468 



RECREATION. 



fishing excursion in December Recreation ; 

 also correspondence in October number of 

 same. 



If you don't want to make a complete 

 fool and a laughing stock of yourself and 

 friends over this matter you would better 

 drop it. Subscribe to this best of friends 

 to the game of this country, and reform. 

 Coquina is going to beat you as sure as 

 h — 11, for he will have the moral and finan- 

 cial support of 100,000 readers, who will, 

 to a man, contribute $i each for his defense. 

 I am among the number; ''and so," as 

 Mr. Shields says, "it's up to you, Dam- 

 pier." 



Yours truly, 



C. S. Stewart. 



On the i8th of November David and I 

 went down to the ranch, 12 miles below 

 town, for a hunt. 



During the evening's shooting we 

 dropped 3 geese and 3 ducks into the grass, 

 but were able to secure but one duck and 

 one goose. 



By daylight on the 19th we were again 

 at the blind. During the morning we 

 killed 2 geese and broke the wing of a 

 third, which we caught and still have, 

 alive. 



In the afternoon we went down to a bay 

 protected by salt cedars, and spent most 

 of the evening watching some 300 geese 

 feeding on the open prairie. On the way 

 to the ranch that evening we dropped one 

 goose out of a bunch that flew near us. 



On the 20th we left the ranch before 

 day, going to the lower end of the pasture, 

 9 miles South; but found that the geese 

 were very wild. We killed only 3 that we 

 secured, 2 dropping out on the prairie, 

 where we were unable to find them. 



H. M. Brown, Port Lavaca, Tex. 



I have just finished reading in Recrea- 

 tion an article signed Pijiji, who claims 

 to live in California. If I were you I 

 would put him in the same pen with G. H. 

 Webber. Pijiji says some kinds of game 

 are increasing in California. I suppose he 

 means ducks and geese. If so I beg to 

 differ with him. Anyone going to the 

 markets in San Francisco, early in the 

 morning, will see thousands of game birds 

 piled up ready to be sold. There are 

 thousands of acres in this State where 

 these birds used to feed undisturbed and 

 that are now in cultivation. The farmers 

 formerly employed men with guns to keep 

 the geese from destroying their crops, but 

 that is fast becoming a thing of the past. 

 Almost anyone will agree with me that 

 these birds could hardly increase under 

 these conditions. I agree with you when 

 you say this man's defense is weak. 



Recreation is surely doing a great 

 work. S. T. R., Napa, Cal. 



Some years ago, in Northern Ontario, I 

 tried a long range shot with a .22 caliber 

 rifle at a red headed woodpecker, high up 

 in a tall pine. Down it came, and never 

 even fluttered; but when I stooped to get 

 the bird it flew off, apparently uninjured. 

 Can any reader of Recreation explain 

 this? Possibly the bullet tipped his head, 

 stunning him a moment. 



The best sport to be had here is hunt- 

 ing muskrats by moonlight. It is not bad 

 fun if the nights are not too cold and there 

 is no wind. There is a creek here full of 

 rats, but the best night I put in was on an 

 old canal. A friend and I went to it one 

 evening and borrowed a boat. While one 

 paddled noiselessly, the other sat in the 

 bow looking ahead for the ripples which 

 betrayed a swimming rat. As soon as 

 one was shot the shooter became paddler. 

 My friend shot 4 and I 5. I became quite 

 expert at calling them by making a noise 

 with my lips. 



.40-82, Dickinson's Landing, Ont. 



Prairie wolves were numerous in this 

 county last winter. Several were seen 

 within 80 rods of the city limits. The 

 county auditor paid out in bounties $265 

 for the first 6 weeks of '99. The bounty 

 is $5. That means 53 killed. The last of 

 January and beginning of February were 

 excessively cold, which worked up a good 

 appetitie for the wolves, and they killed 

 considerable stock. Many persons think 

 the excessive cold makes the wolf bold. 

 The strangest thing was they were all fat, 

 and I believe they destroyed numbers of 

 prairie chickens. 



If the wolves and foxes are not thinned 

 out there will soon be no orairie chickens 

 left to protect from the game hogs. The 

 wolf and the fox are the biggest game hogs 

 we have. We have others, but unfortu- 

 nately the State does not pay any bounty 

 on them. 



C. S. Hull, Warren, Minn. 



I notice in Recreation that the laws of 

 Indiana prohibit the selling of quails. Will 

 you please publish a list of all States whose 

 laws do not permit the selling of quails? 



They should all prohibit the sale of 

 deer and ducks as well. 



Keep after the game hog. Yours is a 

 noble work. 



T. V. M., Richmond, Va. 



Indiana, Washington. Ohio and Penn- 

 sylvania are the only States, as far as I 

 can recall, in which the sale of quails is 

 prohibited. I heartily agree with you that 

 the sale of this bird should be prohibited 

 in all States where it is found, and this will 

 come to pass within a few years. This 

 bird is becoming too rare to be longer 

 made an object of traffic. The same may 



