April 19, 1888.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



24B 



Institution for the zoological garden it would be a great 

 help to us, and I need not say to you that we should be 

 very glad to have Mi'. Blackford's name associated more 

 prominently than that of any other cilizen in the United 

 States with the inauguration of what we believe is bound 

 to be a veiy important national enterprise. There is 

 still another way in which you can help us out of our 

 trouble should you so prefer. If you would buy the ani- 

 mals and hold them for us until after July 1 we would be 

 very glad to bring them on to Washington at the expense 

 of the museum, take care of them., and reimburse you 

 for the expenditure as soon as our nest appropriation be- 

 comes available." 



Commissioner Blackford replied to this that the idea 

 pleased him and that he would make thq donation. Mr. 

 Goode will send a man on to North Platte to bring the 

 buffalo on to Washington, and it is hoped that they will 

 arrive safely. 



It appears that these buffalo are from the band that 

 ever since the extinction of the buffalo along the Platte 

 has lived in the barren sandhills about the head of the 

 Dismal River in Nebraska. Two or three years ago there 

 were but thirty of them, but they were killed off by ones 

 and twos, and'last year the Sioux from Redcloud Agency 

 came down and are said to have killed twenty of them, 

 probably exterminating the little band. 



The bull and cow secured by the Smithsonian Institu- 

 tion were caught as calves four years ago in Keith county, 

 Nebraska, north of the North Platte River, and were kept 

 on the farm of a ranchman near Big Springs. He is re- 

 ported to have roped the heifer out of the bunch of seven 

 and afterward to have bought the bull for $100. 



These buffalo have been reared with domestic stock 

 and are very gentle. List fall the bull learned the com- 

 bination on the corral gate and would frequently open it, 

 thus releasing any stock that was inside. After many 

 sucli occurrences the boys on the ranch tied the sagacious 

 buffalo up and sawed off his horns. It was not from any 

 fear of violence that they did it. The animals will fol- 

 low a man about and eat corn from his hand. The bull 

 is broken to lead. 



A CHANCE FOR CANADA. 



J E understand that a movement is on foot among 

 ornithologists and friends of science generally in 

 Canada to have Mr. Montague Chamberlain appointed to 

 a position on the Geological Survey of Canada. There 

 will be no doubt, in the mind of any one competent to 

 form an opinion, about the desirability of making such 

 an appointment, provided Mi 1 . Chamberlain can be in- 

 duced to accept the position. It would be a great thing 

 for American ornithology, for it would insure the inves- 

 tigation of a number of problems in this science which 

 can only be solved in the region north of the boundary 

 line; it would be a great thing for the Geological Survey, 

 for it would bring the work of that survey in the depart- 

 ment of ornithology up to the high standard held by its 

 work in geology; and it would reflect great credit on the 

 Director of the Survey, who should have the knowledge 

 and acuteness to select out of all Canada, the man best 

 fitted to take charge of a branch of science so important, 

 but hitherto so sadly neglected in Canada. 



Mi*. Chamberlain's work in ornithology is too well 

 known to students in this science to require any*special 

 mention. His papers in scientific journals, his book on 

 ornithology of Canada, and the fact that he was long one 

 of the editors of the Aide have made his name familiar to 

 every one who is interested in birds. 



We can imagine no occurrence in connection with the 

 science in Canada that would be hailed with so much 

 satisfaction by ornithologists as to learn that this depart- 

 ment of the Canadian Survey had been handed over to 

 Mr. Chamberlain's charge. 



Woodcock Pound Dead. — Bethel, Conn. — On MarcJi 

 25 a cousin brought to me a female woodcock that he 

 found dead, lying on a bog near a spring around which 

 was a barbed wife fence. There was a cut on the bird 

 from base of bill around to back of neck, which must 

 have been caused by its flying against the fence. She 

 was very poor and had been dead several days. April 

 3 a friend gave me another female woodcock that he had 

 picked up in his yard the night before. When found 

 the body was warm. The only injury to this one was 

 the skull broken close to base of bill. This woodcock 

 had undoubtedly struck a telegraph wire, while flying 

 across railroad track near by. She was pointed by a 

 setter owned by the man who found her. It was be- 

 tween four and five P. M., and was about four rods from 

 the track to where she was picked up. My brother 

 mounted both birds and they occupy a prominent posi- 

 tion in our collection.— E. T. J. 



