Our Vanishing Wild Life Part 52

All the sh.o.r.e birds need five years of close protection.

A State Game Warden whose term of office is not less than four years should be provided for.

A corps of salaried game protectors should be chosen for active and aggressive game protection.

Nevada's bag limits are among the best of any state, the only serious flaw being "10 sage grouse" per day: which should be 0!

Nevada still has a few antelope; and _we beg her to protect them all from being hunted or killed!_ It is my belief that if the antelope is really saved anywhere in the United States outside of national parks and preserves, it will be in the wild and remote regions of Nevada, where it is to be hoped that lumpy-jaw has not yet taken hold of the herds.

NEW HAMPs.h.i.+RE:

Speaking generally, the New Hamps.h.i.+re laws regulating the killing and s.h.i.+pment of game are defective for the reason that on birds, and in fact all game save deer, there appear to be no "bag" limits on the quant.i.ty that may be killed in a day or a season. The following bag limits are greatly needed, forthwith:

Gray Squirrel, none per day, or per year; duck (except wood-duck), ten per day, or thirty per season; ruffed grouse, four per day, twelve per season; hare and rabbit, four per day, or twelve per season.

Five-year close seasons should immediately be enacted for the following species: quail, woodc.o.c.k, jacksnipe and all species of sh.o.r.e or "beach" birds.

The sale of all native wild game should be prohibited; and game-breeding in preserves, and the sale of such game under state supervision, should be provided for.

The use of automatic and pump guns in hunting should be barred,--through state pride, if for no other reason.

NEW JERSEY:

New Jersey enjoys the distinction of being the second state to break the strangle-hold of the gun-makers of Hartford and Ilion, and cast out the odious automatic and pump guns. It was a pitched battle,--that of 1912, inaugurated by Ernest Napier, President of the State Game and Fish Commission and his fellow commissioners. The longer the contest continued, the more did the press and the people of New Jersey awaken to the seriousness of the situation. Finally, the gun-suppression bill pa.s.sed the two houses of the legislature with a total of only fourteen votes against it, and after a full hearing had been granted the attorneys of the gunmakers, was promptly signed by Governor Woodrow Wilson. _Governor Wilson could not be convinced that the act was "unconst.i.tutional," or "confiscatory" or "cla.s.s legislation."_

This contest aroused the whole state to the imperative necessity of providing more thorough protection for the remnant of New Jersey game, and it was chiefly responsible for the enactment of four other excellent new protective laws.

New Jersey always has been sincere in her desire to protect her wild life, and always has gone _as far as the killers of game would permit her to go!_ But the People have made one great mistake,--common to nearly every state,--of permitting the game-killers to dictate the game laws! _Always and everywhere, this is a grievous mistake_, and fatal to the game. For example: In 1866 New Jersey enacted a five-year close-season law on the "prairie fowl" (pinnated grouse); but it was too late to save it. Now that species is as dead to New Jersey as is the mastodon. The moral is: Will the People apply this lesson to the ruffed grouse, quail and the sh.o.r.e birds generally before they, too, are too far gone to be brought back? If it is done, it must be done _against the will of the gunners;_ for they prefer to shoot,--and shoot they will if they can dictate the laws, until the last game bird is dead.

In 1912, New Jersey is spending $30,000 in trying to restock her birdless covers with foreign game birds and quail. In brief, here are the imperative duties of New Jersey:

Provide eight-year close seasons for quail, ruffed grouse, woodc.o.c.k, snipe, all sh.o.r.e birds and the wood-duck.

Prohibit the sale of all native wild game; but promote the sale of preserve-bred game.

Prevent the repeal of the automatic gun law, which surely will be attempted, each year.

Prohibit all bird-shooting after January 10, each year, until fall.

Prohibit the killing of squirrels as "game."

NEW MEXICO:

All things considered, the game laws of New Mexico are surprisingly up to date, and the state is to be congratulated on its advanced position.

For example, there are long close seasons on antelope, elk (now extinct!), mountain sheep, bob white quail, pinnated grouse, wild pigeon and ptarmigan,--an admirable list, truly. It is clear that New Mexico is wide awake to the dangers of the wild-life situation. On two counts, her laws are not quite perfect. There is no law prohibiting spring shooting, and there is no "model law" protecting the non-game birds. The sale of game will not trouble New Mexico, because the present laws prevent the sale of all protected game except plover, curlew and snipe,--all of them species by no means common in the arid regions of the Southwest.

A law prohibiting spring shooting of sh.o.r.e birds and waterfowl should be pa.s.sed at the next session of the legislature.

The enactment of the "model law" should be accomplished without delay to put New Mexico abreast of the neighboring states of Colorado, Oklahoma and Texas.

The term of the State Warden should be extended to four years.

