166 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
IAto. 30, igoa. 
ceiye any wild animals or birds killed in violation of local laws. 
This prohibition applies not only to game killed out of season, but 
to that captured in an illegal manner (by traps, nets, etc.), or for 
illegal purposes, as, in some States, for sale or shipment. 
3. Packages Must be Marked. — Every package containing game 
or birds, or any parts thereof, when shipped by interstate com- 
merce, must beai- a statement of the contents and the shipper's 
name plainly marked on the outside. Inattention to these details 
renders the shipper liable not only to loss of his game, but also 
to heavy penalties for evasions of the law. 
3. Evasions. — Shipping game in trunks, butter boxes, or egg 
cases; concealing it among other goods; marking it "butter, 
"dressed poultry," or "houseliold goods"; addressing it with a 
tag made specially to hide the shipper's name and statement of 
contents; or resorting to any other device to conceal the nature 
of the shipment — are all evasions of the law and subject the ship- 
per to the same penalties as for its direct violation. False marking 
of packages is treated as a serious olTense under some State laws, 
and is pimishable by special penalties. 
4. Special Restrictions. — Four-fifths of all the States and Terri- 
tories prohibit export of deer at any season; all those in which 
quail occur, except three in the South, prohibit export of these 
birds at all seasons; and practically every State where prairie 
chickens are found prohibits their export. As a result of these 
restrictions, it is almost impossible in the West to ship quail or 
prairie chieckens to market outside of the State without violating 
some law. 
.5. Western (Jame. — ^^\11 the States and Territories west of the 
Mississippi River except seven prohibit export of game protected 
by local laws. Of the seven exceptions, Louisiana and Texas pro- 
hibit export of all game except a few birds; Minnesota prohibits 
export of all birds, wliile Arkansas, Missouri, Montana and Wyo- 
ming eitlier prohibit export of certain species or israclically cut 
off export trade in game by means of other restrictions. Eastern 
dealers in ordering or receiving such game from these .States en- 
courage direct violations of local laws and may render themselves 
liable to the penalties provided for violating the Federal law. 
6. Alaska Game. — Under the Act of June 7, 1902, the shipment 
from Alaska of any hides or carcasses of deer, moose, mountain 
sheep, mountain goats, or parts thereof, or any wild birds, or parts 
thereof, is prohibited at all times. Trophies, specimens for scien- 
tific purposes, and live game may, however, be shipped under permit 
fiom the Secretary of Agriculture. 
7. Game for Propagation. — States which prohibit export of dead 
game frequently allow shipment of live birds intended solely for 
propagation, in some cases vmder jiermit from State authorities. 
Persons contemplating shipment of live b'-'ts should inform them- 
selves fully as to all local regulations. No permits for the ship- 
ment of game from one .Stc' 'o another are issued Ijy this De- 
partment. 
8. Game for Private Use. — ^isome States, especially those which 
issue non-resident htmting licenses, permit sport.smen to carry a 
limited amount of game out of the State for private use. En some 
cases this game must be tagged, carried openly, «nd accompanied 
by the owner. To insure safe transit of game, careful attention 
should be paid to such local regulations. 
9. Insectivorous Birds. — Robins, swallows, cedar birds, meadow 
larks, flickers, night hawks or bull bats, and a few other insectiv- 
orous species, as well as such birds as longspurs, snow buntings, 
and shore larks, which are useful in destroying seeds of weeds, are 
occasionally killed ss game. They are, however, generally pro- 
tected, and iinder no circumstances should they be. geftt to market 
or shipped out of the State. 
10. Birds for Millinery Purposes. — Statutes even more stringent 
than those protecting game birds have recently been enacted by 
many States for the preservation of birds which are not' included in 
the game list. Under these statutes birds which are in demand 
for millinery purposes are protected throughout the year, and sale 
and possession, as well as killing, are prohibited. It should be 
remembered that the principal centers for millinery supplies are 
nearly all located in States which have such laws, and the pur- 
chase of native song birds, as well as of herons, pelicans, gulls, 
terns or sea swallows, grebes, or other plume birds, should be 
avoided. The shipment of these birds or any part of their plum- 
age is prohibited bj; the provisions of the Federal law. Ostrich 
feathers are not subject to these restrictions an<l their use should 
be encouraged. James Wjl.son, Secretary. 
Proprietors of fishing resorts will find it profitable to advertise 
them in Fokest and Stbkau. 
Random Notes of an Angler. 
ConcerQicg the Black Sea Bass. 
