. The shadow of a gun . past Fall, but a changebackward to dry seasons again will be fatal to fur-ther sport among us. Canvasback and redhead have always occupied avery conspicuous place among marketmen whereverthey were to be had and the laws permitted theirsale. In 1885 and 86 they reached the highest fig-ures known, at least for canvasback, and five to> sixdollars a pair was no unusual price for fat, heavyFall birds in a wholesale way. Redheads at thattime sold as high as three dollars per pair for spring CANVASBACK AND REDHEAD. 301 birds, but two dollars was the more common priceand in
. The shadow of a gun . past Fall, but a changebackward to dry seasons again will be fatal to fur-ther sport among us. Canvasback and redhead have always occupied avery conspicuous place among marketmen whereverthey were to be had and the laws permitted theirsale. In 1885 and 86 they reached the highest fig-ures known, at least for canvasback, and five to> sixdollars a pair was no unusual price for fat, heavyFall birds in a wholesale way. Redheads at thattime sold as high as three dollars per pair for spring CANVASBACK AND REDHEAD. 301 birds, but two dollars was the more common priceand in some seasons they declined to less than onedollar. Under the stimulus of the larger figures thecountry was scoured from Wisconsin to Texas andall along the Atlantic coast the birds were Roughlyhandled, and even California was drawn on forWinter ducks, especially canvasback. In a year ortwo the pendulum swung backward. Fashion,which in a large measure sets the prices for allgame birds, changed suddenly so that they were. Canvas Back. not so frequently called for. Many of the birdswere found to be of poor quality and lightweightswere common among Spring ducks, which, com-ing out of the coolers hard frozen, they deceivedthe best buyers, until Spring birds were almost un-noticed and fell from to one-half to one-third oftheir former values. Then it followed that stan-dard weights of three pounds for canvasback and twopounds and a half for redheads for the Fall catchwere insisted upon. If this recession in prices hadnot occurred when it did canvasback and redhead 302 CANVASBACK AND REDHEAD. would soon have been a thing of the past. Allkinds of ways for securing these birds were prac-ticed and allowed. Sink boats, sneak boats andswivel guns were brought into play and destroyedlarge numbers, whereas if been protectedand allowed only to be killed as now in the fringesof deep water where flags make a cover, they doubt-less might have remained fairly plenty for manyyears to come.
Size: 1757px × 1423px
Photo credit: © Reading Room 2020 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjecthunting, bookyear1904
