Our Vanishing Wild Life Part 50

LOUISIANA:

On more counts than one, Louisiana is in the list of Great Delinquents; for behold the things that she needs to do:

Protect deer for five years.

Instantly take the robin, red-winged black-bird, dove, grosbeak, wood-duck and gull off the list of birds that may be killed as "game."

Stop all late winter and spring shooting.

Stop the sale of all native game, and the possession and transportation of game sold or intended for sale. In short,

Enact a Bayne law.

Re-establish a game warden system.

In legally permitting the slaughter of the robin, red-winged blackbird, dove, grosbeak, wood-duck and gull the state of Louisiana is very culpable.

For good reasons, forty states of the American Union strictly prohibit the killing of song and insectivorous birds. The duty of every state to protect those birds is not a debatable proposition. I put this question to the people of Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Tennessee and other states where the robin is treated as a game bird: Is it fair of you to kill and eat robins when that species is carefully protected by forty other states of our country for grave economic reasons? What would you say of the people of the North if they slaughtered your mockingbird _to eat_!

Remember this proportion:

The Robin : The North :: The Mockingbird : The South.

CHAPTER x.x.x

NEW LAWS NEEDED IN THE STATES (Continued)

MAINE:

There are reasons for the belief that Maine is conserving her large game better than any other state or province in North America. One glance over her laws is sufficient to convince anyone that instead of studying the clamor of her shooting population, Maine has actually been studying the needs of her game, and providing for those needs. If all other states were doing equally well, the task of writing a book of admonition would have been unnecessary. The proof of Maine's alertness is to be found in the number of her extra short, or entirely closed, seasons on game. For example:

Cow and calf moose are permanently protected.

Only bull moose, with at least two 3-inch p.r.o.ngs on its horns, may be killed.

Caribou have had a close season since 1899.

On gray and black squirrels, doves and quail, there is no open season.

The open season for deer varies from ten weeks to four weeks, and in parts of three counties there is no open season at all.

Silencers are prohibited, and firearms in forests may be prohibited by the Governor during droughts.

Nearly all wild-fowl shooting ends January 1, but in two places, on December 1.

People who have not learned the facts habitually think of Maine as a vast killing-ground for deer; and it is well for it to be known that the hunting-grounds have been carefully designated, according to the abundance or scarcity of game.

Maine has wisely chosen to regard her hunting-grounds and her deer as a valuable a.s.set, and she manages them accordingly. To be a guide in that state is to be a good citizen, and a protector of game from illegal slaughter. No non-resident may hunt without a licensed guide. The licenses for the thousands of deer killed in Maine each year, and the expenses of the visiting sportsmen who hunt them, annually bring into the state and leave there a huge sum of money, variously estimated at from $2,000,000 to $3,000,000. One can only guess at the amount from the number of non-resident licenses issued; but certainly the total can not be less than $1,000,000.

Although Mr. L.T. Carleton is no longer chairman of the Commission of Inland Fisheries and Game, the splendid services that he rendered the state of Maine during his thirteen years of service, especially in the creation of a good code of game laws, const.i.tute an imperishable monument to his name and fame.

There is very little that Maine needs in the line of new legislation, or better protection to her game. With the enactment of a resident license law and a five-year close season for woodc.o.c.k, plover, snipe and sandpipers, I think her laws for the protection of wild life would be sufficiently perfect for all practical purposes. The Pine-Tree State is to be congratulated upon its wise and efficient handling of the wild-life situation.

MARYLAND:

How has it come to pa.s.s that Maryland _lacks_ more good wild-life laws than any other state in the Union except North Carolina? Of the really fundamental protective laws, embracing the list that to every self-respecting state seems indispensable, Maryland has almost none save certain bag-limit laws! Otherwise, the state is wide open! It is indeed high time that she should abandon her present att.i.tude of hostility to wild life, and become a good neighbor. She should do what is _fair_ and _right_ about the protection of the migratory game and bird life that annually pa.s.ses twice through her territory!

At the last session of the Maryland legislature, the law preventing the use of power boats in wild-fowl shooting was repealed. That was a step ten years backward; and Maryland should be ashamed of it!

The list of things that Maryland must do in order to clear her record is a long one. Here it is:

Local regulations should be replaced by a uniform state law.

The sale of all native wild game should be stopped.

Spring and late winter shooting of game should be stopped.

All non-game birds not already included under the statutes should be protected.

The exportation of all game should be prohibited, unless accompanied by the man who shot it, bearing his license, and the law should be state-wide instead of depending upon a separate enactment for each county.

There should be a hunter's license law for all who hunt.

The use of machine shotguns in hunting should be stopped, at once.

Stop the use of power boats in wild-fowl shooting.

Ma.s.sACHUSETTS:

In 1912 the state of Ma.s.sachusetts moved up into the foremost rank of states, where for one year New York had stood alone. She pa.s.sed a counterpart of the New York law, absolutely prohibiting the sale of all wild American game in Ma.s.sachusetts, but providing for the sale of game that has been reared in preserves and tagged by state officers. This victory was achieved only after three months of hard fighting. The coalition of sportsmen, zoologists and friends of wild life in general proved irresistible, just as a similar union of forces accomplished the Bayne law in New York in 1911. The victory is highly instructive, as great victories usually are. It proves once more that whenever the American people can be aroused from their normal apathy regarding wild life, _any good conservation legislation can be enacted!_ The prime necessities to success are good measures, good management, a reasonable campaign fund, and tireless energy and persistence. Ma.s.sachusetts is to be roundly congratulated on having so thoroughly cleaned up her sale-of-game situation.

Incidentally, five bills for the repeal of the Ma.s.sachusetts law against spring shooting were introduced, and each one went down to the defeat that it deserved. _The repeal of a spring-shooting law, anywhere, is a step backward ten years!_

Ma.s.sachusetts needs a bag-limit law more in keeping with her small remnant of wild life; and that she will have ere long. Very soon, also, her sportsmen will raise the standard of ethics in shotgun shooting, by barring out the automatic and pump shotguns so much beloved by the market shooters. As matters stand at this date (1912) the Old Bay State needs the following new laws:

Low bag limits on all game.

Five-year close seasons on all sh.o.r.e birds, snipe and woodc.o.c.k.

Expulsion of the automatic and pump shotguns, in hunting.

MICHIGAN:

On the whole, the game laws of Michigan are in excellent shape, and leave little to be desired in the line of betterment except to be simplified. All the game protected by the laws of the state is debarred from sale; squirrels, pinnated grouse, doves and wild turkeys enjoy long close seasons; the bag limits on deer and game birds are reasonably low; spring shooting still is possible on nine species of ducks; and this should be stopped without delay.