Forest and Stream 



A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 



Terms, $4 a Year. 10 Cts. a Copy. I 

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NEW YORK, FEBRUARY 11, 18 8 6. 



I VOL. XXVI.-No. 3. 



) Nos. 39 & 40 Park Row, New York. 



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CONTENTS. 



Editorial. 



New England Fox Hunting. 



To Protect the Buds. 



A Superintendent of Protectors. 



To the Walled-In Lakes.— x. 

 Camp Fire Flickerings. 

 The Sportsman Tourist. 



Camp Flotsam. — xxin. 

 Natural History. 



Wild Animal in Confinement. 

 Game Bag ant> Gun. 



A Camp Hunt in Missouri.— h. 



Hunting at Army Posts. 



The Gal for Me. 



Southwestern Kansas Notes. 



The Lyman Sight. 



The Weather and the Birds. 



On the Buffalo Plains. 



New York Protectors. 



A Long Island Game Preserve. 



A First Experience. 



A Day with the Golden-Eyes. 



Maine Game. 



Save the Adirondack Deer. 

 A Misleading Document. 



Sea and River Fishing. 



The Striped Bass Law. 



Trout of Sunapee Lake. 



A Winter Chat. 

 Fishculture. 



The Fulton Chain Hatchery. 

 The Kennel. 



Eastern Field Trials Club. 



The Fanciers' Show. 



Pittsburgh Pointer Sweepstakes 



Kennel Management. 



Kennel Notes. 

 Rifle and Trap Shooting. 



Range and Gallery. 



The Trap. 

 Canoeing. 



Wide or Narrow Canoes. 



A Winter Evening's Reverie. 



Sail Plan of Canoe Lassie. 

 Yachting. 



Cruise of the Coot — xn. 



The Cruise of the Pilgrim.— vn. 



The Philadelphia Tuck-Up. 



The New Atlantic. 

 Answers to Correspondents. 



NEW ENGLAND FOX HUNTING. 

 ^f^HE morning breaks dull and lowering. Moisture is in 

 the air and an inch of new snow covers the old and 

 crusted mantle which lies upon the ground. Fetters of frost 

 bind the earth, and the feathered game is protected by law 

 and by the conscience of each right-minded man . 



Is there then no use for the gun and the dog at this in- 

 clement season? The old fox huuters of New England will 

 laugh at you if you ask this question. It is now that they 

 take their pleasure. No matter how ardent they may be in 

 their pursuit of birds during the season, it is to the fox hunt- 

 ing that they look forward all the autumn, and upon its 

 delights that they reflect after the snows have melted and 

 the waters have burst their icy bonds. 



On a snowy winter's day, when the white flakes are softly 

 falling, the old fox hunter is uneasy. He takes down his 

 gun more than once during the day, counts his cartridges 

 over and over, and looks over old Drive and Dame and the 

 pup to see if their feet are right. If there should be an 

 abrasion between the toes, or if the hard crust of a previous 

 run has cut a pastern, he bathes the spot well in old beef 

 brine. Probably he finds the dogs all right, for the fox- 

 hounds of New England as a rule are a tough and hardy 

 race, and take good care of themselves. Game they are, 

 too, to the backbone, and we once knew one to run for half 

 an hour with a steel trap fast to his hindleg. But he never 

 left the track, nor complained, and when released followed 

 on as cheerily as ever. 



The morning breaks, the old pung is at the door before 

 light, and the hunters with~guns and dogs are soon off for 

 the well known grounds where reynard during the night has 

 been hunting. Before the old horse is fairly tied and 

 blanketed, the mellow notes of Drive, and the shriller notes 

 of his consort, mingle with the excited yelps of the pup, 

 and we know that a track has been found. 



