June io, 189O.J 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
443 
was blowing harder, and the melody of the silence of the 
night sounded in my ears with a charm unknown to 
those not born with that .love of the woodland that 
passeth understanding. 
We landed at the camp, and Bonaventure lighted his 
pipe, and like old friends we were long without speak- 
ing, for the spell was upon us, and finally, quoth he: 
"He look awful pretty in the reeds. I never look at 
one so long at night before. It is very lovely hunting 
without a gun, but next fall we call the original, the 
moose, again." 
So may it be ! G. G. V S 
Cuban Quail Fields After the'^War. 
Havana^ Cuba, May 30.— Editor Forest and Stream:' 
Please to accept my best thanks for the copy of the 
Game Laws in Brief, which you sent me, and for the 
promptness of your response to my request for same. 
_ You have rightly surmised my object m asking for it. 
I have recommfended to the civil governor some needed 
modifications of our game laws, and he has referred the 
matter to the "Sociedad Economica" and to the "Acad- 
emia de Ciencias Medicas, Fisicas y Naturales," and the 
commission named by these corporations has consulted 
with me m regard to it and I have handed h tb it the 
copy sent with paragraphs marked ad hoc. ■ ' 
The most difficult task will be to secure respect for 
the game laws, either as modified or otherwise, in this 
island, where the habit has not been cstabhshed in the 
customs of our people. Under the old regime those 
who took out and paid for a license to carry a shotgun 
and also another license to shoot with it (both for one 
season only) have been accustomed to use those priv- 
ileges according to their own sweet will in every month 
m the year, regardless of the law that established a closed 
season prohibiting shooting between March i and Oct. 
I of each j^ear. 
In this island many coveys of quail come out of their 
shells in the last weeks of September, and consequently 
need the mother's care during all of the month of Octo- 
ber, and the maternal solicitude refuses to abandon the 
young brood when pointed by the dog, thus falling easy 
victims to any pot hunter who may choose to sacrifice 
them. 
For this reason I have recommended that the close 
season be extended to cover all of the month of October, 
and as a compensation liberate the month of March, as 
the quail here do not pair until April. 
I have also asked to make the possession of game, 
alive or dead, during the closed season punishable by 
fine, and the hiding of it to be a higher grade of mis- 
demeanor, and I have suggested some other modifica- 
tions. 
I have now some hope that with the aid of the police 
of the new regime we may establish here a faithful ob- 
servance of the game laws in the customs of our popu- 
lation, which thus far has had a bad education in this 
regard. After this is obtained we may then establish 
different closed seasons for different species, as in other 
countries. This will not be practicable here until after 
several seasons of disciplinary education, because many, 
if allowed to take their guns into the fields, will shoot 
everything that comes in sight, and try to dissimulate 
by saying that they shoot only male birds, which they 
allege are of no further use after the females are served, 
and by other sophisms. 
One would suppose that during three years of war, 
during which all shooting was limited to larger game, the 
quail would have greatly multiplied here. But this does 
not appear to be the case. On account of the very gen- 
eral destruction of the houses and cattle of the farmers, 
their fields have been turned into a wilderness of high 
grass and bushes, among which there remains no culti- 
vated nor well-browsed fields, in which the mother birds 
and their tiny chicks delight to dwell and take their daily 
dose of health-giving morning sunlight, the absence of 
which at bottom of the tall, wet grass chills the tender 
brood to rapid extinction. 
I took several outings during the season last past over 
fields where I had formerly gathered large bags of quail 
and snipe, but the grass was much too rank to get 
through without great difficulty and the loved ones were 
looked for in vain, or nearly so. Moreover, the favorite 
sloughs where the Galinaga wilsonii were wont to con- 
gregate I found quite monopolized by tall members of 
the vegetable kingdom, and no cattle had been there to 
curtail the growths and to trample the soil into the soft 
consistency required as feeding grounds for this lively 
immigrant. 
The Field Sport Club, of which you inquire, passed 
into history some four years ago and exists now only 
as a pleasant reminiscence of the past. Of the twenty- 
five cattle farms which constituted its reserved territory, 
guarded by its two game constables, scarcely a house or 
outbuilding now remains, and no cattle are to be seen 
where then there were large herds bred and fattened. 
