Page 87 - Our Vanishing Wild Life

RUFFEDGROUSE
A Common Victim of Illegal Slaughter
York State that Currituck's greatest market has been cut off. Last year only one- half the usual number of ducks and geese were killed and already many "pro- fessional " duck and brant shooters have abandoned the business because the commission merchants no longer will buy dead birds.
Very many enormous bags of game have been made in a day by market gunners: but rarely have they published any of their records. Thegreatestkillof which I ever have heard oc- curred under the auspices of
the Glenn County Club, in southern California, on February 5, 1906. Two men, armed with automatic shot-guns, fired five shots apiece, and got ten geese out of one flock. In one hour they killed two hundred and eighteen geese, and their bag for the day was four hundred and fifty geese! The shooter who wrote the story for publication (on February 12, at Willows, Glenn County, California) said: "It being warm weather, the birds had to be shipped at once in order to keep them from spoiling." A photograph was made of the "one hour's slaughter" of two hundred and eighteen geese, and it was published in a western magazine with "C. H. B.'s" story, nearly all of which will be found in Chapter XV.
The reasons why market shooting is so deadly destructive to wild life are not obscure.
The true sportsman hunts during a very few days only each year. The market gunners shoot early and late, six days a week, month after month. When game is abundant, the price is low, and a great quantity must be killed in order to make it pay well. When game is scarce, the market prices are high, and the shooter makes the utmost exertions to find the last of the game in order to secure the "big money."
When game is protected by law, thousands of people with money desire it for their tables, just the same, and are willing to pay fabulous prices for what they want, when they want it. Many a dealer is quite willing to run the risk of fines, because fines don't really hurt; they are onlyannoying. Thedealerwishestomakethebigprofit,andretainhis customers; "and besides," he reasons, "if I don't supply him some one
'
When game is scarce, prices high and the consumer's money ready, there are a hundred tricks to which shooters and dealers willingly resort to ship and receive unlawful game without detection. It takes the very
else will ; so what is the difference ?
';
GUERRILLAS OF DESTRUCTION 65