208 
FOREST AND STREAM, 
March 14, IQ03.] 
coming in this locality within my recollection. From 
some of my old notebooks I glean the following dates of 
former early arrivals: 
Bluebird— 1S84, March 16; 1885, March 19; 1886, March 
21 ; 18SS, March 20. 
Robin— 1884, March 10; 18S5, March 22; 1S86, March 
17 ; 1S88, March 10. Theodore M. Schuck. 
DansviLLB, N. Y., March G. 
0nnie ^ug and 0nn. 
— ^ — 
Proprietors of shooting resorts will find it profitable to advertise 
them in Forest and Stream. 
N. Spring Duck Shooting Bill. 
The hearing held last Thursday in the Senate Cham- 
ber at Albany before the joint Fish and Game Commit- 
tees of the Senate and the Assembly, on Senator Brown's 
bill to prohibit spring duck shooting in New York, 
brought together a considerable number of persons in- 
terested. 
The joint committee was made up as follows: In the 
Senate : Messrs. E. R. Brown, Armstrong, Allds, Lefevre, 
W. L. Brown, Townsend and Keenan. In the House: 
Messrs. AUston, of Herkimer; Reeve, of Suffolk; 
Doughty, of Queens-Nassau; Moran, of Seneca; C. W. 
Smith, of Fulton-Hamilton; McNair, of Wyoming; 
Coutant, of Ulster; Simpson, of Sullivan; Knapp, of 
Clinton; Wolf of Kings; Duer, of Queens; Shanahan, of 
Kings; Mortimer, of Oneida. 
A large delegation of Long Islanders, chiefly from 
Suffolk countjr, was on hand, and their forces were mar- 
shaled by Senator Bailey, who is, of course, opposed to 
the bill. Among these were Capt. Wm. H. Kreamer, of 
Bellport, L. I.; Capt. Downs, Mr. J. Wood, of Sayvillc, 
who appeared as counsel for the supervisors; Mr. W. H. 
Post, Mr. Hart, and Mr. F. Lawrence, of Mastic. 
The meeting was called to order by Senator Brown at 
2 :30 P. M., and the proceedings opened by an address 
from Senator Bailey, who then called as witnesses Capt. 
Kreamer and Capt. Downs. Both these gentlemen testi- 
fied that this year birds in the Great South Bay appeared 
to be more numerous than ever. They said that their 
autumn shooting was usually confined to the month of 
November, since the bay usuallj^ closed early in Decem- 
ber, after which there was no shooting until it opened 
again in March. The point was inade that few or no 
brant were killed except on their way north in the spring, 
and that the number of brant — and indeed of ducks — 
killed was verj' inconsiderable in comparison with the 
number of birds found. Questions put by Mr. Reeve, of 
Suffolk, brought out from these gentlemen the opiijion 
that the birds found in the Great South Bay did not pro- 
ceed north to New York State, or indeed across the coun- 
try, but followed the coast and bred in the far north, 
somewhat vaguely described as Labrador. 
Mr. Grinnell, of New York, was asked to open for the 
side advocating the bill. He went over many of the 
familiar arguments in favor of the abolition of spring 
shooting, called attention to the fact that in Jefferson 
county New Yorlc already had within its boundaries an 
object lesson which proved the case for the advocates of 
the bill, for — spring shooting having been abolished there 
for three years — wildfowl were more numerous than ever 
before, black ducks having bred by thousands, mallards 
and teal in some numbers, broadbills and redheads a few, 
and perhaps one brood of geese. 
Mr. Chas. H. Mowry, representing the New York 
Fish and Game and Forest League, followed. He 
spoke of the general feeling in the State against spring 
shooting, enumerated the States and Provinces which 
have done away with it, and pointed out that in all these 
cases the results of such abolition have been very satis- 
factory. His address was listened to with attention. 
