Our Vanishing Wild Life: Its Extermination and PreservationHornaday, William T. (William Temple)
History
Our Vanishing Wild Life: Its Extermination and Preservation
Hornaday, William T. (William Temple)
Game-laws -- United States; Wildlife conservation -- United States
The principle that the sale of game is wrong, and fatal to the existence
of a supply of game, is as fixed and unassailable as the Rocky
Mountains. Its universal acceptance is only a question of intelligence
and common honesty. The open states owe it to themselves and each other
to enact both the spirit and the letter of the Bayne law, _and do it
quickly_, before it is too late to profit by it! Let them remember the
heath hen,--amply protected when entirely too late to save it from
extinction!
It is fairly beyond question that the killing of wild game for the
market, and its sale in the "open season" _and out of it_, is
responsible for the disappearance of at least fifty per cent of our
stock of American feathered game. It is the market-gunner, the game-hog
who shoots "for sport" and sells his game, and the game dealer, who have
swept away the wild ducks, the ruffed grouse, the quail and the prairie
chickens that thirty years ago were abundant on their natural ranges.
The foolish farmers of the middle West permitted the market-hunters of
Chicago and the East to slaughter their own legitimate game by the
barrel and the car-load, and ship it "East," to market. To-day the
waters of Currituck Sound are a wholesale slaughter-place for migratory
wild fowl with which to supply the markets of Baltimore, Washington and
Philadelphia. Furthermore, the market gunners of Currituck are robbing
the people of 16 states of tens of thousands of wild-fowl that
legitimately belong to them, during the annual autumn flight. The
accompanying map shows how it is done.
[Illustration: MAP USED IN THE CAMPAIGN FOR THE BAYNE LAW
This map shows how the sale of ducks killed on the Carrituck Sound
robs the people of 16 states, for the benefit of a few.
STOP THE SALE OF GAME!
(Signed W.T. Hornaday, March 6, 1911.)]
To-day, the cash rewards of the market-hunter who can reach a large city
with his product are dangerously great. Observe the following
_wholesale_ prices that prevailed in New York city in 1910, just prior
to the passage of the Bayne law. They were compiled and published by
Henry Oldys, of the Biological Survey.
Grouse, domestic per pair $3.00
Grouse, foreign " " $1.25 to 1.75
Partridge, domestic " " 3.50 " 4.00
Woodcock, domestic " " 1.50 " 2.00
Golden plover per dozen 2.50 " 3.50
English snipe " " 2.00 " 3.00
Canvasback duck per pair 2.25 " 3.00
Redhead duck " " 1.50 " 2.50
Mallard duck " " " 1.25
Bluewing teal " " .75 " 1.00
Greenwing teal " " .75 " .90
Broadbill duck " " .50 " .75
Rail, No. 1 per dozen " 1.00
Rail, No. 2 " " " .60
Venison, whole deer per pound .22 " .25
Venison, saddle " " .30 " .35
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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