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THE AMERICAN SPORTSMAN'S JOURNAL. 



Entered According to Act of Congress, In the year issi, by the Forest and stream PtibUstilng Company, in the Office of the Librarian or congress, at Washington. 



NEW YORK, THURSDAY, JANUARY 12, 1882. 



CONTENTS. 



Editorial :— 

 Bounty for Sparrows : The Menhaden Question The In- 

 vasion of the German Carp '163 



The Sportsman Tourist : — 



In the Forests of Yucatan ; My .First Kogue Elephant "164 



Natural Histoki :— 

 Birds Observed in Central Dakota ; The Red Squirrel ; 



Tho Enemies of Game Birds -106 



Game Bao and Gun :— 

 Notes from Worcester ; A Virginia Pheasant Hunt ; The 

 Rille of the Future ; Treeing VS. Wing-Shooting ; Caper- 

 cailzie for America ; Deer Hunting in Arkansas ; Cart- 

 ridge Carriers ; Rust Spots in Gun Barrels ; Florida 



Shooting and Fishing 407 



Sea and Biver Fishing : — 

 Night Fishing ; Another Tale of an Albatross ; Game Fish ; 

 A,-ii ""f at the Berlin Exhibition ; More Game Protection 

 Needed 470 



FlSHOULTUBB : — 



Canadian Fishculture ; Colorado ; Salmon Culture in 

 Maine 471 



The Kennel :— 

 Training us. Breaking ; Canine Ailments ; Essex County 

 Hunt;- The 'Yithdrawal of Croxtoth ; Cockers and Fox- 

 hounds ; Protect the Dogs ; Was it Instinct ? 473 



Rifle and Trap Shooting :— 



National American Rifle Association .. 474 



Yachting and Canoeing :— 



Taxing Outside Ballast ; Yacht Stoves 



Answers to Correspondents 477 



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 ents. 



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FOREST AND STREAM. 



Thnreday, January 12. 



Bostok Bemob Show. — The energetic sportsmen of the 

 Massachusetts Kennel Club have decided to hold a bench 

 show at Boston next May, commencing on Tuesday the Dth 

 and continuing four days. Wed knowing that the gentlemen 

 ■who have the matter in charge will be content with nothing 

 short of a first-class show— with all that this implies— we 

 heartily congratulate the sportsmen of the country upon this 

 opportunity to see and compare the most prominent dogs 

 from all sections, as well as many new aspirants for fame 

 and for the privilege of enjoying the generous hospitality of 

 the whole-souled sportsmen of the old Bay State. 



Tub International Match. — No new steps have been 

 taken in the matter of the visit of a band of American 

 National Guardsmen to Wimbledon in July next. On this 

 side the water there is a willingness to have the match, but 

 there is a desire to wait until the conditions under which the 

 Englishmen would like to have the match fought have been 

 received and examined. The Eastern States are coming for- 

 ward with promises of assistance in the way of men and 

 money, and if a proper care is taken in pushing the matter of 

 the match, there is no doubt but that the visit will be made 

 and an interesting contest ensue. 



BOUNTY FOR SPARROWS. 



T710LL0WING closely upon the recommendations of 

 -L the report, which we noticed a week or two since, 

 of the injury done to the agriculturist by the English 

 sparrow in Australia, comes the news that the govern- 

 ment has offered a bounty for these birds. A premium of 

 sixpence a dozen for the heads, and of 2s. 6d. per hundred 

 for the eggs, ought to have some effect in reducing their 

 numbers, and thus relieving the farmers of the burden with 

 which they are now saddled. The testimony printed in the 

 article above referred to gave a very alarming idea of the 

 amount of damage that these wretched birds may do, but it 

 is to be hoped that they may never so increase in this country 

 as they have in the Australian colonics. Traps, nets and 

 poison seem ineffectual to check their increase or their depre- 

 dations, and to destroy them in any large quantities by shoot- 

 ing is scarcely practicable. Here, in North America, they 

 have severe winters to contend against, which, of course, 

 check.to some extent their increase, and the severe cold un- 

 doubtedly kills more or less of them every season. The 

 small hawks and the shrikes, which are the natural enemies 

 of the sparrow, kill a few, and would do good service if they 

 were encouraged during the winter months. The sparrow- 

 hawk and the sharp -shin and the mottled owl are too small 

 to do any serious injury to our game birds, while the shrike, 

 although sometimes killing our smaller song birds, is in real- 

 ity one of the farmer's best friends. Its food, and the same 

 may be said of the sparrow-hawk and the screech-owl, con- 

 sists very largely of insects injurious to vegetation, and of 

 field mice. 



We certainly have no pity for the sickly sentimen- 

 tality which expresses sympathy with the sparrow grasped 

 in the strong claws of these birds. As well shed tears over 

 the capture of the rat that is taken in the trap set in your 

 corn crib. Sparrows are vermin just as rats and mice are, 

 and should be destroyed whenever it is possible. It is to be 

 hoped that the energetic measures put forth by the Austral- 

 ian government may succeed in ridding this flourishing 

 colony of the plague of sparrows, and although we can imag- 

 ine that the bounties paid out on this account will at first be 

 heavy, we cannot doubt that they will prove to have been 

 well expended. 



■ — »e~^. 



THE MENHADEN QUESTION. 



