Volume 6, Number 3 1 
New SerleSf Number 81 ) 
SATURDAY, APRIL 17, 1875. 
Established A. D* 1871^ 
S4iaYear9lO cts a Cooy 
SPRIXG BIRDS AND FISHES. 
BY GENIO C. SCOTT. 
■ A.s the opening of spring is eminently the poacher’s 
harvest of vagabondism and stealing, it is well enough 
to jog the minds of farmers and other suburban resi- 
dents, to he on the alert for arresting and punishing idle 
loafers who go about with a gun to shoot every bird 
from a chick-a-bidd}- to a game-cock. 
The following is a copy of the Game Laws of N. Y. 
State intended to protect the farmer and gardener: 
“ No person shall at any time, within this Stale, kill, 
or trap, or expose for sale, or have in his possession af- 
ter the same is killed, any eagle, fish-hawk, whippoor- 
will, finch, thrush, lark, sparrow, yellow-bird, brown- 
thresher, wren, martin, swallow, tanager, oriole, bobo- 
link, wood-pecker, or any other harmless bird, or song- 
bird ; or kill, trap, or expose for sale any robin, black- 
bird meadow-lark, or starling, save during the months of 
August, September, October, November and December; 
nor destroy or rob the nests of any wild birds whatever, 
under a penalty of five dollars for each bird so killed, 
trapped or exposed for sale, and for each nest destroyed 
or robbed.” 
This law shall not be so construed as to prevent the 
farmer or gardener from protecting his orchard, gar- 
dens and fields, and he or they may kill on their own 
premises, birds which rob summer fruits and grains. 
There shall be no sliooting, hunting, or trapping, on 
the first day of the week called Sunday, under a penalty of 
twenty-five dollars, or to be imprisoned in the- county 
jail where the offence is committed, not less than ten 
nor more than twenty-five days for each offence. 
Wood duck shooting opens on the 15th of August; 
wild ducks and geese are not to be molested during 
nesting-time, under a heavy penalty. Miscellaneous 
bay and border duck shooting for spring ends on the 
last day of April. The foregoing hints are probably 
sufficient to warn indolent and ignorant would-be gun- 
ners; and if they are not, the poacher is further in- 
formed that an action for trespass may be maintained 
against him, if he is found carrying a gun on lands not 
his own. 
T noticed a well-timed article in the N. T. Daily 
Times of the 3d mst., under the heading of “ Field birds 
and their enemies,” wherein the writer advocated laws 
for the protection of insectivorous birds, citing Eng- 
land as having such laws. The writer of that article 
will perceive from the foregoing e.xtracts that we have 
such laws ; and I will add that the English copied 
many of their laws for the protection of wild fowl, from 
the laws of this State, w’hich were adopted here in con- 
formity with applications of the New York Society for 
the protection of fish and game. Probably there is not 
another country blessed with so great a variety of birds 
of song as the United States ; and 1 suppose the British 
Isles are next in the music of the fields and groves. On 
the advent of spring we are rejoiced with the twittering 
song of the meadow-lark, calling our attention to the 
meadow and the kine prospecting for a few mouthfuls of 
green to end the monotony of hay and straw in a barnyard. 
Then too, the migratory fowl, high in air, chatter and 
honk, and honk, quack and chatter, as they peer from 
their commanding altitude away to their summer home 
beyond Anticosti, among the Mirigan Islands. Tlie 
sights and sounds below are beautiful and exhilarating, 
while those in the heavens are almost sublime. 
About the middle of March the robin usually makes 
its appearance with its morning song of peep-pop-pop, 
and its evening melody of pelura-pelura-pelura, in va- 
ried musical cadence, charming, but as much more se- 
rious in refrain, as is the evening more sombre than the 
morning. The next beautiful songster, is the brown 
thrush, which usually makes its advent in this latitude 
early in April, and is one of the most joyous songsters 
gifted with the most varied and beautiful sounds of any 
bird of the grove, not excepting the robin or mocking- 
bird. 
“ Sing on, thou sweet mavis, thj song to the evening, 
Thou'rt dear to the echoes of Caldenvood glen ” 
The song-thrush, or turdus musicus of Linnaius, in 
Europe is similar to the brown thrush of America. 
This bird is almost universally distributed, appearing 
in nearly every climate, to gladden and beautify the 
woods, gardens and copse, with its rich and varied 
strains, from March until November. 
Hark, how the air rings ! 
’Tie the mavis sings ; 
And merrily, merrily sounds her voice. 
Calling on valleys and hilis to rejoice ; 
For winter is past, 
And the stormy blast 
Is hast’ning away to the northward at last. 
It is true that we have not the notes of the sky-lark 
nor the Irish black-bird, though Mr. Sutherland of Lib- 
erty street, has imported a few of the latter bird and 
presented them to the Blooming Grove Park Association 
for a test of acclimatization. Neither have we the Eng- 
lish cuckoo of early spring. This passerine cuculus re- 
minds me of my school-boy days. 
“ O 1 eoald I fly, I’d fly with thee I 
We'd make on social wing, 
Onr annual visit round the globe. 
Companions of the spring !” 
Thus wrote the poet, of the bird which “ has no sor- 
row in its song, no winter in its year,” and the word 
portraiture is most fascinating. The American cuckoo 
has many habits of its European congener ; but it does 
not appear until summer, when it utters a melancholy 
duplex note from a tangled hedge or fruit tree of thick 
foliage, and if discovered, it becomes silent until it 
thinks it can seek unperceived, a more secluded shelter. 
