FROM THE GAME FIELDS. 



The man who quits when lie gets enough, with plenty of game still in sight, is a real sportsman. 



THE SITUATION IN CALIFORNIA. 

 I am sure you will confer a favor on 

 many of your readers, as well as do a good 

 turn to game protection in California, by 

 publishing the enclosed clipping from the 

 Stockton (Cal.) Independent. The writer 

 of the article, Mr. Lyman Belding, is one 

 of the few remaining veteran ornithologists 

 and sportsmen of California, and has trav- 

 ersed the country of which he writes every 

 summer for years past. His remarks there- 

 fore possess unusual value on the question 

 of game protection. 



C. Barlow, Santa Clara, Cal. 



Game, with a few exceptions, is de- 

 cidedly rare in California and it is not 

 likely to be nearly so abundant in the 

 future as it has been in the past. Sports- 

 men are becoming more numerous each 

 year, from Alaska to San Diego, and a 

 corresponding decrease in game is the in- 

 evitable result. The occupation of the 

 market hunter is about gone. 



The valley quails will probable increase 

 the first favorable year. The 3 preceding 

 winters have been comparatively dry and 

 therefore unfavorable. Few young valley 

 quails mature after a dry winter, owing 

 to a scarcity of water on the breeding 

 grounds. I first noticed this in several 

 interior and coast countries in the fall of 

 1871, and later observations have con- 

 firmed it. Only 5 or 6 years ago quails 

 were as numerous in many parts of Cala- 

 veras county in the first of the shooting 

 season as they had been during more than 

 40 years ; but when the season closed 

 market hunters had left so few living 

 birds neither sportsman nor market 

 hunter has found pleasure or profit in 

 hunting them ever since that time. Few 

 valley quails have been killed out of 

 season in the central valley and foothill 

 counties. Formerly gun clubs looked 

 after their protection and helped largely 

 to create a sentiment in favor of the" ob- 

 servance of the game laws.. Then the 

 farmer and town or village sportsman 

 were friends and the sportsman felt that 

 he lived in a delightful, free country; but 

 now it is different. 



The public game on most of the 

 marshes is monopolized by a few persons 

 and on the uplands the most of it has 

 been appropriated by selfish landowners. 

 The public trout is going the same way. 

 Even the distant, world-renowned Mc- 

 Cloud river is now mostly controlled by a 

 few individuals, with all the fine trout 

 in it, some of which were planted there 



at public expense, but which the public 

 may not now angle for. 



Perhaps the State Sportsmen's Conven- 

 tion will devise some way by which more 

 Californians will have an interest in 

 game. As it is now, few of them 

 have any, and without a radical change 

 the many should not be taxed to protect 

 game for the benefit of the few. There 

 are no more people to the square mile in 

 the chaparral belt, where most of the 

 valley quails are, and no more stock on 

 the ranges than 30 years ago, when a 

 sportsman was free to shoot almost any- 

 where. In the high mountains what little 

 protection game has is for the benefit of 

 the wrong persons, to the detriment and 

 annoyance of the right ones, as I will 

 hereafter demonstrate. 



Ducks which are on our marshes in the 

 winter breed in Alaska, British Columbia, 

 Washington, Oregon and Nevada, be- 

 yond our protection. They have human 

 enemies in nearly every place where they 

 stay or go and are likely to become 

 scarcer. 



Deer are scarce in the Sierra Nevadas, 

 but they would become plentiful in a few 

 years if protected throughout their 

 ranges.. This is impossible without an 

 army of game wardens to patrol the range. 

 Now there are only here and there 

 deputy wardens, or informers, at some 

 of the summer resorts, who seldom look 

 for information in the field or get a mile 

 from their homes. 



The game in the Coast range, particu- 

 larly the most of it North of San Fran- 

 cisco, has little more protection than 

 the game in the Sierras. There are 40,- 

 000 square miles of the State which have 

 been and should be a sportsman's para- 

 dise, but most of its game has been 

 destroyed by Indians and sheepmen, 

 many of the latter being non-citizens, 

 and the former natives of Nevada. 

 Thousands of campers visit the moun- 

 tains every summer, but they seldom get 

 much game, though they seldom respect 

 the game law. 



Some years ago, after a severe, early 

 snow storm had caught and killed many 

 adult deer in the upper Sierras, deer 

 killing was prohibited for 2 years ; but at 

 the end of that time there were no more 

 deer in the Sierras than at the commence- 

 ment of the closed period, although few 

 or no young deer had been caught by 

 the _ storm, as they, like the mountain 

 quails, had gone down the West slope 



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