FOREST AND STREAM. 
[July 7, 1906. 
16 
former captive, and to ascertain, if possible, 
the cause for its strange and unusual actions, 
but my journey was in vain. I searched the 
place and vicinity carefully for an hour or more, 
but could find nothing of my acquaintance of 
the previous evening, and had to come away 
without satisfying my curiosity as to its un¬ 
accountable conduct. 
Now upon consideration, the fawn did act 
strangely in not observing my approach, and 
in swimming in a circle, and again in allowing 
me to catch it in the water after I had once 
let it go. One would naturally first think that 
it was blind, but I saw its eyes at close range, 
and more than once; and they did not impress me 
as appearing otherwise than normal. And, if 
it were blind, what about its sense of smell? 
Why did that not give warning of the approach 
of an enemy—and especially that most dreaded 
of all enemies, man? . I have observed that full 
grown deer fear more the smell than the sight 
of man, and have been led to believe from what 
I have read, that it is the same with fawns a 
few days or a few weeks old at most. But 1 
never before had a chance to observe a fawn 
in a wild state away from the influence of its 
mother. This one certainly acted in a manner 
far different from what I had been led to ex¬ 
pect. In the first instance, it made no objection 
to my presence, until actually in my grasp, and 
in the second, it did not try to avoid me when 
in the water. I should not have been so sur¬ 
prised, if it had been young and weak, or if 
it had been emaciated and weak, but on the con¬ 
trary, it was a large fawn, plainly in good flesh, 
and gave ample evidence of a strong and vigor¬ 
ous constitution. 
May not the explanation after all be, that we 
have been misled into believing that fawns 
have an instinctive dread of human beings? I 
offer this only as a suggestion. If this is so, 
then the deer’s actions were not strange after 
all. A colt, or calf, unused to handling, will 
struggle violently to free itself. And may not 
swimming have been a new experience, and 
swimming in a circle have been due to excite¬ 
ment and confusion caused by fear of going 
further from shore, and the fear of turning 
back to its former captors? Did this deer act 
strangely or not? G. D. B. 
The Automatic Gun. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
In your issue of June 9, a correspondent has 
put the argument of those who favor the most 
efficient methods of exterminating game, as well 
as the case allows. 
The fact that game has increased rapidly in 
some districts where modern weapons have taken 
the place of muzzleloaders is not conclusive. 
A, more elaborate supervision of game interests, 
more restrictive laws and a more expensive and 
careful police system may. have counteracted the 
deadly possibilities of newer weapons to a cer¬ 
tain degree in some localities, but that wild creat¬ 
ures in general have suffered from the increased 
destructiveness of weapons it is vain to deny. 
Some reasoners -maintain that civilization is 
advanced by the extermination of game, especially 
of big game, though I do not personally believe 
that wasteful or cruel butchery is ever in the 
interests of civilization, but, taking the ordinary 
view that the capture of game should be con¬ 
fined within such limits as permit the regular 
maintenance of the game supply, it is easy to 
see that very fatal, and easily-worked killing 
machines may be undesirable. 
It is well understood that dynamiting fish, 
though an easy and effective method of capture 
made possible by comparatively modern inven¬ 
tions in explosives, is a wasteful process that 
tends to devastate the fishing grounds. Some 
kinds of nets are found too fatal for the main¬ 
tenance of normal numbers of certain kinds of 
fish. Traps and. snares at times make whole 
districts barren of grouse. Poisoned grain, 
heavy caliber swivel guns and night shooting 
have all been proven to diminish the numbers of 
wildfowl faster than normal reproduction can fill 
the ranks. 
All these methods of slaughter have been made 
subjects of penal legislation. 
There is no difference in principle between 
prohibiting the use of swivel guns or pump guns 
or automatic guns. 
The march of invention has not been hampered 
by laws forbidding the use of high explosives for 
the killing of fish. And as long as guns are used 
for military purposes, inventors can always find 
an outlet for superior destruction. 
