Forest and Stream 
A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 
Copyright, 1908 bv Forest and Stream Publishing Co, 
Terms, $4 a Year. 10 Cts. a Copy. I 
Six Months, |2. j 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 1903. 
( VOL. LXI.— No. 20. 
( No. 846 Broadway, New York 
The Forest and Stream is the recognized medium of entertain- 
meqt, instruct' jn and information between American sportsmen. 
The editors invite communications on the subjects to which its 
cages are devoted. Anonymous communications will not be re- 
garded. While it is intended to give wide latitude in discussion 
of current topics, the editors are not responsible for the views of 
rorrespondents. 
Subscriptions may begin at any time. Terms: For single 
copies, $4 per year, $2 for six months. For club rates and full 
particulars respecting subscriptions, see prospectus on page Hi. 
OUR CHRISTMAS NUMBER. 
The Christmas Number of the Forest and Stream 
will be the regular issue of December 5. It will be en- 
larged and handsomely illustrated, and the cover will be 
printed in colors. The price will be 25 cents. Order 
from your newsdealer in advance. 
The pictorial features of the Christmas Forest and 
Stream will be of exceptional interest and value. The 
number will be among the handsomest publications of the 
season. 
DOWN THE MISSISSIPPI. 
We shall begin in our issue of November 21 Raymond 
S. Spears' story of the expedition "Down the Mississippi" 
which he has undertaken at the instance of Forest and 
Stream and for the benefit of its readers. Those who 
followed Mr. Spears in his "Walk Down South" require 
no assurance that in the new serial they have a rich 
treat in store. The chapters will be among the many 
good things to appear in the forthcorhing issues of this 
journal. ^ 
BIRD COLLECTING PERMITS, 
The excellent bird protective law modeled by the A. 
O. U. Committee on Bird Protection has been adopted by 
a very large number of the States of the Union. The 
gt-neral excellence of this law is quite universally 
acknowledged. Enforced, it protects the birds, and its 
definition of orders, families, and so on, make quite clear 
v\'hat birds may, and what may not, be killed. 
One of the provisions of the bill declares that any one 
who wishes to obtain a permit to collect non-game birds 
for scientific purposes, besides paying a fee for the per- 
mit, must furnish a bond to the amount of $200. 
The provision as to the bond was not hastily deter- 
mined on, but was the result of careful thought. It was 
made a part of the bill by ornithologists, and of course not 
with any desire to work hardship to actual workers in that 
science. Its purpose was clearly to make the securing of 
a permit difficult and expensive for the multitude of 
young men and boys who fancy that they are ornitholo- 
gists, but who in fact are merely collectors, who destroy 
1)irds and gather together their' skins, much as other boys 
and men collect old postage stamps. 
The destruction of birds by such collectors was very 
great, and it was proper that it should be stopped. The 
true ornithologist will kill what specimen he needs, and 
no more. He may be wholly trusted. He needs no per- 
mit. But a State official knowing nothing of birds or of 
ornithology cannot possibly distinguish the real ornitholo- 
gist from the false, and cannot be expected to exercise 
discretion in the issue of permits. He must be bound by 
a statute. 
For some time a feeling has existed among some 
ornithologists that the provision of the A. O. U. law 
v/hich calls for a bond is a hardship to scientific men, and 
this sentiment is voiced in the September-October number 
of the Condor, in which the editor, Mr. Walter K, Fisher, 
urges that the bond provision be stricken from the law. 
ll is urged that the various provisions which hedge about 
the issuing of the permit make it almost impossible in 
certain States to secure one, In New Jersey, for example, 
an overzealous game warden has declined to issue any 
permits, although the law provides for their issue. In 
Vermont only a very small number of permits may be 
issued in one j'ear, while in Virginia there is no provision 
for granting a permit, and any one collecting there 
necessarily breaks the law. 
Again, it is not pleasant to ask a friend or acquaintance 
to go on your bond, and the various guarantee and 
security companies charge from $S to $10 for giving a 
bond. We learned recently of a case where it took six 
weeks with an expenditure of $8.50 to obtain a permit, 
and by the time it had been secured the man's opportunity 
for collecting was over. 
