350 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
_One Ball»5Two'Ears,^Two*HoIes. 
One day last year while squirrel shooting in Essex 
county, N. Y., I rested for a few minutes on the sunny 
side of a hill overlooking Lake Champlain and the "Ti" 
Flats. There was an old man sitting among some bundles 
of corn, which he was husking in a lazy sort of fashion. 
We got to talking about hunting, and the old fellow said: 
"There was once a chap named Race Winters out in 
Schroon who had a hound that he shot a good deal by. 
Well, one day the dog was chasin' a deer through a pas- 
ture owned by a man named Wyman. Race hurried up 
so as to get a sliot at the deer on the runway. Pretty soon 
he seed a big buck a-comin' full tilt right for him. He 
was jest goin' to shoot when somebodj'^ fired from a 
thicket near by, and the dog gave a yelp and fell. Race 
was so mad at the shootin' of his dog that he blazed 
away right into the center of the .smoke about ten rods 
off. He heard a groan and felt that he had better get out 
of there pretty quick. Just then the old hound got up. 
shook himself and went on after the deer as if nothin' had 
your Legislature abolished spring shooting that New York 
State would fall in line and that the shooting of wild 
fowl en route to their nesting grounds would soon be a 
thing of the past. I cannot understand what pleasure or 
enjoyment a man can derive from shooting game in the 
spring when unfit for food and full of eggs, men who 
do this and then expect to have a supply of young birds 
to shoot in the fall ought to be inmates of a govern- 
ment institution under medical surveillance. If any 
public officials of your State have any doubt of the wis- 
dom of abolishing spring shooting let them cross Lake 
St. Clair by boat from Michigan to the marshes on the 
Canadian side during the summer months, and note the 
large number of the various species of wild game breed- 
ing unmolested, in striking contrast to the dearth of 
bird life in your waters. A public officer, no matter what 
his position may be, can confer no greater boon on the 
people of his State or country than by conserving and per- 
petuating for them the wise provisions of nature, whether 
of land or water, so bountifully provided. It is to be de- 
plored that so few public men have the manUness and 
PIEGAN INDIAN BONE KNIFE. 
happened. Race soon got to a cranberry mafli, but his 
partner, a city chap, had already shot the buck as it was 
druv in by the dog. The funny part of the story is 
comin'. There Avas two round holes through that hound's 
ears, fresh bored by a rifle ball as clean as a punch could 
have done it. Of course, the spimky old dog was all 
covered with blood— but he got over it all right. Winters 
told me once that a neighbor, who hated to have deer 
drove across his land, recovered from a flesh wound a 
few weeks later on, sayin' that he had shot himself by 
accident. I never heard of a neater single rifle shot than 
this borin' of a dog's ears while they was a-hangin' 
below his jaws." Sir-E.K. 
Ontaffo Quail. 
London, Out., April 25. — Editor Forest and Stream: 
Quail have come through the winter in this section very 
well, if reliance can be placed upon reports. Our club 
has leased about 20,000 acres of land from the Govern- 
ment as a game preserve, upon which we have quail, 
partridges and woodcock. Reports from there are most 
encouraging, and we expect abundance of birds as usual 
next fall. Although this is a natural quail country, and it 
abounds with native birds, we are in the habit of putting 
out several hundred imported birds eacb spring, with the 
most gratifying results. We have succeeded in saving 
and putting out alive a very large percentage of the birds 
courage to rise aboye political exigiencies and honestly do 
what they know to be right, and just to God and their 
fellow-men. 
Well, friend Osborn, you have done your duty, it rests 
with those in more exalted positions to do theirs. 
E. TiN.sLEy, Chief Game Warden. 
North Carolina Quail, 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
1 notice that much has been written through the 
columns of your valuable paper about the destruction of 
game birds by the extreme cold weather of February 
last. I have made diligent inquiry in this section about 
the matter, and while there is no doubt that they suf- 
fered a great deal from cold and hunger, I have every 
reason to believe that but very few succumbed. When 
I say " game birds," I refer to quail of course, as they 
are about the only really game birds that we have here, 
and I have only heard of three being found dead. 
I know that great numbers of doves, larks, yellow- 
hammers and smaller birds did freeze to death, for I 
found many of thent myself. 
I only took one hunt after the cold wave, and on the 
trip found twenty-four fine coveys, and out of sixty- 
eight bagged only found one bird that was poor. 
