24 : 
^pril lO 
Wilbur F. Parker, - - Editor and Proprietor. 
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SATURDAY APRIL 10. 1875. 
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THE ROD AXD THE GUS. 
» f West Meriden. Conn. 
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alre^y adopted, viz; to PREvT all such names legibly in the mann- 
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CONTENTS or THIS NUMBER. 
Page. Page 
Some Odd Fish 17 A “Poor Fisherman” Pro- 
EecoUecUons of Marajo tests 24 
Island 18 Information Wanted 24 
On the Ice 19 Albino Blackbirds 24 
The Rifie 20 Gnawing off their Legs 24 
Snap and Positive Actions... 20 To Sportsmen 25 
Dock Shooting on the Hud- National Sportsmen Conven- 
son Fifty Years Ago 21 tion 25 
Western Items 21 Letters from Sportsmen 26-27 
Wounds from Deers' Antlers 22 A Reminiscence 27 
.Y History of My Pets 21 Pigeon Matches 2S 
Shooting Clubs in theU, S. 23 (ineries and Answers 28 
The Index and title-page to Vol. Y are ready. ThoEe 
subacribers who desire them will please notify us. 
A “ POOR FISUER.n.L\ ” PROTESTS. 
We find in the columns of the Cecil Whig, one of the 
brightest of our country exchanges, a letter fiom a 
“ Poor Fisherman ” who objects to the local law 
against fishing out of season, and with improper nets, 
because it “ takes awaj' the rights and privileges of 
many poor men.” He also objects to Sportsmen’s Asso- 
ciations and thinks that “ the poor or laboring classes of 
men had better leave the State or allow the nobility and 
sporting men to rule altogether, and the poor men be 
compelled to work for their board and clothes.” He 
adds “ I would not be surprised if the Almighty- would 
send a curse upon our land and stop all our fishing and 
gunning,” and winds up with an assertion that “ Fish- 
ing has been free to all men since the world began and 
so it should be until it ends.” The rest of the protest 
is chiefly directed to the greater or lesser injury of 
pound nets or hauling seines and to the rights of local 
fishermen against foreigners. 
The general principles above quoted cover the ground 
usually taken by those who are opposed to laws for 
game preservation, for close seasons and regulations for 
killing or capture. The writer evidently thipks that 
fish and game are the property of the poor man exclus- 
ively, that he may take5vho can, and that he who finds 
may keep. His is precisely the error by virtue of 
which the poacher and the pot-hunter have the right to 
exist, and it is precisely here that we see one of the 
most pressing needs for the Sportsmen’s Associations 
They are wanted to educate the people, ''rt'e d.' not at all 
impugn the good faith and honest conviction of the 
“Poor Fisherman,” he evidently feels all he sa3-s. 
There are the fish and the game, here is the man to 
whom power over them Las been delegated b^- 
Divine injunction and by the not less imperative law of 
personal necessiU'. Arise then, kill and eat. He does 
not .see that if not 0013- he himself but all his fellow 
men do this thing, the curse which he so unkuowingl3- 
invokes will surel3' come to pass, without need of 
special interposition, but by the common-place familiar 
working of cause and effect. If all the fish and all the 
game are killed in season and out of season, and no 
stock left for ihQir increase and reproduction, there 
will be a most etlectual '* stop to all our fishing and 
gunning . ” So too if the farmers should save no seed 
there could be no harvest. 
The truth most hard to drive into the brains of this 
clas.s of men is that “Fishing has (not) been free 
to all men since the world began.” Among 
savages the notion of property is very feeble, 
they want everything they see ; they are very 
children in this particular ; the moral sense is so weak 
that they think it a praiseworthy act to steal success- 
fully. The discredit is in being found out. The game 
and the fish exist for them in inexhaustible abundance, 
for savages are few in number. They live b3' hunting 
and fishing and make no provision for the future. It is 
in the savage state that “fishing is free to every man.” 
