Our Vanshing Wild Life - Its Extermination And Preservation Its Extermination and Preservation

WILD LIFE ITS EXTERMINATION AND PRESERVATION BY WILLIAM T. HORNADAY, Sc. D. DIRECTOR OF THE NEW YORK ZOOLOGICAL PARK AUTHOR OF THE AMERICAN NATURAL HISTORY EX-PRESIDENT OF THE AMERICAN BISON SOCIETY WITH MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS Hew to the line Let the chips fall where they will Old Exhortation. Nothing extenuate, nor set down aught in malice. Othello. NEW YORK CHARLES SCRIBNERS SONS 1913 Copyright, 1913, b WILLIAM T. HORNADAY First Publication, Jan, 1013. SPECIAL NOTICE For the benefit of the cause that this book represents, the author freely extends to all peri odicals and lecturers the privilege of reproducing any of the maps and illustrations in this volume except the bird portraits, the white-tailed deer and antelope, and the maps and pictures specially copyrighted by other persons, and so recorded. Phis privilege does not coyer reproductions in books, without special permission. TO FOUNDER AND PRESIDENT OF THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF AUDUBON SOCIETIES, AND LIFE-LONG CHAMPION OF AMERICAN BIRDS THIS VOLUME IS DEDICATED BY A SINCERE ADMIRER drink to him, he is not here, Yet I would guard his glory A knight without reproach or fear Should live in song and story Walsh. FOREWORD V x The preservation of animal and plant life, and of the general beauty of Nature, is one of the foremost duties of the men and women of to-day. It is an imperative duty, because it must be performed at once, for other wise it will be too late. Every possible means of preservation, senti mental, educational and legislative, must be employed, v The present warning issues with no uncertain sound, because this great battle for preservation and conservation cannot be won by gentle tones, nor by appeals to theaesthetic instincts of those who have no sense of beauty, or enjoyment of Nature. It is necessary to sound a loud alarm, to present the facts in very strong language, backed up by irrefutable statistics and by photographs which tell no lies, to establish the law and enforce it if needs be with a bludgeon. This book is such an alarm call. Its forceful pages remind me of the sounding of the great bells in the watch-towers of the cities of the Middle Ages which called the citizens to arms to protect their homes, their liber ties and their happiness. It is undeniable that the welfare and happiness of our own and of all future generations of Americans are at stake in this battle for the preservation of Nature against the selfishness, the ignorance, or the cruelty of her destroyers. yWe no longer destroy great works of art. They are treasured, and regarded as of priceless value but we have yet to attain the state of civilization where the destruction of a glorious work of Nature, whether it be a cliff, a forest, or a species of mammal or bird, is regarded with equal abhorrence. The whole earth is a poorer place to live in when a colony of exquisite egrets or birds of paradise is destroyed in order that the plumes may decorate the hat of some lady of fashion, and ultimately find their way into the rubbish heap. The people of all the New England States are poorer when the ignorant whites, foreigners, or negroes of our southern states destroy the robins and other song birds of the North for a mess of pottage. V Travels through Europe, as well as over a large part of the North American continent, have convinced me that nowhere is Nature being destroyed so rapidly as in the United States. Exceptwithin our con servation areas, an earthly paradise is being turned into an earthly hades and it is not savages nor primitive men who are doing this, but men and women who boast of their civilization Air and water are polluted, rivers and streams serve as sewers and dumping grounds, forests are swept away and fishes are driven from the streams. Many birds are becoming extinct, and certain mammals are on the verge of extermina vin FOREWORD tion...