Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-09-29
SLAUGHTER OF RICE BIRDS.
Thousands Shot and Trapped Along
South Carolina Coast Lands,

From the Charleston Evening Post
The rice bird or bobolink or reed bird. as
the game is known further north, is now
in great abundance on the rice fields about
Charleston and the coast section of South
Carolina, and thousands Of the birds are
being killed every day, with no evidence
Of any diminution in the supply.
The business of Killing the birds Is a
profitable one for those who engage in it,
whether they indulge in the exercise as
sportsmen in bringing down the game for
the pleasure of shooting and supplying
their own tables or kill the little birds for
market and to eXterminate the destroyers
of the small grain. There are hundreds of
parties all over this lower section OF South
Carolina hunting the birds. and although
great quantities are killed, yet the birds
seem as numerous as ever during the morn
ing and evening, when they feed.
Killing the birds for sale Is mostly done
In pot hunting" fashion in this section. a
system of killing the birds which is not in
vogue in any other place where the kind of
game is found. A large fire is built on the
marsh and big net is arranged in such a
way that escape is impossible when the
bird once enters it. The marsh is beaten
and the flying birds. attracted by the light
enter the nets and are caught in large guam
titles The birds are killed and shipped to
market Many negroes are employed in
this work of trapping and killing the game.
working for themselves in some cases and
In others for firms which make a regular
business of dealing in the dainty and sue
culent morses.-
Where gun is used the twelve gauge
double barrel shotgun is generally preferred
although some sportsmen use a gun as
small as a. twenty gauge. AS the birds are
not hard to kill, and lot of shooting has
to be done in the average DAYS sport this
smaller shooting iron is desirable. The
shell usually taken along is loaded with
one ounce of No. 10 shot backed by two
and half to three drains of powder of
the semi-smokeless or smokeless variety
Dogs can be taken, but are not necessary
and in some sections. where skiffs are used
in whole or part, the dogs have to be left
at home.
The birds are found in the eastern section
of the country at this season of the year,
subsisting on rice, oats. millet and other
| grain grown In swamps and marshy places.
| 1t is a mystery where the rice birds come
| from. Many of the knowing ones are of the
| opinion that they bury themselves In the
mud from season to season, after the man
ner of snakes and frogs, but the more
plausible theory is that they come and go
| in the night. The birds do not fly any great
distance in the daytime, rarely more than
| thirty to forty yards. That they do most
| of their flying at night is proved by the
+! fact that hundreds of birds may be picked
up In the morning dead, having come in
contact with live electric wires In places
| where these agencies of modern civiliza-
| ton are found. The birds disappear almost
as suddenly as they show up.
| When the birds first show up they are
| very thin and ragged looking. When they
| strike the rice and oat fields they soon
| fatten up, and after three or four days of
| gluttony they are as fat as the proverbial
i butter ball. The birds are slow fiiers, which
makes 1t possible for a man of only or
binary skill to bring down large numbers
with his gun in the course of his days
sport. The size of the bag depends of
course, upon his skill. and remarkable sto-
ries are told through this section Of the
number of the little birds which have been
killed at single shooting. but, as stated
above. the slaughter of the birds seems to
show no diininution in the supply. which
gives an idea OF the great quantity of the
birds which infest the country.