For this condition, however, we have to go back to the 
primeval man ; directly the savage combines into family 
and tribe we know that the land is parceled out and ap- 
propriated, and that the invasion of hunting grounds 
by families or tribes is jealously watched and vindic- 
tively punished. The first condition of societ3' in its 
feeblest beginnings is mutual eoncession of individual 
rights for the good of the community. In the advanced 
stage of social civiLzation to which mankind have now 
attained all the natural products which were once the 
property of individuals have become the property of 
communities. From this originates the notion of pub- 
lic lands, the government control over navigable waters, 
and the general right of the government, in other words 
the community, to prescribe how and when the individ- 
ual shall exercise any of the personal rights which are 
left to him. 
It should not require any great argument to prove that 
thrift and prudence are better for us all than profusion 
and thoughtlessness ; yet men like our “ Poor Fisher- 
man ” can see how well a rule works for other people, 
but how badly the easiest shoe fits if it pinch 
their favorite corn. We abhor the game laws in 
their old oppressive restricti ons, and we hold it bet- 
ter that all the game in the world were destroyed 
than that one man should be abridged of his reason- 
able liberty. But it is not a reasonable liberty, 
that the “Poor Fisherman” or the early and late pot- 
hunter shall gobble all the fish or fowl this year and 
leave me none for the next; nay mote, it is for the good 
of the fisherman and the pot-hunter, that not only the3’ 
two but all others shall be put under restraint and not 
be allowed to waste next week’s rations on this week’s 
feasts and excesses. See the uses of wholesome restraint 
in Europe. Great Britain, as we all know, is about one 
tenth the size of the United States, yet the two popu- 
lations are nearh' equal. If game were allowed to be 
killed and fish to be netted by every bod3' at all times, 
one single season would sweep Great Brltam clean. .\i 
it is, game and fisli are this day as cueap in Great Bri- 
tain as the3' are in the United States. Preservatio-i is a 
source of pleasure to a few and of profit to the many. 
The “Poor Fisherman” like man3' another poor man, 
notably the poor farmer, thinks honestly but most mis- 
takenU', that game and fish preservation are in the in- 
terests of a few gunners and anglers. This is not so, 
for the moral idea is one of the public good 5vhile the 
practical issue pertains to the public foqd. We wish 
our “Poor Fisherman” not only for his own sake but 
fur ours, to catch all he can and to send it to market as 
fresh as he can, but we do not wish him to use up all 
the supply in this one year, we wish to have fish on the 
table all our life time, and when we are gathered in we 
wish the “Poor Fisherman” of that day to be drawing 
a full net for our children, and not to curse our memory 
because our improvidence has put “a stop to all the 
gunning and fishing.” 
Professor Hayden, United States Geologist, fias 
just received the following letter dated Paris, March 16, 
1875 ; 
SiK: — At a meeting, on the 10th of March, the “Di- 
rection Centrale” of the “Club Alpin Francais ” de- 
cided to select a certain number of honorary members 
from among foreign savants and Alpinists especiall3' re- 
nowned for their works and “ ascensions ” (mountain 
climbing), 3‘our name received a unanimous vote. This 
nomination will be ratified in Aiiril in accordance wiih 
the regulations, at the meeting of the general a.ssembly. 
The “Direction Centrale” of the Club Alpine have re- 
quested me to a.sk 3’our acceptance of the honor, and 
that you will receive the title of “confrere.” 
Abel Lemercier, 
Docteur en Droit, secretaire general du G. A. F. 
To Professor Hayden. 
The Springfield Dog Show will be something 
worthy the name, and is iimlcr charge of some of the 
very best men in Massachusetts, and where will 3’oufiud 
better? See the advertisement elsewhere and send your 
favorites along. 
I\F0R>IATI0.\ WANTED. 
Smithsonian Lnstitction, March 29. 
