July, .1920 
FOREST AND STREAM 
385 
observe a filament of silk hanging from 
the mouth-. They are now ready to spin. 
Take your worm and tear it across a 
quarter or a third back from the head, 
but not in two. Place the whole carcass 
in a pickle composed of 50% of a saturate 
solution of salt and water and 50% vine- 
gar. Allow it to remain in this for a 
half to three-quarters of an hour, then 
take out the remains and find one end 
of one of the silk sacs, which will be 
translucent or perhaps whitish by this 
time, and about the diameter of a steel 
knitting needle. Pull it out carefully and 
stretch it out between two pins so that it 
ivill dry straight. [Editors.] 
FROM SAMOA 
To the Editor of Forest and Stream : 
P ERMIT me to thank you for the ex- 
cellent editorial, “The Boy Scout An- 
niversary,” published in the February 
number of Forest and Stream. 
The “Samoa Times” has republished it 
for the benefit of the newly organized Boy 
Scout movement at Apia, Samoa. 
Allow me to take advantage of this 
opportunity to say how greatly I have 
enjoyed Forest and Stream for many 
years while stationed in Africa, China 
and the South Seas. 
Mason Mitchell, American Consul. 
PRAIRIE CHICKEN IN 
MANITOBA 
Fo the Editor of Forest and Stream : 
F OR several years the Provincial Legis- 
lature has found fit to have a closed 
season for prairie chicken, due largely to 
the fact that this game has been dimin- 
ishing in large numbers, and rather than 
have them extinguished entirely, this 
action was taken. At the present ses- 
sion, an amendment to the Game Laws 
was passed and recently the legislature 
decided to allow a short open season, Oc- 
tober 15-22, both days inclusive, for 
prairie chicken. This decision has met 
with the approval of many Manitoba 
hunters and, in sending this to you, I 
feel that many of your readers will also 
be interested. 
R. Creelman, Canada. 
NEST ROBBERS 
To the Editor of Forest and Stream: 
T HERE is a very strict law protecting 
wild ducks and prairie chickens be- 
cause they are getting scarce, but I am 
going to name two birds that do more 
harm than gunners do. When I was 
plowing last spring I discovered three 
duck and four prairie chicken nests and 
I plowed around them or moved them to 
one side so as not to disturb them any 
more than I could help. When I went 
back to harrow the land a couple of days 
later the eggshells were there but the 
birds gone. A man told me he had seen 
some crows and also a hawk eating those 
eggs, so you can figure that 18 ducks were 
destroyed, as they usually lay from 5 to 6 
eggs apiece, and perhaps 50 prairie chick- 
ens, as they lay from 13 to 15 eggs apiece. 
Now, if these birds destroy nests like that 
all over the country think of the thou- 
sands of birds they get away with in a 
year. I recommend that a bounty of 10 
cents apiece be put on crows and the same 
on hawks, and make it worth while for 
the farmers to kill off as many as they 
can. In that way at the end of a couple 
of years the crows and hawks would be 
scarce and our ducks and chickens would 
soon reach their old numbers again. I 
think those nest-robbing birds do more 
harm in one year than gunners do in two. 
P. D. Riechekt, Manitoba. 
REMARKABLE GROWTH OF 
BRITISH COLUMBIA TROUT 
To the Editor of Forest and Stream : 
I N the December, 1918, number of 
Forest and Stream there appeared a 
letter from me concerning the taking of 
A 30-lb. Kamloops trout 
four Kamloops Trout or Landlocked 
Salmon from Premier Lake, B. C., on 
May 15th, 1918, which averaged 11 
pounds each. I now enclose a picture of 
a Kamloops Trout taken recently from 
the same lake which weighed 30 pounds, 
was 41 inches long and had a girth mea- 
surement of twenty-five inches. 
This is the largest fish ever taken in 
any of the waters in East Kootenay. 
Premier Lake was stocked August 12th, 
1915, with about 10,000 fry from the 
Gerrard Fish Hatchery. This lake was 
restocked in August, 1918, with 25,000 
more of the same kind of fish and these 
are being taken this year weighing from 
4 to 6 pounds. 
F. A. Dunn, Cranbrook, B. C. 
HOW INDIANS CAUGHT WILD 
PIGEONS 
To the Editor of Forest and Stream : 
I N wandering through the foothills of 
Fresno county, California, in the neigh- 
borhood ef Kings River, one can find 
places where the Indians caught wild 
pigeons. In years gone by, the wild 
pigeons were plentiful, so much so that 
the farmers’ wheat crops were badly in- 
jured by them. The pigeon, as you know, 
held his head down while drinking, and 
would not drink except where water ran 
over smooth rock in a thin sheet. To 
these places they came by thousands. The 
Indians built a log crib about six feet 
square and filled it with dirt even with 
the top. They pounded it down as hard 
as a rock. All around the edges of '.his 
floor, blossoms of the Manzanita were 
placed to make it look natural, and on 
the floor were placed two or three stuffed 
pigeons, as .decoys. On the side of the 
platform opposite the water, and arched 
above the platform just enough to allow 
a person to crawl in, was built a tiny 
shed, just large enough to operate in, and 
all covered with leaves and grasses to 
make it look like the surrounding ground. 
The platform was about four feet high, 
and the shed on one side, next to the 
platform, was made in the form of an 
arch, about 18 inches above the platform. 
Over this space were hung twisted grass 
ropes. The Indian got in his little shed 
and peeped through the grass ropes. He 
had a slender stick with a stout piece of 
twine fastened on the end formed in a 
loop. The pigeons came by thousands, 
lighting all around the water. They saw 
the dummy pigeons on the platform and 
lit there for a moment until crowded off 
by others. The Indian put his stick out 
with the loop of twine on the end, 
and as soon as a pigeon stepped in it 
he pulled him in and wrung his neck, 
or put him in a cage. There was 
so much fluttering and flapping of wings 
among the great numbers of pigeons gath- 
ered there that the fluttering of the 
trapped ones was not noticed by the 
others and the Indian got all he wanted. 
He waited until the pigeons all flew away 
before he came out, so as not to frighten 
them and keep them from coming back 
again another time. 
The white man’s shotgun has done 
away with this method of trapping, and 
the pigeons, too — the noise of the white 
man’s gun drove the game away. When 
the Spanish first came to California they 
said the Indians had herds of deer the 
same as we have cattle, all under control, 
but the white man’s noisy gun has done 
away with most of the game. If we used 
only traps and bow and arrows we would 
have plenty of game now. 
C. S. Acken, California. 
A DIFFERENT OPINION 
To the Editor of Forest and Stream : 
I N the February issue of Forest and 
Stream I was interested in an article 
by Lieut. Warren H. Miller on “Hunting 
Dogs.” 
What he says in regard to Laverack 
setters being usually “slower and more 
methodical” hunters and therefore bet- 
ter for grouse dogs is what interests me. 
I have had several Llewellyns and all of 
them have been too fast and wide and 
not careful enough for grouse. They 
were well bred dogs. 
E. B. Wood, Kentucky. 
(Several letters are held oveS^) 
