THE LAST OF THE MARKET HUNTERS. By Dale Hamm with David Bakke.

1996 1st edition. Paperback. 8vo paperback (153 x 228mm). Ppxx,119. B/w chapter-heading vignettes.

"In 1901, at Crane Lake, seven miles west of Illinois Highway 78, four hunters killed over eight hundred ducks in a single day. In 1902, owing to that kill, a fderal limit of fifty ducks a day was established, a limite that has now shrunk to three. But limites were never for the likes of Dale Hamm and the market hunters who took waterfowl out of season and sold them to restaurants. Hamm learned market hunting from his father, Pete, and during the 1930s and 1940s, he kept his family alive by plying his twin skills: shooting ducks and eluding the authorities. As Hamm explains, "They call me an outlaw and a renegade, a man who would rather take somebody else's game than eat. That's not exactly right. The fact is, I would rather take somebody else's game than starve". With the demise of market hunting, Hamm gradually became respectable, shooting by invitation over the numerous grounds he had formerly poached. This phase lead to a career in wildfowl conservation for which he is now best remembered.