)ctober, 1921 
FOREST AND STREAM 
449 
/here the birds are protected while nesting. In addi- 
ion, in a number of cases, rigid local restrictions have 
een placed upon hunters. 
As a means of cooperating in such efforts to main- 
ain and increase the number of waterfowl, the Biolog- 
:al Survey has undertaken investigations of the general 
onditions under which wild ducks live and thrive, 
oupled with counts of the birds found in areas varying 
a character. 
During three seasons devoted to field studies, !2 spe- 
ies of ducks and the Canada goose were found bree 1- 
ng in the region included in the Bear River mar' , ^s, 
Jtah, which covers an extensive area at the northern 
nd of Great Salt Lake. In an enumeration made dm 
ng May and June, 1916, of the 11 specUs of breeding 
ucks, 3,650 pairs were counted, and it is believed that 
his number represents between 60 and 100 per cent of 
he total number of breeding ducks occurring there that 
eason. Allowing five young reared to maturity as the 
verage for each pair, and considering 1916 as an aver- 
ge season, the bulletin states that, at a conservative 
stimate, between 25,000 and 30,000 wild ducks, native 
o the marsh, are to be found there at the close of the 
seeding season. 
It was found that, in addhion to the large number of 
lirds reared on the Bear Ri\er area, many other ducks 
ame in after the nesting season to remain there until 
all. That birds from Lie Bear River section range 
videly after leaving the e marshes has been shown by 
ecords of ducks tha' have been banded and released 
here and subsequem ly were shot elsewhere. Records 
hus obtained show that birds released near the mouth 
>f Bear River in migration cover the region from Okla- 
loma to Texas and west to California. The department 
irges the establishment of a greater number of pre- 
erves where wild fowl may breed and rest unmolested, 
ind find an ample supply of food. 
DR. J. A. ALLEN 
D R. J. A. ALLEN, who recently died at the age of 
83 years, had long been one of the most eminent 
naturalists of the present day. He was among 
he few surviving pupils of the great Louis Agassiz. 
Connected with the American Museum of Natural 
History in New York, in later years he gave special 
ittention to the description and classification of hither- 
:o unknown mammals, for which the great collections of 
Tat institution afforded ample opportunity. Some 
ave-hundred mammals are known by names which he 
has given them. Persons who knew Dr. Allen only 
in the later years of his life do not realize in how many 
other branches of scientific inquiry his work has left 
indelible marks. He was particularly successful as an 
editor of scientific literature, checking with infallible 
accuracy the slips in the manuscripts of men less well 
trained, while punctiliously guarding their ideas and 
their very words. 
Dr. Allen was small of stature, modest and retiring 
by temperament, with a delicate physique. Though it 
is well-known that he was connected with various 
field expeditions in early# years, many persons may not 
realize that he was looked up to by his associates as 
a dead shot in days when naturalists took marksman- 
ship for granted. He was among the early con- 
tributors to “Forest and Stream,” his earliest articles 
in our pages being apparently in 1876 on the signifi- 
cance of the terms “hare and rabbit,” arrival of birds 
from the south and birds and coming storms. 
An indefatigable worker, Dr. Allen seemed to place 
the advancement of his chosen science above all else. 
LEARN \ OUR LON '-R£ SMAN’S NAME 
T HE cjuntrv lull of sportsmen who have ideas 
on legisbiiion effecting their interests, but how 
few c mem ever do anything toward the actual 
consunmi nion of those ideas? They like to discuss the 
questfi with their fellow sportsmen and often argue 
with great eloquence on the subject, but they never 
s' p to reason that unless the men they are addressing 
have the power to act, much of their time and labor is 
wasted. 
There is one sure source for them to address in these 
matters and that is the Congressman from their district. 
The Congressman will welcome their letters, as it is 
only by such frank expressions of opinion that he can 
learn what the public wants, and the sportsman who 
writes to his Congressman and explains to him what 
his ideas are on a proposed piece of legislation can 
rightly feel that he has done more toward the actual 
moulding of sentiment along the lines he thinks is right 
than a hundred men who simply stand on the side- 
lines and harangue the multitude. 
We recently published an editorial on the Shield’s Pis- 
tol Bill, No. 1184, which if it should become a Federal 
Statute would prohibit the manufacture or sale of re- 
volvers in the United States. This bill has been 
referred to a committee. A letter to your Congress- 
man would help to mould sentiment in favor of 
squelching such short-sighted legislation. 
BLACK BEAR IS GAME 
S OME states afford the black bear protection by a 
closed season, bag limit, etc. Other states are al- 
lowing this species of American game to approach 
extinction rapidly by permitting them to be killed at all 
seasons of the year. Last year four hundred and sev- 
enty-two black bears were killed as game in the State 
of Pennsylvania during the open season. Mr. John M. 
Phillips, president of the Board of Game Commission- 
ers of that state, and a member of the Advisory Board 
of Forest and Stream, claims that more will be killed 
next year, as the breeding stock has not been en- 
croached upon. 
Personally, we think the black bear is about as dan- 
gerous as the white-tailed deer. At least, the states 
that claim that that animal should be exterminated be- 
cause he is a menace to human life, would have a diffi- 
cult task if compelled to furnish reliable data showing 
where black bears had attacked men. From all infor- 
mation we have been able to gather from men conver- 
sant with the habits of the black bear, he will run him- 
self to death if given half an opportunity when he meets 
a man in the woods. Pennsylvania protects them and 
they furnish sport, food and fur for her gunners. Bruin 
is game and should be classed as such. 
A FALSE REPORT 
T HE perpetrators of the false report that Edmund 
Heller was lost in the “Hoodoo” mountains in Wyo- 
ming have no doubt realized by this time that a 
practical joke can sometimes re-act with telling effect. 
Close friends of Mr. Heller never believed the report 
from the beginning, but there are many who, like the 
proverbial story of the man who was kicked by a mule, 
believe everything they read in the newspapers, and 
for their benefit we take this opportunity to inform 
them that during the time Mr. Heller was supposed 
to have been lost he was busily engaged in making 
field studies of the game animals of Yellowstone Na- 
tional Park under the auspices of the Roosevelt Wild 
Life Experiment Station at Syracuse University. 
