328 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[May 15, 1890. 



CALIFORNIA'S FIRST FISH COMMISSIONER. 



THE leading spirit of the first Fish Commission of the 

 State of California was the late B. B. Bidding, one of 

 the most interesting of writers on fish topics, and one or the 



eminent citizen of the commonwealth of California, and my 

 sense of their literary value has steadily increased while, I 



sense of their literary ™.~v — ,~ r ~ t . 



read them. Here at least was a man who wrote of what he 

 knew and loved, and tbat with rare exactness and adequacy 

 of expression. As I have hunted up his crisp outdoor arti- 

 cles, many of them buried in old files of California news- 

 papers, I have wondered why no publisher has yet edited and 

 arranged them in a volunm 



fell suddenly dead in the midst of his work, not only San 

 Francisco flags went at half-mast, but after awhile, when 

 the news was told along the McCloud, the Indian tribes 

 came to the Fish Station to ask if it was truly so, and then 

 said: "There never again will be any one so good and wise 

 to come here among us." Five years later, a pioneer of the 

 Southwest who had often written to Mr. Redding to "come 

 down and explore the Colorado Canon," said: "1 never asked 

 any one else to take a trip." In hundreds of homes the sense 

 of personal loss felt when Mr. Redding died has never 

 ceased to exist. The Wintoons and Pitt River Indians, I make 

 no doubt, remember the grave, kindly, broad-shouldered 

 man who studied their customs, and listened to their 

 traditions. And times innumerable, since the State lost 

 this outdoor citizen, there has been need of that cheerful, 

 sweet-tempered readiness to use a well-trained pen for the 

 public benefit. Charles Howard SnrsoT. 



Niles, Cal. 



tinous 



ist, a "business'mau and a scientist. He had beenMayor of 

 Sacramento, Member of the Assembly, and Secretary of 

 State. At the time of his death he was at the head of the 

 Land Department of the Central Pacific Railroad, and be- 

 sides being the chief Fish Commissioner of the State, he 

 was a regent of the University of California, and the Presi- 

 dent of the Board of Trustees of the Academy of Sciences. 

 In all these relations, the old "newspaper instinct" never 

 left him; he had the habit of appeal to the public sense of 

 right and wrong, with a sinTple, earnest statement of the 

 "facts of the case." Times without number, men would 

 come to him and say: "Redding, help me to post the public, 

 help me to start this movement— if you can't no one else 

 can." If he could be shown that the object was a worthy 

 one, he always "took hold." 



Mr. Bidding's later writings are mostly connected with 

 his work as Fish Commissioner. Every year he went to the 

 wildest regions of the Northern Sierras, about Shasta, then 

 a hundred miles from a railroad, or into some other equally 

 inaccessible retreat. Here he observed many facts, and with 

 his rare power of expression, wove them into his remark- 

 able articles, contributed to a wide range of journals. I find, 

 for instance, several articles of his in Forest and Stream, 

 one for March 13, 1878, on "The Spawning of California 

 Salmon;" another, a very valuable contribution, "How Fish 

 Hear." in the issue for September 19, 1879; and a third, on 

 "Aboriginal Fly-Fishing,'' published Oct. 1, 1881, about 

 nine months before his death. These are instinct with 

 healthy, breezy life, and full of a marvelously close observa- 

 tion. He studied Indian life as no other person on the 

 Pacific coast had ever studied it. In one of his best maga- 

 zine articles, entitled "How Our Ancestors Made Their Im- 

 plements in the Stone Age," he caught the most minute 

 details of an old Wintoon arrow-maker's fast-perishing art. 

 In still another article which he wrote for me in 1879, while 

 I was editor of the California Horticulturist on "Cam as fia 

 cseulenta as a Food Plant," Mr. Redding showed how com- 

 plete a knowledge of the California Indians he had acquired. 



Mr. Redding wrote well and often of practical horticulture. 

 Whenever I met him I gathered something of permanent 

 value about the resources of California, or some new special 

 product. He wrote one of the first and most valuable papers 

 published on the "Artesian Waters of San Joaquin." His 

 paper on the "Foothills of the Sierras" first called public 

 attention to that vast and fertile region. He first described 

 and experimented with the wild hemp of the Colorado liver 

 bottoms. He wrote long and widely circulated articles on 

 oranges, olives, palms, the "climate of California" and many 

 cognate subjects. He spent large sums of money in horti- 

 cultural experiments, some ot which have resulted in grow- 

 ing profits to the State. No other man of his time appears 

 to have mapped out with such accuracy the lines of social 

 and material development on the Pacific Coast. 



