FonmT And stream. 
6d 
iihrdu^h a fegukr newsdealer Here, and hope to live to be 
able to take it for fifty years more. The third generation 
seems to regard guns and all things pertaining to them 
as the proper caper, so the future promises much. 
Chas. G. Bland ford, 
[Mr. Blandford, Sr., appears to have confounded t\i'o 
most excellent papers, the old Spirit of the Times and the 
Forest and Stream. The present Spirit of the Times is 
the continuation of the old Wilkes' Spirit, and the Turf, 
Field and Farm is the continuation of Porter's Spirit. The 
Forest .and Stream was established independently as a 
new sportsmen's journal in 1873 by Mr. Charles Hallock.] 
Zoological Society. 
At the regidar annual meeting of the Board of Man- 
agers of the JNew York Zoological Society, held at the 
Uown Town Club, No. 60 Pine street, on Tuesday, Jan. 
16, at 12:30, the following members of the Board were 
present: Levi P. Morton, John L, Cadwalader, John S. 
i-'.arms, Madison Grant, \V. W. Niles, Jr., Hugh J. 
Chisholra, \Vm, D. Sloane, A. Newbold Morris, Charles 
A. Peabodv, Jr., Percy R. Pavne. George B. Grinnell, 
Jacob H. bchitJ, Edward J. Berwind, \Villiam C. Whit- 
nev, Henrv F. Osborn, Henry W. Poor, Charles T. 
Ba'rney, William C. Church, Frank M. Chapman, Lis- 
penard Stewart, Joseph Stickncy, H. Casimir De Rham, 
Hugh D. Auchincloss. Mr. W. T. Hornaday, Director, 
and Mr. C. Grant La F"argc. of the firm of architects of 
the society, \vere also present. Flon. Levi P. Morton, 
President, presided; Mr. Madison Grant acted as Sec- 
retary, and Mr. Henry F. Osborn made the report on be- 
:half of the Executive Committee. 
The report showed that the total membership of the 
.^society was 730, an increase of about 130 new members 
,during the past year; that the committee had raised about 
.§30.oco during the year, which, added to the amount on 
lhand, together with interest, etc.. brings the total fund 
ito the amount of $160,779.61. This amount, supplemented 
iby money advanced the society by members of the com- 
iniittee., has been expended on the park, and that the 
ibalance of the park improvement fund, $90-779. remains 
Ito be raised during the present year. 
An important part of the executive committee's re- 
■poii, showing the apparent unwillingness o*f the city 
autihorities to provide for the maintenance of the collec- 
tkm-s, was printed in our issue of Jan. 20. 
The society has built during the year two large build- 
ings, the reptile house, costing about $48,000; the bird 
house, costing aboirt $25,000, and many smaller installa- 
tions, such as the Hying cage, the ducks aviary, prairie 
dogs' inclosure, burrowing rodents' quarters, buitalo 
house, small mammals house, otters' pool, crocodile pool, 
wolf dens, fox dens, beaver pond, and five shelter houses 
for deer, together with other small installations. 
The following officers and committee were elected for 
the ensuing year: President, Hon. Levi P. Morton; 
First Vice-President, Henry F. Osborn; Second Vice- 
President, Charles E. Whitehead; Secretary, Madison 
Grant. Executive Committee: Levi P. Morton (ex- 
, officio), Henry F. Osborn (chairman), John L. Cad- 
'walader, Charles E. Whitehead, John S. Barnes, Philip 
; Schuyler, Madison Grant, William White Niles. 
The following resolutions were passed by the Board: 
Whereas, The prong-horned antelope, an animal of 
rspecial scientific interest, and found only in the United 
Stashes, is now in imminent danger of total extinction, 
ibe lit 
Resolved, That a memorial from this society be pre- 
sented to the Governors and State Legislatures of Col- 
(Oicado, Wyoming and Montana, requesting that each of 
ifllaose legislative bodies enact a law absolutely prohibiting 
tfee killing or wounding of prong-horned antelopes for 
ten years, under penalty of a heavy fine and imprison- 
ment. 
Resolved, Tliat the Governor and State -Legislature of 
Florida be memorialized in behalf of tlie protection of 
the brown pelicans, especially the colony now inhabiting 
Pelican Island, in the Indian River, to the end that the 
hunting, killing and robbing of nests of that bird be ab- 
solutely prohibited everywhere in the State of Florida 
for five years, under proper penalties. 
