Forest and Stream 
A Weekly Journal. Copyright, 1906, by Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 
T ""‘-^ Y M e :';^a ,C ” Py 1 NEW YORK, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER i 7 , 1906. 
The object of this journal will be to studiously 
promote a healthful interest in outdoor recre¬ 
ation, and to cultivate a refined taste for natural 
objects. Announcement in first number of 
Forest and Stream, Aug. 14,1873. 
Federal Control of Migratory Game. 
The most important subject in the field of 
game and fish protection now under considera¬ 
tion is the plan proposed by Hon. Geo. Shiras 
3d, to intrust to the Federal Government the 
protection of migratory species of game birds and 
of fish in public waters. The plan involves a 
consideration of the constitutional authority of 
the Federal Government to exercise such juris¬ 
diction. To this problem Mr. Shiras has given 
long and serious study; his conclusions are em¬ 
bodied in a brief which he has prepared and 
which will be printed as a special eight-page sup¬ 
plement in cur issue of next week, Nov. 24. 
The brief is an illuminating and instructive 
document and will be read with the greatest in¬ 
terest by those who are seeking a solution of 
the perplexing problem of the conservancy of our 
game and fish supply. 
QUAIL OF THE SOUTH. 
For the Northern and Middle States, this is 
the very height of the upland shooting season. 
The partridges are fat in the woods and along 
the steep hemlock hillsides; the quail have begun 
to settle down on their winter feeding grounds, 
and even as these pages are read, the flight 
woodcock may be coming in from the north or 
may be feeding in some nearby cover. 
For many of us in the north, on the other 
hand, the shooting season is nearly over. No¬ 
where does it last longer than through Decem¬ 
ber, while in many States the last open day is 
the 30th of November. In the good old times 
things were not so. Then we had at least three 
months of gunning and birds enough to last 
through the three months; but now through our 
own shortsightedness and through the growth of 
interest in outdoor sports—the birds are few and 
the gunners many. 
As the shooting season closes in the north, it 
will open in the south. Beyond Mason and 
Dixon's line the weather has as yet been warm, 
the leaves still hang on the trees, the weeds are 
not withered, and the air is full of dust, which 
makes it difficult for the dogs to scent the birds. 
After the killing frosts have come, say about 
Christmas time, or a little earlier, it will be 
worth while to go south for a shooting trip. 
Many who have the leisure, or who wisely in¬ 
terrupt the winter’s work by a few weeks’ vaca¬ 
tion in the field, will start south, intent on having 
some quail shooting. Some will go to clubs, 
others to places that they have long visited, but 
each year there is a constantly increasing multi¬ 
tude who desire to find good localities where 
there are birds, and a reasonable amount of 
creature comforts. In our issue of next week, 
and of following weeks, we shall endeavor to 
supply these seekers after knowledge with just 
the information which they want for the southern 
Atlantic States north of Florida. We shall tell 
them where to go, the names of the hotels of 
the town or village, the names of guides who can 
take them afield, and of people with whom they 
may correspond, and shall in every way try to 
make smooth their pleasant paths southward. In 
other words we shall put them in the way of 
securing that specific information about shooting 
grounds which is ordinarily the one thing the 
sportsman wants—and cannot get—about a new 
shooting locality. The information which we 
shall give in these numbers will be of very great 
help to all our south traveling readers. 
THE LONG ISLAND DEER. 
In another column will be found a communi¬ 
cation from Mr. Harry Palmer in relation to the 
Long Island deer shooting season. We take 
pleasure in indorsing everything he says, particu¬ 
larly as his remarks are in line with what Forest 
and Stream has advocated in years past. 
