FOREST AND STREA 
A WEEKLY JOURNAL OF THE Rop AND GUN. 
TrerMS, $44 YEAR. 10 Crs. A Copy, 
Srx Montus, $2. 
NEW YORK, AUGUST 7, 1884. 
{ VOL. XXIII,—No. 2. 
Nos. 39 & 40 Park Row, New York. 
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Nos. 89 anp 40 Park Row. New York Orry, ° 
CONTENTS. 
EXDITORIAL. 
Dishonesty at the Butts. 
The Sacrifice of Song Birds. 
THE SPORTSMAN TOURIST. 
Hunting in the Himalayas. 
A “Twelfth” in Perthshire. 
Notes from Tennessee. 
Podgers Cruises Alongshore. 
E) Cazador’s First Bear. 
A Quail Incident. 
NATURAL History, 
Fruit-Eating Birds. 
Grouse of the Pacific Slope. 
Rare Birds on Long Island. 
The Destruction of Smail Birds. 
Game Bae AND Gun, 
“Bullet versus Buckshot.,”’ 
Chamberlin Loading Machine. 
eee in the Swamp Pasture. 
To Preserve Killed Game. 
Massachusetts Game Outlook. 
On California Lagunas. 
The Choice of Hunting Rifles. 
The Performance of Shotguns. 
Pennsylvania Game. 
SEA AND RIVER FISHING. 
Trout in Oregon. 
Why Not the Worm? 
“Salt-Water Fishing.” 
Building Fishways. 
FISHCULTURE. 
Notes on Land-Locked Salmon. 
THE KENNEL. 
Doggerel. 
THE KENNEL. 
Wisdom for “Ignoramus.”’ 
Mastiffs. 
Laverack Setters. 
Treatment of Poisoned Dogs. 
Philadelphia Bench Show. 
Beagles at the Phila. Show. 
Meeting of Exhibitors 
Breeders. 
Breaking Spaniels. 
Current Dog Stories. 
Kennel Notes. 
RIFLE AND TRAP SHOOTING, 
Range and Gallery. 
The Trap. - 
Interstate Clay-Pigeon Tourna 
-_ment, 
Field Trial of Shooters. 
CANOEING. 
Toronto C. C. Sailing Cup Race. 
A New Lateen Rig. : 
Racine Canoes. 
How to Get to the Meet. 
Mohican C. C. Challenge Flag 
Sailing Race. 
The Galley Fire. 
Canoe and Camp Cookery. 
YACHTING. 
New Jersey Y, C. Open Matches. 
Sewanhaka C. Y. C. Races. 
Atlantic ¥. C. Cruise. 
Open Boat Sailing. 
Cruise of the Yonkers Y. C. 
An Improved Sharpie. 
and 
Pointers at New York. 
The geome Size of Beagles. 
auc Bench Show Associa- 
ion. 
Eastern Y. C,—New Bedford 
Races. 
ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
PUBLISHER’S DEPARTMENT. 
THE SACRIFICE OF SONG BIRDS. 
ier a lady should adorn her bonnet with bright feathers 
is almost as much a matter of course as that she should 
wear a bonnet at all. The employment of birds’ plumage 
for such a purpose is so much an accepted feature of the 
civilization of the day that it fails to excite notice or remark. 
A moment’s reflection is sufficient to show that the universal 
adoption of the custom, which is thus so familiar, is also the 
very best evidence of the enormous sacrifice of bird life that 
must all the time be made to supply the constant demand for 
feathers, 
Where do the birds come from? Where is this never-ceas- 
ing slaughter of feathered life being carried on? In South 
America, or Africa, or somewhere in the uttermost parts of 
the earth. It is not known, nor does it matter just where. 
This is what the average person thinks, if he or she thinks 
about it at all. But the average person is mistaken. The 
startling truth is that the supply of plumage does not come 
to us through the Custom House. Of the wild birds 
slaughtered to go for the trimming of dresses and hats, hun- 
dreds of thousands are American song birds. They are the 
bright-plumaged creatures that make up the musical, joyous, 
beautiful feathered life of our own yards and orchards and 
pastures and meadows and ‘‘wood lots.” Instead of view- 
ing with indifference the insatiate rage for feathers, which 
is growing until it will lead no one knows whither, we ought 
to be filled by it with the gravest concern and alarm, 
The destruction of American wild birds for millinery pur- 
poses has assumed stupendous proportions. The unholy 
work gives employment to a vast army of men and women, 
and this army wages its campaign of destruction with a 
diabolical perfection of system. From Florida to Maine 
the bird butchers are shooting, netting, snaring and poison- 
ing, seven days in every week and every week in the season. 
