fOREST AND STREAM, 
[Marcm 4j 1905. 
The North Carolina Season. 
Rai.eigh, N. C, Feb. 24. — The winter has been the 
most severe ever known in North Carolina. There 
was some bad weather before Christmas, but the real 
winter began Jan. 2, and the ground has been frozen 
ever since, last week there having been three sleets 
in seven days, covering all the middle and western 
part of the State and causing the death, by starva- 
tion and freezing, of a great many partridges. No in- 
jury was done to the birds in the east, it seems, though 
the culd was very great. State Secretary Gilbert 
Pearson, of the North Carolina Audubon Society, has 
had thirty game wardens at work distributing food to 
the birds and enlisting the aid of thousands of farmers 
in the same good cause. Sportsmen also contributed 
freely and went into the fields and carried food. In this 
way many birds were saved. Some of the pheasants 
of the mountains have been killed by the intense cold, 
temperature there in some places going as low as 12 
below zero. Here at Raleigh the lowest temperature 
was 7 degrees above zero. At Asheville, arrangements 
were made at nine produce stores for the giving away 
of cracked corn, grits and other bird foods to respon- 
sible persons, and this was carried in all directions. 
The intense cold froze the great sounds on the 
coasts and also the rivers, with the exception of air 
holes, in which thousands upon thousands of ducks 
and geese gathered to get in clear water. A great 
many birds were drowned by diving in these air holes 
and coming up under the ice. One man, in a day, 
picked up 250 ducks, a number of them canvasbacks 
and redheads, which had lost their lives in this way. 
The sounds are now clear, and the pirates — the fire- 
lighters — are again after the ducks. Secretary Pearson 
found that, while last winter the wardens on Currituck 
Sound and also in Albemarle and Pamlico Sounds did 
their duty very well and kept down fire-lighting, they 
gave way this season, and so he determined to take 
a new course. Sportsmen in the North gave several 
thousand dollars for the purpose of driving out fire- 
lighters, who need men of nerve to make them stop 
their nefarious business. So a fast naphtha is being 
built for the Audubon Society at Ocracoke, and 
Herbert Brimley, the curator of the State Museum 
here, who is a member of the society and an enthus- 
iastic sportsman, has gone to Ocracoke to inspect the 
boat which in a day or so will be put in the water. 
On her will be put two special game wardens, brought 
from another State, well armed, and who will stand 
no trifling at the hands of the fire-lighters, who have 
always made threats that they would kill any persons 
who dared to interfere with them. The fire-lighters 
carry bullets, they say, ready to go in their guns m 
case any one comes up; but they are up against a 
tough proposition now, as they will find to their cost, 
for if they shoot they will be killed certainly, by men 
who will be prepared for business. The society is de- 
termined to break up this fire-lighting, which actually 
threatens to drive the ducks from North Carolina. 
This game is a source of great revenue, and the well 
disposed people are, of course, against the fire-lighters, 
though most of them are afraid of the latter, or else 
wink at them. 
The writer found two years ago that at certain 
times the word would be passed along the sounds that 
fire-lighting could begin, and then, after a period of 
rest, these nighthawks would get to work and murder 
the ducks. As we came through the sound we heard 
the guns of these sneaks, way oft in the darkness, and 
we picked up a couple of brant which some of them 
had shot. They failed to get as many birds as they 
bill. One of them boasted that he had shot in a raft 
of ducks and had killed fifty-two, with the two barrels 
of his gun. He was shooting a ten-gauge, using five 
drams of powder and an ounce and three-quarters of 
shot. The regular wardens could easily have sup- 
pressed these people if they had done their duty. 
The Audubon Society has done wonders in saving 
game in the State, and so far every bill introduced in 
the Legislature to amend the Audubon law has been 
defeated. One bill provided that a club, after paying 
a license, should have just as many persons as it 
pleased to come to the State and hunt on its lands. 
Another one provided that any landowner could invite 
persons from another State to come and shoot on his 
own property. These people forget that the birds do 
not belong to them. They have no ownership to the 
birds, except about what may be called courtesy. It 
is very noticeable that the farmers this year are pro- 
tecting the birds better than ever before, and that they 
are getting more careful in giving permits to hunt 
on their lands. Bills are passing the Legislature n9W, 
including several counties in the list in which huntmg 
is not permitted on the lands of another except by 
written permission. The Audubon Society is well 
pleased to see all these safeguards, as there is a des- 
perate effort to kill and get to market all the North 
Carolina birds. Pot-hunters want everything they can 
get for the big clubs and hotels north, and then an- 
other class of them, away from the larger towns, want 
to kill birds for market. Some shoot them on the 
ground and others trap and net them, inducing their 
neighbors to wink at these offenses against the law. 