Choice Hunting and Fishing— Sportsmen can ascertain by 

 experiment, to their entire satisfaction, that rare facilities for 

 healthful recreation and profitable sport with dog and gun or 

 hook and line, are distributed all over the area traversed by the 

 main lines and branches of the "Great Rock Island" system, in- 

 cluding the "Famous Albert Lea Koute," This territory once 

 constituted the favorite game preserve of the aborigines, aud its 

 rivi-rs still teem with fish of large size and delicate flavor; its 

 lakes with bass, pike and perch, as well as duck, geese and wild- 

 fowl; its prairies with quail, gruuse, partridge and chickens, and 

 its woods with all the varieties of wild game. Some resorts are 

 of course more especially favored than others. At Joliet, the fish- 

 ing in the Kankakee and Desplaices rivers is excellent. At Sen- 

 achwme Lake (Henry, 111.) pickerel and bass bite freely. At 

 "Gilbertown Rocks, - ' near Davenport, bass, pike and oat are 

 abundant. At the "eddies" near Rock Island, apleadid wall-eyed 

 pike are captured, and the finest bass, perch and sunfish aretaki-n 

 from ponds in this vicinity. The gamy muskalonge (from 5 to 3U 

 pounds) is found in nearly all the waters of the Northwest. At 

 Spirit Lake, toe capture of the noblest fish affords exciting sport. 

 The lakes near Watertowu, Shell Rock and Worthingtou are 

 almost equally as attractive to the angler, while the fame of 

 scores of lakes on the Albert Lea Route to Minneapolis. St. Paul 

 and beyond has spread all over the continent. In nearly all sec- 

 tions of North Iowa, East Dakota and Minnesota trained dogs 

 can be had, and ducks, geese, cranes, partridge and quail are 

 abundant. Sportsmen who wish to shoot the coming season 

 further north and northwest or south or west where elk, bear, 

 antelope, mountain sheep and deer are found, should avail them- 

 selves of the round trip tourist excursion tickets, procurable at 

 any time, offered by the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railway 

 at greatly reduced rates to and from Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, 

 Idaho and Montana. Half rate rouud trip excursion tickets are 

 also announced by this road for sale April 24, May 8-22, June 5-19 

 (limit thirty days for return passage) to and beyond designated 

 points in Iowa, Minnesota and Dakota. For further information 

 address E. A, Holbrouk, General Ticket an'l Passenger Agent at 

 Chicago, 111. Also inclose to same address a 2-cent stamp for a 

 copy of "Hunting and Fishing" on Hie Rock Island and Albert 

 Lea routes.— A&v, 



'mm jj^xg and 0ntf. 



Every person who is sufficiently interested in the National 

 Park to do his share toward securing protection for it, is in- 

 vited to send for one of the Forest and Stream's petition 

 blanks. They are sent free. 



MAINE GAME PROTECTION. 



r I^HE office of a fish and game protector is by no means 

 JL a bed of roses, in any State, and in a sparsely settled 

 State like Maine it is especially difficult. To thoroughly 

 understand that State in the way of its fish and game 

 possibilities, it is well to bear in mind that not over one- 

 third of the territory is settled or is all covered by roads; 

 that there is a vast length of border, which border is 

 mainly in the woods; that the great State is six months 

 of the year buried in snow. Again, a great deal of in- 

 terest has been taken in the fish and game of that State 

 of late years by people outside of the State. The news- 

 papers, outside of the State as well as in, have of late 

 years devoted a great deal of space to the discussion of 

 the question. During all this time the Fish and Game 

 Commissioners have worked on, being greatly rewarded 

 by a wonderful increase in the large game native to the 

 State, and making good headway in the culture and the 

 propagation of fish. With the increase of the larger 

 game especially, the interest of sportsmen in Maine and 

 its game has greatly increased and a strong desire to 

 hunt there has naturally grown up. But the season when 

 most men can find time to hunt has unfortunately — per- 

 haps fortunately for the increase of the game — fallen on 

 the time when the statutes for the protection of such 

 game have been operative. This has very naturally cre- 

 ated an uneasiness, and in many cases an open defiance 

 of the laws. Prominent citizens of other States have 

 been arrested for violation of these fish and game laws, 

 and in many cases the parties have been convicted. 

 Naturally enough such parties have not come out of their 

 troubles with any great love for the game laws of Maine 

 nor for the untiring commission which has labored ardu- 

 ously to see these laws enforced. Citizens of the State 

 itself have not always taken kindly to the enforcement 

 of these laws, as may be abundantly proven by the fact 

 that the actual murder of two game wardens has grown 

 out of this enforcement. One of the murderers is now 

 serving out a life sentence for this murder. The horses 

 of the game wardens have also been poisoned. Wardens' 

 buildings have been burned. The attempt has many 

 times been made to entrap the wardens in all sorts of 

 difficult positions, and yet to-day it would be difficult to 

 find many cases where wardens have not tried to do their 

 duty faithfully, and the cases where wardens in that 

 State have been guilty of intemperance or grossness of 

 behavior of any kind are exceedingly rare. Why, even a 

 band of masked men assembled in the nighttime last 

 November, and with arms and blackened faces intimi- 

 dated the man in charge, and tore up the hatching works 

 at Edes Falls, letting go the captured fish, after they 

 had loaded their wagons with the breeding fish to take to 

 their homes, though no one but an Indian would care to 

 eat a fish in that state. 



