Forest AND Stream. 
A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 
Copyright, 1905, by Forest and Stream Publishing Co. : 
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ERMS, fl A Ykar. 10 Cts. a Copy. I NEW YORK, SATURDAY, JANUARY 14, 1906. ] No. 376°BroadwI;7new\ork. 
Six Months, $3. ) ' ' ' 
The Forest and Stream is the recognized mediam of en<;ertain- 
lent, instruction and information between American sportsmen. 
Tthe editors invite communications on, the subjects to which its 
'''^ages are deyoted. Anonymous communications will not be re- 
arded. While it is intended to give wide latitude in discussion 
ijjf current topics, the editors are not responsible for the views of 
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POISON FOR VERMIN. 
Elsewhere we publish an exceedingly interesting com- 
lunication from Dr. Joseph Kalbfus, secretary of the 
ame Commission of Pennsylvania. Its chief theme is 
: le destruction of game by predatory animals, of which 
e enumerates foxes, wildcats, weasels, skunks, mink, the 
' reat horned and the barred owls, and several species of 
1 awks. Of these he writes specifically as follows : "There 
no question in the minds of those who have given this 
atter any thought whatever but that these animals are 
ipidly depleting our cover of all kinds of game, and of 
)ng and insectivorous birds." 
While we have a lively appreciation of Dr. Kalbfus's 
calous industry and special opportunities to gather ac- 
jrate knowledge from observation and information on 
lis subject, we honestly believe that he has charged 
: le foxes, weasels, et al., with a volume of depre- 
;Lion of which they are guilty in only a fragmentary 
, agree. The destructiveness charged to them should more 
roperly be charged to the lordly and nobler animal, the 
enus homo. 
In our opinion, the destruction of the game and song 
' irds wrought by the animals Dr. Kalbfus lists is almost 
! negligible quantity in comparison with the destruction 
wrought by man. Suppress the market-hunter and stop 
re sale of game, then the question is almost solved. At 
;ast the elimination of the market-hunter simplifies the 
roblem to a degree which renders it easy of solution. 
As an illustration of the destructiveness wrought by 
ran, the case of the Arctic Freezing Company, of New 
'ork, which was a defendant in a suit brought by the 
lew York game officials for penalties aggregating 
1,168,315, is pertinent to the discussion. Besides the 
aousands upon thousands of game birds, there were 
lousands upon thousands of song birds. This great cold 
:orage company is but one of several others in this city, 
ad those of this city are but a small fraction of the 
reat cold storage companies which are doing business 
le year round in the United States. It is an open secret 
lat in many of the fashionable clubs and hotels, game 
irds are served in the close season, but under some name 
ther than the real name, frequently under a name un- 
iiown in the classification of ornithologists, thus avoid- 
ig all possibility of establishing evidence against the 
olators of the law. 
The abundance or scarcity of birds in a given section 
; a given year is not necessarily in the ratio of the 
reeding stock left over from the preceding year. Much 
spends on the season. With the quantity of breeding 
ock apparently the same, some years game birds will be 
oundant, other years there will be a dearth. Climatic 
)nditions are potent factors in the game supply. 
Undoubtedly the rabbit is a grievous sufferer from the 
redatory attacks of foxes, weasels, etc., but such is his 
itonishing powers of reproduction, a severe pruning is 
;sential to keep his numbers in check. A balance in 
iture is essential. If the rabbit were permitted to repro- 
duce himself without check, he might become as much of 
^Ipest in America as he was in Australia. 
We think that the true cause of the disappearance of the 
ing birds is the market-shooter. The astonishing extent 
:' his ravages are partially shown within the walls of the 
"eat col'd storage warehouses. The scene of destruction 
in the late fall and winter months in the South, there- 
)re in a section beyond the scope of the predatory ani- 
- als of the North, and establishing them at the worst as 
!nig petty malefactors in comparison. 
