Forest and Stream. 
A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 
Copyright, 1902, by Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 
erms, a Year. io cts. a Copy. / NEW YORK, SATURDAY, MARCH 29, 1902. i^m%J^^§&**»* 
Six Months, j * * 
T 
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THE SEASON AND ITS HERALDS. 
The brown earth is growing warm, the buds of the trees 
are swelling; already those of the soft maple are red and 
large. The fields are still sere and brown, but the lawns 
about the houses, mowed through last summer and autumn, 
are taking on a tinge of green. Under the leaves in the 
woods the earliest spring flowers, liverwort and anemone, 
are sending up their flower stalks, and before long the 
children will be gathering great bunches of them to 
prove to us that spring is really here. If the long grass 
in the fields and the leaves in the forest are still yellow 
and brown, they now become brilliant in the warm light 
of the strengthening sun; and tree trunks, and gray rail 
fence, and moss-covered stone wall, cast how sharp black 
shadows, different from the feeble ones of midwinter. 
The great wave of bird migration started from the 
south long ago, and the first swell of its tide has already 
passed over us. Flocks of geese on clamorous journey 
have been seen and heard, sometimes high in air, like 
arrows cleaving the sky; sometimes nearer to' earth, fol- 
lowing the water courses or swinging along the line of 
the shore. Many of the ducks have already gone by, and 
far to the northward are awaiting the opening of the yet 
frozen waters, while others still loitering with us are 
being pursued by the enthusiastic, but thoughtless, gun- 
ner. All through the winter these birds have led easy lives 
in the open waters of the South, often disturbed by the 
roar of the gun, often deceived by flocks of mimic com- 
rades, lightly resting on the water, rising and falling with 
the swell, and swinging here and there with the changing 
breeze. The ranks of the wildfowl are thinned now. 
Since last summer- many thousands of their kind have 
fallen before the gun, and will never again see the pleas- 
ant waters of the north land, or on whistling wings pass 
over the far-stretching tundra. 
The smaller birds have begun to arrive. The song 
sparrow we have always with us; and often on bright 
days through the winter from sheltered spots has been 
heard his. cheery song. Now he knows that springtime 
has come again and he sings constantly as he courts his 
mate. Ere long he will begin to build his nest, for he is 
almost the earliest breeder in the land. Bluebird and 
robin and rusty grakle ornament tree and field and 
swamp border, and other species are coming; not one by 
one, but by hundreds, and each day, as the bird lover 
walks abroad, he sees in field and hedgerow and coppice 
and wood, the constantly arriving species, some of which 
he knows are birds of passage only, while others he ex- 
pects to see all through the summer. A little later, if 
during his walk he stops and sits down to listen and to 
look, very likely he will hear somewhere close to him a 
curious rustling among the leaves, and if patient and slow 
moving, he may detect two or three fox sparrows, or per- 
haps a chewink, busily scratching on the ground, looking 
for buried seeds. 
Long before this, the crows have begun to settle their 
family affairs for the year, and their not unmusical voices 
and glittering plumage, as the male displays himself 
before the female, have already been heard and seen. By 
this time they are gathering sticks and preparing their 
nests. The dweller in Rhode Island now may see the 
fishhawks, which have followed the cold weather from 
the south, making repairs to their huge nests, perched 
in the top of some tall tree, or resting on a wagon wheel 
supported by a pole erected for a bird house by the 
kindly landowner. For in Rhode Island they try to make 
the fishhawks comfortable, just as elsewhere people do the 
wrens, or the martins. Is there in all of Audubon's great 
work a plate more charming than that which shows a 
gourd hollowed out and supported on a pole, occupied 
by a family of martins? Such bird homes are familiar to 
all our Southern readers. We shall do well to strive to 
bring close to us the beautiful bird life still to be found 
at>ou$ us, It was a happy notion of Mr. Wilmofc Town- 
send' s to place on the lawn a drinking fountain and bath 
tub for the birds, and there is no better way to interest 
and please the children than to make the birds and the 
animals their familiar friends. In a little more than a 
month now, the wave of bird migration will be at its 
height. Then in the swamps, in the budding trees of the 
apple orchard, and in the tops of the tallest oaks will 
be found crowds of tiny birds, unrecognizable at a dis- 
tance, yet when viewed through the lenses of an opera 
glass, readily to be known; the multitudes of warblers, 
tiny, active, bright in plumage and graceful in shape, 
which remain with us but for a night and then journey 
onward to breed in those dark forests of pine and hem- 
lock in the north, where they are seldom disturbed. 
