Sept. 28, 1895.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



271 



thirty miles, he would get into new and good chicken 

 and grouse ground. 



Several private cars have been at Argyle, Minn., with 

 hunting parties, and there were two special car parties 

 also in at Red Lake Falls last week. The latter were not 

 getting many birds. All these points are well up toward 

 the northern part of Minnesota. 



I am advised that a drive to the lakes north of Detroit 

 Lake, at Detroit, Minn., will give good duck shooting in 

 season. There is a good flight comes down the State 

 along that chain of lakes. This flight does not come 

 down the Mississippi River, but down the Missouri. 



Fall Celebrations. 



This seems to be a great country for fall harvest cele- 

 brations. Last week we had the State celebration for 

 Minnesota here. On Sept. 24-27 the James River Valley 

 fair will be held at Jamestown, N. D. As was the case 

 here, there will be a target tournament, modern and well 

 conducted, which will be one of the special and import- 

 ant features. This will be a two days' shoot, Sept. 25 and 

 26, under the management of Mr. 0. E. Robbins, secre- 

 tary of the North Dakota State Sportsmen's Association, 

 a prominent business man and sportsman of Fargo, N. D. 

 In spite of the fact that the shooting season is now on, 

 this event will no doubt attract a nice little gathering of 

 shooters at the trap. 



The Wave of Shooting Travel. 



The wave of Eastern shooting travel — it is an immense 

 one, bigger than most people know — has not yet reached 

 its height. On the other hand, most of the local chicken 

 shooters are either now afield or back from their fall 

 shoots. The birds are not yet too* wild for sport with the 

 dogs, but before long they will begin to go up wilder. 

 Then for the big, rocking, cackling cocks on a sharp 

 October morning! When you stop one of that sort you've 

 really done something. And you must not forget to pre- 

 tend you're sorry. I am going to be sorry about twelve 

 or thirteen times some day this week, if I have luck, if I 

 can hit a chicken any more.- But if I can't hit 'em, I'm 

 going to be a good deal sorrier. 



It was the Same in the Past. 

 Chicago, 111., Sept. 14. — Mr. John Stockton, of Chicago, 

 a sportsman whose experiences take him back a decade or 

 so beyond those of a very young man, the other day 

 unearthed among his belongings a bit of paper which 

 caused him to indulge a bit in reminiscences. He 

 thinks the little newspaper clipping was printed in Chicago 

 away back in the "703, probably before the fire. It was 

 written by a friend of his, Mr. E. I. Tinkham, cashier of 

 one of the banks here I believe, and a sportsman of the 

 old set which anteceded most of the sportsmen of to-day 

 in Chicago. Mr. Tinkham has been dead for some years, 

 and we may well regret that we never knew him, for he 

 seems to have been a fellow of most excellent humor. 

 Mr. Stockton thinks that the matter was probably never 

 really published in the New York Commercial Advertiser, 

 but was quoted from that to add color to the story. The 

 little quip is very neatly done, and speaks best for itself. 



The New York Commercial Advertiser publishes the following let- 

 ter, received by a well known Wall street banking house from its cor- 

 respondent in Chicago: 



"Twenty-skcond National Bank, Chicago, Oct. 27.— Messrs. A. B. C. 

 & Co., No. 16fi Exchange place, New York.— Dear Sir: At the request 

 of your senior partner, who starts this day on his grand duck-hunting 

 expedition to tne Missouri River, I write to ask you to sell seller sixty 

 days— 300 mallard oucks, 100 butter balls, 300 teal, 400 canvasbacks. 



"In consequence of the probable success of his party, he anticipates 

 a great decline in their value, and he wishes to take advantage of the 

 present high prices. To prevent any accident to himself, he is armed 

 with a breechloader, and his companions are each provided with steel- 

 clad armor to insure a like safety while in his neighborhood. He also 

 desires me to say to yourselves and to the boys in the office who have 

 families to provide for, that for a week at least he designs preventing 

 the necessity of a visit to the meat markets on the part of either of 

 you. I annex a statement of the probable result of his trip to Kosh- 

 konong. With great respect, I remain very truly your friend, 



"E. I. T., Cashier." 



