of ethics in shooting.

The state of Missouri is really strong in her position as a
game-protecting state. She perpetually protects such vanishing species
as the ruffed grouse, prairie chicken (pinnated grouse), woodcock, and
all her shore birds save snipe and plover. She prohibits the sale of
native game and the killing of female deer; but she wisely permits the
sale of preserve-bred elk and deer under the tags of the State Game
Commission. For nearly all the wild game that is accessible, her markets
are tightly closed.

We heartily congratulate Missouri on her advanced position on the sale
of game, and we hope that the people of Iowa will even yet profit by her
good example.

MONTANA:

Like Colorado and Wyoming, Montana is wasting a valuable heritage of
wild game while she struggles to maintain the theory that she still is
in the list of states that furnish big-game hunting. It is a fact that
ten years ago most sportsmen began to regard Montana as a has-been for
big game, and began to seek better hunting-grounds elsewhere. British
Columbia, Alberta and Alaska have done much for the game of Montana by
drawing sportsmen away from it. Mr. Henry Avare, the State Game Warden,
is optimistic regarding even the big game, and believes that it is
holding its own. This is partially true of white-tailed deer, or it was
up to the time of great slaughter. It is said that in 1911, 11,000 deer
were killed in Montana, all in the western part of the state, seventy
per cent of which were white-tails. The deep snows and extreme cold of a
long and unusually severe winter drove the hungry deer down out of the
mountains into the settlements, where the ranchmen joyously slaughtered
them. The destruction around Kalispell was described by Harry P.
Stanford as "sickening."

Mr. Avare estimates the prong-horned antelope in Montana at three
thousand head, of which about six hundred are under the quasi-protection
of four ranches.

The antelope need three or four small ranges, such as the Snow Creek
Antelope Range, where the bad lands are too rough for ranchmen, but
quite right for antelopes and other big game.

All the grouse and ptarmigan of Montana need a five-year close
season. The splendid sage grouse is now extinct in many parts of its
previous range. Fifty-eight thousand licensed gunners are too many
for them!

The few mountain sheep and mountain goats that survive should have a
five-year close season, at once.