246 
[March 28, 1903. 
to a great many sportsmen who enjoy their outings 
on the South Bay, and the grounds will fall into the 
hands of clubs formed from residents of this locality. 
I recognize the fact that ducks as a whole are getting 
scarcer each year, but broadbills are increasing, if 
anything, and as this is the duck which furnishes the 
shooting in the Great South Bay, the gunners of that 
section do not see why they should suffer with another 
part of the State, whose marsh duck shooting is on 
the decline. 
Why not leave Long Island waters out, and pass the 
bill for the rest of the State, where the need of it is 
felt. C. R. PuRDY. 
Bavport, L. I. 
CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 
High Water. 
Chicago, III., March 20. — The floods which have pre- 
vailed for more than two weeks all over the Middle West 
and the South have turned the Blather of Waters into a 
tremendous" stretch of open sea running almost across 
this country from north to south. This means that in all 
jikelihood the north-bound Mississippi flight this spring 
will be unusually heavy, although that does not neces- 
sarily imply that "the duck shooting will be especially good, 
for the prevalence of the high water has left a good deal 
of roosting and feeding grounds for the wildfowl in a 
great many different places. 
At Tolleston Club at the latter part of last week and 
first of this week some very good hags were made. Mr. 
Charles S. Dennis got 18 birds one afternoon without 
any difficulty, Mr. Hempstead Washburne 9, and other 
members of Tolleston Club had fair sutcess. 
Mr. W. L. Wells and Mr. HoUis Field, both of the 
Chicago Tribune, who went up last week into the Fox 
Lake country, met very wet, foggy and unpleasant weather 
and not so many birds as they had hoped. It is not an 
uncommon thing for visitors to Fox Lake to come back 
with explanations why they did not do much shooting. 
The hotel keepers of that neck of the woods are prolific 
in explanations. Now the flight has passed, or again it 
is not yet up, and again the conditions are not yet 
right, etc. 
Along the Kankakee River better sport has been had. 
A good many pintails and mallards have been killed. We 
should hear much more of this were it not for the Indiana 
license, which it seems is still a stumbling block for our 
Chicago shooters. It is hardly to be expected that a 
gentleman who borrows the license of a friend or goes 
into Indiana without a license will make public the doings 
of his shooting trip. There is no doubt, however, that at 
Water Valley and at other points above and below, the 
shooting has been noteworthy within the last six days. 
Mr. Thomas W. Blodgett, of advertising circles here, 
asks for news regarding New Boston, which is one of his 
favorite shooting places. I have no returns yet from that 
point, but it is well known that the water is well up all 
over the pin oak flats of the Mississippi Valley bottoms 
near there. If the mallards are not working too exten- 
sively on the corn fields, they should be in on the oak 
flats, and in that case the shooter ought to have some 
sport there during the next week. 
The President in the West. 
To-day Billy Hofer, of the Yellowstone Park, Seattle, 
Alaska, and elsewhere, dawned in Chicago without any 
previous warning. Billy is on his way with a couple of 
mountain lions, some deer, etc., for the Cleveland Sports- 
men's Show, where he expects to remain for a week or so. 
Early in April he will start back for his quarters at 
Gardiner, Montana, where he will have business of an 
interesting nature. It is known that President Roosevelt 
is to visit the Yellowstone Park early in his coming 
Western trip, and it goes almost without saying that Billy 
Hofer will be his guide and companion during his stay at 
the Park, which will begin about April 8. The likelihood 
is that at that time the snow will have left the flats and 
valleys at the level of the Mammoth Hot Springs, but in 
the upper mountains there will probably be six or ten 
feet of it, so that travel, except on snowshoes, would in 
all likelihood be difficult. 
Forestry in Indiana. 
The State of Indiana is awaking to the necessity of ap- 
plying the principles of forestry for the preservation of 
her rapidly disappearing timber. Under the supervision 
of W. H. Freeman, State Forester, there will be planted 
during the coming year nearly a half million trees. The 
State Legislature of Indiana has made an appropriation 
for the purchase of a State reservation of 2,000 acres, 
which will be planted with hardwood timber. An act of 
the Legislature provides that not to exceed one-eighth 
of the total area of the land owned shall be appraised for 
taxation at $1 an acre if it is set aside as a permanent 
forest reservation. Indiana's modest beginning with the 
principles of forestry is at least a step in the right direc- 
tion, and a step in which all the Western States will 
eventually have to follow her. 
