"_I know no way of judging of the Future but by the Past_."
--_Patrick Henry_.
REPORT
of a select committee of the Senate of Ohio, in 1857, on a bill proposed
to protect the passenger pigeon.
* * * * *
"The passenger pigeon needs no protection. Wonderfully prolific, having
the vast forests of the North as its breeding grounds, traveling
hundreds of miles in search of food, it is here to-day and elsewhere
to-morrow, and no ordinary destruction can lessen them, or be missed
from the myriads that are yearly produced."
"The snipe (_Scolopax wilsonii_) needs no protection.... The snipe, too,
like the pigeon, will take care of itself, and its yearly numbers can
not be materially lessened by the gun."
[Illustration: THE LAST LIVING PASSENGER PIGEON
Now in the Cincinnati Zoological Gardens. Twenty years old in 1912.
Copyright 1911, by Enno Meyer.]
* * * * *
THE FOLLY OF 1857 AND THE LESSON OF 1912
* * * * *
OUR VANISHING
WILD LIFE
ITS
EXTERMINATION AND PRESERVATION
BY
WILLIAM T. HORNADAY, Sc.D.
DIRECTOR OF THE NEW YORK ZOOLOGICAL PARK;
AUTHOR OF "THE AMERICAN NATURAL HISTORY";
EX-PRESIDENT OF THE AMERICAN BISON SOCIETY
WITH MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS
"Hew to the line! Let the chips fall where they will."--_Old Exhortation_.
"Nothing extenuate, nor set down aught in malice."--_Othello_.
NEW YORK
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
1913
* * * * *
SPECIAL NOTICE
For the benefit of the cause that this book represents, the author
freely extends to all periodicals and lecturers the privilege of
reproducing any of the maps and illustrations in this volume except the
bird portraits, the white-tailed deer and antelope, and the maps and
pictures specially copyrighted by other persons, and so recorded. This
privilege does not cover reproductions in books, without special
permission.
* * * * *
[Illustration: Portrait of William Dutcher]
TO
William Dutcher
FOUNDER AND PRESIDENT OF THE
NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF AUDUBON SOCIETIES, AND
LIFE-LONG CHAMPION OF AMERICAN BIRDS
THIS VOLUME IS DEDICATED BY
A SINCERE ADMIRER
"_I drink to him, he is not here,
Yet I would guard his glory;
A knight without reproach or fear
Should live in song and story_."
--_Walsh_.
* * * * *
FOREWORD
The preservation of animal and plant life, and of the general beauty
of Nature, is one of the foremost duties of the men and women of
to-day. It is an imperative duty, because it must be performed at
once, for otherwise it will be too late. Every possible means of
preservation,--sentimental, educational and legislative,--must be
employed.
The present warning issues with no uncertain sound, because this great
battle for preservation and conservation cannot be won by gentle tones,
nor by appeals to the aesthetic instincts of those who have no sense of
beauty, or enjoyment of Nature. It is necessary to sound a loud alarm,
to present the facts in very strong language, backed up by irrefutable
statistics and by photographs which tell no lies, to establish the law
and enforce it if needs be with a bludgeon.
This book is such an alarm call. Its forceful pages remind me of the
sounding of the great bells in the watch-towers of the cities of the
Middle Ages which called the citizens to arms to protect their homes,
their liberties and their happiness. It is undeniable that the welfare
and happiness of our own and of all future generations of Americans are
at stake in this battle for the preservation of Nature against the
selfishness, the ignorance, or the cruelty of her destroyers.
We no longer destroy great works of art. They are treasured, and
regarded as of priceless value; but we have yet to attain the state of
civilization where the destruction of a glorious work of Nature, whether
it be a cliff, a forest, or a species of mammal or bird, is regarded
with equal abhorrence. The whole earth is a poorer place to live in when
a colony of exquisite egrets or birds of paradise is destroyed in order
that the plumes may decorate the hat of some lady of fashion, and
ultimately find their way into the rubbish heap. The people of all the
New England States are poorer when the ignorant whites, foreigners, or
negroes of our southern states destroy the robins and other song birds
of the North for a mess of pottage.
Travels through Europe, as well as over a large part of the North
American continent, have convinced me that nowhere is Nature being
destroyed so rapidly as in the United States. Except within our
conservation areas, an earthly paradise is being turned into an earthly
hades; and it is not savages nor primitive men who are doing this, but
men and women who boast of their civilization. Air and water are
polluted, rivers and streams serve as sewers and dumping grounds,
forests are swept away and fishes are driven from the streams. Many
birds are becoming extinct, and certain mammals are on the verge of
extermination. Vulgar advertisements hide the landscape, and in all
that disfigures the wonderful heritage of the beauty of Nature to-day,
we Americans are in the lead.
Fortunately the tide of destruction is ebbing, and the tide of
conservation is coming in. Americans are practical. Like all other
northern peoples, they love money and will sacrifice much for it, but
they are also full of idealism, as well as of moral and spiritual
energy. The influence of the splendid body of Americans and Canadians
who have turned their best forces of mind and language into literature
and into political power for the conservation movement, is becoming
stronger every day. Yet we are far from the point where the momentum of
conservation is strong enough to arrest and roll back the tide of
destruction; and this is especially true with regard to our fast
vanishing animal life.
The facts and figures set forth in this volume will astonish all those
lovers of Nature and friends of the animal world who are living in a
false or imaginary sense of security. The logic of these facts is
inexorable. As regards our birds and mammals, the failures of supposed
protection in America--under a system of free shooting--are so glaring
that we are confident this exposure will lead to sweeping reforms. The
author of this work is no amateur in the field of wild-life protection.
His ideas concerning methods of reform are drawn from long and
successful experience. The states which are still behind in this
movement may well give serious heed to his summons, and pass the new
laws that are so urgently demanded to save the vanishing remnant.
The New York Zoological Society, which is cooperating with many other
organizations in this great movement, sends forth this work in the
belief that there is no one who is more ardently devoted to the great
cause or rendering more effective service in it than William T.
Hornaday. We believe that this is a great book, destined to exert a
world-wide influence, to be translated into other languages, and to
arouse the defenders and lovers of our vanishing animal life before it
is too late.
HENRY FAIRFIELD OSBORN,
10 December, 1912. _President of the New York Zoological Society_
* * * * *
PREFACE
The writing of this book has taught me many things. Beyond question, we
are exterminating our finest species of mammals, birds and fishes
_according to law!_
I am appalled by the mass of evidence proving that throughout the entire
United States and Canada, in every state and province, the existing
legal system for the preservation of wild life is fatally defective.
There is not a single state in our country from which the killable game
is not being rapidly and persistently shot to death, legally or
illegally, very much more rapidly than it is breeding, with
extermination for the most of it close in sight. This statement is not
open to argument; for millions of men know that it is literally true. We
are living in a fool's paradise.
The rage for wild-life slaughter is far more prevalent to-day throughout
the world than it was in 1872, when the buffalo butchers paved the
prairies of Texas and Colorado with festering carcasses. From one end of
our continent to the other, there is a restless, resistless desire to
"kill, _kill!_"
I have been shocked by the accumulation of evidence showing that all
over our country and Canada fully nine-tenths of our protective laws
have practically been dictated by the killers of the game, and that in
all save a very few instances the hunters have been exceedingly careful
to provide "open seasons" for slaughter, as long as any game remains to
kill!
_And yet, the game of North America does not belong wholly and
exclusively to the men who kill! The other ninety-seven per cent of the
People have vested rights in it, far exceeding those of the three per
cent. Posterity has claims upon it that no honest man can ignore._
I am now going to ask both the true sportsman and the people who do not
kill wild things to awake, and do their plain duty in protecting and
preserving the game and other wild life which belongs partly to us, but
chiefly to those who come after us. Can they be aroused, before it is
too late?
The time to discuss tiresome academic theories regarding "bag limits"
and different "open seasons" as being sufficient to preserve the game,
has gone by! We have reached the point where the alternatives are _long
closed seasons or a gameless continent;_ and we must choose one or the
other, speedily. A continent without wild life is like a forest with no
leaves on the trees.
The great increase in the slaughter of song birds for food, by the
negroes and poor whites of the South, has become an unbearable scourge
to our migratory birds,--the very birds on which farmers north and south
depend for protection from the insect hordes,--the very birds that are
most near and dear to the people of the North. _Song-bird slaughter is
growing and spreading_, with the decrease of the game birds! It is a
matter that requires instant attention and stern repression. At the
present moment it seems that the only remedy lies in federal protection
for all migratory birds,--because so many states will not do their duty.
We are weary of witnessing the greed, selfishness and cruelty of
"civilized" man toward the wild creatures of the earth. We are sick of
tales of slaughter and pictures of carnage. It is time for a sweeping
Reformation; and that is precisely what we now demand.
I have been a sportsman myself; but times have changed, and we must
change also. When game was plentiful, I believed that it was right for
men and boys to kill a limited amount of it for sport and for the table.
But the old basis has been swept away by an Army of Destruction that now
is almost beyond all control. We must awake, and arouse to the new
situation, face it like men, and adjust our minds to the new conditions.
The three million gunners of to-day must no longer expect or demand the
same generous hunting privileges that were right for hunters fifty years
ago, when game was fifty times as plentiful as it is now and there was
only one killer for every fifty now in the field.
The fatalistic idea that bag-limit laws can save the game is to-day _the
curse of all our game birds, mammals and fishes!_ It is a fraud, a
delusion and a snare. That miserable fetish has been worshipped much too
long. Our game is being exterminated, everywhere, by blind insistence
upon "open seasons," and solemn reliance upon "legal bag-limits." If a
majority of the people of America feel that so long as there is any game
alive there must be an annual two months or four months open season for
its slaughter, then assuredly we soon will have a gameless continent.
The only thing that will save the game is by stopping the killing of it!
In establishing and promulgating this principle, the cause of wild-life
protection greatly needs three things: money, labor, and publicity. With
the first, we can secure the second and third. But can we get it,--and
_get it in time to save?_
This volume is in every sense a contribution to a Cause; and as such it
ever will remain. I wish the public to receive it on that basis. So much
important material has drifted straight to it from other hands that this
unexpected aid seems to the author like a good omen.
The manuscript has received the benefit of a close and critical reading
and correcting by my comrade on the firing-line and esteemed friend, Mr.
Madison Grant, through which the text was greatly improved. But for the
splendid encouragement and assistance that I have received from him and
from Professor Henry Fairneld Osborn the work involved would have borne
down rather heavily.
The four chapters embracing the "New Laws Needed; A Roll-Call of the
States," were critically inspected, corrected and brought down to date
by Dr. T.S. Palmer, our highest authority on the game laws of the Nation
and the States. For this valuable service the author is deeply grateful.
Of course the author is alone responsible for all the opinions and
conclusions herein recorded, and for all errors that appear outside of
quotations.
I trust that the Reader will kindly excuse and forget all the
typographic and clerical errors that may have escaped me in the rush
that had to be made against Time.
W.T.H.
UNIVERSITY HEIGHTS, NEW YORK,
December 1, 1912.
* * * * *
CONTENTS
PART I.--EXTERMINATION
Chapter
I. FORMER ABUNDANCE OF WILD LIFE
II. EXTINCT SPECIES OF NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS
III. THE NEXT CANDIDATES FOR OBLIVION
IV. EXTINCT AND NEARLY EXTINCT SPECIES OF MAMMALS
V. THE EXTERMINATION OF SPECIES, STATE BY STATE
VI. THE REGULAR ARMY OF DESTRUCTION
VII. THE GUERRILLAS OF DESTRUCTION
VIII. THE UNSEEN FOES OF WILD LIFE
IX. DESTRUCTION OF WILD LIFE BY DISEASES
X. DESTRUCTION OF WILD LIFE BY THE ELEMENTS
XI. SLAUGHTER OF SONG-BIRDS BY ITALIANS
XII. DESTRUCTION OF SONG-BIRDS BY SOUTHERN NEGROES
AND POOR WHITES
XIII. EXTERMINATION OF BIRDS FOR WOMEN'S HATS
XIV. THE BIRD TRAGEDY ON LAYSAN ISLAND
XV. UNFAIR FIREARMS AND SHOOTING ETHICS
XVI. THE PRESENT AND FUTURE OF NORTH AMERICAN BIG GAME--I
XVII. THE PRESENT AND FUTURE OF NORTH AMERICAN BIG GAME--II
XVIII. THE PRESENT AND FUTURE OF AFRICAN GAME
XIX. THE PRESENT AND FUTURE OF GAME IN ASIA
XX. DESTRUCTION OF BIRDS IN THE FAR EAST. BY C. WILLIAM BEEBE
XXI. THE SAVAGE VIEWPOINT OF THE GUNNER
PART II.--PRESERVATION
XXII. OUR ANNUAL LOSSES BY INSECTS
XXIII. THE ECONOMIC VALUE OF BIRDS
XXIV. GAME AND AGRICULTURE: DEER AS A FOOD SUPPLY
XXV. LAW AND SENTIMENT AS FACTORS IN PRESERVATION
XXVI. THE ARMY OF THE DEFENSE
XXVII. HOW TO MAKE A NEW GAME LAW
XXVIII. NEW LAWS NEEDED: A ROLL-CALL OF THE STATES--I
XXIX. NEW LAWS NEEDED: A ROLL-CALL OF THE STATES--II
XXX. NEW LAWS NEEDED: A ROLL-CALL OF THE STATES--III
XXXI. NEW LAWS NEEDED: A ROLL-CALL OF THE STATES--IV
XXXII. NEED FOR A FEDERAL MIGRATORY BIRD LAW, NO-SALE-OF-GAME
LAW, AND OTHERS
XXXIII. BRINGING BACK THE VANISHED BIRDS AND GAME
XXXIV. INTRODUCED SPECIES THAT HAVE BEEN BENEFICIAL
XXXV. INTRODUCED SPECIES THAT HAVE BECOME PESTS
XXXVI. NATIONAL AND STATE GAME PRESERVES AND BIRD REFUGES
XXXVII. GAME PRESERVES AND GAME LAWS IN CANADA
XXXVIII. PRIVATE GAME PRESERVES
XXXIX. BRITISH GAME PRESERVES IN AFRICA
XXL. BREEDING GAME AND FUR IN CAPTIVITY
XLI. TEACHING WILD-LIFE PROTECTION TO THE YOUNG
XLII. ETHICS OF SPORTSMANSHIP
XLIII. THE DUTY OF AMERICAN ZOOLOGISTS TO AMERICAN WILD LIFE
XLIV. THE GREATEST NEED OF THE CAUSE; AND THE DUTY OF THE HOUR
* * * * *
ILLUSTRATIONS
The Folly of 1857 and the Lesson of 1912 _Frontispiece_
Shall We Leave Any One of Them Open?
Six Recently Exterminated North American Birds
Sacred to the Memory of Exterminated Birds
Whooping Cranes in the Zoological Park
California Condor
Primated Grouse, or "Prairie Chicken"
Sage Grouse
Snowy Egrets in the McIlhenny Preserve
Wood-Duck
Gray Squirrel
Skeleton of a Rhytina
Burchell's Zebra
Thylacine, or Tasmanian Wolf
West Indian Seal
California Elephant Seal
The Regular Army of Destruction
G.O. Shields
Two Gunners of Kansas City
Why the Sandhill Crane is Becoming Extinct
A Market Gunner at Work on Marsh Island
Ruffed Grouse
A Lawful Bag of Ruffed Grouse
Snow Bunting
A Hunting Cat and Its Victim
Eastern Red Squirrel
Cooper's Hawk
Sharp-Shinned Hawk
The Cat that Killed Fifty-eight Birds in One Year
An Italian Roccolo on Lake Como
Dead Song-Birds
The Robin of the North
The Mocking-Bird of the South
Northern Robins Ready for Southern Slaughter
Southern-Negro Method of Combing Out the Wild Life
Beautiful and Curious Birds Destroyed for the Feather Trade--I
Sixteen Hundred Hummingbirds at Two Cents Each
Beautiful and Curious Birds Destroyed for the Feather Trade--II
Beautiful and Curious Birds--III
Fight in England Against the Use of Plumage
Young Egrets, Unable to Fly, Starving
Snowy Egret Dead on Her Nest
Miscellaneous Bird Skins, Eight Cents Each
Laysan Albatrosses, Before the Great Slaughter
Laysan Albatross Rookery, After the Great Slaughter
Acres of Gull and Albatross Bones
Shed Filled with Wings of Slaughtered Birds
Four of the Seven Machine Guns
The Champion Game-Slaughter Case
Slaughtered According to Law
A Letter that Tells its Own Story
The "Sunday Gun"
The Prong-Horned Antelope
Hungry Elk in Jackson Hole
The Wichita National Bison Herd
Pheasant Snares
Pheasant Skins Seized at Rangoon
Deadfall Traps in Burma
One Morning's Catch of Trout near Spokane
The Cut-Worm
The Gypsy Moth
Downy Woodpecker
Baltimore Oriole
Nighthawk
Purple Martin
Bob-White
Rose-Breasted Grosbeak
Barn Owl
Golden-Winged Woodpecker
Kildeer Plover
Jacksnipe
A Food Supply of White-Tailed Deer
White-Tailed Deer
Notable Protectors of Wild Life:
Madison Grant, Henry Fairfield Osborn, John F. Lacey, and William Dutcher
Notable Protectors: Forbush, Pearson, Burnham, Napier
Notable Protectors: Phillips, Kalbfus, McIlhenny, Ward
Band-Tailed Pigeon
Six Wild Chipmunks Dine with Mr. Loring
Chickadee, Tamed
Chipmunk, Tamed
Object Lesson in Bringing Back the Ducks
Gulls and Terns of Our Coast
Egrets and Herons in Sanctuary on Marsh Island
Bird Day at Carrick, Pa
Distributing Bird Boxes and Fruit Trees
* * * * *
MAPS
The Wilderness of North America
Former and Existing Ranges of the Elk
Map Showing the Disappearance of the Lion
States and Provinces Requiring Resident Licenses.
Eighteen States Prohibit the Sale of Game
Map Used in Campaign for Bayne Law
United States National Game Preserves
Bird Reservations on the Gulf Coast and Florida
Marsh Island and Adjacent Preserves
Most Important Game Preserves of Africa
* * * * *
OUR VANISHING WILD LIFE
PART I. EXTERMINATION
CHAPTER I
THE FORMER ABUNDANCE OF WILD LIFE
_"By my labors my vineyard flourished. But Ahab came. Alas! for Naboth."_
In order that the American people may correctly understand and judge the
question of the extinction or preservation of our wild life, it is
necessary to recall the near past. It is not necessary, however, to go
far into the details of history; for a few quick glances at a few high
points will be quite sufficient for the purpose in view.
Any man who reads the books which best tell the story of the development
of the American colonies of 1712 into the American nation of 1912, and
takes due note of the wild-life features of the tale, will say without
hesitation that when the American people received this land from the
bountiful hand of Nature, it was endowed with a magnificent and
all-pervading supply of valuable wild creatures. The pioneers and the
early settlers were too busy even to take due note of that fact, or to
comment upon it, save in very fragmentary ways.
Nevertheless, the wild-life abundance of early American days survived
down to so late a period that it touched the lives of millions of people
now living. Any man 55 years of age who when a boy had a taste for
"hunting,"--for at that time there were no "sportsmen" in America,--will
remember the flocks and herds of wild creatures that he saw and which
made upon his mind many indelible impressions.
"Abundance" is the word with which to describe the original animal life
that stocked our country, and all North America, only a short
half-century ago. Throughout every state, on every shore-line, in all
the millions of fresh water lakes, ponds and rivers, on every mountain
range, in every forest, _and even on every desert_, the wild flocks and
herds held sway. It was impossible to go beyond the settled haunts of
civilized man and escape them.
It was a full century after the complete settlement of New England and
the Virginia colonies that the wonderful big-game fauna of the great
plains and Rocky Mountains was really discovered; but the bison
millions, the antelope millions, the mule deer, the mountain sheep and
mountain goat were there, all the time. In the early days, the millions
of pinnated grouse and quail of the central states attracted no serious
attention from the American people-at-large; but they lived and
flourished just the same, far down in the seventies, when the greedy
market gunners systematically slaughtered them, and barreled them up for
"the market," while the foolish farmers calmly permitted them to do it.
We obtain the best of our history of the former abundance of North
American wild life first from the pages of Audubon and Wilson; next,
from the records left by such pioneers as Lewis and Clark, and last from
the testimony of living men. To all this we can, many of us, add
observations of our own.
To me the most striking fact that stands forth in the story of American
wild life one hundred years ago is the wide extent and thoroughness of
its distribution. Wide as our country is, and marvelous as it is in the
diversity of its climates, its soils, its topography, its flora, its
riches and its poverty, Nature gave to each square mile and to each acre
a generous quota of wild creatures, according to its ability to maintain
living things. No pioneer ever pushed so far, or into regions so
difficult or so remote, that he did not find awaiting him a host of
birds and beasts. Sometimes the pioneer was not a good hunter; usually
he was a stupid fisherman; but the "game" was there, nevertheless. The
time was when every farm had its quota.
The part that the wild life of America played in the settlement and
development of this continent was so far-reaching in extent, and so
enormous in potential value, that it fairly staggers the imagination.
From the landing of the Pilgrims down to the present hour the wild game
has been the mainstay and the resource against starvation of the
pathfinder, the settler, the prospector, and at times even the
railroad-builder. In view of what the bison millions did for the
Dakotas, Montana, Wyoming, Kansas and Texas, it is only right and square
that those states should now do something for the perpetual preservation
of the bison species and all other big game that needs help.
For years and years, the antelope millions of the Montana and Wyoming
grass-lands fed the scout and Indian-fighter, freighter, cowboy and
surveyor, ranchman _and sheep-herder_; but thus far I have yet to hear
of one Western state that has ever spent one penny directly for the
preservation of the antelope! And to-day we are in a hand-to-hand fight
in Congress, and in Montana, with the Wool-Growers Association, which
maintains in Washington a keen lobbyist to keep aloft the tariff on
wool, and prevent Congress from taking 15 square miles of grass lands on
Snow Creek, Montana, for a National Antelope Preserve. All that the
wool-growers want is the entire earth, all to themselves. Mr. McClure,
the Secretary of the Association says:
"The proper place in which to preserve the big game of the West is in
city parks, where it can be protected."
To the colonist of the East and pioneer of the West, the white-tailed
deer was an ever present help in time of trouble. Without this
omnipresent animal, and the supply of good meat that each white flag
represented, the commissariat difficulties of the settlers who won the
country as far westward as Indiana would have been many times greater
than they were. The backwoods Pilgrim's progress was like this:
Trail, deer; cabin, deer; clearing; bear, corn, deer; hogs, deer;
cattle, wheat, independence.
And yet, how many men are there to-day, out of our ninety millions of
Americans and pseudo-Americans, who remember with any feeling of
gratitude the part played in American history by the white-tailed deer?
Very few! How many Americans are there in our land who now preserve that
deer for sentimental reasons, and because his forbears were
nation-builders? As a matter of fact, are there any?
On every eastern pioneer's monument, the white-tailed deer should
figure; and on those of the Great West, the bison and the antelope
should be cast in enduring bronze, "_lest we forget!_"
The game birds of America played a different part from that of the deer,
antelope and bison. In the early days, shotguns were few, and shot was
scarce and dear. The wild turkey and goose were the smallest birds on
which a rifleman could afford to expend a bullet and a whole charge of
powder. It was for this reason that the deer, bear, bison, and elk
disappeared from the eastern United States while the game birds yet
remained abundant. With the disappearance of the big game came the fat
steer, hog and hominy, the wheat-field, fruit orchard and poultry
galore.
The game birds of America, as a class and a mass, have not been swept
away to ward off starvation or to rescue the perishing. Even back in the
sixties and seventies, very, very few men of the North thought of
killing prairie chickens, ducks and quail, snipe and woodcock, in order
to keep the hunger wolf from the door. The process was too slow and
uncertain; and besides, the really-poor man rarely had the gun and
ammunition. Instead of attempting to live on birds, he hustled for the
staple food products that the soil of his own farm could produce.
First, last and nearly all the time, the game birds of the United States
as a whole, have been sacrificed on the altar of Rank Luxury, to tempt
appetites that were tired of fried chicken and other farm delicacies.
To-day, even the average poor man hunts birds for the joy of the outing,
and the pampered epicures of the hotels and restaurants buy game birds,
and eat small portions of them, solely to tempt jaded appetites. If
there is such a thing as "class" legislation, it is that which permits a
few sordid market-shooters to slaughter the birds of the whole people in
order to sell them to a few epicures.
The game of a state belongs to the whole people of the state. The
Supreme Court of the United States has so decided. (Geer vs.
Connecticut). If it is abundant, it is a valuable asset. The great value
of the game birds of America lies not in their meat pounds as they lie
upon the table, but in the temptation they annually put before millions
of field-weary farmers and desk-weary clerks and merchants to get into
their beloved hunting togs, stalk out into the lap of Nature, and say
"Begone, dull Care!"
And the man who has had a fine day in the painted woods, on the bright
waters of a duck-haunted bay, or in the golden stubble of September, can
fill his day and his soul with six good birds just as well as with
sixty. The idea that in order to enjoy a fine day in the open a man must
kill a wheel-barrow load of birds, is a mistaken idea; and if
obstinately adhered to, it becomes vicious! The Outing in the Open is
the thing,--not the blood-stained feathers, nasty viscera and Death in
the game-bag. One quail on a fence is worth more to the world than ten
in a bag.
The farmers of America have, by their own supineness and lack of
foresight, permitted the slaughter of a stock of game birds which, had
it been properly and wisely conserved, would have furnished a good
annual shoot to every farming man and boy of sporting instincts through
the past, right down to the present, and far beyond. They have allowed
millions of dollars worth of _their_ birds to be coolly snatched away
from them by the greedy market-shooters.
There is one state in America, and so far as I know _only one_, in which
there is at this moment an old-time abundance of game-bird life. That is
the state of Louisiana. The reason is not so very far to seek. For the
birds that do not migrate,--quail, wild turkeys and doves,--the cover is
yet abundant. For the migratory game birds of the Mississippi Valley,
Louisiana is a grand central depot, with terminal facilities that are
unsurpassed. Her reedy shores, her vast marshes, her long coast line and
abundance of food furnish what should be not only a haven but a heaven
for ducks and geese. After running the gauntlet of guns all the way from
Manitoba and Ontario to the Sunk Lands of Arkansas, the shores of the
Gulf must seem like heaven itself.
The great forests of Louisiana shelter deer, turkeys, and fur-bearing
animals galore; and rabbits and squirrels abound.
Naturally, this abundance of game has given rise to an extensive
industry in shooting for the market. The "big interests" outside the
state send their agents into the best game districts, often bringing in
their own force of shooters. They comb out the game in enormous
quantities, without leaving to the people of Louisiana any decent and
fair quid-pro-quo for having despoiled them of their game and shipped a
vast annual product outside, to create wealth elsewhere.
At present, however, we are but incidentally interested in the
short-sightedness of the people of the Pelican State. As a state of
oldtime abundance in killable game, the killing records that were kept
in the year 1909-10 possess for us very great interest. They throw a
startling searchlight on the subject of this chapter,--the former
abundance of wild life.
From the records that with great pains and labor were gathered by the
State Game Commission, and which were furnished me for use here by
President Frank M. Miller, we set forth this remarkable exhibit of
old-fashioned abundance in game, A.D. 1909.
* * * * *
OFFICIAL RECORD OF GAME KILLED IN LOUISIANA DURING THE SEASON (12
MONTHS) OF 1909-10
BIRDS
Wild Ducks, sea and river 3,176,000
Coots 280,740
Geese and Brant 202,210
Snipe, Sandpiper and Plover 606,635
Quail (Bob-White) 1,140,750
Doves 310,660
Wild Turkeys 2,219
----------
Total number of game birds killed 5,719,214
MAMMALS
Deer 5,470
Squirrels and Rabbits 690,270
----------
Total of game mammals 695,740
Fur-bearing mammals 1,971,922
----------
Total of mammals 2,667,662
----------
Grand total of birds and mammals 8,386,876
* * * * *
Of the thousands of slaughtered robins, it would seem that no records
exist. It is to be understood that the annual slaughter of wild life in
Louisiana never before reached such a pitch as now. Without drastic
measures, what will be the inevitable result? Does any man suppose that
even the wild millions of Louisiana can long withstand such slaughter as
that shown by the official figures given above? It is wildly impossible.
But the darkest hour is just before the dawn. At the session of the
Louisiana legislature that was held in the spring of 1912, great
improvements were made in the game laws of that state. The most
important feature was the suppression of wholesale market hunting, by
persons who are not residents of the state. A very limited amount of
game may be sold and served as food in public places, but the
restrictions placed upon this traffic are so effective that they will
vastly reduce the annual slaughter. In other respects, also, the cause
of wild life protection gained much; for which great credit is due to
Mr. Edward A. McIlhenny.
It is the way of Americans to feel that because game is abundant in a
given place at a given time, it always will be abundant, and may
therefore be slaughtered without limit. That was the case last winter in
California during the awful slaughter of band-tailed pigeons, as will be
noted elsewhere.
It is time for all men to be told in the plainest terms that there never
has existed, anywhere in historic times, a volume of wild life so great
that civilized man could not quickly exterminate it by his methods of
destruction. Lift the veil and look at the stories of the bison, the
passenger pigeon, the wild ducks and shore birds of the Atlantic coast,
and the fur-seal.
[Illustration: SHALL WE LEAVE ANY ONE OF THEM OPEN?]
As reasoning beings, it is our duty to heed the lessons of history, and
not rush blindly on until we perpetrate a continent destitute of wild
life.
* * * * *
CHAPTER II
EXTINCT SPECIES OF NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS
For educated, civilized Man to exterminate a valuable wild species of
living things is a crime. It is a crime against his own children, and
posterity.
No man has a right, either moral or legal, to destroy or squander an
inheritance of his children that he holds for them in trust. And man,
the wasteful and greedy spendthrift that he is, has not created even the
humblest of the species of birds, mammals and fishes that adorn and
enrich this earth. "The earth is THE LORD'S, and the fulness thereof!"
With all his wisdom, man has not evolved and placed here so much as a
ground-squirrel, a sparrow or a clam. It is true that he has juggled
with the wild horse and sheep, the goats and the swine, and produced
some hardy breeds that can withstand his abuse without going down before
it; but as for species, he has not yet created and placed here even so
much as a protozoan.
The wild things of this earth are _not_ ours, to do with as we please.
They have been given to us _in trust_, and we must account for them to
the generations which will come after us and audit our accounts.
But man, the shameless destroyer of Nature's gifts, blithely and
persistently exterminates one species after another. Fully ten per cent
of the human race consists of people who will lie, steal, throw rubbish
in parks, and destroy forests and wild life whenever and wherever they
can do so without being stopped by a policemen and a club. These are
hard words, but they are absolutely true. From ten per cent (or more) of
the human race, the high moral instinct which is honest without
compulsion _is absent_. The things that seemingly decent citizens,--men
posing as gentlemen,--will do to wild game when they secure great
chances to slaughter, are appalling. I could fill a book of this size
with cases in point.
To-day the women of England, Europe and elsewhere are directly promoting
the extermination of scores of beautiful species of wild birds by the
devilish persistence with which they buy and wear feather ornaments made
of their plumage. They are just as mean and cruel as the truck-driver
who drives a horse with a sore shoulder and beats him on the street. But
they do it! And appeals to them to do otherwise they laugh to scorn,
saying, "I will wear what is fashionable, when I please and where I
please!" As a famous bird protector of England has just written me, "The
women of the smart set are beyond the reach of appeal or protest."
To-day, the thing that stares me in the face every waking hour, like a
grisly spectre with bloody fang and claw, is _the extermination of
species_. To me, that is a horrible thing. It is wholesale murder, no
less. It is capital crime, and a black disgrace to the races of
civilized mankind. I say "civilized mankind," because savages don't do
it!
There are three kinds of extermination:
_The practical extermination of a species_ means the destruction of its
members to an extent so thorough and widespread that the species
disappears from view, and living specimens of it can not be found by
seeking for them. In North America this is to-day the status of the
whooping crane, upland plover, and several other species. If any
individuals are living, they will be met with only by accident.
_The absolute extermination_ of a species means that not one individual
of it remains alive. Judgment to this effect is based upon the lapse of
time since the last living specimen was observed or killed. When five
years have passed without a living "record" of a wild specimen, it is
time to place a species in the class of the totally extinct.
_Extermination in a wild state_ means that the only living
representatives are in captivity or otherwise under protection. This is
the case of the heath hen and David's deer, of China. The American bison
is saved from being wholly extinct as a wild animal by the remnant of
about 300 head in northern Athabasca, and 49 head in the Yellow-stone
Park.
It is a serious thing to exterminate a species of any of the vertebrate
animals. There are probably millions of people who do not realize that
civilized (!) man is the most persistently and wickedly wasteful of all
the predatory animals. The lions, the tigers, the bears, the eagles and
hawks, serpents, and the fish-eating fishes, all live by destroying
life; but they kill only what they think they can consume. If something
is by chance left over, it goes to satisfy the hunger of the humbler
creatures of prey. _In a state of nature, where wild creatures prey upon
wild creatures, such a thing as wanton, wholesale and utterly wasteful
slaughter is almost unknown!_
When the wild mink, weasel and skunk suddenly finds himself in the midst
of scores of man's confined and helpless domestic fowls, or his caged
gulls in a zoological park, an unusual criminal passion to murder for
the joy of killing sometimes seizes the wild animal, and great slaughter
is the result.
From the earliest historic times, it has been the way of savage man,
red, black, brown and yellow, to kill as the wild animals do,--only what
he can use, or _thinks_ he can use. The Cree Indian impounded small
herds of bison, and sometimes killed from 100 to 200 at one time; but it
was to make sure of having enough meat and hides, and because he
expected to use the product. I think that even the worst enemies of the
plains Indians hardly will accuse them of killing large numbers of
bison, elk or deer merely for the pleasure of seeing them fall, or
taking only their teeth.
[Illustration: SIX RECENTLY EXTERMINATED NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS
Great Auk Labrador Duck
Eskimo Curlew Pallas Cormorant
Passenger Pigeon Carolina Parrakeet]
It has remained for the wolf, the sheep-killing dog and civilized man to
make records of wanton slaughter which puts them in a class together,
and quite apart from other predatory animals. When a man can kill bison
for their tongues alone, bull elk for their "tusks" alone, and shoot a
whole colony of hippopotami,--actually damming a river with their
bloated and putrid carcasses, all untouched by the knife,--the men who
do such things must be classed with the cruel wolf and the criminal dog.
It is now desirable that we should pause in our career of destruction
long enough to look back upon what we have recently accomplished in the
total extinction of species, and also note what we have blocked out for
the immediate future. Here let us erect a monument to the dead species
of our own times.
It is to be doubted whether, up to this hour, any man has made a list of
the species of North American birds that have become extinct during the
past sixty years. The specialists have no time to spare from their
compound differential microscopes, and the bird-killers are too busy
with shooting, netting and clubbing to waste any time on such trifles as
exterminated species. What does a market-shooter care about birds that
can not be killed a second time? As for the farmers, they are so busy
raising hogs and prices that their best friends, the birds, get scant
attention from them,--until a hen-hawk takes a chicken!
Down South, the negroes and poor whites may slaughter robins for food by
the ten thousand; but does the northern farmer bother his head about a
trifle of that kind? No, indeed. Will he contribute any real money to
help put a stop to it? Ask him yourself.
Let us pause long enough to reckon up some of our expenditures in
species, and in millions of individuals. Let us set down here, in cold
blood, a list of the species of our own North American birds that have
been totally exterminated in our own times. After that we will have
something to say about other species that soon will be exterminated; and
the second task is much greater than the first.
* * * * *
ROLL CALL OF THE DEAD SPECIES OF AMERICAN BIRDS
THE GREAT AUK,--_Plautus-impennis_, (Linn.), was a sea-going diving bird
about the size of a domestic goose, related to the guillemots, murres
and puffins. For a bird endowed only with flipper-like wings, and
therefore absolutely unable to fly, this species had an astonishing
geographic range. It embraced the shores of northern Europe to North
Cape, southern Greenland, southern Labrador, and the Atlantic coast of
North America as far south as Massachusetts. Some say, "as far south as
Massachusetts, the Carolinas and Florida," but that is a large order,
and I leave the A.O.U. to prove that if it can. In the life history of
this bird, a great tragedy was enacted in 1800 by sailors, on Funk
Island, north of Newfoundland, where men were landed by a ship, and
spent several months slaughtering great auks and trying out their fat
for oil. In this process, the bodies of thousands of auks were burned as
fuel, in working up the remains of tens of thousands of others.
On Funk Island, a favorite breeding-place, the great auk was
exterminated in 1840, and in Iceland in 1844. Many natives ate this bird
with relish, and being easily captured, either on land or sea, the
commercialism of its day soon obliterated the species. The last living
specimen was seen in 1852, and the last dead one was picked up in
Trinity Bay, Ireland, in 1853. There are about 80 mounted and unmounted
skins in existence, four skeletons, and quite a number of eggs. An egg
is worth about $1200 and a good mounted skin at least double that sum.
THE LABRADOR DUCK,--_Camptorhynchus labradoricus_, (Gmel.).--This
handsome sea-duck, of a species related to the eider ducks of arctic
waters, became totally extinct about 1875, before the scientific world
even knew that its existence was threatened. With this species, the
exact and final cause of its extinction is to this day unknown. It is
not at all probable, however, that its unfortunate blotting out from our
bird fauna was due to natural causes, and when the truth becomes known,
it is very probable that the hand of man will be revealed.
The Labrador duck bred in Labrador, and once frequented our Atlantic
coast as far south as Chesapeake Bay; but it is said that it never was
very numerous, at least during the twenty-five years preceding its
disappearance. About thirty-five skins and mounted museum specimens are
all that remain to prove its former existence, and I think there is not
even one skeleton.
THE PALLAS CORMORANT,--_Carbo perspicillatus_, (Pallas).--In 1741, when
the Russian explorer, Commander Bering, discovered the Bering or
Commander Islands, in the far-north Pacific, and landed upon them, he
also discovered this striking bird species. Its plumage both above and
below was a dark metallic green, with blue iridescence on the neck and
purple on the shoulders. A pale ring of naked skin around each eye
suggested the Latin specific name of this bird. The Pallas cormorant
became totally extinct, through causes not positively known, about 1852.
THE PASSENGER PIGEON,--_Ectopistes migratoria_, (Linn.).--We place this
bird in the totally-extinct class, not only because it is extinct in a
wild state, but only one solitary individual, a twenty-year-old female
in the Cincinnati Zoological Gardens, now remains alive. One living
specimen and a few skins, skeletons and stuffed specimens are all that
remain to show for the uncountable millions of pigeons that swarmed over
the United States, only yesterday as it were!
There is no doubt about where those millions have gone. They went down
and out by systematic, wholesale slaughter for the market and the pot,
before the shotguns, _clubs_ and _nets_ of the earliest American
pot-hunters. Wherever they nested they were slaughtered.
It is a long and shameful story, but the grisly skeleton of its Michigan
chapter can be set forth in a few words. In 1869, from the town of
Hartford, Mich., _three car loads_ of dead pigeons were shipped to
market each day for _forty days_, making a total of 11,880,000 birds. It
is recorded that another Michigan town marketed 15,840,000 in two years.
(See Mr. W.B. Mershon's book, "The Passenger Pigeon.")
Alexander Wilson, the pioneer American ornithologist, was the man who
seriously endeavored to estimate by computations the total number of
passenger pigeons in one flock that was seen by him. Here is what he has
said in his "American Ornithology":
"To form a rough estimate of the daily consumption of one of these
immense flocks, let us first attempt to calculate the numbers of that
above mentioned, as seen in passing between Frankfort and the Indiana
territory. If we suppose this column to have been one mile in breadth
(and I believe it to have been much more) and that it moved at the rate
of one mile in a minute, four hours, the time it continued passing,
would make its whole length two hundred and forty miles. Again,
supposing that each square yard of this moving body comprehended three
pigeons; the square yards in the whole space multiplied by three would
give 2,230,272,000 pigeons! An almost inconceivable multitude, and yet
probably far below the actual amount."
* * * * *
"Happening to go ashore one charming afternoon, to purchase some milk at
a house that stood near the river, and while talking with the people
within doors, I was suddenly struck with astonishment at a loud rushing
roar, succeeded by instant darkness, which, on the first moment, I took
for a tornado about to overwhelm the house and every thing around in
destruction. The people observing my surprise, coolly said, 'It is only
the pigeons!' On running out I beheld a flock, thirty or forty yards in
width, sweeping along very low, between the house and the mountain or
height that formed the second bank of the river. These continued passing
for more than a quarter of an hour, and at length varied their bearing
so as to pass over the mountains, behind which they disappeared before
the rear came up.
"In the Atlantic States, though they never appear in such unparalleled
multitudes, they are sometimes very numerous; and great havoc is then
made amongst them with the gun, the clap-net, and various other
implements of destruction. As soon as it is ascertained in a town that
the pigeons are flying numerously in the neighborhood, the gunners rise
_en masse_; the clap-nets are spread out on suitable situations,
commonly on an open height in an old buckwheat field, four or five live
pigeons, _with their eyelids sewed up_,[A] are fastened on a movable
stick, a small hut of branches is fitted up for the fowler at the
distance of forty or fifty yards. By the pulling of a string, the stick
on which the pigeons rest is alternately elevated and depressed, which
produces a fluttering of their wings, similar to that of birds
alighting. This being perceived by the passing flocks, they descend with
great rapidity, and finding corn, buckwheat, etc, strewed about, begin
to feed, and are instantly, by the pulling of a cord, covered by the
net. In this manner ten, twenty, and even thirty dozen have been caught
at one sweep. Meantime the air is darkened with large bodies of them
moving in various directions; the woods also swarm with them in search
of acorns, and the thundering of musquetry is perpetual on all sides
from morning to night. Wagon loads of them are poured into market, where
they sell from fifty to twenty-five and even twelve cents per dozen; and
pigeons become the order of the day at dinner, breakfast and supper,
until the very name becomes sickening."
[Footnote A: To-day, we think that the fowlers of the roccolos of
northern Italy are very cruel in their methods of catching song-birds
wholesale for the market (chapter xi); but our own countrymen of
Wilson's day were just as cruel in the method described above.]
* * * * *
The range of the passenger pigeon covered nearly the whole United
States from the Atlantic coast westward to the Rocky Mountains. A few
bold pigeons crossed the Rocky Mountains into Oregon, northern
California and Washington, but only as "stragglers," few and far
between. The wide range of this bird was worthy of a species that
existed in millions, and it was persecuted literally all along the line.
The greatest slaughter was in Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania. In 1848
Massachusetts gravely passed a law protecting the _netters_ of wild
pigeons from foreign interference! There was a fine of $10 for damaging
nets, or frightening pigeons away from them. This was on the theory that
the pigeons were so abundant they could not by any possibility ever
become scarce, and that pigeon-slaughter was a legitimate industry.
In 1867, the State of New York found that the wild pigeon needed
protection, and enacted a law to that effect. The year 1868 was the last
year in which great numbers of passenger pigeons nested in that State.
Eaton, in "The Birds of New York," said that "millions of birds occupied
the timber along Bell's Run, near Ceres, Alleghany County, on the
Pennsylvania line."
In 1870, Massachusetts gave pigeons protection except during an "open
season," and in 1878 Pennsylvania elected to protect pigeons on their
nesting grounds.
The passenger pigeon millions were destroyed so quickly, and so
thoroughly _en masse_, that the American people utterly failed to
comprehend it, and for thirty years obstinately refused to believe that
the species had been suddenly wiped off the map of North America. There
was years of talk about the great flocks having "taken refuge in South
America," or in Mexico, and being still in existence. There were
surmises about their having all "gone out to sea," and perished on the
briny deep.
A thousand times, at least, wild pigeons have been "reported" as having
been "seen." These rumors have covered nearly every northern state, the
whole of the southwest, and California. For years and years we have been
patiently writing letters to explain over and over that the band-tailed
pigeon of the Pacific coast, and the red-billed pigeon of Arizona and
the southwest are neither of them the passenger pigeon, and never can
be.
There was a long period wherein we believed many of the pigeon reports
that came from the states where the birds once were most numerous; but
that period has absolutely passed. During the past five years large cash
rewards, aggregating about $5000, have been offered for the discovery
of one nesting pair of genuine passenger pigeons. Many persons have
claimed this reward (of Professor C.F. Hodge, of Clark University,
Worcester, Mass.), and many claims have been investigated. The results
have disclosed many _mourning doves_, but not one pigeon. Now we
understand that the quest is closed, and hope has been abandoned.
The passenger pigeon is a dead species. The last wild specimen (so we
believe) that ever will reach the hands of man, was taken near Detroit,
Michigan, on Sept. 14, 1908, and mounted by C. Campion. That is the one
definite, positive record of the past ten years.
The fate of this species should be a lasting lesson to the world at
large. Any wild bird or mammal species can be exterminated by commercial
interests in twenty years time, or less.
THE ESKIMO CURLEW,_--Numenius borealis_, (Forst.). This valuable game
bird once ranged all along the Atlantic coast of North America, and
wherever found it was prized for the table. It preferred the fields and
meadows to the shore lines, and was the companion of the plovers of the
uplands, especially the golden plover. "About 1872," says Mr. Forbush,
"there was a great flight of these birds on Cape Cod and Nantucket. They
were everywhere; and enormous numbers were killed. They could be bought
of boys at six cents apiece. Two men killed $300 worth of these birds at
that time."
Apparently, that was the beginning of the end of the "dough bird," which
was another name for this curlew. In 1908 Mr. G.H. Mackay stated that
this bird and the golden plover had decreased 90 per cent in fifty
years, and in the last ten years of that period 90 per cent of the
remainder had gone. "Now (1908)," says Mr. Forbush, "ornithologists
believe that the Eskimo curlew is practically extinct, as only a few
specimens have been recorded since the beginning of the twentieth
century." The very last record is of two specimens collected at Waco,
York County, Nebraska, in March, 1911, and recorded by Mr. August Eiche.
Of course, it is possible that other individuals may still survive; but
so far as our knowledge extends, the species is absolutely dead.
* * * * *
In the West Indies and the Guadeloupe Islands, five species of macaws
and parrakeets have passed out without any serious note of their
disappearance on the part of the people of the United States. It is at
least time to write brief obituary notices of them.
We are indebted to the Hon. Walter Rothschild, of Tring, England, for
essential facts regarding these species as set forth in his sumptuous
work "Extinct Birds".
THE CUBAN TRICOLORED MACAW,--_Ara tricolor_, (Gm.). In 1875, when the
author visited Cuba and the Isle of Pines, he was informed by Professor
Poey that he was "about ten years too late" to find this fine species
alive. It was exterminated for food purposes, about 1864, and only four
specimens are known to be in existence.
[Illustration SACRED TO THE MEMORY OF THE NORTH AMERICAN
Great Auk
Pallas Cormorant
Labrador Duck
Passenger Pigeon
Eskimo Curlew
Cuban Tricolor Macaw
Gosse's Macaw
Guadeloupe Macaw
Yellow Winged Green Parrot
Purple Guadaloupe Parakeet
Carolina Parakeet
EXTERMINATED BY CIVILIZED MAN 1840-1910]
GOSSE'S MACAW,--_Ara gossei_, (Roth.).--This species once inhabited the
Island of Jamaica. It was exterminated about 1800, and so far as known
not one specimen of it is in existence.
GUADELOUPE MACAW,--_Ara guadeloupensis_, (Clark).--All that is known of
the life history of this large bird is that once it inhabited the
Guadeloupe Islands. The date and history of its disappearance are both
unknown, and there is not one specimen of it in existence.
YELLOW-WINGED GREEN PARROT,--_Amazona olivacea_, (Gm.).--Of the history
of this Guadeloupe species, also, nothing is known, and there appear to
be no specimens of it in existence.
PURPLE GUADELOUPE PARRAKEET,--_Anodorhynchus purpurescens_,
(Rothschild).--This is another dead species, that once lived in the
Guadeloupe Islands, and passed away silently and unnoticed at the time,
leaving no records of its existence, and no specimens.
THE CAROLINA PARRAKEET,--_Conuropsis carolinensis_, (Linn.), brings us
down to the present moment. To this charming little green-and-yellow
bird, we are in the very act of bidding everlasting farewell. Ten
specimens remain alive in captivity, six of which are in the Cincinnati
Zoological Garden, three are in the Washington Zoological Park and one
is in the New York Zoological Park.
Regarding wild specimens, it is possible that some yet remain, in some
obscure and _neglected_ corner of Florida; but it is extremely doubtful
whether the world ever will find any of them alive. Mrs. Minnie Moore
Willson, of Kissimee, Fla. reports the species as totally extinct in
Florida. Unless we would strain at a gnat, we may just as well enter
this species in the dead class; for there is no reason to hope that any
more wild specimens ever will be found.
The former range of this species embraced the whole southeastern and
central United States. From the Gulf it extended to Albany, N.Y.,
northern Ohio and Indiana, northern Iowa, Nebraska, central Colorado and
eastern Texas, from which it will be seen that once it was widely
distributed. It was shot because it was destructive to fruit and for its
plumage, and many were trapped alive, to be kept in captivity. I know
that one colony, near the mouth of the Sebastian River, east coast of
Florida, was exterminated in 1898 by a local hunter, and I regret to say
that it was done in the hope of selling the living birds to a New York
bird-dealer. By holding bags over the holes in which the birds were
nesting, the entire colony, of about 16 birds, was caught.
Everywhere else than in Florida, the Carolina parrakeet has long been
extinct. In 1904 a flock of 13 birds was seen near Lake Okechobee; but
in Florida many calamities can overtake a flock of birds in eight years.
The birds in captivity are not breeding, and so far as perpetuation by
them is concerned, they are only one remove from mounted museum
specimens. This parrakeet is the only member of its order that ranged
into the United States during our own times, and with its disappearance
the Order Psittaciformes totally disappears from our country.
* * * * *
CHAPTER III
THE NEXT CANDIDATES FOR OBLIVION
In the world of human beings, murder is the most serious of all crimes.
To take from a man that which no one ever can restore to him, his life,
is murder; and its penalty is the most severe of all penalties.
There are circumstances under which the killing of a wild animal may be
so wanton, so revolting and so utterly reprehensible that the act may
justly be classed as murder. The man who kills a walrus from the deck of
a steamer that he knows will not stop; the man who wantonly killed the
whole colony of hippopotami that Mr. Dugmore photographed in life; the
man who last winter shot bull elk in Wyoming for their two ugly and
shapeless teeth, and the man who wantonly shot down a half-tame deer
"for fun" near Carmel, Putnam County, New York, in the summer of
1912,--all were guilty of _murdering_ wild animals.
The murder of a wild animal species consists in taking from it that
which man with all his cunning and all his preserves and breeding can
not give back to it,--its God-given place in the ranks of Living Things.
Where is man's boasted intelligence, or his sense of proportion, that
every man does not see the monstrous moral obliquity involved in the
destruction of a species!
If the beautiful Taj Mehal at Agra should be destroyed by vandals, the
intelligent portion of humanity would be profoundly shocked, even though
the hand of man could at will restore the shrine of sorrowing love.
To-day the great Indian rhinoceros, certainly one of the most wonderful
four-footed animals still surviving, is actually being exterminated; and
even the people of India and England are viewing it with an indifference
that is appalling. Of course there are among Englishmen a great many
sportsmen and several zoologists who really care; but they do not
constitute one-tenth of one per-cent of the men who ought to care!
In the museums, we stand in awe and wonder before the fossil skeleton of
the Megatherium, and the savants struggle to unveil its past, while the
equally great and marvelous _Rhinoceros indicus_ is being rushed into
oblivion. We marvel at the fossil shell of the gigantic turtle called
_Collosochelys atlas_, while the last living representatives of the
gigantic land tortoises are being exterminated in the Galapagos Islands
and the Sychelles, for their paltry oil and meat; and only one man (Hon.
Walter Rothschild) is doing aught to save any of them in their haunts,
where they can breed. The dodo of Mauritius was exterminated by swine,
whose bipedal descendants have exterminated many other species since
that time.
A failure to appreciate either the beauty or the value of our living
birds, quadrupeds and fishes is the hall-mark of arrested mental
development and ignorance. The victim is _not always to blame_; but in
this practical world the cornerstone of legal jurisprudence is the
inexorable principle that "ignorance of the law excuses no man."
These pages are addressed to my countrymen, and the world at large, not
as a reproach upon the dead Past which is gone beyond recall, but in the
faint hope of somewhere and somehow arousing forces that will reform the
Present and save the Future. The extermination of wild species that now
is proceeding throughout the world, is a dreadful thing. It is not only
injurious to the economy of the world, but it is a shame and a disgrace
to the civilized portion of the human race.
It is of little avail that I should here enter into a detailed
description of each species that now is being railroaded into oblivion.
The bookshelves of intelligent men and women are filled with beautiful
and adequate books on birds and quadrupeds, wherein the status of each
species may be determined, almost without effort. There is time and
space only in which to notice the most prominent of the doomed species,
and perhaps discuss a few examples by way of illustration. Here is a
* * * * *
PARTIAL LIST OF NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS THREATENED WITH EARLY EXTERMINATION
WHOOPING CRANE
TRUMPETER SWAN
AMERICAN FLAMINGO
ROSEATE SPOONBILL
SCARLET IBIS
LONG-BILLED CURLEW
HUDSONIAN GODWIT
UPLAND PLOVER
RED-BREASTED SANDPIPER
GOLDEN PLOVER
DOWITCHER
WILLET
PECTORAL SANDPIPER
BLACK-CAPPED PETREL
AMERICAN EGRET
SNOWY EGRET
WOOD DUCK
BAND-TAILED PIGEON
HEATH HEN
SAGE GROUSE
PRAIRIE SHARP-TAIL
PINNATED GROUSE
WHITE-TAILED KITE
* * * * *
THE WHOOPING CRANE.--This splendid bird will almost certainly be the
next North American species to be totally exterminated. It is the only
new world rival of the numerous large and showy cranes of the old world;
for the sandhill crane is not in the same class as the white, black and
blue giants of Asia. We will part from our stately _Grus americanus_
with profound sorrow, for on this continent we ne'er shall see his like
again.
The well-nigh total disappearance of this species has been brought close
home to us by the fact that there are less than half a dozen individuals
alive in captivity, while in a wild state the bird is so rare as to be
quite unobtainable. For example, for nearly five years an English
gentlemen has been offering $1,000 for a pair, and the most
enterprising bird collector in America has been quite unable to fill the
order. So far as our information extends, the last living specimen
captured was taken six or seven years ago. The last wild birds seen and
reported were observed by Ernest Thompson Seton, who saw five below Fort
McMurray, Saskatchewan, October 16th, 1907, and by John F. Ferry, who
saw one at Big Quill Lake, Saskatchewan, in June, 1909.
The range of this species once covered the eastern two-thirds of the
continent of North America. It extended from the Atlantic coast to the
Rocky Mountains, and from Great Bear Lake to Florida and Texas. Eastward
of the Mississippi it has for twenty years been totally extinct, and the
last specimens taken alive were found in Kansas and Nebraska.
[Illustration: WHOOPING CRANES IN THE ZOOLOGICAL PARK
Very Soon this Species will Become Totally Extinct.]
THE TRUMPETER SWAN.--Six years ago this species was regarded as so
nearly extinct that a doubting ornithological club of Boston refused to
believe on hearsay evidence that the New York Zoological Park contained
a pair of living birds, and a committee was appointed, to investigate in
person, and report. Even at that time, skins were worth all the way from
$100 to $150 each; and when swan skins sell at either of those figures
it is because there are people who believe that the species either is on
the verge of extinction, or has passed it. The pair referred to above
was acquired in 1900. Since that time, Dr. Leonard C. Sanford procured
in 1910 two living birds from a bird dealer who obtained them on the
coast of Virginia. We have done our utmost to induce our pair to breed,
but without any further results than nest-building.
The loss of the trumpeter swan (_Olor americanus_) will not be so great,
nor felt so keenly, as the blotting out of the whooping crane. It so
closely resembles the whistling swan that only an ornithologist can
recognize the difference, a yellow spot on the side of the upper
mandible, near its base. The whistling swan yet remains in fair numbers,
but it is to be feared that soon it will go as the trumpeter has gone.
THE AMERICAN FLAMINGO, SCARLET IBIS AND ROSEATE SPOONBILL are three of
the most beautiful and curious water-haunting birds of the tropics. Once
all three species inhabited portions of the southern United States; but
now all three are gone from our star-spangled bird fauna. The brilliant
scarlet plumage of the flamingo and ibis, and the exquisite pink
rose-color and white of the spoonbill naturally attracted the evil eyes
of the "milliner's taxidermists" and other bird-butchers. From Florida
these birds quickly vanished. The six great breeding colonies of
Flamingoes on Andros Island, Bahamas, have been reduced to two, and from
Prof. E.A. Goeldi, of the State Museum Goeldi, Para, Brazil, have come
bitter complaints of the slaughter of scarlet ibises in South America by
plume-hunters in European pay.
I know not how other naturalists regard the future of the three species
named above, but my opinion is that unless the European feather trade is
quickly stopped as to wild plumage, they are absolutely certain to be
shot into total oblivion, within a very few years. The plumage of these
birds has so much commercial value, for fishermen's flies as well as for
women's hats, that the birds will be killed as long as their feathers
can be sold and any birds remain alive.
Zoologically, the flamingo is the most odd and interesting bird on the
American continent except the emperor penguin. Its beak baffles
description, its long legs and webbed feet are a joke, its nesting
habits are amazing, and its food habits the despair of most
zoological-garden keepers. Millions of flamingos inhabit the shores of a
number of small lakes in the interior of equatorial East Africa, but
that species is not brilliant scarlet all over the neck and head, as is
the case with our species.
If the American flamingo, scarlet ibis and roseate spoonbill, one or all
of them, are to be saved from total extinction, efforts must be made in
each of the countries in which they breed and live. Their preservation
is distinctly a burden upon the countries of South America that lie
eastward of the Andes, and on Yucatan, Cuba and the Bahamas. The time
has come when the Government of the Bahama Islands should sternly forbid
the killing of any more flamingos, on any pretext whatever; and if the
capture of living specimens for exhibition purposes militates against
the welfare of the colonies, _they should forbid that also_.
THE UPLAND PLOVER, OR "BARTRAMIAN SANDPIPER."--Apparently this is the
next shore-bird species that will follow the Eskimo curlew into
oblivion. Four years ago,--a long period for a species that is on the
edge of extermination,--Mr. E.H. Forbush[B] wrote of it as follows:
"The Bartramian Sandpiper, commonly known as the Upland Plover, a bird
which formerly bred on grassy hills all over the State and migrated
southward along our coasts in great flocks, is in imminent danger of
extirpation. A few still breed in Worcester and Berkshire Counties, or
Nantucket, so there is still a nucleus which, if protected, may save the
species. Five reports from localities where this bird formerly bred give
it as nearing extinction, and four as extinct. This is one of the most
useful of all birds in grass land, feeding largely on grasshoppers and
cutworms. It is one of the finest of all birds for the table. An effort
should be made at once to save this useful species."
[Footnote B: "Special Report on the Decrease of Certain Birds, and its
Causes."--Mass. State Board of Agriculture, 1908.]
THE BLACK-CAPPED PETREL, (_Aestrelata hasitata_).--This species is
already recorded in the A.O.U. "Check list" as extinct; but it appears
that this may not as yet be absolutely true. On January 1, 1912, a
strange thing happened. A much battered and exhausted black-capped
petrel was picked up alive in Central Park, New York, taken to the
menagerie, and kept there during the few days that it survived. When it
died it was sent to the American Museum; and this may easily prove to be
the last living record for that species. In reality, this species might
as well be listed with those totally extinct. Formerly it ranged from
the Antilles to Ohio and Ontario, and the causes of its blotting out are
not yet definitely known.
This ocean-going bird once had a wide range overseas in the temperate
areas of the North Atlantic. It is recorded from Ulster County, New
York, New Hampshire, Kentucky, Ohio, Virginia and Florida. It was about
of the size of the common tern.
THE CALIFORNIA CONDOR, (_Gymnogyps californianus_).--I feel that the
existence of this species hangs on a very slender thread. This is due to
its alarmingly small range, the insignificant number of individuals now
living, the openness of the species to attack, and the danger of its
extinction by poison. Originally this remarkable bird,--the largest
North American bird of prey,--ranged as far northward as the Columbia
River, and southward for an unknown distance. Now its range is reduced
to seven counties in southern California, although it is said to extend
from Monterey Bay to Lower California, and eastward to Arizona.
Regarding the present status and the future of this bird, I have been
greatly disturbed in mind. When a unique and zoologically important
species becomes reduced in its geographic range to a small section of a
single state, it seems to me quite time for alarm. For some time I have
counted this bird as one of those threatened with early extermination,
and as I think with good reason. In view of the swift calamities that
now seem able to fall on species like thunderbolts out of clear skies,
and wipe them off the earth even before we know that such a fate is
impending, no species of seven-county distribution is safe. Any species
that is limited to a few counties of a single state is liable to be
wiped out in five years, by poison, or traps, or lack of food.
[Illustration: CALIFORNIA CONDOR
Now Living in the New York Zoological Park.]
On order to obtain the best and also the most conservative information
regarding this species, I appealed to the Curator of the Museum of
Vertebrate Zoology, of the University of California. Although written in
the mountain wilds, I promptly received the valuable contribution that
appears below. As a clear, precise and conservative survey of an
important species, it is really a model document.
* * * * *
THE STATUS OF THE CALIFORNIA CONDOR IN 1912 _By Joseph Grinnell_
"To my knowledge, the California Condor has been definitely observed
within the past five years in the following California counties: Los
Angeles, Ventura, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, Monterey, Kern, and
Tulare. In parts of Ventura, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Kern
counties the species is still fairly common, for a large bird, probably
equal in numbers to the golden eagle in those regions that are suited to
it. By suitable country I mean cattle-raising, mountainous territory,
of which there are still vast areas, and which are not likely to be put
to any other use for a very long time, if ever, on account of the lack
of water.
"While in Kern County last April, I was informed by a reliable man who
lives near the Tejon Rancho that he had counted twenty-five condors in a
single day, since January 1 of the present year. These were on the Tejon
Rancho, which is an enormous cattle range covering parts of the
Tehachapi and San Emigdio Mountains.
"Our present state law provides complete protection for the condor and
its eggs; and the State Fish and Game Commission, in granting permits
for collectors, always adds the phrase--'except the California condor
and its eggs.' I know of two special permits having been issued, but
neither of these were used; that is, no 'specimens' have been taken
since 1908, as far as I am aware.
"In my travels about the state, I have found that practically everyone
knows that the condor is protected. Still, there is always the hunting
element who do not hesitate to shoot anything alive and out of the
ordinary, and a certain percentage of the condors are doubtless picked
off each year by such criminals. It is possible, also, that the
mercenary egg-collector continues to take his annual rents, though if
this is done it is kept very quiet. It is my impression that the present
fatalities from all sources are fully balanced by the natural rate of
increase.
"There is one factor that has militated against the condor more than any
other one thing; namely, the restriction in its food source. Its forage
range formerly included most of the great valleys adjacent to its
mountain retreats. But now the valleys are almost entirely devoted to
agriculture, and of course far more thickly settled than formerly.
"The mountainous areas where the condor is making its last stand seem to
me likely to remain adapted to the bird's existence for many
years,--fifty years, if not longer. Of course, this is conditional upon
the maintenance and enforcement of the present laws. There is also the
enlightenment of public sentiment in regard to the preservation of wild
life, which I believe can be depended upon. This is a matter of general
education, which is, fortunately, and with no doubt whatever,
progressing at a quite perceptible rate.
"Yes; I should say that the condor has a fair chance to survive, in
limited numbers.
"Another bird which in my opinion is far nearer extinction than the
condor, so far as California is concerned, is the white-tailed kite.
This is a perfectly harmless bird, but one which harries over the
marshes, where it has been an easy target for the idle duck-hunter.
Then, too, its range was limited to the valley bottoms, where human
settlement is increasingly close. I know of only _two_ live pairs within
the state last year!
"Finally, let me remark that the rate of increase of the California
condor is not one whit less than that of the band-tailed pigeon! Yet,
there is no protection at all for the latter in this state, even in the
nesting season; and thousands were shot last spring, in the
unprecedented concentration of the species in the southern coast
counties. (See Chambers in _The Condor_ for May, 1912, p. 108.)"
* * * * *
The California Condor is one of the only two species of condor now
living, and it is the only one found in North America. As a matter of
national pride, and a duty to posterity, the people of the United States
can far better afford to lose a million dollars from their national
treasury than to allow that bird to become extinct. Its preservation for
all coming time is distinctly a white man's burden upon the state of
California. The laws now in force for the condor's protection are not
half adequate! I think there is no law by which the accidental poisoning
of those birds, by baits put out for coyotes and foxes, can be stopped.
A law to prevent the use of poisoned meat baits anywhere in southern
California, should be enacted at the next session of California's
legislature. The fine for molesting a condor should be raised to $500,
with a long prison-term as an alternative. A competent, interested game
warden should be appointed _solely for the protection of the condors_.
It is time to count those birds, keep them under observation, and have
an annual report upon their condition.
THE HEATH HEN.--But for the protection that has been provided for it by
the ornithologists of Massachusetts, and particularly Dr. George W.
Field, William Brewster and John E. Thayer, the heath hen or eastern
pinnated grouse would years ago have become totally extinct. New York,
New Jersey and Massachusetts began to protect that species entirely too
late. It was given five-year close seasons, without avail. Then it was
given ten-year close seasons, but it was _too late_!
To-day, the species exists only in one locality, the island of Martha's
Vineyard, and concerning its present status, Mr. Forbush has recently
furnished us the following clear statement:
"The heath hens increased for two years after the Massachusetts Fish
and Game Commission established a reservation for them, but in 1911
they had not increased. There are probably about two hundred birds
extant.
"I found a great many marsh hawks on the Island and the Commission
did not kill them, believing them to be beneficial. In watching
them, I concluded that they were catching the young heath hens. A
large number of these hawks have been shot and their stomachs sent
to Washington for examination, as I was too busy at the time to
examine them. So far as I know, no report of the examination has
been made, but Dr. Field himself examined a few of the stomachs and
found the remains of the heath hen in some.
"The warden now says that during the past two years, the heath hen
has not increased, but I can give you no definite evidence of this.
I am quite sure they are being killed by natives of the island and
that at least one collector supplies birds for museums. We are
trying to get evidence of this.
"I believe if the heath hen is to be increased in numbers and brought
back to this country, we shall have to have more than one warden on
the reservation and, eventually, we shall have to establish the bird
on the mainland also."
[Illustration: PINNATED GROUSE, OR "PRAIRIE CHICKEN"
From the "American Natural History"]
THE PINNATED GROUSE, SAGE GROUSE AND PRAIRIE SHARP-TAIL.--In view of the
fate of the grouse of the United States, as it has been wrought out thus
far in all the more thickly settled areas, and particularly in view of
the history of the heath hen, we have no choice but to regard all three
of the species named above as absolutely certain to become totally
extinct, within a short period of years, unless the conditions
surrounding them are immediately and radically changed for the better.
Personally, I do not believe that the gunners and game-hogs of
Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Idaho, Washington, Oregon and California
will permit any one of those species to be saved.
If the present open seasons prevail in the states that I have mentioned
above, no power on earth can save those three species of grouse from the
fate of the heath hen. To-day their representatives exist only in small
shreds and patches, and from fully nineteen-twentieths of their original
ranges they are forever gone.
The sage grouse will be the first species to go. It is the largest, the
most conspicuous, the one most easily found, and the biggest mark for
the gunner. Those who have seen this bird in its native sage-brush well
understand how fatally it is exposed to slaughter.
Many appeals have been made in behalf of the pinnated grouse; but the
open seasons continue. The gunners of the states in which a few remnants
still exist are determined to have them, all; and the state legislatures
seem disposed to allow the killers to have their way. It may be
however, that like New York with the heath hen, they will arouse and
virtuously lock the stable door--after the horse has been stolen!
[Illustration: SAGE GROUSE
The First of the Upland Game Birds that will Become Extinct]
THE SNOWY EGRET AND AMERICAN EGRET, (_Egretta candidissima and Herodias
egretta_).--These unfortunate birds, cursed for all time by the
commercially valuable "aigrette" plumes that they bear, have had a very
narrow escape from total extinction in the United States, despite all
the efforts made to save them. The "plume-hunters" of the millinery
trade have been, _and still are_, determined to have the last feather
and the last drop of egret blood. In an effort to stop the slaughter in
at least one locality in Florida, Warden Guy Bradley was killed by a
plume-hunter, who of course escaped all punishment through the
heaven-born "sympathy" of a local jury.
Of the bloody egret slaughter in Florida, not one-tenth of the whole
story ever has been told. Millions of adult birds,--all there
were,--were killed _in the breeding season_, when the plumes were ripe
for the market; and millions of young birds starved in their nests. It
was a common thing for a rookery of several hundred birds to be attacked
by the plume-hunters, and in two or three days utterly destroyed. The
same bloody work is going on to-day in Venezuela and Brazil; and the
stories and "affidavits" stating that the millions of egret plumes being
shipped annually from those countries are "shed feathers," "picked up
off the ground," are absolute lies. The men who have sworn to those lies
are perjurers, and should be punished for their crimes. (See Chapter
XIII).
By 1908, the plume-hunters had so far won the fight for the egrets that
Florida had been swept almost as bare of these birds as the Colorado
desert.
Until Mr. E.A. McIlhenny's egret preserve, at Avery Island, Louisiana,
became a pronounced success, we had believed that our two egrets soon
would become totally extinct in the United States. But Mr. McIlhenny has
certainly saved those birds to our fauna. In 1892 he started an egret
and heron preserve, close beside his house on Avery Island. By 1900 it
was an established success. To-day 20,000 pairs of egrets and herons are
living and breeding in that bird refuge, and the two egret species are
safe in at least one spot in our own country.
