94 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Aug. 4, 1894 
former being commonly- and the latter occasionally seen 
in that wood. I afterward found, however, on seeing 
several of these birds at an earlier hour in the evening 
that they were woodcocks, and four or five couples of 
them circled the wood every evening, being on the wing 
for an hour or two at a time with a varied flight; some- 
times rapid and pursuing each other, uttering a sharp 
but not very loud whistling note, and sometimes slow 
and flapping, when an incessant low croaking was kept 
up by each individual," often not unlike the purring of a 
cat or the noise of a spinning wheel. From this time, 
throughout the summer, I could oh every even- 
ing between five and nine o'clock, see several 
cocks rise, generally from the lower and moister 
parts of the large wooded hill of which a high peak in 
the center overlooks the whole. The notes gradually 
ceased as the season advanced; and I rather imagine that 
these circular flights also gradually ceased, though, in the 
course of our walks, cocks were often flushed, until the 
more usual season arrived, when they no longer excited 
so much attention. I have often seen these woodcocks 
approaching me in the low covered walks, and so little 
alarmed as almost to brush my hat with their wings as 
they quietly passed over my head. This seemed to me to 
be the hour of feeding on the wing, at least their flight 
so much resembled that of night birds which feed on 
moths, &c. , that the probability of this occurred to me, 
although I am aware that their usual food is found upon 
the ground amongst damp leaves and moist grass. It is 
by the knowledge of this low flight of the woodcock in 
the covered alleys and walks of the forest that the foreign 
poacher takes such numbers of them in nets set for the 
purpose; and I often could have caught them in a com- 
mon hoop-net, as they passed me. 
"I have long been acquainted, as a sportsman, with the 
usual peaceful habits of the woodcock, during its winter 
residence in our climate; but I never at that season heard 
any sound but that of its wings on being flushed. I im- 
agine, therefore, that the low croaking and the occasional 
whistle are peculiar to the period of incubation, like that 
singular noise made by the snipe in spring, as it descends 
rapidly in the air, during its circuitous flight over its na- 
tive morass." 
The slow flight above referred to is probably not true of 
the American woodcock (P. minor), which in the evening 
flight moves its wings with great speed, from the moment 
it rises, until it comes "tumbling" back to the earth, after 
having finished its "song." In every motion there is the 
quickness and energy of a bat or chimney swift (Choztura), 
and in the fading sunset afterglow it might easily be 
taken for either of them, as was suggested by some of 
your correspondents. I have used the word "song," be- 
cause I am convinced that the sound, heard just before 
the bird descends, is vocal in origin, or, at any rate, that 
this is the case in Massachusetts, where all my observa- 
tions have been made. Arthur P. Chadbourne. 
Boston, Mass. 
%mt\t §ag m(d (gun. 
PARKS AND FOREST PRESERVES. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
The utter disregard of the average American for laws 
which for any reason are not, or cannot be, enforced is 
well known, and is sometimes very amusing. In the 
case of the depredations committed on our national reser- 
vations, however, this disregard of the law is not at all 
amusing. These forest reservations, which have been set 
aside by Presidential proclamation under the act of 
March 3, 1891. have come to be regarded by persons 
dwelling near them as a sort of free range, or common, 
where they can carry on any pursuits that seem to them 
desirable. Thus, in forest reservations in Montana, pros- 
pecting is going on somewhat generally, and it is sus- 
pected that the prospectors are paid to sink their holes by 
persons who are interested in getting the reservation cut 
down at the next session of Congress and thrown open to 
a railway. On a reservation in Montana sawmills and 
shingle mills are being set up and all timber of any value 
is being stripped from the mountain sides. Not satisfied 
with this, the timber thieves fire the branches and fallen 
•logs and burn over vast areas of which a part nas been 
stripped of standing timber, while other parts still sup- 
port splendid growing forest trees. Down in California 
the Sequoia and Gen. Grant National Parks have long 
been summer ranges for the sheep men, whose shepherds 
follow the snow toward the mountain in spring, and 
whose flocks devour every green thing that shows its 
head above the soil. 
The case of these forest reservations is not unlike that 
of the Yellowstone National Park for twenty years. They 
have been set aside from the public domain and have 
been handed over to Secretary of the Interior, but no laws 
have been enacted for their care or protection, no money 
is provided which the Secretary of the Interior can use 
to pay the expenses of such protection, no penalties have, 
been established for infringment of regulations. If a" 
man has been cutting timber on a scale sufficiently large 
to make it worth while to prosecute him for the theft, 
the Government may enter suit against him, and in the 
course of five or ten years the suit may come to trial and 
a verdict be reached. Meantime everybody else in the 
neighborhood — and very likely the person who is being 
sued — continues to take the Government timber and use 
it in whatever way will put most money into their 
pockets. 