It is clear that no principle is violated by pro¬ 
hibiting the use of automatic guns in the pursuit 
of game-; and if such arms invite to wasteful 
slaughter and threaten the extinction or danger¬ 
ous diminution of the game supply, they should 
be prohibited. G. H. Gould. 
First Prize Moose Head. 
The moose head winning first prize in the 
Forest and Stream competition, killed by Mr. 
Joseph B. Townsend, 3d, is here illustrated. The 
details of the killing and the measurements of 
the trophy follow: 
Philadelphia, Pa., Dec. 18 .—Editor Forest 
and Stream: I desire to enter for your prize 
competition for the best moose head secured 
in the year 1905, in the hunting grounds of the 
United States and Canada, the head of a moose 
which was shot by my son, Joseph B. Town¬ 
send, 3d, at 6:45 P. M. on Tuesday,. September 
19, 1905. He killed this moose on Burnedland 
Brook, Deadwater, in the county of Temis- 
couata, in the Province of Quebec, about two 
miles and a quarter northeast from my perma¬ 
nent, camp, on the Third Squatteck Lake, other¬ 
wise known as Sugar Loaf Lake, and on 
property leased by the Provincial Government 
to the Squatteck Fish and Game Club, of which 
both my son and I are members. The boy 
left the main camp with Isidore Plourd, as 
guide, at 4:45 in the afternoon of the date above 
mentioned, and made the carry to the Dead- 
water, where I had a small hunting camp. He 
killed his moose, and was back at the main 
camp for supper at half-past seven the same 
evening. I inclose herewith four photographs 
of the head, one of which shows the right hand 
side of the head, another of which shows the 
left hand side of the head, another of which 
shows the head in profile, while a fourth is 
taken with the head standing perpendicularly 
upon the base of the neck, with the dimensions 
of the horn marked upon it. 
While I doubt not that you will have sub¬ 
mitted very many heads, the spread of which is 
larger than that herewith submitted, which 
measures as you will see by refernece to the 
photograph, 5 2% inches, I question whether any 
can be submitted which are more symmetrical. 
I may add in conclusion, that the measure¬ 
ments herewith submitted, were taken by me 
personally in conjunction with Mr. David 
McCadden, the taxidermist of the Academy of 
Natural Sciences in this city, who mounted the 
head for me, and also that I enter this head in 
the name of my son, whose present duties at 
college have precluded his taking the neces¬ 
sary measurements, and conducting the corre¬ 
spondence with you. J. B. Townsend, Jr. 
Extreme width measured between • perpen¬ 
diculars A and B, and not diagonally, 52^4 
inches. 
Width of right blade, I to J, inches. 
Width of left blade, K to L, iijA inches. 
Circumference of horns at N, 815-16; atO, 
815-16. Measurements from M to N, 14% in.; 
O to P, 15 inches; C to L, 3554 inches; D to H, 
36% inches; C to F, 34% inches; D to G, 34% 
inches. 
Feather Law to be Tested. 
As the result of a conference between Com¬ 
missioner Whipple of the State Forest, Fish add 
Game Department and B. F. Feiner, representing 
the millinery importefs of New York City, rela¬ 
tive to the enforcement of the law which prohibits 
the possession for sale or the sale of feathers or 
parts of foreign birds in this State, a test case 
will be prepared. 
\\ e know of no better antidote for absurdities 
in natural history and concerning' animal life 
generally than is supplied by our sprightly con¬ 
temporary, Forest and Stream, of New York. 
The foolish sentimentalism about animals that 
has got into our American literature of late, and 
the grotesque misinformation concerning wild 
life which “tenderfeet” and imaginative syndicate 
writers so industriously disseminate, get scant 
mercy at the hands of the men and women who 
write for this journal and who are past masters 
in the facts of animal life. — Christian Advocate. 
diagram of measurements. 