There are not many anglers, comparatively, who have 
had much experience in fishing with rod and reel for the 
black sea bass. If by chance you happen to mention the 
fish you are shut off with the hasty reply, "Oh, yes, that's 
a great fish. I've caught hundreds of them with the hand 
line off at the Banks, and it is the best chowder fish that 
swims, far and away ahead of the cod ; in fact, it is also 
an elegant fish to boil— one of the best." And that seems 
about the extent of infonnation that you can obtain from 
the ordinary run of fishermen. 
Now, although it is a bottom-feeding species and is not 
generally classed among game fish, it affords a degree of 
sport that is by no means despicable if you use rod and 
proper tackle with it. Of course j'ou must use bait, and 
you will be obliged to sink it down to near the bottom, 
but there are hundreds of reefs and ledges all along the 
coast over which there is not too great depth of water to 
prohibit the use of the rod, and when a school of these 
fish are found in such desirable locations one can have as 
exciting sport as he wishes. 
The sea bass is a prodigiously strong fish; examine one 
and note the depth and thickness of the body and you 
will see that its lines are exceedingly robust; in fact, it 
is one of the most powerful fish for its size that we have, 
and when you find that you have hooked a ten -pounder 
you will acknowledge when you get hiin in your boat that 
you conquered him only after a good fight. It is true he 
does not dart away like a bluefish or squeteague, but he 
makes fairly good runs, and his strength is such that j'^ou 
will be obliged to humor him somewhat before you at- 
tempt to "give him the butt." 
His resistance is of a most dogged character, and, hug- 
ging the bottom, nose down, he holds out until thorough- 
ly exhausted. 
It is a most ravenous biter, and its mouth is so tough 
and leathery that if the hook is once imbedded in it there 
is no chance for its springing outj. as it often' does from 
the mouth of the tautog. 
Meagre Literature on tbe Sea Bass. 
I have examined quite a number of books on fishing and 
find that the literature relating to this species is rather 
ineager— much more so than the value of the fish ought to 
call for. 
Genio C. Scott, in his "Fishing in American Waters," 
gives more prominence to the sea bass than others have 
given. He says in part: 
"It is eminently a coast fish, and seldom ventures far 
above the estuaries, bays and back waters or bayous. The 
sea bass, porgie and tautog banks along the coast of New 
Jersey form one of the attractions of Long Branch, and 
they are a real blessing to the members of the hand- 
line committee, who realize in them a cheap relaxation 
from business and the lassitude caused by too constant 
work in a city during the heat of summer. 
"In a commercial point of view the sea bass ranks with 
the tautog, and next to the cod, being consumed an- 
nually to the number of millions. For capture with rod 
and reel, the comnicn striped bass tackle is used. I have 
taken hundreds of small ones in a day while angling for 
sheepshead. They take with equal voracity shrimp, clam ° 
and shedder crab. A shoal of a single pair of fish number 
probably five thousand which attain to the weight of half 
a pound and over; not more, because ground sharks and 
other marine carnivora thin their ranks when fingerlings. 
Their feeding time is during the lull of the waters, be- 
tvveen the turn of the tides, when they yield themselves 
willing victims to the angler's captivating art. They 
v/eigh from half a pound to five pounds, and some shoals 
run from eight to fifteen pounds." 
The geographical range of this fish is very wide, it 
being found more or less abundantly along the entire 
coast from Cape Cod, Mass., to Florida. It is now 
rarely found above the Cape, the entire number taken in 
all the nets, pounds and weirs north of Provincetown 
having been for the six years, 1895- 1900, only 35.^, while 
along the shore south of the Cape and in Vineyard Sound 
and Buzzard's Bay, etc., there were taken in the same 
years about 252,500, the principal portion being annually 
captured at Gosnold and Cuttyhunk. What the cause of 
their stopping in their northern movement is I am unable 
to say, but Cape Cod, stretching away as it does for 
many miles, seems to be to them an effectual barrier, 
Provincetown at the extreme end of the Cape being the 
point at which they pause; in fact, the proportion which 
reach even that locality is quite small, the entire catch 
in the six years I have named haA^ing been only 356 fish, 
and this notwithstanding that the nttmber and extent of 
the pounds, etc., were as large as were those at almost 
any other point on the coast. 
Tackle. 
For sea bass I have foimd that a rod, line and fed such 
as I have mentioned in a previous article as being suitable 
for tautog fishing are heavy enough for these fish. The 
tautog hook is also the better one for this fishing. 
The favorite haunts of the sea bass are reefs which are 
covered with marine plants and upon which there are beds 
of mussels and numbers of crustaceans. I have found 
these reefs scattered about in Buzzard's Bay and in the 
neighborhood of Martha's Vineyard, to which I readily 
rowed my boat, where, dropping anchor, I have often 
obtained very fine sport. 
