366 



RECREATION. 



him the next morning while we were pick- 

 ing our game, but failed to connect. 



C F. E., Philipsburg, Mont. 



Mr. Wines, in his letter in October 

 Recreation made a curious mistake. He 

 says the "decent sportsmen" tried in vain 

 to have a law passed which would prohibit 

 the killing of reedbirds, ortolans and marsh 

 blackbirds save on alternate days. Such a 

 law was passed. It now allows the shoot- 

 ing of reedbirds, ortolans and marsh black- 

 birds on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday 

 only, of each week, from August 20th to 

 February ist. This opens the season a 

 little too early, in my opinion, but it pre- 

 vents the shooting on Labor Day, a fact 

 much complained of by some local sports- 

 men, yet a good thing, nevertheless, as 

 that was the day on which slaughter ran 

 rampant. 



A. H. Pinney, Washington, D. C. 



We are going to try to have a law passed 

 prohibiting spring shooting of wildfowl in 

 Jefferson county for 3 years. Why can 

 not the sportsmen of our sister counties 

 join with us and make the law cover the 

 entire State? Many sportsmen believe 

 that if the spring shooting of wildfowl 

 could be stopped the birds would breed in 

 this State in large numbers and give us 

 good sport all through the fall months. 

 The spring shooter says they would not, 

 and he has had his own way in this matter 

 a hundred years. He may be right; but 

 why not pass this law next winter and set- 

 tle this question. 



W. H. Tallert, 

 Jefferson Co. Sportsmen's Assn., 

 Watertown, N. Y. 



By all means let us do so. The L. A. S. 

 will advocate such a bill, and it can be 

 passed if all good sportsmen in the State 

 will join us and demand it. — Editor. 



When we had that severe cold weather 

 last winter my brother and I were skating 

 on Lake Michigan. The lake was frozen 

 for a half mile from shore. We saw a flock 

 of ducks on the ice near the shore. By 

 crawling along the bank we got near them. 

 About 50 ducks were gathered around a 

 dead duck. Over the deceased stood a 

 large male duck, quacking vigorously. 

 We watched the proceedings a while. At 

 last the squaw drake seized the dead duck, 

 flung it over his back and carried it to the 

 water, where it was deposited. All the 

 other ducks followed, walking 2 by 2. I 

 was sorry I didn't have my camera there 

 to photograph them. 



R. C. M., Chicago, 111. 



struction of crops by deer. If Mr. White 

 will visit me in the summer I wil convince 

 him that he is slightly mistaken. I had a 

 patch of potatoes entirely destroyed by 

 deer last year. They nipped the tips of 

 vines till the potatoes were partly grown; 

 then they began pawing them out, until 

 there were not enough left to pay for dig- 

 ging. Deer will entirely destroy tame 

 grass or carrots, unles they are fenced so 

 they can't get at them. I am surprised 

 that Mr. White should live 30 years on the 

 frontier without learning that deer destroy 

 crops. 



George Monroe, Hyampom, Cal. 



I have just read a letter by William 

 Wells, of Cora, Wyo., in March Recrea- 

 tion. I think he is as unprincipled as 

 Grizzly Pete, and that the truth is not in 

 him. A man who claims to have piled up 

 a ton of meat with a .44-40 is a blower; 

 especially when he adds that he has a .303 

 and can not hit a barn with it after using 

 it 2 years. I have a .30-30 I have used 3 

 years, and I can put every bullet in a 2 

 inch circle at 100 yards. 



Game is becoming more plentiful here 

 since the passage of our new game laws. 

 Elk are abundant. I saw 40 in one band 

 last fall. 



W. H. Boren, Camas Valley, Ore. 



In regard to importing quails from Kan- 

 sas and other Southern States to the 

 North, I can say to W. S. Harris that it can 

 be done with good success in Pennsylvania 

 at least. We have been trying it for sev- 

 eral years back, and have more quail this 

 summer than ever before. 



Quail should be brought in the spring, 

 after all danger of snow is past. 



Mr. Harris tells of a man who tried to 

 stock his farm with quail from Tennessee 

 and 3 years after could not find a bird on 

 •his place. It is almost impossible to keep 

 quail on any one farm unless it be well 

 wooded. 



G. V. Murray, Potts Grove, Pa. 



In January Recreation I noticed an 

 article from E, A, White in regard to de- 



During the last part of March, '99, my 

 partner and another dog puncher went on 

 a hunt up the Klondyke about 120 miles. 

 While on the trail the third night out we 

 came on a great pile of something 

 heaped up in the middle of the trail. This 

 something proved, on close inspection, to 

 be moose and caribou meat to the amount 

 of 7]A tons. It was on its way to Daw- 

 son, where it was sold for 45 to 75 cents 

 a pound by the quarter. I know of 2 men 

 who killed, during last winter, 168 caribou. 

 28 moose, and 14 mountain sheep and 

 goats. 



Geo. E. Lucas, Dawson City, N. W. T. 



