annoying. The dealer wishes to make the big profit, and _retain his
customers_; "and besides," he reasons, "if I don't supply him some one
else will; so what is the difference?"

When game is scarce, prices high and the consumer's money ready, there
are a hundred tricks to which shooters and dealers willingly resort to
ship and receive unlawful game without detection. It takes the very
best kind of game wardens,--genuine detectives, in fact,--to ferret out
these cunning illegal practices, and catch lawbreakers "with the goods
on them," so that they can be punished. Mind you, convictions can not be
secured at _both_ ends of the line save by the most extraordinary good
fortune, and usually the shooter and shipper escape, even when the
dealer is apprehended and fined.

[Illustration: A PERFECTLY LAWFUL BAG OF 58 RUFFED GROUSE FOR TWO MEN
From "Rod and Gun in Canada"]

Here are some of the methods that have been practiced in the past in
getting illegal game into the New York market:

Ruffed grouse and quail have both been shipped in butter firkins, marked
"butter"; and latterly, butter has actually been packed solidly on top
of the birds.

Ruffed grouse and quail very often have been shipped in egg crates,
marked "eggs." They have been shipped in trunks and suit cases,--a very
common method for illegal game birds, all over the United States. In
Oklahoma when a man refuses to open his trunk for a game warden, the
warden joyously gets out his brace and bitt, and bores an inch hole into
the lower story of the trunk. If dead birds are there, the tell-tale