Middlemen gather up the sanguinary harvest and forward it 
—" im) «2 
to the milliner-taxidermists’ shops, where the skins are pre- 
pared and then sent to the dealers. In our natural history 
columns will be found some statistics concerning this work, 
which is nothing less than one of song bird extermination. 
The figures there given do not fully show the magnitude of 
this industry, but they show enough to fill with alarm every 
lover of bird life and every intelligent reader who knows 
enough of the ways of nature to comprehend what such a 
destruction of birds cannot help but mean. 
This isnot purely a matter of sentiment. But suppose it 
were. It is the sentiment of those who are cheered in their 
pursuit of pleasure and at their toil by the grace and beauty 
and melody of the birds, a sentiment shared by millions of 
men and women and children who dwell in the country. 
For it and for them we propose to proclaim the magnitude 
of this slaughter, and the enormity of the offense of these 
bird butchers, who are indecently outraging the rights of 
country dwellers. There are sentiments more powerful than 
cupidity. Would that we could array the sentiment of bird 
lovers in this country against the greed of the league who 
are waging war on the birds. Unless we have very greatly 
erred in our estimate of the strength of that feeling, such an 
awakening of public indignation would end, once and for all, 
the occupation of the song-bird skinners; and we would not 
care to ask for the Formst anD SrRwAM a more honorable 
task than to voice the feelings of its country readers on this 
subject. 
But it is yet very far from being wholly a matter of senti- 
ment. Heis an ignorant and sadly deficient tiller of the 
soil who, in these days, lacks appreciation of the services of 
the birds on his land, as faithful friends, in their unwearied 
war upon the insect hordes that prey on tree, and grain, and 
fruit; but just how many millions of dollars we owe to the 
birds for such services is not known, nor can be known to 
the most earnest students of the subject. It is beyond all 
estimate, 
This milliners’ campaign against the birds strikes directly 
at the farmer. Diminution of inSectivorous birds is always 
surely and swiftly followed by an increase in the hordes of 
noxious insect pests. By one of the immutable laws of 
nature, destruction of birds means the destruction of crops. 
The shiftless fellow, too lazy to earn an honest living, who 
skulks about the fields and woods, killing swallows, larks 
and pewees, should be treated just exactly as we treat the 
wretch who burns barns and steals horses. His dastardly 
work is altogether too expensive. It is a hard price for 
farmers to pay for feminine feathered finery. 
DISHONESTY AT THE BUTTS. 
f pre very enterprising, but yery rascally, marksmen are 
now under arrest in Hanover, Germany, charged with 
obtaining leading places on the lists and consequently valu- 
able prizes by a well-planned conspiracy with the markers 
in charge of tlie targets. The facts of the scheme are given 
in the Sun’s foreign notes, quoted in another column, and in 
some respects they recall the scandal which fell upon Wim- 
biedon but a season ago by the discovery of an extended 
plan of beating the record without the necessity of making 
bullseyes to do it. 
In Germany as in England, the discovery of such a 
scheme of plunder as this is a much more important event 
than it would be with us. In both those countries there are 
extensive rifle meetings with valuable prizes, and many of 
them for all comers, or at least for natives. These meetings 
are so arranged as to form a sort of grand circuit, and a rifle- 
man of skill may find it to his profit to attend a series of 
them. If then, by some cleverly designed plan of bribery a 
pair of rogues may go about snapping up the fat morsels at 
each tournament, it would at once be evident that all rivalry, 
all interest in the sport would drop dead at once. A mere 
suspicion is chilling, and the bringing to light of these 
frauds will have, at least, a temporary dampening effect on 
this extensive form of German sport. 
It is perhaps unfortunate that one of the thievish couple 
should. be entered in the account as an American. He surely 
did not catch the idea of his money-making plan on this side 
the water. There are not rifle gatherings enough to make 
such a scheme practicable, nor prizes enough to make it 
profitable. Still, no doubt, America will get full credit and 
blame for sending to Europe this latest short-cut method to 
easy honors and rich profits. 
