Aug. 12, 1905.] 
FOREST AND STREAM 
131 
‘ think twice before giving the Society and its aims such 
indorsement as the editorial that caused me to send 
. this letter. 
' I trust that in your accustomed spirit of fairness and 
' love of fair play and the “square deal,” you will give 
space to this letter. Robert Erskine Ross. 
Massachusettes Game. 
; Boston, Mass., Aug. 5. — Editor Fmyst mid Stream: 
The season for the .shooting of shore birds in Massachu- 
setts opened on July 15. Reports are that but few birds 
have been killed, although some have reached the Boston 
market from Ipswich and the south shore. The price has 
ruled high. All are foteeasting the progpeets for upland 
shooting the coming fail. 
Mr. Thomas, of Middleboro, is one of the fdrmerS of 
that town who beCatTie greatly interested in the work Of 
feeding so efficiently carried on by spoftsrneh dnd others 
in 1903 as well as last winter. He sayS the farnierS Co- 
operated heartily with the sportsmen in that work, and 
he has sown grain this year for the birds. His report 
of the number of quail in his section coincides with that 
of Dr. Woodward, the secretary of the Sportsman’s Club. 
They have a good many birdg; The Doctor recently 
passed through Boston oh His Way to NeWfoiiridiand, 
w'here lie is accustomed to pdss the month Of August 
fishing for trout and salmon. 
From Springfield, Northampton, Abington, Mansneld, 
Norton, Weston, Lawrence, Miller’s Falls and several 
other towms reports agree that quail are very scarce in 
the vicinity of those places. Sportsmen of Natick, a town 
to which the State Association sent three dozen quail two 
years ago, take a somewhat more hopeful view and say 
there are “some” birds. 
[ A former president of the Greenfield Sportsmen’s Club 
[ reports that he had heard only one quail this season, but 
I has heard from the farmers that there are many broods 
' of partridges. A friend in Lexington says he believes the 
' prospects are somewhat better than last year, but this' is 
offset by the secretary of the Middlesex Club, who says 
I both quail and partridges are scarce in that and adjoin- 
ing towns where he has had an opportunity to observe. 
[ A friend in Holbrook tells me there are “absolutely no 
[quail” in that neighborhood, and Mr. Hassam, of Need- 
I ham, says the same of his region. A correspondent of 
i Osterville (on the Cape) says quail are. “nearly extinct,” 
I but the grain that he received last winter from the Massa- 
chusetts Fish and Game Protective Association enabled 
him to Save Olte coVey. “Fairly good indications” is the 
report , from Shirley. Quail seldom heard at Vineyard 
Haven, and no partridges. A few quail have been saved 
in Randolph, another town to which the State Associa- 
tion sent three dozen birds in I903. 
Mr. Small, who has charge of the province lands in 
ProvinCetowii, informs me mat he has seen only about 
^ half a dozen pairs of quail this seasotl. That is a Section 
which has tao partridge Cover. 
As contrasting .present Conditions with those of a few 
■ years ago a gentleman residing in South Sudbury tells me 
he used to see as many aS twenty-five feeding in his gar- 
den, but now they are “Very scarce,” but “slaughters” 
are numerous. It is iiot surprising that from Berkshire 
we hear there are no quail. Mr. William C. Whitney 
planted a good number in his preserr^e but I hear there 
are none to speak of there now. In fact, on the bird-map 
of the Biological Division of the Department of Agricul- 
ture at Washington, Berkshire is not included in the quail 
zone. The portion of otir State where the climate is most 
favorable for that species is the Country on the coast, 
more especially the Cape district. But by winter feeding, 
in my opinion, quail should do fairly well in all parts of 
the State except Berkshire county. H. H. Kimball. 
