S48 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Mat 28, 1885. 



natural course of things this must engender some bitterness 

 against us, which, if persisted in, will in the end do great 

 damage to our commerce with those States. Yes, we say to 

 the merchants of Boston, your best interests require you to 

 look well to it and see that the West is fairly dealt with in 

 this matter. _ We shall find in the end that covering up others' 

 wrongs, aiding them in shipping goods contrary to law, is 

 bad policy and will not pay. Tills trite maxim, '"'Honesty is 

 the best policy," is as true now as ever, and never appears 

 more lovely or in brighter colors than in our business inter- 

 course with our sister States. And why should the fair 

 escutcheon of Massachusetts— God bless her — be blotted and 

 stained by this unfriendly act? Why should Boston have 

 the stigma of being the ""dumping ground" for all the pro- 

 hibited and proscribed game of the country? Simply this, 

 to gratify the avarice, "the cupidity of a handful of" game 

 dealers! This is all there is to it in a nutshell, magnify, 

 distort, or diminish it as we may, and we appeal to the com- 

 mittee, we appeal to the Legislature, we appeal to the people 

 of this ancient Commonwealth to redress these wrongs. 



It is said that about three hundred thousaud dollars worth 

 of game comes to this market annually, a large portion of 

 which we presume to be the off-scourings and scrapings of 

 the other markets after sales are prohibited there. What is 

 this paltry sum compared with the loss of the good will, the 

 friendship, and to some extent-, in other branches, the trade, 

 the commerce of those large, powerful, wealthy and growing 

 States? Suppose we lose this year one-half— $150,000— of 

 that trade? Would not $150,000 worth of game left on the 

 prairies or in forest wilds to breed, bring us four times that 

 amount, or $600,000 worth, next year? Any yet there is not 

 a game dealer in Boston that will allow that he can see 

 through this. He mourns the loss of the small profit on this 

 year's business, and sees not the large profits of the next. 

 At the "heaiing" they allowed that they received large quan- 

 tities of game from New York and elsewhere, after the close 

 of the open season there, much of which is unsold on the 

 first of May — the commencement of the close season here — 

 and they appealed to the generosity of the committee to al- 

 low them to put it into the freezing houses to be kept till 

 the next season. Does anj 1 - one suppose that that game would 

 be found there on the loth day of October? Or does any one 

 presume that any game dealer would at that time take those 

 old birds out of his refrigerator and undertake to sell them 

 in competition with nice fresh-killed young birds? And 

 moreover, we have always understood that game and poultry, 

 after being in refrigerator all summer, is tough, has lost 

 flavor, and is no longer considered a luxury; nor do we be- 

 lieve the people want it, especially in these cholera times. 

 Why, then, is it necessary to Keep our markets open till May ? 

 New York aud other cities close theirs in January. Why 

 could not ours be closed at that time? Are our game dealers 

 willing to admit that they are less intelligent or enterprising 

 than their neighbors? From what we have seen of them we 

 do not creditlt. Setting aside all sympathy for the birds, 

 we think it to be for the interest of the game dealer as well 

 as lor the trapper and consumer to close our markets for 

 game in January. Suppose at that time or on the first of 

 May, the dealers have on hand 10,000 quail. Would it not 

 be better that those 10,000 quail had been left in the fields as 

 breeding stock, rather than be thrown into freezing houses 

 to lie as idle capital till the next October? Ten thousand 

 quail— 5,000 pair — would on an average produce 10 young 

 birds to the pair, or 50,000 young fat birds ready for sale on 

 or after the 15th day of October. 



It has been demonstrated beyond a peradventure that 

 where an open market exists, game laws cannot be enforced. 