Statement of the probable result of five days' shooting at Koshko- 

 nong of A. B. C , Esq , member of the N. Y. Stock Exchange, director 

 of the Western Union Transportation Company, and Fellow of the 

 Academy of Design: 



Number of boxes of cartridges taken by Mr. C 2 



Number of cartridges in each box 250 



Whole number of cartridges taken 500 



Number of shot in each cartridge 75 



Aggregate number of shot taken 37,500 



Average number of shot required to kill one duck 3 



Probable number of ducks killed on above basis 12,500 



Number of ducks to be sold short 1,000 



Number of ducks to be given to E. I. T., Esq., of Chicago 3 



Number left over to be presented to friends in New York, 

 Brooklyn, New Jersey, Mamaroneck, Grand Park and other 



foreign placew 11,497 



Number of special trains on Chicago & Northwestern Railroad 



required to bring ducks , 5 



Probable rise of Chicago & Northwestern Railroad stock in con- 

 sequence of increased earnings growing out of this trade, 



per cent 9 



Amount of semi-annual dividend of Chicago & Northwestern 

 Railroad warranted on above estimate: 



On common stock, per cent 4 



Payable in stock , 5 



Chicago, Oct. 27, 1870, E. E. E I. T., Statistician. 



[The actual result of this grand hunt was a hurried telegram from 

 the camp to buy in 099 of th» ducks sold short. Like most other 

 hunting and fishing excursions, the party was just one week too late. 

 Eds. Commercial,] 



Down the Mississippi. 

 Capt. J. P. McCarthy, of the 50ft. sloop yacht Frolic, 

 now in commission at Chicago harbor, tells me that he 

 has in view a trip down the Mississippi River this fall and 

 winter. He wishes to make up a party of four gentle- 

 men (each to pay only his pro rata of expense) who are 

 able to spend two, three or four months on the cruise, as 

 may be determined. . The course will be up the Chicago 

 River, through the old Illinois Canal, over the locks at 

 Bridgeport, and down the Des Plaines River to the Illinois. 

 A few days or weeks are to be spent shooting ducks along 

 the Illinois, then the journey will progress slowly 

 southward, with stops in Arkansas, Louisiana, or wher- 

 ever the sport may demand. Midwinter is expected to 

 find the party at the mouth of the Mississippi, and thence 

 Frolic will either go to Cuba or proceed west along the 

 Gulf to Corpus Christi, A magnificent trip could be 

 assured, and I hope Capt. McCarthy may hear from 

 several gentlemen and be able to make up his party for a 

 very enviable way of passing the winter — the more so 

 since he promises Forest and Stream a story of the 

 journey. Who wants to go? 



Poisoned Fish to Eat. 

 Dispatches of late date from Anderson, Ind. , say that 

 market fishermen have been scooping out a lot of poisoned 

 fish from the White River, and have shipped ihem to 



Chicago markets. The fish were killed or ma.de helpless 

 by the refuse from a strawboard mill. 



Has Another Snake. 

 My friend, Dr. Taylor, of Brownsville, has sent me a 

 section of a snake killed near that place recently. He 

 says, "It is not a horn snake, but it may have a stinger. 

 It seemed bo fight with its tail. It is a new sort of snake 

 here, color jet black and red." Examination shows this 

 snake to be the same as that sent up by our Louisiana 

 friend, though the colors have remained more vivid. I 

 am willing to accept the belief of Mr. Mcllhenny that the 

 snake has no sting, and that the hard tip of the tail is only 

 an extended and hardened scale. I want a little more 

 ivory in these snake antlers, please. But send them along 

 and after awhile we will get what we want. 



Scarcity of Bluebirds. 

 Mr. F. F. Merrill, of Milwaukee, speaks to me of local 

 dearth of bird life, notably of the bluebird. "I always 

 note these things pretty closely," said he, "and this year I 

 have only seen three or. four bluebirds. I wrote to a 

 friend in Mississippi and he tells me that the extremely 

 severe weather last winter killed thousands of birds and 

 that he has seen hardly any bluebirds since." 



Elk Horns in Wisconsin. 

 Another large and perfect set of elk horns has been 

 found near Palmyra, Wis., not far from Milwaukee. 

 Enough of these antlers have been found in the last five 

 years to establish the fact that this animal once ranged 

 over lower Wisconsin and Michigan and no doubt over 

 upper Illinois. E. HoTOH. 



THE GAME LAWS OF PENNSYLVANIA. 



BY JOHN W. HAGUE, A.M. 

 (A paper read before the Ornithological Society of Western Pennsyl- 

 vania.) 



Members of Ornithological Society: I have been 

 highly honored by your president, Dr. T. L. Hazzard, by 

 inviting me to read you an address upon the laws re- 

 lating to birds. I have divided this subject into two gen- 

 eral heads: 



I. The game or edible birds. 



II. The song and insectiverous, or non-edible birds, 

 with the laws relating to each of these classes. 



In discussing this topic I do not propose to give you the 

 dry bones of the several acts of the Assembly of this Com- 

 monwealth, but will endeavor to clothe them in such form 

 that it will be'interesting as well as instructive. 



