Forest and Stream! 
A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 
Tbems, ¥4 A Year. 10 Cts. a Copir. 
Six Months, f2. 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, JULY 18, 1896, 
J VOL. XLVII.— No. 3 
I No. 346 Broadtvat, New York. 
For Prospectus and Advertising Rates see Page x, 
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of time at the rate of forty cents per month. 
BIRD DAY. 
The idea of setting apart one day in the year for the 
planting of trees by the children of the public schools of 
the United States was first suggested nearly twenty- five 
years ago by the Hon. J. Sterling Morton, now Secretary 
of Agriculture. Since its establishment, the observance 
of Arbor Day has become very general in many parts of 
the Union and is still increasing. On the first Arbor 
Day more than a million of trees were planted, and it 
would be hard to calculate the full usefulness of this day, 
Not only has the supply of trees about our towns and vil- 
lages been by this means increased, but a very general 
ihterest has been aroused in the subject of trees and their 
uses, a sentiment cultivated for them and for the study of 
plants. A strong impression has no doubt been made on 
many young minds, which is exerting and will continue 
to exert an influence for good in the country at large. 
Now comes the suggestion that a bird day should be 
established, a day devoted altogether to birds, in which 
the children shall tell what they know about birds, and 
give the result of their study and observation of them 
throughout the year. The idea of bird day seems to have 
originated with Prof. C. A, Babcock, Superintendent of 
Schools in Oil City, Pa,, who wrote to the Department of 
Agriculture in the year 1894, urging the establishment of 
such a day, and stating that a certain date in May would 
be observed as Bird Day in Oil City. The Secretary of 
Agriculture replied very cordially, approving the sugges- 
tion, and the day was observed in the Oil City schools 
with much enthusiasm. It was observed again there in 
1895 and in 1896. This year an independent movement 
was started in Iowa by the Superintendent of Schools at 
Fort Madison with great success, and the matter has been 
taken up in Nebraska. 
In his letter to Mr. Babcock, Secretary Morton very 
truly says: "It is a melancholy fact that among the 
enemies of our birds two of the most destructive and re- 
entless are our women and our boys. The love of feather 
ornamentation so heartlessly persisted in by thousands of 
women, and the mania for collecting eggs and killing 
birds so deeply rooted in our boys, are legacies of barba. 
rism inherited from our savage ancestry. The number of 
beautiful and useful birds annually slaughtered for bonnet 
trimmings runs up into the hundreds of thousands, and 
threatens, if it has not already accomplished, the extermi- 
nation of some of our rarer species. The insidious egg- 
hunting and pea-shooting proclivities of the small boy are 
hardly less widespread and destructive. It matters little 
which of the two agencies is the more fatal, since neither 
js productive of any good. One looks to the gratification 
of a shallow vanity, the other to the gratification of a cruel 
instinct and an expenditure of boyish energy that might 
be profitably diverted in other channels. The evil is one 
against which legislation can be only palliative and of 
local efficiency. Public sentiment, on the other hand, if 
properly fostered in the schools, would gain force with 
the growth and development of our boys and girls, and 
would become a hundredfold more potent than any law 
enacted by the Sbate or Congress. I believe such a senti. 
ment can be developed, so strong and so universal that a 
respectable woman will be ashamed to be seen with the 
wing of a wild bird on her bonnet, and an honest boy will 
be ashamed to own that he ever robbed a nest or wantonly 
took the life of a bird. 
* "Birds are of inestimable value to mankind. Without 
their unremitting services our gardens and fields would 
be laid waste by insect pests. But we owe them a greater 
debt even than this, for the study of birds tends to 
develop some of the best attributes and impulses of our 
natures. Among them we find examples of generosity, 
unselfish devotion, of the love of mother for offspring, 
and other estimable qualities. Their industry, patience 
and ingenuity excite our admiration; their songs inspire 
us with love of music and poetry; their beautiful plumages 
and graceful manners appeal to our sesthetic sense: their 
long migrations to distant lands stimulate our imagina- 
tions and tempt xis to inquire into the causes of these 
periodic movements, and finally, the endless modifications 
of form and habits by which they are enabled to live 
under most diveise conditions of food and climate — on 
land and at sea — invite the student of nature into inex- 
haustible fields of pleasurable research." 
