The record-union., 1892-11-26
ROBBING TEE PEOPLE.
So-CaIIed Quail "Hunters" Flooding
the Markets With Birds.
Probably Fifteen Thousand a Week
Shipped Into This City Alone-Most
of the Birds Are Trapped.

The necessity for the appointment of
State Game Wardens was never more
apparent than at this time. The market
hunters are slaughtering the wild game
on a scale that bids fair, if not soon re-
stricted, to exterminate the more valuable
species, and thus rob California of one Of
its great attractions as a place Of resi-
dence.
Noticing piles on piles of quails i'll
leading market yesterday, a RECORD
UNION reporter asked one Of the pro-
prietors how many dozens of quail were
handled by his firm each week, on the
average.
"Well," ne replied, ''if all the other
markets in the city combined handle as
many of the birds as we do-and Of course
they do-there cannot be less than a
thousand dozen being bought and sold
weekly at this time. / am sure we handle
al least i've hundred dozen a week"
Think of it, 1900 quails a week sent in
from the foothills within radius of fifty
miles or so from TINS city And the
work Of determination has been going on
at this rate for several weeks of the sea-
son thus Tar, with three months yet to
ensue before the closed season begins.
And what is more, 1000 will not cover
the weekly receipts from the hunters, for
there are other houses here which claim
to handle individually as many birds as
the one first referred to. No doubt as
high as $1,000 quails find a market here
some weeks.
The birds are not. of course. all con-
sumed here, but are shipped to San Fran
cisco and other places.
Even if these birds were all "legiti-
mately" shot, it would not be right to
allow such wholesale slaughter; but they
are not. 1t is plain that many if not the
greater part OF these quails are taken
lllegally-caught by whole covies in
traps. In order to prevent the wholesale
destruction Of this valuable species of
game the Legislature wisely enacted
law intended to prevent the trapping of
quail.
But it is practically a dead letter, as
nobody makes it part of his business
to see that it is entorced-not even those
officials charged with the duty of arrest
ing persons violating the law. More
than this, there is no one whose special
duty it is to look after suspected persons
and procure evidence to support prosecu-
tions under the law.
The result is that the quail-trappers
have no trouble in plying their netarlous
calling, hence the woods are full OF traps
and the market so full of Illicit game that
much of it rots before it can be sold.
One trick of the quail trapper is to put
his birds IN bag, hang the bag on a tree
and discharge load of shot into the
birds, so that if any one should examine
them in the markets, for shot-marks, the
latter would be found.
If no quails were marketed except those
legitmately bagged, the woods would not
swarm with men shooting away fifty
cents worth OF ammunition to secure a
dozen birds worth seventy-tive cents
and board themselves in the bargain. The
quantity of quails in the market, and the
low prices that the hunters receive, can
be accounted for in no other way than on
the assumption that most of the birds are
trapped.
There is a remedy for this destruction
of such valuable game birds, and it lies
in the appointment of State and local
Game Wardens, whose special duty it
would be to see that the laws are re-
spected and enforced. 1t is not right TO
allow few men, who are too indolent to
enter the ranks OF legitimate labor, TO
temporarily profit by violating the laws
and rOJbing the people Of the wild game,
which is the property of all.