid service rendered in western New York, Dr. Smith appeared in Albany with a strong delegation in support of the bill.

THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA was the first institution of learning to enter the field of wild-life protection for active, aggressive and permanent work. W.L. Taylor and Joseph Grinnell, of the University Museum, have taken up the fight to save the fauna of California from the dangers that now threaten it.

At this point our enumeration of the activities of American zoological institutions comes to an unfortunate end. There are many individuals to be named elsewhere, in the roll of honor, but that is another story. I am now going to set before the public the names of certain institutions largely devoted to zoology and permeated by zoologists, which thus far seem to have entirely ignored the needs of our fauna, and which so far we know have contributed neither men, money nor encouragement to the Army of the Defense.

* * * * *

PARTIAL LIST OF INSTITUTIONS OWING SERVICE TO WILD LIFE.

_The United States National Museum_ contains a large and expensive corps of zoological curators and assistant curators, some of whom long ago should have taken upon themselves the task of reforming the laws of the District of Columbia, Virginia and Maryland, at their very doors! This museum should maintain at least one man in the field of protection, and the existence of the Biological Survey is no excuse for the Museum’s inactivity.

_The Field Museum_ of Chicago is a great institution, but it appears to be inactive in wild-life protection, and indifferent to the fate of our wild life. Its influence is greatly needed on the firing line, especially in Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa and northern Minnesota. First of all the odious sale-of-game situation in Chicago should be cleaned up!

_The Philadelphia Academy of Sciences_ has been represented on the A.O.U. Committee on Bird Protection by Mr. Witmer Stone. The time has come when this Academy should be represented on the firing line as a virile, wide-awake, self-sacrificing and aggressive force. It is perhaps the oldest zoological body in the United States! Its scientific standing is unquestioned. Its members _must_ know of the carnage that is going on around them, for they are not ignorant men. The Pennsylvania State Game Commission to-day stands in urgent need of active, vigorous and persistent assistance from the Philadelphia Academy in the fierce campaign already in progress for additional protective laws. Will that help be given?

_The Carnegie Institute_ of Washington (endowment $22,000,000) unquestionably owes a great duty toward wild life, no portion of which has yet been discharged. Academic research work is all very well, but it does not save faunas from annihilation. In the saving of the birds and mammals of North America a hundred million people are directly interested, and the cause is starving for money, men and publicity. Education is not the ONLY duty of educators!

_The Carnegie Museum_ at Pittsburgh should be provided by Pittsburgh with sufficient funds that its Director can put a good man into the field of protection, and maintain his activities. The State of Pennsylvania, and the nation at large, needs such a worker at Pittsburgh; and this statement is not open to argument!

The California Academy of Sciences; | The Chicago Academy of Sciences; | Appear to have done nothing The New York Academy of Sciences; | noteworthy in promoting The National Academy of Sciences; | the preservation and increase The Rochester Academy of Sciences; | of the wild life of America. The Philadelphia Zoological Society; | The National Zoological Park; |

* * * * *

A FEW OF THE INSTITUTIONS OF LEARNING WHICH SHOULD EACH DEVOTE ONE MAN TO THIS CAUSE.

_Columbia University_, of New York, has a very large and strong corps of zoological professors in its Department of Biology. No living organism is too small or too worthless to be studied by high-grade men; but does any man of Columbia ever raise his voice, actively and determinedly, for the preservation of our fauna, or any other fauna? Columbia should give the services of one man wholly to this cause.

There are men whose zoological ideals soar so high that they can not see the slaughter of wild creatures that is so furiously proceeding on the surface of this blood-stained earth. We don’t want to hear about the “behavior” of protozoans while our best song birds are being exterminated by negroes and poor whites.

_Cornell University_ should now awaken to the new situation. All the zoological Neros should not fiddle while Rome burns. For the sake of consistency, Cornell should devote the services of at least one member of its large and able faculty to the cause of wild-life protection. Cornell was a pioneer in forestry teaching; and why should she not lead off now in the new field?

_Yale University_, in Professor James W. Toumey, Director of the School of Forestry, possesses a natural, ready-made protector of wild life. From forestry to wild life is an easy step. We hopefully look forward to the development of Professor Toumey into a militant protectionist, fighting for the helpless creatures that _must_ be protected by man _or perish_! If Yale is willing to set a new pace for the world’s great universities, she has the Man ready at hand.

_The University of Chicago_ should become the center of a great new protectionist movement which should cover the whole Middle West area, from the plains to Pittsburgh. This is the inflexible, logical necessity of the hour. _Either protect zoology, or else for very shame give up teaching it_!

_Every higher institution of learning in America now has a duty in this matter_. Times have changed. Things are not as they were thirty years ago. To allow a great and valuable wild fauna to be destroyed and wasted is a crime, against both the present and the future. If we mean to be good citizens we cannot shirk the duty to conserve. We are trustees of the inheritance of future generations, and we have no right to squander that inheritance. If we fail of our plain duty, the scorn of future generations surely will be our portion.

* * * * *

CHAPTER XLIV

THE GREATEST NEEDS OF THE WILD-LIFE CAUSE AND THE DUTY OF THE HOUR

The fate of wild life in North America hangs to-day by three very slender threads, the names of which you will hardly guess unaided. They are Labor, Money and Publicity! The threads are slender because there is so little raw material in them.

