Page 301 - Our Vanishing Wild Life

NEW LAWS NEEDED IN THE STATES 279
If the people of Idaho wish to save their wild fauna, they must be up anddoing. Thetimetotemporize,theorize,beconservativeandeasy- goinghasgoneby. Itisthatfatalpolicythatcausesmentoslumber until it is too late to act; and we will watch with keen interest to see whether the real men of Idaho are big enough to do their whole duty in time to benefit their state.
In 1910, Dr. T. S. Palmer credited Idaho with the possession of about five hundred moose and two hundred antelope.
There is one feature of the Idaho game law that may well stand un- changed. Theopenseasonon"ibex,"ofwhichoneperyearmaybe killed,mayaswellbecontinued. Onemythperyearisnotanextravagant bag for any intelligent hunter; and it seems that the "ibex " will not down. Being officially recognized by Idaho, its place in our fauna now seems
assured.
Illinois:
Enact a Bayne law, and stop tlie sale of all native wild game, regardless of source, and regardless of the gay revelers of Chicago.
InIllinoisthebaglimitsonbirdsarenearlyallatleastoOpercenttoohigh. They should be as follows: No squirrels, doves or shore birds; six quail, five woodcock, ten coots, ten rail, ten ducks, three geese and three brant, with a total limit of ten waterfowl per day.
Doves should be removed from the game list.
All tree squirrels and chipmunks should be perpetually protected, as companions to man, unfit for food.
The sale of aigrettes should be stopped, and Chicago placed in the same class as Boston, New York, New Orleans and San Francisco.
The use of all machine shotguns in hunting should be prohibited.
The chief plague-spots for the grinding up of American game are Chicago, Philadelphia, Baltimore, New Orleans and San Francisco. St.Louisclearedherrecordin1909. NewYorkthoroughlycleanedher Augean stable in 191 1, and Massachusetts won her Bayne law by a desper- atebattlein1912. In1913,PennsylvaniaprobablywillenactaBayne law.
Fancy a city in the center of the United States sending to Norway for 1,500 ptarmigan, to eat, as Chicago did in 1911; and that was only one
order.
^^— For forty years the marshes, prairies, farms and streams of the whole Upper Mississippi Valley have been combed year after year by the guns ofthemarketshooters. Oftenthemigratorygamewaslocatedbytele- graphic reports. Game birds were slain by the wagon-load, boat-load, barrel,andcar-load,"fortheChicagomarket." Andthefoolfarmersof the Middle West stoHdly plowed their fields and fed their hogs, and per- mittedtheslaughtertogoon. To-daythesonsofthosefarmersgoto the museums and zoological parks of the cities to see specimens of pin- nated grouse, crane, woodcock, ducks and other species that the market shooters have "wiped out"; and their fathers wax eloquent in telling of the flocks of pigeons that "darkened the sky," and the big droves of