854 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[May 29, 1909. 
tive sage bunny perked his saucy ears, and prairie 
dog-like, dived into his hole. The little repeat¬ 
ing rifle caused many a loping jack to accelerate 
his speed. 
Home again and ready to start to-morrow for 
the East. What pleasant memories a perusal of 
these pages bring back. I have hunted the wild 
turkey, king of game birds, in South Missouri, 
the noble bobwhite of my owri home, the snipe 
and rail of Central Iowa, the prairie chicken of 
South Dakota, the gamy partridge of Northern 
Minnesota, but these days spent with the ducks 
of Idaho were red letter days to be treasured 
up in years to come, spiced with congenial com¬ 
pany, full to the brim with the joy of living. 
John F. Case. 
Snap Shots. 
New York, May 19.— Editor Forest and 
Stream: In September, 1897, I made two rather 
good shots on Canada geese. 
Three of us, all members of the Sophomore 
class of Yale University, spent the late sum¬ 
mer and early autumn hunting big game in 
Idaho, Montana and Wyoming. 
While at breakfast one morning a few miles 
from the Yellowstone Park line, in Montana, 
on our way to Jackson’s Hole, we heard a flock 
of geese approaching and soon saw them flying 
on a course which would take them directly 
over our camp. 
“Get your guns, boys, and smoke ’em up,’’ 
cried big Ed. Staley, our head guide, but I was 
the only one to respond, as my two friends 
thought that wing shooting with a rifle was not 
worth while attempting.. 
By the time I picked up my .30-40 and pumped 
a shell into the barrel the geese were almost 
overhead and some hundred yards up. Hold¬ 
ing the sight on the neck of the leader. I rapidly 
fired three shots and at the third hit him squarely 
through the breast, so that he came hurtling 
down to fall with a heavy thud almost in our 
camp-fire. I inclose a picture which one of my 
friends took as I held up my prize. The hole 
torn by the expanding bullet is plainly visible. 
A week or so later our outfit struck the Buf¬ 
falo Fork of the Snake River in Wyoming. I 
was riding far ahead of the pack train with 
my class mate P. when the latter pointed out 
a small flock of geese in the river several hun¬ 
dred yards above us and very generously pro¬ 
posed that I should try to stalk them while he 
held my pony. This I did, and sheltered by 
the willows on the bank, succeeded in getting 
within forty yards of five geese resting on the 
water and almost in a line. Instead of aiming 
at the neck of the nearest and trying for a 
clean kill, I first decided to kill two at one shot, 
and then as three seemed to line up in a row 
I hastily put up my rifle and fired. At the shot, 
with a great splashing and flapping of wings, 
all five rose from the water unhurt and flew 
heavily away, crossing me broadside on at sixty 
yards, at which range I emptied my magazine 
at them, and much to my surprise brought one 
down with a broken wing. 
Joseph E. Bulkley. 
The Tiger’s Smile. 
Smiling' young woman of Niger. 
Who rode on the back of a tiger; 
At the end of the ride 
She came back inside. 
With her smile — on the face of the tiger. 
For Better Laws and Better Sports- 
manship. 
Chenoa, III., May 20.— Editor Forest and 
Stream: As an amateur sportsman I am in¬ 
tensely interested in the improvement of game 
laws, and the establishment generally of a 
higher standard of sportsmanship. As the popu¬ 
lation increases and the number of those who 
pursue wild game necessarily increases, our 
game laws must be made more effective in order 
to meet the changing conditions and to pre¬ 
serve wild game for future generations. Some 
of our game laws are good—for example our 
State laws governing the killing of quail and 
prairie chickens—the results of which are al¬ 
ready being realized in a healthy increase of 
these birds in several parts of the State. The 
great drawback to game law protection, how¬ 
ever, lies with the greedy, unsportsmanlike 
hunter who kills out of season and disobeys 
the law during the open season as well. An 
illustration of the game laws that are sadly in 
need of more protective clauses is to be found 
in those governing the killing of wild ducks. 
Under the present State laws, where the open 
season begins in early fall and extends until 
late in the spring, our army of ducks, once so 
vast, is rapidly and surely being slaughtered in 
such numbers that if this continues it will, in 
ten or fifteen years, amount to practical ex¬ 
tinction, so ‘that we can count them as we do 
our deer and elk to-day. Spring shooting is 
most ruinous. It is a matter of common knowl¬ 
edge that Canada, where game is even more 
plentiful than in the United States, wisely put 
an end to spring shooting a long time ago. A 
few of our Northern States have done the same, 
but the remaining States need to be whipped 
into line. Jan. i should be the date in all States 
for the beginning of the closed season. 
