EDGAR H. HUDGINS

Five years ago Edgar H. Hudgins, a cattle rancher in Hungerford, Texas, decided to do something about the appalling number of birds which escape after being wounded by hunters. Since then, Hudgins and his five boys have captured and saved more than 300 geese. On a typical day last month, after Bobby and Bill, the 8-year-old twins, had happily chased and caught four wounded geese on a nearby lake, they watched their father and Warden Tom Waddell inspect the birds, splint the wing of one, pour a vitamin concentrate down the throat of another, remove a couple of shot from a festering belly wound on a third and patch up a shattered leg on a fourth. The geese then were put in a pen in the front yard where they were treated and fed until well enough to return to the wilds. "It's a fine thing for the boys," says Hudgins. "They learn that in addition to taking life, it is sometimes within their power to save it."

PHOTO

JOE SCHERSCHEL