Geese & Ducks

The U. S. Department of Agriculture becomes increasingly alarmed at the high mortality rate of wild fowl (TIME, Dec. 16); Its advisory council of sportsmen persistently urge a lowering of the bag limit, more game preserves. Last week impetus was given to their cause by an announcement from the National Association of Audubon societies that great numbers of water fowl are being destroyed by oil on coastal waters. The oil residue, which comes from coastwise ships, gathers in the bays and inlets where the ducks rest. Once it reaches a duck, the oil glues his feathers together and, unable to swim, he dies.

Last month at a Washington meeting of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act Advisory Board a resolution to reduce the bag limit was passed. Last week Secretary of Agriculture Arthur Mastick Hyde announced that upon his recommendation the duck-bag will be reduced from 25 to 15 per day; the geese-bag from 8 to 4. The possession limit will be 30 ducks, 8 geese.

Last week the City of Washington became a game preserve. Wild ducks were lured from their natural feeding grounds on the wild celery flats of the Potomac by scattering grain in the tidal basin, Washington's sanitary device near the Washington Monument."*

*Sluice gates impound the water at high tide, release it after the tide has begun falling, to wash clean the Potomac's muddy bank at the city's edge.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.