It is an old story, and one that is hardly worth repeat- 
ing, for it has been told a thousand times, and no one 
ever pays the least attention to it. 
However, the following dispatch in a recent number of 
the Evening Post has again brought the matter to my 
mind, and it seems to me that there is something very 
encouraging in the attitude which is credited to Secretary 
Smith. But however much he may desire to mend mat- 
ters, he alone can do but little, and until the force of 
public opinion shall be brought to bear on Congress we 
must expect to see our forest reservations become less 
and less in value. The dispatch referred to I give below 
in the hope that you may think it worth printing: 
■Washington, July 27.— Secretary Hoke Smith is taking especial 
pains to guard the national parks and forest reservations from un- 
lawful intrusion and injury. Last spring he caused a large number of 
notices to be printed on conspicuous cloth sheets and posted on the 
trees in the reservations in such places that no person entering the 
reservations could fail to see them, warning the public "that these 
lands are set apart and reserved as a forest reservation by proclama- 
tion of the President of the United States, under authority of the act 
of Congress of March 3, 1891." The notice continues: 
"This reservation is made for the benefit of the adjoining communi- 
ties, being created to maintain a permanent supply of water for irri- 
gation and for wood for local use by a national protection of the tim- 
ber thereon. 
"All persons are hereby warned not to settle upon, occupy, or use 
any of these lands for agricultural, prospective, mining or other busi- 
ness purposes, nor to cut, remove, or use any of the timber, grass, or 
other natural product thereof, except under such regulations as may 
be hereafter prescribed. 
"No person shall start or kindle, or allow to be started or kindled, 
any fire in the timber, grass or undergrowth on these lands, or com- 
mit any other waste thereon; and the driving, feeding, grazing, pas- 
turing or herding of cattle, sheep, or other live stock within this res- 
ervation is strictly prohibited, 
"Bona fide settlers having properly initiated their claims prior to 
the withdrawal of the land for said reservation, and actual owners of 
land within the reserve, may pass to or from their claims or property, 
but will not be allowed to occupy or use lands within the reservation 
outside of their claims, nor to use, damage or destroy any timber or 
other natural product of such lands. 
"Any person violating these regulations will be prosecuted for tres- 
pass, and will be held responsible pecuniarily for any waste or dam- 
age, whether done intentionally or caused by neglect. AH law-abid- 
ing citizens are requested to report any cases of trespass upon said 
forest reserve that many come to their knowledge, and to assist in the 
prosecution of said trespassers." 
Not long ago Capt. James Parker, of the Fourth Cavalry, who is in 
charge as acting superintendent of the Sequoia and General Grant 
National Parks, volunteered to make a tour of the parks and reserva- 
tions in California with a few of his men and see how the law was 
being carried out. He found that not less than 500 000 sheep were 
pastured on this national property, and that they had done damage 
which threatened to be irreparable. The big pine trees were the only 
things which had escaped their ravages. They had eaten all the 
herbage, and even girdled the smaller deciduous trees of their bark. 
They would have eaten the pine bark also, but that it was too tough 
for them to nibble. So completely had they stripped the parks and 
reserves of everything which could be used for fodder that it was 
often difficult, when out of reach of farms and ranches where feed 
was stored, for the troopers to get enough for their horses to subsist 
upon. 
The disposition of the people who have committed this outrage is 
shown by the fact that they have torn down Secretary Smith's printed 
notices. The tacks with which they were fastened to the trees are 
often still in the bark, with evidences that the cloth was deliberately 
torn down. 
Information of these performances, with such particulars as could 
be collected, has been sent to the Department of Justice, and district 
attorneys and marshals in the States where the parks and reservations 
are situated will be notified to prosecute all offenders to the full ex- 
tent of the law. Secretary Smith is bound to break up at any cost this 
form of defiance of Government authority. 
Think of it you who are interested in forestry. 
A. B. C. 
CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 
[From a Staff Correspondent.] 
Santa Claus. 
Chicago, 111., July 21.— Mr. Wm. C. Held, of Saginaw, 
E. S., Mich., writes about a mysterious heron: 
"On the morning of May 25 a friend of mine who lives 
in the heart of the city found in his yard a young blue 
heron, which must have come there during the night. 
