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. f 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, MARCH 30, 1901. 
( VOL. LVI,— No. 13. 
'j 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 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. 
J Subscriptions may begin at any time. Terms: For single 
copies, $4 per year, $2 for six months. For club rates and full 
particulars respecting su"bscriplions, see prospectus on page iii. 
Cfte forest anfl Stream's Platform PlanK.1 
'' The sale of game should be prohibited at all seasons." 
NAILS DRIVEN IN 1901.— No. II. 
NEW HAMPSHIRE. 
Act of narch 20, 1901.— Sec. 4. If any person shall at any 
time within this State buy, sell, offer or expose for sale any 
woodcock, partridge or ruffed grouse, he shall for each bird . . . 
be fined ... or Imprisoned. 
Atte ' the least the angler hath his wholesome waike, and is 
mery at his ease; he hath a swete aiyre of the swete savoure of 
the meede flowers that makyth him hungry; he hereth the 
melodious armoury of fowles, swannes, duckes and cotes; surely 
thenne no man is merier in his spryte than he.— Dame Juliana 
Berners. . 
NOT SO BLACK AS PAINTED. 
Now that the snows have gone and the frost has left 
the ground, and under the sodden brown herbage that 
still clothes the fields is springing the tender verdure of 
another summer, an active harbinger of spring thrusts 
himself on our notice. From his hue we might take him 
for a mourner still attendant on the death that for 
months that has reigned over the landscape. Yet at this 
season his actions are not that of a mute at a funeral, for 
of all the creatures of early spring time none is more 
noisy, boisterous and good humored than he. 
Early in the morning, from their home in the' cedars 
or in the thick dark wood that clothes some rough hill- 
side, the crows sally forth by little companies to their 
favorite feeding grounds, and there for hours forage 
busily, keeping up meanwhile a constant flow of conversa- 
tion, debate and oratory. Such a tumult is never heard in 
a well-conducted American club, though from accounts 
of the proceedings of certain legislative bodies of Europe 
we may gain some idea of the order prevailing at one of 
these crow assemblages. 
A month or two ago, when the land was covered with 
snow and the waters sealed by frost, the crows resorted 
daily to the mud flats, where at low tide they lived on the 
fish and clams and winkles and worms left bare by the 
retreating waters; but now they are searching the still 
neglected grain fields and grass lands. If the farmer has 
failed to garner some part of his crop, or, overtaken by 
the winter, has left a few shocks of corn in the field, we 
may be sure that the crows have found it, have burrowed, 
their way into the deepest recesses of the store and have 
stripped the husks from the ears and the grains from the 
cob. Rejected nubbins and ears dropped from the wagon 
on its way to the barn have been detected and used. They 
have found too the little patches of buckwheat which the 
thoughtful sportsman, anxious for the well-being of the 
quail and rulfed grouse which winter in his swamp, has 
sowed along the fence rows and by the edges of the wood 
and left standing as food for the game birds. To this 
buckwheat the sable crew resort and glean with care the 
three-cornered grains which tlie fall and winter winds 
have shaken from their loose panicles. 
After the first warm rains have come, removing the 
last of the frost and tempting- surfaceward the thoughtless 
angleworm, the crows are busy and happy. Full well 
they know this storm, and what it means, and no matter 
hoW' hard the rain may pour nor how blustering the 
wind, the crow is early abroad and feeds fat on the 
lucious worms which raslily emerge from among the 
swelling grass roots. 
After their hunger is satisfied the dark multitude resorts 
to the topmost branches of some nearby piece of woods 
and there holds a council, in which, no doubt, the oldest 
and wisest of the crows give much good advice to their 
younger brethren.. Before long now these conventions 
will break up, the crows will pair and build their nests 
and then suddenly it will appear to the casual observer as 
if all the crows had disappeared. From being the noisiest 
and most obtrusive of the dwellers in our fields, they be- 
come shy and secretive, going quietly to and fro, with- 
out calling or in any way attracting attention — ^intent on 
the safety of their nests. 
His color and some of his habits have given our friend 
the crow a bad name which he does not altogether de- 
serve. He does not profess to be more perfect than the 
rest of us, yet for him we may well have the same charity 
that we should like others to feel for us. He wishes 
to earn a livelihood, as honest as may be, and perhaps in 
his way he does as little harm as most others. If he 
eats a few quarts of grain during the year, they are not 
worth much, and if he were not here, the increasing 
horde of field mice, whose young he unearths from their 
snug nests of dried grass, would eat as much or more. 
Give the crow a chance ; he is not all bad. 
ETHICS AND ORACLES. 
While the ethics of sportsmanship have certain well- 
defined principles which have been established by ex- 
perience and common usage, there are certain interests 
which, being debatable, are still in the realm of opinion. 
As a general proposition, each man has a more or less 
accurate knowledge of matters which directly concern his 
vocation. He knows that certain causes will produce 
certain effects. His theory and practice are in accord as 
a result of long experience. All his fellow craftsmen 
will in their vocation in the main agree on matters of 
practice. But, on matters outside of their own knowledge, 
there are many men who, with the merest superficial 
knowledge, arrogate to themselves the full power of 
censorship over their fellows and their fellows' doings. 
Religion, politics, the justice or injustice of foreign or 
domestic wars, etc., all come within their self-constituted 
purview. 
