Excerpt from The Game Birds of California: Contribution From the University of California Museum of Vertebrate Zoology
In the fall of 1912 it was decided that the staff of the California Museum of Vertebrate Zoology should begin to apply a portion of its knowledge of the vertebrate natural history of the state along practical lines, more particularly in an active effort towards conserving the native fauna. In the course of extended field work throughout California we had been forcibly impressed with the rapid depletion everywhere evident among the game birds and mammals, but at the same time we found reason to believe that a careful study of the situation would reveal some effectual means of retarding this downward trend.
After observing the course of legislation for several months during the season of 1913, and recalling the popular indifference we had encountered in various parts of the state toward existing game laws, we had come to the conclusion that however numerous or stringent the game laws might be, they of themselves could not be expected to furnish adequate protection. The people at large must be apprized of the facts, and shown the need for, as well as the most effective means of, conserving our game resources.
About this time our plans became known to a Berkeley gentleman who was already intensely interested in any and all agencies for the protection of wild life. It was through the financial aid tendered by this man, whose name I am pledged to withhold, that the beginning of our work along economic lines was made possible. The actual task of writing the present book on the status of the game birds of California was begun on June 1, 1913, when Dr. Harold Child Bryant joined the staff of the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology under salary provided as above indicated, and, in collaboration with the director of the museum, devoted his time exclusively to this enterprise. Bryant's services formally terminated on August 1, 1914, when he was called to a position as director of education, publicity and research, under the State Fish and Game Commission. He thereby carried the slogan "Game Conservation through Education" into a sphere of application the scope of which he has been able steadily to enlarge and perfect.
The work on the game-bird book was immediately taken up where Bryant had left off, by Mr. Tracy Irwin Storer, and the latter, under salary at first supplied from the anonymous source above alluded to, and later by Miss Annie M. Alexander, has, again with the collaboration of the director of the museum, faithfully and unremittingly labored on the book until its completion at the end of 1916.
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