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
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
auger quickly reveals them.

Three years ago, I was told