606 
FOREST AND STREAM 
Give the Prairie Chicken a Fighting Chance 
Thi. Contributor Think, that the Time has Come to Abolish the Hunting Dog, but not 
Many Will Agree With Him 
By C. H. Lockwood. 
subject of the danger of ex¬ 
tinction that threatens various 
kinds of wild game within the 
United States, is at the present 
time attracting considerable at¬ 
tention; and then comes a gen¬ 
uine surprise to many sports¬ 
men who have given the mat¬ 
ter little thought. In speaking of the pin¬ 
nated grouse, or prairie chicken, I shall confine 
my remarks largely to my native state, Minnesota, 
for, I believe the condition found in this state to 
be a good example of the general average. 
The latest theory that is advocated for Minne¬ 
sota is the establishment of a five year closed sea¬ 
son on prairie chickens. New York and other 
states have been quoted as having acted too late 
to save the prairie chicken’s eastern cousin, the 
heath hen. The species have already become so 
reduced in numbers that despite the establishment 
of closed seasons, it could not resist its natural 
enemies, and “come back.” 
Breeding the prairie chicken in captivity has 
unfortunately never been developed up to the 
present time in numbers sufficient to permit re¬ 
stocking, Quail and partridge, or the ruffed 
grouse, are two other species of the gallinaceous 
family that it is claimed will soon need the at¬ 
tention of the game protectors. 
In speaking of the protection and propagation 
of these useful birds it is well to get down to a 
few of the basic causes which are destroying 
them; for oftimes when the cause is removed 
the disease takes care of itself. Of course, a five 
year closed season on chickens would fill the bill: 
but there are a great many hunters who do not 
favor an entire closed season, if it can be reason¬ 
ably avoided; and for these, I am endeavoring to 
make a few suggestions that may help to solve 
the chicken problem. 
Perhaps many hunters are not aware that tele¬ 
graph and telephone wires annually kill large 
numbers of chickens, partridge and quail. Usu¬ 
ally the birds strike the wires when flying low in 
morning or evening. I have examined several 
birds which I picked up beneath wires and gener¬ 
ally they are killed by striking the top of their 
skull or breaking the neck. But the wires cannot 
well be done away with, and in one sense of 
the word this might be called a minor cause of 
destruction. 
Remains then to consider what might be said 
to be the greatest cause of destruction to prairie 
chickens, and this I believe to be, the trained 
hunting dog. I know a good many hunters who 
have fine dogs, and people that make a business 
of training and selling hunting dogs, will likely 
throw up their hands in horror of this suggestion, 
yet they must realize that something has to be 
done. We are practically up against the proposi¬ 
tion or removing the cause of disaster to the chick¬ 
ens, or else the legislature will put us all out of 
commission with a closed season for years to 
come. I realize the difficulties involved in hunt¬ 
ing chickens without a good pointer or setter, 
but if they can be increased in numbers, this dif¬ 
ficulty will be considerably lessened. We must 
also remember that this is an age of evolution, 
that things are constantly changing, with a rapid¬ 
ity scarcely equalled before—so also we do note 
a change in what is known as the “standard of 
sportsmanship.” , . 
To be a “real” sportsman, nowadays, it is no 
longer necessary that one shall make the largest 
kill. Rather, are we now more interested in how 
the “kill” was made. We believe (at least some 
of -us do) that the game should have a “fighting 
chance” to escape. Surely we should be generous 
to allow them this, when we are equipped with 
“reason” and with up-to-date gui.s. To grant 
them anything else would seem the lowest form 
of debauch. 
Yet! There they go! The dog has them cov¬ 
ered and cowering—the machine stops and the 
hunters alight. They have hammerless guns, reoea- 
ers, and automatics. They creep up. The birds 
are flushed. One by one they fall, their sleek 
feathers ruffled and their warm bodies pierced by 
hard, chilled shot. Perhaps an odd one escapes 
from the ruthless slaughter, yet it is safe to say 
that when they are gathered up and thrown into 
the back end of the machine, two thirds of the 
covey has been killed or wounded. The men get 
back into the machine, they drive on; they eat 
and drink and sit on soft cushions. The dogs 
spot another covey and they repeat the process, 
and they call this “sport.” For shame on the 
misuse and abuse of the word. 
Do the farmers, as a class, like these so-called 
city sportsmen who go tearing through their fields 
and fences, hardly ever stopping to ask permis¬ 
sion? But even granted that the farmer volun¬ 
tarily allows them to hunt on his land, I cannot 
conceive that he can really like this kind of a 
hunter. Their ways are not his. The farmer 
lives a sort of natural life. He has learned to 
love those wild birds about his farm, and he hates 
the man that goes out and deliberately plays hog 
and tries to kill the whole batch. Such ruthless 
slaughter makes the old farmer sick at heart, it 
makes him sad; it gives him a bad impression of 
his city neighbors. 
Now let us note the general condition when the, 
average farmer boy, or even the old farmer him¬ 
self, goes a-hunting. He saunters out into the 
stubble field and his mind is busy trying to figure, 
out just where to look for “them chickens. Like 
as not he has observed their habits so that he 
knows pretty near where to look for them at s 
certain time of the day. At one time of the daj 
he figures they will be in a certain stubble field 
again, they are most likely to be in the long grass 
Their feeding time and resting time must be taker 
into consideration; in short, reason must worl 
against instinct and cunning. The result is, h< 
generally gets fewer chickens than if he had use< 
a trained bird dog; but he has learned more abou 
chickens, he has more sympathy and understand 
ing for them, he has hardened his muscles b; 
healthv exercise, his eye is clearer and his ham 
steadier from this fact—and I believe the chick 
ens could almost learn to like that farmer boy 
for often, no doubt, they have noted his approac 
long before he was aware of their presence an 
I wot not that their verdict was “he at least i 
giving us a fighting chance.” 