Several weeks ago I had occasion- to go about nine 
INDIAN STONE KNIFE WITH WOODEN HANDLE. 
which we imported in the winter, and in this way we 
have succeeded in keeping always an abundance of birds 
on our preserves notwithstanding that it is pretty heav- 
ily shot during the open seasons. I think every encour- 
agement should be given to clubs who have preserves 
of this kind, and are willing to spend their money in 
keeping up a supply of birds, as we have done, as it 
benefits not only those who may be members of the 
club, but the birds scatter and help to keep up the supply 
on adjoining premises. 
Our game laws here are very well observed. We 
have no spring shooting on ducks, and I would urge you 
to do all in your power to stop it in the United States. 
I belong to one of the best duck clubs in western On- 
tario, and we have very good shooting there, but would 
not if it were not for the strict observance of our rules 
for protecting the marsh and giving it regular rests. But 
it is somewhat discouraging that, while we on this side 
of the lake and river are doing all in our power to keep 
the ducks with us and give them every opportunity to 
increase, our American cousins in Michigan are shooting 
them ruthlessly in the spring; at least so I am informed 
•on good authority. H. Marshall Graydon. 
Spring Shootingf. 
Mr. Edwin Tinsley, Chief Game Warden of Ontario, 
sends us this letter recently addressed by him to State 
Game Warden Chase H. Osborn. of Sault Ste. Marie, 
Mich. It has wider application than to the districts im- 
mediately concerned in Mr. Tinsley's references: 
Parliament Building, Toronto, April 22.— Mr. Os- 
born: I regret to learn that some of your good work in 
game protection in the State of Michigan is likely to be 
undone by the combined efforts of the unreasoning greed 
of pot-hunters and almost criminal apathy of sportsmen. 
We in Ontario have had to contend for some years with 
advocates of spring shooting who allege that we have 
been protecting the ducks for the sportsmen in New 
York State and Mi^higjan. We had fondly hope4 when 
miles in the country, and in going that distance I saAV 
five very fine coveys along the roadside. From what 
I have seen since the shooting season closed, I should 
say that there was more than enough left for breeding 
purposes, and with a favorable season I think that we 
will have a great abundance of quail for our next fall's 
shooting. 
The worst enemy that we have to game here is the 
"pot-hunter," who goes out with only one idea, and that 
is to get birds, no matter how. They are after meat 
and not sport. 
Maj' the day soon come when no man will be allowed 
to sell game. ' C. H. Harris. 
RocKv Mount, N. C. 
Newfound Lake. 
Newfound Lake, Bristol, N. H., April 29.— The fishing 
season at this noted lake will open in a few days, as the 
ice is commencing to honeycomb. Sure sign that dissolu- 
tion will soon take place. 
The season promises to open lively, with dl boats en- 
gaged, as already there are a few fishermen from Bos- 
ton now at the lake shores waiting and hoping for the 
honor of landing the first landlocked salmon this year. 
If the fishing opens as good as it was the first few days 
of last year, many a nice trout or salmon will grace the 
tables of anglers' friends in Boston or New York. 
This lake is restocked every year from the State 
hatchery, located on its banks, which now contain fry in 
tanks for future distribution in lakes and streams of 
New Hampshire: 1,000,000 lake trout, 60,000 landlocked 
salmon, 125,000 brook trout. 
Newfound Lake is fed by numerous cold springs. 
Trout and salmon are often caught during the summer 
months by deep trolling. 
Landlocked Salmon House. 
The Forest and Stream is put to press each week on Tuesday. 
Correspondence intended for publication should reach us at the, 
latest tv Mondav an^ 9? TRttel! earlier as practicable. 
The Mascalonge. 
Nature must have been in an ugly mood when she 
formed the ancestral pike and launched it in the fresh 
waters upon its mission of destruction. Thoreau has 
described the pike as "the swiftest, wariest, and most 
ravenous of fishes, which Josselyn calls the river wolf." 
An English writer says: "The European pike, like its 
brethren, is the most voracious of fresh-water fishes ; it 
probably exceeds the shark, to which it has been com- 
pared by many writers, in the relative quantity of food 
it consumes. Ponds would soon be depopulated, but for 
its cannibal propensities, no pike being safe from another 
of its own kind large enough to swallow it," Hallock 
refers to the mascalonge as "a long, slim, strong and swift 
fish, in every way formed for the life it leads, that of a 
dauntless marauder." 
But what has the mascalonge to do with the pike? It 
belongs to the same family, and even the same genus. 
The pike family is a small one, containing only five prin- 
cipal members. In this family the pickerels are the small 
fry, the pike comes next in size, standing in a group 
all alone, and in some waters, rivalling in proportions 
the giants of the aggregation, the formidable mascalonges. 
