12 
FOREST AND STREAM, 
[Jan. 190S. 
The Shiras Bill, 
State of WashingtoNv. 
Department of Fisheries and Gamb. 
T. R. Kershaw, 
State Fish Commissioner and Game Warden, 
Bellingham, Wash., Dec. 21. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: I am in receipt of your favor of December g, 
with inclosed Federal bill for the protection of game 
throughout the United States by the Honorable George 
Shiras, of Pennsylvania. 
I am thoroughly in accord with said bill, and believe 
the only efficient way to protecting our migratory birds 
is by Federal enactment. For instance, many of the 
States prohibit spring shooting, such as Nebraska, 
Dakota, Minnesota, and Illinois, surrounding the State of 
Iowa; but with all the pressure that could be brought to 
bear upon the Legislature of that Sate last season, we 
were unable to get them to enact a law to prevent spring 
shooting. 
That State is peculiarly located; the rivers generally 
run north and south, and birds in the spring follow these 
streams, traversing the entire State of Iowa, and protec- 
tion in the surrounding States is almost entirely useless 
without the protection in the State of Iowa. 
Hence I believe that the protection of game can be best 
enforced by the enactment of Federal laws which will ap- 
ply to all the States according to the conditions therein. 
As I stated above, I am entirely in sympathy with the 
bilL T. R. Kershaw. 
ToPEKA^ Kas., Dec. 24. — Editor Forest and Stream: 
Have just returned from a five weeks' trip over north- 
western Kansas, and on reading up the Forest and 
Streams that were awaiting me at home, was greatly 
pleased to read the full text of the Shiras bill for 
Federal protection of migratory birds, and have written 
to three personal friends of the Kansas Congressional 
representation, urging their support of the measure. 
Some of your correspondents seem to be afraid that a 
Federal license would be illegal and an infringement 
upon the reserved power of the States. These same 
questions were raised when, in the internal revenue bills, 
the taxation of tobacco and malt and spirituous liquors 
was provided for, and the dealers therein were required 
to have a Government license. 
Let all the friends of game protection urge upon their 
representatives in Congress the passage of the law, and 
trust to the United States Supreme Court to sustain the 
same; for unless some law of this kind is enacted, even 
those of us who have passed the 50th milestone may see 
the total extermination of several if not the majority of 
the different kinds before we pass over to the Happy 
Hunting Grounds. W. F. Rightmire. 
The Audubon Society of North Carolina, 
for the 
Study and Protection of Birds and the 
Preservation of Game. 
Greensboro, N. C, Dec. 17. — Editor Forest and Stream: 
I approve most heartily of the spirit of the proposed 
Federal legislation for the protection of wildfowl and 
shore birds. In my opinion, many ills will be cured if 
this bill becomes operative. T. Gilbert Pearson, 
Secretary. 
Sitting and Flying. 
St. Paul, Dec. 24. — Editor Forest and Stream: Blunt 
Old Man and others are responsible for my butting in. 
Now, I have no quarrel with any man who wishes to 
shoot a duck sitting on the water if he wants to do that 
and believes that that is the proper thing to do; but 
among my shooting companions for the last twenty-five 
3'ears, the practice of shooting a duck on the water we 
have always left to the pot-hunter, and look down on any 
man who does it as not being a true sportsman. I know 
the fellows we have cleaned up in our State as market- 
hunters would always allow their ducks to alight among 
their decoys before shooting. That would surely increase 
their bag and annihilate every duck before it would get 
out of range, if they could do so. 
The claim made that it is just as bad for a man to 
shoot into a flock of ducks when they are coming ovei- 
decoys as it is to shoot a single duck sitting, is a practice 
that we think only the pot-hunter and market-hunter 
indulge in. 
No sportsman will shoot at a flock of ducks unless he 
singles out his duck, and if by chance he gets more than 
the one he shot at that is perfectly legitimate, but he 
covered his duck in shooting and intended to get that one, 
and if he got any more all right. 
In my estimation there is only one time when it is per- 
missible to shoot a duck sitting on the water, and that 
is when the duck is wounded and ought to be put out of 
misery. Sam. F. Fullkrton. , 
To Swat Of Not to Swat I That's the Question. 
