ecrease. The
rapidly-growing settlement and cultivation of the state has of course
had much to do with the disappearance of wild life generally, and the
draining and exploitation of the Everglades will about finish the birds
of southern Florida.

The brown pelicans' breeding-place on Pelican Island, in Indian River,
has been taken in hand by the national government as a bird refuge, and
its marvelous spectacle of pelican life is now protected. Nine other
islands on the coast of Florida have been taken as national bird
refuges, and will render posterity good service.

The great private game and bird preserve of Dr. Ray V. Pierce, at
Apalachicola, known as St. Vincent Island, containing twenty square
miles of wonderful woods and waters, is performing an important function
for the state and the nation.

The Florida bag limit on quail is entirely too liberal. I know one man
who never once exceeded the limit of twenty birds per day, but in the
season of 1908-9 he killed _865 quail_! Can the quail of any state long
endure such drains as that?

From a zoological point of view, Florida is in bad shape. A great many
of her people who shoot are desperately lawless and uncontrollable, and
the state is not financially able to support a force of wardens
sufficiently strong to enforce the laws, even as they are. It looks as
if the slaughter would go on until nothing of bird life remains. At
present I can see no hope whatever for saving even a good remnant of the
wild life of the state.

The present status of wild-life protective laws in Florida was made the
subject of an article in _Forest and Stream_ of August 10, 1912, by John
H. Wallace, Jr., Game Commissioner of the State of Alabama, in an
article entitled "The Florida Situation." In view of his record, no one
will question either the value or the honest sincerity of Mr. Wallace's
opinions. The following paragraphs are from that article:

The enactment of a model and modern game law for the State of
Florida is absolutely imperative in order to save many of the most
valuable species of birds and game of that State from certain
depletion and threatened extinction. The question of the protection
of the birds and game in Florida is not a local one, but is national
in its scope. Birds know no state lines, and while practically all
the States lying to the north of Florida protect migratory birds and
waterfowl, yet these are recklessly slaughtered in that state to