Legislation 237 We were one of the original states in the Union to abolish spring shooting, if not the first, and we would not go back to the old conditions for anything. Spring shooting, in my estimation, is one of the most vicious forms of slaughter. The man who kills birds in the spring gets nothing but a lot of feathers and the meat is feverish and not fit to eat; then, he is kill- ing the parent birds when they are about to mate and in that way destroying what we ought to have in the fall. But I am afraid we shall never get spring shooting abolished in all the states until we get federal control of our migratory birds; and I believe that the Audubon Society can do no greater service than to back up the efforts that have been put forth in Washington along the line of federal control. We see che benefits in Minnesota of abolishing spring shooting. Every year our aquatic fowl are increasing, and this year we have had the local Ducks breed in every slough where water was found. The hunters that have gone out bear testimony to the state- ment I have made, that not in years has shooting been so good in Minnesota, largely because we have abolished spring shooting and the Ducks were not molested. If the other states bordering on Minnesota would follow our example, the results would be still better." This is one of the best arguments for the universal prohibition of all spring shooting that has ever been presented, because it is based entirely on the results obtained in a state that has had this advanced game legislation in force for a number of years. Mr. Fullerton, in our opinion, strikes the keynote of the best method of immediate uniform protection for all migratory birds, when he advises this Association to advocate federal control. It will certainly take years of the hardest kind of labor to secure the passage of an anti-spring-shooting statute in each commonwealth in the United States. Society has not yet become so ethical that its members will relinquish a personal privilege for the advan- tage of the whole body ; unfortunately, it is still necessary to compel such action by laws, and therefore the shortest road to the goal of perfect protec- tion to all migratory birds is a national anti-spring-shooting law. Mr. Fuller- ton pays such a glowing tribute to Audubon work that, without thought of being egotistical, it is given here for the satisfaction of our members and sympathizers and also to excite the attention of the indifferent and to dis- arm our critics : "I wish to bear testimony to the splendid work the Audubon Societies are doing, especially along educational lines ; after all, that is what we want, — the people to be educated ; when they are, there will be no question about the result. Minnesota is under a lasting obligation for the literature fur- nished and for the example the Societies set, and I believe that the change of sentiment which we have today in our State is due largely to education along the lines pursued by the Audubon Societies." The reports from New York State, which abolished spring shooting, with
