Forest and Stream 
A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 
Copyright, 1902, bv Forest and Strkam Pubushikg Co. 
T ERMs, $4 A Year. 10 Cts. a Copy. 
Six Months, |2. 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 6, 1902 
VOL. LIX.— No. 23. 
No. 346 Broadway, New York 
EAGLE CATCHING. 
In New York, Connecticut and some other States 
the eagle is protected and the slaj^er of one is made to 
pay a good round fine or go to jail. In Norway the 
eagle is recognized as a public enemy, a price is put on 
its head, and bounties are paid on 500 or 600 eagles a 
year. Now an eagle is an eagle, in New York or in 
Norway, and it might be thought 1 that the same treat- 
ment would be meted out to it in both countries. It is 
altogether a question of how much harm it does. In 
Norway the bird is abundant and preys on other crea- 
tures which man considers of more value than the 
eagle. In some parts of America the bird is now ex- 
tremely rare, does comparatively little damage to wild 
game or domestic stock, and is not only tolerated, but 
regarded with the sentiment which attaches to most 
forms of animal life which have become but as rem- 
nants and survivals. The immunity given the eagle 
is by no means universal in the United States. In 
Florida where, as is stated on another page, the eagle 
preys on young lambs, there is no disposition to pro- 
tect it. Man never cherishes a wild creature which 
does him material harm; farmers who are trying to 
raise sheep have no use for eagles. 
One of the methods employed by Norwegian eagle 
catchers is a close counterpart of the stratagem prac- 
ticed by some of the American Indians of the West. 
The eagle hole of Norway as described by Barth is 
this: i^^ilill 
A man takes his place in a hole dug in the earth for the pur- 
pose, alongside which is placed a piece of meat so near that the 
eagle, when it settles on the bait, can be reached by the hand. 
The hole, the depth of which is such that the man when he sits 
or stands therein has his head above the surface, has a little 
opening of turf or stone, which, when the occupant has taken 
his place, is so arranged that it can easily be thrust aside, and 
through it the man keeps watch. Here he may have, perhaps, to 
wait for an entire day without result; but when the bird de- 
scends and begins to eat the bait, he stretches out through the 
opening and seizes it, dragging it at once underground, when he 
puts his knees on its beak and breaks its neck. The whole is 
carried out so quicklj', and the aperture is so narrow, that the 
eagle has neither time nor room to use its powerful weapons. I 
have, however, seen a man who had had much to do with this 
kind of pursuit, who bore very evident marks of the eagles' sharp 
talons. 
The eagle catching stratagem employed by the North 
American Indian was practically identical with that of 
Norway. A pit was dug and covered with twigs and 
earth and grass, in which the hunter concealed him- 
self, and seized the eagle when it descended to take the 
exposed bait. The Greenlanders in like manner catch 
the sea eagle by luring it to a hole in the snow in 
which the hunter is covered up; and a Greek writer 
who wrote at Constantinople in 1270, records that in 
his time fowlers took hawks in the same fashion by 
luring them to bough houses and seizing them as they 
struck at the live pigeon decoy. Thus the mode is not 
only widely practiced among the races of mankind, but 
one which was adopted early in the history of primitive 
man. 
MAINE GUIDES. 
Complaints have been renewed this year of visitors 
from Ohio and Indiana who invade the Maine woods 
in large numbers, carrying in their own supplies, hiring 
only one registered guide for a whole party, and enjoy- 
ing their outing without leaving much money behind 
them for the people of the State. Maine folks look 
upon the game and fish as resources having a cash 
value, and in exchange for which the visitor who re- 
duces them to possession should make over some 
equivalent. One suggested expedient to correct the 
evil of free hunting is a modification of the guide law, 
in such a way that each individual "sport" must have 
his own guide; or that not more than two "sports" 
may have a guide in common. 
Two reasons are advanced for the proposed change. 
It will compel every visitor to contribute to the support 
of the guides; and it will assure a more stringent 
espionage on the doings of the visitor while in the 
woods. There are guides who will abet violations of 
the law; but there are also very many guides who will 
neither break the law themselves nor allow their em- 
ployers to do so. The more intelligent guides — ^and in a 
growing proportion Maine guides are becoming in- 
telligent in this thing — recognize that if their occupa- 
tion is to last the game must be protected, and if the 
game is to be protected the law-breaking "sport" must 
be restrained. Guides who have convictions like these 
and the courage to live up to them are the most 
powerful agents in the Maine woods to compel respect 
for protective laws. It is not too much to say that 
the Maine guides practically have in their own hands 
the efficient protection of Maine game; or certainly 
would have it, if the law provided that not more than 
two sportsmen could go with one guide. How far the 
guides, having this opportunity, may be looked to to 
exercise the power it gives them must depend alto- 
gether upon how fully they may realize the situation 
and apply common sense to it. If they shall stand for 
game protection their employment will be as perma- 
nent as that of the farmer. And there is reason to be- 
lieve that the trend of guide opinion is toward the sup- 
port of the law, the discouragement of illicit game 
killing by their employers, the preservation of the deer 
and the moose, and the perpetuity of their own busi- 
ness interests. To adopt this principle and to live up 
to it often means the exercise of a high degree of 
moral courage. If any man on earth is sorely 
tempted, it is the Maine guide who finds himself con- 
fronted with the choice between being party to game 
law A'iolation and losing his job. Scores of men who 
go into the Maine woods in the summer months and 
employ guides, are wholly without any principle when 
game is in range. They mean to have their venison, 
and if the guide stands in the way, they will dismiss " 
him, and he will find himself out of employment. If 
be is of just the average type of man material, as we 
find it in the woods and out of them, he swallows his 
scruples and keeps his job. If he is a man of strong 
convictions and has the courage of them, he lets the 
visitor find another guide. The growing tendency, it is 
ventured to say, is now toward adopting the principle 
of living up to the law; and the time may come, much 
sooner than might be anticipated, when this will be 
the practically universal- attitude^ of Maine guides. 
