246 AMERICAN GAME BIRD SHOOTING 



multiply and re-establish themselves in considerable 

 number. To illustrate : This county, Pettis County, 

 which is little larger, perhaps, than the average size 

 county and fairly densely populated Sedalia alone, 

 the county seat, having a population of something over 

 15,000 inhabitants, and many more average-sized 

 towns has yet remaining in it, I would say, five or 

 six hundred birds. 



"Of course, it is difficult to estimate even approxi- 

 mately the number of birds remaining, yet it is no un- 

 common sight to see flocks of ten to twenty-five of 

 these birds in the larger pastures and cornfields. A 

 very reliable person told me the other day that he saw 

 in the western part of our county a drove of about forty 

 birds. Doubtless this was an accumulation of several 

 flocks that were feeding together. 



"While, as stated, this county is thickly populated, 

 there yet remain many large pastures on which the 

 virgin sod has never been broken, being used as pasture 

 lands, and perhaps some as large as a thousand acres 

 or more. They breed in these pastures and meadows 

 and feed in adjacent oat and corn fields during the sum- 

 mer season. They were seen in unusually large num- 

 bers this winter, which I can but attribute to the fact 

 that special effort was made to protect these birds dur- 

 ing their breeding season last year. 



"We were fortunate enough to secure one or two 

 early convictions for hunting them out of season, and 

 the gunners took alarm and very few were killed. 

 What is true in this county, is true in many other coun- 