[Illustration: SNOWY EGRETS IN THE McILHENNY EGRET PRESERVE
It is at This Period That the Parent Birds are Killed for Their Plumes,
and the Young Starve in the Nest
Photo by E.A. McIlhenny]
Three years ago, I think there were not many bird-lovers in the United
States, who believed it possible to prevent the total extinction of both
egrets from our fauna. All the known rookeries accessible to
plume-hunters had been totally destroyed. Two years ago, the secret
discovery of several small, hidden colonies prompted William Dutcher,
President of the National Association of Audubon Societies, and Mr. T.
Gilbert Pearson, Secretary, to attempt the protection of those colonies.
With a fund contributed for the purpose, wardens were hired and duly
commissioned. As previously stated, one of those wardens was shot dead
in cold blood by a plume hunter. The task of guarding swamp rookeries
from the attacks of money-hungry desperadoes to whom the accursed plumes
were worth their weight in gold, is a very chancy proceeding. There is
now one warden in Florida who says that "before they get my rookery they
will first have to get me."
Thus far the protective work of the Audubon Association has been
successful. Now there are twenty colonies, which contain all told, about
5,000 egrets and about 120,000 herons and ibises which are guarded by
the Audubon wardens. One of the most important is on Bird Island, a mile
out in Orange Lake, central Florida, and it is ably defended by Oscar E.
Baynard. To-day, the plume hunters who do not dare to raid the guarded
rookeries are trying to study out the lines of flight of the birds, to
and from their feeding-grounds, and shoot them in transit. Their motto
is--"Anything to beat the law, and get the plumes." It is there that the
state of Florida should take part in the war.
The success of this campaign is attested by the fact that last year a
number of egrets were seen in eastern Massachusetts--for the first time
in many years. And so to-day the question is, can the wardens continue
to hold the plume-hunters at bay?
THE WOOD-DUCK (_Aix sponsa_), by many bird-lovers regarded as the most
beautiful of all American birds, is threatened with extinction, in all
the states that it still inhabits with the exception of eight. Long ago
(1901) the U.S. Biological Survey sounded a general alarm for this
species by the issue of a special bulletin regarding its disappearance,
and advising its protection by long close seasons. To their everlasting
honor, eight states responded, by the enactment of long close-season
laws. This, is the
ROLL OF HONOR
CONNECTICUT
MAINE
MASSACHUSETTS
NEW HAMPSHIRE
NEW JERSEY
NEW YORK
VERMONT
WEST VIRGINIA
[Illustration: WOOD DUCK
Regularly Killed as "Food" in 15 States]
And how is it with the other states that number the wood-duck in their
avian faunas? I am ashamed to tell; but it is necessary that the truth
should be known.
Surely we will find that if the other states have not the grace to
protect this bird on account of its exquisite beauty they will not
penalize it by extra long open seasons.
_A number of them have taken pains to provide extra long_ OPEN _seasons
on this species, usually of five or six months!!_ And this for a bird so
exquisitely beautiful that shooting it for the table is like dining on
birds of paradise. Here is a partial list of them:
* * * * *
WOOD-DUCK-EATING STATES (1912)
Georgia kills and eats the Wood-duck from Sept. 1, to Feb. 1.
Indiana, Iowa and Kansas do so " Sept. 1, to Apr. 15.
Kentucky, (extra long!) does so " Aug. 15, to Apr. 1.
Louisiana (extra long!) " " " Sept. 1, to Mar. 1.
Maryland " " " Nov. 1, to Apr. 1.
Michigan " " " Oct. 15, to Jan. 1.
Nebraska (extra long!) " " " Sept. 1, to Apr. 1.
Ohio " " " Sept. 1, to Jan. 1.
Pennsylvania, (extra long!) " " " Sept. 1, to Apr. 11.
Rhode Island, " " " " " Aug. 15, to Apr. 1.
South Carolina " " " " " Sept. 1, to Mar. 1.
South Dakota " " " " " Sept. 10, to Apr. 10.
Tennessee " " " " " Aug. 1, to Apr. 15.
Virginia " " " Aug. 1, to Jan. 1.
Wisconsin " " " Sept. 1, to Jan. 1.
The above are the states that really possess the wood-duck and that
should give it, one and all, a series of five-year close seasons. Now,
is not the record something to blush for?
Is there in those fifteen states _nothing_ too beautiful or too good to
go into the pot?
* * * * *
THE WOODCOCK _(Philohela minor)_, is a bird regarding which my
bird-hunting friends and I do not agree. I say that as a species it is
steadily disappearing, and presently will become extinct, unless it is
accorded better protection. They reply: "Well, I can show you where
there are woodcock yet!"
A few months ago a Nova Scotian writer in _Forest and Stream_ came out
with the bold prediction that three more years of the usual annual
slaughter of woodcock will bring the species to the verge of extinction
in that Province.
It is such occurrences as this that bring the end of a species:
"Last fall [1911, at Norwalk, Conn.] we had a good flight of woodcock,
and it is a shame the way they were slaughtered. I know of a number of
cases where twenty were killed by one gun in the day, and heard of one
case of fifty. This is all wrong, and means the end of the woodcock, if
continued. There is no doubt we need a bag limit on woodcock, as much as
on quail or partridge." ("Woodcock" in _Forest and Stream_, Mar. 2,
1912.)
As far back as 1901, Dr. A.K. Fisher of the Biological Survey predicted
that the woodcock and wood-duck would both become extinct unless better
protected. As yet, the better protection demanded has not materialized
to any great extent.
Says Mr. Forbush, State Ornithologist of Massachusetts, in his admirable
"Special Report," p. 45:
"The woodcock is decreasing all over its range in the East, and needs
the strongest protection. Of thirty-eight Massachusetts reports,
thirty-six state that "woodcock are decreasing," "rare" or "extinct,"
while one states that they are holding their own, and one that they are
increasing slightly since the law was passed prohibiting their sale."
Let not any honest American or Canadian sportsman lullaby himself into
the belief that the woodcock is safe from extermination. As sure as the
world, it is _going_! The fact that a little pocket here or there
contains a few birds does not in the slightest degree disprove the main
fact. If the sportsmen of this country desire to save the seed stock of
woodcock, they must give it _everywhere_ five or ten-year close seasons,
and _do it immediately_!
OUR SHORE BIRDS IN GENERAL.--This group of game birds will be the first
to be exterminated in North America as a _group_. Of all our birds,
these are the most illy fitted to survive. They are very conspicuous,
very unwary, easy to find if alive, and easy to shoot. Never in my life
have any shore birds except woodcock and snipe appealed to me as real
game. They are too easy to kill, too trivial when killed, and some of
them are too rank and fishy on the plate. As game for men I place them
on a level with barnyard ducks or orchard turkeys. I would as soon be
caught stealing a sheep as to be seen trying to shoot fishy yellow legs
or little joke sandpipers for the purpose of feeding upon them. And yet,
thousands of full-grown men, some of them six feet high, grow indignant
and turn red in the face at the mention of a law to give all the
shore-birds of New York a five-year close season.
But for all that, gentlemen of the gun, there are exactly two
alternatives between which you shall choose:
(1) Either give the woodcock of the eastern United States just _ten
times_ the protection that it now has, or (2) bid the species a long
farewell. If you elect to slaughter old _Philohela minor_ on the altar
of Selfishness, then it will be in order for the millions of people who
do not kill birds to say whether that proposal shall be consummated or
not.
Read if you please Mr. W.A. McAtee's convincing pamphlet (Biological
Survey, No. 79), on "Our Vanishing Shore Birds," reproduced in full in
Chapter XXIII. He says: "Throughout the eastern United States, shore
birds are fast vanishing. Many of them have been so reduced that
_extermination seems imminent_. So averse to shore birds are present
conditions [of slaughter] that the wonder is that any escape. All the
shore birds of the United States are in great need of better
protection.... Shore birds have been hunted until only a remnant of
their once vast numbers are left. Their limited powers of reproduction,
coupled with the natural vicissitudes of the breeding period, make their
increase slow, and peculiarly expose them to danger of extermination. So
great is their economic value that their retention in the game list and
their destruction by sportsmen is a serious loss to agriculture."
And yet, here in New York state there are many men who think they
"know," who indignantly scoff at the idea that our shore birds need a
five-year close season to help save them from annihilation. The writer's
appeal for this at a recent convention of the New York State Fish, Game
and Forest League fell upon deaf ears, and was not even seriously
discussed.
The shore-birds must be saved; and just at present it seems that the
only persons who will do it are those who are _not_ sportsmen, and who
never kill game! If the sportsmen persist in refusing to act, to them we
must appeal.
Besides the woodcock and snipe, the species that are most seriously
threatened with extinction at an early date are the following:
SPECIES IN GREAT DANGER
Willet _Catoptrophorus semipalmatus_
Dowitcher _Macrorhamphus griseus_
Knot: Red-Breasted Sandpiper _Tryngites subruficollis_
Upland Plover _Bartramia longicauda_
Golden Plover _Charadrius dominicus_
Pectoral Sandpiper _Pisobia maculata_
Of these fine species, Mr. Forbush, whose excellent knowledge of the
shore birds of the Atlantic coast is well worth the most serious
consideration, says that the upland plover, or Bartramian sandpiper, "is
in imminent danger of extinction. Five reports from localities where
this bird formerly bred give it as nearing extinction, and four as
extinct. This is one of the most useful of all birds in grass land,
feeding largely on grasshoppers and cutworms.... There is no difference
of opinion in regard to the diminution of the shore birds; the reports
from all quarters are the same. It is noteworthy that practically all
observers agree that, considering all species, these birds have fallen
off about 75 per cent within twenty-five to forty years, and that
several species are nearly extirpated."
[Illustration: THE GRAY SQUIRREL, A FAMILIAR FRIEND WHEN PROTECTED]
In 1897 when the Zoological Society published my report on the
"Extermination of Our Birds and Mammals," we put down the decrease in
the volume of bird life in Massachusetts during the previous fifteen
years at twenty-seven per cent. The later and more elaborate
investigations of Mr. Forbush have satisfactorily vindicated the
accuracy of that estimate.
There are other North American birds that easily might be added to the
list of those now on the road to oblivion; but surely the foregoing
citations are sufficient to reveal the present desperate conditions of
our bird life in general. Now the question is: What are the great
American people going to do about it?
THE GRAY SQUIRREL.--The gray squirrel is in danger of extermination.
Although it is our most beautiful and companionable small wild animal,
and really unfit for food, Americans have strangely elected to class it
as "game," and shoot it to death, _to eat_! And this in stall-fed
America, in the twentieth century! Americans are the only white people
in the world who eat squirrels. It would be just as reasonable, and no
more barbarous, to kill domestic cats and eat them. Their flesh would
taste quite as good as squirrel flesh and some of them would afford
quite as good "sport."
Every intelligent person knows that in the United States the deadly
shot-gun is rapidly exterminating every bird and every small mammal that
is classed as "game," and which legally may be killed, even during two
months of the twelve. The market gunners slaughter ducks, grouse, shore
birds and rabbits as if we were all starving.
The beautiful gray squirrel has clung to life in a few of our forests
and wood-lots, long after most other wild mammals have disappeared; but
throughout at least ninety-five per cent, of its original area, it is
now extinct. During the past thirty years I have roamed the woods of my
state in several widely separated localities,--the Adirondacks,
Catskills, Berkshires, western New York and elsewhere, and in all that
time I have seen only _three_ wild gray squirrels outside of city parks.
Except over a very small total area, the gray squirrel is already gone
from the wild fauna of New York State!
Do the well-fed people of America wish to have this beautiful animal
entirely exterminated? Do they wish the woods to become wholly lifeless?
Or, do they desire to bring back some of the wild creatures, and keep
them for their children to enjoy?
There is no wild mammal that responds to protection more quickly than
the gray squirrel. In two years' time, wild specimens that are set free
in city parks learn that they are safe from harm and become almost
fearless. They take food from the hands of visitors, and climb into
their arms. One of the most pleasing sights of the Zoological Park is
the enjoyment of visitors, young and old, in "petting" our wild gray
squirrels.
We ask the Boy Scouts of America to bring back this animal to each state
where it belongs, by securing for it from legislatures and governors the
perpetual closed seasons that it imperatively needs. It is not much to
ask. This can be done by writing to members of the legislatures and
requesting a suitable law. Such a request will be both right and
reasonable; and three states have already granted it.
The gray squirrel is naturally the children's closest wild-animal
friend. Surely every farmer boy would like to have colonies of gray
squirrels around him, to keep him company, and furnish him with
entertainment. A wood-lot without squirrels and chipmunks is indeed a
lifeless place. For $20 anyone can restock any bit of woods with the
most companionable and most beautiful tree-dweller that nature has given
us.
The question now is, which will you choose--a gray squirrel colony to
every farm, or lifeless desolation?
We ask every American to lend a hand to save Silver-Tail.
* * * * *
CHAPTER IV
EXTINCT AND NEARLY EXTINCT SPECIES OF MAMMALS
When we pause and consider the years, the generations and the ages that
Nature spends in the production of a high vertebrate species, the
preservation of such species from extermination should seriously concern
us. As a matter of fact, in modern man's wild chase after wealth and
pleasure, it is only one person out of every ten thousand who pauses to
regard such causes, unless cornered by some protectionist fanatic, held
fast and coerced to listen.
We are not discussing the animals of the Pleistocene, or the Eocene, or
any period of the far-distant Past. We are dealing with species that
have been ruthlessly, needlessly and wickedly destroyed by man during
our own times; species that, had they been given a fair chance, would be
alive and well to-day.
In reckless waste of blood and treasure, the nineteenth century has much
for which to answer. Wars and pillage, fires, earthquakes and volcanoes
are unhappily unavoidable. Like the poor of holy writ, we have them with
us always. But the destruction of animal life is in a totally different
category from the accidental calamities of life. It is deliberate,
cold-blooded, persistent, and in its final stage, _criminal_! Worst of
all, there is no limit to the devilish persistence of the confirmed
destroyer, this side of the total extinction of species. No polar night
is too cold, no desert inferno is too hot for the man who pursues wild
life for commercial purposes. The rhytina has been exterminated in the
far north, the elephant seals on Kerguelen are being exterminated in the
far south, and midway, in the desert mountains of Lower California a
fine species of mountain sheep is rapidly being shot into oblivion.
* * * * *
LARGE MAMMALS COMPLETELY EXTERMINATED
THE ARIZONA ELK, (_Cervus merriami_).--Right at our very door, under our
very noses and as it were only yesterday, a well-defined species of
American elk has been totally exterminated. Until recently the mountains
of Arizona and New Mexico were inhabited by a light-colored elk of
smaller size than the Wyoming species, whose antlers possessed on each
side only one brow tine instead of two. The exact history of the
blotting out of that species has not yet been written, but it seems that
its final extinction occurred about 1901. Its extermination was only a
routine incident of the devilish general slaughter of American big game
that by 1900 had wiped out nearly everything killable over a large
portion of the Rocky Mountain region and the Great Plains.
The Arizona elk was exterminated before the separate standing of the
species had been discovered by naturalists, and before even _one_ skin
had been preserved in a museum! In 1902 Mr. E.W. Nelson described the
species from two male skulls, all the material of which he knew. Since
that time, a third male skull, bearing an excellent pair of antlers, has
been discovered by Mr. Ferdinand Kaegebehn, a member of the New York
Zoological Society, and presented to our National Collection of Heads
and Horns. It came from the Santa Catalina Mountains, Arizona, in 1884.
The species was first exterminated in the central and northern mountains
of Arizona, probably twenty years ago, and made its last stand in
northwestern New Mexico. Precisely when it became extinct there, its
last abiding place, we do not know, but in time the facts may appear.
THE QUAGGA, (_Equus quagga_).--Before the days of Livingstone,
Gordon-Cumming and Anderson, the grassy plains and half-forested hills
of South Africa were inhabited by great herds of a wild equine species
that in its markings was a sort of connecting link between the striped
zebras and the stripeless wild asses. The quagga resembled a wild ass
with a few zebra stripes around its neck, and no stripes elsewhere.
There is no good reason why a mammal that is not in any one of the
families regularly eaten by man should be classed as a game animal.
White men, outside of the western border of the continent of Europe, do
not eat horses; and by this token there is no reason why a zebra should
be shot as a "game" animal, any more than a baboon. A big male baboon is
dangerous; a male zebra is not.
Nevertheless, white men have elected to shoot zebras as game; and under
this curse the unfortunate quagga fell to rise no more. The species was
shot to a speedy death by sportsmen, and by the British and Dutch
farmers of South Africa. It became extinct about 1875, and to-day there
are only 18 specimens in all the museums of the world.
THE BLAUBOK, (_Hippotragus leucophaeus_).--The first of the African
antelopes to become extinct in modern times was a species of large size,
closely related to the roan antelope of to-day, and named by the early
Dutch settlers of Cape Colony the blaubok, which means "blue-buck." It
was snuffed out of existence in the year 1800, so quickly and so
thoroughly that, like the Arizona elk, it very nearly escaped the annals
of natural history. According to the careful investigations of Mr.
Graham Renshaw, there are only eight specimens in existence in all the
museums of Europe. In general terms it may be stated that this species
has been extinct for about a century.
DAVID'S DEER, (_Elaphurus davidianus_).--We enter this species with
those that are totally extinct, because this is true of it so far as its
wild state is concerned. It is a deer nearly as large as the red deer of
Europe, with 3-tined antlers about equal in total length to those of the
red deer. Its most striking differential character is its _long tail_, a
feature that among the deer of the world is quite unique.
Originally this species inhabited "northern Mongolia" (China), but in a
wild state it became extinct before its zoological standing became known
to the scientific world. The species was called to the attention of
zoologists by a Roman Catholic missionary, called Father David, and when
finally described it was named in his honor.
At the outbreak of the Boxer Rebellion, in 1900, there were about 200
specimens living in the imperial park of China, a short distance south
of Pekin; but during the rebellion, all of them were killed and eaten,
thus totally exterminating the species from Asia.
Fortunately, previous to that calamity (in 1894), the Duke of Bedford
had by considerable effort and expenditure procured and established in
his matchless park surrounding Woburn Abbey, England, a herd of eighteen
specimens of this rarest of all deer. That nucleus has thriven and
increased, until in 1910 it contained thirty-four head. Owing to the
fact that all the living female specimens of this remarkable species are
concentrated in one spot, and perfectly liable to be wiped out in one
year by riot, war or disease, there is some cause for anxiety. The
writer has gone so far as to suggest the desirability of starting a new
herd of David's deer, at some point far distant from England, as an
insurance measure against the possibility of calamity at Woburn.
Excepting two or three specimens in European zoological gardens that
have been favored by the Duke of Bedford, there are no living specimens
outside of Woburn Park.
[Illustration: SKELETON OF A RHYTINA, OR ARCTIC SEA-COW
In the United States National Museum]
THE RHYTINA, (_Rhytina gigas_).--The most northerly Sirenian that (so
far as we know) ever inhabited the earth, lived on the Commander Islands
in the northern end of Behring Sea, and was exterminated by man, for its
oil and its flesh, about 1768. It was first made known to the world by
Steller, in 1741, and must have become extinct near the beginning of the
nineteenth century.
The rhytina belonged to the same mammalian Order as the manatee of
Florida and South America, and the dugong of Australia. The largest
manatee that Florida has produced, so far as we know, was thirteen feet
long. The rhytina attained a length of between thirty and thirty-five
feet, and a weight of 6,000 pounds or over. The flesh of this animal,
like that of the manatee and dugong, must have been edible, and surely
was prized by the hungry sailors and natives of its time. It is not
strange that such a species was quickly exterminated by man, in the
arctic regions. The wonder is that it ever existed at a latitude so
outrageous for a Sirenian, an animal which by all precedents should
prefer life in temperate or warm waters.
[Illustration: BURCHELL'S ZEBRA, IN THE U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM
Now Believed to be Totally Extinct]
BURCHELL'S ZEBRA (_Equus burchelli typicus_).--The foundation type of
what now is the Burchell group of zebras, consisting of four or five
sub-species of the original species of _burchelli_, is an animal
abundantly striped as to its body, neck and head, but with legs that are
almost white and free from stripes. The sub-species have legs that are
striped about half as much as the mountain zebra and the Grevy species.
While there are Chapman zebras and Grant zebras in plenty, and of
Crawshay's not a few, all these are forms that have developed northward
of the range of the parent species, the original _Equus burchelli_. For
half a century in South Africa the latter had been harried and driven
and shot, and now it is gone, forever. Now, the museum people of the
world are hungrily enumerating their mounted specimens, and live ones
cannot be procured with money, because there are none! Already it is
common talk that "the true Burchell zebra is extinct;" and unfortunately
there is no good reason to doubt it. Even if there are a few now living
in some remote nook of the Transvaal, or Zululand, or Portuguese East
Africa, the chances are as 100 to 1 that they will not be suffered to
bring back the species; and so, to Burchell's zebra, the world is to-day
saying "Farewell!"
[Illustration: THYLACINE OR TASMANIAN WOLF
Now Being Exterminated by the Sheep Owners of Tasmania]
* * * * *
SPECIES OF LARGE MAMMALS ALMOST EXTINCT
THE THYLACINE or TASMANIAN WOLF, (_Thylacinus cynocephalus_).--Four
years ago, when Mr. W.H.D. Le Souef, Director of the Melbourne
Zoological Garden (Australia), stood before the cage of the living
thylacine in the New York Zoological Park, he first expressed surprise
at the sight of the animal, then said:
"I advise you to take excellent care of that specimen; for when it is
gone, you never will get another. The species soon will be extinct."
This opinion has been supported, quite independently, by a lady who is
the highest authority on the present status of that species, Mrs. Mary
G. Roberts, of Hobart, Tasmania. For nearly ten years Mrs. Roberts has
been procuring all the living specimens of the thylacine that money
could buy, and attempting to breed them at her private zoo. She states
that the mountain home of this animal is now occupied by flocks of
sheep, and because of the fact that the "Tasmanian wolves" raid the
flocks and kill lambs, the sheep-owners and herders are systematically
poisoning the thylacines as fast as possible. Inasmuch as the species is
limited to Tasmania, Mrs. Roberts and others fear that the sheepmen
will totally exterminate the remnant at an early date. This animal is
the largest and also the most interesting carnivorous marsupial of
Australia, and its untimely end will be a cause for sincere regret.
[Illustration: WEST INDIAN SEAL
In the New York Aquarium]
THE WEST INDIAN SEAL, (_Monachus tropicalis_).--For at least fifty
years, all the zoologists who ever had heard of this species believed
that the oil-hunters had completely exterminated it. In 1885, when the
National Museum came into possession of one poorly-mounted skin, from
Professor Poey, of Havana, it was regarded as a great _prize_.
Most unexpectedly, in 1886 American zoologists were startled by the
discovery of a small herd on the Triangle Islands, in the Caribbean Sea,
near Yucatan, by Mr. Henry L. Ward, now director of the Milwaukee Public
Museum, and Professor Ferrari, of the National Museum of Mexico. They
found about twenty specimens, and collected only a sufficient number to
establish the true character of the species.
Since that time, four living specimens have been captured, and sent to
the New York Aquarium, where they lived for satisfactory periods. The
indoor life and atmosphere did not seem to injure the natural vitality
of the animals. In fact, I think they were far more lively in the
Aquarium than were the sluggish creatures that Mr. Ward saw on the
Triangle reefs, and described in his report of the expedition.
It is quite possible that there are yet alive a few specimens of this
odd species; but the Damocletian sword of destruction hangs over them
suspended by a fine hair, and it is to be expected that in the future
some roving sea adventurer will pounce upon the Remnant, and wipe it
out of existence for whatever reason may to him seem good.
[Illustration: CALIFORNIA ELEPHANT SEAL
Photographed on Guadalupe Island by C.H. Townsend.]
THE CALIFORNIA ELEPHANT SEAL, (_Mirounga angustirostris_).--This
remarkable long-snouted species of seal was reluctantly stricken from
the fauna of the United States several years ago, and for at least
fifteen years it has been regarded as totally extinct. Last year,
however (1911), the _Albatross_ scientific expedition, under the control
of Director C.H. Townsend of the New York Aquarium, visited Guadalupe
Island, 175 miles off the Pacific coast of Lower California and there
found about 150 living elephant seals. They took six living specimens,
all of which died after a few months in captivity. Ever since that time,
first one person and then another comes to the front with a cheerful
proposition to go to those islands and "clean up" all the remainder of
those wonderful seals. One hunting party could land on Guadalupe, and in
one week totally destroy the last remnant of this almost extinct
species. To-day the only question is, Who will be mean enough to do it?
Fortunately, those seals have no commercial value whatsoever. The little
oil they would yield would not pay the wages of cook's mate. The proven
impossibility of keeping specimens alive in captivity, even for one
year, and the absence of cash value in the skins, even for museum
purposes, has left nothing of value in the animals to justify an
expedition to kill or to capture them. No zoological garden or park
desires any of them, at any price. Adult males attain a length of
sixteen feet, and females eleven feet. Formerly this species was
abundant in San Christobal Bay, Lower California.
At present, Mexico is in no frame of mind to provide real protection to
a small colony of seals of no commercial value, 175 miles from her
mainland, on an uninhabited island. It is wildly improbable that those
seals will be permitted to live. It is a safe prediction that our next
news of the elephant seals of Guadalupe will tell of the total
extinction of those last 140 survivors of the species.
THE CALIFORNIA GRIZZLY BEAR, (_Ursus horribilis californicus_).--No one
protects grizzly bears, except in the Yellowstone Park and other game
preserves. For obvious reasons, it is impossible to say whether any
individuals of this huge species now remain alive, or how long it will
be until the last one falls before a .405 Winchester engine of
extermination. We know that a living specimen can not be procured with
money, and we believe that "Old Monarch" now in Golden Gate Park, San
Francisco, is the last specimen of his species that ever will be
exhibited alive.
I can think of no reason, save general Californian apathy, why the
extinction of this huge and remarkable animal was not prevented by law.
The sunset grizzly (on a railroad track) is the advertising emblem of
the Golden State, and surely the state should take sufficient interest
in the species to prevent its total extermination.
But it will not. California is hell-bent on exterminating a long list of
her wild-life species, and it is very doubtful whether the masses can be
reached and aroused in time to stop it. Name some of the species?
Certainly; with all the pleasure in life: The band-tailed pigeon, the
white-tailed kite, the sharp-tailed grouse, the sage grouse, the
mountain sheep, prong-horned antelope, California mule deer, and ducks
and geese too numerous to mention.
* * * * *
CHAPTER V
THE EXTERMINATION OF SPECIES, STATE BY STATE
Early in 1912 I addressed to about 250 persons throughout the United
States, three questions, as follows:
1. What species of birds have become totally extinct in your state?
2. What species of birds and mammals are threatened with early
extinction?
3. What species of mammals have been exterminated throughout your state?
These queries were addressed to persons whose tastes and observations
rendered them especially qualified to furnish the information desired.
The interest shown in the inquiry was highly gratifying. The best of the
information given is summarized below; but this tabulation also includes
much information acquired from other sources. The general summary of the
subject will, I am sure, convince all thoughtful persons that the
present condition of the best wild life of the nation is indeed very
grave. This list is not submitted as representing prolonged research or
absolute perfection, but it is sufficient to point forty-eight morals.
* * * * *
BIRDS AND MAMMALS THAT HAVE BEEN TOTALLY EXTERMINATED IN VARIOUS STATES
AND PROVINCES
ALABAMA:
Passenger pigeon, Carolina parrakeet; puma, elk, gray wolf, beaver.
ARIZONA:
Ridgway's quail (_Colinus ridgwayi_); Arizona elk (_Cervus merriami_),
bison.
ARKANSAS:
Passenger pigeon, Carolina parrakeet, whooping crane; bison, elk,
beaver.
CALIFORNIA:
No birds totally extinct, but several nearly so; grizzly bear (?),
elephant seal.
COLORADO:
Carolina parrakeet, whooping crane; bison.
CONNECTICUT:
Passenger pigeon, Eskimo curlew, great auk, Labrador duck, upland
plover, heath hen, wild turkey; puma, gray wolf, Canada lynx, black
bear, elk.
DELAWARE:
Wild turkey, ruffed grouse, passenger pigeon, heath hen, dickcissel,
whooping crane, Carolina parrakeet; white-tailed deer, black bear, gray
wolf, beaver, Canada lynx, puma.
FLORIDA:
Flamingo, roseate spoonbill, scarlet ibis, Carolina parrakeet, passenger
pigeon.
GEORGIA:
Passenger pigeon, Carolina parrakeet, whooping crane, trumpeter swan;
bison, elk, beaver, gray wolf, puma.--(Last 3, Craig D. Arnold.)
IDAHO:
Wood duck, long-billed curlew, whooping crane; bison.--(Dr. C.S. Moody.)
ILLINOIS:
Passenger pigeon, whooping crane, Carolina parrakeet, trumpeter swan,
snowy egret, Eskimo curlew; bison, elk, white-tailed deer, black bear,
puma, Canada lynx.
INDIANA:
Passenger pigeon, whooping crane, northern raven, wild turkey,
ivory-billed woodpecker, Carolina parrakeet, trumpeter swan, snowy
egret, Eskimo curlew; bison, elk, white-tailed deer, black bear, Canada
lynx, beaver, porcupine.--(Amos W. Butler.)
IOWA:
Wild turkey, Eskimo curlew, whooping crane, trumpeter swan, white
pelican, passenger pigeon; bison, elk, antelope, white-tailed deer,
black bear, puma, Canada lynx, gray wolf, beaver, porcupine.
KANSAS:
American scaup duck, woodcock, ruffed grouse, wild turkey, pileated
woodpecker, parrakeet, white-necked raven, American raven (all Prof.
L.L. Dyche); golden plover, Eskimo curlew, Hudsonian curlew, wood-duck
(C.H. Smyth and James Howard, Wichita). Bison, elk, mule deer,
white-tailed deer, gray wolf, beaver (?), otter, lynx (?) (L.L.D.)
(Reports as complete and thorough as these for other localities no doubt
would show lists equally long for several other states.--(W.T.H.))
KENTUCKY:
Passenger pigeon, parrakeet; bison, elk, puma, beaver, gray wolf.
LOUISIANA:
Passenger pigeon, Carolina parrakeet, Eskimo curlew, flamingo, scarlet
ibis, roseate spoonbill; bison, ocelot.
MAINE:
Great auk, Labrador duck, Eskimo curlew, oystercatcher, wild turkey,
heath hen, passenger pigeon; puma, gray wolf, wolverine, caribou.--(All
Arthur H. Norton, Portland.)
MARYLAND:
Sandhill crane, parrakeet, passenger pigeon; bison, elk, beaver, gray
wolf, puma, porcupine.
MASSACHUSETTS:
Wild turkey, passenger pigeon, Labrador duck, whooping crane, sandhill
crane, black-throated bunting, great auk, Eskimo curlew.--(William
Brewster, W.P. Wharton); Canada lynx, gray wolf, black bear, moose, elk.
MICHIGAN:
Passenger pigeon, wild turkey, sandhill crane, whooping crane, bison,
elk, wolverine.
MINNESOTA:
Whooping crane, white pelican, trumpeter swan, passenger pigeon, bison,
elk, mule deer, antelope.
A strange condition exists in Minnesota, as will be seen by reference to
the next list of states. A great many species are on the road to speedy
extermination; but as yet the number of those that have become totally
extinct up to date is small.
MISSISSIPPI:
Parrakeet, passenger pigeon; bison. (Data incomplete.)
MISSOURI:
Parrakeet, ivory-billed woodpecker, passenger pigeon, whooping crane,
pinnated grouse; bison, elk, beaver.
MONTANA:
Although many Montana birds are on the verge of extinction, the only
species that we are sure have totally vanished are the passenger pigeon
and whooping crane. Mammals extinct, bison.
NEBRASKA:
Curlew, wild turkey, parrakeet, passenger pigeon, whooping crane, and no
doubt _all_ the other species that have disappeared from Kansas.
Mammals: bison, antelope, elk, and mule deer.
NEVADA:
By a rather odd combination of causes and effects, Nevada retains
representatives of nearly all her original outfit of bird and mammal
species except the bison and elk; but several of them will shortly
become extinct.
NEW HAMPSHIRE:
Wild turkey, heath hen, pigeon, whooping crane, Eskimo curlew, upland
plover, Labrador duck; woodland caribou, moose.
NEW JERSEY:
Heath hen, wild turkey, pigeon, parrakeet, Eskimo curlew, Labrador duck,
snowy egret, whooping crane, sandhill crane, trumpeter swan, pileated
woodpecker; gray wolf, black bear, beaver, elk, porcupine, puma.
NEW MEXICO:
Notwithstanding an enormous decrease in the general volume of wild life
in New Mexico, comparatively few species have been totally exterminated.
The most important are the bison and Arizona elk.
NEW YORK:
Heath hen, passenger pigeon, wild turkey, great auk, trumpeter swan,
Labrador duck, harlequin duck, Eskimo curlew, upland plover, golden
plover, whooping crane, sandhill crane, purple martin, pileated
woodpecker, moose, caribou, bison, elk, puma, gray wolf, wolverine,
marten, fisher, beaver, fox, squirrel, harbor seal.
NORTH CAROLINA:
Ivory-billed woodpecker, parrakeet, pigeon, roseate spoonbill,
long-billed curlew (_Numenius americanus_), Eskimo curlew; bison, elk,
gray wolf, puma, beaver.--(E.L. Ewbank, T. Gilbert Pearson, H.H. and
C.S. Brimley.)
NORTH DAKOTA:
Whooping crane, long-billed curlew, Hudsonian godwit, passenger pigeon;
bison, elk, mule deer, mountain sheep.--(W.B. Bell and Alfred Eastgate.)
OHIO:
Pigeon, wild turkey, pinnated grouse, northern pileated woodpecker,
parrakeet; white-tailed deer, bison, elk, black bear, puma, gray wolf,
beaver, otter, puma, lynx.
OKLAHOMA:
Records for birds insufficient. Mammals: bison, elk, antelope, mule
deer, puma, black bear.
OREGON:
The only species known to have been wholly exterminated during recent
times is the California condor and the bison, both of which were rare
stragglers into Oregon; but a number of species are now close to
extinction.
PENNSYLVANIA:
Heath hen, pigeon, parrakeet, Labrador duck; bison, elk, moose, puma,
gray wolf, Canada lynx, wolverine, beaver.--(Witmer Stone, Dr. C.B.
Penrose and Arthur Chapman.)
RHODE ISLAND:
Heath hen, passenger pigeon, wild turkey, least tern, eastern willet,
Eskimo curlew, marbled godwit, long-billed curlew.--(Harry S. Hathaway);
puma, black bear, gray wolf, beaver, otter, wolverine.
SOUTH CAROLINA:
Ivory-billed woodpecker, Carolina parrakeet; bison, elk, puma, gray
wolf.--(James H. Rice, Jr.)
SOUTH DAKOTA:
Whooping crane, trumpeter swan, pigeon, long-billed curlew; bison, elk,
mule deer, mountain sheep.
TENNESSEE:
Records insufficient.
TEXAS:
Wild turkey, passenger pigeon, ivory-billed woodpecker, flamingo,
roseate spoonbill, American egret, whooping crane, wood-duck; bison,
elk, mountain sheep, antelope, "a small, dark deer that lived 40 years
ago." (Capt. M.B. Davis.)
UTAH:
Records insufficient.
VIRGINIA:
Records insufficient.
WASHINGTON:
Very few species have become totally extinct, but a number are on the
verge, and will be named in the next state schedule.
WEST VIRGINIA:
Pigeon, parrakeet; bison, elk, beaver, puma, gray wolf.
WISCONSIN:
Whooping crane, passenger pigeon, American egret, wild turkey, Carolina
parrakeet; bison, moose, elk, woodland caribou, puma, wolverine.
WYOMING:
Whooping crane, trumpeter swan, wood-duck; mountain goat.
CANADA
ALBERTA:
Passenger pigeon, whooping crane; bison.
BRITISH COLUMBIA:
A. Bryan Williams reports: "Do not know of any birds having become
extinct."
MANITOBA:
Pigeon; bison, antelope, gray wolf.
NEW BRUNSWICK:
Pigeon.
NOVA SCOTIA:
Labrador duck, Eskimo curlew, passenger pigeon.
ONTARIO:
Wild turkey, pigeon, Eskimo curlew.
PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND:
(Reported by E.T. Carbonell): Eskimo curlew, horned grebe, ring-billed
gull, Caspian tern, passenger pigeon, Wilson's petrel, wood-duck,
Barrow's golden-eye, whistling swan, American eider, white-fronted
goose, purple sandpiper, Canada grouse, long-eared owl, screech owl,
black-throated bunting, pine warbler, red-necked grebe, purple martin
and catbird; beaver, black fox, silver gray fox, marten and black bear.
QUEBEC:
Pigeon.
SASKATCHEWAN:
Pigeon; bison.
* * * * *
BIRDS AND MAMMALS THREATENED WITH EXTINCTION
The second question submitted in my inquiry produced results even more
startling than the first. None of the persons reporting can be regarded
as alarmists, but some of the lists of species approaching extinction
are appallingly long. To their observations I add other notes and
observations of interest at this time.
ALABAMA:
Wood-duck, snowy egret, woodcock. "The worst enemy of wild life is the
pot-hunter and game hog. These wholesale slaughterers of game resort to
any device and practice, it matters not how murderous, to accomplish the
pernicious ends of their nefarious campaign of relentless extermination
of fur and feather. They cannot be controlled by local laws, for these
after having been tried for several generations have proven consummate
failures, for the reason that local authorities will not enforce the
provisions of game and bird protective statutes. Experience has
demonstrated the fact that no one desires to inform voluntarily on his
neighbors, and since breaking the game law is not construed to involve
moral turpitude, even to an infinitesimal degree, by many of our
citizens, the plunderers of nature's storehouse thus go free, it matters
not how great the damage done to the people as a whole."--(John H.
Wallace, Jr., Game Commissioner of Alabama.)
ALASKA:
Thanks to geographic and climatic conditions, the Alaskan game laws and
$15,000 with which to enforce them, the status of the wild life of
Alaska is fairly satisfactory. I think that at present no species is in
danger of extinction in the near future. When it was pointed out to
Congress in 1902, by Madison Grant, T.S. Palmer and others that the wild
life of Alaska was seriously threatened, Congress immediately enacted
the law that was recommended, and now appropriates yearly a fair sum for
its enforcement. I regard the Alaskan situation as being, for so vast
and difficult a region, reasonably well in hand, even though open to
improvement.
There is one fatal defect in our Alaskan game law, in the perpetual and
sweeping license to kill, that is bestowed upon "natives" and
"prospectors." Under cover of this law, the Indians can slaughter game
to any extent they choose; and they are great killers. For example: In
1911 at Sand Point, Kenai Peninsula, Frank E. Kleinchmidt saw 82 caribou
tongues in the boat of a native, that had been brought in for sale at 50
cents, while the carcasses were left where they fell, to poison the air
of Alaska. Thanks to the game law, and five wardens, the number of big
game animals killed last year in Alaska by sportsmen was reasonably
small,--just as it should have been.--(W.T.H.)
ARIZONA:
During an overland trip made by Dr. MacDougal and others in 1907 from
Tucson to Sonoyta, on the international boundary, 150 miles and back
again, we saw not one antelope or deer.--(W.T.H.)
CALIFORNIA:
Swan, white heron, bronze ibis. California valley quail are getting very
scarce, and unless adequate protection is afforded them shortly, they
will be found hereafter only in remote districts. Ducks also are
decreasing rapidly.--(H.W. Keller, Los Angeles.)
Sage grouse and Columbian sharp-tailed grouse are so nearly extinct that
it may practically be said that they _are_ extinct. Among species likely
to be exterminated in the near future are the wood-duck and band-tailed
pigeon.--(W.P. Taylor, Berkeley.)
COLORADO:
Sage grouse and sharp-tailed grouse; nearly all the shore birds.
CONNECTICUT:
All the shore birds; quail, purple martin.
DELAWARE:
Wood duck, upland plover, least tern, Wilson tern, roseate tern, black
skimmer, oystercatcher, and numerous other littoral species. Pileated
woodpeckers, bald eagles and all the ducks are much more rare than
formerly. Swan are about gone, geese scarce. The list of ducks, geese
and shore-birds, as well as of terns and gulls that are nearing
extinction is appalling.--(C.J. Pennock, Wilmington.)
Wood-duck, woodcock, turtle dove and bob-white.--(A.R. Spaid,
Wilmington.)
FLORIDA:
Limpkin, ivory-billed woodpecker, wild turkey (?).
GEORGIA:
Ruffed grouse, wild turkey.
IDAHO:
Harlequin duck, mountain plover, dusky grouse, Columbian sharp-tailed
grouse, sage grouse. Elk, goats and grizzly bears are becoming very
scarce. Of the smaller animals I have not seen a fisher for years, and
marten are hardly to be found. The same is true of other species.--(Dr.
Charles S. Moody, Sand Point.)
ILLINOIS:
Pinnated grouse, except where rigidly protected. In Vermillion County,
by long and persistent protection Harvey J. Sconce has bred back upon
his farm about 400 of these birds.
INDIANA:
Pileated woodpecker, woodcock, ruffed grouse, pigeon hawk, duck
hawk.--(Amos W. Butler, Indianapolis.)
In northern and northwestern Indiana, a perpetual close season and rigid
protection have enabled the almost-extinct pinnated grouse to breed up
to a total number now estimated by Game Commissioner Miles and his
wardens at 10,000 birds. This is a gratifying illustration of what can
be done in bringing back an almost-vanished species. The good example of
Indiana should be followed by every state that still possesses a remnant
of prairie-chickens, or other grouse.
IOWA:
Pinnated grouse, wood-duck. Notwithstanding an invasion of Jasper
County, Iowa, in the winter of 1911-12 by hundreds of pinnated grouse,
such as had not been known in 20 years, this gives no ground to hope
that the future of the species is worth a moment's purchase. The winter
migration came from the Dakotas, and was believed to be due to the extra
severe winter, and the scarcity of food. Commenting on this
unprecedented occurrence, J.L. Sloanaker in the "Wilson Bulletin" No.
78, says:
"In the opinion of many, the formerly abundant prairie chicken is doomed
to early extinction. Many will testify to their abundance in those years
[in South Dakota, 1902] when the great land movement was taking place.
The influx of hungry settlers, together with an occasional bad season,
decimated their ranks. They were eaten by the farmers, both in and out
of season. Driven from pillar to post, with no friends and insufficient
food,--what else then can be expected?"
Mr. F.C. Pellett, of Atlantic, Iowa, says: "Unless ways can be devised
of rearing these birds in the domestic state, the prairie hen in my
opinion is doomed to early extinction."
The older inhabitants here say that there is not one song-bird in summer
where there used to be ten.--(G.H. Nicol, in _Outdoor Life_ March,
1912.)
KANSAS:
To all of those named in my previous list that are not actually extinct,
I might add the prairie hen, the lesser prairie hen, as well as the
prairie sharp-tailed grouse and the wood-duck. Such water birds as the
avocets, godwits, greater yellow-legs, long-billed curlew and Eskimo
curlew are becoming very rare. All the water birds that are killed as
game birds have been greatly reduced in numbers during the past 25
years. I have not seen a wood-duck in 5 years. _The prairie chicken_ has
entirely disappeared from this locality. A few are still seen in the
sand hills of western Kansas, and they are still comparatively abundant
along the extreme southwestern line, and in northern Oklahoma and the
Texas panhandle.--(C.H. Smyth, Wichita.)
Yellow-legged plover, golden plover; Hudsonian and Eskimo curlew,
prairie chicken.--(James Howard, Wichita.)
LOUISIANA:
Ivory-billed woodpecker, butterball, bufflehead. The wood-duck is
greatly diminishing every year, and if not completely protected, ten
years hence no wood-duck will be found in Louisiana.--(Frank M. Miller,
and G.E. Beyer, New Orleans.)
Ivory-billed woodpecker, sandhill crane, whooping crane, pinnated
grouse, American and snowy egret where unprotected.--(E.A. McIlhenny,
Avery Island.)
MAINE:
Wood-duck, upland plover, purple martin, house wren, pileated
woodpecker, bald eagle, yellow-legs, great blue heron, Canada goose,
redhead and canvasback duck.--(John F. Sprague, Dover.)
Puffin, Leach's petrel, eider duck, laughing gull, great blue heron,
fish-hawk and bald eagle.--(Arthur H. Norton, Portland.)
MARYLAND:
Curlew, pileated woodpecker, summer duck, snowy heron. No record of
sandhill crane for the last 35 years. Greater yellow-leg is much scarcer
than formerly, also Bartramian sandpiper. The only two birds which show
an _increase_ in the past few years are the robin and lesser scaup.
General protection of the robin has caused its increase; stopping of
spring shooting in the North has probably caused the increase of the
latter. As a general proposition I think I can say that all birds are
becoming scarcer in this state, as we have laws that do not protect,
little enforcement of same, no revenue for bird protection and too
little public interest. We are working to change all this, but it comes
slowly. _The public fails to respond until the birds are 'most gone_,
and we have a pretty good lot of game still left. The members of the
Order Gallinae are only holding their own where privately protected. The
members of the Plover Family and what are known locally as shore birds
are still plentiful on the shores of Chincoteague and Assateague, and
although they do not breed there as formerly, so far as I know there are
no species exterminated.--(Talbott Denmead, Baltimore.)
MASSACHUSETTS:
Wood-duck, hooded merganser, blue-winged teal, upland plover; curlew
(perhaps already gone); red-tailed hawk (I have not seen one in
Middlesex County for several years); great horned owl (almost gone in my
county, Middlesex); house wren. The eave swallows and purple martins are
fast deserting eastern Massachusetts and the barn swallows steadily
diminishing in numbers. The bald eagle should perhaps be included here.
I seldom see or hear of it now.--(William Brewster, Cambridge.)
Upland plover, woodcock, wood-duck (recent complete protection is
helping these somewhat), heath hen, piping plover, golden plover, a good
many song and insectivorous birds are apparently decreasing rather
rapidly; for instance, the eave swallow.--(William P. Wharton, Groton.)
MICHIGAN:
Wood-duck, limicolae, woodcock, sandhill crane. The great whooping crane
is not a wild bird, but I think it is now practically extinct. Many of
our warblers and song birds are now exceedingly rare. Ruffed grouse
greatly decreased during the past 10 years.--(W.B. Mershon, Saginaw.)
MINNESOTA:
The sandhill crane has been killed by sportsmen. I have not seen one in
three years. Where there were, a few years ago, thousands of blue
herons, egrets, wood ducks, redbirds, and Baltimore orioles, all those
birds are now almost extinct in this state. They are being killed by
Austrians and Italians, who slaughter everything that flies or moves.
Robins, too, will be a rarity if more severe penalties are not imposed.
I have seized 22 robins, 1 pigeon hawk, 1 crested log-cock, 4
woodpeckers and 1 grosbeak in one camp, at the Lertonia mine, all being
prepared for eating. I have also caught them preparing and eating sea
gulls, terns, blue heron, egret and even the bittern. I have secured 128
convictions since the first of last September.--(George E. Wood, Game
Warden, Hibbing, Minnesota.)
From Robert Page Lincoln, Minneapolis.--Partridge are waning fast, quail
gradually becoming extinct, prairie chickens almost extinct.
Duck-shooting is rare. The gray squirrel is fast becoming extinct in
Minnesota. Mink are going fast, and fur-bearing animals generally are
becoming extinct. The game is passing so very rapidly that it will soon
be a thing of the forgotten past. The quail are suffering most. The
falling off is amazing, and inconceivable to one who has not looked it
up. Duck-shooting is rare, the clubs are idle for want of birds. What
ducks come down fly high, being harassed coming down from the north. I
consider the southern Minnesota country practically cleaned out.
MISSOURI:
The birds threatened with extermination are the American woodcock,
wood-duck, snowy egret, pinnated grouse, wild turkey, ruffed grouse,
golden eagle, bald eagle, pileated woodpecker.
MONTANA:
Blue grouse.--(Henry Avare, Helena.)
Sage grouse, prairie and Columbian sharp-tailed grouse, trumpeter swan,
Canada goose, in fact, most of the water-fowl. The sickle-billed curlew,
of which there were many a few years ago, is becoming scarce. There are
no more golden or black-bellied plover in these parts.--(Harry P.
Stanford, Kalispell.)
Curlew, Franklin grouse (fool hen) and sage grouse.--W.R. Felton, Miles
City.
Sage grouse.--(L.A. Huffman, Miles City.)
Ptarmigan, wood-duck, sharp-tailed grouse, sage grouse, fool hen and
plover. All game birds are becoming scarce as the country becomes
settled and they are confined to uninhabited regions.--(Prof. M.J.
Elrod, Missoula.)
NEBRASKA:
Grouse, prairie chicken and quail.--(H.N. Miller, Lincoln.)
Whistling swan.--(Dr. S.G. Towne, Omaha.)
NEW HAMPSHIRE:
Wood-duck and upland plover.
NEW YORK:
Quail, woodcock, upland plover, golden plover, black-bellied plover,
willet, dowitcher, red-breasted sandpiper, long-billed curlew,
wood-duck, purple martin, redheaded woodpecker, mourning dove; gray
squirrel, otter.
NEW JERSEY:
Ruffed grouse, teal, canvasback, red-head duck, widgeon, and all species
of shore birds, the most noticeable being black-bellied plover,
dowitcher, golden plover, killdeer, sickle-bill curlew, upland plover
and English snipe; also the mourning dove.--(James M. Stratton and
Ernest Napier, Trenton.)
Upland plover, apparently killdeer, egret, wood-duck, woodcock, and
probably others.--(B.S. Bowdish, Demarest.)
NORTH CAROLINA:
Forster's tern, oystercatcher, egret and snowy egret.--(T. Gilbert
Pearson, Sec. Nat. Asso. Audubon Societies.)
Ruffed grouse rapidly disappearing; bobwhite becoming scarce.--(E.L.
Ewbank, Hendersonville.)
Perhaps American and snowy egret. If long-billed curlew is not extinct,
it seems due to become so. No definite, reliable record of it later than
1885.--(H.H. Brimley, Raleigh.)
NORTH DAKOTA:
Wood-duck, prairie hen, upland plover, sharp-tailed grouse, canvas-back,
pinnated and ruffed grouse, double-crested cormorant, blue heron,
long-billed curlew, whooping crane and white pelican.--(W.B. Bell,
Agricultural College.)
Upland plover, marbled godwit, Baird's sparrow, chestnut-collared
longspur.--(Alfred Eastgate, Tolna.)
OHIO:
White heron, pileated woodpecker (if not already extinct). White heron
reported a number of times last year; occurrences in Sandusky, Huron,
Ashtabula and several other counties during 1911. These birds would
doubtless rapidly recruit under a proper federal law.--(Paul North,
Cleveland.)
Turtle dove, quail, red-bird, wren, hummingbird, wild canary [goldfinch]
and blue bird.--(Walter C. Staley, Dayton.)
OKLAHOMA:
Pinnated grouse.--(J.C. Clark); otter, kit fox, black-footed
ferret.--(G.W. Stevens.)
OREGON:
American egret, snowy egret.--(W.L. Finley, Portland.)
PENNSYLVANIA:
Virginia partridge and woodcock.--(Arthur Chapman.)
Wood-duck, least bittern, phalarope, woodcock, duck hawk and barn
swallow.--(Dr. Chas. B. Penrose.)
Wild turkey; also various transient and straggling water birds.--(Witmer
Stone.)
RHODE ISLAND:
Wood-duck, knot, greater yellow-legs, upland plover, golden plover,
piping plover, great horned owl.--(Harry S. Hathaway, South Auburn.)
SOUTH CAROLINA:
Wood duck, abundant 6 years ago, now almost gone. Wild turkey (abundant
up to 1898); woodcock, upland plover, Hudsonian curlew, Carolina rail,
Virginia rail, clapper rail and coot. Black bear verging on extinction,
opossum dwindling rapidly.--(James H. Rice Jr., Summerville.)
SOUTH DAKOTA:
Prairie chicken and quail are most likely to become extinct in the near
future.--(W.F. Bancroft, Watertown.)
TEXAS:
Wild turkey and prairie chickens.--(J.D. Cox, Austin.)
Plover, all species; curlew, cardinal, road-runner, woodcock, wood-duck,
canvas-back, cranes, all the herons; wild turkey; quail, all varieties;
prairie chicken and Texas guan.--(Capt. M.B. Davis, Waco.)
Curlew, very rare; plover, very rare; antelope. (Answer applies to the
Panhandle of Texas.--Chas. Goodnight.)
Everything [is threatened with extinction] save the dove, which is a
migrating bird. Antelope nearly all gone.--(Col. O.C. Guessaz, San
Antonio.)
UTAH:
Our wild birds are well protected, and there are none that are
threatened with extinction. They are increasing.--(Fred. W. Chambers,
State Game Warden, Salt Lake City.)
VERMONT:
If all states afforded as good protection as does Vermont, none; but
migrating birds like woodcock are now threatened.--(John W. Tilcomb,
State Game Warden, Lyndonville.)
VIRGINIA:
Pheasants (ruffed grouse), wild turkey and other game birds are nearly
extinct. A few bears remain, and deer in small numbers in remote
sections. In fact, all animals show great reduction in numbers, owing to
cutting down forests, and constant gunning.--(L.T. Christian, Richmond.)
WEST VIRGINIA:
Wood-duck, wild turkey, northern raven, dickcissel.--(Rev. Earle A.
Brooks, Weston.)
Wild turkeys are very scarce, also ducks. Doves, once numerous, now
almost _nil_. Eagles, except a few in remote fastnesses. Many native
song-birds are retreating before the English sparrow.--(William Perry
Brown, Glenville.)
Wood-duck and wild turkey.--(J.A. Viquesney, Belington.)
WISCONSIN:
Double-crested cormorant, upland plover, white pelican, long-billed
curlew, lesser snow goose, Hudsonian curlew, sandhill crane, golden
plover, woodcock, dowitcher and long-billed duck; spruce grouse, knot,
prairie sharp-tailed grouse, marbled godwit and bald eagle. All these,
formerly abundant, must now be called rare in Wisconsin.--(Prof. George
E. Wagner, Madison.)
Common tern, knot, American white pelican, Hudsonian godwit, trumpeter
swan, long-billed curlew, snowy heron, Hudsonian curlew, American
avocet, prairie sharp-tailed grouse, dowitcher, passenger pigeon.
Long-billed dowitcher and northern hairy woodpecker.--(Henry L. Ward,
Milwaukee Public Museum.)
Wood-duck, ruddy duck, black mallard, grebe or hell-diver, tern and
woodcock.--(Fred. Gerhardt, Madison.)
WYOMING:
Sage grouse and sharp-tailed grouse are becoming extinct, both in
Wyoming and North Dakota. Sheridan and Johnson Counties (Wyoming) have
sage grouse protected until 1915. The miners (mostly foreigners) are out
after rabbits at all seasons. To them everything that flies, walks or
swims, large enough to be seen, is a "rabbit." They are even worse than
the average sheep-herder, as he will seldom kill a bird brooding her
young, but to one of those men, a wren or creeper looks like a turkey.
Antelope, mountain sheep and grizzly bears are _going_, fast! The moose
season opens in 1915, for a 30 days open season, then close season until
1920.--(Howard Eaton, Wolf.)
Sage grouse, blue grouse, curlew, sandhill crane, porcupine practically
extinct; wolverine and pine marten nearly all gone.--(S.N. Leek,
Jackson's Hole.)
CANADA
ALBERTA:
Swainson's buzzard and sandhill crane are now practically extinct. Elk
and antelope will soon be as extinct as the buffalo.--(Arthur G.
Wooley-Dod, Calgary.)
BRITISH COLUMBIA:
Wild fowl are in the greatest danger in the southern part of the
Province, especially the wood-duck. Otherwise birds are increasing
rather than otherwise, especially the small non-game birds. The sea
otter is almost extinct.--(A. Bryan Williams, Provincial Game Warden,
Vancouver.)
MANITOBA:
Whooping crane, wood-duck and golden plover. Other species begin to show
a marked increase, due to our stringent protective measures. For
example, the pinnated grouse and sharp-tailed grouse are more plentiful
than in 15 years. Prong-horned antelope and wolf are threatened with
extinction.--(J.P. Turner, Winnipeg.)
The game birds indigenous to this Province are fairly plentiful. Though
the prairie chicken was very scarce some few years ago, these birds have
become very plentiful again, owing to the strict enforcement of our
present "Game Act." The elk are in danger of becoming extinct if they
are not stringently guarded. Beaver and otter were almost extinct some
few years ago, but are now on the increase, owing to a strict
enforcement of the "Game Act."--(Charles Barber, Winnipeg.)
NEW BRUNSWICK:
Partridge, plover and woodcock. Moose and deer are getting more
plentiful every year.--(W.W. Gerard, St. John.)
NOVA SCOTIA:
The Canada grouse may possibly become extinct in Nova Scotia, unless the
protection it now enjoys can save it. The American golden plover, which
formerly came in immense flocks, is now very rare. Snowflakes are very
much less common than formerly, but I think this is because our winters
are now usually much less severe. The caribou is almost extinct on the
mainland of Nova Scotia, but is still found in North Cape Breton Island.
The wolf has become excessively rare, but as it is found in New
Brunswick, it may occur here at any time again. The beaver had been
threatened with extinction; but since being protected, it has
multiplied, and is now on a fairly safe footing again.--(Curator of
Museum, Halifax.)
ONTARIO:
Quail are getting scarce.--(E. Tinsley, Toronto.)
Wood-duck, bob white, woodcock, golden plover, Hudsonian curlew, knot
and dowitcher [are threatened with extinction.]--(C.W. Nash, Toronto.)
PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND:
The species threatened with extinction are the golden plover, American
woodcock, pied-billed grebe, red-throated loon, sooty shearwater,
gadwall, ruddy duck, black-crowned night heron, Hudsonian godwit,
kildeer, northern pileated woodpecker, chimney swift, yellow-bellied
flycatcher, red-winged blackbird, pine finch, magnolia warbler,
ruby-crowned kinglet.--(E.T. Carbonell, Charlottetown.)
In closing the notes of this survey, I repeat my assurance that they are
not offered on a basis of infallibility. It would require years of work
to obtain answers from forty-eight states to the three questions that I
have asked that could be offered as absolutely exact. All these reports
are submitted on the well-recognized court-testimony basis,--"to the
best of our knowledge and belief." Gathered as they have been from
persons whose knowledge is good, these opinions are therefore valuable;
and they furnish excellent indices of wild-life conditions as they exist
in 1912 in the various states and provinces of North America north of
Mexico.
* * * * *
CHAPTER VI
THE REGULAR ARMY OF DESTRUCTION
In order to cure any disease, the surgeon must make of it a correct
diagnosis. It is useless to try to prescribe remedies without a thorough
understanding of the trouble.
That the best and most interesting wild life of America is disappearing
at a rapid rate, we all know only too well. That proposition is entirely
beyond the domain of argument. The fact that a species or a group of
species has made a little gain here and there, or is stationary, does
not sensibly diminish the force of the descending blow. The wild-life
situation is full of surprises. For example, in 1902 I was astounded by
the extent to which bird life had decreased over the 130 miles between
Miles City, Montana, and the Missouri River since 1886; for there was no
reason to expect anything of the kind. Even the jack rabbits and coyotes
had almost totally disappeared.
The duties of the present hour, that fairly thrust themselves into our
faces and will not be put aside, are these:
_First_,--To save valuable species from extermination!
_Second_,--To preserve a satisfactory representation of our once rich
fauna, to hand down to Posterity.
_Third_,--To protect the farmer and fruit grower from the enormous
losses that the destruction of our insectivorous and rodent-eating birds
is now inflicting upon both the producer and consumer.
_Fourth_,--To protect our forests, by protecting the birds that keep
down the myriads of insects that are destructive to trees and shrubs.
_Fifth_,--To preserve to the future sportsmen of America enough game and
fish that they may have at least a taste of the legitimate pursuit of
game in the open that has made life so interesting to the sportsmen of
to-day.
For any civilized nation to exterminate valuable and interesting species
of wild mammals, birds or fishes is more than a disgrace. It is a crime!
We have no right, legal, moral or commercial, to exterminate any
valuable or interesting species; because none of them belong to us, to
exterminate or not, as we please.
For the people of any civilized nation to permit the slaughter of the
wild birds that protect its crops, its fruits and its forests from the
insect hordes, is worse than folly. It is sheer orneryness and idiocy.
People who are either so lazy or asinine as to permit the slaughter of
their best friends deserve to have their crops destroyed and their
forests ravaged. They deserve to pay twenty cents a pound for their
cotton when the boll weevil has cut down the normal supply.
It is very desirable that we should now take an inventory of the forces
that have been, and to-day are, active in the destruction of our wild
birds, mammals, and game fishes. During the past ten years a sufficient
quantity of facts and figures has become available to enable us to
secure a reasonably full and accurate view of the whole situation. As we
pause on our hill-top, and survey the field of carnage, we find that we
are reviewing the _Army of Destruction_!
It is indeed a motley array. We see true sportsmen beside ordinary
gunners, game-hogs and meat hunters; handsome setter dogs are mixed up
with coyotes, cats, foxes and skunks; and well-gowned women and ladies'
maids are jostled by half-naked "poor-white" and black-negro "plume
hunters."
Verily, the destruction of wild life makes strange companions.
Let us briefly review the several army corps that together make up the
army of the destroyers. Space in this volume forbids an extended notice
of each. Unfortunately it is impossible to segregate some of these
classes, and number each one, for they merge together too closely for
that; but we can at least describe the several classes that form the
great mass of destroyers.
THE GENTLEMEN SPORTSMEN.--These men are the very bone and sinew of wild
life preservation. These are the men who have red blood in their veins,
who annually hear the red gods calling, who love the earth, the
mountains, the woods, the waters and the sky. These are the men to whom
"the bag" is a matter of small importance, and to whom "the bag-limit"
has only academic interest; because in nine cases out of ten they do not
care to kill all that the law allows. The tenth and exceptional time is
when the bag limit is "one." A gentleman sportsman is a man who protects
game, stops shooting when he has "enough"--without reference to the
legal bag-limit, and whenever a species is threatened with extinction,
he conscientiously refrains from shooting it.
The true sportsmen of the world are the men who once were keen in the
stubble or on the trail, but who have been halted by the general
slaughter and the awful decrease of game. Many of them, long before a
hair has turned gray, have hung up their guns forever, and turned to the
camera. These are the men who are willing to hand out checks, or to
leave their mirth and their employment and go to the firing line at
their state capitols, to lock horns with the bull-headed killers of wild
life who recognize no check or limit save the law.
These are the men who have done the most to put upon our statute books
the laws that thus far have saved some of our American game from total
annihilation, and who (so we firmly believe) will be chiefly
instrumental in tightening the lines of protection around the remnant.
These are the men who are making and stocking game preserves, public and
private, great and small.
[Illustration:
THE REGULAR ARMY OF DESTRUCTION, WAITING FOR THE FIRST OF OCTOBER
Each Year 2,642,274 Well-Armed Men Take the Field Against the Remnant
of Wild Birds and Mammals In the United States.
Drawn by Dan Beard]
If you wish to know some of these men, I will tell you where to find a
goodly number of them; and when you find them, you will also find that
they are men you would enjoy camping with! Look in the membership lists
of the Boone and Crockett Club, Camp-Fire Club of America, the Lewis and
Clark Club of Pittsburgh, the New York State League, the Shikar Club of
London, the Society for the Preservation of the Wild Fauna of the
British Empire, the Massachusetts Fish and Game Protective Association,
the Springfield (Mass.) Sportsmen's Association, the Camp-Fire Clubs of
Detroit and Chicago, and the North American Fish and Game Protective
Association.
There are other bodies of sportsmen that I would like to name, were
space available, but to set down here a complete list is quite
impossible.
The best and the most of the game-protective laws now in force in the
United States and Canada were brought into existence through the
initiative and efforts of the real sportsmen of those two nations. But
for their activity, exerted on the right side, the settled portion of
North America would to-day be an utterly gameless land! Even though the
sportsmen have taken their toll of the wilds, they have made the laws
that have saved a remnant of the game until 1912.
For all that, however, every man who still shoots game is a soldier in
the Army of Destruction! There is no blinking that fact. Such men do not
stand on the summit with the men who now protect the game _and do not
shoot at all!_ The millions of men who do not shoot, and who also _do
nothing to protect or preserve wild life_, do not count! In this warfare
they are merely ciphers in front of the real figures.
THE GUNNERS, WHO KILL TO THE LIMIT.--Out of the enormous mass of men who
annually take up arms against the remnant of wild life, _and are called
"sportsmen_," I believe that only one out of every 500 _conscientiously_
stops shooting when game becomes scarce, and extinction is impending.
All of the others feel that it is right and proper to kill all the game
that they can kill _up to the legal bag limit_. It is the reasoning of
Shylock:
"Justice demands it, and _the law_ doth give it!"
Especially is this true of the men who pay their _one dollar_ per year
for a resident hunting license, and feel that in doing so they have done
a great Big Thing!
This is a very deadly frame of mind. Ethically it is _entirely wrong_;
and at least two million men and boys who shoot American game must be
shown that it is wrong! This is the spirit of Extermination, clothed in
the robes of Law and Justice.
Whenever and wherever game birds are so scarce that a good shot who
hunts hard during a day in the fields finds only three or four birds, he
should _stop shooting at once, and devote his mind and energies to the
problem of bringing back the game!_ It is strange that conditions do not
make this duty clear to every conscientious citizen.
The Shylock spirit which prompts a man to kill all that "the law allows"
is a terrible scourge to the wild life of America, and to the world at
large. It is the spirit of extermination according to law. Even the
killing of game for the market is not so great a scourge as this; for
this spirit searches out the game in every nook and cranny of the world,
and spares not. In effect it says: "If the law is defective, it is right
for me to take every advantage of it! I do not need to have any
conscience in the matter outside _the letter of the law_."
The extent to which this amazing spirit prevails is positively awful.
You will find it among pseudo game-protectors to a paralyzing extent! It
is the great gunner's paradox, and it pervades this country from corner
to corner. No: there is no use in trying to "educate" the mass of the
hunters of America out of it, as a means of saving the game; for
positively it can not be done! Do not waste time in trying it. If you
rely upon it, you will be doing a great wrong to wild life, and
promoting extermination. The only remedy is _sweeping laws, for long
close seasons, for a great many species_. Forget the paltry
dollar-a-year license money. The license fees never represent more than
a tenth part of the value of the game that is killed under licenses.
The savage desire to kill "all that the law allows" often is manifested
in men in whom we naturally expect to find a very different spirit. By
way of illumination, I offer three cases out of the many that I could
state.
Case No. 1. _The Duck Breeder_.--A gentleman of my acquaintance has
spent several years and much money in breeding wild ducks. From my
relations with him, I had acquired the belief that he was a great lover
of ducks, and at least wished all species well. One whizzing cold day in
winter he called upon me, and stated that he had been duck-hunting;
which surprised me. He added, "I have just spent two days on Great South
Bay, and I made a great killing. _In the two days I got ninety-four
ducks!"_
I said, "How _could_ you do it,--caring for wild ducks as you do?"
"Well, I had hunted ducks twice before on Great South Bay and didn't
have very good luck; but this time the cold weather drove the ducks in,
and I got square with them!"
Case No. 2. _The Ornithologist_.--A short time ago the news was
published in _Forest and Stream_, that a well-known ornithologist had
distinguished himself in one of the mid-western states by the skill he
had displayed in bagging thirty-four ducks in one day, greatly to the
envy of the natives; and if this shoe fits any American naturalist, he
is welcome to put it on and wear it.
Case No. 3. _The Sportsman_.--A friend of mine in the South is the owner
of a game preserve in which wild ducks are at times very numerous. Once
upon a time he was visited by a northern sportsmen who takes a deep and
abiding interest in the preservation of game. The sportsman was invited
to go out duck-shooting; ducks being then in season there. He said:
"Yes, I will go; and I want you to put me in a place where I can kill a
_hundred ducks in a day_! I never have done that yet, and I would like
to do it, once!"
"All right," said my friend, "I can put you in such a place; and if you
can shoot well enough, you can kill a hundred ducks in a day."
The effort was made in all earnestness. There was much shooting, but few
were the ducks that fell before it. In concluding this story my friend
remarked in a tone of disgust:
"All the game-preserving sportsmen that come to me are just like that!
_They want to kill all they can kill_!"
There is a blood-test by which to separate the conscientious sportsmen
from the mere gunners. Here it is:
A _sportsman_ stops shooting when game becomes scarce; and he does not
object to long-close-season laws; but
A _gunner_ believes in killing "all that the law allows;" and _he
objects to long close seasons_!
I warrant that whenever and wherever this test is applied it will
separate the sheep from the goats. It applies in all America, all Asia
and Africa, and in Greenland, with equal force.
[Illustration: G.O. SHIELDS
A Notable Defender of Wild Life]
THE GAME-HOG.--This term was coined by G.O. Shields, in 1897, when he
was editor and owner of _Recreation Magazine_, and it has come into
general use. It has been recognized by a judge on the bench as being an
appropriate term to apply to all men who selfishly slaughter wild game
beyond the limits of decency. Although it is a harsh term, and was
mercilessly used by Mr. Shields in his fierce war on the men who
slaughtered game for "sport," it has jarred at least a hundred thousand
men into their first realization of the fact that to-day there is a
difference between decency and indecency in the pursuit of game. The use
of the term has done _very great good_; but, strange to say, it has made
for Mr. Shields a great many enemies _outside_ the ranks of the
game-hogs themselves! From this one might fairly suppose that there is
such a thing as a sympathetic game-hog!
One thing at least is certain. During a period of about six years, while
his war with the game-hogs was on, from Maine to California, Mr.
Shields's name became a genuine terror to excessive killers of game; and
it is reasonably certain that his war saved a great number of game birds
from the slaughter that otherwise would have overtaken them!
The number of armed men and boys who annually take the field in the
United States in the pursuit of birds and quadrupeds, is enormous.
People who do not shoot have no conception of it; and neither do they
comprehend the mechanical perfection and fearful deadliness of the
weapons used. This feature of the situation can hardly be realized until
some aspect of it is actually seen.
I have been at some pains to collect the latest figures showing the
number of hunting licenses issued in 1911, but the total is incomplete.
In some states the figures are not obtainable, and in some states there
are no hunters' license laws. The figures of hunting licenses issued in
1911 that I have obtained from official sources are set forth below.
