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OFFICIAL RECORD OF GAME KILLED IN LOUISIANA DURING THE SEASON (12 MONTHS) OF 1909-10

BIRDS

Wild Ducks, sea and river 3,176,000
Coots 280,740
Geese and Brant 202,210
Snipe, Sandpiper and Plover 606,635
Quail (Bob-White) 1,140,750
Doves 310,660
Wild Turkeys 2,219
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  Total number of game birds killed 5,719,214

MAMMALS

Deer 5,470
Squirrels and Rabbits 690,270
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  Total of game mammals 695,740
Fur-bearing mammals 1,971,922
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  Total of mammals 2,667,662
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  Grand total of birds and mammals 8,386,876

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Of the thousands of slaughtered robins, it would seem that no records exist.  It is to be understood that the annual slaughter of wild life in Louisiana never before reached such a pitch as now.  Without drastic measures, what will be the inevitable result?  Does any man suppose that even the wild millions of Louisiana can long withstand such slaughter as that shown by the official figures given above?  It is wildly impossible.

But the darkest hour is just before the dawn.  At the session of the Louisiana legislature that was held in the spring of 1912, great improvements were made in the game laws of that state.  The most important feature was the suppression of wholesale market hunting, by persons who are not residents of the state.  A very limited amount of game may be sold and served as food in public places, but the restrictions placed upon this traffic are so effective that they will vastly reduce the annual slaughter.  In other respects, also, the cause of wild life protection gained much; for which great credit is due to Mr. Edward A. McIlhenny.

It is the way of Americans to feel that because game is abundant in a given place at a given time, it always will be abundant, and may therefore be slaughtered without limit.  That was the case last winter in California during the awful slaughter of band-tailed pigeons, as will be noted elsewhere.

It is time for all men to be told in the plainest terms that there never has existed, anywhere in historic times, a volume of wild life so great that civilized man could not quickly exterminate it by his methods of destruction.  Lift the veil and look at the stories of the bison, the passenger pigeon, the wild ducks and shore birds of the Atlantic coast, and the fur-seal.