A LITTLE fish is the menhaden, and its importance is not 

 at all commensurate with its size. It is, indeed, one of 

 our most valuable coast fishes. It not only gives employ- 

 ment to thousands of men and fleets of steam and sail vessels, 

 in the oil and fertilizer interest, but indirectly it is one of the 

 greatest sources of fish food, as it feeds many of our best 

 fishes. It has also entered into politics in the State of New 

 Jersey, where the fishermen near the coast favor a law pro- 

 hibiting the capture of the menhaden by steam vessels, on 

 the plea that the fishes which formerly fed upon them are 

 forsaking the New Jersey shores on account of the present 

 scarcity of this favorite food, which has been nearly destroyed 

 by the purse-nets. 



There exists also a Menhaden Association, which is com- 

 posed of the owners of steamers and other vessels engaged 

 in the capture of the fish, and the proprietors of the " fac- 

 tories," as the oil works are termed. This society meets 

 yearly in New York city, usually in the month of February, 

 and discusses questions of interest to the business and often 

 listens to essays from men of science. This society is also 

 troubled about the decrease of the menhaden, and at the 

 coming meeting will probably consider plans of remedy. 



We would respectfully call their attention to the following 

 facts : The capture of the menhaden, for manure only, be- 

 gins with the appearance of the first Ssh in the 'jays of Long 

 Island and elsewhere. The fish then contain little or no oil, 

 and would not yield enough to pity for their capture ; but 

 they are carted off and plowed under the soil for manure. 

 This continues all through the spawning season, and, in fact, 

 as long as the fish remain upon our coast. Any fishculturist 

 could preach a sermon with this for a text. Any farmer 

 could tell what the result would be to his poultry yard if he 

 killed every fowl on sight, all the season. The Menhaden 

 Society know this as well as either (he fishculturist or the 



farmer. But the society is composed of individuals ; each, 

 individual says to himself-. " If I don't catch the fish some 

 one else will, although I know it to be destructive to my in- 

 terest." 



What is the remedy? .Let the Asscciation obtain concur- 

 rent legislation in all the States, on the coasts of which the 

 menhaden are captured, forbidding the taking of the fish for 

 any purpose whatever before the middle of July or the first 

 of August. Then will the fish fulfill their destiny in increas- 

 ing their species, and consequently their numbers; and wax- 

 ing fat, they will furnish food for our valuable fishes and 

 also oil in increased quantities for the factories. Such a 

 law, and this only, will restore the menhaden to its former 

 ■abundance and remove all complaints against the use of the 

 purse-net. 



THE INVASION OF THE GERMAN 

 CARP. 



THE introduction of the carp from Germany has been a 

 fruitful topic for the past two years, and it promises 

 to be more so in the next two years. There are several 

 reasons for this. The fish grow fast and they are new. The 

 same may be said of the rainbow trout of California ; and 

 yet they have not made the stir that the carp have ; and 

 those persons who only look at the surface of things suppose 

 that the reason lies in the fact that the carp is a fish for the 

 farmer to grow in his duck-pond, while the trout is a fancy 

 fish for the epicure, and demands a spring brook. 



The fact that the carp is a monarchial emissary in dis- 

 guise is not perceived. 



We now publicly throw off the mask from the disguise, 

 and will show how this foreign-born fish threatens the 

 liberty and permanency of American institutions, and how 

 if this fish is not immediately expelled from our land our Re- 

 public is in danger. The object of the introduction of the 

 German carp is to furnish cheap food for the coming swarm 

 of Chinamen who are spawned along the coast of Asia and, 

 having almost rendered California uninhabitable, are now 

 preparing to overrun the Middle and Eastern States. It is 

 well-known that the carp can be cheaply grown in great 

 quantities in water that is now useless, and which will sup- 

 port nothing else. Carp can be grown on a large scale (no 

 levity intended) at two cents a pound. The Chinese bred 

 the carp, it is alleged, before the Germans did. A China- 

 man can live on carp and rice and work for so near nothing, 

 that a low grade of decimal approaching the infiniteBsimal, 

 will represent his day's wages. It is most significant that 

 this introduction of carp did not take place until some years 

 after the abolition of slavery in the United States. It is also 

 worthy of note that the carp thrives best in the most Southern 

 States where labor has formerly been cheap. But the carp 

 can be cultivated veryVcheaply even in Vermont, and will 

 furnish a cheap food to a frugal Chinaman in every State. 



At first the introduction of this fish was regarded by all as 

 a great boon ; and enthusiastic fishculturists, who saw no 

 ulterior object in its introduction, regarded it as of great 

 economic value to our people in the way of cheap food, and 

 we must admit that we thought the same, so carefully was 

 the Chinese project covered up. This imported imperialist 

 may drive our native gars from their bayous and the catfish 

 from the sloughs by quietly devouring the vegetation on 

 which these native species indirectly depend. Every true 

 American must feel his blood tingle at the thought. True, 

 the gars are worthless, but they are American. Certainly 

 the gross catfish are eaten in all their oleaginous rankness 

 by the native American of African descent and are despised 

 by the epicure, yet they were hatched beneath the banner of 

 freedom and should not be crowded from the enjoyments of 

 life by a fresh importation, even though that imported fish 

 comes under the disguise of an edible fish which has the 

 merit of cheapness. 



We will admit that this view of the subject is new even to 

 ourselves, and cao>.e as a sort of inspiration when we learned 

 that the United States Fish Commission had proposed to in- 

 vade the Trans-Mississippi with the carp : and that Colonel 

 McDonald left Washington on the night of January 3 with a 

 car-load of them, and that thousands more are to follow by 

 express to stock one thousand ponds and lakes in the great 

 interior of the continent the fertile fields of which, are des- 

 tined to support a dense population. It theu flashed upon 



