THE AMERICAN SPORTSMAN 



[Entered According to Act ol congress, in tie year issi, by the Forest and Stream PubUshlng Company, In tue Office ol tne Lltearlan of Congress, at Wasnington.] 



NEW YORK, THURSDAY, JANUARY 13, 1881. 



CONTENTS. 



Editokial :— 

 Staten Island Game League ; The Befrigerator Amoud- 

 meut: Next Fall's Shooting ; The N. H. A. Ci'iBis ; Dog 

 Men, Beware ; Trout at Ten Dollars Per Pound ; Notes. .. 463 



The SpoEiaiiAN Touwst :— 



Gull Island 464 



Natokajj Histobi : — 



Our Waterfowl ; Partial List of Minnesota Birds ; Wavy of 



Winnipeg ; How the Ruffed Grouse Leaves Her Nest ; An 



Experience with King Birds ; Fight with a Sea Leopard ; 



Antidote for Snake Bite ; Death of Montreal Woodcock j 



Late MigrationB ; Habits of Snakes ; A Tiny Bear 465 



Fish Cxtl,tcbx, t — 



The Central Fish Caltnra! Society 466 



Sea and BrvEE Fishino :— 



Trout Fishing in the Canadian WEds ; Range of Black Bass. 467 

 Game Bao a^id Gun :— 

 Buffalo Hunting j The Deer Law ; Fox Shooting ia Dutchess 

 County ; A True Plover Shooting Story ; Save the Birds ; 

 Fox Hunting at Kittanning ; The Gun Tax on Long 

 Island ; Our Detroit Letter ; The Proposed New Jersey 

 Law ; New York State Tournament ; Delaware Bay Duck 

 Shooting ; A Kansas Incident ; Nebraska Notes ; Game 

 and Guns at Omaha ; The Proposed Eevjsion ; A Sugges- 

 tion to Gun Makers ; Notes ; Shooting Matches 468 



The Kennel :— 

 The Cocker Club ; The Pittsburg Show ; Larceny of a Dog; 

 Duke's Winnings ; A Letter from Mr. McKoon ; Beef Tea 

 for Dogs ; Alexandra Palace Show ; Manchester Bench 

 Show ; The Irish Setter : The Spanish Pointer ; Kennel 

 Notes 472 



The Rifle -.— 



Meeting of the N. R. A. ; Range and Gallery 475 



Yachting and CANOErNO :— 



Poughkeepsie Ice Yacht Club ; The Bachie Canoes 477 



AKSWERS lO COBEESPONDENTS ,....,...,,.., 477 



Publisher's Depaetment 475 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



NEW TORE, THURSDAY, JANUARY 13, 1881. 



It Sometimes occurs that a subscriber receives an imper- 

 fect or mutilated copy of the paper. By returning it to us a 

 perfect one can be secured in its place. 



EvEKT Reader of the Forest and Steeam can sliow 

 his good will by sending us the name of a new subscriber. 

 Tlie paper is one whicli rach man who reads it can with good 

 grace recommend to his friend. 



Tub Oommkeoial Advbutisek.— Wo notice with pleasure 

 the prominent position held among the evening dailies of 

 this city by om- neighbor, the Oi>mmeri'i<tl Advertiser. That 

 journal, having just finished a prosperous season, is now 

 entering on tiie eighty-seventh year of its existence as fresh 

 and young as ever. Its circulation, we understand, and we 

 can quite believe it, is growing weekly, and the clean appear- 

 ance of the paper and the neat press-work reflect great 

 credit on the business management. The columns of the 

 Commercial are never heavy, but always cheerful, spicy and 

 newsy. We congratulate our contemporary and wish it well 

 in the future. 



Staten laLAiJD Game Lbagxib,— We congratulate the 

 sportsmen of Staten Island on the formation of a game league 

 for the protection of the game and fish of Richmond County. 

 Mr. Francis Endicott is the President and i\Ir. Robt. W. 

 Hopkins (P. O. Box 4,377, New York city) the Secretary. 

 The new society has alreadj' begun the real work of a game 

 society by securing two hundred quail to supplement another 

 hundred presented to it by one of its members. The society 

 hopes to have a thousand birds by the middle of February to 

 turn out in the spring. 