Concerning the distribution of poison over wide areas 
ithin the jurisdiction of a State which prohibits the 
acing of poison for the purpose of killing a domestic 
limal or dog, we are inclined to think that that law 
ould prohibit its use in the manner Dr. Kalbfus men- 
ons, Many States have hostile laws concerning the 
broadcast use of poison, because when placed it is as free 
for the consumption by animals for which it was not in- 
tended as it is for those for which it was intended. While 
its purpose, as mentioned by Dr. Kalbfus, is useful and 
commendable, it might be harmful in ways not con- 
templated. No man, even if he spread poison maliciously 
and harmfully, could be convicted if he made the plea 
that the poison was placed for vermin, although he might 
have placed it otherwise. This is apart from the matter 
as considered by Dr. Kalbfus. We are considering the 
legal phases of the case. In our opinion, the State law, 
as mentioned by him, would prohibit the placing of , poison 
on land for any animal. 
THE HEAD HUNTER. 
Former State Senator W. E. Culkin, Register of the 
United States Land Office in Duluth, who has returned 
from a hunt for big game on the north shore in Minne- 
sota, has expressed his indignation at the ways of deer 
head hunters in that country. To a reporter he said : 
"City sportsmen should be severely condemned for the practice 
of hunting big game for the sake of the heads for trophies. They 
have been killing deer at points where it was impossible to get the 
carcasses out. The hunters merely cut off the head, with the 
antlers, to prove their prowess as nimrods. A remedy for the 
existing state of affairs would be hard to devise, but if one can be 
proposed, it would be a mighty good thing. The mere slaughter 
of valuable game animals for the antlers certainly will not be 
approved by true sportsmen." 
That is good doctrine. It calls to notice one phase of 
the hunting ways of the present day which deserves con- 
sideration. Killing for heads alone has grown out of the 
conventional importance attached to the horns as trophies 
of the sportsman's skill and as mementoes of the field. 
With the trophy hunter, the head is the main object of 
the pursuit, the meat is incidental; whether it shall be 
utilized or wasted depends upon circumstances and con- 
venience. The head secured, the rest is considered of 
minor importance, or of no importance whatever. 
As Senator Culkin says, the remedy may be difficult to 
devise. There is in the Quebec law a provision that no 
person who has killed any animal suitable for food shall 
allow the flesh to be destroyed or spoilt, and laws to a 
like effect prevail elsewhere. Just how effective they may 
be is a subject of speculation. The head hunter finds his 
game and uses or wastes the meat in remote localities 
where detection is improbable, and it is reasonable to 
assume that if he be inclined to take the head and leave 
the rest, no fear of the terrors of the law would have an 
iota of influence with him. It is clear that this is a case 
where legislation, however ample, would not provide a 
remedy; it would have as little effect on the deer head 
hunter of northern Minnesota as on the trophy hunters in 
the wilds of Africa. If we are to suppress hunting for 
horns without using the flesh, how shall this be done? 
TEXAS DUCKS. 
The Texas law relating to duck shooting provides that 
it shall be unlawful for an individual to kill more than 
twenty-five ducks in one day, and as to exportation, it for- 
bids the carrying of ducks out of the State, except that 
when lawfully killed they may be transported, provided 
that the person who killed them shall accompany them on 
the same train or common carrier from point of ship- 
ment to the point of destination. This law is something 
of a hardship to those sportsmen who would like to send 
their game home or to friends by express independently 
of their own traveling. It is, however, a most salutary 
regulation, and the only one which experience has shown 
to be effective for the' necessary limitation of the export of 
game, and the prevention of shipping to market. 
A movement has been started by the Business Men's 
League of Rockport to secure an amendment of the law 
so that it shall permit a person to ship wildfowl out of 
the State upon making affidavit that they have been law- 
fully killed. The reasons given are that with such per- 
mission to send game home, more sportsmen would come 
to Rockport than come under present conditions, and that 
this would be to the benefit of railroads, hotels and 
others. The Rockport proposition is one with which we 
would have full sympathy if there were any probability 
that the law, as amended would serve the purposes only 
of the sportsmen who wished to send the game to their 
friends. There is, however, every reason to believe that 
once the law is broadened as proposed, it would opeii the 
door to the shipment of game to market. It is practically 
the universal experience of those who have to deal with 
these affairs that if game can be shipped lawfully, as here 
proposed, it will be shipped illicitly. The only effective 
and certain methods to prevent the exportation of Texas 
ducks to market is to hold to the statute as it now reads. 
