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To Protect Texas Quail 
In line with what we had to say in 
these pages in a recent number, concern- 
ing the protection of the bob-white quail, 
Theodore Rufner, of Houston, Tex., late 
of Pittsburg, Pa., in an interview pub- 
lished in the Fort Worth (Tex.) Record, 
is quoted as saying he purposes introduc- 
ing in the Texas legislature a bill to 
provide for a two years’ close season on 
quail in Texas. 
Mr. Rufner, after reiterating our state- 
ment that it has been the custom of 
Northern shooters to hunt in Illinois, 
Indiana and lowa until the first of the 
year, and then drift southward and bang 
away at the quail in the sorghum fields 
of Texas and the lower Mississippi coun- 
try until the dogwood trees begin to bud, 
admitted that he himself had, in the past, 
played well the part of Tom in the cat 
and canary game. 
“There were years,’ Mr. Rufner is 
quoted as saying, “when I killed as high 
as 2,000 quail in Texas. I now regard it 
as slaughter of the worst sort. I then 
regarded it as sport. I think that a man 
should be more temperate when he goes 
into the field with his dog and gun. He 
should not kill save for the sport. I 
think, also, that the peripatetic sportsman 
should -be barred from the state. Only 
residents should be allowed to hunt quail 
in Texas. 
“I shall endeavor to get passed at the 
next session of the Legislature a measure 
prescribing a penalty for killing quail in 
Texas for two years and shall also en- 
deavor to secure the passage of another 
measure prescribing a rigid punishment 
for any outside sportsman who enters the 
state and slaughters more quail than he 
can himself use.” 
Brave words, and no doubt well meant. 
But it is doubtful if the sportsmen of 
Texas, or the Game Committee of the 
Legislature, will pay much heed to the 
“peripatetic” (whatever that may mean) 
man from Pittsburg. 
Certain Texas sportsmen, who have 
_lived in the state all their lives and none 
of them killed in all their experience as 
many quail as the ex-Pittsburger admits 
having shot in one season, have already 
prepared recommendations to be submitted 
to the Legislature and having principally 
in view the saving of the quail from non- 
resident shooters and the Northern market 
for both live and dead birds. At a meet- 
ing held in Waco not long since, which 
was called jointly by the Texas Game, 
Bird and Fish Protective association and 
the State Audubon society, there were 
formulated recommendations looking to 
the institution in Texas of a bird and 
game warden system, with a tax on resi- 
dent and non-resident gunners to support 
the system. Capt. M. B. Davis, of Waco, 
and Prof. H. P. Attwater, of Houston, 
were the prime movers, and delegates 
were present from all parts of the state. 
We fear Mr. Rufner, late of Pittsburg, 
will not make a success of posing as the 
saviour of the Texas quail. 

A Big Shot 
A good friend, who modestly signs him- 
self “C. O. Z.,” contributes the following 
goose-shooting yarn, with the accompany- 
ing photographs. He makes no apologies 
for it, for it is Jim the lighthouse keeper’s 
story; he asks the simple question: 
“What ’s the matter with Jim?” 
It was nearly noon, the sun was high in 
the heavens and the “beetles” and yellowlegs 
had ceased their flight till the turn of the 
tide. We turned back the cool, damp sea- 
weed, of which our blind was built, and ex- 
posed a row of plump black-breasted plover, 
yellowlegs, and robin snipe, the result of our 
morning’s sport on the spit. These we care- 
fully stowed away in the pockets of our 
coats, and, stretching our legs, we started 
back to the light, leaving our decoys stand- 
ing on the now dry flat, ready when we 
should return for the afternoon shooting on 
the flow tide. The bracing air of Prince 
Edward’s island. had whetted our appetites, 
