FROM THE GAME FIELDS. 



The man who units when he gets enough, with plenty of game still in sight, is a real sportsman 



MORELIGHT ON BABCOCK. 



From the following correspondence it 

 seems Babcock's neighbors had not under- 

 stood his practices. Now, however, they 

 have no further doubts of his swinishness : 



Santa Barbara, Cal. 

 Mr. G. O. Shields, New York: 



Dear Sir — I have heard a different ver- 

 sion of the 2,000 birds a day story from 

 the one you have printed, and I should like 

 to ask if you are positive in your infor- 

 mation. In this country we are bothered 

 to death with mud hens, as we call them, 

 a species of coot, that gather on our duck 

 ponds and destroy great quantities of the 

 food the ducks seek. These birds come in 

 countless numbers and are very annoying. 

 I have heard it was these birds that were 

 killed on Otay lake. I saw the ac- 

 count in a local paper of 2,000 being killed 

 one day and 1,000 another day, but have 

 always understood the birds killed were 

 mud hens. If they were ducks I should 

 be willing to brand the killers with a 

 much worse name than game hog, but if 

 I am correct in my surmise I should say 

 they did right. I am a member of a club 

 that has a fine lake in this county, pre- 

 served, where we used*, to get good shoot- 

 ing, but for |he last 2 or 3 years these mud 

 hens come in such numbers as to render 

 shooting almost impossible, and by quick- 

 ly devouring the natural feed they soon 

 drive the ducks away. We are even now 

 planning some such battues as we under- 

 stood the Otay lake people used, to rid 

 ourselves of the pests. In shooting over 

 the lake last winter I would often kill 3 

 or 4 of these mud hens at a single dis- 

 charge of my gun in shooting at ducks 

 that got up in front of my boat. If you 

 happen to see in the local papers of this 

 section of the country that the members 

 of the Guadalupe Duck Club have killed 

 16,000 ducks in one day on their preserve 

 don't dish us up. They will have been 

 only mud hens. 



Seriously, I think the new game laws 

 just passed by our Legislature will stop a 

 great deal of this kind of outrageous kill- 

 ing of game. The bag limit, or prohibit- 

 ing _ the possession of more than the bag 

 limit, is a fine thing. It will practically 

 stop shooting for market, as the pot hunter 

 can not afford to give up his other work 

 and go hunting when he can only kill 50 

 ducks in one day. Besides this, we can get 

 at the marketman for having in his posses- 

 sion more than the number. I should be 

 pleased to have your authority for the 

 Otay lake story. ' E. C. Tallant. 



"5 



I am glad to have your frank and 

 manly questions and suggestions. I am 

 aware that Babcock and his outfit killed 

 a great many mud hens in order to get rid 

 of them, and while I do not at all admit the 

 justice of this, it is not the killing I com- 

 . plain of. For 3 or 4 years past Babcock 

 and his friends, sailing under the name of 

 the Otay Gun Club, have been making 

 records on ducks. Not only this, but they 

 have been employing professional photog- 

 raphers in many instances to record their 

 slaughter. A friend of mine who recently 

 spent a week at Babcock's hotel tells .me 

 he has a large album on a desk in the office 

 almost filled with these duck hog pictures. 

 He says the photos show stacks of ducks 

 on the ground, wagons loaded with ducks, 

 and at least one man standing in front of 

 the camera, completely covered with 

 strings of ducks except his head. The 

 birds shown in this album are not mud 

 hens, but ducks of various species. I am 

 told that the negatives of these pictures 

 are promptly destroyed, or carefully pre- 

 served by Babcock, in order that no stray 

 copies of them may get into the hands of 

 people who might be inclined to use them 

 in educational work. 



I seriously doubt the wisdom of your 

 proposed match on mud hens. These are 

 in the main harmless birds, and they are 

 almost the only specimens of bird life 

 that remain in the vicinity of small lakes 

 and ponds in various portions of the 

 country. They should therefore be spared 

 for the interest and entertainment of the 

 people at large, even though they may be- 

 come a nuisance in certain localities. I do 

 not mean to say that you would deserve 

 any serious condemnation if you did kill 

 a few hundred of these birds, but still I 

 am inclined to think it would be wrong for 

 the general public. — Editor. 



Santa Barbara, Cal. 

 Mr. G. O. Shields : 



Dear Sir — Have read your favor of the 

 1st with great interest. What you write 

 me about Babcock puts a very different as- 

 pect on him from what we have generally 

 conceived him to be. We had heard the 

 2.000 birds in one day story, and we had 

 heard they were mud hens, destroyed to 

 rid the shooting preserve of them; hence 

 we did not attach any importance to the 

 other stories. We have been so troubled 

 with these mud hens that we can sympa- 

 thize with anyone who destroys them, but 

 we do not countenance any killing of game 



