The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-01-23
IA HUNT WITH JELKS
 IN SOUTH ALABAMA
Governor Slips Away from the Executive Offices to Obtain Little Recreation in the
 Fields Looking for Game.

through the grass. he was behind them certain and eager.
 So much for the dogs. Now for the hunters.
 The proficiency of the hunters needs only one statement of facts, without the dress of any comment Seventeen birds were killed. The Governor killed sixteen of them.
 As to the Hunters.
 Major Gunnells is in politics to the extent of being q candidate for state Superintendent of Education. It is pos sible that there are in Alabama some members of the Society for the Protec- ton of the American Birds, who would want 10 oppose man who would go out and kill game birds for sport There is no call for them to oppose MaJor Gunnells He has not injured any birds. He was out among them and not a one did he hurt.
 q have been out twice with Gun nells," said Governor Jelks, once m Florida and once in Alabama. nave never vet seen him shoot gun
 That clean record of Major Gunneils was not broken on the Baldwin county trip. His hunting idea was to follow the dogs through the woods, with cigar in his mouth for half an hour. He would then turn up by the road side, lay a fresh cigar on the stump ana unwrap the lunch. It Is nice easy way to hunt. ., same sort of hunter. He blazed away some seven times. but the principal damage he did was not to the pirds but to his shoulder. One bird out or seven shots was the net result. The dogs had been rather friendly with him until they had seen him blaze away and found that there were no oirds for them to pick up. A coolness grew up between him and them Any self respecting dog will resent such shoot ing.
 But the Governor was hunter after the heart of the keenest and best bird dog He gave them plenty of work to do. If covey of birds flew up, or | single bird rose in the air, the dogs knew there was going to be some re- | trieving to be done.
 Some Good Shooting. | The party had been out only two hours before 1t dawned upon the Gov ernor's two companions that they were seeing some expert bird shooting. First flushed was a covey of five. Out | of this covey the Governor bagged four without missing a single bird he shot at And that's good shooting. no matter who does it.
 ! I than they have ever been before They were numerous last year and in l the early part of the season the woods were full of them. But Southern l Baldwin where we were hunting Is rapidly filling up with immigrants 1 The fields have been travelled daily | by Northern and Southern sportsmen. Pot hunters have made business of l living in the woods and killing the | hfrdq far fha MOhiie OaFkef We met two of these hunters. They were travelling in a single buggy with a big pyramid tied on behind made up of bed clothes, provisions and horse feed. They slept whenever night | overlook them, in the woods it might be in some old deserted farm house when possible. They were both said to be ed pointers. The birds they killed were shipped from the Eastern shores of the Bay to Mobile, two or three 1 times a week.
 It is easy to fancy what havoc two or three such parties can work in a good bird country living their life and doing their work week in and week out during the winter.
 It therefore came to pass that the Governors party. coming late in the season, found no great amount of birds. In the entire hunt only three coveys were found, having a total of twenty four birds Out of this total seventeen were bagged, some of them escaping the dogs and the gun of the Governor by the coming of nightfau.
 The fine shooting of the Governor continued throughout the entire hunt. At the close of the hunt there was some dispute as to whether he had mis- sed two birds or only one bird. It was the first time he had been in a bird field in two years and he carried a featherweight sixteen bore gun he had Dpever shot before. But it evidently suited him. The work he did with 1t was accurate and deadly.
 l No Serious Hunting.
 r It should be said, however. that nc serious and persistent hunting. was made. Two members of tho party were in the Baldwin county woods and fields for rest and a change from the ex- acting official duties within the Capi- tol. All three wanted to look in on the strange sight of civilization in the making in the southern portion of the immigrant county. And all they saw was of interest, whether if was the quietly restful stretch of the pine
 woods or the clear and amber colored waters of the beautiful streams which |