THE UNITED STATES ARMY OF DESTRUCTION
_Hunting Licenses issued in_ 1911
Alabama 5,090 Montana 59,291
California 138,689 Nebraska 39,402
Colorado 41,058 New Hampshire 33,542
Connecticut 19,635 New Jersey 61,920
Idaho 50,342 New Mexico 7,000
Illinois 192,244 New York 150,222
Indiana 54,813 Rhode Island 6,541
Iowa 91,000 South Dakota 31,054
Kansas 44,069 Utah 27,800
Louisiana 76,000 Vermont 31,762
Maine 2,552 Washington, about 40,000
Massachusetts 45,039 Wisconsin 138,457
Michigan 22,323 Wyoming 9,721
Missouri 66,662
---------
Total number of regularly licensed gunners 1,486,228
The average for the twenty-seven states that issued licenses as shown
above is 55,046 for each state.
Now, the twenty-one states issuing no licenses, or not reporting,
produced in 1911 fully as many gunners per capita as did the other
twenty-seven states. Computed fairly on existing averages they must have
turned out a total of 1,155,966 gunners, making for all the United
States =2,642,194= armed men and boys warring upon the remnant of game
in 1911. We are not counting the large number of lawless hunters who
never take out licenses. Now, is Mr. Beard's picture a truthful
presentation, or not?
_New York_ with only deer, ruffed grouse, shore-birds, ducks and a very
few woodcock to shoot annually puts into the field 150,222 armed men. In
1909 they killed about _9,000 deer!_
_New Jersey_, spending $30,000 in 1912 in efforts to restock her covers
with game, and with a population of 2,537,167, sent out in 1911 a total
army of 61,920 well-armed gunners. How can any of her game survive?
_New Hampshire_, with only 430,572 population, has 33,542 licensed
hunters,--equal to _thirty-three regiments of full strength!_
_Vermont_, with 355,956 people, sends out annually an army of 31,762 men
who hunt according to law; and in 1910 they killed 3,649 deer.
_Utah_, with only 373,351 population, had 27,800 men in the field after
her very small remnant of game! How can any wild thing of Utah escape?
_Montana_, population 376,053, had in 1911 an army of 59,291 well-armed
men, warring chiefly upon the big game, and swiftly exterminating it.
How long can any of the big game stand before the army of _two and
one-half million well-armed men_, eager and keen to kill, and out to get
an equivalent for their annual expenditure in guns, ammunition and other
expenses?
In addition to the hunters themselves, they are assisted by thousands of
expert guides, thousands of horses, thousands of dogs, hundreds of
automobiles and hundreds of thousands of tents. Each big-game hunter has
an experienced guide who knows the haunts and habits of the game, the
best feeding grounds, the best trails, and everything else that will aid
the hunter in taking the game at a disadvantage and destroying it. The
big-game rifles are of the highest power, the longest range, the
greatest accuracy and the best repeating mechanism that modern inventive
genius can produce. It is said that in Wyoming the Maxim silencer is now
being used. England has produced a weapon of a new type, called "the
scatter rifle," which is intended for use on ducks. The best binoculars
are used in searching out the game, and horses carry the hunters and
guides as near as possible to the game. For bears, baits are freely
used, and in the pursuit of pumas, dogs are employed to the limit of the
available supply.
The deadliness of the automobile in hunting already is so apparent that
North Dakota has wisely and justly forbidden their use by law, (1911).
The swift machine enables city gunmen to penetrate game regions they
could not reach with horses, and hunt through from four to six
localities per day, instead of one only, as formerly. The use of
automobiles in hunting should be everywhere prohibited.
Every appliance and assistance that money can buy, the modern sportsman
secures to help him against the game. The game is beset during its
breeding season by various wild enemies,--foxes, cats, wolves, pumas,
lynxes, eagles, and many other predatory species. The only help that it
receives is in the form of an annual close season--_which thus far has
saved in America only a few local moose, white-tailed deer and a few
game birds, from steady and sure extermination_.
_The bag limits on which vast reliance is placed to preserve the wild
game, are a fraud, a delusion and a snare_! The few local exceptions
only prove the generality of the rule. In every state, without one
single exception, the bag limits are far too high, and the laws are of
deadly liberality. In many states, the bag limit laws on birds are an
absolute dead letter. Fancy the 125 wardens of New York enforcing the
bag-limit laws on 150,000 gunners! It is this horrible condition that is
enabling the licensed army of destruction to get in its deadly work on
the game, all over the world. In America, the over-liberality of the
laws are to blame for two-thirds of the carnival of slaughter, and the
successful evasions of the law are responsible for the other third.
[Illustration: TWO GUNNERS OF KANSAS CITY
Who Believe in Killing all That the Law Allows. They are not so Much to
Blame as the System That Permits Such Slaughter. (Note the Pump Guns)]
[Illustration: WHY THE SANDHILL CRANE IS BECOMING EXTINCT
Nineteen of Them Killed as "Game" by Three Gunners. Note the Machine Gun.]
The only remedy for the present extermination of game according to law
that so rapidly and so furiously is proceeding all over the United
States, Canada, Alaska, and Africa, is ten-year close seasons on all the
species threatened with extinction, and immensely reduced open seasons
and bag limits on all the others.
Will the people who still have wild game take heed now, and clamp down
the brakes, hard and fast before it is too late, or will they have their
game exterminated?
Shall we have five-year close seasons, or close seasons of 500 years? We
must take our choice.
Shall we hand down to our children a gameless continent, with all the
shame that such a calamity will entail?
We have _got_ to answer these questions like men, or they will soon be
answered for us by the extermination of the wild life. For twenty-five
years we have been smarting under the disgrace of the extermination of
our bison millions. Let us not repeat the dose through the destruction
of other species.
* * * * *
CHAPTER VII
THE GUERRILLAS OF DESTRUCTION
We have now to deal with THE GUERRILLAS OF DESTRUCTION.
In warfare, a _guerrilla, or bushwhacker_, is an armed man who
recognizes none of the rules of civilized warfare, and very often has no
commander. In France he is called a "franc-tireur," or free-shooter. The
guerrilla goes out to live on the country, to skulk, to war on the weak,
and never attack save from ambush, or when the odds clearly are on his
side. His military status is barely one remove from that of the spy.
The meat-shooters who harry the game and other wild life in order to use
it as a staple food supply; the Italians, negroes and others who shoot
song-birds as food; the plume-hunters and the hide-and-tusk hunters all
over the world are the guerrillas of the Army of Destruction. Let us
consider some of these grand divisions in detail.
Here is an inexorable law of Nature, to which there are no exceptions:
_No wild species of bird, mammal, reptile or fish can withstand
exploitation for commercial purposes_.
The men who pursue wild creatures for the money or other value there is
in them, never give up. They work at slaughter when other men are
enjoying life, or are asleep. If they are persistent, no species on
which they fix the Evil Eye escapes extermination at their hands.
Does anyone question this statement? If so let him turn backward and
look at the lists of dead and dying species.
THE DIVISION OF MEAT-SHOOTERS contains all men who sordidly shoot for
the frying-pan,--to save bacon and beef at the expense of the public, or
for the markets. There are a few wilderness regions so remote and so
difficult of access that the transportation of meat into them is a
matter of much difficulty and expense. There are a very few men in North
America who are justified in "living off the country," _for short
periods_. The genuine prospectors always have been counted in this
class; but all miners who are fully located, all lumbermen and
railway-builders certainly are not in the prospector's class. They are
abundantly able to maintain continuous lines of communication for the
transit of beef and mutton.
Of all the meat-shooters, the market-gunners who prey on wild fowl and
ground game birds for the big-city markets are the most deadly to wild
life. Enough geese, ducks, brant, quail, ruffed grouse, prairie
chickens, heath hens and wild pigeons have been butchered by gunners and
netters for "the market" to have stocked the whole world. No section
containing a good supply of game has escaped. In the United States the
great slaughtering-grounds have been Cape Cod; Great South Bay, New
York; Currituck Sound, North Carolina; Marsh Island, Louisiana; the
southwest corner of Louisiana; the Sunk Lands of Arkansas; the lake
regions of Minnesota; the prairies of the whole middle West; Great Salt
Lake; the Klamath Lake region (Oregon) and southern California.
[Illustration: A MARKET GUNNER AT WORK ON MARSH ISLAND
Killing Mallards for the New Orleans Market. The Purchase of This Island by
Mrs. Russell Sage has now Converted it Into a Bird Sanctuary]
The output of this systematic bird slaughter has supplied the greedy
game markets of Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Washington, Baltimore,
Chicago, New Orleans, St. Louis, Salt Lake City, San Francisco,
Portland, and Seattle. The history of this industry, its methods, its
carnage, its profits and its losses would make a volume, but we can not
enter upon it here. Beyond reasonable doubt, this awful traffic in dead
game is responsible for at least three-fourths of the slaughter that has
reduced our game birds to a mere remnant of their former abundance.
There is no influence so deadly to wild life as that of the market
gunner who works six days a week, from sunrise until sunset, hunting
down and killing every game bird that he can reach with a choke-bore
gun.
During the past five years, several of the once-great killing grounds
have been so thoroughly "shot out" that they have ceased to hold their
former rank. This is the case with the Minnesota Lakes, the Sunk Lands
of Arkansas, the Klamath Lakes of Oregon, and I think it is also true of
southern California. The Klamath Lakes have been taken over by the
Government as a bird refuge. Currituck Sound, at the northeastern corner
of North Carolina, has been so bottled up by the Bayne law of New York
State that Currituck's greatest market has been cut off. Last year only
one-half the usual number of ducks and geese were killed; and already
many "professional" duck and brant shooters have abandoned the business
because the commission merchants no longer will buy dead birds.
[Illustration: RUFFED GROUSE
A Common Victim of Illegal Slaughter]
Very many enormous bags of game have been made in a day by market
gunners: but rarely have they published any of their records. The
greatest kill of which I ever have heard occurred under the auspices of
the Glenn County Club, in southern California, on February 5, 1906. Two
men, armed with automatic shot-guns, fired five shots apiece, and got
ten geese out of one flock. In one hour they killed _two hundred and
eighteen geese_, and their bag for the day was _four hundred and fifty
geese!_ The shooter who wrote the story for publication (on February 12,
at Willows, Glenn County, California) said: "It being warm weather, the
birds had to be shipped at once in order to keep them from spoiling." A
photograph was made of the "one hour's slaughter" of two hundred and
eighteen geese, and it was published in a western magazine with
"C.H.B.'s" story, nearly all of which will be found in Chapter XV.
The reasons why market shooting is so deadly destructive to wild life
are not obscure.
The true sportsman hunts during a very few days only each year. The
market gunners shoot early and late, six days a week, month after month.
When game is abundant, the price is low, and a great quantity must be
killed in order to make it pay well. When game is scarce, the market
prices are high, and the shooter makes the utmost exertions to find the
last of the game in order to secure the "big money."
When game is protected by law, thousands of people with money desire it
for their tables, just the same, and are willing to pay fabulous prices
for what they want, when they want it. Many a dealer is quite willing to
run the risk of fines, because fines don't really hurt; they are only
annoying. The dealer wishes to make the big profit, and _retain his
customers_; "and besides," he reasons, "if I don't supply him some one
else will; so what is the difference?"
When game is scarce, prices high and the consumer's money ready, there
are a hundred tricks to which shooters and dealers willingly resort to
ship and receive unlawful game without detection. It takes the very
best kind of game wardens,--genuine detectives, in fact,--to ferret out
these cunning illegal practices, and catch lawbreakers "with the goods
on them," so that they can be punished. Mind you, convictions can not be
secured at _both_ ends of the line save by the most extraordinary good
fortune, and usually the shooter and shipper escape, even when the
dealer is apprehended and fined.
[Illustration: A PERFECTLY LAWFUL BAG OF 58 RUFFED GROUSE FOR TWO MEN
From "Rod and Gun in Canada"]
Here are some of the methods that have been practiced in the past in
getting illegal game into the New York market:
Ruffed grouse and quail have both been shipped in butter firkins, marked
"butter"; and latterly, butter has actually been packed solidly on top
of the birds.
Ruffed grouse and quail very often have been shipped in egg crates,
marked "eggs." They have been shipped in trunks and suit cases,--a very
common method for illegal game birds, all over the United States. In
Oklahoma when a man refuses to open his trunk for a game warden, the
warden joyously gets out his brace and bitt, and bores an inch hole into
the lower story of the trunk. If dead birds are there, the tell-tale
auger quickly reveals them.
Three years ago, I was told that certain milk-wagons on Long Island made
daily collections of dead ducks intended for the New York market, and
the drivers kindly shipped them by express from the end of the route.
Once upon a time, a New York man gave notice that on a certain date he
would be in a certain town in St. Lawrence County, New York, with a
palace horse-car, "to buy horses." Car and man appeared there as
advertised. Very ostentatiously, he bought one horse, and had it taken
aboard the car before the gaze of the admiring populace. At night, when
the A.P. had gone to bed, many men appeared, and into the horseless end
of that car, they loaded thousands of ruffed grouse. The game warden who
described the incident to me said: "That man pulled out for New York
with one horse and _half a car load of ruffed grouse_!"
Whenever a good market exists for the sale of game, as sure as the world
that market will be supplied. Twenty-six states forbid by law the sale
of _their own_ "protected" game, but twenty of them do _not_ expressly
prohibit the sale of game stolen from neighboring states! That is _a
very, very weak point in the laws of all those states_. A child can see
how it works. Take Pittsburgh as a case in point.
In the winter and spring of 1912 the State Game Commission of
Pennsylvania found that quail and ruffed grouse were being sold in
Pittsburgh, in large quantities. The state laws were well enforced, and
it was believed that the birds were not being killed in Pennsylvania.
Some other state was being _robbed_!
The Game Commission went to work, and in a very short time certain
game-dealers of Pittsburgh were arrested. At first they tried to bluff
their way out of their difficulty, and even went as far as to bring
charges against the game-warden whom the Commission had instructed to
buy some of their illegal game, and pay for it. But the net of the law
tightened upon them so quickly and so tightly that they threw up their
hands and begged for mercy.
It was found that those Pittsburgh game-dealers were selling quail and
grouse that had been stolen in thousands, from the state of Kentucky!
Between the state game laws, working in lovely harmony with the Lacey
federal law that prohibits the shipment of game illegally killed or
sold, the whole bad business was laid bare, and signed confessions were
promptly obtained from the shippers in Kentucky.
At that very time, a good bill for the better protection of her game was
before the Kentucky legislature; and a certain member was vigorously
opposing it, as he had successfully done in previous years. He was told
that the state was being robbed, but refused to believe it. Then a
signed confession was laid before him, bearing the name of the man who
was instigating his opposition,--his friend,--who confessed that he had
illegally bought and shipped to Pittsburgh over 5,000 birds. The
objector literally threw up his hands, and said, "I have been _wrong!_
Let the bill go through!" And it went.
[Illustration: SNOW BUNTING
A Great "Game Bird"! Of These, 8,058 Were Found in 1902
in one New York Cold-Storage Warehouse]
Before the passage of the Bayne law, New York City was a "fence" for the
sale of grouse illegally killed in Massachusetts, Connecticut,
Pennsylvania, New Jersey and I know not how many other states. The Bayne
law stopped all that business, abruptly and forever; and if the ruffed
grouse, quail and ducks of the Eastern States are offered for sale in
Chicago, Cincinnati, Baltimore and Washington, the people of New York
and Massachusetts can at least be assured that they are not to blame.
Those two states now maintain no "fences" for the sale of game that has
been stolen from other states. They have both set their houses in order,
and set two examples for forty other states to follow.
The remedy for all this miserable game-stealing, law-breaking business
is simple and easily obtained. Let each state of the United States and
each province and Canada _enact a Bayne law, absolutely prohibiting the
sale of all wild native game_, and the thing is done! But nothing short
of that will be really effective. It will not do at all to let state
laws rest with merely forbidding the sale of game "protected by the
State;" for that law is full of loop-holes. It does much good service,
yes; but what earthly _objection_ can there be in any state to the
enactment of a law that is sweepingly effective, and which can not be
evaded, save through the criminal connivance of officers of the law?
By way of illustration, to show what the sale of wild game means to the
remnant of our game, and the wicked slaughter of non-game birds to which
it leads, consider these figures:
DEAD BIRDS FOUND IN ONE COLD STORAGE HOUSE IN NEW YORK IN 1902.
Snow Buntings 8,058
Grouse 7,560
Sandpipers 7,607
Quail 4,385
Plover 5,218
Ducks 1,756
Snipe 7,003
Bobolinks 288
Yellow-legs 788
Woodcock 96
The fines for this lot, if imposed, would have amounted to $1,168,315.
Shortly after that seizure American quail became so scarce that in
effect they totally disappeared from the banquet tables of New York. I
can not recall having been served with one since 1903, but the little
Egyptian quail can be legally imported and sold when officially tagged.
Few persons away from the firing line realize the far-reaching effects
of the sale of wild game. Here are a few flashes from the searchlight:
At Hangkow, China, Mr. C. William Beebe found that during his visit in
=1911=, over =46,000= pheasants of various species were shipped from
that port on one cold-storage steamer to the London market. And this
when English pheasants were selling in the Covent Garden market at from
two to three shillings each, for _fresh_ birds!
In =1910=, =1,200= ptarmigan from Norway, bound for the Chicago market,
passed through the port of New York,--not by any means the first or the
last shipment of the kind. The epicures of Chicago are being permitted
to comb the game out of Norway.
In =1910=, =70,000= _dozen_ Egyptian quail were shipped to Europe from
Alexandria, Egypt. Just why that species has not already been
exterminated, is a zoological mystery; but extermination surely will
come some day, and I think it will be in the near future.
The coast of China has been raked and scraped for wild ducks to ship to
New York,--prior to the passage of the Bayne law! I have forgotten the
figures that once were given me, but they were an astonishing number of
thousands for the year.
The Division of Negroes and Poor Whites who kill song and other birds
indiscriminately will be found in a separate chapter.
THE DIVISION OF "RESIDENT" GAME-BUTCHERS.--This refers to the men who
live in the haunts of big game, where wardens are the most of the time
totally absent, and where bucks, does and fawns of hoofed big game may
be killed in season and out of season, with impunity. It includes
guides, ranchmen, sheep-herders, cowboys, miners, lumbermen and floaters
generally. In times past, certain taxidermists of Montana promoted the
slaughter of wild bison in the Yellowstone Park, and it was a pair of
rascally taxidermists who killed, or caused to be killed in Lost Park,
in 1897, the very last bison of Colorado.
It seems to be natural for the minds of men who live in America in the
haunts of big game to drift into the idea that the wild game around them
is all theirs. Very few of them recognize the fact that every other man,
woman and child in a given state or province has vested rights in its
wild game. It is natural for a frontiersman to feel that because he is
in the wilds he has a God-given right to live off the country; but
to-day _that idea is totally wrong_! If some way can not be found to
curb that all-pervading propensity among our frontiersmen, then we may
as well bid all our open-field big game a long farewell; for the deadly
"residents" surely will exterminate it, outside the game preserves. The
"residents" are, in my opinion, about ten times more destructive than
the sportsmen. A sportsman in quest of large game is in the field only
from ten to thirty days; all his movements are known, and all his
trophies are seen and counted. His killing is limited by law, and upon
him the law is actually enforced. Often a resident hunts the whole
twelve months of the year,--for food, for amusement, and for trophies to
sell. Rarely does a game warden reach his cabin; because the wardens are
few, the distances great and the frontier cabins are widely scattered.
Mr. Carl Pickhardt told me of a guide in Newfoundland who had a shed in
the woods hanging full of bodies of caribou, and who admitted to him
that while the law allowed him five caribou each year, he killed each
year about twenty-five.
Mr. J.M. Phillips knows of a mountain in British Columbia, once well
stocked with goats, on which the goats have been completely exterminated
by one man who lives within easy striking distance of them, and who
finds goat meat to his liking.
I have been reliably informed that in 1911, at Haha Lake, near Grande
Bay, Saguenay District, P.Q., one family of six persons killed
thirty-four woodland caribou and six moose. This meant the waste of
about 14,000 pounds of good meat, and the death of several female
animals.
In 1886 I knew a man named Owens who lived on the head of Sunday Creek,
Montana, who told me that in 1884-5 he killed thirty-five mule deer for
himself and family. The family ate as much as possible, the dogs ate all
they could, and in the spring the remainder spoiled. Now there is not a
deer, an antelope, or a sage grouse within fifty miles of that lifeless
waste.
Here is a Montana object lesson on the frame of mind of the "resident"
hunter, copied from _Outdoor Life_ Magazine (Denver) for February, 1912.
It is from a letter to the Editor, written by C.B. Davis.
November 27, 28, 29, and 30, 1911, will remain a red letter day with
a half thousand men for years to come. These half thousand men
gathered along the border of the Yellowstone National Park, near
Gardiner, Montana, at a point known as Buffalo Flats, to exterminate
elk. The snow had driven the elk down to the foothills, and Buffalo
Flats is on the border of the park and outside the park. The elk
entered this little valley for food. Like hungry wolves, shooters,
not hunters, gathered along the border waiting to catch an elk off
the "reservation" and kill it.
On November 27th about 1500 elk crossed the line, and the slaughter
began. I have not the data of the number killed this day, but it was
hundreds.
On the 28th, twenty-two stepped over and were promptly executed.
Like Custer's band, not one escaped. On the evening of the 28th, 600
were sighted just over the line, and the army of 125 brave men
entrenched themselves for the battle which was expected to open next
morning. Before daylight of the 29th the battle began. The elk were
over the line, feeding on Buffalo Flats. One hundred and twenty-five
men poured bullets into this band of 600 elk till the ground was red
with blood and strewn with carcasses, and in their madness they shot
each other. One man was shot through the ear,--a close call; another
received a bullet through his coat sleeve, and another was shot
through the bowels and can't live.
My informer told me he participated in the slaughter, and while he
would not take fifty dollars for what he saw, and the experience he
went through, yet he would not go through it again for $1,000. When
my informer got back to Gardiner that day there were four sleigh
loads of elk, each load containing from twenty to thirty-five elk,
besides thirty-two mules and horses carrying one to two each. This
was only a part of the slaughter. Hundreds more were carried to
other points; and this was only one day's work.
Hundreds of wounded elk wandered back into the park to die, and
others died outside the park. The station at Livingston, Montana,
for a week looked like a packing house. Carcasses were piled up on
the trucks and depot platform. The baggage cars were loaded with elk
going to points east and west of Livingston.
Maybe this is all right. Maybe the government can't stop the elk
from crossing the line. Maybe the elk were helped over; but it
strikes me there is something wrong somewhere.
THE DIVISION OF HIRED LABORERS.--The scourge of lumber-camps in big-game
territory, the mining camps and the railroad-builders is a long story,
and if told in detail it would make several chapters. Their awful
destructiveness is well known. It is a common thing for "the boss" to
hire a hunter to kill big game to supply the hungry outfit, and save
beef and pork.
The abuses arising from this source easily could be checked, and finally
suppressed. A ten-line law would do the business,--forbidding any person
employed in any camp of sheep men, cattle men, lumbermen, miners,
railway laborers or excavators to own or use a rifle in hunting wild
game; and forbidding any employer of labor to feed those laborers, or
permit them to be fed, on the flesh of wild game mammals or birds.
"Camp" laborers are not "pioneers;" not by a long shot! They are
soldiers of Commerce, and makers of money.
A MOUNTAIN SHEEP CASE IN COLORADO.--The state of Colorado sincerely
desires to protect and perpetuate its slender remnant of mountain sheep,
but as usual the Lawless Miscreant is abroad to thwart the efforts of
the guardians of the game. Every state that strives to protect its big
game has such doings as this to contend with:
In the winter of 1911-12, a resident poacher brought into Grant,
Colorado, a lot of mountain sheep meat _for sale_; and he actually sold
it to residents of that town! The price was _six cents per pound_. A lot
of it was purchased by the railway station-agent. I have no doubt that
the same man who did that job, which was made possible only by the
co-operation of the citizens of Grant, will try the same
poaching-and-selling game next winter, unless the State Game
Commissioner is able to bring him to book.
A WYOMING CASE IN POINT.--As a fair sample of what game wardens, and the
general public, are sometimes compelled to endure through the improper
decisions of judges, I will cite this case:
In the Shoshone Mountains of northern Wyoming, about fifty miles or so
from the town of Cody, in the winter of 1911-12 a man was engaged in
trapping coyotes. It was currently reported that he had been "driven out
of Montana and Idaho." He had scores of traps. He baited his traps with
the flesh of deer, elk calves and grouse, all illegally killed and
illegally used for that purpose. A man of my acquaintance saw some of
this game meat actually used as described.
The man was a notorious character, and cruel in the extreme. Finally a
game warden caught him red-handed, arrested him, and took him to Cody
for trial. It happened that the judge on the bench had once trapped with
him, and therefore "he set the game-killer free, while the game-warden
was roasted."
That wolf-trapper once took into the mountains a horse, to kill and use
as bear-bait. The animal was blind in one eye, and because it would not
graze precisely where the wolfer desired it to remain, he deliberately
destroyed the sight of its good eye, and left it for days, without the
ability to find water.
Think of the fate of any wild animal that unkind Fate places at the
mercy of such a man!
* * * * *
CHAPTER VIII
UNSEEN FOES OF WILD LIFE
Quite unintentionally on his part, Man, the arch destroyer and the most
predatory and merciless of all animal species except the wolves, has
rendered a great service to all the birds that live or nest upon the
ground. His relentless pursuit and destruction of the savage-tempered,
strong-jawed fur-bearing animals is in part the salvation of the ground
birds of to-day and yesterday. If the teeth and claws had been permitted
to multiply unchecked down to the present time, with man's warfare on
the upland game proceeding as it has done, scores upon scores of species
long ere this would have been exterminated.
But the slaughter of the millions of North American foxes, wolves,
weasels, skunks, and mink has so overwhelmingly reduced the four-footed
enemies of the birds that the balance of wild Nature has been preserved.
As a rule, the few predatory wild animals that remain are not
slaughtering the birds to a serious extent; and for this we may well be
thankful.
THE DOMESTIC CAT.--In such thickly settled communities as our northern
states, from the Atlantic coast to the sandhills of Kansas and Nebraska,
the domestic cat is probably the greatest four-footed scourge of bird
life. Thousands of persons who never have seen a hunting cat in action
will doubt this statement, but the proof of its truthfulness is only too
painfully abundant.
Unhappily it is the way of the hunting cat to stalk unseen, and to kill
the very birds that are most friendly with man, and most helpful to him
in his farming and fruit-growing business. The quail is about the only
game bird that the cat affects seriously, and to it the cat is very
destructive. It is the robin, catbird, thrush, bluebird, dove,
woodpecker, chickadee, phoebe, tanager and other birds of the lawn, the
garden and orchard that afford good hunting for sly and savage old
Thomas.
When I was a boy in my 'teens, I had a lasting series of object lessons
on the cat as a predatory animal. Our "Betty" was the most ambitious and
successful domestic-cat hunter of wild mammals of which I ever have
heard. To her, rats and mice were mere child's-play, and after a time
their pursuit offered such tame sport that she sought fresh fields for
her prowess. Then she brought in young rabbits, chipmunks and
thirteen-lined spermophiles, and once she came in, quite exhausted, half
dragging and half carrying a big, fat pocket gopher. With her it seemed
to be a point of honor that she should bring in her game and display it.
Little did we realize then that in course of time the wild birds would
become so scarce that their slaughter by house cats would demand
legislative action in the states.
In considering the hunting cat, let us call in a credible witness of the
effects of domestic cats on the bob white. The following is an
eye-witness report, by Ernest B. Beardsley, in _Outdoor Life_ for April,
1912. The locality was Wellington, Sumner County, Kansas.
In the meantime, old Queen was having a high old time up ahead, some
hundred feet by then, running up the bank and back down in the draw.
We had hardly caught up when up goes Mr. Savage's gun and he gives
both barrels. I had seen nothing up to date, but I didn't have long
to wait, for by the time I got up to him and the dog, they were both
in the high grass and had a great, big, common gray maltese
house-cat; and Queen had a half-eaten quail that Mr. Cat was busy
with when disturbed.
Well, we followed the draw across the field and got nine of a covey
of sixteen that had been ahead of Mr. Cat; and about four o'clock
that evening we killed another white-and-gray cat. While driving
home that night, Mr. Savage told me that he had killed fifty or more
in three or four years. They will get in a draw full of
tumble-grass, on a cold day when quail don't like to fly, and stay
right with them; and even after feeding on two or three, they will
lie and watch, and when the covey moves, they move. When eating time
comes around they are at it again, and to a covey of young birds
they are sure death to the whole covey.
Well, Will told me never to overlook a house-cat that I found as far
as a quarter of a mile from a farm or ranch, for if they have not
already turned wild, they are learning how easy it is to hunt and
live on game, and are almost as bad. We found Mr. Black-and-White
Hunter had eaten two quail just before we killed him that evening. I
would rather not write what Mr. Savage said when we found the
remains of a partly-eaten bird.
My advice is, don't let tame cats get away when found out hunting;
for the chances are they have not seen a home in months, and maybe
years,--and say! but they do get big and bad. When you meet one,
give it to him good, and don't let your dog run up to him until he
is out for keeps. I learned afterwards that was how Will knew it was
a cat. Queen had learned to back off and call for help on cats some
years before.
In the New York Zoological Park, we have had troubles of our own with
marauding cats. They establish themselves in a day, and quickly learn
where to seek easy game and good cover. In the daytime they lie close in
the thick brush, exactly as tigers do in India, but if not molested for
a period of days, they become bold and attack game in open view. One
bird-killing cat was so shy of man that it was only after two weeks of
hard hunting (mornings and evenings) that it was killed.
We have seen cats catch and kill gray squirrels, chipmunks, robins and
thrushes, and have found the feathers of slaughtered quail. Once we had
gray rabbits breeding in the park, and their number reached between
eighty and ninety. For a time they fearlessly hopped about in sight from
our windows, and they were of great interest to visitors and to all of
us. Then the cats began upon them; and in one year there was not a
rabbit to be seen, save at rare intervals. At the same time the
chipmunks of the park were almost exterminated.
That was the last straw, and we began a vigorous war upon those wild and
predatory cats. The cats came off second best. We killed every cat that
was found hunting in the park, and we certainly got some that were big
and bad. We eliminated that pest, and we are keeping it eliminated. And
with what result?
In 1911 a covey of eleven quail came and settled in our grounds, and
have remained there. Twenty times at least during the past eight months
(winter and spring) I have seen the flock on the granite ledge not more
than forty feet from the rear window of my office. Last spring when I
left the Administration Building at six o'clock, after the visitors had
gone, I found two half-grown rabbits calmly roosting on the door-mat.
The rabbits are slowly coming back, and the chipmunks are visibly
increasing in number. The gray squirrels now chase over the walks
without fear of any living thing, and our ducklings and young guineas
and peacocks are safe once more.
That cats destroy annually in the United States several _millions_ of
very valuable birds, seems fairly beyond question. I believe that in
settled regions they are worse than weasels, foxes, skunks and mink
_combined_; because there are about one hundred times as many of them,
and those that hunt are not afraid to hunt in the daytime. Of course I
am not saying that _all_ cats hunt wild game; but in the country I
believe that fully one-half of them do.
I am personally acquainted with a cat in Indiana, on the farm of
relatives, which is notorious for its hunting propensities, and its
remarkable ability in capturing game. Even the lady who is joint owner
of the cat feels very badly about its destructiveness, and has said,
over and over again, that it ought to be killed; but the cat is such a
family pet that no one in the family has the heart to destroy it, and as
yet no stranger has come forward to play the part of executioner. The
lady in question assured me that to her certain knowledge that
particular cat would watch a nestful of young robins week after week
until they had grown up to such a size that they were almost ready to
fly; then he would kill them and devour them. Old "Tommy" was too wise
to kill the robins when they were unduly small.
In a great book entitled _Useful Birds and Their Protection_, by E.H.
Forbush, State Ornithologist of Massachusetts, and published by the
Massachusetts State Board of Agriculture in 1905, there appears, on page
362, many interesting facts on this subject. For example:
Mr. William Brewster tells of an acquaintance in Maine, who said
that his cat killed about fifty birds a year. Mr. A.C. Dike wrote
[to Mr. Forbush] of a cat owned by a family, and well cared for.
They watched it through one season, and found that it killed
fifty-eight birds, including the young in five nests.
Nearly a hundred correspondents, scattered through all the counties
of the state, report the cat as one of the greatest enemies of
birds. The reports that have come in of the torturing and killing of
birds by cats are absolutely sickening. The number of birds killed
by them in this state is appalling.
Some cat lovers believe that each cat kills on the average not more
than ten birds a year; but I have learned of two instances where
more than that number were killed in a single day, and another where
seven were killed. If we assume, however, that the average cat on
the farm kills but ten birds per year, and that there is one cat to
each farm in Massachusetts, we have, in round numbers, seventy
thousand cats, killing seven hundred thousand birds annually.
[Illustration: A HUNTING CAT AND ITS VICTIM
This Cat had fed so bountifully on the Rabbits and Squirrels of the
Zoological Park, that it ate only the Brain of this Gray Rabbit]
In Mr. Forbush's book there is an illustration of the cat which killed
fifty-eight birds in one year, and the animal was photographed with a
dead robin in its mouth. The portrait is reproduced in this chapter.
Last year, a strong effort was made in Massachusetts to enact a law
requiring cats to be licensed. On account of the amount of work
necessary in passing the no-sale-of-game bill, that measure was not
pressed, and so it did not become a law; but another year it will
undoubtedly be passed, for it is a good bill, and extremely necessary at
this time. _Such a law is needed in every state_!
There is a mark by which you may instantly and infallibly know the worst
of the wild cats--by their presence _away from home, hunting in the
open_. Kill all such, wherever found. The harmless cats are domestic in
their tastes, and stay close to the family fireside and the kitchen.
Being properly fed, they have no temptation to become hunters. There are
cats and cats, just as there are men and men: some tolerable, many
utterly intolerable. No sweeping sentiment for _all_ cats should be
allowed to stand in the way of the abatement of the hunting-cat
nuisances.
_Of all men, the farmer cannot afford the luxury of their existence_! It
is too expensive. With him it is a matter of dollars, and cash out of
pocket for every hunting cat that he tolerates in his neighborhood.
There are two places in which to strike the hunting cats: in the open,
and in the state legislature.
While this chapter was in the hands of the compositors, the hunting cat
and gray rabbit shown in the accompanying illustration were brought in
by a keeper.
DOGS AS DESTROYERS OF BIRDS.--I have received many letters from
protectors of wild life informing me that the destruction of
ground-nesting birds, and especially of upland game birds, by roaming
dogs, has in some localities become a great curse to bird life.
Complaints of this kind have come from New York, Massachusetts,
Connecticut, Pennsylvania and elsewhere. Usually the culprits are
_hunting dogs_--setters, pointers and hounds.
Now, surely it is not necessary to set forth here any argument on this
subject. It is not open to argument, or academic treatment of any kind.
The cold fact is:
In the breeding season of birds, and while the young birds are incapable
of quick and strong flight, all dogs, of every description, should be
restrained from free hunting; and all dogs found hunting in the woods
during the season referred to should be arrested, and their owners
should be fined twenty dollars for each offense. Incidentally, one-half
the fine should go to the citizen who arrests the dog. The method of
restraining hunting dogs should devolve upon dog owners; and the law
need only prohibit or punish the act.
Beyond a doubt, in states that still possess quail and ruffed grouse,
free hunting by hunting dogs leads to great destruction of nests and
broods during the breeding season.
TELEGRAPH AND TELEPHONE WIRES.--Mr. Daniel C. Beard has strongly called
my attention to the slaughter of birds by telegraph wires that has come
under his personal observation. His country home, at Redding,
Connecticut, is near the main line of the New York, New Haven and
Hartford Railway, along which a line of very large poles carries a great
number of wires. The wires are so numerous that they form a barrier
through which it is difficult for any bird to fly and come out alive and
unhurt.
Mr. Beard says that among the birds killed or crippled by flying against
those wires near Redding he has seen the following species: olive-backed
thrush, white-throated sparrow and other sparrows, oriole, blue jay,
rail, ruffed grouse, and woodcock. It is a common practice for employees
of the railway, and others living along the line, to follow the line and
pick up on one excursion enough birds for a pot-pie.
Beyond question, the telegraph and telephone wires of the United States
annually exact a heavy toll in bird life, and claim countless thousands
of victims. They may well be set down as one of the unseen forces
destructive to birds.
Naturally, we ask, what can be done about it?
I am told that in Scotland such slaughter is prevented by the attachment
of small tags or discs to the telephone wires, at intervals of a few
rods, sufficiently near that they attract the attention of flying birds,
and reveal the line of an obstruction. This system should be adopted in
all regions where the conditions are such that birds kill themselves
against telegraph wires, and an excellent place to begin would be along
the line of the N.Y., N.H. & H. Railway.
WILD ANIMALS.--Beyond question, it is both desirable and necessary that
any excess of wild animals that prey upon our grouse, quail, pheasants,
woodcock, snipe, mallard duck, shore birds and other species that nest
on the ground, should be killed. Since we must choose between the two,
the birds have it! Weasels and foxes and skunks are interesting, and
they do much to promote the hilarity of life in rural districts, but
they do not destroy insects, and are of comparatively little value as
destroyers of the noxious rodents that prey upon farm crops. While a few
persons may dispute the second half of this proposition, the burden of
proof that my view is wrong will rest upon them; and having spent
eighteen years "on the farm," I think I am right. If there is any
positive evidence tending to prove that the small carnivores that we
class as "vermin" are industrious and persistent destroyers of noxious
rodents--pocket gophers, moles, field-mice and rats--or that they do not
kill wild birds numerously, now is the time to produce it, because the
tide of public sentiment is strongly setting against the weasels, mink,
foxes and skunks. (Once upon a time, a shrewd young man in the
Zoological Park discovered a weasel hiding behind a stone while
devouring a sparrow that it had just caught and killed. He stalked it
successfully, seized it in his bare hand, and, even though bitten, made
good the capture.)
The State of Pennsylvania is extensively wooded, with forests and with
brush which affords excellent home quarters and breeding grounds for
mammalian "vermin." The small predatory mammals are so seriously
destructive to ruffed grouse and other ground birds that the State Game
Commission is greatly concerned. When the hunter's license law is
enacted, as it very surely will be at the next session of the
legislature (1913), a portion of the $70,000 that it will produce each
year will be used by the commission in paying bounties on the
destruction of the surplus of vermin. Through the pursuit of vermin, any
farmer can easily win enough bounties to more than pay the cost of his
annual hunting license (one dollar), and the farmers' boys will find a
new interest in life.
In some portions of the Rocky Mountain region, the assaults of the large
predatory mammals and birds on the young of the big-game species
occasionally demand special treatment. In the Yellowstone Park the pumas
multiplied to such an extent and killed so many young elk that their
number had to be systematically reduced. To that end "Buffalo" Jones was
sent out by the Government to find and destroy the intolerable surplus
of pumas. In the course of his campaign he killed about forty, much to
the benefit of the elk herds. Around the entrance to the den of a big
old male puma, Mr. Jones found the skulls and other remains of nine elk
calves that "the old Tom" had killed and carried there.
Pumas and lynxes attack and kill mountain sheep; and the golden eagle is
very partial to mountain sheep lambs and mountain goat kids. It will not
answer to permit birds of that bold and predatory species to become too
numerous in mountains inhabited by goats and sheep; and the fewer the
mountain lions the better, for they, like the lynx and eagle, have
nothing to live upon save the game.
The wolves and coyotes have learned to seek the ranges of cattle,
horses and sheep, where they still do immense damage, chiefly in
killing young stock. In spite of the great sums that have been paid out
by western states in bounties for the destruction of wolves, in many,
many places the gray wolf still persists, and can not be exterminated.
To the stockmen of the west the wolf question is a serious matter. The
stockmen of Montana say that a government expert once told them how to
get rid of the gray wolves. His instructions were: "Locate the dens, and
kill the young in the dens, soon after they are born!" "All very easy to
_say_, but a trifle difficult to _do_!" said my informant; and the
ranchman seem to think they are yet a long way from a solution of the
wolf question.
During the past year the destruction of noxious predatory animals in the
national forest reserves has seriously occupied the attention of the
United States Bureau of Forestry. By the foresters of that bureau the
following animals were destroyed in fifteen western states:
6,487 Coyotes
870 Wild-Cats
72 Lynxes
213 Bears
88 Mountain Lions
172 Gray Wolves
69 Wolf Pups
-----
7,971
In 1910 the total was 9,103.
[Illustration: THE EASTERN RED SQUIRREL
A Great Destroyer of Birds]
THE RED SQUIRREL.--Once in a great while, conditions change in subtle
ways, wild creatures unexpectedly increase in number, and a community
awakens to the fact that some wild species has become a public nuisance.
In a small city park, even gray squirrels may breed and become so
fearfully numerous that, in their restless quest for food, they may
ravage the nests of the wild birds, kill and devour the young, and
become a pest. In the Zoological Park, in 1903, we found that the red
squirrels had increased to such a horde that they were driving out all
our nesting wild birds, driving out the gray squirrels, and making
themselves intolerably obnoxious. We shot sixty of them, and brought the
total down to a reasonable number. Wherever he is or whatever his
numerical strength, the red squirrel is a bad citizen, and, while we do
not by any means favor his extermination, he should resolutely be kept
within bounds by the rifle.
When a crow nested in our woods, near the Beaver Pond, we were greatly
pleased; but with the feeding of the first brood, the crows began to
carry off ducklings from the wild-fowl pond. After one crow had been
seen to seize and carry away _five_ young ducks in one forenoon, we
decided that the constitutional limit had been reached, for we did not
propose that all our young mallards should be swept into the awful
vortex of that crow nest. We took those young crows and reared them by
hand; but the old one had acquired a bad habit, and she persisted in
carrying off young ducks until we had to end her existence with a gun.
It was a painful operation, but there was no other way.
[Illustration: COOPER'S HAWK
A Species to be Destroyed]
BIRD-DESTROYING BIRDS.--There are several species of birds that may at
once be put under sentence of death for their destructiveness of useful
birds, without any extenuating circumstances worth mentioning. Four of
these are _Cooper's Hawk_, the _Sharp-Shinned Hawk, Pigeon Hawk_ and
_Duck Hawk_. Fortunately these species are not so numerous that we need
lose any sleep over them. Indeed, I think that today it would be a
mighty good collector who could find one specimen in seven days'
hunting. Like all other species, these, too, are being shot out of our
bird fauna.
Several species of bird-eating birds are trembling in the balance, and
under grave suspicion. Some of them are the _Great Horned Owl, Screech
Owl, Butcher Bird_ or _Great Northern Shrike_. The only circumstance
that saves these birds from instant condemnation is the delightful
amount of rats, mice, moles, gophers and noxious insects that they
annually consume. In view of the awful destructiveness of the accursed
bubonic-plague-carrying rat, we are impelled to think long before
placing in our killing list even the great horned owl, who really does
levy a heavy tax on our upland game birds. As to the butcher bird, we
feel that we ought to kill him, but in view of his record on wild mice
and rats, we hesitate, and finally decline.
[Illustration: SHARP-SHINNED HAWK
A Species to be Destroyed]
SNAKES.--Mr. Thomas M. Upp, a close and long observer of wild things
wishes it distinctly understood that while the common black-snakes and
racers are practically harmless to birds, the _Pilot Black-Snake_,
--long, thick and truculent,--is a great scourge to nesting birds. It
seems to be deserving of death. Mr. Upp speaks from personal knowledge,
and his condemnation of the species referred to is quite sweeping. At
the same time Mr. Raymond L. Ditmars points out the fact that this
serpent feeds during 6 months of the year on mice, and in doing so
renders good service. In the South it is called the "Mouse Snake."
[Illustration: THE CAT THAT KILLED 58 BIRDS IN ONE YEAR
From Mr. Forbush's Book
Photo by A.C. Dyke]
* * * * *
CHAPTER IX
THE DESTRUCTION OF WILD LIFE BY DISEASES
Every cause that has the effect of reducing the total of wild-life
population is now a matter of importance to mankind. The violent and
universal disturbance of the balance of Nature that already has taken
place throughout the temperate and frigid zone offers not only food for
thought, but it calls for vigorous action.
There are vast sections in the populous centres of western civilization
where the destruction of species, even to the point of extermination, is
fairly inevitable. It is the way of Christian man to destroy all wild
life that comes within the sphere of influence of his iron heel. With
the exception of the big game, this destruction is largely a
temperamental result, peculiar to the highest civilization. In India
where the same fields have been plowed for wheat and dahl and raggi for
at least 2,000 years, the Indian antelope, or "black buck," the saras
crane and the adjutant stalk through the crops, and the nilgai and
gazelle inhabit the eroded ravines in an agricultural land that averages
1,200 people to the square mile!
We have seen that even in farming country, where mud villages are as
thick as farm houses in Nebraska, wild animals and even hoofed game can
live and hold their own through hundreds of years of close association
with man. The explanation is that the Hindus regard wild animals as
creatures entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, and
they are not anxious to shoot every wild animal that shows its head. In
the United States, nearly every game-inhabited community is animated by
a feeling that every wild animal must necessarily be killed as soon as
seen; and this sentiment often leads to disgraceful things. For
instance, in some parts of New England a deer straying into a town is at
once beset by the hue and cry, and it is chased and assaulted until it
is dead, by violent and disgraceful means. New York State, however,
seems to have outgrown that spirit. During the past ten years, at least
a dozen deer in distress have been rescued from the Hudson River, or in
inland towns, or in barnyards in the suburbs of Yonkers and New York,
and carefully cared for until "the zoo people" could be communicated
with. Last winter about 13 exhausted grebes and one loon were picked up,
cared for and finally shipped with tender care to the Zoological Park.
One distressed dovekie was picked up, but failed to survive.
The sentiment for the conservation of wild life has changed the mental
attitude of very many people. The old Chinese-Malay spirit which cries
"Kill! Kill!" and at once runs amuck among suddenly discovered wild
animals, is slowly being replaced by a more humane and intelligent
sentiment. This is one of the hopeful and encouraging signs of the
times.
The destruction of wild animals by natural causes is an interesting
subject, even though painful. We need to know how much destruction is
wrought by influences wholly beyond the control of man, and a few cases
must be cited.
RINDERPEST IN AFRICA.--Probably the greatest slaughter ever wrought upon
wild animals by diseases during historic times, was by rinderpest, a
cattle plague which afflicted Africa in the last decade of the previous
century. Originally, the disease reached Africa by way of Egypt, and
came as an importation from Europe. From Egypt it steadily traveled
southward, reaching Somaliland in 1889. In 1896 it reached the Zambesi
River and entered Rhodesia. From thence it went on southward almost to
the Cape. Not only did it sweep away ninety percent of the native cattle
but it also destroyed more than seventy-five per cent of the buffalos,
antelopes and other hoofed game of Rhodesia. It was feared that many
species would be completely exterminated, but happily that fear was not
realized. The buffalo and antelope herds were fifteen years in breeding
up again to a reasonable number, but thanks to the respite from hunters
which they enjoyed for several years, finally they did recover.
Throughout British East Africa the supply of big game in 1905 was very
great, but since that time it has been very greatly diminished by
shooting.
CARIBOU DISEASE.--From time to time reports have come from the Province
of Quebec, and I think from Maine and New Brunswick also, of many
caribou having died of disease. The nature of that disease has remained
a mystery, because it seems that no pathologist ever has had an
opportunity to investigate it. Fortunately, however, the alleged disease
never has been sufficiently wide-spread or continuous to make
appreciable inroads on the total number of caribou, and apparently the
trouble has been local.
SCAB IN MOUNTAIN SHEEP.--"Scab" is a contagious and persistent skin
disease that affects sheep, and is destructive when not controlled.
Fifteen years ago it prevailed in some portions of the west. In Colorado
it has several times been reported that many bighorn mountain sheep were
killed by "scab," which was contracted on wild mountain pastures that
had been gone over by domestic sheep carrying that disease. From the
reports current at that time, we inferred that about 200 mountain sheep
had been affected. It was feared that the disease would spread through
the wild flocks and become general, but this did not occur. It seems
that the remnant flocks had become so isolated from one another that the
isolation of the affected flocks saved the others.
LUMPY-JAW IN ANTELOPE AND SHEEP.--It is a lamentable fact that some, at
least, of the United States herds of prong-horned antelope are afflicted
with a very deadly chronic infective disease known as actinomycosis, or
lumpy-jaw. It has been brought into the Zoological Park five times, by
specimens shipped from Colorado, Texas, Wyoming and Montana. I think our
first cases came to us in 1902.
In its early stage this disease is so subtle and slow that it is months
in developing; and this feature renders it all the more deadly, through
the spread of infection long before the ailment can be discovered.
One of our antelope arrivals, apparently in perfect health when
received, was on general principles kept isolated in rigid quarantine
for two months. At the expiration of that period, no disease of any kind
having become manifest, the animal was placed on exhibition, with two
others that had been in the Park for more than a year, in perfect
health.
In one more week the late arrival developed a swelling on its jaw,
drooled at the corner of the mouth, and became feverish,--sure symptoms
of the dread disease. At once it was removed and isolated, but in about
10 days it died. The other two antelopes were promptly attacked, and
eventually died.
The course of the disease is very intense, and thus far it has proven
incurable in our wild animals. We have lost about 10 antelopes from it,
and one deer, usually, in each case, within ten days or two weeks from
the discovery of the first outward sign,--the well known swelling on the
jaw. One case that was detected immediately upon arrival was very
persistently treated by Dr. Blair, and the animal actually survived for
four months, but finally it succumbed. From first to last not a single
case was cured.
In 1912, the future of the prong-horned antelope in real captivity seems
hopeless. We have decided not to bring any more specimens to our
institution, partly because all available candidates seem reasonably
certain to be affected with lumpy-jaw, and partly because we are
unwilling to run further risks of having other hoofed animals inoculated
by them. Today we are anxiously wondering whether the jaw disease of the
prong-horn is destined to exterminate the species. Such a catastrophe is
much to be feared. This is probably one of the reasons why the antelope
is steadily disappearing, despite protection.
In 1906 we discovered the existence of actinomycosis among the black
mountain sheep of northern British Columbia. Two specimens out of six
were badly affected, the bones of the jaws being greatly enlarged, and
perforated by deep pits. The black sheep of the Stickine and Iskoot
regions are so seldom seen by white men, save when a sportsman kills his
allotment of three specimens, we really do not know anything about the
extent to which actinomycosis prevails in those herds, or how deadly are
its effects. One thing seems quite certain, from the appearance of the
diseased skulls found by the writer in the taxidermic laboratory of
Frederick Sauter, in New York. The enormous swelling of the diseased jaw
bones clearly indicates a disease that in some cases affects its victim
throughout many months. Such a condition as we found in those sheep
could not have been reached in a few days after the disease became
apparent. Now, in our antelopes, the collapse and death of the victim
usually occurred in about 10 days from the time that the first swelling
was observed: which means a very virulent disease, and rapid progress at
the climax. The jaw of one of our antelopes, which was figured in Dr.
Blair's paper in the Eleventh Annual Report of the New York Zoological
Society (1906) shows only a very slight lesion, in comparison with those
of the mountain sheep.
The conclusion is that among the sheep, this disease does not carry off
its victims in any short period like 10 days. The animal must survive
for some months after it becomes apparent. At least two parties of
American sportsmen have shot rams afflicted with this disease, but I
have no reports of any sheep having been found dead from this cause.
This disease is well known among domestic cattle, but so far as we are
aware it never before has been found among wild animals. The black sheep
herds wherein it was found in British Columbia are absolutely isolated
from domestic cattle and all their influences, and therefore it seems
quite certain that the disease developed among the sheep
spontaneously,--a remarkable episode, to say the least. Whether it will
exterminate the black mountain sheep species, and in time spread to the
white sheep of the northwest, is of course a matter of conjecture; but
there is nothing in the world to prevent a calamity of that kind. The
white sheep of Yukon Territory range southward until in the Sheslay
Mountains they touch the sphere of influence of the black sheep, where
the disease could easily be transmitted. It would be a good thing if
there existed between the two species a sheepless zone about 200 miles
wide.
I greatly fear that actinomycosis is destined to play an important part
in the final extinction that seems to be the impending fate of the
beautiful and valuable prong-horned antelope. In view of our hard
experiences, extending through ten years (1902-1912), I think this fear
is justified. All persons who live in country still inhabited by
antelope are urged to watch for this disease. If any antelopes are found
dead, see if the lower jaw is badly swollen and discharging pus. If it
is, bury the body quickly, burn the ground over, and advise the writer
regarding the case.
THE RABBIT PLAGUE.--One of the strangest freaks of Nature of which we
know as effecting the wholesale destruction of wild animals by disease
is the rabbit plague. In the northern wilderness, and particularly
central Canada, where rabbits exist in great numbers and supply the
wants of a large carnivorous population, this plague is well known, and
among trappers and woodsmen is a common topic of conversation. The best
treatment of the subject is to be found in Ernest T. Seton's "Life
Histories of Northern Animals", Vol. I, p. 640 et seq. From this I
quote:
"Invariably the year of greatest numbers [of rabbits] is followed by a
year of plague, which sweeps them away, leaving few or no rabbits in the
land. The denser the rabbit population, the more drastically is it
ravaged by the plague. They are wiped out in a single spring by
epidemic diseases usually characterized by swellings of the throat,
sores under the armpits and groins, and by diarrhea."
"The year 1885 was for the country around Carberry 'a rabbit year,' the
greatest ever known in that country. The number of rabbits was
incredible. W.R. Hine killed 75 in two hours, and estimated that he
could have killed 500 in a day. The farmers were stricken with fear that
the rabbit pest of Australia was to be repeated in Manitoba. But the
years 1886-7 changed all that. The rabbits died until their bodies
dotted the country in thousands. The plague seemed to kill all the
members of the vast host of 1885."
The strangest item of Mr. Seton's story is yet to be told. In 1890 Mr.
Seton stocked his park at Cos Cob, Conn., with hares and rabbits from
several widely separated localities. In 1903, the plague came and swept
them all away. Mr. Seton sent specimens to the Zoological Park for
examination by the Park veterinary surgeon, Dr. W. Reid Blair. They were
found to be infested by great numbers of a dangerous bloodsucking
parasite known as _Strongylus strigosus_, which produces death by anemia
and emaciation. There were hundreds of those parasites in each animal. I
assisted in the examination, and was shown by Dr. Blair, under the
microscope, that _Strongylus_ puts forth eggs literally by hundreds of
thousands!
The life history of that parasite is not well known, but it may easily
develop that the cycle of its maximum destructiveness is seven years,
and therefore it may be accountable for the seven-year plague among the
hares and rabbits of the northern United States and Canada.
Possibly _Strongylus strigosus_ is all that stands between Canada and a
pest of rabbits like that of Australia. Just why this parasite is
inoperative in Australia, or why it has not been introduced there to
lessen the rabbit evil, we do not know. Mr. Seton declares that the
rabbits of his park were "subject to all the ills of the flesh, except
possibly writer's paralysis and housemaid's knee."
PARASITIC INFECTION OF WILD DUCKS.--The diseases of wild game,
especially waterfowl, grouse and quail, have caused heavy losses in
America as well as in European countries, and scientists have been
carefully investigating the cause and the general nature of the
maladies, as well as probable methods of prevention and cure. Mr. Geo.
Atkinson, a well-known practical naturalist of Portage la Prairie,
Manitoba, writes as follows to a local paper on this subject, which I
find quoted in the _National Sportsman_:
The question which has developed these important proportions during
the past year is that of the extent of the parasitic infection of
our wild ducks and other game, and the possibilities of the extended
transmission of these parasites to domestic stock, or even humanity,
by eating.
The parasites in question are contained in small elliptical cases
found underlying the surface muscles of the breast, and in advanced
cases extending deeper into the flesh and the muscular tissues of
the legs and wings. They are not noticeable in the ordinary process
of plucking the bird for the table, and are not found internally, so
that the only method of discovering their presence is by slitting
the skin of the breast and paring it back a few inches when the
worm-like sacs will be seen buried in the flesh.
These parasites have come to my notice periodically during the
process of skinning birds for mounting during the past number of
years, but it was only when they appeared in unusual numbers last
fall that I made inquiries of the biological bureaus of Washington
and Ottawa for information of their life history and the
possibilities of their transmission to other hosts.
Replies from these sources surprised me with the information that
very little was known of the life history of any of the
Sarcosporidia, of which group this was a species. Nothing was known
of the method of infection or the transference from host to host or
species to species, and both departments asked for specimens for
examination.
Authorities are a unit in opinion that the question is one of great
importance to game conservation, and although opinions of the
dangers from eating differ somewhat, a record is given of a hog fed
upon affected flesh developing parasites in the muscles in six
weeks' time, while a case of a man's death from dropsy was found to
be the result of development of these parasites in the valves of the
heart.
The ability of these low forms of life to withstand extremes of heat
makes it necessary for more than ordinary cooking to be assured of
killing them, and since their presence is unnoted in the ordinary
course of dressing the birds for the table, there is little doubt
that very considerable numbers of these parasites are consumed at
our tables every season, with results at present unknown to us.
The species I have found most particularly infected have been
mallards, shovellers, teal, gadwall and pintails, and the birds,
outwardly in the best condition, have frequently been found loaded
with sacs of these parasites and only the turning back of the breast
skin can disclose their presence.
The greatest slaughter of wild ducks by disease occurred on Great Salt
Lake, Utah. Until the "duck disease" (intestinal coccidiosis) broke out
there, in the summer of 1910, the annual market slaughter of ducks at
the mouth of Bear River had been enormous. When at Salt Lake City in
1888 I made an effort to arouse the sportsmen whom I met to the
necessity of a reform, but my exhortations fell on deaf ears. Naturally,
the sweeping away of the remaining ducks by disease would suggest a
heaven-sent judgment upon the slaughterers were it not for the fact that
the last state of the unfortunate ducks is if anything worse than the
first.
On Oct. 17, 1911, the annual report of the chief of the Biological
Survey contained the following information on this subject:
_Epidemic Among Wild Ducks on Great Salt Lake_.--Following a long
dry season, which favored the rearing of a large number of wild
ducks, but materially reduced the area of the feeding ponds,
resulting in great overcrowding, a severe epidemic broke out about
August 1, 1910, among the wild ducks about Great Salt Lake, Utah.
Dead ducks could be counted by thousands along the shores and the
disease raged unabated until late fall. Shooting clubs found it
necessary to declare a closed season. Some of the dead ducks were
forwarded to the Biological Survey and were turned over for
examination to the Bureau of Animal Industry, by the experts of
which the disease was diagnosed as intestinal coccidiosis.
Various plans of relieving the situation were tried. The irrigation
ditches were closed, thus providing the sloughs and ponds with fresh
water, and lime was sprinkled on the mud flats and duck trails.
Great improvement followed this treatment, and experiments proved
that ducks provided with abundant fresh water and clean food began
to recover immediately. These methods promised success, but later it
was proposed that the marshes be drained and exposed to the sun's
rays--a course which cannot be recommended. That coccidia are not
always killed by exposure to the sun is shown by their survival on
the sites of old chicken yards. An added disadvantage of the plan is
that draining and drying the marshes would have a bad effect on the
natural duck food, and upon the birds themselves.
* * * * *
CHAPTER X
DESTRUCTION OF WILD LIFE BY THE ELEMENTS
It is a fixed condition of Nature that whenever and wherever a wild
species exists in a state of nature, free from the trammels and
limitations that contact with man always imposes, the species is fitted
to survive all ordinary climatic influences. Freedom of action, and the
exercise of several options in the line of individual maintenance under
stress, is essential to the welfare of every wild species.
A prong-horned antelope herd that is free can drift before a blizzard,
can keep from freezing by the exercise, and eventually come to shelter.
Let that same herd drift against a barbed-wire fence five miles long,
and its whole scheme of self-preservation is upset. The herd perishes
then and there.
Cut out the undergrowth of a given section, drain the swamps and mow
down all the weeds and tall grass, and the next particularly hard winter
starves and freezes the quail.
Naturally the cutting of forests, clearing of brush and drainage of
marshes is more or less calamitous to all the species of birds that
inhabit such places and find there winter food and shelter. Red-winged
blackbirds and real estate booms can not inhabit the same swamps
contemporaneously. Before the relentless march of civilization, the wild
Indian, the bison and many of the wild birds must inevitably disappear.
We cannot change conditions that are as inexorable as death itself. The
wild life must either adjust itself to the conditions that civilized man
imposes upon it, or perish. I say "civilized man," for the reason that
the primitive races of man are not deadly exterminators of species, as
we are. I know of not one species of wild life that has been
exterminated by savage man without the aid of his civilized peers.
As civilization marches ever onward, over the prairies, into the bad
lands and the forests, over the mountains and even into the farthest
corner of Death Valley, the desert of deserts, the struggle of the wild
birds, mammals and fishes is daily and hourly intensified. Man must help
them to maintain themselves, or accept a lifeless continent. The best
help consists in letting the wild creatures throughly alone, so that
they can help themselves; but quail often need to be fed in critical
periods. The best food is wheat screenings placed under little tents of
straw, bringing food and shelter together.
In the well settled portions of the United States, such species as
quail, ruffed grouse, wild turkey, pinnated grouse and sage grouse hang
to life by slender threads. A winter of exceptionally deep snows, much
sleet, and a late spring always causes grave anxiety among the state
game wardens. In Pennsylvania a very earnest movement is in progress to
educate and persuade farmers to feed the quail in winter, and much good
is being done in that direction.
Mr. Erasmus Wilson, of the _Pittsburgh Gazette-Times_ is the apostle of
that movement.
_Quail should be fed every winter, in every northern state_. The methods
to be pursued will be mentioned elsewhere.
By way of illustration, here is a sample game report, from Las Animas,
Colorado, Feb. 22, 1912:
"After the most severe winter weather experienced for twenty years we
are able to compute approximately our loss of feathered life. It is
seventy-five per cent of the quail throughout the irrigated district,
and about twenty per cent of meadow-larks. In the rough cedar-covered
sections south of the Arkansas River, the loss among the quail was much
lighter. The ground sparrows suffered severely, while the English
sparrow seems to have come through in good shape. Many cotton-tail
rabbits starved to death, while the deep, light snow of January made
them easy prey for hawks and coyotes." (F.T. Webber).
It would be possible to record many instances similar to the above, but
why multiply them? And now behold the cruel corollary:
At least twenty-five times during the past two years I have heard and
read arguments by sportsmen against my proposal for a 5-year close
season for quail, taking the ground that "The sportsmen are not wholly
to blame for the scarcity of quail. It is the cold winters that kill
them off!"
So then, _because the fierce winters murder the bob white, wholesale,
they should not have a chance to recover themselves_! Could human beings
possibly assume a more absurd attitude?
Yes, it is coldly and incontestably true, that even after such winter
slaughter as Mr. Webber has reported above, the very next season will
find the quail hunter joyously taking the field, his face beaming with
health and good living, to hunt down and shoot to death as many as
possible of the pitiful 25 per cent remnant that managed to survive the
pitiless winter. How many quail hunters, think you, ever stayed their
hands because of "a hard winter on the quail?" I warrant not one out of
every hundred! How many states in this Union ever put on a close season
because of a hard winter? I'll warrant that not one ever did; and I
think there is only one state whose game commissioners have the power to
act in that way without recourse to the legislature. This situation is
intolerable.
Thanks to the splendid codified game laws enacted in New York state in
1912, our Conservation Commission can declare a close season in any
locality, for any length of time, when the state of the game demands an
emergency measure. This act is as follows; and it is a model law, which
every other state should speedily enact:
* * * * *
THE NEW YORK CLOSE-SEASON LAW.
_152. Petition for additional protection; notice of hearings; power
to grant additional protection; notice of prohibition or regulation;
penalties_.
_1. Petition for additional protection_. Any citizen of the state
may file with the commission a petition in writing requesting it to
give any species of fish, other than migratory food fish of the sea,
or game protected by law, additional or other protection than that
afforded by the provisions of this article. Such petition shall
state the grounds upon which such protection is considered
necessary, and shall be signed by the petitioner with his address.
_2. Notice of hearings_. The commission shall hold a public hearing
in the locality or county to be affected upon the allegations of
such petition within twenty days from the filing thereof. At least
ten days prior to such hearing notice thereof, stating the time and
place at which such hearing shall be held, shall be advertised in a
newspaper published in the county to be affected by such additional
or other protection. Such notice shall state the name and the
address of the petitioner, together with a brief statement of the
grounds upon which such application is made, and a copy thereof
shall be mailed to the petitioner at the address given in such
petition at least ten days before such hearing.
_3. Power to grant additional protection_. If upon such hearing the
commission shall determine that such species of fish or game, by
reason of disease, danger of extermination, or from any other cause
or reason, requires such additional or other protection, in any
locality or throughout the state, the commission shall have power to
prohibit or regulate, during the open season therefor, the taking of
such species of fish or game. Such prohibition or regulation may be
made general throughout the state or confined to a particular part
or district thereof.
_4. Notice of prohibition or regulation_. Any order made by the
commission under the provisions of this section shall be signed by
it, and entered in its minute book. At least thirty days before such
prohibition or regulation shall take effect, copies of the same
shall be filed in the office of the clerk issuing hunting and
trapping licenses for the district to which the prohibition or
regulation applies. It shall be the duty of said clerks to issue a
copy of said prohibition or regulation to each person to whom a
hunting or trapping license is issued by them; to mail a copy of
such prohibition or regulation to each holder of a hunting and
trapping license theretofore issued by them and at that time in
effect, and to post a copy thereof in a conspicuous place in their
office. At least thirty days before such prohibition or regulation
shall take effect the commission shall cause a notice thereof to be
advertised in a newspaper published in the county wherein such
prohibition or regulation shall take effect.
_5. Penalties_. Any person violating the provisions of such
prohibition, rule or regulation shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and
shall, upon conviction, be subject to a fine of not to exceed one
hundred dollars, or shall be imprisoned for not more than thirty
days, or both, for each offense, in addition to the penalties
hereinafter provided for taking fish, birds or quadrupeds in the
close season.
* * * * *
I want all sensible, honest sportsmen to stop citing the killing of game
birds by severe winters _as a reason_ why long close seasons are not
necessary, and why automatic guns "don't matter." And I want sportsmen
to consider their duty, and not go out hunting any game species that has
been slaughtered by a hard winter, until it has had at least five years
in which to recover. Any other course is cruel, selfish, and
shortsighted; and a word to the humane should be sufficient.
The worst exhibitions ever made of the wolfish instinct to slay that
springs eternal in some human (!) breasts are those brought about
through the distress or errors of wild animals. By way of illustration,
consider the slaughter of half-starved elk that took place in the edge
of Idaho in the winter of 1909 and 1910, when about seven hundred elk
that were driven out of the Yellowstone Park at its northwestern corner
by the deep snow, fled into Idaho in the hope of finding food. The
inhabitants met the starving herds with repeating rifles, and as the
unfortunate animals struggled westward through the snow and storm, they
were slaughtered without mercy. Bulls and cows, old and young, all of
the seven hundred, went down; and Stoney Indians could not have acted
any worse than did those "settlers."
On another occasion, it is recorded that the prong-horned antelope herd
of the Mammoth Hot Springs wandered across the line into Gardiner, and
quickly met a savage attack of gunners with rifles. A number of those
rare and valuable animals were killed, and others fled back into the
Park with broken legs dangling in the air.
In the interest of public decency, and for the protection of the
reputation of American citizenship, one of two things should be done.
The northern boundary of the Park should be extended northward beyond
Gardiner, or else the deathtrap should be moved elsewhere. The case of
the town of Gardiner is referred to the legislature of Montana for
treatment.
Beyond question, the highest sentiments of humanity are those that are
stirred by the misfortunes of killable game. During the past thirty
years, I have noticed some interesting manifestations of the increased
sympathy for wild creatures that steadily is growing in a large section
of the public mind. Thirty years ago, the appearance of a deer or moose
in the streets of any eastern village nearly always was in itself a
signal for a grand chase of the unfortunate creature, and its speedy
slaughter. Today, in the eastern states, the general feeling is quite
different. The appearance of a deer in the Hudson River itself, or a
moose in a Maine village is a signal, not for a wild chase and cruel
slaughter, but for a general effort to save the animal from being hurt,
or killed. I know this through ocular proof, at least half a dozen lost
and bewildered deer having been carefully driven into yards, or barns,
and humanely kept and cared for until they could be shipped to us.
Several have been caught while swimming in the Hudson, bewildered and
panic-stricken. The latest capture occurred in New York City itself.
A puma that escaped (about 1902) from the Zoological Park, instead of
being shot was captured by sensible people in the hamlet of Bronxdale,
alive and unhurt, and safely returned to us.
In some portions of the east, though not all, the day of the hue and cry
over "a wild animal in town" seems to be about over. On Long Island some
humane persons found an injured turkey vulture, and took it in and cared
for it,--only to be persecuted by ill-advised game wardens, because they
had a forbidden wild bird "in their possession!" There are times when it
is the highest (moral) duty of a game warden to follow the advice of
Private Mulvaney to the "orficer boy," and "Shut yer oye to the
rigulations, sorr!"
Such occurrences as these are becoming more and more common. _The desire
of "the great silent majority" is to SAVE the wild creatures_; and it
is in response to that sentiment that thousands of people are today in
the field against the Army of Destruction.
It is the duty of every sportsman to assist in promoting the passage of
a law like our New York law which empowers the State Game Commission to
throw extra protection around any species that has been slaughtered too
much by snow or by firearms, by closing the open season as long as may
be necessary. Can there be in all America even one thinking, reasoning
being who can not see the justice and also the imperative necessity of
this measure? It seems impossible.
Give the game the benefit of every doubt! If it becomes too thick, your
gun can quickly thin it out; but if it is once exterminated, it will be
impossible to bring it back. Be wise; and take thought for the morrow.
Remember the heath hen.
SLAUGHTER OF BLUEBIRDS.--In the late winter and early spring of 1896 the
wave of bluebirds was caught on its northward migration by a period of
unseasonably cold and fearfully tempestuous weather, involving much
icy-cold rain and sleet. Now, there is no other climatic condition that
is so hard for a wild bird or mammal to withstand as rain at the
freezing point, and a mantle of ice or frozen snow over all supplies of
food.
