• W- 
Forest and Stream. 
A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun, 
Copyright, 1904, by Forest and Stream Publishing Co, 
Terms, $4 a Year. 10 Cts. a Copy. 
Six Months, $2. 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, 
NOVEMBER 4, 1908. 
VOL. LXV.— No. 19. 
No. 346 Broadway, New York. 
^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 
df cuftent topics, the editors are not responsible for the views of 
eoftespondents. 
Subscriptions may begin at any time. Terms: For single 
ebpies, $4 per year, $2 for six months. For club rates and full 
particulars respecting subscriptions, see prospectus on page iii. 
MO' p&rsO'H Hot a citiz(?n of the United States shall have 
Of C0Hfy iiYewffns or dangerous weapons in afty public 
place at any time— New York Penal Code, Section 400. 
NORTH CAROLINA SEA BIRDS. 
Far down on the North Carolina coast, south of Cape 
Hatteras and separated from the mainland by the broad 
stretches of Pamlico Sound, lies Ocracoke Island. It is a 
narrow strip of land, about ten miles long, south of 
Ocracoke Inlet. Wind-swept and storm-beaten, the 
crashing surges of the broad Atlantic pound unceasingly 
on its shifting outer beach. For untold centuries this 
has been a wonderful place for the breeding of sea birds. 
During the summer months clouds of white terns of sev- 
eral species hovered over it, the black skimmer plowed 
the waters all about it, laughing gulls reared their young 
here, while oyster catchers and beach birds of many sorts 
raced along its shores and drew a fat subsistence from 
the marine life tossed up by the waves. 
But a change came years ago. When the cruel fashion 
of using bird plumage for millinery purposes came into 
vogue, when gulls and terns adorned each woman’s hat, 
the plume hunters discovered Ocracoke Island and there 
began their savage work. During a dozen years prior to 
1897 it is believed that there were not less than half a 
million birds killed on this island for millinery purposes. 
Nor did this represent the whole destruction. For many 
years it had been the practice of the fishermen and the 
coastwise people of Pamlico Sound to visit this island at 
certain seasons and to load their boats with birds’ eggs, 
which they used for food and sold to the neighboring 
population. In 1896 the birds had become so few that 
it no longer paid either to kill them or to fit out an ex- 
pedition to the island • for the purpose of robbing the 
nests; so for a few years the birds had a little rest. Yet 
even so there were small settlements so near to the island 
that people would go there to get a boatload of eggs. 
About three years ago the Audubon Society began its 
protective work on the North Carolina coast, and since 
then has been steadily at work. Now, wherever 
there is a rookery of birds the wardens visit the island 
every day, and those who wish to rob the nests or to 
destroy the birds having learned of the Society s vigilance 
give the islands a wide berth. 
Among the species found on Ocracoke Island are the 
royal tern, Wilson’s tern, Forster’s tern, and^ the least 
tern — a species that a few years ago people said was al- 
most extinct. Besides these the black skimmers breed 
there, and last year a very few laughing gulls had nests 
there. Oyster catchers are abundant. 
For the past three years Mr. T. Gilbert Pearson, secre- 
tary of the North Carolina Audubon Society, has given 
directions to the wardens to keep as careful an account 
as possible of the birds reared on the island, and the 
increase in their number is something astonishing. He 
reports that in" the year 1903 there were hatched and 
reared there 1,700 birds. The next year the number was 
1,000 greater, while in this year of 1905 there were no 
less than 6,700 birds raised there. During the first year 
of observation but six eggs of the least tern were 
counted; the second year there were about seventy eggs, 
and the third about 650. 
Hardly less astonishing than this, but quite different, 
is the fact that within the last two years brown pelicans 
have made their appearance. These have come in two 
flocks, which in 1905 increased to about seventy-five each. 
They do not breed but appear to be unmated birds which 
are spending the summer here. 
News such as this is delightful to the nature lover, but 
not to him alone. The fishermen of the coast are greatly 
interested in the increase of the birds, for, as they start 
put to their fishing, they often see near or far a white 
cloud of birds hovering over the sea, darting down to the 
surface and then rising up again, and they know that 
there where these white wings are thus spread there will 
be work for them to do. 
THE APPALACHIAN FOREST RESERVE. 
It is not necessary at this date to speak of the enthu- 
siasm which President Roosevelt feels for the natural 
things of this country, its game, its forests and its won- 
ders. He has been writing and speaking on these sub- 
jects for lo, these many years, and always to a good 
purpose. Perhaps, however, he never made a more effec- 
tive plea to the country for the wise handling of forests 
than in an address made at Raleigh, N. C., during his 
recent tour. 
For a number of years past efforts have been made to 
induce Congress to appropriate money for the purchase 
of the Southern Appalachian Forest Reserve, and many 
intelligent men North and South have worked hard to 
have this done. But, as' a whole, the people of the South 
have not yet shown in this matter the interest that they 
should feel in it. Now, however, signs are not wanting 
to indicate that the South is beginning to understand 
what the forests mean to it, just as New England under- 
stands, and is showing, what her forests mean to her. 
The President says: “If the Eastern States are wise 
then from the Bay of Fundy to the Gulf we will see 
within the next few years a policy set on foot similar to 
that so fortunately carried out in the high Sierras of the 
West by the National Government. All the higher 
Appalachians should be reserved, either by the States or 
by the Nation. I much prefer that they should be under 
National control, but it is a mere truism «to say that they 
will not be reserved, either by the States or by the 
Nation, unless you people of the South show a strong 
interest therein.” 
