May 2, 1903.] 
much that the Government could provide somewhere 
for an experimental breeding station of cross breeds 
between buffalo and the common cattle. If these 
cross breeds could be successfully perpetuated we could 
have animals which would produce a robe quite as good 
as the old buffalo robe with which twenty years ago 
every one was familiar, and animals moreover which 
would be so hardy that I think they would have a dis- 
tinct commercial importance. They would, for instance, 
be admirably suited for Alaska Territory, which I look 
to see develop astoundingly within the next _ decade 
or two, not only because of its furs and fisheries, but 
because of its agricultural and pastoral possibilities. 
Nebraska Fields and Streams. 
At last the dreaded Legislature has reached the end 
of its tether, and the shooters and the fisher again 
breathe easy. I use the term dreaded because in 
Nebraska the people, especially sportsmen, are so ac- 
customed to having obnoxious legislation thrust upon 
them that they are always happy when the lawmakers' 
prerogatives cease. This session, notwithstanding the 
voluminous quantity of idiotic bills pertaining to fish 
and game that were laid before this august body, 
nothing was done with any of them, save the passage 
of the one prohibiting live bird trapshooting and the 
one repealing the wolf and coyote scalp bounty law. 
The great solons were too busy boosting the cause 
of the monopolies and railroads to commit any blun- 
ders with other measures, especially those appertain- 
ing to such inconsequential matters as our game and 
fish. 
This spring, above all others, for a period of a 
dozen years or more, has been notable for its extraor- 
dinary flight of migratory birds. More wild fowl 
passed over the Nebraska fly-ways — up the Missouri 
and the Loup and across the sandhills— than for four 
or five years last past combined, and jacksnipe have 
not been so wonderfully abundant for a time much 
longer back. Heavy bags of the latter incomparable 
Ijird have been the rule on all the well known adja- 
cent grounds, and for that matter they were killed by 
the hundreds up to as late as April 25, both in this 
State and Iowa. While the open season closed _ in 
Nebraska on April 15, Iowa gives no legal protection 
at all to this choicest and grandest little game bird of 
them all. Woodcock are next to extinct out here. 
Thus, you see, it is an easy matter for conscienceless 
gunners to ' kill birds on this side of the river, and 
claim that they got them on the other. At that I think 
April IS is too early to close the season in Nebraska. 
So far as ducks and geese are concerned, this date is 
eminently the thing, although, along with the jacks, the 
bluewing teal have barely reached this far north on 
their polar pilgrimage, and by the time the main issue 
arrives the season is closed. But there is little call 
for further comment. The law says we cannot shoot 
either ducks or snipe any more until Sept. I next, and 
the gunner might just as well lay aside his hammerless 
till that sweet, far-sounding, deceptive tinkling triplet 
"tur-wee-tle! tur-wee-tle!" of the upland plover falls 
from the evening sky. And that will not be long. 
With the punctuality of Time itself it happens^ out 
here — the favorite haunt of this splendid game bird — 
along about the time the fluffy plume of the golden- 
rod — July 10 to IS — begins to flame here, there and 
everywhere over pasture land and plain. 
Of course, the Omaha and Dickey Bird gun clubs 
have mapped out a lively summer campaign, and there 
vvill be no lack of this quieter sport. Both organiza- 
tions will hold their regular weekly shoots — the Oma- 
has on Saturdays, and the Dickies on Sundays — on 
the former club's handsomely appointed grounds at 
the other end of the Big Bridge. This park is still 
under the management of Henry McDonald, and this 
is a sufficient guaranty that they will continue to be 
conducted on a plan to suit the greatest number. 
The water in the rivers, streams and lakes is now 
too high and too roily to insure good fishing, and it 
cannot be expected until both of these conditions are 
considerably improved. After such a widespread over- 
flow as we have experienced throughout this State, the 
best fishing will be much delayed this year. 
