Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1902-10-21
The Fox ana other Enemies of Game

| To the Editor of the Dispatch:
VIII you kindly reprint me enclosed
| Clipping in the interest Of our feathered
| friends and those who love them,
either on the platter or on the wing.
There is so much written about protecting
game now, why not begin where the tr"u-
BILE begins, i. e.. at the egg
This clipping was taken from Forest and
Stream. L. +. b
Sussex county, Va.
THE GAME FIELDS OF VIRGINIA
LUMBERTON. SUSSEX COUNTY, VA,
Reports are coming in from north south,
east and west of the numbers or Quail
and wild turkey found in the game fields
of the State this season. Here III north
eastern Virginia game is certainly more
plentiful and tho cover heavier than for
| many years past.
This is said to be owing to the dry
spring and early summer conditions
peculiarly favorable for. the breeding OF
young birds. two often drowned by the
heavy rains and dews in May ana June.
This season the rains held Off till July
and August, and then made up for
lost time" The result was a. wonderfully
rapid growth of weeds and grasses in the
fields. the Scant covering growing from
knee-high to head-high in two or three
weeks and thus affordng feed and cover
for the young birds and protection from
their natural enemies-foxes, hawks, and
owls. No estimate can be made of the
destructive of small game by those all
the-year-round hunters.
It is useless to make laws for the pro-
lection of game when these ruthless hunt
ers are allowed to hunt the cover unmo-
Tested. They begin at the egg and never
leave off as long as there is a bird in the
covey. One fox with a nose keener than
that of the best dog that ever ranged a
GAII II - ~.Js
Thanksgiving Day to another than all the
sportsmen in the country in the three
months in which they are permitted to
hunt. Every nest of eggs broken up
is a covey wiped out of existence, hence
the Reynard is a game hog" a pot
hunter and a professional He never
leaves off, and like death, He has all
seasons for his own
Just when the fledgling has grown swift
and strong enough 70 elude MS pursuit
it becomes the prey of other enemies
as destructive and interchangeable as he 1t
rises from cover only to be pounced upon
by the wary hawk, with hungry talons
and piercing eyes ever on the alert.
At night the old bird hovers the sacred
covey in the open field only to be
seized by the silent-winged night hawk.
or awl from whose great eyes the friendly
darkness is no protection.
Ten thousand times ten thousand birds
and rabbits are thus destroyed every wear.
and then the scarcity Of game is attribv-
ted to the breechloader and the pot-hunter,
If these alone were to blame the game
fields in remote places would TEEN with
game. but these are the very halnts OF
the fox, the hawk and the owl Years
ago, when the clearings We're small and
the settlers few, when the forest was
vast and its wild denizens numerous
there was enacted wise law in the Old
Dominion giving a premium for every fox
hawk. and owl scalp Presented to the
board of supervisors in the counties If
was repealed by the politicians of q
later day, who cared less for noble sports
than for the spoils of Office In their de-
sire to fill the Golfers of the State. they
failed to note how false was this
economy; how great the loss in barn
yard products alone. One housewife in
forms me that she has lost one hundred
or more fowls by hawks and owls this
season. Multiply this by the hundreds of
homes in our State, then compute tha
loss in eggs. add this and you have loss
IN Ioodstnf supply tremenduous-a waste
that no community can afford.
commend this problem to our law
makers: to the true sportsman T would
say Think OF the unprotected game in
the fields for which there is no shelter
and for which no watch dog gives warn
ing of approaching danger; think of the
hungry foe ever on the trail, and CON
slider OF we can better protect our game
than by the enactment OF the good old
law which at once converts the man win
gun, proving the woods into a game
warden. instead Of a poacher, who viii
hunt the scalps on which price 10 car
rather than for the game which he cannor
lawfully sell.
Let our sportsmen and lawmakers con-
sider thls- L. P BLOW.