FOREST AND STREAM 
425 
Fur, Fin and Feather 
Nubbins of News From “ Forest and Stream’s ” Duffle Bag for the Information and Pleasure of Readers 
ENGLAND COPIES BIRD PLUMAGE LAW 
HERE. 
London, March ioth.—A bill prohibiting the 
importation of the plumage of wild birds and 
“bits of birds” into Great Britain passed its sec¬ 
ond reading in the House of Commons. The vote 
was 297 to 15. 
The bill is based on the law relating to the im¬ 
portation of the plumage of wild birds into the 
United States. 
KILLS MAN FOR DEER. 
A hunter in Canada has been placed under ar¬ 
rest for manslaughter, a coroner’s inquest held at 
Dauphin having brought to light the fact that 
Michael Kuzyk shot a neighbor, Nicoli Brattico, 
mistaking him for a deer. 
The New Hampshire commission has in its 
three hatcheries 6,000,000 eggs of lake and brook 
trout and salmon, which are now hatching, and 
distribution will commence about the middle of 
April. 
BILL TO STOP SUNDAY SPORT. 
Beacon (Matteawan), N. Y., March 10, 1914. 
Editor Forest and Stream, New York: 
Dear Sir:—The bill introduced in the New 
York legislature by Assemblyman Ferry making 
it a misdemeanor to hunt on Sunday and punish¬ 
able by a fine of $25, should have the approval 
and support of every self respecting sportsman 
in the state. 
There is nothing that tends to discredit and 
condemn the hunter in general in the eyes of the 
farmer or land holder, more than Sunday hunt¬ 
ing or shooting. 
More owners have posted their lands against 
hunting and fishing on this account than for any 
other, thereby shutting out the hunting for every 
one. The Sunday hunters as a class have little 
respect or consideration for the day or the pre¬ 
mises on which they hunt, and as this class of 
hunters are in the minority, then surely the ma¬ 
jority of the sportsmen would be benefitted and 
their privileges safeguarded by urging their local 
assemblymen and senators to support this bill in 
the legislature. CHAS. B. VAN SLYCK. 
CIVIL SERVICE FOR GAME WARDENS. 
All of the regular paid deputies and commis¬ 
sioners of fish and game in Massachusetts were 
placed in the civil service on March 1. No ex¬ 
amination will be required from those holding 
the paid positions at present. In the past the 
deputies were appointed for the year and it was 
possible to remove them from office without a 
hearing. Under the new arrangement it will be 
necessary to file charges against the officer and 
allow him a hearing and to defend himself. 
A bill making the open season on coot, shel¬ 
drake and whistlers from October 1 to January 
1, adding fifteen days to the winter shooting, was 
filed recently in Massachusetts. 
THREE AND ONE-HALF TONS OF FISH 
FROM ACRE POND. 
The state hatchery at Pratt, Kan., produced 
three and a half tons of fish in three years from a 
one-acre pond, according to State Warden L. L. 
Dyche, who recently outlined the method of 
hatching fry employed at that station. The fish 
put into the pond included black bass, crappie, 
blue gill sunfish, common green sunfish, bullhead 
catfish, a few hickory shad, German carp and 
about 300 goldfish. The latter were added as 
food for the others. 
“The pond,” said Mr. Dyche, “was thoroughly 
supplied with water plants, including various 
kinds of mosses. About one-fifteenth of the lake 
was covered with lilies. In 1911 some channel 
catfish and 2,000 bullhead catfish were added. 
The pond was practically undisturbed. The dense 
growth of vegetation was not interfered with, 
except occasionally, when boats were run through 
to open channels of water. The fish, when fed, 
were given liver, chopped up fish and corn chop. 
During the summers of 1911 and 1912 50 pounds 
of liver and 600 pounds of fish were supplied for 
food. 
“The bass were the first to appear at feeding 
time, and would get the first food thrown on the 
water. It was necessary to satisfy them before 
they would permit other fish to get food. The 
channel catfish would eat next. The blue-gills 
and sunfish would feed around the edges, grab¬ 
bing anything they could get. The bullheads 
came last and stayed the longest. No crappie was 
ever seen near the feeding station.” 
