40 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF ALABAMA 



hood or by whistling him out of the yard. This Sam 

 continued to do till he was detected and informed that 

 the next time the dog was taken off by him his gun would 

 be appropriated by the owner of the dog. 



"Sam killed a good many partridges last season, and up 

 to Christmas 1891 had bagged more than the writer of 

 these notes. 



"Woody Lawson shoots partridges when time and op- 

 portunity permit. Woody lived many years with Dr. 

 Cobbs and often accompanied him and the boys shooting, 

 hence his love for wing-shooting. 



"Ellis Ryan, as all know, shoots partridges and he 

 makes heavy bags — too heavy, alas! for sportsmen to get 

 an equal share of game. The desire to make big bags 

 and to boast about it is doing as much as any other thing 

 to exterminate our partridge. For my part, I take pleas- 

 ure in saying that I killed on such or such a day two or 

 three or four, or half a dozen birds, as the case may be. 

 Though Ellis is a good shoot, if he confined himself to 

 shooting at the covey on the wing alone, he could not 

 get so many more birds than other' shooters; but I have 

 hunted with him and seen him find covey after covey on 

 the ground, when his dog pointed. My presence alone 

 prevented their destruction. 



"I have mentioned some of the negro shooters in and 

 around Greensboro who have taken to wing-shooting, to 

 show that the scarcity of birds may be easily accounted 

 for when we take into consideration the fact that the ne- 

 gro, having exterminated the squirrel, has turned his at- 

 tention to poor little Bob White; and I fear greatly that 

 this game little fellow must soon go the way of the 

 squirrel. 



"It is not only around Greensboro, but, if what the 

 negroes themselves tell me can be believed, everywhere m 

 the Blackbelt they are shooting partridges. 



"It was not without cause last year, that, discovering 

 this widespread and increasing pursuit (with gun and 

 dog) of our little game bird, I felt that his destruction 

 was not far off, though it has come much sooner than I 

 expected. 



