Forest and Stream 
A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 
Copyright, 1902, by Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 
Terms, ^ a Year. lOX'i'S-. a Copy. (_ 
Six Months, 13. ' ) 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, AUGUST 23, 1902. 
( VOL. LIX.— No. K 
I No. 346 Broadway, New York. 
AMONG WILD CHERRY BOUGHS. 
Above the growth of thick weeds and hushes that stand 
like a fringe along the old stone wall, the wild cherry 
tree towers high. Yet it is high only by comparison with 
its nearer neighbors, for a little further along the fence 
stands a sturdy hickory, which is much taller,' and again 
beyond, a superbly symmetrical sugar tree. Later these 
greater trees may claim more attention, the one for its 
'rich fruitage of sweet nuts, dear to the small boy and the 
squirrel; the other for the glorious and changing colors 
which it will assume when sharp nights and full ma- 
turity shall paint its frondage with a hundred dilferent 
hues. But the wild cherries are ripe now, and to its 
branches come many birds to feast on the luscious berries, 
and so Just now the cherry tree is the one that shows 
most life and most interest. 
Though taller than its nearest neighbors, the outlook 
that the wild cherry tree commands is not a very wide 
one. To the west is the Weed-grown pasture in which, day 
after day, the same horses feed, standing during the mid- 
day hours under the shade of a gnarled and ancient apple 
tree, where the grass has been worn away by their stamp- 
ing to drive away the persistent flies. They are old 
friends , now after all these years — the horses and the 
tree. 01¥ to the east is the yellow stubble of a shorn 
wheatfield, where pale green tips of the new springing 
ragweed are just beginning to show above the polished 
straw left standing. Along the wall are the blooms of 
the goldenrod and the fruit of the blackberries now 
changing from red to black. Over the stubble, back and 
forth in wide and ceaseless circles, noAv high, now low, 
swallows are swinging on tireless wing. There are white- 
bellies and cliff swallows, and the forked-tailed beauties 
that have been reared within the barns and — higher in 
air — the sooty and less graceful familiar friends which 
we call chimney swallows — but which are not swallows 
at all. 
Each bird coming here for cherries shows something 
of its character by the method of its approach. Only a 
few fly boldly into the tree from a distance, but one of the 
confident ones is the robin, who comes from across the 
field, alights with a great plunge and spreading of wings 
and tail, and almost at once begins to feed hungrily. The 
kingbirds are beginning to gather for their autumnal flight 
southward, and now and then one comes into the tree 
openly, alighting in the very topmost branches, snatching 
a cherry or two and then darting away, as if he regretted 
the time lost for the meal. The little chipping sparrow 
seems to have no thought that he must conceal his move- 
ments. He comes straight as an arrow's flight, from a 
- blackberry bush twenty yards away along the wall, alights 
in one of the lower branches, picks a cherry, which is 
far too large for him to swallow, tries to break it to 
pieces, drops it in the inost stupid fashion and then 
plucks another, which he also drops. Then seemingly dis- 
. couraged, he flies back to his thorny resting place, to re- 
turn a little later for another trial. 
Flying by easy stages along the wall and at last stop- 
ping in the very top of a butternut tree, not far from 
the cherry, comes a silent, sleek recluse, named from 
the fruit it is approaching, the cedar bird, wax^ying or 
cherry bird. He is an interesting fellow, the more so 
no doubt because we know so little of him. He is cautious 
and prudent, but not a bit timid, very quiet in his habits, 
a thorough gentleman in deportment, reserve and dress. 
Perhaps it is the mystery that surrounds him that leads us 
to- credit him with all sorts of qualities that some humans 
have. He sits for a long time in the butternut, sometimes 
crouched low on the branch or again standing absolutely 
erect with pointed crest raised to its fullest height. At 
last, moved by hunger, he flies to the cherry, but when he 
has reached there he is in no hurry to begin, but stands 
for a long time considering the meal. Then, moving side- 
ways along the branch like a parrot, he reaches up and 
takes a berry, which he swallows deliberately. The fruit 
is thicker than his neck, and its passage down his gullet 
can be traced. After a pause, another cherry is eaten, and 
then another, and then presently the waxwing nielts away 
and is no longer seen. 