These words, in his strong argument for the estab- 
lishment of these forest reserves in the East touch the 
heart of the whole matter. These forests should be pro- 
tected, but this will not be done unless the people make 
it evident that they wish it done. That such reserves as 
t'ne White Mountain, and the Southern Appalachian 
Forest Reserves should be in control of the National 
Government goes without saying. After such control has 
been assumed the different States may fitly supplement 
the work done by the National reserves by setting aside 
other smaller reserves, which will increase the -value of 
the greater ones and which will provide more and more 
breathing spots — more and more bits of untouched nature 
— for the benefit of oiir people. 
■ In the countries of the Mediterranean and in China, 
the United States has before it object lessons of what 
ruin absolute deforestation will surely work in any region. 
Here, in America, within the last fifteen years much won- 
derfully good work has been done in protecting our for- 
ests, but much more remains to be done. In many locali- 
ties the West is fairly well protected, but the East re- 
mains without anything like adequate protection; and the 
residents of the Atlantic seaboard will be wise if they 
shall listen to the stirring eloquence of President Roose- 
velt and shall insist on Congressional action looking to 
the protection of such forests as remain. 
THE NEW YORK POST OFFICE. 
Complaints of the loss of copies of the Forest and 
Stream passing through the mails often come, and as is 
quite natural, the blame for this bad service is often laid 
.to carelessness in the mailing department of the paper. 
Occasionally, such blame may be justified by the facts, 
but in the very great majority of cases the fault lies not 
with us hut with the New York Post Office. But before 
this blame shall be loaded on the shoulders of the post 
office authorities, it must he remembered that for many 
years the postal force in this city has been wholly inade- 
quate to do the work thrown upon it. It lacks room, it 
lacks facilities and it lacks labor; and the responsibility 
for this condition of things is- not to be put on the post- 
master of New York nor on his employes, nor indeed 
on the Postmaster-General’s department, but on Con- 
gress, which, in absolute disregard of evidence many 
times brought before it, declines to appropriate money for 
a greater force in the post office and for facilities for 
handling the mail which shall meet the requirements of 
modern times and of a great population. 
Here in the post office of the greatest city of the Union 
—almost the greatest city of the world — overworked men 
tug and strain in the cramped cellars of the building, 
striving to handle the vast accumulations of mail that 
are thrown upon them during every hour of every day. 
In the sorting rooms, men are crowded together so close 
that they have not room to throw freely the letters that 
they are expected to sort. On the streets the carriers go 
about carrying on their backs loads far too heavy fo-r 
any but a giant to stagger under. Congress has seemed 
to think that if it gave additional force to the New York 
Post Office it would be benefiting New York, but has for- 
gotten that the letters sent and received by the popula- 
tion of New York go out to the country at large, and that 
if New York’s postal service is not well performed, the 
residents of the country at large are injured just as much 
as are- the residents of New York. 
Arrangements have at last been made for establishing 
up town at great railroad terminals large substations 
which shall have facilities for handling great quantities 
of up town mail, and which shall thus relieve the general 
post office of New York from much of its burden. It 
will be years, however, before such stations will be in 
working operation, and in the meantime the country at 
large and New York will continue to suffer from the 
clogged conditions which have long prevailed and which 
now prevail in the post office. The matter is one which 
Congress alone has power to rerhedy, and whether Con- 
gress will remedy it or not depends in large measure on 
the constituents of the various Congressmen scattered all 
over the land. It ought to he understood by the public 
at large — and some of the newspapers in their despera- 
tion are trying to make their readers understand it — that 
it is Congress which is responsible for the poor service 
of the New York Post Office, and that while Congress 
has made the delivery ' of letters vastly easier in many 
places by the establishment of a rural free delivery service, 
it is nevertheless holding back for hours and for days 
much of the mail which goes into the New York Post 
Office, and is causing the absolute loss of considerable 
quantities of mail matter through an inadequate force of 
clerks and through the cramped quarters in which that 
force works. 
It is commonly believed by the general public that a 
Government employe has an easy job and gets his wages 
for a small return in labor, but this cannot be said of the 
employes of the New York Post Office. If ever a set 
of men worked hard they do, and there are those who 
think that a year or two of service in the New York Post 
Office ought to iree a man from the pains of purgatory, 
if not from all prospect of going to a place commonly 
reputed to be much more uncomfortable. 
While duck shooting over the rice fields of Nanking, 
China, the other day. Rear Admiral Train fired a shot 
which has been heard' around the world. The object 
aimed at was a duck, but what was hit was a Chinese 
woman ; and the Americans on a sudden found themselves 
in the center of an infuriated mob of villagers, who, the 
cable reports, knocked down the Admiral and held his 
son as a hostage. A company of marines went to the 
rescue and brought off the unfortunate sportsmen. Naval 
officers in Washington sa-y, in comment on the incident, 
that such shooting accidents are of not infrequent occur- 
rence at ■ the Chinese naval stations, where British and 
Americans are given to shooting over the rice fields, to 
which great numbers of ducks and other game are 
attracted; but the casualties are usually compromised by 
the payment of money, nor is the Chinaman prone to be 
exorbitant in his demands. One officer recalls shooting a 
Chinese baby on its mother’s back, in extenuation of 
which mishap he paid to the parents fifty Mexican dollars, 
and thereafter found it difficult to avoid wounding the 
many thrifty Chinamen who would gladly have been 
punctured for profit. Mrs. Amelia Edwards once related 
a similar experience which befel her party on the Nile, 
when an Egyptian baby was accidentally wounded by 
a snipe shooter’s gun, and the (parental) wound was 
healed with silver. The transaction was so satisfactory 
from the native point of view that further shooting in the 
vicinity was out of the question because of the Egyptian 
babies lying in wait to intercept the shof. 
