April ii, 1903.] 
FOREST AND S'lHEAM. 
287 
Five specimens of the wolf (Canis lupus) are found in 
the collection. 
A red fox very similar to the Alaskan form, the Arctic 
fox, wolverine and other weasels are noted, and it is inter- 
esting to observe the number of forms which seem to be 
closely related to those of northwestern America. Mr. 
Allen, discussing the American affinities of certain 
Siberian mammals, considers it probable that most of the 
more northern types of mammal life on the two conti- 
nents are the slightly modified descendants of types which 
formerly had a continuous circumarctic distribution, 
which have become slowly differentiated, probably niainly 
since the disruption of the former land connection of 
Bering Strait. There is evidence that eastern Siberia has 
derived some of its present mammalian life from 
northern America, and no doubt within a comparatively 
I'ecent time. 
About Beavers. 
In his habits the beaver resembles the muskrat; he 
likes to live along the bank of a stream, not too swift. 
He is decidedly herbivorous in his tastes, using for 
food green cornstalks, grass, weeds, and the bark of 
trees, such as the quaking asp, willow, cottonwood, etc. 
The only entrance to his nest is from the bottom of 
the stream; it is often to be found under a clump of 
overhanging willows, the roots of which help to keep 
the dirt from caving in. He digs upward, plastering 
his hole with mud, and bracing it with sticks till he gets 
high enough above water level to make his nest. 
These animals are wonderful workers. I have known 
them to stop up a 2-inch pipe with grass,_ mud and 
moss. It had been laid to the center of their pond, in 
perhaps four feet of water. The pipe at the end had a 
strainer placed over it. The pump house was about 
100 yards away. How they discovered the water was 
escaping from the bottom of the pond, I do not know; 
but every morning, and sometimes in the night, the 
workmen had to go to the pond, wade out and clean 
off the end of the pipe. 
Besides being the most patient of all animals, the 
beaver is a model housekeeper. "As neat as a beaver" 
should be considered by all housewives as a high com- 
pliment. Every stick is carried out of the nest after 
the bark has been peeled off for food, and thrown into 
the stream. 
He sometimes builds a "house," but he prefers a 
stream, deep enough to allow him to lay down his 
food for the winter in its bed, for if shallow it is quite 
Hkely to freeze up and cut him off from his winter's 
supplj^ He lays down his fresh-cut poles close to the 
bank, with the butt ends up stream to prevent their 
iioating down and away from his hole. 
Almost helpless on land, he is perfectly at home in 
the water, his broad, paddle-shaped tail and his large 
webbed hindfeet making excellent "oars." _ His front 
feet, strange to say, are laid close to his belly in 
swimming. Like men (with the exception of some 
Oriental races, who use their toes about their daily 
work quite as cleverly as their hands), the beaver uses 
his "hands" in doing his work. The old story about 
his using his tail for a trowel is not reliable to any 
extent. 
These animals usually herd together in small families, 
go upstream during the spring freshets and remain 
there. If their dams are cut out, a dog can be sent 
into the hole and the occupants driven out. They are 
then easily caught and killed, as they are so clumsy on 
land and see but little. They have a wonderful scent, 
which makes it impossible to trap them on land. To 
trap them even in water requires more or less practice 
on the part of the trapper. He has a cunning creature 
to deal with, and he must proceed carefully. 
If the creek is not frozen over the surest way to 
catch him is to use a No. 4 trap, set back far enough 
to catch his hind foot as he climbs out upon the bank, 
the water being somewhat shallow. It is best to catch 
the hindfoot rather than the frontfoot, which he readily 
twists or gnaws off. A No. 2 trap is too. small for the 
hindfoot, for he can cover it, and not get fast in it. 
If the trap is set under the ice, and he is caught by 
either front or hind foot, he will drown, as he begins 
to struggle and soon smothers; he gets excited and 
does not try to gnaw himself loose, which he might 
otherwise do. 
Like the muskrat, the beaver can swim a long dis- 
tance under the ice by breathing upward and inhaling 
again as he swims across. This breath is seen to 
collect in bubbles under the ice. An occasional "air- 
hole" also serves him, so that I have known him to 
cross under ice a lake a mile and a half wide. 
