FROM THE GAME FIELDS. 



439 



weather and other conditions are such that 

 he can save all the game. 



Several states have enacted laws placing 

 limits on the bag for each man, for a season 

 or a day, on about the basis of the schedule 

 above. All the other states should follow 

 their example at once. 



A LAND OF PLENTY. 



Fresno, Cal. 



Editor Recreation: The sportsmen of 

 this vicinity had the best shooting last fall: 

 they have had for many years. The open 

 season for doves began August ist, and the 

 fields around this city were alive with the 

 birds. This sport lasted over 2 months. 

 Then the water was let out of the irrigating 

 ditches, and the doves withdrew from the 

 neighborhood and could be found only 

 along the 2 rivers, 10 to 20 miles distant. 

 The open season for quails began October 

 ist. Never before since the settlement of 

 the country were these birds so plentiful. 

 The vineyards and orchards afford them fine 

 cover, and the wheat fields furnish excellent 

 feeding grounds. The preceding spring and 

 summer were exceptionally dry, and there 

 was little loss of young birds by inclement 

 weather. As a consequence the birds were 

 plentiful and large. Frequently we found 

 coveys — " bands," the natives call them — 

 numbering from 100 to 150 birds. Farmers 

 prophecy that within 3 or 4 years these birds 

 will be a nuisance to the vineyardists, by 

 reason of their rapid increase and of their 

 appetite for grapes. 



The slough of King's river and the 

 swampy lands about Tulare lake, from 20 to 

 40 miles above here, abound in ducks and 

 geese of every variety. So numerous are 

 they that they devastate large areas of wheat 

 land lying along the borders of their 

 swampy resorts. 



Forty miles East, in the Sierras, one can 

 get all the deer shooting he wants, with an 

 occasional chance at a bear or a mountain 

 lion. All around us are tule ponds, formed 

 in hollows of the plains, from subirrigation 

 by the ditches, and these furnish feeding 

 grounds for ducks, snipe, and plover. Quails 

 and cottontail rabbits also hide in their 

 brushy margins. 



We have a stringent game law, and each 

 county has its salaried game warden to en- 

 force it. The market hunter does more to 

 deplete the county of game birds than all 

 the sportsmen together do. 



Recently our game warden put out a few 

 pairs of Mongolian pheasants near here. I 

 see no reason why these birds should not do 

 well in this region, and hope within the next 

 decade our foothill valleys will be as full of 

 them as Oregon is at present. 



MacCurdy. 



SOME KANSAS NOTES. 



Much rain fell in Kansas last spring, and 

 all the waterways were full, enabling the fish 



to go far up the streams to spawn. For 

 years past the Arkansas river has been ob- 

 structed by a dam at Arkansas City, and as 

 there was no fish-way, fish could not pass 

 the dam. The fish commissioners heretofore 

 had failed to compel the builders of the dam 

 to put in a fish-way. Finally the present 

 warden — Dr. Shults — was appointed, and 

 he notified the" owners to put a suitable fish- 

 way in the dam. The owners said there were 

 no fish to go over as the river was then dry, 

 and they did not propose to construct a fish- 

 way in a dry river. 



This aroused the Doctor's ire, and he told 

 them to construct a first-class fish-way with- 

 in a reasonable length of time, or he would 

 use enough dynamite on their dam obstruc- 

 tion to make a passage way for fish. It is 

 needless to say that a fish-way was put in by 

 the owners, and fish are quite numerous 

 again. 



The Doctor, who acts as game warden 

 also, receives no compensation for his work. 

 He has good judgment and back-bone, and 

 in few of his cases does he fail to secure a 

 conviction. As a result there are now more 

 quail in Kansas than for many years past and 

 fish also are on the increase. 



Grass or upland plover were plentiful last 

 spring, and during 6 weeks in March and 

 April at least 5,000 were killed in this coun- 

 try, most of them near this city.* The North- 

 ern flight of water fowl was above the aver- 

 age in number. 



My wild mallards are hatching out nicely. 

 My herd of 50 white tail deer dropped a 

 large number of fawns, and it is a beautiful 

 sight to see them playing together. My 2 

 buffalo bulls, Major McKinley, who tips the 

 beam at more than a ton, and Dewey who 

 weighs nearly 1,900, have shed off, are as 

 black as coal, and in fighting trim. These 

 bulls are the pure wild stock, and about the 

 last. Chas. Payne, Wichita, Kan. 



SOME GOOD BEAR DOGS. 



Though the grizzly is supposed to have 

 become rare, yet in some of the bad lands 

 and lower mountain ranges they kill many 

 cattle. These bad land grizzlies differ from 

 those found in the higher mountains. Liv- 

 ing in a country destitute of timber, and 

 being compelled to travel long distances 

 for food and water, they have become slim 

 bodied, long legged brutes, with enormous 

 heads and feet, and a rough and thin coat. 

 It is hard work to get them, as they keep 

 well under cover during the day; and as 

 they prefer to kill their own food, they are 

 hard to bait. 



These bears kill such quantities of cattle, 

 that the stockmen, in some sections, pay a 

 large bounty on them. The only way to 

 successfully hunt them is with dogs. 



It takes strong, fast and savage dogs to 



* There must have been a whole army of sportsmen 

 after them or else a big herd of game hogs. — Editor. 



