464 
FOREST AND STREAM 
Oct. ii, 1913. 
Published Weekly by the 
Forest and Stream Publishing Company, 
Charles Otis, President. 
W. G. Beecroft, Secretary. W. T. Gallagher, Treasurer. 
127 Franklin Street, New York. 
CORRESPONDENCE — Forest and Stream is the 
recognized medium of entertainment, instruction and in¬ 
formation between American sportsmen. The editors 
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are devoted, but, of course, are not responsible for the 
views of correspondents. Anonymous communications 
cannot be regarded. 
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THE OBJECT OF THIS JOURNAL 
will be to studiously promote a healthful in¬ 
terest in outdoor recreation, and to cultivate 
a refined taste for natural objects. 
—Forest and Stream, Aug. 14, 1873. 
GAME CONDITIONS. 
Numerous States are restocking preserves 
with elk and other big game. In the effort to 
protect this game, Pennsylvania, Vermont, West 
Virginia and Wisconsin have protected elk for 
a term of years, and in Massachusetts, where 
a few moose have escaped from the Blue Moun¬ 
tain Forest Reserve into the adjoining wood¬ 
lands, a perpetual close season for moose has 
been provided in the hope that this area may 
eventually be restocked from this nucleus. 
During the year eighteen States created 
game preserves, fourteen in the United States 
and four in Manitoba. In Washington the 
county game commissioners were authorized to 
create game preserves, not to include more than 
three townships in a county, and the authorities 
of Michigan, Ohio and Vermont were authorized 
to establish game preserves by contract on pri¬ 
vate lands. 
One of the marked features of the legisla¬ 
tion of the year was the unusual progress in the 
establishment of bird and game refuges. By 
executive order four national bird reserves were 
created, the Aleutian Reservation, containing the 
entire chain of Aleutian Islands, in Alaska, and 
the smaller reservations of Walker Lake in 
Arkansas, Petit Bois Island on the coast of 
Alabama, and Anaho Island in Pyramid Lake, 
Nevada, thus bringing the total number of na¬ 
tional bird reservations up • to sixty-four. Re¬ 
cently the Niobrara Bird Reservation has been 
enlarged and stocked with a herd of buffalo, elk 
and deer. 
A number of changes in laws protecting big 
game were made during the year. Colorado 
and North Dakota prohibited all killing of deer 
for a term of years, and Saskatchewan has pro¬ 
vided a close season throughout the year for 
all big game south of latitude 52 degrees. Laws 
protecting does at all seasons were enacted in 
Florida, Nevada and Wyoming. The deer sea¬ 
sons were shortened from two weeks to two 
months in Utah, Wyoming and Quebec. New 
Hampshire lengthened the season two weeks in 
Coos county, Vermont ten days, and Massachu¬ 
setts opened the season in the few dosed coun¬ 
ties, thus permitting shooting throughout the 
State. 
Wyoming and Montana, heretofore afford¬ 
ing the principal hunting for elk and sheep, have 
recently limited the hunting area to a few coun¬ 
ties in each State, where the seasons have usual¬ 
ly been shortened. Wyoming has adopted the 
innovation of allowing the killing of female elk 
only under ordinary resident licenses and re¬ 
quiring licensees to obtain a special $15 license 
to kill a bull or an additional cow. 
The most important changes in seasons are 
due to the passage of the Federal law protect¬ 
ing migratory birds, appearing elsewhere in this 
issue. Under the regulations proposed by the 
Department of Agriculture, spring shooting is 
entirely eliminated, and the seasons materially 
shortened in several States. 
Restriction of hunting and greater unifor¬ 
mity of laws is the general trend of State legis¬ 
lation in the matter of seasons. Florida repealed 
all local game laws and made the seasons uni¬ 
form throughout the State and the passage of 
a measure in Wisconsin adopting the same open¬ 
ing date for upland game as is in force in Min¬ 
nesota and North Dakota illustrates the fact. 
New York placed a close season on quail 
for five years, and Kansas added both quail and 
prairie chickens to the close season list until 
1918. Ohio suspended hunting of quail, ruffed 
grouse and doves for two years. Pennsylvania 
eliminated the open season on doves, kildeer, 
plover and blackbirds, while Utah extended com¬ 
plete protection to doves, swans and all shore 
birds except snipe. The trend of legislation 
during the last year has been toward lengthening 
the close season. 