Whether it is nobler to take him on the wing and per- 
chance miss him, or ignobly pot him as he swims or 
sleeps. Tis true in one case we secure him for the pot 
and Ml our bellies with sweet meat. But conscience 
makes cowards of us all, and when we think of how the 
mean advantage taken does not our choler rise and we 
repent the scurvy act? The heartache and the thousand 
natural shocks that flesh is heir to should come home to 
him who this mean vantage takes, say what he will and 
defend as he may. — A long way after Shakespeare. 
We are now getting down to "special circumstances" 
as an excuse for swatting sleeping ducks. And Lord 
knows how easily these will bob up !— the circumstances, 
not the ducks, for they bob up in another world. 
In Mr. Burroughs' article there were no "special cir- 
cumstances" detailed as he reached "time and again" for 
his gun wherewith to swat the sleeping mallards. 
I think Dixmont is in error, for according to the 
records Mr. Brown condemned Mr. Burroughs, and then 
Mr. Hardy attacked Mr. Brown, and now Mr. Brown is 
after Mr. Hardy's scalp, and the Shiras bill under con- 
sideration, if it goes through, will end this matter by 
taking the scalp of the swatter, if the game wardens are 
alert, no matter how "secure h's posiltjon may be in the 
sport smaji's worltj." 
I hope "we will never believe it is honorable" to let 
ducks 'huddle up and get their heads together" and thetl 
swat the whole bunch. When that time comes we will 
xieed no Shiras bill because there'll be no ducks to swat. 
Charles Cristadoro. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
The comment of Blunt Old Man on the ways of duck 
shooters has brought forward a great deal of discussion, 
and a side-light may perhaps be thrown on the subject 
with benefit in the following way: 
Primitive man, in his pursuits of wild ducks as of 
other wild game, sought them as a means of subsistence 
and cared very little about the methods employed; but 
a change in man's condition has brought about a 
change in man's ideas. This change, however, has not 
been complete. Have not we all of us, in common 
with Blunt Old Man, retained something of the ideas 
and methods of primitive man, and do we not occas- 
ionally employ some of them, but without, of course, 
so bluntly admitting it? 
I recall, many years ago, when a boy in a certain 
part of New England, I started with my gun and a dog — 
older than myself in sense and nearly as old in years— 
to shoot rail. The shooting locality lay at some dis- 
tance down the river, and the dog and myself took 
passage on the front platform of a bob-tailed car, drawn 
by a single horse. I well remember asking the driver 
what I should do with the ten-cent piece I had for 
the fare, and he said: "You can give it to me." I did 
so. About half way down we stopped to change horses, 
and I noticed on starting again, that we "had a new 
driver and, looking back, I saw the former driver 
coming out from a place marked "Sample Room," 
stroking his mustache and looking for all the world a 
contented man. 
Arriving at the shooting ground, we walked a great 
deal, and I talked a great deal more with other shooters, 
until I began to fear we would have nothing to carry 
home, when, fortunately, the dog pointed. I stood at 
position, waiting for the bird to rise, but nothing rose. 
The dog looked back at me. I was still waiting. Be- 
coming disgusted, I suppose, he suddenly jumped for- 
ward, seized a bird in his mouth, gave one or two bites, 
and brought it to me. It was a rail, and the only one 
we saw that day within shooting range. Returning 
home,, I was asked, "What luck?" and I answered, 
"One rail." 
Now, kind reader, do you suppose any one believed 
r "swatted" that rail, for of course no one imagined the 
dog did? Of course not! Wing shooting was the 
proper thing and nobody suspected anything else, for 
Blunt Old Man had not begun to write about such 
things in those days. 
I recall also another incident, which occurred in New 
Mexico many years after. X. and I left the hotel to 
go to a certain part of the river, where some one had 
reported having seen five black ducks. It was a cold, 
blustering day. Clay birds were plentiful, but black 
ducks were not, and, moreover, long waiting in the 
wind was anything but agreeable. We carefully ap- 
proached the dam, near which we supposed the ducks 
to be. The cold wind seemed to pass clear through our 
bodies, for the wind in such altitudes blows almost con- 
tinuously as it does on the sea, and we aimed to make 
our stalk as brief and as successful as possible. Care- 
fully looking over the dam, we saw five ducks in the 
water some fifty yards away. Did we thrown up our 
caps, wave our arms, and say "shoo?" Not a bit of it! 
