360 
Sept. 11, 1875. 
(Late THE AMERICA^' SPORTSMAN), 
Published br the Rod and the Gnu Association. 
TViL lAil HCMPHRETS Editob. 
T. C. BAJSKS, BrsisBss MaSaObb. 
S. H. TCRRILL. Chicaso Mabageb. 
THE ONLY JOCKYAL DT THE EXITED STATES ^ 
DKTOTED EXC1.VSIVBI.T TO 
8HOOT1XG. FISHIXG, XATEKAL HISTORY. FISH CELT RE 
AXD THE PROTECTIOX OF FISH AND GAilE. 
TEEMS II? SUBSCRlPnON: §4.00 A YE\R IN ADVANCE. 
Tee Rod asd the Grs can be obtslned from all Xbwe Dealers, 
Persons sending money to this ofllce, by means of Money Orders 
shonld InTsrtsbly make the same patablb to The Rod asd Grs, 
New York P. O. 
Parties d qniring back numbers will please forward the price. 
All cummunlcailons must be accompanied by the fnll name of the 
writer, and address to 
THE ROD AND GUN, 
38 Park Row. Xkw Toek. 
13 ^ We earnestly request all our contrH)ntor$ to adopt the plan in 
reaard to the use of scientific names which some of them hare already 
adodpted. rU. : to PRINT all such names legibly In the m nuscripl. 
as this will prevent error by giving the compositor plain copy to fol- 
low. Above all things, we bay, do not venture upon the use of scien- 
tific names at aJl nnless certain of ibolr accuracy. 
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 1875. 
co>rTK>rxs. 
Page. Pase. 
Capu Bogardug -^53 Fish and Fishing '258 
W. W. Greener replivs 353 Kditorial?: Tiespa*?; Spar • 
Letters from Spdribmen 264 the Pigeon 36^ 
356 How Guns are made 363 
A Natnrai'ifa Tnp 358 Pigeon 363 
TRESPASS. 
A correspondent writes us privately and takes excep- 
tion to a quotation we used on the right to trespass in 
pursuit ot game over another man’s land, aflSrming that 
the Rod and Gun will be killed by putting forth such 
doctrines. We differ with him altogether, and are con- 
tent to take our chance. The argument put forth in 
one of our letters in this issue that farmers will them- 
selves trap and destroy game only proves that they have 
a dog-in-the-manger di-^position, and is nothing to the 
point. Right is right whatever may happen. When 
land has been conveyed from the nation to the indivi- 
dual it is popularly supposed that with the grant goes all 
the use of the surface and the sub soil. Thenceforth no 
stranger has a right to set loot on a mau’s private pro- 
perty. The State, however, does not alienate its own 
rikhls of sovereignty, and whenever, for the general 
good, it becomes needful to restrict the proprietary 
rights of the owner, the State steps in. The State never 
has delegated its duty to protect the beasts of the field 
and fowls of the air, however negligently the duty has 
been done. When a sportsman goes on a farmer’s land 
in pursuit of game he is a trespasser. Some farmers do 
not object; others do. Some farmers are sportsmen; 
some are game exterminators. The latter are in the 
wrong, altogether in the wrong. But one wrong will 
not justify another. The Siate has the right to prohibit 
landowners from destroying wild animals. This protec- 
tive right is inherent in the sovereignty of the State. 
Let the farmer be prevented from unlawful acts, but let 
him be protected in lawful rights. Any farmer who ob- 
jects to a peaceful entry on his fallow land in fair sporj 
is a churl and a sorry neighbor, but he is in his own 
rig nd the sportsman is scarcely a fair judge of the 
fa annoyances from bars let down and newly seed- 
ed land t- amped over. If farm land may be invaded 
why not a garden, and if a garden why not a parlor? 
We speak feelingly on the subject. We are sorry to 
meet an uncivil and unreasoning farmer who warns us 
ofi—al hough a little mild explanation has usually led to 
pleasant issues, audit has happened that after “shoo 
ing” us a vay our enemy has opened his door to the 
stranger But when we are the fanner, and speaking 
from his point of view, we hale to be thought inhos- 
pitable and ill conditioned, but we “know how it is 
When a man says, “This is your land but I mean to shoot 
over it whether you like it or not” 
A Game Protective Association is formed in Chester, 
Del. Officers for the ensuing year : President. Y. S. 
