862 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Dec. i, 1906. 
All the game laws of the United States and 
Canada, revised to date and now in force, are 
given in the Game Lazos in Brief. See adv. 
Breeding Quail in Massachusetts. 
Whitinsville, Mass., Nov. 15.— Editor Forest 
and Stream: I give herewith an outline of our 
work last winter in feeding and liberating quail 
for the purpose of keeping up the stock of birds 
in our covers; also, the result of our observa¬ 
tions as to the breeding of the birds during the 
past summer. 
We set the birds free—twelve dozen that we 
bought—the latter part of December, 1905. We 
placed them in lots in the manner as described 
in a former article which was published in your 
issue of Nov. 18, 1905, and we used the same 
feeding box illustrated there in nearly all cases. 
There was no snow at the time and three or four 
of the coveys wandered further than they would 
have otherwise. We found all but one, how¬ 
ever, within an eighth of a mile at farthest, and 
established new feeding places that the birds 
accepted and used thereafter. The covey that 
was lost we think appeared in the spring about a 
mile from where they were put out. At all 
events, we found a covey then that could be 
easily accounted as the lost one, but we have 
not figured it into the totals of birds fed. 
Most of the quail put out seemed satisfied 
with our selection of location and stayed around 
the feeding boxes until late in the spring. Of 
this lot of twelve dozen birds we counted as 
carried through, 92, nearly 65 per cent. The 
counting was done about the middle of Febru¬ 
ary on a light snow, by noting the different 
tracks at the various feeding places, and we 
think the aggregate is well within the number. 
We saved a much larger percentage of this 
planting than we did of that of a year ago, partly 
on account of the mild winter with little snow 
and the fact that the quail were a much stronger 
lot than the former ones. We are certain that 
some of these birds raised young quail this sea¬ 
son, and we believe that many of them must 
have done so. 
We also fed and cared for seven coveys of 
native quail which counted fifty-nine birds, mak¬ 
ing a total of 151 for both boughten and natives. 
The natives give the best results as to raising 
birds, and we were fortunate to be able to find 
so many of these. 
We intend this coming season to depend on 
the natives altogether, and will begin to look 
them up as soon as the shooting season closes, 
Dec. 1. We think these native quail will now 
give us all the birds that will naturally stay with 
us through the season and probably more. 
There is no doubt that quail move about to 
quite a large extent in the effort to find suitable 
homes for themselves; that is, a given section 
will support a certain quantity, and if more are 
placed there, they are likely to move to where 
feed and range are more suitable. 
We think some of the broods raised in our 
section have already moved off in this manner. 
We made a special point of searching out the 
young broods to get an idea as to how the quail 
bred the past season. We found, or were in¬ 
formed of, 22 coveys of young quail. Only three 
of these were reported by farmers, the rest 
were all seen by reliable men, and we think 
none were counted twice. 
We found most of them during the month of 
August, and we used our dogs to hunt them up, 
the same as though we were hunting regularly. 
The accompanying photo shows a couple of 
setters pointing one of these coveys of young 
quail. We counted fourteen in this particular 
lot when they flushed, and they were nice, strong 
birds. Nearly all the young birds were found 
in the mowing fields, where grasshoppers were 
plentiful, and we think the birds were feeding 
on them. 
We have good evidence that four of these 
broods of young quail were second broods. 
They were discovered quite late in the season 
and were very small individuals. In the case 
of two of these second broods the cock quail 
alone was with them. We observed this more 
than once in each case. We do not try to ex¬ 
plain how it came that a lone cock had these 
little chaps under his care—perhaps some of 
your readers can. It is some expense and a 
little trouble to feed quail through the winter 
as we have done, but we think it pays, as the 
results are practically sure. Quail can stand 
TAKING A CENSUS. 
all the cold and snow we have, provided they 
are fed. The parent stock is saved by this 
means, and we are assured of having birds for 
the next season. 
We do not think it is possible to shoot all the 
quail out of a section of country, but we do 
feel certain that a long, hard winter will kill 
every one if they do not get a little outside help. 
We find a good many quail this fall. Our sec¬ 
tion is not a particularly favorable one for quail, 
as we have no large number of cultivated fields 
which the birds seek naturally for feeding places 
late in the season; still it is not unusual to start 
two or three coveys in a day’s hunt, and this is 
about as good as we have ever done and they 
help out a lot in a day’s sport. 
Cyrus A. Taft. 
