Forest and Stream. 
A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 
Copyright, 1900, by Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 
Terms, f4"A Year. 10 Cts. a Copy. 
Six Months, fi. 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, MARCH 10, 1900. 
j VOL. LIV.— No. 10. 
1 No. 346 Broadway, New York 
The Forest and Stream is the recognized medium of entertain- 
nent, instruction and information between American sportsmen, 
rhe editors invite communications on the subjects to which its 
jages are devoted. Anonymous communications will not bt re- 
garded. While it is intended to give wide latitude in discussion 
jf current topics, the editors are not responsible for the views of 
:orrespondents. 
Subscriptions may begin at any time. Terms: For single 
ropies, $4 per year, $2 for six months. For club rates and full 
jjrticulars respecting subscriptions, see prospectus on page iv. 
NEW YORK GAME SHOOTING STOPPED. 
In our reference last week to the New York game 
law, which is ostensibly a codification of the old law by 
Senator Brown, we said that the provisions of the former 
statute had not been altered. In this we were in error. 
A more careful examination discloses the fact that, in 
iddition to several changes of minor importance, the new 
aw contains the most radical and revolutionary pro- 
vision that has ever been put into the game law of this 
State. It is nothing less than an absolute prohibition of 
he killing of game birds, except under authority of a 
:ertificate, and then only for scientific purposes, Section 
i3 of the new law reads : 
"Section 33. Wild birds other than the English spar- 
■nw, crow, hawk, crane, raven, crow-blackbird, common 
iilackbird and kingfisher, shall not be taken or possessed 
It any time, dead or alive, except under the authority of a 
:ertificate issued under this act." A subsequent section 
prescribes that the certificate may be issued by a natural 
history society, to any person upward of eighteen years 
jf age, permitting the holder to collect birds for scientific 
purposes. The fee is one dollar and the bond required 
is $200. 
The term "wild birds" of course includes all game 
birds as well as other species. In the old law the same 
term was used, but there was a specific exception as to 
game birds. The law as it stands exempts nothing ex- 
cept those named in the text. It means, if it means any- 
thing, the prohibition of all game bird shooting except for 
.scientific purposes. It is true that the law provides close 
seasons for game birds; but these close seasons now mean 
tliat within the dates prescribed for them the game may 
not be taken even for the sake of science. 
The Legislature having adopted Senator Brown's codi- 
fication, has already set about the necessary task of 
tinkering it up. If the sportsmen of New York are to 
liave any game bird shootifig next autumn, they should 
bestir themselves to have some of the tinkering done 
with this Section 33. 
THE GULLS. 
The war upon the gulls goes steadily on despite the 
discussion of the subject in the papers, the activity of bird 
protective associations and the adoption of laws to sup- 
press it. The industry of gull slaughter for feathers is 
prosecuted all along the Atlantic coast and on the Gulf of 
Mexico. The feather-hunters have practically exter- 
minated the herring gulls in the eastern part of Long 
Island Sound. Correspondents writing from Florida re- 
port a like condition of things in the waters of the west 
coast. 
In New York,, as has been reported in these columns, 
the Audubon Society has been engaged in an endeavor to 
amend the wild bird protective law so that the pro- 
hibition of possession would apply to parts of the birds. 
The purpose was to make practicable the suppression of 
the factories on Long Island, and the birds in wliich these 
factories deal most extensively are the gulls. But now an 
amendment has been incorporated into Mr. Hallock's bill 
in the Assembly, wliich expressly exempts gulls and terns 
from the operation of the law. Such an exemption, if it 
should be adopted, would defeat all the good purposes of 
the Audubon Society, and the existence of such a law on 
the statute books of New York would be a scandal and a 
disgrace. The bill Assembly 142 should be killed. 