Why speak of the remainder of the day ; of the exhilarat- 

 ing music which salutes the ear, now loud, now faint, some- 

 times passing entirely out of hearing, again drawing near, 

 until while we listen entranced, the fox leaps the wall 

 within twenty feet of us and vanishes from our startled sight 

 before we can raise the gun. The dreamer will not make a 

 successful fox hunter. Why speak of all the winter sights 

 and sounds of the fields and woods, sights and sounds that 

 are seen only by him who goes a-foxing. He can tell you 



how the chickadees and the kinglets swing in the branches 

 of the cedar, how the black snowbirds and the tree sparrows 

 tear at the heads of the weeds and squabble over the seeds 

 that fall on the snow from the spreading panicles 

 of the tall stalked weeds; how the nuthatch corkscrews his 

 way up the trunk of the tall forest trees, and what queer 

 rolls the woodpeckers drum out on the dry branches. He 

 knows too where the cunning old gray squirrel has buried 

 his store of nuts, and understands the curious chuckling con- 

 versation which the bluejays carry on when they think they 

 are quite alone. It is no use for us to tell of all these things, 

 because all the old fox hunters know about them, and those 

 who are not fox hunters won't understand them. 



THE AUDUBON SOCIETY. 



VERY slowly the public are awakening to see that the 

 fashion of wearing the feathers and skins of birds 

 is abominable. There is, we think, no doubt that when the 

 facts about this fashion are known, it will be frowned down 

 and will cease to exist. Legislation of itself can do little 

 against this barbarous practice, but if public sentiment can 

 be aroused against it, it will die a speedy death. 



The Fokbst and Stream has been hammering away at 

 this subject for some years, and the result of its blows is 

 seen in the gradual change which has taken place in public 

 sentiment since it began its work. The time has passed for 

 showing that the fashion is an outrageous one, and that it 

 results very disastrously to the largest and most important 

 class of our population — the farmers. These are injured in 

 two ways; by the destruction of the birds, whose food con- 

 sists chiefly of insects injurious to the growing crops, and of 

 that scarcely less important group the Rapaces, which prey 

 upon the small rodents which devour the crop after it has 

 matured. 



The reform in America, as elsewhere, must be inaugurated 

 by women, and if the subject is properly called to their 

 notice, their tender hearts will be quick to respond. In 

 England this matter has been taken up and a widespread 

 interest in it developed. If the women of America will take 

 hold in the same earnest way, they can accomplish an incal- 

 culable amount of good. 



While individual effort may accomplish much, it will 

 work but slowly, and the spread of the movement will be 

 but gradual. Something more than this is needed. Men, 

 women and children all over our land should take the mat- 

 ter in hand, and urge its importance upon those with whom 

 they are brought in contact. A general effort of this kind will 

 not fail to awaken public interest, and information given to 

 a right-thinking public will set the ball of reform in motion. 

 Our beautiful birds give to many people a great deal of 

 pleasure and add much to the delights of the country. These 

 birds are slaughtered in vast numbers for gain. If the de- 

 mand for their skins can be caused to fall off, it will no 

 longer repay the bird butchers to ply their trade and the 

 birds will be saved. 



Statistics are as yet wanting to show the proportions to 

 which this traffic has grown in North America, but we 

 know that it reaches well into the hundreds of thousands. 

 Some figures published in Forest and Stream of Aug. 4, 

 1884, showed that in a three months' trip a single taxidermist 

 collected bird skins to the number of 11,018, which, includ- 

 ing specimens too badly mutilated for preservation, and 

 skins spoiled in the making, would perhaps represent a 

 destruction of 15,000 birds. This same person states that he 

 handles annually about 30,000 bird skins, almost all of 

 which are used for millinery purposes. A single middle- 

 man who collected the spoils of the shooters in one small 

 district, brought to the taxidermist's in four months about 

 70,000 birds. 



The birds of the fields, the birds of the woods, the birds of 

 the marshes, and those of the sea, all suffer alike. It is 

 needless to repeat the oft-told story of destruction. How 

 can we best go to work to combat this great and growing 

 evil, what means can we best employ to awaken at once 

 popular feeling against it? 



We desire to enlist in this work every one who is inter- 

 ested in our birds, and we urge all such to take hold and 

 assist us. 



In the first half of this century there lived a man who did 

 more to teach Americans about birds of their own land than 

 any other who ever lived. His beautiful and spirited paint, 

 ings and his charming and tender accounts of the habits of 

 his favorites have made him immortal, and have inspired his 

 countrymen with an ardent love for the birds. The land 

 which produced the painter naturalist, John James Audu- 



. bon, will not willingly see the beautiful forms he loved so 



' well exterminated. 



