Forest and Stream. 
A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 
t ™ sJ s,x^„s!^ 5 - aCmv 1 NEW YORK, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 1898. {^.ml^^^Yo^ 
The Forest and Stream is the recognized medium of entertain- 
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garded. While it is intended to give wide latitude in discussion 
bf current topics, the editors are not responsible for the views of 
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Nay, let me tell you there be many that have 
forty times our estates, that would give the great- 
est part of it to be healthful and cheerful like us; 
who, with the expense of a little money, have eat 
and drank, and laught, and angled, and sung, 
and slept securely; and rose next day, and cast 
away care, and sung, and laught, and angled 
again ; which are blessings rich men cannot pur- 
chase with all their money. Walton. 
THE NE W YORK ZOO. 
The Zoological Society is now busily engaged in 
working out on the ground its plans for the improve- 
ment of the Zoological Park. The work of constructing 
buildings and other accommodations for animals began 
in July, immediately following which the Board of 
Estimate and Apportionment of the City of New York 
appropriated $62,000 for the use of the Park Department 
during the present year in carrying out the Society's 
plans for the preparation of the ground. 
The accommodations for animals now under con- 
struction are the following: Winter, house for birds, 
reptile house, bear dens, wolf dens ? fox dens, elk house, 
burrowing rodents' quarters, prairie dogs' enclosure 
and pheasants' aviaries. The ereetion of the monkey 
house has been ordered and will be proceeded with 
forthwith. The eagles and vultures' aviary, the beaver 
pond and the shelter house for the large ruminants and 
ducks' aviary will follow as rapidly as possible. It is 
the intention of the Society to complete all these by next 
May, when the Park will be formally opened to the pub- 
lic. 
The Park Department is now excavating the pond for 
aquatic rodents, and will proceed forthwith to construct 
about 125,000 square feet of gravel walk, and provide a 
water supply for the collections that will be installed 
next spring. 
All the officers of the city government, from the 
Mayor down, whose official positions render it possible 
for them to aid the undertaking, are co-operating with 
the Society in a very satisfactory manner. 
The Commissioner of Parks for the Borough of the 
Bronx has entered most heartily into the work of carry- 
ing out the Society's plans for the improvement of 
the grounds, and his subordinates are making every ef- 
fort to husband the fund appropriated by the city, and 
make it go as far as possible. 
As the buildings, dens and aviaries above enumerated 
will, when completed, nearly exhaust the $105,000 now 
in the treasury for building purposes, the need for ad- 
ditional funds with which to erect the large antelope 
house and the lion house is now very urgent, and it is 
the intention oi the Executive Committee to make im- 
mediately a call for $145,000 to erect these two buildings, 
and to complete the fund of $250,000 which the Society 
has pledged itself to raise. 
In December the Society will begin to make con- 
tracts for animals with which to stock the Park, to be 
delivered in February and thereafter. It is now certain 
that the Park will be opened to the public with an ex- 
cellent showing of improvements and collections some 
time next spring, probably in May, and there is every 
reason to believe that the city will immediately furnish 
the maintenance as required by law. 
All this work has been done during the heats of sum- 
mer, and the Society is to be congratulated on the energy 
of its officers, and especially of Secretary Grant, who, in 
the absence of the Chairman of the Executive Com- 
mittee, has been acting chairman of that body. As the 
work progresses, and evidence accumulates to show to 
the public what the Park will be when it is completed, it 
should not be difficult to secure from well-to-do people 
interested in the subject the further sum, which is 
needed to complete the fund of $250,000 which the 
Society has agreed to furnish. 
THE SIDE-HUNT. 
Some of the Forest and Stream's exchanges in the 
religious press have been commenting upon a lottery 
lately held in Mexico for the release of souls from 
purgatory; and a newspaper champion of the priest who 
•got - up the scheme adduces in his defense that as 
concededly it would be permissible for two persons to 
chip in fifty cents each and then draw straws to de- 
termine for which one of them the priest should read 
prayers for the day, so the system may legitimate- 
ly be extended to embrace the soul lottery system. 
The lottery story has been scouted as a newspaper 
fake; but the editor who so loyally put forth this defense 
of the scheme probably has implicit confidence in the 
validity of his argument. 
Adopting the same line of reasoning with respect to side- 
hunts, it may be said that if two gunners are justified in 
a competitive scoring of game, two hundred gunners 
may claim the same privilege in a game killing contest 
for a dinner. That is a'proposition difficult to contro- 
vert; yet all of us who have had any experience of the 
devastating effects of side-hunts know that they do an 
immense amount of harm, more than can be compen- 
sated by whatever fun the participants may find in the 
competition. 