There has been less hunting in the State (except 
in the southeastern part, which was particularly favored 
by very light snow falls) than ever before m the recol- 
lections of the writer, who has been hunting every 
season for thirty years, and he has not fired a gun 
since a few days before Christmas. Only a few men 
have been able to do any hunting of any kind. Gov- 
ernor Glenn, the new chief executive of North Caro- 
lina, and the writer have made plans ever since January 
10 to have a hunt as soon as the weather permitted, 
but the time has not yet arrived. We had a fine one 
with Governor Aycock two days before Thanksgiving, 
this hunt having been described in Forest and Stream 
in the next issue after that date. This inability to get 
out and kill the partridges has saved a great many, as 
the season will end March 15 in most counties. In a 
few it lasts until April i. In some it ends March i, and 
in two or three hunting is only permitted during 
December and January. 
There is some sentiment in favor of having the birds 
protected from three to five years. It is very significant 
that game protection laws have been enacted at this 
session of the Legislature for such counties as Craven 
and Jones, which have never had them and in which 
there is yet much game left. 
The writer is going down to Florida for a little 
jaunt, and will see how things look in that part of the 
world and tell Forest and Stream about it, and will 
later go to Pinehurst and see the conditions there. 
Pinehurst now has a game preserve of about 52,000 
acres, and has had more luck than most of the States, 
the snow being rather light there and the soil very 
sandy, so that it was soon absorbed. 
George Vanderbilt is the largest landholder in the 
State, and of course has the biggest game preserve, in 
all something like 150,000 acres. George Gould has 
a very large one near High Point, and Brokaw, of 
New York, and others have very considerable pre- 
serves; but Leonard Tufts, the owner of Pinehurst, 
comes next after Vanderbilt. Some of the clubs, mainly 
composed of local people, have large preserves, one of 
these being around Linville Falls, another near 
Fayetteville. High Point, however, continues to be the 
center of attraction for people from the north as a 
place for dog training and shooting. There are a 
dozen kennels within a radius of say twenty miles of 
that point. 
A very large number of deer have been killed during 
the season and many bear. A man from Cherokee, who 
was chatting with Governor Glenn the other day, the 
writer being present, said he had killed, up to Christ- 
mas, ten bear, big fellows all of them. This man ex- 
pressed a very fine contempt for the bear down on the 
coast, saying the mountain ones ate chestnus and the 
finest kind of mast, and were as fat as butter and, to 
his mind, the most delightful food in the world. He 
thinks nothing on earth is so healthful as bear's grease, 
and appears to think it will cure insomnia, provided 
enough of it be eaten. In this, perhaps, he is some- 
what like the late Chief Justice of this State, who pre- 
scribed as a cure for insomnia a pint of well roasted 
peanuts and a quart of fresh milk just before going to 
bed. A good many tried this, some it killed, while 
others recovered, and a few were able to pull through 
without getting sick at all. Fred A. Olds. 
State Reservations. 
The State reservations of Massachusetts provide a 
safe harbor of refuge for all the wild children of her 
woods, fields and waters. They soon learn that they are 
safe from the gun and snare of the fowler. 
The ponds of the Middlesex Fells are the favorite 
resorts of wildfowls of many kinds — wild geese, black 
ducks, teal, wood ducks, mallard, sheldrake, sprigtail, 
coot and gulls. 
Spot Pond, the largest of quite a number in this reser- 
vation, being about a mile and a half long and from a 
quarter to a half mile wide, is the most frequented by 
the wildfowl, which come in the fall months by thousands, 
staying as long as ice will permit, and returning in the 
spring in increased numbers as soon as the ice disappears. 
They would doubtless breed here but for these reasons : 
the lack of suitable covers on the shore for nesting and 
the thousands of visitors — it being only ten miles from 
Boston — that come here during their nesting season, when 
the birds must have seclusion. 
Some years ago — before spring shooting was abolished 
— I found in an old apple tree near a large pond a wood 
duck's nest, where they raised a brood of young every 
year until someone took the eggs or young, and they 
never returned. On the shore of the same pond, by the 
side of a brook that runs into it, a pair of black ducks 
reared their young every year. But this was before the 
summer cottages were built beside all the large ponds as 
they are to-day, which prevents their nesting where these 
conditions obtain. But there are thousands of acres of 
marsh lands and ponds where the above conditions could 
be eliminated, and with State control they could breed 
undisturbed. I have no doubt that some time in the 
future this plan will be adopted. This State already has 
fourteen reservations, besides seven parkways. The area 
of the reservations run from ten acres up_ to more than 
four thousand. The three largest, Blue Hill, 4,855 acres; 
Middlesex Fells, 1,883 acres; Wachusett Mountain, 1,300 
acres; others not as large also afford protection to all 
their wild inhabitants, an added protection to our song 
bfrds as well as to the game birds, as no guns ars allowed 
there. 
The time is at hand when all the States should have 
preserves where the game and song birds can multiply 
undisturbed. The Audubon Society, started in a small 
way nearly a score of years ago by Forest and Stream, 
has grown to be a great power in the land for the pro- 
tection of our insectivorous birds that are of so much 
value to the agriculturist and the horticulturist. If the 
Shiras Bill becomes a law, it will be a long step toward 
saving our migratory game and song birds, 
George L. Brown. 
