n must make of it a correct
diagnosis. It is useless to try to prescribe remedies without a thorough
understanding of the trouble.

That the best and most interesting wild life of America is disappearing
at a rapid rate, we all know only too well. That proposition is entirely
beyond the domain of argument. The fact that a species or a group of
species has made a little gain here and there, or is stationary, does
not sensibly diminish the force of the descending blow. The wild-life
situation is full of surprises. For example, in 1902 I was astounded by
the extent to which bird life had decreased over the 130 miles between
Miles City, Montana, and the Missouri River since 1886; for there was no
reason to expect anything of the kind. Even the jack rabbits and coyotes
had almost totally disappeared.

The duties of the present hour, that fairly thrust themselves into our
faces and will not be put aside, are these:

_First_,--To save valuable species from extermination!

_Second_,--To preserve a satisfactory representation of our once rich
fauna, to hand down to Posterity.

_Third_,--To protect the farmer and fruit grower from the enormous
losses that the destruction of our insectivorous and rodent-eating birds
is now inflicting upon both the producer and consumer.

_Fourth_,--To protect our forests, by protecting the birds that keep
down the myriads of insects that are destructive to trees and shrubs.

_Fifth_,--To preserve to the future sportsmen of America enough game and
fish that they may have at least a taste of the legitimate pursuit of
game in the open that has made life so interesting to the sportsmen of
to-day.

For any civilized nation to exterminate valuable and interesting species
of wild mammals, birds or fishes is more than a disgrace. It is a crime!
We have no right, legal, moral or commercial, to exterminate any
valuable or interesting species; because none of them belong to us, to
exterminate or not, as we please.

For the people of any civilized nation to permit the slaughter of the
wild birds that protect its crops, its fruits and its forests from the
insect hordes, is worse than folly. It is sheer orneryness and idiocy.
People who are either so lazy or asinine as to permit the slaughter of
their best friends deserve to have their crops destroyed and their
forests ravaged. They deserve to pay twenty cents a pound for their
cotton when the boll weevil has cut down the normal supply.

It is very