Of course it was just simply bait-fishing, and the 
bass were not very gamy, but in the absence of a more 
satisfactory recreation it answered my purpose very well. 
Sharks a Great Nuisance. 
The monotony of my fishing was occasionally broken 
by a heavy tug of a large fish at my line, which on my 
reeling up refused to come. I could feel by the dragging 
motion that a fish was hooked, but it was too strong for 
my tackle, and finally I was obliged to pull up the line 
hand over hand, breaking off the hook, 'of course, in order 
to release the line. Sometimes the head and shoulders of 
a bass came up with my hook, the body having been bitten 
off by sharks or dogfish; and, more than once, have had 
these vermin follow my mutilated fish to the surface of 
the water, and even seize it and carry it down to the 
bottom again. 
It is rather startling to have a big blue maneater come 
up alongside one's boat and seize his fish, throwing the 
water around him in its splashing descent. I cannot re- 
call anything more wicked looking tlian these marauders 
are; their eyes are perfectly typical of a horrible male- 
volence, and their mouths with their serried rows of sharp, 
pointed teeth are as savage looking as any object that I 
knc^w of. 
The brown shark, which also abides in the same lo- 
calities, is as predatory as are others, but it does not 
come to the surface in pursuit of prey; at any rate, I 
have never seen one do so. 
Where sharks alx>und, lx)ttom- feeding fish are preyed 
upon very heavily, and it is probably owing to their on- 
slaughts that scup (porgies), tautog and sea bass have 
in many localities become almost extinct. These rapacious 
fish arc much more numerous than is generally known. 
I have often been out "sharking" in the neighborhood of 
Nantucket, and our party has taken as high as eight or 
ten in a few hours' fishing; the brown sand sharks Avere 
perhaps more numerous than the blue maneaters, but 
there was not much difference. I have seen the deck 
of a good-sized yacht covered with these brutes which 
we had captured, and among them were specimens eight 
or ten feet in length. 
The black sea bass is not a free swimming species like 
the striped bass and squeteague, and therefore, like the 
tautog, it makes its winter home in the deep water not 
far from its summer haunts. It is, therefore, not mi- 
gratory in the way that some writers describe, but is 
rather of a "home body," and does not wander. Like the 
tautog, it is very susceptible to the cold, and instances 
are on record of its having been frozen, even in deep 
water, in very severe weather, and the fish have come 
ashore in great numbers. The sea bass deposits its spawn 
in the sea weeds which cover the reefs and banks, and 
fishermen have accused the parent fish of cannibalism, 
they devouring their young as soon as they are hatched 
and until they are large enough to take care of them- 
selves. 
This is not impossible, although I have never of my 
own knowledge proved that they pouch their progeny, and 
I have examined the stomachs of a great many specimens. 
But even if it is true they are no worse in this respect 
than are many other species. The salmon does not devour 
its young, simply because it is not feeding while it is in 
fresh water, in which the young are reared; but I have 
no doubt that if by any chance a number of parr or 
.smolts were to find their way to the ocean in which the 
salmon naturally feed, they would be seized and swal- 
lowed as quickly as so many smelts would be ; they would 
not be spared on account of relationship. 
The trout is one of the worst cannibals among fishes. 
It will devour its own offspring with as much avidity as 
it will eat anything else that swims; in fact, it seems to 
prefer small ones of its own race to any others, and they 
1 
need not be so very small, either, for we have all secj 
them with others nearly as large as themselves protrudinj 
from their mouths. If they get their prey ended aroun< 
head foremost they will continue gorging and digestinj 
tmtil the tail of the unfortunate victim disappears frori 
sight. 
Many a trout culturist has had cause for loud lamenta 
tjons when by chance a two-year-old trout found its wa^ 
into a preserve or rearing pond in which frv or fingerling 
v/ere confined. 
As for the pickerel, no one doubts its cannibalism, ari< 
instances are on record of these gluttonous fish havinf 
been found choked in endeavoring to swallow members O' 
their own family which were as large as themselves. 
The fresh-water black bass protects its yovmg, and s( 
does the perch and bullhead and sunfish (Pomotis), an* 
n number of other species ; but the bluefish will eat it 
own offspring, and so will the striped bass and squeteague 
As for out and out cannibals, I think the common froj, 
IS entitled to the medal. I dare say that almost every on 
who has fished in fresh water has noticed a couple 0 
frogs jumping about, one in pursuit of the other, an< 
uttering now and then a playful yelp, and apparently hav 
mg a jolly game of "tag" or some other innocent recrea 
tion. 
