Forest and Stream 
A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 
Copyright, 1908 by Forest akd Stream Publishing Co, 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 1903, 
Terms, $4 a Year. 10 Cts. a Copy. I 
Six Months, |2. ( 
( VOL. LXL— No. 22. 
I No. S46 Broadway, New Vork 
The Forest and Stream is the recognized medium of entertain- 
ment, instruct' 3n and information between American sportsmen. 
The editors invite communications on the subjects to which its 
pages are devoted. Anonymous communications will not be re- 
garded. While it is intended to give wide latitude in discussion 
if current topics, the editors are not responsible for the views of 
;onespondents. 
Subscriptions may begin at any time. Terms: For single 
copies, $4 per year, $2 for six months. For club rates and full 
oarticulars respecting subscriptions, see prospectus on page iii. 
epitapb in m Cbwrchyara at Rytbc* 
His net old fisher George long drew, 
Shoals upon shoals he caught, 
Till Death came hauling for his due. 
And made poor George his draught. 
Death fishes on tln-ough various shapes; 
In vain it is to fret; 
Nor fish or fisherman escapes 
Death's all-enclosing net. 
is no doubt that in good time all who violate the laws 
of the people, whether from the lesser offenses of col- 
lege hazing to the greater ones of mistaking a man 
for a deer, and thereupon killing him forthwith, will 
all find their legal status in good time. 
THE INDIVIDUAL AND THE CROWD. 
The passion for power and the distinguishing supe- 
riority incidental to it, seems to be a trait common to 
all mankind, whether savage or civilized. Whatever 
the laws of any section may be, the final arbitrament rests 
on physical force. While there is a government for 
all the people, it can in the main consider the generali- 
ties of the social compact. Each class of people, 
whether differentiated by business, leisure or amuse- 
ment, has its own special class laws and customs, all 
established and maintained by the parties interested. 
Experience has proven the wisdom of these wise regu- 
lations, the product, the conventional product conse- 
quent to generations of experience. 
But with more or less formal or informal organiza- 
tion, there accrues thereby greater power to the organ- 
ized than is possible to the lone individual. With the 
many benefits of organization, there are always asso- 
ciated abuses. In every organization of any importance 
outside of its own circle, there is always a small, re- 
fractory, insubordinate and lawless element, ambitious 
to distinguish itself, to arrogate to itself the power of 
authorit}', and to violate the law of the land whenever 
it contravenes their humor or interest if it can be done 
with impunity. 
A man or boy, in this connection, will not attempt, or 
even think of attempting, in his individual capacity, what 
he will attempt in his associated capacity as a member 
of an organization. 
Individuall}'-, the atmosphere of the law is about him 
everywhere; as the member of an organization, the re- 
soonsibilities are all merged in the organized body as 
a whole, and no individual feels that it is persimal.. 
This gives the malevolent, the mischievous, and the 
lawless an opportunity for free activity under the pro- 
tecting prestige and power of the body as a whole. 
Thus, as a side product of organization, is the per- 
nicious custom of college hazing by college classes,, 
which has a basis only in mischievous propensitites,. 
with physical power of enforcement possible of exer- 
cise only under the peculiar conditions of isolation, 
common at colleges, and which, as an idea, can have 
its origin only in immature or ill-ordered minds. 
As a matter of sound reason or common justice, the 
ubnse, hazing, could not soundly be maintained for a 
moment in serious debate. It is merely the manifesta- 
tion of arrogated power with an egotistical pui-pose to 
exalt the class engaged in it at the expense of the 
humiliation, forceful subjugation and, betimes, bodily 
injury, of those who by mere propinquity are available, 
and who by circumstances are defenseless. 
Labor unions, with beneficent purposes in tlie main,, 
tolerate abuses of their organized power by forcible 
interference with others, the principle between union 
hazing and college hazing being indistinguishable on 
any question of right. 
Shooters, who go afield lawlessly — and there is a dis- 
tinction sometimes between shooters and sportsmen- 
commit depredations when temporarily banded to- 
gether, which they would not dare to commit as indi- 
\ iduals, and this they dare do on account of the divided 
responsibility and the feeling of combined physical. 
P ciwer. 
But the law of the land overshadows all, and there.: 
CURRITUCK SOUND. 
Reports from Currituck Sound indicate that the 
opening season showed a great abundance of wild fowl 
there. At the Narrows Island Club, the first ten days 
of the shooting showed over 6go birds to four guns. 
The new game law providing for the appointment of 
wardens and deputies by the North Carolina Audubon 
Society appears to be working well. The game warden 
for the county is reported to be doing his duty, and as 
having already secured two convictions of persons vio- 
lating the law by leaving the wharf before sunrise. 
There seems to be no night shooting, and guns are 
never heard after sunset, as they have been for a few 
years back. 
It is thought, however, that the taxes from non-resi- 
dent gunners will not provide enough revenue to pay 
the wardens through the season, yet the efficient work 
which they are doing seems to render it important that 
they should be kept on. The men who kill the most 
birds and who thus derive the greatest benefit from the 
abundance of birds, are those who shoot from bush 
blinds and batteries for the market, and the very rea- 
sonable suggestion has been made that these gunners, 
who have the cream of the shooting, should pay a tax 
as the non-residents do. If the law were so amended 
as to provide that all gunners shooting afloat should 
pay such a tax, there would be a considerable increase 
in the revenue, and the gunner would scarcely sufifer, 
since a single day of good shooting would pay his tax 
for the whole season. Of course such a measure would 
not be popular with gunners along the Sound, but it 
would help to pay the expenses of the wardens and 
would undoubtedly increase the supply of wild fowl 
and make better shooting. 