The bluebirds perished by thousands. The loss occurred practically all
along their east-and-west line of migration, from Arkansas to the
Atlantic Coast. In places the species seemed almost exterminated; and it
was several years ere it recovered to a point even faintly approximating
its original population. I am quite certain that the species never has
recovered more than 50 per cent of the number that existed previous to
the calamity.
DUCK CHOLERA IN THE BRONX RIVER.--In 1911, some unknown but new and
particularly deadly element, probably introduced in sewage, contaminated
the waters of Bronx River where it flows through New York City, with
results very fatal in the Zoological Park. The large flock of mallard
ducks, Canada geese, and snow geese on Lake Agassiz was completely wiped
out. In all about 125 waterfowl died in rapid succession, from causes
commonly classed under the popular name of "duck cholera." The disease
was carried to other bodies of water in the Park that were fed from
other sources, but made no headway elsewhere than on lakes fed by the
polluted Bronx River.
Fortunately the work of the Bronx River Parkway Commission soon will
terminate the present very unsanitary condition of that stream.
WILD DUCKS IN DISTRESS.--In the winter of 1911-12, many flocks of wild
ducks decided to winter in the North. Many persons believe that this was
largely due to the prevention of late winter and spring shooting; which
seems reasonable. Unfortunately the winter referred to proved
exceptionally severe and formed vast sheets of thick ice over the
feeding-grounds where the ducks had expected to obtain their food. On
Cayuga, Seneca and other lakes in central New York, and on the island of
Martha's Vineyard, the flocks of ducks suffered very severely, and many
perished of hunger and cold. _But for the laws prohibiting late winter
shooting undoubtedly all of them would have been shot and eaten,
regardless of their distress_.
Game wardens and humane citizens made numerous efforts to feed the
starving flocks, and many ducks were saved in that way. An illustrated
article on the distressed ducks of Keuka Lake, by C. William Beebe and
Verdi Burtch, appeared in the _Zoological Society Bulletin_ for May,
1912. Fortunately there is every reason to believe that such occurrences
will be rare.
WILD SWANS SWEPT OVER NIAGARA FALLS.--During the past ten years, several
winter tragedies to birds have occurred on a large scale at Niagara
Falls. Whole flocks of whistling swans of from 20 up to 70 individuals
alighting in the Niagara River above the rapids have permitted
themselves to float down into the rapids, and be swept over the Falls,
en masse. On each occasion, the great majority of the birds were
drowned, or killed on the rocks. Of the very few that survived, few if
any were able to rise and fly out of the gorge below the Falls to
safety. It is my impression that about 200 swans recently have perished
in this strange way.
* * * * *
CHAPTER XI
SLAUGHTER OF SONG-BIRDS BY ITALIANS
In these days of wild-life slaughter, we hear much of death and
destruction. Before our eyes there continually arise photographs of
hanging masses of waterfowl, grouse, pheasants, deer and fish, usually
supported in true heraldic fashion by the men who slew them and the
implements of slaughter. The world has become somewhat hardened to these
things, because the victims are classed as game; and in the destruction
of game, one game-bag more or less "Will not count in the news of the
battle."
The slaughter of song, insectivorous and all other birds by Italians and
other aliens from southern Europe has become a scourge to the bird life
of this country. The devilish work of the negroes and poor whites of the
South will be considered in the next chapter. In Italy, linnets and
sparrows are "game"; and so is everything else that wears feathers!
Italy is a continuous slaughtering-ground for the migratory birds of
Europe, and as such it is an international nuisance and a pest. The way
passerine birds are killed and eaten in that country is a disgrace to
the government of Italy, and a standing reproach to the throne. Even
kings and parliaments have no right in moral or international law to
permit year after year the wholesale slaughter of birds of passage of
species that no civilized man has a right to kill.
There are some tales of slaughter from which every properly-balanced
Christian mind is bound to recoil with horror. One such tale has
recently been given to us in the pages of the _Avicultural Magazine_, of
London, for January, 1912, by Mr. Hubert D. Astley, F.Z.S., whose word
no man will dispute. In condensing it, let us call it
* * * * *
THE ITALIAN SLAUGHTER OF THE INNOCENTS
This story does not concern game birds of any kind. Quite the contrary.
That it should be published in America, a land now rapidly filling up
with Italians, is a painful necessity in order that the people of
America may be enabled accurately to measure the fatherland traditions
and the fixed mental attitude of Italians generally toward our song
birds. I shall now hold a mirror up to Italian nature. If the image is
either hideous or grotesque, the fault will not be mine. I specially
commend the picture to the notice of American game wardens and judges on
the bench.
The American reader must be reminded that the Italian peninsula reaches
out a long arm of land into the Mediterranean Sea for several hundred
miles toward the sunny Barbary coast of North Africa. This great
southward highway has been chosen by the birds of central Europe as
their favorite migration route. Especially is this true of the small
song-birds with weak wings and a minimum of power for long-sustained
flight. Naturally, they follow the peninsula down to the Italian Land's
End before they launch forth to dare the passage of the Mediterranean.
[Illustration: AN ITALIAN ROCCOLO, ON LAKE COMO
A Death-Trap for Song-Birds. From the Avicultural Magazine]
Italy is the narrow end of a great continental funnel, into the wide
northern end of which Germany, Austria, France and Switzerland annually
pour their volume of migratory bird life. And what is the result? For
answer let us take the testimony of two reliable witnesses, and file it
for use on the day when Tony Macchewin, gun in hand and pockets bulging
with cartridges, goes afield in our country and opens fire on our birds.
The linnet is one of the sweet singers of Europe. It is a small,
delicately formed, weak-winged little bird, about the size of our
phoebe-bird. It weighs only a trifle more than a girl's love-letter.
Where it breeds and rears its young, in Germany for example, a true
sportsman would no more think of shooting a linnet than he would of
killing and eating his daughter's dearest canary.
To the migrating bird, the approach to northern Italy, either going or
returning, is not through a land of plenty. The sheltering forests have
mostly been swept away, and safe shelters for small birds are very rare.
In the open, there are owls and hawks; and the only refuge from either
is the thick-leafed grove, into which linnets and pipits can dive at the
approach of danger and quickly hide.
A linnet from the North after days of dangerous travel finally reached
Lake Como, southward bound. The country was much too open for safety,
and its first impulse was to look about for safe shelter. The low bushes
that sparsely covered the steep hillsides were too thin for refuge in
times of sudden danger.
Ah! Upon a hilltop is a little grove of trees, green and inviting. In
the grove a bird is calling, calling, insistently. The trees are very
small; but they seem to stand thickly together, and their foliage should
afford a haven from both hawk and gunner. To it joyously flits the tired
linnet. As it perches aloft upon a convenient whip-like wand, it notices
for the first time a queer, square brick tower of small dimensions,
rising in the center of a court-yard surrounded by trees. The tower is
like an old and dingy turret that has been shorn from a castle, and set
on the hilltop without apparent reason. It is two stories in height,
with one window, dingy and uninviting. A door opens into its base.
Several birds that seem very near, but are invisible, frequently call
and chirp, as if seeking answering calls and companionship. Surely the
grove must be a safe place for birds, or they would not be here.
Hark! A whirring, whistling sound fills the air, like the air tone of a
flying hawk's wings. A hawk! A hawk!
Down plunges the scared linnet, blindly, frantically, into the space
sheltered by the grove!
Horrors! What is this?
Threads! Invisible, interlacing threads; tangled and full of pockets,
treacherously spanning the open space. It is a fowler's net! The linnet
is entangled. It flutters frantically but helplessly, and hangs there,
caught. Its alarm cry is frantically answered by the two strange,
invisible bird voices that come from the top of the tower!
The grove and the tower are A ROCCOLO! A huge, permanent, merciless,
deadly _trap_, for the wholesale capture of songbirds! The tower is the
hiding place of the fowler, and the calling birds are decoy birds whose
eyes have been totally blinded by red-hot wires in order that they will
call more frantically than birds with eyes would do. The whistling wings
that seemed a hawk were a sham, made by a racquet thrown through the air
by the fowler, through a slot in his tower. He keeps by him many such
racquets.
The door of the tower opens, and out comes the fowler. He is lowbrowed,
swarthy, ill kept, and wears rings in his ears. A soiled hand seizes the
struggling linnet, and drags it violently from the threads that
entangled it. A sharp-pointed twig is thrust straight through the head
of the helpless victim _at the eyes_, and after one wild, fluttering
agony--it is dead.
The fowler sighs contentedly, re-enters his dirty and foul-smelling
tower, tosses the feathered atom upon the pile of dead birds that lies
upon the dirty floor in a dirty corner,--and is ready for the next one.
Ask him, as did Mr. Astley, and he will tell you frankly that there are
about 150 dead birds in the pile,--starlings, sparrows, linnets,
greenfinches, chaffinches, goldfinches, hawfinches, redstarts,
blackcaps, robins, song thrushes, blackbirds, blue and coal tits,
fieldfares and redwings. He will tell you also, that there are _seven
other roccolos within sight and twelve within easy walking distance_. He
will tell you, as he did Mr. Astley, that during that week he had taken
about 500 birds, and that that number was a fair average for each of the
12 other roccolos.
This means the destruction of about 5,000 songbirds per week _in that
neighborhood alone!_ Another keeper of a roccolo told Mr. Astley that
during the previous autumn he took about 10,000 birds at his small and
comparatively insignificant roccolo.
And above that awful roccolo of slaughtered innocents rose _a wooden
cross_, in memory of Christ, the Merciful, the Compassionate!
Around the interior of the entwined sapling tops that formed the fatal
bower of death there hung a semicircle of tiny cages containing live
decoys,--chaffinches, hawfinches, titmice and several other species.
"The older and staider ones call repeatedly," says Mr. Astley, "and the
chaffinches break into song. It is the only song to be heard in Italy at
the time of the autum migration."
And the King of Italy, the Queen of Italy, the Parliament of Italy and
His Holiness the Pope permit these things, year in and year out. It is
now said, however, that through the efforts of a recently organized
bird-lovers' society in Italy, the blinding of decoy birds for roccolos
is to be stopped.
In Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, the protection of these birds
during their breeding season must be very effective, for otherwise the
supply for the Italian slaughter of the Innocents would long ago have
fallen to nothing.
The Germans love birds, and all wild life. I wonder how they like the
Italian roccolo. I wonder how France regards it; and whether the nations
of Europe north of Italy will endure this situation forever.
To the American and English reader, comment on the practices recorded
above is quite unnecessary, except the observation that they betoken a
callousness of feeling and a depth of cruelty and destructiveness to
which, so far as known, no savages ever yet have sunk. As an exhibit of
the groveling pusillanimity of the human soul, the roccolo of northern
Italy reveals minus qualities which can not be expressed either in words
or in figures.
And what is the final exhibit of the gallant knight of the roccolo, the
feudal lord of the modern castle and its retainers?
The answer is given by Dr. Louis B. Bishop, in an article on "Birds in
the Markets of Southern Europe."
In Venice, which was visited in October and November, during the fall
migration, he found on sale in the markets, as food, thousands of
songbirds.
"Birds were there in profusion, from ducks to kites, in the early
morning, hung in great bunches above the stalls, but by 9 A.M. most of
them had been sold. Ducks and shorebirds occurred in some numbers, but
the vast majority were small sparrows, larks and thrushes. These were
there during my visit by the thousands, if not ten thousands. To the
market they were brought in large sacks, strung in fours on twigs which
had been passed through the eyes and then tied. Most of these small
birds had been trapped, and on skinning them I often could find no
injury except at their eyes.[C] One of these sacks which I examined on
November 3, contained hundreds of birds, largely siskins, skylarks and
bramblings. As a rule the small birds that were not sold in the early
morning were skinned or picked, and their tiny bodies packed in regular
order, breasts up, in shadow tin boxes, and exposed for sale."
[Footnote C: It is probable that these birds were killed by piercing the
head through the eyes.]
"During these visits to the Venetian markets, I identified 60 species,
and procured specimens of most. As nearly as I can remember, small birds
cost from two to five cents apiece. For example I paid $2.15 on Nov. 8,
for
1 Woodcock, 1 Skylark,
1 Jay, 1 Greenfinch,
2 Starlings, 1 Bullfinch,
2 Spotted Crakes, 1 Redpoll.
1 Song Thrush, 3 Linnets,
1 Gold-Crest, 2 Goldfinches,
1 Long-Tailed Titmouse, 6 Siskins,
1 Great Titmouse, 3 Reed Buntings,
1 Pipit, 3 Bramblings,
1 Redstart, --and 5 Chaffinches.
"On November 10, I paid $3.25 for
2 Coots, 1 European Curlew,
1 Water Rail, 2 Kingfishers,
1 Spotted Crake, 2 Greenfinches,
1 Sparrow Hawk, 2 Wrens,
2 Woodcock, 2 Great Titmouse,
1 Common Redshank, 2 Blue Titmouse,
1 Dusky Redshank, 1 Redbreast, and
2 Dunlins."
Of course there were various species of upland game birds, shore-birds
and waterfowl,--everything, in fact, that could be found and killed. In
addition to the passerine birds listed above. Dr. Bishop noted the
following, all in Venice alone:
Skylark ("in great numbers"),
Crested Lark, Crossbill,
Calandra, House Sparrow,
Tree Sparrow, Stonechat,
Hawfinch, Coal,
Yellow-Hammer, Goldcrest,
Blackbird, Rock Pipit,
Fieldfare, White Wagtail,
Song Thrush, Redwing.
"In Florence," says Dr. Bishop, "I visited the central market on
November 26, 28, 29, 30, December 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9, and found
birds even more plentiful than in Venice." Besides a variety of game
birds, he found quantities of the species mentioned above, seen in
Venice, and also the following:
Green Sandpiper, Brown Creeper,
Dotterel, Nuthatch,
Magpie, Black-Cap Warbler,
Corn Bunting, Black-Headed Warbler,
Migratory Quail, Fantail Warbler,
Green Woodpecker, Missel Thrush,
Spotted Woodpecker, Ring Ouzel,
Wood Lark, Rock Sparrow, and
Gray Wagtail.
"Here, too [at Florence] we saw often, bunches and baskets of small
birds, chiefly redbreasts, hawked through the streets.... Every Sunday
that we went into the country we met numbers of Italians out shooting,
and their bags seemed to consist wholly of small birds.
"At Genoa, San Remo, Monte Carlo and Nice, between December 13 and 29, I
did not visit the central markets, if such exist, but saw frequently
bunches of small birds hanging outside stores.... A gentleman who spent
the fall on an automobile trip through the west of FRANCE _from Brittany
to the Pyrenees, tells me he noticed these bunches of small birds on
sale in every town he visited_.
"That killing song-birds for food," continues Dr. Bishop, "is not
confined to the poor Italians I learned on October 27, when one of the
most prominent and wealthy Italian _ornithologists_--a delightful
man--told me he had shot 180 skylarks and pipits the day before, and
that his family liked them far better than other game. Our prejudice
against selling game does not exist in Europe, and this same
ornithologist told me he often shot 200 ducks in a day at his
shooting-box, sending to the market what he could not use himself. On
November 1, 1910, he shot 82 ducks, and on November 8, 103, chiefly
widgeon and teal."
An "ornithologist" indeed! A "sportsman" also, is he not? He belongs
with his brother "ornithologists" of the roccolos, who net their "game"
with the aid of _blind_ birds! Brave men, gallant "sportsmen," are these
men of Italy,--and western France also if the tale is true!
If the people of Europe can stand the wholesale, systematic slaughter of
their song and insectivorous birds, _we can_! If they are too
mean-spirited to rise up, make a row about it, and stop it, then let
them pay the price; but, by the Eternal, Antonio shall not come to this
country with the song-bird tastes of the roccolo and indulge them here!
The above facts have been cited, not at all for the benefit of Europe,
but for our own good. The American People are now confronted by the
Italian and Austrian and Hungarian laborer and saloon-keeper and
mechanic, and all Americans should have an exact measure of the
sentiments of southern Europe toward our wild life generally, especially
the birds that we do not shoot at all, _and therefore are easy to kill_.
When a warden or a citizen arrests an alien for killing any of our
non-game birds, show the judge these records of how they do things in
Italy, and ask for the extreme penalty.
I have taken pains to publish the above facts from eye-witnesses in
order that every game commissioner, game warden and state legislator who
reads these pages may know exactly what he is "up against" in the alien
population of our country from southern Europe. For unnumbered
generations, the people of Italy have been taught to believe that it is
_perfectly right_ to shoot and devour every song-bird that flies. The
Venetian is no respecter of species; and when an Italian "ornithologist"
(!) can go out and murder 180 linnets and pipits in one day for the pot,
it is time for Americans to think hard.
We sincerely hope that it will not require blows and kicks and fines to
remove from Antonio's head the idea that America is not Italy, and that
the slaughter of song birds "don't go" in this country. I strongly
recommend to every state the enactment of a law that will do these
things:
1.--Prohibit the owning, carrying or use of firearms by aliens, and
2.--Prohibit the use of firearms in hunting by any naturalized alien
from southern Europe until after a 10-years' residence in America.
From reports that have come to me at first hand regarding Italians in
the East, Hungarians in Pennsylvania and Austrians in Minnesota, it
seems absolutely certain that all members of the lower classes of
southern Europe are a dangerous menace to our wild life.
On account of the now-accursed land-of-liberty idea, every foreigner
who sails past the statue on Bedloe's Island and lands on our
liberty-ridden shore, is firmly convinced that _now, at last_, he can do
as he pleases! And as one of his first ways in which to show his
newly-acquired personal liberty and independence in the Land of Easy
Marks, he buys a gun and goes out to shoot "free game!"
If we, as a people, are so indolent and so somnolent that Antonio gets
away with all our wild birds, then do we deserve to be robbed.
Italians are pouring into America in a steady stream. They are strong,
prolific, persistent and of tireless energy. New York City now contains
340,000 of them. They work while the native Americans sleep. Wherever
they settle, their tendency is to root out the native American and take
his place and his income. Toward wild life the Italian laborer is a
human mongoose. Give him power to act, and he will quickly exterminate
every wild thing that wears feathers or hair. To our songbirds he is
literally a "pestilence that walketh at noonday".
As we have shown, the Italian is a born pot-hunter, and he has grown up
in the fixed belief that killing song-birds for food is right! To him
all is game that goes into the bag. The moment he sets foot in the open,
he provides himself with a shot-gun, and he looks about for things to
kill. It is "a free country;" therefore, he may kill anything he can
find, cook it and eat it. If anybody attempts to check him,--sapristi!
beware his gun! He cheerfully invades your fields, and even your lawn;
and he shoots robins, bluebirds, thrushes, catbirds, grosbeaks,
tanagers, orioles, woodpeckers, quail, snipe, ducks, crows, and herons.
Down in Virginia, near Charlottesville, an Italian who was working on a
new railroad once killed a turkey buzzard; and he selfishly cooked it
and ate it, all alone. A pot-hunting compatriot of his heard of it, and
reproached him for having-dined on game in camera. In the quarrel that
ensued, one of the "sportsmen" stabbed the other to death.
When the New York Zoological Society began work on its Park in 1899, the
northern half of the Borough of the Bronx was a regular daily
hunting-ground for the slaughter of song-birds, and all other birds that
could be found. Every Sunday it was "bangetty!" "bang!" from Pelham Bay
to Van Cortlandt. The police force paid not the slightest attention to
these open, flagrant, shameless violations of the city ordinances and
the state bird laws. In those days I never but once heard of a policeman
_on his own initiative_ arresting a birdshooter, even on Sunday; but
whenever meddlesome special wardens from the Zoological Park have
pointedly called upon the local police force for help, it has always
been given with cheerful alacrity. In the fall of 1912 an appeal to the
Police Commissioner resulted in a general order to stop all hunting and
shooting in the Borough of the Bronx, and a reform is now on.
The war on the bird-killers in New York City began in 1900. It seemed
that if the Zoological Society did not take up the matter, the slaughter
would continue indefinitely. The white man's burden was taken up; and
the story of the war is rather illuminating. Mr. G.O. Shields,
President of the League of American Sportsmen, quickly became interested
in the matter, and entered actively into the campaign. For months
unnumbered, he spent every Sunday patroling the woods and thickets of
northern New York and Westchester county, usually accompanied by John J.
Rose and Rudolph Bell of the Zoological Park force, for whom
appointments as deputy game wardens had been secured from the State.
The adventures of that redoubtable trio of man-hunters would make an
interesting chapter. They were shot at by poachers, but more frequently
they shot at the other fellows. Just why it was that no one was killed,
no one seems to know. Many Italians and several Americans were arrested
while hunting, haled to court, prosecuted and fined. Finally, a reign of
terror set in; and that was the beginning of the end. It became known
that those three men could not be stopped by threats, and that they
always got their man--unless he got into a human rabbit-warren of the
Italian boarding-house species. That was the only escape that was
possible.
The largest haul of dead birds was 43 robins, orioles, thrushes and
woodpeckers, captured along with the five Italians who committed the
indiscretion of sitting down in the woods to divide their dead birds. We
saved all the birds in alcohol, and showed them in court. The judge
fined two of the Italians $50 each, and the other three were sent to the
penitentiary for two months each.
Even yet, however, at long intervals an occasional son of sunny Italy
tries his luck at Sunday bird shooting; but if anyone yells at him to
"Halt!" he throws away his gun and stampedes through the brush like a
frightened deer. The birds of upper New York are now fairly secure; but
it has taken ten years of fighting to bring it about.
Throughout New York State, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Connecticut,
Massachusetts, and even Minnesota, wherever there are large settlements
of Italians and Hungarians, the reports are the same. They swarm through
the country every Sunday, and shoot every wild thing they see. Wherever
there are large construction works,--railroads, canals or
aqueducts,--look for bird slaughter, and you are sure to find it. The
exception to this rule, so far as I know, is along the line of the new
Catskill aqueduct, coming to New York City. The contractors have elected
not to permit bird slaughter, and the rule has been made that any man
who goes out hunting will instantly be discharged. That is the best rule
that ever was made for the protection of birds and game against
gang-working aliens.
Let every state and province in America look out sharply for the
bird-killing foreigner; for sooner or later, he will surely attack your
wild life. The Italians are spreading, spreading, spreading. If you are
without them to-day, to-morrow they will be around you. Meet them at the
threshold with drastic laws, throughly enforced; for no half way
measures will answer.
Pennsylvania has had the worst experience of alien slaughterers of any
state, thus far. _Six_ of her game wardens have been _killed_, and eight
or ten have been wounded, by shooting! Finally her legislature arose in
wrath, and passed a law prohibiting the ownership or possession of guns
of any kind by aliens. The law gives the right of domiciliary search,
and it surely is enforced. Of course the foreign population "kicked"
against the law, but the People's steam roller went over them just the
same. In New York, we require from an alien a license costing $20, and
it has saved a million (perhaps) of our birds; but the Pennsylvania law
is the best. It may be taken as a model for every state and province in
America. Its text is as follows:
Section I. Be it enacted, &c., That from and after the passage of
this act, it shall be unlawful for any unnaturalized foreign-born
resident to hunt for or capture or kill, in this Commonwealth, any
wild bird or animal, either game or otherwise, of any description,
excepting in defense of person or property; and to that end it shall
be unlawful for any unnaturalized foreign-born resident, within this
Commonwealth, to either own or be possessed of a shotgun or rifle of
any make. Each and every person violating any provision of this
section shall, upon conviction thereof, be sentenced to pay a
penalty of twenty-five dollars for each offense, or undergo
imprisonment in the common jail of the county for the period of one
day for each dollar of penalty imposed. Provided, That in addition
to the before-named penalty, all guns of the before-mentioned kinds
found in possession or under control of an unnaturalized
foreign-born resident shall, upon conviction of such person, or upon
his signing a declaration of guilt as prescribed by this act, be
declared forfeited to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and shall be
sold by the Board of Game Commissioners as hereinafter directed.
Section 2. For the purpose of this act, any unnaturalized
foreign-born person who shall reside or live within the boundaries
of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania for ten consecutive days shall
be considered a resident and shall be liable to the penalties
imposed for violation of the provisions of this act.
Section 3. That the possession of a shotgun or rifle at any place
outside of a building, within this Commonwealth, by an unnaturalized
foreign-born resident, shall be conclusive proof of a violation of
the provisions of section one of this act, and shall render any
person convicted thereof liable to the penalty as fixed by said
section.
Section 4. That the presence of a shotgun or rifle in a room or
house, or building or tent, or camp of any description, within this
Commonwealth, occupied by or controlled by an unnaturalized
foreign-born resident shall be prima facie evidence that such gun is
owned or controlled by the person occupying or controlling the
property in which such gun is found, and shall render such person
liable to the penalty imposed by section one of this act.
Other sections provide for the full enforcement of this law.
It is now high time, and an imperative public necessity, that every
state should act in this matter, before its bird life is suddenly
attacked, and serious inroads made upon it. Do it NOW! The enemy is
headed your way. Don't wait for him to strike the first blow!
_Duty of the Italian Press and Clergy_.--Now what is the best remedy for
the troubles that will arise for Italians in America because of wrong
principles established in Italy? It is not in the law, the police, the
court and the punishment. It is in _educating the Italian into a
knowledge of the duties of the good citizen_! The Italian press and
clergy can do this; and _no one else can do it so easily, so quickly and
so well_!
Those two powerful forces should enter seriously upon this task. In
every other respect, the naturalized Italian tries to become a good
citizen, and adjust himself to the laws and the customs of his new
country. Why should he not do this in regard to bird life? It is not too
much to ask, nor is it too much to _exact_. Does the Italian workman, or
store-keeper who makes his living by honest toil _enjoy_ breaking our
bird laws, _enjoy_ irritating and injuring those with whom he has come
to live? Does he _enjoy_ being watched, and searched, and chased, and
arrested,--all for a few small birds that he _does not need_ for food?
He earns good wages; he has plenty of good food; and he must be
_educated_ into protecting our birds instead of destroying them. The
Italian newspapers and clergy have a serious duty to perform in this
matter, and we hope they will diligently discharge it.
[Illustration: DEAD SONG-BIRDS
These jars contain the dead bodies of 43 valuable insectivorous birds
that were taken from two Italians in October, 1905, in the suburbs of
New York City, by game wardens of the New York Zoological Society.]
* * * * *
CHAPTER XII
DESTRUCTION OF SONG BIRDS BY SOUTHERN NEGROES AND POOR WHITES
Before going farther, there is one point that I wish to make quite
clear.
Whenever the people of a particular race make a specialty of some
particular type of wrong-doing, anyone who pointedly rebukes the faulty
members of that race is immediately accused of "race prejudice." On
account of the facts I am now setting forth about the doings of Italian
and negro bird-killers, I expect to be accused along that line. If I am,
I shall strenuously deny the charge. The facts speak for themselves.
Zoologically, however, I am strongly prejudiced against the people of
any race, creed, club, state or nation who make a specialty of any
particularly offensive type of bird or wild animal slaughter; and I do
not care who knows it.
The time was, and I remember it very well, when even the poorest gunner
scorned to kill birds that were not considered "game." In days lang
syne, many a zoological collector has been jeered because the specimens
he had killed for preservation were not "game."
But times have changed. In the wearing of furs, we have bumped down
steps both high and steep. In 1880 American women wore sealskin, marten,
otter, beaver and mink. To-day nothing that wears hair is too humble to
be skinned and worn. To-day "they are wearing" skins of muskrats, foxes,
rabbits, skunks, domestic cats, squirrels, and even rats. And see how
the taste for game,--of some sections of our population,--also has gone
down.
In the North, the Italians are fighting for the privilege of eating
everything that wears feathers; but we allow no birds to be shot for
food save game birds and cranes. In the South, the negroes and poor
whites are killing song-birds, woodpeckers and doves for food; and in
several states some of it is done under the authority of the laws. Look
at these awful lists:
* * * * *
IN THESE STATES, ROBINS ARE LEGALLY SHOT AND EATEN:
Louisiana North Carolina Tennessee Texas
Mississippi South Carolina Maryland Florida
IN THESE STATES, BLACKBIRDS ARE LEGALLY SHOT AND EATEN:
Louisiana Pennsylvania Tennessee
District of Columbia South Carolina
CRANES ARE SHOT AND EATEN IN THESE STATES:
Colorado North Dakota Nevada Oklahoma Nebraska
In Mississippi, the _cedar bird_ is legally shot and eaten! In North
Carolina, the meadow lark is shot and eaten.
IN THE FOLLOWING STATES, DOVES ARE CONSIDERED "GAME," AND ARE SHOT IN AN
"OPEN SEASON:"
Alabama Georgia Minnesota Ohio
Arkansas Idaho Mississippi Oregon
California Illinois Missouri Pennsylvania
Connecticut Kentucky Nebraska South Carolina
Delaware Louisiana New Mexico Tennessee
Dist. of Columbia Maryland North Carolina Texas
Utah Virginia
* * * * *
The killing of doves represents a great and widespread decline in the
ethics of sportsmanship. In the twenty-six States named, a great many
men who _call_ themselves sportsmen indulge in the cheap and ignoble
pastime of potting weak and confiding doves. It is on a par with the
"sport" of hunting English sparrows in a city street. Of course this is,
to a certain extent, a matter of taste; but there is at least one club
of sportsmen into which no dove-killer can enter, provided his standard
of ethics is known in advance.
With the killing of robins, larks, blackbirds and cedar birds for food,
the case is quite different. No white man calling himself a sportsman
ever indulges in such low pastimes as the killing of such birds for
food. That burden of disgrace rests upon the negroes and poor whites of
the South; but at the same time, it is a shame that respectable white
men sitting in state legislatures should deliberately enact laws
_permitting_ such disgraceful practices, or permit such disgraceful and
ungentlemanly laws to remain in force!
Here is a case by way of illustration, copied very recently from the
Atlanta _Journal_:
Editor _Journal_:--I located a robin roost up the Trinity River, six
miles from Dallas, and prevailed on six Dallas sportsmen to go with
me on a torch-light bird hunt. This style of hunting was, of course,
new to the Texans, but they finally consented to go, and I had the
pleasure of showing them how it was done.
Equipped with torch lights and shot guns, we proceeded. After
reaching the hunting grounds the sport began in reality, and
continued for two hours and ten minutes, with a total slaughter of
10,157 birds, an average of 1,451 birds killed by each man.
But the Texans give me credit for killing at least 2,000 of the
entire number. I was called 'the king of bird hunters' by the
sportsmen of Dallas, Texas, and have been invited to
command-in-chief the next party of hunters which go from Dallas to
the Indian Territory in search of large game.--F.L. CROW, Dallas,
Texas, former Atlantan.
Dallas, Texas, papers and Oklahoma papers, please copy!
As a further illustration of the spirit manifested in the South toward
robins, I quote the following story from Dr. P.P. Claxton, of the
University of Tennessee, as related in Audubon Educational Leaflet No.
46, by Mr. T. Gilbert Pearson:--
"The roost to which I refer," says Professor Claxton, "was situated in
what is locally known as a 'cedar glade,' near Porestville, Bedford Co.,
Tennessee. This is a great cedar country, and robins used to come in
immense numbers during the winter months, to feed on the berries.
[Illustration: THE ROBIN OF THE NORTH
Our best-beloved Song Bird, now being legally shot as "game" in the
South. In the North there is now only one robin for every ten formerly
there.]
"The spot which the roost occupied was not unlike numerous others that
might have been selected. The trees grew to a height of from five to
thirty feet, and for a mile square were literally loaded at night with
robins. Hunting them while they roosted was a favorite sport. A man
would climb a cedar tree with a torch, while his companions with poles
and clubs would disturb the sleeping birds on the adjacent trees.
Blinded by the light, the suddenly awakened birds flew to the
torch-bearer; who, _as he seized each bird would quickly pull off its
head_, and drop it into a sack suspended from his shoulders.
[Illustration: THE MOCKING-BIRD OF THE SOUTH
This sweet singer of the South is NOT being shot in the North
for food! No northern lawmaker ever will permit such barbarity.]
"The capture of three of four hundred birds was an ordinary night's
work. Men and boys would come in wagons from all the adjoining counties
and camp near the roost for the purpose of killing robins. Many times,
100 or more hunters with torches and clubs would be at work in a single
night. _For three years_ this tremendous slaughter continued in
winter,--and then the survivors deserted the roost."
[Illustration: NORTHERN ROBINS READY FOR SOUTHERN SLAUGHTER
195 Birds at Avery Island, La. in January 1912, Photographed Daring the
Annual Slaughter, by E.A. McIlhenny]
No: these people were not Apache Indians, led by a Geronimo who knew no
mercy, no compassion. We imagine that they were mostly poor white trash,
of Tennessee. One small hamlet sent to market annually enough dead
robins to return $500 at _five cents per dozen_; which means _120,000
birds_!
Last winter Mr. Edward A. McIlhenny of Avery Island, La. (south of New
Iberia) informed me that every winter, during the two weeks that the
holly berries are ripe thousands of robins come to his vicinity to feed
upon them. "Then every negro man and boy who can raise a gun is after
them. About 10,000 robins are slaughtered each day while they remain.
Their dead bodies are sold in New Iberia at 10 cents each." The
accompanying illustrations taken by Mr. McIlhenny shows 195 robins on
one tree, and explains how such great slaughter is possible.
An officer of the Louisiana Audubon Society states that a conservative
estimate of the number of robins annually killed in Louisiana for food
purposes when they are usually plentiful, is a _quarter of a million_!
The food of the robin is as follows:
Insects, 40 per cent; wild fruit, 43 per cent; cultivated fruit, 8 per
cent, miscellaneous vegetable food, 5 per cent.
SPECIAL WORK OF THE SOUTHERN NEGROES.--In 1912 a female colored servant
who recently had arrived from country life in Virginia chanced to remark
to me at our country home in the middle of August: "I wish I could find
some birds' nests!"
"What for?" I asked, rather puzzled.
"Why, to get the aigs and _eat 'em!_" she responded with a bright smile
and flashing teeth.
"Do you eat the eggs of _wild_ birds?"
"Yes indeed! It's _fine_ to get a pattridge nest! From them we nearly
always git a whole dozen of aigs at once,--back where I live, in
Virginia."
"Do the colored people of Virginia make a _practice_ of hunting for the
eggs of wild birds, and eating them?"
"Yes, indeed we do. In the spring and summer, when the birds are around,
we used to get out every Sunday, and hunt all day. Some days we'd come
back with a whole bucket full of aigs; and then we'd set up half the
night, cookin' and eatin' 'em. They was _awful_ good!"
Her face fairly beamed at the memory of it.
A few days later, this story of the doings of Virginia negroes was fully
corroborated by a colored man who came from another section of that
state. Three months later, after special inquiries made at my request, a
gentleman of Richmond obtained further corroboration, from negroes. He
was himself much surprised by the state of fact that was revealed to
him.
In the North, the economic value of our song birds and other destroyers
of insects and weed seeds is understood by a majority of the people, and
as far as possible those birds are protected from all human enemies. But
in the South, a new division of the Army of Destruction has risen into
deadly prominence.
In _Recreation_ Magazine for May, 1909, Mr. Charles Askins published a
most startling and illuminating article, entitled "The South's Problem
in Game Protection." It brought together in concrete form and with
eye-witness reliability the impressions that for months previous had
been gaining ground in the North. In order to give the testimony of a
man who has seen what he describes, I shall now give numerous quotations
from Mr. Askins' article, which certainly bears the stamp of
truthfulness, without any "race prejudice" whatever. It is a calm,
judicial, unemotional analysis of a very bad situation: and I
particularly commend it alike to the farmers of the North and all the
true sportsmen of the South.
In his opening paragraphs Mr. Askins describes game and hunting
conditions in the South as they were down to twenty years ago, when the
negroes were too poor to own guns, and shooting was not for them.
* * * * *
SPECIAL WORK OF THE SOUTHERN NEGROES.
It is all different now, says Mr. Askins, and the old days will only
come back with the water that has gone down the stream. The master
is with his fathers or he is whiling away his last days on the
courthouse steps of the town. Perhaps a chimney or two remain of
what was once the "big house" on the hill; possibly it is still
standing, but as forlorn and lifeless as a dead tree. The muscadine
grapes still grow in the swale and the persimmons in the pasture
field, but neither 'possum nor 'coon is left to eat them. The last
deer vanished years ago, the rabbits died in their baby coats and
the quail were killed in June. Old "Uncle Ike" has gone across the
"Great River" with his master, and his grandson glances at you
askance, nods sullenly, whistles to his half breed bird dog,
shoulders his three dollar gun and leaves you. He is typical of the
change and has caused it, this grandson of dear old Uncle Ike.
In the same way the white man is telling the black to abide upon the
plantation raising cotton and corn, and further than this nothing
will be required of him. He can cheat a white man or a black, steal
in a petty way anything that comes handy, live in marriage or out of
it to please himself, kill another negro if he likes, and lastly
shoot every wild thing that can be eaten, if only he raises the
cotton and the corn. But the white sportsmen of the South have never
willingly granted the shooting privilege in its entirety, and hence
this story. They have told him to trap the rabbits, pot the robins,
slaughter the doves, kill the song birds, but to spare the white
sportsman's game, the aristocratic little bobwhite quail.
In the beginning not so much damage to southern game interests could
be accomplished by our colored man and brother, however decided his
inclinations. He had no money, no ammunition and no gun. His weapons
were an ax, a club, a trap, and a hound dog; possibly he might own
an old war musket bored out for shot. Such an outfit was not adapted
to quail shooting and especially to wing shooting, with which
knowledge Dixie's sportsmen were content. Let the negro ramble about
with his hound dog and his war musket; he couldn't possibly kill the
quail. And so Uncle Ike's grandson loafed and pottered about in the
fields with his ax and his hound dogs, not doing so much harm to the
quail but acquiring knowledge of the habits of the birds and skill
as a still-hunting pot-hunter that would serve him well later on.
The negro belongs to a primitive race of people and all such races
have keener eyes than white men whose fathers have pored over lines
of black and white. He learned to see the rabbit in its form, the
squirrels in the leafy trees, and the quails huddled in the grass.
The least shade of gray in the shadow of the creek bank he
distinguished at once as a rabbit, a glinting flash from a tree top
he knew instantly as being caused by the slight movement of a hidden
squirrel, and the quiver of a single stem of sedge grass told him of
a bevy of birds hiding in the depths. The pot-hunting negro has all
the skill of the Indian, has more industry in his loafing, and kills
without pity and without restraint. This grandson of Uncle Ike was
growing sulky, too, with the knowledge that the white man was
bribing him with half a loaf to raise cotton and corn when he might
as well exact it all. And this he shortly did, as we shall see.
The time came when cotton went up to sixteen cents a pound and
single breech-loading guns went down to five dollars apiece. The
negro had money now, and the merchants--these men who had said let
the nigger alone so long as he raises cotton and corn--sold him the
guns, a gun for every black idler, man and boy, in all the South.
Then shortly a wail went up from the sportsmen, "The niggers are
killing our quail." They not only were killing them, but most of the
birds were already dead. On the grounds of the Southern Field Club
where sixty bevies were raised by the dogs in one day, within two
years but three bevies could be found in a day by the hardest kind
of hunting; and this story was repeated all over the South. Now the
negro began to raise bird dogs in place of hounds, and he carried
his new gun to church if services happened to be held on a week day.
Finally the negro had grown up and had compassed his ambition: he
could shoot partridges flying just the same as a white man, was a
white man except for a trifling difference in color; and he could
kill more birds, too, three times as many. It was merely a change
from the old order to the new in which a dark-skinned "sportsman"
had taken the place in plantation life of the dear old "Colonel" of
loved memory. The negro had exacted his price for raising cotton and
corn.
[Illustration: THE SOUTHERN-NEGRO METHOD OF COMBING OUT THE WILD LIFE
"Our colored sportsman is gregarious at all times, but especially so in
the matter of recreation. He may slouch about alone, and pot a bevy or
two of quail when in actual need of something to eat, or when he has a
sale for the birds, but when it comes to shooting for fun he wants to be
with the 'gang'."--Charles Askins.
Reproduced from Recreation Magazine. By permission of the Outdoor World.]
Our colored sportsman is gregarious at all times, but especially so
in the matter of recreation. He may slouch about alone and pot a
bevy or two of quail when in actual need of something to eat, or
when he has a sale for the birds, but when it comes to shooting for
fun he wants to be with the "gang." I have seen the darkies at
Christmas time collect fifty in a drove with every man his dog, and
spread out over the fields. Such a glorious time as he has then! A
single cottontail will draw a half-dozen shots and perhaps a couple
of young bucks will pour loads into a bunny after he is dead out of
pure deviltry and high spirits. I once witnessed the accidental
killing of a young negro on this kind of a foray. His companions
loaded him into a wagon, stuck a cigar in his mouth, and tried to
pour whiskey down him every time they took a drink themselves as
they rode back to town. This army of black hunters and their dogs
cross field after field, combing the country with fine teeth that
leave neither wild animal nor bird life behind.
There comes a time toward the spring of the year after the quail
season is over when the average rural darky is "between hay and
grass." The merchants on whom he has depended for supplies make it a
practice to refuse credit between January first and crop time. The
black has spent his cotton money, his sweet potato pile has
vanished, the sorghum barrel is empty, he has eaten the last of his
winter's pork, and all that remains is a bit of meal and the meat
his gun can secure. He is hunting in grim earnest now, using all the
cunning and skill acquired by years of practice. He eats
woodpeckers, jaybirds, hawks and skunks, drawing the line only at
crows and buzzards. At this season of the year I have carried
chicken hawks up to the cabins for the sake of watching the delight
of the piccaninnies who with glowing eyes would declare, "Them's
mos' as good as chicken." What happens to the robins, doves, larks,
red birds, mocking birds and all songsters in this hungry season
needs hardly to be stated.
It is also a time between hay and grass for the rabbits and the
quail. The corn fields are bare and the weed seeds are exhausted. A
spring cold spell pinches, they lose their vitality, become thin and
quite lack their ordinary wariness. Then the figure-four trap
springs up in the hedgerow and the sedge while the work of
decimation goes more rapidly along. The rabbits can no longer escape
the half-starved dogs, the thinning cover fails to hide the quail
and the song birds betray themselves by singing of the coming
spring.
With the growing scarcity of the game now comes the season of sedge
and field burning. This is done ostensibly to prepare the land for
spring plowing, but really to destroy the last refuge of the quail
and rabbits so that they can be bagged with certainty. All the
negroes of a neighborhood collect for one of these burnings, all
their dogs, and of course all the boys from six years old up. They
surround the field and set it on fire in many places, leaving small
openings for the game to dash out among the motley assembly. I have
seen quail fly out of the burning grass with flaming particles still
attached to them. They alight on the burnt ground too bewildered to
fly again and the boys and dogs pick them up. Crazed rabbits try the
gauntlet amidst the barking curs, shouting negroes and popping guns,
but death is sure and quick. The few quail that may escape have no
refuge from the hawks and nothing to eat, so every battue of this
kind marks the absolute end of the birds in one vicinity; and the
next day the darkies repeat the performance elsewhere.
At this season of the year, the first of May, the blacks are putting
in some of their one hundred working days while the single
breech-loader rusts in the chimney corner. Surely the few birds that
have escaped the foray of the "gang," lived through the hungry days,
and survived their burned homes can now call "Bob White" and mate in
peace. But school is out and the summer sun is putting new life into
the bare feet of the half-grown boys, and the halfbreed bird dogs
are busier than they were even in winter. The young rabbits are
killed before they get out of the nest, and the quail eggs must be
hidden rarely well that escape both the eyes of the boys and the
noses of the dogs. After all it is not surprising that but three
bevies remained of the sixty. Doubtless they would not, except that
nature is very kind to her own in the sunny South.
Not every white man in the South is a sportsman or even a shooter;
many are purely business men who have said let the "nigger" do as he
likes so long as he raises cotton and buys our goods. But Dixie has
her full share of true men of the out-of-doors and they have sworn
in downright Southern fashion that this thing has got to end.
Nevertheless their problem is deep and puzzling. In Alabama they
made an effort and a beginning. They asked for a law requiring every
man to obtain written permission before entering the lands of
another to hunt and shoot; they asked for a resident license law
taxing every gun not less than five dollars a year; for a shortened
season, a bag limit, and a complete system of State wardens.
Unfortunately, a lot of white farmers were in the same range as the
blacks, and being hit, too, they raised a great outcry. The result
was that the Alabama sportsmen got everything they asked for except
the foundation of the structure they were trying to build, the high
resident license or gun tax which alone could have shut out three
dollar guns and saved the remnant of the game. Under the new law the
sale of game was forbidden, neither could it be shipped out of the
State alive or dead; the ever popular non-resident license was
provided for; the season was shortened and the bag limited; the
office of State game warden was created with deputies to be paid
from fines; hunting upon the lands of another without written
permission became a misdemeanor; and then the whole thing was
nullified by reducing the resident license to nothing where a man
shot upon his own land, one dollar in his own county, and two
dollars outside of it. In its practical workings the new law amounts
to this: A few northern gunners have paid the non-resident license
fee, and enough resident licenses have been taken out by the city
sportsmen to make up the handsome salary of the State warden. The
negro still hunts upon his own land _or upon the land of the man who
wants corn and cotton raised_, with perfect indifference to the
whole thing. Who was to enforce the law against him? Not the one
disgusted deputy with three big counties to patrol who depended for
his salary upon the fines collected from the negroes. It would take
one man to every three miles square to protect the game in the
South.
The one effective way of dealing with the situation in Alabama was
to have legislated three dollar guns out of existence with a five
dollar tax, adding to this nearly a like amount on dogs. Hardly a
sportsman in the South will disagree with this conclusion. But
sportsmen never had a majority vote either in the South or in the
North, and the South's grave problem is yet unsolved.
I do not favor depriving the black man of his natural human right to
hunt and shoot. If he is the owner of land, or if he leases or rents
it, or if he does not, he should have exactly the same privilege of
hunting that the white man has. That is not the question now,
however, but how to restrict him to legal shooting, to make him
amenable to the law that governs the white man, to deprive him of
the absolute license he now enjoys to kill throughout the year
without mercy, without discrimination, without restraint. If only
for selfish reasons, we of the North should reach to southern
sportsmen a helping hand, for by and by the last of our migratory
song birds will go down into Dixie and never return.
* * * * *
Mr. Askins has fairly stated a profoundly disturbing case. The remedy
must contain at least three ingredients. The sportsmen of the South must
stop the unjustifiable slaughter of their non-migratory game birds. As a
matter of comity between states, the gentlemen of the South must pass
laws to stop the killing of northern song-birds and all crop-protecting
birds, for food. Finally, all men, North and South, East and West, must
unite in the work that is necessary to secure the immediate enactment by
Congress of a law for the federal protection of all migratory birds.
* * * * *
CHAPTER XIII
EXTERMINATION OF BIRDS FOR WOMEN'S HATS[D]
[Footnote D: In the preparation of this chapter and its illustrations, I
have had much valuable assistance from Mr. C. William Beebe, who
recently has probed the London feather trade almost to the bottom.]
It is high time for the whole civilized world to know that many of the
most beautiful and remarkable birds of the world are now being
_exterminated_ to furnish millinery ornaments for women's wear. The mass
of new information that we have recently secured on this traffic from
the headquarters of the feather trade is appalling. Previously, I had
not dreamed that conditions are half as bad as they are.
It is entirely fitting that on this subject New York should send a
message to London. New York is almost a Spotless Town in plume-free
millinery, and London and Paris are the worst places in the world. We
have cleaned house. With but extremely slight exceptions, the blood of
the slaughtered innocents is no longer upon our skirts, and on the
subject of plumage millinery we have a right to be just as Pharisaical
as we choose.
Here in New York (and also in New Jersey) no man may sell, own for sale
or offer for sale the plumage of any wild American bird other than a
game bird. More than that, the plumage of no foreign bird belonging to
any bird family represented in the fauna of North America can be sold
here! There are only a few kinds of improper "millinery" feathers that
it is possible to sell here under the law. Thanks to the long and
arduous campaign of the National Association of Audubon Societies,
founded and for ten years directed by gallant William Dutcher, you now
see on the streets of New York very, very little wild-bird plumage save
that from game birds.
It is true that a few servant girls are now wearing the cast-off
aigrettes of their mistresses; but they are only as one in a thousand.
At Atlantic City there is said to be a fine display of servant-girl and
ladies-maid aigrettes. In New York and New Jersey, in Pennsylvania for
everything save the sale of heron and egret plumes (a privilege obtained
by a bunko game), in Massachusetts, and in many other of our States, the
wild-birds'-plumage millinery business is dead. Two years ago, when the
New York legislature refused to repeal the Dutcher law, the Millinery
Association asserted, and brought a cloud of witnesses to Albany to
prove, that the enforcement of the law would throw thousands of
operatives out of employment.
[Illustration: BEAUTIFUL AND CURIOUS BIRDS NOW BEING DESTROYED
FOR THE FEATHER TRADE--(I)
Belted Kingfisher
Victoria Crowned Pigeon
Superb Calliste
Greater Bird of Paradise
Common Tern
Cock of the Rock]
The law is in effect; and the aigrette business is dead in this state.
Have any operatives starved, or been thrown out of employment? We have
heard of none. They are now at work making very pretty hat ornaments of
silk and ribbons, and gauze and lace; and "_They_ are wearing them."
[Illustration: 1600 HUMMINGBIRD SKINS AT 2 CENTS EACH!
Part of Lot Purchased by the Zoological Society at the Regular Quarterly
London Millinery Feather Sale, August, 1912.]
But even while these words are being written, there is one large fly in
the ointment. The store-window of E. &. S. Meyers, 688 Broadway, New
York, contains about _six hundred plumes and skins of birds of paradise
for sale for millinery purposes_. No wonder the great bird of paradise
is now almost extinct! Their sale here is possible because the Dutcher
law protects from the feather dealers only the birds that belong to
avian families represented in the United States. With fiendish cunning
and enterprise, the shameless feather dealers are ferreting out the
birds whose skins and plumes may legally be imported into this country
and sold; but we will meet that with a law that will protect all
foreign birds, so far as we are concerned. Now it is time for the
universal enactment of a law which will prohibit the sale and use as
ornaments of the plumage, feathers or skins of _any_ wild bird that is
not a legitimate game bird.
London is now the head of the giant octopus of the "feather trade" that
has reached out its deadly tentacles into the most remote wildernesses
of the earth, and steadily is drawing in the "skins" and "plumes" and
"quills" of the most beautiful and most interesting _unprotected_ birds
of the world. The extent of this cold-blooded industry, supported by
vain and hard-hearted women, will presently be shown in detail. Paris is
the great manufacturing center of feather trimming and ornaments, and
the French people obstinately refuse to protect the birds from
extermination, because their slaughter affords employment to a certain
numbers of French factory operatives.
All over the world where they have real estate possessions, the men of
England know how to protect game from extermination. The English are
good at protecting game--when they decide to set about it.
Why should London be the Mecca of the feather-killers of the world?
It is easily explained:
(1) London has the greatest feather market in the world; (2) the feather
industry "wants the money"; and (3) the London feather industry is
willing to spend money in fighting to retain its strangle-hold on the
unprotected birds of the world.
Let us run through a small portion of the mass of fresh evidence before
us. It will be easier for the friends of birds to read these details
here than to procure them at first hand, as we have done.
The first thing that strikes one is the fact that the feather-hunters
are scattered _all over the world where bird life is plentiful_ and
there are no laws to hinder their work. I commend to every friend of
birds this list of the species whose plumage is to-day being bought and
sold in large quantities every year in London. To the birds of the world
this list is of deadly import, for it spells extermination.
The reader will notice that it is the way of the millinery octopus to
reach out to the uttermost ends of the earth, and take everything that
it can use. From the trackless jungles of New Guinea, round the world
both ways to the snow-capped peaks of the Andes, no unprotected bird is
safe. The humming-birds of Brazil, the egrets of the world at large, the
rare birds of paradise, the toucan, the eagle, the condor and the emu,
all are being _exterminated_ to swell the annual profits of the
millinery trade. The case is _far_ more serious than the world at large
knows, or even suspects. But for the profits, the birds would be safe;
and no unprotected wild species can long escape the hounds of Commerce.
But behold the list of rare, curious and beautiful birds that are today
in grave peril:
[Illustration: BEAUTIFUL AND CURIOUS BIRDS NOW BEING DESTROYED
FOR THE FEATHER TRADE--(II)
Lyre Bird
White Ibis
Golden Eagle
Resplendent Trogan
Silver Pheasant
Toco Toucan]
* * * * *
LIST OF BIRDS NOW BEING EXTERMINATED FOR THE LONDON AND CONTINENTAL
FEATHER MARKETS:
_Species_. _Locality._
American Egret Venezuela, S. America, Mexico, etc.
Snowy Egret Venezuela, S. America, Mexico, etc.
Scarlet Ibis Tropical South America.
"Green" Ibis Species not recognizable by its trade name.
Herons, generally All unprotected regions.
Marabou Stork Africa.
Pelicans, all species All unprotected regions.
Bustard Southern Asia, Africa.
Greater Bird of Paradise New Guinea; Aru Islands.
Lesser Bird of Paradise New Guinea.
Red Bird of Paradise Islands of Waigiou and Batanta.
Twelve-Wired Bird of Paradise New Guinea, Salwatti.
Black Bird of Paradise Northern New Guinea.
Rifle Bird of Paradise New Guinea generally.
Jobi Bird of Paradise Island of Jobi.
King Bird of Paradise New Guinea.
Magnificent Bird of Paradise New Guinea.
Impeyan Pheasant Nepal and India.
Tragopan Pheasant Nepal and India.
Argus Pheasant Malay Peninsula, Borneo.
Silver Pheasant Burma and China.
Golden Pheasant China.
Jungle Cock East Indies and Burma.
Peacock East Indies and India.
Condor South America.
Vultures, generally Where not protected.
Eagles, generally All unprotected regions.
Hawks, generally All unprotected regions.
Crowned Pigeon, two species New Guinea.
"Choncas" Locality unknown.
Pitta East Indies.
Magpie Europe.
Touracou, or Plantain-Eater Africa.
Velvet Birds Locality uncertain.
"Grives" Locality uncertain.
Mannikin South America.
Green Parrot (now protected) India.
"Dominos" (Sooty Tern) Tropical Coasts and Islands.
Garnet Tanager South America.
Grebe All unprotected regions.
Green Merle Locality uncertain.
"Horphang" Locality uncertain.
Rhea South America.
"Sixplet" Locality uncertain.
Starling Europe.
Tetras Locality not determined.
Emerald-Breasted Hummingbird West Indies, Cent, and S. America.
Blue-Throated Hummingbird West Indies, Cent, and S. America.
Amethyst Hummingbird West Indies, Cent, and S. America.
Resplendent Trogon, several species Central America.
Cock-of-the-Rock South America.
Macaw South America.
Toucan South America.
Emu Australia.
Sun-Bird East Indies.
Owl All unprotected regions.
Kingfisher All unprotected regions.
Jabiru Stork South America.
Albatross All unprotected regions.
Tern, all species All unprotected regions.
Gull, all species All unprotected regions.
* * * * *
In order to throw a spot-light on the most recent transactions in the
London wild-birds'-plumage market, and to furnish a clear idea of what
is to-day going on in London, Paris, Berlin and Amsterdam, I will set
out in some detail the report of an agent whom I engaged to ascertain
the London dealings in the plumage of wild birds that were killed
especially to furnish that plumage. As one item, let us take the sales
in London in February, May and October, 1911, because they bring the
subject well down to date. My agent's explanatory note is as follows:
"These three sales represent six months. Very nearly double this
quantity is sold by these four firms in a year. We must also take into
consideration that all the feathers are not brought to the London
market, and that _very large shipments are also made direct to the
raw-feather dealers and manufacturers of Paris and Berlin, and that
Amsterdam also gets large quantities from the West Indies_. For your
purpose, I report upon three sales, at different periods of the year
1911, and as those sales do not vary much, you will be able to judge the
consumption of birds in a year."
The "aigrettes" of the feather trade come from egrets, and, being very
light, it requires the death of several birds to yield one ounce. In
many catalogues, the word "albatross" stands for the jabiru, a
nearly-exterminated species of giant stork, inhabiting South America.
"Rhea" often stands for vulture plumage.
If the feather dealers had deliberately attempted to form an educational
list of the most beautiful and the most interesting birds of the world,
they could hardly have done better than they have done in the above
list. If it were in my power to show the reader a colored plate of each
species now being exterminated by the feather trade, he would be
startled by the exhibit. That the very choicest birds of the whole avian
world should be thus blotted out at the behest of vain and heartless
women is a shame, a disgrace and world-wide loss.
* * * * *
LONDON FEATHER SALE OF FEBRUARY, 1911
_Sold by Hale & Sons Sold by Dalton & Young_
Aigrettes 3,069 ounces Aigrettes 1,606 ounces
Herons 960 " Herons 250 "
Birds of Paradise 1,920 skins Paradise 4,330 bodies
_Sold by Figgis & Co. Sold by Lewis & Peat_
Aigrettes 421 ounces Aigrettes 1,250 ounces
Herons 103 " Paradise 362 skins
Paradise 414 skins Eagles 384 "
Eagles 2,600 " Trogons 206 "
Condors 1,580 " Hummingbirds 24,800 "
Bustards 2,400 "
LONDON FEATHER SALE OF MAY, 1911
_Sold by Hale & Sons Sold by Dalton & Young_
Aigrettes 1,390 ounces Aigrettes 2,921 ounces
Herons 178 " Herons 254 "
Paradise 1,686 skins Paradise 5,303 skins
Red Ibis 868 " Golden Pheasants 1,000 "
Junglecocks 1,550 "
Parrots 1,700 "
Herons 500 "
_Sold by Figgis & Co. Sold by Lewis & Peat_
Aigrettes 201 ounces Aigrettes 590 ounces
Herons 248 " Herons 190 "
Paradise 546 skins Paradise 60 skins
Falcons, Hawks 1,500 " Trogons 348 "
Hummingbirds 6,250 "
LONDON FEATHER SALE OF OCTOBER, 1911
_Sold by Hale & Sons Sold by Dalton & Young_
Aigrettes 1,020 ounces Aigrettes 5,879 ounces
Paradise 2,209 skins Heron 1,608 "
Hummingbirds 10,040 " Paradise 2,850 skins
Bustard 28,000 quills Condors 1,500 "
Eagles 1,900 "
_Sold by Figgis & Co. Sold by Lewis & Peat_
Aigrettes 1,501 ounces Aigrettes 1,680 ounces
Herons 140 " Herons 400 "
Paradise 318 skins Birds of Paradise 700 skins
If I am correctly informed, the London feather trade admits that it
requires six egrets to yield one "ounce" of aigrette plumes. This being
the case, the 21,528 ounces sold as above stand for 129,168 egrets
killed for nine months' supply of egret plumes, for London alone.
The total number of bird corpses auctioned during these three sales is
as follows:
Aigrettes, 21,528 ounces = 129,168 Egrets.
Herons, 2,683 " = 13,598 Herons.
20,698 Birds of Paradise.
41,090 Hummingbirds.
9,464 Eagles, Condors, etc.
9,472 Other Birds.
-------
Total number of birds 223,490
* * * * *
It is to be remembered that the sales listed above cover the
transactions of four firms only, and do not in any manner take into
account the direct importations from Paris, Berlin and Amsterdam of
manufacturers and other dealers. The defenders of the feather trade are
at great pains to assure the world that in the monthly, bi-monthly and
quarterly sales, feathers often appear in the market twice in the same
year; and this statement is made for them in order to be absolutely
fair. Recent examinations of the plume catalogues for an entire year,
marked with the price _paid_ for each item, reveals very few which are
blank, indicating no sale! The subtractions of the duplicated items
would alter the result only very slightly.
The full extent of England's annual consumption of the plumage of wild
birds slaughtered especially for the trade never has been determined. I
doubt whether it is possible to ascertain it. The information that we
have is so fragmentary that in all probability it reflects only a small
portion of the whole truth, but for all that, it is sufficient to prove
the case of the Defenders of the Birds _vs_. the London Chamber of
Commerce.
IMPORTS OF FEATHERS AND DOWN (ORNAMENTAL) FOR THE YEAR 1910
_Pounds_ _Value_
Venezuela 8,398 $191,058
Brazil 787 5,999
Japan 2,284 3,830
China 6,329 16,308
Tripoli 345 900
Egypt 21,047 89,486
Java, Sumatra, and Borneo 15,703 186,504
Cape of Good Hope 709,406[E] 9,747,146
British India 18,359 22,137
Hong-Kong 310 3,090
British West Indies 30 97
Other British Colonies 10,438 21,938
[Footnote E: Chiefly Ostrich feathers.]
The above does not take into account the feathers from game birds
received in England from France, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Belgium and
the Netherlands.
As a final side-light on the quantity of egret and heron plumes offered
and sold in London during the twelve months ending in April, 1912, we
offer the following exhibit:
"OSPREY" FEATHERS (EGRET AND HERON PLUMES) SOLD IN LONDON DURING THE
YEAR ENDING APRIL. 1912
_Offered_ _Sold_
Venezuelan, long and medium 11,617 ounces 7,072 ounces
Venezuelan, mixed Heron 4,043 " 2,539 "
Brazilian 3,335 " 1,810 "
Chinese 641 " 576 "
19,636 ounces 11,997 ounces
Birds of Paradise, plumes (2 plumes = 1 bird)
29,385 24,579
[Illustration: BEAUTIFUL AND CURIOUS BIRDS NOW BEING DESTROYED
FOR THE FEATHER TRADE--(III)
Griffon Vulture
Herring Gull
Jabiru
Condor
Emeu
Indian Adjutant]
Under the head of "Hummingbirds Not Wanted," Mr. Downham is at great
pains to convey[F] the distinct impression that to-day hummingbirds are
scorned by the feather trade, and the demand for them is dead. _I
believed him_--until my agent turned in the following statement:
Hummingbirds sold by Lewis & Peat, London, February, 1911 24,800
Hummingbirds sold by Lewis & Peat, London, May, 1911 6,250
Hummingbirds sold by Hale & Sons, London, October, 1911 10,040
------
Total 41,090
It is useless for anyone to assert that these birds were merely
"offered," and not actually sold, as Mr. Downham so laboriously explains
is the regular course with hummingbird skins; for that will deceive no
intelligent person. The statement published above comes to me direct,
from an absolutely competent and reliable source.
[Footnote F: "The Feather Trade," by C.F. Downham, p. 63-4.]
Undoubtedly the friends of birds, and likewise their enemies, will be
interested in the prices at which the skins of the most beautiful birds
of the world are sold in London, prior to their annihilation by the
feather industry. I submit the following exhibit, copied from the
circular of Messrs. Lewis & Peat. It is at least of academic interest.
* * * * *
PRICES OF RARE AND BEAUTIFUL BIRD SKINS IN LONDON
Condor skins $3.50 to $5.75
Condor wing feathers, each .05
Impeyan Pheasant .66 " 2.50
Argus Pheasant 3.60 " 3.85
Tragopan Pheasant 2.70
Silver Pheasant 3.50
Golden Pheasant .34 " .46
Greater Bird of Paradise:
Light Plumes: Medium to giants 10.32 " 21.00
Medium to long, worn 7.20 " 13.80
Slight def. and plucked 2.40 " 6.72
Dark Plumes: Medium to good long 7.20 " 24.60
12-Wired Bird of Paradise 1.44 " 1.80
Rubra Bird of Paradise 2.50
Rifle Bird of Paradise 1.14 " 1.38
King Bird of Paradise 2.40
"Green" Bird of Paradise .38 " .44
East Indian Kingfisher .06 " .07
East Indian Parrots .03
Peacock Necks, gold and blue .24 " .66
Peacock Necks, blue and green .36
Scarlet Ibis .14 " .24
Toucan breasts .22 " .26
Red Tanagers .09
Orange Oriels .05
Indian Crows' breasts .13
Indian Jays .04
Amethyst Hummingbirds .01-1/2
Hummingbird, various 3/16 of .01 " .02
Hummingbird, others 1/32 of .01 " .01
Egret ("Osprey") skins 1.08 " 2.78
Egret ("Osprey") skins, long 2.40
Vulture feathers, per pound .36 " 4.56
Eagle, wing feathers, bundles of 100 .09
Hawk, wing feathers, bundles of 100 .12
Mandarin Ducks, per skin .15
Pheasant tail feathers, per pound 1.80
Crown Pigeon heads, Victoria 1.68 " 2.50
Crown Pigeon heads, Coronatus .84 " 1.20
Emu skins 4.56 " 4.80
Cassowary plumes, per ounce 3.48
Swan skins .72 " .74
Kingfisher skins .07 " .09
African Golden Cuckoo 1.08
* * * * *
Many thoughts are suggested by these London lists of bird slaughter and
loot.
It will be noticed that the breast of the grebe has almost wholly
disappeared from the feather market and from women's hats. The reason is
that there are no longer enough birds of that group to hold a place in
the London market! Few indeed are the Americans who know that from 1900
to 1908 the lake region of southern Oregon was the scene of the
slaughter of uncountable thousands of those birds, which continued until
the grebes were almost exterminated.
When the wonderful lyre-bird of Australia had been almost exterminated
for its tail feathers, its open slaughter was stopped by law, and a
heavy fine was imposed on exportation, amounting, I have been told, to
$250 for each offense. My latest news of the lyre-bird was of the
surreptitious exportation of 200 skins to the London feather market.
In India, the smuggling outward of the skins of protected birds is
constantly going on. Occasionally an exporter is caught and fined; but
that does not stop the traffic.
Bird-lovers must now bid farewell forever to all the birds of paradise.
Nothing but the legal closing of the world's markets against their
plumes and skins can save any of them. They never were numerous; nor
does any species range over a wide area. They are strictly insular, and
the island homes of some of them are very small. Take the great bird of
paradise (_Paradisea apoda_) as an illustration. On Oct. 2, 1912, at
Indianapolis, Indiana, a city near the center of the United States, in
three show-windows within 100 feet of the headquarters of the Fourth
National Conservation Congress, I counted 11 stuffed heads and 11
complete sets of plumes of this bird, displayed for sale. The prices
ranged from $30 to $47.50 each! And while I looked, a large lady
approached, pointed her finger at the remains of a greater bird of
paradise, and with grim determination, said to her shopping companion:
"There! I want one o' them, an' I'm agoin' to _have_ it, too!"
Says Mr. James Buckland in "Pros and Cons of the Plumage Bill":
"Mr. Goodfellow has returned within the last few weeks from a second
expedition to new Guinea.... One can now walk, he states, miles and
miles through the former haunts of these birds [of paradise] without
seeing or hearing even the commonest species. When I reflect on this
sacrilege, I am lost in wonder at the apathy of the British public."
Mr. Carl Hagenbeck wrote me only three months ago that "the condors of
the Andes are all being exterminated for their feathers, and these birds
are now very difficult to obtain."
The egret and heron plumes, known under the trade name of "osprey, etc.,
feathers," form by far the most important item in each feather sale.
There are _fifteen_ grades! They are sold by the ounce, and the prices
range all the way from twenty-eight cents per ounce for "mixed heron" to
_two hundred and twenty-five shillings_ ($45.60) per ounce for the best
Brazilian "short selected," on February 7, 1912! Is it any wonder that
in Philadelphia the prices of finished aigrettes, ready to be worn, runs
from $20 to $125!
The plumes that run up into the big figures are the "short selected"
coming from the following localities, and quoted at the prices set down
here in shillings and pence. Count the shilling at twenty-four cents,
United States money.
PRICES OF "SHORT SELECTED" EGRET AND HERON PLUMES, IN LONDON ON FEBRUARY
7, 1912
(Lewis & Peat's List)
East Indies per ounce, 117/6 to 207/6 = $49.80 max.
Rangoon " " 150/0 " 192/6 = 46.20 "
China " " 130/0 " 245/0 = 58.80 "
Brazil " " 200/0 " 225/0 = 54.00 "
Venezuela " " 165/0 " 222/6 = 53.40 "
The total offering of these "short selected" plumes in December 1911,
was 689 ounces, and in February, 1912, it was 230 ounces.
Now with these enormous prices prevailing, is it any wonder that the
egrets and herons are being relentlessly pursued to the uttermost ends
of the earth? I think that any man who really knows the habits of egrets
and herons, and the total impossibility of any quantity of their shed
feathers being picked up in a marketable state, must know in his heart
that if the London and continental feather markets keep open a few years
longer, _every species_ that furnishes "short selected" plumes will be
utterly exterminated from off the face of the earth.
Let the English people make no mistake about this, nor be fooled by any
fairy tales of the feather trade about Venezuelan "garceros," and vast
quantities of valuable plumes picked off the bushes and out of the mud.
Those carefully concocted egret-farm stories make lovely reading, but
the reader who examines the evidence will soon decide the extent of
their truthfulness. I think that they contain not even ten per cent of
truth; and I shall not rest until the stories of Leon Laglaize and
Mayeul Grisol have been put to the test in the regions where they
originated.
A _few_ plumes may be picked out of the jungle, yes; but as for any
_commercial quantity_, it is at present beyond belief. Besides, we have
direct, eye-witness testimony to the contrary.
It must not be inferred that the friends of birds in England have been
idle or silent in the presence of the London feather trade. On the
contrary, the Royal Society for the Protection of Wild Birds and Mr.
James Buckland have so strongly attacked the feather industry that the
London Chamber of Commerce has felt called upon to come to its rescue.
Mr. Buckland, on his own individual account, has done yeoman service to
the cause, and his devotion to the birds, and his tireless energy, are
both almost beyond the reach of praise in words. At the last moment
before going to press I learn that the birds'-plumage bill has achieved
the triumph of a "first reading" in Parliament, which looks as if
success is at last in sight. The powerful pamphlet that he has written,
published and circulated at his own expense, entitled "Pros and Cons of
the Plumage Bill," is a splendid effort. What a pity it is that more
individuals are not similarly inspired to make independent effort in the
protection cause! But, strange to say, few indeed are the men who have
either the nerve or the ability to "go it alone."
On the introduction in Parliament of the bill to save the birds from the
feather trade, it was opposed (through the efforts of the Chamber of
Commerce), on the ground that if any bill against the sale of plumes
should pass, and plumes could not be sold, the London business in
wild-bird skins and feathers "would immediately be transferred to the
continent!"