Mr. Fisher's plea for the abolition of the bond provi- 
sion of the A. O. U. law is a strong one, but there is 
much to be said on the other side. 
It has been the experience of the A. O. U. Bird Pro- 
tection Committee, when endeavoring to pass the model 
law, in any State where there has never been bird pro- 
tection, that opposition has been made to the scientific 
collection clause. The ordinary citizen is unable to 
understand why he should be deprived of the privilege of 
shooting birds while it is granted to another person who 
also wishes to shoot birds — but for scientific purposes. It 
is the belief of that committee that unless the provision 
to grant a permit for scientific collecting is hedged about 
by special restrictions, there will be more cases like that 
of Virginia, where the permit provision will be omitted 
from the law. 
There have in the past been many persons who collected 
birds for the purpose of selling the -skins, or for purposes 
of barter and exchange. For these men severe restric- 
tions are needed. 
THE BLOOMING GROVE PARK ' CHARTER. 
When the topic of rgaple preserves was under discus- 
sion in our columns recently, Mr. Charles Hallock con- 
ti'buted a note saying that the Blooming Grove Parl-c 
Association had established pleasartt relations with the 
dwellers of the vicinity- of its preserve in Pike county. 
Pa., by giving them employihent in various capacitifrs 
cn the preserve. It is well known that while this policy 
of peace and conciliation worked to the. satisfaction of all 
concerned in the beginning, there subsequently developed 
much friction between the club and the people of the 
region; and the club sought to protect its privileges less 
by the promotion of good feeling and more by the appli- 
cation of the powers vested in it by the charter. 
The charter was granted in 1871 to an association of 
si'ortsmen who set forth in their preamble that they de- 
sired to establish in Pike county, Pa., certain tracts of 
land as a park for preserving and propagating the differ- 
ent varieties of game animals, birds, and fish, both cf 
Europe and America, and preventing their extinction, and 
to supply the same for propagation to different sections 
of our country. To accomplish this it was represented 
that for the full success of the enterprise the association 
should make and enforce its own game laws as to the 
time and manner of taking game and fish. One provision 
cf the charter accordingly read: "It may make its own 
g«me laws through its board of directors, and may add 
to, repeal, or change the same from time to time." It 
v/as further empowered to select from among its game 
k(epers special ones who should have the right and 
authority of deputy sheriff or constables, and it was made 
the duty of the sheriffs of Pike and Monroe counties to 
deputize these game keepers. 
An elaborate system of penalties was provided for 
siiooting or fishing or for simple trespass on the property 
of the association, the penalties for trespass running from 
$10 to $60 in the discretion of the magistrate, and from 
S30 to $60 for possession of fishing tackle or guns upon 
the property. For killing game and taking fish the penal- 
ties ran from $40 to $300, with imprisonment as an alter- 
native in default of payment. And there were other 
provisions, looking to the severe punishment of trespassers 
by increasing the sums forfeited for the possession of 
game and fish. Added rigor was secured by a section 
which read : 
The laws of the State relating to fish or wild animals shall not 
be applicable to any of the territory owned or hired by said cor- 
poration or over which it shall acquire the right to kill or take 
game or fish; except that any person not licensed or authorized by 
said corporation to take game or fish within the aforesaid bound- 
aries, who shall take, shoot or hunt game, or catch fish within 
its boundaries, contrary to the game laws of this State, shall be 
liable to the penalties provided by said laws in addition to the 
penalties herein provided. 
The opinion has more than once been expressed by 
lawyers that if the Blooming Grove Park charter should 
ever be taken into court it would be held to be uncon- 
stitutional. This has now been done. 