The ethics of sportsmanship to the ego authority is a 
matter to be settled quickly out of hand. It consists chiefly 
in denouncing the beliefs or doings of all who think differ- 
ently or act differently. The arbitrary personal standard 
of the self-constituted authority is paraded as the only 
true ethical one, while all others are of the "game hog," 
the game butcher or the man who is other than a sports- 
man. Even men, otherwise of sound judgment, are prone 
to believe that, in matters of sportsmanship their opinions 
are laws. They are not conscious that their ideas are 
opinions ; they feel that they are in possession of knowl- 
edge, and that their words flow therefrom. On the other 
hand, they are keenly alive and assertive concerning that 
the other fellows possess opinions only. For himself, the 
self-constituted authority waives all consideration of his 
personal prejudices, his different environment, his limited 
point of view, his absence of experience or thorough in- 
vestigation, while yet for others he lays down hard and 
fast lines for the government of his fellows, with all the 
abandon which comes from ideas based on superficial 
examination and the freedom which comes from irrespon- 
sibility. Sentiment, prejudices, personal idiosyncrasies 
and theory are many times by the individual mistaken for 
true ethics. 
From this source many times come ex cathedra utter- 
ances in respect to how much game one may kill in a 
day. or whether one may justly kill any at all, or may kill 
it in certain ways. The man who in his own community 
may be a failure, an impertinent upstart, or an example 
of worthlessness in general, feels free to anathematize men 
whose doings are at variance with his opinions, or whose 
doings are opposed to his own selfish interests. Often 
it is a combination of the selfishness and demagogism. 
At a distance of a few hundred miles, the man whose ex- 
istence may be law in the social, business and mental 
scale does not hesitate to hurl disapproval at the man who 
may be infinitely his superior, and in whose presence he 
would be overwhelmingly abashed. 
It is not to be understood that there are not men who 
are sound in their knowledge and their advocacy of sports- 
manship, and who discuss all matters pertaining to it with 
fairness. Such a class exists. But there is a class which 
is intolerant in opinion and arrogant in its assertiveness, 
which does not hesitate to denounce all who go contrary 
to its opinions in matters of sportsmanship, while re- 
serving to itself freedom to act for itself regardless of 
the opinions of others. 
The true principle of action should be tolerance and 
consideration. The opinions which a man has to-day may 
not be the opinions which he will have ten years hence, 
nor may not be those which he had ten years ago. The 
opinions which a man holds may be good for his own 
environment, and utterly bad for the man who lives a 
thousand miles away in another environment. Also in 
matters of sportsmanship as in politics, law, etc., there are 
men who like to hear their own voices, or see their names 
in the public prints, or hold the center of the stage re- 
gardless of the merits at issue if their egotistical craving 
for notority can in any way be satisfied. 
MOIETIES. 
There is a well-defined prejudice against any police 
system which rewards an officer by a part of the penalties 
recovered for law violations. This prejudice sometimes 
works against the prosecution in a game law case, where 
half of the fine goes to the warden, and on occasion a jury 
will feel so strongly on the subject that it will find for 
the defendant when the evidence, no matter how strong 
and clear it may be, rests upon the testimony of an 
officer whose zeal they think to be prompted by a regard 
for his pocket. AVe know of game protectors in New 
York who have repeatedly found this prejudice a serious 
obstacle to securing convictions which otherwise would 
readily have been obtained, and they have declared that 
they would gladly see the moiety system abolished. Such 
protectors, however, are the exception; the average war- 
den or protector or constable will work harder and 
accomplish more because of the reward a successful prose- 
cution will bring to him. 
It is quite unlikely that the cases lost because of this 
prejudice of juries against the moiety system amount to 
enough to constitute an argument against its retention. 
On the other hand, the fact that each specific piece of 
detective work will be rewarded if successfully carried 
through has a direct effect not only as a stimulus to the 
warden but as a deterrent of the law violater. As Mr. 
A. B. F. Kinney said the other day in a hearing before 
the Massachusetts Legislature* under the moiety system 
if a shooter who is potting partridge out of season sees a 
game warden in the neighborhood, he will say to him- 
"self, "That man will get something if he catches me^ and 
he's going to catch me if he can." But, on the con- 
trary, if there were no reward, a poacher would reason 
that as there was nothing in it for the warden, he would 
much rather take things easy and not bother to make an 
arrest. 
Considering the imperfections of human nature as con- 
stituted in the twentieth century, a system of game law 
enforcement which carries with it the moiety feature is 
wise and expedient. 
SNAP SHOTS. 
Governor Odell of New York last week named De 
Witt C. Middleton, of Watertown, as the Forest, Fish 
and Game Commissioner, and appointed Messrs. Wood- 
ruff and Babcock, of the old Forest Preserve Board, to 
serve for two years as associate commissioners. At the 
expiration of that term Mr. Middleton will be the single 
commissioner; as a member of the former commission 
he has proved himself capable and efficient, and his ap- 
pointment to the new position is regarded with satisfac- 
tion by those who are familiar with his record. In thus 
reducing the two boards of eight members to what in 
time will be a single-headed commission, Governor Odell 
has performed a public service of very great value. 
Among the unpublished manuscripts left by Rowland E, 
Robinson was the chapter of Danvis life which we print 
to-day. It is marked by -the clear and sympathetic insight 
into human nature that marks all of Mr. Robinson's 
writings, and it goes without saying that this new glimpse 
of the Danvis folks will be extremely welcome. 
They are making a strong fight in Michigan against 
spring shooting. We are glad to print the letter from 
Dr. MacCallum, of the Ontario Commission, correcting a 
misapprehension of the attitude of that Province as to t&e 
protection of wildfowl. 
The Cincinnati Cuvier Qub is sending around to the 
game dealers of that city a circular containing the full 
text of the Lacey Act, and thus is adding to many wajrs it 
has found for pronaoting the gam§ interests oi Ohio, 
