The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-02-21
FOwLING IN NORTH CAROLINA.
Bats Both Shot and Eaten-Qunil
Melted by WhOIesale-RObins n
DelicacV.
From the New York Sun.

DeIicacy.
From the New York Sun.
ITO see Bat on Toast or Roast Rat
on a restaurant bill of fare" said North
Carolinian, lis something that might well
startle any one who had been used to as
sociating bats with anything but a dell
cacy for the table. But If he should
chance to be In a North Carolina restau-
rant during the season for it he would
be very apt to see it, and If he should
order bat on toast or bat in any style 1t
was offered, he would agree with the ma
tive Tarheeler that 1t was 'powful fine
sub! The wood dove of the south Is a de-
licious bird, rightly cooked. and roast bat
is every bit as good. 1t may be well to
say that this morsel Is bat only in name,
but even after the northerner knows what
1t really Is, it is doubtful IL he would vol
unfairly sample it. II is simply the COM
mon nighthawk you see in its swift and
erratic night at the close OF summer days
you would hold in questionable esteem
the man who would shoot these birds in
wantonness, and would think less of him
II you knew he shot them for his table.
Even northern person would think bet
ter of 1t If he should ever go south and
try II once. / never met northerner in
the north who had the heart TO shoot a
nighthawk, but l know many of them In
the south. who seeing that bat shoot
ing is sport much enjoyed there, have
become most enthusiastic indugerS in IL.
why they call these birds bats in North
Carolina l don't know. but that is the
name they go by-long- winged bats. Bat
shooting Is in season from the time the
birds begin to flock to the south in he
fall from their summering in the north.
AS they are shot only on the wing-for
whoever saw one of them az rest 2-and
as their constant and sudden turning,
doubling, and zigzagging in the air re-
quire the gunner TO have great skill to
make creditabe bag the sport is quite
as exciting as any field or cover shooting
A man who can select his bat and wing
it as 1t darts about In its capricious flight
would be no mean contestant at a prize
trap shoot. with the most active and err
ratio blue rocks as targets. Bat shooting
lasts but week or two in North Caro-
lima, the birds then disappearing as mys-
teriously and suddenly as they came. The
birds find a ready sale in the markets at
from Is cents to 81 dozen, and no game
bird is esteemed higher as a delicacy.
Quail are still so plentiful in North
Carolina that Is cents Is all one has to pay
for quail on toast at any of the restau-
rants. Ten cents apiece Is what that
game bird costs in the market there until
late in the season, when It costs al much
as Is cents. ] have purchased them for 60
cents a dozen. The season opens Nov. l
and closes March 10. But plentiful as they
are now they are scarce compared to what
they were a few years ago. Five years ago
j bagged seventeen dozen In half a days
shooting. ! hunted over that same ground
N
Vorable, and had hard work to get two
dozen in two days. The game law of the
state forbids the trapping or netting of
quail but it is a dead letter. Nets are used
without any attempt at concealment. In
a one-tme faVorite quail haunt of mine
in Moore county one day last week found
and destroyed eleven traps in one field
prosecution for violation of the game
laws Is something no one ever heard of In
the state, and If something Is not done to
protect these birds against pothunting, II
~.rgIT 10, re hnfnrn mill
be no quail on toast for rs cents or any
other price.
''If nets and traps captured only single
birds It would not be so bad, but the way
the pothunters net quail down there not
one out of a covey no matter how large it
may be, escapes when the netter sets out
feeding abundantly in field the nets are
set there. A quail net is an oblong in
closure perhaps six feet long and two
wide and high, with wing extending out
obliquely from each side Of its front and
for several feet, on the same principle
that the wings Of an eel-weir are con-
structed only these are of netting. Bushes
are deity arranged along these wings and
about the entrance of the net. The Meter
rides a horse trained TO the work into the
field. The horse walks slowly and 1stlessly
is discovered. The quail will not
rise for a horse, but Will run
along ahead OF It, and the horse, guided
by the bride rein, turns them IN any de-
ming before stopping TO peck and scratch
until they are almost under the horse s
feet again, and then scurrying on, twitter-
ing and peeping, unsuspicious or harm.
The horse, OF course, keeps them moving
toward the net, and when they reach its
outspreadlng wings they follow along the
inside of them toward the bushy entrance
OF the trap. The horse then steps for
ward more quickly, and the quail scamper
into the bushes TO escape, and go right on
through the fyke-like entrance TO the net,
and are caught. With hundreds of such
rapacious maws open all season all over
tho state 10 enfoid their thousands of quail
daily, it is a wonder that these birds were
not long ago eXtermlnated in North Car
olina,-especially as this netting has been
common from time out Of mind. An ef-
fort will be made at this session Of the
legislature to prohibit the selling OF quail
In the state, shipping them out OF the
state being already prohibited. That
would destroy the occupation Of the pot
hunters and these game birds would soon
reappear In their old haunts as pentifully
"Robins are also game IN Carolina, the
opcn season being the same as for quail
You fellows here up north are mighty kind
TO us chaps down south in pasturing and
fattening and carefully keeping our robins
for us all summer and sending them back
TO US too deliciously conditioned for any
thing. They eat your berries and your
cherries and your grapes, and you warn
everybody that IL will cost them s. per
robin for every robin they KILL and then
the plump Juicy, fruity little chaps come
focling back south when the frost begins
to nip EN- too hard up north and offer
themselves up 90 our feasts, rich and ten
der from their northern pamporing. It's
kind of you, indeed " Is. II almost makes
US forget the war.
Have you got any high grade
wheels?" eyes, sir" well, i want one
80.