Many causes contribute toward the constant diminu- 
tion of our birds of all sorts. Chief among these are the 
clearing away of the forests, the draining of the swamps, 
the increasing slaughter of game birds, the demand for 
feathers to supply the millinery ti'ade, and the breaking 
up of nests by egg- collecting boys. There has been 
abundant legislation looking to the protection of both 
game and small birds, but as such laws are not upheld by 
the public sentiment of the community they are not 
effective. The establishment of a day to diffuse knowl- 
edge about our birds and to awaken general interest in 
them cannot fail to be useful. It is easy to arouse in a 
child an interest in and love for almost any branch of 
natural history, and nothing appeals so strongly to chil- 
dren as birds. When once they are made to understand 
something about our feathered friends they will go to 
almost any lengths to protect them. 
There are abundant means for appealing in the right 
way to young minds on this subject, but the details of the 
observance of such a day must of course be left to school 
instructors. It is unnecessary and perhaps it is not de- 
sirable to go so far as to take up the study of ornithology 
in the schools. What is necessary is to awaken an interest 
in bird life, and when this is once done the rest is easy. 
Economic ornithology has been defined as "the study of 
birds from the standpoint of dollars and cents." Many 
estimates have been made as to the value of birds to the 
farmer, and while such calculations are and must be only 
general, it is unquestioned that the birds of our country 
add each year uncounted millions to its wealth. In fact, 
it is certain that but for the birds agriculture in the 
United States would come to a standstill. The ignorance 
which prevails on this subject is as astonishing as it is 
universal. It is but a few years since the State of Penn- 
sylvania expended many thousands of dollars in bounties 
for the destruction of birds which are now known to be 
actually of very great benefit to the farmer, who was 
thus taxed for a purpose which actually decreased the 
product of his fields. The excellent work done by the 
Biological Survey of the Department of Agriculture, and 
by some of the experiment stations of State Boards of 
Agriculture, is going far to dissipate the general igno- 
rance on this subject. Much remains to be done, how- 
ever, and whatever work is undertaken can be enormously 
advanced by interesting the rising generation in this sub- 
ject. Teachers can exert a powerful influence for good 
by giving this subject some attention and thought, and 
there are perhaps few ways in which more practical good 
can be accomplished than by establishing in our schools a 
day devoted to the birds. 
SNAP SHOTS. 
In a note describing the doings at a fishing resort in the 
Eastern States, recently received by Forest and Stream, 
proud mention is made of one catch which deserves a 
word or two of comment. It is apparently hoped that if 
publicity is given to this catch anglers will be attracted to 
the locality, and the note names an individual who, in 
two half days' fishing, captured 600 speckled trout. All 
men who handle the trout rod are eager to get good fish- 
ing, and in order to obtain it are willing to do a great deal 
of work and to suffer more or less of hardship, and as a 
rule the harder the work and the greater the discomfort 
the more highly the catch is valued. We opine, how- 
ever, that the capture of these 600 trout will not attract to 
the resort in question very many of the better class of 
anglers. It is possible to pay too high a price even for 
good fishing, and the danger of being obliged to associate 
with an individual guilty of such wanton fish slaughter, 
or with persons who countenance such slaughter as this, 
would be such a high price. Any one who for sport 
would destroy such a quantity of fish must be so entirely 
careless of the rights and feelings of other people that he 
should be carefully avoided. We can imagine such a 
man to be greedy, pushing, selfish and assertive; one 
whom all decent and self-respecting anglers would wish to 
shun. 
