12 THE AUDUBON BULLETIN 



Some Varieties of Sport 



When James Oliver Curwood wrote "The Grizzly King" he 

 dedicated the book to fellow hunters with the confession of one 

 who for years hunted and killed before he learned that the wild 

 offered a more thrilling sport than slaughter. He expressed 

 a sincere hope that in his writings he may make others feel and 

 understand that the greater thrill of the hunt is not in killing 

 but in letting live. 



The open season again has started a nondescript array of 

 licensed hunters to the fields and forests. With regret we note 

 among them many boys, banded together with but a single rifle 

 or gun among them. The procession loudly invades the unsus- 

 pecting landscape, and the wild things, grateful for the uninten- 

 tional warning, seek cover. Result, poor hunting. But the 

 youths are not to be thwarted. Their license entitles them to 

 hunt, shoot, and kill; therefore, anything and everything must 

 serve as a target. With rare persistence they overlook nothing 

 crawling, running, or flying, and the war of extermination is on. 



On a short ramble a few weeks ago along the banks of a 

 picturesque pond we noted a few victims of just such a hunting 

 expedition. Strewn along the wooded shores we found the life- 

 less bodies of a Yellow-billed Cuckoo, a Woodchuck, a Snapping 

 Turtle, and a little Green Heron. The Cuckoo, invaluable to us 

 because of its partiality to hairy caterpillars, was slain to prove 

 the superiority of marksmanship. The death of the hapless mar- 

 mot caught off his guard, an outlaw only by virtue of spreading 

 civilization, could hardly atone for the death of the Cuckoo. Nor 

 did it serve any purpose whatsoever to take the inoffensive life 

 of the beautiful creature with the iridescent plumage, the Little 

 Green Heron. How its rare presence along a water course lends 

 the picture charm ! It required no prowess or skill to tumble its 

 sharp silhouette from a naked limb. The Snapping Turtle, too, 

 would add to the interest of a limpid pool had its life been 

 spared. The activities of its life cycle are not incompatible with 

 the general scheme of nature. 



Quite often our laws are at fault, and legitimize the taking of 

 useful lives. Reference is made especially to that affecting the 

 hunting of the Mourning Dove and Quail. The former with its 

 splendid record as an eater of great quantities of weed seeds 

 offers scarcely sufficient meat to offset its loss to agriculture. 

 The Quail also, known as the greatest ally of the farmer, feeds on 

 tons of grasshoppers, weed seeds, and many insect pests, and 

 should be accorded the protection due its economic status. 



However, in justice to the hunter it may be noted that the 

 scarcity of Quail in many sections is due to lack of suitable cov- 

 er such as thickets and woodlands afford. A Hawk after tasting 

 Quail will linger over the territory until the last member of the 

 covey has been wiped out. 



