FROM THE GAME FIELDS. 



IN DEFENSE OF JONES. 



SIDNEY WILLIAMS. 



While fully appreciating your untiring 

 efforts for the preservation of game, 

 I think you, like many enthusiasts in 

 other directions, are inclined to carry mat- 

 ters to the opposite extreme. 



In August Recreation poor Jones, so 

 elated over his not outrageous bag of wild 

 fowl, is crushed by your withering sarcasm 

 and no doubt has become your enemy for 

 life. As a wild fowl shooter of long ex- 

 perience I can say there are probably few 

 of your Western readers who have done 

 much duck shooting who have not killed 

 as many ducks in one day as did Mr. 

 Jones. 



I do not mean that it is a common event 

 to shoot 63 ducks in a day; but I believe 

 most of us can call to mind a few glorious 

 days when a combination of favorable cir- 

 cumstances enabled us to make a bag equal 

 to, and possibly exceeding, that which you 

 so greatly disapprove. 



It is most difficult for sportsmen to 

 judge one another in the matter under 

 question, especially when living in dif- 

 ferent localities. What might constitute a 

 game hog in one place would not of neces- 

 sity constitute one in another. 



Again, whether or not spring shooting 

 is an evil is wholly a matter of locality and 

 can not be judged from a distance. There 

 is no doubt that where ducks breed in 

 numbers, spring shooting should not be 

 allowed. Even though there be present 

 many species which may breed hundreds 

 of miles to the North of such a place and 

 the killing of which ought do no harm, 

 yet the want of knowledge and discretion 

 of many sportsmen makes it requisite to 

 protect all species in the locality. Another 

 objection to spring shooting is that it 

 lengthens the term of destruction; but 

 this objection is greatly reduced in such 

 places as Manitoba, for instance, where 

 the fall shooting season is necessarily 

 short, and the only chance of duck shoot- 

 ing is the limited period of the spring and 

 fall migrations, 



Going back to the Granville incident 

 and the individual you so heavily score, I 

 think his elation at his success, and his 

 wish to have his score recorded in Recre- 

 ation, show that the event was an un- 

 usual one with him and would probably 

 never occur again. 



Therefore I say to him, Mr. Jones, you 

 have had a glorious day's sport, and I con- 

 gratulate you on your success and skill. 

 I take it for granted you are too good a 

 sportsman to shoot ducks likely to breed 



in your district, and that being so, you 

 have done no great harm. 



And to you, Mr. Editor, I would say, 

 with all respect, that your position enables 

 you to sit in judgment, as it were, on your 

 fellow sportsmen. Before you hold them 

 up to ridicule and contempt be sure they 

 deserve it. Think of the hardships and 

 the blank days that so often fall to the 

 sportsman's lot, and, when he takes ad- 

 vantage of a lucky occasion, do not score 

 him too harshly. 



Perhaps from these remarks you may 

 place me in your hog pen; do so if you 

 wish, but in whose company shall I stand? 

 How about the grand old English sports- 

 men, some of whom I have been fortunate 

 to know, who have many times killed their 

 100 partridges, pheasants or rabbits in a 

 day? How about Colonel Hawker, the 

 father of wild fowling? How about the 

 present great authority, Sir Ralph Payn- 

 Galway, whose books proclaim him a 

 wild fowler of immense knowledge and a 

 sportsman to the core? These and many 

 others of a similar character would form 

 my company if a game hog is only dis- 

 tinguished by the size of an occasional 



But, sir, if you place me with the man 

 who wipes out a whole band of caribou or 

 deer simply to barter their hides, or with 

 the man who kills game before the open- 

 ing of the season, or with the milliner's 

 bird hunter, then I should consider I was 

 indeed placed with an unsavory crew, who 

 could but expect the scorn and contempt 

 of all true sportsmen. 



ANSWER. 



You are at least 10 years behind the 

 times in your views. You are the first 

 man to write me a line in defense of Mr. 

 Jones, while at least 500 men l\ave writ- 

 ten approving my criticism in unmeasured 

 terms. At least 100 sportsmen who have 

 called on me since the publication of the 

 Jones item, have endorsed what I said of 

 him. Not only did these men approve my 

 treatment of Jones, but of all the others 

 whom I have had occasion to roast within 

 the past 3 years. What conclusion should 

 any man reach in view of these facts? 

 Simply this: That what is said of Jones 

 is substantially true; that practically all 

 decent sportsmen of the country are now 

 pointing the finger of shame at him. That 

 there are a few exceptions is proved by 

 your letter. 



I deny most emphatically that spring 

 shooting of ducks can be justified by any 

 local conditions whatever. 



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