Jan. 25, 1896.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
71 
the English sparrow took refuge in a cedar tree where the 
American bird couldn't find it. After that the same six 
tried to whip the Yankee bird again, but got whipped as 
badly as before. When human beings stand up against 
odds for their rights, it is but the cropping out of the bird 
instinct as shown in this case of Socialis. (D. G. Elliot, 
FOEEST AND STREAM, Vol. II., p. 23.) 
In regard to the games played by birds and men tbere 
is a marked resemblance, which shows conclusively the 
survival of old bird instincts. Tag and hide-and-seek are 
as popular among children of men as they are among the 
birds. Variations are frequent in both families. Puss-in- 
corner is but a development of bird play. 
One sees a high-hole (Colaptes auratus) fly at another 
perched on a tree branch. The other flies away, only to 
return and fly at the first as it had been flown at. Swal- 
lows are the swiftest tag flyers. The instinct to chase 
one another still abides in human beings, having been 
ingrained before our letters were formed. Some crusty 
old men are very cross at boys for making a noise. A 
drum is one of the most used, most acceptable presents 
one can give a boy; toys with bells or rattling joints are 
more popular than mere books with pictures in. Boys 
delight to yell, to shriek, to blow whistles and horns of 
all sorts. In fact, the blowing of horns is not confined to 
small boys, as witness New Year's, 5when the more noise a 
man can make the better he likes it. The boom of can- 
non is thrilling. We are an odd mixture of bird life. The 
boom of guns, cannon and drums is but the echo of our 
pheasant ancestors calling to their sweethearts. The 
small boy who delights himself while going down to the 
village street rasping the picket fence with a stick is but 
carrying out the instinct he inherited from the wood- 
ecker family, whose chief delight is in the rattle and 
ang of some splinter of an old dead tree. The whistles, 
horns, shrieks and cries are but the quaverings of birds' 
voices in the distance of past ages. 
When men were more like birds than they are now 
many of them found it difficult to break off their old 
habits of life. This is no better shown than in the work- 
ings of our divorce courts. Some men live happily all 
their lives with their wives. So do some birds. Other 
birds must needs change every year, and so some men 
feel as though they ought to. They are not to be blamed 
too harshly; it is tbe old bird instinct. 
A moment ago I spoke of the herons' dances. Herons 
are not the only feathered dancers, but those whose forms 
most resemble the human form dance most. I have seen 
the little tip-up, so common along our country streams, 
in a kind of dance. These dances are as varying as the 
dances of the human family. Jigs are not unpopular 
with both; gliding, graceful marches, two-steps, double 
and single dancers and all together in forms intricate and 
simple. Spectators are not inconsiderable in either class. 
The glittering of a ball room crowded with human beings 
glistening with jewels is no more inspiring now than it 
was in the days when the human race had wings and 
feathers. The colors on our ancestors' backs were just as 
beautiful to their eyes as the jewels of to-day are to ours, 
and the love of glittering objects is as manifest in the 
babies as it is in the birds. A bluejay will steal a thimble 
from an open window and a baby will reach for the 
moon, or a gas or wood flame. For brilliancy of color, the 
splendor of sunsets is as much admired by birds as by 
men, as witness the worship of the sun by the Aztecs and 
by the best known bird of paradise (Paradisea apoda), the 
great emerald, which "flies from branch to branch, opens 
its wings, extends them to their full length, raises and 
depresses its long plume- like feathers, * * * utters 
loud cries" on seeing a brilliant sunrise or sunset from the 
tops of the tallest trees, where it "abandons itself to the 
most passionate 'excitement" (Forest and Stream, Vol. 
II., p. 66). This most beautiful of birds feels the thrill of 
beauty which we feel on seeing the sun, tended by the 
colored clouds, in the low west or east. 
"We love our brothers," too often "not wisely, but too 
well." The young boy, and many an old one, delights in 
a bird in a cage. Hundreds of nests each year shelter life 
only to be robbed of it by a boy who wants a pet bird. 
We like to have a bird around the house singing, or if 
they won't sing we look to them joyful at their life. We 
even kill them and perch them, dead and stuffed with 
Straw or something else, in our rooms to look at. Many 
a bird would be glad to have a mounted man or man cub 
in its playground. The gardener bird (Amblyornis 
inornata) of Papua, for instance, would be most pleased 
if it could take one of those little white china dolls, the 
size of a crow's bill, to its sweetheart in its reception 
room, where the doll would be one of the most conspicu- 
ous of ornaments. No creatures agree quite so well as 
birds and men. In a few days a man in an isolated hut 
in the woods will have a dozen or hundreds of fearless 
visitors of the feathered tribe if he will but act the chick- 
adee or duck, instead of the hawk or shrike. It is broth- 
erly love. 