Views of some of the completed buildings, the plans 
,of the new restaurant and photographs of a few of the 
•,animals now at the park were on exhibition; also plans 
■ of the antelope house, which is to be the next building 
.erected by the society, the monkey house and the ad- 
■aninistration building. 
Crossbills in'^ New York City. 
Ediffjr Forest and Stream: 
On Sunday, Jan. 14, I saw, as I happened to glance up 
from my work, three or four birds fly into the branches 
of a hemlock tree not far from my window. At first I 
took them to be English sparrows, but as my eye hap- 
pened to rest on them for an instant after they had 
alighted, I saw them bend their heads in working at the 
ends of the twigs in a mammer that showed they were 
no sparrows, but crossbills. 
It is many years since I have seen these birds within 
the city limits, which I believe they visit only at long 
intervals, and procuring a glass, I began to watch them, 
and kept this up so long as they remained in the tree. 
Roth species were represented, and all ages and sexes, in 
the seventy-five to one hundred birds that were feeding on 
the hemlock cones. At one time I saw three especially 
handsome and full-plumaged males of L. leucoptera, and 
tivo of L, ciirvirosfra minor, in like dress. Females and 
young of both species were very numerous. 
It will be remembered that Sunday opened bright and 
sunshiny, and that it began to snow heavily about noon, 
the snow changing to fog and rain during the afternoon. 
The hour at which the crossbills were seen was betvveeri 
3 and 4 P. M.. and the place was on 157th street, west o 
Broadway, Manhattan, New York city. G. 
Moose Calling, 
New York, Jan. 19. — Editor Forest and Stream: Mr. 
Alden Sampson in an article headed "Moose Calling," in 
the Jan. 20 issue of Fore.st and Stream, writes in de- 
nunciation of sportsmen who are more fortunate, but not 
so expert, nor enlightened as himself, and who choose 
to capture their bull moose by the time-honored method 
of simulating the call of the female. Mr. Sampson has 
seen fit to include all sportsmen who hunt moose by 
"calling" in his tirade, as among those who "hire In- 
dians" to call moose for them. He asserts that 110 skill 
is required by the "so-called" sportsman in securing his 
moose in such a manner; that all the skill is possessed 
by the hireling. 
I am just a bit curious to know how the hundreds of 
sportsmen in the States and Canada who habitually rise 
long before daylight and trudge weary miles to the call- 
ing'place and who go there at twilight and remain until 
long after dark, only to stumble back to camp half-frozen 
throtigh dense woods and over fallen tree tops, night after 
night, week after week, and year after year, and still no 
moose, and who scorn to have their "hired Indian" call 
for them, will feel when they read Mr. Sampson's ill- 
natured, uncalled-for outburst against successful sports- 
men, 
For many years past I have hunted and fished in Maine 
and two of the Provinces of Canada without missing a 
single season. Last year I visited both those provinces. 
1 have shot deer, caribou and moose — the latter by 
"sneaking up to them," so vividly and appropriately 
pictured by Mr. Sampson, and I have brought them to 
bag (several of them) by the unsportsmanlike (?) method 
of calling. I have never found it necessary to hire an 
Indian, not that I have any prejudice whatever against 
Indians — I know and respect many of them — but I am 
free to say I prefer white guides. I have never found it 
necessary to have my guides call for me. In fact, I have 
never had a guide who had ever called a moose or wlio 
even made pretense of being able to do so. I have in- 
variably done my own calling. I have listened to a 
number of the most noted moose callers of Maine and 
Canada, including Alex. MacClain, Jock Darling, Joe 
Francis. Mich. Francis and Tom Frazer, both on their 
native heath and here in New York, at the Sportsmen's 
Exhibition; but not until after I had practiced four or 
five years assiduously at moose calling, and had the 
rare good fortune to hear a cow moose call at very close 
range, did I ever succeed in even getting an answering 
grunt from a bull moose. 
At the time I refer to having heard a Cow moose 
sing her love song, I had been calling at intervals of 
fifteen or twenty minutes for fully two hours without an 
answer, when a cow moose that had been feeding in a 
lake less than 20 yards away, without paying the slight- 
est attention, suddenly emitted the most weird, unearthly, 
unreproduceably bellow imaginable, and was answered by 
two bull moose before the echo of her call had died away. 