Suddenly, without warning, a long, smooth bird ap- 
pears, crouched low along a branch close to a tent cater- 
pillar's nest. We cannot tell where he came from, nor 
how he reached his perch, but he is there, looking keenly 
aboiit him, but without moving his head. It is a- black- 
billed cuckop^ Sfi9J|}?r ^Viw recittse, wl^o yet oi» OQ«ft- 
sion may be evident enough to ear if not to eye. We 
might call him the detective among birds from the quiet 
way in which he slips about. Rain crow he is named, and 
his loud calls are familiar enough to coiintry dweller, even 
though their source be not always known. One of the 
most useful of insectivorous birds, who can tell whether 
he has come here to have a taste of cherries or to de- 
stroy some of the tent caterpillars whose webbed nests, in- 
closing brown dead leaves, ornament the ends of several 
branches of our tree. Whatever the cuckoo's motive, he 
keeps it to himself, as befits the most shy and secretive of 
our birds. He moves a little nearer to the caterpillar's 
nest, seems to pick something from the branch, and then 
suddenly disappears. 
A little later the peevish notes of a catbird sounding 
from the mid.st of the branches tell of a new arrival. But 
is not injustice done the catbird when we call his note 
peevish and imagine that it denotes ill temper or distress? 
He is graceful, active and talkative, and — ^because of his 
note, perhaps — unpopular, but, of all the Northern birds 
what one has sweeter and more varied strains ? 
A long chapter on bird habits might be written con- 
cerning what one sees among the boughs of the wild 
cherry even at this season of the year, when the birds 
are least obtrusive. Spend an hour near one and see for 
yourself what goes on there. 
MINNESOTA FOREST. 
We print to-day a review from the pen of Mr. Charles 
Cristadoro of the work and the workers in the cause to 
preserve some of the primeval pine forests of Minnesota. 
It was a noble object, and as Mr. Cristadoro's review 
shows, enlisted the active co-operation of a host of in- 
dividuals, societies and associations, representing the men 
and the women of Minnesota and the Northwest. If in 
the final outcome all was not accomplished that had been 
hooed for and striven for, that which was won was never- 
theless a rich reward and an achievement of public good 
which entitles those who labored for it to gratitude now. 
Where so many gave unsparingly of time and effort it 
would be. ungracious in a public review to overlook the 
part which each one had in the common cause; and it is a 
pleasure then to put on record the names of those who 
thus contributed to the reforestation of Minnesota. In 
one respect only is Mr. Cristadoro's review incomplete. 
It will be recalled by those who followed the struggle 
that Mr. Cristadoro was himself one of the most intelli- 
gent, active, devoted and effective of all who talked and 
wrote and labored in season and out of season; and no 
record of the Minnesota forest preservation movement can 
be a true one which does not write large the name of 
Charles Cristadoro. 
THE COMMON INTEREST. 
The Los Angeles County Game and Fish Protective 
Association, of California, is one of the successful protec- 
tive organizations of the day, and one important factor 
in its success is its adopted principle that game protection 
is to be desired as a benefit, not by the sportsmen only, 
but by all- the citizens of the community. In other words, 
the Association acts upon an assumption directly the oppo- 
site of that recently advanced by Judge Van Dyke in a 
California case, when he declared that the game laws 
were for the benefit of a favored class. The game laws, 
says the Los Angeles Association, are for the common 
good ; and the membership is drawn from the community, 
irrespective of the shooting or fishing proclivities of those 
who are invited to join. The aimual dues are $i,.oo; the 
funds go to enforcing the game and fish laws, and the 
Association does not limit its concern to game species, but 
aims to prevent the wanton destruction of harmless birds 
and animals. All the wild animate things that minister 
to the pleasure of man are under its care. 