The law, as a general thing, is a dry subject - , but when 

 it relates to birds there is always sufficient in it to inter- 

 est and entertain every one who has ever thought upon 

 this subject.. Some one in the past has given this subject 

 some thought, and the result was an attempt to make laws 

 governing the killing of game birds and the fixing of cer- 

 tain definite seasons when such killing would be lawful. 

 Crude as the attempt was, it resulted in great good. But I 

 fear it was not begun soon enough. 



Upon this historic ground where we now stand all 

 sorts of birds in the dim past were wont to gather, nest and 

 feed. The Indian began their slaughter; the white man 

 continued it. 



As the population grew and increased the territory of our 

 songsters was narrowed, and they were subjected to more 

 assaults of their enemies— not only human enemies, but 

 the wild beasts as well. 



Forests were cut down and their hiding places removed, 

 until hawk, owl and beasts added their quota to those killed 

 by the human race, more readily found, since their detec- 

 tion was made so easy. 



I have not gone back into the misty past to dig up the 

 ancient and obsolete laws, but I have taken those from the 

 year 1878 up to those of the present time. In that year this 

 jaw was enacted relating to quail: 



No person shall kill, or expose for sale, or have in his or her posses- 

 sion after the sains has been billed, any quail or Virginia partridge 

 between the first day of January and the fifteenth day of October m 

 any year, under a penalty of ten dollars for each bird so killed, exposed 

 for sale, or had in possession. 



This section remained in the above form until the 25th 

 day of April, A. D. 1889, when some one, looking forward 

 to the protection of this delicious bird, changed the date 

 of the killing from Oct. 15 to the 1st of January, and made 

 the open season begin Nov. 1 in each year and end Dec. 

 15. 



Under the interpretation given to this section of the law, 

 every one who had read it decided that it was contrary to 

 the spirit of the law and its direct commands to have quail 

 in possession after the date named. In the enforcement 

 of this law it became necessary to carry it up to the Su- 

 preme Court of the State to get a decision, and it then 

 became evident that some one had blundered. Who it 

 was or when it was done we have no present means of 

 knowing. 



His honor, Judge Paxon, stuck on or stumbled over the 

 adjective "same," and rendered a decision that killed and 

 destroyed at a single blow or stroke of his pen every legiti- 

 mate means of protection. 



You can go, in season and out of season, along Liberty 

 street and see the evidence of this harsh, cruel and unjust 

 decision. The mother quail and her half-grown brood 

 hang in bunches at the doorways, and no restraining power 

 in our laws. It is a sad spectacle indeed, and it is not to 

 be wondered at that every naturalist and ornithologist 

 raises his voice to demand a revision. 



It is only lawful to kill quail from Oct. 1 to Dec. 15 in 

 any year, but the law of 1878, Section 32, provides that 

 "a period of 15 days after the time limited for the killing 

 has expired the holders of dead quail shall not be liable 

 to any penalty under this act." As a matter of fact, this 

 permits and encourages pot-hunters and violators of the 

 law to go into the meadows and fields and kill quail that 

 much longer. 



There are always unscrupulous persons who will pur- 

 chase them and encourage this unlawful killing, and there 

 are no means provided under the law to stop it. 



Is it any wonder that our quail, like the buffalo of the 

 Western plains, exists only in small coveys, in isolated 

 places, and then only under the protection of some nat- 

 uralist or of a farmer who refuses to permit killing on his 

 land. 



Judge Paxon says "that quail killed or brought from 

 another State can be had in possession or sold at any and 

 all times!" So under this decision our quail are killed in 

 bur State, and had in possession and sold throughout the 



entire year, in the markets and in some stores, and when 

 challenged by an officer of the law they present a com- 

 mission man's receipt, that the birds were brought from 

 another State. Hence, since quail may be brought front 

 another State, so may every game bird in existence. 



In this same act the wild duck and wild goose is men- 

 tioned, but it prohibits the killing of them with a swivel 

 or punt gun, or any device except a gun that is raised to 

 and fired from the shoulder. 



On May 17, 1893, this law was altered and changed to 

 prohibit the killing except on Monday, Wednesday and 

 Friday of each week from the first of September until 

 January first following. 



The enactment of this law was a wise move for prot' c- 

 tion, and ought to have satisfied every sportsman in the 

 land. But greed seems to be uppermost, and the blood- 

 thirsty disposition of hunters cried out for more, and still 

 more, until it would seem that only the death of the last 

 fowl would satisfy their greed. 



On the 16th day of April, A. D. 1885, another act was 



This one is more deadly than any other yet passed. It 

 takes off the daily limit of killing every other day in 

 the week, and extends the time from January until the 

 first day of May following, so that instead of only hav- 

 ing four months for lawful killing the time is extended 

 four months longer, making a total of eight months. 



