38 



RECREATION. 



Then the Doctor tells about giving away 

 a lot more of the surplus to people in 

 Duluth. This excuse is threadbare; worse 

 than that, it has holes in it. The man who 

 goes into the country and hogs game as 

 long as he can find it, always sneaks out 

 when accused, by saying that he gave the 

 game away to friends, or others. Why 

 should not the Doctor and his friends be 

 manly enough to say that they went to the 

 lakes to slaughter game as long as they 

 could find it ; that they then gave the game 

 away rather than let it rot. But for Heav- 

 en's sake, Doctor, never try to justify your- 

 self and your crowd for having butchered 

 1,700 ducks by claiming you did it in order 

 -to feed the uncivilized natives, your neigh- 

 bors in Duluth. 



What do the readers of Recreation 

 think of this Duluth crowd? — Editor. 



SHUT OUT FOREIGN BIRD BUTCHERS. 



Pennsylvania has a section in her game 

 laws which requires unnaturalized foreign 

 born residents of that State to take out 

 licenses before they can legally hunt in the 

 State. Here is the text of the law : 



Be it enacted, etc. : That from and after 

 the passage of this act every non-resident 

 and every unnaturalized foreign born resi- 

 dent of this Commonwealth shall be re- 

 quired to take out a license from the treas- 

 urer of the county in which he proposes to 

 hunt, before beginning to hunt in any part 

 of the Commonwealth. Each and every 

 person not a resident of this Common- 

 wealth, and each and every person who is 

 an unnaturalized foreign born resident of 

 this Commonwealth, shall pay a license fee 

 of $10 to the treasurer of the county in 

 which he proposes to hunt, and the said 

 treasurer shall thereupon issue to him a 

 certificate, on forms supplied by the board 

 of Game Commissioners of this Common- 

 wealth, bearing the name and place of resi- 

 dence of the applicant, with his descrip- 

 tion, as near as may be, which said certifi- 

 cate shall authorize the owner to hunt and 

 kill game in any part of this Common- 

 wealth, during the period of that year when 

 game 'may be legally killed, under the re- 

 strictions and for the purposes allowed by 

 law. Said certificate shall not be transfer- 

 able, and shall be exposed for examination 

 on demand made by any game protector, 

 constable or game warden of the State. 

 One-h*tlf of the license fee so received by 

 any county treasurer shall be retained by 

 him for the use of- the county wherein the 

 same is paid, and the remaining one-half of 

 said fee shall be forwarded by him to the 

 Stale treasurer. 



All States and Territories should enact 

 similar provisions. The uneducated foreign- 



ers are the worst destroyers of song and in- 

 sectivorous birds in this country. They have 

 no sentiment as to the beauty of birds and 

 no sense of their value to the community. 

 When such people go out with guns they 

 kill every living thing they can find, put 

 all into the pot together, cook and eat them. 

 The Pennsylvania law works admirably. 

 There are few of these foreign laborers 

 who are willing to pay $10 a year for the 

 privilege of hunting, and the consequence 

 is that few of them now go into the woods 

 with guns, in that State. All friends of 

 game protection should therefore urge on 

 their law makers the necessity of incor- 

 porating the foregoing into their game, laws, 

 at the earliest possible date. 



LOCAL CONDITIONS NO EXCUSE FOR 

 SLAUGHTER. 



I have seen your comment in September 

 Recreation on what you consider my hog- 

 ishness in killing 54 ducks in 3 hours last 

 year and, without the slightest personal 

 feeling in the matter, I write you these few 

 lines. 



I do not wQnder that so much effort is 

 wasted by game protective associations 

 when they make such foolish remarks and 

 display such a lack of knowledge as is 

 shown in your comment ; it simply keeps 

 people who understand the different local 

 conditions from taking any interest in such 

 matters. If you had written for particu- 

 lars, as I fully expected you to do when I 

 answered your inquiry, I should have tried 

 to give you the material for an interesting 

 story. You asked nothing about the local 

 conditions of our. season, how many times 

 a year we shoot ducks, how many were 

 in the party, how many times we went out 

 on the ice before we' struck the ducks, 

 how many we might have.killed if we had 

 staid out the full 7 hours of tide, nor what 

 the other 6 boats got that went out the same 

 day and tried to get the 54 ducks that fell 

 to us. Neither did you ask what became of 

 the ducks, whether they were sold or given 

 to people who needed them. As to my 

 reading no good literature, I must disagree 

 with you as I take Recreation regularly 

 and think it fairly good. 



H. C. Clark, Delaware City, Del. 



ANSWER. 



I am glad to know you take so practical 

 and sensible a view of my criticism. The 

 details of your hunting trip might have 

 proved interesting, but whatever they might 

 have been they would not excuse the kill- 

 ing of so large a number of ducks in one 

 day. To the real sportsman the killing 

 of game is only an incident of a day in the 

 field or on the water. We can all recall 

 many a day when we did not get a shot as 