The bird was about half feathered and could scarcely 
walk, and was certainly too young to fly. How do you 
suppose it got there ? " 
If the babies didn't bring it, it must have been Santa 
Claus. 
Erect Posture. 
Mr. John G. Smith, of Algona, la., writes on July 23: 
4 'The first shooting of the season took place about eighteen 
miles northwest of here last week. An old man and his 
son went out into a harvest field to set up some grain. 
They started up a large flock of prairie chickens, and the 
old man sent the boy back to the house to get the gun to 
shoot some of the chickens. The boy got the gun and 
returnerl to the field, but the gun by some means or other 
went off ia the boy's hands. Since then the old man has 
not been able to sit down with any comfort. The chickens 
all escaped, and the law was not violated." 
The N. G. B. and F. P. A. and the I. S. S. A. 
By the above fascinating headline I wish to call atten- 
tion to the fact that the National Game Bird and Fish 
Protective Association and also the older body, the Illinois 
State Sportsmen's Association, are doing thoughtful and 
energetic work in the matter of game protection. Presi- 
dent Bortree, of the N. G. B. and F. P. A., called at this 
office to mention one feature of the work of that organiza- 
tion, consisting of a generous printing and distribution 
of th? game laws of North and South Dakota. He thinks 
this will call attention to the laws in localities where they 
are little respected and possibly little known, and so do 
good in the slow work of building up a good protective 
sentiment. President Shepard of the Illinois State Asso- 
ciation, issues a general letter to the clubs of the Associa- 
tion, reminding of the $10 club assessment laid at the last 
convention for protective purposes and to defray expenses 
of Warden Blow, and asking prompt remittance of that 
and such additional moneys as each club can see its way 
to send. Warden Blow's excellent work deserves prompt 
acknowledgment and a long continuance. 
Dr. Thomas's Vacation. 
At this writing, Dr. Thomas, of Chicago, is thought to 
be in Wisconsin on his summer vacation. Dr. Thomas 
delivered his parting sermon the text of the "Peaceful 
heart." Are we to infer by this that Dr. Thomas haspaid 
his fine for illegal deer killing, or that he intends to do 
so while up in Wisconsin? 
Killed by Mills. 
The daily dispatches from Muncie, Ind., lately said: 
"Since the Eaton Paper Mills, on the Mississinewa River 
have been in operation after several weeks of idleness, 
wagon loads of fish are being killed daily below the town 
by the poisonous refuse from the mills." I understand 
that Mr. A. H. Harry man, once a well known angler in 
Chicago, is now editing a morning paper in Muncie. Will 
Mr. Harryman kindly shake 'em up a little? 
The Big Horn Basin. 
Mr. Jas. Fullerton, now located on the Wood River, 
writes of the Big Horn Basin enthusiastically, saying 
that "from the Ten Sleep to the head of the Divide is the 
finest country, climate, water and sporting that ever lay 
out of doors." But he also adds, "The elk can not re- 
main if the Shoshone Indians continue to kill 8,000 to 
10,000 per annum for their hides." He incloses a photo- 
graph of a pile of elk bones rivalling the size of the 
ghastly heaps common along the railroads in the buffalo 
bones days. 
Kankakee. 
The season just now is dull for fishing, the weather 
being very hot. About the best reports are coming from 
the Kankakee. At Mak-saw-ba Club numbers of wall- 
eyed pike have been taken, besides bass. At Momence 
the bass will not take the fly just now, the fishers tell me, 
but are taking; minnows pretty well below town. These 
are small-mouths. 
Woodcock. 
The best of the woodcock season is already past in In- 
diana, so far as the size of the bags is concerned, though 
the birds are not at their best so early. Henry Ehlers got 
15 one day and 8 another, and Dick Turtle 5 one day, all 
near Walter "Valley, on the Kankakee. 
Wisconsin Forests Burning. 
The extremely hot weather has a result in the forest 
fires now raging in upper Wisconsin, no doubt the most 
general and the most destructive known for years. The 
result on the deer hunting next fall is hard to tell, but 
probably the fires will drive them unusually far to the 
south. 
Bad for Chicken Shooting. 
Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska and the Dakotas have been 
fairly burned up in the awful drouth of the past few 
weeks. Chicken shooters will do well to head for a coun- 
try where they know the water supply to be permanent. 
