144 



Bird - Lore 



TWO INTERESTING CASES 



Mr. C. E. Brewster, Game Law Expert 

 of the United States Department of 

 Agriculture, who has been doing such 

 splendid work for a number of years in 

 enforcing the federal regulations in refer- 

 ence to the interstate shipment of game, 

 is continually making interesting dis- 

 coveries. Two of these are referred to in 

 the following communication recently 

 received from him. The big gun to which 

 he refers is a type of the enormous weapons 

 which have long been used by the pot- 

 hunters in certain regions along our 

 Atlantic coast. The value of one of these 

 guns to the market hunter lies in the fact 

 that it can throw shot to a far greater 

 distance than an ordinary fowling-piece 

 and, further, the quantity of pellets 

 which it hurls at a single discharge is 

 capable of producing enormous execution 

 on a flock of feeding wild-fowl. The 

 "duck scaffold" is an ocular demonstra- 

 tion of the length to which bird-butchers 

 will go in order to defeat the law, as long 

 as there is an open market for wild game- 

 birds. Mr. Brewster writes: 



"In December, 1913, two officers of 

 Washington, D. C, saw a man start out 

 from the Virginia shore in a skiff. They 

 intercepted him, and found in his boat a 

 gun 8 feet 6 inches long, of an inch and 

 five-eighths caliber, weighing over 100 

 lbs., loaded and placed ready for firing. 

 He had with him, too, a double-barrel 

 ten-gauge gun, also loaded. They drew 

 the load out of the big gun, and found it 

 consisted of a half-pound of flashing pow- 

 der and a pound of small buck-shot. It 

 would appear that the man was going 

 duck-hunting with this destructive wea- 

 pon. Since that time, the Biological Sur- 

 vey has been conducting a general inves- 

 tigation, and we now have the record of 

 eleven big guns owned on the Potomac 

 River, some of them more than 10 feet 

 in length. If Virginia and Maryland, fol- 

 lowing the example of other states, enact 

 laws making it unlawful to have these 

 guns in possession, we shall have no trou- 

 ble in finding them." 



"Another matter that may interest 

 you is in connection with the duck-trap- 

 pers of Virginia. After we had made 

 successful prosecutions in the federal 

 courts, two years ago, against these Vir- 

 ginia parties, for shipping trapped ducks, 

 they hit on the plan of tying up a bunch 

 of dead ducks, after they had taken 

 them from the traps and killed them, and 

 shooting a load of fine shot into them at 

 close range. They would then claim, in 

 case the shipments were intercepted, that 

 the ducks were legally killed. (You will 

 remember that the Virginia law provides 

 that ducks legally killed may be shipped 

 out of the state.) 



Late in 191 2 we intercepted a shipment, 

 going from Virginia to Maryland. We 

 took a number of pairs and had them 

 picked, and, of course, discovered the 

 shot marks; but the ducks had previously 

 been killed by piercing the head with a 

 sharp instrument. Eichelberger and 

 Bradford, the shippers, were convicted 

 and heavily fined, this being their second 

 conviction. Immediately the trappers 

 arranged to take the birds from their 

 traps, tie them up in bunches, and fire 

 shot into them while alive. 



Last month, with two men in our 

 employ, I made a trip along the eastern 

 shore of Virginia. Off Quinby we found 

 the apparatus or scaffolding used for 

 tying up these birds to shoot. I am in- 

 closing you a photograph of it. You will 

 readily see that it has been used some." 



Christmas Trees for Birds 



There comes from the Audubon Society 

 in Buffalo a novel suggestion, to be noted 

 for use by bird-lovers next winter. This 

 is, that after the children's Christmas trees 

 have served their pretty purpose they be 

 not thrown away or burned, but planted 

 in some suitable place near the house, 

 and loaded with food for the winter birds. 

 This plan offers many advantages over 

 merely scattering the food, or placing it 

 on some shelf accessible to cats, etc. 



