28 GAME CLUBS, PARKS, AND PRESERVES 



another club-man as something amusing. He, how- 

 ever, colored slightly and said : " I allowed my punter 

 to shoot a few dozen ducks for me one day, but I had 

 a hard headache and was shooting badly in conse- 

 quence. I do not believe in it at all — not at all." And 

 so it is that duck-murder, like other kjnds, will out. 



At a club down by the sea I saw an enthusiastic 

 sportsman go out with two punters, each armed with 

 a heavy gun, and heard the guns booming until ten 

 o'clock at night, in utter disregard of the State law 

 and a club-rule which required that the shooting cease 

 at sundown. 



At many of the clubs the shooting is excessive and 

 is kept up in the spring, after the birds have mated, 

 with results, of course, disastrous to the game. At 

 two of the clubs at Currituck, the spring shooting 

 was recently prohibited by a club rule, and many of 

 the ducks remained to breed on the club property. It 

 is estimated that ten thousand ducks were raised there 

 the first year. 



The simplest form of game-club is found quite near 

 New York. Certain sportsmen of New Jersey have 

 combined to control the shooting over many farms 

 where the ruffed grouse and partridge live and where 

 the woodcock still come upon their annual migration. 

 They lease the right to shoot for a term of years, pay- 

 ing no money rental, but agreeing to make the farmers 

 members of the association without the payment of 

 dues, to stock the land with game, and to be responsi- 

 ble for all damage to stock and fences, or of any kind, 

 whether it result from the acts of members or tres- 

 passers. The association further agrees to police the 



