The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1916-08-28
SAVE GAME BIRDS OF AMERICA
Federal Authorities Approve Limita,
tations on Shooting.


public by the United States depart
ment of agriculture, after its approval
of recommendation by the federal ad
visory committee on the migratory
bird law. The committee met in New
York August Z to draft recommends
tiCns to the department. 1t was APP
pointed by d. F. Houston, Secretary OF
Agriculture, to cooperate with the
bureau of biological survey of the de-
partment. A statement issued by the
committee sets forth the danger that
wild game may be eXterminated, and
appeals for public cooperation in sup
port of the "tardy movements for con-
servationr" The statement includes
the following:
The advisory committee has tried
to conserve both game and sport. 1t
has been unable to make all the con-
cessions asked. Game is fast vanish
ing, and some species OF it have al
ready become extinct. Others are up
on the verge of determination, facili-
ties for killing it rapidly improve. The
number Of Z hunters constantly in
creases. State laws are in many in
stances inadequate, and in others feeb-
ly enforced. In the judgment of the
committee there will be little game
left in the United States within very
few years unless the regulations I'M
der the federal law are enforced and
respected
Spring shooting has been every
where refused. 1t has been adopted
as a fixed rule for the present that in
no part of the country may there be
shooting after the game has started
for its breeding grounds in the North.
That this works a hardship upon some
sections where conditions in the fall
are not always adorable to sport, the
committee very well knows. Yet 1t
has not discovered how it can make
special concessions to those sections
without arousing the rest OF the
country to demands for the same
thine.
1t has recommended a maximum
shooting season of three and one-half
months for any section of the country,
and tried to equalize opportunity as
best it can in fixing that season.
The committee knows it cannot sat
isfy every one. 1t can, however, ap-
proximate justice to everyone. 1t
faces in wasteful country the ire
mendous task of saving the game.
1t wants to save IL alike for the sports
man of today and the sportsman to
come. 1t asks the people of the coun
try, who have rallied around every
one Of our tardy movements for con-
seryation to sustain and support it
In that effort.
In recommending the regulations,
we were controlled by the following
considerations:
% A most earnest desire to save
from certain depletion and threatened
humiliation the valuable waterfowl,
game, and insectiyorous birds which
migrate across the United States
twice each year.
CO To accord the hunters in the
various States as nearly as possible an
equal opportunity Of taking migratory
waterfowl and nomadic game birds.
60 To open the season during
which these birds can be legally killed
in those months when under normal
weather and food conditions the larg
est number of migratory waterfowl
and birds sojourn in any particular
State.
a. To absolutely eliminate spring
shooting, when migratory waterfowl
and birds on the northward migration
are journeying towards their breeding
grounds, thus impelled by the resist
less force of nature to mate, nest, and
| reproduce their species.
90 To recognize unusual and eX-
traordinary conditions existing in a
few of the States, without affecting
the equity or vested rights of the peo-
pie of the whole country in the migra'
tory wild life.
CO. TO submit reasonable, practi
cal, fair, and just regulations that
| should invite the supper of all true
| conservationists.
(7) To guarantee not only to the
| present generation a reasonable sup
| ply of migratory wild life. but to sc
protect 1t that 1t will multiply and be
handed to future generations as theii
proper and rightful heritage.
The imperative necessity for the en-
actment of the federal migratory birC
law is palpable to every thoughtful
and discerning mind. We are con
! WINGED that under the operation OF thi;
law, shooting will improve each year
The committee lists some of tn,
wild life that has become extinct or !:
threatened with the extinction tina
has overtaken the wild, or passenger
pigeon that once flew over Americl
in countless millions. The great aux
the Eskimo curlew. the Labrador duel
the Carolina parrakeet have been ex
terminated. There are many othe
valuable North American birds tina
are candidates for extinction" tn,
committee says, including the whoop
ing crane, trumpeter swan, American
famingo, roseate spoonbill, scarle
ibis, longbilled curlew, upland plov
or, Hudsonian godwit, red.breaste,
sandpiper golden plover, dowitchei
willet. pectoral sand.piper, black
capped petrol, American egret snow
egret wood duck, handtailed pigeon
heath hen, sage grouse, white.taile
kite, prairie sharptail, pinnate
grouse, and woodcock.
The members of the advisory con
mittee are: John b. Burnham, Me-
| York, chairman. Edward G. nrat