Thus the troubles that have beset the protection of fish 

 and game in Maine may briefly be enumerated. Why, 

 the enemies of the Commission have even tried to im- 

 peach the worthy Commissioners — though without law 

 or authority — before the Governor and Council. Impeach 

 them for what? For trying to do their duty, as was 

 amply proven at the trial. Who was at the head of this 

 impeachment business? One of these very hunters from 

 outside the State, who had been brought up to pay a fine 

 for killing deer out of season. Well, have the enemies of 

 the fish and game protective laws yet done? No. They 

 hate the laws and their enforcement, and hence they 

 doubly hate the men who have tried to see that the laws 

 were enforced. But failing in all their attempts to over- 

 throw the work of the Commission, they have turned 

 their attention at last to trying to belittle what the Com 

 mission has done and is doing. Some of the enemies of 

 the game wardens and the Commissioners succeeded, at 

 the last session of the Legislature of that State, in spring- 

 ing an act upon the Commission after the matter had 

 virtually been settled. This act took away all the fines 

 from the wardens and gave them to the counties where 

 the cases should happen to be tried. The design of this 

 act was to utterly cripple the Commission in the work of 

 enforcing the law. Wardens could not be induced to go 

 where they might be murdered for nothing, and the 

 appropriation of the State was by no means sufficient to 

 pay for all the expenses of the wardens. But this time 

 the designs of the enemies of the law have fallen flat, and 

 far more flatly than is generally understood. The story 

 of the poverty of the Commission has been industriously 

 circulated, and nervous sportsmen and the enemies of the 

 game laws have taken up the cry, adding to it the theory 

 that the game in Maine must suffer this spring, if ever 

 it suffered. Why, these people have had all the moose 

 and deer killed by crust-hunting, even before the snow 

 had begun to thaw enough to make a crust in any part of 

 the State. The cry got into the newspapers. Boston 

 and New York papers have had special dispatches. 

 Maine papers, that should have been sure of the truth of 

 what they published before giving it to the public, have 

 had special dispatches. These dispatches have all been 

 in the same, strain; indeed, they all evidently emanated 

 from the same source — the enemies of the Commission. 

 The dispatches said that the "woods are full of dead 

 game, and owing to the inefficiency of the Commission, 

 the wardens, the want of money — all these reasons- 

 nothing is being done. The game is sure to be extermin- 

 ated. " 



Well, the Commissioners have suffered such stories to 

 be circulated. They have served to create an impression, 

 to lead the natural poacher to think that he might hunt 

 and kill in close time. There being no wardens who 

 would work, why, of course, there was no danger of 

 arrests. But what has the Commission been doing all 

 this time? Keeping still and allowing the reports to cir- 

 culate? Yes. Doing nothing else? No. I have it from 

 the very best of authority that they really have been 

 doing as much for game' protection as at any time 

 since the inauguration of the Commission. It is a fact 

 they ha ve had all their old and tried wardens at work, 

 and these wardens are being paid, too, though by what 

 method they are being paid it is not yet time to divulge. 

 1 Suffice it to say that these wardens are at work, and they 



have done good work, too. In what direction? In the 

 very direction of investigating these stories of game 

 slaughter and "woods full of dead game." What have 

 they found? In nine cases out of ten, they have found 

 that the stories were lies, made up by those who would 

 like to take the game laws into then" own hands, and all 

 the game in the State into their own hampers. These 

 wardens have not been at work openly. They have gen- 

 erally gone to points named rather as a detective would 

 go — as a private citizen, on some other business. Some 

 of these investigations have been exceedingly curious in 

 results. Some of them have resulted in finding dead 

 game, in which cases the wardens have secured all the 

 evidence possible, and the cases will be brought to the 

 attention of the eoutts in due season. 



In one instance the story came to the Commissioners 

 that in a certaiu back town "they were killing off the 

 deer by wholesale." The name of' the postmaster of the 

 nearest post office to the place of game slaughter was 

 given as one who had information of game killed and 

 would give it. That man was visited. Yes. They were 

 kdling off the deer by the hundred up in the woods. How 

 did he know such to be the case? Had he seen any of the 

 deer that had been killed? No, he had not, but he had 

 heard, from good authority, that such was the case. Who 

 was this authority? Eeluctantly he gave the name, and 

 on went the warden a number of miles further into the 

 woods. He found the man at last. Did he know of any 

 deer killed there since the snow came? No. He was not 

 sure of any, but he had seen suspicious sled tracks where 

 they left the lumber road and went into the woods. He 

 had seen no hunters, no slaughtered deer. This is the 

 history of one case where the deer were being "killed off 

 by the hundred" and "the woods were full of dead game." 

