Forest and Stream 
A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 
Copyright, 1901, by Forest and Stream Publishing Co, 
Terms, |4 a Year. 10 Cts. a Copy, i 
Six Months, $2. 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 1901. 
VOL. LVI.— No. 8. 
No. 346 Broadway, New York 
The Forest and Stream is the recognized medium of entertain- 
'iiient, instruction and information between American sportsmen. 
The editors invite communications on the subjects to which its 
ipages are devoted. Anonymous communications will not be 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 
.copies, $4 per year, $2 for six months. For club rates and full 
.particulars respecting subscriptions, see prospectus on page ill. 
SPRING SHOOTING. 
The letter in opposition to the abolishment of spring 
duck shooting, printed in another column, is written by 
a man who owns a shooting resort on Long Island, and 
who feels that if the spring shooting of wildfowl is 
abolished a certain amount of trade will be taken from 
him and that his annual receipts will be less than they 
would be if the season were longer. With him the ques- 
tion is one of monej' — a condition, not a theory, con- 
fronts him. He is only one of a considerable class who 
feel deeply on the subject, and whose objections to a 
change in the law are entitled to careful consideration 
and to respectful answers. He makes certain statements 
with regard to the law concerning spring shooting in gen- 
eral, some of whiGh we shall endeavor to answer. 
The species of marsh ducks likely to nest within the 
State if spring shooting were abolished are practically 
all the marsh ducks, and especially mallards, black ducks, 
sprigtails, the two teal and shovelers, together with the 
bird commonly known as broadbill and perhaps the red- 
head. The marsh lands referred to in the editorial are 
located in the northern, central and western parts of 
New York State, chiefly in what is known as the lake 
region. In former years — thirty-five, thirty and even 
twenty years ago — many ducks nested there, but with the 
reduction in numbers of the fowl and their more constant 
pursuit it may be that these breeding grounds are now 
deserted. 
It is probably true that a certain portion of the talk 
about spring shooting is made by men who go south and 
have their shooting there, and then return to New York, 
but, of course, this has nothing to do with the case. 
Neither has the fact that the law against spring snipe 
shooting is violated on certain places on Long Island. 
The enactment of a law and its enforcement are two en- 
tirely different things. That one good law is not enforced 
is no reason for noL passing another good law. Many 
excellent laws are constantly broken, as we see every 
day, and as we shall see until human nature has vastly 
changed for the better. One of these disregarded laws 
is night shooting on Long Island, but the fact that bur- 
glars sometimes break into houses and carr}' off property is 
no reason for not passing laws to make the property con- 
stantly safer. 
It is not supposed that spring shooting is the only cause 
of the increased scarcity of ducks. There are many 
such causes. Some of these are the improvement and 
cheapening of firearms; their much wider use than for- 
merly; the ease with which distant localities frequented 
by fowl are reached ; the settling up of the country, which 
enormously contracts the breeding grounds of the . fowl ; 
the shooting of the birds for eight months in the year. 
The two chief causes for this reduction are the facts that 
the open season for fowl is far too long, and that the 
■settlement of the country has made the area which the 
ducks could breed in so much less than it was formerly. 
It is a well established principle that the protection of 
game is something which lies within the police powers of 
the several States, and that the Federal Government has 
no power to interfere in a matter of this kind. Our 
correspondent is in error in- stating as a general proposi- 
tion that as soon as the wildfowl leave the waters of 
New York State — for the north — thej'- are gunned. This 
is not everywhere true, for Ontario, Nova Scotia (as to 
some species) and Newfoundland have laws forbidding 
spring duck shooting, and a movement is on foot to enact 
.such a law in the Province of Quebec. 
Reasons for doing away with spring shooting have 
many times been given in Forest and Stiueam, but the 
logical and fundamental reason is that in the present open 
season too many birds are killed, and that season should 
be shortened in order that the destruction may be les-. 
sened. As things are at present, tiiolrfc' thirds probably 
are killed every season than are bred during the sum- 
mer, and the number of wildfowl is constantly decreasing. 
This decrease can be checked and the stock preserved by 
lessening the killing. This fact is recognized by the 
States which have done away with spring shooting. It is 
recognized also by other States, which are making the 
season for upland game constantly shorter. It is not 
very long since Connecticut cut off thirty days from the 
open season for quail and ruffed grouse. To-day in the 
State of Illinois the open season for prairie chickens and 
ruffed grouse lasts but thirty days. On the other hand 
over much of the United States wildfowl have practi- 
callj'^ no protection, being shot from the date of the ar- 
rival of the first birds in late summer or early autumn 
to the departure of the last bird in late spring or early 
summer. This is an anomaly, what our correspondent 
calls a "mere farce." Shall it continue for the State of 
New York? When Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota and 
North and South Dakota are in the van in shooting re- 
forms, shall New York continue to bring up the rear of 
the procession ? 
NAMES. 
A CORRESPONDENT recently wrote us expressing the 
opinion that we were in error in calling a certain animal 
a panther. He maintained that its true name was some- 
thing else, and his letter thus brings up again the matter 
of popular names so frequently the cause of misunder- 
standing' between writers. It is the shield about which 
the knights so fiercely quarreled. 
It is well understood that in different countries and in 
different localities the same name may be applied to ani- 
mals which are widely different. A very large number of 
the common names used for American animals are im- 
portations brought to this country by the early English 
colonists. The American migratory thrush was called 
the robin, for no better reason than because he had a 
russet breast, as has the very different bird of England, 
known as the robin redbreast. Over much of northern 
North America we have the gallinaceous bird, known in 
different localities as partridge or pheasant, yet which is 
neither, but a grouse. The red deer of Britain is widely 
different from the red deer of America, and in turn the 
animal which gave its name to one of the branches of the 
Saskatchewan River is different from either. The list 
might be indefinitely extended. 
