FOREST AND STREAM 
349 
Fur, Fin and Feather 
Nubbins of News From “Forest and Stream’s” Duffle Bag for the Information and Pleasure of Readers 
MARKET HUNTERS IN ARKANSAS RECEIVE 
JOLT. 
Little Rock, Ark., March 3, 1914. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
The Federal game law has been received with 
general satisfaction by the sportsmen in this 
state. Our inspector, E. V. Visart, is very effi¬ 
cient and has already secured several convictions 
for killing ducks out of season, and the pot¬ 
hunters and market hunters are beginning to 
realize that the new law has teeth and has some¬ 
body behind it. 
Our Supreme Court has given game protection 
a great lift. In the case of State vs. Lewis, not 
yet officially reported, they decided that county 
laws were unconstitutional. The county law has 
been our great obstacle to a game law. Every 
county wanted something different. 
Some of the counties were exempted from the 
state law forbidding the sale of game. The re¬ 
sult was to annul the state law, for the market 
hunters shipped their game to those counties and 
from there exported it and no law could stop 
them. But the Lewis case holds that all counties 
must fare alike and no exemptions or restrictions 
can be put on one that do not apply to all. 
The Federal law will help us get a good game 
law, as it closes the spring shooting. That has 
always been an obstacle in the way. So many 
wanted spring shooting. Now we should have no 
trouble getting a game law to coincide with the 
National law and protect the non-migratory 
game. 
A TOPIC FOR DISCUSSION (NEW). 
New York, March 2, 1914. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
A hunting friend asked me a puzzler the other 
day: “Is the somewhat rare black squirrel of 
our Champlain Valley a ‘freak,’ or is he, like 
Topsey, ‘jes’ natchly borned brack,’ and, there¬ 
fore, not entitled to ‘benefit of clergy.’ ” The 
first black squirrels I ever saw were at Vineyard 
Farm, Ticonderoga, N. Y., under Buck Moun¬ 
tain. I recall now as though it were yesterday 
how four great grays and their two colored 
brothers all sprang from two famous hickory 
trees which, by the way, were standing last sum¬ 
mer. Those jumps occurred fifty years ago. 
Are these negro squirrels, like black foxes, ever 
found in the nests and among the litters of speci¬ 
mens of a different color than themselves? 
This I do know: Some black squirrels have 
white, others reddish, bellies. A pair now in 
Wanamaker’s store basement among the canary 
birds are entirely black. 
This is the point. We must do our best to 
prevent these rare squirrels from extermination 
if they are a pure species. I am sure I never 
thought about the matter before. I regret hav¬ 
ing killed so many of them in the past. 
PETER FLINT. 
New York uses over 470,000,000 board feet of 
wood for boxes and crating alone. This is equiv¬ 
alent to about three-fifths of the total amount of 
lumber cut in the state. Over 1,750,000,000 board 
feet of wood are used in New York every year. 
SAYS MONEY IS WASTED. 
“Thousands of dollars are being spent, practi¬ 
cally wasted, for fish propagation in Maryland,” 
said O. M. Dennis, former state game warden, 
recently. “The state has practically neglected to 
provide for protection. Not until after fifty 
years of constant agitation and the practical 
extermination, commercially, of the oyster, has 
Maryland been awakened to the fact that the 
oyster culture in Maryland must be protected or 
exterminated. If it has taken this long to awaken 
to the serious condition of the oyster, how long- 
will it take to recognize the necessity for the 
protection of the fish, and thus save to the peo¬ 
ple of our own state and other communities and 
from extermination one of the greatest natural 
food products of the world? 
“I am a state’s rights man, and am jealous of 
any action of the National Government which 
would deprive the state of a single right. But 
when I consider that the great bodies of water 
which produce natural food run through and by 
different states; when I consider that petty politi¬ 
cal influences, jealousies and other equally silly 
reasons prevent a state from protecting from 
extermination a natural food product, I am con¬ 
vinced that the only solution of this question is 
in rational control of the fish by the Federal 
Government.” 
WARNS AGAINST “TAXIDERMY SCHOOL.” 
