12 GAME BIBDS OF CALIFORNIA 



heads ; then aiming over the back of the animal with his large-bore gun 

 or automatic, and bracing himself for the recoil, he fired the first 

 shot or shots while the birds were sitting, and the second or subsequent 

 shots while they were rising. Formerly a 2-, 4-, or 8-bore gun was 

 used, but most commonly a double-barreled, number 4, muzzle-loader ; 

 in more recent years, a 12-gauge automatic with an extension magazine 

 carrying from seven to nine loads, has been employed. The resulting 

 slaughter was simply enormous. Mr. M. Becker is authority for the 

 statement that he watched Sischo, a famous market hunter of Los 

 Baiios, Merced County, with two assistants kill 400 ducks with six 

 shots from number 4 guns. Two shots were fired from the animal 

 blind while the birds were sitting on the ground, and four while they 

 were rising. Mr. Becker was rewarded with twenty-two ducks for not 

 disturbing the flock before the shot. Mr. Ralph P. Merritt tells us 

 that a single bull hunter in the same vicinity killed 104 ducks with 

 two shots from a number 4, and Mr. J. Walter Scott, president of the 

 Los Banos Gun Club, reports a kill of 108 geese with four shots. 



Hunting by means of an animal blind was first discouraged by the 

 establishment of a bag limit of twenty-five birds ; but for several years 

 the difficulty of apprehending the violator and the practical impossi- 

 bility of procuring a conviction after his apprehension prevented the 

 elimination of bull hunting. Then, too, the men employing this method 

 of hunting continually threatened the lives of those who attempted to 

 enforce the law. Several shooting frays between game deputies and 

 bull hunters took place near Los Banos, and in 1915 a deputy was- 

 killed there while attempting to make an arrest. After the law pro- 

 hibiting bull hunting for ducks was passed, this sort of hunting was 

 still continued under the guise of hunting for geese. It was not until 

 1915, when all hunting with animal blinds was prohibited, and the 

 market for birds was largely destroyed by the elimination of the 

 illegally formed game transfer companies in San Francisco, that bull 

 hunting became a thing of the past. 



The automatic shotgun allowed the market hunter to reap a copious 

 harvest. Hornaday (1913, p. 148) records the killing of 218 geese in 

 one hour with automatic guns in Glenn County, and 450 on the same 

 day, by the two men concerned. The use of the automobile has also 

 reacted against the birds. Some market hunters at Los Banos killed 

 198 white geese from automobiles in less than an hour in February 

 1913. 



The sale of game birds on the market, then, has been a large factor 

 in the general decrease of game. This is well shown by statistics relat- 

 ing to San Francisco. The figures for the following tables, heretofore 

 unpublished, were secured by us direct from the records of the game 

 transfer companies named, and show the magnitude of the business 

 which existed during the period from 1906 to 1912. 