It may be a little venturesome to mention trout 
when descanting on the subject of Nebraska angling, 
but I hardly think so, now that there is plenty of good 
sport to be found on these much-prized fishes in a 
dozen Nebraska streams, and when hundreds of Omaha 
fishermen make frequent trips, both up into Minnesota 
and to the mountains. Fifteen years ago if a man 
dared mention trout fishing in Nebraska he would have 
been laughed at, but not so to-day, when, in season, 
as big baskets, almost, of both speckled and rainbow, 
are taken from the picturesque Long Pine, the Verdi 
Gris, Boardman, Niobrara and Slagle, as well as from 
a number of more insignificant streams, as result from 
long journeys to the so-called natural habitats of these 
finny morceaux. In the course of a few more years 
with our fishcultural affairs properly and competently 
managed, we will have them in still greater quantities, 
and the sport will be more economical and readier of 
access. 
Until recent years I have not been a very hopeful 
or energetic advocate of trout propagation in Nebraska. 
" I always thought the fundamental principle, the most 
necessary element to their thrift, was largely missing, 
and that black bass, wall-eyed pike, pickerel, croppie 
and sunfish were much better adapted to our waters 
as well as to our wants. I am convinced now that I 
was wrong and that the propagation of this priceless 
denizen of cool, running streams and pure watered 
lakes, right here in our own resourceful State, is an 
excellent thing, and the more we have of it under favor- 
able conditions and intelligent and honest handling the 
better we will be oft'. 
Under no circumstances should persons who receive 
" fish from the State hatcheries at South Bend be al- 
lowed to create preserves to whose waters access is 
denied the public. No man or set of men should have 
a monopoly of either stream, lake or private pond 
stocked by the State. 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
■ Mart Diefenderfer, of Wood River, Neb., who won 
the last Grand American Handicap at Kansas City on 
targets, is a hardware merchant, a man of family, about 
38 years of age, and the pride of the thriving little 
city in which he resides. Diefenderfer is a modest 
fellow and takes up trapshooting purely as a recreation, 
and while he has only participated in two of the State s 
tournaments during the past year, the Omaha shooters 
have long rated him among the topnotchers. His 
winning handicap score of 84, he has beaten scores of 
times. 
Frank Crabill and R. Lorenzen, of Atlantic, la., and 
Sam Richards, of Missouri Valley, were on the bot- 
toms northeast of the latter place, Thursday, the 23d, 
and bagged 191 jacksnipe, Crabill, an old Nebraska 
shot, killing 143 himself. John Hardin and G. W. 
Scribner, on the same day, at Percival, la., killed 87 
jacks and 19 bluewing teal. At Highlands Con Young 
bagged 57 and J. H. Dumont 39. 
Tom J. Foley is one of Omaha's best shots, both 
with rifle and shotgun, as well as an extremely all 
round popular sportsman, and an expert bass caster. 
In a day or so he leaves with a party of Milwaukee 
friends for a ten days' stay at Pat Sheehan's Red Squir- 
rel's Nest, at Lake Washington, Minn., which for 
years has been the mecca for Omaha fishermen. When 
Tom gets on the lake old SaUnoides micropterus must 
be on the qui vive, indeed, for there is no more per- 
sistent, strategic and successful foeman of this royal fish 
than this self-same Tom J. As a fisherman and hunter 
he comes as near wearing the crown among local 
sportsmen. He not only understands thoroughly the 
region and the habits of its every bird, fish and ani- 
mal, but is full of resources in the quest of the same. 
He handles the gun and rod and oar with equal skill 
and teaches his lore with cheerful patience. He has 
laid the whole western country under tribute. He has 
shot on every marsh, in every field and in every woods, 
while his fatal hook is familiar with every buoy spot 
in every lake, and the mouths and eddies and rapids of 
every stream, not only in the State but over the whole 
West. Recently, while out in the sandhills, Tom killed 
a killdeer on the wing with a Winchester rifle at a 
distance of nearly 150 yards, and to-day among the 
sandhillers he is the greatest whatever. 
Sandy Griswold. 
Omawa, Neb , April 24. 