Long Island Game. 
Bayport, N. Y., Nov. 20.— Editor Forest and 
Stream: The gunning season around here since 
the first of November has been most successful 
considering the dry weather we have had which 
has made it difficult for the dogs to work. Good 
bags of quail and rabbits have been secured and 
partridges (which a few years ago were almost 
extinct around here) are quite plentiful,_ but the 
woods and foliage are so thick it makes this shoot¬ 
ing somewhat difficult. Duck shooting is better 
than we have had in several years. The bay is 
literally full of ducks. Several bags of thirty to 
forty a day have been secured the past week. 
Guests shooting from the hotel the past week 
were J. K. Hackett and wife (Mary Mannering), 
J. Reichert, J. C. Hanway, F. Lawrence, A. Wolff, 
H. R. Lawrence. J. L. Murphy, E. L. Rhett, A. 
B. Rhett, L. L. Hayes, N. Y. city; D. M. Johnson, 
Utica, N. Y.; A. G. Conolly, Oscar Johansohn, 
E. A. Demonet, J. Klenk, G. A. Whitehead from 
Brooklyn. Henry Stokes. 
The Alaska Game Law. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
A few years ago a wise step was taken by the 
authorities at Washington when, by an act of 
Congress, certain laws were passed for the pro¬ 
tection of game throughout the Territory of 
Alaska. This act had for its primary object 
the laudable intention of preserving the game in 
a country which is undoubtedly to-day the great¬ 
est haunt of big game on the American conti¬ 
nent. Nothing could have been more accept¬ 
able to the minds of all true sportsmen than the 
object aimed at by such an act, provided that 
it was framed and drawn up in a practical 
manner by men who were conversant with the 
existing state of affairs in Alaska. But. alas! 
if we may judge from opinions freely expressed 
to-day by residents in that country, the law in 
its present form and the modes adopted for its 
enforcement require prompt and considerable 
alterations if any good purpose is to be effected 
by it. 
So peculiar, and even unreasonable, are cer¬ 
tain of the conditions now imposed, that certain 
of the clauses in the act, and the results of such, 
are worthy of a moment’s consideration by any 
fair judges who may be interested in these 
matters. 
Let us take, for example, the latest copy of 
the Alaskan game law issued from the U. S. 
Department of Agriculture on June 4, 1904. In 
its preamble this act states that “the primary 
object of the Alaska game law is the preserva¬ 
tion of game for the use of the people in Alaska, 
native and white.” So far, so good, although 
on the face of it the act seems to be directed 
only against the wandering sportsmen, and of 
them the number who are found sufficiently 
hardy to rove as far as this distant land in any 
one year might be reckoned on the fingers of 
one hand. So few indeed are they that their 
depredations among the big game of Alaska 
are likely to be infinitesimal for many years yet 
to come. Consequently it is hardly to be pre¬ 
sumed that any act could have been passed 
which intended to utterly exclude every sports¬ 
man from a country which teems with fauna as 
Alaska does. More particularly so when we 
consider that in every other country where large 
and small game exist, some form of laws are 
in force which extend privileges, within reason¬ 
able limits, impartially to international sports¬ 
men. It is worthy of note, therefore, when we 
see the present false position in which a sports¬ 
man is placed on arrival in Alaska. 
Section 3 of the present law reads as follows: 
“That it shall be unlawful for any person at any 
time to kill any females or yearlings of moose, 
caribou, deer, or sheep, or for any one person 
to kill in any one year more than the number 
specified of each of the following game animals: 
Two moose, walrus, or sea lions, four caribou, 
sheep, goats, or large brown bears, etc., etc.” 
In addition to the above, caribou are entirely 
protected within certain districts. Also, it is 
illegal to take or ship out from Alaska any 
trophies or specimens of big game, with the ex¬ 
ception of bears, unless their owner holds per¬ 
mits for the same from the Department of Agri¬ 
culture at Washington. For some unexplained 
reason the department has refused nearly every 
application for such permits during the last 
three seasons. In consequence, a sportsman, 
on arrival in Alaska, finds himself in the fol¬ 
lowing absurd position, owing to the illogical 
state of affairs existing to-day. He can go 
to any part of Alaska, and kill the number of 
animals allowed by Section 3, with the excep¬ 
tion of a few closed districts above mentioned, 
but he is obliged, for lack of permits to export 
them, to leave his specimens of horns or hides 
rotting on the ground. A more ridiculous state 