Columbus yearned toward the west for years. There 
was a tearing at his heart. Voices without him said, 
"Cornel" Voices within said, "Go!" He went. And 
here we are in America while voices from all directions 
say, "Come!" It is the old migrating instinct of the 
goose. Travelers among us tell their tales of far-off lands, 
of what they saw, just enough to make us wish to go there 
too. The old ganders tell the goslings of the far-away 
south, of food a-plenty, of beauties, of kinsmen and 
friends, and a little perhaps of dangers. The trials, the 
storms, the gauntlet of hawks, eagles and men of prey are 
scarcely thought of . A voice says, "Come!" We go. As 
there are men who have never tried on their wings— the 
awkward steam ones we have made to serve the purpose 
there are birds that are also sedentary. I have known a 
partridge (Bonasa umbellus) that never traveled a dozen 
miles from his native hillside in his life; so have I known 
men that never cared to migrate. 
We win our wives by our good looks, our genius, our 
wealth, our skill or by main strength, whipping all our 
rivals, fighting them to the death with our artifical spurs 
or we don't win them. It is the same with birds. 'The 
Amblyornis inornata that builds the finest bower and 
makes the most beautiful presents is the lady Inornata's 
choice. As the taste as to what is finest differs among 
women, so it differs with birds. 
"What on earth can she see in the likes of him, I'd like 
to know!" is spoken quite as often among birds as it is 
among our kind. If you don't believe it study the birds 
next spring as they are waiting. Every year there are 
bachelor birds and these birds raise all sorts of trouble 
m bird life, Take the crow for instance. Seldom 
in a large swamp, never in a small one, is more 
than one nest built. Let another crow come near that 
swamp and one of the crows of the nest starts for it, 
whereupon the other follows and the two birds put the 
one to flight quickly. Sometimes there is no rush at the 
odd crow and it is but justice to presume that one of the 
mates is away intriguing perhaps. If that characteristic 
don't show in the human family what does? The two are 
alike. The Cervidce are allied to the Paradisoe, distantly 
and men are allied to both. It has been argued with 
some effect on not over exact minds that the tree instinct 
of monkeys still abides in man. It is said that the delight 
of boys and girls and men in climbing up steep cliffs or 
grasping topmost branches of tall trees is the cropping out 
of monkeyism. But we have gone farther than the 
monkey ever could conceive of. A monkey can climb to 
a treetop, but only a bird would think of going beyond. 
Why was a balloon invented? Why do inventors pass 
their lives trying to make themselves a machine that will 
bear them aloft? The bird in us will not down. We must 
fly, and till we are birds in the air once more we will be 
dissatisfied. 
We like to be among the trees, in their branches. The 
lull and soothing music of rustling leaves puts us to sleep 
as quickly now as when our nests swayed on the tree 
branches. Our easy rocking-chairs axe substitutes for 
treetops, our hammocks are orioles' nests. 
Raymond S. Spears. 
Brooklyn, N. Y.__ 
California Academy of Sciences. 
The officers elected for 1896 are: President, David Starr 
Jordan; First Vice-President, William E. Ritter; Second 
Vice-President, H. H. Behr; Corresponding Secretary, J. 
O'B. Gunn; Recording Secretary, G. P. Rixford; Treasurer, 
L. H, Foote; Librarian, Charles A. Keeler; Director of 
Museum, J. Z. Davis; Trustees, W. C. Burnett, W. S. 
Chapman, Charles F. Crocker, W. S. Keyes, E. J. Molera, 
George C. Perkins, G. W. Stewart. 
mt[£ Jf## nnd 0mu 
FIXTURES. 
March 16 to 31, 1896.— Second annual Sportsmen's Exposition, under 
the auspices of the Sportsmen's Association, at Madison Square 
Garden, New York city. Frank W. Sanger, Manager. 
TO APPEAL TO CONGRESS. 
We have received from City Attorney F. A. Williams, 
of Denver, Colo., the following report of an interview 
printed in the Denver Times: 
The problem of protecting the wild game of this and 
adjoining States is becoming more and more serious, and 
seems to require Congressional aid. City Attorney Wil- 
liams yesterday sent to Congressman Shafroth, by ar- 
rangement with him, a copy of a bill for an act to pre- 
vent interstate commerce in the carcasses, meat, hides 
and horns of wild game. 