When that shall be the case, the guide occupation will 
be one of increased worth and dignity, and of tremen- 
dous influence for good. As has been said, they will 
have in their own hands for their own efficient control 
the protection of Maine game. 
A MASSACHUSETTS GAME REFUGE. 
The readiness with which all wild creatures respond 
to protection by man is well known. Pretty much 
all things that wear feathers or hair would regard 
man as a friend rather than an enemy, if he would but 
give them the opportunity, and it is only the universal 
human desire for killing that makes birds and 
mammals wild. A familiar example of this tameness 
under protection is seen in the game of the Yellow- 
stone Park, much of which is no more shy than the 
cattle in our fields. We see the same thing on Long 
Island, where, during the greater part of the year, the 
deer feed in the fields or along the roadsides without 
paying the slightest attention to passers by. Cases of 
similar tameness in Avild birds are common enough, 
and we have all of us heard of reptiles that came at 
call, and may remember the picture — ^printed a few 
years ago— of Mr. Jewell, of Hartford, calling his frogs 
to dinner by the sound of a bell. 
All this, of course, opens up great opportunities for 
observation and pleasure to people who control or are 
near considerable areas of protected land and water. 
Such areas are happily growing more numerous in 
these dRys. Reservations are being set aside in States 
gnd Territories, and parks established in counties and 
towns and cities; and where this is done the wild birds 
and animals are quick to take advantage of such places. 
Such parks are protected; not always very well pro- 
tected, perhaps, yet the diflference between promiscu- 
ous pursuit at all hours of the day and night, and 
the occasional shot of the sneaking poacher is a wide 
one, and the wild things recognize the difference. 
It is only a year or two since a flock of wild geese 
cleaving the air with arrowy flight during their migra- 
tion across New York city, called down by the voices 
of some domesticated -wild geese in the Zoological Sq^ 
ciety's park in the Bronx, were induced to give up their 
journeying, and are now daily seen by the visitors to 
that interesting place. 
One place of this kind — a refuge and a resting spot 
during the migration — is found in Spot Pond, lying 
within the area of a park reservation in Massachusetts, 
surrounded by the towns of Maiden, Medford, Mel- 
rose and Winchester. Shooting is prohibited there and 
the birds come there, alight, feed, rest and remain, 
thus teaching to sportsmen and naturalists a lesson 
which might well be remembered and acted on. This, 
in fact, is a game refuge, such as was first advocated, if 
we recollect aright, by Mr. Willard G. Van Name, of 
New Haven, Conn., a number of years ago. 
Spot Pond, we are told, is a resting place for a great 
flock of sea gulls, which pass the night on its waters 
and in the morning resort to the sea shore to feed, re- 
turning again before dusk. Here, too, are said to be 
no less than 1,500 black ducks, as well as many others 
of different sorts, many of them probably sea ducks, 
for it is well known that, during the autumnal migra- 
tion, the coots, old squaws, goldeneyes and other truly 
marine ducks are often found in fresh-water lakes far 
from the sea. 
The superintendent of the park states that the aquatic 
population of Spot Pond is constantly changing. Al- 
most every day fresh flocks arrive from the north, and 
other flocks take their departure for more southern 
waters. The noise of the birds' wings and their cries 
are heard at night and in the morning, and they have 
added a new feature of interest and attraction to the 
neighborhood. And not to the neighborhood alone, 
for we are told that people come long distances to the 
shores of this lake to view the interesting assemblage. 
If a series of such refuges could be established up 
and down our sea coast it would be a great thing for 
sportsmen and naturalists, alike. More important than 
that, such refuges would do a valuable educational 
work in the sections where they were established, giv- 
ing to people who know nothing about wild life the 
opportunity to rear broods whose presence in the 
neighborhood would be useful to sportsmen because 
they would attract birds to the region during the sea- 
sons when shooting is permitted. 
The world moves. Game protective ideas advance. 
There have never been so many people anxious to have 
game — and life generally — preserved as now. We be- 
lieve that the time is not far distant when the result of 
all this effort will be seen in the increased supply of 
living things. 
If one-half of what C. M. Feuilliard, of Morehouse- 
ville, in the Adirondacks, writes of his neighbors can 
be substantiated. Chief Protector Pond may find there 
a state of affairs to engage his attention for some time. 
The record. is one of deer jacking, hounding, crusting 
and killing out of season, trout slaughter and stealing 
timber from private and public lands. One of the 
worthies named is a supervisor, who is credited with 
having "fixed" a game warden who set out to investi- 
gate his doings. The list of offenses comprises pretty 
much all the crimes in the poacher's calendar; and not 
only are names, places, dates and witnesses given, but 
Mr. Feuilliard avers that in numerous of the transac- 
tions recorded, he himself had part. He has given 
earnest of his sincere wish for a cleaning up of More- 
houseville by mailing a copy of his deposition to the 
chief protector at Albany. 
The Post Check Currency bills now before Congress 
contemplate the issue of currency which shall circulate 
from hand to hand as the present currency does, but 
which when endorsed shall become a check payable 
only to the person to whom it is sent. This will pro- 
vide a simple, convenient and safe mode of sending 
money by mail; and it goes without saying that such a 
system would be of incalculable benefit to all who have 
occasion to send money through the mails. The post 
check plan has been endorsed by the Postmaster Gen- 
eral as "very simple and easily understood," and no 
substantial objections to the plan have been adduced. 
The public convenience would be served by the enac^-s 
ment of the measijres into a law. 