We propose the formation of an association for the pro- 

 tection of wild birds and their eggs, which shall be called 

 the Audubon Society. Its membership is to be free to 

 every one who is willing to lend a helping hand in for- 

 warding the objects for which it is formed. These objects 

 shall be to prevent, so far as possible (1), the killing of any 

 wild birds not used for food; (2) the destruction of nests or 

 eggs of any wild bird, and (3) the wearing of feathers as 

 ornaments or trimming for dress. 



To bring this matter properly before the public at large, 

 we shall employ every means in our power to diffuse infor- 

 mation on the subject over the whole country. Those who 

 are willing to aid us in our labors are urged to establish local 

 societies for work in their own neighborhood. To such 

 branch societies we will send without charge circulars and 

 printed information for distribution among their neighbors. 

 A little effort in this direction will do much good. As soon 

 as the association shall have a membership and shall be in 

 position to organize and shall have attained an existence, 

 we will hand the books and any funds which it may have, 

 over to its members, who will thereafter take charge ot it. 



The work to be done by the Audubon Society is auxiliary 

 to that undertaken by the Committee of the American Orni- 

 thologists' Union; and will further the efforts of the A. O.U. 

 committee, doing detail duties to which they cannot attend. 

 Those who desire to join the Audubon Society, established 

 on the basis and for the purpose above set forth, should 

 send their names at once to the Forest and Stream, 40 

 Park Row, New York. 



A SUPERINTENDENT OF PROTECTORS. 



THERE are sixteen State Game and Fish Protectors in 

 New York. They are subject to the supervision and 

 direction of the Commissioners of Fisheries. The Commis- 

 sioners are required to receive from each of them a monthly 

 report of all his official labors, and are further required to 

 certify to the Governor the proper performance of the duties 

 of each protector as well as to report the delinquencies of 

 each. This involves a vast amount of labor, which falls on 

 the secretary of the Commission. It consumes his time. For 

 it he receives no compensation whatever, save that he is paid 

 by generous abuse whenever the public imagines it has a 

 ground of complaint. 



The present secretary is Gen. R. U. Sherman. With 

 the hightest appreciation of his faithfulness, public spirit, 

 and efficiency, we suggest that he should be relieved of the 

 care of superintending the protectors, and that that duty 

 should devolve upon an official expressly appointed to the 

 work and paid for doing it. Such a special man could give 

 his whole time to the cares of the office — and they would 

 demand all his time — and his duties being confined to this 

 single branch of the public service, he could more effectively 

 direct the protectors, watch them more closely, and double 

 their efficiency. 



The next important step in game protection at Albany 

 should be the passage of a bill creating the office of State 

 Superintendent of State game and fish protectors. Then 

 put in a man known to have a deep interest in the cause of 

 game protection, and possessed of energy, integrity and exe- 

 cutive ability. 



Assemblyman Floyd J. Hadley, who was sent to 

 Albany on the platform that the hounding law must be re- 

 pealed, is making an active effort to please his constituents. 

 He attended the monthly dinner of the New York Associa- 

 tion for Protection of Fish and Game in this city last Monday 

 evening, and over the champagne talked the club into an en- 

 dorsement of his efforts to repeal the law. He did it by 

 making them believe the silly statements that more deer have 

 been killed by still-hunters this fall than in former years by 

 still-hunters and bounders combined. If the members of the 

 society had any intelligent conception of the condition of 

 affairs in the North Woods, they would not have lent them 

 selves to such a pernicious scheme as the restoration of deer 

 hounding. 



The Report on the Yellowstone Park. — The Secre- 

 tary of the Interior sent to the Senate on Feb. 1 the report 

 of Mr. W. Hallett Phillips, who was last summer appointed 

 special agent of the Department to inquire into the condition 

 of the Park. As our readers will remember, this report was 

 published in Forest and Stream of Dec. 3, 1885. 



Adirondack Deer. — It has been suggested that those 

 who are interested in preserving the Adirondack deer from 

 the dogs should send to their members at Albany marked 

 copies of the Forest and Stream and other papers which 

 print matter relating to the subject. 



