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FROM FIELD AND FOREST 



There seems to be a great difference of 

 opinion as to the value of the present game 

 laws in the State of Michigan. The Times, 

 of Monroe, Wisconsin, says : 



"A noticeable decrease is shown in the number of 

 deer killed and shipped out of the state by non-resi- 

 dents. While there was a greater number of non- 

 residents hunting in Wisconsin this year than last, 

 they did not fare so well as the home hunters or as 

 the non-residents of a year ago. 



"The deputies will be kept in the deer counties for 

 some time in order to prevent so far as possible the 

 local people there going out after the game in the 

 absence of the authorities. Reports from the deer 

 counties are to the effect that while there was a 

 great killing of deer this season, great numbers lived 

 through the season, and the game will be doubtless 

 more plentiful next season." 



Chief Game Warden Swenholt thinks : 



"It has been a fine season. The deputy wardens 

 report that thousands of deer have been killed, but 

 that the woods are full of them still. On a rough 

 estimate I would say that there have been between 

 S,oco and 6,000 deer killed within the past fifteen 

 days. The game laws of Wisconsin must be bene- 

 ficial if this number can be killed off every year 

 r.nd still thousands more remain running at large in 

 the woods." 



The Racine Times states : 



"The game wardens are not seen very often. The 

 region through which the deer roam is so vast that 

 the men now employed by the state are insufficient 

 in number to cover it in anywhere near the manner 

 in which it should be. Then again, it is said that the 

 wardens, in many instances, favor the natives who 

 look upon the deer much as does the moonshiner in 

 the South the illicit whisky business. 



"The natives can be likened to the moonshiner in 

 another sense, it being one of their rules to never 

 give evidence should one of their number by chance 

 be arrested for shooting game out of season. 



"The man who goes into the woods in the northern 

 part of the state sworn to do his duty as a protector 

 of game does so at the peril of his life. Little is 

 known in this section of the state as regards the 

 feeling which exists between the natives and the 

 state's officers. The woods are so'' dense that it would 

 be an easy task for a native to pick off a warden 

 with his rifle without fear of being discovered. While 

 cases of this kind are very rare the risk nevertheless 

 is ever present and the work of a game warden in 

 the woods is, using a slang expression, not the sine- 

 cure it is cracked up to be." 



One fact may be gained from these vary- 

 ing statements and that is that there is still 

 a very considerable amount of game in the 

 State of Wisconsin. 



The National Association of Audubon 

 Societies is to be congratulated upon its 

 action in placing wardens in charge of the 

 three reservations set aside by the Presi- 

 dent last autumn. They are as follows: 



The 'Siskiwit Islands reservation,' embracing all 

 of the unsurveyed islands of the Siskiwit 01 

 Menagerie group of islands at the mouth of Siskiwif 

 Bay, on the south of Isle Royal, in Lake Superior, 

 Mich. This reservation embraces sections 23, 24, 25, 

 26, 27, 33, 34 and 35, in township 64 north,' range 36 

 west. Upon these islands between 6,000 and [0,000 

 herring gulls breed annually, besides a number of 

 other species not nearly so numerous. It is the 

 largest and most important herring gull colony within 

 the limits of the United States. 



"The 'Huron Islands reservation,' embracing 

 Huron Islands group lying near the south shore of 

 Lake Superior and embracing sections 26, 27, 34 

 and 35, in township 53 north, range 29 west, Michi- 

 gan. Some 1,500 gulls, together with a number of 

 other water birds, breed upon these islands annually. 



"The 'Passage Key reservation,' embracing an 

 island near the mouth of Tampa Bay, on the west 

 coast of Florida, known as Passage Key, and sit- 

 uated in section 6, township 34 south, range 16 east. 

 Thousands of handsome terns have bred upon this 

 little key annually ever since the Florida coast was 

 first explored, but during the past year the egg 

 hunters made regular trips to the island, and each 

 time not only plundered the nests of the fresh eggs, 

 but also destroyed all eggs partially incubated and 

 unfit for use. This action promised annihilation of 

 the colony within a year or two. At the time the 

 egg hunting was most active other parties inau- 

 gurated a movement to secure title to the island for 

 resort purposes. This effort, if it had been success- 

 ful, would have resulted in a destruction of the 

 breeding colony, as complete and almost as soon as 

 the egg hunters would have accomplished that end, 

 so that the creation of the reservation is said to be 

 extremely opportune. 



"The National Association of Audubon Societies 

 has placed wardens in charge of each of these reser- 

 vations, and the slaughter of the birds and plunder- 

 ing of their nests has been stopped." 



For two years Dr. Clifton F. Hodge, of 

 Clark University, Worcester, Mass., has been 

 engaged in raising partridges to get photo- 

 graphs with which to settle the much-dis- 

 cussed question as to how partridges made 

 their distinctive whirring noise. 



Dr. Hodge did not care to have his neigh- 

 bors' cats destroy his partridges, reared with 

 so much difficulty, so he caught large num- 

 bers of cats in a trap and chloroformed them. 

 For that reason some unknown person threw 

 acorns filled with arsenic into the cage of the 

 partridges. Now Mr. Hodge is without 

 partridges, and to pursue his investigations 

 further he will be obliged to begin all over 

 again. 



Ohio State Game and Fish Commissioner 

 Paul North will make two important recom- 

 mendations to the State Legislature for the 

 improvement of the game laws. The most 

 important of these recommendations will ap- 

 ply to the laws governing the fishing for 



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