FROM THE GAME FIELDS. 



447 



market. As long as a market for game 

 exists so long will there be an incentive 

 for the pursuit of game, and some way 

 will be found to smuggle a large proportion 

 of it to those who will pay the price. 

 All the protective associations and game 

 wardens in the world can not stop it en- 

 tirely. To try to stop the slaughter of 

 game through laws restricting the bag and 

 the season, without first closing the mar- 

 kets, is like trying to build a wall from the 

 top down. It might be done, but a lot 

 of time and money will be wasted in the 

 attempt. Since the Lacey bill was passed, 

 and the sale stopped in our State, less 

 game is being killed. Men who were for- 

 merly market hunters, doing nothing else 

 from September i to December i, and 

 after that spending their Sundays in kill- 

 ing for the market, which seemed to be as 

 open after the season closed as before, 

 have been put out of business. They now 

 hold down a job at any old price, hunting 

 little, simply because there's no market. 

 Under the Lacey law and our laws com- 

 bined, we can make it so hot for a Michi- 

 gan violator that he will think Hades an 

 icebox as compared with this State. The 

 result is that we are having less chances at 

 violaters than formerly, but are getting a 

 bigger percentage of convictions. Now- 

 adays when our game wardens get after a 

 man his "goose is cooked" so often that 

 others stop taking chances. Any other 

 method will be slow, tedious, expensive 

 and inefficient. 



J. E. Pratt, Grand Rapids, Mich. 



FROM EAGLE PASS TO TAMPICO. 



I spent some weeks last winter hunting 

 in Mexico. On the way down I stopped at 

 Eagle Pass, Texas, and camped 3 days with 

 Messrs. Bonnet and Delsalona, who are 

 the best hunters at that place. We were all 

 armed with Savage rifles, as were mos.t of 

 the sportsmen we met. Our camp was in 

 the brush about 15 miles from Eagle Pass. 

 All night we could hear bucks fighting in 

 the woods, and coyotes kept up a continual 

 howl from 10 o'clock until dawn. On the 

 first morning of our stay we found a buck 

 near camp. He was at the opposite side of 

 an open space about 80 yards wide. I aimed 

 just forward of the point of his shoulder 

 and fired. The buck ran a few feet and 

 dropped. Delsalona came running up and 

 asked if I got anything. "Surely," said I, 

 as coolly as if I had done nothing all my 

 life but shoot deer. In fact, however, it 

 was the first wild deer I ever saw. 



The region is an ideal one for hunting. 

 Deer are abundant, the brush is not too 

 thick and there are plenty of water holes. 

 There are blue quails without number, and 

 a few Bob Whites. Ducks may be had, 

 during their season, at the water holes. 



From Eagle Pass we went to Tampico, 

 Mexico. The intervening country consists 

 of mountains and valleys. The lower levels 

 are densely covered with brush and cactus, 

 and abound with deer, panthers and bob- 

 cats. • About 20 miles South of Victoria 

 there is also abundance of large game, but 

 hunting must be done at night with a jack- 

 light. In the lagunas all along the coast are 

 thousands of ducks, geese, herons and 

 aquatic birds. 



Mexico has no game laws that I could 

 discover. The Visitador Politico will give 

 a permit to shoot on the lagunas and 

 rivers, and it is considered polite to ask 

 permission before hunting on fenced 

 ground. Above all don't try to bully the 

 natives lest your life insurance people have 

 to cash your policy. 



Dr. M. C. Hoag, Nevada, la. 



FEED THE BIRDS. 

 The cause of the persecuted birds ap- 

 peals to me strongly, and with pleasure I 

 have noticed an increase in the number 

 of birds this winter. The year before last 

 there were none about us ; last year a few 

 came to us for shelter and to be fed; this 

 year fewer are being killed. During the 

 winter storms, no doubt, the little birds 

 we fed would otherwise have perished, 

 as thousands did, throughout the country. 

 The air would at times be full of birds 

 coming to feed; the j uncos, sparrows, blue- 

 jays, and an occasional purple finch, on the 

 porch after bread crumbs, nuts or cracked 

 corn. The nuthatches were also interested 

 with the woodpeckers in the suet we had 

 nailed to the trees. The little brown creep- 

 ers were very independent, coming to the 

 closely neighboring trees but not seeming 

 to depend on us as the other birds did. 

 I wish lovers of nature would awaken to 

 the needs of the birds during such storm 

 periods, when the seeds of the meadow 

 grasses are icebound and the table of the 

 birds is so sparingly spread. There are 

 many tragedies in their little lives and 

 some of them might be prevented by human 

 pity and thoughtfulness. -The cause of the 

 poor little grebe, whose solitudes have been 

 so remorselessly invaded, has greatly in- 

 terested me; those brave, beautiful little 

 creatures who give themselves, a cheap 

 sacrifice, in trying to save their young. 

 They have been killed by thousands through 

 the barbarous desire of women to deck 

 themselves in stolen feathers even at such 

 a cost in anguish. The grebe, like the 

 egret, must soon be annihilated if women 

 persist in demanding their slaughter. Every 

 true woman should bear the thought of 

 them with her and should do all in her 

 power toward forming the opinion of 

 thoughtless women who stoop to wear these 



