Wildfowl

STOCKTON, Md. -- It seems impossible for me to write a short letter or answer a question without bringing in geese, brant or ducks, so I expect I am known to readers of FOREST AND STREAM as Old Wildfowl.

There is nothing in the paper that so interests me as the letters from sportsmen. I am not alone in this, for all the gunners I meet seem to turn to those short notices and letters as items of interest, telling of game and its movements by those in touch with it on its own ground. I cannot say we have had a good season so far, although we have killed a good number. The weather has been very warm and moderate, the fowl remaining far out in open water, with little inclination to move or break up in small bunches. Even with wind enough to drive little could be done, the flight being too large to make good decoying. Now we are having a touch of winter the fowl are coming down from the North and out from fresh water bays and coves. It will not be many days before Chincoteague Bay will be alive with the noisy multitude.

You read so much now about game protection and the many wise and good laws made; then you look to the localities they are made for and you find them a dead letter. Why? Because there are none there to enforce them. One of your correspondents spoke of a new warden on Chincoteague Island. Where was he last week, when every night from two to seven lights were moving over the shoals, and guns sounding from dark until morning? They say at Hog Island this night slaughter has all been broken up. Now, part of Chincoteague Shoals is in Virginia also. Why don't they use some of that successful force up here, especially as all engaged in this law breaking work are Virginians? If it was not for night shooting Chincoteague Bay would be the finest wildfowl resort on the coast, and even now, with no protection whatever the fowl cannot be driven away, only becoming more and more wild and shy of boats and blinds. Stop picking wardens from the gang, pay brave and honest men, and the work is done.

O. D. FOULKS.