Page 25 - Our Vanishing Wild Life

FORMER ABUNDANCE
3
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 omni- present animal, and the supply of good meat that each white flag repre- sented, the commissariat difficulties of the settlers who won the country as far westward as Indiana would have been many times greater than theywere. ThebackwoodsPilgrim'sprogresswaslikethis:
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 Ainericans and pseudo-Americans, who remember with any feeling of gratitude the part played in American history by the white-tailed deer? Veryfew! HowmanyAmericansarethereinourlandwhonovv* preserve that deer for sentimental reasons, and because his forbears were nation-builders? Asamatteroffact,arethereany?
On ever}^ eastern pioneer's monument, the white-tailed deer should figure; andonthoseoftheGreatWest,thebisonandtheantelopeshould be cast in enduring bronze, ''lest we forget!''
The game birds of America played a different part from that of the deer,antelopeandbison. Intheearlydays,shotgunswerefew,andshot wasscarceanddear. Thewildturkeyandgoosewerethesmallestbirds 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 dis- appeared from the eastern United States while the game birds yet re- mainedabundant. Withthedisappearanceofthebiggamecamethe 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 sweptawaytowardoffstarvationortorescuetheperishing. Evenback 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 keepthehungerwolffromthedoor. Theprocesswastooslowandun- certain; and besides, the really-poor man rarely had the gun and am- munition. 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 appetities 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. Con- necticut). 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