Our Vanishing Wild Life Part 4

"Finally, let me remark that the rate of increase of the California condor is not one whit less than that of the band-tailed pigeon! Yet, there is no protection at all for the latter in this state, even in the nesting season; and thousands were shot last spring, in the unprecedented concentration of the species in the southern coast counties. (See Chambers in _The Condor_ for May, 1912, p. 108.)"

The California Condor is one of the only two species of condor now living, and it is the only one found in North America. As a matter of national pride, and a duty to posterity, the people of the United States can far better afford to lose a million dollars from their national treasury than to allow that bird to become extinct. Its preservation for all coming time is distinctly a white man's burden upon the state of California. The laws now in force for the condor's protection are not half adequate! I think there is no law by which the accidental poisoning of those birds, by baits put out for coyotes and foxes, can be stopped.

A law to prevent the use of poisoned meat baits anywhere in southern California, should be enacted at the next session of California's legislature. The fine for molesting a condor should be raised to $500, with a long prison-term as an alternative. A competent, interested game warden should be appointed _solely for the protection of the condors_.

It is time to count those birds, keep them under observation, and have an annual report upon their condition.

THE HEATH HEN.--But for the protection that has been provided for it by the ornithologists of Ma.s.sachusetts, and particularly Dr. George W.

Field, William Brewster and John E. Thayer, the heath hen or eastern pinnated grouse would years ago have become totally extinct. New York, New Jersey and Ma.s.sachusetts began to protect that species entirely too late. It was given five-year close seasons, without avail. Then it was given ten-year close seasons, but it was _too late_!

To-day, the species exists only in one locality, the island of Martha's Vineyard, and concerning its present status, Mr. Forbush has recently furnished us the following clear statement:

"The heath hens increased for two years after the Ma.s.sachusetts Fish and Game Commission established a reservation for them, but in 1911 they had not increased. There are probably about two hundred birds extant.

"I found a great many marsh hawks on the Island and the Commission did not kill them, believing them to be beneficial. In watching them, I concluded that they were catching the young heath hens. A large number of these hawks have been shot and their stomachs sent to Was.h.i.+ngton for examination, as I was too busy at the time to examine them. So far as I know, no report of the examination has been made, but Dr. Field himself examined a few of the stomachs and found the remains of the heath hen in some.

"The warden now says that during the past two years, the heath hen has not increased, but I can give you no definite evidence of this.

I am quite sure they are being killed by natives of the island and that at least one collector supplies birds for museums. We are trying to get evidence of this.

"I believe if the heath hen is to be increased in numbers and brought back to this country, we shall have to have more than one warden on the reservation and, eventually, we shall have to establish the bird on the mainland also."

[Ill.u.s.tration: PINNATED GROUSE, OR "PRAIRIE CHICKEN"

From the "American Natural History"]

THE PINNATED GROUSE, SAGE GROUSE AND PRAIRIE SHARP-TAIL.--In view of the fate of the grouse of the United States, as it has been wrought out thus far in all the more thickly settled areas, and particularly in view of the history of the heath hen, we have no choice but to regard all three of the species named above as absolutely certain to become totally extinct, within a short period of years, unless the conditions surrounding them are immediately and radically changed for the better.

Personally, I do not believe that the gunners and game-hogs of Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Idaho, Was.h.i.+ngton, Oregon and California will permit any one of those species to be saved.

If the present open seasons prevail in the states that I have mentioned above, no power on earth can save those three species of grouse from the fate of the heath hen. To-day their representatives exist only in small shreds and patches, and from fully nineteen-twentieths of their original ranges they are forever gone.

The sage grouse will be the first species to go. It is the largest, the most conspicuous, the one most easily found, and the biggest mark for the gunner. Those who have seen this bird in its native sage-brush well understand how fatally it is exposed to slaughter.

Many appeals have been made in behalf of the pinnated grouse; but the open seasons continue. The gunners of the states in which a few remnants still exist are determined to have them, all; and the state legislatures seem disposed to allow the killers to have their way. It may be however, that like New York with the heath hen, they will arouse and virtuously lock the stable door--after the horse has been stolen!

[Ill.u.s.tration: SAGE GROUSE The First of the Upland Game Birds that will Become Extinct]

THE SNOWY EGRET AND AMERICAN EGRET, (_Egretta candidissima and Herodias egretta_).--These unfortunate birds, cursed for all time by the commercially valuable "aigrette" plumes that they bear, have had a very narrow escape from total extinction in the United States, despite all the efforts made to save them. The "plume-hunters" of the millinery trade have been, _and still are_, determined to have the last feather and the last drop of egret blood. In an effort to stop the slaughter in at least one locality in Florida, Warden Guy Bradley was killed by a plume-hunter, who of course escaped all punishment through the heaven-born "sympathy" of a local jury.

Of the b.l.o.o.d.y egret slaughter in Florida, not one-tenth of the whole story ever has been told. Millions of adult birds,--all there were,--were killed _in the breeding season_, when the plumes were ripe for the market; and millions of young birds starved in their nests. It was a common thing for a rookery of several hundred birds to be attacked by the plume-hunters, and in two or three days utterly destroyed. The same b.l.o.o.d.y work is going on to-day in Venezuela and Brazil; and the stories and "affidavits" stating that the millions of egret plumes being s.h.i.+pped annually from those countries are "shed feathers," "picked up off the ground," are absolute lies. The men who have sworn to those lies are perjurers, and should be punished for their crimes. (See 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 p.r.o.nounced 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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 a.s.sociation 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 a.s.sociation 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 Ma.s.sachusetts--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 Ma.s.sACHUSETTS NEW HAMPs.h.i.+RE NEW JERSEY NEW YORK VERMONT WEST VIRGINIA

[Ill.u.s.tration: 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:

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?

THE WOODc.o.c.k _(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 woodc.o.c.k 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 woodc.o.c.k 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: