Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-08-30

vryHEN the first rays Of the sun break
w over the Delaware River Saturday
morning something akin to a bombardmeh'
yiu beyin. Thousands or shotguns VIII
,elch death TO a small bird, which from
be time II Is hatched seems doomed 10 De
he mark of gunners. The reed and ran
,ird season opens then, and until the iast
lay of November gunners In this state can
lop at them with twelve-gauge guns ane
,ver in New Jersey until the last day OF
october.
somewhere along the Darby Creek and
n the marshes of the Delaware River
here will be thousand or more gunnery
. Janglng away at these birds. Ihe reeu
bird must live a charmed life, for up III
New England 1t Is known as the bobolink'
and every one with shell or two tries 10
send it hurtling to the ground. When the
wild oats begin to ripen in the marshes
around Philadelphia, New Jersey ana Mary
land the bobolink sets flight. Arriving
here by tho thousands it proceeds to fatten
on the wild oats, and here it takes on that
golden yellow color. Breast and plumage
are canary colored, and soon 1t becomes as
fat as butter And then the gunners get in
their deadly work
Reedbird's Life Not Happy One
When the cold weather comes what is
left of the mighty host that flew here from
New ENGLAND sets sail for the rice fields of
Louisiana. And down there the bobolfik,
or reedbrd Is known as the ricebird. But
they do not gun for them as Philadelphians
do. They shoot them, but they shoot them
because they eat the rice and they do not
take the trouble to pick them up. All they
try to do is to cut down the visible supply
as much as possible. SO it can be readily
seen that the reedbirds life is not one
grand song or chrp.
The reedbird is slightly smaller than our
sparrows. The modern chef can do any
thing with bird or anything else, and
he will serve sparrow for reedb!rd and
SQUAD for quail and veal for chicken salad
and get away with it.
The railbird is the mystery of the
marshes. 1t comes from nowhere and it
leaves for the same place. 1t is here today
and gone tomorrow No one ever sees it
come and no one ever sees it go. While
the reedies come in great flights the rail-
bird, which Is about the same size as a
dove and not as large as a pigeon, flies
alone. And most of the time when 1t does
fly 1t Is never more than six or eight feet
above the ground, and it flies rarely more
than hundred yards. 1t lives altogether
in the marshes, where 1t spends it's waking
hours stuffing itself with wild oats and other
luscious things of the swamp The color
Of the aqueous vegetation of the reeds, it
is found only at high tide. And then the
gunner standing in the bow of the boat
which Is showed along by the pusher. goes
after the railbirds. Over the reeds the
boat is pushed, and the birds are apt to fly
out without seconds warning They are
the golfers of the bird life. They fly either
straight ahead or they slice to the right or
pull to the left In no other direction do
they fly, and the pusher guides the gunner
with mark right and mark left" The |
pusher has hard Job and he is wort, the |
80 tide that he charges. for he is the |
retriever. AS soon as a rail is winged the |
ousher spots him and continues pushing, |
'nly allowing the gunner long enough time |
% reload.
Rails Here Today, Gone Tomorrow
Later his job is to go back and pick I'D |
ne dead and wounded birds. While the |