April 21, 1900.I 
309 
•would be satisfactory, but "there's the ,rub." If you turn 
him loose he will take everything in sight, and there is 
no way to prevent it but to cut him off entirely. One of 
these market-hunters living in the town of Northboro 
killed over 500 birds two years ago, and when seen last 
season said he had killed between 300 and 400 at that 
time, and this was before the end of the season. Can 
there be any question but that he has taken more than his 
proper share ? Yet he is but one of many of his class. 
Is there 300, or 100 or even 50 birds for each of us in this 
commonwealth? Let us take a different case by way of 
illustration. We will suppose the commonwealth should 
get 1,000,000 pigs and turn them loose in a large sec- 
tion of our territory, then say to her people, "I give you 
these pigs; let each of you go and help yourself to my 
bounty." But after a time, if it should come to the knowl- 
edge of her representatives that men were making a 
business of getting the pigs, taking them to the Boston 
markets and selling them, would it, not be the duty of 
our law makers to at once step in and put a stop to the 
traffic ? Would they ever be excused if they stood by and 
allowed the pigs to be exterminated? Would not the 
people have a right to stop this business? The game was 
not put here by the commonwealth; it was already here 
when the commonwealth came, but she received it in trust 
for her people. Is she fulfilling that trust if she allows 
laws and conditions to exist which enable a few men to 
rob the great bulk of our population of their share of this 
trust property, or is this to be allowed to go on against 
the protest of the injured parti(|pk? 
The preservation of our game is by far of greater im- 
portance to our laboring men and those who are com- 
pelled by circumstances to take their pleasure in the 
vicinity of their homes than it is to the man of means, 
as he can, and often does, go into the neighboring States 
for his recreation. Laws, therefore, which will protect 
and will increase the supply of our game birds receive, as 
they should, very strong popular support. 
In conclusion, we ask for this law because it is right. 
We ask for it that we may save these birds from being 
exterminated. We speak for it in the name of thousands 
of our best citizens, in the name of the laboring man, in 
the name of over forty organizations representing the 
farmer, the land owners, the men of the professions, and 
our citizens generally in every station and walk of 
life, in the name of the witnesses that were heard and 
those that were not (we may say here that had the com- 
mittee found time to hear all those that were present at 
the hearing we should have produced others — we had 
them at command), in the name of the petitioners upon 
more than fifty petitions filed in this case. We represent 
all classes but the market-hunter, whom we do not care 
to represent, and w^ho is entitled to no consideration upon 
this question, and finally we ask for this law for the value 
in money it would represent to the commonwealth, for if 
she, like her sister States, would foster her game and fish 
interests, it would represent to her, as it does to them, 
millions of dollars annually. 
Uniform Season Zones. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
Trusting that this item may provoke discussion that 
shall be beneficial to the cause of game preservation, I 
venture to asl< the following questions and make a few 
suggestions : 
is it not possible to haye some sort of national un- 
derstanding, agreement, or law if you please, by which we 
may be enabled to have a business-like and intelligent sys- 
tern of game protection and open seasons in the several 
States — not uniform as to date of opening by any means, 
but have all open seasons in all the States fixed some- 
v/here within certain prescribed dates and limits? 
Is it not within the limit of possibility to have the 
open season in all the States confined to the period 
from Sept. i to March i of the following year, restricting 
the open season in any State to a limit period of three 
months? 
If the scheme proposed be not altogether too Utopian 
in its scope, I beg leave to offer the following suggestions 
as to open seasons for the several zones : 
New York— except Long Island — Ohio, Michigan and 
the more northerly States, Sept. i to Dec. i, with open 
seasons for the several kinds of game fixed for reasonable 
limits between the dates named; Long Island, New Jer- 
sey. Pennsylvania belt, Sept. 15 to Dec. 15; Delaware, 
Maryland belt, Oct. i to Jan. i ; Virginia, North Carolina 
belt, Nov. I to Feb. i ; Florida, Alabama belt, Dec. I to 
March i; in all belts, seasons to be fixed as above noted 
for the various kinds of game, but within the date limits 
named. 
Absolute prohibition of all game killing between March 
I and Sept. i in anj' portion of the United States. 
West of the Rockies certain changes of the date limit of 
the several zones would probably suggest themselves, but I 
think you will agree with me that no kind of game found 
within the limits of the United States should be killed 
before the first day of September nor after the first day 
of March. 