Not long after the first of the year mating 
takes place and thousands of female ducks con¬ 
taining fertilized eggs are wantonly killed after 
that date. The hatching grounds during the 
closed season should be well protected against 
egg gatherers, who rob the helpless birds of 
their future young. It might be well to have 
the open season in the far Northern States 
begin, say. two weeks before the Middle and 
Southern States, and the sportsmen of the latter 
States have an equal privilege. 
The great fact to bear in mind is that the 
spring slaughter of these birds is the annually 
repeated blow that will soon put an end to our 
duck hunting altogether. The number of ducks 
that may be killed by a licensed hunter in any 
one day should be reduced. The limit should 
be made ten instead of twenty ducks. We are 
not allowed to sell them and I am sure that 
no one family would think of eating a quantity 
of meat to exceed ten ducks in any one day. 
No sportsman likes to hunt ducks better than 
I, for I take my annual hunt every fall and 
enjoy it. but no true sportsman should desire 
more than his share. Let us give the birds a 
chance and all put our shoulders to the wheel 
and help the good work along. Presupposing 
that the statements I have made are reasonable 
and appeal to the better class of sportsmen. 
State game commissioners, wardens and legis¬ 
lators, I ask their consideration and prompt 
action in this matter until correct legislation 
in the proper States shall so regulate the shoot¬ 
ing of ducks that we can feel assured that we 
will have one good hunt a year for many years 
to come, and perchance the sons and grandsons 
of our present day sportsmen may be able to 
appreciate a duck hunt as well as ourselves. 
Now a word about sportsmanship: The word 
“revival” is almost universally considered a re¬ 
ligious movement. Let it be known that a 
revival in sportsmanship can be produced and 
it is woefully needed. An ideal sportsman 
should comply with these three requisites: He 
should intelligently obey the game laws; he 
should consider himself a game warden to the 
extent of watching for and reporting all viola¬ 
tors of the game laws; he should protect and 
give assistance, if necessary, during the breed¬ 
ing and hatching season to the young genera¬ 
tion of game. Aly experience with sportsmen 
socially has shown them to be fair-minded and 
open-hearted men, but there are exceptions, 
and if the mere procuring of a State license to 
hunt makes a sportsman of a man, then we have 
several sportsmen who need this revival and 
will bear watching until conversion has taken 
hold of them. It seems a peculiar and unex¬ 
plainable thing that men who are honest with 
themselves and humanity and are proud to be 
considered so are often so dishonest with the 
dumb animals nature has put here for man’s 
benefit and pleasure. Did you ever read the 
book by Charles Reade, “Put Yourself in His 
Place”? Read it; it will do you a world of 
good. I want you to imagine yourself in the 
place of the people who enforce the game laws 
and to consider the game you shoot, and you 
may begin to feel the pricking of the conscience 
you perhaps may need. If you will always re¬ 
member to put yourself in his place you may 
have a new world opened unto you. Again I 
say, be honest with dumb animals as well as 
with humanity. LeRoy Allen Knapp. 
The National Beagle Club. 
Camden, N. J., Alay 14.—At a meeting of this 
club, held at New York city on May 12, 1909, 
it was ordered that the twentieth annual field 
trials of this club and the third annual show of 
beagles be held at Shadwell, Albemarle county, 
Virginia, and that the field trials start on Nov. 
5, 1909. 
It was the desire of the club this year to name 
the date and place of holding the trials as early 
as possible in order to give the other beagle 
clubs an opportunity to arrange dates, so that 
all who might desire to attend all of the beagle 
trials might have the opportunity to do so. 
Chas. R. Stevenson, Sec’y. 
Notes from New Hampshire. 
Derry, N. H., May 17.— Editor Forest and 
Stream: The prospect is fine for a good crop 
of birds. 
Trout fishing is poor; the drouth of last fall 
killed off lots of fish. We all realize that, so 
we are not trying to catch many. I think this 
condition prevails pretty much all over the State. 
We have made but slight changes in the game 
laws this year. We have added a resident license 
which will be a big thing. J. W. Babbitt. 
All the game laws of the United States and 
Canada, revised to date and now in force, are 
given in the Game Laws in Brief. See adv. 
