Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1910-08-13

which counts heavily IN determining
whether a crop shall be large or
small: of good or of inferior quality.
PROTECTING THE PRAIRIE
CHICKEN.
With the opening of the hunting
season near at hand and the experts
and amateurs alike polishing up their
guns and giving the dog more kind
words than he has heard since last
year, a recent talk on prairie chick
ems by G. O. Shields, president of
the League of American Sportsmen,
is Of partiscular interest. Like all
true sportsmen, Mr.. Shields is deeply
worried over the scarcity of game
birds that is growing more noticeable
every year. He says:
The prairie chicken, one OF the
most interesting, beautiful and valu'
able of all our American game birds,
is on the verge of determination. 1t
is following the wild pigeon into o.
lyion as rapidly as that bird went
in the seventies. The prairie chick
en- is practically extinct now in sew
eral western states where formerly
II was abundant-lllinois, Iowa ana
Wisconsin, for instance. There are
not more than 10 per cent OF the
number OF these birds in the west
that there were twenty years ago.
when they were common.
The prairie chicken is one OF the
most industrious bug eaters in this
country. Throughout the spring, sum-
mer and autumn it feeds on grass
hoppers, potato bugs, crickets, beetles
and other insects that prey on the
farmers crops. From statistics COM
uiled by the government, we learn
that the farmers of this country are
losing more than a billion dollars a
wear nv reason of the ravages OF in
Nsects. and these bugs are here aad
are doing this appalling amount OF
damage because the birds which ma
ture mt here to eat the bugs have
been killed off.
Vet this bird, this industrious bug
eater. has been hunted so persistently
that it has been almost wiped off the
man. Hunting seasons have been
shortened from time to time, the num-
her of birds allowed to each shooter
per day has been reduced, but popuia'
tion has grown, multiplied and massed
in the states where prairie chickens
are native. So.called improvements
have been made in firearms and am
munition. The murdcrous pump gun
and the still more murderous auto
matte shotgun have been evolved.
There are a hundred men who go
after prairie chickens today where
there was only one twenty-five or
thirty years ago in any Of the western
states.
If all the states which still have
prairie chickens left would set aside
few townships in each county on
which no shooting should be allowed
at any time and then enforce such
laws, the prairie chicken could be
saved. The people would soon learn
to respect such laws, for they would
realize that the birds would increase
RAPIDLY on these protected areas and
the surplus would overflow on the sur
rounding country and afford good
shooting for those who want to kill.
On the other hand, the birds would
soon learn where they were safe from
persecution, and large numbers OF
them at least would do their nesting
and feeding and breeding on the
grounds where there would be no
shooting.
Such refugees would not only be
valuable for the preservation OF the
prairie chickens, but in some OF the
states for quail as we'll. On such pre-
served territory certain species OF
ducks would nest, and within five
years these refugees would become
Measure resorts for the people, for
it would be delightful experience
for men, women and children to drive
or walk through these protected sec
lions and study the bird life that
would become abundant there.