Forest and Stream. 
A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 
Copyright, 1904, by Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 
Terms, f4 a Year. 10 Cts. a Copy. 
Six Months, $3. 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 1904. 
j VOL. LXII.— No. 6. _ 
1 No. 340 Broadway, New York. 
The Forest and Stream is the recognized medium of entertain- 
ment, instruction and information between American sportsmen. 
The editors invite communications on the subjects to which its 
pages are devqted. 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 
corespondents. 
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 iii. 
A COLD WEATHER SUGGESTION. 
Even in northern latitudes, winter, with its cold and 
snow, its barrenness of insect life, and its scarcity of 
grain and seeds, is not without bird life. In the cold- 
est, most blustering day, with the wind and snow, one 
may often see hurrying over the fields a whirling 
flock of snow buntings looking like an armful of 
leaves caught up by the gale. Visible but for a 
moment, they vanish amid the vanishing snow, but if 
the eye could follow them they would be seen to 
plunge down among the tops of some tall weeds which 
stand above the drift, and after feeding for two or three 
minutes in a hurried fashion, again take wing and 
fly to another feeding ground from which a few more 
seeds rnay be gleaned. - . 
About barns and outbuildings, and often venturing 
into the woodshed, a few blue snowbirds seek shelter on 
bare ground. They are shy and retiring- — timid if hastily 
approached, but quickly gaining confidence when they 
see no barm intended them. 
If the barnyard adjoins wood or swamp, a brood of 
quail may venture into it during the winter, to feed on 
the grain scattered for the poultry, and thus to eke out 
the meagre subsistence which nature provides for them 
at this inclement season. Indeed, there are cases where 
the ruffed grouse has dared to associate with domestic 
fowls at a bird lover's home in the Adirondacks; 
as in the case recently recorded in Forest and Stream, 
these birds have come up regularly to be fed by kindly 
hosts. 
The depths of the wood have their feathered inhabit- 
ants as well. Over the treetops the red-tail and broad- 
winged hawks now and then flap their heavy way, while 
small congregations of noisy crows, which draw a fat liv- 
ing from the shocks of corn left in the field by the care- 
less farmer, are often seen perched on the topmost sprays 
of the tall trees, or fanning their homeward way at night 
toward some forest of evergreens. The metallic clink 
of the bluejay is often heard, a few silent robins lurk in 
the depths of the swamp, and among cedars and decidu- 
ous trees alike troops of chickadees, with a small follov/- 
ing of nuthatches and kinglets, work busily along tree 
trunks, and branches and twigs, prying into the smallest 
crevices in the bark, and throughout the season eating 
the eggs and cocoons of noxious insects, which, if un- 
disturbed till next summer, would work woe to the 
farmer, and to all who depend on his products. 
The birds which remain as our winter neighbors are 
not often seen by those homekeeping folk whose pursuits 
seldom carry them abroad into field and wood. Yet they 
are beautiful and interesting, and well worth seeing, and, 
if protected and their prejudices respected, they may be 
brought close to the house, so that women and little chil- 
dren may see them as well as hardy men and sturdy boys. 
To the winter birds, food is the most important of all 
things, and if food is regularly offered them they will 
make daily journeys to the feeding place. Crumbs and 
seeds will attract sparrows of many sorts. Small grain 
will bring the quail, the doves, the jays, and the black- 
birds. Meat or fat will lead woodpeckers and chickadees 
and nuthatches and brown creepers and kinglets to be- 
come daily visitors to the home, and after they have 
learned the location of the food, they will continue their 
visits, even though now and then the supply should be 
forgotten and the visit be fruitless. 