Writing from northern New York, Mr. Burnham re- 
ports that the reason the woods are barren of game is 
because of the ravages of a side-hunt which swept over 
the country, annihilating the birds and animals, and leav- 
ing no stock to breed from. This is a story which 
may be repeated in numerous localities; it is the natural 
result of side-hunting. The spirit of the competition, 
where each species of game or vermin or harmless crea- 
tures has its value in the scale of points, encourages the 
killing of every animate thing that may come within 
range. This promiscuous destruction is likely to be 
wanton, and in many instances it degenerates into the 
unlawful and forbidden. In the excitement of the com- 
petition little heed is paid; to the obligations of good 
sportsmanship and good citizenship. Protected species 
fall with the rest. For instance, at the 1897 side-hunt of 
the Oskaloosa, Iowa, Gun Club, game of all indigenous 
species was slaughtered to make the grand totals swell 
to impressive figures; doves protected by the statute were 
Openly scored under the name of ground pigeon, and 
pheasants, for which in 1897 there was no lawful open 
season, were included in the game brought in. Indeed 
one natural and well defined tendency of such hunts is 
to provoke and promote game law violation. Side- 
hunters are not by any means all sportsmen; the event 
calls out every Tom, Dick and Harry in town who can 
muster a gun; it is only the sportsman element which, 
we may assume, cares, anything about the sportsman- 
like character of the sport. The rest know little and care 
less about what is and what is not game, and game in 
season. The side-hunt means a horde of gunners in- 
tent on getting everything that walks, crawls, hops or 
flies. And if the land is not so cleared of animal life that 
another year will come complaints of game dearth, this 
is only because the majority of side-hunt participants 
cannot kill their game when they see it 
We are convinced that if the sportsmen of a com- 
munity understood^ clearly the effects of the side-hunt 
they would as a unit oppose these competitions, save 
the game for their own pursuit, and insure immunity to 
those species which do not come within the sportsman's 
classification as fit objects of sport. The only legiti- 
mate game for a side-hunt is the inanimate target sprung 
from a trap. 
SNAP SHOTS. 
With the growth in this country of the game preserve 
idea, it was inevitable that those owning preserves should 
cast about for a variety of large wild game with which 
to stock them. We have a number of species in Amer- 
ica that do well anywhere, but those indigenous to the 
Atlantic seaboard are not numerous. Only Virginia 
deer and elk thrive anywhere, and are easily obtained. 
Buffalo are so costly as to be out of the reach of many 
people. It is not strange therefore that in a number of 
cases owners of preserves have imported large game 
from Europe. This has been chiefly the wild hog, 
though we have known of one or two cases where 
the red deer of Europe and roe deer have been brought 
over for the purpose. The wild hogs seem to do well 
everywhere, but like the English sparrow they have 
hardly become firmly established anywhere before they 
groAv troublesome. We understand that the late Mr. 
Corbin regretted his importation of these animals, and 
made an effort to have them killed off. Boars were 
turned out some time ago in the Shawangunks, but as 
soon as they had become firmly established, they rav- 
aged the country far and wide, and it was necessary to 
exterminate them. For all our preserves located well to 
the north, this continent can furnish enough different 
sorts of large game to satisfy the most exacting, and the 
practice of importing and turning out exotic species of 
big game about which we know comparatively little is 
certainly one to be avoided. 
A belief was held by eighteenth century physicians that 
the atmosphere of one's birthplace possessed peculiar 
virtue; and a not uncommon recourse, when a patient 
was in desperate straits, was to send him back for this 
benefit of the natal air. However fanciful may have bsen 
the notion, there are thousands who can testify to the 
magic influences of the old home and its surroundings 
when a visit is made to them after the lapse of years. 
For many a man a fishing excursion in spring or sum- 
mer, or a hunting trip in the crisp days of autumn, means 
going back to the familiar scenes of youth; and it would 
not be far from the fact to say that no other outing one 
may make can compare with this home returning. The 
streams may have dwindled and the old-time store of 
fish be wanting; but scant score of trout or bass is more 
than made up by the flood of pleasant recollections 
which overwhelm the spirit at sight of familiar scenes. 
The covers once unfailing for quail or partridge may 
prove now barren and desolate of game, but one would 
not exchange for a bag of gold the pictures memory 
paints of the old days, with the dear faces and the 
voices heard no more. 
If it be our good fortune to find the old woodland 
haunts unmarred by the axe or by fire, the maples and 
oaks and birches and pines and hemlocks may afford 
some compensation for the disappointment and disillu- 
sioning which inevitably have part in every delayed heme- 
coming. The proportions are all so changed and so un- 
familiar. The village street has narrowed and shortened; 
the houses have shrunk in size and drawn closer to- 
gether; and the people who stare out at you are stran- 
gers. You realize with a shock that you know nobody, 
but it is a greater shock to find that nobody knows you; 
and that here in your own home you too are a stranger 
without claim to the friendly salutation which every- 
where greeted you in the old days. 
A short time ago the chief game warden of Ontario 
sent out a series of questions on the subject of hounding 
deer and kiHitig them in the water. The questions were 
sent to all deer hunters who had taken out licenses 
last year. Toronto papers report that the great ma- 
jority or nearly all of the hunters have responded, and 
that those of eastern Ontario are almost unanimous in 
favor of killing in the water, while those of northern and 
western Ontario are practically solid against it. How 
many are opposed to hounding has not been reported, 
but probably the majority are in favor of it. However 
this may be, it is improbable that the law will be 
changed. 
A silver half-dollar is the key to many a good game 
cover. The insistent gunner who sets in to browbeat 
his way may stand long like a horse in paddock gazing 
longingly over the fence it cannot jump into the clover 
field. He is wiseri happier, luckier and more heavily 
laden at the close of the day who negotiates his priv- 
ileges in a businesslike way. 
The exhibition given by the New England Sports- 
men's Association in Boston, last March, was of such a 
character that there was a popular demand for its repe- 
tition in 1899; but our Boston correspondent reports that 
the enterprise will not be repeated. 
Maj.-Gen. Sir Montague Gerard, a British officer in 
India, has killed first and last 229 tigers. That is a 
game score that amounts to something. 
