FROM THE GAME FIELDS. 



169 



DE GUARDINER CONVICTED. 



We have just caught and liberated a car 

 of quails, shipped from Tennessee as 

 pigeons, by Genie De Guardiner whose 

 home is in Natick, Mass., and who was 

 with the birds. He was fined $2,000 and 6 

 months' imprisonment. He had 1,200 birds, 

 which he had bought and paid 30 cents 

 each for. We consider this conviction a 

 good thing. He swore that the quails were 

 for breeding and going to State game com- 

 missioners. This conviction may be a 

 warning to other law breakers. 



Geo. Mason, Birmingham, Ala. 



I am mighty glad to know that De 

 Guardiner has the opportunity to spend the 

 summer in Alabama and to board at a hotel 

 where he will have plenty of time to reflect 

 on his past sins. A year or more ago he 

 sent me a small ad for insertion in 

 Recreation and on being asked for refer- 

 ences gave me the names of several good 

 people in Massachusetts where he then 

 lived. On inquiring of these people they 

 reported him as being honest and reliable, 

 but all the same he failed to pay his adver- 

 tising bill. I hope the State may succeed 

 in collecting $2,000 from him, but it prob- 

 ably will not. In that event he will be re- 

 quired to spend several years in the custody 

 of the sheriff. Meantime Tennessee's loss 

 will be Alabama's gain in the matter of the 

 distribution of quails. — Editor. 



The article by H. S. Ferrell in March 

 Recreation shows that there are still some 

 men who champion the hounding of deer. 

 I am well used to the sort of men who 

 want to have a dog do their hunting for 

 them. To them, cruelty is sport. No man 

 has any right to practice cruelty to animals 

 under the name of sport. When he kills 

 them for his own or others' use, let it be 

 by means that cause no unnecessary suffer- 

 ing. As to hunting in our Adirondack 

 woods on horseback I should like to see 

 any man try it. He would soon learn bet- 

 ter. 



One reason I advocate still hunting is 

 that one individual may not get so many 

 deer, but more people get one than under 

 the hounding system, when a few get all, 

 and others nothing. The damage done by 

 hounds running loose in the woods killing 

 and eating young fawns when they can not 

 help themselves, forever disposes of the 

 theory that hounding is any protection to 

 deer. Since the law of '97, measurably well 

 obeyed, the phenomenal increase of deer 

 here is strong argument against hounding. 



I have had to meet almost every kind of 



argument from men who loved brutal sport, 



and were too lazy to still hunt. Many of 



these men are now of my way of thinking. 



Rodney West, Minerva, N. Y. 



GAME NOTES. 

 Gunners and fishermen report that there are 

 large numbers of ducks in lower Delaware river 

 and in Delaware bay. Harry C. Clark, of Dela- 

 ware City, killed 52 wild duck on the river 

 Tuesday. They were black ducks and mallards. — 

 Wilmington (Del.) Every Evening. 



I am a lover of good honest sport, both 

 with gun and rod, and I detest a hog. That 

 there is at least one such critter in Dela- 

 ware the above clipping shows. 



Harry E. Link, Wilmington, Del. 



In answer to a letter inquiring as to the 

 truth of the newspaper report, I received 

 the following: 



Yes; I killed 54 ducks in 3 hours. That 

 was my best day's sport this season. Last 

 March (1903) I killed 198 ducks in 5 days, 

 shooting about 6 hours each day. 



Harry C. Clark, Delaware City, Del. 



This shows that you are not only a hog 

 but that you are lamentably ignorant of the 

 principles of good sportsmanship. If you 

 had been a reader of good literature you 

 would have known that such a declaration 

 as this would result in your being con- 

 demned and despised by decent sportsmen 

 everywhere. Your name goes down in the 

 swine book as number 1045. — Editor 



I must take exception to the statement 

 made by Allan Brooks in April Recreation, 

 that the flesh of the red breasted mergan- 

 ser, Mugus serrator, (Coaies) , is at all times 

 uneatable. The fact is that these birds, 

 properly cooked, make not only a palatable 

 stew but an excellent roast as well. On 

 my shooting trips during 20 years I have 

 cooked dozens of them, and people have en- 

 joyed them who thought they could not 

 eat any kind of wild fowl. Personally I 

 prefer brant, black mallard, teal, blue bills, 

 whistlers, etc., but if you know how to cook, 

 a "shell bird" is by no means to be despised. 

 Isaac Hills, Nantucket, Mass. 



You remember the entertainment we pre- 

 pared for you at the meeting in St. Paul 

 in the shape of a seizure of 11 saddles of 

 venison and over 600 grouse. Well, the 

 grand jury failed to indict at the first term, 

 but we brought the matter up again and got 

 2 indictments. Mr. Ertz has been tried on 

 the first and has paid a fine of $500. The 

 other indictment hangs over until next 

 term. Such fines as these will make some 

 of the lawbreakers think that the business 

 is not all profit. 



Sam Fullerton, St. Paul, Minn. 



During my hunting trips over the country 

 I notice that hawks, owls and foxes have 

 done great damage to birds and rabbits. 

 Such vermin would all be shot if there was 

 a bounty on their scalps. Could you not 

 introduce a bill in Congress to that effect? 

 In November I shot a duck hawk, a rarity 