More than that, within a comparatively limited area 
different names are often applied to the same creature, and 
a single species may have a multitude of common names. 
To overcome the confusion and misunderstanding result- 
ing from this multiplicity of titles, persons who wish to 
define precisely what species they mean, commonly use 
the Latin name of the species — the term by which it is 
known in science — and when this is done there is never 
any question as to what is meant. 
Many of these local names are unknown out of the 
limited district where they are used, and are apparently 
meaningless, their etymology and the reason for their 
application having been los!:. How many persons are 
there, for example, who know what a wamp is, or a 
blatherskite, or a sleepy brother, or a weaser, or a gray- 
back, or a cow-frog, or a smee, or a poacher, or a bustard, 
or a white flesher, or a shrups? Yet these are all names 
of birds commonly sought for by gunners and regularly 
reaching the provision markets. What each term means 
can readily be determined by a reference to Mr. Trum- 
bull's admirable "Names and Portraits of Birds Interest- 
ing to Gunners." It is well enough known that our com- 
mon golden-winged woodpecker rejoices in thirty or forty 
names, while the little ruddy duck, better known as booby 
or stifftail, has, if we recollect aright, about eighty differ- 
ent vernacular names. 
All of this is sufficient to indicate that nothing vefy de- 
cisive is to be said about the right or wrong of using a 
common English name. If, in the county of Richmond, 
State of New York, the public decided to call a horse a 
moose, then in the vernacular of that particular community 
a horse is a moose. If in Maine they call a cougar a cata- 
mount, a catamount the cougar is for Maine, although the 
same name may be applied to one or both the lynxes in 
other parts of the country. Therefore it is hardly worth 
while for people to fall foul of each other and dispute 
acrimoniously as to the correctness of one vernacular 
name oyer anqther. Thirty years ago §uch discussions 
were common, and the little Bob White — quail of the 
North and partridge of the South — furnished a frequent 
subject for heated arguments. In a matter such as this 
common usage rules— and often leads to endless con- 
fusion. Even to-dciy we read frequently of the capture of 
silver-gray foxes, - and notices of such captures are fre- 
quently accompanied by dissertations on the great value 
of the silver-gray foxes' fur. Yet the term silver-gray is 
frequently applied to the common gray fox (Urocyon), 
whose pelt is of little worth, while the real black fox or 
■ silver fox is, as the price which its fur brings shows, ex- 
ceedingly rare. 
The panther, cougar, puma, catamount or mountain 
lion has a very wide distribution, and so a good many 
names, each of which may fairly be called the correct and 
proper name in the locality where it is employed, for 
after all, words — and names, are words — are only the tools 
which we employ to convey our thoughts to others. A 
man who in the Rocky Mountains speaks of a panther as 
a catamount, is certain to be misunderstood; if he speaks 
of it as a puma, people will not know of what animal he 
is talking. 
The time is not likely ever to come when there will be 
a universal agreement as to the vernacular name to be 
applied to each one of our different species of mammals, 
birds, reptiles and fishes. But the time may come when 
all people who wish to define with certainty the species 
about which they are speaking or writing will use its 
scientific name, which will make sure what is meant. That 
this is not now done is to be explained by the general 
ignorance of the public on, scientific matters. Always to 
give a scientific name has an appearance of pedantry on 
the part of the writer, while on the other hand it is likely 
to frighten off the reader, or at least to interrupt the 
current of his thought. 
We believe that the' preponderant sentiment of the 
sportsmen of New York is that the spring shooting of 
wildfowl must be foregone if we are to retain our wild 
ducks and geese as a permanent possession. This con- 
viction is given expression in the bill now before the 
Legislative Assembly, No. 353, to close the shooting sea- 
son from March i to Aug. 31, and we print in another 
column the appeal made by the Fish, Game and Forest 
League in support of the measure. The other measures 
advocated by the League are excellent. More protectors 
and better paid protectors are essential to an effective 
enforcement of the law. If we had an efficiept executive 
force the Long Island night shooters of ducks and spring 
shooters of snipe would not enjoy the immunity now ac- 
corded to them. The bill to forbid the sale of woodcock, 
grouse and quail is a most salutary measure. The time 
has come for the practical application of a principle, which 
has through a campaign of education come to have very 
general acceptance as a theory, that the sale of game 
should be forbidden at all seasons. If we cannot stop 
the sale of all game at all times, let us at least stop the 
sale of those species whose diminishing stock stands most 
in need of protection from the market-hunter. Let New 
New York follow the wise lead of Massachusetts and 
stop the sale at least of woodcock, grouse and quail. 
Mr. Henry Talbott's paper on "Little Hunting Creek" is 
a timely contribution for the week of Washington's 
Birthday, and the extracts he gives from Washington's 
daily journal give an exceedingly interesting picture of 
the proprietor of Mt. Vernon as a fisherman. In connec- 
tion with what Mr. Talbott has here written may be 
read the late George H. Moore's essay on "Wash- 
ington as an Angler," which was printed in the Wood- 
craft Magazine of April, 1900. "I am content," concludes 
Dr. Moore, "to have been the first to claim for George 
Washington his rightful place as an angler — a, genuine 
disciple of Izaak Walton." 
A large circle of angling friends has been grieve^ hf 
the news of the death of George F. Mills, who passed 
away at his home in Brooklyn bn Feb. 9 at the age o£ 
forty. Mr. Mills was for many years associated with the 
firm of Wm. . Mills & Son. He was widely Icnown in the 
fishing tackle trade and among anglers, and his persona! 
traits were such that acquaintance with hini soon de- 
veloped into friendship. His untitoely death Is sincerelji 
lamented. ' • . ■ ■ j 