April 24.— The arrest of Rev. Robert E. Lee Craig, 
roctor of Trinity Cathedral, Omaha's swell Episcopal 
church, out in Thomas county yesterday afternoon for 
shooting meadowlarks, has created a profound sensation 
liere. About a week ago Rev. Craig, panoplied with an 
improved hammerless ejector and a case of shells, went 
out to Thedford for a ten days' vacation. Thedford is a 
small hamlet of some four or five hundred souls and ad- 
jacent to both good chicken and ducking grounds, but it 
couldn't have been that the minister was after these birds, 
as it is the close season on both, and just what species 
of game he was after was a mystery up to 4 o'clock yes- 
terday afternoon when the intelligence of his arrest for 
killing meadow larks flashed over the wires, and all doubt 
was removed. It seems that Mr. Craig hired a guide in 
the village and sallied forth out on to the broad prairie 
to try his new hammerless. No ostriches, emus, ptero- 
dactyls, osmateriums or other lawful birds flushing, this 
eminent gentlemen of the cloth turned his attention to 
the tuneful and yellow vested meadow lark, bagging 
twenty-two of these beautiful birds in about two hours' 
shooting. 
The clerg>'man's success with his new Parker would 
probably never have been divulged to the world, had not 
the sheriff of the county, on a subpcena-serving pilgrim- 
age, happened his way. Hearing the fusilade off over the 
plain this conscientious limb of the law, knowing that 
the ducks had all flown north, and that the chickens were 
exempt from molestation, tied his Rosinante and started 
out to investigate. He came upon the Omaha minister 
just as he had made what he called a neat quartering 
shot on a noisy cock lark, whose choppy flight was doubt- 
lessly slowed by his amorous interest in numerous lady 
larks who were twittering seductively all around him, 
and the shot was no great shakes after all. The sheriff 
strode up to him, asked his name, and forthwith, without 
further parley or controversy, placed him under arrest. 
He was taken before the justice at Thedford, and after 
a brief examination, which, among other things, revealed 
twenty-two dead meadow larks in his game bag, he was 
bound over to the district court. Prior to the hearing 
before the justice, however, Mr. Craig, so says the tele- 
gram, was jammed into the rural bastile, but was only 
kept there for a few brief moments when he Avas escorted 
to the halls of justice. S. G. 
S47 
CHICAGO AND THE WEST* 
The New Jefsey Commission, 
Governor Murphy has appointed David P. McClellan, 
of Morristown, to fill the vacancy in the State Board of 
Fish and Game Commissioners caused by the resignation 
of Howard P. Frothingham. Mr. McClellan is a dry 
goods dealer in Morristown. When a vacancy occurred 
in the board during the incumbency of Governor Griggs 
the latter decided that the law was very plain on the sub- 
ject of filling vacancies, and that it could not be done ex- 
cepting with the concurrence of the Senate. Governor 
Voorhees said this was all nonsense, and made an ap- 
pointment while the Senate was not in session. Governor ■ 
Murphy went Voorhees one better and made an appoint- 
ment after waiting until the Senate had adjourned. 
Commissioner William A. Halsey, who at the last 
meeting of the board was elected president, agreed to 
accept the office only temporarily. Mr. Halsey thinks he 
has done his duty by the sportsmen of the State by serv- 
ing five years, and he intends to resign next month both 
as president and member of the Commission. 
Query ; Had the appointment of a dry goods dealer to 
the Fish and Game Commission any connection with the 
recent distribution of calico bass in the waters of this 
.State? — Paterson Chronicle. 
Shooting Season Over. 
Chicago, III., April 24.— We may as well call the shoot- 
ing season done, since it legally ends to-morrow and has 
sportsmanly ended before this. A review of the spring 
results show that the duck shooting was up to the aver- 
age and fully as good as it was last year, although the 
high waters scattered the birds very much and likewise 
scattered the shooters. Mr. Harry Thomas, of this city, 
spent considerable time down at Water Valley on the 
Kankakee, and for a considerable time had no difficulty 
in making the limit of twenty-four birds daily. He shot 
mostly mallards and had a rattling good time for many 
davs; about the best sport I heard of. 
The jacksnipe season is not over in any way except 
legally. We will have another small flight of jacks with- 
out any doubt. Considerable numbers have been killed 
here and there within the past two weeks, but I cannot 
call the snipe season a very good one, no very great bags 
having been made. Thus Mr. C. C. Hess, who shoots at 
Goose Lake Club on the Kankakee, says that none of 
his friends in that club has succeeded in getting a good 
bag of jacks this spring, although they are near to very 
good grounds. 
Minnesota Law* 
The Minnesota Legislature appropriated $38,000 for the 
use of the State Fish and Game Commission during the 
coming year, an increase of a large figure over last year's 
appropriation. The open seasons are not changed to any 
great extent. A full copy of the law is not yet at hand, 
but it is thought to have been duly signed, sealed and de- 
livered. Agent FuUerton has not yet expressed his 
opinion on the law under which he is to work during 
the coming year. 