The cow waded asliore and continued to call, and from 
the approaching sounds she must have been joined by 
both those bulls. Thej- had evidently been in the im- 
mediate vicinity all the time, waiting for me to leave 
before proceeding to pay court to the lady moose, of 
whose presence tlicy were no doubt aware. 
It has been my experience that not more than one or 
two mornings or evenings a week are exactly suited for 
moose calling. The slightest breath of air is fatal to 
success. On lakes and streams and meadows where 
moose calling is usually done, even on the stillest nights 
and mornings there is almost invariably a "drift" of air 
down stream. The movement of the fog on still, cold 
mornings demonstrates this fact. The moose's sense of 
smell is so keen and his hearing so exceedingly acute that 
the slightest breath of air from the direction of the sports- 
man (and he always comes up wind) or the slightest 
imaginable sotmd instantly puts him on his guard, and he 
silently and mysteriously withdraws. 
To my mind there is no sound on earth so musical 
and soul-stirring as the answering call of a bull moose 
at a great distynce, as he comes crashing through the 
tangle of forest and windfalls in answer to a skillfully 
executed call. The sound of his antlers as they whack 
against tree trunk and limb, alternating with gutteral 
grunt, as straight as an arrow from the bow, he comes, 
causes the heart of the sportsman to beat so fast and 
furious as almost to alarm the quarr\^ Now is tlie time 
for steady nerves, quick e3'e and a quicker action, should" 
the first shot fail to do its deadly work. 
While I do not object to moose calling for the illogical 
reasons set forth by Mr, Sampson, I do most earnestly 
protest against the open season in Quebec and New 
IBrunswick beginning as early as Sept. i. The season has 
at least one month too many at the beginning and at the 
close, if game protection is to be considered. 
The following is an extract from a letter which I took 
the liberti' to write to the Chief Game Commissioner of 
one of the provinces of Canada on Dec. 13, 1899, and fully 
expresses my views on the subject: 
"* * * It is on the same subject I am presuming- 
to write you again. If you will not consider it officious, 
I would oft'er a few suggestions, which, from personal 
observation and actual experience, I believe would be 
beneficial, if put into effect at the next meeting of Parlia- 
ment. 
"I think that Sept. 1 is just one month too early for 
the open season for rnoose. My reasons for thinking so 
are that the largest bulls are killed off before they have 
mated, leaving only small males for that purpose. As 
you are aware, the mating season does not begin until 
the latter part of September, and is not fairly under way 
until Oct. I. This gives hunters almost a whole month 
in which to shoot the bulls before the mating begins. 
I "If the season is not soon shortened the si-^e of moose 
will decrease in a very marked degree, on the theory of 
the survival of the fittest. 
\ "I do not think that more than one cow moos6 in 
,,five bears a calf every year. Out of some twenty-six 
inoose which my party saw in Septem.ber and October 
I "here was but one this 3'ear's calf among them, and only 
Itwo that were born last year. Protecting the cows will 
not increase the number of bulls unless they are per- 
raitted to mate. 
'T .would al'so suggest that the shooting season close 6a 
Nov. 30, Two months ought to be long enough to 
satisfy every one, Foiir months of open season is posi- 
tively suicidal, and will eventually exterrhinate the big 
game of Canada." 
On September 5 1 had a large bull rhoose approach 
within 10 feet of me and stand there for five minutes. 
His antlers were white as chalk — that iS, the portion not 
covered by "velyet," was. No sportsman would care to 
own such a head. NoAii Palmer. 
Editor Forest and StreaiH: 
For years I have been reading of the successes of mooSe 
hunters in Maine and Canada, who, a great majority of 
them, have secured their moose by calling the game, or, 
in most cases, having it called to them; and often won- 
dered if I was alone in my decided belief that it is un- 
sportsmanlike and should be unlwaful to call moose for 
the purpose of shooting them. 
Believing it would only bring about a hot and possibly 
one-sided discussion from the moose hunters and guides, 
and all to no purpose, I kept my convictions to myself. 
Now I must at least express my gratification at seeing in 
Forest and Stream my sentiments expressed so exactly 
by Mr. Alden Sampson that there appears to be nothing 
left unsaid, and therefore nothing to add. 
• Sincerely hoping that the suggestions of Mr. Sampson 
may meet with universal approval and create a revolu- 
tion in moose hunting, I am yours for "fair play," 
Emerson Carney. 
MORGA.N'TOWN, W. Va. 
