LET US GO AFIELD 



fresh from the game fields. It cannot be doubted 

 that the series of such facts today have one unmis- 

 takable trend and that is the recording of general 

 scarcity of game. A writer from South Dakota, 

 who has been accustomed to shooting in good wild- 

 fowl country, says: 



"It might be of interest to state that there was 

 not any great flight of Northern birds this fall and* 

 a scarcity of the mallards was specially noticeable. 

 Though the lakes and ponds have all been open 

 except in one light freeze about October twenty-sec- 

 ond until this writing, and though the weather has 

 been extremely mild, with no snow, the late mal- 

 lards are in evidence only in small numbers. With 

 the above conditions prevalent a few years ago, our 

 grainfields in the neighborhood of the small lakes 

 would be alive with big northern greenheads. Have" 

 they changed their flight, as some of our hunters 

 contend, or are there less bred each year? I am 

 quite anxious to see what effect the cutting out of 

 spring shooting will have on the fall flight. It is 

 my belief that little if any change will be apparent 

 for several years; and, though it almost breaks my 

 heart to think that I shall not be able to hike out 

 next spring when the flight from the South begins, 

 I am glad to sacrifice this pleasure in the spring in 



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