that already that species has crossed with the
Louisiana white-tailed deer.

[Illustration: MAP OF MARSH ISLAND AND ADJACENT WILD-FOWL PRESERVES]

During the autumn of 1912, public attention in the United States was for
a time focused on the purchase of Marsh Island, Louisiana, by Mrs.
Russell Sage, and its permanent dedication to the cause of wild-life
protection. This delightful event has brought into notice the Louisiana
State Game Preserve of 13,000 acres near Marsh Island, and its
hinterland (and water) of 11,000 acres adjoining, which constitutes the
Ward-McIlhenny Wild Fowl Preserve. These three great preserves taken
together as they lie form a wild-fowl sanctuary of great size, and of
great value to the whole Mississippi Valley. Now that all duck-shooting
therein has been stopped, it is safe to predict that they shortly will
be inhabited by a wild-fowl population that will really stagger the
imagination.

DUCK-SHOOTING "PRESERVES."--A ducking "preserve" is a large tract of
land and water owned by a few individuals, or a club, for the purpose of
preserving exclusively for themselves and their friends the best
possible opportunities for killing large numbers of ducks and geese
without interference. In no sense whatever are they intended to preserve
or increase the supply of wild fowl. The real object of their existence
is duck and goose slaughter. For example, the worst goose-slaughter
story on record comes to us from the grounds of the Glenn County Club in
California, whereon, as stated elsewhere, two men armed with automatic
shotguns killed 218 geese in one hour, and bagged a total of 452 in one
day.

I shall not attempt to give any list of the so-called ducking
"preserves." The word "preserve," when applied to them, is a misnomer.
Thirteen states have these incorporated slaughtering-grounds for ducks
and geese, the greatest number being in California, Illinois, North
Carolina and Virginia. California has carried the ducking-club idea to
the limit where it is claimed that it constitutes an abuse. Dr. Palmer
says that one or two of the club preserves on the western side of the
San Joaquin Valley contain upward of _40 square miles, or 25,000 acres
each_! With considerable asperity it is now publicly charged (in the
columns of _The Examiner_ of San Francisco) that for the unattached
sportsmen there is no longer any duck-shooting to be had in California,
because all the good ducking-grounds are owned and excl