It is much prettier in form than the European specimen, 
and it has the same habit of laying its eggs in other 
birds’ nests and never sitting. 
lYith the beginning of summer, we have a great 
multitude of merry songsters in addition to the earlier 
arrivals, chief among which are the mocking-bird, cat- 
bird, or copyist, and the bobolink, the most joyous of 
any. Ah, well I remember when I was about eight 
years old and my uncle, Gen. John Keyes, used to 
amuse himself by loading a fowling piece and going 
with me to shoot bob-o-links. I would creep along the 
fence and when I saw one alight on a tetering willow 
bough on the meadow, I would rest the gun across a 
rail of the fence and take good aim, and just as the bird 
was about to rise, I would blaze away at him, as he 
arose on his wings most tauntingly and singing, seemed 
to say: — “ weak-weak-weak-creep along the fence, set 
kicked in the face, why not up and try again? ha-ha- 
ha!” The General endeavored to look dignified every 
time he loaded my gun ; but one evening after I returned 
from a severe “day’s shooting,” without bagging a 
feather, I heard him recite to my aunt the day’s doings, 
and told her how excited and hopeful I was; when both 
of them nearly cracked their sides from laughing. I 
smelt a rat, and refused ever afterward to go a bob-o. 
linking. 
My enterprise in field sports after failing to reach 
bobolinks, induced me to try fishing for shiners. This 
was at a time when negroes in this State, that were 
called slaves, were masters of the situation. Mj- uncle 
owned a large family of darkies to support, and he sent 
three of the “drop-shot-gang” to help me catch shiners. 
I was rigged out with a reed pole and a fine linen line 
and small hook, when Jack dug some angle-worms. 
Gin showed me how to bait my hook, and Ann with 
similar tackle to mine showed me how to fish. It was 
a sort of pond, or enlargement of a brook, which ran 
through the meadow, being about twenty feet wide and 
the shore was a grassy sward which formed comforta- 
ble seats. Well, Ann and I commenced fishing, when 
suddenlj' she threw out with a tremendous jerk, a shiner 
of more than three inches in length. The other darkies 
ran to the end of the line and held up the glittering tro- 
phy, which appeared a wonderful beauty that ex- 
cited me intensely. “Watch }-our float,” said Ann, 
“you kain't allers tell when you gets a bile, ’cept you 
watch de cork.” It was not long before something 
gave an outrageous jerk to my line, taking the quill- 
float quite under water. I pulled and felt it was com- 
ing, when presently, I threw out a might)’^ shiner; the 
“gals” Ea 3 ’ing “its e’namost as large as Ann’s shiner.” 
I did not allow them to take it off the book, but ran all 
the way home — nearly a quarter of a mile — to show it 
to aunty, just as I had caught it. She expressed great 
surprise and delight at my skill, and after she strength- 
ened me with a dough-nut and glass of milk, I sallied 
forth again, more proud than Napoleon, after Auster- 
litz. But what was my chagrin when I returned to the 
fishing-ground, to learn that Ann had actually taken 
seven shiners and one horned-dace during mj’ absence. 
I then resolved never to give up fishing because of a 
flush of success, nor quit fishing so long as the fish were 
in a feeding mood. We continued fishing until the 
General sent a messenger to ascertain whether any one 
of us had fallen into the pond, and to bring us home to 
dinner. On our return, with just sixteen shiners and 
one horned-dace, the General exhausted the language 
of compliments, after which, he told Ann to clean 
the mess of fish as he was going to have them fried for 
dinner. The fish were duly cleaned, rolled in flour and 
fried in flutter, when my uncle seemed to relish them so 
well, that I made up mj'mind — under his compliments, 
that I would some day astonish him with the length of 
the string of shiners that I should bring home; and it is 
an actual fact that 1 saw my wish gratified to the ful- 
lest extent of my hopes, by one day really capturing 
fifteen shiners, alone, with no one to help me! 
Shortlj- after my victories over the finnj’ race, the 
fall term of mj’ school commenced, and all at once I 
found myself a lion, eight years and a half old. The 
boys, after thej’ found I bore my honors modestly, ven- 
tured occasionally to ask me such philosophical ques- 
tions as “do you always put )Our hook through the 
head of the worm when you bait your hook?” “No!” I 
replied, almost indignantly, “never use the head of the 
worm ; always break it off and bait with the rest of the 
worm.” Another boy, awaiting another intermission, 
modestly approached me, and asked “ do you always 
spit on the bait to make the fish bite’?” I replied, “not 
always, but Abe Krooner sa 5 ’s its a good plan, but not 
until after you begin to chew tobacco.” 
Soon after the foregoing achievements, I was pro- 
moted to a higher school, of which I now remember but 
one scholar, and that is Professor Urrin Morris, who 
has for manj’ j'ears, until recentlj’, occupied one of the 
chairs of an institution of learning in this city. 
“Oil! what are the treasures we perish to win. 
To the first little shiner we caught with a pin!” 
Now the ice has left the mountain gorges and streams, 
and brook-trout are beginning to forage upon flics and 
minnows, with spawn of other fishes, that will soon 
render them fit for the table. Our sage Legislators 
stated by the passage of an act into law, with the dig- 
nity of the Governor’s signature, that the fifteenth day 
of March would finish the close season for trout, and 
that thereafter trout-tlshing might be indulged until the 
evening of September lath. The opening season, 
therefore, according to law, was on the sixteenth of 
^larch; for had the law conteni|)lated opening the sea- 
son on the loth March, it would have stated that the 
opening of tiie troiiting season was on and u|'on the 
loth 3Iarch. But instead of that, the law states that 
the loth March is the lastdaj'of the close season. This 
makes the case as clear as mud, and some anglers will 
