18 
FOREST AND STREAM 
January, 1921 
FOREST^ STREAM 
FORTY-NINTH YEAR 
FOUNDERS OF THE AUDUBON SOCIETY 
ADVISORY BOARD 
GEORGE BIRD GRINNELL, New York, N. Y. 
CARL E. AKELEY, American Museum of Natural History, New York. 
EDMUND HELLER, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C, 
WILFRED H. OSGOOD, Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, 111. 
JOHN M. PHILLIPS, Pennsylvania Game Commission, Pittsburgh, Pa. 
CHARLES SHELDON, Washington, D. C. 
GEORGE SHIRAS, 3rd, Washington, D. C. 
JOHN T. NICHOLS, American Museum of Natural History, New York. 
WILLIAM BRUETTE, Editor 
JOHN P. HOLMAN, Managing Editor 
TOM WOOD, Business Manager 
Nine East Fortieth Street, New York City 
THE OBJECT OF THIS JOURNAL WILL BE TO 
studiously promote a healthful interest in outdoor rec- 
reation, and a refined taste for natural objects. 
August 14, 1873. 
FRANK FORESTER DAY 
CEVERAL thousand sportsmen and local admir- 
ers of the writings of Henry William Herbert 
(“Frank Forester”) assembled in Warwick, N. Y., 
on Saturday, October 23, to participate in the 
Frank Forester Day memorial events scheduled for 
that date. The three prominent features were: A 
Forester Pageant, the dedication of a handsome 
bronze memorial tablet showing a lifelike medallion 
portrait of the famous sporting author ; and in the 
evening a Forester Ball, with the minuet as a lead- 
ing attraction. It was an ideal October day, and an 
appropriate tribute to the writer whose earliest 
sporting work, the “Warwick Woodlands,” brought 
fame to the author and to the village — “Warwick, 
loveliest village of the vale.” 
The Pageant was a noteworthy production, as a 
majority of the active participants in the realistic, 
picturesque drama were lineal descendants of the 
villagers who were Frank Forester’s friends three 
generations ago, where, in the years from 1831 to 
1845, he visited Warwick annually for sport with 
gun and rod. The costumes of that period were 
shown to perfection, several of those worn having 
been, in fact, carefully kept as heirlooms from 
honored ancestors. The scene represented was 
near the old Wawayanda Hotel, still standing in a 
good preservation ; this once celebrated inn having 
been owned by Thomas Ward, better known as 
“Tom Draw,” cleverly depicted as one of the leading 
characters in Forester’s early sporting tales. 
The bronze memorial tablet was placed on a giant 
boulder brought from the woodlands where Frank 
Forester and his friends enjoyed sport with dog 
and gun more than three-quarters of a century ago. 
A portion of the author’s tribute to the vale and 
village of Warwick appears on the tablet, which 
was presented by the Sportsmen of America and 
the Historical Society of Warwick. 
Appropriate addresses were made by George F. 
Ketchum, president of the exercises; Ferdinand 
V. Sanford, president of the Historical Society; 
Howard C. Pierson, acting mayor of Warwick; 
Harry Worcester Smith, president of the Frank 
Forester Society of America, and by Fred E. Pond 
(“Will Wildwood”). 
It is stated that Frank Forester Day will in 
future be observed in the American Sportsman’s 
calendar, as is Izaak Walton’s birthday, among the 
ardent anglers. 
GAME BIRD DANGERS 
'“THE non-migratory game birds of our Northern 
A coverts have a difficult struggle for existence. 
In some places it almost seems that they have yield- 
ed in the struggle and been swept away. 
We are all much given to discussing the impor- 
tance of preserving them, but when the shooting 
season comes again, the most of us devote all the 
time we can spare to their pursuit. We wish these 
birds preserved for a selfish motive — for our own 
pleasure. We feel that they should be taken only 
by ourselves, only in our way — that they should be 
protected from all other dangers. 
Since we insist on killing all of these birds that 
we can, it is manifestly to our interest to do every- 
thing possible to make life easy for them during 
the close time. Winter is their season of greatest 
danger, the time when famine and cold threaten, 
the time when the birds are most easily discovered 
and preyed upon by their enemies. 
It is often suggested that it would be worth while 
also for the sportsman who lives in a region where 
there are game birds to do systematic trapping dur- 
ing the winter in order to reduce, if possible, the 
number of predaceous mammals found in his neigh- 
borhood. 'Here, however, we are confronted with 
a problem, about which we know very little. It is 
no doubt true that the foxes, skunks, coons and 
weasels destroy some game birds, but it is very 
certain also that they destroy vast numbers of in- 
jurious rodents. No one can tell as yet just where 
the balance lies, but it is altogether probable that 
by their destruction of small rodents these mam- 
mals accomplish more good than harm. 
In the case of such birds of prey as the great 
horned owl, the goshawk and Cooper’s hawk, the 
evil wrought no doubt far exceeds the good. The 
testimony recently given by a correspondent for a 
small district of Connecticut is particularly inter- 
esting as the experience of one man who spends 
much time in the winter woods. He tells us that 
of thirty-three partridges whose remains he found 
during one winter, only three had been killed by 
predaceous animals, while thirty had fallen a prey 
to hawks and owls. On the other hand, in spring 
many nests must be broken up by four-footed car- 
nivora, but as in a majority of cases this probably 
happens without the destruction of the old birds, 
other nests are often built and the second brood of 
young is hatched. 
On the other hand we know that in England, 
where game keeping is brought to its highest pitch 
of perfection, the keeper destroys all predaceous 
birds and mammals except the fox, and the fox is 
obliged to keep himself away from the covers where 
the birds are found. 
Among the chief causes for the lessened num- 
bers of our upland birds are the destruction of 
forests and the draining of the swamps, and the 
consequent increase of cultivated and decrease of 
wild land. All these conditions tend to reduce the 
area over which birds are to be looked for. Besides, 
there is the great increase in gunners and guns 
all over the land, and too frequently a lax enforce- 
ment of the game laws. To make up for these 