A warning to Pennsylvania sportsmen in re¬ 
gard to a concern in Omaha, Neb., doing busi¬ 
ness as a “School of Taxidermy,” was issued re¬ 
cently by State Game Commissioner Joseph Kall- 
fus, who said in part: 
“These people are sending broadcast all over 
Pennsylvania, and I presume over the nation, 
their circulars showing how the poor boy, 
through the payment of a $10 bill to them, may 
be taught, through the mails, to obtain profitable 
employment through the mounting of birds and 
animals. 
“Many of those receiving these circulars do 
not understand the law of this state; they be¬ 
lieve they have the right to kill, and to mount, 
and to sell any of the birds of the state that 
come their way; they see, through these circu¬ 
lars, a sure way to wealth, and hundreds of 
young men are throwing away their money in 
this direction. 
“I say throwing away, because not one of 
those people can legally kill a wild bird, other 
than a game bird, for the purpose of profit. No 
person can buy of sell or have in possession in 
this state such birds, or any part thereof, except 
under a certificate issued by the game commis¬ 
sion, and the law provides that no certificate of 
this kind shall issue, unless it be to a person who 
is a teacher of ornithology in these schools of the 
commonwealth, or connected with a public mu¬ 
seum. 
“No person can kill birds, except under the 
provisions of law, and no person can buy or 
sell certain game birds at any time under our 
law. 
“The game commission years ago concluded 
that enough birds had been destroyed for so- 
called scientific purposes, and that enough had 
been written from these killings to answer all 
the requirements of coming generations. 
“The penalty for killing or having in posses¬ 
sion, or selling, game birds is $25; the penalty 
for killing, or having in possession, or selling 
wild birds other than game birds is $10.” 
THE FIRST SONG SPARROW HERE. 
White Plains, N. Y., March 2, 1914. 
Editor Forest and Stream : 
In reply to your invitation I am happy to an¬ 
nounce to you and your many subscribers that 
another spring has been heralded. 
On Saturday morning last, February 28th, on 
my way to the railroad station, I heard the song 
of the song sparrow. I saw the little musician, 
otherwise I would have doubted my sense f 
hearing. Just think, the song of this little warbler 
has been perpetuated through all the past ages 
without the loss of a single note. How my heart 
went out in thanksgiving to the little songster. 
I was made happy all the day for his little matin. 
I am an intense lover of nature in all her vari¬ 
ous moods. I wish I could picture to the readers 
of Forest and Stream my love for the great silent 
forests, the streams, the beautiful flowers found 
far from the habitations of men, the ferns, which 
I consider the most beautiful green thing in crea¬ 
tion, and the song birds that we hear alongside 
the limpid trout streams, for I know this time 
you are sure that I am a disciple of Walton and 
an admirer of the speckled beauty. 
I am now in my sixty-eig’nth year and have 
followed the trout streams of my native state 
(dear old Vermont) ever since I was nine years 
old, beginning with a bent pin for a hook. I am 
now as eager to have the time arrive when I can 
once more cast the deceptive fly and see the rush 
of that matchless beauty as when a boy. 
That first tug at the line, and the golden- 
spotted denizen of the sparkling, rushing stream 
safe in my landing net, and then in my creel. 
Hear him thrash around! Talk about music, 
why, it’s a whole orchestra at that wonderfully 
thrilling moment. 
Well, Mr. Editor, I must stop or you will 
surely think me demented. In closing I want to 
extend to you my hearty thanks for your efforts 
in providing for the game birds and animals dur¬ 
ing the winter season, for greater caution on the 
part of hunters not to sacrifice human life, for 
the abolition of the high-power rifle, and for 
good, clean, honest sportsmanship. 
GEO. B. SEARS. 
TAXIDERMIST WILL FIGHT. 
A taxidermist of Sultan, N. D., who was ar¬ 
rested recently charged with having in his posses¬ 
sion the head of a deer killed out of season, says 
he will fight the prosecution, asserting that there 
is nothing in the game laws prohibiting any taxi¬ 
dermist having in his collection any animal or 
bird, whether legally killed or not. 