Depredating Cats. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
When reading the account of Mr. Charles Hallock’s 
hunting cat, the thought occurred to me that it was lucky 
for that cat that it did not live in my neighborhood. If 
he did the first time that I caught him with a robin in his 
mouth I might present him with a charge of BB shot in 
his head. Robins are my favorite among all the birds, 
find I take care that none of them are killed if I cari pre- 
VCht it, I have no use for cats, I dislike them principally 
for their propensity for killing all things that wear feath- 
ers if they Can catch them. Some of these same cats 
would not hunt a rat of nlouse if you wanted them to do 
it. I haVe known them to kill the half of a brood of 
young chickens in a single night. 
When a boy of thirteen I began to get up a flock of 
pigeons out of two pair of common ones that Came from 
1 don’t know where, and finding that I was willing to 
feed them took up their quarters with me. Then an old 
gentleman gave me a fine pair of pouter pigeons, and 
from tliesC three pair in less than three years I had a 
flock of at least 150. I would never kill one of them. I 
kept them in the upper loft of an old stable that stood 
on the far end of the lot. 1 uSed the lower story of it 
to keep dogs in. This lot, neatly a quarter of an acre, 
was covered with grass aiid bushes, an ideal place to 
keep the pigeons in. After I had them a year I began to 
be troubled a great deal with both cats and fats, but the 
cats did not trouble the rats ; it was my pigeons they 
were after. I got a small terrier that soon cleaned out 
the rats, but I still had the cats on my hands. 
I had a high fence around the lot but it was not cat 
proof. We had not got the barbed wire yet or I would 
soon have made it cat tight. The cats would spend hours 
in crawling around after the pigeons. They could not 
catch the old ones, but might kill my young ones that 
would be just learning to fly, and I did not want the cats 
worrying either the young or old ones. I would knock 
the cats over with a club, then some would leave and 
stay away, others would be back again in an hour. 
The cat that gave me the most trouble was a big 
twenty-pound tom cat that a lady near us owned. I went 
to her and told her that I would have to shoot him if he 
was not kept at home. She told me to shoot him, then 
she would see what the squire would have to say about it. 
I consulted my Cousin’s law books to find out what he 
Could say about it, and came to the conclusion that he 
could not say anything. These cats were not property, 
and in my case they were a nuisance, and the law allowed 
me to abate a nuisance if I went about it in a proper way. 
But to be on the Safe side I asked my cousin his opinion, 
telling him the opinion I had arrived at. 
“You have it straight,” he told me. “Go ahead and 
shoot any cat you. find among your pigeons, but be care- 
ful to kill them and don’t shoot them outside of the yard, 
remember. Then if those women haul you up before the 
squire, and you find you can’t conduct this case yourself, 
send for me. But I guess you won’t need me. You seem 
to be able to get around that squire every time.” 
I had been before him several times already, the last 
time for shooting snapping turtles in a large canal basin 
right in the middle of the town. I would anchor my 
boat in the basin, then lie down in it, with my head and 
shotgun stuck over the side, and when those turtles stuck 
their heads up I would blow them off. The turtle would 
sink then, but I could haul him ujr off the bottom with a 
rake. A preacher in our neighborhood who attended to 
every one’s business but his own, had me arrested. He 
said he did it on account of the cruelty I practiced on 
these turtles. I told the squire that those turtles I shot 
were never wasted. I ate some of them and sold the rest, 
and I could find nothing in the statutes tO' prevent me 
from shooting them. There was no law then to prevent 
us from shooting within the city limits, or the squire 
would have had me. 
“Neither can I find any law tO' prevent you shooting 
them,” he told me. “You seem to put in one-half your 
time_ in hunting through these statutes, then carefully 
keeping clear of them. You can go.” 
I went back to shooting turtles, and that afternoon took 
a big one up to the squire. I might be hauled up before 
him in a w'eek for some other offense. I was, but it was 
for shooting cats the next time. 
I lay for the big tom cat, and the first time I caught 
him after my pigeons I put a full charge of shot in his 
head. Then after making sure that he was dead (I did 
not want to maim him then be fined for cruelty to ani- 
mals) I threw his body out into an open lot. In about 
an hour after this the squire sent his young son down to 
tell me to call on him. “That woman whose cat you shot 
is up there, and she is going to have you hung for it,” the 
boy told me. 
