FROM THE GAME FIELDS. 



37 



There is not a man in Alaska engaged in 

 shipping duck or goose eggs out of that 

 territory, to say nothing of incorporated 

 companies. We have rigid federal laws 

 prohibiting the taking of the eggs of ducks 

 or geese in Alaska, or the shipment thereof 

 out of that territory. We also have a law 

 prohibiting the importation of such eggs 

 from Canada. These laws have been in 

 effect for years and are rigidly enforced. 

 Yet the Doctor has not found it out. 



The story about the traveler in the 

 Yukon country being able to walk miles 

 on duck and goose nests is of the same 

 character as the albumen story. 



The Doctor says he believes wild ducks 

 are just as plentiful as they were 35 years 

 ago. If he really believes that, his ignor- 

 ance is simply pitiful. There may be lim- 

 ited areas in which ducks still congregate 

 in their Northern and Southern flights, in 

 nearly as large numbers as ever, but I 

 doubt it, and so does every other close ob- 

 server. We all know there are olaces 

 where good shooting can still be had every 

 fall, but we also know there are thou- 

 sands of square miles on this continent 

 that were formerly visited by millions of 

 wild ducks every fall, where none are ever 

 seen now. 



We all know the prices of wild ducks in 

 the markets have advanced within the past 

 20 years from $2 or $3 a dozen, to $10 to $15 

 a dozen, or even $30 a dozen. Canvasbacks 

 now sell in the New York market at $45 

 to $60 a dozen, whereas 20 years ago they 

 could be bought for $3 to $4 a dozen. Why 

 this advance in prices if the birds are not 

 decreasing in numbers? There are 4 or 5 

 times as many men shooting for the mar- 

 ket to-day as there were 20 years ago. 



If Dr. Magie will read the article on page 

 322 of April Recreation, copy of which I 

 have sent him by mail, and then investi- 

 gate carefully the statements made therein, 

 he will know a good deal more about the 

 decrease of ducks in this country than he 

 does now. 



The Doctor further says, "The few ducks 

 that are killed in their flight each fall over 

 our continent do not amount to much." 



How about the 2 men who were convict- 

 ed a few months ago for having in their 

 possession over 20,000 ducks that were 

 killed on one lake in his State? Does this 

 not amount to much? And this is only one 

 case in thousands. There are a number of 

 large commission houses in various cities 

 that employ hunters by the year to follow 

 ducks and geese from the time they cross 

 the Canadian border in September until they 

 cross back again on their Northern flight 

 in spring, to kill all the birds possible every 

 day and ship them to their employers. Does 

 this not amount to much? 



There are over 400 market hunters on 



the Virginia and North Carolina coast who 

 make their living hunting wild fowl. Does 

 this not amount to much? 



If Dr. Magie will come to New York, I 

 can take him through the markets in this 

 city any day during the open season for the 

 sale of game, and can show him in the 

 aggregate many carloads of ducks and 

 geese on sale. Does this not amount to 

 much ? 



The Doctor's conclusion that the great 

 slaughter of ducks takes place in Mexico 

 and Central America is simply absurd. 

 The weather is hot there even during our 

 winter months. The natives of those re- 

 gions are not hunters and our American 

 market hunters rarely follow the game into 

 those countries. The cost of transportation 

 and icing from that region to the markets 

 in the States would be prohibitive, and it 

 is a well known fact that few, if any, ducks 

 ever come from those countries into North- 

 ern markets. 



A great many ducks are killed in Mexico 

 and shipped North, but the great destruc- 

 tion that has been carried on by such 

 men as Dr. Magie, and has occurred dur- 

 ing the past 25 years is the cause of the 

 diminution of our wild fowl. 



If Dr. Magie had been reading Recreation 

 during the past 10 years as he should have 

 been, he would scarcely have made the 

 pitiful excuses he _does make for the 

 slaughter committed by himself and friends. 

 Similar excuses have often been made by 

 game hogs who have been rebuked in these 

 pages. Yet the Doctor says, "We gave 

 many to the pioneer settlers of this un- 

 civilized country, who, as a rule, are not 

 equipped for obtaining ducks for their 

 food." The hunting which Dr. Magie is 

 trying to apologize for was done in the 

 Bowstring country of Minnesota. In the 

 annual meeting of the L. A. S., at Colum- 

 bus, O., last February, Sam Fullerton said 

 someone had spoken to him about the peo- 

 ple of Mnnnesota being only half civilized 

 and everybody laughed. Now Dr. Magie 

 refers to the good citizens of the Bowstring 

 country as being uncivilized, and it wouhi 

 seem that the laugh is on him. 



I have rarely heard of any man claiming 

 that the settlers in any game country need- 

 ed to be supplied with game by visiting 

 sportsmen. On the other hand, thousands 

 of reports from such sportsmen have been 

 printed in the various sportsmen's jour- 

 nals, complaining that the greatest destruc- 

 tion of game was always to be charged to 

 these same farmers or woodsmen, as the 

 case may be. You can always trust a farm- 

 er or his boys to get all the game that is 

 coming to them, in season and out of sea- 

 son, and Dr. Magie's excuse that he and his 

 friends fed the natives on ducks, is there- 

 fore exceedingly lame. 