Mr. Wm. Dutcher, speaking for the Bird Protective 
Committee of the American Ornithologists' Union, ex- 
plained the work of that committee, stating that it had 
begun by endeavoring to protect non-game birds, but had 
now extended its work to game birds. He said that for 
thirty years he had been making a special study of the 
birds of Long Island, and that his knowledge of these 
birds and their habits was equal to that of any bay man 
or gunner of Long Island. He pointed out that the 
abolition of spring shooting would result in a greatly in- 
creased supply of birds on Long Island, and that, as 
sportsmen from a distance desired to have just about so 
much shooting every season, men who now A'isit Long 
Island both in the spring and fall will, if Senator Brown's 
bill became a law, merely concentrate their visits, going 
to Long Island twice as often in the autumn as they do 
now in spring and fall, so that the gunners there will lose 
nothing. 
Mr. Joseph Wood, of Sayville, as counsel for the super- 
visors of Suffolk county, made a somewhat extended ad- 
dress covering many of the points already gone over on 
his side. He insisted especially on the great number of 
birds in Long Island Sound, and in the discussion which 
followed between himself and the chairman, Senator 
Brown suggested that the Great South Bay was a natural 
gathering place — a sort of game refuge— the last along 
the seacoast north of the Chesapeake Bay, and that the 
birds were always found there in great numbers. 
Mr. W. H. Tallett, of Watertown, the man to whom 
more than to anyone else Jefferson county _ owes the 
abolition of spring duck shooting, gave a historical review 
of that matter, and later, in answer to questions, told of 
the enormous improvement of the autumn shooting there, 
of the great number of birds which had bred, of the gen- 
eral satisfaction of the gunners with the existing law, 
but of their rebellion against the injustice of having no 
spring shooting within their borders while other counties 
of the State could kill birds in the spring. 
Mr. C. H. Wilson, of Glens Falls, vice-president of the 
North American Fish and Game Protective Association, 
appeared in behalf of that Association and made a ringing 
speech. He pointed out that of all the United States and 
Canadian Provinces east of Michigan which border on 
the Great Lakes, only New York and Pennsylvania still 
permit spring duck shooting. He quoted at length from 
the reports and proceedings of the North American Game 
Protective Association, and his address was very im- 
pressive. 
Mr. Dutcher, in response to questions by the chair- 
nian, gave additional testimony as to wildfowl and other 
birds on Long Island. He exhibited a diagram of the 
States which forbid spring duck shooting, and explained 
the great numbers of ducks on Long Island on the ground 
that Long Island was reaping the beneiit of the abolition 
of spring shooting in Canada and northern New England. 
The diagram is given on page 212. 
Mr. W. A. Post spoke interestingly and effectively on 
the side of Suffolk county. He contradicted a statement 
made by an earlier speaker that ducks were mated in the 
early spring or late winter and gave it as his belief that 
they did not mate until April. The matter of course 
is one of opinion only, since positive evidence is lacking 
on the point. Other speakers were Mr. Hart and Mr. 
Lr.wrence, the latter of whom felt very strongly on the 
subject, and really seemed to be too full for the utterance 
of his sentiments. 
The hearing was adjourned by the chairman at 4:30. 
Game Preserves. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
I MUST congratulate Mr. Charles Day on his excellent 
article under the head of "Game Parks and Other 
Things." At the same time it .strikes me that Didymus 
must be simply having a little fun at the expense of some 
of your able correspondents. 
The American millionaire has been a blessing to his 
country. With his superb pluck and untiring energy he 
has sunk his all into the building of thousands of miles 
of railroads and opened up millions of acres to civiliza- 
tion. He has put farms, villages and cities in the Avilder- 
ness, and has made it possible for the poorest of us to 
visit hunting grounds which we would never be able to 
see had it not been for him. Our millionaires endow 
colleges, making it possible even for those who revile 
them to gain a superior education to their own. Then 
there are libraries, hospitals and other noble works of 
charity provided, in many instances exclusivelj'' by our 
American millionaires. And when they acquire land 
worthless for anything but game preserves and perpetuate 
the propagation of wild animals which would otherwise 
become extinct, they are performing another public 
service. 
The millionaire who buj'S up a whole section of country 
and turns it into a game preserve is a public benefactor. 
As the game increases it is bound to escape in more or 
less numbers, and keep the surrounding country perma- 
nently stocked. This accounts for the appearance of deer 
in manj' sections lately where they have been extinct for 
years. From this cause and game protection deer are 
rapidly increasing in Connecticut. 
