The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1907-01-19
SAVE TIE WILD FOWLS.

TOT uuulDcI VI years tdCAC Aoo
been a growing tendency on the part
of legislators to make some effort to
protect and preserve the wild fowl OF
America. The matter has been sub
ject Of study by the Agricultural De-
partment, and many valuable sugges-
tions have been made by those in
charge. OF the general subject Mr..
WelIes w. Cooke, a recognized au-
thority on birds and game, has this
to say
Passing by the purely esthetic
value of the birds as beautiful and
welcome denizens of our waters and
as lending the charm of life and ami
nation to our otherwise desolate
ponds and lakes passing by, too, the
importance to thousands of men who
are lured from business care to pursue
them and who derive from their
pursuit both health and pleasure,
their economic value and importance
as food are very great. The flesh is
not only palatable and nutritious, but
is so different from that Of domestic
fowl as to form welcome addition to
the table both of the rich and the poor.
80 rapidly are some species dimin-
ishing in numbers in certain States
that the market supply is already
threatened, and Minnesota has found
it necessary to pass laws prohibiting
not only the export of ducks, but even
their sale within the State limits.
Such radical legislation in State
where only few years since water
fowl abounded on every lake and
waterway reveals how imminent is
the danger and how pressing the
value and importance of prohibitive
laws, and it becomes evident that, if
any considerable number of water
fowl are to be preserved, spring shoot
ing must be abolished and the sale of
wild fowl limited to the States where
killed.
"The enforcement of moderately
stringent protective laws, however,
and the establishment of preserves in
the States where waterfowl can be
sure of shelter and safety are likely
to result not only in averting the
threatened extinction of certain spe-
cies, but in the increase Of all water
fowl to point somewhere near their
recent abundance. Should the les
sons of the past be unheeded and pro-
lection be withheld for a few years
then measures of the most radical
kind will be necessary.
'sOf the sixty-four species and sub
species OF ducks, geese and swans
which occur in North America north
of Mexico, twenty-four breed in the
United States. The species most i'm
portant to us are the wood duck, NAL
lard, black duck, teal, canvasback,
redhead and Canada goose. Several
of these species breed only in the
Northern States, but the cinnamon
teal and ruddy duck nest as far south
as Southern California, and the wood
duck breeds almost everywhere
throughout the United States, and,
moreover, the great bulk of this
species winters within our boundaries.
1T is a sad commentary on our
present system of game protection
that the wood duck, one of the hand
soonest of our native birds and one
whose breeding range is almost en-
tirely within our boundaries, is the
species which has suffered most. So
persistently has this duck been pur-
sued that in some sections it has been
practically exterminated. Even in
States in which it still breeds COM
monty, as in Delaware and Maryland
on the Atlantic coast and in Illinois
in the Mississippi Valley, public SEN
timent fails to recognize the import
ance Of adequately protecting the bird
and the laws still permit it to be de-
stroyed late in the spring. As result
the wood duck is constantly diminish
ing in numbers, and soon is likely to
be known only from books or by tradi-
ton.
Mr.. Cooke urges that wherever
waterfowl already breed, or where
the conditions are such as to favor
their remaining during the summer,
every effort should be made to in
crease the number of breeding birds
by adequate protection both in the
spring and during the nesting season,
and, wherever possible, game refugees
or preserves for breeding purposes
should be established. He further
says that protective laws in one State
will not accomplish the great purpose,
unless they are supplemented by laws
in other States. He further says:
"The problem of legal protection Of
ducks, geese and swans has two
phases-protection during the breed
ing season and protection during mi
grafton and in winter. The first
phase concerns twenty-four species OF
ducks breeding in the United States,
while forty-six species come under
the head of winter residents of the
United States. 1t thappens. however,
that from the economic point of view
the twenty-four species of ducks and
geese that breed in the United States
comprise the most important North
American species; among this num-
Der also are all the species that at the
present time need protection while
breeding Of the twenty-four species,
FIVE are numerically unimportant and
are confined to the southern portions
Of the United States and southwark,
so that they are of little importance
for the market and as objects of sport.
These FIVE are the Florida duck. mot
tied duck, masked duck, black -bellied
tree duck and fulvous tree duck.
The principal causes of the diminish
ed numbers of waterfowl have been
market hunting, spring shooting and
the destruction of breeding grounds
for farming purposes. Previous to
twenty years ago market hunting
was the principal factor in the steady