496 
FOREST AND STREAM 
November, 1921 1 jg 
FORESTmd 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, 3d, 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 
Member of Audit Bureau of Circulation 
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. 
THE SHOOTING SEASON 
T HE trolley cars of the Middle States present an 
unusual sight at this season. Those running out 
of the cities and larger towns are daily filled to 
capacity. Among the regulars is seen a strong sprinkling 
of men in shooting garb, equipped with guns in long 
and short cases and even in paper wrappings, while dogs 
of every breed block the aisles and rattle their chains 
as they move about restlessly, gazing up at every passer- 
by with wistful eyes, at a loss to know what brings 
them into such uncomfortable quarters. The usual 
reserve of the passengers gives way to friendly con- 
versation and exchanges of experiences in the hunting 
fields of many lands. Good-natured banter is indulged 
in by friends and strangers alike, and the stuffy air is 
charged with enthusiasm quite foreign to it at other 
seasons. At every local station beyond the suburbs 
one or more of the hunters leave the car with gun and 
dogs while those left behind speed them on their way 
with good wishes for their success. 
The toil of the baggage men of express and local 
trains is made more irksome by pointers and setters 
and spaniels and other dogs that move about among 
the trunks and strain on their leashes to reach the doors 
at every stop. The smokers’ cars are blue with smoke 
from many pipes, and one who enters fancies that all 
the passengers are friends, so general is the conversa- 
tion and so restricted its topic. All the world, it seems, 
is “going shooting,” and the minority that is bent on 
other pursuits is fully as enthusiastic on shooting sub- 
jects as the majority which is eager to reach the end of 
its journey. 
Railway stations are enlivened at unseemly hours by 
the congestion of men and dogs and small baggage. 
Usually dour and gruff officials forget their chronic 
grievances against the traveling public in general and 
impart information with a show of real friendliness. 
Strangers from the ends of the earth, who would be 
ignored at other times, taking the gun-cases carried by 
the sportsmen as the badges of a universal brotherhood, 
exchange greetings with them and go on their way,.#! 
cheered with the tonic that is in the very air breathed j 
by the crowds of outdoor men. 
The shooting - world has few “days off,” but it enjoys [[ 
those few days to the utmost, and whether it goes far 1 
afield, or down to Jones’ woodlot, the days are long i: 
remembered with pleasure, in which the successes and jp 
the disappointments incident to gunning in modern u 
times are but a small portion. To carry a gun, to watch , s 
the old dog work, to revisit the scenes of other tramps, lj 
to talk guns and shooting with good friends, to see the tr 
fields and woods in autumn and to fill the lungs with •• 
fresh air — these are all sufficient. 
MORE ELASTIC LAWS 
G AME protectors have long recognized the danger of 
leaving the question of changes in the game lawS 
wholly in the hands of the State legislatures. This 
course, which until recently has been almost universal ir 
the United States, causes great delay in modification oi 
the laws, and often imperils the continuance of species ir 
certain localities. 
Years ago a report of the Game Preservation Commit 
tee of the Boone and Crockett Club urged legislation which or 
should give power to the game-protective authorities tc 
make promptly the needed alterations in the game laws 
thus permitting their immediate adaptation to new condi- 
tions which might arise. In the case of some counties 
this power has been given, but it has not become general 
In Canada, on the other hand, and first perhaps ir 
British Columbia, the fixing of the open season on garni 
and fish is in the hands of a council which may at onci 
order a needed change. The same policy has been fol 
lowed in the case of Dominion laws for the protection ol 
migratory birds and of game in the Northwest Territories 
The advantage of this method is obvious. 
It is gratifying to see that in Montana and Wyoming 
laws have been passed making the fish and game regula 
tions more elastic and easier of enforcement. The newl) 
appointed game commissions of these two states an 
authorized, when this is necessary, to close the season; 
on any game, locally or altogether. This — provided tht 
authorities are interested, informed and intelligent- 
enables them to act promptly, and should greatly help 
the game. 
On the other hand, the Wyoming law menaces its bi£ 
game, for it authorized the game commission to sell per- 
mits to kill bull moose and buck antelope, up to one hun 
dred of each, from September 15th to October 31st, or 
the payment of a high license fee. This threatened th< 
antelope, now everywhere growing fewer. 
When the proposed sale of permits became generallj 
known, Governor Carey took steps to prevent the outrage 
PUBLIC SHOOTING GROUNDS 
T HE most important question to-day in game protec 
tion is that of providing and maintaining suitabh 
breeding and feeding grounds for our migrator; 
birds. With the stopping of spring shooting, every yea; 
finds more ducks and geese breeding within the borders o; 
the United States than the year before ; five sepcies o 
ducks are now annually breeding in the state of Missouri 
during the past spring many blue-wing teal were reportei 
raising their young on the marshes of Maryland ; thi: 
means more birds and more shooting — many locally raisei 
birds will provide excellent shooting during the first par 
of the open season previous to the arrival of the first bird: 
on their southern flight. 
The area where wild water-fowl and other birds art 
increasing is daily growing smaller through drainage o 
marsh and swamp lands for agricultural purposes ; mani 