Marked Advance in Illinois Game Legislation. 
To-day I had opportunity for full and very interesting 
conversation with Representative J. B. Castle, of De Kalb 
county, who has been prominent in the present Legisla- 
ture in many matters, including those of fish and game 
laws. From Mr. Castle's advice it seems very clear that 
matters were never in better shape at Springfield than 
they are to-day in regard to the protection of our fish and 
game. The old fight between the lower and upper por- 
tions of the State was never closer to compromise than it 
is to-day. The general opinion of the legislators in re- 
gard to the supply of fish and game is greatef- to-day than 
it ever was before. What is very much to the point, 
Mr. Castle is of the firm belief that we are going to have 
this spring the best and most practical game law ever put 
upon the statutes of the State of Illinois. 
Reference has already been made to this bill, which is 
more generally known as the Montgomery bill. It is 
House" bill 604, This bill has been fought through the 
committee and sub-committee, and has now reached its 
third reading in the House. Between fifteen and twenty 
distinct and different amendments were offered to the bill, 
but only two or three of these were adopted, so that the 
measure now stands practically as it was conceived by the 
men who first introduced it. It is beyond the stage where 
it can be amended in the House, and has reached its first 
reading in the Senate, where in all likelihood it will pass 
without further amendment. In the opinion of Mr. Cas- 
tle, who, with Dr. Wheeler, of Sangamon county, made 
the fight for this bill on the floor of the House, the pass- 
age of the measure is practically safe. Therefore it may 
be considered in the way of advance information if we 
take up some of the features of the bill. 
The more salient features of the bill as it now stands 
amended will be the adoption of the Forest and Stream 
plank of "Stop the Sale of Game." Heretofore we have 
always permitted the sale of ducks in this State, and it 
was generally agreed that we would always have to per- 
mit this sale. If this bill shall pass, as in all likelihood it 
will, we shall stand before the world as a State not per- 
mitting the sale of any of our game. 
Mr. Castle told me personally that there was consider- 
able feeling expressed in the committee meetings over the 
recent tremendous slaughters and sale of game along the 
Illinois River. The butchery of the Powers boys and 
their friends who shot on their private marshes on the 
Illinois River was brought up, and great indignation was 
expressed over the fact that these so-called gentlemen 
sportsmen should shoot for the market (to the extent of 
837 ducks killed and sold in one day). The indignation 
against this outrage appeared so general that it was re- 
solvei to stop altogetber the selling of ducks in this 
State. Another consideration moving thereto was the 
evidence introduced of the sale of 26,000 ducks by one 
firm of game dealers from Beardstown. 111., last fall. Per- 
haps we should not crow before we get out of the 
woods, and South Water Street is not yet heard from, 
but it is believed that we have whipped out this sort of 
thing in the State of Illinois, let us hope for once and for 
all. 
Another prominent thing in this new bill is the estab- 
lishment of a four years' close season on prairie chickens. 
This close season of several years once before proved the 
salvation of our Illinois grouse, and the general opinion 
is that the time has come for its application the second 
time. It will unquestionably in large measure restore the 
prairie chicken crop of this State. 
Yet another interesting feature, and one in which Mr. 
Castle takes especial pride, is the limiting of the bag of 
ducks in any one day to 50. This is rebuke sufficient to 
club_ shooters and others who have been in the habit of 
making unlimited and unsportsmanlike bags of ducks on 
those occasions when the flight happened to be just right. 
Mr. Castle himself told me that he thought that if the 
limit could be put down to 25 birds a day, it would in 
some measupre offset the loss of the "no sale" clause, 
should the latter eventually be defeated, which is unlikely. 
He also said that for very many years he has himself 
made it a practice to limit his own bag to 25 ducks and 
to 12 prairie chickens. The latter number of birds is 
the limit which he and his friends have always estab- 
lished to take home with them at the end of a prairie 
chicken shoot. He has felt always the same way in re- 
gard to smaller game birds, such as quail. It seemed to 
him that the sportsmen ought not always to seek to reach 
the limit even of the legal specifications. It is much to 
be regretted that there are not more such sportsmen in 
this country. 
