47 



ninety per cent, of the answers are in favor of boun 

 ties, have considerable woodland and mountainous 

 territory or wildland, where the predatory animals 

 are usually much more numerous than in well settled 

 farming districts. Only two counties — ^Crawford and 

 Lawrence — show a majority of answers in opposition 

 to bounties. The citizens of Crawford county during 

 the aciive enforcement of the odious Scalp act of 1885, 

 paid in a period of about two years about $10,000, three 

 fourths of w^hich, it is reliably stated, was for "hawks 

 and owls." This expenditure of the county funds 

 created a strong feeling against such laws.- as it is as 

 serted that much of this money was o-btained for skins 

 of red squirrels and chipmunks which were called 

 "minks" and "weasels" and by divers other sharp prac- 

 tices successfully employed to fool officials who were 

 unable to recognize "heads" and "ears ' of the genuine 

 or pseudo kinds offered by the scalp-hunters or ingenious 

 SL-alp-maker. As nearly all districts along the border 

 lines of the State were made the dumping grounds to 

 pay tribute for the victims of scalp-hunters in neigh 

 boring States, it is likely that on account of such 

 practices the greater portion of the negative replies 

 (75 per cent.) were sent from Lawrence county. 



THEY FAVOR KILLING ALL HAWKS AXD OWLS. 



A careful examination of the answers favoring a 

 bounty on birds shows, 1 regret to say, that not over 

 fifty, of fully l,.'iOO persons, seem to be able to distin- 

 guish the beneficial from the harmful species of hawks 

 and owls, and as a result of this want of knowledge 

 or perhaps it may have been, and no doubt was, so far 

 as some individuals were concerned, carelessness, ao 

 overwhelming number of i'ei>lies say. "bounty on all 

 hawks and owls." 