But, after all else is said— after the wide range of his 

 peculiarly practical literary life is noted and analyzed, from 

 his papers on "Carbon Paint" to his "Voyage to the Galle- 

 pagos Islands." Mr. Redding ; s chief pleasure in writing is 

 clearly seen to center about his beloved "Fish and Fishing." 

 Out of seventy-nine articles he published between October 

 1877 and August 1882, thirty-nine are devoted to fish topics. 

 Six of the Fish Commissioners' Reports are also chiefly or 

 altogether his work. These seventy-nine articks, besides 

 hundreds of unsigned editorials, and innumerable signed 

 articles that have never been collected, were mostly written, 

 as he once told me, "without pay, on subjects that needed, 

 public attention." If the editor of a country newspaper wrote 

 to Mr. Redding and asked for an article that was timely and 

 practical , he often got it, a few days after. Some of the best 

 papers Mr. Redding ever wrote were penciled on board a 

 train, for some obscure publication. He was as guiltless of 

 any egotism about his own work as any man 1 ever knew, 

 and he wrote, as he talked, with charming frankness and 

 clearness, but without any waste or surplus, often putting 

 what professional writers would call "material for a column 

 article" into a paragraph. 



His thirty-nine fish and fishing articles, of which I have 

 memoranda, are largely devoted to trout and salmon, though 

 shad, German carp, yellow catfish, white fish, Japanese carp, 



A Large Set of Crow's Eggs.— While on an orni- 

 thological tramp on April 24 I found my first nest of the 

 season — a common crow's, containing five eggs. I did 

 not then disturb the eggs, but as I happened to be there 

 again on the 29th ult. , I again climbed to the nest and 

 was much surprised to find nine eggs. Thus in the four 

 days since my first trip, four more eggs had been depos- 

 ited. I resolved to see the end of this curious set, so left 

 everything as it was and returned once more on May 2, 

 when I found ten eggs. Evidently the birds were satis- 

 fied with their extraordinary efforts, so I took the eggs 

 for my collection. After leaving the nest I spent nearly 

 two hours at some distance from the grove watching to 

 see if more than one pair of crows were interested in the 

 nest. The male and female soon came, and after some 

 hesitation the latter went to the nest, looked in and re- 

 turned to her mate with loud cawing. He seemed wholly 

 unmoved by her sorrow and they soon flew away. But 

 no other crows came. In markings the eggs are not un- 

 common, varying from dense fine markings to the usual 

 dashes and spots of brown and umber. Neither do 

 they differ much in size, the measurements of which I 

 will cheerfully furnish to any interested party. These 

 facts seem to show that the eggs all belong to the same 

 cro ws. Is not this the largest set of crow's eggs on record? 

 —A. C. Kempton (Wolfville, N. S.). 



Wapiti in Germany. — In the current number of the 

 Zoologist it is stated tbat a wealthy Berlin manufacturer 

 has a shooting near Luckenwaid, where the wapiti 

 (Cervus canadensis) has been acclimatized. Between 

 Jan. 20, 1889 and Jan. 20, 1890, seven of these animals 

 were shot there, one of them having a head of fourteen 

 points. — Nature (London). 



Note of the Snowy Owl. —Edgar, Neb., May 9. — 

 Some time ago a correspondent asked about the call made 

 by the snowy owl. There are a couple in captivity here, 

 and they seem to be doing well, eat heartily and are ap- 

 parently healthy. The only noise they have been heard 

 to make is a kind of whistle. — H. 



'Reno Gazette; and one on "Going Fishing," in the Sacra- 

 mento Bee, for June the same year. The San Francisco 

 Bulletin was one of his favorite mediums of communication, 

 and he gave them papers on "Pacific Coast Fish," the "Mc- 

 Cloud Hatchery," "A Fishery in the Pitt River," and manv 

 similar topics. He wrote for the Sacramento Record- L n ion, 

 the San Francisco Chronicle, the Rural Press, the Roily 

 Post, the Argonaut, the Californian, and many other 

 Pacific Coast publications. During 1880, 1 find that he pub- 

 lished eighteen articles, all of considerable length, and ten 

 of them devoted to fish and fisheulture. It must be re- 

 membered that all this time he was at the head of the Land 

 Department of the Central Pacific Railroad, and was besides 

 engaged in business enterprises of his own. 