Delaware shortened the season on ducks a 
month and on geese two weeks; Indiana cur¬ 
tailed the season six weeks on doves and ten 
days on quail and ruffed grouse; Michigan, six¬ 
teen days on woodcock; and Missouri, one month 
on quail; Oregon shortened the season forty-five 
days on doves and pigeons, six weeks on shore 
birds, rail and geese, and west of the Cascades 
curtailed the season on ducks seventeen days. 
New Jersey shortened the open season twenty- 
six days on upland game and nineteen days on 
woodcock, while Pennsylvania cut down the 
woodcock season two weeks. In Utah, forty-five 
days were taken off the open season on sage 
hens and in Wyoming one month was subtracted 
on sage grouse and two months on sage hen and 
geese. 
SOME NOVEL GAME LAWS. 
Ohio and Pennsylvania now require hunters 
to wear a badge conspicuously exposed, bearing 
the number of their hunting license, according 
to the Department of Agriculture. 
Hunters' are required by the authorities of 
Manitoba to wear a white coat or sweater and 
cap, while those who hunt for big game in 
Saskatchewan must wear a complete outer suit 
and cap of white. 
Maine. New Jersey, North Dakota, Wash¬ 
ington, Mississippi, Louisiana, Minnesota and 
Wyoming prohibit the use of silencers. Con¬ 
necticut has provided that any hunter who shall 
injure a fence or let down a bar without re¬ 
placing it shall forfeit his hunting license and 
the license privilege for two years. 
Connecticut, Pennsylvania and British Co¬ 
lumbia require license applicants under sixteen 
years of age to furnish the written consent of 
parent or guardian. Vermont has a similar re¬ 
striction for those under fifteen, and Oregon 
does not permit children under fourteen years 
old to hunt except on the premises of their 
parents, relatives or guardians. 
MIGRATORY BIRD BILL SIGNED. 
The proclamation of the President approv¬ 
ing the regulations for the protection of migra¬ 
tory birds, prepared by the Department of Agri¬ 
culture, was signed on Oct. 1, and the regula¬ 
tions are now in effect. 
A comprehensive plan for the enforcement 
of the new law has been made, but the details 
have not yet been fully worked out. Briefly 
this plan contemplates the division of the coun¬ 
try into thirteen districts, each in charge of an 
experienced inspector and a force of about 200 
picked men selected by the State warden de¬ 
partments. 
The new law provides only for close sea¬ 
sons, and as the seasons are now open, or shortly 
will be in nearly all the States, the new regu¬ 
lations can now be put into force to better ad¬ 
vantage than at any other time of the year. 
The task of putting the new law into effect 
concerns every State in the Union and is one 
of the greatest ever attempted in the history of 
game protection. 
The new law relates only to close seasons 
and violations in most cases involve also viola¬ 
tions of the State law. A hunter shooting out 
of season may also have violated the provisions 
of the State law as to seasons, license, bag 
limits or in other ways. 
The new regulations contain several novel 
features such as prohibiting hunting on certain 
navigable rivers, shooting after sunset and pro¬ 
tecting certain birds for five years. Several of 
these features are likely to be misunderstood 
and may arouse opposition. In such cases prob¬ 
ably the department will not resort to extreme 
measures until the public has had time to be¬ 
come fully informed as to the regulations. 
Arrests for technical violations under the 
law or regulations will not be made at present. 
The Biological Survey is using every effort 
to spread broadcast the new regulations, and 
Forest and Stream readers are urged to ac¬ 
quaint themselves thoroughly with the complete 
bill in another column. 
EXPLANATION. 
We didn't forget 'em, nor yet did we inten¬ 
tionally arouse your interest in ’em, and then 
leave ’em out. The fact is, the unusual amount 
of imperative game conditions material cramped 
the columns to such an extent we had to save 
for this issue some of the good things intended 
for the last issue, i. e.: “Game Birds in New 
York State,” real stuff, every bit; “Deer Hunt¬ 
ing in Louisiana,” the trip you’ll want to take: 
and “The Flight of the Little Gray Coots,” a 
duck story that will hit you in more places than 
a charge of No. 8 at fifty yards. The next 
hour will be a dandy for you. 
