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, $2. f 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, APRIL 2 8, 1900. 
VOL. LIV.— No. 17. 
I No. 846 Broadway, New York 
The Forest and Stream is the recognized medium of entertain- 
ment, instruction and information between American sportsmen. 
The editors invite communications on the subjects to which its 
pages are devoted. Anonymous communications will not bt re- 
garded. While it is. intended to give wide latitude in discussion 
of current topics, the editors are not responsible for the views of 
correspondents. 
Subscriptions may begin at any time. Terms: For single 
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particulars respecting subscriptions, see prospectus on page iv. 
It is well known that no person who rcgfards 
his reputation will ever kill a trout with anything 
but a fly. It requires some training on the part 
of the trout to take to this method. The uncul- 
tivated, unsophisticated trout, in unfrequented 
waters, prefers the bait; and the rufal people, 
whose sole object in going a-fishing appears to be 
to catch fish, indulge them in their primitive 
taste for the worm. No sportsman, however, 
will use anything but a fly, except he happens to 
be alone* Charles Dudley Warner, 
THE MASSACHUSETTS BILL. 
Secketary Henry H. Kimball^ of the Massacliusetts 
Central Committee, reports that there is a fair outlook 
for the success of the measure in which the sportsmen of 
the entire Commonwealth are so deeply interested. It has 
passed the second reading, and there is encouragement to 
believe that it will become the law. 
The defeat of the amendment to forbid the killing of 
birds for three years was in the true interest of sport. 
Whatever may be the merits of a long term close season 
in any given case, here it manifestly is uncalled for if the 
anti-sale law shall prevail. With a system which pro- 
vides a properly limited shooting season and entirely 
stops the sale of game, there will be adequate protection 
for the supply. If Massachusetts shall close its game 
market, there will be game enough for generations of 
sportsmen to pursue. 
The solution of the game protection problem in New 
England and everywhere else is found in the adoption of 
the Forest and Stream's Platform Vh.-nk—Stop the sale 
of game at all times. The principle is sound in theory 
and eihcient in practice. It gets at once at the root of the 
subject instead of legally dawdling at the tips of its outer 
branches. 
The experience of the past in game protection should 
be a true guide for the action in the present and the 
future. The statute books are burdened with a multi- 
plicity of laws on the subject. Each year finds new' 
attempts at more lawmaking, and laws are piled on laws 
till the subject is almost lost in the legal obscurity. Yet 
they do not protect. That is the history of the past. 
The experience of the past further has shown that the 
game supply of America is wholly inadequate to meet the 
trade demands. If the demand of a single year for it were 
fully met, it would result in the practical extermination 
of many species and the depletion of others to a degree 
which years would not restore. 
So long as the markets are open for the purchase and 
sale of game, so long will the present laws and their en- 
forcement prove inefficient or inoperative. The history 
of game protection in the past indicates no other result. 
It has fully demonstrated, however, that there are two 
classes who are interested in game, namely, those who 
are interested in it for sport, and those who are interested 
in it for profit. 
The sportsmen as a rule are law-abiding and public 
spirited. They are not so selfish in their own concerns as 
to be blind to or heedless of the rights of their fellows. 
The class which is interested in game for profit has a 
large percentage of men who will capture and kill game 
regardless of game laws. With an open market any- 
• where available, the demand will be met to the extent of 
the lawbreaker's ability. Such is the history of the past. 
So long as there are those who can legally or safely pur- 
chase, so long will there be those who will endeavor to 
get the goods to sell. The great cold storage plants are 
an evfdence of tHs. They are a part of ^ame law 
history. 
Close seasons for two years or three years would give 
the game a chance to multiply were all men law-abiding 
alike. Long close seasons of years, however, in practice 
are a discrimination in favor of the lawless poacher. All 
game laws are alike to him. He heeds them not. Btit the 
law-abiding sportsman observes them. The law of the 
long close season in practice gives the poacher a monopoly 
of game taking. It reduces competition. He has greater 
resources to draw upon and more game to sell. It is the 
history of the past. 
The game of America is gradually but surely becoming 
exterminated by the demands of trade. It is not even 
in sufficient numbers to meet the demands of sport. 
Indeed, in many large areas the game has been entirely 
exterminated. In others, partially. The causes of this 
are still in existence. Their effects in the future will be 
similar to those of the past. The same old patchwork 
legislation will have the same old disappointing results. 
On the one hand is the poacher who is under the remote 
ban of a law which is inoperative or difficult to enforce. 
On the other hand is the purchaser who is restrained by 
no law at all, or by a law which is cumbrous, inefficient 
or so technically faulty that conviction is almost im- 
possible under it. 
The poacher may be caught, but the odds are all in his 
favor against it. The wealthy town dealer or purchaser 
may buy without fear. 
Stop the sale of game at all times. Make it illegal 
for the purchaser to buy game, as well as illegal to take 
and sell it. While it is legal or safe to buy, there are 
always those who will run all risks to sell. The history 
of blockade running during wars, where thousands of 
dollars are riskily involved, demonstrates on a larger 
scale that men will run even greater risks for the sake of 
gain than ever comes into the trade of poacher. 
All laws which apply to the poacher and not to the 
buyer, leave the poacher to act as before. Shut the market 
to him, and he ceases to be a poacher in action. He can- 
not market his goods, and the incentive to capture is no 
more. So much for the poacher in forbidden seasons. 
In the open season, when the market-hunter may 
legally kill for market, he is the true game exterminatoi". 