Gen. R. U. Sherman. It was of an occasion when birch 
bark slips took the place of hymn books. Dr. Coxe and 
Gen. Sherman were members of the old Walton 
Club; and one Sunday nearly forty years ago, back in 
the '50s, when the members of the club were gath- 
ered at the historic camp site on ftie Fourth Lake of the 
Fulton Chain, Dr. Coxe was asked to conduct religious 
services. There were in the party George Dawson, Ned 
Buntline, Gen. Sherman and some forty others, among 
them a goodly number of singers. Mr. Dawson wrote 
from memory several appropriate hymns on slips of birch 
bark, and led the choir in a solemn melody that would 
have honored a grand cathedral. "Without taking any 
set text," Gen. Sherman afterward related, "the Doctor 
opened with the declaration that 'when I go into the 
wo.)ds I leave my white neck cloth behind.' What fol- 
lowed showed that white neck cloths were not necessary 
to provide eloquence, deep religious sentiment nor pro- 
found thought. His address was a convincing effort to 
show how intimate was the connection between nature 
and revelation, and that 
'The groves were God's first temples.' 
Most of the persons who were present to hear this im- 
pressive address have gone to their long homes, and the 
few survivors are 'in the sere and yellow leaf' ; but none 
ever forgot the reverent sentiment inspired by this off- 
hand but masterly effort." Dawson, Buntline, Coxe, 
Sherman, perhaps all who were in the Walton camp on 
that Sabbath morning have passed from earth. 
We cheerfully give room to the letter which Gov. 
Richards, of Wyoming, sends us concerning the course of 
the authorities of his State in relation to the Bannock 
Indian troubles of last year. Gov. Richards tells us that 
from the beginning it had been the purpose of the Wyo- 
ming authorities to determine by legal process the merits 
of the question involved as to the hunting rights of the 
Indians. We have never questioned the righteous inten- 
tion or the strict legality of what has been done by the 
higher authorities of the State; our criticisms have been 
upon the local officers, who, if they meant well, appear at 
least to have made a terribly bad bungle of the execution 
of those intentions; and whafi we have said about the kill- 
ing of the Indians has been based upon the official report 
made to the War Department by its own agents. We are 
quite ready to assent to the proposition of Gov. Richards 
that the killing of the Indians on the specific occasion de- 
scribed by him may not be, except figuratively, designated 
as an infliction of the death penalty for a misdemeanor. 
It will occur to most folks that in any section of this 
country outside of the immediate vicinity of Jackson's 
Hole twenty-seven constables and deputies would prob- 
ably be able to conduct safely nine individuals under 
guard, without shooting their guns off in the confusion 
and killiHg and wounding their prisoners. The Forest 
AND Stream has always contended for just such an adju- 
dication of this Indian hunting question as has now been 
reached; we took pains to procure and publish an advance 
copy of the full text of the decision of the Supreme 
Court, and we now renew the expression of satisfaction 
then given that the decision was in favor of the State 
authorities and that thus one tremendous agency of game 
destruction has been removed. 
We conclude this week our third annual review of the 
game parks of this country. In number and size these 
preserves are assuming increased importance every year, 
and are becoming more and more an appreciable factor in 
our game supply and shooting resources. In addition to 
the parks stocked with large game there are numerous 
preserves devoted to individual and club purposes, for the 
shooting of indigenous game, While the multiplication 
of such preserves abridges in some degree the common 
opportunities of sportsmen at large, they are likely to have 
a considerable and healthy influence on game protection, 
for they will serve as so many object lessons of what may 
be accomplished in keeping up the supply under wise 
limitations. 
The use of birch bark as stationery is as old as the hills, 
and yet is something always as novel as pleasing to the 
newly initiated. The mention of birch bark writing 
paper by a correspondent recalls an incident in the life of 
Rev, Dr. Samuel H, Coxe, of Utica, as told by his friend 
The committee appointed by the New York Legislature 
to inquire into the advisability of the State purchasing ad- 
ditional lands in the Adirondacks, to solidify the holdings 
in the State Park and for the better protection of the 
Hudson watersheds, went into the North Woods last 
Monday to gather material for its report next winter. 
The Fisheries, Game and Forest Commission wiU ask for 
the issue of $1,000,000 of bonds to purchase lands that have 
been offered for sale to it at the price of $1.50 per acre. 