A number of his articles were on miscellaneous topics, all 

 useful and worth reading, even now. A long paper on 

 "Shellac and Lac Dye," contributed to the Ru ral Press, a 

 study of "Prehistoric Man," especially on the Pacific Coast, 

 written for the Reno Gazette, another on "Wild Rice," in 

 the Pacific Life, and his "Mount Shasta," which the Central 

 Pacific Railroad Company published, will sufficiently show 

 the range of his investigations. 



But his scattered papers and varied contributions to cur- 

 rent literature, ad mirable as they were in themselves, have 

 a still greater interest from the fact that they were a sort of 

 unconscious protest on his part against the mere money- 

 making grind. He was a business man of great ability, but 

 his natural bent of mind lay toward the natural sciences, 

 and he could have won distinction in that field. He kept 

 track of every archaaological or historical discovery of im- 

 portance on the Pacific Coast; he dug into shell mounds, 

 and gathered fossils, measured trees, interviewed pioneers, 

 and preserved in his articles material of high scientific value! 

 Reverend Horatio Stebbins has said: "The mental qualities 

 of Mr. Redding were of the highest order. His was a mind 

 essentially scientific, having that indomitable courage, that 

 steadfastness in him, that steady power of questioning and 

 arranging facts, that characterizes the greatest of scientific 

 men. Had he made science his vocation instead of his 

 avocation, he would have attained to a reputation in the 

 scientific world that would have been brilliant." 



Nevertheless, when all else is said, I count it as more to 

 the credit of this old pioneer, who came to California in 1850, 

 and he helped so much to create the State, that when he 



Arrivals at the Phtlauelpuia Zoological Garden April. 

 —Received by purchase— One jaguar (Fells unca) S , one douroucouli 

 (Nyctipithceus trivircicttus), one six-banded armadillo (Dasyptis sex- 

 cittci«s),one griaon (tialictis vittata),twa nylguaie (BoselopJm8 pictus) 

 two toque monkeys (Macacuspileatus), one night nerqn {Nyctittyrox 

 griseus naivim), one yellow- belli ed songster (Liothrix luteyis), one 

 greater tit (Parus major), two whistling swans (Cygnus ame.ricanus), 

 one purple galiinule (Porphyria martinica), one loon rCQlj/»nibMS 

 torquatus), one ariel toucan (Ramphastns artel), two Indian pythons 

 (Python molurm), twelve iguanas (Gyctura bwolopha), one horned 

 iguana (Iguana tubcrculata rhinolopha), one alligator snapping 

 turtle (Macrovhelyx laeertina), one water mocassin (Ancistrodon 

 piscivorm), five ground rattlesnakes (Grdtalophorus miliartus), one 

 diamond rattlesnake (Crotalm adamantcm), nine common hog- 

 nosed snakes (Reterodon pUttyrhiniis), one spotted hog-nosed snake 

 (H, platyrhinos at/modes), three coach-whip snakes (Basmnium 

 JlageUiforme), one scarlet snake (Ccniophora coccinea), fourteen 

 king snakes (Ophibolus gctidus), nine black snakes {Bascanium 

 constrictor), one corn snake (Col ubcr gultatus), two indigo snakes 

 (Spilotex erebennus), two common Water snakes (Tropidonotus 

 slpedou), one brown water snake (Tropidonotus taxtspmtus), one 

 chicken snake (Coluber quadrivittaHis), one harlequin snake (Maps 

 fulviws), one Osceola's snake (Osceola e.lapsoidca), and one pine 

 snake (Piiyoph'is mclanoleucus). Received by presentation— One 

 common opossum (Didelphys virginiaua), one screech owl (Scops 

 asio), two grass parrakeets (Melopsittaeus undulatus), one yellow- 

 fronted parrot (Clirysotis oehroevpiiaki), one gannet (Sulci Jjassana), 

 one king vulture (Gyparchm popa), one white-throated sparrow 

 (Zonotricliia albicows), one woodcock (Philohela minor), eleven 

 alligators (Alligator laississippiensis), six wave-lined lizards (Scelo- 

 pui-us luuiuUdtis). three elegant uta (Ufa elegans), one garter snake 

 (EutcEnia sirtalis), one Florida terrapin (Psevdcmys eoue.inna), one 

 spiny lizard (Sceloporus spinosus), two horned lizards (Phrynosoma 

 voriratn), and one tree boa (Ziphosoma liortidana). Born in the 

 Garden— One gazelle (hybrid between G. mhyutturom i and G. 

 dorcass ), four gray foxes (Vanls virgin iarnts), three prairie wolves 

 (Cauls Intra tm), and one Virginia deer (Cariacus virgin iamis). 



fag mtd 



" FOREST AND STREAM" GUN TESTS. 