After the food has been put out for the birds, it may 
take a few days for them to discover it, and one should 
not be discouraged if immediate advantage is not taken 
of the proffered hospitality. For the food offered to the 
grain-eating birds, a place should be chosen which is 
sheltered and warm, and care should be taken that the 
supply be not covered up by snow, and that if devoured 
by the domestic fowls it shall be renewed. It will be 
found that after the birds have discovered the food, the 
news of it will spread rapidly, and the number of those 
which come to eat will constantly increase. For the flesh- 
eating birds, strips of meat or bits of fat should be tacked 
up in the trees, and renewed from time to time, but often 
the red squirrel may discover these supplies before the 
birds do, and devour them with great relish. It may 
thus be necessary to choose between feeding the squirrels 
and feeding the birds, but the farmer usually has little 
liking for the red squirrel which destroys the corn in 
his crib in a most impudent and offensive way. 
When the birds first come up to feed, they are shy 
and easily frightened away. Those who discover them at 
their repast should at first keep out of sight and show 
themselves little by little, instead of suddenly. It will 
not take long for the feathered visitors to become ac- 
customed to their hosts, and to . regard them no longer 
as enemies, but as kindly friends. 
LONG ISLAND LAWLESSNESS. 
Reports from Long Island declare that duck shooting 
has been going ;on pretty continuously there since the 
first of January. , During much of; this , time, it is true, the 
bays have been frozen over, but, -on the other hand, there 
are air holes to which the starved., and chilled fowl 
resort, and where more or les.s of thepi may be killed. 
The bitter weather and the ice on the flats has shortened 
the food supply, so that the birds have had little to eat, 
but while many of them have sought open water by going- 
south, there are many others — poor bunches of bone and 
feathers — that still remain in these latitudes, ..striving to 
pick up a living, but spending most of their time either 
sitting on the ice or resting in the air holes. 
Last year, when the bill to prohibit the spring shooting 
of wildfowl was under consideration by the New York 
Legislature, Long Island gunners and others made a 
heroic fight against its passage. - It was a losing fight, 
and the side of game protection won. On the other hand, 
those who advocated the passage of tlie bill realized that, 
as brant stop on the south shore of Long' Island only 
during the spring migration, and as branf 'shooting is a 
favorite sport with many men, it would be an added hard- 
ship to cut off the spring brant shooting.- Therefore 
Senator El on R. Brown, Who had charge df the bill, ex- 
pressed to the represeintatives from Long Island his 
willingness, to- so- modify the measure 'that it should not 
apply to brant, which the Long Island gunners should 
thus be perniitted to shoot in the spring. 
With this concession there went— according to our 
understanding — an implied agreement that the Long 
Islanders in return should respect the duck law, and 
should see that it was not violated. 
This understanding: has not been . lived, up to. Off 
Patchogue, Bay Shore,, and Islip, there has been much 
shooting on the bay since January i, and anyone who 
cares to visit these towns may listeti to the booming of 
the guns, out over -the ice, which - shows, that the miser- 
able skeletons called ducks are being killed in violation 
of the law. - 
It may be said that State game protectors should put 
an end to this;. but, on the bthex harid, Long Island is 
well named; its waters are large, and it is almost impos- 
sible for a small number of game protectors to police 
them. ... -. ' : - 
We understand that considerable irritation is felt by a 
number of people over this disregard of the law. Citizens 
of Long -Island feel that either they themselves should 
shoot, or should stop other people from shooting; while 
other men, active in game protection, consider that a 
failure to observe the law is a, distinct breach of faith 
on the part of the Long Islanders. Some of these people 
even go so far as to urge that a bill be passed forbidding 
the shooting of brant after January i, and that a special 
effort be made .by. game protective societies to aid the 
State in enforcing its laws on these waters. 
