FROM THE GAME FIELDS. 



205 



tion to the rat holes on the edge of the 

 wheat field. He minds his own business, 

 and attends strictly to it. What! tired of 

 watching him? Well, then, kill him just 

 because he is a snake, instead of a blear- 

 eyed, pampered poodle that you ihave "to 

 feed on sponge cake, just for the few fleas 

 you can get off from him. 



"Then there are the birds. Here we have 

 a pair of sweet voiced meadow larks ; they 

 stand confidingly close to the edge of the 

 road. Get your gun ! Shot gun or rifle, it 

 matters not which and wantonly butch- 

 er them lest they escape and destroy 100 

 times their weight in cutworms. Shoot the 

 pretty, waggish roadrunners. They feed 

 on scorpions and centipedes, and prevent 

 their becoming a menace and making life a 

 burden to man. But, then, the idle Sunday 

 loafer, with his death-dealing 22 rifle, must 

 be amused. Shoot the tucalotos, the pretty 

 little ground owl that politely bobs good 

 morning to you. Shoot them ! Even 

 though a man of veracity on the Chino 

 ranch claims to have found 17 gophers, old 

 and young, in the nest of a family of tucar- 

 lotos. They are too good to live ; too inno- 

 cent and self sustaining. Shoot them ! 



"Shoot the hawks ; the little kites, or 

 sparrow hawks. Of course they live on 

 the mischievious linnets ; but that does not 

 matter. 



"Shoot the hen hawks ! In this country 

 they live on mice, rats and rabbits, but 

 there is a legend from the East that they 

 sometimes eat chickens. So be sure to 

 shoot them ; they make such a fine target. 



"Shoot the best friends of the rancher, 

 the coyotes. It is true they take a chicken 

 now and then ; but don't you know it re- 

 quires 3,000 pounds weight — iY 2 tons — of 

 rabbits, rats, .gophers and the worst pests 

 that the ranchers have to contend with to 

 feed one of these wild, self-supporting dogs 

 until he is a year old? While your 3 or 4 

 lazy house dogs have eaten the price of 100 

 hens and sucked all the eggs they could 

 find. These are necessary to bark at night 

 and impress all your visitors with the need 

 of going armed ; but shoot the coyotes. 



"There is another class of brutes that 

 really ought to be shot. Take them far out 

 on the desert, for they are not worth bury- 

 ing. They are the thoughtless, heedless 

 shooters who are indiscriminately killing 

 and crippling the best friends that the farm- 

 er and the orchardist has in California." 



squirrel shooting to justify the killing of a 

 creature which, if left alive and protected, 

 speedily 'becomes the farmer's intimate 

 friend. 



Thirty years ago, in the dark ages of 

 American sport, squirrel shooting attracted 

 many men with guns. In those days, gun- 

 ners roamed at will through field and vraods 

 to slay; but today thousands of American 

 farmers are protecting their squirrels. I 

 know of farms in New York, Michigan 

 and Indiana whereon the squirrels are pro- 

 tected, even at the point of a naked revol- 

 ver when it becomes necessary. I believe 

 in squirrel protection on just that basis. 



The grey squirrel is one of the most in- 

 teresting, beautiful and sociable creatures 

 that a farm or forest or city park can pos- 

 sibly have. Any person whose soul is not 

 appealed to by the beauty of grey squirrels 

 wild in their haunts is "fit for treason, 

 stratagem and spoils." But there are crea- 

 tures called men, in whom the finer qualities 

 of manhood are so dormant that they take 

 delight in hunting squirrels in the unim- 

 proved and unprotected parks of New York 

 City. They are the men who cut park tim- 

 ber in the night, rob hen roosts and steal 

 doormats and slop pails. Boys, do not join 

 the class of these human vermin. 



Squirrels are not good food. I know of 

 no other civilized country than America 

 in which they are eaten. An Englishman 

 would as soon eat a rat as a squirrel. They 

 are exactly on a par with woodchucks and 

 prairie dogs. The taste of squirrel flesh is 

 rankly "game" and to many persons it is 

 unendurable. The value of a living wild 

 grey squirrel is to a dead one as five hun- 

 dred is to one. Don't destroy them! Pro- 

 tect them and enjoy them ! 



W. T. Hornaday, New York City. 



I should be sorry to see even the grizzly 

 bear actually exterminated, although it is 

 undoubtedly a dangerous animal ; but I 

 think _ it will be little short of a national 

 calamity if we do not save from extirpation 

 such a harmless and beautiful creature as 

 our grey squirrel. There are just as many 

 good reasons for having tame grey squir- 

 rels in our city parks as there are for hav- 

 ing beautiful pictures in our city galleries. 

 Ernest T. Seton, New York City. 



SPARE THE GREY SQUIRREL. 

 Why shoot the grey squirrel ? The world 

 is wide enough for both him and you. His 

 flesh is not good. No man or boy able to 

 own or borrow a gun can need the flesh 

 of this creature as hunger-satisfying food. 

 The idea is ridiculous; and there is not 

 enough sport in so tame a pastime -as 



HOW TO HUNT GREY SQUIRRELS. 



In a previous number of Recreation 

 there is an inquiry as to the best method of 

 hunting grey squirrels where they are 

 scarce. The following method might be 

 adopted as the only decent one : 



Arise early in the morning, go into some 

 thick grove of oak, beech or chestnut, 

 where squirrels are occasionally seen, and 

 await their coming. Have as weapon one 

 Eastman Kodak with rapid rectilinear lens 