In conversation with a Times reporter Mr. Williams ex- 
plained the purpose of the bill. He said: "All the wild 
game killed by ranchmen and sportsmen in the ordinary 
course of things would not greatly reduce the game still 
remaining in this State, and, were it not for the wholesale 
slaughter made by Indians and pot-hunters, the elk and 
antelope would be preserved a long time, and deer would 
always take care of themselves. During the season when 
ranchmen and sportsmen can reach the game, the game 
is scattered; but when the annual migrations occur, and 
the game is collected in great herds, it is easy to destroy 
them in great numbers. This has been done every year 
for a series of years, and I understand that the destruction 
this fall by Indians was alarming in extent. 
"The decision of Judge Riner, in Wyoming, in the 
habeas corpus case against Racehorse, one of the Bannock 
Indians, is probably good law, but unless reversed or 
modified by the Supreme Court I fear it seals the fate of 
wild game in Wyoming and Colorado unless the treaties 
with certain Indian tribes can be altered. This is a mat- 
ter requiring attention on the part of the representatives 
of these States in Congress, and I am hoping that when 
the matter can be brought in the proper way to their at- 
tention and the proposition formulated that these treaties 
can be so altered that an Indian will have no more right 
to destroy the natural attractions of these States than a 
white man. 
Indians and Pot-Hunters. 
"The motive for Indians and pot-hunters is the same— 
the hope of gain. The Indians dispose of the hides to 
their agents and the agents to merchants. It is not diffi- 
cult, therefore, to understand that Indian agents are very 
willing for the Indians to take their annual hunt in Colo- 
rado under the pretext of looking for 'ponies.' I think 
hides bring the pot-hunter about 50 cents each and the 
Indian much less, and for the sake of this small sum an 
animal is destroyed, for the pleasure of taking which a 
local sportsman would spend anywhere from $25 to $100, 
and a non-resident $300 to $300, in money that would be 
distributed principally in the immediate vicinity of the 
game preserves. 
"One of the principal difficulties confronted by the game 
wardens is the fact that the game preserves lie so near the 
boundary line of other States. The game is killed in this 
State, taken over the line to Utah or Wyoming, and on 
the representation that it was not killed in those States is 
shipped to markets extending all the way from New 
York to San Francisco, some of it being shipped directly 
back to Denver and other points in Colorado. The hides 
nearly all go East to the glovemakers, and the num- 
ber shipped from points in Colorado is something appall- 
ing. 
States are Handicapped. 
"Every State is handicapped in attempting to prevent 
the shipment of hides and meat out of the State by the 
limitations of the United States Constitution, which re- 
serves to Congress the sole power to regulate interstate 
commerce. We can prohibit shipments from points 
within to other points within this State, but not from 
points within to points without the State. If we could 
prevent interstate traffic in the hides and meat of wild 
game there would be no motive for Indians or pot-hunt- 
ers, as there would be no sale for the hides or meat, and 
the wholesale destruction of our rapidly diminishing herds 
would be arrested. 
"It may be said that Congress has no interest in the 
preservation of these local attractions, and ought not to 
exercise the federal power for the preservation of State 
interests, but this argument fails when we consider that 
because of the reservations of the federal Constitution the 
States are powerless, and it is therefore right for us to ask 
the assistance of Congress. 
"The bill gives federal aid only so far as it is necessary 
to enable each State to protect itself, and while in terms 
absolutely prohibiting the interstate traffic, practically 
leaves the matter to the regulation of each State by 
statute. 
"The reason why the States of Colorado, Wyoming and 
Utah are alone included in this bill is that their interests 
in the matter are inseparable, I believe the principle is 
correct, and there is no reason why the bill should not be 
made general in its application throughout the whole 
country. If adopted it should be supplemented by a suit- 
able act of the Legislature of each State affeoted." 
Following is the bill as prepared by Mr. Williams: 
The Bill. 