The success of the Los Angeles Association should en- 
courage similar movements elsewhere. It is a common 
mistake of the promotors of game and fish protection 
movements to confine themselves too narrowly to the 
ranks of those who are active with rod and gun. Such 
organizations are made distinctively sportsmen bodies; 
and this naturally tends to set the sportsman's interests 
apart as something distinct from those of the public at 
large. This, of course, is unfortunate. The interests of 
the entire community, both of those who go afield and 
those who do not, lie in the preservation of the game; 
a«4 a recognition p{ this principle by the sportsman will 
inevitably be followed by its recognition on the part of 
others. The sooner and the more completely we get away 
from the notion that the sportsmen of a district are in any 
sense a class apart by themselves, whose good is not the 
good of the people at large, the more quickly shall we 
come to the time when the community as a whole will 
sustain effective game and fish protection. 
CONCERNING CLASSES. 
The courts of California in rendering decisions on the 
game statutes speak of the "class of sportsmen" or "the 
sportsman class." Is this a correct use of terms? Do 
sportsmen constitute a class? 
Used in this sense, a class may be defined as a body of 
individuals grouped together as possessing certain com- 
mon characteristics. What are the characteristics com- 
mon to all sportsmen? We fancy they are very few. 
Sportsmen are drawn from the ranks of the rich and the 
poor. They may be educated or illiterate ; rough diamond 
or highly polished; they may be pious or irreligious; 
Roman Catholics or Methodists; Episcopalians or Dutch 
Reformed. They are long and short, fat and thin, with 
blue eyes or green. 
In what are they all alike? The sportsman delights in 
recreation, but in this he does not differ from all other 
members of the human famil}^ He takes his pleasure by 
preference out of doors, but so do all sorts and condi- 
tions of men, women and children, whether they attend 
fetes champetres or lawn parties, or simple picnics andl 
May parties. The sportsman kills game and fish, or sails 
his boat over the waters, but these are recognized avoca- 
tions the world over, and have nothing to do with sports- 
manship. Even the judges of the California courts do not 
call the Chinamen and ItaHans, who comb the beach of 
San Francisco Harbor, sportsmen. 
Sportsmen appear to possess one characteristic; that 
they— usually, but not always— pursue game or fish or 
toil over their yachts or canoes for pleasure, rather than 
for gain; but does an eccentricity like this entitle them 
to be put in a class by themselves? 
Mr. WilHam K. Vanderbilt, Jr., has bought all of the 
land which was held by private owners surrounding Lake 
Success, -in Roslyn, Long Island, and all the interest in 
the lake itself which was in private ownership. A part 
title to the lake is vested in the town of North Hemp- 
stead; and the town also owns three rights of way to the 
lake. To make his control of Lake Success complete and 
absolute, Mr. Vanderbilt has offered the town authorities 
$50,000 for its title. The town can do nothing without 
legislative action, and it is probable that a bill will be 
introduced at Albany next winter to empower the town 
to alienate its interests in the lake and approaches. The 
price offered is an alluring one, and the people of North 
Hempstead may perhaps not be blamed for adding such 
a substantial sum to their treasury. Nevertheless the 
policy of surrendering public waters— or waters open to 
the public— into private control is a wrong one. The 
number of lakes-in the vicinity of New York to which 
there is access for fishing, boating and other recreations 
is extremely small, and is constantly diminishing, be- 
cause one after another, they are passing 'into the control 
of clubs and individuals. Those that are left should be 
kept for the people. Their value as public pleasure resorts 
will be all the greater as the years go by Legislatures 
should be very slow to remove the obstacles to aHenation 
of such waters now contained in^town charters. 
The humors of the political campaign have already be- 
gun in New York, where a letter has been written to 
Senator Piatt (and of course given out to the press for 
-advertising purposes before Mr. Piatt himself could re- 
ceive it), "averring that in the event of the renomination 
of Governor Odell the writer of the letter would cause 
25,000 sportsmen to vote against him. The reason as- 
signed for the opposition to the Governor is that his acts 
have , been inimical to the interests of the sportsmen 
of the State. The humor of this lies in the assumption 
that, whatever may have ^been Governor - Odell's record 
with reference to game legislation, there are 25,000 men 
in the State who would be controlled by a consideration 
of it and would be influenced by it to vote the Republican 
or the Democratic ticket. As a matter of actual fact and! 
the cold arithmetic of election returns, there are -not ini 
the whole length and breadth of New York. twenty-fiy| 
who would be so controlled; probably there ia not one, . 
I 
