594 
FOREST AND STREAM 
THE OLD GUARD STILL ON DECK. 
Pasadena, Cal., October 17th, 1914. 
Editor, Forest and Stream : 
Thursday the 15th, was a general gala-day 
here in California. It was the beginning of the 
open season for wild fowl, including Valley 
Quail, shooting. 
Thanks to the numerous duck clubs here in 
this vicinity who control large tracts of terri¬ 
tory near the sea coast where our native duck 
have been protected and cared for during their 
breeding season, duck and other water fowl 
were plentiful and many limit bags were made. 
One of the Forest and Stream “old guard,” Mr. 
H. L. Story, who shoots a 16 ga. double gun 
with NPL. shells made his limit, twenty-dive, in 
about an hour’s shooting, and he claimed to 
have picked his birds as they were all large 
plump birds in the pink of condition. 
The next day, Mr. Story and the writer, an¬ 
other “old guard,” and so far as years go, their 
combined ages run above the century and a 
half, but so far as shooting and tramping goes, 
they are yet in the prime of life. They made 
good bags but had to cover a large extent of 
ground to do it for the number of Valley Quail 
are diminishing very rapidly; this does not come 
from the fact that we have no laws for their 
protection, but it comes from the lamentable 
fact that these laws are not enforced; the 
quail are shot continually in and out of season. 
We have a county ordinance against shooting 
from the public highway and the countryside 
scoured by automobile parties who shoot at 
every thing in the shape of game that comes 
in view, then the fellow who shoots for the 
“pot” is out early in the morning and late at 
night to get a raking shot at covies as they 
come to feed or to roost, and right in this im¬ 
mediate vicinity there has not to my knowledge 
been a single arrest and conviction for these 
offenses during the past seven years. We have 
a county game-warden who draws a fat salary 
and has a comfortable office in Los Angeles. 
He may personally go out and may have depu¬ 
ties who are out looking after violators of the 
game laws; if so, I have never seen one of them 
or have even heard of their doing any work be¬ 
longing to their office. 
Taking a range of territory up and down the 
length of our mountains fifty miles each way 
from this city, there is not one deer where there 
was ten six years ago. The cause of this is 
over-shooting. During the open season the 
mountains are swarming with crazy rattle-head¬ 
ed fellows who are out to kill something; doe, 
fawn or any thing that looks like a deer. I do 
not dare to let my small Irish terrier away from 
me when up in the mountains for fear that some 
fellow will shoot straight enough to hit him. 
One fellow emptied his automatic at him and 
lucky for the dog—and for the fellow—he was 
not touched. While rabbit hunting a young fel¬ 
low not thirty feet from me saw my hat above 
the top of a ridge and fired at it, taking it for 
a rabbit—he was a very poor shot as the hat 
was not touched by a single pellet of shot. He 
went home and took his meals standing for sev¬ 
eral days while I limped around with a sprained 
toe. I still hold his gun; it is not much of a 
gun, only a cheap single barrel gas-pipe. If I 
am to have my brains “blowed out,” I want it 
done with a real gun, with gold plated triggers, 
not with a common “nigger-gun”; after he shot 
I guess he thought that the “Chaldeans had him.” 
The Californian Giant of Game Protection, 
Dr. Chas. P. Holder is hot after the Market- 
Shooter and the Game-Dealer, which means that 
their work is coming to an abrupt end in this 
state. Dr. Holder is doing a great work here 
for Fish and Game protection, as he is making 
the subject popular among the masses of our 
people. With market shooting and the sale of 
game stopped and the laws for the protection 
of game enforced as in Vermont, we would soon 
notice a marked increase in the number of our 
upland game, and we feel that Dr. Holder will 
eventually bring this about: God-Speed-Him. 
STANSTEAD. 
GAME LAWS. 
By A. N. Rogers. 
The writer was much interested in the game 
laws published in Forest and Stream of October 
17th, and note there is a wide range of special 
laws and conditions under which one may hunt in 
the different states and counties thereof. It is 
altogether wise and prudent for each state and 
territory to make special laws for the protection 
of game within its boundaries, but especially is 
the Federal law for the protection of migratory 
birds to be commended by every true sportsman. 
Here on the coast of Maine one can readily see 
the benefits of this protective measure, although 
yet in its first year. For many years it has been 
the practice of hundreds of men along the coast, 
fishermen and others, to make great sport of 
spring shooting of waterfowl, one man often 
killing fifty to one hundred birds in a day, while 
the annual flight was on and the birds were fly¬ 
ing northward by thousands just outside the 
headlands and outlying islands of the many bays 
and inlets from Cape Cod to the St. Lawrence. 
This shooting was not of any real benefit to 
anyone, as the birds, not very good for food at 
any time, were at that time poor and thin, and 
except for their feathers, which in most cases 
were not made use of, were entirely worthless. 
The persecution of the birds on their way to 
the breeding grounds served only to break up 
