Of all the birds in Ohio and the North-west, the wild pigeon was by far the most numerous. Those who have witnessed their flight, from early morn until approaching night, all going in one direction, without cessation for a number of consecutive days, were ready to believe pigeons were as the sands of the sea, innumerable, and could never be exhausted. But, alas! inventions came, the foes of bird-life: railroads and telegraphs. And for many years, winter and summer, the pigeon was traced, pursued, netted and trapped, at feeding places, by gangs of pot-hunters, keeping tons of dead birds all the time in transit to the large cities. Year after year, from coast to coast, this bird was followed, invading the breeding places and destroying the young and old, until the wild pigeon now exists in history, and may be seen mounted by the taxidermist.
The birds that are not game, the women in their vanity and thoughtlessness are rapidly destroying those having an attractive plumage, and millions of humming-birds, orioles, bluebirds, starlings, indigo-birds, redstarts, redbirds, and many others, are annually slaughtered to gratify an inhuman and uncivilized fashion. For more than ten years this destruction has been increasing, and birds are diminishing in this and other countries until extermination is near at hand. Jules Forest says of the bird of paradise: “They are so industriously hunted that the males are not permitted to reach full maturity, and the birds which now flood the market are for the most part young ones, still clothed in their first, plumage, which lacks the brilliancy displayed in the older bird, and are consequently of small commercial value.” As to the tuft of delicate plumes which are so much in demand by milliners, and sold by them as real, are often mixed with ospray tips, which, to the shame of womanhood, have so long been in fashion and are still used. I may state on trustworthy authority, that “during the last season one warehouse alone has disposed of no less than sixty thousand dozen of these mixed sprays.” And the question comes: Is there no way to stop it? Must bird-slaughter go on to gratify a weak and cruel vanity, that should be met not only with public scorn, but also by the strong arm of the law, to reach the possessor or the hat, as it does the fisherman and his net or the hunter and his gun.
As the country became partially settled and the larger game supply diminished by unseasonable killing, clubs of squirrel hunters organized and laws wore enacted protecting beasts and birds with a close season. The good, the social and intelligent, became members for what there was in it. These clubs entertained no secrets, and did not pattern after any of the ancient orders with which the United States appear overblessed, nor were they given to boasting of their pedigrees. No one ever claimed King Solomon was “the father and founder,” although he might have been; and members were satisfied and sanguine that Mr. Nimrod, the mighty hunter, for a saint, was in morals as good as any of them.
These clubs had also many improvements over ordinary societies. A candidate for membership was not obliged to ride a goat to get in, nor with bandaged eyes go down into a dangerous pit to search for the tables of stone that Moses brought home the ten commandments on. Neither had the clubs any use for a catechism of secret signs to let the brethren know when a member had been guilty of something unwelcome to society, and needed assistance. They were all Squirrel Hunters, and members recognized each other by the absence of society pins and want of superlative adjectives at the front end of their names. The only thing recorded in which these clubs resembled any other order or society was in having a great many glorious banquets. They cultivated the social and democratic principles, owing allegiance nowhere, to no one or any thing, but the government and country covered by the American flag.
The objects of these clubs were the study of natural history and to secure and enforce all laws for the preservation of game beasts and birds, as well as the summer songsters that give life and happiness to forest and field.
These clubs labored hard to enforce legislative enactments against pot-hunting and thoughtless destruction of birds, but found it more difficult to capture the violator and public opinion than to subdue British and Indians or frighten an army. People generally had embraced the idea that birds, beasts and trees could never become seriously decimated, and it was useless to offer them protection, which made it troublesome to obtain a verdict against offenders by either judge or jury. The motives of such prosecutions were generally misconstrued, or plaintiffs made subjects of sport or ridicule.
The following is taken from the records and proceedings of one of the earliest organized and most worthy game clubs in Ohio. It appears the offender was a lawyer, who enjoyed fine grounds and an elegant garden, and amused himself shooting little birds that came to share his bounty, or obtain a pittance by way of interest for the good they had by nature rendered. The club gave the lawyer notice and request to desist such cruelty, or it might become necessary to call the attention of the officers of the law to the matter.
To this the club received the following reply, worthy of preservation for its wit, humor, and literary ability:
“To N—— E——, Secretary of Branch No. 3, Ohio Game Club:
“My Dear Sir—Your esteemed favor of yesterday has been received, and at an early date I hasten to reply, not knowing just what punishment would await me should I fail to be prompt in my responses. As to the ‘birds of various kinds’ of which you speak, I move to amend in order to make more specific and certain, by stating what kind of birds, what number, when killed, and by what means. If required to plead to the general charge, I would enter a plea of ‘not guilty.’ Permit me to say that I only killed birds of prey, and I only pray that I may kill more of them. I always bury all I kill; I berry them before I kill them, and bury them afterwards.
“I am exceedingly sorry that my fancied misdeeds have rendered necessary a special meeting of the ‘club,’ or to have been the innocent occasion of the least trouble to either the officers or members of that useful and ornamental body. Be kind enough to say, with my compliments, to the association of which you have the honor to be secretary, that the doors of the Temple of Justice, like ‘the glorious gates of the gospel of grace,’ stand open night and day, and the ‘club’ will please consider itself invited to enter and become ‘involved in the intricate meshes of the law.’
“Allow me further to say that I expect tomorrow morning to be on my premises, near the city, engaged in my usual and ordinary amusement of destroying birds of prey; and as it is the ‘early bird that catches the worm.’ I would suggest to members of your valuable association, through their secretary, that they meet at an early hour, say half-past five in the morning, either at Dodson’s store or at the well-known grocery stand of John L. King, and proceed in a body, in full uniform, to the premises alluded to in your correspondence. It might be well to have music, and march to the tune of ‘Listen to the Mockingbird,’ or such other appropriate music as your orchestra may select.
“One other suggestion: I am constitutionally and proverbially careless in the handling of firearms, and it may be well to make that statement to the members of your organization, so that should a stray shot fall wide of the mark at which it was aimed, they may feel a sense of security behind such intrenchments as nature or art shall have provided. Ice-water and sponges will be furnished free to each and every member who attends, but no gin cocktails will be given.
“Very truly yours, H——.”
It seems an unanswered question, how the natives preserved the forests from fires, and maintained the numerical strength of the species of animals on which they subsisted. The countries in which Indians have been found subsisting by hunting, are known to have forests undisturbed by fires for thousands of years, and containing a full complement of all kinds of game indigenous to the locality. This country, at the time surrendered, was fully endowed with all the gifts of nature. Love had preserved the forests from fires, protected the game beasts and birds, and shown natural wisdom enough not to kill the goose to obtain the golden egg.