I 5° . 



RECREATION. 



the hills and follow the streams after cot- 

 tontails. Once in a while I see a moun- 

 tain lion track along the river on the ice, 

 where a cat has been prowling about foi 

 something new. 



A little colony of beavers are a few hun- 

 dred yards below now on the Bear river 

 and will be protected. Sage hens, jack 

 rabbits and coyotes seem about as plentiful 

 as ever. Nothing but their insignificance 

 protects them now, but maybe before 

 many years, a man will be found who will 

 be as enthusiastic after a jack rabbit as 

 we are now after a bear. When I crossed 

 the plains in '59, as a Pike's peaker, the 

 buffalo were as plentiful as the rabbits 

 now. Who can foretell the changes in the 

 next 30 years? That pretty little poem, 

 "Oh, why should the spirit of mortal be 

 proved?" answers it all in a nutshell. 



A. C. Graff. 



A SUPERFLUITY OF MAGAZINES. 



Almost every year a new magazine devoted to 

 popular ornithology is started, and often more 

 than one. The question naturally arises, cut 

 bono? For what new purpose or end is it in- 

 tended? As a rule, those who start the new 

 magazines are very young and think they have 

 some special information which the world ought 

 to possess, but for which there is no mouthpiece. 

 They want to see themselves in print, they over- 

 flow with a zeal to make themselves heard. They 

 believe the world will be eager to hear them. All 

 they hr.ve to deliver may be given, however, in 

 one or 2 numbers. They then become exhausted 

 of intelligence, and perhaps of money, and the 

 new journal dies of inanition. Occasionally a few 

 more numbers are issued, generally much to the 

 detriment of their own pockets and the patience 

 of themselves and their friends. This kind of 

 mania — at least in its virulent form, is mostly 

 confined to the United States. In other countries 

 it is little developed. 



Doubtless a certain enjoyment and some intel- 

 lectual exercise are derived from the form of 

 divertissement in question. Nobody is seriously 

 injured, as a rule, and we have no good reason 

 to object. The cost may inconvenience some of 

 the projectors, but it may be regarded as an out- 



* lay for education. The only person to seriously 

 object is the bibliographer. How shall he treat 

 these numerous candidates for popular favor? 

 Shall he consider all the notes and articles con- 

 tained in them seriously, or ignore them? Once 



■ in a while a newry discovered isolated fact or fea- 

 ture is made known or a long known one shown 

 up in a new relation. To go through all the great 

 mass of verbiage to discover such, however, in- 

 volves much loss of time. So say some of the 

 older ornithologists"! Let us hope, however, that 

 any such consequences may be offset by the pleas- 

 ure derived by the projectors in their work or 

 amusement. — The Osprey. 



Much that is said above will apply with 

 equal force to sportsmen's journals. A 

 new one of these is started somewhere 

 about once a month. Some youth con- 

 tracts the fatal disease of faces scribendi. 

 He sends a lot of stuff to different pub- 

 lishers, and the quality of it is so bad they 

 can not use it. So it goes back to him, or 

 into the waste basket. He writes some- 

 thing occasionally for the local county pa- 

 per and of course it is printed. His friends 

 read it and stuff him with flattery. His 

 head swells. Finally, the idea dawns on 



him that he can become a great editor. 

 He talks with the publisher of the county 

 paper, and this man, anxious for a good 

 job of printing, tells him by all means he 

 should start a sportsmen's journal. 



The young man may possibly have a 

 few hundred dollars saved up. If not, he 

 knows someone who has, and he goes af- 

 ter it. The financial obstacle is surmounted 

 in some way or other. Then a prospectus 

 is sent out to all the manufacturers of 

 guns, ammunition, fishing tackle and photo 

 goods, informing them of the new venture 

 and asking for an ad. All the recipients 

 groan when they read the announcement. 

 They write him they can not, and beg him 

 not to do it. They tell him the field is al- 

 ready overcrowded; that they are con- 

 stantly being importuned by similar would- 

 be editors and that they can not comply 

 with his request. Then the young man 

 writes another letter in reply, stating that 

 this is to be the only sportsmen's journal 

 published at Reed's Cross Roads, or, for 

 that matter, in the entire county of Po- 

 dunk. That this is to be the official organ 

 of the Reed's Cross Roads Rod and Gun 

 Club; that all the members thereof have 

 already subscribed for it; that the presi- 

 dent and the secretary of the club have 

 written articles for the first number, and 

 that several other well known "sporting" 

 writers have done likewise. In fact, he 

 says this new journal is to be the greatest 

 of them all, and it, therefore, becomes the 

 "duty" of all gun, ammunition and fishing 

 tackle manufacturers to support the new 

 enterprise. A few of them throw up their 

 hands and give the new exponent of field 

 sports an ad, on one basis or another. 



In due time the first issue of the new 

 journal makes its appearance. The mush- 

 room editor writes a flowery salutatory, 

 and tells of great things he is going to 

 do. There are some half tone cuts in the 

 paper which look like sections of asphalt 

 sidewalk plastered with mud. Among 

 these are the portraits of a few of the dis- 

 tinguished contributors to this number. 

 The pictures would lead one to suppose 

 these men were train robbers, or Malay 

 negroes imported for the occasion. 



I need not continue the history. All 

 makers of sportsmen's goods know the 

 sequel. A few numbers are issued, and the 

 new editor quits. 



There are all kinds of sportsmen's asso- 

 ciations in this country, and there is but 

 one other kind needed. That is an asso- 

 ciation for the prevention of cruelty to 

 sportsmen and to the makers of sports- 

 men's goods. 



A MISLEADING CIRCULAR. 

 Fred. Erb, Jr., of Lafayette, Ind., re- 

 cently issued a circular entitled, " Birds 

 and Their Habits," which he has dis- 



