c 
R 
A Weekly Journal of the 
Copyright, 1904, by Forest and Stream Publishing Co, 
OD AND 
UN. 
[Perms, ^ a Year. 10 Cts. a Copy. I 
Six Months, $2. ) 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 7, 1908. 
I VOL. LXV.— No. 16 
( No. 346 Broadway, New Y ork. 
^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 devoted. 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 
correspondents. 
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. 
THE TELESCOPIC SIGHT. 
The action of the Zettler Rifle Club this yeai:, in with- 
drawing its interdiction in respect to the use of tele- 
scopic sights in its competitions, is a commendable move 
in the direction of sense and general progress. It also 
is just as a matter of equity. 
The Zettler Rifle Club permitted the use of the tele- 
scopic sight at their indoor championship, held in March 
of this year, and also permitted its use at their thirty-first 
festival and tournament, held at Union Hill, N. J., last 
week, thus letting down all the bars which had been set 
by them against it during many years past. The in- 
herent merit of it, and the force of public opinion were 
no small factors in establishing its recognition. Its worth 
and expediency had long since been thoroughly proven, 
both in gallery and afield. However, with the indorse- 
ment of the great Zettler Rifle Club, its general adoption 
will be materially hastened. _ _ 
The precedent, coming from such an authoritative 
source, will doubtlessly be, recognized as good by all other 
live clubs of importance, and progress. The possible dis- 
senting club laggards remaining, still hide-bound by 
habit and prejudice, will in due time be forced by the in- 
roads of progress to . recognize its value or take their 
place in the ruck. 
The present age is prone to think for itself, and to 
treat with scant consideration such notions as are 
founded on personal idiosyncrasy or emotional prejudice. 
Material worth and sound reason are the approved tests. 
From that source comes progress. 
In club quarters in past years, the prejudice against 
the use Of the telescopic sight was a serious detrimental 
obstacle to the sport of rifle shooting. Yet it had no 
'sound reason to support it. 
When it is considered that perfect vision is an ex- 
tremely rare Sense, the defect in relation to skillful rifle 
shooting is self-evident. There are two essentials m suc- 
cessful rifle shooting, namely, steady holding and accurate 
aiming. For . steady holding, in competition, all kinds of 
adjuncts short of a fixed artificial rest have been per- 
mitted and are allowable, thus there is the palm rest, the 
Swiss butt plate, the set trigger, the special extended 
grip, etc., hut, notwithstanding that inconsistency, t re 
best aids to dear vision have heretofore been uncom- 
promisingly opposed. The deplorable result has been that 
many men, having the infirmity of imperfect vision, yet 
enthusiastic in matters of rifle shooUng, were arbitran y 
barred from competition when denied the best aids to 
sighting. It is true that a man could wear spectacles, but 
such are relatively imperfect for rifle sighting, and some, 
made for special defects of the eye, are worse than use- 
less. Thus, while all aids to comfortable and steady hold- 
ing were encouraged to the limit, aids to clear vision 
were unreasonably opposed and barred. 
In the large cities, from the dwellers of which rifle com- 
petition draws its chief support, injured and imperfect 
vision is the commonest of physical infirmities. Of those 
riflemen who work, a large percentage are office men. If 
one of them indulges in rifle shooting, and can see clear y 
with the naked eye, from bad light and constant straining 
when at work, in a few years his powers of vision are 
impaired, and then perforce, under the old ruling, he must 
fluit rifle shooting because some other fellow whose eyes 
are good at the time, has a notion that a telescopic sight 
-is all wrong, but that a palm rest, set triggers, etc., are 
all right Thus in the past, at the age when the average 
man was physically at his best and had acquired com- 
mendable knowledge of the theory and practice of rifle 
shooting if anv serious infirmity of vision intervened, 
he had no alternative other than to withdraw from com- 
petition, and there being then no rivalry, there was no 
incentive to practice. With the abandonment of the 
legislation against telescopic sights in competition, the 
elderly rifleman, the man of imperfect vision, the man of 
sound vision who wishes to see better, can all join m 
competition, making a contest of skill among all instead 
of a contest within the relatively narrow limits of those 
whose eyes are, for the time being, sound. 