Long may the millionaire flourish to paj' good prices to 
those who need the money for land worthless for other 
purposes than game preserves. And long may the surplus 
of their game and fish of their stocked streams overflow 
into the surrounding country to be gathered in by my 
children and your children, should they never be mil- 
lionaires themselves. William H. Avis. 
HiGHWooD, Conn., March 6, 1903. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
The right of individuals to exclude the public from 
lands and waters to which they have acquired a "sacred 
title" is worthy of serious attention, and the limits of 
that right, if there are any, defined so that those in- 
terested in the subject may know just what ought to 
be done — and do it! 
On Feb. 21, in your paper, Mr. Chas. Day talks about 
"American liberty and the sacred rights of _ titles," 
holding that one American liberty is the right to 
buy wild lands and exclude therefrom all whom the 
purchaser desires. Doubtless, in common, man-made 
law, it is proper for a man to fence in mountains and 
lakes for which so much cash per acre has been paid. 
Yet it cannot be forgotten that when "game pre- 
serves" in France had reached a certain stage of ex- 
clusivehess, the "threat of murder," long muttered, was 
put into execution. The "good laws" governing such 
cases, became a universal law of compensation. The 
holders of "sacred rights of title" were killed — the 
French Revolution resulted from an effort to preach 
the doctrine of "divine rights" of exclusiveness. There 
is not likely to be any revolution in the United States 
of that sort over game .parks, because the matter will 
be rightly settled by the exercise of American sense. 
Mr, Day, so far as I can make out, says this notion 
is and always has been selfish. He is evidently a little 
weak in spots on history, but it is true, nevertheless, 
that the pursuit of money has developed men who have 
lost sight of what money is for. Our "sires and grand- 
sires" came to America to "better their condition"; 
they despised the "lordly landed aristocracy." and only 
the weaklings and degenerates ever mimicked this "aris- 
tocracy." They came here for the right to do their 
own work, in their own way, for their own good, with 
the privilege of rest when their woi-k was done tem- 
porarily, or permanently. The nation was founded by 
workers, and its most serious difficulty was when its 
millionaire class "gave employment to thousands of 
men" without compensation. 
The subject of private game parks is not a question 
of work, but one of rest. Have the few who own 
game preserves the right, according to the American 
idea, to hold for their own pleasure the lands of rest- 
ing to the exclusion of all other workers? That is, 
does a five-foot-eight millionaire really need 50,000 
acres of land, while a six-foot-two employe needs more? 
It is granted freely that millionaires are a product 
of America, the more the better. But to talk about 
unlimited resources in relation to our areas of rest, is, 
these days, blind folly. 
Mr. Day calls the matter of the North Hempstead 
Lake a mere matter of business. Didymus speaks of it 
in that light, "a good investment." Let us so consider 
it. The children of North Hempstead now have the 
pleasure of playing in the vicinity of that water, under 
the trees in its neighborhood. Men and women, in 
quieter fashion, play there, too. As a result: so many 
good, healthy children, able to do so many goods days' 
work by and by worth so much to the nation; so 
many men, commuters, mostly, I presume, refreshed, 
invigorated, recreated, able and willing to do so much 
better work, so much more of it on the following day 
at so much per for the advancement of the nation. 
Just suppose, to take the most conspicuous example, 
just suppose Roosevelt had been shut into roads and 
towns all during his boyhood, with no country to hunt 
oyer, "the sacred rights of title" acquired by million- 
aires having been exercised to keep him from free, 
healthy roaming with rifle from Maine to the Bad 
Lands. There is a man developed by unrestricted, un- 
fenced American wilderness, one not to be reared in 
any 15-strand inclosure devisable. I can't see how 
he permitted himself to hunt in the Corbin game park. 
That little lake at North Hempstead is a good in- 
vestment. It brings countless dollars to that town, 
more than the millionaire would. Mr. Day, after a 
little figuring, can see that. What Didymus sees, is 
that, instead of being a dallying plac.e for a mere 
man of wealth, it is a resting place for scores of people, 
each quite as, if not more, important to the com- 
munity, being a doer, than a "wealthy man of leisure." 
No one will object to Mr. Vanderbilt's using the lake 
in common with his neighbors. It would give great 
pleasure even in other communities to have him and 
others of his class if they would recognize the "we 
Americans" expression, rather than that of "we mil- 
lionaires." 