Mr. Dyche will ask the next legislature to es¬ 
tablish a fishing license of $1 a year. 
FOR OPTIONAL OPEN SEASON. 
In place of a bill recently introduced in the 
Massachusetts legislature advocating an open 
season on pheasant, there will be a substitute bill 
providing for the shooting of pheasant by farm¬ 
ers when they are destroying crops. Another 
article provides that the fish and game commis¬ 
sion can declare an open season on the birds at 
any time they think advisable, and in any section 
where they think that such a measure would be 
of advantage to the farmers. 
CONAN DOYLE CALLS PLUMES SAVAGE. 
Speaking at a recent meeting in London in sup¬ 
port of the plumage bill, now before Parliament, 
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, author of the Sherlock 
Holmes stories, said: 
“I hope that as white-feather cowardice is the 
greatest slur a man can wear, so may white- 
feather cruelty be the greatest a woman can wear 
upon her head.” 
WILD CATS TROUBLESOME. 
Bobcats in the neighborhood of the Missouri 
and Cannonball rivers, in North Dakota, are re¬ 
ported to have killed a large number of domes¬ 
tic animals recently. Only one has been reported 
killed. It was forty-two inches long. 
WALCOTT ADDRESSES COLLEGE MEN. 
The University Club, of Hartford, Conn., re¬ 
cently listened to an interesting illustrated address 
by Frederick C. Walcott, Yale, ’91, who owns a 
4,000 acre preserve in Norfolk, and has achieved 
success as an amateur game breeder. 
Mr. Walcott emphasized the fact that the 
growth of public sentiment in the behalf of such 
a preserve is more than likely to be accompanied 
by the development of unnecessary sentiment. In 
his idea the preserve should be, in every way, de¬ 
signed for practical purposes. He said that in the 
foundation of a game preserve there were three 
classes of despoilers who should be considered— 
the murderer, the ignorant collector and the 
sportsman. The sportsman class should be en¬ 
couraged—only that they should learn to use the 
camera instead of the rifle. 
An interesting process was demonstrated in 
the manner in which animals are made to take 
pictures of themselves. A bait is .placed, as if 
baiting a trap, and the animal, without knowing 
it, presses the button which takes his picture. Mr. 
Walcott has been very successful in obtaining 
results by this method. 
HOPE TO LIFT CHALLENGE CUP. 
(Continued from page 413.) 
made from the Cecilia, Aloha and America, a* 
these are approximately the size of the Ruby S. 
The Oakland Yacht Club, organized on Janu¬ 
ary 1, 1913, with a membership of thirteen and 
a fleet of five yachts, now has 135 members en¬ 
rolled, with a fleet of over twenty yachts, and as 
many more motor boats. At the annual election 
of officers recently held the following were 
chosen: Commodore, Eugene Schaeffer; vice¬ 
commodore, Bert Watkinson; secretary, Robert 
E. Mudge; treasurer, Arthur F. Lamborne; 
measurer, Jack Sherry; port captain, Dad Oden; 
directors, Harry Pulsifier, Jack Sherry, Frank 
Rittigstein, Benard La Costa and William E. 
Scully. 
The Aeolian Yacht Club, of Alameda, has 
chosen officers for 1914 as follows: Commodore, 
William Schroeder; vice-commodore, Carl 
Strom; secretary, William Kent; port captain, 
John McNamara; secretary, E. F. Evans; treas¬ 
urer, Fred Delanoy; directors, George Postel, 
William Watson and O. Hessemeyer; regatta 
committee, Larry Knight, M. Triallanes and H. 
Reise. 
EVER SEE AN INK FISH? 
While on a recent fishing excusion to Breton 
Island, of the Chandeleur Group, Captain Alfred 
Boasage, a Biloxi, Mississippi, fisherman, captured 
an inkadora or ink fish, according to a news re¬ 
port. 
Captain Boasage says that this is the second 
fish of the kind he has seen. When caught it was 
about a foot long. It has the faculty of regulat¬ 
ing its length, and is no more than five inches 
long. The fish is provided with an ink-like fluid, 
which it emits into the water when attacked. 