I had my first experience in beaver trapping when 
a boy of fourteen, _ This was at Beaver Lake, five miles 
from the Des Moines River. The remains of an old 
beaver dam is still to be seen there. Since then, I 
have not trapped for thirty years till last winter, when 
I caught enough to make two sets of furs. My wife is 
so stuck on hers that she wears them about her work in 
the kitchen. I have a nice lot of beaver tails on hand 
yet, so if any of your subscribers should want one for 
a fancy bag, I hope they will not all speak at once. . 
J. R. MOOREHEAD. 
"Whete do the Ducks Mate?" 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
I notice in Forest and Stream of April 4 your editorial 
on where the wild ducks mate. Having hunted on Lake 
Champlain and the Little and Big Otter creeks for the 
past twenty-five years, I have had a very good chance 
to observe the ways of our ducks and other game. 
As soon as we have open water and up to about April 
15, our ducks are found in flocks and are mostly the black 
duck. From April 15, or about this time, they are seldom 
found in anything but pairs and seem nearly always to be 
alone. That is, in going along the edge of the marshes 
you will flush two; then in a few rods two more, and so 
on. Judging from this I am of the opinion our ducks pair 
off about the middle of April. I saw a nice flock within 
a stone's throw of Sam Lovell's old camping ground a 
few days ago. 
Qwf State rna^e no appropriation a year ago for the 
protection of fish and game and already the result is 
plain. Pheasants were hunted all winter; partridge snar- 
ing was the principal occupation of some last fall ; and at 
present the boop and gill net, assisted by the set lines, are 
working destruction to our fish. 
Where are the active members of the Vermont Fish and 
Game League. I hear the reply, "Trying to figure out 
who will be Governor in 1904." H. B. Chase. 
^mie md 0nm 
♦ . — 
Proprietors of shooting resorts will find it profitable to advertise 
them in Fokbst and Stekah. 
Spring Duck Shooting. 
DtTCKS are getting scarcer every year, and if somethirig 
is not done about it soon there will be none left. What is 
needed is a gun sealing law — every man's gun sealed by 
Ihe Government on the first of January and not taken off 
until fall. How sad it is to remember that the prairie 
sloughs across the river from St. Louis were well covered 
v,ith thousands of wildfowl, whereas now there are none 
short of away up on the Illinois River. 
Having indulged in these pious reflections, as is my 
wont each spring, I packed my Parker and a few shells 
and telegraphed the man at the club to meet me at the 
train last Friday. The roads were dry and we made good 
time, but the man showed me where he and several of my 
wicked clubmates who had been there the week before 
had stuck in the mud. Mrs. McKever had a good dinner 
waiting for me and after I had partaken thereof I got 
into my corduroys and rubber boots. While the new man 
was placing twenty-five decoys in the boat I said: "Do 
you want a duck caller?" handing him my pet one. "No, 
"l reckon not. I was raised on the river and used to 
make my living shooting ducks," and he screwed his fist 
in his mouth and gave the most realistic call I ever heard. 
It would fool a sprigtail! The bottom was waist-high 
with the flood, and as he rowed up tOAvard the head of the 
prairie over a submerged cornfield, I sniffed the gathering 
breeze and exclaimed : 'T do believe I am going to run 
into a little weathel- for once in my life. Generally when 
I go after ducks I get nothing but blue skies and sun- 
shine." And, sure enough, the sky began to overcloud 
and the wind to blow from the north. There was a blind 
in a line of trees skirting a fence, or the remains of one, 
about a mile from the club house, and as the man rowed 
he kept twisting his head around toward it, watching the 
ducks. He had been enthusiastically inclined to an old 
straw stack at the edge of the overflow on the way up, 
but finally settled upon the old blind. By the time we 
reached it the wind was blowing a half gale, and he had 
to keep at the oars while I threw out the decoys thirty 
yards to windward. Then we ran the boat into the blind, 
which had been partly washed away, and the fun began! 
A blackjack hove in sight to the south, and the man 
gave that marvelous imitation of his and it headed for 
the decoys. When he swooped down to them I rose up — 
and so did he — -and I missed him with both_ barrels. _A 
moment later three more came and I missed again. 
