Page 299 - Our Vanishing Wild Life

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NEW LAWS NEEDED IN THE STATES 277
In the destruction of wild life, I think the backwoods population of Florida is the most lawless and defiant that can be found anywhere in theUnitedStates. The"plume-hunters"have])racticallyexterminated the plume-bearing egrets, wholly annihilated the roseate spoonbill, the flamingo,andalsotheCarolinaparrakect. OnJuly8,1905,oneofthem killed an Audubon Association Warden, Guy M. Bradley, whose business it was to enforce the state laws protecting the egret rookeries. The people really to blame for the shooting of Guy Bradley, and the exter- mination of the egrets by lawless and dangerous men, are the vain and merciless women who wear the "white badges of cruelty " as long as they can be purchased ! They have much to answer for
Originall3^ Florida was alive with bird life. For number of species, abundance of individuals, and general dispersal throughout the whole state, I think no other state in America except possibly California ever possessed a bird fauna quite comparable with it. Once its bird life was oneofthewondersofAmerica. Butthegunnersbeganearlytoshoot, andshoot,andshoot. Duringthefifteenyearspreceding1898,thegeneral birdlifeofFloridadecreasedinvolume77percent. In1900itwasata verylowpoint,andithassteadilycontinuedtodecrease. Therapidly- growing settlement and cultivation of the state has of course had much to do with the disappearance of wild life generally, and the draining and exploitation of the Everglades will about finish the birds of southern Florida.
The brown pelicans' breeding-place on Pelican Island, in Indian River, has been taken in hand by the national government as a bird refuge, anditsmarvelousspectacleofpelicanlifeisnowprotected. Nineother islands on the coast of Florida have been taken as national bird refuges, and will render posterity good service.
The great private game and bird preserve of Dr. Ray V. Pierce, at Apalachicola, known as St. Vincent Island, containing twenty square miles of wonderful woods and waters, is performing an important func- tion for the state and the nation.
The Forida bag limit on quail is entirely too liberal. I know one man who never once exceeded the limit of twenty birds per day, but in the season of 1908-9 he killed 86j quail! Can the quail of an}' state long endure such drains as that?
Fromazoologicalpointofview,Floridaisinbadshape. Agreat many of her people who shoot are desperately lawless and uncontrollable, and the state is not financially able to support a force of wardens suffi- ciently strong to enforce the laws, even as they are. It looks as if the slaughterwouldgoontmtilnothingofbirdliferemains. AtpresentI can see no hope whatever for saving even a good remnant of the wild life of the state.
The present status of wild-life protective laws in Florida was made the subject of an article in Forest and Stream of August 10, 1912, by John H. Wallace, Jr., Game Commissioner of the State of Alabama, in an articleentitled"TheFloridaSituation." Inviewofhisrecord,noone