Forest and Stream. 
A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 
Copyright, 1899, by Forest antj Stream Publishing Co, 
Terms, $4 a Year. 10 Cts. a Copy. 1 
Six Months, $2. ( 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 1899 
/ VOL. Lin.-No. 12, 
(.No. 84fi Broadway, New York 
"It^s indoots, sir, as kills half the people; being 
indoors three parts of the day, and next to that 
taking too much drink and vittals. Eating 's as 
bad as drinking; and there ain't nothing like 
fresh air and the smell of the woods. There 's 
always a smell from trees, dead or living, and the 
air is better where the woods be." 
— Jefferies' Gamekeeper. 
EGRET PLUMES. 
The question as to how egret plumes are obtained, long 
ago settled in the minds of those who had made any in- 
quiry into the destruction of these beautiful birds, appears 
to have been revived again in England, by an amusing in- 
dividual, who locates the scene of his experiences on the 
Orinoco River in Venezuela. He states, among other 
things, that the plumes used in the decoration of bonnets 
and dresses are not obtained by the destruction of the 
birds, but are collected in the swamps, where the birds 
breed, after the molt at the end of the breeding season. 
He declares that it would be impossible to shoot the birds 
returning to their roosts, as they would at once desert the 
trees where they were killed. He also says that on the 
banks of the Orinoco these birds have been domesticated 
for their plumes just as in Africa ostriches are bred for 
theirs. Incidentally he tells of one spot where forty 
pounds of the plumes were obtained, and speaks of two 
collectors who gathered one hundred pounds weight of 
the plumes without killing a single bird, and yet each 
plume weighs only a few grains, about as much as a spear 
of grass. 
We are inclined to believe this writer a twin brother to 
another, who, a year or two since, told with great elabora- 
tion a tale of some one who was farming egrets in Algiers 
..and was making great sums of money at the trade. When 
that story came out, requests for further facts and de- 
tails were met by absolute silence, and nothing further 
has been heard of the Algerian twin. It is to be observed 
that the twins tell their stories, always of distant localities, 
concerning which few persons have such positive knowl- 
edge as to be able to directly controvert them. If, for ex- 
ample, the Orinoco twin had allowed his imagination to 
play about Florida or Louisiana or the Texas coast, some 
one would have promptly arisen to convict him of lying; 
but the Orinoco is a long way off. It is certain that egret 
plumes, as handled by the wholesale trade, are always 
found fast in the skin of the bird's back. No other 
condition of egret plumes is known commercially. The 
Orinoco story has been contradicted by Mr. Alfred 
l>Jewton, the eminent English ornithologist, and its life, 
like that of its Algerian twin, has been brief. 
THE NEW YORK ZOO. 
It is a little more than a year since ground was broken 
in the New York Zoological Park, and the hope v.-as then 
expressed that it might be possible to open the Park for 
the reception of visitors with the small beginnings of a 
satisfactory collection of animals during the auiumn of 
1899. This hope is justified by the event. The work has 
been pursued with so much energy as to show results 
very satisfactory to those interested in the Park, in 
buildings erected, dens built, grounds inclosed and roads 
and walks made ready for the public. In fact, the work 
is in so advanced a condition that the Zoological Society is 
now ready to receive the animals, which it will shortly ex- 
hibit to the public in a well-equipped park. It has already 
received some animals as gifts from persons who are in- 
terested in its plan and its purpose, and when the fact 
becomes generally known that the Park is ready for its 
inmates, it can hardly be doubted that a large number of 
gifts will be offered to it. 
While the Society has as yet hardly begun to bring to- 
gether its collection, it has already accumulated something 
over three hundred specimens, many of - them of great 
interest and beauty. The tropical department of the reptile 
house is already being: fitted up with plants, and with cases 
in which the snakes and lizards are to be confined with 
the surroundings of their natural homes, and gives 
promise of being a very beautiful and interesting place. 
The number o-f wild animals, birds and reptiles in the 
possession of individuals in different parts of the country 
cannot be known, but^ it is undoubtedly very great— a 
squirrel here, a crow there, a hawk, an owl, a raccoon, a 
pripflled duck that has recovered, or half a dozen snakes— 
animals of all sorts and conditions. Some of these are 
pets valued for themselves, or as objects of study; others 
collected more through idle curiosity than through any 
real interest, soon become a nuisance to their owners, who 
quickly lose pleasure in them and tire of the trouble of 
caring for them. Many such creatures— mostly small 
animals — might find a comfortable home in the Zoological 
Park, where there is room enough for them to live Under 
conditions approaching those of nature, and where com- 
petent persons deeply interested in the welfare of the 
collections will devote all their time and energy to caring 
for them. 
The knowledge that the Park is well advanced toward 
completion should bring out from persons possessing them 
a considerable number of our more common birds, mam- 
mals and reptiles, and it may even be that hunters, who, in 
their pursuit of big game, find at remote points captive 
specimen's in the hands of settlers, may purchase these and 
present them to the Park. 
It is well to remember that the Zoological Society 
wishes to receive for its collection specimens which are as 
nearly perfect of their kind as may be. Animals that have 
been crippled or broken down by accident, or by the in- 
cident of capture, cannot be accepted, but specimens that 
show no permanent injury will be very welcome. 
With the largest zoological park in the world, most ad- 
vantageously situated and supported by the wealth of 
America's greatest city, the New York Zoological Society 
Avill no doubt before long exhibit collections unrivaled any- 
where in the world. 
SNAP SHOTS. 
Intelligent opinion of the Adirondack deer hounding 
situation, based on a close study of the ground, is that the 
law forbidding dogs' promises to have much better enforce- 
ment this season than was given it last year. Among 
the reasons for this is the change of public sentiment 
affecting the law. The residents are being persuaded by 
the actual operation of the statute, where it has been en- 
forced, that it is a good thing, for the deer are increasing. 