I am quite well aware that this theme is not exactly 
new, in fact is somewhat ancient, but I, and perhaps very 
many of the other readers of Forest and Stream, would 
like to see its merits discussed in the pages of your 
paper; much good may be done thereby — certainly no 
harm can be done. 
We of New York State can at least make the effort to 
have an absolute close season between Dec. 15 and Sept. 
I of the following year, and can discuss the fixing of open 
seasons for the several kinds of ganie; let us say deer, 
Sept. 15 to Nov. 15— Oct. I would be a better date for the 
opening; ruffed grouse, Sept. 15 to Dec. I, although we 
will have to shorten the season way within these limits if 
we care to have any grouse left; quail, Nov. i to Dec. 15; 
ducks, geese, all members of the snipe family, also squir- 
rels and hares^ Sept. i to end of season limit. 
Season on Long Island to open fifteen days later and 
remain open fifteen days after close in other portions of 
the State. 
The length of the open season in some of our States, 
t-specially on wading birds and ducks — our own State is 
not a whit behind — violates all established principles of 
game protectioa, and if we are to prevent tlie extermination 
of many species of our game birds and mammals we have 
got to come to something like that which I herein suggest. 
I trust all your readers will not cry out "chestnuts" at 
this but will give us their views, provided, of course, you 
will give us space. M. Schenck. 
Trov, n. Y. 
CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 
Old-Time Gloty. 
Chicago, 111., April 12.— Something of the old-time 
glory of this part of the country as a duck-shooting region 
has apparently returned. I have earlier mentioned sorne 
of the big bags of ducks made this spring by shooters in 
the Illinois River country, and there is more to be said of 
that same region,- which seems to be the most fruitful in 
heavy returns this-season. ' All -along the best of the old 
marshes of the Illinois the birds have been in this month 
in numbers such as have been unknown for years, and 
Meredosia, Hennepin Club, Mud Lake, the Sny country, 
Chillicothe and other historic localities the stories, more 
or less suppressed, leak' out of very heavy shooting. 
I was lately speaking of the fact that I had met Fred 
Taylor, one of old-time duck shooters, who was just 
starting out a couple of- weeks ago to have a shoot at his 
marsh around Mud Lake, near Bureau Junction, 111. 
Fred is just back from that point, where he shot with 
Dr. H. C. Buechner, late of the Maksawba and Horicon 
c|^bs, and to-day Abe Kleinman told me they killed about 
2,000 ducks on the trip, eighty-five ducks being the high- 
est bag for any one day. • This would seem to indicate 
steady as well as good sport. This, with the Dr. Hunt 
bag at Meredosia, is the heaviest shooting of which I 
have heard. . 
Mr. Clark, of the Hibernian National Bank here, to- 
day got a telephone message from his pusher up at 
Fox Lake, 111., to the effect that the ducks are coming 
in there to-day in thousands, more than have been seen all 
this spring at that point. The ice has now gone out of 
the Fox Lake chain. There is little doubt that this would 
be the day for Fox Lake, to-morrow also good. Some 
of the Wishiniane Club members may take a run up there 
this week. 
The fact is, there has come a sudden turn in our 
weather, which means much in the lengthening of our 
duck season. Last night and to-day we have been hav- 
ing a regular winter snow storm, which has covered the 
ground several inches deep. This storm seems to have 
extended about as far south as Centralia, 111, It was not 
snowing at Cincinnati, O., last night at. 9 o'clock, though 
a cold rain storm was assailing the Ohio Valley region 
yesterday. This cold storm has without doubt caught 
the ducks well up on their northern pilgrimage, and has 
sent thenr back on their course, as it is colder and 
storming north and west of here. It is very likely that 
the big Fox Lake flight comes from the north, and not 
from the south. I should prophesy good sport for the 
next few days at Eagle Lake, in Waukesha county, above 
the Fox Lake chain, and the lakes of lower Wisconsin. 
That is a good point when there is a heavy flight on Fox, 
and when it is heavily pounded, there, as it is certainly be- 
ing pounded to-day. 
