In the destruction of wild life, I think the backwoods population of Florida is the most lawless and defiant that can be found anywhere in the United States. The "plume-hunters" have practically exterminated the plume-bearing egrets, wholly annihilated the roseate spoonbill, the flamingo, and also the Carolina parrakeet. On July 8, 1905, one of them killed an Audubon Association Warden, Guy M. Bradley, whose business it was to enforce the state laws protecting the egret rookeries. The people really to blame for the shooting of Guy Bradley, and the extermination of the egrets by lawless and dangerous men, are the vain and merciless women who wear the "white badges of cruelty" as long as they can be purchased! They have much to answer for!

Originally, Florida was alive with bird life. For number of species, abundance of individuals, and general dispersal throughout the whole state, I think no other state in America except possibly California ever possessed a bird fauna quite comparable with it. Once its bird life was one of the wonders of America. But the gunners began early to shoot, and shoot, and shoot. During the fifteen years preceding 1898, the general bird life of Florida decreased in volume 77 per cent. In 1900 it was at a very low point, and it has steadily continued to decrease. The rapidly-growing settlement and cultivation of the state has of course had much to do with the disappearance of wild life generally, and the draining and exploitation of the Everglades will about finish the birds of southern Florida.

The brown pelicans' breeding-place on Pelican Island, in Indian River, has been taken in hand by the national government as a bird refuge, and its marvelous spectacle of pelican life is now protected. Nine other islands on the coast of Florida have been taken as national bird refuges, and will render posterity good service.

The great private game and bird preserve of Dr. Ray V. Pierce, at Apalachicola, known as St. Vincent Island, containing twenty square miles of wonderful woods and waters, is performing an important function for the state and the nation.

The Florida bag limit on quail is entirely too liberal. I know one man who never once exceeded the limit of twenty birds per day, but in the season of 1908-9 he killed 865 quail! Can the quail of any state long endure such drains as that?

From a zoological point of view, Florida is in bad shape. A great many of her people who shoot are desperately lawless and uncontrollable, and the state is not financially able to support a force of wardens sufficiently strong to enforce the laws, even as they are. It looks as if the slaughter would go on until nothing of bird life remains. At present I can see no hope whatever for saving even a good remnant of the wild life of the state.

The present status of wild-life protective laws in Florida was made the subject of an article in Forest and Stream of August 10, 1912, by John H. Wallace, Jr., Game Commissioner of the State of Alabama, in an article entitled "The Florida Situation." In view of his record, no one will question either the value or the honest sincerity of Mr. Wallace's opinions. The following paragraphs are from that article:

The enactment of a model and modern game law for the State of Florida is absolutely imperative in order to save many of the most valuable species of birds and game of that State from certain depletion and threatened extinction. The question of the protection of the birds and game in Florida is not a local one, but is national in its scope. Birds know no state lines, and while practically all the States lying to the north of Florida protect migratory birds and waterfowl, yet these are recklessly slaughtered in that state to such an extent as to be appalling to all sportsmen and bird lovers.

So alarming has become the decrease of the birds and game of Florida that unless a halt is called on the campaign of reckless annihilation that has been ceaselessly waged in that state, the sport and recreation enjoyed by primeval nimrods will linger only in history and tradition.

It is the sincerest hope of all lovers of wild life of the American continent that a strong and invincible sentiment, relative to the imperative necessity of real conservation legislation, be crystallized in the minds of the members elect of the Florida Legislature, to the end that the next Legislature will spread upon the statute books of the State of Florida a model and modern law for the preservation and protection of the birds and game of that State, which when put into practical operation will elicit the thanks of all good citizens, and likewise the gratitude of future generations.