Page 333 - Our Vanishing Wild Life

Wild duck
Plover
Quail
Grouse
Snipe
Woodcock
Rail •_ 419
191,376
They represented the last slaughterings of American game for New York. To-day the remaining plague-spots are Chicago, Philadelphia. San Francisco, Baltimore, Washington and New Oricans; but in New Orieans the brakes have at last (1912) been applied, and the market slaughter that formerly prevailed in that state has at least been checked.
As an instance of persistent market shooting on the greatest ducking
:
NEW GAME LAWS THAT ARE NEEDED 311
3.—Because when the sale of game was permitted one dealer was able "to sell 1,000,000 game birds per year in New York City, so he himself
said.
4 —Because it is a fixed fact that every wild species of mammal, bird
or reptile that is pursued for money-making purposes eventually is wiped outofexistence. Eventhewhalesoftheseaarenoexception.
5 —Because at least 50 per cent of the decrease in our feathered garne is due to market-gunning, and the sale of game. Look at the prairie chicken of the Mississippi' Valley, and the ruffed grouse of New England.
6.—Because the laws that permit the commercial slaughter of wild birds for the benefit of less than five per cent of the inhabitants of any state are directly against the interest of the 95 per cent of other people, to who}yi that game partly belongs.
7 —Because game killed "for sale" is not intended to satisfy "hun- ger." Thepeoplewhoeatgameinlargecitiesdonotknowwhathunger is,savebyhearsay. Purchasedgameisusedchieflyinover-feeding;and as a rule it does far more harm than good.
8 —Because the greatest value to be derived from any game bird is in seeing it, and photographing it, and enjoying its living company in its nativehaunts. Whowilllovetheforestswhentheybecomedestituteof wild life, and desolate?
9.—Because stopping the sale of game will help bring back the game birds to us, in a few years.
10. —Because the pace that New York and Massachusetts have set in this matter will render it easier to procure the passage of Bayne laws in other states.
11 —Because those who legitimately desire game for their tables can be supplied from the game farms and preserves that now are coming into
existence.
When New York's far-reaching Bayne bill became a law, the follow-
ing dead birds lay in cold storage in New York City
98,156 48,780 14,227 21,202
7,825 767