The Forest and Stream" Family. 
It is a good family, this of the Forest and Stream. 
Thus my friend Powel, of Ta3dorville, who was down in 
Mississippi on a little business trip this week, writes as 
below : "I had a nice time with Mr. Speers and Fincher 
Bobo. I met a very pleasant young man on the train 
near Clarksdale, Miss., and I spoke of the pleasure I had 
had in reading the writings of 'Coahoma' in the Forest 
AND Stream. He told me that he was 'Tripod,' and that 
'Coahoma' was his father. At once we were brothers 
in the Forest and Stream family." 
From California. 
Mr. R. N. Stites returned this week from his long trip 
on the Pacific Coast. As mentioned in these columns, 
Mr. Stites stopped for a time at San Antonio, Texas, 
where I met him in January. He went the customary 
pace in California, seeing the glorious climate and not so 
glorious hotels, but does not speak very gloAvingly of the 
sport which he encountered. Tie speaks of seeing very 
many quail, but the season was over at the time pi his 
arriA^al. Duck shooting in the lower portion of California . 
he reports to be at times very fine. Part of his time was 
passed at the Santa Catalina Islands, and he did his share 
toward the extermination of the goats which have given 
that district something more than a local fame. It seems 
to be the customary thing to go out and kill these once 
harmless but now somewhat shy and wary animals. Mr. 
Stites says the intention is to exterminate all the goats, 
and that the tourists certainly do their part toward that 
end to the best of my ability. E. Hough. 
Hartford Building, Chicago, 111. 
All communications intended for Forest and Stuam should 
always be addressed to the Forest and Stream Fablishiag Co., 
JNew Yoris. and aot to any ifldividual coaaeetad wiib 9^^* 
The Legislature as a Creator. 
Legislatures have at times undertaken to do all sorts 
of things, but it remained for the Legislature of New 
Jersey at its last session to usurp the functions of the 
Creator by making an altogether new bird. The_ effect of 
the action of the Legislature in arrogating to itself the 
powers of Providence will be watched for with some 
interest. 
The Legislature passed an act making it a penal offense 
to kill any kind of birds, with certain exceptions ; in the 
Hst of these exceptions is to be found a bird referred to 
in the statute as the "sharp-skinned" hawk. Presuming 
that there might be some mistake about it and that the 
Legislature did not have the hardihood of creating a new 
bird, The Chronicle procured a certified copy of the law 
and this is at present in this office with the certificate of 
the Secretary of State and the big seal of the State at- 
tached to it as an attestment that the law is really appor- 
tion of the statutes of the State. There it is as plain as 
English letters can make it, providing that "sharp- 
skinned" hawks may be killed in New Jersey. Every 
farmer's boy knows what the sharp-shinned hawk is, and 
ornithologists give the bird a pretty bad name; in fact, 
nothing can be said in favor of the sharp-shinned hawk, 
and we shall probably not know what it is good for until 
it has been exterminated, and then we shall probably find 
out that it was an important factor in the economy of 
nature. 
But a "sharp-skinned" hawk is something new alike to 
farmers, farmers' boys and ornithologists, but there it is, 
a bird of New Jersey created by legislative enactment. 
The courts of this State have repeatedly declared that all 
penal statutes must be construed literally, and conse- 
quently by no process known to law can a '"sharp- 
skinned" hawk be turned into the sharp-shinned bird of 
the same family. 
If it were not for the hyphen between the words 
"sharp" and "skinned" the matter might perhaps be ex- 
plained. Of course all hawks are sharp, in the Ordinary 
acceptation of that term, but we have never known of 
hawks being skinned and then flying about. No matter 
how pleasant such a state of undress might be on sultry 
summer days, it is something new in ornitholog}^ That 
skinned hawks of all kinds should be legitimate prey for 
the gunner is perhaps correct from a standpoint of or- 
dinary decency, and so the Legislature can hardly be 
blamed for placing such birds in the category of birds 
that may be killed at all times. We' should certainly like 
to see a bird of that kind, and there is no doubt that 
every ornithological museum in the country is ready tq 
