g Bird Day Book 



OUR PATRIOTS WERE NIMRODS 



ROM the beginning there has been implanted in the being 

 of man an impulse to pursue and take the wild denizens of 

 the animal kingdom. Whether it be for sport or for food, 

 for numberless centuries man of high and low degree, in 

 every country and every clime, has roamed the forests and matched 

 his skill against the fleetness and cunning of its wary creatures. 

 Indeed, even now in every thinly populated land where game exists 

 in abundance a man lives according to his skill as a sportsman. 



The royal hunts led by the kings of Europe into the forests in 

 quest of the stag and wild boar were inspired by the same impulse 

 that impelled the savages of darkest Africa, the Aboriginees of 

 Central and South America and the Eskimoes of the Arctic Circle. 



On account of having been trained to hit the running deer in the 

 forests, during the War of the Revolution, the patriots under Wash- 

 ington poured into the soldiers of George III such a deadly and 

 effective fire as to put them to rout and compel the tyrant to accord 

 us the freedom which we now enjoy. 



During the War of 1812, the soldiers under Andrew Jackson, 

 equipped with sporting rifles, having been trained to bring down 

 squirrels from the tallest trees of Tennessee by merely hitting them 

 through the eye, by taking aim at every man at which they fired 

 instead of shooting "breast high," made every shot count a kill and 

 won for our country the battle of New Orleans, one of the greatest 

 victories recorded in the annals of our brilliant history. 



The effective work done by the Alabama soldiers on the firing- 

 line in the War Between the States was due to the fact that they 

 were trained in the hunting field and were thus enabled to place 

 deadly missiles, with unerring aim. 



It can thus be well said that game not only furnishes a medium of 

 healthful recreation and enjoyment but that it likewise trains in its 

 pursuit the men of the country in the art of the use of fire-arms and 

 renders them valiant and almost invincible foemen when they 

 respond to the call to arms. 