You will also notice that in this act, as in others cited, 

 the law does not prohibit the killing of these birds even 

 upon the Sabbath day, a day above all others that should 

 be sacred and consecrated to Almighty God, the maker 

 of all. 



Having cited these several laws relating to two classes 

 of game birds, I need but to say that the laws relating to 

 the others are similar in every respect. But these are suf- 

 ficient for our purpose. 



I now want to call your attention to the penal clause of 

 these several laws quoted heretofore, and to show you 

 their deficiencies and tbe loop-holes through which the 

 violators escape the just punishment which ought to be 

 visited upon them. 



Sec. 9, act of June 3, A. D. 1878, says, and I only quote 

 the penal clause, or so much thereof as to make it intel- 

 ligible: 



"Under a penalty of ten dollars for each bird so killed, 

 exposed for sale or had in possession," meaning quail. 

 Sec. 4 of the same act says: "Under a penalty of ten 

 dollars." This applies to the wild duck or goose. 



Sec. 3, act of May 17, A. D. 1883, says: 



"Any person or persons offending against the provisions 

 of this act shall be liable to a fine of twenty-five dollars 

 for each and every offense, to be sued for and recovered 

 before any alderman or justice of the peace." 



And in the amendment approved April 16, 1885, there 

 is no penal clause whatever. It is true that the 34th 

 Section of act of June 3, A. D. 1878, says what may be 

 done: 



' 'Under this section the person desiring to put a stop to 

 the unlawful killing must go before some magistrate and 

 make complaint, and sign an affidavit charging some 

 person with having violated some part of the law, and 

 the magistrate is required to issue his warrant to the 

 officer to cause the person to be arrested and brought be- 

 fore him, when he shall determine the guilt or innocence 

 of the defendant, and if he is convicted he shall be sen- 

 tenced to pay a fine and costs, and if he refuses to pay it 

 then he shall undergo an imprisonment in the county jail 

 one day for each dollar of the penalty imposed." 



It would, indeed, seem that this was a perfect law, and 

 that it contained every requisite, but as we scrutinize it 

 we will find these defects, viz : 



First. The violation is being done in some field, woods 

 or forest, away from tbe county seat or from any village 

 in the county, because the birds do not inhabit the streets 

 of any of these places. 



The wild ducks are upon the waters of pond or river, 

 that are away from any cluster of houses or number of 

 people. They would not be found in the river near the 

 Federal street or the Seventh street bridges, between the 

 two cities, or on the Monongahela River between the Point 

 bridge and the one at Smithfield street; but they are found 

 below the Davis Island dam or up the river above Sharps- 

 burg or Brilliant stations, or above McKeesport, or some 

 other place where the country is open and the river clear 

 of crafts. 



Second. You must go before some magistrate! A for- 

 tunate thing, indeed, if there is such a dignitary, but how 

 in the world can he be found? And how far will you be 

 compelled to go until you locate his honor? When you 

 get to his home, fortunate indeed will you be if you find 

 him at home. 



I went one time to get a justice on Mt, Washington, 

 South Side, Pittsburg, and I learned that he was a tipstave 

 in one of the courts. Another was a clerk, and another 

 a crier in one of the courts. I knew one who was an in- 

 terpreter of languages in the courts; another a carpenter, 

 who left his home to do an honest day's work; another 

 one is a farmer, and so ad infinitim. 



But suppose you did find one at home or in his office! 

 Tell him what you want, and the chances are that he will 

 not comprehend what you want; he will not know the 

 law and will be unable to give you any relief; but if he is 

 in the humor, and writes an information charging a vio- 

 lation, it will be defective and in the end result in the es- 

 cape of the violator. 



But if he gets what he thinks covers the case, a warrant 

 will issue and no constable can be found. 



Now, the constable may be a coal digger or mechanic of 

 some kind and he likewise is away from home, and there 

 is no one with courage sufficient to carry out the authori- 

 ty it contains and arrest the man. 



But suppose all these have been overcome, and you 

 start to the scene of the shooting, you find your men gone, 

 escaped through these long, tedious delays. And as they 

 were strangers the officer cannot find them, though he 

 hunt far and near. 



You have not arrested the man; you cannot take him 

 before the magistrate; you cannot try him, and as he is not 

 tried you cannot convict him, consequently you cannot 

 fine him, and the whole thing becomes a farce, a delusion 

 and a snare. 



So you see that this section is deficient and defective 

 like those mentioned before. 



And so are all the laws relating to game birds, no mat- 

 ter by what name you call them. 



The question naturally presents itself, if this is the con- 



