June, 1919 
FOREST AND STREAM 
283 
a rare fish existing in the Mediterranean by the 
naturalist Rondelet as early as 1554, and although 
since that time it has been taken several times in 
the Mediterranean and near the Madeira Islands, 
yet never before has it been caught off the western 
coast of North America. In her finely meshed nets, 
the “Albacore” has taken a specimen of Styloph- 
thalmus paradoxus, a native of the Indian Ocean, 
also a member of the genus Trachypterus (king of 
the salmon), which is supposedly very rare. Nor 
did the Exonautes rondeletii, a kind of flying fish, 
formerly found only in tropical seas, escape the 
Albacore’s nets. She also obtained from the deep a 
species of sandcrab hitherto confined solely to Mexi- 
can waters. 
NATURE CAMOUFLAGES SIERRA GROUSE 
^ UR war camouflage was based upon the theories 
of an American birdlover, who studied the 
mathematics of color patterns of birds like the Sierra 
Grouse. This scientist offered his discoveries as a 
contribution to the Allies to insure the protection 
of both the men fighting on land and the vessels 
trying to escape submarines in the water. He 
showed that the concealing coloration of birds nearly 
always consisted of broken color patterns. Reason- 
ing from this, he demonstrated that solid colors, like 
the battleship grey, were, after all, not the most 
protective. He proved from the mathematics of 
bird color-patterns that certain angular areas, tinted 
with different hues, tended to confuse the enemy’s 
eye more than the old method. The camouflage that 
resulted in saving thousands of lives and tens of 
thousands of tons of foodstuffs, vital to our winning 
the war, was, therefore, a by-product of bird study. 
UNIFORM LAW FOR MIGRATORY BIRDS 
EDERHAPS migratory birds will never again be 
^ seen in such vast flocks as when the early set- 
tlers pushed their way westward, but specialists of 
the Bureau of Biological Survey, U. S. Department 
of Agriculture believe their numbers are now in- 
creasing year by year. Widespread interest in their 
preservation, prompted by American sportsmen who 
saw the birds would be exterminated by unchecked 
destruction, is thought well justified when it is con- 
sidered that the birds’ food and economic value 
amounts to many millions of dollars annually. 
Growth of sentiment for the conservation of so valu- 
able a resource by preventing destruction, through 
spring shooting, of game birds and by other protec- 
tive measures, has been notable in the last half 
century. 
In 1900 only nine States had laws prohibiting all- 
spring shooting, while in 1918 there were thirty-one. 
Only three States now afford no legal protection. 
The original Migratory Bird Law Bill was written 
and introduced in Congress by George Shiras HI. 
This bill was laid over, but the subject, however, 
was kept before Congress almost continuously by 
Forest and Stream and its readers, who were con- 
cerned in the great work for the sportsman of the 
future. The Legislatures of fourteen states ap- 
proved the bill and over 8,000 letters were received 
in this office endorsing the movement. 
This Federal statute merely conferred on the U. S. 
Department of Agriculture the power to fix closed 
seasons during which it would be unlawful to capture 
or kill migratory birds. This law did not provide for 
effective enforcement, but it exerted a wonderful 
influence upon the public mind, and its passage laid 
the real foundation for more adequate protection. 
Fully 95 per cent of the sportsmen abided by the 
regulations established under this law and refrained 
from shooting during the closed seasons. The result 
was almost instantaneous. Waterfowl and other 
migratory game birds showed at once a marked in- 
crease in numbers. At a recent dinner held here 
in New York, Dr. George Bird Grinnell, the first 
advocate of the non-sale of game, in discussing hunt- 
ing conditions in the past and for the future, pre- 
dicted that the sportsman of the future, fifty years 
from now, will have better shooting than their great- 
grandfathers ever knew. 
LEONARD HULIT’S FISHING STORIES 
I^R. LEONARD HULIT, whose delightful articles 
on fishing with a boy and the rejuvenation of 
angling are now appearing in Forest and Stream, 
has this to say in regard to them : 
“In writing these sketches I make no claim to 
literary accomplishment. I try to write simply of 
the fishes as I have found them in more than forty 
years of pleasant endeavor. To me the pond and 
brookside have ever been sacred places, while their 
inhabitants hold a tender spot in my mental vision. 
“The boy Matt in these stories is, or was, a real 
character. Should these sketches fall into the hands 
of those living in the section where the scene is laid, 
they will readily recognize him, and, I feel, will 
grant I have sketched him true to life. He died 
many years ago while still in his vigor — a victim 
of pneumonia, contracted while on a trapping excur- 
sion. Mr. Woodhull also was taken from actual life. 
He fished much with the boy and became greatly at- 
tached to him, and I think each were benefitted by 
the other. When I first became acquainted with him 
he was in most delicate health, but his trips through 
the country restored him to full vigor. What finally 
became of him I never knew, nor do I know if he is 
still living. Aunt Mary lived to be more than eighty 
and died in the cottage where we first met her. If 
these sketches should prove of help to the amateur 
or give a pleasant hour to the past master of angling 
I shall be content.” 
A SCHOOL FOR BIRD STUDY 
A T Amston, on a great tract of several square 
miles of sightly country in eastern Connecticut, 
diversified by hills, ponds, streams, and a large lake, 
by the courtesy of the owner, Mr. Charles M. Ams, 
of New York City, The National Association of 
Audubon Societies has its Experimental Station in 
wild bird culture and game farming. It is in gen- 
eral charge of Herbert K. Job, the well-known or- 
nithologist and author, with assistants, including 
Robert K. McPhail, formerlv game-keeper to the 
King of England at Windsor Castle. 
This tract has been made a Wild Life Sanctuary 
and State Game Preserve, and it abounds in bird 
life, over one hundred species having been observed 
in summer, without the migrants. It is the plan of 
the association to make Amston a choice resort for 
lovers of birds and nature, where such can study 
and enjoy them amid uncommonly favorable sur- 
roundings with congenial persons of like interests. 
With this end in view a summer school has been 
established with courses in applied ornithology, con- 
ducted by Mr. Job, with lectures by visiting special- 
ists, and demonstrations in game propagation, trap- 
ping of vermin, and other practical work. 