Washington, D. C, Jan. 19. — Editor Forest and Stream: 
There are two very entertaining letters in this week's 
Forest and Stream which relate to subjects dear to my 
heart. The first is Mr. Alden Sampson's contribution to 
the subject of moose calling, and the second is the com- 
munication in relation to rifies signed Peepsight. 
In the first place, I love the moose. No animal that 
lives in North America is so stately, aristocratic and 
magnificent. I should be sorry indeed to see his tribe 
grow less. The happiest hours of my life are and will be 
those which I spend in his domain. I have seen many 
sorts of wild game, but I know him best of all, and 
like Kipling's "Fuzzy-wuzzy," he's the finest of the lot. 
I have seen him under many conditions — in the snow, in 
the water, on the mountain, in the swamp — and under 
=all circumstances I wish to bear witness to his entirely 
admirable behavior. I have seen him with his back up, 
too, at close quarters, and" while he generally has a 
highly commendable regard for the wholeness of his own 
skin, he has also made a good many gentlemen run, too. 
About the calling business, my impression is that Mr. 
Sampson overrates its danger to the moose. In the great 
New Brunswick Avilderness, where moose are found in 
large numbers, there are, to my certain knowledge, not 
ten rnen in the province wdio are worth a hurrah in a 
certain other place as callers. If there were a hundred 
bull moose killed there last fall, it is pretty certain that 
not twenty, or ten for_ that matter, were killed as the 
result of calling. This" fooling a bull and getting him 
"within twenty to fifty paces" by imitating the call of his 
mate, is a thing oftener read about than accomplished. 
I am not much of a hunter, but I should be willing to bet 
a hundred dollars to one that I could still-hunt a moose 
all alone on 6 inches of snow much more easily than I 
could call one. I have seen several people, white and red, 
try that trick. I have heard Mr. Moose come smashing 
things generally, and then I have known him to make 
his sneak without coming close enough to be shot. It 
was my rare good fortune to be first introduced to the 
moose by that incomparable guide, Henry Braithwaite, 
of Fredericton, N. B., agreed by all to be the best caller 
and still-hunter in New^ Brunswick. I have camped 
with him more than a dozen times. The country people 
of New Brunswick regard him as possessed of almost 
diabolical powers as a caller. Yet I once hunted per- 
sistently in his company for thirty-seven days consecu- 
tively, in a country where the moose droppings were to 
be seen steaming, a score of times a day, and never 
had one chance to shoot in all those thirty-seven days. 
The thirty-eighth day it was different. He guides more 
parties than any other man in New Brunswick, and is 
busy from the beginning to the close of the hunting sea- 
son. But the men who go with him get their chances 
much oftener .by still-hunting or canoeing along the 
dead waters, than by calling. Where there are a hundred 
sportsmen who can follow a moose track in the early 
snow and get the moose, there are not two who, like Mr. 
Frank H. Risteen, of Fredericton, have called their own 
moose in daylight, and killed him. 
And what are the chances for the twentieth century 
moose? Lord bless you, let the mother moose alone, an 
they will eat the woods down in ten years. There ; 
probably ten moose in Eastern Canada where there wac 
one ten years ago. We all know how plentiful they are 
in New Brunswick and Quebec; and the country almosJ 
never visited by sportsmen, toward the far headwaters 
of the Ottawa, is a great moose nursery. I know, for I 
have called on them there when they were at home. The 
region between the Ottawa' and Lake Huron, where the 
man of twenty-five years ago never heard of a moose, the 
great labyrinth of the Algonquin Park, the Opeongo and 
Petawawa country, all Northern Ontario — that region 
is steadily yielding to their invasion, a far more success- 
ful one than the English South African campaign so far. 
The number of moose you can see in the water in the 
summer up Temiscamingue and Kippewaway is, as our 
color^d cook here in Washington says about the younger 
colored people, "Puffeckly scan'lus." 
I came back from British Columbia the other day, and 
I tell you the moose track is all over British North 
America. The twentieth century will come and go, and 
Quebec and Ontario and Keewatin and the far North- 
west will not have been too greatly desecrated by the 
ravages of the plow. The great Laurentides are not'buift 
that way. 
Now, secondly, only a word, and a kind one, to Peep- 
sight who would better sign his honest name. 
The communication in regard to rifles for moose signed 
Frank H. R. was, as "intelligent readers of Forest a,vt» 
Stream know, written by Mr. Risteen, whose New 