It is time now for the bird lover to make preparations 
for the busy season. Active though he may be, he can- 
not hope to see any great part of what goes on in the 
multitudinous world of nature about him; yet he can 
see enough to inspire him with the keenest interest, and 
with memories which shall remain with him for many 
days. If he can be much abroad during the months of 
April and May, it shall profit him greatly. 
THE CARP. 
When, many years ago, the European carp was in- 
troduced into the waters of North America, it was said 
to be a valuable food fish, and its importatio-n and cul- 
ture would be the means, it was declared, of rendering 
profitable many ponds and lakes and sluggish waters 
then unproductive. It was said that an acre of pond or 
slough stocked with carp would yield the owner a greater 
annual return than the same area of fertile land, culti- 
vated in any grain crop. On the faith of such state- 
ments the carp was imported, but it proved anything 
but the promised blessing. Introduced into a few waters, 
ic soon escaped from them and rapidly peopled others to 
the injury of the fishing and the destruction of native 
fish,- that were far more valuable. It rooted up and de- 
stroyed water plants that were useful, and is said to have 
exterminated in some places certain plants that had al- 
ways furnished attractive food for the wildfowl, so that 
certain sections to which, during the migration, ducks 
and geese formerly resorted in great numbers, have now 
been deserted. 
For many years the carp has been regarded as a 
curse to the country, and has been as much abused by 
anglers as the English sparrow has been by naturalists. 
It is interesting now to see its defense again taken up, 
and that by an investigator as eminent in his line of work 
as Mr. C. H. Townsend, whose services in connection 
with the United States Fish Commission are so well 
known to naturalists, and so highly appreciated by them. 
At a recent meeting of the Biological Society of 
Washington, Mr. Townsend spoke on the "Present 
Status of the Carp in American Waters." He declared 
that, notwithstanding all the adverse comment, the fish 
was rapidly assuming an important place in America, and 
that about $400,000 worth is annually sold, largely in 
New York. The carp is the source of the principal fishery 
in the Illinois River, where, lie declares, the bass have 
increased, in spite of the statement that a carp destroys 
the young and spawn of bass. It is Mr. Townsend's be- 
lief that when the proper 'methods of raising and cooking 
carp shall be better appreciated, the fish will grow in 
popular favor and will become an important article of 
food, especially among those who cannot afford to pur- 
chase more desirable species of fish. He believes that it 
will be impossible to raise the finer species of fish on a 
scale large enough to keep pace with our growing pop- 
ulation, and as the carp can be more easily raised, it 
will supply the deficiency caused by the lack of other 
fishes. 
Mr. Townsend's views are entitled to the most respect- 
ful hearing, but it may be suggested that all that he says 
has often been said before, and that the value of the carp 
sold is not great when the area of country over which 
they are distributed, and the amount of its population, 
is considered. That the carp has a certain value as a 
food fish is undeniable, but it may fairly be questioned 
whether the waters occupied by the carp might not more 
profitably be devoted to better fish. 
It is far too late, however, to discuss this as a practical 
question. The carp is here and has unquestionably come 
to stay. Such as he i§ we must make the best of him„ 
A RELIC OF THE PAST. 