 There are unscrupulous persons in every community who 

 will shoot or trap birds at any time, even down into the 

 breeding season, so long as they can sell them for a big price, 

 and the meanest poacher or pot-bunter will not kill biids 

 that he cannot sell. It is more difficult to enforce the laws 

 against trappers than gunners. If a man goes out with dog 

 and gun, out of season, in open fields and blazes away, he 

 will be heard, watched and ordered off or prosecuted. But 

 the same individual may quietly bait the birds, entrap them , 

 pack in a box or barrel, mark "eggs," "poultry" or what 

 not. shove them into a refrigerator car, and as the game 

 wardens have no authority to "break and enter/' they arrive 

 in good order at the ' dumping ground" in Boston, where — 

 we blush to say it— they are gladly received. These birds 

 are regarded as a source of revenue by the landowners, who 

 at a proper time intend to gather and sell them. They have 

 fed and cared for them, and they reckon them in some sense 

 as their own. We can faintly imagine with what indigna- 

 tion the owner denounces the poacher when he discovers that 

 his game has all been trapped and sent to market. Here is 

 an absolute wrong, a species of robbery perpetrated on an 

 honest farmer, and we think the anathemas be pronounces 

 against the game dealer who has encouiaged the poacher to 

 commit the offense, are right and proper and well deserved. 

 The dealers admitted at the hearing that they were receiving 

 game all the time down to the 1st of May. Of course they 

 must know — it does not admit of a shadow of doubt — that 

 this game was killed and shipped contrary to the laws of the 

 State from whence it came. The dealers have all the way 

 resisted with vigor that part of our statute thai makes pos- 

 session prima facie evidence of guilt. It might compel them 

 to show their hands and prove where the birds came from, 

 and to escape from this dilemma they testified that "they 

 could not always tell where the birds came from !" We do 

 not say that the dealers want this clause stricken out, so that 

 they can at any time receive and sell birds that are killed 

 here. We only say they have squirmed more about this than 

 any other part of the bill. We could not, however, repress 

 the desire to ask some business man if he supposed it was a 

 common occurrence among the dealers after having received 

 and sold an invoice of game, and made up "sales" of the 

 same, they did not know where or to whom to remit the 

 "net proceeds ." It was argued with much force and small 

 effect by the protectionists that where Western birds were 

 sold down so late as the 1st of May, Eastern birds of the 

 same species would be liable to get mixed and sold with 

 them, and although the statute prohibits the sale of the latter 

 at that date, yet so difficult a matter is it to prove the one 

 from the other, that no one will undertake to enforce the law. 



We have seen haunch upon haunch, carcass upon carcass 

 of venison in March or April around the market, a target for 

 every dog, and we could hot help thinking how much more 

 profitable it would be for dealer and consumer if these deer 

 were capering about to increase and multiply in the wilds of 

 Michigan. The dealers claimed that they could not get 

 game here till it was frozen by cold weather, and offer this 

 as an excuse for keeping the market open later. Still as we 

 have said, they do get the game through to New York and 

 other places, dispose of it, and close the market in January. 

 Are there not hundreds of tons of poultry, beef, mutton, 



and other meats, brought to this city every year in good con- 

 dition that were never frozen? And this we take, to be 

 another "little dodge" of the dealers. 



It was represented by the opponents to game protection 

 that sportsmen belonging to the various clubs or associations 

 through the country were in the habit of going out early in 

 the season, shooting and wasting the game or sending it to 

 market, much to the injury of the farmer upon whose corn 

 it has been fattened. That some individual member of a 

 club may have committed such impropriety we do not deny. 

 But we do deny that the wanton waste or destruction of 

 game is sanctioned or approved by any respectable game 

 association in this country. Nor' is a "sportsman's club" 

 necessarily a "game protective association." The name itself 

 indicates a very different purpose from game slaughter. 