THE following guns have been tested at the Forest And 

 Stream Range, aud reported upon in the issues named. 

 Copies of any date will be sent on receipt of price, ten cents: 



Colt 12, July 25. 

 Colt 10 and 12, Oct. 24. 

 FOLSOM 10 and 13, Sept. 86. 

 Francotte 13, Dec. 12. 

 Greener 12, Aug. 1. 

 U-reener 10, Sept. 12, Sept. 19. 

 Hollis 10, Nov. 7. 

 Lefever 12, March 13. 

 Parker 10, hammer, June 6. 



Parker 12, hammerless, June 6. 

 Remington lf>, Mav 30. 

 Remington 12, Dec. 5, Feb. 6. 

 Remington 10, Dec. 26. 

 Scott iu, Sept. 5. 

 L. C. Smith 12, Oct. 10. 

 Whitnet Saeety 12, March 6. 

 Winchester 10 and 12, Oct. 3. 



MASSACHUSETTS GAME LAW. 



CHAPTER 249.— An act to amend an act for the better preserva- 

 tion of birds and game. Be it enacted by the Senate and 

 House of Representatives in general court assembled, and by the 

 authority of the same, as follows: Sec. L Chap. 332 of the acts of 

 the year 1888, amending section 1 of chapter 27(3 of the acts of the 

 year 1886, is hereby amended so as to read as follows: Sec. 1. 

 Whoever takes or kills a pinnated gronse at any time, or a wood- 

 cock, or a ruffed grouse, commonly called a partridge, or a quail, 

 between the fifteenth day of December and the fifteenth day ot 

 September, or a wood or summer duck, black duck or teal, or any 

 of the so-called duck species, between the fifteenth day of April 

 and the first day of September shall be punished by a fine of $20 

 for every bird so taken or killed. 



Sec. 2. Whoever at any time takes or sends, or causes to be taken 

 or transported beyond the limits of the Commonwealth any wood- 

 cock, quail or ruffed grouse, taken or killed within the Common- 

 wealth, or has in possession any such bird or birds with intent to 

 take or cause the same to be taken out of the Commonwealth, 

 shall be punished by a fine of S10 for every bird so had in posses- 

 sion or taken or caused to be taken or sent beyond the limits of 

 the Commonwealth as aforesaid. Approved April 30, 1890, 



JACKSNIPE IN NEBRASKA. 



OMAHA, Nebraska, May 5. — This has been a great 

 spring for Wilson's snipe, and bigger bags have 

 been made than for a long series of years. There is no 

 accounting for this remarkable flight of the birds, how- 

 ever, and I haven't even a conjecture to offer. I am bold 

 enough to express the belief, though, that Nebraska 

 shooters will not see another such season for many a 

 long year to come, if ever again. 



No one who has ever indulged in the sport will deny 

 that spring snipe shooting is about Ihe most enjoyable 

 and exhilarating of all outdoor sports, and still I stoutly 

 hold, as with wildfowl shooting of all descriptions, it 

 should be prohibited by law. This precious little bird 

 only drops down in our marshes and meadows in the 

 warm mellow days of April and early May, to make love 

 and tryst, and secure a little rest and nourishment before 

 continuing its weary flight on to the north. They are on 

 the way to the hatching and breeding grounds, where the 

 sound of man's footfall is seldom heard, and should be 

 allowed to reach here for the brief period that marks 

 their stay, and then proceed unmolested on their way. 

 This would always assure us magnificent fall shooting, 

 when the birds would be as plump and fat as veritable 

 butter-balls, a hundred fold superior to what they are 

 found to be in the spring. But there is no taw whatever 

 in Nebraska for the protection of this bird, and any of 

 the water fowl either for that matter. When the jack 

 comes, either in spring time or hazy autumn, you can 

 take your breechloader, go down in the bogs and knock 

 him right and left— that is if you know how— with im- 

 punity. Why is this? 



The jacksnipe (Gallinago ivilsonii) is, in my estima- 

 tion, the choicest of all our feathered game. The quail 

 or the woodcock cannot be mentianed in the same breath, 

 at least in my opinion. As plenty as they are here, now, 

 they command to $2 and $2.25 in the market. They are 

 little, but they deserve as much attention at the hands of 

 the Legislature as the quail, duck, dove or any bird of 

 insectivorous proclivities. This spring shooting is telling 

 with terrible effect upon their numbers, and within a few 

 years more they will entirely fail to put in an appearance 

 in these, their old haunts. Every year, to the observant 

 and solicitous sportsman, the decrease becomes more and 

 more noticeable, and he calls louder and louder for suc- 

 cor at the hands of the law-makers. 