Walter : Secretary, John S. Kerliu ; Treasurer, William 
C. Gray. The association offers a reward of ten dollars 
for the conviction of every offender against the laws. 
SPARE THE PIGEON. 
Mr.- Bergh, like most enthusiasts, has more zeal than 
discretion. It is true that reforms, moral or political, 
require a large amount of faith in one’s mission, and 
that the work of demolition must be completed with an 
energy that balks at no obstacle of prudence or conveni- 
ence. Mr. Bergh has done some good work, but we 
think he miglit have done more if his persistency, in 
season and out of season, bad not made his cause odious 
with the rough men whom he most needs to propitiate 
and educate up to his standard of humanity, while with 
the better sort he only just escapes appearing ridiculous 
in his officiousness. 
Pigeon slaughter is a special aversion with Mr. Bergh. 
Pigeons and doves are poetic — emblems of peace and 
love, and so should be sacred as the sparrows. From a 
humane aspect, pigeon-shooting is the sum of all villain- 
ies. The last bit of B. rghian Quixotism has been, as 
he could not reach out against pigeon shooters out of 
New York, that he should counsel the press against re- 
porting such atrocities and so encouraging their practice. 
We have time and again exposed the false statement 
of cruelty to pigeons in killing them by trap shooting. 
We are persuaded that few sportsmen do not experience 
some touch of sensibility at seeing a wounded bird or 
animal. It is only the savage that takes pleasure in 
needless torture ; but before we can condemn pigeon 
shooting on grounds of humanity, we must go a little 
farther back toward first principles. Shall we kill at 
all ? If it be permissible to kill animals either for use 
or iu sport, for their hides and meat or for the 
gratification of the hunting instinct, inborn in the 
natural man, our only duty is to kill mercifully and 
unwastetully. Now if we may kill or catch one sort of 
animal, why not another? Why catch trout, and let 
bass go free? Pigeons are an article of food — their 
consumption is within the scheme of the Berghiies; 
either broiled or stewed, in pie or consomme, pigeon is 
good and may be lawfully eaten. Even squabs are 
not protected by reason of their tender immaturity. 
The humanity argument, tnen, lies not in the killing, 
but in the manner of the taking off. If a Berghian 
should see a pigeon-roost, he might form an idea of the 
terrible waste of life permitted by Nature in some of 
her processes. The birds perish by millions from their 
own overcrowding. A few thousand are caught, 
fed, cared for, and kept until wanted. Whether they 
are wanted for the market or for the trap, they go one 
way at last. If for market direct, their necks are wrung; 
if they perish by the trap, they are shot and killed just 
as though they had been any other wild birds. The 
preference for shooting of pigeon over prairie hen is 
a matter of taste, but the humanity of the two forms of 
sport is exactly on the same fooling. One should be a 
very pronounced trapshooter to contend that pigeons 
must be shot that men may be happy; but certainly no 
man of sound mind, whose judgment is unwarped by 
notions and ideas, will argue that there is essential dif- 
ference in shooting pigeons and shooting quail. The 
trap or the natural cover is an accidental condition, 
which does not touch the general principle. 
We are sorry to see the passage of a law in Connecti- 
cut which, as it reads, would seem to be leveled ex- 
pressly against pigeon shooting. It is a deference to 
erroneous opinion, which had better be met at the out- 
set with sound reasons than with cheap concessions. 
Running on its Own Axis. 
Memphis, Aug. 31. 
The approaching pigeon tournament, bench show of 
pointers, setters and hounds, and field trials of field 
dogs, to be holden at Memphis during the last week iu 
October, present two salient and admirable features. 
One is the liberality and number of the premiums, and 
the other is the independence and manliness, as well as 
originality of the undertaking. No poulterer is aid-de- 
camp, no fair is depended on to draw the crowd, no 
shining and mayhap gunshy beauty can win all the 
honors by a walk-over; but useful and ornamental are 
blended; the bench is but junior brother to the field, 
while the trap-shooting gives every fair- shot facilities 
in many matches to w in a small dowry of gold. Par- 
amount to all this is the good-fellowship, the reunion, 
the gay, glad time already assured. Gcroo. 
. — — 
It ts charged against the Rev. Adirondack Murray 
that he habitually kills deer out of si-ason and openly 
^ defies law. If this be so, and if any one knows it, will 
I the parly favor us with a communication? 
