BIRDS ON HATS, ETC. 89 
starvation. This is but one incident of many that oc- 
curred oh the Rattlesnake, and no doubt on all streams 
where parties go for a few days’ outing. 
“G. E. Van Buren, 
“Missoula, Mont.” 
Is it a wonder that our birds decrease? Cats hunt 
them in the city ; ignorant schoolboys molest them in 
the country; men, boys, and females, whom Mr. Van 
Buren very charitably, but just as inappropriately calls 
“ladies,” murder them at summer resorts and in the 
trout-stream woods. If you are a good marksman, you 
need not demonstrate it on song birds and on innocent 
shore birds in the summer time. If you cannot be happy 
without shooting, take an old barn-door with you and 
place it against a sand hill. We are in great need of a 
gun license to keep track of the fools, old and young, 
male and female. The wonder is that we have any 
birds left at all. 
The only legal remedy to abate this nuisance would 
be a gun license in every settled district.1 
1See ‘Principles of The League of American Sportsmen,’’ page 
132. 
