Page 55 - Our Vanishing Wild Life

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CANDIDATES FOR OBLIVION 33
class it as "game," and shoot it to death, to eat! And this in stall-fed America, in the twentieth century ! Americans arc the only white people in the world who eat squirrels. It would be just as reasonable, and no more barbarous, to kill domestic cats and eat them. Their flesh would taste quite as good as squirrel flesh and some of them would afford quite as good "sport."
Every intelligent person knows that in the United wStates the deadly shot-gun is rapidly exterminating every bird and every small mammal that is classed as "game," and which legally may be killed, even during twomonthsofthetwelve. Themarketgunnersslaughterducks,grouse, shore birds and rabbits as if we were all starving.
The beautiful gray squirrel has clung to life in a few of our forests .and wood-lots, long after most other wild mammals have disappeared; but throughout at least ninety-five per cent, of its original area, it is now extinct. DuringthepastthirtyyearsIhaveroamedthewoodsofmy state in several widely separated localities,—the Adirondacks, Catskills, Berkshires, western New York and elsewhere, and in all that time I
have seen only three wild gray squirrels outside of city parks.
Except over a very small total area, the gray squirrel is already gone from the wild fauna of New York State
Do the well-fed people of America wish to have this beautiful animal entirely exterminated ? Do they wish the woods to become wholly life- less? Or,dotheydesiretobringbacksomeofthewildcreatures,and keep them for their children to enjoy?
There is no wild mammal that responds to protection more quickly than the gray squirrel. In two years' time, wild specimens that are set free in city parks learn that they are safe from harm and become almost fearless. Theytakefoodfromthehandsofvisitors,andclimbintotheir arms. One of the most pleasing sights of the Zoological Park is the enjoyment of visitors, young and old, in "petting " our wild gray squirrels.
We ask the Boy Scouts of America to bring back this animal to each state where it belongs, by securing for it from legislatures and governors theperpetualclosedseasonsthatitimperativelyneeds. Itisnotmuch to ask. This can be done by writing to members of the legislatures and requestingasuitablelaw. Sucharequestwillbebothrightandreason- able; and three states have already granted it.
The gray squirrel is naturally the children's closest wild-animal friend. Surely every farmer boy would like to have colonies of gray squirrels around him, to keep him company, and furnish him with entertainment. A wood-lot without squirrels and chipmunks is indeed a lifeless place. For $20 anyone can restock any bit of woods with the most compan- ionable and most beautiful tree-dweller that nature has given us.
The question now is, which will you choose—a gray squirrel colony to every farm, or lifeless desolation ?
We ask every American to lend a hand to save Silver- Tail.