 How many western grouse that have been shot do^s any one 

 suppose ever come to this market? For years we have been 

 in the way of buying grouse for our table, but we do not 

 remember ever seeing one that had been shot, nor among the 

 thousands that we have seen about the market, not one 

 killed in this way. They are choked, strangled, or other 

 wise killed in hand, And further, we are told by the dealers 

 themselves that shot birds are not wanted for the freezing 

 houses. They do not keep well, lose flavor rapidly, and are 

 always rejected if observed. We do not like the epithet 

 "poacher." It seems belittling when applied to a man. But 

 if a man wants a more agreeable cognomen he must not 

 poach. If a man does not wish to be called a "thief" he 

 must not steal. Worcester defines "poach" "to carry off 

 game privately in a bag." And this is just what the fellows 

 under notice do. One prominent witness before the com- 

 mittee has had for many years the reputation of being a 

 notorious poacher, and shooting and selling in this market 

 woodcock out of season. He was challenged on this point 

 and stoutly denied ever violating any game law — in sotto wee 

 — "which I consider reasonable." The committee smiled 

 and the "hearing" went on. We cite this case simply to 

 illustrate the sentiments of a poacher. 



There is another set of men — men of wealth, but not of the 

 purest morality — who feel that they can and must have what 

 they want, regardless of law and the rights of others, which 

 class we regard as more reprehensible and dangerous than 

 the poacher. We mean the class of men who demand wood- 

 cock and other game out of season. It is a low, contempti- 

 ble thing for a rich man to tamper with a game dealer or 

 poacher, and attempt to seduce him into the service of pan- 

 dering to his appetites. We all know how easy it is to ob- 

 tain woodcock on the first or any other day of July — amonth 

 before the open season — or any other inhibited day. Go to a 

 certain dealer in Faneui Hall Market, name the day and the 

 number of birds you want, and they are sure to come, not 

 from the freezing house, but from a neighboring covert. 

 The procurer drops a line to his pal, the poacher, the game 

 is delivered on time and served at the hotel as "chicken 

 gulls," "squab owls," etc., and no doubt relished by the 

 meanest of the trio, the tempter gourmand. 



Deer are about the only animals in the commonwealth that 

 are recognized as of much value, and they are confined to a 

 narrow strip of land of little worth on Cape Cod, where they 

 are very wisely left to the care and keeping of the good peo- 

 ple of that locality. These beautiful creatures are regarded 

 by the local inhabitants as a sort of pet, and are cared for 

 with the same solicitude they would care for other pets. The 

 territory is also esteemed as a sort of deer park where they 

 can remain unmolested, and they feel sad when a stranger 

 enters and carries one off. Yet so restless and malicious are 

 certain outsiders on seeing how much these animals are 

 prized that they petitioned the Legislature for leave to invade 

 the territory with dogs and guns to destroy this last remnant 

 of the friends and companions of Carver and Brewster, and 

 Bradford and the rest. We pray this privilege may never 

 be granted, but that these noble animals may be preserved 

 from generation to generation so long as water runs and for- 

 ests are green, as sacred memorials of by-gone ages. 