 The history of about all the cases that the Commission 

 has investigated is about the same. The enemies of the 

 game laws, and hence the Commission, have given them- 

 selves industriously to circulating such stories, all to 

 create an impression which shall injure the law and the 

 Commission before the Legislature in that State another 

 winter. 



The tame deer dodge has been worked for all it is worth 

 in Maine this winter, and the Commission has met that 

 pretty effectually. The law is construed by some people 

 to admit of the holding of a moose, a deer or a caribou 

 alive, since it reads that no man shall hunt or kill, etc., 

 etc. Well, it is not a very difficult thing to take a deer 

 alive in the deep snow, and by the aid of ropes he may be 

 towed down to the hunter's barn, where, in a short time, 

 he becomes quite tame. The owner has him ostensibly 

 for a pet, but invariably something happens to that 

 deer so that he has to be killed, and when once he is 

 killed, why, he might as well be eaten. Of course the 

 hunter is not to blame. He caught the deer for a pet, 

 but it broke its leg, or the dog got at him, or, or — well, he 

 got hurt and had to be killed. Now, the wardens have 

 instructions just how to manage these cases of pets. They 

 visit the pet owners. They ask to see the pet; perhaps 

 they would like to buy him. Once well into the presence 

 of the pet with the pet owner standing by the warden 

 says with his hand on the pet: "I seize this deer in the 

 name of the State of Maine. "Well, but what are you 

 going to do with him, sir?" says the now frightened pet 

 owner. "Do nothing with him. He is here in your 

 possession, the property of the State, and I charge you 

 that nothing happens him. I shnll hold you responsible 

 for the life of this deer till such time as the snow is gone 

 and he may be safely turned out, then I will see you 

 again. If he dies on your hands the State will require 

 you to pay $40, the penalty for killing a deer unlawfully. 

 The deer is here solely by your act and the State will 

 hold you responsible." The hunter soon begins to wake 

 up to the fact that he has a deer (dear) pet on his hands. 

 Finally he begins to wish that he had never seen him. In 

 such a way the State now has one mcose at Kingfield, 

 one caribou at Winn and a deer at another peint. 



The maimed deer is another dodge that has been played 

 successfully in some cases, and it has been frustrated by 

 the wardens in others. Early in the winter a couple of 

 kind-hearted young men brought a deer to Bangor, and 

 later to Commissioner Stil well. The deer had a broken 

 leg. They said that they found the deer near the road- 

 side, and finding: that his leg was broken , they had thought 

 it not right to let it suffer and had put it on their team 

 and brought it to the Commissioner for authority as to 

 what to do with it. It had evidently been hunted the 

 day before, and its hindleg was terribly shattered by a 

 bullet. Commissioner Stilwell, finding that the leg was 

 broken beyond all possibility of recovery, and believing 

 that the young men were honest, asked them to kill it, 

 to put it out of its misery. He also told them that if they 

 could use it for food to do so. They did kdl the deer 

 and did eat it, but they did not keep their tongues still 

 about the magnaminity and kindness of the Commis- 

 sioner. Others heard of the case, and other broken-legged 

 deer have been called to the attention of the Commis- 

 sioner and the wardens, till now the broken leg story 

 has come to mean a warrant for the arrest of the holders 

 of the deer. In one case word was sent to the Com- 

 mission, by two boys, that a man had killed a deer and 

 left it in the woods, and that if a warden was sent they 

 would show him where the deer was. The warden went 

 to the place. Sure enough, there was the dead deer. 

 The boys declared that they had seen a man shoot the 

 deer, and then go and sit on the body to warm his feet 

 and hands, that when they attempted to approach him he 

 ran away. Their story was hardly to be believed, but in 

 the absence of any evidence against them it was not con- 

 sidered worth while to put them under arrest. 



Such is the fight for game protection in Maine, and the 

 story that the Commissioners have laid down this winter 

 for want of funds has in it a good deal of moonshine. 

 Perhaps the records of some of the county courts at their 

 next sessions will tell a different story. " Special. 



Virginia Quail to Italy.— New York, April 16.— 

 Editor Forest and Stream: During the fall I receive more 

 live quail than can be disposed of, buyers preferring the 

 spring, when it is impossible to secure a supply. As an 

 experiment, a gentleman purchased three dozen, had 

 them properly cooped and shipped to Italy. I this day 

 received a letter, raying "that but two died, the others 

 arriving in first-class condition." I wish clubs would 

 order birds to be delivered between the months of Sept. 1 

 and February 1. This will prevent our game from being 

 exported.— E. B, Woodward. 