Koshkonong Lake, of Wisconsin, ought to be prime 
this coming week, if one can in the least predict from 
weather conditions. That means redheads and canvas- 
backs. Indeed, the flight in on Fox Lake to-day is said 
to be made up largely of canvas. and redheads. Some- 
body is going to have fun up there. 
Mayor Gone Shooting. 
When you look at our sporting Mayor, Carter H. Har- 
rison, of Chicago, he seems to be a pretty healthy sort 
of man, and you wouldn't think he was subject to fits of 
illness. Yet such is the case, and it nearly always catches 
him just about the time the snipe or ducks are in, or the 
trout rising well. About then his health -begins to need 
bracing up, and he slips away. He slippfed away yester- 
day for a rest at Swan Lake Club, down in the Illinois 
Valley, and he should just about have hit the best of 
conditions for his' health, if this snow storm has extended 
that far south, as it very likely has. We shall see- him 
come back in a few daj^s, looking better. There is at least 
one Western Mayor who knows the virtue of the open air. 
Along the Kankakee the sport at ducks seems not to 
have been relatively so good as on the bigger Illinois. 
Yet some bags have been made, and we shall hear of more 
after this cold snap. Our reliable friend -Bill Haskell has 
been at the Maksawba Club' once or twice, and came back 
the first of the week from his last trip. He got twenty- 
six ducks and four jacksnipe. 
To show the unwiseriess of the earlybird upon certain 
occasions, it may be noted that the jacksnipe mentioned 
by Mr. Haskell were killed six days ago, on ground which 
is now 4 to 6 inches deep under snow, which snow leaves 
the surface of the earth too cold for any self-respecting 
worm to inhabit. Methinks the jacks must go back 
south again. Yet the old shooters, such as Abe Klein- 
man, say that they will not go south again, but will hug 
along the banks and ditches and try to stick it out. This 
storm will be short, of course. Bill Haskell is making 
plans to go snipe shooting next week, and thinks the 
birds will be in then in numbers. This week there were 
millions, or at least thousands, of the prairie plover, some- 
times called "sand snipe," flying all over the marsh down 
at Maksawba Club, and one party killed, over 100, one 
gun over sixty, etc. This rneans that the. jack flight is 
also at hand, and I presume that the birds will crowd 
the edge of the snow pretty closely. It was time for the 
duck season to end by nattiral as well as legal reasons, but 
it is likely that both duck and snipe season will be longer 
than was anticipated this spring. 
Golden Plover Later. 
The golden plover flight comes later than the jack- 
snipe flight in this section, the former birds coming over 
this part of the North about the time the meadows get 
green and warm. The Kankakee marshes, since their ex- 
tensive drainage, have become poorer jacksnipe grounds 
and better plover grounds, the burnt meadows on the 
edges of the marsh proving very good feeding places 
for the plover after the grass starts. Again I would sug- 
gest that an eye be kept ou the Jiigh. prairie northwest 0/ 
this city about the 20th of this month or thereabouts, for 
the plover should be here then if we have no more snow 
storms. 
Ethics of Spring Shooting. 
Mr. Spencer Aldrich, of New York city, writes me this 
week about some questions of ethics in spring shooting, 
and I beg leave to quote his letter, which reads: 
"I am much interested in reading your weekly letters 
in the Forest and Stream, and notice in the issue of 
March 10 last an account of one Italian Joe, who. is a great 
snipe shooter, and you refer to his killing 600 plover in 
one day, and if he had been alone without two .green- 
horns would have killed a thousand birds that day. Do 
you not think that, in view of the limited supply of game, 
such slaughter as this in one day should be strictly for- 
bidden by law, and if there are no laws against such in- 
discriminate slaughter in the State where Italian Joe 
shoots, would it not be well to start the ball rolling and 
endeavor to have the Legislature limit the number of 
birds per day to be killed by any gunner? 
"In reference to snipe, is it not also very unsports- 
manlike to kill them in the spring, as they are going off 
to breed? In our own State snipe in the spring are pro- 
tected on Long Island, and cannot be shot until their 
return from the North in the summer. They leave here 
about the middle of May and commence returning the 
first part of July. It has always been a mystery to me 
how snipe could leave here the last of May, go north to 
breed and return with full-grown young by the middle 
of July, This seems an incredibly short -time for them 
to raise their broods, and it may be that the snipe which 
come here in July are different ones from those that ar- 
rive here and depart in May. I would like to have your 
opmion on this subject at your convenience. 