The ordinary sloughs and small water courses are all 
dried up now. It will be a hard season for the dogs to 
work on chickens. The birds are unusually abundant all 
over the West, however. E. Hough. 
909 Security Building, Chicago. 
Massachusetts Summer Woodcock Shooting. 
Boston, Mass., July 24. — Editor Forest and Stream: I 
walked through Quincy market to-day and saw pinnated 
grouse in one stall. I picked up a Globe a short time ago 
and saw in the price list of market supplies, "Snipe, $2.50 
@3 per doz ; snow birds (buntings), 40@50c. per doz." In- 
vited to lunch by a friend an evening or two ago, I was 
informed that we could have woodcock or chicken grouse. 
This in a whisper, however. Upon asking how this could 
be in close season I was told, with a knowing wink, "Oh, 
came out of cold storage, you know." 
Add to that Plank a $5 penalty for every bird protected 
by the game laws found in possession in close season ; cold 
storage companies, common carriers or any one else being 
held responsible if found on their premises or in their 
charge. 
The sharp crack of guns have been heard in every likely 
woodcock ground in the middle and eastern part of the 
State for two weeks past, and the signs and wads found 
about the spring holes and brooksides tell the story that 
the poacher has been getting in his work. The long dry 
spell of weather has forced the birds into close quarters 
and the slaughter has by no means been light. Added to 
this has been large accessions to the ranks of market-gun- 
ners by reason of dull times in business and the large 
numbers of unemployed. There are not a few who sneak 
out ostensibly "to give a young dog a little exercise," 
whose gunning coats if inspected would disclose an un- 
hitched gun tucked away. I ran across one of these fel- 
lows a few mornings ago, and remarked to him that I 
never thought that working a pup on birds without using 
a gun was of any consequence He gravely asked me 
what I took him for; and out of one game pocket brought 
forth the breech and from the other the barrels of his 
gun. .Of course I innocently asked if he had shot any- 
thing and he replied no; but I knew better, for it had 
been his shooting that had taken me three-quarters of a 
mile from the road, down through a ravine, to ascertain 
what the racked meant; and before overtaking him (in the 
open) I had marked gun wads and dog tracks along the 
boggy bottom. There was not the slightest doubt in my 
mind that that coat held three to six woodcock as well as 
the gun. 
A little money judiciously expended at this season by 
the Game , Commissioners in hunting down these gilt- 
edged poachers and bringing them to justice would do 
more for the game than all that has been going on for 
years past could accomplish in a thousand years. Don't 
put the enforcement of the law into the hands of the 
63-cent town constable or officer, generally too lazy to 
work for a living and dependent upon his 63-cent arrest 
for his livelihood; but employ a few good practical men, 
who know where to look for birds and when, and they 
will find the fellows who also know where to find the 
market supplies. 
But keep hammering on that Plank. Keep it before 
your readers: and your readers who are true sportsmen 
ought to stand by and encourage you in the efforts you are 
making. W. W. C. 
Arrest of Indian Hide Hunters. 
In the latter part of June last, seven Indians, four men 
and three women, were arrested in the New Fork county 
by citizens of Fremont county, Wyoming, taken to 
Lander and lodged in jail there. The party that brought 
them in consisted of Ira Dodge and wife, J. M. Vander- 
vort, Wm. Todd, W. Alexander and Fred. Boyce. 
These Indians had been in the country about the New 
Fork of Green River, for some time, killing game for the 
hides. The local paper states that citizens had waited on 
them to leave the country, but they refused, They were 
then, after some difficulty, arrested by a party of a dozen, 
citizens, their property were packed up and they were 
brought to Lander. An examination of their packs 
showed not only a large number of hides of elk, antelope 
and deer, but four fresh calf hides as well, which made it 
clear that they had been killing range cattle as well as 
wild game. The county authorities at Lander communi- 
cated with Capt. Ray, the agent of these Indians, advis- 
ing him that they were in jail, and he came over to 
Lander to look after the matter. An arrangement was 
finally made by which the Indians were turned over to 
Capt. Ray, he agreeing bereaf ter to keep the Indians out 
of the particular country where the offenses were com- 
mitted and to punish them for their violations of the law. 
The arrest of these Indians is likely to be productive of 
much good, and if they can be kept on their agencies 
much friction with settlers will be avoided. Mr. Dodge 
tells us that not an Indian has been seen since the arrest, 
and the antelope are coming back to the vicinity in their 
usual numbers. 
