as
creatures worth preserving for their beauty or their interest to
mankind. This is precisely the viewpoint of the cave-man and the savage,
and it has come down from the Man-with-a-Club to the Man-with-a-Gun
absolutely unchanged save for one thing: the latter sometimes is
prompted to save to-day in order to slaughter to-morrow.

The above statement of an existing fact may seem harsh; and some persons
may be startled by it; but it is based on an acquaintance with thousands
of men who shoot all kinds of game, all over the world. My critics
surely will admit that my opportunities to meet the sportsmen and
gunners of the world are, and for thirty-five years have been, rather
favorable. As a matter of fact, I think the efforts of the hunters of my
personal acquaintance have covered about seven-tenths of the hunting
grounds of the world. If the estimate that I have formed of the average
hunter's viewpoint is wrong, or even partially so, I will be glad to
have it proven in order that I may reform my judgment and apologize.

In working with large bodies of bird-shooting sportsmen I have
steadily--and also painfully--been impressed by their intentness on.
killing, and by the fact that _they seek to preserve game only to kill
it!_ Who ever saw a bird-shooter rise in a convention and advocate the
preservation of any species of game bird on account of its beauty or its
esthetic interest _alive?_ I never did; and I have sat in many
conventions of sportsmen. All the talk is of open seasons, bag limits
and killing rights. The man who has the hardihood to stand up and
propose a five-year close season has "a hard row to hoe." Men rise and
say: "It's all nonsense! There's plenty of quail shooting on Long Island
yet."

Throughout the length and breadth of America, the ruling passion is to
kill as long as anything killable remains. The man who will openly
advocate the stopping of quail-shooting because the quails are of such
great value to the farmers, or because they are so _beautiful_ and
companionable to man, receives no sympathy from ninety per cent of the
bird-killing sportsmen. The remaining ten per cent think seriously about
the matter, and favor long close seasons. It is my impression that of
the men who shoot, it is only among the big-game hunters that we find
much genuine admiration for game animals, or any feeling remotely
resembling regard for it.

The moment that a majority of American gunners concede the fact that
game