An interesting feature of this bill is the fact that no 
part of a wild bird, excepting a game bird, may be had in 
possession (with the exception of the English sparrow, 
crow, crow blackbird or chicken hawk). This will stop 
the use of native Illinois song birds for millinery pur- 
poses. 
One amendment offered to the bill is the same as sug- 
gested in these columns last week. The resident gun 
license is to be collected of all, "Provided, however, thai 
the owner or owners of farm lands, their children or 
tenants, shall have the right to hunt and kill game on the 
farm lands of which he or they shall be bona fide owner 
or tenants during the season when it is lawful to kill 
game, without procuring such resident license." This 
gets over the difiiculty of the farmer's boy. 
This latter clause is, in a way, widened to almost a 
loophole quality, being an amendment to Section 32, 
which extends the free hunting privileges to a person 
hunting on the lands of any person "by invitation of such 
land owner." 
Under this new measure Illinois will stand committed 
to the principles of paid wardens and deputies. The non- 
resident license will be raised to $15, and it is thought 
that between $6,000 and $10,000 will be raised in this way, 
this sum to be largely swelled by the resident license. 
State Warden Lovejoy believes there are 25,000 shooters 
in this State who will take out licenses. I hardly share in 
this optimistic belief, although the number of shooters 
may be something like that total. There will be, however, 
without doubt, a great deal of money paid into the 
treasury of the State by resident shooters should this bill 
become a law. The fund raised in this manner will be a 
considerable one. The old system of paying wardens by 
giving them half of the fines will be done away with and 
the fines will go direct to the school fund in the township 
in which the offense is committed. The license system 
has spread very rapidly in the West, and is apt to spread 
quite rapidly pretty much all over the country, it seeming 
to be chosen as the popular panacea at this time. There 
is no doubt that practically it raises a large fund. The 
State of Wisconsin during the past year is thought to 
have used the snug sum of $70,000, what with its license 
collections and the State appropriation. That much money 
intelligently applied and free from politics could do a 
great deal toward bettering the supply of fish and game in 
any State. 
There are, therefore, some pronounced changes in our 
legislative ideas in this part of the world as compared 
to the ideas of ten or twelve years back. In very many 
ways it will be seen that the State of Illinois, so long 
reprehensibly backward in the matters of game protection, 
is at last slowly coming to the front. If we shall be able 
to keep in the Legislature such sportsmen as Mr. Castle, 
Dr. Wheeler and others of those who stood by the guns 
in this fight, we may hope for still better results in the 
future. 
It is most gratifying to believe that the representatives 
from the lower agricultural part of this State have felt so 
willing to meet the upper part of the State more than 
half way. In reality there ought to be two game districts 
in this State, for the interests of the sportsmen of lower 
Illinois cannot be considered identical with those of the 
upper part of the State. A glance at the map will show 
the truth of this. 
Representative Montgomery, of Madison county, was 
chairman of the cornmittee to which this bill was referred, 
and there worked with him some twenty other representa- 
tives on the committee, these being chosen from all over 
the State, so that each section had its fair showing. 
E. Hough. 
Hartford Building, Chicago, IlL 
Wildfowl Breeding in New York. 
Watertown, N. Y., March 8.— Editor Forest and 
Sir earn: For two years we have had no spring shooting 
of wildfowl in Jefferson county, N. Y. This county is 
thickly populated, has very little waste land, and during 
the summer thousands of visitors from other States and 
countries seek rest and pleasure within our borders. The 
St. Lawrence River, with its thousand islands, Alexandria 
Bay, Clayton, Cape Vincent, Sacketts Harbor, Henderson, 
Chaumont, Redwood, Theresa and the islands in Lake 
Ontario arc famous throughout the world as the anglers' 
paradise for black bass and muscallonge. On the shores . 
and islands are thousands of summer homes; the waters 
are thickly dotted each day with boats of all descriptions. 
That wildfowl will stay and nest amid such surroundings 
may seem incredible to the sportsman who has only seen 
the birds during the hunting season, when no law 
restrains the murderous instinct of man. It is surprising 
how quickly they lose all fear of human beings when un- 
molested, becoming almost as tame as domesticated fowl. 