We do not need money with which to “buy votes” or “influence,” but money with which to pay workers; to publish things to arouse the American people; to sting sportsmen into action; to hire wardens; to prosecute game-hogs and buy refuges for wild life. If a sufficient amount of money for these purposes cannot be procured, then as sure as the earth continues to revolve, our wild life will pass away, forever.

This is no cause for surprise, or wonder. In this twentieth century money is essential to every great enterprise, whether it be for virtue or mischief. The enemies of wild life, and the people who support them, are very powerful. The man whose pocket or whose personal privilege is threatened by new legislation is prompted by business reasons to work against you, and spend money in protecting his interests.

Now, it happens that the men of ordinary means who have nothing personal at stake in the preservation of wild life save sentimental considerations, cannot afford to leave their business more than three or four days each year on protection affairs. Yet many times services are demanded for many days, or even weeks together, in order to accomplish results. Bad repeal bills must be fought until they are dead; and good protective bills must be supported until the breath of life is breathed into them by the executive signature.

With money in hand, good men aways can be found who will work in game protection for about one-half what they would demand in other pursuits. With the men _whom, you really desire_, sentiment is always a controlling factor. It is my inflexible rule, however, in asking for services, that men who give valuable time and strength to the cause shall not be allowed to take their expense money from their own pockets. Soldiers on the firing line _cannot_ provide the sinews of war that come from the paymaster’s chest!

Campaigns of publicity are matters of tremendous necessity and importance; but their successful promotion requires hundreds, or possibly thousands of dollars, for each state that is covered.

I believe that the wealthy men and women of America are the most liberal givers for the benefit of humanity that can be found in all the world. New York especially contains a great number of men who year in and year out work hard for money–in order to give it away! The depth and breadth of the philanthropic spirit in New York City is to me the most surprising of all the strange impulses that sway the inhabitants of that seething mass of mixed humanity. Every imaginable cause for the benefit of mankind,–save one,–has received, and still is receiving, millions of gift dollars.

Some enterprises for the transcendant education of the people are at this moment hopelessly wallowing in the excess of wealth that has been thrust upon them. Men are being hired at high salaries to help spend wealth in high, higher, highest education and research. It is now fashionable to bequeath millions to certain causes that do not need them in the least! In education there is a mad scramble to educate every young man to the topmost notch, often far above his probable station in life, and into tastes and wants far beyond his powers to maintain.

In all this, however, there would be no cause for regret if the wild life of our continent were not in such a grievous state. If we felt no conscience burden for those who come after us, we would not care where the millions go; but since things are as they are, it is heartbreaking to see the cause of wild-life protection actually starving, or at the best subsisting only on financial husks and crumbs, while less important causes literally flounder in surplus wealth.

This regret is intensified by the knowledge that _in no other cause for the conservation of the resources most valuable to mankind will a dollar go so far, or bring back such good results, as in the preservation of wild life!_ The promotion of “the Bayne bill” and the enactment of the Bayne law is a fair example. That law is to-day on the statute books of the State of New York because fifty men and women promptly subscribed $5,000 to a fund formed with special reference to the expenses of the campaign for that measure; and the uplift of that victory will be felt for years to come, just as it already has been in Massachusetts.

At one time I was tempted to show the financial skeleton in the closet of wild-life protection, by inserting here a statement of the funds available to be expended by all the New York organizations during the campaign year of 1911-1912. But I cannot do it. The showing is too painful, too humiliating. From it our enemies would derive too much comfort.

Even in New York State, in view of the great interests at stake, the showing is pitiful. But what shall we say of Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, New Jersey, and a dozen other states where the situation is much worse? In the winter of 1912 a cry for help came to us from a neighboring state, where a terrific fight was being made by the forces of destruction against all reform measures, and in behalf of retrogression on spring shooting. The appeal said: “The situation in our legislature is the worst that it has been in years. Our enemies are very strong, well organized, and they fight us at every step. We have _no funds_, and we are expected to make bricks without straw! Is there not _something_ that you can do to help us?”

There was!

Only one week previously, a good friend (who declines to be named) gave us _two thousand dollars_, of real money, for just such emergencies.

Within thirty-six hours an entirely new fighting force had been organized and equipped for service. Within one week, those reinforcements had made a profound impression on the defenses of the enemy, and in the end the great fight was won. Of our small campaign fund it took away over one thousand dollars; but the victory was worth it.

With money enough,–a reasonable sum,–the birds of North America, and some of the small-mammal species also, can be saved. The big game that is hunted and killed outside the game preserves, and outside of such places as New Brunswick and the Adirondacks, can _not_ be saved–until _each species_ is given perpetual protection. Colorado is saving a small remnant of her mountain sheep, but Montana and Wyoming are wasting theirs, because they allow killing, and the killers are ten times too numerous for the sheep. They imagine that by permitting only the killing of rams they are saving the species; but that is an absolute fallacy, and soon it will have a fatal ending.

With an endowment fund of $2,000,000 (only double the price of the two old Velasquez paintings purchased recently by a gentleman of New York!) a very good remnant of the wild life of North America could be saved.

But who will give the fund, or even a quarter of it?

Thus far, the largest sums ever given in America for the cause of wild-life protection, so far as I know personally, have been the following:

Albert Wilcox, to the National Association of Audubon Societies, $322,000