In Europe pike weighing from 40 to solbs. are not un- 
common, and captures of much larger ones have been 
reported. 
What are the races of mascalonge? There are three: 
The common form of the Great Lakes and the St. Law- 
rence River, with the upper part of the body usually 
gray, the lower part pale, the sides and fins with nu- 
merous roundish dark spots, about as large as buckshot; 
the banded mascalonge of Chautauqua Lake, New York, 
which has no dark spots, but has many irregular dark 
cross bands, intermingled with broken bands and blotches, 
and the A^ariety in lakes of Wisconsin and Minnesota, 
which lacks both spots and bands, and has uniform bluish 
gray sides. The last is the one described by General 
Garrard, under the name Esox immaciilatus, from eagle 
waters. 
The writer is at a loss to know how to regard tlie 
Nat.SizC. 
mascalonge 4 DAYS OLD FROM CHAUTAUQUA, LAKE, N. Y. 
mascalonge of the Ohio River, and its tributaries since 
authorities differ as to its relations. Kirtland described 
it as : "White with many narrow transversal brown 
bands, somewhat curved ; length, 5ft." Jordan and Ever- 
mann in "A Check-List of the Fishes," etc., 1896, place 
the Chautauqua Lake variety along with the unspotted 
mascalonge of Wisconsin and Minnesota; but in Bulletin 
47, U. S. National Museum, published nearly two months 
earlier, the Chautauqua Lake specim.ens are supposed "to 
be allied to the typical form masquinongy rather than 
to var. imtnaculatus, but are somewhat dift'erent from 
either in coloration. No constant difference in other 
respects is apparent." 
The three forms of mascalonge have been defined as 
follows: 
(1) A typical mascalonge, the sides with round or 
squarish, blackish spots of varying size on a ground color 
of grayish silvery, the belly white, the fins spotted with 
black, (In the Great Lakes, their outlets and tributaries.) 
(2) A form with spots coalescing in bands. (In Ohio 
River, Chautauqua Lake, Conneaut Lake and other clear 
lakes outside the Great La:kes system.) 
(3) A variety, or subspecies, with spots obsolete, but 
v^rith vague, dark cross shades, the tail a little more 
slender and fins a little higher than in the spotted, or 
lake, mascalonge. (This in lakes and rivers of Wisconsin 
and Minnesota.) 
The great difficulty with these varieties is to keep them 
where they are supposed to belong, and induce them to 
maintain at all times the characters assigned to thera. 
They have an unfortunate way of growing out of one 
style and into another, and mixing things up by swim- 
ming away from one jurisdiction into another. To illus- 
trate : The Ironton Register, fronton, Ohio, Nov. 28, 
1895, had an account of a "pike" taken on light bass 
tackle by James Dupuy in Tygart's Creek, a tributary of 
the Ohio River. The fish was 44^in. long and weighed 
3ilbs. Mr. E. Hough wrote about that fish in Forest and 
Stream^ July 11, 1896, as follows: "The head was spotted 
with dark, regular, exactly round black spots on the jaws 
and gill-covers. Mr. Dupuy said that the entire body had 
these regular black spots all over it, a trifle larger than 
the end of a lead pencil." The writer saw the head of 
that specimen at Forest and Stream office, July 29, 1896, 
at which time the black spots of the head were present, 
but scarcely visible. The head was gin. long. 
Now, if the mascalonge described by Mr. Dupuy, Mr. 
Hough and myself be a black-spotted fish without cross 
bands, it is not the same as Dr. Kirtland's mascalonge, 
and the Ohio basin must be credited with two races in- 
stead of one. Dr. Henshall has contributed to the history 
of color variation with age in the following paragraph: 
"It was also supposed that in all cases the mascalonge 
was always dark-spotted on a lighter colored ground , but 
as already stated, while the young are always thus marked, 
these dark spots become more or less obscure or obsolete 
with age, and the largest specimens will exhibit a uniform 
grayish coloration, with brownish or greenish reflections. 
I have seen large examples from the St. Lawrence basin 
that were apparently identical in color with others from 
Eagle Waters and the upper Mississippi of similar size 
and weight," 
The best account of the mascalonge ui Wisconsin waters 
is given by Mr. A. A. Mosher. He says there are three 
varieties, the unspotted, barred and spotted, and de- 
scribes them as follows : 
■'The 'barred lunge' agrees in coIoTatioTi with the 