With time, too, they are outgrowing that spirit of resent- 
ment which naturally followed the forcing upon them of a 
law they did not want. A feeling has been powerful in 
many districts of the North Woods that the anti-hounding 
law was the work of outsiders, in the operation and 
fancied results of which they themselves were not duly 
considered. All that is now required to win cordial sup- 
port of the system is a demonstration of its beneficial 
effects with respect to Adirondack dwellers; and this is 
precisely what time is working. Another influence has 
been the realization by some of the Adirondack protectors, 
like Mr. Beede, that they were not to be given the soft 
privilege of being a law unto themselves to enforce the 
statute°or not to enforce it, as they had the notion. The 
outside clamor has been too much for them; they have 
fairly been forced into doing their duty. These conclu- 
sions are not to be accepted as applicable to the entire 
territory of the North Woods. There always have been, 
and probably always will be, diversities of sentiment and 
practice, governed by the varied interests or differing 
opinions respecting local advantages or disadvantages of 
hounding. 
Some of the Maine visitors who have taken out licenses 
to kill September deer are reported to be coming out of 
the woods dissatisfied because of their failure to hang up 
venison in camp; and they appear to blame the State 
authorities for their ill luck. It is difficult to understand 
the logic of this. A license to kill deer is not at all an 
assurance that the licensee shall get his game; that de- 
pends upon his choice of country, his guide and himself. 
The Maine authorities simply provide the deer hunting 
country and turn the hunter free in it. and if then he 
fails to find his game it is no concern of theirs. There are 
deer in Maine in plenty ; and in years past the game has 
been killed in large numbers in Septem-ber. The license 
system which has gone into effect for the first time this 
season had it^ origin in a recognition of the September 
deer killing. It was a concession by the authorities that 
the game was taken in the close time .by fishing parties for 
camp supplies; and most Maine visitors were familiar 
with the facts. In view of these circumstances the 
proposition now set up that the license is a fraud because 
there are no deer to be taken under it is difficult of accept- 
ance. There are deer in Maine, and the visitor may find 
them if he goes into the deer country, and if the licensed 
guide he is compelled to employ is worth his wages. 
If the Maine deer hunter who pays $6 for the deer he 
does not get is a disappointed man, what shall be said of the 
Scotch salmon angler who at the end of the fishing 
season finds himself out $2,500 for river rental, and no 
fish to show for it? The chagrin and disappointment of 
such a one can only be faintly imagined. The London 
Fishing Gazette describes his plight: "He paid the 
longest price in the market for the best chances. He 
spent his time and energies in the hope of making a 
record, or at least in enjoying every hour of his time to 
the full, and thought himself entitled to value for his 
money, and all he gets is innumerable blank days, relieved 
only now and again by a 'flash in the pan' in the shape 
of a tantalizing rise, or at best an occasional fish, and 
finishes up a most disgusting and disappointing season 
with only a fifth of the aggregate he bargained for, and 
pro.bablv not even that. Pie is indeed a disappointed 
angler." 
From all accounts, the rentals of salmon fishing 
privileges in Scotland have been rtm up to preposterous 
figures. We read of anglers paying sums for the season 
which in rent mean from $55 to $75 for each fish killed, 
not counting the other expenses of travel, maintenance and 
attendance. The rentals have increased in many instances 
out of all proportion to the fishing returns. One Dee 
water, the Invercauld, which formerly brought £75 per 
annum, was leased last spring at £450, and the fish taken 
cost ii5 each. In illustration of the uncertainty of the 
sport, another section of the Dee may he cited, for which 
in one season the lessee paid £200 and took from it 300-odd 
fish. The following year he had to pay £300, and his 
bag fell to 60-odd fish. The next year, as might have been 
expected, he let it alone. 
The Adirondack wolf story has come around again this 
summer; and it runs that deer have been chased and 
killed by wolves. A few years ago we had this same 
tale, and it was then substantiated by a wolf pelt, which 
on being sent to the Forest and Stream for identification 
proved to have been worn in life by a dog. The wolf may 
have returned to its ancient haunts in the North Woods, 
but the more plausible theory is that the deer destroyers 
belong to the species which the law makes owners respon- 
sible for if the animals are found running at large in the 
territory inhabited by deer. 
Dr. Nicholas Senn, of Chicago, has returned from the 
Hawaiian Islands with a weird tale of the game conditions 
on the Island of Molakai, where, along with wild turkeys, 
goats, peacocks, pigeons, quail and pheasants, all counted as 
game for the gun, the deer are so numerous that when 
it comes to velvet time they kill the trees by rubbing their 
horns; and professional hunters from California have 
been imported to destroy the deer and save the forests. 
This fable teaches that when it comes to expert tall talk 
in hunting stories we have nothing to teach the native 
talent of the Hawaiians. 
Commodore J. U. Gregory, of Quebec, calls our atten- 
tion to an error in identifying the late M. Albert Menier, 
of Paris, with M. Henri Menier, his brother, who is the 
proprietor of Anticosti, and the promoter of stocking that 
island with game. The work of making a game preserve 
of Anticosti is now in progress. M. N. Le Vasseur tells 
us that the red deer already put out will soon be supple- 
mented with another consignment; and beaver will be 
among the other species introduced. Anticosti will be 
represented at the Paris Exposition by an exhibit of the 
native woods. 
Mr. Henry Talbott makes a vigorous and uncom- 
promising defense of the carp in American waters, deny- 
mg all the hard things that have been said about it, and 
claiming for it a place among the most valuable of our 
food species. We commend his argument to the con- 
sideration of those who have been unable to find anything 
of good in the imported fish. 
t 