Such, however, is not the case, for instead of indulginj 
m sport they are attending strictly to business ; the leade: 
in the game does his best to escape from the other, fq 
if he is overtaken he is swallowed at a gulp. 
An acquaintance of mine had been out collecting frog 
for the purpose of using them in a college lecture in thi 
way of illustrating the circulation of blood, etc. He ha« 
caught fourteen, three of which were large bullfrogs, an« 
the others were smaller, some being but wee things. 
He had a covered basket in which he brought then 
from the country where he had caught them to the city 
and when he arrived home and put his captives in i 
wire cage, he found that three were missing. Supposinj 
that they had in some way escaped, he did not pay mucl 
attention to the others, but during the evening he missec 
three more, and when he went to the cage on the follow 
ing niorning to show me his captives, he exclaimed 
They re all gone but five! The big ones have eaten a! 
the others." 
So that if the sea bass does devour its progeny it is no 
the only transgressor that swims. Now, I agree with yot 
perfectly that this fish is not a game fish par excellence 
but that it is a bottom feeder only, and it must be taker 
with bait at still-fishing; but, and this is often an im^ 
portant word, you can obtain a lot of sport in fishing foi 
It which you may at some time be very glad to get. 
I can fancy you domiciled at the shore for a few week) 
in summer, say at Martha's Vineyard or some other plac< 
near which there are reefs and seaweed-covered bank! 
upon which the wild mussels grow, and ennui has markec 
you for Its own. You are in desperate straits for som< 
recreation which will prove more exciting than th< 
"lawn sports" in which you have perchance been parti 
cipating, and when a friend proposes that you rig uj 
your bait-rod and tackle and go out with him upon th< 
brmy deep and fish for sea bass, something you hav< 
probably never done before, you embrace him, not exactljl 
a la Gaston and Alphonse, but metaphorically speaking 
and away you go as "chipper as a two-year-old." 
You discover when you have hooked an eight-pounc 
fish that you have something worth living for, and afte) 
a good fight with it, deep in the water—for the sea bass 
never breaks water until it is ready for the landing net- 
and it comes into the boat, you will feel like kicking your^ 
self that you have not before had an opportunity for mato 
ing the acquaintance of such a sturdy and persisteni 
fighter. 
The sea bass makes its first appearance at Martha's 
Vineyard early in May and remains among its favorite 
haunts until late in the autumn. 
All along the New Jersey shore it is quite a favorite 
species, both with rod and hand line fishermen, and al 
sorts of crafts are utilized to carry the fishermen out tc 
the "banks," where the bass abound. In the height of the 
season it is not an uncommon occurrence to see fifty oi 
more yachts or other boats lying at anchor at some favor- 
ite locality, and even steamers are run from New York 
and Philadelphia for the accommodation of those whc 
wish to participate in the recreation of "bassing." 
This is a standard market fish in New York and Phila- 
delphia, but is not so commonly sold in Boston, although 
if its good qualities were better known it would un-! 
doubtedly become as great a favorite as it is in other 
localities. Edward A. Samuels. 
Rangeley Trout and the Smelts, 
Boston, Aug. 23.— Mr. Henry W. Clarke, of Boston 
a veteran angler in the Rangeley waters, has just re- 
turned from a stay of seven weeks at the Mountair 
View, foot of Rangeley Lake. This was Mr. Clarke't 
t\vent3r-eighth successive annual trip to those waters, and 
his opinions naturally carry a good deal of weight oti' 
angUng subjects. He says that of all the seasons he 
has ever spent there the past has shown the poorest fish- 
ing. His idea is that the poor fishing is largely due tc 
the putting of smelts into the Rangeleys. He says that 
the smelts are in deep water the most of the season; only 
going up into the streams to spawn in spring. The trout 
have found them better eating than the old-time min- 
nows, for which the Rangeleys have always been noted, 
and like the salmon, they follow the smelts into deep 
water. Mr. Clarke says that he caught one trout, hardly 
three pounds' weight, which had in its throat and maw 
53 smelt. He adds: "It must have taken my hook out 
of idle curiosity. There could have been no other reason 
for its biting." Mr. Clarke regards the stocking of the 
Rangeleys with smelt as a dangerous experiment at the 
best. He believes that the trout fishing has been greatly 
injured thereby, Mr. C. P. Stevens, another veteran 
angler at the Rangeleys, has the same idea. He say& 
that never has the trout fishing been so poor in the vi 
cinity of his cottage, in the Narrows, Richardson Lake. 
It IS the opinion of other "old timers" at the Rangeleys 
that the big trout of that region are done for, and it is 
certain that not half the usual number have been caught 
the past season, while the catch of salmon has been 
greater. 