We wanted to see "duck" on the menu, and we wanted 
the other members of the club to know that we were 
more than honorary members. Carefully aiming at 
the sitting ducks, at a signal from X., we both fired. 
Three ducks rose, two of these proceeded but a short 
distance, for a duck, after he has risen from the water, 
aixd before he has shaken the water from his wings and 
gotten under headway, presents practically a stationary 
mark. We secured the four ducks, placed them on a 
pole, and marched proudly back to the hotel. Did 
any club member suggest "swatting," "potting" or 
"shooing?" Club members seldom do. They are too 
wise, too diplomatic. 
These experiences I have cited are not, I believe, 
unique. They represent what takes place continually, 
not by the quill hunters to be sure, but by many 
honored and honorable men. They are the remnants 
of the ideas and methods of our savage forefathers, and 
they are common to us all. Nor are they necessarily 
objectionable if employed within reasonable limits — 
the limits to be determined by circumstances, such as 
the number of ducks available, the methods necessary 
to approach them, etc. 
The aesthetic hunter is a thing to be admired and en- 
couraged; but that these aesthetic qualities are invariably 
utilized in the actual experiences of the field. Blunt Old 
Man apparently does not believe, and his views in this 
respect coincide with those of The Spectator. 
Sfcttnk Trapping* 
MiLFORD, Conn., Dec. 24. — Editor Forest and Stream: 
When the summer is past and autumn has come, the 
sportsmen begin their pursuit of the wild game, but there 
are few who think of hunting the skunk, one of our 
most beautiful fur-bearing animals. 
The skunk is very abundant in many parts of Con- 
necticut, and is nowhere popular. Skunks breed in early 
summer and live upon grubs and insects, and in late 
summer they resort to the farmer's fields of corn, of 
which they destroy great quantities. They are also very 
troublesome around the poultry yards, and kill many 
young chickens. 
Skunks raise their young and live in old stone fences 
until the cold weather comes, and then they take up their 
homes in holes in the ground dug by other animals. They 
do not make burrows for themselves, nor do they enlarge 
or improve those that they take possession of. 
The trappers find these holes and place in each , one 
that is occupied a trap, covered with leaves or dead grass 
to hide it, fastening the trap by a chain to a stick driven 
in the ground. When the skunk attempts to go in or 
come out, he is caught by the leg and is held there until 
the trapper comes along and kills him. 
When caught, the skunk makes no effort to escape, A 
string will hold him, for he never attempts to bite the 
cord, the chain, or his foot. He simply curls up and goes 
to sleep. 
I have never seen one caught by the head. They are 
always caught by the front feet, I kill my skunks by 
shooting them in the head with a .32 caliber pistol. The 
process is entirely odorless and without trouble. 
The skin is stretched on a board until dry, and is then 
shipped and sold. 
Last year I caught 164 skunks, setting about 75 or 100 
traps. This season I have already caught more than xoo 
skins. 
Skunks wholly black — that is without white stripe — 
bring $1.75 to $2 each, and those with more white on 
them from $1.30 to $1.50, 
Skunks can be raised as pets. They are very playful, 
and in no respect disagreeable. As I am one of the 
largest trappers in this State, I would like some of our 
friends to know about these animals. 
H. C. Hammond. 
New Birds and Mammals* 
Recent publications of the Proceedings of the Biologi- 
cal Survey Society, of Washington, contain descriptions 
of three new squirrels, one of them a new flying squirrel 
from Mexico, and of four new birds from Mexico, by Mr. 
E. W. Nelson. 
Dr. C. Hart Merriam describes a new coyote (Cams 
goldmani) collected by Mr. E. A. Goldman in southern 
Chiapas near the boundary of Guatemala. It is much 
larger than any coyote heretofore discovered in Mexico. 