Three years of most singular warfare has done its 
work of annihilation pretty thoroughly. Singular, be- 
cause I know of no other in which both combatants 
vied with each other in the destruction of properties so 
that the_ other might not collect taxes upon it with which 
to continue the war. Both sides have been quite suc- 
cessful in gaining the end desired. Only the timely in- 
tervention of Uncle Samuel has limited the work of ex- 
termination of properties, although not strictly so, be- 
cause many thousands of our population have actually 
died of starvation, reducing our population, according to 
my best judgment, to less than one million souls to the 
entire island. 
These impracticable children -of the ancient pseudo-ec- 
clesiastical system of civilization (if civilization it may 
be called), if left to their own resources would undoubt- 
edly follow the ideals under which they have been edu- 
cated, and now they are resentful of the suggestion 6f 
Anglo--Saxon models; but as all their material interests 
are from geographical position indissolubly linked to' 
that race on the neighboring continent, and Uncle Sam- 
uel has severed the political chain that bound the "Ever 
Faithful" to the antique system, time, the great physician 
to all human ills, must do the rest. There is nothing for 
it but to take his medicine. 
The defunct regime has left us here a population that 
is morally sick and weak in many ways. If you Yan- 
kees desire to contribute efifectiveljr to our' regeneration 
you must begin with our material interests and send us 
less of embalmed beef and hard tack and more plows 
and work cattle, which you should widely distribute as 
a loan at low interest, to be paid from the products of 
the crops in small yearly instalments during the two or 
three following years. 
The generous distribution of rations td the starving 
population has undoubtedly saved many lives, but is also 
raising a crop of vagrants. 
Small detachments of cavalry as rural guards distrib- 
uted to the country towns, each detachment accompanied 
by a practical and scientific farmer to teach the best use 
of American agricultural implements, would soon sub- 
stitute the American plows for the crooked stick which 
we have inherited and which is still in general use stir- 
ring the soil only to the depth of about 3in. of its sur- 
face. 
We have no quail-destroying winters here, and for this 
reason the establishment of law-abiding customs by the 
strict enforcement of game laws during two or three 
years would populate our fields with such numbers of 
quail as to make of this island a sportsman's paradise. 
Erastus Wilson. 
In the Yellowstone Park* 
Mammoth Hot Springs, Y. N. P., May 24. — Editor 
Forest and Stream: I suppose we shall have to say it's 
spring here at last. The snow is off between here and 
Gardiner, and there is considerable green grass, arid now 
and then you can see a wild flower or two along the road. 
I saw a few Johnny-jurap-ups and the buds of some butter- 
cups. 
I see no game along" the road, as most of it is working 
back. Antelope have gotten as far as Yancey's, although 
there are a few close to the town of Gardiner and on the 
flat across Gardiner River. Blacktail and elk have gone 
back too. The whiteiails are not to be seen just now 
along the road, because there are crews of men putting 
the road in condition for the season's travel. It is possible 
to ride a horse to Norris Basin by going through Snow 
Gate, the old road. Golden Gate is impassable. Scouts 
and soldiers have been to Riverside Station and the Lower 
Geyser Basin this spring with horses, and to Yancey's and 
Soda Butte. The two troops of cavalry here now are to 
go to Manila; they will start soon after being relieved 
by M Troop of the First Cavalry. It is thought that it will 
be about July i before they can get away, as there are men 
at the outer stations that cannot be gotten in much before 
that date. - 
The spring is more than a month behind that of last 
year. Where the snow is off, the grass has not started, or 
is only very short. Toward Gardiner, the lowest and. 
warmest section of the Park, the country looks a bit green. 
The order I mentioned in my last, limiting licensed 
drivers to only one team, has been revoked. Now, five 
wagons for passengers, and all the baggage teams neces- 
sary for a party, are permitted with each license, only re- 
quiring the holder to accompany the party personally. 
■ The Yellowstone Park Association are not going to have 
their lunch stations tliis year, but only the hotels. The 
transportation company or some other parties will run the 
lunch business at Norris, Upper Geyser Basin and the 
Yellowstone Lake (West Arm). I understand that no 
coupon tickets will be sold this year by the railroads in- 
cluding the Park trip. It will be a sort of free-for-all, and 
parties who are prepared for transporting tourists expect 
to do a large business. 
