THE LEAGUE OF AMERICAN SPORTSMEN. 



i43 



I learned by a careful inquiry that within 

 a radius of 6 miles of our club house men 

 and boys had killed and sold, for 20 cents 

 each, about 400 ruffed grouse, during the fall. 

 The object in killing these partridges seemed 

 to be to buy cartridges to kill more par- 

 tridges to buy more cartridges. 



I did not learn of a single person among 

 them who had ever done a single hand's turn 

 to increase the supply of game. Our club 

 members (who never sell game) put out 8 

 bushels of wild rice there, and in the spring 

 they intend to release 25 ring-necked pheas- 

 ants to propagate. We also had placed in 

 streams last fall a large number of trout fry, 

 in several lakes bass, and we have an order 

 in for several thousand more fish to stock 

 the depleted lakes in that vicinity. 



To stop the sale of game, if not for more 

 than 2 years, would mean to increase its 

 supply amazingly. To provide food for the 

 game birds which remain North during the 

 winter would be a noble and profitable oc- 

 cupation. Not one in 100 sportsmen ever 

 puts out a nut or a handful of grain for any 

 wild bird or squirrel. Let this be made a 

 study and practice: How to increase the 

 food supply, instead of giving all thought to 

 guns, ammunition and dogs and the watch- 

 ing of brother sportsmen. It would give us 

 more pleasure than does this eager killing. 

 One-half of all of our game birds are mi- 

 gratory. They are bred in the North. We 

 have 2 months — October and November — 

 in which to hunt them. They stay in the 

 South through November, December, Jan- 

 uary, "February and March, during all of 

 which time they are slaughtered mercilessly 

 and sold. This is unfair. The L. A. S. 

 should protest and use every influence to 

 stop the selling of game and the shipment of 

 it, this would reduce the killing to a trifle 

 of what is now being done. We should be- 

 gin at once with our Southern friends to stop 

 this winter market hunting. Especially 

 should we help our friends in Texas who 

 want it stopped, by aiding them to secure 

 amendments to their game laws. 



There should be no shooting of game on 

 Sunday, and there should be places of re- 

 fuge for migratory birds where they must 

 not be molested at any time. 



The only place where water fowls are not 

 killed is in the inaccessible North where man 

 cannot reach them, and during this time our 

 laws say they must not be killed nor their 

 nests robbed. . 



I trust your League will get after the 

 wicked people in Boston, Washington and 

 all other Eastern Cities, to whom our game 

 is being unlawfully shipped and sold. You 

 should shut up the market as quickly as pos- 

 sible. 



Many states now forbid the sale of their 

 own game. If it can be stopped in one 

 State it can be stopped in all. I will not 

 say anything of the shameful Game Laws 

 of Illinois, only we are going to set our- 



selves right soon. Recreation and the L. 

 A. S. should appeal to the Governor and the 

 sportsmen of Iowa to save their game from 

 the market hunter and shipper. I hope to 

 see every state adopt a game warden system 

 soon. This winter should see great things 

 done for game. 



I am strongly in favor of licensing guns in 

 all states, for restraint and revenue. We 

 have had years of sport for nothing and few 

 sportsmen have ever given one nickel for 

 food, for propagation or for the privilege of 

 hunting. 



We must make a united effort at once to 

 have Congress pass the bill which the Hon. 

 George E. White, of Chicago, offered last 

 summer. It was drawn by the Hon. F. S. 

 Baird, Attorney for the G. B. & F. P. A., 

 and was introduced in the Senate by the 

 Hon. H. M. Teller. It is in the nature of 

 an amendment to the Interstate Commerce 

 law, making it a misdemeanor for any trans- 

 portation company to receive and ship any 

 game out of a state where such shipment is 

 forbidden by statute. This bill strikes at the 

 very basis of all this game destruction and 

 its passage will mean more for game pro- 

 tection than 100 wardens in each State could 

 ever do. 



I am pleased with the new addition to our 

 ranks, the " Kodak Sportsman." Give us 

 more of his work, and fewer of the pictures 

 of destruction and death of our beautiful 

 game birds and animals. 



Maurice R. Bortree, 

 State Game Warden. 



The League is pushing its work in the 

 Southern states as rapidly as possible and we 

 hope to organize divisions in all. of them 

 within the year. Then we may hope to pro- 

 vide some kind of protection for the migra- 

 tory birds that winter there. This is greatly 

 needed and I beg every Southern sports- 

 man to join the League at once and help us. 



The officers of the League are urging the 

 passage of Mr. White's bill which Brother 

 Bortree refers to. We are also working hard 

 for the passage of Senator Hoar's bill which 

 forbids the importation of or traffic in the 

 skins or plumage of birds, for millinery pur- 

 poses. Why don't all sportsmen and lovers 

 of nature, who want to see the game and the 

 song birds protected chip in their dollars 

 and help us? Why should it be necessary 

 to invite you so often? — Editor. 



SOME GEORGIA GAME HOGS. 



Savannah, Ga. 

 Editor Recreation: I have taken a great 

 deal of interest in reading your just attacks 

 on pot hunters and game hogs, because I 

 am heartily in accord with your views re- 

 garding the ruthless slaughter of game. I do 

 not believe any man has the right to kill 

 more game than he can conveniently con- 

 sume, and do not think that, after using the 