"I have been much amused at your articles about 
"Gokey of Dawson," and, as I have been there on sev- 
eral different occasions, I can fully appreciate your re- 
marks about his remarkable character and his accom- 
plishments. I notice, however, in that State, that the 
prairie chicken supply is diminishing rapidly, and think 
the season opens about one month too early, but suppose 
in time this will be better regulated." 
There is not the least question that Mr. Aldrich is 
right in his evident conclusions. Joe told me he killed 
600 plover in two days, not one day, though perhaps I 
did not report him quite accurately, or else Mr. Aldrich 
has misread the mention. It is much the same thing 
whether he killed them in one day or two. It is true 
also that he ought not to kill so many in two years, and 
I wish he would not do so — wish, indeed, with all my 
heart that not a bird killed in the whole country could be 
sold in any market of the country. But what shall Mr. 
Aldrich do with Italian Joe? He must begin far back, to 
teach him and his kind, and it is only for us to be patient 
witli them as we can, and to try to show them the folly 
and the wrong of their ways. I like to shoot with Joe, 
and it has always happened that we never got a flight so 
heavy that we killed very many birds, nor should I ever 
help him or any one else to kill so many as 600 in two 
days. As to stopping his selling them or killing them, 
that is something dift'erent. The State of Illinois does 
not stop him at any given number for his daily bag, and 
it is not apt to set a limit to the daily bag. It lets him 
and others shoot snipe and ducks in spring. Frankly, I 
do not believe Mr. Aldrich or myself will ever see spring 
shooting stopped or forbidden by law in Illinois. We 
wUl remedy our laws on fowl in Illinois, as they will 
their laws on grouse in Dakota, when it has grown too 
late to make much difference. Of course, the newspaper 
man has to give the facts as they come, big bags and 
all, and if we kick too strongly on such things we get 
disliked — not that that makes a great deal of difference 
m the strenuous life. 
As to Mr. Aldrich's Long Island jacksnipe, it is quite 
possible that his July snipe are bred right there on the 
ground, though perhaps this fnay not be the case. It is 
sure that these birds breed all around this latitude in 
Illinois and Indiana, though the main flight goes north 
of here to breed. Within the past few months comment 
was made in these columns upon this very fact. The 
nests of the jacksnipe are rarely seen. It is not likely 
that the jacks which leave in late May bring back broods 
in July. It is far more likely that they breed about the 
middle of May and raise their young on the spot where 
they are found in July. The south-bound flight of these 
birds does not begin ordinarily until cold weather or 
want of feed starts them down. 
Notes of Travel. 
Chicago, 111., April 12. — For one used to the'busy whirl 
of a great city, a trip to New York is the best tonic in 
the world. The doctors all say there is nothing like rest. 
From time to time, as I have been obliged to go to New 
York to rest, I have felt pleasure in saying a word or so 
about the rural scenery along Manliattan Island, and 
perhaps a word or so more will not jar the island any 
worse. 
In many ways New York resembles Momence, 111., on 
the Kankakee River. There is an island at Momence, and 
the river surrounds the island at times of liigh water, just 
as at New York. They do not charge to ride over the 
bridge at Momence, in which respect that city is superior 
to New York. The fishing is, also better at Momence. 
The Raines law is one of the most interesting sights of 
New York, if you see it right. A stranger goes ' into a 
place where they have music, and sits down to think. 
Near him is a plate, with a weary sandwich on if. It is 
against the law to eat this sandwich on Sunday. The 
waiter says, "What'll you have ?" and grabs the sandwich 
for fear you will eat it. Really, you don't want'td eat it 
at all; New York is a funny place. At Momence they are 
not afraid of losing their sandwich. 
As I crossed New Jersey, I found material for an 
Eastern sporting note. One of the country papers had an 
item, "A rabbit is reported to have been seen in the central 
part of the State this week. Great, excitement prevails."- 
Some of the signs which are displayed on the streets of 
New York are singular. One reads : "No stranger should 
leave the city without taldng a package of our cocktails 
with hin^." This was at the time of the big shoot on 
Long Island. I a* told a good many strangers took 
home packages of the above nature. At Momence they do 
not do this. 
Daniel Boone was an unsociable sort of man. He wenJ 
