Chapter XIII
).
By 1908, the plume-hunters had so far won the fight for the egrets that Florida had been swept almost as bare of these birds as the Colorado desert.
Until Mr. E.A. McIlhenny's egret preserve, at Avery Island, Louisiana, became a pronounced success, we had believed that our two egrets soon would become totally extinct in the United States. But Mr. McIlhenny has certainly saved those birds to our fauna. In 1892 he started an egret and heron preserve, close beside his house on Avery Island. By 1900 it was an established success. To-day 20,000 pairs of egrets and herons are living and breeding in that bird refuge, and the two egret species are safe in at least one spot in our own country.
[Illustration: SNOWY EGRETS IN THE McILHENNY EGRET PRESERVE It is at This Period That the Parent Birds are Killed for Their Plumes, and the Young Starve in the Nest Photo by E.A. McIlhenny]
Three years ago, I think there were not many bird-lovers in the United States, who believed it possible to prevent the total extinction of both egrets from our fauna. All the known rookeries accessible to plume-hunters had been totally destroyed. Two years ago, the secret discovery of several small, hidden colonies prompted William Dutcher, President of the National Association of Audubon Societies, and Mr. T. Gilbert Pearson, Secretary, to attempt the protection of those colonies. With a fund contributed for the purpose, wardens were hired and duly commissioned. As previously stated, one of those wardens was shot dead in cold blood by a plume hunter. The task of guarding swamp rookeries from the attacks of money-hungry desperadoes to whom the accursed plumes were worth their weight in gold, is a very chancy proceeding. There is now one warden in Florida who says that "before they get my rookery they will first have to get me."
Thus far the protective work of the Audubon Association has been successful. Now there are twenty colonies, which contain all told, about 5,000 egrets and about 120,000 herons and ibises which are guarded by the Audubon wardens. One of the most important is on Bird Island, a mile out in Orange Lake, central Florida, and it is ably defended by Oscar E. Baynard. To-day, the plume hunters who do not dare to raid the guarded rookeries are trying to study out the lines of flight of the birds, to and from their feeding-grounds, and shoot them in transit. Their motto is--"Anything to beat the law, and get the plumes." It is there that the state of Florida should take part in the war.
The success of this campaign is attested by the fact that last year a number of egrets were seen in eastern Massachusetts--for the first time in many years. And so to-day the question is, can the wardens continue to hold the plume-hunters at bay?
THE WOOD-DUCK (_Aix sponsa_), by many bird-lovers regarded as the most beautiful of all American birds, is threatened with extinction, in all the states that it still inhabits with the exception of eight. Long ago (1901) the U.S. Biological Survey sounded a general alarm for this species by the issue of a special bulletin regarding its disappearance, and advising its protection by long close seasons. To their everlasting honor, eight states responded, by the enactment of long close-season laws. This, is the
ROLL OF HONOR
CONNECTICUT MAINE MASSACHUSETTS NEW HAMPSHIRE NEW JERSEY NEW YORK VERMONT WEST VIRGINIA
[Illustration: WOOD DUCK Regularly Killed as "Food" in 15 States]
And how is it with the other states that number the wood-duck in their avian faunas? I am ashamed to tell; but it is necessary that the truth should be known.
Surely we will find that if the other states have not the grace to protect this bird on account of its exquisite beauty they will not penalize it by extra long open seasons.
_A number of them have taken pains to provide extra long_ OPEN _seasons on this species, usually of five or six months!!_ And this for a bird so exquisitely beautiful that shooting it for the table is like dining on birds of paradise. Here is a partial list of them:
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WOOD-DUCK-EATING STATES (1912)
Georgia kills and eats the Wood-duck from Sept. 1, to Feb. 1. Indiana, Iowa and Kansas do so " Sept. 1, to Apr. 15. Kentucky, (extra long!) does so " Aug. 15, to Apr. 1. Louisiana (extra long!) " " " Sept. 1, to Mar. 1. Maryland " " " Nov. 1, to Apr. 1. Michigan " " " Oct. 15, to Jan. 1. Nebraska (extra long!) " " " Sept. 1, to Apr. 1. Ohio " " " Sept. 1, to Jan. 1. Pennsylvania, (extra long!) " " " Sept. 1, to Apr. 11. Rhode Island, " " " " " Aug. 15, to Apr. 1. South Carolina " " " " " Sept. 1, to Mar. 1. South Dakota " " " " " Sept. 10, to Apr. 10. Tennessee " " " " " Aug. 1, to Apr. 15. Virginia " " " Aug. 1, to Jan. 1. Wisconsin " " " Sept. 1, to Jan. 1.
