counties) between the Atlantic and the Rocky Mountains. We could easily
have one thousand bob white quail for every one now living. We could
have squirrels in every grove, and songbirds by the million,--merely by
protecting them from slaughter and molestation. From Ohio to the great
plains, the pinnated grouse could be made far more common than crows and
blackbirds.

Inasmuch as all this is true,--and no one with information will dispute
it for a moment,--is it not folly to seek to supplant our own splendid
native species of game birds (_that we never yet have decently
protected!_) with foreign species? Let the American people answer this
question with "Yes" or "No."

The methods by which our non-game birds can be encouraged and brought
back are very simple: Protect them, put up shelters for them, give them
nest-boxes in abundance, protect them from cats, dogs, and all other
forms of destruction, and feed those that need to be fed. I should think
that every boy living in the country would find keen pleasure in making
and erecting nest-boxes for martins, wrens, and squirrels; in putting up
straw teepees in winter for the quail, in feeding the quail, and in
nailing to the trees chunks of suet and fat pork every winter for the
woodpeckers, nuthatches, and other winter residents.

Will any person now on this earth live long enough to see the present
all-pervading and devilish spirit of slaughter so replaced by the love
of wild creatures and the true spirit of conservation that it will be as
rare as it now is common?

But let no one think for a moment that any vanishing species can at any
time be brought back; for that would be a grave error. The point is
always reached, by every such species, that the survivors are too few to
cope with circumstances, and recovery is impossible. The heath hen could
not be brought back, neither could the passenger pigeon. The whooping
crane, the sage grouse, the trumpeter swan, the wild turkey, and the
upland plover never will come back to us, and nothing that we can do
ever will bring them back. Circumstances are against those species,--and
I fear against many others also. Thanks to the fact that the American
bison breeds well in captivity, we have saved that species from complete
extinction, but our antelope seems to be doomed.

It is because of the alarming condition of our best wild life that quick
action and strong action is vitally necessary. We are sleeping on our
possibilities.