Editor Rod and Gun ; 
It has been justly eonsidered as an opprobrium of 
American natural history that so very little is known re- 
specting the habits of our animals, and especially those 
of our reptiles, amphibians and fishes. We have some 
of the most interesting of living species in our ceun- 
try, — for instance, among the amphibians, the Mud 
Puppy or conger eel of the southern streams (SjVea); the 
hell-bender (ilenopoma) and the Water puppy (Jkfenoft-ran- 
ehus); and tnijag fishes may be instanced the slender- 
billed and alligator gars (Lepidasteids)-, the mud-fishes 
or bow-fins {Arniids)-, the shovel nose (Polyodontid*)-, 
and the cat fishes {SUurids). Scarcely anything is 
known respecting the habits of any of these forms, and 
it is extrfemely desirable that as much as possible should 
be elicited respecting all of them. Information espec- 
ially regarding their habits of breeding — the time of 
breeding, the places selected, the character of the eggs 
and their number, the time of hatching, etc. — is much 
wanted. Can .not some of your readers communi- 
cate facts? Circumstanced as many of them must be, 
and at home in the streams in which the animals in 
question are to be found, some at least must become 
cognizant of facts which are unknown to naturalists, 
and they might add some interesting chapters to the 
history of one or more of the forms referred to. Let us 
for example have some data respecting the eggs of cat- 
fishes, what t'ney are like and where they are deposited- 
Doubtless man3' of your angler-friends have observed, 
large cat-fishes with a dense swarm of young ones slowly 
moving in the stream and guarding them with jealous- 
care from all enemies. In them we have one of the- 
many examples of the care which is taken of the young 
b3' the parent fishes. In some cat-fishes of foieign 
countries, too, we find special prolusion made for the- 
eggs; some, for instance, take them in their mouths and 
there they undergo development ; in others, the skin of 
the breast becomes specialized for their reception m 
little cavities. Now, can not we obtain some definite 
information respecting our own species? I hop* the 
appeal will not be in vain. Theo. Gill. 
Albiao Black-Bird. 
Editor Rod and Gun. 
The Yellow-headed Blackbird, Xanthocephalm ictero- 
eephaliu, comes in for a record of Albinism at length, 
like its better known cousin the Marsh Blackbird. Vis- 
iting Military Headquarters on passing through St. 
Paul recently, I was shown a “ White-Blackbird ” shot 
near that cit3’ not long since by Hon. J. D. B-.-ck of 
Kentucky, and General O. D. Greene, Asst. Adjutant 
General U. S. A. (I don’t mean that it look them both 
to kill the curiosit3’ — but they were out together.) The 
bird is a rather undersized female, pale, brownish white. 
The wings and tail nearly white, the characteristic yel- 
low of the species showing on the crown and breast. 
General Greene very kindly parted with the specimen, 
which ha had just had mounted, and it is now in the 
Smithsonian — the place where all good birds go — or 
ought to go — when the3' die. Yours truly, 
Elliott Codes. 
“Gnawinff off their Feet.” 
Editor Rod *nd Gun: 
I thank m3' friend for his appreciation of my “ North- 
Woods of Maine,” and for the expression of his opinion 
under the above caption. He and I agree very well. I 
know that animals will gnaw their legs of under the jaws 
of the trap; but let m3’ friend remember that there is 
but little if any feeling there, consequently little pain 
in gnawing. I have never known of one instance, how- 
ever, where an animal gnawed a leg off above the trap. 
The Scripture saying, that “No man ever hated his 
own flesh,” may apply to animals also. The part of 
tne leg under the jaws of the trap is usually frozen in 
winter, consequently devoid of feeliug. and animals 
will gnaw these but when they put their teeth into 
the live flesh — that is another thing. I can't see it. 
1 believe it as near an impossibility as one can conceive 
of, if the3' look at the case from a reasonable stand- 
point. Every lime the animal put the teeth into the 
live flesh it would pain, and the instinct of the creature 
would not allow it to gnaw the leg off. I hope that, if 
there are authenticated causes, where animals have 
gnawed legs off in parts where there was warm blood, 
that they will .speak through the Rod and Gun. 
G. T. RtPLow. 
