August, 1922 
355 
was too much for me, so I rushed out 
and grabbed the carcass by a hind leg. 
I pulled with all my might, but could 
not budge the carcass-. At last the badger 
let go and disappeared down the hole. 
I pulled the carcass about five feet away 
and ran to the back of the shack to look 
for an old axe in case the badger ap- 
peared again. I arrived on the scene 
with the axe just in time to see the car- 
I cass disappearing down the hole. Mount- 
I ing my horse I continued my way toward 
I the sunset, making a mental note to add 
i to my collection of observations on curi- 
osities in nature. 
Fred W. Hodson, 
British Columbia. 
DUCKS IN SOUTH DAKOTA 
Dear Forest and Stream : 
H aving been an interested reader of 
your magazine for some time and 
I being an enthusiastic hunter and believer 
in clean sport, I though perhaps your 
readers might be interested in hearing 
about a duck-hunt on the prairies of 
South Dakota in which the writer with 
two equally ardent hunters took part. 
The scene of the hunt was located in 
Faulk County in the central part of the 
state near a small town called Rock- 
ham. 
On November 6th, the sky being over- 
cast and threatening rain or snow and 
everything being ideal for duck-shoot- 
ing, we arranged our business, gathered 
together our hunting-outfits, cranked the 
car, collected the dogs. Gyp, a pointer, 
and Dewey, a fox terrier, both trained 
to retrieve and sallied forth about 2 
P. M., looking for a cornfield where 
the ducks were reported to be feeding 
in great numbers. 
At the time of the year of which I 
speak the small ponds and streams are 
usually frozen over and the ducks go to 
the larger lakes for rest and water at 
night but come out to the fields during 
the day to feed. 
The hunter selects some field, usually 
a field of standing corn stalks from 
which the ears have been gathered, dur- 
ing the process of which a considerable 
amount of corn becomes shelled and scat- 
tered upon the ground, making ideal 
feeding for the ducks. They swoop 
down over the fields looking for a place 
to alight thus bringing them within gun- 
shot of the hunter crouching among the 
corn stalks. 
Owing to the lateness of the season 
the smaller ducks had already gone far- 
ther south leaving only mallards, which 
as true game birds are hard to beat, be- 
ing at this time of the year fully matured, 
heavily feathered, and rather wary 
birds. 
Arriving at a field that looked favor- 
able we left our auto at the foot of a 
hill where it would be hidden from the 
flying ducks, took our guns and dogs, 
and locating ourselves at different points 
in the field we were soon busy with the 
business of bringing down the ducks. 
Unlimbering our guns and bidding the 
dogs crouch beside us, we prepared for 
the coming of the birds. It is surely 
a sight to warm the marrow in any 
man’s bones to see a flock of some fifty 
or a hundred ducks suddenly appear 
above the corntops and rapidly approach 
with wings set preparatory to alighting 
in his vicinity. 
Crouching, hardly daring to breathe 
or move a muscle until the birds were 
right over us, we rose and picking out 
the nice big greenheads we succeeded 
in bringing down a number and then 
the faithful dogs leaped forward to re- 
trieve the game. 
This kind of shooting continued for 
about three hours, when, as dusk ap- 
proached, the ducks quit feeding and 
began to leave the fields for the water 
again. Gathering up our game we re- 
turned to our car and compared notes. 
Upon counting our game we found we 
had a total of thirty-one nice mallards. 
Driving back to town we arrived home 
at dark with an appetite that only comes 
with an afternoon spent close to nature. 
C. M. Hoy, So. Dakota. 
A SQUIRREL ADVENTURE 
Dear Forest and Stream : 
( HAVE been reading Forest and 
Stream regularly now for several 
years and seeing in your columns pecu- 
liar and unusual, as well as rare, happen- 
ings occuring amongst our dumb friends 
(as well as foes), I though the following 
incident would be interesting to some of 
your readers. 
A couple of years ago, when the trees 
were stripped of their foliage, I entered 
a woods made up of very tall hickories 
and oaks. After a minute or two sev- 
eral gray squirrels were startled and 
they scampered for the trees. One large 
fellow I watched in particular and as he 
ascended a large oak to about thirty 
feet, he stopped and perched on a small 
dead limb to observe. 
He no sooner alighted on the limb 
than it broke off. He never let go but 
came down with the limb firmly grasped 
and as soon as he hit the ground he 
bounded off out of sight none the worse 
for his fall. It was such an unusual 
sight that I had a friend of mine draw 
the scene as I described it to him. 
Dr. Randle C. Rosenberger, Pa. 
QUAIL AND THE LAW 
Dear Forest and Stream ; 
I HAVE read with considerable interest 
^ Mr. Henry Bannon’s article on page 
60 of the February number of Forest 
AND Stream entitled “Blunting Song 
Birds in Ohio,” and note especially that 
part in which he suggests that title to 
game be by Act of Legislature divested 
out of the State and vested in the indi- 
vidual owner of the land on which it 
may be found and urges this, with an 
elimination of a bag limit, as a remedy 
for the threatened extinction of Bob 
White and his numerous family. With 
all due respect to Mr. Bannon and his 
opinion, I cannot believe that he has 
given the matter the consideration which 
one should give before suggesting and 
advocating what he admits to be a revo- 
lutionary change in the existing laws, or 
which a hasty reading of the matter 
might indicate. 
In the first place, while not absolutely 
committing himself in the matter, the 
writer is inclined to doubt the authority 
of a state legislature to pass such a law. 
Blackstone says : “There are some few 
things which . . . must still unavoidably 
remain in common, being such wherein 
nothing but an unsatisfactory property is 
capable of being had . . . such as the ele- 
ments of light, air and water . . . such 
also are the generality of those animals 
which are said to be ferae naturae, or of 
a wild nature, or a wild and untamable 
disposition; which any man may seize 
upon and keep for his own use or pleas- 
ure. All things, so long as they remain 
in his possession, every man has a right 
to enjoy without disturbance; but if once 
they escape from his custody, or he vol- 
untarily abandons the use of them, they 
return to the common stock and any 
man else has an equal right to seize and 
enjoy them.” (2 Bl. Com., page 14.) 
Just what this means must, I think, be 
determined by the construction and force 
given to the words in italics above. The 
reason given still exists, because if the 
title to wild animals were in the owner 
of the land over which they roam, unless 
some owner should reduce them to actual 
possession, either by capture or killing, 
he would have no possible means of 
either enforcing or exercising such own- 
ership, and such an ownership would nec- 
essarily be so uncertain and transitory 
that it would be of no value. 
However, let us assume that such leg- 
islation would be valid. What then? Mr. 
Bannon suggests that “contemporaneous 
legislation with proper safeguards may 
be enacted affording a short open sea- 
son,” but he seems to have entirely for- 
gotten that he had already stated in 
the same paragraph that “the state owns 
the fish and game in trust for the people 
{Continued on page 378) 