In the face of that devastating and altogether horrible prospect, and
because the London feather dealers "need the money," the bill was at
first defeated--to the great joy of the Chamber of Commerce and Mr.
Downham; but the cause of birds will win in the end, because it is
Right.
The feather dealers have been shrewdly active in the defense of their
trade, and the methods they have employed for influencing public opinion
have quite outshone those put forth by their brethren in America. I have
before me a copy of a booklet bearing the name of Mr. C.F. Downham as
the author, and the London Chamber of Commerce has loaned its good name
as publisher. Altogether it is a very shrewd piece of work, even though
its arguments in justification of bird slaughter for the feather market
are too absurd and weak for serious consideration.
The chief burden of the defender of bird slaughter for millinery
purposes is on account of the destruction of egrets and herons, but
particularly the former. To offset as far as possible the absolutely
true charge that egrets bear their best plumes in their breeding season,
when the helpless young are in the nest and the parent birds must be
killed to obtain the plumes, the feather trade has obtained from three
Frenchmen--Leon Laglaize, Mayeul Grisol, and F. Geay--a beautiful and
plausible story to the effect that in Venezuela the enormous output of
egret plumes has been obtained _by picking up, off the bushes and out of
the water and mud, the shed feathers of those birds!_ According to the
story, Venezuela is full of _egret farms_, called "garceros,"--where the
birds breed and moult under strict supervision, and kindly drop their
feathers in such places that it is possible _to find them_, and to _pick
them up_, in a high state of preservation! And we are asked to believe
that it is these very Venezuelan picked-up feathers that command in
London the high price of _$44 per ounce_.
[Illustration: THE FIGHT IN ENGLAND AGAINST THE USE OF WILD BIRD'S
PLUMAGE IN THE MILLINERY TRADE
Sandwich-men Employed by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds,
that Patroled London Streets in July, 1911.]
Mr. Laglaize is especially exploited by Mr. Downham, as a French
traveler of high standing, and well known in the zoological museums of
France; but, sad to say, when Prof. Henry Fairfield Osborn cabled to the
Museum of Natural History in Paris, inquiring about Mr. Laglaize, the
cable flashed back the one sad word; "_Inconnu!_" (Unknown!)
I think it entirely possible that enough shed feathers have been picked
up in the reeking swamps of Venezuela, on the upper tributaries of the
Orinoco, to afford _an excuse_ for the beautiful story of Mr. Laglaize.
Any shrewd individual with money, and the influence that money secures,
could put up just such a "plant" as I firmly believe _has_ been put up
by some one in Venezuela. I will guarantee that I could accomplish such
a job in Venezuela or Brazil, in four months' time, at an expense not
exceeding one thousand dollars.
That the great supply of immaculately perfect egret plumes that annually
come out of Venezuela could by any possibility be picked up in the
swamps where they were shed and dropped by the egrets, is entirely
preposterous and incredible. The whole proportion is denounced by
several men of standing and experience, none of whom are "_inconnu_."
As a sweeping refutation of the fantastic statements regarding
"garceros," published by Mr. Downham as coming from Messrs. Laglaize,
Grisol and Geay, I offer the written testimony of an American gentleman
who at this moment owns and maintains within a few yards of his
residence a large preserve of snowy egrets and herons, the former
representing the species which furnishes egret plumes exactly similar to
those shipped from Venezuela and Brazil. If the testimony of Mr.
McIlhenny is not sufficient to stamp the statements of the three
Frenchmen quoted by Mr. Downham as absolute and thoroughly misleading
falsehoods, then there is no such thing in this world as evidence. I
suggest a perusal of the statements of the three Frenchmen who are
quoted with such confidence by Mr. Downham and published by the Hon.
Chamber of Commerce at London, and then a careful reading of the
following letter:
Avery Island, La., June 17, 1912.
DEAR MR. HORNADAY:--
I have before me your letter of June 8th, asking for information as
to whether or no egrets shed their plumes at their nesting places in
sufficient quantities to enable them to be gathered commercially. I
most emphatically wish to state that it is impossible to gather at
the nesting places of these birds any quantity of their plumes. I
have nesting within 50 yards of where I am now sitting dictating
this letter not less than 20,000 pairs of the various species of
herons and egrets, and there are fully 2,500 pairs of snowy herons
nesting within my preserve.
During the nesting season, which covers the months of April, May and
June, I am through this heronry in a small canoe almost every day,
and often twice a day. I have had these herons under my close
inspection for the past 17 years, and I have not in any one season
picked up or seen more than half a dozen discarded plumes. Such
plumes as I have picked up, I have kept on my desk, and given to the
people who were interested. I remember that last year I picked up
four plumes of the snowy heron that were in one bunch. I think these
must have been plucked out by the birds fighting.
This year I have found only one plume so far. I enclose it herewith.
You will notice that it is one of the shorter plumes, and is badly
worn at the end, as have been all the plumes which I have picked up
in my heronry.
I am positive that it is not possible for natural shed plumes to be
gathered commercially. I have a number of times talked with plume
hunters from Venezuela and other South American countries, and I
have never heard of any egret feathers being gathered by their being
picked up after the birds have shed them.
I have heard of a number of heronries in South America that are
protected by the land owners for the purpose of gathering a yearly
crop of egret plumes, but this crop is gathered always by shooting a
certain percentage of the birds. This shooting is done by experts
with 22-calibre rifles, and does not materially disturb the nesting
colony. I have known of two men who have been engaged in killing the
birds on large estates in South America, who were paid regular
salaries for their services as egret hunters.
Very truly yours,
E.A. McIlhenny.
I am more than willing to set the above against the fairy tale of Mr.
Laglaize.
Here is the testimony of A.H. Meyer, an ex-plume-hunter, who for nine
years worked in Venezuela. His sworn testimony was laid before the
Legislature of the State of New York, in 1911, when the New York
Milliners' Association was frantically endeavoring to secure the repeal
of the splendid Dutcher law. This witness was produced by the National
Association of Audubon Societies.
"My attention has been called to the fact that certain commercial
interests in this city are circulating stories in the newspapers and
elsewhere to the effect that the aigrettes used in the millinery trade
come chiefly from Venezuela, where they are gathered from the ground in
the large _garceros_, or breeding-colonies, of white herons.
"I wish to state that I have personally engaged in the work of
collecting the plumes of these birds in Venezuela. This was my business
for the years 1896 to 1905, inclusive. I am thoroughly conversant with
the methods employed in gathering egret and snowy heron plumes in
Venezuela, and I wish to give the following statement regarding the
practices employed in procuring these feathers:
"The birds gather in large colonies to rear their young. They have the
plumes only during the mating and nesting season. After the period when
they are employed in caring for their young, it is found that the plumes
are virtually of no commercial value, because of the worn and frayed
condition to which they have been reduced. It is the custom in Venezuela
to shoot the birds while the young are in the nests. A few feathers of
the large white heron (American egret), known as the _Garza blanca_, can
be picked up of a morning about their breeding places, but these are of
small value and are known as "dead feathers." They are worth locally not
over three dollars an ounce; while the feathers taken from the bird,
known as "live feathers," are worth fifteen dollars an ounce.
"My work led me into every part of Venezuela and Colombia where these
birds are to be found, and I have never yet found or heard of any
_garceros_ that were guarded for the purpose of simply gathering the
feathers from the ground. No such condition exists in Venezuela. The
story is absolutely without foundation, in my opinion, and has simply
been put forward for commercial purposes.
"The natives of the country, who do virtually all of the hunting for
feathers, are not provident in their nature, and their practices are of
a most cruel and brutal nature. I have seen them frequently pull the
plumes from wounded birds, leaving the crippled birds to die of
starvation, unable to respond to the cries of their young in the nests
above, which were calling for food. _I have known these people to tie
and prop up wounded egrets on the marsh where they would attract the
attention of other birds flying by. These decoys they keep in this
position until they die of their wounds, or from the attacks of insects.
I have seen the terrible red ants of that country actually eating out
the eyes of these wounded, helpless birds that were tied up by the
plume-hunters._ I could write you many pages of the horrors practiced in
gathering aigrette feathers in Venezuela by the natives for the
millinery trade of Paris and New York.
"To illustrate the comparatively small number of dead feathers which
are collected, I will mention that in one year I and my associates
shipped to New York eighty pounds of the plumes of the large heron and
twelve pounds of the little recurved plumes of the snowy heron. In this
whole lot there were not over five pounds of plumes that had been
gathered from the ground--and these were of little value. The
plume-birds have been nearly exterminated in the United States and
Mexico, and the same condition of affairs will soon exist in tropical
America. This extermination will come about because of the fact that the
young are left to starve in the nest when the old birds are killed, any
other statement made by interested parties to the contrary
notwithstanding.
"I am so incensed at the ridiculously absurd and misleading stories that
are being published on this question that I want to give you this
letter, and, before delivering it to you, shall take oath to its
truthfulness."
Here is the testimony of Mr. Caspar Whitney, of New York, formerly
editor of _Outing_ Magazine and _Outdoor America_:
"During extended travel throughout South America, from 1903 to 1907,
inclusive, I journeyed, on three separate occasions, by canoe
(1904-1907), on the Lower Orinoco and Apure rivers and their
tributaries. This is the region, so far as Venezuela is concerned, in
which is the greatest slaughter of white herons for their plumage, or
more specifically for the marital plumes, which are carried only in the
mating and breeding season, and are known in the millinery trade as
'aigrettes.'
"There is literally no room for question. The snowy herons are killed
exactly as I describe. It is the custom of all those who hunt for the
millinery trade, and is recognized by the natives as the usual method."
Here is the testimony of Mr. Julian A. Dimock, of Peekamose, N.Y., the
famous outdoor photographer, and illustrator of "Florida Enchantments":
"I know a goodly number of the plume-hunters of Florida. I have camped
with them, and talked to them. I have heard their tales, and even full
accounts of the 'shooting-up' of an egret rookery. Never has a man in
Florida suggested to me that plumes could be obtained without killing
the birds. I have known the wardens, and have visited rookeries after
they had been 'shot-up,' and the evidence all pointed to the everlasting
use of the gun. _It is certainly not true that the plumes can be
obtained without killing the birds bearing them_.
"Nineteen years ago, I visited the Cuthbert Rookery with one of the men
who discovered the birds nesting in that lake. He and his partner had
sold the plumes gathered there for more than a thousand dollars. He
showed me how they hid in the bushes and shot the birds. He even gave me
a chance to watch him kill two or three birds.
"I know personally the man chiefly responsible for the slaughter of the
birds at Alligator Bay. _He laughed at the idea of getting plumes
without killing the birds!_ I well know the man who shot the birds up
Rogers River, and even saw some of the empty shells left on the ground
by him.
[Illustration: YOUNG EGRETS, UNABLE TO FLY, STARVING
The Parent Birds had Been Killed by Plume Hunters]
[Illustration: SNOWY EGRET, DEAD ON HER NEST
Wounded in the Feeding-Grounds, and Came Home to Die. Photographed in a
Florida Rookery Protected by the National Association of Audubon
Societies]
I have camped with Seminoles, whites, blacks, outlaws, and those within
the pale, connected with plume-hunting, and all tell the same story:
_The birds are shot to get the plumes._ The evidence of my own eyes, and
the action of the birds themselves, convinces me that there is not a
shadow of doubt concerning this point."
This sworn testimony from Mr. T.J. Ashe, of Key West, Florida, is very
direct and to the point:
"I have seen many moulted and dropped feathers from wild plumed birds. I
have never seen a moulted or dropped feather that was fit for anything.
It is the exception when a plumed bird drops feathers of any value while
in flight. Whatever feathers are so dropped are those that are frayed,
worn out, and forced out by the process of moulting. The moulting season
is not during the hatching season, but is after the hatching season. The
shedding, or moulting, takes place once a year; and during this moulting
season the feathers, after having the hard usage of the year from wind,
rain and other causes, when dropped are of absolutely no commercial
value."
Mr. Arthur T. Wayne, of Mount Pleasant, S.C., relates in sworn testimony
his experience in attempting to secure egret plumes without killing the
birds:
"It is utterly impossible to get fifty egret plumes from any colony of
breeding birds without shooting the birds. Last spring, I went twice a
week to a breeding colony of American and snowy egrets, from early in
April until June 8. Despite the fact that I covered miles of territory
in a boat, I picked up but two American egret plumes (which I now have);
but not a single snowy egret plume did I see, nor did my companion, who
accompanied me on every trip.
"I saw an American egret plume on the water, and left it, purposely, to
see whether it would sink or not. Upon visiting the place a few days
afterwards, the plume was not in evidence, undoubtedly having sunk. The
plumes are chiefly shed in the air while the birds are going to or
coming from their breeding grounds. If that millinery plume law is
repealed, the fate of the American and snowy egrets is sealed, for the
few birds that remain will be shot to the very last one."
Any man who ever has been in an egret rookery (and I have) knows that
the above testimony is _true_! The French story of the beautiful and
smoothly-running egret farms in Venezuela is preposterous, save for a
mere shadow of truth. I do not say that _no_ egret plumes could be
picked up, but I do assert that the total quantity obtainable in one
year in that way would be utterly trivial.
No; the "ospreys" of the British feather market come from slaughtered
egrets and herons, _killed in the breeding season_. Let the British
public and the British Parliament make no mistake about that. If they
wish the trade to continue, let it be based on the impregnable ground
that the merchants want the money, and not on a fantastic dream that is
too silly to deceive even a child that knows birds.
The use or disuse of wild birds' plumage as millinery ornaments is
another of those wild-life subjects regarding which there is no room for
argument. To assert that the feather-dealers want the business for the
money it brings them is not argument! We have seen many a steam roller
go over Truth, and Right, and Justice, by main strength and red-hot
power; but Truth and Right refuse to stay flat down. There is on this
earth not one wild-animal species--mammal, bird or reptile--that can
long withstand exploitation for commercial purposes. Even the whales of
the deep sea, the walrus of the arctic regions, the condors of the Andes
and alligators of the Everglade morasses are no exception to the
universal rule.
In Mr. Downham's book there is much fallacious reasoning, and many
conclusions that are not borne out by the facts. For example, he says
that no species of bird of paradise has been diminished in number by
slaughter for the feather trade; that Florida still contains a supply of
egrets; that the decrease in bird life should be charged to the spread
of cities, towns and farms, and not to the trade; that the trade was "in
no way responsible" for the slaughter of three hundred thousand gulls
and albatrosses on Laysan Island!
I have space to notice one other important erroneous conclusion that Mr.
Downham publishes in his book, on page 105. He says:
"The destruction of birds in foreign countries is something that no
trade can direct or control."
This is an amazing declaration; and absolutely contrary to experience.
Let me prove what I say by a fresh and incontestable illustration:
Prior to April, 1911, when Governor Dix signed the Bayne law against the
sale of wild native game in the State of New York, Currituck County,
N.C., was a vast slaughter-pen for wild fowl. No power or persuasion had
availed to induce the people of North Carolina to check, or regulate, or
in any manner mitigate that slaughter of geese, ducks and swans. It was
estimated that two hundred thousand wild fowl were annually slaughtered
there.
We who advocated the Bayne law said: "Close the New York markets against
Currituck birds, and you will stop a great deal of the slaughter."
We cleaned our Augean stable. The greatest game market in America was
absolutely closed.
Last winter (1911) the annual killing of wild fowl was fully fifty per
cent less than during previous years. In one small town, twenty
professional duck shooters went entirely out of business--because they
_couldn't sell their ducks_! The dealers refused to buy them. The result
was exactly what we predicted it would be; and this year, it is reported
over and over that ducks are more plentiful in New England than they
have been in twenty years previously! The result is wonderful, because
so quick.
Beyond all question, the feather merchants of London, Paris and Berlin
absolutely control the bird-killers of Venezuela, China, New Guinea.
Mexico and South America. Let the word go forth that "the trade" is no
longer permitted to buy and sell egret and heron plumes, skins of birds
of paradise and condor feathers, and presto! the killing industry falls
dead the next moment.
[Illustration: MISCELLANEOUS BIRD SKINS, 8 CENTS EACH
Purchased by the New York Zoological Society from the Quarterly Sale in
London, August, 1912]
Yes, indeed, members of the British Parliament: it is easily within
_your power_ to wipe out at a single stroke fully one-half of the bird
slaughter for fancy feathers. It can be done just as we wiped out
one-half the annual duck slaughter in wickedly-wasteful North Carolina!
The feather trade absolutely _does_ control the killing situation! Now,
will the people of England clean house by controlling the feather trade?
If a hundred species of the most beautiful birds of the world must be
exterminated for the feather trade, let the odium rest elsewhere than on
the people of England.
The bird-lovers of America may rest assured that the bird-lovers of
England--a mighty host--are neither careless nor indifferent regarding
the wild-birds' plumage business. On the contrary, several bills have
been brought before Parliament intended to regulate or prohibit the
traffic, and a measure of vast importance to the birds of the world is
now before the House of Commons. It is backed by Mr. Percy Alden, M.P.,
by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, by the Selbourne
Society, and by Mr. James Buckland--a host in himself. For years past
that splendidly-equipped and well-managed Royal Society has waged
ceaseless warfare for the birds. Its activity has been tremendous, and
its membership list contains many of the finest names in England. The
address of the Honorary Secretary, Frank E. Lemon, Esq., is 23 Queen
Anne's Gate, London, S.W.
Naturally, these influences are opposed by the Textile Trade Section of
the London Chamber of Commerce, and their only argument consists of the
plea that if London doesn't get the money out of the feather trade, the
Continent will get it! A reasonable, logical, magnificent and convincing
excuse for wholesale bird slaughter, truly!
Mr. Buckland has been informed from the Continent that the people of
France, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium are waiting and watching to
see what England is going to do with the question, "To slaughter, or not
to slaughter?" For England has no monopoly of the birds' plumage trade,
not by any means. Says Mr. Buckland ("Pros and Cons of the Plumage
Bill," page 17):
"As regards the vast majority of fancy feathers used in millinery, the
Continent receives its own supplies. The feathers of the hundreds of
thousands of albatrosses which are killed in the North Pacific all go to
Paris. Of the untold thousands of 'magpies,' owls, and other species
which come from Peru, not one skin or feather crosses the Channel. The
white herons of the Upper Senegal and the Niger are being rapidly
exterminated at the instigation of the feather merchants, but not one of
the plumes reaches London. Paris receives direct a large supply of
aigrettes from South America and elsewhere.... The millions of
swallows and other migratory birds which are killed annually as they
pass through Italy, France and Spain on their way north, supply the
millinery trade of Europe with an incredible quantity of wings and other
plumage, but none of it is distributed from London.... London, as a
distributing center, has no monopoly of the trade in raw feathers."
Mr. Buckland's green-covered pamphlet is a powerful document, and both
his facts and his conclusions seem to be unassailable. The author's
address is Royal Colonial Institute, Northumberland Ave., London, W.C.
The duty of the civilized nations of Europe is perfectly plain. The
savage and bloody business in feathers torn from wild birds should be
stopped, completely and forever. If the commons will not arise and
reform the odious business out of existence, then the kings and queens
and presidents should do their plain duty. In the suppression of a world
crime like this it is clearly a case of _noblesse oblige_!
* * * * *
CHAPTER XIV.
THE BIRD TRAGEDY ON LAYSAN ISLAND
This chapter is a curtain-dropper to the preceding chapter. As a
clearly-cut, concrete case, the reader will find it unique and
unsurpassed. It should be of lively interest to every American because
the tragedy occurred on American territory.
In the far-away North Pacific Ocean, about seven hundred miles from
Honolulu west-b'-north, lies the small island of Laysan. It is level,
sandy, poorly planted by nature, and barren of all things likely to
enlist the attention of predatory man. To the harassed birds of
mid-ocean, it seemed like a secure haven, and for ages past it has been
inhabited only by them. There several species of sea birds, large and
small, have found homes and breeding places. Until 1909, the inhabitants
consisted of the Laysan albatross, black-footed albatross, sooty tern,
gray-backed tern, noddy tern, Hawaiian tern, white tern, Bonin petrel,
two shearwaters, the red-tailed tropic bird, two boobies and the
man-of-war bird.
Laysan Island is two miles long by one and one-half miles broad, and at
times it has been literally covered with birds. Its bird life was first
brought prominently to notice in 1891, by Henry Palmer, the agent of
Hon. Walter Rothschild, and in 1902 and 1903 Walter K. Fisher and W.A.
Bryan made further observations.
Ever since 1891 the bird life on Laysan has been regarded as one of the
wonders of the bird world. One of the photographs taken prior to 1909
shows a vast plain, apparently a square mile in area, covered and
crowded with Laysan albatrosses. They stand there on the level sand,
serene, bulky and immaculate. Thousands of birds appear in one view--a
very remarkable sight.
Naturally man, the ever-greedy, began to cast about for ways by which to
convert some product of that feathered host into money. At first guano
and eggs were collected. A tramway was laid down and small box-cars were
introduced, in which the collected material was piled and pushed down to
the packing place.
For several years this went on, and the birds themselves were not
molested. At last, however, a tentacle of the feather-trade octopus
reached out to Laysan. In an evil moment in the spring of 1909, a
predatory individual of Honolulu and elsewhere, named Max Schlemmer,
decided that the wings of those albatross, gulls and terns should be
torn off and sent to Japan, whence they would undoubtedly be shipped to
Paris, the special market for the wings of sea-birds slaughtered in the
North Pacific.
[Illustration: LAYSAN ALBATROSSES, BEFORE THE GREAT SLAUGHTER
By the Courtesy of Hon. Walter Rothschild.]
[Illustration: LAYSAN ALBATROSS ROOKERY, AFTER THE GREAT SLAUGHTER
The Same Ground as Shown in the Preceding Picture, Photographed in 1911
by Prof. Homer R. Dill]
Schlemmer the Slaughterer bought a cheap vessel, hired twenty-three
phlegmatic and cold-blooded Japanese laborers, and organized a raid on
Laysan. With the utmost secrecy he sailed from Honolulu, landed his
bird-killers upon the sea-bird wonderland, and turned them loose upon
the birds.
For several months they slaughtered diligently and without mercy.
Apparently it was the ambition of Schlemmer to kill every bird on the
island.
By the time the bird-butchers had accumulated between three and four
car-loads of wings, and the carnage was half finished, William A. Bryan,
Professor of Zoology in the College of Honolulu, heard of it and
promptly wired the United States Government.
Without the loss of a moment the Secretary of the Navy despatched the
revenue cutter _Thetis_ to the shambles of Laysan. When Captain Jacobs
arrived he found that in round numbers about _three hundred thousand_
birds had been destroyed, and all that remained of them were several
acres of bones and dead bodies, and about three carloads of wings,
feathers and skins. It was evident that Schlemmer's intention was to
kill all the birds on the island, and only the timely arrival of the
_Thetis_ frustrated that bloody plan.
The twenty-three Japanese poachers were arrested and taken to Honolulu
for trial, and the _Thetis_ also brought away all the stolen wings and
plumage with the exception of one shedful of wings that had to be left
behind on account of lack of carrying space. That old shed, with one
end torn out, and supposed to contain nearly fifty thousand pairs of
wings, was photographed by Prof. Dill in 1911, as shown herewith.
[Illustration: ACRES OF GULL AND ALBATROSS BONES
Photographed on Laysan Island by H.R. Dill, 1911]
Three hundred thousand albatrosses, gulls, terns and other birds were
butchered to make a Schlemmer holiday! Had the arrival of the _Thetis_
been delayed, it is reasonably certain that every bird on Laysan would
have been killed to satisfy the wolfish rapacity of one money-grubbing
white man.
In 1911, the Iowa State University despatched to Laysan a scientific
expedition in charge of Prof. Homer R. Dill. The party landed on the
island on April 24 and remained until June 5, and the report of
Professor Dill (U.S. Department of Agriculture) is consumedly
interesting to the friends of birds. Here is what he has said regarding
the evidences of bird-slaughter:
"Our first impression of Laysan was that the poachers had stripped the
place of bird life. An area of over 300 acres on each side of the
buildings was apparently abandoned. Only the shearwaters moaning in
their burrows, the little wingless rail skulking from one grass tussock
to another, and the saucy finch remained. It is an excellent example of
what Prof. Nutting calls the survival of the inconspicuous.
"Here on every side are bones bleaching in the sun, showing where the
poachers had piled the bodies of the birds as they stripped them of
wings and feathers. In the old open guano shed were seen the remains of
hundreds and possibly thousands of wings which were placed there but
never cured for shipping, as the marauders were interrupted in their
work.
[Illustration: SHED PILLED WITH WINGS OF SLAUGHTERED BIRDS ON LAYSAN
ISLAND]
"An old cistern back of one of the buildings tells a story of cruelty
that surpasses anything else done by these heartless, sanguinary
pirates, not excepting the practice of cutting wings from living birds
and leaving them to die of hemorrhage. In this dry cistern the living
birds were kept by hundreds to slowly starve to death. In this way the
fatty tissue lying next to the skin was used up, and the skin was left
quite free from grease, so that it required little or no cleaning during
preparation.
"Many other revolting sights, such as the remains of young birds that
had been left to starve, and birds with broken legs and deformed beaks
were to be seen. Killing clubs, nets and other implements used by these
marauders were lying all about. Hundreds of boxes to be used in shipping
the bird skins were packed in an old building. It was very evident they
intended to carry on their slaughter as long as the birds lasted.
"Not only did they kill and skin the larger species but they caught and
caged the finch, honey eater, and miller bird. Cages and material for
making them were found."--(Report of an Expedition to Laysan Island in
1911. By Homer R. Dill, page 12.)
The report of Professor Bryan contains the following pertinent
paragraphs:
"This wholesale killing has had an appalling effect on the colony.... It
is conservative to say that fully one-half the number of birds of both
species of albatross that were so abundant everywhere in 1903 have been
killed. The colonies that remain are in a sadly decimated condition....
Over a large part of the island, in some sections a hundred acres in a
place, that ten years ago were thickly inhabited by albatrosses not a
single bird remains, while heaps of the slain lie as mute testimony of
the awful slaughter of these beautiful, harmless, and without doubt
beneficial inhabitants of the high seas.
"While the main activity of the plume-hunters was directed against the
albatrosses, they were by no means averse to killing anything in the
bird line that came in their way.... Fortunately, serious as were the
depredations of the poachers, their operations were interrupted before
any of the species had been completely exterminated."
But the work of the Evil Genius of Laysan did not stop with the
slaughter of three hundred thousand birds. Mr. Schlemmer introduced
rabbits and guinea-pigs; and these rapidly multiplying rodents now are
threatening to consume every plant on the island. If the plants
disappear, many of the insects will go with them; and this will mean the
disappearance of the small insectivorous birds.
In February, 1909, President Roosevelt issued an executive order
creating the Hawaiian Islands Reservation for Birds. In this are
included Laysan and twelve other islands and reefs, some of which are
inhabited by birds that are well worth preserving. By this act, we may
feel that for the future the birds of Laysan and neighboring islets are
secure from further attacks by the bloody-handed agents of the vain
women who still insist upon wearing the wings and feathers of wild
birds.
* * * * *
CHAPTER XV
UNFAIR FIREARMS, AND SHOOTING ETHICS
For considerably more than a century, the States of the American Union
have enacted game-protective laws based on the principle that the wild
game belongs to the People, and the people's senators, representatives
and legislators generally may therefore enact laws for its protection,
prescribing the manner in which it may and may not be taken and
possessed. The soundness of this principle has been fully confirmed by
the Supreme Court of the United States in the case of Geer vs.
Connecticut, on March 2, 1896.
The tendency of predatory man to kill and capture wild game of all kinds
by wholesale methods is as old as the human race. The days of the club,
the stone axe, the bow and arrow and the flint-lock gun were
contemporaneous with the days of great abundance of game. Now that the
advent of breech-loaders, repeaters, automatics and fixed ammunition has
rendered game scarce in all localities save a very few, the thoughtful
man is driven to consider measures for the checking of destruction and
the suppression of wholesale slaughter.
First of all, the deadly floating batteries and sail-boats were
prohibited. To-day a punt gun is justly regarded as a relic of
barbarism, and any man who uses one places himself beyond the pale of
decent sportsmanship, or even of modern pot-hunting. Strange to say,
although the unwritten code of ethics of English sportsmen is very
strict, the English to this day permit wild-fowl hunting with guns of
huge calibre, some of which are more like shot-cannons than shot-guns.
And they say, "Well, there are still wild duck on our coast!"
Beyond question, it is now high time for the English people to take up
the shot-gun question, and consider what to-day is fair and unfair in
the killing of waterfowl. The supply of British ducks and geese can not
forever withstand the market gunners and their shot-cannons. Has not the
British wild-fowl supply greatly decreased during the past fifteen
years? I strongly suspect that a careful investigation would reveal the
fact that it has diminished. The Society for the Preservation of the
Fauna of the Empire should look into the matter, and obtain a series of
reports on the condition of the waterfowl to-day as compared with what
it was twenty years ago.
In the United States we have eliminated the swivel guns, the punt guns
and the very-big-bore guns. Among the real sportsmen the tendency is
steadily toward shot-guns of small calibre, especially under 12-gauge.
But, outside the ranks of sportsmen, we are now face to face with two
automatic and five "pump" shotguns of deadly efficiency. Of these, more
than one hundred thousand are being made and sold annually by the five
companies that produce them. Recently the annual output has been
carefully estimated from known facts to be about as follows:
Winchester Arms Co., New Haven, Conn.
(1 Automatic and 1 Pump-gun) 50,000 guns.
Remington Arms Co., Ilion, N.Y.
(1 Automatic and 1 Pump-gun) 25,000 "
Marlin Fire Arms Co., New Haven, Conn. 1 Pump-gun 12,000 "
Stevens Arms Co., Chicopee Falls, Mass. 1 Pump-gun 10,000 "
Union Fire Arms Co., 1 Pump-gun 5,000 "
------------
103,000 guns
[Illustration: FOUR OF THE SEVEN MACHINE GUNS
STEVENS PUMP GUN, 6 SHOTS IN 6 SECONDS.
WINCHESTER PUMP GUN, 6 SHOTS IN 6 SECONDS.
REMINGTON AUTOMATIC, 5 SHOTS IN 4 SECONDS.
Loaded and cocked by its own recoil.
WINCHESTER AUTOLOADING. 5 SHOTS IN 4 SECONDS
Loaded and cocked by its own recoil.]
THE ETHICS OF SHOOTING AND SHOT-GUNS.--Are the American people willing
that their wild birds shall be shot by machinery?
In the ethics of sportsmanship, the anglers of America are miles ahead
of the men who handle the rifle and shot-gun in the hunting field. Will
the hunters ever catch up?
The anglers have steadily diminished the weight of the rod and the size
of the line; and they have prohibited the use of gang hooks and nets. In
this respect the initiative of the Tuna Club of Santa Catalina is worthy
of the highest admiration. Even though the leaping tuna, the jewfish and
the sword-fish are big and powerful, the club has elected to raise the
standard of sportsmanship by making captures more difficult than ever
before. A higher degree of skill, and nerve and judgment, is required in
the angler who would make good on a big fish; and, incidentally, the
fish has about double "the show" that it had fifteen years ago.
That is Sportsmanship!
But how is it with the men who handle the shot-gun?
By them, the Tuna Club's high-class principle has been exactly reversed!
In the making of fishing-rods, commercialism plays small part; but in
about forty cases out of every fifty the making of guns is solely a
matter of dollars and profits.
Excepting the condemnation of automatic and pump guns, I think that few
clubs of sportsmen have laid down laws designed to make shooting more
difficult, and to give the game more of a show to escape. Thousands of
gentlemen sportsmen have their own separate unwritten codes of honor,
but so far as I know, few of them have been written out and adopted as
binding rules of action. I know that among expert wing shots it is an
unwritten law that quail and grouse must not be shot on the ground, nor
ducks on the water. But, among the three million gunners who annually
shoot in the United States how many, think you, are there who in actual
practice observe any sentimental principles when in the presence of
killable game? I should say about one man and boy out of every five
hundred.
Up to this time, the great mass of men who handle guns have left it to
the gunmakers to make their codes of ethics, and hand them out with the
loaded cartridges, all ready for use.
For fifty years the makers of shot-guns and rifles have taxed their
ingenuity and resources to make killing easier, especially for "amateur"
sportsmen,--_and take still greater advantages of the game_! Look at
this scale of progression:
FIFTY YEARS' INCREASE IN THE DEADLINESS OF FIREARMS.
KIND OF GUN. ESTIMATED DEGREE OF DEADLINESS.
Single-shot muzzle loader xx 10
Single-shot breech-loader xxxxxx 30
Double-barrel breech-loader xxxxxxxxxx 50
Choke-bore breech-loader xxxxxxxxxxxx 60
Repeating rifle xxxxxxxxxxxx 60
Repeating rifle, with silencer xxxxxxxxxxxxxx 70
"Pump" shot-gun (6 shots) xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 90
Automatic or "autoloading" shot-guns, 5 shots xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 100
_The Output of 1911_.--At a recent hearing before a committee of the
House of Representatives at Washington, a representative of the
gun-making industry reported that in the year 1911 ten American
manufacturing concerns turned out the following:
391,875 shot-guns,
666,643 rifles, and
580,042 revolvers.
There are 66 factories producing firearms and ammunition, employing
$39,377,000 of invested capital and 15,000 employees.
The sole and dominant thought of many gunmakers is to make the very
deadliest guns that human skill can invent, sell them as fast as
possible, and declare dividends on their stock. The Remington,
Winchester, Marlin, Stevens and Union Companies are engaged in a mad
race to see who can turn out the deadliest guns, and the most of them.
On the market to-day there are five pump-guns, that fire six shots each,
in about _six seconds_, without removal from the shoulder, by the quick
sliding of a sleeve under the barrel, that ejects the empty shell and
inserts a loaded one. There are two automatics that fire five shots each
in _five seconds or less_, by five pulls on the trigger! _The
autoloading gun is reloaded and cocked again wholly by its own recoil_.
Now, if these are not machine guns, what are they?
In view of the great scarcity of feathered game, and the number of
deadly machine guns already on the market, the production of the last
and deadliest automatic gun (by the Winchester Arms Company), _already
in great demand_, is a crime against wild life, no less.
Every human action is a matter of taste and individual honor.
It is natural for the duck-butchers of Currituck to love the automatic
shot-guns as they do, because they kill the most ducks per flock. With
two of them in his boat, holding _ten shots_, one expert duck-killer
can,--and sometimes _actually does_, so it is said,--get every duck out
of a flock, up to seven or eight.
It is natural for an awkward and blundering wing-shot to love the
deadliest gun, in order that he may make as good a bag as an expert shot
can make with a double-barreled gun. It is natural for the hunter who
does not care a rap about the extermination of species to love the gun
that will enable him to kill up to the bag limit, every time he takes
the field. It is natural for men who don't think, or who think in
circles, to say "so long as I observe the lawful bag limit, what
difference does it make what kind of a gun I use?"
It is natural for the Remington, and Winchester, and Marlin gun-makers
to say, as they do, "Enforce the laws! Shorten the open seasons! Reduce
the bag limit, and then it won't matter what guns are used! But,--DON'T
touch autoloading guns! Don't hamper Inventive Genius!"
Is it not high time for American sportsmen to cease taking their moral
principles and their codes of ethics from the gun-makers?
Here is a question that I would like to put before every hunter of game
in America:
In view of the alarming scarcity of game, in view of the impending
extermination of species by legal hunting, can any high-minded
_sportsman_, can any _good citizen_ either sell a machine shot-gun or
use one in hunting?
A gentleman is incapable of taking an unfair advantage of any wild
creature; therefore a gentleman cannot use punt guns for ducks, dynamite
for game fish, or automatic or pump guns in bird-shooting. The machine
guns and "silencers" are grossly unfair, and like gang-hooks, nets and
dynamite for trout and bass, their use in hunting must everywhere be
prohibited by law. Times have changed, and the lines for protection must
be more tightly drawn.
[Illustration: THE CHAMPION GAME SLAUGHTER CASE
One Hour's Slaughter (218 Geese) With Two Automatic Shot-Guns]
The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania (Judge Orlady) has decided that the
Pennsylvania law against the use of automatic guns in hunting is
entirely constitutional, because every state has a right to say how its
game may and may not be killed.
It is up to the American People to say _now_ whether their wild life
shall be slaughtered by machinery, or not.
If they are willing that it should be, then let us be consistent and
say--away with all "conservation!" The game conservators can endure a
gameless and birdless continent quite as well as the average citizen
can.
HOW THEY WORK.--There are a few apologists for the automatic and pump
guns who cheerfully say, "So long as the bag limit is observed what
difference does it make how the birds are killed?"
It is strange that a conscientious man should ask such a question, when
the answer is apparent.
We reply, "The difference is that an automatic or pump gun will kill
fully twice as many waterfowl as a double-barrel, _if not more_; and _it
is highly undesirable that every gunner should get the bag limit of
birds, or any number near it_! The birds can not stand it. Moreover,
_the best states for ducks and geese have no bag limits on those birds_!"
To-day, on Currituck Sound, for example, the market hunters are killing
all the waterfowl they can sell. On Marsh Island, Louisiana, one man has
killed 369 ducks in one day, and another market gunner killed 430 in one
day.
The automatic and the "pump" shot-guns are the favorite weapons of the
game-hog who makes a specialty of geese and ducks. It is no uncommon
thing for a gunner who shoots a machine gun to get, with one gun, as
high as _eight_ birds out of one flock. A man who has himself done this
has told me so.
_The Champion Game-Slaughter Case_.--Here is a story from California
that is no fairy tale. It was published, most innocently, in a western
magazine, with the illustration that appears herewith, and in which
please notice the automatic shot-gun:
"February 5th, I and a friend were at one of the Glenn County Club's
camps.... Neither of us having ever had the pleasure of shooting over
live decoys, we were anxious, and could hardly wait for the sport to
commence. On arriving at the scene we noticed holes which had been dug
in the ground, just large enough for a man to crawl into. These holes
were used for hiding places, and were deep enough so the sportsmen would
be entirely out of sight of the game. The birds are so wild that to move
a finger will frighten them....
"The decoys are wild geese which had been crippled and tamed for this
purpose. They are placed inside of silk net fences which are located on
each side of the holes dug for hiding places. These nets are the color
of the ground and it is impossible for the wild geese flying overhead to
detect the difference.
"After we had investigated everything the expert caller and owner of the
outfit exclaimed: 'Into your holes!'
"We noticed in the distance a flock of geese coming. Our caller in a few
seconds had their attention, and they headed towards our decoys. Soon
they were directly over us, but out of easy range of our guns. We were
anxious to shoot, but in obedience to our boss had to keep still, and
soon noticed that the birds were soaring around and in a short time were
within fifteen or twenty feet of us. At that moment we heard the
command, 'Punch 'em!' and the bombardment that followed was beyond
imagining. _We had fired five shots apiece and found we had bagged ten
geese from this one flock_.
"At the end of one hour's shooting we had 218 birds to our credit and
were out of ammunition.
"On finding that no more shells were in our pits we took our dead geese
to the camp and returned with a new supply of ammunition. We remained in
the pits during the entire day. When the sun had gone behind the
mountains we summed up our kill and _it amounted to 450 geese_!
"The picture shown with this article gives a view of _the first hour's
shoot_. A photograph would have been taken of the remainder of the
shoot, but it being warm weather the birds had to be shipped at once in
order to keep them from spoiling.
[Illustration: SLAUGHTERED ACCORDING TO LAW
A Result of a Faulty System. Such Pictures as this are Very Common in
Sportsmen's Magazines Note the Automatic Gun]
"Supper was then eaten, after which we were driven back to Willows; both
agreeing that it was one of the greatest days of sport we ever had, and
wishing that we might, through the courtesy of the Glenn County Goose
Club, have another such day. C.H.B."
Another picture was published in a Canadian magazine, illustrating a
story from which I quote:
"I fixed the decoys, hid my boat and took my position in the blind. My
man started his work with a will and hustled the ducks out of every
cove, inlet or piece of marsh for two miles around. I had barely time to
slip the cartridges into my guns--_one a double and the other a five
shot automatic_--when I saw a brace of birds coming toward me. They
sailed in over my decoys. I rose to the occasion, and the leader
up-ended and tumbled in among the decoys. The other bird, unable to stop
quick enough, came directly over me. He closed his wings and struck the
ground in the rear of the blind.
"More and more followed. Sometimes they came singly, and then in twos
and threes. I kept busy and attended to each bird as quickly as
possible. Whenever there was a lull in the flight I went out in the boat
and picked up the dead, leaving the wounded to take chances with any
gunner lucky enough to catch them in open and smooth water. A bird handy
in the air is worth two wounded ones in the water. _Twice I took six
dead birds out of the water for seven shots, and both guns empty_.
"The ball thus opened, the birds commenced to move in all directions.
Until the morning's flight was over I was kept busy pumping lead, _first
with the 10, then with the automatic_, reloading, picking up the dead,
etc."
And the reader will observe that the harmless, innocent, inoffensive
automatic shot gun, that "don't matter if you enforce the bag limit,"
figures prominently in both stories and both photographs.
_A Story of Two Pump Guns and Geese_:--It comes from Aberdeen, S.D.
(Sand Lake), in the spring of 1911. Mr. J.J. Humphrey tells it, in
_Outdoor Life_ magazine for July, 1911.
"Smith and I were about a hundred yards from them [the flock of Canada
geese], when Murphy scared them. They rose in a dense mass and came
directly between Smith and me. We were about gunshot distance apart, and
they were not over thirty feet in the air when we opened up on them with
our pump guns and No. 5 shot. When the smoke cleared away and we had
rounded up the cripples we found we had twenty-one geese. I have heard
of bigger killings out in this country, but never positively knew of
them."
So then: _those two gunners averaged 10-1/2 wild geese per pump gun out
of one flock_! And yet there are wise and reflective sportsmen who say,
"What difference does the kind of gun make so long as you live up to the
law?"
I think that the pump and automatic guns make about 75 _per-cent of
difference, against the game_; that is all!
The number of shot-guns now in use in the United States is almost beyond
belief. About six years ago a gentleman interested in the manufacture of
such weapons informed me, and his statement has never been disputed,
that _every year_ about 500,000 new shot-guns were sold in the United
States. The number of shot cartridges annually produced by our four
great cartridge companies has been reliably estimated as follows:
Winchester Arms Co 300,000,000
Union Metallic Cartridge Co 250,000,000
Peters Cartridge Co 150,000,000
Western Cartridge Co 75,000,000
-----------
775,000,000
We must stop all the holes in the barrel, or eventually lose all the
water. No group of bird-slaughterers is entitled to immunity. We will
not "limit the bag, and enforce the laws," while we permit the makers
and users of autoloading and pump guns to kill at will, as they demand.
* * * * *
[Illustration: Copy of letter:
National Association of Audubon Societies
Founded 1901. Incorporated 1906.
For the Protection of Wild Birds and Animals
WILLIAM DUTCHER, President
JOHN E. THAYER, 1st Vice-President
THEO. S. PALMER, M.D., 2d Vice-President
T. GILBERT PEARSON, Secretary
FRANK M. CHAPMAN, Treasurer
SAMUEL T. CARTER, Jr., Attorney
OFFICES
525 Manhattan Avenue, New York City
[Illustration: Map showing (shaded) States having
Audubon Societies.]
[Illustration: Map showing (shaded) States which have adopted
the A.O.U. model law protecting the non-game birds.]
141 Broadway.
Feb. 26th 1906.
My dear Mr. Hornaday:--
It is with much surprise that I learn through your communication of even
date that certain persons are claiming that the National Association of
Audubon Societies for the Protection of Wild Animals and Birds is in
favor of the use of automatic or pump guns, and consequently is not in
favor of the passage of laws to prevent the use or sale of such
firearms.
I beg officially to state that the National Association of Audubon
Societies is absolutely opposed to either the manufacture, sale, or use
of such firearms, and therefore hopes that the meritorious bill
introduced by the New York Zoological Society will become a law.
I beg further to add that any statement contrary to the above in effect
is unauthorized.
This society is working for the preservation of the wild birds and game
of North America, and it sincerely should not stultify itself by
advocating the use of one of the most potent means of destruction that
has ever been devised.
You are at liberty to use this communication either publicly or
privately.
Very sincerely yours,
[Signature: William Dutcher]
President.
A LETTER THAT TELLS ITS OWN STORY]
* * * * *
Yes; we _will_ "limit the bag" and "enforce the laws;" but the machine
guns and the alien shooters shall be eliminated at the same time! Each
state has the power to regulate, absolutely, down to the smallest
detail, the manner in which the game of The People shall be taken or not
taken; and such laws are absolutely constitutional. If we can legislate
punt guns and dynamite out of use, the machine guns and silencers can be
treated similarly.
_No immunity for wild-life exterminators_.
The following unprejudiced testimony from a New York business man who is
a sportsman, with a fine game preserve of his own, should be of general
interest. It was written to G.O. Shields, March 21, 1906.
DEAR SIR:
Regarding the use of the automatic shot-gun, would say that I am a
member of two southern ducking clubs where these guns are used very
extensively. I have seen a flock of ducks come into a blind where
one, two, or even three of these guns were in use, and have seen as
many as eleven shots poured into a single flock.
We have considerable poaching on one of these clubs, the territory
being so extensive that it is impossible to prevent it. We own
60,000 acres, and these poachers, I am told, nearly all use the
automatic guns. They frequently kill six or eight ducks out of one
flock--first taking a raking shot on the water, and then getting in
the balance of the magazine before the flock is out of range. In
fact, some of them carry two guns, and are able to discharge a part
of the second magazine into the same flock.
As I told you the other evening, I am not so much against the gun
when in the hands of gentlemen and real sportsmen, but, on account
of its terrible possibilities for market hunters, I believe that the
only safe way is to abolish it entirely, and that the better class
should be willing to give up this weapon as being the only means of
putting a stop to this willful game slaughter.
Very truly yours,
ARTHUR ROBINSON.
* * * * *
HOW GENTLEMEN SPORTSMEN REGARD AUTOMATIC AND PUMP GUNS
Each one of the following organizations, chiefly clubs of gentlemen
sportsmen, have adopted strong resolutions condemning the use of
automatic guns in hunting, and either requesting or recommending the
enactment of laws against their use:
New York Zoological Society ... Henry Fairfield Osborn, President
The Camp-Fire Club of America ... Daniel C. Beard, President
Boone and Crockett Club ... W. Austin Wadsworth, President
New York State Fish, Game and Forest League ... 81 Clubs and Associations
New York Association for the Protection of Fish and Game
... Alfred Wagstaff, President
Lewis and Clark Club ... John M. Phillips, President
League of American Sportsmen ... G.O. Shields, President
Wild Life Protective Association ... W.T. Hornaday, President
WHERE AUTOMATIC GUNS ARE BARRED OUT BY LAW
PENNSYLVANIA, 1907
NEW JERSEY, 1912
SASKATCHEWAN, 1906
NEW BRUNSWICK, 1907
BRITISH COLUMBIA, 1911
ONTARIO, 1907
MANITOBA, 1909
ALBERTA, 1907
PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND, 1906
SPORTSMEN'S CLUBS WHEREIN THEY ARE BARRED BY CODES OF ETHICS AND RULES
Adirondack League Club, New York
Blooming Grove Park Hunting and Fishing Club, Penn.
Greenwing Gun Club, Ottawa, Ill.
Western Ducking Club, Detroit, Minn.
Bolsa Chica Club, Los Angeles, Cal.
Westminster Club, Los Angeles, Cal.
Los Patos Club, Los Arigeles, Cal.
Pocahontas Club, Va.
Tobico Hunting Club, Kawkawlin, Mich.
Turtle Lake Club, Turtle Lake, Mich.
Au Sable Forest Farm Club, Mich.
Wallace Ducking Club, Wild Fowl Bay, Mich.
Lomita Club, Los Angeles, Cal.
Golden West Club, Los Angeles, Cal.
Recreation Club, Los Angeles, Cal.
* * * * *
A MODEL BILL TO PROHIBIT THE USE OF AUTOMATIC AND REPEATING SHOT GUNS IN
HUNTING
Section 1. It shall be unlawful to use in hunting or shooting birds
or animals of any kind, any automatic or repeating shot gun or pump
gun, or any shot-gun holding more than two cartridges at one time,
or that may be fired more than twice without removal from the
shoulder for reloading.
Section 2. Violation of any provision of this act shall be punished
by a fine of not less than twenty-five nor more than one hundred
dollars for each offence; and the carrying, or possession in the
woods, or in any field, or upon any water of any gun or other weapon
the use of which is prohibited, as aforesaid, shall be prima facie
evidence of the violation of this act.
_The English 3-barrel "Scatter Rifle," for Ducks_.--All gunners who find
machine guns good enough for them will be delighted by the news that an
Englishman whose identity is concealed under the initials "F.M.M." has
invented and manufactured a 3-barreled rifle specially intended to kill
ducks that are beyond the reach of a choke-bore shotgun. The weapon
discharges all three barrels simultaneously. In the _London Field_, of
Dec. 9, 1911, it is described by a writer who also thoughtfully conceals
his identity under a nom-de-plume. After a trial of 48 shots, the writer
declares that "the 3-barreled is a really practicable weapon," and that
with it one could bag wild-fowl that were quite out of reach of any
shot-gun. Just why a Gatling gun or a Maxim should not be employed for
the same purpose, the writer fails to state. The use of either would be
quite as sportsmanlike, and as fair to the game. There are great
possibilities in ducking mortars, also.
_The "Sunday Gun."_--A new weapon of peculiar form and great deadliness
to song birds, has recently come into use. Because of the manner of its
use, it is known as the "Sunday gun." It is specially adapted to
concealment on the person. A man could go through a reception with one
of these deadly weapons absolutely concealed under his dress coat! It is
a weapon with two barrels, rifle and shot; and it enables the user to
kill anything from a humming-bird up to a deer. What the shot-barrel can
not kill, the rifle will. It is not a gun that any sportsman would own,
save as a curiosity, or for target use.
The State Ornithologist of Massachusetts, Mr. E.H. Forbush, informs me
that already the "Sunday gun" has become a scourge to the bird life of
that state. Thousands of them are used by men and boys who live in
cities and towns, and are able to get into the country only on Sundays.
They conceal them under their coats, on Sunday mornings, go out into the
country, and spend the day in shooting small birds and mammals. The dead
birds are concealed in various pockets, the Sunday gun goes under the
coat, and at nightfall the guerrilla rides back to the city with an
innocent smile on his face, as if he had spent a day in harmless
enjoyment of the beauties of nature.
The "Sunday gun" is on sale everywhere, and it is said to be in use both
by American and Italian killers of song-birds. It weighs only two
pounds, eight ounces, and its cost is so trifling that any guerrilla who
wishes one can easily find the money for its purchase. There are in the
United States at least a million men and boys quite mean enough to use
this weapon on song-birds, swallows, woodpeckers, nuthatches, rabbits
and squirrels, and like other criminals, hide both weapon and loot in
their clothing. So long as this gun is in circulation, no small bird is
safe, at any season, near any city or town.
Now, what are the People going to do about it?
My recommendation is that each state enact a law in the following terms:
Be it enacted, etc.--That from and after the passage of this act it
shall be unlawful for any person to use in hunting, or to carry
concealed on the person, any shotgun, or rifle, or combination of
shotgun and rifle, with a barrel or barrels less than twenty-eight
inches in length, or with a skeleton stock fixed on a hinge.
The carrying of any rifle or shotgun concealed on the person shall
constitute a felony.
The penalties for hunting with any gun specially adapted to concealment
should be not less than $50 fine or two months imprisonment at hard
labor, and the carrying of such weapons concealed should be $100 or four
months at hard labor.
Incidentally, we wonder what will be the next devilish device for the
destruction of wild life that American inventive genius will produce.
[Illustration: THE "SUNDAY GUN!"
A Deadly Combination of Concealable Rifle-and-Shot-Gun.]
[Illustration: THE WILDERNESS OF NORTH AMERICA (SHADED) AND THE ARCTIC
PRAIRIES, WELL STOCKED WITH BIG GAME]
* * * * *
CHAPTER XVI
THE PRESENT AND FUTURE OF NORTH AMERICAN BIG GAME
The subject of this chapter opens up a vast field of facts and
conclusions, quite broad enough to fill a whole volume. In the space at
our disposal here it is possible to offer only a summary of the subject,
without attempting to prove our statements by the production of detailed
evidence.
To say that all over the world, the large land mammals are being
destroyed more rapidly than they are breeding, would not be literally
true, for the reason that there are yet many areas that are almost
untouched by the destroying hand of civilized man. It is true, however,
that all the unspoiled areas rapidly are growing fewer and smaller. It
is also true that in all the regions of the earth that are easily
penetrable by civilized man, the wild life is being killed faster than
it breeds, and of necessity it is disappearing. This is why the British
are now so urgently bestirring themselves to create game preserves in
all the countries that they own.
It is one of the inexorable laws of Nature, to which I know of not one
exception, that large hoofed animals which live on open plains, on open
mountains, or in regions that are thinly forested, always are easily
found and easily exterminated. All such animals have a weak hold on
life. This is because it is so difficult for them to hide, and so very
easy for man to creep up within the killing range of modern, high-power,
long-range rifles. Is it not pitiful to think of animals like the
caribou, moose, white sheep and bear trying to survive on the naked
ridges and bald mountains of Yukon Territory and Alaska! With a modern
rifle, the greatest duffer on earth can creep up within killing distance
of any of the big game of the North.
The gray wolf is practically the only large animal that is able to hide
successfully and survive in the treeless regions of the North; but his
room is always preferable to his company, because he, too, is a
destroyer of big game.
I am tempted to try to map out roughly what are to-day the unopened and
undestroyed wild haunts of big game in North America. In doing this,
however, I warn the reader not to be deceived into thinking that because
game still exists in those regions, those areas therefore constitute a
permanent preserve and safe breeding-ground for large mammals. That is
very, very far from being the case. The further "opening up" of the
wilderness areas, as I shall call them for convenience, can and surely
will quickly wipe out their big game; for throughout nine-tenths of
those areas it holds to life by very slender threads.
To-day the unopened and undestroyed wilderness areas of North America,
wherein large mammals still live in a normal wild state, are in general
as follows:
THE ARCTIC BARREN GROUNDS, or Arctic Prairies, north of the limit of
trees, embracing the Barren Grounds of northern Canada, the great arctic
archipelago, Ellesmere, Melville and Grant Lands and Greenland. This
region is the home of the musk-ox and three species of arctic caribou.
THE ALASKA-YUKON REGION, inhabited by the moose, white mountain sheep,
mountain goat, four species of caribou, and half a dozen species of
Alaska brown, grizzly and black bears.
NORTHERN ONTARIO, QUEBEC, LABRADOR AND NEWFOUNDLAND, inhabited by moose,
woodland caribou, white-tailed deer and black bear.
BRITISH COLUMBIA, inhabited by a magnificent big-game fauna embracing
the moose, elk, caribou of two species, white sheep, black sheep,
big-horn sheep, mule deer, white-tailed deer, mountain goat, grizzly,
black and inland white bears.
THE SIERRA MADRE OF MEXICO, containing jaguar, puma, _grizzly_ and black
bears, mule deer, white-tailed deer, antelope, mountain sheep and
peccaries.
I have necessarily omitted all those regions of the United States and
Canada that still contain a remnant of big game, but have been literally
"shot to pieces" by gunners.
In the United States and southern Canada there are about fifteen
localities which contain a supply of big game sufficient that a
conscientious sportsman might therein hunt and kill one head per year
with a clear conscience. _All others should be closed for five years_!
Here is the list of availables; and regarding it there will be about as
many opinions as there are big-game sportsmen:
* * * * *
HUNTING GROUNDS IN AND NEAR THE UNITED STATES AND SOUTHERN CANADA
WHEREIN IT IS RIGHT TO HUNT BIG GAME
THE MAINE WOODS: Well stocked with white-tailed deer.
NEW BRUNSWICK: Well stocked with moose; a few caribou, deer and black
bear.
WHITE MOUNTAINS OF NEW HAMPSHIRE AND VERMONT: For deer.
THE ADIRONDACKS, NEW YORK: Well stocked with white-tailed deer, only.
PENNSYLVANIA MOUNTAINS: Contain many deer and black bears, and soon will
contain more.
NORTHERN MINNESOTA: Deer and moose.
NORTHERN MICHIGAN AND WISCONSIN: White-tailed deer.
NORTHWESTERN WYOMING: Thousands of elk in fall and winter; a few deer,
grizzly and black bears, but no sheep that it would be right to kill.
WESTERN AND SOUTHWESTERN MONTANA: Elk in season, mule and white-tail
deer; no sheep that it would be right to kill.
NORTHWESTERN MONTANA: Mule and white-tailed deer, only. No sheep, bear,
moose, elk or antelope _to kill_!
WYOMING, EAST OF YELLOWSTONE PARK: A few elk, by migration from the
Park; a few deer, and bear of two species.
NORTHERN WOODS OF ONTARIO AND QUEBEC: Moose; deer.
SOUTHERN BRITISH COLUMBIA: Goat, a few sheep and deer; grizzly bear.
Moose, caribou and elk should not be killed.
NORTHERN BRITISH COLUMBIA: Six fine species of big game.
NORTHWESTERN ALBERTA: Grizzly bear, big-horn and mountain goat.
Under existing conditions I regard the above-named hunting grounds as
_nearly all_ in which it is right or fair for big-game hunting now to be
permitted, even on a strict basis. Nearly all others should immediately
be closed, for large game, for ten years.
Of course such a proceeding, if carried into effect, would provoke loud
protests from sportsmen, gunners, game-hogs, pot-hunters and others; but
I only wish to high heaven that we had the power to carry such a program
as that into effect! _Then we would see some game in ten years_; and our
grand-children would thank us for some real big-game protection at a
critical period.
Except in the few localities above-mentioned, I regard the big-game
situation in the United States and southern Canada as particularly
desperate. Unless there is an immediate and complete revolution in this
country from an era of slaughter to an era of preservation, as sure as
the sun rises on the morrow, outside of the hard and fast game
preserves, and places like Maine and the Adirondacks, this generation of
Americans and near-Americans will live to see our country _swept clean
of big game_!
Two years ago, I did not believe this; but I do now. It is impossible to
exaggerate the wide extent or the seriousness of this situation. In a
country where any and every individual can rise and bluster,
"I'm-just-as-good-as-_you_-are," and bellow for his "rights" as a
"tax-payer," there is no stopping the millions who kill whenever there
is an open season. And to many Americans, no right is dearer than the
right to kill the game which by even the commonest law of equity
belongs, not to the shooter exclusively, but partly to two thousand
other persons who don't shoot at all!
Unless we come to an "About, face!" in quick time, all our big game
outside the preserves is doomed to sure and quick extermination. This is
not an individual opinion, merely: it is a _fact_; and a hundred
thousand men know it to be such.
Last winter (1911-12), because the deer of Montana were driven by cold
and hunger out of the mountains and far down into the ranchmen's
valleys, eleven thousand of them were ruthlessly slaughtered. State
Game Warden Avare says that often heads of families took out as many
licenses as there were persons in the family, and the whole quota was
killed. Such people deserve to go deerless into the future; but we can
not allow them to rob innocent people.
* * * * *
OUR SPECIES OF BIG GAME
THE PRONG-HORNED ANTELOPE, unique and wonderful, will be one of _the
first species of North American big game to become totally extinct_. We
may see this come to pass within twenty years. They can not be bred in
protection, _save in very large fenced ranges_. They are delicate,
capricious, and easily upset. They die literally "at the drop of a hat."
They are quite subject to actinomycosis (lumpy-jaw), which in wild
animals is incurable.
Already all the states that possess wild antelope, except Nevada, have
passed laws giving that species long close seasons; which is highly
creditable to the states that have done their duty. Nevada must get in
line at the next session of her legislature!
In 1908, Dr. T.S. Palmer published in his annual report of "Progress in
Game Protection" the following in regard to the prong-horned antelope:
"Antelope are still found in diminished numbers in fourteen western
states. A considerable number were killed during the year in Montana,
where the species seems to have suffered more than elsewhere since the
season was opened in 1907.
"A striking illustration of the decrease of the antelope is afforded by
Colorado. In 1898 the State Warden estimated that there were 25,000 in
the state, whereas in 1908 the Game Commissioner places the number at
only 2,000. The total number of antelope now in the United States
probably does not exceed 17,000, distributed approximately as follows:
Colorado 2,000 Yellowstone Park 2,000
Idaho 200 Other States 2,000
Montana 4,000 -----
New Mexico 1,300 Saskatchewan 2,000
Oregon 1,500 -----
Wyoming 4,000 19,000
To-day (1912), Dr. Palmer says the total number of antelope is less than
it was in 1908, and in spite of protection the number is steadily
diminishing. This is indeed serious news. The existing bands, already
small, are steadily growing smaller. The antelope are killed lawlessly,
and the crimes of such slaughter are, in nearly every instance,
successfully concealed.
Previously, we have based strong hopes for the preservation of the
antelope species on the herd in the Yellowstone Park, but those animals
are vanishing fearfully fast. In 1906, Dr. Palmer reported that "About
fifteen hundred antelope came down to the feeding grounds near the
haystacks in the vicinity of Gardiner." In 1908 the Yellowstone Park
was credited with two thousand head. _To-day, the number alive, by
actual count, is only five hundred head_; and this after twenty-five
years of protection! Where have the others gone? This shows, alas! that
perpetual close seasons can not _always_ bring back the vanished
thousands of game!
[Illustration: PRONG-HORNED ANTELOPE]
Here is a reliable report (June 29, 1912) regarding the prong-horned
antelope in Lower California, from E.W. Nelson: "Antelope formerly
ranged over nearly the entire length of Lower California, but are now
gone from a large part of their ancient range, and their steadily
decreasing numbers indicate their early extinction throughout the
peninsula."
In captivity the antelope is exasperatingly delicate and short-lived. It
has about as much stamina as a pet monkey. As an exhibition animal in
zoological gardens and parks it is a failure; for it always looks faded,
spiritless and dead, like a stuffed animal ready to be thrown into the
discard. Zoologists can not save the prong-horn species save at long
range, in preserves so huge that the sensitive little beast will not
even suspect that it is confined.
Two serious attempts have been made to transplant and acclimatize the
antelope--in the Wichita National Bison Range, in Oklahoma, and in the
Montana Bison Range, at Ravalli. In 1911 the Boone and Crockett Club
provided a fund which defrayed the expenses of shipping from the
Yellowstone Park a small nucleus herd to each of those ranges. Eight
were sent to the Wichita Range, of which five arrived alive. Of the
seven sent to the Montana Range, four arrived alive and were duly set
free. While it seems a pity to take specimens from the Yellowstone Park
herd, the disagreeable fact is that there is no other source on which to
draw for breeding stock.
The Provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan, in Canada, still permit the
hunting and killing of antelope; which is wholly and entirely wrong.
THE BIG-HORN SHEEP.--Of North American big game, the big-horn of the
Rockies will be, after the antelope, the next species to become extinct
outside of protected areas. In the United States that event is fast
approaching. It is far nearer than even the big-game sportsmen realize.
There are to-day only two localities in the four states that still
_think_ they have killable sheep, in which it is worth while to go
sheep-hunting. One is in Montana, and the other is in Wyoming. In the
United States a really big, creditable ram may now be regarded as an
impossibility. There are now perhaps half a dozen guides who can find
killable sheep in our country, but the game is nearly always young rams,
under five years of age.
That Wyoming, Montana, Idaho and Washington still continue to permit
sheep slaughter is outrageous. Their answer is that "The sportsmen won't
stand for stopping it altogether." I will add:--and the great mass of
people are too criminally indifferent to take a hand in the matter, and
_do their duty_ regardless of the men of blood.
The seed stock of big-horn sheep now alive in the United States
aggregates a pitifully small number. After twenty-five years of unbroken
protection in Colorado, Dillon Wallace estimates, after an investigation
on the ground, that the state possesses perhaps thirty-five hundred
head. He credits Montana and Wyoming with five hundred each--which I
think is far too liberal a number. I do not believe that either of those
states contains more than one hundred unprotected sheep, at the very
utmost limit. If there are more, where are they?
In the Yellowstone Park there are 210 head, safe and sound, and slowly
increasing. I can not understand why they have not increased more
rapidly than they have. In Glacier Park, now under permanent protection,
three guides on Lake McDonald, in 1910, estimated the number of sheep at
seven hundred. Idaho has in her rugged Bitter Root and Clearwater
Mountains and elsewhere, a remnant of possibly two hundred sheep, and
Washington has only what chemists call "a trace." It has recently been
discovered that California still contains a few sheep, and in
southwestern Nevada there are a few more.
In Utah, the big-horn species is probably quite extinct. In Arizona,
there are a few very small bands, very widely scattered. They are in the
Santa Catalina Mountains, the Grand Canyon country, the Gila Range, and
the Quitovaquita Mountains, near Sonoyta. But who can protect from
slaughter those Arizona sheep? Absolutely no one! They are too few and
too widely scattered for the game wardens to keep in touch with them.
The "prospectors" have them entirely at their mercy, and the world well
knows what prospectors' "mercy" to edible big game looks like on the
ground. It leads straight to the frying-pan, the coyotes and the
vultures.
The Lower California peninsula contains about five hundred mountain
sheep, without the slightest protection save low, desert mountains, heat
and thirst. But that is no real protection whatever. Those sheep are too
fine to be butchered the way they have been, and now are being
butchered. In 1908 I strongly called the attention of the Mexican
Government to the situation; and the Departmento de Fomento secured the
issue of an executive order forbidding the hunting of any big game in
Lower California without the written authority of the government. I am
sure, however, that owing to the political and military upheaval it
never stopped the slaughter of sheep. In such easy mountains as those of
Lower California, it is a simple matter to exterminate quickly all the
mountain sheep that they possess. The time for President Madero and his
cabinet to inaugurate serious protective measures has fully arrived.
Both British Columbia and Alberta have even yet fine herds of big-horn,
and we can count three large game preserves in which they are protected.
They are Goat Mountain Park (East Kootenay district, between the Elk and
Bull Rivers); the Rocky Mountains Park, near Banff, and Waterton Lakes
Park, in the southwestern corner of Alberta.
In view of the number of men who desire to hunt them, the bag limit on
big-horn rams in British Columbia and Alberta still is too liberal, by
half. One ram per year for one man is _quite enough_; quite as much so
as one moose is the limit everywhere. To-day "a big, old ram" is
regarded by sportsmen as a much more desirable and creditable trophy
than a moose; because moose-killing is easy, and the bagging of an old
mountain ram in real mountains requires five times as much effort and
skill.
The splendid high and rugged mountains of British Columbia and Alberta
form an ideal home for the big-horn (and mountain goat), and it would be
an international calamity for that region to be denuded of its splendid
big game. With resolute intent and judicial treatment that region can
remain a rich and valuable hunting ground for five hundred years to
come. Under falsely "liberal" laws, it can be shot into a state of
complete desolation within ten years, or even less.
OTHER MOUNTAIN SHEEP.--In northern British Columbia, north of Iskoot
Lake, there lies a tremendous region, extending to the Arctic Ocean, and
comprehending the whole area between the Rocky Mountain continental
divide and the waters of the Pacific. Over the southern end of this
great wilderness ranges the black mountain sheep, and throughout the
remainder, with many sheepless intervals, is scattered the white
mountain sheep.
Owing to the immensity of this wilderness, the well-nigh total lack of
railroads and also of navigable waters, excepting the Yukon, it will not
be thoroughly "opened up" for a quarter of a century. The few resolute
and pneumonia-proof sportsmen who can wade into the country, pulling
boats through icy-cold mountain streams, are not going to devastate
those millions of mountains of their big game. The few head of game
which sportsmen can and will take out of the great northwestern
wilderness during the next twenty-five years will hardly be missed from
the grand total, even though a few easily-accessible localities are shot
out. It is the deadly resident trappers, hunters and prospectors who
must be feared! And again,--_who_ can control them? Can any wilderness
government on earth make it possible? Therefore, _in time, even the
great wilderness will be denuded of big game_. This is absolutely fixed
and certain; for within much less than another century, every square rod
of it will have been gone over by prospectors, lumbermen, trappers and
skin-hunters, and raked again and again with fine-toothed combs. A
railway line to Dawson, the Copper River and Cook Inlet is to-day merely
the next thing to expect, after Canada's present railway program has
been wrought out.
Yes, indeed! In time the wilderness will be opened up, and the big game
will _all_ be shot out, save from the protected areas.
THE MOUNTAIN GOAT.--Even yet, this species is not wholly extinct in the
United States. It survives in Glacier Park, Montana, and the number
estimated in that region by three guide friends is too astoundingly
large to mention.
This animal is much more easily killed than the big-horn. Its white coat
renders it fatally conspicuous at long range during the best hunting
season; it is almost devoid of fear, and it takes altogether too many
chances on man. Thanks to the rage for sheep horns, the average
sportsman's view-point regarding wild life ranks a goat head about six
contours below "old ram" heads, in desirability. Furthermore, most
guides regard the flesh of the goat as almost unfit for use as food, and
far inferior to that of the big-horn. These reasons, taken together,
render the goats much less persecuted by the sportsmen, ranchmen and
prospectors who enter the home of the two species. It was because of
this indifference toward goats that in 1905 Mr. John M. Phillips and his
party saw 243 goats in thirty days in Goat Mountain Park, and only
fourteen sheep.
Unless the preferences of western sportsmen and gunners change very
considerably, the coast mountains of the great northwestern wilderness
will remain stocked with wild mountain goats until long after the last
big-horn has been shot to death. Fortunately, the skin of the mountain
goat has no commercial value. I think it was in 1887 that I purchased,
in Denver, 150 nicely tanned skins of our wild white goat _at fifty
cents each_! They were wanted for the first exhibit ever made to
illustrate the extermination of American large mammals, and they were
shown at the Louisville Exposition. It must have cost the price of those
skins to tan them; and I was pleased to know that some one lost money on
the venture.
[Illustration MAP OF THE FORMER AND EXISTING RANGES OF THE AMERICAN ELK
From "Life History of Northern Animals," Copyright 1909 by E.T. Seton]
At present the mountain goat extends from north-western Montana to the
head of Cook Inlet, but it is not found in the interior or in the Yukon
valley. Whenever man decides that the species has lived long enough, he
can quickly and easily exterminate it. It is one of the most picturesque
and interesting wild animals on this continent, and there is not the
slightest excuse for shooting it, save as a specimen of natural history.
