The record-union., 1895-02-06
CONCERNING THE new GAME BILL.
A Correspondent Who Has Taken the
Wrong Cue.
Game Protection is Chiefly in the In
terest of the So-Called 'PooI''
Sportsman.

In another column Will De 1OunQ COM
munication from a citizen on the pro-
posed new game law. The writer makes
one good point-that the closed season for
doves is too short. These birds should not
be shot before the 1st of August, and they
should be protected after the 1st of Feb
ruary. They nest early and breed all
through the summer.
AS to the lark, while it is a somewhat
destructive bird as regards sprouting
grain, it is also invaluable about orchards
and gardens, owing TO its raids on bugs
and injurious insects of all kinds. 1t is
also pretty bird, and its notes are blithe
and CHEEKY. California is sadly deficient
in song birds, and the few we have should
be protected against ruthless slaughter.
Experience has shown the utter futility
of attempting to enforce protection for
one class of wildfowl over another, and
an earlier season for mallard than for
widgeon, as the correspondent suggests,
would not protect the mallard at all, tor
the market shooters and others would all
be out for widgeon, but they would bag
all the mallards that came their way.
Besides, the mallard does not nest until
late in March or April, so that it is amply
protected by the dates governing the
shooting of other varieties of wildfowl.
The restriction of market shooting is
something that should have been en-
forced twenty years ago. Every year
more spoiled ducks are thrown into the
San Francisco Bay by the overstocked
dealers than all the sportsmen kill for
their own use. In one locality alone in
the Sacramento Valley seven men from
Chicago have been siaughtering ducks all
this winter for the market. They are not
citizens ofthe State, and when the season
is ended they will return TO their homes
and who has been the gamer? Clearly
no one put themselves. And SO 1t Is all
over the State.
1t Is evident our correspondent, like the
few other "kickers'' against the game
bill now before the Legislature, has not
considered 1t carefully. The committees
OF both branches made a distinction be-
tween salt marsh and other marsh lands
for this reason. Down about the bays
there are open salt marsh lands mot
tide lands, as our correspondent puts
it, that are not susceptible OF reclamation
or cultivation. These, in the opinion of
the committees, should be free to all
shooters.
On the other hand, there are marsh
lands along the Sacramento and San j oa-
quin Rivers that are not salt marsh, /"
although touched by the tides. These
lands are inclosed and cultivated, and
properly belong to that class of private
property that should not be subject 10 in
vasion by hunters regardless OF the own
ers' wishes.
There is no class of citizens more inter-
ested in the rigid protection of game. and
the restriction OF market hunting, than
the poor sportsmen" so often referred
TO, and whom our correspondent drags
into his communication. In this city
there are at least i've hundred poor"
sportsmen-that is, men who are not
capitalists and who have to work for their
living. If the game were not protected
these men might as we'll throw their guns
into the river.
The rich man can go away from home
tor his shooting, and stay as long as he
pleaSes. There is no scarcity of game in
the tar-away and thinly-settled portions
OF the State, and would not be for many
years, even though the valley shooting
were utterly wiped out. There the man
OF money can go and enjoy himself TO his
complete satisfaction. In the Big Mead
ows of Plumas he can shoot snipe and
ducks without limit. In the Eel River
country he will find all the deer shooting
he desires. while anywhere in the mount
aims he can pursue the elusive quail.
But it is the poor man who is person.
ally interested in having game protected
everywhere, and the ruthless slaughter
by market hunters restricted. The great
majority of men in all communities are
poor men, in the sense that they are
not capitalists with plenty of money and
time at their disposal.
There is no class legislation proposed,
or at least none that the poor man need
complain Of Indeed, the only thing ap-
preaching it thus lar during the present
session OF the Legislature is in favor the
poor man, by not permitting owners of
salt marsh tracts to lease the same to
clubs.
Ofcourse, everybody knows that "poor"
men would all be preserve men if they
had the time to look after preserves and
go there for their shooting. No one will
deny that. If the Suisun marshes were
within ten miles of Sacramento, and
mon were at liberty to lease or other
wise acquire exclusive privileges thereon,
there would be at least twenty clubs or
poor sportsmen organized, each with its
own ponds on which outsiders would
not be allowed to trespass. That is but
human nature.
1t is but natural, therefore, that law
yers and other professional men of San
francisco, who cannot well leave their
business TO go long distances to indulge
their desire for shooting, should rent
shooting privileges from the owners of
salt marsh lands about the bays. They are
not rich men, as rule. and are very
much like men engaged in other pur-
suits.
But they have been classed among the
"nabobs," and the Legislature will
probably deny them the privilege Of
holding shooting preserves on the salt
marsh lands. If it does no worse than
this, however, there will not be much to
complain OF, and if the bill now before
that body should be passed without ma
terial alteration in any other respect the
poor" sportsmen will have much to be
thankful for