From San Miguel, the most westerly of the Santa Bar- 
bara Islands in California, the Biological Survey has re- 
ceived the skeleton of an adult male sea otter killed July 
3, 1904. Sea otters were formerly abundant on these 
islands, but are now exceedingly rare and believed to be 
rapidly approaching extinction. When compared with 
specimens from Behripg Sea, the type locality of Latax 
lutris, the skull of this specimen shows it to be a well 
marked subspecies, which Dr. Merriam calls Latax lutris 
nereis. 
Many sportsmen have imagined that we had already 
bears enough in North America, but Dr. Merriam has 
just described four more, two of the Alaska brown bear 
type, one of the grizzly type, and one black bear. Ursus 
culophus is the Admiralty Island bear, very large in size 
and dark brown in color. It is this bear, if we recollect 
aright, that for years had in Alaska a reputation for great 
ferocity on account of an attack made by one on a party 
of campers, in which several were killed or severely 
mauled. Ursus kenaiensis comes from the extreme west 
end of the Kenai Peninsula, and is a large bear. Ursus 
horribilis phaonyx is from the interior of Alaska, while 
the new black bear, Ursus americanus eremicus is from 
the Province of Coahuila in Mexico. 
A Mixed Assortment. 
On opening day, August 15, at Hays City, 351 miles 
east from Denver, and in the fifth county east of the 
western line of the State of Kansas, and nearly in the 
central part of the wheat section of the State, W. M. 
Applebaugh and a friend went on the quest for prairie 
chickens (pinnated grouse). After securing nine birds, 
Mr. A.'s Llewellyn setter went down into a small ravine, 
only to come out of the same with every evidence of 
having been not only hurried, but badly frightened. 
Thinking the dog had met a coyote, Mr. A. entered the 
ravine and saw at about ten yards distance through some 
grass stems an animal he was sure was a coyote, and 
promptly delivered in its side a load of No. 6 chilled shot 
from his repeater shotgun. The beast sprang in the air 
in a manner to convince Mr. A. that it was a queer act- 
ing coyote, and he gave it two more loads as quickly as 
possible, and then the "varmint" made a charge toward 
Mr. A. to be met with a fourth load of No. 6 in the 
head, which caused the animal to turn and try to climb 
out of the ravine, and to fall back dead before the top of 
the bank was reached. An inspection of the animal by 
Mr. A. and friend could not determine its kind, so it was 
quickly loaded into the buggy and a return to Hays City 
was made, and the animal expressed to Prof. Dycke, the 
zoologist of Kansas State University, who pronounced 
the animal a mountain lion of large size. Mr. A. has had 
the animal mounted, and it now stands upon an imitation 
sandstone boulder in his drugstore as a sample of Kansas 
game to be found in the Kansas prairies, in a wheat sec- 
tion of the State, on the opening day for prairie chickens. 
The question of what this denizen of timbered regions 
was doing so far away from home is left to those who 
know more about this kind of animal than the majority 
of Kansans do. W. F. Rightmire. 
Winter Feeding of Quail. 
Boston, Dec. 31. — Editor Forest and Stream: In con- 
nection with winter quail feeding, there is one phase 
which I do not remember having seen mentioned in any 
of your contributions on the subject. I refer to the im- 
portance of adding a digestive agent to the food supply. 
Anyone who has ever opened a bird's gizzard will remem- 
ber finding in it not only partly digested food, but a 
quantity of gravel or sand, which enables the organ to 
perform its function of grinding the food in preparation 
for the further digestive processes of the intestinal tract. 
This supply of gravel is constantly passing out, and re- 
quires frequent replenishment. Thus, we find gallinaceous 
birds resorting to the railroad tracks and roads in search 
of gravel, which is as essential to their welfare as food 
itself. 
The principle is perfectly obvious, and yet it is fre- 
quently ignored by persons who zealously do their best, 
as they suppose, to save the quail when their feeding 
grounds are buried deep under the snow. 
Alexander Henderson. 
All communications for Forest and Stream must he 
directed to Forest and Stream Pub. Co., New York, to 
recfWf attention, Wf httvf no oiher &Mce, 