FISH IN MARKET. 
Owing to the westerly winds, fish have stuck on the 
coast in greater quantities than they have for the last 
thirty days. 
Spanish mackerel are more plentiful, selling at 40c. ; 
shiep heads, 25c.; eels, 18c. ; bass, 25c. ; bluefish, 8c. ; 
blackfish, 15c.; pompano, $1 per lb.; sea bass, 18c. to 
20c.; salmon (refrigerated), 50c.; no fresh mackerel in 
market; halibut, 18c. to 20c.; green turtle, 15c.; frog 
legs, 50c. per lb,; soft crabs, $1 50 per doz. ; scollops, 
$1 50 per gallon. 
During the past week we have had the pleasure of calls 
from the Hon. Judge Caton, late Chief Justice of 
Illinois ; Mr. John B. Sage, Secretarj- of the National 
Sportsmen’s Association ; Mr. C. J. Sheffield, of Cleve- 
land, O. ; Capt. Bogardus, the champion bird-shot, Miles 
Johnson of double-bird notoriety. Geo. B. Ellard, of the 
Cincinnati Club, and other gentlemen passing through 
the city. 
Mr. W. F. Parker has gone West in search of health 
and pleasure. The many friends he made as editor of 
the Ameriean Sportsman will be glad to hear of his wel- 
fare from lime to lime. 
The reports of grouse shooting in Scotland and the 
north of Scotland are more satisfactory than was antici- 
pated from the great destruction caused among the birds 
by last year’s epidemic. The value of grouse shooting 
as a source of revenue may be judged from the fact that 
the shooting privileges in Perthshire, a comparatively 
small county of Scotland, netted over $250,000 in 1874. 
Gbo. O. Cromwell, Assistant Treasurer Wis. Valley 
Railroad, headquarters at Tomah, Wis., reports very 
fine prairie chicken shooting along the line of their road. 
Deer and bear hunting, from present indications, will be 
better than for a number of years, and many crack 
shots intend visiting this region the coming season. 
The Connecticut Legislature have passed the follow- 
ing act to prevent cruelty to birds and animals; 
Sec. 1. No person shall keep any bird or fowl of any 
kind, for the sake of having said bird or fowl shot at 
for spurt, gain, the trial of skill of marksmen, or other 
purpose, or to be shot or shot at, at anj shooting match. 
No person shall let loose or suffer to escape from any 
trap, net or other place of confinement, or from any 
method of restraint, or expose in any way any bird or 
fowl of any kiijd, for the purpose of having such bird 
or fowl shot or shot at for sport, gain, the trial of skill 
of marksmen, or other purpose, to be shot or shot at, at 
any shooting match. 
Sec. 2. No person shall shoot or shoot at any bird or 
fowl of any kind exposed to be shot or shot at, for 
the purposes specified in the preceding section, or let 
loose, or suffered to escape in the manner and for the j 
purposes specified in said section. 1 
Sec. 3. Any jterson violating any provision of this 
act shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and shall 
pay a fine not exceeding fifty dollars, or be imprisoned 
in the county jail not exceeding thirty days, or both. 
The fishermen at Vallejo, Cal., catch a good many 
seals in their seines off the lower end of Mare Island. 
The seals enter the nets to eat the fish, and are unable 
to escape. One fisherman has caught four or five in a 
week. These are of a different kind from the fur seals 
of the north, and their pelts are worthless. They are 
killed, however, for their fat. 
Among the specimens lately added by the London 
Zoological Society to their living collection in the 
Regent’s Park is a small fresh water fish belonging to 
the family of siluroids, and remarkable for possessing 
an electric organ, like the better-known gymnotus, or 
electric eel. When touched by the fingers on the lower 
side of the body it gives forth a slight, but very per- 
ceptible, electric shock. 'The fish is from one of the 
rivers of West Africa, and is known to naturalists as 
the malapUrurus beninensis, from its having been oiig- 
inallj’ discovered in the River Beni. A closely allied 
species — the malapterurus electrieus — inhabits the Nile, 
and has been long known for its electrifying properties. 
It is believed that no example of any of these singular 
fishes has been previously brought alive to that country. 
Mr. Luther Adams’ bitch “Dora” has just thrown 
ten pups by “Pride of the Border,” all of which have 
died except four. 