I went up and explained how I came to shoot the cat, 
and gave the squire another dose of those statutes. 
“Those cats are not property, your honor, and when they 
get to be a nuisance, as they are in this case, the law 
allows us to abate it. Besides, this lady told me to go 
ahead and shoot her cat. I take that as permission to 
do it.” 
“We will have another lawyer in your family, if you 
live,” the squire told me. “You know already just what 
part of a statement to give, and how much of it to keep 
back. She told you to go ahead and shoot her cat, then 
she would see me about it. Well, if you can’t keep those 
cats away from your pigeons without shooting them, 
then shoot them.” 
The squire had lost part of his young chickens through 
these same cats. I had expected that he would want 
them shot. Turning to the woman next, he said: “I 
cannot prevent that boy from killing your cats, madam. 
You must keep the cals at home.” 
I shot another one of those cats but never had to shoot 
any more of them after that. They seemed tO' know 
what was happening tO' them now and kept away from 
me. Cabia Blanco. 
Backsliding Already. 
Los Angeles, Cal., July 30 . — Editor Forest and 
Stream: I see that “The Point of View” is being dis- 
cussed on broad lines. I shall sail for New Zealand on 
Aug. 31 to be gone three or four months. May strike 
something in New Zealand and perhaps relapse into 
savagery for a few days if I get a gun in my hands. I 
have symptoms of backsliding even now, with the open- 
ing of the deer season in California, and rumors of plen- 
tiful bear. ‘ Flint Locke. 
[Flint Locke was the one who began the “Point of 
View” discussion by relating that he had stopped shooting 
for sport because he did not in his heart approve of it. 
any more.] 
A Trip to Barnegat Inlet. 
r Editor Forest and Sire'anl ': 
B'arnfegat Inlet has always been noted as a liauilt for 
bluefish. Many mtn well advanced in years can recall 
■ many joyOuS hours on the briny Waves of this inlet and 
the nearby Old Ocean, spent years ago in pursuit of this 
Voracious fish. Nothing is sO iuggestive of a complete 
'chairgt I'rom the Stuffy city, and its business cares and 
I merVOus strain> as a seat in one of Barnegat’s catboats 
dancing Over the green seas, with a two-reef breeze, 
' ‘the fish breaking water on every side, and the white 
' -gull% Streaming all around you, and every squid-line out 
'cowing in loaded. But it must be said that for the last 
'few years the large fish have been scarce. The “snap- 
pers” or “tailors” of about iH pounds have usually 
come every summer, and live around the shoals, while 
the warm weather lasts. 
The word “Barnegat” is derived from a Dutch word, 
“Barende-gat.” “It is said to have been first distinctly 
noticed and named by Cornelius Jacobsen Mey, the 
Dutch navigator who, in 1614 in the ship Fortune, ex- 
plored the coast of New Jersey and the Delaware Bay. 
It may have been visited by the Dutch traders before 
this period, as about this time and subsequently, they 
were penetrating all parts of the country adjacent to 
Manhattan Island in search of furs. Whether Captain 
Mey or other Dutch explorers first named this inlet 
there can be no doubt that the epithet applied to it 
meant in the Dutch language ‘Breakers Inlet.’ ” So says 
Dr. T. T. Price in his “History of the New Jersey 
Coast.” 
And the meaning implied is a very proper and ap- 
propriate one, for the shoals are numerous and extend 
(pff from one to two miles, requiring coasting vessels 
•,to keep well off at sea. These shoals and bars are con- 
:Stanlly shifting and changing, rendering the navigation 
,of the inlet difficult for persons not acquainted with its 
channeil. Now, there is but one good channel over the 
,bar, and that is at the extreme south end of the inlet. 
There is from eight to tliiie feet of water on the bar at 
low tide, aiid front eleven to twelve feet at high tide. 