He follows his vocation day in and day out from early 
till late. He travels from section to section as he depletes 
cover after cover. Stop the sale of game and his vocation 
would be ended. Leave the markets open, and the game 
will flow to them whether the season is legally open or 
closed. Stop the sale of game and there is no incentive 
then to take it by^ other than the sportsman. Stop the 
sale of game at all seasons, and the problem of game 
preservation is solved. That, too, is a part of the history 
of the past. 
THE LAST OF THEM. 
One of the very rarest of living birds, and one ap- 
parently soon to become extinct, is the curious flightless 
rail of New Zealand. This bird is quite closely related to 
the gallinules, but is nearly as large as a goose, and is in- 
capable of flight. It is interesting, as answering in one 
respect to the' old definition of the Ratita or birds pos- 
sessing no keel to the breast bone, which, of course, 
means that there was no point of attachment for the 
powerful muscles which operate the wings in flying birds. 
Three or four species of this great rail have been de- 
scribed, some of which are certainly extinct and others 
apparently are just on the verge. 
In 1898 another specimen was taken of Notornis 
liochstetteri, which is the name given to the form of this 
rail inhabiting the South Island of the group. This speci- 
men, which was a young female, is only the fourth that 
has been taken. It has been described and figured in a 
paper by Sir Walter L. Buller, published in Vol. XXXI. 
of the Transactions of the New Zealand Institute. 
The bird is described as being the size of a goose. Its 
breast is a beautiful rich dark blue, duller on the head, 
neck, back and belly,. The legs are rather short and stout. 
The bill is extremely heavy, triangular in shape, and is 
bordered by a red shield somewhat like that of the gal- 
linules or the coot of North America. 
Although Notornis cannot fly, it is extremely swift of 
foot, and its size, strength and powerful beak no doubt 
protect it from many enemies. The specimen in ques- 
tion is a most interesting capture. The first of these birds 
taken was captured in 1849, and the second in 1831. Both 
these are in the British Museum. The third was obtained 
in 1879 and was bought by the Dresden Museum for 100 
guineas— about $500. The most recent specimen is de- 
scribed as much the best yet obtained, and $1,500 has 
already beeS offered for it. It may readily be imagined 
that the time is not far distant when Notornis, like so 
many other birds and mammals, will have been civilized 
out of existence. 
In a recent letter to the London Times, Mr. T. Digby 
Pigott describes what seems to be an instance of the 
extinction of a species of bird by a hurricane. 
Previous to the great hurricane of September, 1898, 
which devastated portions of the West Indies and of the 
North American coast, one of the tamest and most com- 
mon birds on the Island of St. Vincent was a small hum- 
mingbird, not yet identified, but easily recognized by its 
erect crest. Since the hurricane this bird seems to have 
entirely disappeared, and a seven weeks' sojourn on the 
island by a gentleman familiar with the bird failed to 
reveal a single specimen. Interested in the absence of th!s 
formerly common species, inquiry was made about it, and 
the fact appeared that none of the birds had been seen 
since September, 1898, Other hummingbirds, which were 
formerly much less common than the species referred to, 
are still found in St. Vincent, though perhaps not in num- 
bers as great as formerly. It is suggested that the 
missing hummingbird was the smallest of the three species 
known upon the island, and therefore the most easily 
killed, and that this is the explanation of the disappear- 
ance, but this hardly seems sufficient to account for the 
matter. 
SNAP SHOTS. 
When a new political administration came into power 
in New York city in 1898 Park Commissioner Clausen 
turned out of office Dr. T. H. Bean, the director of the 
Battery Park Aquarium, to make a place for a certain 
Col. Jones. Dr. Bean, as a veteran, was not subject to 
dismissal without cause, and in order to evade the law 
Commissioner Clausen resorted to the transparent trick 
of abolishing the office and making a new one, in which 
Col. Jones was in due course snugly ensconced. Dr. 
Bean brought suit for reinstatement, contending that as 
a veteran he could not be discharged without cause, and • 
that in abolishing the office Clausen had not acted in 
good faith. He obtained an alternative writ of mandamus 
for his reinstatement. The Appellate Division has just 
affirmed an interlocutory judgment overruling Clausen's 
demurrer to the writ. The main ground of the writ was 
that Dr. Bean had made no demand for reinstatement; 
but the court holds that in a case like this, "where the 
Commissioner has actually taken steps to abolish an 
office, and when the allegation is that these steps were 
taken in bad faith, there certainly can be no presumption 
that any demand upon him would induce him to reverse 
the action which he has taken. In such cases, there- 
fore, no demand is necessary." In other words, Clausen 
played a trick which the courts will not sustain. Drawing 
an inference from other cases of like nature, we may look 
with confidence for Dr. Bean's reinstatement in a position 
he had filled so admirably, and in which the public inter- 
est as opposed to political spoils chicanery — demanded 
his retention. 
Whatever may be the existing law in relation to shoot- 
ing and fishing on the Sabbath, clearly the law-abiding 
sportsman is bound to respect it, and to observe it quite 
as gracefully and unreservedly as he does any other game 
law. On no other basis may one consistently contend for 
the observance by others of the game and fish laws in 
general. To shoot or fish on the Sabbath in violation of 
the law and to defend it on the ground that on that day 
alone has one the time to give to the sport, this is only 
to give in another form the argument by which the 
shooter or the fisherman in close season excuses himself 
by the plea that if he does not have his sport in the close 
time he cannot have it at all, and this is simply a demand 
for personal, individual license as opposed to the general 
good as sought to be safeguarded by the statute, If a 
fisherman wants to fish on Sunday or in any other for- 
bidden season, it is his privilege to change the prohib- 
itory law if he can, but so long as the statute remains on 
the books he is bound by the obligations of good sports-* 
manship— which is good citizenship — ^to respect it. 