"Gee!" said the man, "I wish you'd let me fetched my 
gun." The truth is, I hardly ever go spring shooting until 
I am worn to a frazzle, and I am sure to have a big string 
of misses until I begin to feel braced up a little. "Never 
mind," said I, "I know a man that will give me a certifi- 
cate of my ability to hit a few of them." But I_ could 
see he felt badly. To make the humiliating confession 
at once and have it over with, I shot away 50 shells that 
evening, all I brought with me, and only killed 13 ducks. 
Some of the shells, however, Avere used on cripples. But 
it was two hours of fine fun. Owing to the wind, we had 
to get out in a hurry after each duck that fell,_ whether 
dead or crippled, and we were on the go all the time. We 
were back at the house by five o'clock where, after eat- 
ing three square meals, the duck shooter's ration, at eight 
o'clock I went to bed and slept sound. 
The next morning the man put his gun in the boat. He 
wanted to kill my cripples, he said, but I had my own 
ideas as to that. We were hardly in the blind until a 
flock of blnebills came hurtling along toward us. A call 
and they circled around us once and swooped down into 
the decoys. "Now !" and as they sprang straight up into 
the air we each made a double. When we had gathered 
them the same thing was once more gone through with, 
except that I noticed the man shot his first duck on the 
water, bred in the bone market hunter that he was. Then 
a single bird came in sideways, passing him first, and just 
as I was about to let go at it he killed it under my very 
nose. I thereupon read him a lecture, to the effect that 
he was not hired to kill my ducks; that I was getting too 
many as it was, as my limit was twenty-five. If he could 
get anything after I got through missing all right. He 
was good natured about it, grinned and declared all he 
wanted was to see me have fun; but he afterward made 
a beautiful kill of a bird I had only winged and which in 
that wind might well have lit so far off as to escape. He 
did not do much of the shooting thereafter, and for a 
curious reason. I noticed that when he called ducks to 
the decoys and just as they were over them, he made a 
slightly premature and too quick motion for his gun, 
whereat the ducks invariably whirled and "climbed" out 
on my side, giving me the finest kind of 40-miles-an-hour 
shots. I said nothing about it to him until we were 
through that night, when I explained why I got all the 
shots and jeered at him. Market hunters don't know 
everything. 
That morning's bag was sixteen, when I said: "We 
will now go in to dinner." "Why, it isn't ten o'clock yet." 
"No matter, my litnit is too nearly exhausted. We must 
save some for this evening." And he reluctantly rowed 
me in, where I ate three dinners and came out again at 
about three o'clock. We killed eleven more, making 
even forty, all blackjacks and bluebills. A great many 
sprigs came in, but I did not want them, and also some 
mallards and one flock of canvasbacks, but our blind was 
too poorly constructed for them. The man said I only 
missed two ducks at the iT)orning shoot, and that he wnylcl 
like to take me for a side partner and shoot some oth^r 
two fellows a duck shoot. Whereat I looked modest and 
said the choke was nearly all but of my gun; but I en- 
joyed his blarney, all the same. The last thing that hap- 
pened that night was three blackjacks that he did the 
.scare act to and I killed two of them dead in the air and 
they were flying so fast they landed 100 yards away. 
Now that it is over, I hope the law will son be changed 
to prohibit spring shooting. George Kennedy. 
The Maine License Law. 
Bangor, Maine, March 30. — Editor Forest and Stream: 
At last the first and regular session of the seventy-first 
Legislature of Maine has come to an end, the adjourn- 
ment having taken place early Sunday morning, after one 
of the longest and most exciting sessions of recent years 
in this State, with the first of September next as the date 
for again coming together, in extra session. While fish 
and game legislation is possible at that session, it is nOt 
probable, as the majority of the legislators are guided 
in their ideas on these matters by what the State Commis- 
sion of Inland Fisheries and Game tells them, and that 
Commission usually is represented by Chairman Carle- 
ton, who seems to have a most convincing way in telling 
them why they shoidd do what he wants ^hem to do. 
As he has not announced any more changes in the laws 
as amended by this session, it is improbable that the 
solons will be asked to do more than complete certain un- 
finished business, which could not be settled at this time. 
But, at least in the eyes of a great many non-resident 
hunters, as well as guides and camp owners of this State, 
it is entirely unnecessary for the _ legislators to do any 
more now for some years — unless it is to repeal some of 
the objectionable enactments of the present session. 
