INTRODUCTION 3 



Western States was the exception. The few game laws 

 on the statute books were nowhere enforced, and the 

 market gunners plied their trade unmolested, in season 

 and out. Vast quantities of birds festooned the fronts 

 of game-stores in all the cities, and filled thousands of 

 barrels and boxes which were handled by commission 

 men. 



Forester doubted if the breech-loader would ever 

 come into general use on account of the inconvenience 

 of the little cases in which the loads were carried. I 

 spent a whole day in New York recently in a fruitless 

 effort to find one of the old single muzzle-loaders to be 

 used in making an illustration. The muzzle-loading 

 double gun is rapidly becoming a curiosity. 



The dogs have been carefully bred for speed and en- 

 durance and that quality known to sportsmen as " bird 

 sense," and are now trained to the highest degree of 

 perfection. The field trials of these animals, which 

 had a small beginning in 1876, are to-day events of 

 much importance where large purses are offered. 

 There were no fewer than thirty of these competitions 

 in America the past year. 



When it became evident to sportsmen that the game 

 was rapidly vanishing, the legislative assemblies were 

 appealed to, and we soon had many game laws. These 

 were directed principally toward the shortening of the 

 open season, the prohibition in many places of summer 

 and spring shooting, and, most important of all, the 

 prohibition of market shooting and the sale of game. 

 Laws were passed limiting the size of the bag to be 

 made in a day, in some States to a very small number 

 of birds. Other laws provided for a license of from 



