Page 114 - Our Vanishing Wild Life

92 OUR VANISHING WILD LIFE
and it is in response to that sentiment that thousands of people are to- day 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 Com- mission to throw extra protection around any species that has been slaughtered too much by snow or by firearms, by closing the open sea- sonaslongasmaybenecessary. CantherebeinallAmericaevenone thinking, reasoning being who can not see the justice and also the im- perative 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 beimpossibletobringitback. Bewise;andtakethoughtforthemor- row. Remembertheheathhen.
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, in- volving 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 occured practically all along their east-and-west line of migration, from Arkansas to the AtlanticCoast. Inplacesthespeciesseemedalmostexterminated;and it was several years ere it recovered to a point even faintly approximat- ing 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 sucession, 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 head- way 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,