446 



RECREATION. 



decrease in the numbers of the herd. It 

 is well cared for and looked after. 

 The animals are made to know man. Yes- 

 terday, at Plains, 2 buffaloes were killed for 

 Rowley, of New York, and Allard himself 

 killed one. It seemed a pity to see them 

 shot down in a corrall, surrounded by a 

 gaping crowd of curiosity seekers. 



M. J. Elrod. 



AT OCOSTA BY THE SEA 

 For a long time I had been promising 

 myself a trip to Ocosta, by the sea, and a 

 duck hunt on South bay, an inlet of Gray's 

 harbor. So with black Bruce, Sam and I 

 boarded the train at Elma, full of hope and 

 sure of a good time. Arrived at our des- 

 tination, as far as railway communication 

 was concerned, we found a hotel, par- 

 took heartily of supper, persuaded the cook 

 to feed the dog, and went out to talk hunt 

 and engage a guide and a boat. 



We were out betimes in the morning and 

 started for South bay on a full tide. At 

 the duck grounds our guide discharged 

 himself and we set out to shoot ducks. Of 

 all that we that day encountered, mud 

 came first, water second, grass third, and 

 ducks fourth ; but the sun shone and the 

 ducks flew high. We waded mud, pulled 

 the boat, hid in the grass and shot ducks 

 until 6.30 p. m. At that hour we collected 

 our kill and turned the prow of our boat 

 homeward. It was a grand experience, 

 that pull of 4 miles under a cloudless sky 

 with a big moon and the great double 

 beacon of the Westoort lighthouse wink- 

 ing its eyes at us alternately all the way 

 back to Ocosta. Great swells coming in 

 from afar tossed our frail boat as if it had 

 be*en a feather. So rough it was that when 

 we had made fast to the dock we could 

 scarce keep our feet. The only way to 

 reach the tou of the dock was by a per- 

 pendicular ladder some 20 feet long. 

 Up that I climbed with both guns and the 

 ammunition, while Sam made one end of 

 a rope fast to the dog's collar. He then 

 tossed up the loose end of the rope to me 

 and I hauled Bruce up in a jiffy. Then 

 Sam, though I ought not to tell, said he was 

 seasick, and I had to go down, scratch 

 around in the boat and get up the ducks. 

 That done we hied us to the hotel and ate 

 supper. 



We were up early next morning and 

 walked far out on the long wharf to take 

 a final look at the breakers rolling in from 

 the mighty Pacific before we took the 8.30 

 train for home. What about the ducks? 

 Well of that I am loth to speak. Truth to 

 tell, Sam has the better gun and is a better 

 ,shot than I, and so killed more ducks. But 

 bear in mind we are not game hogs. 



T. A., Elma, Wash. 



BOYS AGAINST SPARROWS. 



Naturally a good many "don'ts" creep 

 into Recreation besides its standing ad- 

 monition, "Don't be a razorback" ; and 

 sometimes I notice an equally meritorious 

 "do." One example I wish particularly to 

 applaud. It is the story in February 

 issue of the little boy who loaded his shells 

 with mustard and ground-raked English 

 sparrows, an act as commendable as it was 

 unsportsmanlike. Please, Mr. Editor, give 

 us more stories of that sort and print them 

 in capitals. Every small boy reader of 

 Recreation is its sworn disciple, and I 

 hope you will continue to turn their will- 

 ing minds toward the undoing of the spar- 

 row. 



I live in a large old fashioned house, the 

 windows of which are ornamented with 

 the deep mouldings and arched caps once 

 so popular. In mouldings and arches the 

 sparrows built nests year after year, de- 

 spite all manner of neck-endangering ex- 

 ploits to dislodge them. Our verandas and 

 blinds were calcimined with filth, our gar- 

 den was stripped of peas and corn, and 

 our poultry was robbed of food by swarms 

 of feathered pests. In vain I tried to poison 

 them ; they soon learned what to avoid and 

 did it religiously. 



It was then that I found an efficient ally 

 in the son and heir of the house. He was 

 pompously proud of his first air gun, and 

 to him I preached a crusade against the 

 sparrows, cheerfully furnishing all the 

 shot he could use. It took some time to 

 perceptibly diminish the number of our 

 enemies, but he kept at it. I could not tell 

 now how many he has killed, but he 

 thought it an off day when he could not get 

 10 or 12. He has become the owner of a 

 double barreled shot gun and a rifle, but 

 as he can not -use these within the city 

 limits, he still picks off the sparrows with 

 a first class air gun. 



He has, virtually, cleaned the place. The 

 sparrows all know that gun. Seldom 

 more than one or 2 are seen in the yard, 

 and no man ever got out of the way of a 

 grizzly more willingly than those sparrows 

 vanish when the boy appears in the yard 

 with a gun. Boys may never be able to kill 

 all the English sparrows, but they can make 

 a beginning. 



Maude Meredith, Dubuque, la. 



CLOSED MARKET EFFECTIVE. 

 We may yet live to see the market for 

 game a thing of the past. The thing which 

 has been, is, and always will be the key- 

 stone to not only this arch, but all others 

 in this world is the desire of all to get 

 money. If it can be got by killing the last 

 deer, antelope, or elk for the market, or 

 the last bird for the millinery store, some- 

 body is going to find a way to supply that 



