Wild West Wildfowl
FROM our current place in history, we can see that one of the many non-human downsides of the discovery and colonisation of North America by Europeans was the explosion in the commercial exploitation of the continent’s nature and wildlife.
While hunting is still widespread there, the real expansion of what the author terms “wildlife consumerism” occurred between the end of the American Civil War in 1865 and 1920, just after the stateside conservation movement was truly born with the Migratory
Bird Treaty Act in 1918. The book starts in 1850, and tracks the history of bird exploitation – mostly in terms of wildfowl – through its markets in food, hat decorations, pets and cabinet-ofcuriosity specimens.
We discover hunter Henry Clay Merritt as an eventual criminal
(“I was born with a gun”), several wildfowl dealers and sportsmen, and conservationist William T Hornaday, whose lives fill and illustrate the changes in the public and legislators’ attitudes towards this important trade, which ended up destroying the huge numbers of wild birds that the first colonisers discovered upon arrival.
We also find out details of their quarry, in the form of American Woodcock, Wilson’s Snipe, prairie chickens, ducks, geese and swans, which provided their meat for the table, preserved and fresh, their feathers for stuffing and decoration, and their entire feathered bodies for the display cabinet – and, most oddly to modern eyes – ladies’ hats. Along the way, Labrador Duck, Heath Hen, Eskimo Curlew, Great Auk, Carolina Parakeet and Passenger Pigeon were all wiped out, with most not lasting much beyond the 1920 cut-off of this book. These species are not discussed in much detail in the book, with the text concentrating on the sheer numbers of Wild Turkey, Canvasback, Black Brant, Greater Prairie Chicken and others that survive to this day, but have been woefully exploited in the past.
Anyone who has birded in the USA knows how popular hunting remains, so it comes as no surprise that this huge economic factor influenced the development of conservation in the country. It was the growth of wildfowl exploitation on an industrial scale that horrified the public and politicians to the point where its worst excesses were legislated against. We discover much about these excesses in plenty of detail.
It’s a fascinating history that Americans – and the rest of the conservation world – are still involved in to an extent. This book will appeal to anyone with an interest in North American birds – and anyone keen on the ‘wild west’. David Callahan