The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1913-12-14


COL. JOSEF
the last Congress. 1t will be well for
the people everywhere to understand that
| birds which do not remain the whole year
through within the borders of a State
have been brought within the shelter
Of the national government
Most of the game birds, though pro-
tected by some States, have now the ad-
ditiOnal protection of the United States.
Certain game birds, including band
tailed pigeons, sandhill and whooping
cranes. swans, curlew, and all shore
birds, except black-breasted and golden
plover. jacksnipe, woOdcock, and yellow
legs, cannot be shot at all until after
September l. 1918. They are rapidly be-
coming extinct and are to be permitted
to rehabiIitate themselves.
THE law in its details and broader
sense is of interest to sportsmen and
market hunters. They ought to study
it closely. Persons who do not hunt
should know, considering the law in its
common aspects, that il is a misdemeanOT
to kill any kind of a song or inseCtivor-
Gus bird at any time or in any manner.
The robin in ones doorysrd has, II might
be said, the flag of the nation over its
head. 1t belongs to nobody but is a free
moving deniZen of the country and no
one has right to take its life
You have always been a sportsman
YOURSELF" said
Shooting has been my recreation ever
since boyhood. Some men like horses
and some like cards, / have no fault to
find with them. My pleasure, however.
lies in the fields and woods. Much of my
life has been spent out of doors. But
never killed wantonly. 1 shot moderately
when / went after birds. When 1 fished
/ used to hook and not a seine.
THE enormous and reckless butchery
of game, especially birds, aroused my
Indignation years ago. Northern dealers
syndicated many parts of the South.
They bargained with country mer-
chants, who, in turn, bargained with the
sons of farmers. Cartridges would be
supplied the boys free of charge and they
would comb the fields for quails, getting
$40 a dozen for all they killed The
quails brought s. a dozen in the markets
of large Northern cities Profits in the
business were big, you see, but not for
the boys.
The Wild Slaughter of Ducks.
Then I learned by personal experience
what was going on in the Big Lake re-
gion of northeastern Arkansas Two
market hunters told me that they often
killed eco ducks in a day. One hundred
thousand geese and ducks were sent to
market each season from that section
alone. Great consignments of birds
would be shipped to the North. The
weather would change and the game,
spelling, would be thrown away.
Moreover, robins in those days were
killed for food. Going South in the win
ter, they roasted in cedar thickets,
where they were hunted by men carry
ing torches. The light made the birds
helpless and the men knocked them on
the heads with sticks. As many as
1000 birds would be killed in that way
at a single roosting place in one night.
Such waste of life and brutality caused
me actively to interest myself in the
preservation of our native game birds
Sport, not spoil; pleasure, not profit, 1
thought. ought to be the platform of all
men who hunt. / have said more than
once that the birds of the air and the
game Of the woods are all for mans
use
1T is a maudlin sentimentality which
argues that wild animals and birds
should not be killed. 1t is only when kill
ing is likely to exterminate a species
that II should be prohibited. Song birds
and certain insectivorous birds, however,
should never be killed. And spring shoot
ing, of game birds ought to be stopped
What birds" asked, have become
1.-THE wild pigeon, as all of us know.
has disappeared. Any one with a gun
could kill wild pigeons by the hundred |
Fired into once, they would fly a short |
distance and then return to give the
hunter another chance. Many insect /
eating birds were fast being entirely kin. f,
ed on by commercial hunters, who sold
the feathers of such birds to manufac- |
turing milliners. Fortunately, public
sentiment, going forward by leaps and
bounds on the subject of wild life preser- |
vation, has compelled the enactment of |
protective laws in most of the States |
Forty-four States have game commits
sioners or wardens. New York has 125 /
salaried game protectors Georgia has
rs county wardens and 200 deputy war
iens. The slaughter of our birds has
been checked, but it has not. been stop
ped"
Market Hunters and Game Hogs.
''The claim is made that the country
would be eaten up by insects were it not
or the biIds?'' / said.
Enthusiasts. know, have given such
! warning in print and by voice. 1
would be more conservative and say that
many million dollars worth of property
would be destroyed annually by insects
{ birds, the allies of man in protecting
rees, orchards and growing crops. were
o eniigrate to another country or be-
ome extinct Man and the birds CON-