The Pioneer Express

Among The Game Birds

Mr. Archie McDougall is back to his run on the Canadian National railway between Pembina and Winnipeg after an absence of a month. Most of the time he spent at Bradenburry, Saskatchewan hunting ducks geese and chickens. Mr. McDougall said that he had the time of his life among the game in that section. It was no trouble to get the limit the law allowed any time he went out, and the farmers in that locality were pleased to have hunters come to keep the game from destroying their grain. They would dig pits in the stubble fields after the shocks were removed and lay there waiting for the flights to come. He said that the honkers decoyed well and the mallards were so big and fat after feeding on the grain that they resembled more a small goose than a duck.

The honkers weighed on an average from 15 to 20 pounds and he killed several dozen of them. The grouse is more plentiful than the regular prairie chickens we have here and they can be hunted without dogs on account of being so numerous.

To verify his statements Mr. McDougall brought back with him some of the birds, including an 18 pound goose. When he left Bradenburry there was nearly a foot of snow on the ground which came the last few days and the game birds were leaving for the south. That district is full of sloughs and small lakes and many of these birds hatch in the neighborhood, said Mr. McDougall.