THE LEAGUE OF AMERICAN SPORTSMEN. 



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lope for 5 years. After that time we may 

 kill 2 antelope and one sheep, providing we 

 do not meantime have the close season ex- 

 tended. Turkeys may be killed 2 months 

 in the year. There was no close season on 

 doves until last year. Now they may be 

 killed from the first of September; quails 

 from the first of November to the 31st of 

 January. We do not allow express com- 

 panies to receive game for shipment unless 

 the shipper furnishes a certificate, duly au- 

 thenticated, and if a hunter wishes to take 

 any birds home he must go on the same 

 train. You are allowed to kill 25 quails 

 and 25 ducks. A person is allowed to take 

 that number of birds from any point in the 

 State. We do not allow game birds to be 

 shipped into or out of the State. A man 

 said to me' the other day that there was a 

 lot of good game in Mexico, and it would 

 taste mighty good in this country if it 

 were fat. He wanted to make a dicker with 

 me to ship some in, and I told him he 

 would have to go around the Northern part 

 of Texas. The carrier has a right to ex- 

 amine game offered for shipment. 



For many years thousands of deer have 

 been killed for the hides. I have seen in 

 the International Railway station 5,000 

 hides piled up for shipment, but now all 

 that is prohibited. We allow live game to 

 be taken out for scientific purposes, but 

 you must have a permit to do it." 



In short, we have a good law, and it is 

 being enforced. I do not know why. I 

 don't know who is helping to enforce it. We 

 have no game wardens, and we have some 

 other officers in Texas who are not worth 

 killing with a club. I have been an officer 

 in San Antonio 24 years but in our coun- 

 try they do not strike at you with a club. 

 They usually shoot at you or ride over 

 you with a horse. 



One gentleman went out dove shooting 

 and when he came home he nicked off 

 some of the dove feathers. If he had 

 burned them he would have been all right ; 

 but some one came along and collected a 

 few for scientific purposes. The hunter 

 discovered who the man was and made 

 some remarks about it, and then the hunter 

 had business up in El Paso. ' There was 

 some bother getting him down ; and he 

 contributed $50 to the State for scientific 

 purposes. His name is Sullivan, but I don't 

 think he is related to John L. That was 

 more than the quail was actually worth, 

 and maybe more than the man was actually 

 worth. 



Texas has all manner of game, except 

 caribou and elk. We have plenty of the 

 cat kind, 2 kinds of deer, and poker. We 

 have as good shooting as a man ever 

 loaded a gun for, and as goor* fishing on 

 the coast as you ever saw. We have some 

 antelope and a few mountain sheep in the 

 Davis mountains, on the Rio Grande ; but 



the game I delight in has claws on 4 cor- 

 ners and teeth. We have the panther, or 

 mountain lion; we have the ocelot, about 

 the size of the wildcat. We have 3 kinds of 

 bear, silvertip, black and brown, and in the 

 summer a good many of the people get 

 nearly bare. These are half breeds. In 

 Eastern Texas we have numbers of black 

 bear. In Northern Texas we have the 

 prairie chicken. We also have some grouse 

 down our way. We have an abundance of 

 quail. In West Texas we have what we call 

 blue quail; they are not much on the fly, 

 but they are sure runners. They can run 

 100 to 150 miles in a day. It is hard to 

 follow them. When the hunter gets back 

 he uses lots of witchhazel. In Southwest- 

 ern Texas everything that grows has 

 thorns on it. This makes hunting interest- 

 ing. It teaches the hunter to keep his eyes 

 open. 



Some Northern men come into North 

 Texas, sidetrack their car, go out with their 

 guns and get prairie chickens. There 

 were 2 cases of this lately, and we made 

 some remarks to the Attorney General. 

 He said the county attorneys would have 

 to attend to that matter; so we have been 

 looking up the case. The cars did not 

 leave any trail, but we may find some of the 

 men. I hope none of them will prove to 

 have been from Columbus, Ohio. 



Those 2 cases of Northern men killing 

 prairie chickens, and this man Sullivan, 

 my $50 friend, are the only bad cases I 

 know of. 



I heard that down at Rockport they 

 were feeding canvasback ducks to the 

 hogs. I said I would better go down and 

 see if they picked the ducks, for the hogs 

 might choke on the feathers. Nobodv 

 knew me down there. I said to a man 1 

 met : 



"How is game down here?" He said: 



"Game is plenty." I said: 



"Under this damn game law you can't 

 kill but 25 birds." He said: 



"It's rotten." 



I talked to one of the game dealers, an 

 Italian. He said, "Dees a dam game law 

 jus a knocka me out $15,000 dees a year." 

 I said : 



"Well, I guess I can stand it if you can." 

 I found another class of men down there 

 who objected to our game laws in regard to 

 birds they could kill and the market they 

 could find for them. I met one on the 

 tram going down. He said: 



"Say, pard; did you hear of this damn 

 game law?" I says : 



|'What is it?" He says: 



"They are only going to let us kill 25 

 birds." 



"Gee whiz," I said; "let's go back. How 

 many do you want to kill?" 



He said, "I want to kill about a thou- 

 sand." 