NEW YORK:

In the year of grace, 1912, I think we may justly regard New York as the banner state of all America in the protection of game and wild life in general. This proud position has been achieved partly through the influence of a great conservation Governor, John A. Dix, and the State Conservation Commission proposed and created by his efforts. In these days of game destruction, when our country from Nome to Key West is reeking with the blood of slaughtered wild creatures, it is a privilege and a pleasure to be a citizen of a state which has thoroughly cleaned house, and done well nigh the utmost that any state can do to clear her bad record, and give all her wild creatures a fair chance to survive.

The people of the Empire State literally can point with pride to the list of things accomplished in the discharge of good-citizens.h.i.+p toward the remnant of wild life, and toward the future generations of New Yorkers. That we of to-day have borne our share of the burden of bringing about the conditions of 1912, will be a source of satisfaction, especially when the sword and s.h.i.+eld hang useless upon the walls of Old Age.

New York began to protect her deer in 1705 and her heath hens in 1708.

In 1912 she stopped the killing of female deer, and of bucks having horns less than three inches in length. Spring shooting was stopped in 1903. A comprehensive law protecting non-game birds was enacted in 1862.

New York's first law against the sale of certain game during close seasons was enacted in 1837.

In 1911 New York enacted, with only one adverse vote, a law prohibiting the sale of all native wild game throughout the state, no matter where killed, and providing liberally for the encouragement of game-breeding, and the sale of preserve-bred game.

In 1912 a new codification of the state game laws went into effect, through the initiative of Governor Dix and Conservation Commissioners Van Kennen, Moore and Fleming, a.s.sisted (as special counsel) by Marshall McLean, George A. Lawyer and John B. Burnham. This code contains many important new provisions, one of the most valuable of which is a clause giving the Conservation Commission power, at its discretion, to shorten or to close any open season on any species of game in any locality wherein that species seems to be threatened with extermination. This very valuable principle should be enacted into law in every state!

In 1910, William Dutcher and T. Gilbert Pearson and the National a.s.sociation of Audubon Societies won, after a struggle lasting five years, the pa.s.sage of the "Shea plumage bill," prohibiting the sale of aigrettes or other plumage of wild birds belonging to the same families as the birds of New York (Chap. 256). This law _should be duplicated in every state._

_Two things_ remain to be done in the state of New York.

All the sh.o.r.e birds, quail and gray squirrels of the state should be given five-year close seasons, by the action of the State Conservation Commission.

For the good name of the state, and the ethical standing of its sportsmen, as an example to other states, and the last remaining duty toward our wild life, the odious automatic and pump shotguns should be barred from use in hunting, unless their capacity is reduced to two shots without reloading.

CHAPTER x.x.xI

NEW LAWS NEEDED IN THE STATES (Concluded)

NORTH CAROLINA:

The game laws of North Carolina form a droll crazy-quilt of local and state measures, effective and ineffective. In 1909, a total of 77 local game laws were enacted, and only two of state-wide application. During the ten years ending in 1910, a total of 316 game laws were enacted! She sedulously endeavors to protect her quail, which do not migrate, but in Currituck County she persistently maintains the bloodiest slaughter-pen for waterfowl that exists anywhere on the Atlantic Coast. There is no bag limit on waterfowl, and unlimited spring shooting. So far as waterfowl are concerned, conditions could hardly be worse, except by the use of punt guns. Doves, _larks_ and _robins_ are shot and eaten as "game" from November 1 to March 1! Twenty-one counties have local restrictions on the sale of game, but the state at large has only one,--on quail.

The market gunners of Currituck Sound are a scourge and a pest to the wild-fowl life of the Atlantic Coast. For their own money profit, they slaughter by wholesale the birds that annually fly through twenty-two states. It is quite useless to suggest anything to North Carolina in modern game laws. As long as a killable bird remains, she will not stop the slaughter. Her standing reply is "It brings a lot of money into Currituck County; and the people want the money." Even the members of the sportsmen's clubs can shoot wild fowl in Currituck County, quite without limit; and I am told that the privilege often is abused. Quite recently I heard of a member of one of the clubs who shot 164 ducks and geese in two days!

Apparently any suggestions made to North Carolina would not be treated seriously, especially if they would tend really to elevate the sport of game shooting, or better protect the game. There is, however, a melancholy interest attached to the framing of good game laws, whether they ever are likely to be adopted or not. Here is the duty of North Carolina:

Stop the killing of robins, doves and larks for food, absolutely and forever. This measure is necessary to agriculture and to the good name of the state.

Stop the shooting of any game for sale, prohibit the possession of game for sale, and the sale of wild native game.

Establish bag limits on all waterfowl, and on all other game birds and mammals.

Prepare to protect, at an early date, the wild turkey and quail; for soon they will need it. Moreover, enact a law prohibiting the use of automatic and pump guns in hunting, covering the entire state.

Provide a resident-license system and thereby make the game department self-sustaining, and render it possible to employ a salaried State Game Commissioner.

It is quite wrong for the people of North Carolina to hold grudges against northern members of the ducking clubs of Currituck for the pa.s.sage of the Bayne law. They had nothing whatever to do with it, and I can say this because I was in a position which enabled me to know.