48 RECREATION. 
but on the return trip, as we came along 
an old rocky road, we caught a glimpse of 
a big buck; but he had already winded us 
and was making long leaps through a 
windfall, so I did rot shoot at him. 
Early the next morning we started out 
on another trail. We had gone about % 
mile from camp when a young spike buck 
sprang up, made a few jumps, and, like 
Lot’s wife, stopped to look back. That was 
where he made a mistake. The next in- 
stant a bullet from my rifle landed just 
back of his shoulder, and making 2 or 3 
more leaps, he went down in a bunch. The 
guide dressed him and carried him to camp. 
When I tell you I am but 11 years old, you 
can imagine what a flurry of excitement 
there was, and what a shower of congrat- 
ulations descended on me. That was the 
first deer of the season killed at that camp, 
though several old hunters had been put- 
ting in full time in the woods for 3 or 4 
days before I arrived. 
R. Goldschmidt, Jr., Augusta, Ga. 

MONTANA IN DISGRACE, 
I am a constant reader of your splendid 
magazine and much admire the stand you 
take against the people you have -very 
properly named game hogs. The last ses- 
sion of Mcntana’s Legislature passed a 
law that allowed the shooting of chickens 
on the 15th of August, instead of the Ist 
of September, as has been the law here for 
many years. In my opinion such a law is 
much at fault. Birds are not able to take 
care of themselves at such an early age, 
and, consequently, men with but little of 
the true sportsman’s instinct can ruthlessly 
slaughter many birds without giving them 
the least chance for their lives. I should 
like to learn your opinion on that subject. 
E. M. R., Butte, Montana. 
That clause in your game law is a long 
step backward. Nearly all the States in the 
Union are gradually shortening the open 
seasons for killing game and at the same 
time are placing limits on the number of 
birds or animals which each man may kill 
in a day or a season. Some States which 
provided bag limits a few years ago have 
recently reduced them. In spite of all such 
provisions, game of all kinds is constantly 
decreasing in numbers everywhere, and it 
is indeed unfortunate that Montana should 
have gone backward in the matter of pro- 
tecting her prairie chickens.—EnprrTor. 

IT WAS EXCESSIVE. 
In a few hours’ shooting City Marshal Smith 
and the Hon. John Butt. of Clarksdale, bagged 
over 60 teal ducks, Mr. Butt getting 42 out of 
the 51 shots.—Memphis, Miss., News. 
Replying to my inquiry as to the truth of 
the foregoing report, Mr. Butt says: 
But ffat I fear you would consider me a 
game hog I should enter a plea of guilty 
to the charge. I trust I can with safety, 
however, state that the shooting was the 
best I have ever seen: 
J. S. Butt, Clarksdale, Miss. 
The inference is, therefore, that the state- 
ment quoted above is correct. While your 
killing is not nearly so excessive as that 
of many others I have to report, yet it 
was excessive. I take it for granted that 
you and your friend are gentlemen, and as 
such you should have been satisfied with 
15 or 20 ducks each. This is about the 
limit among all high class sportsmen of to- 
day. It is true that 2 States in the Union 
legally authorize the killing of a larger 
number, but that does not prove that it is 
right. I know plenty of men in the 2 
States referred to who quit when they get 
10 or a dozen, even though they have 
chances to kill many more; and I trust 
that you and Mr. Smith may hereafter be 
satished when you get enough.—EpIrTor. 

GAME NOTES. 
735,314. Decoy. Robert H. Syms, New 
York, Y. Filed Oct. 28, 1901. 
Serial No. 80,225. 
Claim.—A sheet metal profile piece and a 

separate and independent flat sheet metal 
back piece, said profile piece having a slot 
at the tail end and the back piece having a 
slot fitting over the profile piece when the 
back piece is slid into the slot in the pro- 
file piece, etc. : 

August 6th and 7th, last, Andrew and 
Charles Schoonemaker, of this place, went | 
to Yellow creek to hunt prairie or sage 
chickens, killing 30 the 6th and 29 the 7th. 
The younger man is an engineer and spends 
his time at this end of the road, hunting. 
When he is at work, his father and the rest 
of the family go hunting, averaging 4 or 5 
days a week. 
Prairie chickens are scarce here. Some 
sportsmen say the sheep tramp out the 
birds’ nests in the spring, but it seems to 
me the sheep are not entirely to blame. 
Florence L. A. Smith, Evanston, Wyo. 
Charging the disappearance of prairie 