Long Island people, as a rule, have a most praiseworthy, 
respect for law and order, . and abide b.y most of the 
statutes as well as any community in the world ; but 
many of the bay men and others who have gunned there 
all their lives consider it a hardship that they should' not 
be permitted to kill the fowl in winter and spring as they 
have always been accustomed to. Yet this is one of the 
conditions of our modern Arrierican life. Each year there 
are in the United States more people, less vacant territory 
fit for the habitation of wild creatures, rhore guns, more 
shooters, and so fewer wildfowl, or wild creatures of" 
any sort. We shall all be wise if we do everything in- 
our power to hold our hands in time, before the stocks 
of the various wild species become so reduced that they 
can never re-establish themselves. ■ 
Time was, as we have recently shown, when-: the Labra- 
dor duck was not an uncommon species on Long Island 
waters. To-day that bird is extinct, and specimens of it 
bring hundreds of dollars, if offered for sale. There arc 
other birds that are approaching the danger line, and we 
shall be wise if, all over the country,, w'e shorten the 
time during which such wildfowl may be killed. . , 
m 
THE GUN IN PICTURE. ; : ' 
While among artists there .are many good: sportsmen, 
there are also many good artists who' are; absolutely- 
ignorant of ' everything pertaining to the -craft. . : At the. 
same time, every artist appears to be ready to. turn hi.3 
hand to making a drawing of a duck, a deer, an elk, or 
an elephant, When, however, it comes down to detail, 
the pictures, which some: of -these artists, turn out, sotne- . 
times cause those familiar with the creature o.r the; scene 
portrayed to srhile. Such blunders are seen continually 
in the illustrations of high class magazines and periodi- 
cals, as well as in books, and notable .examples of . this 
will suggest themselves to almost every reader.- ■ .We. re- 
call a case where an artist of eminence put on an ante- 
lope that was running away the tail of a white-tail deer, 
making a curious nondescript beast, which, however, the 
legend of the picture announced was an antelope. ; 
The ■ correspondent who last week called ' attention, ..to 
the careless way in which.: artists who do. sketches .of 
sportsmen make their subjects carry their gun,, performed 
a real service, and the advice which he gave -about hand- 
ling guns is good. . " 
The first piece of knowledge that should he drilled; 
into the beginner with rifle or shotgun is that:this imple-., 
ment is a very dangerous.one, and that,. Under no circurn- 
, stances, whether it be loaded or empty, should it be 
pointed at any living object. The way in which on.'i 
carries a gun is a matter of habit, and .it is; just as ea&y 
to form good habits as bad.. By frequently calling the 
attention/ of a young gunner; to his carelessness in' 'the 
matter, of handling his gun, he can be led,, to form the 
habit of never pointing it in the wrong directioni and 
this habit he will at length come to put in practice with- 
out even thinking about the matter. - ; ' 
It is true that there are sportsmen , of large experience ' 
who are careless about the handling of their guns, :but 
this is no excuse for others being careless, and, indeed, 
these careless men of experience are often the very ones 
who find most fault with other people who, are careless.:. 
A gun is a dangerous tool and should be handled, with 
extreme care. Accidents are far too cornfnon iihdcr 
present conditions,, and no words, of caution, -expressed to 
the inexperienced are wasted. Incidentally it would b.e 
a good, thing if artists and illustrators who, are trying to" 
picture scenes in yvhich guns are used would -learn some- 
thing about firearms and game before attempting to de- 
pict them. , , ,. . ■ ■ . - ■ \ . ., ; 
The essential vulgarity of, the popular mind is'evidenced 
by its complacent toleration , of . th^!- vulgar advertising 
signboards which in town and- country alike everywhere 
confront the gaze, proclaiming the merits of . whiskeys, 
cigars, and soaps, breakfast foods, and pills. The exist- 
ence of these monstrosities and atrocities, in town .demon- 
strates that we have no aesthetic sense ; , their presence in 
the country makes a' mock of our, pretended appreciation 
of the beauties, of natural scenery. Governor Murphy, of 
New Jersey, has undertaken the task of suppressing by 
means of proposed ' legislative •'measure the billboards' 
which line the railways of the State. We wish him suc- 
cess ; but he will find, as other reformers in the same field 
have, always found, that public sentiment rather- favors 
than condemns the gaudy proclamation of quack wares. 
Three bills have been introduced in the New York - 
Legislature to repeal the law passed last year prevent- 
ing spring duck shooting. The opposition to the present 
law comes largely from Long Island, with an accession 
of strength from the central waters of the State Might 
i"t not be the part of wisdom to give the law as it stands, 
a fair trial? , 
