THE MISSISSIPPI RESERVES 281 



borhood of Pass Christian during the last few 

 years. This is largely due to the activity of 

 my host and his two sons as hunters. They 

 have a pack of beagles, trained to night work, 

 and this pack has to its credit nearly four hun- 

 dred coons and possums — together with an oc- 

 casional skunk! — and, moreover, has chivied 

 the gray foxes almost out of the country; and 

 all these animals are the inveterate enemies of 

 all small game, and especially of ground-nest- 

 ing birds. To save interesting creatures, it is 

 often necessary not merely to refrain from 

 killing them but also to war on their enemies. 

 One of the sons runs the Parker stock-farm 

 in upper Louisiana, beside the Mississippi. 

 There are about four thousand acres, half of 

 it highland, the other half subject to flood if 

 the levees break. Five years ago such a break 

 absolutely destroyed the Parker plantations, 

 then exclusively on low land. Now, in event of 

 flood, the stock can be driven, and the human 

 beings escape, to the higher ground. Young 

 Parker, now twenty-two years old, has run the 

 plantation since he was sixteen. The horses, 

 cattle, and sheep are all of the highest grade; 

 the improvement in the stock of Louisiana and 

 Mississippi during the last two decades has 

 been really noteworthy. Game, and wild things 