Capt. Erwin has, during the past winter, added to the 
animals in the enclosure in front of the Mammoth 
Hotel two cow elk, four blacktail (mule) deer and four 
whitetail deer. They are looking very well, and it is 
expected that there will be some increase by births. 
Scout Morrison, who has traveled manv hundred miles 
this winter through the Park on snowshoes, tells me that 
there are over 200 dead elk between the mouth of Black- 
tail Creek and Hellroaring, a distance of about five miles 
along the Yellowstone River. These are mostly calves, 
with a few old bulls. There are about 300 dead elk along 
Soda Butte Creek and slopes toward Cache Creek, mostly 
again young elk, showing what a very hard winter it has 
been. On Falls River, during one of his snowshoe trips 
on March i, he saw twelve moose, one herd of two bulls 
and three cows, and the others, three, two and a lone one. 
He saw two moose in the Madison Basin. These are 
more moose than ever before reported. Morrison found 
three dead mountain sheep along the_ Yellowstone River 
that had died of starvation. He saw twenty-six live 
ones that were very thin and starved looking. 
After I wrote my last letter, while the ground was 
yet covered with snow, an order came from Wasliington 
to expend $200 for hay for the antelope, deer and elk in 
the Park. Hay was scattered out where it was thought 
best, and as far as teams could get with it. I tliink it did 
considerable toward saving some of the smaller animals; 
but so few elk could be reached that only antelope and 
deer got much benefit. 
The first young elk seen last year was May 21. This 
year I have not seen any, as I have hot been out among 
them. I was out a few times after pictures, and got some 
of sheep, deer and elk. Some very good photos of elk and 
other game were secured by Scout Morrison and one of 
the soldiers. 
The bears are out tiow at the Fountain Hotel. Six 
were seen one day last week, all black. If the bears in the 
Park are as troublesome as last season, some of them 
will have to be killed to give others a lesson in good 
manners, as it's not thought polite for them to climb into 
wagons and eat up all the provisions belonging to campinw 
parties. ^ e. Hofer. ° 
Where to go. 
One important, useftil and considerable part of the Forest and 
Stream's service to the sportsmen's community is the inforn^ation 
given inquirers for shooting and fishing resorts. We make it our 
business to know where to send the sportsman for large or small 
game, or in quest of his favorite- fish, and this knowledge is freely 
imparted on request. 'i..' , 
On the other hand, we are constantly seekiii|''inforination"of this 
character for the benefit of our patrons, aria-twe' ijpvite sportsmen, 
hotel proprietors and others to communicate to, iis whatever may be 
of advantage to the sport'stnaa tourist. 
The Danger of Introducing Noxious 
Animals and Birds. 
BY T. S. PALMER, ASSISTANT CHIEF OF BIOLOGICAL SURVEY. 
From tha Yearbook of the Deparhiient of Agriculture. 
(Continued from f>agc i2T.) 
The English Sparrow. 
The house sparrow, better known in America as tlie 
English sparrow {Passer domes ticus) , is a common bird 
of nortli central Eurasia. It is said to range as far north 
as latitude 67 degrees in -Europe and to latitude 61 de- 
grees in Asia. The damage which it does in destroying 
fruit and grain, in disfiguring buildings in cities and 
towns, and in driving away other birds, makes it one of 
tlie worst of feathered pests. The rapidity with which it 
increases in a new locality is scarcely more remarkable 
than the persistency and care which have been displayed 
in introducing it into foreign lands, in spite of the warn- 
ings of persons familiar with its habits. It has gained a 
foothold on all of the continents, and has been transport- 
ed to_ some of the most distant islands in the Indian and 
Pacific oceans. In North America it has not increased 
very rapidly north of the Transition zone nor in the Lower 
Austral, but wherever it has become at all abundant ef- 
forts to exterminate it have been practically futile. 
The English sparrow was first introduced into the 
United States by a gentleman of Brooklyn, N. Y., who 
brought over eight pairs from Europe in. the fall of 1850 
and liberated them in the following spring. These birds 
did not thrive, and in 1852 a second importation was 
made. In 1854 and 1858 the sparrow was introduced at 
Portland, Me., and in the latter year at Peacedale, 
R. I., and a few birds escaped at Boston, Mass. During 
the next decade it was imported direct from Europe to 
eight other cities, and in one case 1,000 birds were sent 
to Philadelphia in a single lot; birds were also distrib- 
uted from the colonies already started in this country. 
