Page 68 - Our Vanishing Wild Life

46 OUR VANISHING WILD LIFE
Prince Edward Island:
(Reported by E. T. Carbonell): Eskimo curlew, horned grebe, ring-billed gull,
Caspian tern, passenger pigeon, Wilson's petrel, wood-duck, Barrow's golden-eye, whistling swan, American eider, white-fronted goose, purple sandpiper, Canada grouse, long-eared owl, screech owl, black-throated bunting, pine warbler, red-necked grebe, purple martin and catbird; beaver, black fox, silver gray fox, marten and black bear.
Quebec: Pigeon.
Saskatchewan : Pigeon; bison.
Birds and Mammals Threatened with Extinction
The second question submitted in my inquiry produced results even more startling than the first. None of the persons reporting can be regarded as alarmists, but some of the lists of species approaching extinction are appallingly long. To their observations I add other notes and observations of interest at this time.
Alabama :
Wood-duck, snowy egret, woodcock. "The worst enemy of wild life is the pot-
hunterandgamehog. Thesewholesaleslaughterersofgameresorttoanydevice and practice, it matters not how murderous, to accomplish the pernicious ends of theirnefariouscampaignofrelentlessexterminationoffurandfeather. Theycannot be controlled by local laws, for these after having been tried for several generations have proven consummate failures, for the reason that local authorities will not enforce the provisions of game and bird protective statutes. Experience has demonstrated the fact that no one desires to inform voluntarily on his neighbors , and since breaking the game law is not construed to involve moral turpitude, even to an infinitesimal degree, by many of our citizens, the plunderers of nature's storehouse thus go free, it matters not how great the damage done to the people as a whole." —(John H. Wal- lace, Jr., Game Commissioner of Alabama.)
Alaska :
Thanks to geographic and climatic conditions, the Alaskan game laws and $15,000
with which to enforce them, the status of the wild life of Alaska is fairly satisfactory. Ithinkthatatpresentnospeciesisindangerofextinctioninthenearfuture. When it was pointed out to Congress in 1902, by Madison Grant, T. S. Palmer and others that the wild life of Alaska was seriously threatened. Congress immediately enacted the law that was recommended, and now appropriates yearly a fair sum for its enforce- ment. IregardtheAlaskansituationasbeing,forsovastanddifficultaregion,rea- sonably well in hand, even though open to improvement.
There is one fatal defect in our Alaskan game law, in the perpetual and sweeping licensetokill,thatisbestowedupon"natives"and"prospectors." Undercoverof this law, the Indians can slaughter game to any extent they choose; and they are great killers. For example: In 1911 at Sand Point, Kenai Peninsula, Frank E. Klein- schmidt saw 82 caribou tongues in the boat of a native, that had been brought in for sale at 50 cents, while the carcasses were left where they fell, to poison the air of Alaska. Thankstothegamelaw,andfivewardens,thenumberofbiggameanimals killed last year in Alaska by sportsmen was reasonably small,—just as it sh;uld have been.—(W. T. H.)
Arizona :
During an overland trip made by Dr. MacDougal and others in 1907 from Tucson
to Sonoyta, on the international boundary, 150 miles and back again, we saw not one antelope or deer.—(W. T. H.)