Equally false and mischievous, though not involving a violation of law,
was the charge that a party of which I was a member killed five hundred
ducks. Our shooting force on that expedition consisted of five gunners
of various grades of hunting ability, including one who had not "fired a
gun in twenty years," and another who could "do pretty well with a
rifle, but didn't know much about a shotgun." We were shooting four
days, but on only one of these days was our entire force engaged.
There was not one in the party who would not have been ashamed of any
complicity in the killing of five hundred ducks, within the time spent
and in the circumstances surrounding us; nor is there one of the party
who does not believe that, if the extermination of wild ducks is to be
prevented, and if our grandchildren are to know anything about duck
shooting, except as a matter of historical reading, stringent and
intelligent laws for the preservation of this game must be supplemented
and aided by an aggressive sentiment firmly held among decent ducking
sportsmen, making it disgraceful to kill ducks for the purpose of
boasting of a big bag, or for the mere sake of killing. Those who hunt
ducks with no better motives than these, and who are restrained, in the
absence of law, by nothing except the lack of opportunity to kill, are
duck-slaughterers, who merit the contempt of the present generation and
the curses of generations yet to come.
Our party killed about one hundred and twenty-five ducks. We ate as many
as we cared to eat during our stay among the hunting marshes, and we
brought enough home to eat on our own tables and to distribute among our
friends. It seems to me that gunners who kill as many ducks as will
answer all these purposes ought to be satisfied.