THE SCARCITY OF GROUSE. 
From many quarters of the country, from Canada, from 
different parts of New England, from Ohio, and from 
Michigan, comes the news, dismal to all sportsmen, of an 
unusual scarcity of ruffed grouse. With this news come 
also explanations of this scarcity, but most of them un- 
satisfactory, because apparently not the result of study 
and investigation, but off-hand guesses of no value what- 
ever. 
We are reminded that while .the spring and first weeks 
of summer of 1903 were remarkably warm and.drY) offer- 
ing conditions very favorable for the hatching of the 
eggs of the grouse, these weeks were followed by a long 
period of abundant and heavy rain, which, coming at the 
precise time of their greatest weakness, may very possi- 
bly have destroyed a large number of the chicks hatched. 
This is a mere hypothesis, supported, so far as Ave are 
able to learn, by no facts whatever. Nothing is easier 
than to devise a theoretical explanation of some natural 
l^henomenon and then to cast about for facts to support 
this explanation. In this case we are as yet absolutely 
without facts. 
On the other hand, the reports of the scarcity of grouse 
from a very extensive territory probably have some foun- 
<iation in fact, and we should greatly like something more 
specific in considering this subject. 
Last week we asked our readers if they would not 
report to us as to the numbers in which they had found 
woodcock this autumn, and we should be greatly pleased 
if the}' would report to us also as to the abundance or 
scarcity of the ruffed grouse. 
We recall a period of grouse scarcity, twenty-five or 
more years ago, and that to explain it an elaborate theory- 
was devised, sirpported — as then supposed — hy observa- 
tions extending over a considerable territor}^ As we re- 
call it _now, these observations were based wholly on 
error. The cause of the scarcity of grouse was not what 
it was supposed to be. 
Even in the case of a bird so familiar to so many men 
as the ruffed grouse, it is an exceedingly difficult matter 
to become acquainted with all the conditions under which 
it lives, and with all the influences which — favorably or 
unfavorably — act upon its life and growth. 
In many of the localities from which reports of their 
scarcity have come, we may feel positive that neither the 
gun of the sportsman, the cunning depredations of the 
fox, nor in fact the attacks of any birds or beasts of prey 
have had any appreciable influence in diminishing the 
numbers of this splendid game bird. 
Among the readers of Forest and Stream there must 
be many who have studied the grouse more deeply than 
the average sportsman, and who should therefore be able 
to contribute facts or suggestions as to its life history 
which might be of use in solving the mystery of its 
present scarcity, as well as many other points of interest. 
But the first question on which our sportsmen desire to 
be informed is whether in this autumn of 1903 the ruffed 
grouse are less abundant than usual. 
It has been stated in the London newspapers that car- 
rier pigeons have crossed the Atlantic Ocean, and this 
is said to have taken place in the year 1886, when, accord- 
ing to the account, three out of nine American carrier 
pigeons set free in London returned to their home lofts 
on this side the water. A writer in the London Nature 
asks for more specific information about this alleged fact. 
Did or did it not happen? If such a flight took place it 
must have created more or less of a sensation among car- 
rier pigeon fanciers, and records of it must exist. Is any- 
thing known of this matter on this side of the water? 
OUR CHRISTMAS NUMBER. 
The Christmas Number of the Forest and Stream 
will be the regular issue of December 5. It will be en- 
larged to fifty-two pages and will be profusely and hand- 
somely illustrated. Among the features will be the fol- 
lowing : 
President Roosevelt as a Sportsman. With portrait 
of the President in his office. 
Mashpee. a celebration of the charms of the Mashpee, 
prompted by letters of Daniel Webster. By James Russell 
Reed, President of the Massachusetts Association. 
The Story of a Stump. An account of big-game hunt- 
ing and exploration in the Northwest. By H. G. Dulog. 
Angling in the Seventeenth Century. A reproduc-. 
tion of an angling print of the year 1686. 
The Lowering Flight. A full-page drawing by Wilmot 
Townsend. ' ' : I ^^1 iLCTaai 
The Boy of Winander. Wordsworth's poem, illustrated 
with a half-tone reproduction of the painting by Walker 
in the Library of Congress. 
The State Dining. Room of the White House. Two 
full-page views showing the game heads with which, 
under direction of President Roosevelt, the room has been 
decorated. 
Audubon's Portraits of Birds. Three full-page repro- 
ductions direct by photography from the originals of 
Audubon's plates of the wild turkey, male and female, 
and the Labrador duck. 
Mule Deer in the Yellowstone Park:. Five pictures 
from photographs from life. 
' When the Frost is on the Pumpkin. A full-page 
drawing by W. P. Davison. ' 
The FIome of the Albatross. An account with pic- 
tures from life photographs of the great albatross colonies 
cn the island of Laysan. 
The KnxDEER Plovek. Two illustrations from life 
photographs. 
How Tim Mulcahy Got Shot at for a Deer. A 
Christmas story by Francis Moonan. 
The Steam Yac-ht Noma. A profusely illustrated 
description of this well-known boat. 
The Witchery of Blowland. A story by B. Waters 
in lieu of trap scores. 
The Christmas Forest and Stream will be of excep- 
tional interest and value. The number will be among the 
handsomest publications of the season. The price will be 
25 cents. Order from your newsdealer in advance. 
