Hunting in Iowa cornfields was of two types. We usually didn't have hunting dogs. When the cornstalks were still standing, the pheasants and rabbits were generally hard to see. We used a system similar to the European "beater" system. Depending on the size of the corn field and the number of hunters, the number of beaters and shooters would vary. Pheasants would rather run than fly, so when the line of three or more beaters walked through the field, they might get a shot at a nervous bird that flew up, but most of the flock would run to the far end of the field, then fly. The two shooters stationed there would have a lively time and perhaps kill two or three birds.

My most dramatic kill came when the pheasant I shot flew a long way across an open field, suddenly turned over in the air and dropped to the ground. When I picked it up, the cause of its death turned out to be a telephone wire.

When the corn had been harvested, the stalks were cut and stacked in "shocks" that look like teepees. Rabbits and pheasants hide in shocks, and in hedgerows between fields. We hunted by kicking the shocks, so the game would fly or run away. One time my brother Dave picked up a pheasant tail feather that was lying on the ground. To his surprise, the other end was attached to the bird, which was hiding under a shock. The startled bird flew away squawking, minus a tail feather. Sometimes a rabbit -- instead of running away -- would climb up inside the shock and look out the top! Dilemna - catch him, make him run, or let the little devil go?

One February, when we had a sudden thaw with a foot of snow on the ground, rabbits were all out of their holes sunning themselves. The snow was so soft and sticky that the rabbits could run only a few yards. We really needed meat that year, so we picked them up and wrung their necks. That's the only time we were so unsporting.

No that's not really true. I suddenly remember that for a while Dad kept a pair of half-tame ferrets -- members of the weasel family. In those bad old days, it was legal to use them to drive rabbits out of their holes so they could be shot!