The above are the states that really possess the wood-duck and that should give it, one and all, a series of five-year close seasons. Now, is not the record something to blush for?
Is there in those fifteen states _nothing_ too beautiful or too good to go into the pot?
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THE WOODCOCK _(Philohela minor)_, is a bird regarding which my bird-hunting friends and I do not agree. I say that as a species it is steadily disappearing, and presently will become extinct, unless it is accorded better protection. They reply: "Well, I can show you where there are woodcock yet!"
A few months ago a Nova Scotian writer in _Forest and Stream_ came out with the bold prediction that three more years of the usual annual slaughter of woodcock will bring the species to the verge of extinction in that Province.
It is such occurrences as this that bring the end of a species:
"Last fall [1911, at Norwalk, Conn.] we had a good flight of woodcock, and it is a shame the way they were slaughtered. I know of a number of cases where twenty were killed by one gun in the day, and heard of one case of fifty. This is all wrong, and means the end of the woodcock, if continued. There is no doubt we need a bag limit on woodcock, as much as on quail or partridge." ("Woodcock" in _Forest and Stream_, Mar. 2, 1912.)
As far back as 1901, Dr. A.K. Fisher of the Biological Survey predicted that the woodcock and wood-duck would both become extinct unless better protected. As yet, the better protection demanded has not materialized to any great extent.
Says Mr. Forbush, State Ornithologist of Massachusetts, in his admirable "Special Report," p. 45:
"The woodcock is decreasing all over its range in the East, and needs the strongest protection. Of thirty-eight Massachusetts reports, thirty-six state that "woodcock are decreasing," "rare" or "extinct," while one states that they are holding their own, and one that they are increasing slightly since the law was passed prohibiting their sale."
Let not any honest American or Canadian sportsman lullaby himself into the belief that the woodcock is safe from extermination. As sure as the world, it is _going_! The fact that a little pocket here or there contains a few birds does not in the slightest degree disprove the main fact. If the sportsmen of this country desire to save the seed stock of woodcock, they must give it _everywhere_ five or ten-year close seasons, and _do it immediately_!
OUR SHORE BIRDS IN GENERAL.--This group of game birds will be the first to be exterminated in North America as a _group_. Of all our birds, these are the most illy fitted to survive. They are very conspicuous, very unwary, easy to find if alive, and easy to shoot. Never in my life have any shore birds except woodcock and snipe appealed to me as real game. They are too easy to kill, too trivial when killed, and some of them are too rank and fishy on the plate. As game for men I place them on a level with barnyard ducks or orchard turkeys. I would as soon be caught stealing a sheep as to be seen trying to shoot fishy yellow legs or little joke sandpipers for the purpose of feeding upon them. And yet, thousands of full-grown men, some of them six feet high, grow indignant and turn red in the face at the mention of a law to give all the shore-birds of New York a five-year close season.
But for all that, gentlemen of the gun, there are exactly two alternatives between which you shall choose:
(1) Either give the woodcock of the eastern United States just _ten times_ the protection that it now has, or (2) bid the species a long farewell. If you elect to slaughter old _Philohela minor_ on the altar of Selfishness, then it will be in order for the millions of people who do not kill birds to say whether that proposal shall be consummated or not.
Read if you please Mr. W.A. McAtee's convincing pamphlet (Biological Survey, No. 79), on "Our Vanishing Shore Birds," reproduced in full in
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