Like the antelope, it is so unique as a natural curiosity that it
deserves to be taken out of the ranks of animals that are regularly
pursued as game.
THE ELK.--The story of the progressive extermination of the American
elk, or wapiti, covers practically the same territory as the tragedy of
the American bison--one-third of the mainland of North America. The
former range of the elk covered absolutely the garden ground of our
continent, omitting the arid region. Its boundary extended from central
Massachusetts to northern Georgia, southern Illinois, northern Texas and
central New Mexico, central Arizona, the whole Rocky Mountain region up
to the Peace River, and Manitoba. It skipped the arid country west of
the Rockies, but it embraced practically the whole Pacific slope from
central California to the north end of Vancouver Island. Mr. Seton
roughly calculated the former range of _canadensis_ at two and a half
million square miles, and adds: "We are safe, therefore, in believing
that in those days there may have been ten million head."
The range of the elk covered a magnificent domain. The map prepared by
Mr. Ernest T. Seton, after twenty years of research, is the last word on
the subject. It appears on page 43, Vol. I, of his great work, "Life
Histories of Northern Animals," and I have the permission of author and
publisher to reproduce it here, as an object lesson in wild-animal
extermination. Mr. Seton recognizes (for convenience, only?) four forms
of American elk, two of which, _C. nannodes_ and _occidentalis_, still
exist on the Pacific Coast. The fourth, _Cervus merriami_, was
undoubtedly a valid species. It lived in Arizona and New Mexico, but
became totally extinct near the beginning of the present century.
In 1909 Mr. Seton published in the work referred to above a remarkably
close estimate of the number of elk then alive in North America.
Recently, a rough count--the first ever made--of the elk in and around
the Yellowstone Park, revealed the real number of that largest
contingent. By taking those results, and Mr. Seton's figures for elk
outside the United States, we obtain the following very close
approximation of the wild elk alive in North America in 1912:
LOCALITY NUMBER AUTHORITY
Yellowstone Park and vicinity 47,000 U.S. Biological Survey.
Idaho (permanently), 600
Washington 1,200 Game Warden Chris. Morgenroth.
Oregon 500
California 400
New York, Adirondacks 400 State Conservation Commission.
Minnesota 50 E.T. Seton.
Vancouver Island 2,000 E.T. Seton.
British Columbia (S.-E.) 200 E.T. Seton.
Alberta 1,000 E.T. Seton.
Saskatchewan 500 E.T. Seton
In various Parks and Zoos 1,000 E.T. Seton.
------
Total, for all America. 54,850
In 1905, a herd of twenty of the so-called dwarf elk of the San Joaquin
Valley, California, were taken to the Sequoia National Park, and placed
in a fenced range that had been established for it on the Kaweah River.
The extermination of the wapiti began with the settlement of the
American colonies. Naturally, the largest animals were the ones most
eagerly sought by the meat-hungry pioneers, and the elk and bison were
the first game species to disappear. The colonists believed in the
survival of the fittest, and we are glad that they did. The one thing
that a hungry pioneer cannot withstand is--temptation--in a form that
embraces five hundred pounds of succulent flesh. And let it not be
supposed that in the eastern states there were only a few elk. The
Pennsylvania salt licks were crowded with them, and the early writers
describe them as existing in "immense bands" and "great numbers."
Of course it is impossible for wild animals of great size to exist in
countries that are covered with farms, villages and people. Under such
conditions the wild and the tame cannot harmonize. It is a fact,
however, that elk could exist and thrive in every national forest and
national park in our country, and also on uncountable hundreds of
thousands of rough, wild, timbered hills and mountains such as exist in
probably twenty-five different states. There is no reason, except man's
short-sighted greed and foolishness, why there are not to-day one
hundred thousand elk living in the Allegheny Mountains, furnishing each
year fifty thousand three-year-old males as free food for the people.
The trouble is,--the greedy habitants _could not_ be induced to kill
only the three-year-old-males, in the fall, and let the cows, calves and
breeding bulls alone! By sensible management the Rocky Mountains, the
Sierra Nevadas and the Coast Range would support enough wild elk to feed
a million people. But we Americans seem utterly incapable of maintaining
anywhere from decade to decade a large and really valuable supply of
wild game. Outside the Yellowstone Park and northwestern Wyoming, the
American elk exists only in small bands--mere remnants and samples of
the millions we could and should have.
_If_ they could be protected, and the surplus presently killed according
to some rational, working system, then _every national forest in the
United States should be stocked with elk_! In view of the awful cost of
beef (to-day 10-1/2 cents per pound in Chicago _on the hoof_!), it is
high time that we should consider the raising of game on the public
domain on such lines that it would form a valuable food supply without
diminishing the value of the forests.
Just now (1912) the American people are sorely puzzled by a remarkable
elk problem that each winter is presented for solution in the Jackson
Hole country, Wyoming. Driven southward by the deep snows of winter, the
elk thousands that in summer graze and grow fat in the Yellowstone Park
march down into Jackson Hole, to find in those valleys less snow and
more food. Now, it happens that the best and most of the former winter
grazing grounds of the elk are covered by fenced ranches! As a result,
the elk that strive to winter there, about fifteen thousand head, are
each winter threatened with starvation; and during three or four winters
of recent date, an aggregate of several thousand calves, weak yearlings
and weakened cows perished of hunger. The winters of 1908, 1909 and 1910
were progressively more and more severe; and 1911 saw about 2500 deaths,
(S.N. Leek).
In 1909-10, the State of Wyoming spent $7,000 for hay, and fed it to the
starving elk. In 1911, Wyoming spent $5,000 more, and appealed to
Congress for help. Thanks to the efforts of Senator Lodge and others,
Congress instantly responded with a splendid emergency appropriation of
$20,000, partly for the purpose of feeding the elk, and also to meet the
cost of transporting elsewhere as many of the elk as it might seem best
to move. The starving of the elk ceased with 1911.
_Outdoor Life_ magazine (Denver, Colo.) for August, 1912, contains an
excellent article by Dr. W.B. Shore, entitled, "Trapping and Shipping
Elk." I wish I could reprint it entire, for the solid information that
it contains. It gives a clear and comprehensive account of last spring's
operations by the Government and by the state of Montana in capturing
and shipping elk from the Yellowstone Park herd, for the double purpose
of diminishing the elk surplus in the Park and stocking vacant ranges
elsewhere.
The operations were conducted on the same basis as the shipping of
cattle--the corral, the chute, the open car, and the car-load in bulk.
Dr. Shore states that the undertaking was really no more difficult than
the shipping of range cattle; but the presence of a considerable
proportion of young and tender calves, such as are never handled with
beef cattle, led to 8.8 per cent of deaths in transit. The deaths and
the percentage are nothing at which to be surprised, when it is
remembered, that the animals had just come through a hard winter, and
their natural vitality was at the lowest point of the year.
The following is a condensed summary of the results of the work:
Number of Hours on Killed or Died After
Destination Elk Road Died in Car Unloading
1 Car. Startup, Washington 60: calves, 94 11 7
yearlings
and two-year
olds
1 " Hamilton, Montana 43: cows & 30 4 1
calves
1 " Thompson Falls,
Montana 40 -- 2 O
1 " Stephensville,
Montana 36 -- 1 1
1 " Deer Lodge, Montana 40 24 2 O
1 " Hamilton, Montana 40 -- O O
1 " Mt. Vernon,
Washington 46 4 days; 7 O
unloaded &
fed twice
--- -- -
305 27 9
The total deaths in transit and after, of 36 elk out of 305, amounted to
11.4 per cent.
All those shipped to Montana points were shipped by the state of
Montana.
In order to provide adequate winter grazing grounds for the
Yellowstone-Wyoming elk, it seems imperative that the national
government should expend between $30,000 and $40,000 in buying back from
ranchmen certain areas in the Jackson valley, particularly a tract known
as "the swamp," and others on the surrounding foothills where the herds
annually go to graze in winter, A measure to render this possible was
presented to Congress in the winter of 1912, and without opposition an
appropriation of $45,000 was made.
The splendid photographs of the elk herds that recently have been made
by S.N. Leek, of Jackson Hole, clearly reveal the fact that the herds
now consist chiefly of cows, calves, yearlings and young bulls with
small antlers. In one photograph showing about twenty-five hundred elk,
there are not visible even half a dozen pairs of antlers that belong to
adult bulls. There should be a hundred! This condition means that the
best bulls, with the finest heads, are constantly being selected and
killed by sportsmen and others who want their heads; and the young,
immature bulls are left to do the breeding that alone will sustain the
species.
[Illustration: HUNGRY ELK IN JACKSON HOLE, WYOMING
Part of a Herd of About 2,500 Head, being fed on hay, in the Winter of
1910-11 Note the Absence of Adult Bulls. Copyright, 1911, by S.N.
Leek]
It is a well-known principle in stock-breeding that sires should be
fully adult, of maximum strength, and in the prime of life. No
stockbreeder in his senses ever thinks of breeding from a youthful,
immature sire. The result would be weak offspring not up to the
standard.
This inexorable law of inheritance and transmission is just as much a
law for the elk, moose and deer of North America as it is for domestic
cattle and horses. If the present conditions in the Wyoming elk herds
continue to prevail for several generations, as sure as time goes on we
shall see a marked deterioration in the size and antlers of the elk.
If the foundation principles of stock-breeding are correct, then it is
impossible to maintain any large-mammal species at its zenith of size,
strength and virility by continuous breeding of the young and immature
males. By some sportsmen it is believed that through long-continued
killing of the finest and largest males, the red deer of Europe have
been growing smaller; but on that point I am not prepared to offer
evidence.
In regard to the in-breeding of the elk herds in large open parks and
preserves throughout North America, there are positively _no ill effects
to fear_. Wild animals that are _closely_ confined generation after
generation are bound to deteriorate physically; but with healthy wild
animals living in large open ranges, feeding and breeding naturally, the
in-breeding that occurs produces no deterioration.
In the twin certainties of over-population, and deterioration from
excessive killing of the good sires, we have to face two new problems of
very decided importance. Nothing short of very radical measures will
provide a remedy. For the immediate future, I can offer a solution.
While it seems almost impossible deliberately to kill females, I think
that the present is a very exceptional case, and one that compels us to
apply the painful remedy that I now propose.
_Premises_:
1.--There are at present _too many_ breeding cows in the Yellowstone
herds.
2.--There are far too few good breeding bulls.
_Conclusion_:--For five years, entirely prohibit the killing of adult
male elk, and kill only females, and young males. This would gradually
diminish the number of calves born each year, by about 2,500, and by the
end of five years it would reduce the number, _and the annual birth_, of
females to a figure sufficiently limited that the herds could be
maintained on existing ranges.
_Corollary_.--At the end of five years, stop killing females, and kill
only _young_ males. This plan would permit a large number of bull elk to
mature; and then the largest and strongest animals would do the
breeding,--just as Nature always intends shall be done.
* * * * *
SOUTH AMERICA
Of all the big-game regions of the earth, South America is the poorest.
Of hoofed game she possesses only a dozen species that are worth the
attention of sportsmen; and like all other animal life in that land of
little game, they are desperately hard to find. In South America you
must work your heart out in order to get either game or specimens that
will be worth showing.
At present, we need not worry about the marsh deer, the pampas deer, the
guemal, or the venado, nor the tapir, jaguar, ocelot and bears. All
these species are abundantly able to take care of themselves; and to
find and kill any one of them is a man's task. In Patagonia the natives
do wastefully slaughter the guanacos; and there are times also when
great numbers of guanacos come down in winter to certain mountain lakes,
presumably in search of food, and perish by hundreds through starvation.
(H. Hesketh Prichard.)
* * * * *
MEXICO
About ten years more will see the extinction of the mountain sheep of
Lower California,--in the wake of the recently exterminated Mexican
sheep of the Santa Maria Lakes region. In 1908, I solemnly warned the
government of President Diaz, and at that time the Mexican government
expressed much concern.
It is a great pity that just now political conditions are completely
estopping wild-life protection in Mexico; but it is true. If the code of
proposed laws that I drew up (by request) in 1908 and submitted to
Minister Molina were adopted, it would have a good effect on the fauna
of Mexico.
In Mexico there is little hoofed game to kill,--deer of the white-tail
groups, seven or eight species; the desert mule deer; the brocket; the
prong-horned antelope, the mountain sheep and the peccary. The deer will
not so easily be exterminated, but the antelope and sheep will be
utterly destroyed. They will be the first to go; and I think they can
not by any possibility last longer than ten years. Is it not too bad
that Mexico should permit her finest species of hoofed and horned game
to be obliterated before she awakens to the desirability of
conservation! The Mexicans could protect their small stock of big game
if they would; but in Lower California they are leasing huge tracts of
land to cattle companies, and they permit the lessees to kill all the
wild game they please on their leased lands, even with the aid of dogs.
This is a vicious and fatal system, and contrary to all the laws of
nations.
* * * * *
CHAPTER XVII
PRESENT AND FUTURE OF NORTH AMERICAN BIG GAME
(Concluded)
THE WHITE-TAILED DEER.--Five hundred years hence, when the greed and
rapacity of "civilized" man has completed the loot and ruin of the
continent of North America, the white-tailed deer will be the last
species of our big game to be exterminated. Its mental traits, its size,
its color and its habits all combine to render it the most persistent of
our large animals, and the best fitted to survive. It neither bawls nor
bugles to attract its enemies, it can not be called to a sportsman, like
the moose, and it sticks to its timber with rare and commendable
closeness. When it sees a strange living thing walking erect, it does
not stop to stare and catch soft-nosed bullets, but dashes away in quest
of solitude.
The worst shooting that I ever did or saw done at game was at running
white-tailed deer, in the Montana river bottoms.
For the reasons given, the white-tail exists and persists in a hundred
United States localities from which all other big game save the black
bear have been exterminated. For example, in our Adirondacks the moose
were exterminated years and years ago, but the beloved wilderness called
the "North Woods" still is populated by about 20,000 deer, and about
8,000 are killed annually. The deer of Maine are sufficiently numerous
that in 1909 a total of 15,879 were killed. With some assistance from
the thin sprinkling of moose and caribou, the deer of Maine annually
draw into that state, for permanent dedication, a huge sum of money,
variously estimated at from $1,000,000 to $2,000,000. In spite of heavy
slaughter, and vigorous attempts at extermination by over-shooting, the
deer of northern Michigan obstinately refuse to be wiped out.
There is, however, a large group of states in which this species has
been exterminated. The states comprising it are Ohio, Indiana, Illinois,
Iowa, and adjacent portions of seven other states.
As if to shame the people of Iowa, a curious deer episode is recorded.
In 1885, W.B. Cuppy, of Avoca, Iowa, purchased five deer, and placed
them in a paddock on his 600-acre farm. By 1900 they had increased to 32
head; and then one night some one kindly opened the gate of their
enclosure, and gave them the freedom of the city. Mr. Cuppy made no
effort to capture them, possibly because they decided to annex his farm
as their habitat. When a neighbor led them with a bait of corn to their
owner's door, he declined to impound them, on the ground that it was
unnecessary.
By 1912, those deer had increased to 400, and the portion of this story
that no one will believe is this: they spread all through the suburbs
and hinterland farms of Avoca, and _the people not only failed to
assassinate all of them and eat them, but they actually killed only a
few, protected the rest, and made pets of many!_ Queer people, those men
and boys of Avoca. Nearly everywhere else in the world that I know, that
history would have been ended differently. Here in the East, 90 per cent
of our people are like the Avocans, but the other 10 per cent think only
of slaying and eating, sans mercy, sans decency, sans law. Now the State
of Iowa has taken hold, to capture some of those deer, and set them free
in other portions of the state.
Elsewhere I shall note the quick and thorough success with which the
white-tailed deer has been brought back in Vermont, Massachusetts,
Connecticut, and southern New York.
No state having waste lands covered with brush or timber need be without
the ubiquitous white-tailed deer. Give them a semblance of a fair show,
and they will live and breed with surprising fecundity and persistence.
If you start a park herd with ten does, soon you will have more deer
than you will know how to dispose of, unless you market them under a
Bayne law, duly tagged by the state. In close confinement this species
fares rather poorly. In large preserves it does well, but during the
rutting season the bucks are to be dreaded; and those that develop
aggressive traits should be shot and marketed. This is the only way in
which the deer parks of England are kept safe for unarmed people.
Dr. T.S. Palmer has taken much pains to ascertain the number of deer
killed in the eastern United States. His records, as published in May,
1910, are as follows:
STATE 1908 1909 1910
Maine 15,000 15,879 15,000
New Hampshire (a) (a) (a)
Vermont 2,700 4,736 3,649
New York 6,000 9,000 9,000
New Jersey (a) 120
Pennsylvania 500 500 800
Michigan 9,076 6,641 13,347
Wisconsin 11,000 6,000 6,000
Minnesota 6,000 6,000 3,147
West Virginia 107 51 49
Maryland 16 13 6
Virginia 207 210 224
North Carolina (a) (a) (a)
South Carolina 1,000 (a) (a)
Georgia (a) 367 369
Florida 2,209 2,021 1,526
Alabama 152 148 132
Mississippi 411 458 500
Louisiana 5,500 5,470 5,000
Massachusetts 1,281
------ ------ ------
Total 59,878 57,494 60,150
(a) No statistics available.
At this date deer hunting is not permitted at any time in Indiana,
Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska and Kansas,--where there are no wild deer; nor
in Rhode Island, Connecticut, Delaware, Tennessee or Kentucky. The long
close seasons in Massachusetts, Connecticut and southern New York have
caused a great migration of deer into those once-depopulated
regions,--in fact, right down to tide-water.
THE MULE DEER.--This will be the first member of the Deer Family to
become extinct in North America outside of the protected portions of its
haunts. Its fatal preference for open ground and its habit of pausing to
stare at the hunter have been, and to the end will be, its undoing.
Possibly there are now two of these deer in the United States and
British Columbia for every 98 that existed forty years ago, but no more.
It is a deer of the bad lands and foothills, and its curiosity is fatal.
The number of sportsmen who have hunted and killed this fine animal in
its own wild and picturesque bad-lands is indeed quite small. It has
been four-fifths exterminated by the resident hunter and ranchman, and
to-day is found in the Rocky Mountain region most sparingly. Ten years
ago it seemed right to hunt the so-called Rocky Mountain "black-tail" in
northwestern Montana, because so many deer were there it did not seem to
spell extermination. Now, conditions have changed. Since last winter's
great slaughter in northwestern Montana, of 11,000 hungry deer, the
species has been so reduced that it is no longer right to kill mule deer
anywhere in our country, and a universal close season for five years is
the duty of every state which contains that species.
THE REAL BLACK-TAILED DEER, of the Pacific coast, (_Odocoileus
columbianus_) is, to most sportsmen of the Rocky Mountains and the East
actually less known than the okapi! Not one out of every hundred of them
can recognize a mounted head of it at sight. It is a small,
delicately-formed, delicately-antlered understudy of the big mule deer,
and now painfully limited in its distribution. It is _the_ deer of
California and western Oregon, and it has been so ruthlessly slaughtered
that today it is going fast. As conditions stand to-day, and without a
radical change on the part of the people of the Pacific coast, this very
interesting species is bound to disappear. It will not be persistent,
like the white-tailed deer, but in the heavy forests, it will last much
longer than the mule deer.
My information regarding this deer is like the stock of specimens of it
in museum collections,--meager and unsatisfactory. We need to know in
detail how that species is faring to-day, and what its prospects are for
the immediate future. In 1900, I saw great piles of skins from it in the
fur houses of Seattle, and the sight gave me much concern.
THE CARIBOU, GENERALLY.--I think it is not very difficult to forecast
the future of the Genus _Rangifer_ in North America, from the logic of
the conditions of to-day. Thanks to the splendid mass of information
that has been accumulated regarding this group, we are able to draw
certain conclusions. I think that the caribou of the Canadian Barren
Grounds and northeastern Alaska will survive in great numbers for at
least another century; that the caribou herds of Newfoundland will last
nearly as long, and that in fifty years or less all the caribou of the
great northwestern wilderness will be swept away.
The reasons for these conclusions are by no means obscure, or
farfetched.
In the first place, the barren-ground caribou are to-day enormously
numerous,--undoubtedly running up into millions. It can not be possible
that they are being killed faster than they are breeding; and so they
must be increasing. Their food supply is unlimited. They are protected
by two redoubtable champions,--Jack Frost and the Mosquito. Their
country never will contain a great human population. The natives are so
few in number, and so lazy, that even though they should become supplied
with modern firearms, it is unlikely that they ever will make a serious
impression on the caribou millions. The only thing to fear for the
barren-ground caribou throngs is disease,--a factor that is beyond human
prediction.
It is reasonably certain that the Barren Grounds never will be netted by
railways,--unless gold is discovered over a wide area. The fierce cold
and hunger, and the billions of mosquitoes of the Barren Grounds will
protect the caribou from the wholesale slaughter that "civilized" man
joyously would inflict--if he had the chance.
The caribou thousands of Newfoundland are fairly accessible to sportsmen
and pot-hunters, but at the same time the colonial government can
protect them from extermination if it will. Already much has been done
to check the reckless and wicked slaughter that once prevailed. A bag
limit of three bull caribou per annum has been fixed, which is enforced
as to non-residents and sportsmen, but in a way that is much too
"American" it is often ignored by residents in touch with the game. For
instance, the guide of a New York gentleman whom I know admitted to my
friend that each year he killed "about 25" caribou for himself and his
family of four other persons. He explained thus: "When the inspector
comes around, I show him two caribou hanging in my woodshed, but back in
the woods I have a little shack where I keep the others until I want
them."
The real sportsmen of the world never will make the slightest
perceptible impression on the caribou of Newfoundland. For one thing,
the hunting is much too tame to be interesting. If the caribou of that
Island ever are exterminated, it will be strictly by the people of
Newfoundland, themselves. If the government will tighten its grip on the
herds, they need never be exterminated.
The caribou of New Brunswick, Quebec and Ontario are few and widely
scattered. Unless carefully conserved, they are not likely to last long;
for their country is annually penetrated in every direction by armed
men, white and red. There is no means by which it can be proven, but
from the number of armed men in those regions I feel sure that the
typical woodland caribou species is being shot faster than it is
breeding. The sportsmen and naturalists of Canada and New Brunswick
would render good service by making a close and careful investigation of
that question.
The caribou of the northwestern wilderness are in a situation peculiarly
their own. They inhabit a region of naked mountains and _thin_ forests,
wherein they are conspicuous, easily stalked and easily killed. Nowhere
do they exist in large herds of thousands, or even of many hundreds.
They live in small bands of from ten to twenty head, and even those are
far apart. The region in which they live is certain to be thoroughly
opened up by railways, and exploited. Fifty years from now we will find
every portion of the now-wild Northwest fairly accessible by rail. The
building of the railways will be to the caribou--and to other big
game--the day of doom. In that wild, rough region, no power on
earth,--save that which might be able to deprive _all_ the inhabitants
and all visitors of firearms,--can possibly save the game outside of a
few preserves that are diligently patroled.
The big game of the northwest region, in which I include the interior of
Alaska, _will go_! It is only a question of time. Already the building
of the city of Fairbanks, and the exploitation of the mining districts
surrounding it, have led to such harassment and slaughter of the
migrating caribou that the great herd which formerly traversed the
Tanana country once a year has completely changed its migration route,
and now keeps much farther north. The "crossing" of the Yukon near Eagle
City has been abandoned. A hundred years hence, the northwestern
wilderness will be dotted with towns and criss-crossed with railways;
but the big game of it will be gone, except in the preserves that are
yet to be made. This will particularly involve the caribou, moose, and
mountain sheep of all species, which will be the first to go. The
mountain goat and the forest bears will hold out longer than their more
exposed neighbors of the treeless mountains.
THE MOOSE.--In the United States the moose is found in five
states,--Maine, Minnesota, Montana, Wyoming and Idaho. There are 550 in
the Yellowstone Park. In Maine and Minnesota only may moose be hunted
and killed. In the season of 1909, 184 moose were killed in Maine,--a
large number, considering the small moose population of that state. In
northern Minnesota, we now possess a great national moose preserve of
909,743 acres; and in 1908 Mr. Fullerton, after a personal inspection in
which he saw 189 moose in nine days, estimated the total moose
population of the present day at 10,000 head. This is a moose preserve
worth while.
Outside of protected areas, the moose is the animal that is most easily
exterminated. Its trail is easily followed, and its habits are
thoroughly known, down to three decimal places. As a hunter's reward it
is Great. Strange to say, New Brunswick has found that the moose is an
animal that it is possible, and even easy, to protect. The death of a
moose is an event that is not easily concealed! Wherever it is
thoroughly understood that the moose law will be enforced, the would-be
poacher pauses to consider the net results to him of a jail sentence.
In New Brunswick we have seen two strange things happen, during our own
times. We have seen the moose migrate into, and permanently occupy, an
extensive area that previously was destitute of that species. At the
same time, we have seen a reasonable number of bull moose killed by
sportsmen without disturbing in the least the general equanimity of the
general moose population! And at this moment, the moose population of
New Brunswick is almost incredible. Every moose hunter who goes there
sees from 20 to 40 moose, and two of my friends last year saw, "in round
numbers, about 100!" Up to date the size of adult antlers seem to be
maintaining a high standard.
In summer, the photographing of moose in the rivers, lakes and ponds of
Maine and New Brunswick amounts to an industry. I am uneasy about the
constant picking off of the largest and best breeding bulls of the
Mirimachi country, lest it finally reduce the size and antlers of the
moose of that region; but only the future can tell us just how that
prospect stands to-day.
In Alaska, our ever thoughtful and forehanded Biological Survey of the
Department of Agriculture has by legal proclamation at one stroke
converted the whole of the Kenai Peninsula into a magnificent moose
preserve. This will save _Alces gigas_, the giant moose of Alaska, from
extermination; and New Brunswick and the Minnesota preserve will save
_Alces americanus_. But in the northwest, we can positively depend upon
it that eventually, wherever the moose may legally be hunted and killed
by any Tom, Dick or Harry who can afford a twenty-dollar rifle and a
license, the moose surely will disappear.
The moose laws of Alaska are strict--toward sportsmen, only! The miners,
"prospectors" and Indians may kill as many as they please, "for food
purposes." This opens the door to a great amount of unfair slaughter.
Any coffee-cooler can put a pan and pick into his hunting outfit, go out
after moose, and call himself a "prospector."
I grant that the _real_ prospector, who is looking for ores and minerals
with an intelligent eye, and knows what he is doing, should have special
privileges on game, to keep him from starving. The settled miner,
however, is in a different class. No miner should ask the privilege of
living on wild game, any more than should the farmer, the steamboat man,
the railway laborer, or the soldier in an army post. The Indian should
have no game advantages whatever over a white man. He does not own the
game of a region, any more than he owns its minerals or its water-power.
He should obey the general game laws, just the same as white men. In
Africa, as far as possible, the white population wisely prohibits the
natives from owning or using firearms, and a good idea it is, too. I am
glad there is one continent on which the "I'm-just-as-good-as-you-are"
nightmare does not curse the whole land.
THE MUSK-OX.--Now that the north pole has been safely discovered, and
the south pole has become the storm-center of polar exploration, the
harried musk-ox herds of the farthest north are having a rest. I think
that most American sportsmen have learned that as a sporting proposition
there is about as much fun and glory in harrying a musk-ox herd with
dogs, and picking off the members of it at "parade rest," as there is in
shooting range cattle in a round-up. The habits of the animal positively
eliminate the real essence of sport,--difficulty and danger. When a
musk-ox band is chased by dogs, or by wolves, the full-grown members of
it, bulls and cows alike, instantly form a close circle around the
calves, facing outward shoulder to shoulder, and stand at bay. Without
the aid of a gunner and a rifle, such a formation is invincible! Mr.
Paul Rainey's moving pictures tell a wonderful story of animal
intelligence, bravery and devotion to the parental instinct.
For some reason, the musk-ox herds do not seem to have perceptibly
increased since man first encountered them. The number alive to-day
appears to be no greater than it was fifty years ago; and this leads to
the conclusion that the present delicate balance could easily be
disturbed the wrong way. Fortunately, it seems reasonably certain that
the Indians of the Canadian Barren Grounds, the Eskimo of the far north,
and the stray explorers all live outside the haunts of the species, and
come in touch only with the edge of the musk-ox population as a whole.
This leads us to hope and believe that, through the difficulties
involved in reaching them, the main bodies of musk-ox of both species
are safe from extermination.
At the same time, the time has come for Canada, the United States and
Denmark to join in formulating a stiff law for the prevention of
wholesale slaughter of musk-ox for sport. It should be rendered
impossible for another sportsman to kill twenty-three head in one day,
as once occurred. Give the sportsman a bag of three bulls, and no more.
To this, no true sportsman will object, and the objections of game-hogs
only serve to confirm the justice of the thing they oppose.
THE GRIZZLY BEAR.--To many persons it may seem strange that anyone
should feel disposed to accord protection to such fierce predatory
animals as grizzly bears, lions and tigers. But the spirit of fair play
springs eternal in some human breasts. The sportsmen of the world do not
stick at using long-range, high-power repeating rifles on big game, but
they draw the line this side of traps, poisons and extermination. The
sportsmen of India once thought,--for about a year and a day,--that it
was permissible to kill troublesome and expensive tigers by poison. Mr.
G.P. Sanderson tried it, and when his strychnine operations promptly
developed three bloated and disgusting tiger carcasses, even his native
followers revolted at the principle. That was the alpha and omega of
Sanderson's poisoning activities.
I am quite sure that if the extermination of the tiger from the whole of
India were possible, and the to-be or not-to-be were put to a vote of
the sportsmen of India, the answer would be a thundering _"No!"_ Says
Major J. Stevenson-Hamilton in his "Animal Life in Africa:" "It is
impossible to contemplate the use against the lion of any other weapon
than the rifle."
The real sportsmen and naturalists of America are decidedly opposed to
the extermination of the grizzly bear. They feel that the wilds of North
America are wide enough for the accommodation of many grizzlies, without
crowding the proletariat. A Rocky Mountain without a grizzly upon it, or
at least a bear of some kind, is only half a mountain,--commonplace and
tame. Put one two-year-old grizzly cub upon it, and presto! every cubic
yard of its local atmosphere reeks with romantic uncertainty and
fearsome thrills.
A few persons have done considerable talking and writing about the
damage to stock inflicted by bears, but I think there is little
justification for such charges. Certainly, there is not one-tenth enough
real damage done by bears to justify their extermination. At the present
time, we hear that the farmers (!) of Kadiak Island, Alaska, are being
seriously harassed and damaged by the big Kadiak bear,--an animal so
rare and shy that it is very difficult for a sportsman to kill one! I
think the charges against the bears,--if the Kadiak Islanders ever
really have made any,--need to be proven, by the production of real
evidence.
In the United States, outside of our game preserves, I know of not one
locality in which grizzly bears are sufficiently numerous to justify a
sportsman in going out to hunt them. The California grizzly, once
represented by "Monarch" in Golden Gate Park, is almost, if not wholly,
extinct. In Montana, outside of Glacier Park it is useless to apply for
wild grizzlies. In the Bitter Root Mountains and Clearwater Mountains of
Idaho, there are grizzlies, but they hide so effectually under the
snow-bent willows on the "slides" that it is almost impossible to get a
shot. Northwestern Wyoming still contains a few grizzlies, but there are
so many square miles of mountains around each animal it is now almost
useless to go hunting for them. British Columbia, western Alberta and
the coast mountains at least as far as Skaguay, and Yukon Territory
generally, all contain grizzlies, and the sportsman who goes out for
sheep, caribou and moose is reasonably certain to see half a dozen bears
and kill at least one or two. In those countries, the grizzly species
will hold forth long after all killable grizzlies have vanished from the
United States.
I think that it is now time for California, Montana, Washington, Oregon,
Idaho and Wyoming to give grizzly bears protection of some sort.
Possibly the situation in those states calls for a five-year close
season. Even British Columbia should now place a bag limit on this
species. This has seemed clear to me ever since two of my friends killed
(in the spring of 1912) _six_ grizzlies in one week! But Provincial Game
Warden A. Bryan Williams says that at present it would be impossible to
impose a bag limit of one per year on the grizzlies of British Columbia;
and Mr. Williams is a sincere game-protector.
THE BROWN BEARS OF ALASKA.--These magnificent monsters present a
perplexing problem, which I am inclined to believe can be satisfactorily
solved by the Biological Survey only in short periods, say of three or
four years each. Naturally, the skin hunters of Alaska ardently desire
the skins of those bears, for the money they represent. That side of the
bear problem does not in the least appeal to the ninety odd millions of
people who live this side of Alaska. The skins of the Alaskan brown
bears have little value save as curiosities, nailed upon the wall, where
they can not be stepped upon and injured. The _hunting_ of those bears,
however, is a business for men; and it is partly for that reason they
should be preserved. A bear-hunt on the Alaska Peninsula, Admiralty or
Montagu Islands, is an event of a lifetime, and with a bag limit of
_one_ brown bear, the species would be quite safe from extermination.
[Illustration: THE WICHITA NATIONAL BISON HERD
Presented by the New York Zoological Society]
In Alaska there is some dissatisfaction over the protection accorded the
big brown bears; but those rules are right _as far as they go_! A
governor of Alaska once said to me: "The preservation of the game of
Alaska should be left to the _people_ of Alaska. It is their game; and
they will preserve it all right!"
The answer? _Not by a long shot_!
Only three things were wrong with the ex-governor's view:
1.--The game of Alaska does _not_ belong to the people who live in
Alaska--with the intent to get out to-morrow! It belongs to the
93,000,000 people of the Nation.
2.--The preservation of the Alaskan fauna on the public domain should
not be left unreservedly to the people of Alaska, because
3.--As sure as shooting, they will _not_ preserve it!
Congress is right in appropriating $15,000 for game protection in
Alaska. It is very necessary that the regulations for conserving the
wild life should be fixed by the Secretary of Agriculture, with the
advice of the Biological Survey.
THE BLACK BEAR is an interesting citizen. He harms nobody nor anything;
he affords good sport; he objects to being exterminated, and wherever in
North America he is threatened with extermination, he should at once be
given protection! A black bear _in the wilds_ is harmless. In captivity,
posed as a household "pet," he is decidedly dangerous, and had best be
given the middle of the road. In big forests he is a grand stayer, and
will not be exterminated from the fauna of the United States until
Washington is wrecked by anarchists.
THE AMERICAN BISON.--I regard the American bison species as now
reasonably secure against extermination. This is due to the fact that it
breeds persistently and successfully in captivity, and to the great
efforts that have been put forth by the United States Government, the
Canadian Government, the American Bison Society, the New York Zoological
Society, and several private individuals.
The species reached its lowest ebb in 1889, when there were only 256
head in captivity and 835 running wild. The increase has been as
follows:
1888--W.T. Hornaday's census 1,300
1902--S.P. Langley's census 1,394
1905--Frank Baker's census 1,697
1908--W.T. Hornaday's census 2,047
1910--W.P. Wharton's census (in North America) 2,108
1912--W.P. Wharton's census (in North America) 2,907
To-day, nearly one-half of the living bison are in very large
governmental parks, perpetually established and breeding rapidly, as
follows:
IN THE UNITED STATES.
Yellowstone Park fenced herd, founded by Congress 125
Montana National Bison Range, founded by The American Bison Society 69
Wichita Bison Range, founded by The New York Zoological Society 39
Wind Cave Bison Range, S. Dakota, founded by Am. Bison Society To be
stocked
Niobrara (Neb.) National Bison Range, now in process of creation To be
stocked
IN CANADA.
Buffalo Park, Wainwright, Alberta 1,052
Elk Island Park, Alberta 53
Rocky Mountains Park, Banff, Alberta 27
Total National and Provincial Preserves 1,365
Of wild bison there are only three groups: 49 head in the Yellowstone
National Park, about 75 Pablo "outlaws" around the Montana Bison Range,
and between 300 and 400 head in northern Athabasca, southwest of Fort
Resolution, existing in small and widely scattered bands.
The efforts of man to atone for the great bison slaughter by preserving
the species from extinction have been crowned with success. Two
governments and two thousand individuals have shared this task,--solely
for sentimental reasons. In these facts we find reason to hope and
believe that other efforts now being made to save other species from
annihilation will be equally successful.
* * * * *
CHAPTER XVIII
THE PRESENT AND FUTURE OF AFRICAN GAME
Thanks to the diligence with which sportsmen and field naturalists have
recorded their observations in the haunts of big game, it is not at all
difficult to forecast the immediate future of the big game of the world.
We may safely assume that all lands well suited to agriculture, mining
and grazing will become populated by rifle-bearing men, with the usual
result to the wild mammals and birds. At the same time, the game of the
open mountains everywhere is thinly distributed and easily exterminated.
On the other hand, the unconquerable forest jungles of certain portions
of the tropics will hold their own, and shelter their four-footed
inhabitants for centuries to come.
On the open mountains of the world and on the grazing lands most big
game is now being killed much faster than it breeds. This is due to the
attacks of five times too many hunters, open seasons that are too long,
and bag limits that are far too liberal. As an example, consider Africa
Viewed in any way it may be taken, the bag limit in British East Africa
is appallingly high. Notice this astounding array of wild creatures that
_each hunter_ may kill under a license costing _only $250!_
2 Buffalo
2 Rhinoceros
2 Hippopotamus
1 Eland
2 Grevy Zebra
20 Common Zebra
2 Fringe-eared Oryx
4 Beisa Antelope
4 Waterbuck
1 Sable Antelope
1 Roan Antelope
1 Greater Kudu
4 Lesser Kudu
10 Topi
20 Coke Hartebeest
2 Neumann Hartebeest
4 Jackson Hartebeest
6 Hunter's Antelope
4 Thomas Kob
2 Bongo
4 Pallah
2 Sitatunga
3 Gnu
12 Grant Gazelle
4 Waller's Gazelle
10 Harvey's Duiker
10 Isaac's Duiker
10 Blue Duiker
10 Kirk's Dik-dik
10 Guenther's Dik-dik
10 Hinde's Dik-dik
10 Cavendish Dik-dik
10 Abyssinian Oribi
10 Haggard's Oribi
10 Kenya Oribi
10 Suni
10 Klipspringer
10 Ward's Reedbuck
10 Chanler's Reedbuck
10 Thompson Gazelle
10 Peters Gazelle
10 Soemmerring Gazelle
10 Bushbuck
10 Haywood Bushbuck
The grand total is a possible 300 large hoofed and horned animals
representing _44 species_! Add to this all the lions, leopards,
cheetahs, cape hunting dogs and hyaenas that the hunter can kill, and
it will be enough to stock a zoological garden!
Quite a number of these species, like the sable antelope, kudu, Hunter's
antelope, bongo and sitatunga are already rare, and therefore they are
all the more eagerly sought.
Into the fine grass-lands of British East Africa, suitable for crops and
stock grazing, settlers are steadily going. Each one is armed, and at
once becomes a killer of big game. And all the time the visiting
sportsmen are increasing in number, going farther from the Uganda
Railway, and persistently seeking out the rarest and finest of the game.
The buffalo has recovered from the slaughter by rinderpest only in time
to meet the onset of oversea sportsmen.
Mr. Arthur Jordan has seen much of the big game of British East Africa,
and its killing. Him I asked to tell me how long, in his opinion, the
big game of that territory will last outside of the game preserves, as
it is now being killed. He said, "Oh, it will last a long time. I think
it will last fifteen years!"
_Fifteen years!_ And this for the richest big-game fauna of any one spot
in the whole world, which Nature has been _several million years in
developing and placing there_!
At present the marvelous herds of big game of British East Africa and
Uganda constitute the grandest zoological spectacle that the world ever
has seen in historic times. For such an area, the number of species is
incredible, and until they are seen, the thronging masses of individuals
are beyond conception. It is easy to say "a herd of 3,000 zebras;" but
no mere words can give an adequate impression of the actual army of
stripes and bars, and hoofs thundering in review over a grassy plain.
But the settlers say, "The zebras must go! They break through our best
wire fences, ruin our crops, despoil us of the fruits of long and
toilsome efforts, and much expenditure. We simply can not live in a
country inhabited by herds of wild zebras." And really, their contention
is well founded. When it is necessary to choose between wild animals and
peaceful agriculture for millions of men, the animals must give way.
In those portions of the great East African plateau region that are
suited to modern agriculture, stretching from Buluwayo to northern
Uganda, the wild herds are doomed to be crowded out by the farmer and
the fruit-grower. This is the inevitable result of civilization and
progress in wild lands. Marauding battalions of zebras, bellicose
rhinoceroses and murderous buffaloes do not fit in with ranches and
crops, and children going to school. Except in the great game preserves,
the swamps and the dense jungles it is certain that the big game of the
whole of eastern Africa is foredoomed to disappear,--the largest and
most valuable species first.
Five hundred years from now, when North America is worn out, and wasted
to a skeleton of what it now is, the great plateau region of East Africa
between Cape Town and Lake Rudolph will be a mighty empire, teeming
with white population. Giraffes and rhinoceroses now are trampling over
the sites of the cities and universities of the future. Then the herds
of grand game that now make Africa a sportsman's wonderland will exist
only in closed territory, in books, and in memory.
[Illustration: MAP SHOWING THE DISAPPEARANCE OF THE LION
Incidentally, it is also an Index of the Disappearance of African Big
Game Generally. From an Article in the Review of Reviews, for August,
1912, by Cyrus C. Adams, and Based Largely upon the Exhaustive Studies
of Dr. C.M. Engel, of Copenhagen.]
From what has befallen in South Africa, we can easily and correctly
forecast the future of the big game of British East Africa and Uganda.
Less than fifty years ago, Cape Colony, Natal, Zululand, and every
country up to the Zambesi was teeming with herds of big wild animals,
just as the northern provinces now are. As late as 1890, when Rhodesia
was taken over by the Chartered Company, and the capital city of
Salisbury was staked out, an American boy in the Pioneer Corps, now
Honorable William Harvey Brown, of Salisbury, wrote thus of the Gwibi
Flats, near Salisbury:
"That evening I beheld on those flats a sight which probably will never
again be seen there to the end of the world. The variety deploying
before me was almost incredible! There, within the range of my vision
were groups of roan, sable and tsessebi antelopes, Burchell zebras, [now
totally extinct!] elands, reedbucks, steinbucks and ostriches. It was
like Africa in the days of Livingstone. As I sat on my horse, viewing
with amazement this wonderful panorama of wild life, I was startled by a
herd that came galloping around a small hill just behind me."--("_On the
South African Frontier_," p. 114.)
That was in 1890. And how is it to-day?
Salisbury is a modern city, endorsed by two lines of railway. The Gwibi
Flats are farms. There is some big game yet, in Rhodesia south of the
Zambesi, but to find it you must go at least a week's journey from the
capital, to the remote corners that have not yet been converted into
farms or mining settlements. North of the Zambesi, Rhodesia yet contains
plenty of big game. The Victoria Falls station is a popular starting
point for hunting expeditions headed northeast and northwest. In the
northwest the game is yet quite in a state of nature. Unfortunately the
Barotse natives of that region can procure from the Portuguese traders
all the firearms and ammunition that they can pay for, and by treaty
they retain their hunting rights. The final result will
be--extermination of the game.
Elsewhere throughout Rhodesia the natives are not permitted to have guns
and gunpowder,--a very wise regulation. In Alaska our Indians are
privileged to kill game all the year round, and they have modern
firearms with which to do it.
And how is it with the game of that day?
The true Burchell's zebra is now regarded as _extinct_! In Cape Colony
and Natal, that once teemed with big game in the old-fashioned African
way, they are _counting the individual wild animals that remain_! Also,
they are making game preserves, literally everywhere.
Now that the best remaining game districts of Africa are rapidly coming
under British control, it is a satisfaction to observe that the
governing bodies and executive officers are alive to the necessity of
preserving the big game from actual extinction. Excepting German East
Africa, from Uganda to Cape Colony the game preserves form an almost
continuous chain. It is quite impossible to enumerate all of them; but
the two in British East Africa are of enormous size, and are well
stocked with game. South Africa contains a great many smaller preserves
and a few specimen herds of big game, but that is about all. Except in a
few localities the hunting of big game in that region is done forever.
The Western Districts Game and Trout Protective Association of South
Africa recently, (1911), has made careful counts and estimates of the
number of individual game animals remaining in Cape Colony, with the
following result:
* * * * *
BIG GAME IN THE CAPE PROVINCE
From information kindly placed at the disposal of the Association by the
Government, it was found that the following varieties of big game are
still found in the Province. The numbers, however, are only approximate:
_Blesbok_: About 400 in Steynsburg, and 35 in Queen's Town divisions.
_Bontebok_: About 30 in Bredasdorp and 45 in Swellendam divisions.
_Buffalo_: About 340 in Uitenhage, 120 in Alexandria, and 75 in Bathurst
divisions.
_Elephants_: About 130 in Alexandria, 160 in Uitenhage, 40 in Bathurst,
and 20 in Knysna divisions.
_Gemsbok_: About 2,450 in Namaqualand, 4,500 in Vryburg, 4,000 in
Gordonia, and 670 in the Kenhardt, Mafeking and Barkly West divisions.
_Koodoo_: About 10,000, found chiefly in the divisions of Albany, Barkly
West, Fort Beaufort, Hay, Herbert, Jansenville, Kuruman, Ladismith,
Mafeking, Mossel Bay, Oudtshoorn, Riversdale, Steytlerville, Uitenhage,
Victoria East and Vryburg.
_Oribi_: About 120, in the divisions of Albany and Alexandria.
_Rietbok_: About 170, in the Komgha division.
_Zebra_: About 560, most of which are to be found in the divisions of
Cradock, George and Oudtshoorn. A few are to be found in the divisions
of Uniondale and Uitenhage.
_Springbok_: Being migratory, it is difficult to estimate their number.
In some years they are compelled by drought to invade the Province in
large numbers. They are then seen as far south as Calvinia and
Fraserburg. Large numbers are, however, fenced in on private estates in
various parts of the Province.
_Klipspringers_: About 11,200, in the following divisions, viz.:
Namaqualand, 6,559; Kuruman, 2,100; Steytlerville, 1,530; Oudtshoorn,
275; Hay, 250; Ladismith, 220; Graaff-Reinet, 119; Kenhardt, 66; and
Cradock, 56.
_Hartebeest_: About 9,700, principally in the divisions of Vryburg,
Gordonia, Kuruman, Mafeking, Kimberley, Hay and Beaufort West.
_Wildebeest_: About 3,450 in Vryburg, 80 each in Gordonia and Kuruman,
65 in Mafeking, 20 in Queen's Town, and a few in the Bredasdorp
divisions.
_Eland_: About 12 in the Graaff-Reinet division, privately bred.
* * * * *
The above showing of the pitifully small numbers of the specimens that
constitute the remnant of the big-game of the Cape suggest just one
thing:--a universal close season throughout Cape Colony, and no hunting
whatever for ten years. And yet, what do we see?
The Report from which the above census was taken contains half a column
of solid matter, in small type, giving a list of the _open seasons_ all
over Cape Colony, during which killing may be done! So it seems that the
spirit of slaughter is the same in Africa that it is in
America,--_kill_, as long as there is _anything_ alive to kill!
This list is of startling interest, because it shows how closely the
small remnants of big game are now marked down in South Africa.
In view of the success with which Englishmen protect their game when
once they have made up their minds to do so, it is fair to expect that
the herds now under protection, as listed above, will save their
respective species from extinction. It is alarming, however, to note the
wide territory covered by the deadly "open seasons," and to wonder when
the bars really will be put up.
To-day, Mashonaland is a very-much-settled colony. The Cape to Cairo
railway and trains de luxe long ago attained the Palls of the Zambesi,
and now the Curator of the Salisbury Museum will have to search
diligently in far off Nyassaland, and beyond the Zambesi River, to find
enough specimens to fill his cases with representatives of the vanished
Rhodesian fauna. Once (1892) the white rhinoceros was found in northern
Rhodesia; but never again. In Salisbury, elands and zebras are nearly as
great a curiosity as they are in St. Louis.
But for the discovery of white rhinoceroses in the Lado district, on the
western bank of the Nile below Gondokoro, we would now be saying that
_Rhinoceros simus_ is within about ten specimens of total extinction.
From South Africa, as far up as Salisbury, in central Rhodesia, at least
99 per cent of the big game has disappeared before the white man's
rifle. Let him who doubts this scan the census of wild animals still
living in Cape Colony.
From all the other regions of Africa that are easily accessible to
gunners, the animal life is vigorously being shot out, and no man in his
senses will now say that the big game is breeding faster than it is
being killed. The reverse is painfully true. Mr. Carl Akeley, in his
quest for a really large male elephant for the American Museum found and
looked over _a thousand_ males without finding one that was really fine
and typical. All the photographs of elephant herds that were taken by
Kermit Roosevelt and Akeley show a striking absence of adult males and
of females with long tusks. There are only young males, and young
females with small, short tusks. The answer is--the white ivory hunters
have killed nearly all the elephants bearing good ivory.
The slaughter of big game is going on furiously in British East Africa
because the Uganda Railway opens up the entire territory to hunters.
Anyone, man or woman, who can raise $5,000 in cash can go there and make
a huge "bag" of big game. With a license costing only $250 he can kill
enough big game to sink a ship.
The bag limit in British East Africa is ruinously extravagant. If the
government desires the extermination of the game, such a bag limit
surely will promote that end. It is awful to think that for a petty sum
any man may buy the right to kill 300 _head_ of hoofed and horned
animals, of 44 species, not counting the carnivorous animals that also
may be killed. That bag limit should _immediately_ be reduced _75 per
cent_!
As matters stand to-day in British East Africa, the big game of the
country, outside the three preserves, is absolutely certain to
disappear, in about one-fourth of the time that it took South Africa to
accomplish the same result. The reasons are obvious:--superior
accessibility, more deadly rifles, expert professional guides, and a
widespread craze for killing big game. With care and economy, British
East Africa should furnish good hunting for two centuries, but as
things are going on to-day, twenty years will see a tremendous change
for the worse, and a disappearance of game that will literally astonish
the natives.
German East Africa and Uganda will not exterminate their quotas of big
game quite so soon. The absence of railways is a great factor in
game-existence. The Congo Free State contains game and sporting
possibilities--on the unexplored uplands _between the rivers_,--that are
as yet totally unknown to sportsmen at large. We are accustomed to
thinking of the whole basin of the Congo as a vast, gloomy and
impenetrable forest.
There is to-day in Africa a vast reserve supply of grand game. It
inhabits regions that are either unknown, or most difficult to
penetrate. As a species in point, consider the okapi. Only the boldest
and most persistent explorers ever have set foot in its tangled and
miasmatic haunts. It may be twenty years before a living specimen can be
brought out. The gorilla and the chimpanzee are so well protected by the
density of their jungles that they never can be exterminated--until the
natives are permitted to have all the firearms that they desire! When
that day arrives, it is "good-night" to all the wild life that is large
enough to eat or to wear.
The quagga and the blaubok became _extinct_ before the world learned
that their existence was threatened! The giant eland, the sable
antelope, the greater kudu, the bontebok, blessbok, the mountain and
Burchell zebras, all the giraffes save that of Nigeria, the big
waterbucks, the nyala, the sitatunga, the bongo, and the gerenuk--all
will go in the same way, everywhere outside the game preserves. The
buffalo, zebra and rhinoceros are especially marked for destruction, as
annoyances to colonists. You who read of the killing of these species
to-day will read of their total disappearance to-morrow. So long as the
hunting of them is permitted, their ultimate disappearance is fixed and
certain. It is not the way of rifle-shooting English colonists to permit
herds of big game to run about merely to be looked at.
Naturally, the open plains of Africa, and the thin forests of the
plateau regions, will be the first to lose their big game. In the gloomy
fastnesses of the great equatorial forests, and other really dense
forests wherever found, the elephants, the Derby eland, the bongo, the
okapi, the buffaloes (of three species), the bush-pigs, the bushbucks
and the forest-loving antelopes generally will live, for possibly one
hundred years,--_or until the natives secure plenty of modern firearms
and ammunition_. Whenever and wherever savages become supplied with
rifles, then it is time to measure each big-game animal for its coffin.
The elephants of the great equatorial forest westward of the lake region
will survive long after the last eastern elephant has bitten the dust.
The pygmy elephant of the lower Congo region (_Elephas pumilio_) will be
the last African elephant species to disappear--because it inhabits
dense miasmatic jungles, its tusks are of the smallest size, and it has
the least commercial value.
* * * * *
CHAPTER XIX
THE PRESENT AND FUTURE OF THE GAME OF ASIA
After a successful survival of man's influence through two thousand
years, at last the big game of India has made a good start on the road
to vanishment. Up to 1870 it had held its own with a tenacity that was
astonishing. In 1877, I found the Ganges--Jumna dooab, the Animallai
Hills, the Wynaad Forest and Ceylon literally teeming with herds of
game. The Animallais in particular were a hunter's paradise. In each day
of hunting, large game of some kind was a certainty. The Nilgiri Hills
had been quite well shot out, but in view of the very small area and
open, golf-links character of the whole top of that wonderful sky
plateau, that was no cause for wonderment.
In those days no native shikaree owned and operated a gun,--or at the
most very, very few of them did. If a rogue elephant, a man-eating tiger
or a nasty leopard became a public nuisance, it was a case for a sahib
to come and doctor it with a .577 double-barreled express rifle, worth
$150 or more; and the sahibs had shooting galore.
I think that no such great wild-life sights as those of the plateau
regions of Africa ever were seen in southern Asia. Conditions there are
different, and usually the game is widely scattered. The sambar deer and
muntjac of the dense forests, the axis of the bamboo glades, the thameng
deer of the Burmese jungles, the sladang, or gaur, of the awful Malay
tangle, and the big cats and canines will last long and well. The
ibexes, markhors, tahr and all the wild sheep eventually will be shot
out by sportsmen who are "sheep crazy." The sheep and goats of Asia will
disappear soon after the plains animals of Africa, because no big game
that lives in the open can much longer endure the modern, inexpensive
long-range rifles of deadly accuracy and limitless repetition of fire.
Eventually, I fear that by some unlucky turn of Fortune's wheel all the
native hunters of Asia will obtain rifles; and when they do, we soon
will see the end of the big game.
Even to-day we find that the primitive conditions of 1877 have been
greatly changed. In the first place, about every native shikaree
(hunter) owns a rifle, at a cost of about $25; and many other natives
possess guns, and assume to hunt with them. The logical conclusion of
this is more hunting and less game. The development of the country has
reduced the cover for game. New roads and railways have made the game
districts easily accessible, and real sportsmen are now three or four
times as numerous as they were in 1877.
At Toonacadavoo, in the Animallai Hills where thirty-five years ago
there modestly nestled on the ridge beside the river only Forest Ranger
Theobold's bungalow, built of mud and covered with grass thatch and
bamboo rats, there is now a regular hill station lighted by electricity,
a modern sanatorium high up on the bluff, a _club_, golf links, and
other modern improvements. In my day there were exactly four guns on the
Animallais. Now there are probably one hundred; and it is easy to guess
how much big game remains on the Delectable Mountains in comparison with
the golden days of 1877. I should say that there is now only one game
animal for every twenty-five that were there in my day.
I am told that it is like that all over India. Beyond question, the
gun-sellers and gun-users have been busy there, as everywhere else. The
game of India is on the toboggan slide, and the old days of abundance
have gone forever.
The first fact that strikes us in the face is the impending fate of the
great Indian rhinoceros, an animal as wonderful as the Titanothere or
the Megatherium. It is like a gift handed down to us straight out of the
Pleistocene age, a million years back. The British paleontologists
to-day marvel at _Elephas ganesa_, and by great labor dig his bones out
of the Sewalik rocks, but what one of them all has yet made a move to
save _Rhinoceros indicus_ from the quick extermination that soon will be
his portion unless he is accorded perpetual and real protection from the
assaults of man?
Let the mammalogists of the world face this fact. The available cover of
the Indian rhinoceros is _alarmingly_ decreasing, throughout Assam and
Bengal where the behemoth of the jungle has a right to live. It is
believed that the few remaining rhinos are being shot much faster then
they are breeding; and what will be the effect of this upon an animal
that requires fourteen years to reach full maturity? To-day, the most
wonderful hoofed mammal of all Asia is booked for extermination, and
unless very radical measures for its preservation are at once carried
into effect, it is probable that twenty years more will see the last
Indian rhino go down to rise no more. One remedy would be a good, ample
rhinoceros preserve; and another, the most absolute and permanent
protection for the species, all along the line. Half-way measures will
not suffice. It is time to ring in a general alarm.
During the past eighteen years, only three specimens of that species
have come out of India for the zoological gardens and parks of the
world, and I think there are only five in captivity, all told.
We are told that in India now the natives are permitted to have about
all the firearms they can pay for. Naturally, in a country containing
over 300,000,000 people this is a deadly thing. Of course there are
shooting regulations, many of them; but their enforcement is so
imperfect that it is said that the natives are attacking the big game on
all sides, with deadly effect. I fear it is utterly impossible for the
Indian government to put enough wardens into the field to watch the
doings of the grand army of native poachers.
Fortunately, the Indian native,--unlike the western frontiersman,--does
not contend that _he owns_ the big game, or that "all men are born free
and equal." At the same time, he means to have his full share of it, to
eat, and to sell in various forms for cash. Even in India, the
sale-of-game dragon has reared its head, and is to-day in need of being
scotched with an iron hand.
When I received direct from a friend in the native state of Kashmir a
long printed circular setting forth the hunting laws and game-protective
measures of that very interesting principality, it gave me a shock. It
was disquieting to be thus assured that the big game of Kashmir has
disappeared to such an extent that strong protective measures are
necessary. It was as if the Chief Eskimo of Etah had issued a strong
proclamation for the saving of the musk-ox.
In Kashmir, the destruction of game has become so serious that a Game
Preservation Department has been created, with the official staff that
such an organization requires. The game laws are printed annually, and
any variations from them may be made only by the authority of the
Maharajah himself. Up to date, _eight_ game preserves have been created,
having a total area of about thee hundred square miles. In addition to
these, there are twelve small preserves, each having an area of from
twenty-five to fifty square miles. By their locations, these seem to
provide for all the species of big game that are found in Kashmir,--the
ibex, two forms of markhor, the tahr. Himalayan bighorn sheep, burrhel
and goral.
In our country we have several states that are very large, very
diversified in surface, and still inhabited by large game. Has any one
of those states created a series of game preserves even half way
comparable with those of Kashmir? I think not. Montana has made a
beginning with two preserves,--Snow Creek and the Pryor Mountains,--but
beside the splendid series of Kashmir they are not worthy of serious
mention.
And then following closely in the wake of that document came a lengthy
article in the "Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London," by
E.C. Stebbing, in which a correspondent of the Indian _Field_ clearly
sets forth the fact that the big game of the Himalayas now is menaced by
a peril new to our consideration, but of a most deadly character. Hear
him:
"In this inventory (of game destroyers in India), the Gurkha soldier
does not find a place, for he belongs to a class which he amply fills by
himself with his small but very important personality. He deserves
separate notice. From the banks of the Sarda on the frontier of Nepal,
to the banks of the Indus, the battalions of these gallant little men
are scattered in cantonments all along the outer spurs of the Himalayan
range. In seven or eight of these locations there are at least 14,000 of
these disciplined warriors, who, in the absence of opportunities for
spilling human blood legitimately, are given a free hand for
slaughtering wild animals, along five-hundred miles of the best hunting
grounds of Upper India."
Now, since those facts must be true as reported, do they not in
themselves constitute a severe arraignment of the Indian government? Why
should that state of game slaughter endure, when a single executive
order to the C.O. of each post would effectually stop it?
In the making of game preserves, or "sanctuaries" as they are called out
there, the Government of India has shown rare and commendable diligence.
The total number is too great for enumeration here. The native state of
Mysore has seven, and the Nilgiri Hills have sanctuaries aggregating
about 100,000 acres in area. In the Wynaad Forest, my old
hunting-grounds at Mudumallay have been closed to bison shooting,
because of the alarming decrease of bison (gaur) through shooting and
disease. The Kundah Forest Reserve has been made a partial game
preserve, but the door might as well have been left wide open as so
widely ajar.
In eastern Bengal and Assam, several game preserves have been created.
On the whole, by the diligence and thoroughness with which sanctuaries,
as they are termed, have been created quite generally throughout India,
it is quite evident that the government and the sportsmen of India have
become thoroughly alarmed by the great decrease of the game, and the
danger of the extermination of species. In the past India has been the
finest and best-stocked hunting-ground of all Asia, quite beyond
compare, and the destruction of her once-splendid fauna of big game
would be a zoological calamity.
_Tibet_.--As yet, Tibet offers free hunting, without legal let or
hindrance, to every sportsman who can climb up to her lofty, wind-swept
and whizzing-cold plateau. The man who hunts the _Ovis poli_, superb
creature though it be, pays in full for his trophies. The ibex of the
south help out the compensatory damages, but even with that, the list of
species available in southern Tibet is painfully small. The Mitchell
takin can be reached from China, via Chungking, after a long, hard
journey, over Consul Mason Mitchell's trail; but the takin is about the
only large hoofed game available.
_The Altai Mountains_, of western China, contain the magnificent
Siberian argali, the grandfather of all sheep species, whose horns must
be seen to be believed. Through a quest for that species the Russian
military authorities played upon Mr. George L. Harrison and his comrade
a very grim and unsportsmanlike joke. At the frontier military post, on
the Russo-Chinese border, the two Americans were courteously halted,
hospitably entertained, and _prevented_ from going into the
argali-infested mountains that loomed up before them only a few miles
away! The Russian officers said:
"Sheep? Why, if you really want sheep, we will send out some of our
brave soldiers to shoot some for you; but there is no need for _you_ to
take the trouble to go after them!"
After Mr. Harrison and his comrade had spent $5,000, and traveled half
way around the world for those sheep, that is in brief the story of how
the cup of Tantalus was given them by the Russians, actually _at their
goal_! As spoil-sports, those Russian officers were the champions of the
world.
Seven hundred miles southeastward of the Altai Mountains of western
China, guarded by the dangerous hostility of savage native tribes, there
exists and awaits the scientific explorer, according to report, an
undiscovered wild horse. The Bicolored Wild Horse is black and white,
and joy awaits the zoologist or sportsman who sees it first. Evidently
it will not soon be exterminated by modern rifles.
_The Impenetrable Forests_.--Although the mountains of central Asia will
in time be cleared of their big game,--when by hook and by crook the
natives secure plenty of modern firearms,--there are places in the Far
East that we know will contain big game forever and a day. Take the
Malay Peninsula, Borneo and Sumatra as examples.
Mr. C. William Beebe, who recently has visited the Far East, has
described how the state of Selangor, between Malacca and Penang, has
taken on many airs of improvement since 1878, and sections of Sarawak
Territory are being cut down and burned for the growing of rubber.
Despite this I am trying to think that those developments menace the
total volume of the wild life of those regions but little. I wonder if
those tangled, illimitable, ever-renewing jungles yet know that their
faces have been scratched. White men never will exterminate the big game
of the really dense jungles of the eastern tropics; but with enough
axes, snares, guns and cartridges _the natives_ may be able to
accomplish it!
In Malayana there are some jungles so dense, so tangled with lianas and
so thorny with Livistonias and rattan that nothing larger than a cat can
make way through them. There are thousands of square miles so boggy, so
swampy, so dark, gloomy and mosquito-ridden that all men fear them and
avoid them, and in them rubber culture must be impossible. In those
silent places the gaur, the rhino, the Malay sambar, the clouded leopard
and the orang-utan surely are measurably safe from the game-bags and
market gunners of the shooting world. It is good to think that there is
an equatorial belt of jungle clear around the world, in Central and
South America as well as in the old World, in which there will be little
extermination in our day, except of birds for the feather market. But
the open plains, open mountains, and open forests of Asia and
Australasia are in different case. Eventually they will be "shot out."
China, all save Yunnan and western Mongolia, is now horribly barren of
wild life. Can it ever be brought back? We think it can not. The
millions of population are too many; and except in the great forest
tracts, the spread of modern firearms will make an end of the game.
Already the pheasants are being swept out of China for the London
market, and extinction is staring several species in the face. On the
whole, the pheasants of the Old World are being hit hard by the
rubber-planting craze. Mr. Beebe declares that owing to the inrush of
aggressive capital, the haunts of many species of pheasants are being
denuded of all their natural cover, and some mountain species that are
limited to small areas are practically certain to be exterminated at an
early date.
DESTRUCTION OF ANIMALS FOR FUR.--In the far North, only the interior of
Kamchatka seems to be safe from the iron heel of the skin-hunter. A
glance at the list of furs sold in London last year reveals one or two
things that are disquieting. The total catch of furs for the year 1911
is enormous,--considering the great scarcity of wild life on two
continents. Incidentally it must be remembered that every trapper
carries a gun, and in studying the fur list one needs no help in trying
to imagine the havoc wrought with firearms on the edible wild life of
the regions that contributed all that fur. I have been told by trappers
that as a class, trappers are great killers of game.
In order that the reader may know by means of definite figures the
extent to which the world is being raked and combed for fur-bearing
animals, we append below a statement copied from the _Fur News Magazine_
for November, 1912, of the sales of the largest London fur house during
the past two years.
With varying emotions we call attention to the wombat of Australia,
3,841; grebe, 51,261, and house cat, 92,407. Very nearly all the totals
of Lampson & Co. for each species are much lower for the sales of 1912
than for those of 1911. Is this fact significant of a steady decline?
* * * * *
FURS SOLD BY C.M. LAMPSON & Co., LONDON
_Totals for Totals for
1911, Skins 1912, Skins_
Raccoon 354,057 215,626
Musquash (Muskrat) 3,382,401 2,937,150
Musquash, Black 78,363 60,000
Skunk 1,310,185 979,612
Cat, Civet 329,180 229,155
Opossum, American 1,011,824 948,189
Mink 183,574 100,951
Marten 29,881 26,895
Fox, Red 58,900 40,300
Fox, Cross 1,294 1,569
Fox, Silver 761 590
Fox, Grey 43,909 32,471
Fox, Kit 30,278 35,222
Fox, White 16,709 13,341
Fox, Blue 3,137 1,778
Otter 17,399 13,899
Sea Otter 328 202
Cat, Wild, etc 38,870 29,740
Cat, House 92,407 65,641
Lynx 2,424 5,144
Fisher 1,918 656
Badger 16,338 15,325
Beaver 21,137 17,036
Bear 16,851 13,377
Wolf 65,893 74,535
Wolverine 1,530 1,172
Hair Seal, Dry 6,455 5,378
Grebe 51,261 19,571
Fur Seal, Dry 897 1,453
Sable, Russian 10,285 8,972
Kolinsky 138,921 120,933
Marten, Baum 1,853 1,481
Marten, Stone 7,504 6,331
Fitch 26,731 20,400
Ermine 328,840 248,295
Squirrel 976,395 707,710
Saca, etc. 40,982 13,599
Chinchilla, Real 6,282 11,457
Chinchilla, Bastard 7,533 8,145
Marten, Japanese 26,005 3,294
Sable, Japanese 1,429 52
Fox, Japanese 60,831 13,725
Badger, Japanese 183 2,949
Opossum, Australian 1,613,799 1,782,364
Wallaby, Australian 1,003,820 540,608
Kangaroo, Australian 21,648 16,193
Wombat, Australian 3,841 1,703
Fox, Red, Australian 60,435 40,724
* * * * *
CHAPTER XX
THE DESTRUCTION OF BIRDS IN THE FAR EAST[G]
BY C. WILLIAM BEEBE
Curator of Birds, New York Zoological Park
[Footnote G: The observations which furnished this valuable chapter were
made by Mr. Beebe in 1911 while conducting an expedition in southern
Asia, Borneo and Java for the purpose of studying in life and nature all
the members of the Pheasant Family inhabiting that region. The results
of these studies and collections will shortly appear in a very complete
monograph of the Phasianidae.--W.T.H.]
In chapter XIII, treating of the "Extermination of Birds for Women's
Hats," Dr. Hornaday has dealt fully with the feather and plumage traffic
after it enters the brokers' hands, and has proved conclusively that the
plumes of egrets are gathered from the freshly killed birds. We may
trace the course of the plumes and feathers backward through the
tightly-packed bales and boxes in the holds of the vessels to the ports
of the savage lands whence they were shipped; then to the skilful, dark
hands of Mexican peon, Venezuelan Indian, African negro or Asiatic
Chinaman or Malay, who stripped the skin from the flesh; and finally to
the jungle or mountain side or terai where the bird gave up its life to
blowpipe, cross-bow, blunderbuss or carefully set snare.
In various trips to Mexico, Venezuela and other countries in the tropics
of the New World I have seen many such scenes, but not until I had
completed a seventeen months' expedition in search of pheasants, through
some twenty wild countries of Asia and the East Indies, did I realize
the havoc which is being wrought week by week everywhere on the globe.
While we were absent even these few months from the great centers of
civilization, tremendous advances had been made in air-ships and the
thousand and one other modern phases of human development, but evolution
in the world of Nature as we observed it was only destructive--a
world-wide katabolism--a retrogression often discernible from month to
month. We could scarcely repeat the trip and make the same observations
upon pheasants, so rapidly is this group of birds approaching
extinction.
The causes of this destruction of wild life are many and diverse, and
resemble one another only in that they all emanate from mankind. To the
casual traveller the shooting and trapping of birds for millinery
purposes at first seems to hold an insignificant place among the causes.
But this is only because in many of the larger ports, the protective
laws are more or less operative and the occupation of the plume hunter
is carried on in secret ways. But it is as far-reaching and insidious
as any; and when we add to the actual number of birds slain, the
compound interest of eggs grown cold, of young birds perishing slowly
from hunger, of the thousands upon thousands of birds which fall wounded
or dead among the thick tropical jungle foliage and are lost, the total
is one of ghastly proportions.