An evidence of its effectiveness is afforded by this very 
movement of the Rockport business men. If as it now 
stands the law did not prevent the export of ducks, these 
business men would not be engaged in an endeavor to 
change it. A law which is so well fulfilling the purpose of 
its enactment should be retained, and we trust that the 
broader sighted opposition to the Rockport movement may 
prevail. 
An excellent sample of a fish story was offered the 
other day by the great metropolitan journals which re- 
ported that immense numbers of deep sea fish had been 
dashing through the surf and up. on to the beach at Say- 
ville. Long Island. The fish came ashore in tons, accord- 
ing to the reporters' tales ; the landlubbers were frightened 
out of their wits ; and the salty mariners declared that the 
phenomenon indicated an impending volcanic disturbance 
of the ocean bed, and a quaking of the land. Then the 
"natives" — for the residents of an out-of-town place are 
always "native" in newspaper terminology — mastered their 
first alarm and providently gathered the fish for salting 
down in butter firkins. So ran the tale. What was it all 
about? Somebody down there picked up on the beach a 
stranded silver hake or whiting, and not being familiar 
with the fish, asked his neighbor what it was. That was 
the small beginning from which developed the schools, 
tons, volcanic disturbances, earthquakes and firkins of salt 
fish. ■ . '-^ ■ ' , V ■ ■. . 
•8 
In his message to the Legislature last week, Governor 
Higgins of New York referred to the fish and game in a 
way which indicates that his interest in the subject is 
something more than perfunctory. "The forests and 
streams of the State," he said, should be made attractive 
places of resort for the invalid and for those in search oi 
wholesome recreation in the open air. To^ this end the 
fish, game and forest laws should be strict and consist- 
ent." The Governor's policy with respect to the Adiron- 
dacks, there is reason to believe, will be on the side of 
a liberal and adequate forest plan. He promises to send 
in a message at a later date giving his recommendations 
on the subject. 
K 
Dr. Tarleton H. Bean's paper on New Zealand as a 
sportsmen's paradise, affords an instructive object-lesson. 
Wherever the Briton goes in wild countries he devastates 
the land of its game; but, on the other hand, wherever he 
settles for a permanent abiding place he takes good care 
to conserve the game and the fish, or if there be no native 
species worth preserving, he introduces the best of the 
home country or of other lands. The Antipodes, bare of 
game, have been stocked with European deer; and now 
the hunting in parts of New Zealand is as good as in 
Scotland ; while the brown trout from Europe and the 
rainbow from the Pacific waters of America there thrive 
and multiply and grow to prodigious weights. 
A peculiar peril of mimic warfare has been developed 
by an investigation set on foot by Gen. Crozier, Chief of 
Ordnance, of the blank cartridges issued last summer to 
the regular soldiers and militiamen who took part in the 
sham battles of Manassas, Va., and in California. Among 
the 1,750,000 blanks two ball cartridges were found, one 
in Virginia and one in Calif oraia. Of course the odds 
against a participant being struck by one of the two bul- 
lets in 1,750,000 cartridges are not very great; but slight 
as they are, one does not consider them with absolute 
equanimity. To preclude any possible presence of loaded 
shells in the future, every box of blanks will be weighed 
before it is sealed. 
The late Eu gene G. Blackford, who was the possessor 
of an extensive collection of works on fish and fishing, 
bequeathed the entire librarv to^ the Brooklyn Museum of 
Arts and Sciences. The books were gathered from all 
over the world, and comprise many rare and valuable 
volumes. It is pleasing to know that by Mr. Blackford's 
disposition of them the collection is to be preserved intact 
and in a place where it will be accessible to the public. • 