If we have the feeling of envy to one person more than an- 

 other, it is to that fortunate rural resident whose soul is 

 from day to day stirred by the matin, and vesper song of 

 birds. When we are sad and weary, they come to refresh 

 and cheer us. The farmer, too, listens with pleasure to their 

 merry notes as he watches them searching up and down 

 every limb of the fruit and ornamental trees, destroying 

 thousands of noxious insects that would mar their beauty or 

 deprive him of their richest fruits. Of all the beautiful and 

 useful of the feathered tribes that visit us, we regard the 

 golden robin as standing at the head of the honored list. It 

 is he alone that will attack and destroy the tent caterpillar 

 and his nest, and no fruit grower could make a better in- 

 vestment than to buy a lot of these birds, if he could protect 

 them from the skin-hunters, and let them loose upon his 

 premises. If u butcher bird comes on to my premise :-s and 

 slaughters my pets, the birds, I can rid myself of him by a 

 charge of No. 8 shot. But if a butcher boy conies on to my 

 inclosure and murders my musical companions, it is quite 

 different. My breechloader has no terrors for him. When 

 I threaten him with prosecution, he replies, as nervously as 

 a game dealer, "You will ruin my business. I get ten cents 

 a piece for these birds, and make good wages at it." " 'The 

 wages of sin is death' — to the birds," I whisper, and turn 

 from the gory sight away. This is not an isolated case, but 

 one of common occurrence. We are informed that persons 

 in the Connecticut Valley make a regular business of it dur- 

 ing the spring or breeding months. It is stated on the very 

 best authority— Forest and Stream— that last year in one 

 locality on Long Island 30,000 skins passed through the 

 hands of a single dealer, most of which were cut up for mil- 

 linery purposes. From another locality on the same island 

 a dealer in four months bought from the local gunners 

 70,000 birds. From Cobb's Island comes an immense num- 

 ber of gulls and terns. "An enterprising woman from New 

 York has contracted with a Paris millinery firm to deliver 

 during the summer 40,000 or more skins of birds at forty 

 cents a piece." People have no idea of thejnonstrous waste 

 of bird-life that is going on, nor do they put forth any effort 

 to stop it. We have tried in vain to rouse the farmers to the 

 importance of the subject, but they do not seem to appreci- 

 ate our efforts. The M. F. and G. P. A. is about the only 

 one that has moved in the matter, and they are mdebted to 

 that association for what protection the birds have. 



There is, however, a proper time to gather the products of 

 the field, the growth of fruit and the natural increase of 

 beast and bird. There may be an honest difference of 

 opinion as to the best time to gather certain crops or secure 

 the year's growth of fish, fowl or fruit, but that they should be 

 gathered some time no one will deny. If a man should kill all 

 his hens in the spring he would hardly expect fresh eggs in 

 summer or chickens in autumn. It would be unwise for 

 the owner of a cattle ranch to kill all his cows and breeding 



stock for the sake of exhibiting large profits on the present 

 year's business. The full fat steers might, with propriety, 

 be sent to market as the natural growth and increase of the 

 season, The farmer who should cut his grass when half 

 grown, or gather his fruit when half ripe, should be restrained 

 by law from waste and want. And so of game. The poacher 

 who shoots woodcock in A.prilor May (and it is done) deserves 

 a permanent home in a penitentiary. But in October when 

 the birds are full-plumed, methinks there is not in the whole 

 realm of field sports more satisfactory or exhilarating ex- 

 ercise. 



_ It is in the hope of restraining the improvident, the short- 

 sighted, the unwise destroyer, as well as to conserve and 

 perpetuate the bounties and blessings of an all-wise provi- 

 dence that further legislation is prayed for. 



A Member of M. F. and G. P. A. 

 [A. portion of the above communication, referring to fish, 

 will be found in our Fishculture columns,] 



NEW YORK TRESPASS LAW. 



FOLLOWING is the full text of the new law: Section 

 1. Section 16 of chapter five hundred and thirty -four 

 of the laws of eighteen hundred and seventy-nine, entitled: 

 "An act for the preservation of moose, wild deer, birds, fish 

 and other game," is hereby amended so as to read as follows: 

 Sec. 16. Any person who shall knowingly trespass upon in- 

 closed or cultivated lands, for the purpose of shooting or 

 hunting any game protected by this act, or shall take any 

 fish from private ponds or private streams not stocked in 

 whole or part by the State, or after public notice has been 

 given by the owner or occupant thereof, or person, associa- 

 tion or corporation hiring or leasing the exclusive right to 

 shoot or hunt thereon or fish therein from the owner or oc- 

 cupant, as provided in the following section, shall be liable 

 to such owner or occupant, "or person, association or cor- 

 poration," in addition to the actual damages sustained, ex- 

 emplary damages to an amount not exceeding twenty-five 

 nor less than fifteen dollars. 



Sec. 2. Section seventeen of said act is hereby amended 

 so as to read as follows: Sec. 17. The notice referred to in 

 the preceding section shall be given by erecting and main- 

 taining sign-boards, at least one foot square, upon at least 

 every fifty acres of land upon or near the lot lines thereof, 

 or upon or near the shores or banks of any lake, stream or 

 pond, in at least two couspicuous places on premises, or by 

 the personal service upon any person of a written or printed 

 notice containing a brief description of the premises, the 

 name of the owner or person in possession thereof, and such 

 notice to have appended thereto the name of the owner or 

 occupant, or person, association or corporation having the 

 exclusive right to shoot or hunt thereon or fish therein. Any 

 7ierson who shall tear down or in any way deface or injure 

 any such sign-board shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and 

 in addition thereto shall be liable to a penalty of twenty-five 

 dollars. 