By 1870 it had become established as far south as Colum- 
bia, S. C, Louisville, Ky., and Galveston, Tex.; as far 
west as St. Louis, Mo., and Davenport, la., and as far 
noi-th as Montreal, Canada, thus gaining a foothold in 
twenty States, the District of Columbia, and two Prov- 
inces in Canada. 
Between 1870 and 1880 it was estimated that its range 
had been extended by nearly 16,000 square miles, and 
isolated colonies were established at Sdn Francisco 
(1871-72) and Salt Lake, Utah (1873). During the next 
five years it spread over more than 500,000 square miles, 
and in 1886 had become established in thirty-five Stales 
and five Territories, occupying practically all of the 
region east of the Mississippi River (except portions of 
Florida, Alabama and Mississippi), as well as parts of 
eight States in the West. Its range was estimated to 
cover 1,033,000 square miles, including 148,000 square 
miles in Canada. 
At the present time (1898) only three States (Montana, 
Nevada and Wyoming), and three Territories (Alaska, 
Arizona and New Mexico), are apparently free from the 
sparrow. Its range extends westward to the Great 
Plains and in Colorado to the Rocky Mountains, and 
also occupies considerable areas in Utah and central Cal- 
ifornia. 
The true character of the bird is now so well known 
that it is unnecessary to dwell on its injuries to fruit and 
grain, the nuisance it has become in larg^ ieities, and the 
extent to which it has replaced native birds." .The ill- 
directed care and energy expended on introducing and 
fostering it thirty years ago are largely responsible for 
the marvelous rapidity of its distribution. Now, when 
too late, elTorts at extermination have been begun, and 
four States (Illinois, Michigan, Ohio and Utah) have 
offered bounties for its destruction, the expenditures in 
Illinois (1891-T895) and Michigan (1887-1895) amount- 
ing to about $117,500. 
Besides the United States, New Zealand and Australia 
have suffered considerably from the English sparrow, 
and in some of the colonies of Australia it is considered 
second only to the rabbit as a pest. It seems to have 
been introduced on the North Island of New Zealand in 
1866, by the Wanganui Acclimatiaztion Society.^ By 
1870 it began to be numerous, and twelve years later 
threatened to spread over the whole island, becoming 
established in the most inaccessible regions, in spite of 
its usual partiality for cities and towns. In Victoria the 
sparrow was introduced about 1865, and probabaly ap- 
peared soon after in Queensland, New South Wales, 
Soutli Australia and Tasmania, but data are lacking as to 
the date of its first appearance in these colonies. It has 
increased so rapidly that, in order to hold it in check, 
"sparrow destruction" bills have been passed in several 
of the colonies during the last ten years. 
Thus far the sparrow has not gained a foothold in 
Western Australia, and radical measures have been 
adopted to prevent its introduction. Its importation was 
prohibited by the "Destructive birds and animals act," 
passed in 1893, and when a few birds were discovered in 
Perth in January, 1898, prompt measures for their exter- 
mination were taken by the bureau of. agriculture. All 
that could be found were shot, and attention was called 
to the necessity of stamping out the pest before it spread 
beyond control. 
The English sparrow has also found its way into many 
other distant corners of the earth. It is gaining a foot- 
hold in Argentina, and has been carried to remote 
islands. In the Indian Ocean it is present on Mauritius, 
about 400 miles east of Madagascar, and on the Comoro 
Islands, off the southeast coast of Africa and 350 miles 
northwest of Madagascar. It was first reported from 
Grand Comoro in 1879. In the Pacific Ocean it has 
been introduced on the Chatham Islands, some 500 miles 
east of New Zealand,^ probably on New Caledonia, and 
on the Hawaiian Islands. In the latter group it is rea- 
sonable to_ suppose that it was introduced by way of 
San Francisco in the early seventies, since it was' re- 
ported to be numerous at Honolulu in 1879. In the At- 
1 Rept. New Zealand Dept. Agriculture, 1897, Div. Biology, p. 8. 
* Ibis, 1893, p. 643. 