Back of all that may be said remains the fact, that the 
great Schiitzen Fests, apart from their merry-making fea- 
tures, are merely aggregations of mug-hunters. Established 
through long periods of time, these organizations have gained 
strength and wealth, which enables them to present long 
lists of rich prizes. This may stimulate rivalry to a certain 
point, but beyond that the tempting purse remains to be 
grasped at by scheming cupidity. The sport, in short, 
is not a healthy one. The men do not strive for the sake of 
victory so much as the fat trophy which accompanies it. 
Such sportsmen must not be surprised if sharpers come in 
and accept the wide-spread invitation to compete for a prize, 
only the sharper does it after his own method, which is a 
very objectionable one. 
The coming electric target gets another vigorous call in 
these developments. It is the target of the future, and one 
which could not be manipulated in the interests of pencil- 
made scores. To us the affair may be regarded as a remote 
warning. The day may come when America shall have its 
series of rifle meetings, which it will pay the mug-hunter to 
attend, but the prospects are that it is not very near. 
GAMB WARDENS.—By a suggestive coincidence, we are 
this week in receipt of communications from three States so 
widely separated as Vermont, Michigan and California, in 
each of which the writer makes an earnest plea for the ap- 
pointment of proper game officers to enforce the provisions 
of the law by making examples of those who violate it. 
These correspondents are not asking to try any experiments. 
The time of experimental game wardenship has gone by. 
The system has been practically tested in Maine, New 
Hampshire and New York. The result isfavorable. It has 
demonstrated to the satisfaction of all, who haye studied 
the subject closely, the utility of a force of game wardens, 
appointed and paid by the State to take care of the 
interest of the State. There are good wardens and 
bad; but the system itself has been demonstrated to: be 
right. There is then no good reason why other 
States should not follow the example of those named, and 
provide the proper officers, It is high time that the public 
should be roused from its apathy on this subject, The day 
has come when the burdens of game protection should be 
lifted from the shoulders of individuals and clubs and borne 
by the State. The farcical enactment of stringent laws, 
with no adequate provision for their execution, has gone on 
far enough. The close season means nothing, simply because 
it is no one’s business to see that it shall mean something, If 
it is worth while to prescribe such a season, itis certainly 
worth while to provide a way for securing the benefits at- 
taching to it. 
New Trap-SHOoTING PracticE,—The more closely shoot- 
ing at artificial targets ean be made tu approximate the actual 
incidents of a day in the field, the more valuable, of course, 
is the practice thus obtained, as a preparation for field shoot- 
ing, or to keep one’s hand in during the off-season. It has 
always been objected, and with much reason, that trap- 
shooting is materially different from field shooting, so differ- 
ent in fact that proficiency in the former does not of 
necessity insure skill with the quail or grouse, At the 
recent clay-pigeon tournament in Chicago, in the so-called 
‘Svalking match,” an effort was made to imitate field shoot- 
ing by the use of several traps, which were sprung as the 
competitor was walking toward them. This proved to be 
very successful under the circumstances, and now the ex- 
periment is to be tried on a somewhat larger scale at the tour- 
nament to be held in this city next week, It is proposed to 
fix a number of screened traps, which shall be sprung at 
irregular distances from the shooter, and on different sides 
of him, as he advances toward them from the score. This, 
if successfully carried out, will more nearly resemble the 
flushing of wild birds in the field than any other plan of 
trap shooting has succeeded in doing, and as the clay- 
pigeon’s flight is birdlike, this novel trap-shooting ought to 
prove a more satisfactory test of a field shot’s skill than the 
ordinary modes. 
Roya PHEeLpPs.—By the death of Royal Phelps, in this 
city on Wednesday of last week, the cause of game protec- 
tion loses one of its most earnest supporters. Mr. Phelps 
was an active member of the New York Association for the 
Protection of Fish and Game, and its monthly meetings 
were usually held at his residence. 
FOREST AND STREAM FABLES. 
A MILLINER’S Bird Butcher having shot a beautiful Oriole, was 
about to pick it up, when the dying Bird asked him why he had 
done so cruel an Act as to kill a harmless Singer, who must now leave 
his Mate to care alone for their Helpless Young, 
“Tt is that you may adorn a Lady’s Hat,’’said the Man, “and you 
should rejoice that it is your privilege to make Beauty more Beauti- 
ful.” . 
**Ah!?? said the Oriole, “if such a destiny is mine, I die Happy,” and 
expired with a Smile on his Bill, 