Not to weaken my argument with too many general statements, let me take
at once some concrete cases. First, that of the Himalayan pheasants and
game-birds. In a recent interesting article by E.P. Stebbing[H] the
past, present and hoped-for future of game birds and animals in India is
reviewed. Unfortunately, however, most of the finest creatures in Asia
live beyond the border of the British sphere of influence, and though
within sight, are absolutely beyond reach of civilized law. The heart of
the Himalayas,--the haunts of some of the most beautiful birds in the
world, the tragopans, the blood and impeyan pheasants--lies within the
limits of Nepal, a little country which time and time again has bade
defiance to British attacks, and still maintains its independence. From
its northern border Mt. Everest looks down from its most exalted of all
earthly summits and sees valley after valley depleted of first one bird
and then another. I have seen and lived with Nepalese shepherds who have
nothing to do month after month but watch their flocks. In the lofty
solitudes time hangs heavy on their hands, and with true oriental
patience they weave loop after loop of yak-hair snares, and then set
them, not in dozens or scores, but in hundreds and thousands up and down
the valleys.
[Footnote H: "Game Sanctuaries and Game Protection in India,"
Proc. Zool. Soc., London, 1912. pp. 23-35.]
In one locality seven great valleys had been completely cleared of
pheasants, only a single pair of tragopans remaining; and from one of
these little brown men I took two hundred nooses which had been prepared
for these lone survivors. In these cases, the birds were either cooked
and eaten at once, or sold to some passing shepherd or lama for a few
annas. But in other parts of this unknown land systematic collecting of
skins goes on, for bale after bale of impeyan and red argus (tragopan)
pheasant skins goes down to the Calcutta wharves, where its infamous
contents, though known, are safe from seizure under the Nepal Raja's
seal! Thus it is that the London feather sales still list these among
the most splendid of all living birds. And shame upon shame, when we
read of 80 impeyan skins "dull," or "slightly defective," we know that
these are female birds. Then, if ever, we realize that the time of the
bird and the beast is passing, the acme of evolution for these wonderful
beings is reached, and at most we can preserve only a small fragment of
them.
To the millinery hunter, what the egret is to America, and the bird of
paradise to New Guinea, the impeyan pheasant is to India--the most
coveted of all plumages. There is a great tendency to blame the native
hunter for the decrease of this and other pheasants, and from what I
have personally seen in many parts of the Himalayas there is no question
that the Garwhalese and Nepalese hill-men have wrought havoc among the
birds. But these men are by no means the sole cause. As long ago as 1879
we read that "The great demand for the brilliant skins of the moonal
that has existed for many years has led to their almost total
extermination in some parts of the hills, as the native shikaris shoot
and snare for the pot as well as for skins, and kill as many females as
males. On the other hand, though for nearly thirty years my friend Mr.
Wilson has yearly sent home from 1,000 to 1,500 skins of this species
and the tragopan, there are still in the woods whence they were obtained
as many as, if not more than, when he first entered them, simply because
he has rigidly preserved females and nests, and (as amongst English
pheasants) one cock suffices for several hens."
[Illustration: PHEASANT SNARES
Made of Yak Hair, Taken from a Shepherd in Nepal by Mr. Beebe]
Ignoring the uncertainty of the last statement, it is rather absurd to
think of a single man "preserving" females and nests in the Himalayas
from 1850 to 1880, when the British Government, despite most efficient
laws and worthy efforts is unable to protect the birds of these wild
regions to-day. The statement that after thirty to forty-five thousand
cock impeyans were shot or snared, as many or more than the original
quota remained, could only emanate from the mind of a professional
feather-hunter, and Hume should not be blamed for more than the mere
repetition of such figures. Let it be said to the credit of Wilson, the
slaughterer of something near forty-five thousand impeyans, that he was
a careful observer of the birds' habits, and has given us an excellent
account, somewhat coloured by natives, but on the whole, the best we
have had in the past. But it is not pleasant to read of his waiting
until "twenty or thirty have got up and alighted in the surrounding
trees, and have then walked up to the different trees and fired at those
I wished to procure without alarming the rest, only those very close to
the one fired at being disturbed at each report."
Hume's opinion that in 1879 there were scores of places where one might
secure from ten to eighteen birds in a day, is certainly not true
to-day. Indeed, as early as 1858 we read that "This splendid bird, once
so abundant on the Western Himalayas is now far from being so, in
consequence of the numbers killed by sportsmen on account of its beauty.
Whole tracts of mountain forest once frequented by the moonal are now
almost without a single specimen." The same author goes on naively to
tell the reader that "Among the most pleasant reminiscences of bygone
days is a period of eleven days, spent by the author and a friend on the
Choor Mountain near Simia, when among other trophies were numbered
sixty-eight moonal pheasants, etc."
[Illustration: SILVER PHEASANT SKINS SEIZED AT RANGOON, BRITISH BURMA
About 600 Skins out of Several Thousand Confiscated in the Custom House,
on their way to the London Feather Market. Photographed by Mr. Beebe]
For some unaccountable reason there is, or was for many years, a very
prevalent idea that the enormous number of skins which have poured into
the London market were from birds bred in the vicinity of Calcutta. When
we remember the intense heat of that low-lying city, and learn from the
records of the Calcutta Zoological Garden that impeyans and tragopans
are even shorter-lived than in Europe, the absurdity of the idea is
apparent. In spite of numberless inquiries throughout India, I failed to
learn of a single captive young bird ever hatched and reared even in the
high, cool, hill-stations. The commercial value of an impeyan skin has
varied from five dollars to twenty dollars, according to the number
received annually. In 1876 an estimate placed the monthly average of
impeyans received in London at from two to eight hundred.
In such a case as Nepal, direct protective laws are of no avail. All
humane arguments are useless, but if the markets at the other end _can
be closed_, the slaughter will cease instantly and automatically.
[Illustration: DEADFALL TRAPS IN BURMA
A Long Series set Across a Valley, by the Kachins of the Burma-Chinese
Border. A Wholesale Method of Wild-life Slaughter, Photographed by C.
William Beebe, 1910]
As a contrast to the millinery hunter of fifty years ago it is
refreshing to find that at last sincere efforts are being made in
British possessions to stop this traffic. I happened to be at Rangoon
when six large bales of pheasant skins were seized by the Custom
officials. A Chinaman had brought them from Yunnan via Bhamo, and was
preparing to ship them as ducks' feathers. Two of the bales were opened
for my inspection. The first contained about five hundred Lady Amherst
pheasant skins, falling to pieces and lacking heads and legs. The second
held over four hundred silver pheasants, in almost perfect condition.
The chief collector had put the absolutely prohibitive fine of 200
pounds on them, and was waiting for the expiration of the legal number
of days before burning the entire lot. They must have represented years
of work in decimating the pheasant fauna of western China.
Far up in the wilderness of northern Burma, and over the Yunnan border,
we often came upon some of the most ingenious examples of native
trapping, a system which we found repeated in the Malay States, Borneo,
China and other parts of the Far East. A low bamboo fence is built
directly across a steep valley or series of valleys, about half way from
the summit to the lower end, and about every fifteen feet a narrow
opening is left, over which a heavy log is suspended. Any creature
attempting to make its way through, treads upon several small sticks and
by so doing springs the trap and the dead-fall claims a victim. When a
country is systematically strung with traps such as these, sooner or
later all but a pitiful remnant of the smaller mammals, birds and
reptiles are certain to be wiped out. Morning after morning I have
visited such a runway and found dead along its path, what must have been
all the walking, running or crawling creatures which the night before
had sought the water at the bottom; pheasants, cobras, mouse-deer,
rodents, civets, and members of many other groups. In some countries
nooses instead of dead-falls guard the openings, but the result is
equally deadly.
I have described this method of trapping because of its future
importance in the destruction of wild life in the Far East. The Chinaman
in all his many millions is undergoing a remarkably swift and radical
evolution both of character and dress. In many ways, if only from the
viewpoint of the patient, thrifty store-keeper he is a most powerful
factor in the East, and is becoming more so. In many cases he imitates
the white nations by cutting off his queue and altering his dress. In
some mysterious correlated way his diet seems simultaneously affected,
and while for untold generations rice and fish has satisfied all his
gastronomic desires, a new craving, that for meat, has come to him. The
result is apparent in many parts of the East. The Chinaman is willing
and able to pay for meat, and the native finds a new market for the
creatures about him. Again and again when I wished a few specimens of
some certain pheasant I had but to hail passing canoes and bid a few
annas or "cash" or "ringits" higher than the prospective Chinese
purchaser would give, and the pheasants were mine.
In the catalogues of the brokers' sales of feathers we read of many
thousands of the wonderful ocellated wing feathers of the argus
pheasant, but no less horrible is the sight of a canoe crammed with the
bedraggled bodies of these magnificent birds on their way to some
Chinese hamlet where they will be sold for a pittance, the flesh eaten
to the last tendon and the feathers given to the children and puppies to
play with. The newly-aroused appetite of the Mongolian will soon be an
important factor in the extermination of animals and birds, few species
being exempt, for the Chinaman lives up to his reputation and is not
squeamish as to the nature of his meat.
Before we leave the subject of Chinamen let us consider another recent
factor in the destruction of wild life which is at present widely
operative in China itself. This is the cold storage warehouse, of which
six or eight enormous ones have gone up in different parts of the East.
To speak in detail only of the one at Hankow, six hundred miles up the
Yangtze, we found it to be the largest structure in the city. Surrounded
by a high wall, with each entrance and exit guarded by armed Sikhs, it
seemed like the feudal castle of some medieval baron. Why such secrecy
is necessary I could not learn, as there are no laws against its
business. But so carefully guarded is its premises that until a short
time ago even the British consul-general of Hankow had not been allowed
to enter. He, however, at last refused to sign the papers for any more
outgoing shipments until he should be allowed to see what was going on
within the warehouse. I hoped to be able to look over some of the frozen
pheasants for interesting scientific material, but of course was not
allowed to do so.
Although here in the heart of China, outside changes are not felt so
strongly and the newly-acquired meat diet of the border and emigrant
Chinese is hardly apparent, these warehouses have opened up a new source
of revenue, which has met with instant response. Thousands and tens of
thousands of wild shot or trapped pheasants and other birds are now
brought to these establishments by the natives from far and near. The
birds are frozen, and twice a year shipped on specially refrigerated P.
and O. steamships to England and the continent of Europe where they seem
to find a ready sale. Pigs and chickens also figure in the shipments.
Now the pheasants have for centuries existed in enormous numbers in the
endless ricefields of China, without doing any damage to the crops. In
fact they could not be present in such numbers without being an
important factor in keeping down insect and other enemies of the grain.
When their numbers are decimated as they are being at present, there
must eventually result a serious upsetting of the balance of nature. Let
us hope that in some way this may be avoided, and that the present
famine deaths of thirty thousand or more in some provinces will not be
increased many fold.
When I started on this search for pheasants I was repeatedly told by old
explorers in the east that my task would be very different from theirs
of thirty years ago; that I would find steamers, railroads and
automobiles where formerly were only canoes and jungle. I indeed found
this as reported, but while my task was different it was made no easier.
Formerly, to be sure, one had from the start to paddle slowly or push
along the trails made by natives or game animals. But then the wild life
was encountered at once, while I found it always far from the end of the
steamer's route or the railroad's terminal, and still to be reached only
by the most primitive modes of travel.
I cite this to give point to my next great cause of destruction; the
burning and clearing of vast stretches of country for the planting of
rubber trees. The East seems rubber mad, and whether the enormous output
which will result from the millions of trees set out month after month
will be profitable, I cannot say. I can think only of the vanishing of
the _entire fauna_ and _flora_ of many districts which I have seen as a
direct result of this commercial activity. One leaves Port Swettenham on
the west coast of Selangor, and for the hour's run to Kuala Lumpur sees
hardly anything but vast radiating lines of spindling rubber trees, all
underbrush cleared, all native growths vanished. From Kuala Lumpur to
Kuala Kubu at the very foot of the mountain backbone of the Malay
Peninsula, the same holds true. And where some area appears not under
cultivation, the climbing fern and a coarse, useless "lalang" grass
covers every inch of ground. One can hardly imagine a more complete
blotting out of the native fauna and flora of any one limited region.
And ever-extending roads for the increasing motor cars are widening the
cleared zone, mile after mile to the north and south.
In this region, as we pushed on over the mountains into the wilderness
of Pahang, we saw little of the actual destruction of the primeval
native growth, but elsewhere it became a common sight. Once, for many
days we studied the wonderful life of a jungle which stretched up to our
very camp. Troops of rollicking wa-was or gibbons frequented the forest;
squirrels, tupaias, birds and insects in myriads were everywhere during
the day. Great fruit-bats, flying lemurs, owls and other nocturnal
creatures made the evenings and nights full of interest.
And then, one day without warning came the sound of an ax, and another
and another. From that moment the songs, cries, chirps and roars of the
jungle were seldom heard from our camp. Every day saw new phalanxes of
splendid primeval trees fallen, or half suspended in their rigging of
lianas. The leaves withered, the flower petals fell and we heard no more
the crackling of bamboos in the wind. Then the pitiful survivors of the
destruction were brought to us; now a baby flying lemur, flung from its
hole by the falling of some tree; young tupaias, nestling birds; a few
out of the thousands of creatures from insects to mammals which were
slain so that a Chinaman or Malay might eke a few dollars, four or five
years hence, from a grove of rubber trees. I do not say it is wrong. Man
has won out, and might is right, as since the dawn of creation; but to
the onlooker, to the lover of nature and the animal world it is a
terrible, a hopeless thing.
One cannot at present leave the tourist line of travel in the East
without at once encountering evidence of the wholesale direct slaughter
of wild life, or its no less certain extermination by the elimination of
the haunts and the food plants of the various beasts and birds.
* * * * *
CHAPTER XXI
THE SAVAGE VIEW-POINT OF THE GUNNER
The mental attitude of the men who shoot constitutes a deadly factor in
the destruction of wild life and the extermination of species. Fully
ninety-five per cent of the sportsmen, gunners and other men and boys
who kill game, all over the world and in all nations, regard game birds
and mammals only as things to be killed _and eaten_, and not as
creatures worth preserving for their beauty or their interest to
mankind. This is precisely the viewpoint of the cave-man and the savage,
and it has come down from the Man-with-a-Club to the Man-with-a-Gun
absolutely unchanged save for one thing: the latter sometimes is
prompted to save to-day in order to slaughter to-morrow.
The above statement of an existing fact may seem harsh; and some persons
may be startled by it; but it is based on an acquaintance with thousands
of men who shoot all kinds of game, all over the world. My critics
surely will admit that my opportunities to meet the sportsmen and
gunners of the world are, and for thirty-five years have been, rather
favorable. As a matter of fact, I think the efforts of the hunters of my
personal acquaintance have covered about seven-tenths of the hunting
grounds of the world. If the estimate that I have formed of the average
hunter's viewpoint is wrong, or even partially so, I will be glad to
have it proven in order that I may reform my judgment and apologize.
In working with large bodies of bird-shooting sportsmen I have
steadily--and also painfully--been impressed by their intentness on.
killing, and by the fact that _they seek to preserve game only to kill
it!_ Who ever saw a bird-shooter rise in a convention and advocate the
preservation of any species of game bird on account of its beauty or its
esthetic interest _alive?_ I never did; and I have sat in many
conventions of sportsmen. All the talk is of open seasons, bag limits
and killing rights. The man who has the hardihood to stand up and
propose a five-year close season has "a hard row to hoe." Men rise and
say: "It's all nonsense! There's plenty of quail shooting on Long Island
yet."
Throughout the length and breadth of America, the ruling passion is to
kill as long as anything killable remains. The man who will openly
advocate the stopping of quail-shooting because the quails are of such
great value to the farmers, or because they are so _beautiful_ and
companionable to man, receives no sympathy from ninety per cent of the
bird-killing sportsmen. The remaining ten per cent think seriously about
the matter, and favor long close seasons. It is my impression that of
the men who shoot, it is only among the big-game hunters that we find
much genuine admiration for game animals, or any feeling remotely
resembling regard for it.
The moment that a majority of American gunners concede the fact that
game birds are worth preserving for their beauty, and their value as
living neighbors to man, from that moment there is hope for the saving
of the Remnant. That will indeed be the beginning of a new era, of a
millennium in fact, in the preservation of wild life. It will then be
easy to enact laws for ten-year close seasons on whole groups of
species. Think what it would mean for such a close season to be enacted
for all the grouse of the United States, all the shore-birds of the
United States, or the wild turkey wherever found!
To-day, the great--indeed, the _only_--opponents of long close seasons
on game birds are the gunners. Whenever and wherever you introduce a
bill to provide such a season, you will find that this is true. The gun
clubs and the Downtrodden Hunters' and Anglers' Protective Associations
will be quick to go after their representatives, and oppose the bill.
And state senators and assemblymen will think very hard and with strong
courage before they deliberately resolve to do their duty regardless of
the opposition of "a large body of sportsmen,"--men who have votes, and
who know how to take revenge on lawmakers who deprive them of their
"right" to kill. The greatest speech ever made in the Mexican Congress
was uttered by the member who solemnly said: "I rise to sacrifice
ambition to honor!"
Unfortunately, the men who shoot have become possessed of the idea that
they have certain inherent, God-given "rights" to kill game! Now, as a
matter of fact, a sportsman with a one-hundred-dollar Fox gun in his
hands, a two-hundred-dollar dog at his heels and five one-hundred-dollar
bills in his pocket has no more "right" to kill a covey of quail on Long
Island than my milkman has to elect that it shall be let alone for the
pleasure of his children! The time has come when the people who don't
shoot must do one of two things:
1. They must demonstrate the fact that they have rights in the wild
creatures, and demand their recognition, or
2. See the killable game all swept off the continent by the Army of
Destruction.
Really, it is to me very strange that gunners never care to save game
birds on account of their beauty. One living bob white on a fence is
better than a score in a bloody game-bag. A live squirrel in a tree is
poetry in motion; but on the table a squirrel is a rodent that tastes as
a rat smells. Beside the ocean a flock of sandpipers is needed to
complete the beautiful picture; but on the table a sandpiper is beneath
contempt. A live deer trotting over a green meadow, waving a triangular
white flag, is a sight to thrill any human ganglion; but a deer lying
dead,--unless it has an exceptionally fine head,--is only so much
butcher's meat.
One of the finest sights I ever saw in Montana was a big flock of sage
grouse slowly stalking over a grassy flat thinly sprinkled with
sage-brush. It was far more inspiring than any pile of dead birds that I
ever saw. I remember scores of beautiful game birds that I have seen and
not killed; but of all the game birds that I have eaten or tried to eat
in New York, I remember with sincere pleasure only _one_. Some of the
ancient cold-storage candidates I remember "for cause," as the lawyers
say.
[Illustration: ONE MORNING'S CATCH OF TROUT, NEAR SPOKANE
Another Line of Extermination According to law. Three Times too Many
Fish for one rod. In those Cold Mountain Streams, Fish Grow Slowly, and
a Stream is Quickly "Fished out"]
Sportsmen and gunners, for God's sake elevate your viewpoint of the
game of the world. Get out of the groove in which man has run ever since
the days of Adam! There is something in a game bird over and above its
pound of flesh. You don't "need" the meat any longer; for you don't know
what hunger is, save by reading of it. Try the field-glass and the
camera, instead of the everlasting gun. Any fool can take a five-dollar
gun and kill a bird; but it takes a genius to photograph one wild bird
and get "a good one." As hunters, the camera men have the best of it.
One good live-bird photograph is more of a trophy and a triumph than a
bushel of dead birds. The birds and mammals now are literally dying for
_your_ help in the making of long close seasons, and in the real
stoppage of slaughter. Can you not hear the call of the wild remnant?
It is time for the people who don't shoot to call a halt on those who
do; "and if this be treason, then let my enemies make the most of it!"
Since the above was written, I have read in the _Outdoor World_ for
April, 1912, the views of a veteran sportsman and writer, Mr. Emerson
Hough, on the wild-life situation as it seems to him to-day. It is a
strong utterance, even though it reaches a pessimistic and gloomy
conclusion which I do not share. Altogether, however, its breadth of
view, its general accuracy, and its incisiveness, entitle it to a full
hearing. The following is only an extract from a lengthy article
entitled, "God's Acre:"
* * * * *
EMERSON HOUGH'S VIEW OF THE SITUATION
The truth is none the less the truth because it is unpleasant to
face. There is no well posted sportsman in America, no manufacturer
of sporting goods in America, no man well versed in American outdoor
matters, who does not know that we are at the evening of the day of
open sport in America. Our old ways have failed, all of them have
failed. The declining fortunes of the best sportsman's journals of
America would prove that, if proof were asked. Our sportsmanship has
failed. Our game laws have failed, and we know they have failed. Our
game is almost gone, and we know it is almost gone. America has
changed and we know that it has changed, although we have not
changed with it. The old America is done and it is gone, and we know
that to be the truth. The old order passeth, and we know that the
new order must come soon if it is to work any salvation for our wild
game and our life in the open in pursuit of it.
There are many reasons for this fact, these facts. Perhaps the
greatest lies in the steady advance of civilization into the
wilderness, the usurpation for agricultural or industrial use of
many of the ancient breeding and feeding places of the wild game.
All over the West and now all over Canada, the plow advances, that
one engine which cannot be gainsaid, which never turns a backward
furrow.
Another great agency is the rapid perfection of transportation all
over the world. Take the late influx of East African literature. If
there really were not access to that country we would not have this
literature, would not have so many pictures from that country. And
if even Africa will soon be overrun, if even Africa soon will be
shot out, what hope is there for the game of the wholly accessible
North American continent?
It is all too easy now for the slaughterer to get to his work, all
too easy for him to transport the fruits of the slaughter. At the
hands of the ignorant, the unscrupulous and the unsparing, our game
has steadily disappeared until it is almost gone. We have handled it
in a wholly greedy, unscrupulous and selfish fashion. This has been
our policy as a nation. If there is to be success for any plan to
remedy this, it must come from a few large-minded men, able to think
and plan, and able to do more than that--to follow their plans with
deeds.
I have seen the whole story of modern American sportsmanship, so
called. It has been class legislation and organized
selfishness--that is what it has been, and nothing else. I do not
blame country legislators, game dealers, farmers, for calling the
sportsmen of America selfish and thoughtless. I do not blame them
for saying that the so-called protective measures advanced by
sportsmen have been selfish measures, and looking to destruction
rather than to protection. At least that has been their actual
result. I have no more reverence for a sportsman than for anyone
else, and no reverence for him at all because he is or calls himself
a sportsman. He has got to be a man. He has got to be a citizen.
I have seen millions of acres of breeding and feeding grounds pass
under the drain and under the plow in my own time, so that the
passing whisper of the wild fowl's wing has been forgotten there now
for many years. I have seen a half dozen species of fine game birds
become extinct in my own time and lost forever to the American
people.
And you and I have seen one protective society after another,
languidly organized, paying in a languid dollar or so per capita
each year, and so swiftly passing, also to be forgotten. We have
seen one code and the other of conflicting and wholly selfish game
laws passed, and seen them mocked at and forgotten, seen them all
fail, as we all know.
We have seen even the nation's power--under that Ark of the Covenant
known as the Interstate Commerce Act--fail to stop wholly the
lessening of our wild game, so rapidly disappearing for so many
reasons.
We have seen both selfish and unselfish sportsmen's journals attempt
to solve this problem and fail to do so. Some of them were great and
broad-minded journals. Their record has not been one of disgrace,
although it has been one of defeat; for some of them really desired
success more than they desired dividends. These, all of them, bore
their share of a great experiment, an experiment in a new land,
under a new theory of government, a theory which says a man should
be able to restrain himself, and to govern himself. Only by
following their theory through to the end of that experiment could
they know that it was to fail in one of its most vitally interesting
and vitally important phases.
But now, as we know, all of these agencies, selfish or unselfish,
have failed to effect the salvation of American wild game. Not by
any scheme, device, or theory, not by any panacea can the old days
of America be brought back to us.
* * * * *
Mr. Hough's views are entitled to respectful consideration; but on one
vital point I do not follow him.
I believe most sincerely--in fact, _I know_,--that it is _possible_ to
make a few new laws which, in addition to the many, many good protective
laws we already have, will bring back the game, just as fast and as far
as man's settlements, towns, railroads, mines and schemes in general
ever can permit it to come back.
If the American People as a whole elect that our wild life shall be
saved, and to a reasonable extent brought back, then by the Eternal it
will be saved and brought back! The road lies straight before us, and
the going is easy--_if_ the Mass makes up its mind to act. But on one
vital point Mr. Hough is right. The sportsman alone never will save the
game! The people who do not kill must act, independently.
* * * * *
PART II.--PRESERVATION
CHAPTER XXII
OUR ANNUAL LOSSES BY INSECTS
"You take my life when you do take the means whereby I live."
"In no country in the world," says Mr. C.L. Marlatt, of the U.S.
Department of Agriculture, "do insects impose a heavier tax on farm
products than in the United States." These attacks are based upon an
enormous and varied annual output of cereals and fruits, and a great
variety and number of trees. For every vegetable-eating insect, native
and foreign, we seem to have crops, trees and plant food galore; and
their ravages rob the market-basket and the dinner-pail. In 1912 there
were riots in the streets of New York over the high cost of food.
In 1903, this state of fact was made the subject of a special inquiry by
the Department of Agriculture, and in the "Yearbook" for 1904, the
reader will find, on page 461, an article entitled, "The Annual Loss
Occasioned by Destructive Insects in the United States." The article is
not of the sensational type, it was not written in an alarmist spirit,
but from beginning to end it is a calm, cold-blooded analysis of
existing facts, and the conclusions that fairly may be drawn from them.
The opinions of several experts have been considered and quoted, and
often their independent figures are stated.
With the disappearance of our birds generally, and especially the
slaughter of song and other insect-eating birds both in the South and
North, the destruction of the national wealth by insects forges to the
front as a subject of vital importance. The logic of the situation is so
simple a child can see it. Short crops mean higher prices. If ten per
cent of our vegetable food supply is destroyed by insects, as certain as
fate we will feel it _in the increased cost of living_.
I would like to place Mr. Marlatt's report in the hands of every man,
boy and school-teacher in America; but I have not at my disposal the
means to accomplish such a task. I cannot even print it here in full,
but the vital facts can be stated, briefly and in plain figures.
* * * * *
CROPS AND INSECTS.
CORN.--The principal insect enemies of corn are the chinch bug,
corn-root worm (_Diabrotica longicornis_), bill bug, wire worm,
boll-worm or ear-worm, cut-worm, army worm, stalk worm, grasshopper,
and plant lice, in all a total of about fifty important species! Several
of these pests work secretly. At husking time the wretched ear-worm that
ruins the terminal quarter or fifth of an immense number of ears, is
painfully in evidence. The root-worms work insidiously, and the moles
and shrews are supposed to attack them and destroy them. The corn-root
worm is charged with causing an annual loss of two per cent of the corn
crop, or $20,000,000; the chinch bug another two per cent; the boll or
ear-worm two per cent more. The remaining insect pests are charged with
two per cent, which makes eight per cent in all, or a total of
$80,000,000 lost each year to the American farmer through the ravages of
insects. This is not evenly distributed, but some areas suffer more than
others.
[Illustration: THE CUT-WORM, (_Peridroma Sancia_)
Very Destructive to Crops]
WHEAT.--Of all our cereal crops, wheat is the one that suffers most from
insects. There are three insects that cause to the wheat industry an
annual loss of about ten per cent. The _chinch bug_ is the worst, and it
is charged with five per cent ($20,000,000) of the total loss. The
_Hessian fly_ comes next in order, and occasionally rolls up enormous
losses. In the year 1900, that insect caused to Indiana and Ohio alone
the loss of 2,577,000 _acres_ of wheat, and the total cost to us of that
insect in that year "undoubtedly approached $100,000,000." Did that
affect the price of wheat or not? If not, then there is no such thing as
a "law of supply and demand."
_Wheat plant-lice_ form collectively the third insect pest destructive
to wheat, of which it is reported that "the annual loss occasioned by
wheat plant-lice probably does not fall short of two or three per cent
of the crop."
HAY AND FORAGE CROPS.--These are attacked by locusts, grasshoppers, army
worms, cut-worms, web worms, small grass worms and leaf hoppers. Some of
these pests are so small and work so insidiously that even the farmer is
prone to overlook their existence. "A ten per cent shrinkage from these
and other pests in grasses and forage plants is a minimum estimate."
COTTON.--The great enemies of the cotton-planter are the cotton boll
weevil, the bollworm and the leaf worm; but other insects inflict
serious damage. In 1904 the loss occasioned by the boll weevil, chiefly
in Texas, was conservatively estimated by an expert, Mr. W.D. Hunter, at
$20,000,000. The boll worm of the southwestern cotton states has
sometimes caused an annual loss of $12,000,000, or four per cent of the
crops in the states affected. Before the use of arsenical poisons, the
leaf worm caused an annual loss of from twenty to thirty million
dollars; but of late years that total has been greatly reduced.
FRUITS.--The insects that reduce our annual fruit crop attack every
portion of the tree and its product. The woolly aphis attacks the roots
of the fruit tree, the trunk and limbs are preyed upon by millions of
scale insects and borers, the leaves are devastated by the all-devouring
leaf worms, canker worms and tent caterpillars, while the fruit itself
is attacked by the codling moth, curculio and apple maggot. To destroy
fruit is to take money out of the farmer's pocket, and to attack and
injure the tree is like undermining his house itself. By an annual
expenditure of about $8,250,000 in cash for spraying apple trees, the
destructiveness of the codling moth and curculio have been greatly
reduced, but that money is itself a cash loss. Add to this the
$12,000,000 of actual shrinkage in the apple crop, and the total annual
loss to our apple-growers due to the codling moth and curculio is about
$20,000,000. In the high price of apples, a part of this loss falls upon
the consumer.
In 1889 Professor Forbes calculated that the annual loss to the
fruit-growers of Illinois from insect ravages was $2,375,000. In 1892,
insects caused to Nebraska apple-growers a loss computed at $2,000,000
and, in 1897, New York farmers lost $2,500,000 from that cause. "In many
sections of the Pacific Northwest the loss was from fifty to
seventy-five per cent." (Yearbook, page 470.)
FORESTS.--"The annual losses occasioned by insect pests to forests and
forest products (in the United States) have been estimated by Dr. A.D.
Hopkins, special agent in charge of forest insect investigations, at not
less than $100,000,000.... It covers both the loss from insect
damages to standing timber, and to the crude and manufactured forest
products. The annual loss to growing timber is conservatively placed at
$70,000,000."
[Illustration: THE GYPSY MOTH, (_Portheria dispar_)
Very Destructive to the Finest Shade Trees]
There are other insect damages that we will not pause to enumerate
here. They relate to cattle, horses, sheep and stored grain products of
many kinds. Even cured tobacco has its pest, a minute insect known as
the cigarette beetle, now widespread in America and "frequently the
cause of very heavy losses."
The millions of the insect world are upon us. Their cost to us has been
summed up by Mr. Marlatt in the table that appears below.
* * * * *
ANNUAL VALUES OF FARM PRODUCTS, AND LOSSES CHARGEABLE
TO INSECT PESTS.
_Official Report in the Yearbook of the Department of Agriculture,
1904_.
% OF
PRODUCT VALUE LOSS AMOUNT OF LOSS
Cereals $2,000,000,000 10 $200,000,000
Hay 530,000,000 10 53,000,000
Cotton 600,000,000 10 60,000,000
Tobacco 53,000,000 10 5,300,000
Truck Crops 265,000,000 20 53,000,000
Sugars 50,000,000 10 5,000,000
Fruits 135,000,000 20 27,000,000
Farm Forests 110,000,000 10 11,000,000
Miscellaneous Crops 58,000,000 10 5,800,000
Total $3,801,000,000 $420,100,000
Animal Products 1,750,000,000 10 175,000,000
Natural Forests and 100,000,000
Forest Products
Products in Storage 100,000,000
GRAND TOTAL $5,551,000,000 $795,100,000
The millions of the insect world are upon us. The birds fight them for
us, and when the birds are numerous and have nestlings to feed, the
number of insects they consume is enormous. They require absolutely
nothing at our hands save _the privilege of being let alone while they
work for us!_ In fighting the insects, our only allies in nature are the
songbirds, woodpeckers, shore-birds, swallows and martins, certain
hawks, moles, shrews, bats, and a few other living creatures. All these
wage war at their own expense. The farmers might just as well lose
$8,250,000 through a short apple crop as to pay out that sum in labor
and materials in spraying operations. And yet, fools that we are, we go
on slaughtering our friends, and allowing others to slaughter them,
under the same brand of fatuous folly that leads the people of Italy to
build anew on the smoking sides of Vesuvius, after a dozen generations
have been swept away by fire and ashes.
In the next chapter we will consider the work of our friends, The Birds.
* * * * *
CHAPTER XXIII.
THE ECONOMIC VALUE OF BIRDS
To-day, from Halifax to Los Angeles, and from Key West to Victoria, a
deadly contest is being waged. The fruit-growers, farmers, forest owners
and "park people" are engaged in a struggle with the insect hordes for
the possession of the trees, shrubs and crops. Go out into the open,
with your eyes open, and you will see it for yourself. Millions of
dollars are being expended in it. Look at this exhibit of what is going
on around me, at this very moment,--July 19, 1912:
The bag insects, in thousands, are devouring the leaves of locust and
maple trees.
The elm beetles are trying to devour the elms; and spraying is in
progress.
The hickory-bark borers are slaughtering the hickories; and even some
park people are neglecting to take the measures necessary to stop it!
The tent caterpillars are being burned.
The aphis (scale insects) are devouring the tops of the _white potatoes_
in the New York University school garden, just as the potato beetle
does.
The codling moth larvae are already at work on the apples.
The leaves affected by the witch hazel gall fly are being cut off and
burned.
These are merely the most conspicuous of the insect pests that I now see
daily. I am not counting those of second or third-rate importance.
Some of these hordes are being fought with poisonous sprays, some are
being killed by hand, and some are being ignored.
In view of the known value of the remaining trees of our country, each
woodpecker in the United States is worth twenty dollars in cash. Each
nuthatch, creeper and chickadee is worth from five to ten dollars,
according to local circumstances. You might just as well cut down four
twenty-inch trees and let them lie and decay, as to permit one
woodpecker to be killed and eaten by an Italian in the North, or a negro
in the South. The downy woodpecker is the relentless enemy of the
codling moth, an insect that annually inflicts upon our apple crop
damages estimated by the experts of the U.S. Department of Agriculture
at twelve million dollars!
Now, is a federal strong-arm migratory bird law needed for such birds or
not? Let the owners of orchards and forests make answer.
THE CASE OF THE CODLING MOTH AND CURCULIO.--The codling moth and
curculio are twin terrors to apple-growers, partly because of their
deadly destructiveness, and partly because man is so weak in resisting
them. The annual cost of the fight made against them, in sprays and
labor and apparatus, has been estimated at $8,250,000. And what do the
birds do to the codling moth,--when there are any birds left alive to
operate? The testimony comes from all over the United States, and it is
worth while to cite it briefly as a fair sample of the work of the birds
upon this particularly deadly pest. These facts and quotations are from
the "Yearbook of the Department of Agriculture," for 1911.
[Illustration: DOWNY WOODPECKER]
_The Downy Woodpecker_ is the champion tree-protector, and also one of
the greatest enemies of the codling moth. When man is quite unable to
find the hidden larvae, Downy locates it every time, and digs it out. It
extracts worms from young apples so skillfully that often the fruit is
not permanently injured. Mr. F.M. Webster reports that the labors of
this bird "afford actual and immediate relief to the infected fruit."
Testimony in favor of the downy woodpecker has come from New York, New
Jersey, Texas and California, "and no fewer than twenty larvae have been
taken from a single stomach."
Take the _Red-Shafted Flicker_ vs. the codling moth. Mr. A.P. Martin of
Petaluma, Cal., states that during the early spring months (of 1890)
they were seen by hundreds in his orchard, industriously examining the
trunks and larger limbs of the fruit trees; and he also found great
numbers of them around sheds where he stored his winter apples and
pears. As the result of several hours' search, Mr. Martin found only one
worm, and this one escaped only by accident, for several of the birds
had been within a quarter of an inch of it. "So eager are woodpeckers in
search, of codling moths that they have often been known to riddle the
shingle traps and paper bands which are placed to attract the larvae
about to spin cocoons."
Behold the array of birds that devour the larvae of the codling moth to
an important extent.
* * * * *
BIRDS THAT DEVOUR THE CODLING MOTH
Downy Woodpecker (_Dryobates pubescens_).
Hairy Woodpecker (_Dryobates villosus_).
Texan Woodpecker (_Dryobates scalaris bairdi_).
Red-Headed Woodpecker (_Melanerpes erythrocephalus_).
Red-Shafted Flicker (_Colaptes cafer collaris_).
Pileated Woodpecker (_Phloeotomus pileatus_).
Kingbird (_Tyrranus tyrranus_).
Western Yellow-Bellied Flycatcher (_Empidonax difficilis_).
Blue Jay (_Cyanocitta cristata_).
California Jay (_Aphelocoma californica_).
Magpie (_Pica pica hudsonia_).
Crow Blackbird (_Quiscalus quiscula_).
Brewer Blackbird (_Euphagus cyanocephalus_).
Bullock Oriole (_Icterus bullocki_).
English Sparrow (_Passer domesticus_).
Chipping Sparrow (_Spizella passerina_).
California Towhee (_Pipilo crissalis_).
Cardinal (_Cardinalis cardinalis_).
Black Headed Grosbeak (_Zamelodia melanocephala_).
Lazuli Bunting (_Passerina cyanea_).
Barn Swallow (_Hirundo erythrogastra_).
Western Warbling Vireo (_Vireosylva gilva swainsoni_).
Summer, or Yellow Warbler (_Dendroica aestiva_).
Lutescent Warbler (_Vermivora celata lutescens_).
Brown Creeper (_Certhia familiaris americana_).
White-Breasted Nuthatch (_Sitta carolinensis_).
Black-Capped Chickadee (_Penthestes atricapillus_).
Plain Titmouse (_Baeolophus inornatus_).
Carolina Chickadee (_Penthestes carolinensis_).
Mountain Chickadee (_Penthestes gambeli_).
California Bush Tit (_Psaltriparus minimus californicus_).
Ruby-Crowned Kinglet (_Regulus calendula_).
Robin (_Planesticus migratorius_).
Bluebird (_Sialia sialis_).
* * * * *
In all, says Mr. W.L. McAtee, thirty-six species of birds of thirteen
families help man in his irrepressible conflict against his deadly
enemy, the codling moth. "In some places they destroy from sixty-six to
eighty-five per cent of the hibernating larvae."
Now, are the farmers of this country content to let the Italians of the
North, and the negroes of the South, shoot those birds for food, and
devour them? What is the great American farmer going to _do_ about this
matter? What he should do is to write and urge his members of Congress
to work for and vote for the federal migratory bird bill.
THE COTTON BOLL WEEVIL.--Let us take one other concrete case. The cotton
boll weevil invaded the United States from Mexico in 1894. Ten years
later it was costing the cotton planters an annual loss estimated at
fifteen million dollars per year. Later on that loss was estimated at
twenty million dollars. The cotton boll weevil strikes at the heart of
the industry by destroying the boll of the cotton plant. While the total
loss never can be definitely ascertained, we know that it has amounted
to many millions of dollars. The figure given above has been widely
quoted, and so far as I am aware, never disputed.
Fortunately we have at hand a government publication on this subject
which gives some pertinent facts regarding the bird enemies of the
cotton boll weevil. It is Circular No. 57 of the Biological Survey,
Department of Agriculture. Any one can obtain it by addressing that
Department. I quote the most important portions of this valuable
document:
* * * * *
BIRDS USEFUL IN THE WAR AGAINST THE COTTON BOLL WEEVIL.
By H.W. Henshaw, Chief of the Biological Survey.
The main purpose of this circular is to direct the attention of cotton
growers and others in the cotton growing states to the importance of
birds in the boll weevil war, to emphasize the need of protection for
them, and to suggest means to increase the numbers and extend the range
of certain of the more important kinds.
Investigations by the Biological Survey show that thirty-eight species
of birds eat boll weevils. While some eat them only sparingly others eat
them freely, and no fewer than forty-seven adult weevils have been found
in the stomach of a single cliff swallow. Of the birds known at the
present time to feed on the weevil, among the most important are the
orioles, nighthawks, and, foremost of all, the swallows (including the
purple martin).
ORIOLES.--Six kinds of orioles live in Texas, though but two inhabit the
southern states generally. Orioles are among the few birds that evince a
decided preference for weevils, and as they persistently hunt for the
insects on the bolls, they fill a place occupied by no other birds. They
are protected by law in nearly every state in the Union, but their
bright plumage renders them among the most salable of birds for
millinery purposes, and despite protective laws, considerable numbers
are still killed for the hat trade. It is hardly necessary to point out
that their importance as insect eaters everywhere demands their
protection, but more especially in the cotton belt.
NIGHTHAWK.--The nighthawk, or bull-bat, also renders important service
in the destruction of weevils, and catches them on the wing in
considerable numbers, especially during its migration. Unfortunately,
_the nighthawk is eaten for food in some sections of the South, and
considerable numbers are shot for this purpose_. The bird's value for
food, however, is infinitesimal as compared with the service it renders
the cotton grower and other agriculturists, and every effort should be
made to spread broadcast a knowledge of its usefulness as a weevil
destroyer, with a view to its complete protection.
SWALLOWS.--Of all the birds now known to destroy weevils, swallows are
the most important. Six species occur in Texas and the southern states.
The martin, the barn swallow, the bank swallow, the roughwing, and the
cliff swallow breed locally in Texas, and all of them, except the cliff
swallow, breed in the other cotton states. The white-bellied, or tree
swallow, nests only in the North, and by far the greater number of cliff
swallows nest in the North and West.
[Illustration: THE BALTIMORE ORIOLE
The Deadly Enemy of the Cotton-Boll Weevil
From the "American Natural History"]
As showing how a colony of martins thrives when provided with sufficient
room to multiply, an experiment by Mr. J. Warren Jacobs, of Waynesburg,
Pa., may be cited. The first year five pairs were induced to occupy the
single box provided, and raised eleven young. The fourth year three
large boxes, divided into ninety-nine rooms, contained fifty-three
pairs, and they raised about 175 young. The colony was thus nearly three
hundred strong at the close of the fourth season. The effect of this
number of hungry martins on the insects infesting the neighborhood may
be imagined.
From the standpoint of the farmer and the cotton grower, swallows are
among the most useful birds. Especially designed by nature to capture
insects in midair, their powers of flight and endurance are unexcelled,
and in their own field they have no competitors. Their peculiar value to
the cotton grower consists in the fact that, like the nighthawk, they
capture boll weevils when flying over the fields, which no other birds
do. Flycatchers snap up the weevils near trees and shrubbery. Wrens hunt
them out when concealed under bark or rubbish. Blackbirds catch them on
the ground, as do the killdeer, titlark, meadow lark, and others; while
orioles hunt for them on the bolls. But it is the peculiar function of
swallows to catch the weevils as they are making long flights, leaving
the cotton fields in search of hiding places in which to winter or
entering them to continue their work of devastation.
Means have been taken to inform residents of the northern states of the
value of the swallow tribe to agriculturists generally, and particularly
to cotton planters, in the belief that the number of swallows breeding
in the North can be substantially increased. The cooperation of the
northern states is important, since birds bred in the North migrate
directly through the southern states in the fall on their way to the
distant tropics, and also in the spring on their return.
[Illustration: THE NIGHTHAWK
A Goatsucker, not a Song-bird; but it Feeds Exclusively Upon Insects]
Important as it is to increase the number of northern breeding swallows,
it is still more important to increase the number nesting in the South
and to induce the birds there to extend their range over as much of the
cotton area as possible. Nesting birds spend much more time in the South
than migrants, and during the weeks when the old birds are feeding young
they are almost incessantly engaged in the pursuit of insects.
It is not, of course, claimed that birds alone can stay the ravages of
the cotton boll weevil in Texas, but they materially aid in checking the
advance of the pest into the other cotton states. Important auxiliaries,
in destroying these insects, birds aid in reducing their numbers within
safe limits, and once within safe limits in keeping them there. Hence it
is for the interests of the cotton states that special efforts be made
to protect and care for the weevil-eating species, and to increase their
numbers in every way possible.--(End of the circular.)
* * * * *
CONDENSED NOTES ON THE FOOD HABITS OF CERTAIN NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS.
Millions of Americans and near-Americans, both old and young, now need
to be shown the actual figures that represent the value of our birds as
destroyers of the insects, weeds and the small rodents that are swarming
to overrun and devour our fields, orchards and forests. Will our people
never learn that in fighting pests the birds are worth ten times more to
men than all the poisons, sprays and traps that ever were invented or
used?
We cannot spray our forests; and if the wild birds do not protect, them
from insects, _nothing will_! If you will watch a warbler collecting the
insects out of the top of a seventy-foot forest oak, busy as a bee hour
after hour, it will convince you that the birds do for the forests that
which man with all his resources cannot accomplish. You will then
realize that to this country every woodpecker, chickadee, titmouse,
creeper and warbler is easily worth its weight in gold. The killing of
any member of those groups of birds should be punished by a fine of
twenty-five dollars.
[Illustration: THE PURPLE MARTIN
A Representative of the Swallow Family. A Great Insect-eater;
one of the Most Valuable of all Birds to the Southern Cotton
planter, and Northern farmer. Shot for "Food" in the South.
Driven out of the North by the English Sparrow Pest.]
THE BOB-WHITE.--And take the _Bob White Quail_, for example, and the
weeds of the farm. To kill weeds costs money--hard cash that the farmer
earns by toil. Does the farmer put forth strenuous efforts to protect
the bird of all birds that does most to help him keep down the weeds?
Far from it! All that the _average_ farmer thinks about the quail is of
killing it, for a few ounces of meat on the table.
It is fairly beyond question that of all birds that influence the
fortunes of the farmers and fruit-growers of North America, the common
quail, or bob white, is one of the most valuable. It stays on the farm
all the year round. When insects are most numerous and busy, Bob White
devotes to them his entire time. He cheerfully fights them, from sixteen
to eighteen hours per day. When the insects are gone, he turns his
attention to the weeds that are striving to seed down the fields for
another year. Occasionally he gets a few grains of wheat that have been
left on the ground by the reapers; but he does _no damage_. In
California, where the valley quail once were very numerous, they
sometimes consumed altogether too much wheat for the good of the
farmers; but outside of California I believe such occurrences are
unknown.
Let us glance over the bob white's bill of fare:
_Weed Seeds_.--One hundred and twenty-nine different weeds have been
found to contribute to the quail's bill of fare. Crops and stomachs have
been found crowded with rag-weed seeds, to the number of one thousand,
while others had eaten as many seeds of crab-grass. A bird shot at Pine
Brook, N.J., in October, 1902, had eaten five thousand seeds of green
fox-tail grass, and one killed on Christmas Day at Kinsale, Va., had
taken about ten thousand seeds of the pig-weed. (Elizabeth A. Reed.) In
Bulletin No. 21, Biological Survey, it is calculated that if in Virginia
and North Carolina there are four bob whites to every square mile, and
each bird consumes one ounce of seed per day, the total destruction to
weed seeds from September 1st to April 30th in those states alone will
be 1,341 tons.
In 1910 Mrs. Margaret Morse Nice, of Clark University, Worcester, Mass.,
finished and contributed to the Journal of Economic Entomology (Vol.
III., No. 3) a masterful investigation of "The Food of the Bob-White."
It should be in every library in this land. Mrs. Nice publishes the
entire list of 129 species of weed seeds consumed by the quail,--and it
looks like a rogue's gallery. Here is an astounding record, which proves
once more that truth is stranger than fiction:
* * * * *
NUMBER OF SEEDS EATEN BY A BOB-WHITE IN ONE DAY
Barnyard grass 2,500 Milkweed 770
Beggar ticks 1,400 Peppergrass 2,400
Black mustard 2,500 Pigweed 12,000
Burdock 600 Plantain 12,500
Crab grass 2,000 Rabbitsfoot clover 30,000
Curled dock 4,175 Round-headed bush clover 1,800
Dodder 1,560 Smartweed 2,250
Evening primrose 10,000 White vervain 18,750
Lamb's quarter 15,000 Water smartweed 2,000
NOTABLY BAD INSECTS EATEN BY THE BOB-WHITE
(Prof. Judd and Mrs. Nice.)
Colorado potato beetle
Cucumber beetle
Chinch bug
Bean-leaf beetle
Wireworm
May beetle
Corn billbug
Imbricated-snout beetle
Plant lice
Cabbage butterfly
Mosquito
Squash beetle
Clover leaf beetle
Cotton boll weevil
Cotton boll worm
Striped garden caterpillar
Cutworms
Grasshoppers
Corn-louse ants
Rocky Mountain locust
Codling moth
Canker worm
Hessian fly
Stable fly
SUMMARY OF THE QUAIL'S INSECT FOOD
Orthoptera--Grasshoppers and locusts 13 species.
Hemiptera--Bugs 24 "
Homoptera--Leaf hoppers and plant lice 6 "
Lepidoptera--Moths, caterpillars, cut-worms, etc 19 "
Diptera--Flies 8 "
Coleoptera--Beetles 61 "
Hymenoptera--Ants, wasps, slugs 8 "
Other insects 6 "
---
Total 145 "
* * * * *
[Illustration: THE BOB-WHITE
For the Smaller Pests of the Farm, This Bird is the Most
Marvelous Engine of Destruction Ever put Together of Flesh and Blood.]
_A few sample meals of insects_.--The following are records of single
individual meals of the bob white:
Of grasshoppers, 84; chinch bugs, 100; squash bugs, 12; army worm, 12;
cut-worm, 12; mosquitoes, 568 in three hours; cotton boll weevil, 47;
flies, 1,350; rose slugs, 1,286. Miscellaneous insects consumed by a
laying hen quail, 1,532, of which 1,000 were grasshoppers; total weigh
of the lot, 24.6 grams.
"F.M. Howard, of Beeville, Texas, wrote to the U.S. Bureau of
Entomology, that the bob whites shot in his vicinity had their crops
filled with the weevils. Another farmer reported his cotton fields full
of quail, and an entire absence of weevils." Texas and Georgia papers
(please copy.)
And yet, because of its few pitiful ounces of flesh, two million gunners
and ten thousand lawmakers think of the quail _only as a bird that can
be shot and eaten!_ Throughout a great portion of its former range,
including New York and New Jersey, the species is surely and certainly
on the verge of _total extinction_. And yet sportsmen gravely discuss
the "bag limit," and "enforcement of the bag-limit law" as a means of
bringing back this almost vanished species! Such folly in grown men is
very trying.
_To my friend, the Epicure_:--The next time you regale a good appetite
with blue points, terrapin stew, filet of sole and saddle of mutton,
touched up here and there with the high lights of rare old sherry, rich
claret and dry monopole, pause as the dead quail is laid before you, on
a funeral pyre of toast, and consider this: "Here lies the charred
remains of the Farmer's Ally and Friend, poor Bob White. In life he
devoured 145 different kinds of bad insects, and the seeds of 129
anathema weeds. For the smaller pests of the farm, he was the most
marvelous engine of destruction that God ever put together of flesh and
blood. He was good, beautiful and true; and his small life was
blameless. And here he lies, dead; snatched away from his field of
labor, and destroyed, in order that I may be tempted to dine three
minutes longer, after I have already eaten to satiety."
Then go on, and finish Bob White.
THE CASE OF THE ROBIN.--For a long time this bird has been slaughtered
in the South for food, regardless of the agricultural interests of the
North. No Southern gentleman ever shoots robins, or song birds of any
kind, but the negroes and poor whites do it. The worst case of recent
occurrence was the slaughter in the town of Pittsboro, North Carolina.
It was in January, 1912. The Mayor of the town, Hon. Bennet Nooe, was
away from home; and during a heavy fall of snow "the robins came into
the town in great numbers to feed upon the berries of the cedar trees.
In order that the birds might be killed without restriction, the Board
of Aldermen suspended the ordinance against the firing of guns in the
town, and permitted the inhabitants to kill the robins."
A disgraceful carnival of slaughter immediately followed in which "about
all the male population" participated. Regarding this, Mayor Nooe later
on wrote to the editor of Bird Lore as follows:
"Hearing of this, on my return, I went to the Aldermen, _all of whom
were guilty_, and told them that they and all others who were guilty
would have to be fined. Three out of the five submitted and paid up, but
they insisted that the ordinance be changed to read exactly as it is
written here, with the exception that _all could shoot_ robins in the
town until the first of March; whereupon I resigned, as was
stated."--(_Bird Lore,_ XIV, 2. p. 140.)
The Mayor was quite right. The robin butchers of Pittsboro were not
worthy to be governed by him.
THE MEADOW LARK is one of the most valuable birds that frequent farming
regions. Throughout the year insects make up 73 per cent of its food,
weed-seeds 12 per cent, and grain only 5 per cent. During the insect
season, insects constitute 90 per cent of its food.
THE BALTIMORE ORIOLE is as valuable to man as it is beautiful. Its nest
is the most wonderful example of bird architecture in our land. In May
insects constitute 90 per cent of this bird's food. For the entire year,
insects and other animal food make 83.4 per cent and vegetable matter
16.6 per cent.
THE CROW BLACKBIRD feeds as follows, throughout the whole year: insects,
26.9 per cent; other animal food 3.4; corn 37.2; oats, 2.9; wheat, 4.8;
other grain, 1.6; fruits, 5; weed seeds and mast 18.2! This report was
based on the examination (by the Biological Survey) of 2,346 stomachs,
and "the charge that the blackbird is an habitual robber of birds' nests
was disproved by the examinations." (F.E.L. Beal.)
FLYCATCHERS.--The high-water mark in insect-destruction by our birds is
reached by the flycatchers,--dull-colored, modest-mannered little
creatures that do their work so quietly you hardly notice them. All you
see in your tree-tops is a two-foot flit or glide, now here and now
there, as the leaves and high branches are combed of their insect life.
Bulletin No. 44 of the Department of Agriculture gives the residuum of
an exhausting examination of 3,398 warbler stomachs, from seventeen
species of birds, and the result is: 94.99 per cent of insect
food,--mostly bad insects, too,--and 5.01 per cent vegetable food. What
more can any forester ask of a bird?
[Illustration: THE ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAK
"The Potato-bug Bird," Greatest Enemy of the Potato Beetles
From the "American Natural History"]
THE SPARROWS.--All our sparrows are great consumers of weed seeds.
Professor Beal has calculated the total quantity consumed in Iowa in one
year,--in the days when sparrows were normally numerous,--at 1,750,000
pounds.
THE AMERICAN GOLDFINCH as a weed destroyer has few equals. It makes a
specialty of the seeds of the members of the Order Compositae, and is
especially fond of the seeds of ragweed, thistles, wild lettuce and wild
sunflower. But, small and beautiful as this bird is, there are hundreds
of thousands of grown men in America who would shoot it and eat it if
they dared!
THE HAWKS AND OWLS.--Let no other state repeat the error that once was
made in Pennsylvania when that state enacted in 1885, her now famous
hawk-and-owl bounty law. In order to accomplish the wholesale
destruction of her birds of prey, a law was passed providing for the
payment of a bounty of fifty cents each for the scalps of hawks and
owls. Immediately the slaughter began. In two years 180,000 scalps were
brought in, and $90,000 were paid out for them. It was estimated that
the saving to the farmers in poultry amounted to one dollar for each
$1,205 paid out in bounties.
The awakening came even more swiftly than the ornithologists expected.
By the end of two years from the passage of "the hawk law," the farmers
found their fields and orchards thoroughly overrun by destructive rats,
mice and insects, and they appealed to the legislature for the quick
repeal of the law. With all possible haste this was brought about; but
it was estimated by competent judges that in damages to their crops the
hawk law cost the people of Pennsylvania nothing less than two million
dollars.
Moral: Don't make any laws providing for the destruction of hawks and
owls until you have exact knowledge, and know in advance what the
results will be.
In the space at my disposal for this subject, it is impossible to treat
our species of hawks and owls separately. The reader can find in the
"American Natural History" fifteen pages of text, numerous illustrations
and many figures elucidating this subject. Unfortunately Dr. Fisher's
admirable work on "The Hawks and Owls" has long been out of print, and
unobtainable. There are, however, a few observations that must be
recorded here.
Each bird of prey is a balanced equation. Each one, I think without a
single exception, does _some_ damage, chiefly in the destruction of
valuable wild birds. The value of the poultry destroyed by hawks and
owls is very small in comparison with their killing of wild prey. _Many
of the species do not touch domestic poultry_! At the same time, when a
hawk of any kind, or an owl, sets to work deliberately and persistently
to clean out a farmer's poultry yard, and is actually doing it, that
farmer is justified in killing that bird. But, the _occasional_ loss of
a broiler is not to be regarded as justification for a war of
extermination on _all_ the hawks that fly! Individual wild-animal
nuisances can occasionally become so exasperating as to justify the use
of the gun,--when scarecrows fail; but in all such circumstances the
greatest judgment, and much forbearance also, is desirable and
necessary.
The value of hawks and owls rests upon their perpetual warfare on the
millions of destructive rats, mice, moles, shrews, weasels, rabbits and
English sparrows that constantly prey upon what the farmer produces. On
this point a few illustrations must be given. One of the most famous
comes via Dr. Fisher, from one of the towers of the Smithsonian
buildings, and relates to
THE BARN OWL, (_Strix flammea_).--Two hundred pellets consisting of
bones, hair and feathers from one nesting pair of these birds were
collected, and found to contain 454 skulls, of which 225 were of meadow
mice, 179 of house mice, 2 of pine mice, 20 were of rats, 6 of jumping
mice, 20 were from shrews, 1 was of a mole and 1 a vesper sparrow. _One_
bird, and 453 noxious mammals! Compare this with the record of any cat
on earth. Anything that the barn owl wants from me, or from any farmer,
should at once be offered to it, on a silver tray. This bird is often
called the Monkey-Faced Owl, and it should be called the Farmer's-Friend
Owl.
THE LONG-EARED OWL, (_Asio wilsonianus_) has practically the same kind
of a record as the barn owl,--scores of mice, rats and shrews
destroyed, and only an occasional small bird. Its nearest relative, the
_Short-eared Owl (A. accipitrinus_) may be described in the same words.
[Illustration: THE BARN OWL
Wonderfully Destructive of Rats and Mice, and
Almost Never Touches Birds]
The GREAT HORNED OWL fills us with conflicting passions. For the long
list of dead rats and mice, pocket gophers, skunks, and weasels to his
credit, we think well of him, and wish his prosperity. For the
song-birds, ruffed grouse, quail, other game birds, domestic poultry,
squirrels, chipmunks and hares that he kills, we hate him, and would
cheerfully wring his neck, wearing gauntlets. He does an unusual amount
of good, and a terrible amount of harm. It is impossible to strike a
balance for him, and determine with mathematical accuracy whether he
should be shot or permitted to live. At all events, whenever _Bubo_
comes up for trial, we must give the feathered devil his due.
The names "CHICKEN HAWK or HEN HAWK" as applied usually refer to the
RED-SHOULDERED or RED-TAILED species. Neither of these is really very
destructive to poultry, but both are very destructive to mice, rats and
other pestiferous creatures. Both are large, showy birds, not so very
swift in flight, and rather easy to approach. Neither of them should be
destroyed,--not even though they do, once in a great while, take a
chicken or wild bird. They pay for them, four times over, by
rat-killing. Mr. J. Alden Loring states that he once knew a pair of
red-shouldered hawks to nest within fifty rods of a poultry farm on
which there were 800 young chickens and 400 ducks, not one of which was
taken. (See the American Natural History, pages 229-30.)
HAWKS THAT SHOULD BE DESTROYED.--There are two small, fierce, daring,
swift-winged hawks both of which are so very destructive that they
deserve to be shot whenever possible. They are COOPER'S HAWK _(Accipiter
cooperi_) and the SHARP-SHINNED HAWK _(A. velox_). They are closely
related, and look much alike, but the former has a rounded tail and the
latter a square one. In killing them, _please do not kill any other hawk
by mistake_; and if you do not positively recognize the bird, don't
shoot.
THE GOSHAWK is a bad one, and so is the PEREGRINE FALCON, or DUCK HAWK.
Both deserve death, but they are so rare that we need not take them into
account.
Some of the hawks and owls are very destructive to song-birds, and
members of the grouse family. In 159 stomachs of sharp-shinned hawks, 99
contained song-birds and woodpeckers. In 133 stomachs of Cooper's hawks,
34 contained poultry or game birds, and 52 contained other birds. The
game birds included 8 quail, 1 ruffed grouse and 5 pigeons.
THE WOODPECKERS.[I]--These birds are the natural guardians of the trees.
If we had enough of them, our forests would be fairly safe from insect
pests. Of the six or seven North American species that are of the most
importance to our forests, the DOWNY WOODPECKER, (_Dryobates pubescens_)
is accorded first rank. It is one of the smallest species. The contents
of 140 stomachs consisted of 74 per cent insects, 25 per cent vegetable
matter and 1 per cent sand. The insects were ants, beetles, bugs, flies,
caterpillars, grasshoppers and a few spiders.
[Footnote I: The reader is advised to consult Prof. F.E.L. Beale's
admirable report on "The Food of Woodpeckers," Bulletin No. 7, U.S.
Department of Agriculture.]
THE HAIRY WOODPECKER, (_Dryobates villosus_), a very close relation of
the preceding species, is also small, and his food supply is as follows:
insects, 68 per cent, vegetable matter 31, mineral 1.
THE GOLDEN-WINGED WOODPECKER, (_Colaptes auratus_), is the largest and
handsomest of all the woodpeckers that we really see in evidence. The
Pileated is one of the largest, but we never see it. This bird makes a
specialty of ants, of which it devours immense numbers. Its food is 56
per cent animal matter (three-fourths of which is ants), 39 per cent is
vegetable matter, and 5 per cent mineral matter.
THE RED-HEADED WOODPECKER is a serious fruit-eater, and many complaints
have been lodged against him. Exactly one-half his food supply consists
of vegetable matter, chiefly wild berries, acorns, beechnuts, and the
seeds of wild shrubs and weeds. We may infer that about one-tenth of his
food, in summer and fall, consists of cultivated fruit and berries. His
proportion of cultivated foods is entirely too small to justify any one
in destroying this species.
In view of the prevalence of insect pests in the state of New York, I
have spent hours in trying to devise a practical plan for making
woodpeckers about ten times more numerous than they now are.
Contributions to this problem will be thankfully received. Yes; we _do_
put out pork fat and suet in winter, quantities of it; but I grieve to
say that to-day in the Zoological Park there is not more than one
woodpecker for every ten that were there twelve years ago. Where have
they gone? Only one answer is possible. They have been shot and eaten,
by the guerrillas of destruction.
[Illustration: GOLDEN-WINGED WOODPECKER
A Bird of Great Value to Orchards and Forests, now
Rapidly Disappearing, Undoubtedly Through Slaughter as "Food"]
Surely no man of intelligence needs to be told to protect woodpeckers to
the utmost, and to _feed them in winter_. Nail up fat pork, or large
chunks of suet, on the south sides of conspicuous trees, and encourage
the woodpeckers, nuthatches, chickadees and titmice to remain in your
woods through the long and dreary winter.
THE ENGLISH SPARROW is a nuisance and a pest, because it drives away
from the house and the orchard the house wren, bluebird, phoebe, purple
martin and swallow, any one of which is more valuable to man than a
thousand English sparrows. I never yet have seen one of the pest
sparrows catch an insect, but Chief Forester Merkel says that he has
seen one catching and eating small moths.
There is one place in the country where English sparrows have not yet
come; and whenever they do appear there, they will meet a hostile
reception. I shall kill every one that comes,--for the sake of retaining
the wrens, catbirds, phoebes and thrushes that now literally make home
happy for my family. A good way to discourage sparrows is to shoot them
en masse when they are feeding on road refuse, such as the
white-throated, white-crowned and other sparrows never touch. Persistent
destruction of their nests will check the nuisance.
THE SHORE BIRDS.--Who is there who thinks of the shore-birds as being
directly beneficial to man by reason of their food habits? I warrant not
more than one man in every ten thousand! We think of them only as
possible "food." The amount of actual cash value benefit that the
shore-birds confer upon man through the destruction of bad things is, in
comparison with the number of birds, enormous.
The Department of Agriculture never publishes and circulates anything
that has already been published, no matter how valuable to the public at
large. Our rules are different. Because I know that many of the people
of our country need the information, I am going to reprint here, as an
object lesson and a warning, the whole of the Biological Survey's
valuable and timely circular No. 79, issued April 11, 1911, and written
by Prof. W.L. McAtee. It should open the eyes of the American people to
two things: the economic value of these birds, and the fact that they
are everywhere far on the road toward extermination!
* * * * *
OUR VANISHING SHOREBIRDS
By Prof. W.L. McAtee
The term shorebird is applied to a group of long-legged, slender-billed,
and usually plainly colored birds belonging to the order Limicolae. More
than sixty species of them occur in North America. True to their name
they frequent the shores of all bodies of water, large and small, but
many of them are equally at home on plains and prairies.
Throughout the eastern United States shorebirds are fast vanishing.
While formerly numerous species swarmed along the Atlantic coast and in
the prairie regions, many of them have been so reduced that
extermination seems imminent. The black-bellied plover or beetlehead,
which occurred along the Atlantic seaboard in great numbers years ago,
is now seen only as a straggler. The golden plover, once exceedingly
abundant east of the Great Plains, is now rare. Vast hordes of
long-billed dowitchers formerly wintered in Louisiana; now they occur
only in infrequent flocks of a half dozen or less. The Eskimo curlew
within the last decade has probably been exterminated and the other
curlews greatly reduced. In fact, all the larger species of shorebirds
have suffered severely.
So adverse to shorebirds are present conditions that the wonder is that
any escape. In both fall and spring they are shot along the whole route
of their migration north and south. Their habit of decoying readily and
persistently, coming back in flocks to the decoys again and again, in
spite of murderous volleys, greatly lessens their chances of escape.
The breeding grounds of some of the species in the United States and
Canada have become greatly restricted by the extension of agriculture,
and their winter ranges in South America have probably been restricted
in the same way.
Unfortunately, shorebirds lay fewer eggs than any of the other species
generally termed game birds. They deposit only three or four eggs, and
hatch only one brood yearly. Nor are they in any wise immune from the
great mortality known to prevail among the smaller birds. Their eggs and
young are constantly preyed upon during the breeding season by crows,
gulls, and jaegers, and the far northern country to which so many of
them resort to nest is subject to sudden cold storms, which kill many of
the young. In the more temperate climate of the United States small
birds, in general, do not bring up more than one young bird for every
two eggs laid. Sometimes the proportion of loss is much greater, actual
count revealing a destruction of 70 to 80 per cent of nests and eggs.
Shorebirds, with sets of three or four eggs, probably do not on the
average rear more than two young for each breeding pair.
It is not surprising, therefore, that birds of this family, with their
limited powers of reproduction, melt away under the relentless warfare
waged upon them. Until recent years shorebirds have had almost no
protection. Thus, the species most in need of stringent protection have
really had the least. No useful birds which lay only three or four eggs
should be retained on the list of game birds. The shorebirds should be
relieved from persecution, and if we desire to save from extermination a
majority of the species, action must be prompt.
The protection of shorebirds need not be based solely on esthetic or
sentimental grounds, for few groups of birds more thoroughly deserve
protection from an economic standpoint. Shorebirds perform an important
service by their inroads upon mosquitoes, some of which play so
conspicuous a part in the dissemination of diseases. Thus, nine species
are known to feed upon mosquitoes, and hundreds of the larvae or
"wigglers" were found in several stomachs. Fifty-three per cent of the
food of twenty-eight northern phalaropes from one locality consisted of
mosquito larvae. The insects eaten include the salt-marsh mosquito
(_Aedes sollicitans_), for the suppression of which the State of New
Jersey has gone to great expense. The nine species of shorebirds known
to eat mosquitoes are:
Northern phalarope (_Lobipes lobatus_).
Semipalmated sandpiper (_Ereunetes pusillus_).
Wilson phalarope (_Steganopus tricolor_).
Stilt sandpiper (_Micropalama himantopus_).
Killdeer (_Oxyechus vociferus_).
Pectoral sandpiper (_Pisobia maculata_).
Semipalmated plover (_Aegialitis semipalmata_).
Baird sandpiper (_Pisobia bairdi_).
Least sandpiper (_Pisobia minutilla_).
Cattle and other live stock also are seriously molested by mosquitoes as
well as by another set of pests, the horse-flies. Adults and larvae of
these flies have been found in the stomachs of the dowitcher, the
pectoral sandpiper, the hudsonian godwit, and the killdeer. Two species
of shorebirds, the killdeer and upland plover, still further befriend
cattle by devouring the North American fever tick.
Among other fly larvae consumed are those of the crane flies
(leather-jackets) devoured by the following species:
Northern phalarope (_Lobipes lobatus_).
Pectoral sandpiper (_Pisobia maculata_).
Wilson phalarope (_Steganopus tricolor_).
Baird sandpiper (_Pisobia bairdi_).
Woodcock (_Philohela minor_).
Upland plover (_Bartramia longicauda_).
Jacksnipe (_Gallinago delicata_).
Killdeer (_Oxyechus vociferus_).
Crane-fly larvae are frequently seriously destructive locally in grass
and wheat fields. Among their numerous bird enemies, shorebirds rank
high.
Another group of insects of which the shorebirds are very fond is
grasshoppers. Severe local infestations of grasshoppers, frequently
involving the destruction of many acres of corn, cotton, and other
crops, are by no means exceptional. Aughey found twenty-three species
of shorebirds feeding on Rocky Mountain locusts in Nebraska, some of
them consuming large numbers, as shown below.
9 killdeer stomachs contained an average of 28 locusts each.
11 semipalmated plover stomachs contained an average of 38 locusts each.
16 mountain plover stomachs contained an average of 45 locusts each.
11 jacksnipe stomachs contained an average of 37 locusts each.
22 upland plover stomachs contained an average of 36 locusts each.
10 long-billed curlew stomachs contained an average of 48 locusts each.
[Illustration: TWO MEMBERS OF THE GROUP OF SHORE-BIRDS
The Killdeer Plover The Jacksnipe
These, with 28 other species, destroy enormous numbers of locusts,
grasshoppers, crane-fly larvae, mosquito larvae, army-worms, cut-worms,
cotton-worms, boll-weevils, curculios, wire-worms and clover-leaf
weevils. It is insane folly to shoot any birds that do such work! Many
species of the shore-birds are rapidly being exterminated.]