Why do I shoot snipe in the spring, asks the doubting 

 nimrod? I answer him sharply, because all the rest of 

 . the Portuguese do. If I hung up my gun alone it would 

 accomplish nothing, save to give some of the alleged 

 shots round about here a better chance to make a big 

 bag themselves, and I'll not do it. A s long as shooting 

 is permitted in the spring, I'll have nay share of it, but I 

 would hail with satisfaction supreme the enactment that 

 should compel all to forego this spring slaughter and 

 give the persecuted jacks an opportunity to recuperate 

 and multiply. 



There are magnificent snipe grounds within easy reach 

 of this city. To the west, stretching away up the beau- 

 tiful Elkhorn Valley, is a low-lying wild meadowland of 

 the richest and blackest soil, corrugated and broken with 

 tufted nigger-heads and trickling rills, making one of 

 the choicest feeding grounds the hungry snipe ever struck. 

 This loamy reach, too, is dotted here and there with 

 clumps of "blood-twigged maples, with bunches of wild 

 rose and acres of liliputian cane, pucker brush, flags and 

 slender-speared buffalo grass, which makes a favorite 

 home for song birds, for turtles, frogs, gartersnakes and 

 an occasional rattler of the prairie breed. In July and 

 August this, too, is a famous rendezvous for woodcock, 

 and 1 have made many and many a famous bag here. 

 Still it is the jacks' paradise, and as there is more genu- 

 ine pleasure and excitement in an hour's snipe shooting 

 than there is iu a whole day's woodcocking, I will give 

 you my experience out there of ten or twelve days ago. 



The Doctor and I went here together, and what a glo- 

 rious day we did have! South breezes were blowing 

 warm and balmy, the yellow sunshine flooded the forest, 

 field and wallow, and all the conditions were superb for 

 a successful shoot. 



Once upon the ground, and Fan, the Doctor's old Gor- 

 don, was ordered about her business. I do not usually 

 take a dog for snipe, but on this occasion the Doctor was 

 anxious that his setter should have experience, and as 

 they never come amiss in assisting you in recovering the 

 killed, of course I offered no objection. A dead snipe is 

 about as hard an object to find as the proverbial needle 

 in a haystack. Without a dog much care must be exer- 

 cised in marking down the fallen bird, and they should 

 be recovered at the earliest possible moment, as thehomo- 

 geneousness of a well-ordered snipe ground is a wonder 

 and a perplexity always. 



Fan looked up into our faces a moment with her bright, 

 intelligent eyes, waving her tail in delighted anticipa- 

 tion. "Hie on!" repeated the Doctor, and with an eager 

 whine she bounded off, dropping to a quick walk with 

 her delicate nose to the ground. After completing a 

 circle she returned and gazed up into Doc's face as much 

 as to say, "No snipe here." She was waved off again 

 and vaulting the conical tussocks, treading gingerly 

 through the brackish pools, searching grassy thickets and 

 reedy caverns, and nosing the ground generally, she 

 made a picture well calculated to stir the blood in the 

 veins of the ambitious sportsman. Suddenly, as the 

 Doctor and I were both astride an old rail fence that 

 bisects the upper marsh, we simultaneously noticed a 

 resilient movement on the pai't of old Fan; then she be- 

 came as immobile as if cut from stone, with her dilated 

 nostrils drinking in the scent that came from a small, 

 scroggy clump of pucker brush. "Birds, Sandy," ad- 

 monished the Doctor, and tfien in his improvident haste, 

 his rubber boots went "kersock" in the oozy mud on the 

 other side. 



''Skeajj! sTc&ap! slceap! and away, here and there, and 

 thither and yon, darted little brown and white shapes, 

 twisting and convoluting in the dazzling sunshine like so 

 many feather lunatics, and although taken at a decided 

 disadvantage, astraddle the top-most rail of the old zig- 

 zag fence, I got in two shots, grassing a bird with each, 

 while the Doctor, with language entirely inexcusable, 

 was extricating his rubbered limbs from the agglutina- 

 tive loam. 



At least fifteen birds had flushed, and they had dropped 

 all about us in the undergrowth and grassy slough. Fan 

 still stood crouching, gazing back at us with a wistful, 

 impatient look, but at the irate Doctor's "Go fetch!" she 



