THE LEAGUE OF AMERICAN SPORTSMEN. 



143 



Woodcock, partridge and grouse, of any 

 species, September 1st to December 31st. 



Snipe, plover and other shore birds, Sep- 

 tember 1st to April 30th. 



Please note that it is " unlawful to hunt, 

 kill or possess any ring-neck mongolian 

 pheasants until 1900." 



Other species of birds, not mentioned 

 above, are protected at all times. 



The League of American Sportsmen is 

 organized for the purpose of enforcing the 

 game laws, and of protecting the wild birds 

 and mammals during the close season, and 

 it will do so at whatever cost may be neces-, 

 sary. 



I have to request, therefore, that you 

 give careful attention to the game laws at 

 all times, for the officers of the League will 

 make it their business to prosecute all per- 

 sons found guilty of violating these laws. 



We shall visit the leading Hotels and 

 Restaurants and order game. If necessary, 

 we shall pay the waiters liberally to serve 

 it to us. If we get it, we shall take the 

 bones of the birds with us into court and 

 swear out warrants for the heads of the 

 houses where we bought the game. 



Such duties are not pleasant to us, and 

 we do not seek them. We trust it may 

 be only necessary to call the attention of 

 the hotel men and game-dealers to the new 

 law, in order to have it strictly obeyed. 



Please do not consider this as a threat. 

 It is simply a caution, given in the most 

 friendly spirit, and because we wish to deal 

 fairly and honorably with all concerned. 



We notice that several hotels and restau- 

 rants are now serving Prairie Chickens 

 under the name of Blackcock; Snipe and 

 Woodcock, under the name of French 

 Plover; Ruffed Grouse, under the name of 

 French Partridge, etc. 



It is easy to show, by comparing the 

 bones of an American bird with the bones 

 of its European congener, which is which; 

 and the bones of such birds as we may be 

 able to buy, during the close season, will 

 be produced in Court, if need be, and so 

 compared with the bones of the European 

 bird, under whose name such American 

 bird was sold. 



It may be a hardship to some men to 

 have to do without game for a portion of 

 each year; but the experience of the past 20 

 years has shown that we must deny our- 

 selves the pleasure of shooting and of eat- 

 ing game, at certain times, or submit to 

 its extermination everywhere within a very 

 few years. Several important species of 

 game have been practically wiped off the 

 continent during the life of the present 

 generation. Other species have disap- 

 peared from certain states where a few years 

 ago they were abundant. 



The question is, therefore, whether we 

 shall cater to the wants of thoughtless peo- 

 ple, for the time being, and then do with- 

 out game entirely, or whether we shall have 



a reasonable supply in the open season, for 

 all time to come. 



Much that has been said above, regard- 

 ing game, applies with equal force to game 

 fishes, and especially to brook trout, salm- 

 on and black bass. 



Yours truly, 



G. O. Shields, Prest. 



The hotel and restaurant men having 

 now had ample notice of our plans, must 

 expect to be prosecuted, if found violating 

 the law by selling or serving game in close 

 season. As stated in the circular, we hope 

 there may be no occasion for prosecutions. 

 The whole plan of cold storage is wrong, 

 so far as game is concerned. Birds, espe- 

 cially, are not fit to eat after having lain 

 in cold storage for 3 months or more. They 

 lose all their rich flavor and are utterly 

 insipid by reason of this unnatural process 

 of saving. Any man who knows the flavor 

 of game in proper condition, would just as 

 soon eat an old rooster, fresh from the 

 barnyard, as to eat a grouse or a quail that 

 has been frozen and boxed up for several 

 months. Woodcock, canvasback duck, 

 boarding-house goose and jack rabbit all 

 taste alike after laying in the morgue a few 

 months. 



THE OUTLOOK IN MONTANA. 



Butte, Mont. 



Editor Recreation: I am heartily in 

 favor of the L. A. S., but there is going to 

 be a long, hard struggle to bring about 

 the slightest degree of good in the matter 

 of game preservation in this state. The 

 whole thought of the average hunter ap- 

 pears to be to kill all in the quickest man- 

 ner possible, and these men are carrying 

 out their plans. 



The condition of affairs in Granite 

 county is something to be deplored. Deer, 

 elk and trout are brought in openly and 

 peddled from door to door. One member 

 of the Rod and Gun Club I saw last July 

 with hairs from the belly of a white-tail deer 

 adhering to his clothing. He had returned 

 from the hills the evening before and when 

 I charged him with killing game out of 

 season, he laughed and said he would not 

 go without fresh meat while it was to be 



had if he broke 50 game laws, 



and that it was a buck anyway! 



I don't know whether or not it was a 

 buck; but a man who would shoot game 

 out of season would not hesitate to lie 

 about the sex of his victim. 



Last year I had 2 Indians arrested for 

 killing deer out of season, and produced 

 evidence against them that, in a murder 

 trial would hang a man, in a white man's 

 country, yet after they put in 60 days in 

 the county jail the prosecuting attorney (a 

 most ridiculous, illiterate, unpolished ass) 

 said that there was no evidence against 

 them and set them free. 