If sportsmen were to take advantage of the 
four-day open season to 1 unt deer on Long 
Island in a quiet and orderly manner, we would 
not have a word to say against the present law, 
for deer increase rapidly enough under the 361- 
day closed season every year to furnish fair sport 
for a large number of sportsmen, who, perhaps, 
cannot afford the time or expense of a longer 
journey into the Adirondacks or elsewhere; but 
while they may have done so- originally, very few 
self-respecting sportsmen have the temerity to 
join the throng which is found on Long Island 
now when the brief season of four days is open. 
Further than this, we would favor the Long 
Island open season if it were taken advantage 
of by sportmen of moderate means, for it would 
then give these men opportunities to enjoy that 
which their more fortunate fellows could well 
afford tO' travel further afield to enjoy. But 
we protest that the gangs of armed ruffians that 
invade Lqng Island on the occasions mentioned 
are not only a menace to the peace of the citizens 
there, but a disgrace to modern civilization, and 
as this deplorable state of affairs continues to 
grow worse every year, it has become painfully 
evident that there is only one remedy, and that 
is to repeal the present law. 
It is only reasonable to 1 expect that, when deer 
can be shot so near to New York city, large 
numbers of men will take advantage of the four 
open days to visit Long Island and try for game. 
And as the hunters have increased in numbers, 
it follows that in order tO' get a shot each man 
must be on hand early on the opening day. The 
logical conclusion is that the crowd will go out 
the night before, in order to be on the stands 
before daybreak. None of the village hostelries 
can take care of the horde, and so eager are all 
hands that sleep is not thought of. Well supplied 
with liquid encouragement, those who cannot or 
do not care to secure beds swarm about the 
saloons, build fires outside, sing, shout and in¬ 
dulge in horseplay and other disorderly methods 
of killing time. Fancy how much the residents 
of Long Island enjoy the coming, annually, of 
this army of invasion! Men are made uneasy, 
women afraid, and children are frightened. 
Liquor, loss of sleep and the possession of fire¬ 
arms are well calculated to make a lawless beast 
of any man, however peaceable he may be in his 
normal state at home. 
Midnight scarcely passes ere the crowds are on 
their way to the most favorable places for deer, 
and the residents who can sleep through the re¬ 
maining hours until daylight are indeed fortu¬ 
nate. What follows has been told in these col¬ 
umns repeatedly. Quarrels with serious results 
are common. Men who- actually kill deer are 
often held up and their game taken away from 
them. Disputes over the ownership of deer are 
settled by physical encounters. The man who 
can kill a deer and get away with it is the fortu¬ 
nate exception. The grounds of the preserve 
clubs must be patrolled by watchmen to prevent 
invasion and the killing and capture of deer 
raised by them. Men armed with every con¬ 
ceivable weapon known line the highways, hover 
about the preserves and run over private prop¬ 
erty, quarreling, fighting, insulting residents. 
These, be it known, are not wild deer. They 
would not exist were it not for the preserve 
clubs. They would not be found on open ground 
at all if the preserve inclosures were adequate. 
If high fences were placed around the preserves 
and the tame deer driven into them early in 
November, there would be no deer shooting for 
the crowd that goes to Long Island. 
As Mr. Palmer says, and as we have said in 
other years, close Long Island to the would-be 
deerslayers and let the clubs raise all the deer 
they may elect. If they increase too rapidly, 
or become a nuisance to the farmers and truck- 
growers, the surplus can be turned out in the 
Catskills, Sullivan county or the Adirondacks. 
There was a time when an open season on Long 
Island was desired by the sportsmen, but that 
time has passed. The New York Legislature 
ought to repeal the present Long Island deer law 
and put a stop tO' conditions that have become 
intolerable. 
Rumors of vast flocks of wild pigeons come in 
from various points in Michigan, Wisconsin and 
neighboring States. This is all interesting, but 
inconclusive. No one has satisfactorily identified 
the birds as wild pigeons. Until an actual specimen 
has been captured and by some competent au¬ 
thority pronounced to be a wild pigeon the re¬ 
ports have no real value. A bird in the hand is 
worth a mile of birds in the air. 