Not for years, not, in fact, since the days when the 
first radical legislation of the newly aroused "protective" 
spirit stirred into active enmity and extraordinary cun- 
ning those deer and moose slayers who killed for hides 
and a market, and whose contention was that the deer 
and moose belonged to them and they would defy any 
man or men to take away their living, has such a radical 
departure marked a legislative session in this State. 
With what success they combated the onward march of 
humanit}', sportsmanship and protection by means known 
only to them and, to one unacquainted with their venge- 
ful natures, beyond belief, is well known to the veterans 
in this branch of sportsmanship Avho have followed the 
vicissitudes of Maine's game resources. To^ educate that 
class into the careful, thoroughly reliable, desirable class 
of citizens who are to-day guides for other hunters, has 
cost time, money, argument without end, persuasion and 
even lives. 
But it was worth all it cost, in the great increase of 
game enjoyed by this State in the last several years of this 
persistent policy on the part of Maine, so that the entire • 
nation has looked to Maine as the model recreation State, 
and her game laws have been selected all over this broad 
land as models of effective legislation. To be sure, pro- 
tection has not always protected, any more than a law en- 
lorced against burglary always prevents housebreaking, or 
s law against selling liquor prevents some bolder than 
others conniving with corrupt officials and defying the law; 
but, on the whole, Maine's game has been so well protected 
that ia spite of occasional violations it has continued to 
increase and that, too, at a most astonishing rate, so that 
the supply of deer in Maine is to-day something wonder- 
ful, and the question of protecting his growing crops 
from their ravages comes into the problems which every 
farmer in border towns has to consider. 
The principal departure in game legislation made by the ■ 
law-makers, has been the adoption of the policy of so»ne 
other States, in the way of a license fee to be paid by non- 
resident hunters for the privilege of killing and_ trans- 
porting the large game of the State, a policy which has 
in past years been suggested, but has heretofore met with 
defeat before reaching the Legislature. This year those 
in favor of this movement exerted every influence to 
create a sentiment against non-resident hunters and in 
favor of making those non-residents pay for the expense 
of maintaining the game supply of Maine, and with such 
success that the sentiment of the legislators was over- 
whelmingly in favor of the passage of a license law be- 
fore the question Avas even argued — ^yes, before they left 
their homes for the capital of the State to consider their 
duties as lawmakers. As in most States where the agri- 
cultural element is of the major importance and influence, 
so in the Maine Legislature the farmers and those repre- 
senting farming communities are in the majority, _ and 
tl.e long existing jealousy of State moneys appropriated 
for the enrichment of the fcAV, Avhile no funds were ap- 
priated or created for the reimbursement of those border 
farmers Avhose crops were actuallly damaged by deer, 
ft.rnished rich soil for the sowing of those seeds of dis- 
content that the promoters of the license plan knew so 
well how tO' scatter. 
Months before the Legislature A\'as elected, it was bold- 
ly announced throughout the State that the powerful 
Grange Avas to move, as a unit, against all fish and game 
appropriation, and steps were at once taken to pacify that 
order, so that there might still be money forthcoming 
from the Governtnent cow to sustain the inland fish in- 
terests, Avhich haA^e been groAving in needs as fast, if not 
faster, than the game interests have developed. Accord- 
ingly they Avere promised that if they Avould support the 
license plan the money so raised Avould be used to pay 
them for their damaged crops, and their opposition faded 
away. This is, in the light of developments, more than 
hinted at as the compromise which secured to the advo- 
cates of this measure the cordial support Avhich it received 
from the agricultural element, so that the first output 
frofia the "game protective fund" to be raised by taxing 
the non-restdent's rifle is to reimburse the farmers. And 
the necessity for traveling about over the State to inves- 
tigate such complaints, the time, expenses, etc., of com- 
missioners, Avith the additional compensation to be 
allowed "as the Governor and council may deem jUst and 
fair" will have a decided influence in reducing the amount 
applicable to the real protection of the game of the great. 
North Woods. : , . 
It may be, too, that the services of "proper" wardens 
v/iU not be longer obtgiriable at twQ dollars per day anc|| 
