Page 409 - Our Vanishing Wild Life

DUTY OF ZOOLOGISTS AND EDUCATORS 387
neglecting and partly refusing to move upon the works of the enemy. For sixty years, with the exception of the non-game-bird law, as a class and a mass they have left to the sportsmen of the country the dictating of laws for the protection of all the game birds, the mammals and the game fishes. When we stop to consider that the game birds alone em- brace 154 very important species, the appalling extent to which the zool- ogist has abdicated in favor of the sportsman becomes apparent.
It is a very great mistake, and a wrong besides, for the zoologists of the country to abandon the game birds, mammals and fishes of North America to the sportsmen, to do with as they please ! Yet that is practic- ally what has been done.
The time was, thirty or forty years ago, when wild life was so abun- dantthatwedidnotneedtoworryaboutitspreservation. Thatwasthe goldeneraofstudyandinvestigation. Thateraendeddefinitelyin1884, with the practical extermination of the wild American bison, partly through the shameful greed and partly through the neglect of the American people. WearenowlivingintheviiddleoftheperiodofExtermination! The questions for every American zoologist and every sportsman to an- swer now are : Shall the slaughter of species go on to a quick end of the period? Shall we give posterity a birdless, gameless, fishless continent, ornot? Shallwehavecloseseasons,alloverthecountry,forfiveorten years, or for five hundred years?
If we are courageous, we will brace up and answer these questions now,likemen. Ifwearefaint-hearted,andeagerforpeaceatanyprice, then we will sidestep the ugly situation until the destroyers have settled it for us by the wholesale extermination of species.
If the zoologist cares to know, then I will tell him that to-day the wild life of the world can be saved by law, but not by sentiment alone! You cannot "educate" a poacher, a game-hog, a market-gunner, a mil- lineroravainandfoolishwomanoffashion. Allthesemustbecurbed and controlled by law. Game refuges alone will not save the wild life! All species of birds, mammals and game fishes of North America must have more thorough and far-reaching protection than they now have.
Do not always take your cue froni the sportsmen, especially regarding the enactment of long close sca.sons! If you need good advice, or help about drafting a bill, write to Dr. T. S. Palmer, Department of Agricul- ture, Washington, and you will receive prompt and valuable assistance. The Doctor is a wise man, and there is nothing about protective laws thatisunknowntohim. Gotoyoiirstatesenatorandyourassemblyman with the bills that you know should be enacted into law, and assure them that those measures are necessary for the wild life, and beneficial to 98 per cent of the people who own the wild life. You will be heard with respectful attention, in any law-making body that you choose to enter.
People who cannot give time and labor must supply you with money for your campaigns. Ask, and you will receive! I have proven this manv times. With care and exactness account to vour subscribers for