A bill for an act to regulate interstate traffic in wild 
game. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 
tives of the United States of America in Congress 
assembled: 
"Whereas, It is necessary to the preservation of wild 
game in the States hereinafter named that interstate traffic 
in the hides and meat of the wild animals hereinafter 
mentioned should be regulated and prohibited; and 
"Wliereas, By reason of the exclusive power of Congress 
to regulate interstate traffic, the States are powerless to 
regulate or prohibit the transportation of said articles to 
other States, and the enactment of the following pro- 
visions will enable each State by legislation to protect the 
wild game within its own borders; therefore, 
"Section 1. It shall be unlawful for any railroad com- 
pany, express company, or other common carrier, or any 
of its agents, officers or servants, to receive for shipment 
or to transport, or for any person or corporation to ship or 
to offer to any common carrier for shipment, from any 
place within the State of Colorado, the State of Wyoming 
or the State of Utah to any place without the same State, 
for market or for storage, any carcass, meat, hides or horns 
of any deer, elk, antelope, bison or Rocky Mountain 
sheep. 
"Provided, That nothing herein contained shall prohibit 
the shipment of any such of the said articles and in such 
quantities as may be expressly authorized and permitted 
by the laws of the State in and from which the shipment 
is made; or the transportation of any of the said articles 
through any of the said States from any place to any place 
without said. States. 
"Section 2. Every person and corporation guilty of vio- 
lating this act shall upon conviction be fined in a sum 
not less than $100 nor more than $1,000 for each offense, 
or punished by imprisonment not less than one month nor 
more than one year, or by both such fine and imprison- 
ment." 
Mr. Bostwick's Views. 
The reporter called upon Mr. H. M, Bostwick and asked 
his opinion of the bill. Mr. Bostwick said: "I approve 
the bill and think if it can be passed it will prove a great 
benefit; in fact, I believe that law breakers fear punish- 
ment in the United Slates courts more than in the State 
courts. If this law can be passed and the transportation 
companies will lend their aid and the Indian treaties can 
be modified the game in this State will steadily increase, 
as it has in Maine since the passage of the protective laws 
there. 
"The railroads recently refused to receive a shipment 
of 20,0001bs. of deer meat at Grand Junction which had 
been killed in Colorado, taken in wagons over to Price, 
Utah, where the Rio Grande Western Railroad refused to 
ship it, and which was afterward hauled to Grand Junc- 
tion, where the other roads refused to receive it. The 
railroads can do more than the officers of the law, and if 
they will maintain this stand we will have little use for 
protective laws except to justify them in refusing to re- 
ceive such shipments." 
THE MASSACHUSETTS ASSOCIATION. 
Boston, Jan. 17. — Editor Forest and Stream: Under 
the lead of President B. C. Clarke, the governing board of 
the Massachusetts Fish and Game Protective Association 
are getting into shape for the active work for which they 
were elected, and it will not be his or their fault if they 
do not make an excellent showing in the interest of fish 
and game protection the present year. The board held a 
largely attended meeting at the Copley Square Hotel last 
evening, at which the following committees were ap- 
pointed. On publication, President Clarke, Secretary 
Kimball, Heber Bishop, Dr. J. W. Ball, Dr. W. G. Ken- 
dall; on enforcement of the fish laws, Wm. B. Smart, 
Rollin Jones, Chas. G. Gibson, Secretary Kimball; on en- 
forcement of the game laws, Arthur W. Robinson, Cnas. 
A. Allen, Loring Crocker, Secretary Kimball, Luther 
Little; on legislation, President Clarke, Secretary Kimball, 
John Fottler, Jr., Edward P. Brown, Dr. Heber Bishop, 
Dr. John T. Stetson, Wm. F. Ray, J. Russell Rsed, Geo. 
W. Wiggin, Robert S. Gray, Loring Crocker; on finance, 
Charles Stewart, Sidney Chase, Edward T. Barker; 
on entertainments and meetings, President Clarke, 
Secretary Kimball, George W. Wiggin, Edward E. Small, 
Chas. A. Allen, Wm. B. Smart, Dr. Heber Bishop. It is 
understood that among the subjects of legislation to ba 
brought before the Legislature now in session is that of 
shortening the season on black duck, which is now from 
Sept. 1 to April 15, and while there is an honest difference 
of opinion as to dates, that the question is one of impor- 
tance no one doubts. It is well known that fn the south- 
ern part of this State, on Cape Cod and in Plymouth 
county, a good many ducks are to be found in the winter, 
and wherever there is open water on the coast or inland 
they are to be found, and it is needless to say that they 
are slaughtered right and left. In the months of January 
and February it is often difficult for the birds to get proper 
feed, and they are not fit to eat, much less to be killed; 
and it ia the opinion of all concerned that the season ought 
to be shortened to a considerable extent. But there will 
be opposition, no doubt, as there always is, and it will 
come from those # who don't want any close time at all, 
but want to shoot anything that flies at any and all times. 
William B. Smart. 