CHANGED BIRD WAYS. 
. Among the familiar examples of the changes m the 
habits of birds which have resulted from association with 
mankind are those of the chimney swift, or popularly 
named chimney “swallow,” which formerly nested m 
hollows of trees and now in all settled regions uses t e 
chimneys of' houses; and the barn and eaves swallows, 
the former originally nesting in caves and now building 
on the beams and rafters of barns; and the latter, once 
a cliff-dweller, now attaching its curious mud tenement 
under the shelter of the eaves of barns and dwellings. 
In a series of interesting notes in the October Auk on the 
changes in the habits of birds, Mr. George F. Breninger 
records having observed in Mexico’ the old and the new 
way of swallow nesting. In the ancient town of Tuxpan 
he found numerous instances of barn swallows nesting 
in the living rooms; and in the unsettled portion of the 
State of Chihuahua, a hundred miles back from the rail- 
road, on one of the large haciendos— a region devoid of 
the time-honored adobes— barn swallows still nested on 
the rocks. . 1 .• 
Mr. Breninger notes other changes in the nesting 
habits due to the removal of large timber. There is, for 
example, the LuCy’s warbler, which normally nests in 
natural cavities in the trunks of trees, most commonly 
in the mesquite; but in the vicinity of Tucson, where, the 
larger trees have been cut away, the warblers have 111 
some instances had recourse to building their nests in the 
abandoned nests of other species, in one case m the hole 
in a bank of earth, and most curious of all among the 
small limbs of a mesquite tree. ^ _ 
111 timbered countries the flickers cut holes in the 
trunks of trees for their nests. In some -sections where 
the large trees have been removed and the flickers have 
no longer such nesting sites, they have taken to the tele- 
<xraph poles. “Along the railroad between Benson and 
Bisbee, Ariz„” writes Mr. Breninger, “the telegraph 
poles and fence posts show evidence of the work of 
woodpeckers, all by the Texan woodpecker. Through- 
out this region trees are few, and the woodpeckers are 
forced to use anything that is dead and large enough to 
permit of a nesting cavity being excavated in it. Dead 
stalks of the century plant are often used. About 
Pheenix, Ariz., this woodpecker is common, timber suited 
to their’ needs is still in abundance, and the poles along 
the railroads and elsewhere are untouched. In some parts 
of Mexico the work of woodpeckers on telegraph poles 
has reached the stage of a nuisance, and a source of much 
outlay of money to keep the line in repair. Over a piece 
of road running between San Luis Potosi and Tampico 
the nuisance has become so great that the management 
threatened to dip the poles in a solution of credsote.” 
FISHING LIMITS. 
The question of what is to be considered a legitirnam 
amount of fish or game to be taken by the, sportsman is 
in these days less than formerly open to speculatmn and 
argument, because in most States where the fishing and 
shooting are recognized as assets to be preserved, the 
peniiissible take is specified in the law. In most cases 
the limits are so generous that no right-thinking person 
need quarrel with them; nor on the other hand, may 
critics carp if he shall insist on availing himself of all 
the privilege the law allows him. The time will come 
probably, and at no distant day, when such limitations 
by law will be universal. A common objection urged 
against these bag limits is that as they are designed to. 
govern the sportsman w'hen he is afield, and for the most 
part aloof from the observations of his fellows, the law 
cannot be enforced because its violation cannot be de- 
tected. This is true only in part. A gunner may have 
opportunity unobserved and undetected to shoot a dozen 
birds when the law says he may shoot only ten; hut 
granting that he does this, he is not likely to exhibit his 
unlawful kill or to make boast of it. He is on fire con- 
trary, likely to take good care that his law violation shall 
not become known; and here we find a repressive influ- 
ence of the statute which is in itself powevful and effec- 
tive. The law puts the ban of unsportsmanship on kill- 
ing beyond the limit, and in all places where sportsmen 
gather and exchange notes the moral force of the law 
holds sw^ay. 
