A Common Victim of Illegal Slaughter]

Very many enormous bags of game have been made in a day by market
gunners: but rarely have they published any of their records. The
greatest kill of which I ever have heard occurred under the auspices of
the Glenn County Club, in southern California, on February 5, 1906. Two
men, armed with automatic shot-guns, fired five shots apiece, and got
ten geese out of one flock. In one hour they killed _two hundred and
eighteen geese_, and their bag for the day was _four hundred and fifty
geese!_ The shooter who wrote the story for publication (on February 12,
at Willows, Glenn County, California) said: "It being warm weather, the
birds had to be shipped at once in order to keep them from spoiling." A
photograph was made of the "one hour's slaughter" of two hundred and
eighteen geese, and it was published in a western magazine with
"C.H.B.'s" story, nearly all of which will be found in Chapter XV.

The reasons why market shooting is so deadly destructive to wild life
are not obscure.

The true sportsman hunts during a very few days only each year. The
market gunners shoot early and late, six days a week, month after month.
When game is abundant, the price is low, and a great quantity must be
killed in order to make it pay well. When game is scarce, the market
prices are high, and the shooter makes the utmost exertions to find the
last of the game in order to secure the "big money."

When game is protected by law, thousands of people with money desire it
for their tables, just the same, and are willing to pay fabulous prices
for what they want, when they want it. Many a dealer is quite willing to
run the risk of fines, because fines don't really hurt; they are only