Carp have already been put into several ponds, and it is 

 proposed, if the fish Can be secured, to stock every pond on 

 the island. There is abundant field on Staten Island for just 

 such a society as this now organization, and the manner of 

 taking hold of the work gives good promise that the members 

 wiU devote their time to something besides dinners and trap 

 shoots. 



THE REFRIGERATOR AMENDMENT. 



THE improved construction of refrigerators has introduced 

 a new agent into the traflic of game andhas very material- 

 ly affected its destruction and consumption. Refrigerator cars 

 convey tons of venison and other game from the localities 

 where it is captured to the great market centres. Here huge 

 refrigerators are prepared to receive and store it, or steam- 

 ship refrigerators convey it to foreign markets. Where for- 

 merly pounds were carried it is now possible, by means of- 

 such cars, storehouses and steamships, to transport tons. 

 In providing due protection for game it will not do to 

 overlook these improved appliances for its marketing. The 

 refrigerator is aggressive ; it refuses to be ignored. The ice- 

 box has just come to the front in this Slate ; and it will be 

 well to understand exactly what it is and what it means. 



Among the proposed amendments of the New York game 

 law are clauses legalizing at all seasons of the year the sale of 

 venison, quail, partridge and woodcock. The only proposed 

 limitation upon this all-the-j^ear-round market season is that 

 the game shall have been killed and stored in the refrigera- 

 tors of the dealers within the prescribed legal season for kill- 

 ing the same. 



Such a provision, it is claimed by those engaged in the 

 attempt to put it through, "would revolutionize the game 

 law." We think that it would most decidedly. 



The movement is instigated and controlled solely by the 

 game dealers of this city and of the West. The circum- 

 stance of its being fathered by a game association should not 

 be a blind as to its true nature. The proposed amendment is 

 wholly and only in the interests of the pockets of the men 

 who own large game refrigerators. 



This proposed amendment is of the New York law alone, 

 but it does not alone concern the citizens of this State ; if 

 passed, its evil effects would be felt equally in Michigan, 

 Minnesota and the other game States of the West. The 

 movement on the part of the dealers is a national .one ; it is 

 then of national interest that it be defeated. 



A market aU the year around means killing all the year 

 around, in season and out of season ; and that means speedy 

 game extermination. To guard against this illegal trafiic it 

 is proposed to provide a system of market inspection, affi- 

 davits by individual dealers as to the amount stored during 

 the open season, and a record of each sale thereafter, etc 

 By such machinery it is claimed that any traflic in game 

 killed out of season can be detected and effectively punished. 

 We most decidedly doubt that an3' system could be devised 

 and put into operation which would meet the requirements 

 of the case. The continued and defiant violation of already 

 existing game laws by certain dealers in this city, gives little 

 promise that they are to be relied upon for a scrupulous ob- 

 servance of the refrigerator-afiidavit system and the apathy 

 of public feeling on the subject, as manifested by Gov. Cor- 

 nell's failure to provide New York city with a game protec- 

 tor, gives still less assurance of the requisite vigilance on the 

 part of officials. 



But even if this control were provided, so that the sales out 

 of season should be confined to game killed in season, the 

 plan would still be utterly bad, for it is a premium on the un- 

 limited killing of game during the open season, without regard 

 to the current market demands. In short, it means the whole- 

 sale slaughter of game, um-estraiued save by the limit of the 

 strength of the butcher and the pocket of the dealer. 



This brings us to the only argument advanced in favor of 

 the law, namely, that the quantity of game killed in the pres- 

 ent open season is largely in excess of what can be sold in 

 that period. This is the root of the whole matter. The 

 dealers have set to work to remove the restraint upon their 

 trade. Instead of conforming to the law and being satisfied 

 to confine their purchases to such amounts as can be dis- 

 posed of within the proper season, they are now trying to 

 regulate the season to their own interests by making the 

 time conform to their purchases. Tlio simple fact is that if 

 the game dealers of this city can sell only a certain amount 

 of game in the prescribed season, they have no business to 

 buy more than that amount. They have it entirely within 

 their control to regulate the supply. We fail also to recog- 

 nize the pertinency of the argument that a vast capital is in- 

 vested m the game business, and that those interested must 

 secure a sufllcient return therefor. If the capital is greater 



than can be used to advantage when the trade is restricted to 

 conformity with the existing law, let the surplus bo with- 

 drawn and be put somewhere else. 