Where no law obtains, the point is one tO‘ he deter- 
mined by the individual conscience or its absence; and 
the conditions making up the problem are so extremely 
diverse that it is only the man on the ground and 
cognizant of all of them who may intelligently decide. 
So much depends. W^hen fish are abundant and fisher- 
men are few, local conditions all tend to a. maintenance 
of the stock and no greatly increased drain on the supply 
threatens, one is justified in taking fish to a limit far in 
excess of what the same individual would consider rea- 
sonable or permit himself to reach in other places. This 
is not to say that an entirely different, and perhaps very 
greatly reduced, limitation may not appear a right one to 
another person a thousand miles or so away from 
the scene of action. The estimate of this remote critic 
is probably based on other conditions, those with which 
he is familiar in regions of a less abundant supply , and 
they may for this reason be greatly mistaken. That he 
may not’ be absolutely correct in his estimate of what is 
right and what is wrong in the wilderness is however 
something which never occurs to him. He is cock-sure 
that he knows it all. And straightaway he rushes intO' 
type to denounce and scold and deride. 
A TYPICAL ASSOCIATION. 
We have before us the amended rules and by-laws of 
the Fenton Game Preserve Association, ail institution 
which is so typical of the shooting and fishing of the 
times that it is worthy of note. 
The club holds lease of hunting and fishing privileges 
on a tract of 45,000 acres in the Adirondacks, with head- 
quarters at Number Four., The. preserve is posted, and 
outsiders are rigidly excluded. The membership is 
limited to one hundred, and the annual dues are $10. 
The Association licenses a limited number of guides, 
who by payment of $5, become members of the Associa- 
tion, for the year; no other guides than those so licensed 
may be employed on the preserve. In fishing and hunt- 
ing the members are required to abide by the State game, 
and fish laws, which restrict, the, taking of deer to two 
in a season, and put a limit also on grouse and woodcock. 
A club rule forbids a member’s taking more than fifteen 
pounds of trout in a week, or. more than forty pounds in 
a season ; and it is foi'bidden to retain trout of less than 
seven inches in length. All fish or game taken by a guide 
must be charged to the account of his employer, sO' that 
the member’s allowance shall not be exceeded. Ladies 
and minor sons belonging to the families of members are 
entitled to the privileges of the. Association, but it is pro- 
vided that the whole amount of trout taken or game 
killed by all the members of a family shall not exceed the 
amount allowed for an individual member. The secretary 
provides printed blanks on which the members record 
and report the fish taken. The Association stocks the 
several streams with trout as necessity requires, and cer- 
tain waters are set apart from fishing for- such terms as 
the executive committee may provide. Permits to hunt 
and fish are issued to persons introduced by members, the 
fee for such a permit is $5, or $4 for a fishing permit 
only, good for July and- August ; fishing permits may also 
be issued to guests of members at $i per day. 
' The government of the Association is vested in a hoard 
of five directors, who act in the capacity, of an executive 
committee; one member of the board retiring each year 
and being succeeded by one newly elected. Any infraction 
of a rule or by-law subjects the offender to a penalty of 
forfeiture of rights for one year; if a member while 
under suspension hunts or fishes on the preserve, he is 
to be deemed guilty of trespass. 
This Fenton plan of preserving a territory, stocking it, 
harboring the supply, and using the stock in such a man- 
ner as to insure a permanent supply in keeping^ with the 
demands made upon it from season to season, is coming 
to be the approved system in this, country, as it has been 
for generations in Europe. It is a demonstration of the 
way '’in which the average shooter and the average angler 
must in time get their hunting and fishing opportunities, 
tie is wise who, recognizing the trend of events, looks 
around for a dub of which hc may enjoy the benefit§ 
as, a member. 
