216 UPLAND SHOOTING. 



They would kick if they were hung, as the saying is in 

 Arizona. The man who hunts plover with a 10-gauge 

 gun thinks he has the best gun on earth. He can kill 

 birds farther than you can. He can also dive deeper and 

 come up cleaner and jump farther than you can, and tell 

 you who will be the next President. 



"Upland plover shooting is usually not so good in the 

 fall as it is in the spring, but it would be far better for all 

 our sportsmen never to shoot a plover in the spring. 

 When they reach the States of the Middle North, they 

 are already paired and ready to nest; indeed, many and 

 many will be found large with eggs. If we would but stop to 

 think! If we would but lay up our guns for half the year 

 in these times of lessening numbers! We do not think 

 of our boys in the cradle. We are robbing our boys of 

 all their game as rapidly as we can. We are leaving for 

 them, not the heritage of health and strength and con- 

 fident manliness which comes of skill at outdoor sports, 

 but the narrow chest and white face of the counting-room. 

 We do not mean that our boys shall ride and shoot; we 

 want them to add and measure. We do not care that they 

 shall keep alive either the hunter spirit, which is the 

 warrior spirit, or the love of the outdoor air, which is the 

 poet spirit. We want our boys to grow up thin and 

 white. They will make more money then, and so the 

 country will advance toward the happy state of those 

 countries whose boys hire out as bare-legged models to 

 painters in search of ruins. 



' ' May our slim and sweet-voiced little bird long do its 

 humble share toward preserving us from the hunterless 

 days. No more than that; let us preserve it, not simply 

 from any selfishness or care for ultimate gain, but because 

 it is one of Nature' s own creatures, and because it is so 

 cheerful and so confident, and because its voice is like the 

 laugh of the girl we loved long years ago." 