The large number which have nested here have enabled 
us to learn some things about their habits which I be- 
lieve are not generally known. One is that they often 
nest some distance from the shore, nests of the black duck 
having been found two and one-half miles from the near- 
est body of water. Some people believe that the duck 
covers the eggs during the day and the drake at night; 
but direct evidence is wanting as to this, and it is opposed 
to the belief of the naturalists. 
In 1901 large numbers of fowl were seen in our open 
waters during the day, and as none were seen flying over 
the land, many thought that they were not nesting. Last 
year they began nesting early in April, as young wood 
duck were seen the first week in May. Reports show that 
a much larger number nested in 1902 than in 1901. 
Capt. Henry S. Johnston, of Clayton, reports that large 
numbers of mallard, black duck and teal nested along the 
river. Joseph Northrup (State protector), Alexandria 
Bay, reports the same as to his vicinity ; Dr. Glen Coe, of 
Theresa, reports that large numbers of these birds bred on 
the lakes and creeks near Redwood and Theresa. Dan 
Arnold, of Perch Lake, Frank Jerome, of Lafargeville, 
George E. Bull, of ElHsburg, report the same. Limi Strat- 
ton, of Point Peninsular, in addition to these species, re- 
ports broadbills, redheads, whistlers and sheldrake. 
George Lloyd, of Pillar Point, also reports broadbills 
nesting. George Maitland, of same place, broadbills and 
whistlers. I have also received large numbers of verbal 
reports from responsible parties which show that other 
species as well as those mentioned have nested here. A 
large number of ducks have stayed here all winter, as 
there has been much open water. 
We have very little trouble to enforce the law, as all 
are now anxious to have the birds nest in their vicinity. 
A trip into this county any time in the next five months 
would surprise some of those people who still think that 
wildfowl fly up the coast to Canada. The ducks are 
coming in from the south to-day, and unless we have 
severe cold to drive them back, will be safe until next 
fall, at least. 
Why the sportsmen of the other counties still permit 
the market-shooters and hoodlums to kill and drive these 
mated birds from their waters is a mystery to me. Some 
time these same people will be kicking themselves for be- 
ing such blamed fools. Drive them along boys ! Send 
them up to Jefferson ! Next fall we'll have ducks while 
you are waiting. If you should see a drake or a flock of 
them next_ month out in open water, don't let them stay 
there, for it's a sure sign that the duck is on a nest some- 
where. It's hard work to break an egg-sucker or teach 
an old dog new tricks, but the time is coming when they 
will get wise. W. H. Tallett. 
P. S. — At the hearing at Albany, March 5, one of the 
Long Islanders testified that the birds killed in the spring 
were mostly drakes. If these birds were killed in April, 
I believe that the ducks were already nesting, as the 
drakes are always in the open water during the daytime 
and the ducks on the nest. W. H. T. 
Infotmation Wanted of the Dismal Swamp* 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
May I ask through the columns of your paper for in- 
formation concerning the Dismal Swamp of Virginia, and 
the opportunities it offers for a vacation outing. Various 
articles I have read heretofore have given me a general 
idea of the canal and Lake Drummond, but they have 
been indefinite as to what one could do in them. Are 
there good camping grounds? Are there many water- 
way's to be explored with boat or canoe, or is it mostly 
impenetrable swamp? What game is there and what fish? 
Is it a good place for a man who would rath&r get a 
variety of game in limited amount rather than a whole lot 
of one kind; a good place for a lover of canoe, light shot- 
gun and small bore rifle, for a "woods loafer." I have 
always wanted to go there, and still want to if it is pos- 
sible, but don't want to throw away a season; there are 
too few left for that. If someone who knows will kindly 
tell, it will be considered a favor. Stewart. 
Long* Island Ducks and Geese. 
East Quogue, Long Island, N. Y., March 23. — Dr. L. 
Hosford Abel and friends shot 22 wild geese Saturday, 
March 21. A large flight of wild geese, coming frora 
southern waters, passed over Long Island last week. Cap- 
tain E. A. Jackson and rig with New York sportsmen 
shot thirty-four last week; also a number of black ducks. 
Quite a number of broadbills are in the Shinnecock Bay, 
but are very wild. E. A. Jackson, 
