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RECREATION. 



and woodcock that only a scattered few are 

 left over to breed. The effect of last year's 

 too long open season has left in this section 

 only a scanty picking for the game hogs. 

 One of them has had sense enough to re- 

 alize the situation, and has retired from the 

 business. He has been out and only found 

 a few old cock birds, and no young.. He 

 says it is now time to call a halt. Amen! 



John D. Collins, 

 Secretary Utica Fish and Game 

 Protective Association. 



THIS GAME HOG SQUEALS. 



No. 17 Treasury Department. 

 Vancouver, B. C. 



Editor Recreation: I have been reading 

 Recreation a year or 2 and must admit you 

 make me awfully tired with your constant 

 digging about game hogs. You Eastern 

 city dudes who never get a chance to shoot 

 nothing larger than chippy birds, no wonder 

 you make a big howl at people who live 

 where there is game and know how to kill 

 it. 



Game was made to kill. We have good 

 game laws out here and when the season 

 opens we go out for -sport and game, and I 

 for one will kill all I can. The more I kill 

 the more I have to eat and give to my 

 friends. All you goody, goody little 

 meadow lark hunters had better save your 

 pennies and come out here in God's country, 

 and when you go for a hunt do it, and not sit 

 on a log or a rail fence, and kick at people 

 who can kill a jack snipe or teal duck as it 

 flies by when you can't. No! this game 

 hog howl of yours is getting sickening. 



I have hunted big and little game in all 

 the states West of the Rockies 'and when I 

 go for a hunt or fish I go to kill and enjoy 

 the day, and a big bag or a big string of trout 

 is much better and satisfactory than a chippy 

 bird or 2 and then kick at your brother hun- 

 ters because they live in a game country and 

 can shoot well enough to get it. 



You may call us game hogs, Western 

 toughs or anything you wish. I consider 

 from which it came. There are many good 

 honest sportsmen here and over on Puget 

 Sound who think as I do, but they haven't 

 got the grit to come out and say to you and 

 other Eastern dudes what I have said. You 

 have, I understand, paid this section of the 

 country a visit and no doubt have killed 

 plenty of game here, and you are the last one 

 who should talk of game hogs. I wasout 

 yesterday morning and from 6 until 10 killed 

 8 mallards and 4 ruffled grouse, and the only 

 kick I had, was that the score was not 80 

 mallards and 40 grouse. 



Now if this letter was from one of your 

 pea-shooter friends in the East, no doubt 

 you would publish it; but this is one of too 

 much truth; but if you wish to know the 

 sentiments of most of our hunters here, you 

 can publish this and answer it as you see fit. 



I know the style and tone of such an answer, 

 but fire away. Geo. H. Webber, 



Deputy Collector U. S. Customs. 



This squeal requires no comment. All the 

 300,000 readers of Recreation will place 

 their own estimate on it. Mr. Webber writes 

 on an official letterhead of the Treasury De- 

 partment and signs himself as an officer of 

 the U. S. Has it occurred to him that the 

 Government which pays his salary is strong- 

 ly and publicly committed to game protec- 

 tion, and that by thus officially insulting and 

 abusing all friends of game protection he is 

 jeopardizing his position? — Editor. 



WHAT CONSTITUTES A GAME HOG ? 



I wish to know your definition of " game 

 hog." Is it one who goes out once or twice 

 a season and returns with 15 or 20 birds, or 

 is it one who goes 10 or 15 times and shoots 

 3 or 4 birds each time? 



I claim the latter is as much a game hog 

 as the first and that both of them try to 

 kill all they see or hear. 



The result merely shows one of 2 things: 

 that the first is a better shot than the latter, 

 or else is more fortunate. 



It is the same with fishing. As long as 

 they bite we will catch fish and keep all of 

 standard size, for the sake of making string 

 look large or from pride in catching the 

 most. 



I do hot go fishing nor hunting, except 

 for foxes, more than once in 2 years; but I 

 would like to see the game preserved. I 

 would suggest that all who go gunning 

 should bring in as a trophy a fox, hawk, 

 skunk, weasel or some other game de- 

 stroyer. 



Of course it would not be as much to tell 

 about but it would be preserving the game. 

 A. R. Cader, Nichols, N. Y. 



ANSWER. 



(Reprinted from Recreation for June, 

 1898.) 



The term " Game Hog," means a man 

 who kills more than a reasonable bag of 

 game in a day, or on a single hunting trip. 



Now comes the question, what is a rea- 

 sonable bag? Of course this varies some- 

 what according to circumstances. There is 

 an unwritten law, however, among all high 

 minded sportsmen of the present day, that 

 a reasonable bag of game, for any one sea- 

 son would be: One moose, one deer, one 

 mountain sheep, one white goat, one bear, 

 one antelope. 



For a single day's shooting: Two wild 

 turkeys, 3 wild geese, 10 ducks, 10 grouse 

 of any species, 10 squirrels, 12 quails or 

 other small birds. 



If a man makes a trip to a ducking coun- 

 try, a grouse country or a quail country, it 

 is generally agreed that he may kill the num- 

 ber of birds specified above, on each con- 

 secutive day for, say a week, provided the 



