62 Decrease of Birds 



kills every one he can find, and he knows where e very 

 covey is in the county, as he makes it his business to know 

 where they are. He told me that he killed and gave to 

 one man last season 400 Quail. I know he killed eighty- 

 four in three days not to say anything of the number he 

 wounded, that afterwards died, and a good number that 

 he could not find. At another time he killed sixty-two on 

 one trip which he brought home, which he says he gave 

 away. The sportsmen up here have estimated that he has 

 killed more Quail this season than all the sportsmen com- 

 bined have killed. He is a good deputy, I think, and I 

 have recommended him, but he is mad on the subject of 

 how many Qual he can kill in a season. I am informed by 



Mr that the warden in county is doing 



the same thing as the one in this county. 



"I will venture to say that if the matter could be looked 

 into, it would be found that there are wardens in most of 

 the counties who are killing Quail the same as those 

 mentioned in my letter. Sportsmen think that the man 

 who is employed to protect the Quail ought not to devote 

 his entire time to killing Quail as some of the wardens do. 

 Some believe that wardens should not be allowed to kill 

 Quail at all on account of the position they hold. Others 

 say they (wardens) ought not to be allowed to shoot 

 oftener than one day in each week. 



"What is needed is a law with a heavy penalty against 

 this continual hunting by any one man. The law should 

 prohibit any one man from hunting any oftener than two 

 days in any one week. There ought also, to be a law passed 

 by the legislature making it a misdemeanor and a heavy 

 penalty attached for hunting Quail or rabbits or anything 

 except ducks and other waterfowl with an automatic or 

 pump gun, but especially the automatic. 



"I know men who can wipe out whole covies with the 

 automatic guns and the game warden in this county is one 

 of them. He is a dead shot and a hard hunter. If any- 

 thing can be done to prohibit the use of automatic guns 

 and stop men from hunting oftener than two days in a 

 week, and shorten the hunting season from December 1 