This home consumption of game is only one part of a traf- 

 fic which is assuming tremendous proportions. The export 

 trade to Europe is constantly increasing, and domestic deal- 

 ers complain that they cannot sell here the game which comes 

 from the West — it must go to Emope. The sufficient answer 

 to that is that we cannot afford to supply the European mar* 

 kets with American game. The contract is entirely too large. 

 The supply wiU not long be equal to the demand. Expoita- 

 tion of American game should be prohibited by national enact- 

 ment. 



In the absence of such legislation the only remedy' lies 

 in non-export laws passed by individual States. We call the 

 attention of Western game societies to the importance of 

 early movement in this matter. We understand that the 

 subject is to come before the Michigan Association at their 

 meeting. The time has come for decided action, and we 

 hope to see the Michigan Association press such a law. 



Respecting the proposed amendment to the New York law, 

 we submit that game laws should be framed for the due pro- 

 tection of game, not to time-serve the interests of the mar- 

 ket dealers. 



We invite expressions of opinion on the subject. 



NEXT FALL'S SHOOTING. 



THE severe weather with which the present winter opened 

 threatens the desi ruction of all our quail. From New York 

 down through New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Virgi- 

 nia and the Carolinas the same sad story comes to us that 

 everywhere the quail are freezing and starving to death* 

 Not quail alone suffer, but rufled grouse as well, though these 

 latter are better able to endure the snow and the cold than 

 the quail. We have had snows upon snows until now the 

 groimd is covered to the deptli of a foot or more. There are 

 no bai-e places and hterally no opportunity for the birds to 

 feed upon the ground. In addition to this, the cold has been 

 intense, and in many locahties has for days ranged between 

 zero and twenty degrees below. Cold is hard enough to 

 bear when food is plenty, but the starving animal has no re- 

 sources to draw on when the fatal chill makes itself felt, and 

 soon succumbs. 



Judging from our own observation, which is confirmed by 

 the reports constantly reaching us from all quarters, the 

 shooting next autumn will be very poor, worse probably thaa 

 for a number of 3'ears. The efforts of sportsmen and far- 

 mers may do something toward keeping over a part of the 

 birds, but even with the best-directed and most energetic 

 efforts, there will not be enough quail saved to more than 

 keep the stock alive. 



We feel confident that the wisest step that could be takea 

 would be to prohibit absolutely next year, and perhaps the 

 year after, the shooting of quail and grouse. It would be 

 some hardship, no doubt, to most of us to be obliged to re- 

 frain from the sport that we love so well, but it surely would 

 be the wisest economy to forego this pleasure for a year or 

 two if by that means we can render it reasonably certain that 

 during the following years birds will be plenty. We are in- 

 clined to think that if the States of New York, Pennsylva- 

 nia and New Jersey would pass such prohibitory laws, and 

 see that they were enforced, the succeeding autumns would 

 see such an abimdance of game birds as have not been known 

 within their boundaries for many years. It is a well-known 

 fact that in man}' parts of these States railed grouse have 

 been almost all killed off. It is said that in Sussex County, 

 New Jersey, there are absolutely no grouse left ; that they 

 have been so closely -followed up that one may now work 

 most conscientiously through the best covers, where they 

 formerly abounded, without finding a bird. Of course thia 

 has not happened all at once j for years the grouse have been 

 annually growing fewer in numbers. Words of warning 

 have often enough been spoken, but they have fallen on eara 

 that refused to hear. The work of destruction has gone 

 steadily on. Each fall the number of hunters has increased. 

 Each year the number of birds left to propagate their kind 

 has diminished. The grouse fly has done its part in the 

 work of extermination. And now what was once one of the 

 best counties for grouse in all New Jersey is, we are told, 

 absolutely without birds. 