["American Big Game in Its Haunts," the last 
volume of the Boone and Crockett Club's books, con- 
tains a complete list of the National, State and timber 
reservations of the United States and Canada, which may 
profitably be studied by all who are interested in this 
subject.] 
A Captured Burnside. 
Palo Alto, Cal., Feb. 16. — Editor Forest and Stream: 
Apropos of the question of the use of breechloading 
rifles during the Civil War, I am reminded of how I 
came into possession of my first rifle. In the fall of 
1863, I, a lad of twelve years, crossed the Tennessee 
River from my father's farm to visit a cousin. Late 
in the afternoon on the day of my visit a small squad 
of Confederate cavalry rode up to my cousin's resi- 
dence. The leader proved to be a neighbor and former 
schoolmate. 
"Howdy, Joe," said I, "what are you after?" 
"Yanks," said he. "Any around here?" 
"Yes," I answered, "there is a picket guard just 
across the river." At this particular time the Con- 
federates had possession of the south bank of the - 
river, and the Federals of the north one. "I'll point 
the Yanks out to you, Joe, if you want to take a 
crack at them." 
"All right," he answered, and ordered his men to 
dismount. I led them through a field of tall corn until 
we reached a point just opposite the Federal pickets, 
who numbered about a dozen men. Joe told his men 
in a whisper that he would emerge on the open river 
bank alone and try to decoy a couple of the enemy over 
to the south bank. Handing his rifle to one of the 
men, he rushed down the sloping bank, hallooing to 
the Federal guards. Presently one of them asked him 
what he wanted. 
"I am an escaped prisoner and the Johnnies are right 
at my heels. Bring a skiff over quick and rescue me." 
The Yanks seemed in no hurry to do anything, and 
Joe redoubled his pleadings. I saw the bluecoats 
bunch up for a moment, and then a half dozen of them 
leveled their rifles at Joe and sent their messages per 
Minie balls. Joe rushed up the bank yelling to his men 
to give 'em hell! After exchanging a hundred or so 
shots, Joe withdrew his men and, while walking back 
to the house, he showed me his rifle, which was bulged 
and fissured a couple of inches from the muzzle. 
"Got a wad of mud in it, and it's done for." 
"Sure," said I; "give it to me." 
"Take it and I'll draw another," said he. 
I greedily seized the piece and hid it in a fence cor- 
ner, where it lay for many days until the Federals left 
our immediate neighborhood. I found it to be a Burn- 
side rifle, and it was a great curiosity to myself and J 
chums, as we had never seen a breechloader before. | 
Doubtless the weapon had been captured from the | 
Federals ; and alas ! for me, they soon had it again, | 
for, as no civilian was allowed to have weapons of any 
kind in his possession, my father made me hand it over 
to the first command that passed by. Roeel. 
1 
Success in Feeding Quail. 
1 
New York, Feb. 24. — Editor Forest and Stream: I: 
reference to feeding quail during the heavy snows, 
want to tell you, and others interested, how our warden 
has taken care of the quail on 6,000 acres on Long 
Island. ; 
On Jan. 8, we shipped him ten dozen northern Mis- 
souri quail, which he put in five coops in a warmi 
barn. All went well for eight or ten days, until the " 
morning of the nth, when he found two dead. On the 
I2th there were three dead; on the 13th there were 
five dead. All the dead had the top of their heads 
mutilated. He notified us to that effect, and our advice 
was, as the weather was then quite nice, to set themi 
out. It appears that they only killed one another ini 
four of the crates; in the fifth they appeared to be alii 
right. The, following morning he set eighty-four birds, 
at liberty, six to eight in each place, choosing the south, 
side of the brush next the field. In each place he 
first strewed lots of food and cut down the brush intO' 
a sort of house, building it next a small tree. Oni 
the tree he bound a sheaf of wheat, about two feet: 
from the ground, tying it with rope around the middle;: 
then bent down the wheat mushroom-fashion, so that: 
if snow came they could always find food. The quail: 
took to their brush houses at once. He went out: 
every other day and always found them there. Then 
when the snow came and covered up the loose foodi 
they fed on the sheaf of wheat, sometimes for three or 
four days; he could not get near some of the outlying: 
birds, but after roads were broken and the birds couldl 
be looked after again, he always found them in the 
same place in good condition. 
As we knew of twenty-one coveys of birds left over 
from last year, and counting the new birds that wer:e , 
put out, there were thirty coveys in all. This worked 
well during all the cold and snow, and he assures us 
that he knows of not one bird killed by either snow 
or cold. 
But the foxes and hawks have done all the mischief. 
They have killed off fully 15 per cent, of the game. 
It was a simple story that could be read after each 
snow — the tracks of the fox toward the roost, the 
bunch of feathers on the ground, and here and there 
a dead quail which had flown against a tree in the 
dark and killed itself when the fox rushed. As our 
warden explains it, he thinks he could have saved al- 
most all the birds if it had not been for foxes and 
hawks. 
