Introducing Game Birds to the Sound
The Seattle Rod and Gun Club aims to make the Puget Sound district a premier sporting destination by importing Ohio clay birds and game.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The Seattle Rod and Gun Club is making an earnest effort to make the Puget Sound district one of the most attractive sporting areas in the United States. There is every prospect that the combination of new clubs in Olympia, Tacoma and Port Townsend will lend material aid to the federal undertaking. The great variety of game which is native and to the manor born does not satisfy the progressive spirit of the club. Besides distributing the species of native bob white and California Valley quail, so abundant on Whidbey Island and the tide land, it is the intention to distribute as many Ohio clay birds as possible all over the islands, from which they can be put on the wing for the shooting. Professor W. has received two crates of Ohio clay birds for the shooting school. This is one of the latest discoveries in the world of ornithology, and is inexhaustible. It is mooted to do well in this climate, and takes the place of blue rock pigeons for trap shooting.
“The great variety of game which is native and to the manor born does not satisfy the progressive spirit of the club.”
Early Seattle boosters were obsessed with 'improving' the local ecosystem for sport, a common sentiment in the 1880s that often led to the introduction of invasive species. Today, regional conservationists are working to undo this legacy and restore the native biodiversity that these clubs sought to 'augment.'
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