In the Forest and Stream's office there is at present 
an ancient arm, centuries old, which is an object lesson 
in the matter of relativity in perfection, according to the 
estimates of mankind frcm epoch to epoch. Clumsy, 
shapeless and awkward of manipulation, it was yet in its 
day an advance on its still m»re awkward predecessors. 
This is indicated by the lock, of the wheel-lock model, 
said to have been invented in 1515 at Nuremberg, and, in- 
efficient and cumbersome as it was, it nevertheless was 
then considered a great advance in worthiness over the 
match lock, which, in its most perfect state, was the re- 
sult of several developmental stages of improvement. 
The wooden stock of this old gun is shaped something 
after the lines of the great northern pike. The 24-inch 
barrel, of good old-fashioned iron, octagonal in shape, is 
fastened" to the wooden stock with a tang, a screw and 
two pins, and by its side, well forward of the breech of 
the barrel, a hammer of majestic size and reach, faced the 
shooter. Spikes at breech and muzzle indicated that the 
gun was to be fastened firmly, at both ends, to some 
weighty object, and then trained on a runway where the 
game was likely to pass to and fro, or on the path on 
which an enemy was likely to pass. Instead of taking 
gun in hand and seeking the game and aiming at it as 
is done at the present day, our talented ancestors of that 
olden time reversed matters by first aiming his gun and 
then patiently waiting for the game to come -within the 
line of his aim. There then was a certain intermediate 
series of events something after the manner of the House 
that Jack Built, for the trigger pull released the wheel- 
iock, the wheel-lock revolved and knocked sparks out of 
the flint, the sparks ignited the powder in the pan, which 
in turn ignited the charge, so that if all went well, there 
sooner or later would be a discharge. To load this 
ancient weapon Was a task which approached the dignity 
of a labor. Indeed, with this style of gun, Greener re- 
counts that "in 1638, at Wittenmergen, the musketeers of 
the Duke of Weimar shot seven times only during the 
action that lasted from, noon to 8 o'clock in the evening." 
That seems absurdly slow when contrasted with a modern 
weapon, which will shoot as many times in almost a 
second. And yet in such an humble beginning the beautiful 
and efficient firearms of the present day had their origin. 
Thousands of intermediary stages lie between the ancient 
and the modern mechanisms. 
And yet, this souvenir of antiquity may have been the 
embodiment, to its ancient owner, of all that was best 
in sport. Knowing no better weapon, he looked upon it 
as the best of all. Relatively, it was better than its pre- 
decessors. We of to-day value our firearms in like man- 
ner. And the associations of its' successes afield, perils 
surmounted, and reliability in the face of all dangers, en- 
deared it no doubt to the ancient as do the powers of 
the modern firearms endear them to the modern men. 
The New York bill providing that imported game shall 
be subject to the State law, and that dealers may retain 
game in the close season by giving suitable bond subject to 
direction of the Game Commission, has become law. We 
have expressed the opinion that such a system would lead 
to the encouragement of game marketing and of viola- 
tions of the law against sale in close season. On the 
other hand, the measure was advocated by Chief Pro- 
tector Pond, who believes that it will materially help the 
cause of protection. 
The bill in the New York Legislature to forbid the 
sale of woodcock and grouse killed within the State has 
passed the Assembly. By the time this comes to the eye 
of the reader the work of the Legislature will practically 
have been finished for the session. We hope that in the 
next issue we may have the privilege of recording that 
New York has fallen into line with the States which in 
the public interest have adopted the Forest and Stream's 
Platform Plank to the extent at least of prohibiting the 
sale of woodcock and grouse from its own coyers. 
•? 
Ontario has done something which will prove of decided 
interest to big-game hunters. The Province has changed 
the moose law which permitted hunting only in every, 
third year, for a new regulation, which provides an an- 
nual open season. The Province embraces some excellent 
mopse country, and the coming autumn is likely to see a 
goodly number of American visitors invading Ontario; 
wildjl? j 
