lina

CRANES ARE SHOT AND EATEN IN THESE STATES:

Colorado North Dakota Nevada Oklahoma Nebraska

In Mississippi, the _cedar bird_ is legally shot and eaten! In North
Carolina, the meadow lark is shot and eaten.

IN THE FOLLOWING STATES, DOVES ARE CONSIDERED "GAME," AND ARE SHOT IN AN
"OPEN SEASON:"

Alabama Georgia Minnesota Ohio
Arkansas Idaho Mississippi Oregon
California Illinois Missouri Pennsylvania
Connecticut Kentucky Nebraska South Carolina
Delaware Louisiana New Mexico Tennessee
Dist. of Columbia Maryland North Carolina Texas
Utah Virginia

* * * * *

The killing of doves represents a great and widespread decline in the
ethics of sportsmanship. In the twenty-six States named, a great many
men who _call_ themselves sportsmen indulge in the cheap and ignoble
pastime of potting weak and confiding doves. It is on a par with the
"sport" of hunting English sparrows in a city street. Of course this is,
to a certain extent, a matter of taste; but there is at least one club
of sportsmen into which no dove-killer can enter, provided his standard
of ethics is known in advance.

With the killing of robins, larks, blackbirds and cedar birds for food,
the case is quite different. No white man calling himself a sportsman
ever indulges in such low pastimes as the killing of such birds for
food. That burden of disgrace rests upon the negroes and poor whites of
the South; but at the same time, it is a shame that respectable white
men sitting in state legislatures should deliberately enact laws
_permitting_ such disgraceful practices, or permit such disgraceful and
ungentlemanly laws to remain in force!

Here is a case by way of illustration, copied very recently from the
Atlanta _Journal_:

Editor _Journal_:--I located a robin roost up the Trinity River, six
miles from Dallas, and prevailed on six Dallas sportsmen to go with
me on a torch-light bird hunt. This style of hunting was, of course,
new to the Texans, but they finally consented to go, and I had the
pleasure of showing them how it was done.

Equipped with torch lights and shot guns, we proceeded. After
reaching the hunting grounds the sport began in reality, and
continued for two hours and ten minutes, with a total slaughter of
10,157 birds, an average of 1,