From the Outgoing channel to the ilorthward the inlet 
is white with foantiug breakers Stretching to the point 
of North or Island Beach bounding on the north. These 
foaming breakers seem to be very attractive to small 
fish, and these latter are attractive to the bluefish, red 
channel bass and other feeders, and the larger fish 
hover and live around the inlet frequently all summer. 
The menhaden, or “moss-bunkers,” also frequently this 
locality in large numbers, and furnish a large part of 
the food of the bluefish. But of late years tbe destruc- 
tive raids made by the menhaden fish companies with 
their steamers, pursing up the food fish by the hundred 
tons have materially affected the bluefishing, to say 
nothing of the effort of proprietors of the fish pounds 
to scoop the whole thing. The larger sized fish for sev- 
eral years have been very scarce, and the only conclu- 
sion was they had sought other quarters where they 
could find their food. 
The fishing has always improved when the smaller 
food fish have appeared. The small silver fish, the 
smelt, the spearing, the sand eel and the menhaden are 
always welcomed at Barnegat Inlet, for their presence 
always promises good fishing for the larger varieties. 
The writer, hearing by letter from his captain, Cap- 
tain Lemuel Matthews, of Barnegat, that the fishing 
prospects were fair, started for Barnegat city on Sat- 
urday afternoon, July 22, and putting up at the very 
hospitable Hotel Sunset, spent Sunday ashore, resting 
with breakers’ roar on one side and the lapping wave- 
lets of the broad Barnegat Bay on the other. The 
Hotel Sunset has a fine location on the bay side, with 
its front facing the .setting sun, and is well and appro- 
priately named. The sunsets here are peculiarly gor- 
geous at times. Fishermen can rely upon good treat- 
ment at this very pleasant hotel. Every comfort is 
ministered to by its genial and tactful manager, Mrs. 
J. H. Romaine, 
■Monday was spent in the bay. The weakfishing in 
the bay at times is extraordinary. But the fish seem 
capricious, and the point that yields a good score to- 
day will be barren to-morrow, and the place where they 
were not to-day will have them in immense numbers 
to-morrow. The weakfish have been somewhat late in 
arriving, but their numbers are constantly increasing. 
Our score was fifteen very fair fish. 
Tuesday was spent in the thoroughfares-— High Bar 
and Vol Sedge — and resulted in no fish; it is too early 
for good thoroughfare fishing. A poorly snooded hook 
lost us a fine big one in High Bar. While fishing in 
the latter place Captain Lem. called my attention to 
the arrival and anchoring of several fishing smacks 
well off shore, and said at once, “There must be big- 
bluefish about.” In this he was not mistaken, for when 
we came into the dock Capt. Wm. Ridgway arrived 
about the same time from outside with about forty large 
bluefish from 4 to 6 pounds caught on squid. He had 
gone off shore about five miles for sea bass, and coming 
in in the afternoon had fallen in with the fish and had 
a good time among them. 
Wednesday meant that everybody that had a catboM 
would go to sea. We were out first, getting well off 
shore before 8 o'clock. W^e found the fish easily, saw 
them breaking water all around us, but just at the right 
moment the wind entirely left us and we were helpless 
for squidding. It sprang up after a while, and we srm- 
ceeded in capturing about fifteen of the big ones, the 
largest would go 6 pounds, the smallest about 4 pounds. 
The wind, however, was quite fluky, and during one of 
our becalmed drifts we crossed a school of weakfish, 
and caught fifteen fine ones, all with the squid. They 
were feeding on sand eels, which were abundant every- 
where, and therefore took the squid eagerly; the small 
bright leaden squid very much resembling the glint 
and glisten of the sand eel. It was a glorious day out- 
side-— sea smooth and wind moderate— until about 3 P. 
IVL, when the wind, increasing from the south, the sea 
roughened and we crossed the bar on our return home, 
stopping down the inlet to capture twenty-two small 