There is no special call for moderation of terms in 
designating the promoters of the plume bird industry in 
this country. They are public thieves. He will find it a 
hard task who shall seek to shovir that thJs designation 
is not accurate and does not fit theni precisely. They are 
impiident thieves, how impudent is ^elj illtjstrated by ^ 
card which has recently been sent out by a New York 
bird skin .dealer to the postmasters along the Gulf of 
Mexico, soliciting them to ship to New York the skins 
of gulls, terns, grebes and other birds whose feathers are 
used for millinery purposes, and for these a scale of prices 
is given, ranging from eight to fifty cents. The States 
lying on the Gulf have laws protecting these birds and for- 
bidding their taking. As part of the wild game the birds 
belong to the State and are its public property. To take 
the game contrary to the statute is equivalent to thievery. 
To seek to enlist as agents in this thievery officials of the 
United Stafes and to make them participants in the illicit 
traffic is an exhibition of gross impudence and insolence. 
There is reason to believe that the postmasters con- 
cerned will not lend themselves to any such enterprise. 
The scheme of the New York feather dealers having 
come to the attention of Mr. Wilmer Stone, of Philadel- 
phia, chairman of the committee on bird protection of 
the American Ornithologists' Union, that gentleman has 
laid it before Secretary of Agriculture Wilson, who in 
turn has transmitted to Postmaster-General Smith a let- 
ter pointing out that "an attempt is apparently being jTfade 
to enlist the services of postmasters in a trade wliich is in 
direct violation of law in several of the Southern States." 
And he adds : 
Wholesale dealers in New York are accustomed to employ men 
during the winter and spring to slaughter plume birds in the Gulf 
States, and apparently are utilizing the Post Office Department in 
conducting a trade which is carried on largely in defiance of State 
laws. So great has become the demand for birds to supply the 
millinery trade that several native species have been threatened 
with extinction. In view of the importance of birds to the agri- 
cultural interests of the country, it is both desirable and necessary 
to adopt every possible means to protect useful species, particularly 
in the South, where so many of our Northern birds pass the winter. 
I have the honor to request that this matter be investigated, and 
that potsmasters be warned against aiding or engaging in the 
slaughter of birds. 
The response to this by the Postmaster-General is 
the publication of the correspondence in the Postal Guide 
supplement and an order to the 75,000 postmasters of the 
country that "they are expressly enjoined against being 
parties to any transaction that violates State law." 
GAME AND DIAMONDS. 
There have been many romantic, notable and eventful 
finds by sportsmen, but of all the long catalogue none 
surely more momentous than that of the Irishman, 
O'Reiley, who, while hunting big game in South Africa, 
observed in a native hut a white pebble, and because it 
pleased his fancy made it a pocket piece. Returned to 
England he showed the pretty stone to his friends, and on 
a sudden found that he had in it a diamond, which he 
sold for $2,500. From this chance find by a sportsman 
came the discovery and development of the Kimberley 
diamond fields, the contribution to the world's wealth of 
hundreds of millions of dollars, far reaching political 
transformations, and the terrible war now waging. 
Mr. Frank J. Thompson writes with a winning un- 
affectedness of his experiences as a diamond hunter in the 
early days of the Kimberley fields ; and he has sent us some 
photographs which are among his most prized mementos 
of a life of adventure. We count it a happy circumstance 
that we are thus enabled to present such an intimate ac- 
count of the beginning of the Kimberley diamond mining. 
Mr. Thompson, it will be remembered, had gone to South 
Africa in quest of live wild animals for European and 
American menageries ; and he has thus had a share in the 
hunting stage and the mining stage of South African 
development. These are days of tremendous strides in 
history making; and here is a man who has seen the 
game fields of a continent swept of those hosts of wild 
creatures wliich, it was imagined, were limitless and in- 
exhaustible. To-day one might with more reasonable 
hope seek for a diamond as large as the one we picture 
than for one single specimen of the game species then 
so plenty, and game then so heedlessly and needlessly 
slaughtered. The extermination of big game in South 
Africa has been astonishingly rapid as to time and ex- 
tensive as to territory. For its parallel we must turn 
to our own country. Men are living to-day — and not old 
men — who have heard their elders tell of wolves on the 
mountain ranges of the Eastern States ; and there are men 
— not old men — who have chased the buflFalo on the 
plains of the West, in company with the wild Indian 
huntersrrthc Indian who had never heard of a reservation. 