So it is getting something for nothing when one 
fishes, hunts or boats on land or water to which the 
sportsman does not have a sacred paper title. If a 
man hunted, or fished, or sported all the time it would 
be so. Living on game or fish is doing that. The 
market hunter lives on the property of the community. 
But not so the worker, who has done something — built 
bridges, or transported wheat or raised cattle, or 
manufactured shoes or clocks. The nation owes him 
a rest in addition to the money he has received for 
adding to the comfort of the people. It owes him just 
as many varieties of resting as it is possible for the 
nation to devise and make or purchase — good roads to 
ride on, beautiful trees to sit under, unpainted 
mountains to climb, diamond-pure streams to fish in 
or boat upon, the liveliest trout possible, the wariest 
deer in the biggest forests, lands and waters free to all. 
barring none, with every liberty commensurate with 
the rights of the others. Hence, the law forbidding 
more than two deer, or one moose, or 25 birds to a 
gun, is right and just. It is American. But a title 
which iiermits an individual to take to himself one 
minute more of pleasure than is rightfully his, or per- 
mits him to deprive others of pleasures of which ' he 
may be incapable of appreciating, is not "sacred" nor 
"divine." It cannot last, though it may be long before 
the fallacy is uprooted. 
"The rugged, barren wilderness, utterly worthless 
and unprotected," if Chas. Day means that, and be- 
lieves it, Didymus can pity him. Day is an object of 
commiseration. He recognizes only one value in this 
world, that the meanest, least worthy which it is possible 
to imagine, the cash value. The hunger of a dog for 
meat places a truer value than the price of a hog in 
dollars. How much vaster, worthier, more accurate, 
then, is the value which Didymus places on anything 
than any which Mr. Day can conceive? "Rugged wil- 
derness," because it is not possible to plant it to tur- 
nips and cabbages at so much per head or bushel. 
"Barren wilderness," because tinted mosses and gnarled 
trees compose it, not spruce pulp or pine timber. 
Day would applaud a Cold Spring Harbor, Long 
Island, millionaire as most generous. A public high- 
way ran along the beach between his land and the 
harbor. He said to the townspeople, give me this 
sand strip and I'll let you in to look at my magnificent 
grounds — grounds highly cultivated, the lands smooth 
as tables, grass even and soft as velvet, trees trimmed 
to the shape of inverted carrots and wash basins, hot- 
house flowers speaking no lesson of fading beauty, 
an owner glowing with the pride of possession and 
complaisant generosity — a town full of people deprived 
of its view of the wide salt waters and the right to 
walk along a clean, natural, sacred beach. The offer 
was refused, as in the North Hempstead case. 
As to the threats of murder in the case of a park 
owner, I don't know of a single case in the Adiron- 
dacks where the club or individual did not try to seize 
more than the "sacred title" called for. Public streams 
have been closed, public highways fenced, even State 
reservoirs claimed as private ponds, utterly without 
regard to the rights of the public. I don't believe there 
is a single geographical community in the whole Adi- 
rondack region where the public rights have not been 
violated by the class of men whom Mr. Day has 
rushed forward to defend. If there is a private game 
park in the mountains in which the law has not been 
ignored in some instance or other, I would be glad 
to know of it. 
I desire to state here that the unfenced game "pre- 
serves" have proved a distinct advantage to the Adi- 
rondack region. They have been, literall3% lands of 
refuge for the hunted deer. The overflow of deer from 
these preserves has kept up the supply of game in 
wonderful fashion. It is too bad that the clubs and 
individuals have not set an example to the woods peo- 
ple for common justice, let alone manly generosity. 
A matter which the financial intellect will not com- 
prehend has been brought forcibly to the minds of 
central New Yorkers by the typhoid epidemic at 
Ithaca, due to the bad water served to the town. The 
water did not cost so much money as good water 
would have done, yet there are many people who think 
that good money put into good water is worth while, 
and a profitable investment. The time is almost in 
sight when the Adirondacks will have to be used to 
furnish water to the growing cities. New York it- 
self may look that way some day. The spruce and 
hemlock trees shading the moist hills are worth money, 
so are the hardwoods. But there are indications that 
by the tira^ the woods, ^.re gone, people vyill recognise 