Even under ordinary conditions grasshoppers are a staple food of many
members of the shorebird family, and the following species are known to
feed on them:
Northern phalarope (_Lobipes lobatus_).
Avocet (_Recurvirostra americana_).
Black-necked stilt (_Himantopus mexicanus_).
Woodcock (_Philohela minor_).
Jacksnipe (_Gallinago delicata_).
Dowitcher (_Macrorhamphus griseus_).
Robin snipe (_Tringa canutus_).
White-rumped sandpiper (_Pisobia fuscicollis_).
Baird sandpiper (_Pisobia bairdi_).
Least sandpiper (_Pisobia minutilla_).
Buff-breasted sandpiper (_Tryngites subruficollis_).
Spotted sandpiper (_Actitis macularia_).
Long-billed curlew (_Numenius americanus_).
Black-bellied plover (_Squatarola squatarola_).
Golden plover (_Charadrius dominicus_).
Killdeer (_Oxyechus vociferus_).
Semipalmated plover (_Aegialitis semipalmata_).
Marbled godwit _(Limosa fedoa)_.
Ringed plover _(Aegialitis hiaticula)_.
Yellowlegs _(Totanus flavipes)_.
Mountain plover _(Podasocys montanus)_.
Solitary sandpiper _(Helodromas solitarius)_.
Turnstone _(Arenaria interpres)_.
Upland plover _(Bartramia longicauda)_.
Shorebirds are fond of other insect pests of forage and grain crops,
including the army worm, which is known to be eaten by the killdeer and
spotted sandpiper; also cutworms, among whose enemies are the avocet,
woodcock, pectoral and Baird sandpipers, upland plover, and killdeer.
Two caterpillar enemies of cotton, the cotton worm and the cotton
cutworm, are eaten by the upland plover and killdeer. The latter bird
feeds also on caterpillars of the genus _Phlegethontius_, which
includes, the tobacco and tomato worms.
The principal farm crops have many destructive beetle enemies also, and
some of these are eagerly eaten by shorebirds. The boll weevil and
clover-leaf weevil are eaten by the upland plover and killdeer, the rice
weevil by the killdeer, the cowpea weevil by the upland plover, and the
clover-root curculio by the following species of shorebirds:
Northern phalarope _(Lobipes lobatus)_.
White-rumped sandpiper _(Pisobia fuscicollis)_.
Pectoral sandpiper _(Pisobia maculata_).
Upland plover _(Bartramia longicauda)_.
Baird sandpiper _(Pisobia bairdi)_.
Killdeer _(Oxyechus vociferus)_.
The last two eat also other weevils which attack cotton, grapes and
sugar beets. Bill-bugs, which often do considerable damage to corn, seem
to be favorite food of some of the shorebirds. They are eaten by the
Wilson phalarope, avocet, black-necked stilt, pectoral sandpiper,
killdeer, and upland plover. They are an important element of the latter
bird's diet, and no fewer than eight species of them have been found in
its food.
Wireworms and their adult forms, click beetles, are devoured by the
northern phalarope, woodcock, jacksnipe, pectoral sandpiper, killdeer,
and upland plover. The last three feed also on the southern corn
leaf-beetle and the last two upon the grapevine colaspis. Other
shorebirds that eat leaf-beetles are the Wilson phalarope and dowitcher.
Crayfishes, which are a pest in rice and corn fields in the South and
which injure levees, are favorite food of the black-necked stilt, and
several other shorebirds feed upon them, notably the jacksnipe, robin
snipe, spotted sandpiper, upland plover, and killdeer.
Thus it is evident that shorebirds render important aid by devouring the
enemies of farm crops and in other ways, and their services are
appreciated by those who have observed the birds in the field. Thus W.A.
Clark, of Corpus Christi, Tex., reports that upland plovers are
industrious in following the plow and in eating the grubs that destroy
garden stuff, corn, and cotton crops. H.W. Tinkham, of Fall River,
Mass., says of the spotted sandpiper: "Three pairs nested in a young
orchard behind my house and adjacent to my garden. I did not see them
once go to the shore for food (shore about 1,500 feet away), but I did
see them many times make faithful search of my garden for cutworms,
spotted squash bugs, and green flies. Cutworms and cabbage worms were
their special prey. After the young could fly, they still kept at work
in my garden, and showed no inclination to go to the shore until about
August 15th. They and a flock of quails just over the wall helped me
wonderfully."
In the uncultivated parts of their range also, shorebirds search out and
destroy many creatures that are detrimental to man's interest. Several
species prey upon the predaceous diving beetles _(Dytiscidae),_ which
are a nuisance in fish hatcheries and which destroy many insects, the
natural food of fishes. The birds now known to take these beetles are:
Northern phalarope _(Lobipes lobatus)_.
Dowitcher _(Macrorhamphus griseus)_.
Wilson phalarope _(Steganopus tricolor)_.
Robin snipe _(Tringa canutus)_.
Avocet _(Recurvirostra americana)_.
Pectoral sandpiper _(Pisobia maculata)_.
Black-necked stilt _(Himantopus mexicanus_).
Red-backed sandpiper _(Pelidna alpina sakhalina)_.
Jacksnipe _(Gallinago delicata)_.
Kill deer _(Oxyechus vociferus)_.
Large numbers of marine worms of the genus _Nereis_, which prey upon
oysters, are eaten by shorebirds. These worms are common on both the
Atlantic and Gulf coasts and are eaten by shorebirds wherever they
occur. It is not uncommon to find that from 100 to 250 of them have been
eaten at one meal. The birds known to feed upon them are:
Northern phalarope _(Lobipes lobatus)_.
White-rumped sandpiper _(Pisobia fuscicollis)_.
Dowitcher _(Macrorhamphus griseus_).
Stilt sandpiper _(Micropalama himantopus)_.
Red-backed sandpiper _(Pelidna alpina sakhalina)_.
Robin snipe _(Tringa canutus)_.
Purple sandpiper _(Arquatella maritima_).
Killdeer _(Oxyechus vociferus)_.
The economic record of the shorebirds deserves nothing but praise. These
birds injure no crop, but on the contrary feed upon many of the worst
enemies of agriculture. It is worth recalling that their diet includes
such pests as the Rocky Mountain locust and other injurious
grasshoppers, the army worm, cutworms, cabbage worms, cotton worm,
cotton cutworm, boll weevil, clover leaf weevil, clover root curculio,
rice weevil, corn bill-bugs, wireworms, corn leaf-beetles, cucumber
beetles, white grubs, and such foes of stock as the Texas fever tick,
horseflies, and mosquitoes. Their warfare on crayfishes must not be
overlooked, nor must we forget the more personal debt of gratitude we
owe them for preying upon mosquitoes. They are the most important bird
enemies of these pests known to us.
Shorebirds have been hunted until only a remnant of their once vast
numbers is left. Their limited powers of reproduction, coupled with the
natural vicissitudes of the breeding period, make their increase slow,
and peculiarly expose them to danger of extermination.
In the way of protection a beginning has been made, and a continuous
close season until 1915 has been established for the following birds:
The killdeer, in Massachusetts and Louisiana; the upland plover, in
Massachusetts, and Vermont; and the piping plover in Massachusetts. But,
considering the needs and value of these birds, this modicum of
protection is small indeed.
The above-named species are not the only ones that should be exempt
from persecution, for all the shorebirds of the United States are in
great need of better protection. They should be protected, first, to
save them from the danger of extermination, and, second, because of
their economic importance. So great, indeed, is their economic value,
that their retention on the game list and their destruction by sportsmen
is a serious loss to agriculture.--(End of the circular.)
* * * * *
The following appeared in the _Zoological Society Bulletin_, for
January, 1909, from Richard Walter Tomalin, of Sydney, N.S.W.:
"In the subdistricts of Robertson and Kangaloon in the Illawarra
district of New South Wales, what ten years ago was a waving mass of
English cocksfoot and rye grass, which had been put in gradually as the
dense vine scrub was felled and burnt off, is now a barren desert, and
nine families out of every ten which were renting properties have been
compelled to leave the district and take up other lands. This is through
the grubs having eaten out the grass by the roots. Ploughing proved to
be useless, as the grubs ate out the grass just the same. Whilst there
recently I was informed that it took three years from the time the grubs
were first seen until to-day, to accomplish this complete devastation;.
in other words, three years ago the grubs began work in the beautiful
country of green mountains and running streams.
"The birds had all been ruthlessly shot and destroyed in that district,
and I was amazed at the absence of bird life. The two sub-districts I
have mentioned have an area of about thirty square miles, and form a
table-land about 1200 feet above sea level."
The same kind of common sense that teaches men to go in when it rains,
and keep out of fiery furnaces, teaches us that as a business
proposition it is to man's interest to protect the birds. Make them
plentiful and keep them so. When we strike the birds, we hurt ourselves.
The protection of our insect-eating and seed-eating birds is a cash
proposition,--protect or pay.
Were I a farmer, no gun ever should be fired on my premises at any bird
save the English sparrow and the three bad hawks. Any man who would kill
my friend Bob White I would treat as an enemy. The man who would shoot
and eat any of the song-birds, woodpeckers, or shorebirds that worked
for me, I would surely molest.
_Every farmer should post every foot of his lands, cultivated and not
cultivated_. The farmer who does not do so is his own enemy; and he
needs a guardian.
At this stage of wild life extermination, it is impossible to make our
bird-protection laws too strict, or too far-reaching. The remnant of our
birds should be protected, with clubs and guns if necessary. All our
shore birds should be accorded a ten-year close season. Don't ask the
gunners whether they will _agree_ to it or not. _Of course they will not
agree to it,--never_! But our duty is clear,--to go ahead and _do it_!
* * * * *
CHAPTER XXIV
GAME AND AGRICULTURE; AND DEER AS A FOOD SUPPLY
As a state and county asset, the white-tailed deer contains
possibilities that as yet seem to be ignored by the American people as a
whole. It is quite time to consider that persistent, prolific and
toothsome animal.
The proposition that large herds of horned game can not becomingly roam
at will over farms and vineyards worth one hundred dollars per acre,
affords little room for argument. Generally speaking, there is but one
country in the world that breaks this well-nigh universal rule; and that
country is India. On the plains between and adjacent to the Ganges and
the Jumna, for two thousand years herds of black-buck, or sasin
antelope, have roamed over cultivated fields so thickly garnished with
human beings that to-day the rifle-shooting sportsman stands in hourly
peril of bagging a five-hundred-rupee native every time he fires at an
antelope.
Wherever rich agricultural lands exist, the big game must give
way,--_from those lands_. To-day the bison could not survive in Iowa,
eastern Nebraska or eastern Kansas, any longer than a Shawnee Indian
would last on the Bowery. It was foredoomed that the elk, deer, bear and
wild turkey should vanish from the rich farming regions of the East and
the middle West.
To-day in British East Africa lions are being hunted with dogs and shot
wholesale, because they are a pest to the settlers and to the surviving
herds of big game. At the same time, the settlers who are striving to
wrest the fertile plains of B.E.A, from the domain of savagery declare
that the African buffalo, the zebra, the kongoni and the elephant are
public nuisances that must be suppressed by the rifle.
Even the most ardent friend of wild life must admit that when a settler
has laboriously fenced his fields, and plowed and sowed, only to have
his whole crop ruined in one night by a herd of fence-breaking zebras,
the event is sufficient to abrade the nerves of the party most in
interest. While I take no stock in stories of dozens of "rogue"
elephants that require treatment with the rifle, and of grown men being
imperiled by savage gazelles, we admit that there are times when wild
animals can make nuisances of themselves. Let us consider that subject
now.
WILD ANIMAL NUISANCES.--Complaints have come to me, at various times, of
great destruction of lambs by eagles; of trout by blue herons; of crops
(on Long Island) by deer; of pears destroyed by birds, and of valuable
park trees by beavers that chop down trees not wisely but too well. I do
not, however, include in this category any cherries eaten by robins, or
orioles, or jays; for they are of too small importance to consider in
this court.
[Illustration: A FOOD SUPPLY OF WHITE-TAILED DEER
The Killing of the Does was Wrong]
To meet the legitimate demands for the abatement of unbearable
wild-animal nuisances, I recommend the enactment of a law similar to
Section 158 of the Game laws of New York, which provides for the safe
and legitimate abatement of unbearable wild creatures as follows:
Section 158. _Power to Take Birds and Quadrupeds_. In the event that
any species of birds protected by the provisions of section two
hundred and nineteen of this article, or quadrupeds protected by
law, shall at any time, in any locality, become destructive of
private or public property, the commission shall have power in its
discretion to direct any game protector, or issue a permit to any
citizen of the state, to take such species of birds or quadrupeds
and dispose of the same in such manner as the commission may
provide. Such permit shall expire within four months after the date
of issuance.
This measure should be adopted by every state that is troubled by too
many, or too aggressive, wild mammals or birds.
But to return to the subject of big game and farming. We do not complain
of the disappearance of the bison, elk, deer and bear from the farms of
the United States and Canada. The passing of the big game from all such
regions follows the advance of real civilization, just so surely and
certainly as night follows day.
But this vast land of ours is not wholly composed of rich agricultural
lands; not by any means. There are millions of acres of forest lands,
good, bad and indifferent, worth from nothing per acre up to one hundred
dollars or more. There are millions of acres of rocky, brush-covered
mountains and hills, wholly unsuited to agriculture, or even
horticulture. There are other millions of acres of arid plains and
arboreal deserts, on which nothing but thirst-proof animals can live and
thrive. The South contains vast pine forests and cypress swamps,
millions of acres of them, of which the average northerner knows less
than nothing.
We can not stop long enough to look it up, but from the green color on
our national map that betokens the forest reserves, and from our own
personal knowledge of the deserts, swamps, barrens and rocks that we
have seen, we make the estimate that _fully one-third_ of the total area
of the United States is incapable of supporting the husbandman who
depends for his existence upon tillage of the soil. People may talk and
write about "dry farming" all they please, but I wish to observe that
from Dry-Farming to Success is a long shot, with many limbs in the way.
When it rains sufficiently, dry farming is a success; but otherwise it
is not; and we heartily wish it were otherwise.
The logical conclusion of our land that is utterly unfit for agriculture
is a great area of land available for occupancy by valuable wild
animals. Every year the people of the United States are wasting
uncountable millions of pounds of venison, because we are neglecting our
opportunities for producing it practically without cost. Imagine for a
moment bestowing upon land owners the ability to stock with white-tailed
and Indian sambar deer all the wild lands of the United States that are
suitable for those species, and permitting only bucks over one year of
age to be shot. With the does even reasonably protected, the numerical
results in annual pounds of good edible flesh fairly challenges the
imagination.
About six years ago, Mr. C.C. Worthington's deer, in his fenced park, at
Shawnee-on-Delaware, Pennsylvania, became so numerous and so burdensome
that he opened his fences and permitted about one thousand head to go
free.
We are losing each year a very large and valuable asset in the
intangible form of a million hardy deer that we might have raised but
did not! Our vast domains of wooded mountains, hills and valleys lie
practically untenanted by big game, save in a few exceptional spots. We
lose because we are lawless. We lose because we are too improvident to
conserve large forms of wild life unless we are compelled to do so by
the stern edict of the law! The law-breakers, the game-hogs, the
conscienceless doe-and-fawn slayers are everywhere! Ten per cent of all
the grown men now in the United States are to-day poachers, thieves and
law-breakers, or else they are liable to become so to-morrow. If you
doubt it, try risking your new umbrella unprotected in the next mixed
company of one hundred men that you encounter, in such a situation that
it will be easy to "get away" with it.
We could raise two million deer each year on our empty wild lands; but
without fences it would take half a million real game-wardens, on duty
from dawn until dark, to protect them from destructive slaughter. At
present our land of liberty contains only 9,354 game wardens.[J] The
states that contain the greatest areas of wild lands naturally lack in
population and in tax funds, and not one such state can afford to put
into the field even half enough salaried game wardens to really protect
her game from surreptitious slaughter. The surplus of "personal liberty"
in this liberty-cursed land is a curse to the big game. The average
frontiersman never will admit the divine right of kings, but he does
ardently believe in the divine right of settlers,--to reach out and take
any of the products of Nature that they happen to fancy.
[Footnote J: Of this force, there are only 1,200 salaried wardens. The
most of those who serve without salaries naturally render but little
continuous or regular service.]
WILD MEAT AS A FOOD SUPPLY.--We hear much these days about the high cost
of living, but thus far we have made no move to mend the situation. With
coal going straight up to ten dollars per ton, beef going up to fifteen
dollars per hundred on the hoof and wheat and hay going-up--heaven alone
knows where, it is time for all Americans who are not rich to arouse and
take thought for the morrow. _What are we going to do about it_? The
tariff on the coarser necessities of life is now booked to come down;
but what about the fresh meat supply?
I desire to point out that between Bangor and San Diego and from Key
West to Bellingham, our country contains millions of acres of wild,
practically uninhabited forests, rough foot-hills, bad-lands and
mountains that could produce two million deer each year, without
deducting $50,000 a year from the wealth of the country. I grant that in
the total number of deer that would be necessary to produce two million
deer per annum, the farms situated on the edges of forests, and actually
within the forests, would suffer somewhat from the depredations of those
deer. As I will presently show by documentary records, every one of
those individual damages that exceeds two dollars in value could be
compensated in cash, and afterward leave on the credit side of the deer
account an enormous annual balance.
Stop for a moment, you enterprising and restless men and women who
travel all over the United States, and think of the illimitable miles of
unbroken forest that you have looked upon from your Pullman windows in
the East, in the South, in the West and in southern Canada. Recall the
wooded mountains of the Appalachian system, the White Mountain region,
the pine forests of the Atlantic Coast and the Gulf States, the forests
of Tennessee, Arkansas and southern Missouri; of northern Minnesota, and
every state of the Rocky Mountain region. Then, think of the silent and
untouched forests of the Pacific Coast and tell me whether you think
five million deer scattered through all those forests would make any
visible impression upon them. That would be only about twenty-five times
as many as are there now! I think the forests would not be over
populated; and they would produce _two million killable deer each year_!
Last year, 11,000 deer were forced down out of their hiding places in
the Rocky Mountains, and were killed in Montana. Even the natives had
not dreamed there were so many available; and they were slaughtered not
wisely but too ill. It is not right that six members of one family
should "hog" twelve deer in one season. At present no deer supply can
stand such slaughter.
Assuming that the people of the United States _could_ be educated into
the idea of so conserving deer that they could draw two million head per
year from the general stock, what would it be worth?
It is not very difficult to estimate the value of a deer, when the whole
animal can be utilized. In various portions of the United States, deer
vary in size, but I shall take all this into account, and try to strike
a fair average. In some sections, where deer are large and heavy, a
full-grown buck is easily worth twenty-five dollars. Let him who doubts
it, try to replace those generous pounds of flesh with purchased beef
and mutton and veal, and see how far twenty-five dollars will go toward
it. Every man who is a householder knows full well how little meat one
dollar will buy at this time.
I think that throughout the United States as a whole every full-grown
deer, male or female contains on an average ten dollars worth of good
meat. I know of one large preserve which annually sells its surplus of
deer at that price, wholesale, to dealers; and in New York City
(doubtless in many other cities, also) venison often has sold in the
market at one dollar per pound!
Two million deer at $10 each mean $20,000,000. The licenses for the
killing of two million deer should cost one million men one dollar each;
and that would pay 1,666 new game wardens each fifty dollars per month,
all the year round. The damages that would need to be paid to farmers,
on account of crops injured by deer, would be so small that each county
could take care of its own cases, from its own treasury, as is done in
the State of Vermont.
There are certain essentials to the realization of a dream of two
million deer per year that are absolutely required. They are neither
obscure nor impossible.
Each state and each county proposing to stock its vacant woods with deer
must resolutely educate its own people in the necessity of playing fair
about the killing of deer, and giving every man and every deer a square
deal. This is _not_ impossible! Not as a general thing, even though it
may be so in some specially lawless communities. If the _leading men_ of
the state and the county will take this matter seriously in hand, it can
be done in two years' time. The American people are not insensible to
appeals to reason, when those appeals are made by their own "home
folks." The governors, senators, assemblymen, judges, mayors and
justices of the peace could, _if they would_, make a campaign of
education and appeal that would result in the creation of an immense
volume of free wild food in every state that possesses wild lands.
When the shoe of Necessity pinches the People hard enough, remember the
possibilities in deer.
[Illustration: WHITE-TAILED DEER
If Honestly and Intelligently Conserved, this Species could be made to
Produce on our Wild Lands Two Million Deer per annum, as a new Food Supply
From the "American Natural History"]
The best wild animal to furnish a serious food supply is the
white-tailed deer. This is because of its persistence and fertility. The
elk is too large for general use. An elk carcass can not be carried on a
horse; it is impossible to get a sled or a wagon to where it lies; and
so, fully half of it usually is wasted! The mule deer is good for the
Rocky Mountains, and can live where the white-tail can not; but it is
_too easy to shoot_! The Columbian black-tail is the natural species for
the forests of the Pacific states; but it is a trifle small in size.
THE EXAMPLE OF VERMONT.--In order to show that all the above is not
based on empty theory,--regarding the stocking of forests with deer,
their wonderful powers of increase, and the practical handling of the
damage question,--let us take the experience and the fine example of
Vermont.
In April, 1875, a few sportsmen of Rutland, of whom the late Henry W.
Cheney was one, procured in the Adirondacks thirteen white-tailed deer,
six bucks and seven does. These were liberated in a forest six miles
from Rutland, and beyond being protected from slaughter, they were left
to shift for themselves. They increased, slowly at first, then rapidly,
and by 1897, they had become so numerous that it seemed right to have a
short annual open season, and kill a few. From first to last, many of
those deer have been killed contrary to law. In 1904-5, it was known
that 294 head were destroyed in that way; and undoubtedly there were
others that were not reported.
ACCOUNT OF DEER KILLED IN VERMONT, OF RECORD SINCE KILLING
BEGAN, IN 1897
_From John W. Titcomb, State Game Commissioner, Lyndonville, Vt.,
Aug. 23, 1912_
By By By Wounded By By Average Gross
Year Hunters, Hunters, Dogs Deer Railroad Various Weight Weight
Legally Illegally Killed Trains Accidents (lbs.) (lbs.)
1897* 103 47
1898 131 30 40 3
1899 90
1900 123
1901 211
1902 403 81 50 13 14 171 68,747
1903 753 199 190 142,829
1904 541
1905 497 163 74 22 18 17 198
1906 634 200 127,193
1907 991 287 208 62 31 21 196 134,353
1908 2,208 207 457,585
1909 4,597 381 168 69 24 72 155 716,358
* First open season after deer restored to state in 1875.
DAMAGES TO CROPS BY DEER.--For several years past, the various counties
of Vermont have been paying farmers for damages inflicted upon their
crops by deer. Clearly, it is more just that counties should settle
these damages than that they should be paid from the state treasury,
because the counties paying damages have large compensation in the value
of the deer killed each year. The hunting appears to be open to all
persons who hold licenses from the state.
In order that the public at large may know the cost of the Vermont
system, I offer the following digest compiled from the last biennial
report of the State Fish and Game Commissioner:
DAMAGES PAID FOR DEER DEPREDATIONS IN VERMONT DURING
TWO YEARS
Total damages paid from June 8, 1908, to June 22, 1910 $4,865.98
Total number of claims paid 311
Total number of claims under $5 80
Number between $5 and $10, inclusive 102
Number over $25 and under $51 23
Number between $50 and $100 11
Number in excess of $100 4
Number in excess of $200 1
Largest claim paid $326.50
VALUE OF WHITE-TAILED DEER.--Having noted the fact that in two years
(1908-9), the people of Vermont paid out $4,865 in compensation for
damages inflicted by deer, it is of interest to determine whether that
money was wisely expended. In other words, did it pay?
We have seen that in the years 1908 and 9, the people of Vermont killed,
legally and illegally, and converted to use, 7,186 deer. This does not
include the deer killed by dogs and by accidents.
Regarding the value of a full-grown deer, it must be remembered that
much depends upon the locality of the carcass. In New York or Pittsburg
or Chicago, a whole deer is worth, at wholesale, at least twenty-five
dollars. In Vermont, where deer are plentiful, they are worth a less
sum. I think that fifteen dollars would be a fair figure,--at least low
enough!
Even when computed at fifteen dollars per carcass, those deer were worth
to the people of Vermont $107,790. It would seem, therefore, that the
soundness of Vermont's policy leaves no room for argument; and we hope
that other states, and also private individuals, will profit by
Vermont's very successful experiment in bringing back the deer to her
forests, and in increasing the food supply of her people.
KILLING FEMALE DEER.--To say one word on this subject which might by any
possibility be construed as favoring it, is like juggling with a lighted
torch over a barrel of gunpowder. Already, in Pennsylvania at least one
gentleman has appeared anxious to represent me as favoring the killing
of does, which in nine hundred and ninety-nine cases out of every
thousand I distinctly and emphatically do not. The slaughter of female
hoofed game animals is necessarily destructive and reprehensible, and
not one man out of every ten thousand in this country ever will see the
place and time wherein the opposite is true.
At present there are just two places in America, and I think only two,
wherein there exists the slightest exception on this point. The state of
Vermont is becoming overstocked with deer, and the females have in
_some_ counties (not in all), become so tame and destructive in
orchards, gardens and farm crops as to constitute a great annoyance. For
this reason, the experiment is being made of permitting does to be
killed under license, until their number is somewhat reduced.
The first returns from this trial have now come in, from the county game
wardens of Vermont to the state game warden. Mr. John W. Titcomb. I will
quote the gist of the opinion of each.
The State Commissioner says: "This law should remain in force at least
until there is some indication of a decrease in the number of deer."
Warden W.H. Taft (Addison County) says: "The killing of does I believe
did away with a good many of these tame deer that cause most of the
damage to farmers' crops." Harry Chase (Bennington County) says the
doe-killing law is "a good law, and I sincerely trust it will not be
repealed." Warden Hayward of Rutland County says: "The majority of the
farmers in this county are in favor of repealing the doe law.... A great
many does and young deer (almost fawns) were killed in this county
during the hunting season of 1909." R.W. Wheeler, of Rutland County
says: "Have the doe law repealed! We don't need it!" H.J. Parcher of
Washington County finds that the does did more damage to the crops than
the bucks, and he thinks the doe law is "a just one." R.L. Frost, of
Windham County, judicially concludes that "the law allowing does to be
killed should remain in force one or two seasons more." C.S Parker, of
Orleans County, says his county is not overstocked with deer, and he
favors a special act for his county, to protect females.
A summary of the testimony of the wardens is easily made. When deer are
too plentiful, and the over-tame does become a public nuisance too great
to be endured, the number should be reduced by regular shooting in the
open season; but,
As soon as the proper balance of deer life has been restored, protect
the does once more.
The pursuit of this policy is safe and sane, provided it can be wrought
out without the influence of selfishness, and reckless disregard for the
rights of the next generation. On the whole, its handling is like
playing with fire, and I think there are very, very few states on this
earth wherein it would be wise or safe to try it. As a wise friend once
remarked to me, "Give some men a hinch, and they'll always try to take a
hell." In Vermont, however, the situation is kept so well in hand we may
be sure that at the right moment the law providing for the decrease of
the number of does will be repealed.
HIPPOPOTAMI AND ANTELOPES.--Last year a bill was introduced in the lower
House of Congress proposing to provide funds for the introduction into
certain southern states of various animals from Africa, especially
hippopotami and African antelopes. The former were proposed partly for
the purpose of ridding navigation of the water hyacinths that now are
choking many of the streams of Louisiana and Mississippi. The antelopes
were to be acclimatized as a food supply for the people at large.
This measure well illustrates the prevailing disposition of the American
people to-day,--to ignore and destroy their own valuable natural stock
of wild birds and mammals, and when they have completed their war of
extermination, reach out to foreign countries for foreign species.
Instead of preserving the deer of the South, the South reaches out for
the utterly impossible antelopes of Africa, and the preposterous
hippopotamus. The North joyously exterminates her quail and ruffed
grouse, and goes to Europe for the Hungarian partridge. That partridge
is a failure here, and I am _heartily glad of it_, on the ground that
the exterminators of our native species do not deserve success in their
efforts to displace our finest native species with others from abroad.
The hippo-antelope proposition is a climax of absurdity, in proposing
the replacing of valuable native game with impossible foreign species.
* * * * *
CHAPTER XXV
LAW AND SENTIMENT AS FACTORS IN PRESERVATION
There is grave danger that through ignorance of the true character of
about 80 per cent of the men and boys who shoot wild creatures, a great
wrong will be done the latter. Let us not make a fatal mistake.
After more than thirty years of observation among all kinds of
sportsmen, hunters and gunners, I am convinced that it is utterly futile
and deadly dangerous to rely on humane, high-class sentiment to diminish
the slaughter of wild things by game-hogs and pot-hunters.
In some respects, the term "game-hog" is a rude, rough word; but it is
needed in the English language, and it has come to stay. It is a
disagreeable term, but it was brought into use to apply to a class of
very disagreeable persons.
A "game-hog" is a hunter of game who knows no such thing as sentiment or
conscience in the killing of game, so long as he keeps within the limit
of the law. Regardless of the scarcity of game, or of its hard struggle
for existence, he will kill right up to the bag limit every day that he
goes out, provided it is possible to do so. He uses the "law" as a salve
for the spot where his conscience should be. He will shoot with any
machine gun, or gun of big calibre, in every way that the law allows,
and he knows no such thing as giving the game a square deal. He brags of
his big bags of game, and he loves to be photographed with a wagon-load
of dead birds as a background. He believes in automatic and pump guns,
spring shooting, longer open seasons and "more game." He is quite
content to shoot half tame ducks in a club preserve as they fly between
coop and pond, whenever he secures an opportunity. He will gladly sell
his game whenever he can do so without being found out, and sometimes
when he is.
Often a true sportsman drifts without realizing it into some one way of
the confirmed game-hog; but the moment he is made to realize his
position, he changes his course and his standing. The game-hog is
impervious to argument. You can shame a horse away from his oats more
easily than you can shame him from doing "what the Law allows."
There are hundreds of thousands of gentlemen and gentlewomen who never
once have come in touch with real cloven-footed game-hogs, who do not
understand the species at all, and do not recognize its ear-marks.
Thousands of such persons will tell you: "In my opinion, the best way to
save the wild life is to _educate the people_!" I have heard that, many,
many times.
For right-hearted people, a little law is quite sufficient; and the best
people need none at all! But the game-hogs are different. For them, the
strict letter of the law, backed up by a strong-arm squad, is the only
controlling influence that they recognize. To them it is necessary to
say: "You shall!" and "You shall not!"
Only yesterday the latest game-hog case was related to me by a
game-protector from Kansas. Into a certain county of southern Kansas,
from which the prairie-chicken had been totally gone for a dozen years
or more, a pair of those birds entered, settled down and nested. Their
coming was to many habitants a joyous event. "Now," said the People, "we
will care for these birds, and they will multiply, and presently the
county will be restocked."
But Ahab came! Two men from another county, calling themselves sportsmen
but not entitled to that name, heard of those birds, and resolved to
"get them." They waited until the young were just leaving the nest: and
they went down and camped near by. On the first day they killed the two
parent birds and half the flock of young birds, and the next day they
got all the rest.
But there is a sequel to this story. One of those men was a dealer in
guns and ammunition; and when his customers heard what he had done,
"they simply put him out of business, by refusing to trade with him any
more." He is now washing dirty dishes in a restaurant; but at heart he
is a game-hog, just the same.
Near Bridgeport, Connecticut, a gentleman of my acquaintance owns a fine
estate which is adorned with a trout stream and a superfine trout pond.
Once he invited a business man of Bridgeport to be his guest, and fish
for trout in his pond. On that guest, during a visit of three days all
the finest forms of hospitality were bestowed.
Two weeks later, my friend's game-warden caught that guest, early on a
Sunday morning, _poaching_ on the trout-pond, and spoiled his carefully
arranged get-away.
In his book "Saddle and Camp in the Rockies," Mr. Dillon Wallace tells a
story of a man from New York who in the mountains of Colorado
deliberately corrupted his guides with money or other influences, shot
mountain sheep _in midsummer_, and "got away with it."
In northern Minnesota, George E. Wood has been having a hand-to-hand
fight with the worst community of game-hogs and alien-born poachers of
which I have heard. There appears to be no game law that they do not
systematically violate. The killers seem determined to annihilate the
last head of game, in spite of fines and imprisonments. The foreigners
are absolutely uncontrollable. The latest feature of the war is the
discovery of a tannery in the woods, where the hides of
illegally-slaughtered deer and moose are dressed. Apparently the only
kind of a law that will save the game of northern Minnesota is one that
will totally disarm the entire population.
In Pennsylvania, there exists an association which was formed for the
express purpose of fighting the State Game Commission, preventing the
enactment of a hunter's license law and repealing the law against the
killing of female deer and hornless fawns. The continued existence of
that organization on that basis would be a standing disgrace to the fair
name of Pennsylvania. I think, however, that that organization was
founded on secret selfish purposes, and that ere long the general body
of members will awaken to a realizing sense of their position, and range
themselves in support of the excellent policies of the commission.
A POT-HUNTER is a man or boy who kills game as a business, for the money
that can be derived from its sale, or other use. Such men have the same
feelings as butchers. From their point of view, they can see no reason
why all the game in the world should not be killed and marketed. Like
the feather-dealers, they wish to get out of the wild life all the money
there is in it; that is all. Left to themselves, with open markets they
would soon exterminate the land fauna of the habitable portions of the
globe.
No one can "educate" such people. For the gunners, game-hogs and
pot-hunters, there is no check, save specific laws that sternly and
amply safeguard the rights of the wild creatures that can not make laws
for themselves.
Nor can anyone educate the heartless woman of fashion who is determined
to wear aigrettes as long as her money can buy them. The best women of
the world have _already been educated_ on the bird-millinery subject,
and they are already against the use of the gaudy badges of slaughter
and extermination. But in the great cities of the world there are
thousands of women who are at heart as cruel as Salome herself, and
whose vicious tastes can be curbed only by the strong hand of the law.
"Sentiment" for wild birds is not in them.
Because of the vicious and heartless elements among men and women, we
say, Give us _far-reaching, iron-bound_ LAWS for the protection of wild
life, _and plenty of courageous men to enforce them_.
* * * * *
CHAPTER XXVI
THE ARMY OF THE DEFENSE
It now seems that the friends of wild life who themselves are not on the
firing-line should be afforded some definite information regarding the
Army of the Defense, and its strength and weakness. It is an interesting
subject, but the limitations of space will not permit an extended
treatment.
Over the world at large, I think the active Destroyers outnumber the
active Defenders of wild life at least in the ratio of 500 to 1; and the
money available to the Destroyers is to the funds of the Defenders as
500 is to 1. The _average_ big-game sportsman cheerfully expends from
$500 to $1,000 on a hunting trip, but resents the suggestion that he
should subscribe from $50 to $100 for wild life preservation. If he puts
down $10, he thinks he has done a Big Thing. Worse than this, I am
forced to believe that at least 75 per cent of the big-game sportsmen of
the world never have contributed one dollar in money, or one hour of
effort, to that cause. But there are exceptions; and I can name at least
fifty sportsmen who have subscribed $100 each to campaign funds, and
some who have given as high as $1,000.
Once I sat down beside a financially rich slaughterer of game, and asked
him to subscribe a sum of real money in behalf of a very important
campaign. I needed funds very much; and I explained, exhorted and
besought. I pointed out his duty--_to give back something_ in return for
all the game slaughter that he had _enjoyed_. For ten long minutes he
stood fire without flinching, and without once opening his lips to
speak. He made no answer no argument, no defense and finally he never
gave up one cent.
Wherever the English language is spoken, from Tasmania to Scotland, and
from Porto Rico to the Philippines, the spirit of wild life protection
exists. Elsewhere there is much more to be said on this point. To all
cosmopolitan sportsmen, the British "Blue Book" on game protection, the
annual reports of the two great protective societies of London, and the
annual "Progress" report of the U.S. Department of Agriculture are
reassuring and comforting. It is good to know that Uganda maintains a
Department of Game Protection (A.L. Butler, Superintendent), that so
good a man as Maj. J. Stevenson-Hamilton is in control of protection in
the Transvaal, and that even the native State of Kashmir officially
recognizes the need to protect the Remnant.
There are of course many parts of the world in which game laws and
limits to slaughter are quite unknown: all of which is entirely wrong,
and in need of quick correction. No state or nation can be accounted
wholly civilized that fails to recognize the necessity to protect wild
life. I am tempted to make a list of the states and nations that were at
latest advices destitute of game laws and game protectors, but I fear to
do injustice through lack of the latest information. However, the time
has come to search out delinquents, and hold up to each one a mirror
that will reflect its shortcomings.
Naturally, we are most interested in our own contingent of the Army of
the Defense.
THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT.--To-day the feeling in Congress, toward
the conservation of wild life and forests is admirable. Both houses are
fully awake to the necessity of saving while there is yet something to
be saved. The people of the United States may be assured that the
national government is active and sympathetic in the prosecution of such
conservation measures as it might justly be expected to promote. For
example, during the past five years we have seen Congress take favorable
action on the following important causes, nearly every one of which cost
money:
The saving of the American bison, in four National ranges.
The creation of fifty-eight bird refuges.
The creation of five great game preserves.
The saving of the elk in Jackson Hole.
The protection of the fur seal.
The protection of the wild life of Alaska.
There are many active friends of wild life who confidently expect to see
this fine list gloriously rounded out by the passage in 1913 of an ideal
bill for the federal protection of all migratory birds. To name the
friends of wild life in Congress would require the printing of a list of
at least two hundred names, and a history of the rise and progress of
wild life conservation by the national government would fill a volume.
Such a volume would be highly desirable.
When the story of the national government's part in wild-life protection
is finally written, it will be found that while he was president,
THEODORE ROOSEVELT made a record in that field that is indeed enough to
make a reign illustrious. He aided every wild-life cause that lay within
the bounds of possibility, and he gave the vanishing birds and mammals
the benefit of every doubt. He helped to establish three national bison
herds, four national game preserves, fifty-three federal bird refuges,
and to enact the Alaska game laws of 1902 and 1907.
It was in 1904 that the national government elected to accept its share
of the white man's burden and enter actively into the practical business
of wild life protection. This special work, originally undertaken and
down to the present vigorously carried on by Dr. Theodore S. Palmer, has
considerably changed the working policy of the Biological Survey of the
Department of Agriculture, and greatly influenced game protection
throughout the states. The game protection work of that bureau is alone
worth to the people of this country at least twenty times more per annum
than the entire annual cost of the Bureau. Next to the splendid services
of Dr. Palmer, all over the United States, one great value of the Bureau
is found in the fact-and-figure ammunition that it prepares and
distributes for general use in assaults on the citadels of Ignorance and
Greed. The publications of the Bureau are of great practical value to
the people of the United States.
[Illustration: NOTABLE PROTECTORS OF WILD LIFE (1)
MADISON GRANT
Secretary and Chairman Executive Committee, New York Zoological Society
HENRY FAIRFIELD OSBORN
President, New York Zoological Society
JOHN F. LACEY
Ex-Member of Congress; Author of the "Lacey Bird Law"
WILLIAM DUTCHER
Founder and President, National Association of Audubon Societies]
Dr. Palmer is a man of incalculable value to the cause of protection.
No call for advice is too small to receive his immediate attention, no
fight is too hot and no danger-point too remote to keep him from the
fray. Wherever the Army of Destruction is making a particularly
dangerous fight to repeal good laws and turn back the wheels of
progress, there will he be found. As the warfare grows more intense,
Congress may find it necessary to enlarge the fighting force of the
Biological Survey.
The work that has been done by the Bureau in determining the economic
value or lack of value of our most important species of insectivorous
birds, has been worth millions to the agricultural interests of the
United States. Through it we know where we stand. The reasons why we
need to strive for protection can be expressed in figures and
percentages; and it seems to me that they leave the American people no
option but to _protect_!
STATE GAME COMMISSIONS.--Each of our states, and each province of
Canada, maintains either a State Game Commission of several persons, one
Commissioner, or a State Game Warden. All such officers are officially
charged with the duty of looking after the general welfare of the game
and other wild life of their respective states. Theoretically one of the
chief duties of a State Game Commission is to initiate new legislative
bills that are necessary, and advocate their translation into law. The
official standing of most game commissioners is such that they can
successfully do this. In 1909 Governor Hughes of New York went so far as
to let it be known that he would sign no new game bill that did not meet
the approval of State Game Commissioner James S. Whipple. As a general
working principle, and quite aside from Mr. Whipple, that was wrong;
because even a State game commissioner is not necessarily infallible, or
always on the right side of every wild-life question.
As a rule, state commissioners and state wardens are keenly alive to the
needs of their states in new game protective legislation, and a large
percentage of the best existing laws are due to their initiative. Often,
however, their usefulness is limited by the trammels of public office,
and there are times when such officers can not be too aggressive without
the risk of arousing hostile influences, and handicapping their own
departmental work. For this reason, it is often advisable that bills
which propose great and drastic reforms, and which are likely to become
storm-centers, should originate outside the Commissioner's office, and
be pushed by men who are perfectly free to abide the fortunes of open
warfare. It should be distinctly understood, however, that lobbying in
behalf of wild-life measures is _an important part of the legitimate
duty of every state game commissioner_, and is a most honorable calling.
[Illustration: NOTABLE PROTECTORS OF WILD LIFE (II)
EDWARD HOWE FORBUSH
Massachusetts State Ornithologist
T. GILBERT PEARSON
Secretary, National Association of Audubon Societies
JOHN B. BURNHAM
President, American Game Protective and Propagation Association
ERNEST NAPIER
President, Fish and Game Commission of New Jersey]
Of the many strong and aggressive state game commissions that I would
like to mention in detail, space permits the naming of only a very few,
by way of illustration.
NEW YORK.--Thanks to the great conservation Governor of this state, John
A. Dix, the year 1911 saw our forest, fish and game business established
on an ideal business basis. Realizing the folly of requiring a single
man to manage those three great interests, and render to each the
attention that it deserves and requires, by a well-studied legislative
act a State Conservation Commission was created, consisting of three
commissioners, one for each of the three great natural departments.
These are salaried officers, who devote their entire time to their work,
and are properly equipped with assistants. The state force of game
wardens now consists of 125 picked men, each on a salary of $900 per
year, and through a rigid system of daily reports (inaugurated by John
B. Burnham) the activities and results of each warden promptly become
known in detail at headquarters.
Fortunately, New York contains a very large number of true sportsmen,
who are ever ready to come forward in support of every great measure for
wild-life protection. The spirit of real protection runs throughout the
state, and in time I predict that it will result in a great recovery of
the native game of the commonwealth. That will be after we have stopped
all shooting of upland game birds and shore birds for about eight years.
Even the pinnated grouse could be successfully introduced over one-third
of the state, if the people would have it so. It was our great body of
conscientious sportsmen who made possible the Bayne-Blauvelt law, and
the new codification of the game laws of the state.
TENNESSEE.--Clearly, Honorable Mention belongs to the unsalaried State
Commissioner of Tennessee, Col. J.H. Acklen, "than whom," says Dr.
Palmer, "there is no more active and enthusiastic game protectionist in
this country. Whatever has been accomplished in that state is due to his
activity and public spirit. Col. Acklen, who is now president of the
National Association of Game Commissioners, is a prominent lawyer, and
enjoys the distinction of being the only commissioner in the country who
not only serves without pay, but also defrays a large part of the
expenses of game protection out of his own pocket."
Surely the Commonwealth of Tennessee will not long permit this
unsupported condition of such a game commissioner to endure. That state
has a wild fauna worth preserving for her sons and grandsons, and it is
inconceivable that the funds vitally necessary to this public service
can not be found.
ALABAMA.--I cite the case of Alabama because, in view of its position in
a group of states that until recently have cared little about game
protection, it may be regarded as an unusual case. Commissioner John H.
Wallace, Jr., has evolved order out of chaos,--and something approaching
a reign of law out of the absence of law. To-day the State of Alabama
stands as an example of what can be accomplished by and through one
clear-headed, determined man who is right, and knows that he is right.
NEW JERSEY.--Alabama reminds one of New Jersey, and of State Game
Commissioner Ernest Napier. I have seen him on the firing-line, and I
know that his strong devotion to the interests of the wild life of his
state, his determination to protect it at all costs, and his resistless
confidence in asking for what is right, have made him a power for good.
The state legislature believes in him, and enacts the laws that he says
are right and necessary. He serves without salary, and gives to the
state time, labor and money. It is a pleasure to work with such a man.
In 1912 Commissioner Napier won a pitched battle with the makers of
automatic and pump guns, both shotguns and rifles, and debarred all
those weapons from use _in hunting_ in New Jersey unless satisfactorily
reduced to two shots.
MASSACHUSETTS.--The state of Massachusetts is fortunate in the
possession of a very fine corps of ornithologists, nature lovers,
sportsmen and leading citizens who on all questions affecting wild life
occupy high ground and are not afraid to maintain it. It would be a
pleasure to write an entire chapter on this subject. The record of the
Massachusetts Army of the Defense is both an example and an inspiration
to the people of other states. Not only is the cause of protection
championed by the State Game Commission but it also receives constant
and powerful support from the State Board of Agriculture, which
maintains on its staff Mr. E.H. Forbush as State Ornithologist. The
bird-protection publications of the Board are of great economic value,
and they are also an everlasting credit to the state. The very latest is
a truly great wild-life-protection volume of 607 pages, by Mr. Forbush,
entitled "_Game Birds, Wild-Fowl and Shore Birds_." It is a publication
most damaging to the cause of the Army of Destruction, and I heartily
wish a million copies might be printed and placed in the hands of
lawmakers and protectors.
The fight last winter and spring for a no-sale-of-game law was the
Gettysburg for Massachusetts. The voice of the People was heard in no
uncertain tones, and the Destroyers were routed all along the line. The
leaders in that struggle on the protection side were E.H. Forbush,
William P. Wharton, Dr. George W. Field, Edward N. Goding, Lyman E.
Hurd, Ralph Holman, Rev. Wm. R. Lord and Salem D. Charles. With such
leaders and such supporters, any wild-life cause can be won, anywhere!
PENNSYLVANIA.--The case of Pennsylvania is rather peculiar. As yet there
is no large and resistless organized body of real sportsmen to rally to
the support of the State Game Commission in great causes, as is the case
in New York. As a result, with a paltry fund of only $20,000 for annual
maintenance, and much opposition from hunters and farmers, the situation
is far from satisfactory. Fortunately Dr. Joseph Kalbfus, Secretary of
the Commission and chief executive officer, is a man of indomitable
courage and determination. But for this state of mind he would ere this
have given up the fight for the hunter's license law (of one dollar per
year), which has been bitterly opposed by a very aggressive and noisy
group of gunners who do not seem to know that they are grievously
misled.
Fortunately, Commissioner John M. Phillips, of Pittsburgh is the ardent
supporter of Dr. Kalbfus and a vigorous fighter for justice to wild
life. He devotes to the cause a great amount of time and effort, and in
addition to serving without salary he pays all his campaign expenses out
of his own pocket. His only recompense for all this is the sincere
admiration of his friends, and the consciousness of having done his full
duty toward the wild life and the people of his native state.
THE STATE AUDUBON SOCIETIES.--It is impossible to estimate the full
value of the influence and work of the State Audubon Societies of the
United States. Thus far these societies exist in thirty-nine states.
From the beginning, their efforts have tended especially toward the
preservation of the non-game birds, and it is well that the song and
other insectivorous birds have thus been specially championed.
Unfortunately, however, if that policy is pursued exclusively, it leaves
154 very important species of game birds practically at the mercy of the
Army of Destruction! It would seem that the time has come when all
Audubon Societies should take up, as a part of their work, active
co-operation in helping to save the game birds from extermination.
* * * * *
THE NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS OF NEW YORK CITY
On January 1, 1895, the United States of America contained, so far as I
am aware, not one organization of national scope which was devoting any
large amount of its resources and activities to the protection of wild
life. At that time the former activities of the A.O.U. Committee on Bird
Protection had lapsed. To-day the city of New York contains six national
organizations, and it is now a great center of nation-wide activities in
behalf of preservation. Furthermore, these activities are steadily
growing, and securing practical results.
THE NEW YORK ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY.--In 1895 there was born into the world
a scientific organization having for its second declared object "the
preservation of our native animals." It was the first scientific society
or corporation ever formed, so far as I am aware, having a specifically
declared object of that kind. It owes its existence and its presence in
the field of wild-life conservation to the initiative and persistence of
Mr. Madison Grant and Prof. Henry Fairfield Osborn. For sixteen years
these two officers have worked together virtually as one man. It is not
strange to find a sportsman like Mr. Grant promoting the wild-life
cause, but it is a fact well worthy of note that of all the zoologists
of the world, Professor Osborn is the only one of real renown who has
actively and vigorously engaged in this cause, and taken a place in the
front rank of the Defenders.
Mr. Grant's influence on the protection cause has been strong and
far-reaching,--far more so than the majority of his own friends are
aware. He has promoted important protectionist causes from Alaska to
Louisiana and Newfoundland, and helped to win many important victories.
THE BOONE AND CROCKETT CLUB.--This organization of big game sportsmen
was founded in 1885, and is the oldest of its kind in the United
States. Its members always have supported the cause of protection, by
law and by the making of game preserves. In all this work Mr. George
Bird Grinnell, for twenty-five years editor of _Forest and Stream_,
has been an important factor. As stated elsewhere, the club's written
and unwritten code of ethics in big-game hunting is very strict. In
course of time a Committee on Game Protection was formed, and it
actively entered that field.
[Illustration: NOTABLE PROTECTORS OF WILD LIFE (III)
JOSEPH KALBFUS
Chief Game Protector and Secretary, Pennsylvania Board of Game
Commissioners
JOHN M. PHILLIPS
Member, Pennsylvania Board of Game Commissioners
EDWARD A. McILHENNY
Founder of Wild-Fowl Preserves in Louisiana
CHARLES WILLIS WARD
Founder of Wild-Fowl preserves in Louisiana]
THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF AUDUBON SOCIETIES.--This organization was
founded by William Dutcher, in 1902, and in 1906 it was endowed to the
extent of $322,000 by the bequest of Albert Wilcox. Subsequent
endowments, together with the annual contributions of members and
friends, now give the Association an annual income of $60,000. It
maintains eight widely-separated field agents and lecturers and forty
special game wardens of bird refuges. It maintains Secretary T. Gilbert
Pearson and a number of other good men constantly on the firing-line;
and these forces have achieved many valuable results. After years of
stress and struggle, it now seems almost certain that this organization
will save the two white egrets,--producers of "the white badge of
cruelty,"--to the bird fauna of the United States, as in a similar
manner it has saved the gulls, terns and other sea birds of our lakes
and coast line.
This splendid organization is one of the monuments to William Dutcher.
More than two years ago he was stricken with paralysis, and now sits in
an invalid's chair at his home in Plainfield, New Jersey. His mind is
clear and his interest in wild-life protection is keen, but he is unable
to speak or to write. While he was active, he was one of the most
resourceful and fearless champions of the cause of the vanishing birds.
To him the farmers of America owe ten times more than they ever will
know, and a thousand times more than they ever will repay, either to him
or to his cause.
THE CAMP-FIRE CLUB OF AMERICA.--Although founded in 1897, this
organization did not, as an organization, actively enter the field of
protection until 1909. Since that time its work has covered a wide
field, and enlisted the activities of many of its members. In order to
provide a permanent fund for its work, each year the club members pay
special annual dues that are devoted solely to the wild-life cause. The
Committee on Game Protective Legislation and Preserves is a strong,
hard-working body, and it has rendered good service in the lines of
activity named in its title.
THE AMERICAN GAME PROTECTIVE AND PROPAGATION ASSOCIATION.--This is the
youngest protective organization of national scope, having been
organized in 1911. Its activities are directed by John B. Burnham, for
five years Chief Game Protector of the State of New York, and a man
thoroughly conversant with the business of protection. The organization
is financed chiefly by means of a large annual fund contributed by
several of the largest companies engaged in manufacturing firearms and
ammunition, whose directors feel that the time has come when it is both
wise and necessary to take practical measures to preserve the remnant of
American game. Already the activities of this organization cover a wide
range, and it has been particularly active in enlisting support for the
Weeks bill for the federal protection of migratory birds.
THE WILD LIFE PROTECTIVE ASSOCIATION came into existence in 1910, rather
suddenly, for the purpose of promoting the cause of the Bayne
no-sale-of-game bill, and other measures. It raised the fund that met
the chief expenses of that campaign. Since that time it has taken an
important part in three other hotly contested campaigns in other states,
two of which were successful.
At the present moment, and throughout the future, these New York
organizations need _large sums of money_ with which to meet the
legitimate expenses of active campaigns for great measures. They need
_some_ money from outside the state of New York! _Too much of the burden
of national campaigning has been and is being left to be borne by the
people of New York City_. This policy is growing monotonous. There is
every reason why Chicago, St. Louis, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Cleveland,
Philadelphia, Baltimore and Boston should each year turn $100,000 into
the hands of these well-equipped and well managed national organizations
whose officers know _how to get results_, all over our country.
Such organizations as these do not exist in other cities; and this is
very unfortunate. New Orleans should be a center of protectionist
activity for the South, San Francisco for the Pacific slope, and Chicago
for the Middle West. Will they not become so?
TWO INDEPENDENT WORKERS.--At the western edge of the delta of the
Mississippi there have arisen two men who loom up into prominence at an
outpost of the Army of Defense which they themselves have established.
For what they already have done in the creation of wild-fowl preserves
in Louisiana, Edward A. McIlhenny and Charles Willis Ward deserve the
thanks of the American People-at-large. An account of their splendid
activities, and the practical results already secured, will be found in
Chapter XXXVIII, on "Private Game Preserves," and in the story of Marsh
Island. Already the home of these gentlemen, Avery Island, Louisiana,
has become an important center of activity in wild-life protection.
* * * * *
CHAPTER XXVII
HOW TO MAKE A NEW GAME LAW
THE LINE OF ACTION.--In the face of a calamity, the saving of life and
property and the check of fire and flood depends upon good judgment and
quick action at the critical moment. In emergencies, the slow and
academic method will not serve. It is the run, the jump, the short cut
and the violent method that saves life. If a woman is drowning, the
sensible man does not wait for an introduction to her; nor does he run
to an acquaintance to borrow his boat, or stop to put on a collar and
necktie. He seizes the first boat that he can find, and breaks its lock
and chain if necessary; or, failing that, he plunges in without one.
When he reaches the imperiled party, he doesn't say, "Will you kindly
let me save you?" He seizes her by the hair, and tries to keep her head
above water, without ceremony.
That is to-day the condition and the treatment necessary regarding our
remnant of wild life. We are compelled to act quickly, directly, and
even violently at times, if we save anything worth while.
There is _no time_ to depend upon the academic "education" of the public
by the seductive illustrated lecture on birds, or the article about the
habits of mammals. Those methods are all well enough in their places,
but we must not depend upon them in emergencies like the present, for
they do not pass laws or arrest lawbreakers. Give the public all of that
material that you can supply, and the more the better, but for heaven's
sake _do not_ depend upon the spread of bird-lore "education" to stop
the work of the game-hogs! If you do, all the wild life will be
destroyed while the educational work is going on.
Often you can educate a gunner, and make him a protectionist; but you
never can do it by showing him pictures of birds. He needs strong
reasoning and exhortation, not bird-lore. To-day it is necessary to
employ the most direct, forceful and at times even rude methods. Where
slaughtering cannot be stopped by moral suasion, it must be stopped with
a hickory club. The thing to do is to _get results, and get them
quickly, before it is too late_!
If the business section of a town is burning down, no one goes into the
suburbs to lecture on architecture, or exhibit pictures of fire
apparatus. The rush is for water, fire-engines, red-blooded men and
dynamite. When the birds all around you are being shot to death by
poachers who fear not God nor regard man, and you need help to stop it
on the instant, run to your neighbor's house, and ring his bell. If he
fails to hear the bell, pound on his door until you jar the whole house.
When he comes down half-dressed, blinking and rubbing his eyes, shout
at him:
"Come out! Your birds are all being shot to pieces!"
"Are they?" he will say. "But what can _I_ do about it? I can't help it!
I'm no game warden."
"Put on your clothes, get your shot-gun and come out and drive off the
killing gang."
"But what good will that do? They will come back again."
"Not if we do our duty. We must have them arrested, and appear against
them in court."
"But," says the sleepy citizen, "That won't do much good. The laws are
not strict enough; and besides, they are not well enforced, even as they
are!"
"Then let's make it our business to see that the present laws are
enforced, and go to our members of the legislature, and have them pass
some stronger laws."
And this brings me to a very important subject:
* * * * *
HOW TO PASS A NEW LAW
We venture to say that the average citizen little realizes how possible
it is to secure the passage of a law that is clearly necessary for the
better protection of wild life and forests. Because of this, and of the
necessity for exact knowledge, I shall here set down specific
instructions on this subject.
THE PERSONAL EQUATION.--One determined man can secure the passage of a
good law, provided he is reasonably intelligent and sufficiently
determined. The man who starts a movement must make up his mind to
follow it up, direct its fortunes, stay with it when the storms of
opposition beat upon it, and never give up until it is signed by the
governor. He must be willing to sacrifice his personal convenience, many
of his pleasures, and work when his friends are asleep or pleasuring.
In working for the protection of wild life there is one mighty and
unfailing source of consolation. It is this:
_Your cause always gains in strength, and the cause of the destroyers
always loses strength!_
THE CHOICE OF A CAUSE.--Be broad-minded. Do not rush to the legislature
with a demand for a law to permit the taking of bull-heads with
June-bugs in the creeks of your township, or to give your county a
specially early open season on quail in order that your boy may try his
new gun before he goes back to college. _Don't propose any "local"
legislation_; for in progressive states, local game legislation is
coming strongly into disfavor,--just as it should! Legislate for your
whole state, and nothing less.
Do not bother your legislature with a trivial bill. Choose a cause that
is worth while to grown men, and it shall be well with you. It takes no
more time to pass a large bill than a small one; and big men prefer to
be identified with big measures.
Before you have a bill drawn, advise with men whose opinions are worth
having. If the end you have in mind is a great and good one, _go ahead_,
whether you secure support in advance or not. If the needs of the hour
clearly demand the measure, _go ahead_, even though you start absolutely
alone. A good measure never goes far without attracting company.
DRAFTING A BILL.--As a rule, the members of a legislative body do not
have time to draft bills on subjects that are new or strange to them. A
short bill is easily prepared by your own representative; but a lengthy
bill, covering a serious reform, is a different matter. Hire a lawyer to
draft the bill for you. A really good lawyer will not charge much for
drafting a bill that is to benefit the public, and grind no private axe;
but if the bill is long, and requires long study, even the good citizen
must charge something.
Your bill must fully recognize existing laws. It must be either
prohibitory or permissive; which means that it can say what shall not be
done, or else that which may be done according to law, all other acts
being forbidden. Your lawyer must decide which form is best. For my
part, I greatly prefer the prohibitive form, as being the stronger and
more impressive of the two. I think it is the province of the law _to
forbid_ the destruction of wild life and forests, under penalties.
PENALTIES.--Every law should provide a penalty for its infringement; but
the penalty should not be out of all proportion to the offense. It is
just as unwise to impose a fine of one dollar for killing song-birds for
food as it is to provide for a fine of three hundred dollars. A fine
that is too small fails to impress the prisoner, and it begets contempt
for the law and the courts! A fine that is altogether too high is apt to
be set aside by the court as "excessive." In my opinion, the best fines
for wild life slaughter would be as follows:
Shooting, netting or trapping song-birds, and other non-game
birds, each bird $5 to $25
Killing game birds out of season, each bird 10 to 50
Selling game contrary to law, each offense 100 to 200
Dynamiting fish 100 to 200
Seining or netting game fishes 50 to 200
Shooting birds with unfair weapons 10 to 100
Killing an egret, Carolina parakeet or whooping crane 100 to 200
Killing a mountain sheep or antelope anywhere in the U.S. 500
Killing an elk contrary to law 50
Killing a female deer, or fawn without horns, each offense 50
Trapping a grizzly bear for its skin 100
For killing a man "by mistake," the fine should be $500, payable in five
annual instalments, to the court, for the family of the victim.
Whenever fines are not paid, the convicted party should be sentenced to
imprisonment at hard labor at the rate of one-half day for each dollar
of the fine imposed; and a sentence at hard labor should be the _first
option of the court_! Many a rich and reckless poacher snaps his fingers
at fines; but a sentence to hard labor would strike terror to the heart
of the most brazen of them. To all such men, "labor" is the twin terror
to "death."
THE INTRODUCTION OF A BILL.--Much wisdom is called for in the selection
of legislative champions for wild-life bills. It is possible to state
here only the leading principles involved.
Of course it is best to look for an introducer within the political
party that is in the majority. A man who has many important bills on his
hands is bound to give his best attention to his own pet measures; and
it is best to choose a man who is not already overloaded. If a man has a
host of enemies, pass him by. By all means choose a man whose high
character and good name will be a tower of strength to your cause; and
if necessary, _wait for him to make up his mind_. Mr. Lawrence W.
Trowbridge waited three long and anxious weeks in the hope that Hon.
George A. Blauvelt would finally consent to champion the Bayne bill in
the New York Assembly. At last Mr. Blauvelt consented to take it up; and
the time spent in waiting for his decision was a grand investment! He
was the Man of all men to pilot that bill through the Assembly.
Very often the "quiet man" of a legislative body is a good man to
champion a new and drastic measure. The quiet man who makes up his mind
to take hold of "a hard bill to pass" often astonishes the natives by
his ability to get results. Representative John F. Lacey, of Iowa, made
his name a household word all over the United States by the quiet,
steady, tireless and finally resistless energy with which for three long
years in Congress he worked for "the Lacey bird bill." For years his
colleagues laughed at him, and cheerfully voted down his bill. But he
persisted. His cause steadily gained in strength; and his final triumph
laid the axe at the root of a thousand crimes against wild life,
throughout the length and breadth of this land. He rendered the people
of America a service that entitles him to our everlasting gratitude and
remembrance.
AFTER THE INTRODUCTION OF A BILL.--As soon as a bill is introduced it is
referred to a committee, to be examined and reported upon. If there is
opposition,--and to every bill that really does something worth while
there always is opposition,--then there is a "hearing." The committee
appoints a day, when the friends and foes of the bill assemble, and
express their views.
The week preceding a hearing is your busy week. You must plan your
campaign, down to the smallest details. Pick the men whom you wish to
have speak (for ten minutes each) on the various parts of your bill, and
divide the topics and the time between them. Call upon the friends of
the bill in various portions of the state to attend and "say something."
Go up with a strong body of fine men. _Have as many organizations
represented as you possibly can_! The "organizations" represent the
great mass of people, and the voters also.
When you reach the hearing, hand to your bill's champion, who will be
floor manager for your side, a clear and concise list of your speakers,
carefully arranged and stating who's who. That being done, you have only
to fill your own ten minutes and afterward enjoy the occasion.
THE VALUE OF ACCURACY.--It is unnecessary to say, in working for a
bill,--_always be sure of your facts_. Never let your opponents catch
you tripping in accuracy of statement. If you make one serious error,
your enemies will turn it against you to the utmost. Better understate
facts than overstate them. This shrewd old world quickly recognizes the
careful, conservative man whose testimony is so true and so rock-founded
that no assaults can shake it. Legislators are quick to rely on the
words and opinions of the man who can safely be trusted. If your enemies
try to overwhelm you with extravagant statements, that are unfair to
your cause, the chances are that the men who judge between you will
recognize them by their ear-marks, and discount them accordingly.
WORK WITH MEMBERS.--Sometimes a subject that is put before a legislative
body is so new, and the thing proposed is so drastic, it becomes
necessary to take measures to place a great many facts before each
member of the body. Under such circumstances the member naturally
desires to be "shown." The cleanest and finest campaigning for a reform
measure is that in which both sides deal with facts, rather than with
personal importunities. With a good cause in hand, it is a pleasure to
prepare concise statements of facts and conditions from which a
legislator may draw logical conclusions. Whenever a bill can be won
through in that way, game protection work becomes a delight.
In all important new measures affecting the rights and the property of
the whole people of a state, the conscientious legislator wishes to know
how the people feel about it. When you tell him that "The wild life
belongs to the whole people of the state; and this bill is in their
interest," he needs to know for certain that your proposition is true.
Sometimes there is only one way in which he can be fully convinced; and
that is by the people of his district.
Then it becomes necessary to send out a general alarm, and call upon the
People to write to their representatives and express _their_ views. Give
them, in printed matter, the _latest facts_ in the case, forecast the
future as you think it should be forecast, then demand that the men and
women who are interested do write to their senators and assemblyman, and
express _their_ views, in _their own way!_ Let there be no "machine
letters" sent out, all ready for signature; for such letters are a waste
of effort, and belong in the waste baskets to which they are quickly
consigned. The members of legislative bodies hate them, and rightly,
too. They want to hear from men who can think for themselves, give
reasons of their own, and express their desires in their own way.
THE PRESS AND THE NEWSPAPERS.--It is impossible to overestimate the
influence of the newspapers and the periodical press in general, in the
protection of wild life. But for their sympathy, their support and their
independent assaults upon the Army of Destruction, our game species
would nearly all of them have been annihilated, long ago. Editors are
sympathetic and responsive good-citizens, as keenly sensitive regarding
their duties as any of the rest of us are, and from the earliest times
of protection they have been on the firing line, helping to beat back
the destroyers. It is indeed a rare sight to see an editor giving aid,
comfort or advice to the enemy. I can not recall more than a score of
articles that I have seen or heard of during thirty years in this field
that opposed the cause of wild life protection.[K] At this moment, for
instance, I bear in particularly grateful remembrance the active
campaign work of the following newspapers:
[Footnote K: Just one hour after the above paragraph was written, a long
telegram from San Francisco advised me that the _Examiner_ of that city
had begun an active and aggressive campaign for the sale of all kinds of
game.]
The New York Times
The New York Tribune
The New York Herald
The New York Globe
The New York Mail and Express
The New York World
The New York Sun
The Springfield (Mass.) Republican
The Chicago Inter-Ocean
The San Francisco Call
The Rochester Union and Advertiser
The Victoria Colonist
The Brooklyn Standard-Union
The New York Evening Post
The New York Press
The Buffalo News
The Minneapolis Journal
The Pittsburgh Index-Appeal
The St. Louis Globe-Democrat
The Philadelphia North American
The Utica Observer
The Washington Star.
These magazines have done good service in the cause; and some of them
have spent many years on the firing line:
Forest and Stream
The American Field
Field and Stream
Recreation (old and new)
Rod and Gun in Canada
In the Open
Sports Afield
Western Field
Outdoor Life
Shield's Magazine
Sportsman's Review
Outing
Collier's Weekly
The Independent
Country Life
Outdoor World
Bird Lore
In campaigning, always appeal for the help of the newspapers. If there
are no private axes to grind, they help generously. The weekly journals
are of value, but the monthlies are printed so long in advance of their
dates of issue that they seldom move fast enough to keep abreast of the
procession. Their mechanical limitations are many and serious.
Every newspaper likes "exclusive" news, letters and articles. On that
basis they will print about all the live matter that you can furnish.
But at the same time, the important news of the campaign _must_ be sent
to the press broadcast, in the form of printed slips all ready for the
foreman. Many of these are never used, but the others are; and it pays.
The news in every slip must be vouched for by the sender, or it will not
be used. Often it will appear as a letter signed by the sender; which is
all right, only the news is most effective when printed without a
signature. Do not count on the Associated Press; because its peculiar
demands render it almost impossible for it to be utilized in game
protection work.
HOW TO MEET OPPOSITION.--There is no rule for the handling of opposition
that is fair and open. For opposition that is unfair and under-handed,
there is one powerful weapon,--Publicity. The American people love fair
play, and there is nothing so fatal to an unfair fighter as a
searchlight, turned full on him without fear and without mercy. If it is
reliably and persistently reported that some citizen who ought to be on
the right side has for some dark reason become active on the wrong side,
print the reports in a large newspaper, and ask him publicly if they are
true. If the reports are false, he can quickly come out in a letter and
say so, and end the matter. If they are true, the public will soon know
it, and act accordingly.
ETERNAL VIGILANCE.--The progress of a bill must be watched by some
competent person from day to day, and finally from hour to hour. I know
one bill that was saved from defeat only because its promoter dragged
it, almost by force, out of the hands of a tardy clerk, and accompanied
it in person to the senate, where it was passed in the last hour of a
session.
A bill should not be left to a long slumber in the drawer of a
committee. Such delays nearly always are dangerous.
SIGNING THE BILL.--The promoter of a great measure always seeks the
sympathy of the Chief Executive early in the day; but he should not make
the diplomatic error of trying to exact promises or pledges in advance.
Good judges do not give away their decisions in advance.
Because a Chief Executive remarks after a bill has been sent to him for
signing that he "cannot approve it," it is no reason to give up in
despair. Many an executive approval has been snatched at the last
moment, as a brand from the burning. _Ask for a hearing before the bill
is acted upon_. At the hearing, and before it and after, the People who
wish the bill to become a law must express themselves,--by letter, by
telegram, and by appeal in person. If the governor becomes convinced
that an _overwhelming majority_ of his people desire him to sign the
bill, _he will sign it_, even though personally he is opposed to it! The
hall mark of a good governor is a spirit of obedience to the will of the
great majority.
Not until your bill has been signed by the governor are you ready to go
home with a quiet mind, take off your armor, and put your ear to the
telephone while you hear some one say as your only reward,--"Well done,
good and faithful servant."
AS TO "CREDIT."--Do not count upon receiving any credit for what you do
in the cause of game protection, outside the narrow circle of your own
family and your nearest friends. This is a busy world; and the human
mind flits like a restless bird from one subject to another. The men who
win campaigns are forgotten by the general public, in a few hours! There
is nothing more fickle or more fleeting than the bubble called "popular
applause." Judging by the experiences of great men, I should say that it
has no substance, whatever. The most valuable reward of the man who
fights in a great cause, and helps to win victories, is the profound
satisfaction that comes to every good citizen who bravely does his whole
duty, and leaves the world better than he found it, without the
slightest thought of gallery applause.
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