Page 295 - Our Vanishing Wild Life

STATE ROLL-CALL FOR NEW LAWS 273
guides. Ofprong-hornedan- telope, several bands remain, but it is reported that they are steadily diminishing. The herds and herders of domestic sheep are blamed for the decrease, and I have no doubt they deserve it. The sheep and their cham- pions are the implacable enemies of all wild game, and before them the game van- ishes, everywhere.
The lawmakers of Color- ado have tried hard to pro- vide adequate statutes for the protection of the wild life of the state. In fact, I think that no state has put forth greater or more elab- orate efforts in that direc- tion. For example, in 1899, under the leadership of Judge
D. C. Beaman of Denver, '
Coloradoinitiatedthe' more game movement," by enact- ing a very elaborate law pro- viding for the establishment of private game preserves and farms for the breeding of game under state license, and the tagging and sale of preserve-bred game under state supervision.
The history of game de-
struction in Colorado is a
repetition of the old, old story,—plenty of laws, but a hundred times too many hunters, killing the game both according to law and contrary to it, anddoingitfivetimesasfastasthegamecouldbreed. Thatcombina- tion can safely be warranted to wipe out the wild life of any country in the world, and accomplish it right swiftly.
Asabig-gamecountry,Coloradoisdistinctlyoutoftherunning. Her people are too lawless, and her frontiersmen are, in the main, far too selfish to look upon plenteous game without going after it. Some of these days, a new call of the wild will arise in Colorado, demanding an open seasononmountainsheep. Thosewhodemanditwillsay,"Whatharm will it do to kill a few surplus bucks ? It will impro\'e the breed, and make the herds increase faster!"
BAND-TAILED PIGEON
OftenMistakenforthePassengerPigeon. TherapidSlaughter of this Species has Alarmed the Ornithologists of California, who now fear its Extinction