Sec. 3. Nothing in this act contained shall be construed 

 as authorizing the leasing of any of the lands or waters be- 

 longing to the State, to any person, association or corpora- 

 tion for a fish or game preserve, except for fish-hatching pur- 

 poses. Sec. 4. This act shall take effect immediately. 



CALIFORNIA GAME AND SPORTSMEN. 



LIKE those of all communities who wholly or partially 

 respect game protective laws and the desires of the 

 forest denizens to multiply their species, the sportsmen of 

 California are just now having a dull season. There is no 

 gunning of any kind— always excepting the deer slaughter- 

 ing that goes on at all seasons in certain mountain localities, 

 and such as is done at the trap. 



The last season was not what we call a good one out here, 

 at least so far as waterfowl were concerned. Less ducks 

 and geese came down from the North than lor many winters 

 past; so few, in fact, that not a complaint was heard even 

 from those chronic growlers, the wheat growers. Quails 

 were plentiful enough, but as usual they were not at all ac- 

 commodating, preferring to stay generally where the cover 

 was thickest. Occasionally they may be found, however, 

 in fairly open ground in the lower foothills, and then they 

 furnish excellent sport to that comparatively small class of 

 sportsmen who prefer hunting them to shooting ducks on 

 the marshes. There are few parts of this State in which 

 tolerably good duck shooting may not be had, and it would 

 seem as if the majority of shooters had become wedded to 

 that branch of sport. ' I suppose the reason is that it requires 

 a little more exertion to get to the quail grounds, and the 

 expenditure of more muscle in tramping constantly over the 

 hills than to get out to the nearest slough and squat on a 

 stool, there to wait for the game to come to you. I veiily 

 believe there are scores of old gunners right here that never- 

 shot at a quail, but they are always ready to go for ducks.. 



And this reminds me of a little incident that occurred last. 

 fall. A friend of mine, who is an ardent lover of field sport, 

 and who never shoots ducks, had a very promising setter 

 with him one day, and meeting a duck -shooting sportsman 

 began expatiating on the good qualities of his dog. "I've 

 got a dog that can beat him for coin," remarked the other, 

 "for he's got away with everything he has tackled." "All 

 right," replied the field-trial man, "I'll run you a three days' 

 race on the best quail ground to be found within twenty 

 miles." "Quails be blowed!" exclaimed the disgusted 

 marsh-tramp, "I work my dog on ducks I That's the kind 

 of field trial I mean." And yet you'll find that man sitting 

 regularly on that empty powder keg in a certain gun store 

 and talking dog and gun with the same crowd, night after 

 night, the year through. 



As further evidence of the benighted condition of some 

 would-be sportsmen's minds, here is another incident: A 

 well-to-do business man purchased a nice Irish setter puppy, 

 and when it was eight or nine months old he gave it into tne 

 hands of a hunter to break The latter took the hard- 

 headed Fenian out and labored with him faithfully. Meet- 

 ing the owner one day, he related to him how well the pup 

 was showino- up. After listening for some time to a recital 

 of the manner in which the young-ter acted among the 

 quails, the owner seemed to become impatient and did not 

 enthuse. Finally he interrupted the handler with the query : 

 "Yaas, but how ish he on rabbids?" "Oh! he's all light now 

 on that score," replied the. breaker, "I gave him a little dose 

 of shot once, and now he, would walk over a hare or rabbit 

 and not notice it, " ' 'Vat you say ? he no dake nodis of e der 

 rabbids! Mein Gott, I vanted him broke for a rabbid dog!" 



I have frequently seen it stated in letters written from 

 along the southern coast of California that the black brant 

 is never found in the interior, and at but few points on the 

 coast between Alaska and San Diego. This is a great mis 



