The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-03-26
L. T. Christian of Richmond, told

L. T. Christian of Richmond, told
how the Virginia Legislature had
driven away wild geese.
Virginia" said he, permitted hunt
ers to shoot wild geese at night in the
month of March. They fired two or
three shots and the geese went away
md never returned"
E. H. Forbush, Ornithologist Of
Massachusetts, called attention to i'm
pressive evidence Of the extinction Of
many birds along the Atlantic sea-
board, such as the great aux, the Lab
rador duck. swans, passenger pigeons,
Eskimo curlews, golden plovers and
upland plovers
Salem D. Charles of Boston declared
he had been feeding about $50 black
duck and mallards on Jamaica pond
in Massachusetts, this year.
Il have row with my wife once
in a WHILE" he said, because I steal
too much of her bread, but I get it
all right and feed those ducks down
there and keep them in a little spot.
They had been driven off the coast
to this little pond, and that, you know,
Is inside the city of Boston, automo-
biles going right alongside of it, and
electric cars and brickyards around it,
but those ducks have become so tame
they will come to me to get their
food.''
DR.. W. T. Hornaday of New York
OcSCIIUeU the SiduSHtor OIL IHIgTdlOTy
song birds in the South as appalling,
circumstance which deeply concerns
farmers and fruit growers
1T Is a matter of undlsputed rec
ord" said he, that upward of 500, 900
shotguns, the great majority of which
sell at less than S., are annually sold
in the united States. In addition to
this the annual output of shot and
cartridges is not less than 5000, 600.
Each year a grand army of destroy
erS armed with deadly weapons takes
the field against wild life and in many
localities the slaughter is continued all
the year round. The annual slaugh-
ter of robins in the South is an out
RAGE and it is a disgrace to a civilized
nation.''
Gilbert Pearson of New York city.
secretary of the National Association
of Audubon Societies, declared that at
Currituck Sound, North Carolina, alone
there were about 400 men who made
their living shooting ducks and geese
Conservatively estimated 100000 wild
fowl are killed every year in this
Sound and shipped North.
Mr.. Pearson 0sclared the canva shack
duck was doomed unless the Federal
Government took some steps to pro-
tect it. Mr. Pearson declared the
farmers ought to wake uD and realize
the vital interest they had in the pres
ervation of bird life. He declared the
crop of single dove that had been
examined recently contained 5000 weed
seeds and another 5000 weed seeds.
IF you had let those weed seeds
grow" said Mr.. Pearson, you would
have had more weeds. Mr. Chairman,
than old Uncle Jake could cut down
on your planation.'
James Sheldon of the Boone and
Crockett Club of New York city asked
the members of the committee if they
realized what an engine of destruction
the automobile was for game birds
He could remember the time when not
more than two men would go out from
Southampton, L. l., to shoot sora birds
when the season opened, They would
have to go out at night, put up in a
little cabin and get out at daylight.
But last summer said Mr. Shell
don, mo less than thirty-eight men
went down from Southampton, thirty
miles away. in their automobiles, get
ting up before daylight, their cJlauf-
feurs or Wallets furnishing them brea k
fast in the car, and by daylight in
stead of two.men shooting down there,
there were thirty-eight.''
A determined effort will be made to
push one of the bills throuel1 Congress
at this session, but ii is acknowledged
that the proposed legislation will meet
with considerable opposition, especially
In the South