Nowhere in all the world has a transformation been 
wrought more swift in its progress nor more complete and 
irrevocable than here in our own land. Those who took 
part in that old life and now have part in the new, 
whether in South Africa or in North America, have 
spanned in their lives two distinct epochs as wide apart 
as savagery and civilization. The experience is one which 
in the very nature of things cannot be repeated. It be- 
longed to an age, and the age has passed. 
THE NEW YORK COMMISSION. 
The movement to substitute a single-headed forest, 
game and fish commision having failed. Governor Roose- 
velt has named five new commissioners to take the place 
of those now in office, and whose terms will expire by 
limitation in April. The appointees are Maj. MV.. Austin 
Wadsworth, of Geneseo, named to be president; Percy 
Landsdowne, of Buffalo; Delos H. Mackey, of Delaware; 
B. Frank Woods, of Queens; De Witt C. Middleton, of 
Watertown. Mr. Landsdowne is known for hi| interest 
in song bird protection ; he is said to be a memb^er of the 
Erie Republican machine. Mr. Mackey is a Republican 
politician who was defeated for the nomination which 
Senator Thornton got two years ago. Mr. Wqods is a 
lawyer and a Republican politician who has been an un- 
successful candidate for a judicial office. His :;appoint- 
ment is said to have been urged by Col. Yontlg^ the Gov- 
ernor's private secretary, whose first choice, by the way, 
was for Senator Higby, the representative in the Legis- 
lature of the cold storage interests. Mr. Middleton is a 
Republican politician of Watertown, and is said to be 
president of a Black River water power company. Mr. 
Wadsworth is the only member who appears not to have 
been selected with regard to politics. He is sufficiently 
well known, and his friends claim for him that the Gov- 
ernor could not have found a better man for the office. - 
He has been interested in game and game protection for 
many years, is a hunter of large game and small, a master 
of fox hounds, the founder of a game protective club in 
Livingston county. President of the Boone and Crockett 
Club, and has shown by his whole life in recent years his 
interest in game protection and kindred subjects. More 
than that, he is a man of great decision of character, and 
if Governor Roosevelt's nominations are confirroed, it is 
safe to predict that if the game laws are not enforced 
under Mr. Wadsworth's presidency, Mr. Wadsworth will 
take pains to know the reason why. Certain newspaper 
attacks have been made on Mr. Wadsworth for violating 
the game laws. We are not informed as to the facts in 
regard to this matter, further than the explanation given 
by a correspondent in another column, which explanation 
does not seem to explain. Of one thing, however, we feel 
certain, and this is that Mr. Wadsworth would not wit- 
tingly have broken a game law. 
It is reported that the plan of changing the constitution 
of the commission to such a one as was contemplated in 
the bill prepared by the Board of Trade and Transporta- 
tion has simply been deferred. 
CONGRESS AND THE GAME. 
The House Committee on Interstate and Foreign Com- 
merce has reported favorably Congressman Lacey's bill, 
which enlarges the powers of the Department of Agricul- 
ture to introduce game birds ; and under the authority 
of Congress to regulate interstate commerce, forbids the 
transportation of game shipped in violation of a State 
law. The report, printed in another column, concludes 
with the recommendation of an important amendment 
which engrafts the principles of- the Wilson Act, and 
provides that when any game may be brought into a 
State, whether in the original package or otherwise, it 
shall immediately become subject to the operation of the 
laws of the State. In the lower courts of Pennsylvania 
and -elsewhere, in certain prosecutions for having game in 
possession in close time, the defense has been set up that 
the game having been received from out of the State and 
being still in the original package, was not subject to the 
operation of the local law. The enactment of the Lacey 
bill as thus amended would effectually block this pica and 
go far to clarify the game problem. 
Every citizen who is concerned to have the game pro- 
tected should give unstinting support to the Lacey bill 
(H. R. 6634), and every sportsman should communi- 
cate to his representative in the House of Representatives 
and in the Senate endorsement of this imp.ortaiJf jneasvJ^^, 
