hey have allowed
millions of dollars worth of _their_ birds to be coolly snatched away
from them by the greedy market-shooters.

There is one state in America, and so far as I know _only one_, in which
there is at this moment an old-time abundance of game-bird life. That is
the state of Louisiana. The reason is not so very far to seek. For the
birds that do not migrate,--quail, wild turkeys and doves,--the cover is
yet abundant. For the migratory game birds of the Mississippi Valley,
Louisiana is a grand central depot, with terminal facilities that are
unsurpassed. Her reedy shores, her vast marshes, her long coast line and
abundance of food furnish what should be not only a haven but a heaven
for ducks and geese. After running the gauntlet of guns all the way from
Manitoba and Ontario to the Sunk Lands of Arkansas, the shores of the
Gulf must seem like heaven itself.

The great forests of Louisiana shelter deer, turkeys, and fur-bearing
animals galore; and rabbits and squirrels abound.

Naturally, this abundance of game has given rise to an extensive
industry in shooting for the market. The "big interests" outside the
state send their agents into the best game districts, often bringing in
their own force of shooters. They comb out the game in enormous
quantities, without leaving to the people of Louisiana any decent and
fair quid-pro-quo for having despoiled them of their game and shipped a
vast annual product outside, to create wealth elsewhere.

At present, however, we are but incidentally interested in the
short-sightedness of the people of the Pelican State. As a state of
oldtime abundance in killable game, the killing records that were kept
in the year 1909-10 possess for us very great interest. They throw a
startling searchlight on the subject of this chapter,--the former
abundance of wild life.

From the records that with great pains and labor were gathered by the
State Game Commission, and which were furnished me for use here by
President Frank M. Miller, we set forth this remarkable exhibit of
old-fashioned abundance in game, A.D. 1909.

* * * * *

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)