In 1900 Charles Hazen, of Pike county, was arrested 
by one of the park constables and charged with having 
killed a deer on the Blooming Grove Park territory. He 
v/as summarily convicted by a magistrate under the pro- 
visions of the charter and was fined. In default of pay- 
ment he was committed to jail, the right of trial by jury 
being denied him. Hazen appealed to the Court of Quar- 
ter Sessions, which held that his conviction was void, 
because the charter was unconstitutional. The opinion was 
written by Judge George S. Purdy. The association car- 
ried the case to the Superior Court, and Judge Purdy's 
decision was reversed.. Then Hazen went to the Supreme 
Court, which, Justice Dean writing the decision, upholds 
Judge Purdy, and declares the conviction of Hazen ille- 
gal, and the association's charter null and void because 
unconstitutional. 
THE REAL DOG DAYS. 
The real dog days of the year are the days of the open 
season, when the beautiful game birds and animals, so 
strong, so swift of flight, and so resourceful in strategy, 
may be taken into possession legally if the sportsman have 
the requisite skill to take them in a sportsmanlike manner 
at all. 
This is the season when the hound, the setter or the 
pointer, is annually in the ascendant. Those dogs are 
now the stars of the hunting world. 
In the m.inds of all true sportsmen, setters and pointers 
and hounds now hold exalted associations with the game 
brrds and animals. From the shadowy nooks in man's 
memory they spring forth to the foremost places. 
In this sportsmen's annual season every dog may have 
his day, and if he be a good dog, faithful, skillful and 
enduring, he may have a day or several days additional. 
Dog days, as a whole, are good days. 
These are the days in which the hunting dog is pam- 
pt red with the best of foods, the gentlest of caresses, the 
most affectionate of glances, the coziest of sleeping quar- 
ters. He holds now a constant exalted place in his mas- 
ter's conversations at home and abroad. So enthralling 
13 the subject that it is almost as great a pleasure to 
lirten as it is to talk. And note the capabilities to ex- 
pand ! The merits of the dog which at first required but 
one hour to recount, are elegantly elaborated by repeti- 
tion till a half day or even a whole day is none too much 
time in which to present the favorite's past performances, 
wonderful intelligence, present abilities and princely an- 
cestry. Hours are all too short when such useful infor- 
mation is so disinterestedly presented to the hearers. The 
dog, then, by virtue of his master's affection and atten- 
tion, is brought out of the unmerited obscurity of months, 
a pleasure to his master and a blessing to his master's 
friends. The dog justly holds a leading place then in his 
msster's affairs, and the master in turn takes a leading 
place in his friends' affairs, with the dog as a theme. 
This is the season when the dog enjoys truly great days. 
Nor is the sudden spasm of appreciation confined 
wholly in application to the dog. Tlie owners, too, who 
have spare dogs or spare guns, present or prospective, 
find themselves better remembered by sportsmen friends 
in the open season than in the close season, and thus 
benignantly participate in the revival. Such owners will 
frequently find themselves pleasantly removed from the 
obscure nooks of memory to the most forward and 
esteemed places of friendly attention, as is proper when 
one is the subject of purposes concerning guns and dogs 
loanable, or shooting invitations obtainable. Thus the 
opening of the shooting season restores many neglected 
dormant friendships which otherwise might be lost for- 
ever. 
It is not entirely an untenable hypothesis that, on the 
cne hand, as between the man who is unconsciously at- 
tentive with an ulterior friendly purpose to borrow a 
dog or gun, and, on the other, the man who is eagerly in- 
tent on decoying a friend into some verbal ambush in 
which he is forced to listen to a three-hour eulogy about 
the pointer or setter, Dash or Carlo, there is an equalitj' 
of merit, all unappreciated by the unfortunate few who 
h&ve not the enthusiasm of the true sportsman. In the 
yum tfetal there is a certain equity established between 
the sportsmen of enthusiastic sentiment and the sports- 
men of enthusiastic materialism. 
And yet, when freed from the ego, which makes a dog 
better than all other dogs on earth because he is owned 
by the owner, a three-hour story may be of real interest 
to every one. But a story and a eulogy may be distinctly 
different in the matter of friendly or public interest. 
And yet the real dog days for the dog are the days 
v/hen the friends of his niaster are entertained with talcs 
of him which never cease. 
.i 
