EXPENSIVE BIRDS

PUXICO -- While waterfowl hunting at Duck Creek Wildlife area last November, two hunters Ulis Turner of Mesa, Ariz., and Larry Eby, of Sikeston mistook a pair of trumpeter swan for snow geese and killed them.

The two hunters realized their blunder, and discussed turning themselves in and facing the consequences. Instead, they decided to hide their mistake.

That cost them....$4,000 in fines.

Eby took a duck killed earlier and rove to area headquarters where he checked out. Turner carried the dead swans farther into the woods, swimming two ditches, before hiding them. Then, on his way to an appointed rendezvous with his friend, he got lost, and wandered five miles before stumbling across a highway.

He caught ride, found his friend finally, and they head for home. When they got home, conservation agent Donald May was there to greet them.

May had been alerted by other others who had witnessed the swan killings, and May traced them from blind reservations records at the wildlife office.

The two confessed.