The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1914-11-16
WILD DUCKS ON
ILLINOIS LAKES
Chicago Sportsman Writes Ducks
Were Never 50 Plentiful on
the Lakes In
Illinois.
SPRING SHOOTING LAW
Hunters Think This Is Responsible
for Large Number Of Birds !:
Are Plentiful In the
East.

Iowa duck hunters complain that
shooting is poor this fall. Many wild
fowl are reported travelling, but few
tarry long enough in the sloughs and
ponds Of the state to furnish sport.
Some attribute it to scarcity of food,
ers who, through advantages in trans
portation furnished by the automo-
bile, search out every body Of water
! and give the birds no opportunity to
rest
Illinois shooters report great sport
and attribute the great flights of wild
fowl to the observance Of the federal
law prohibiting the killing of ducks
| last spring. w A. Davis, a Chicago
sportsman, in letter to the Field
describes hunt in the southern part
OF the state in which he recently par
ticipated as follows:
ION account of the warm weather
I'VE did not expect many ducks down
yet. but there were thousands of them.
You would, not and could not imagine
there were so many ducks in the coun-
try Mr.. Noble said it reminded him
of the duck shoot back on the Kanka-
kee river twenty-five years ago. We
estimated the ducks in Crane lake at
100000, and there were more. All day
long you could see ducks flying i'll
every direction, going into Crane lake
! to rest. where they would stay this
fine weather and moonlight nights.
J,a = raj -
up in one great body and the SKY
would be black with them. They
would go in every direction to the
| feeding grounds on all the gun club
preserves in that territory, which
comprise Crane lake, Knapp island.
I sangnois, Central, Grand island. Yer
/ mont, Duck slough and many others
| up and down the Illinois river.
eve did most of our shooting just
| before shutdown, and got all the ducks
we wanted We came home Sunday
night cutting our trip about one day,
| as the weather was So warm one could
not keep the ducks. You will ask
me, How many did you get? Well,
! the three of US got 104. mostly all
mallards, but few teal.
Il stayed out on the shooting
grounds after shutdown and watched
| the ducks come. They came in by
/ the thousands. am sure there were
at least $4,000 ducks that come in on
our grounds between an hour before
shutdown and dark, most all after sun
down. They feed by moonlight, and
about sunup most OF them fly back to
! Crane lake for the day.
1.-THE weather has been so warm
| that most of the hunters in Chicago
think the ducks have not come down
/ yet Well, l wish it could have been
/ possible for the reader to have been
along with me on this trip: he would
| have changed his mind. Undoubtedly
not more than half OF the ducks have
yet come south, which goes to show
| that the federal law making It unlaw-
/ full to shoot ducks in the spring has
Increased the ducks the first year II
| was in force and will increase them
from year to year. Every sportsman:
should support the federal law for
I the protection on migratory birds and
/ there should never again be any spring
/ shooting. But it might be well for
! the season to open Oct. and close
!, Jan. / in Illinois.
! Another sportsman writing from
!. Good Ground. l.. l., says:
/ Never before in the history OF
gunners on Long Island, ". Y, have
SO many wild geese and ducks been
known to make Shinnecock Bay their
feeding place So carly in the season
Thousands Of birds can daily be seen
at a glance, feeding on the marshes.
and the shooting is most excellent
Local guides are already finding i.
difficult to take care OF the many
sportsmen from Brooklyn and Man
haitian, who are arriving by auto and
train. Captain Valid Penny, one of
: the guides, whose party killed eight
geese and twenty black ducks one day
last week, says that in all his many
| years of experience he had never
known the shooting to be so good as
during tbs past few weeks, and when
! questioned as to what he attributed
this fact, he promptly replied: I con-
slider the duck law prohibiting spring
shooting is principally responsible for
such excellent shooting at the pres
ent time"
1 --Read The Daily Gate City. 10