720 
FOREST AND STREAM 
Live Notes From The Field 
Being Weekly Reports From Our Local Correspondents 
SNAKE VS. SQUIRREL. 
Centralia, Ill., May 18, 1914.—Mike McCarthy, 
a cigar maker of Taylorville, tells the following 
interesting story of a battle between squirrels 
and a snake, which he witnessed a day or two 
ago. In company with “Wat” Taylor, the 
Izaak Walton of Taylorville, he was out in the 
vicinity of Clarksdale hunting mushrooms. 
While in the timber of the Joe Wallace farm in 
Johnson township, they suddenly came upon a 
tree in which two squirrels were engaged in a 
fight to death with a huge black snake. The 
snake, coiled about a limb, was sparring desper¬ 
ately with the game little squirrels, who would 
snap viciously at the intruder and scurry away. 
Finally, with the rapidity of lightning the rep¬ 
tile secured a stranglehold on one of the squir¬ 
rels and its death seemed certain, when its mate 
dashed boldly at the head of the snake and bit 
it savagely on the back of the head, inflicting 
suc'h pain that the snake released its hold on the 
squirrel and fell limply to the ground where it 
writhed in agony until dispatched by the two 
spectators. Immediately after their release the 
two little animals hastened to the top of a 
neighboring tree, where, secure from further 
harm, they seemed to be enjoying their well 
earned victory. The snake measured five feet 
and two inches. 
J. F. BOGAN. 
ITHACA CLUBS AMALGAMATE. 
Ithaca, N. Y., May 18.—Delegates from the 
Tompkins County Fish and Game club, the Lake¬ 
side Gun club, the Motorboat club of Ithaca, the 
Lakeside Yacht club and the Ithaca Automobile 
club met last week and appointed a committee 
consisting of the executive officers of each or¬ 
ganization for the purpose of bringing about an 
amalgamation of the various sporting interests 
into one organization to be known as the Sports¬ 
men’s club of Ithaca. The reason for the amal¬ 
gamation is that the gunners, autoists, fisher¬ 
men and those interested in nautical sports may 
purchase and maintain a suitable club house at 
some convenient point on the shore of Cayuga 
Lake. 
The need of a large clubhouse has long been 
felt but no individual branch of sport, represented 
by one club, has been able financially to under¬ 
take such a proposition. Several sites within 
convenient reach of the city, either by street 
car or automobile, are now under consideration, 
and a definite announcement in regard to the 
purchase of land along the lake shore is expect¬ 
ed soon. 
AVIATOR ARRESTED. 
Columbia, S. C, May 15.—W. B. Atwater, a 
noted aviator and one of the winter colony at 
Aiken, S. C., got into the bad graces of the 
chief game warden of South Carolina by hunting 
without a license required of non-residents. The 
aviator was recently given a preliminary hearing 
before an Aiken magistrate. As a result he was 
placed under a bond of $200 to stand trial at the 
next term of the court of general sessions in 
Aiken. Mr. Atwater’s failure to procure a 
hunter’s license was simply an oversight on his 
part. It is believed that he will be released by 
the court with a small fine. 
Following the inland water route southward 
down the Carolina coast, William Hains, of 
New York, and L. Chester Freeman, of Mor¬ 
ristown, N. J., recently completed a successful 
trip by canoe from Lumberton, N. C., to George¬ 
town, S. C. Belle, Mr. Hains’ beautiful collie, 
made the journey of 364 miles with them. 
SHOOTING GEESE IN ALBERTA. 
Redcliff, Alberta, Canada, April 30.—Redcliff 
sportsmen have been enjoying themselves the 
past few weeks shooting geese. These are con¬ 
sidered a pest, and are not protected in Alberta. 
Horseshoe lake, about fifteen miles from here, 
has harbored numerous flocks this spring, and 
a number of good bags have been made. In 
some cases this ordinarily wary fowl have per¬ 
mitted a party of hunters to drive within easy 
range of them in an automobile. The spring 
flight of ducks to the nesting ponds in Alberta 
is now about over. In numbers they measure 
well up to the average of recent years. 
NO NEW RECORDS AT HAZLETON. 
Hazleton, Pa., May 15.-Trout fishermen in 
the region around Hazleton are not getting big 
specimens this year. No one has come forward 
with anything to rival the twenty-three-inch trout 
snared a few seasons ago by Dr. W. W. Pealer, 
of Hazleton; or the twenty-two inch specimen 
hooked by Dr. H. E. Nyer, of Hazleton, last 
year. Most of the fish are small and many have 
to be thrown back because they are under size. 
Fishermen declare that they have in many in¬ 
stances put back in the water more than two- 
thirds of their day’s catch. 
Rabbits perished by the thousands by forest 
fires that swept through the Delano and Tom- 
hicken brush near Hazleton this month. These 
sections are good breeding ground for the bun¬ 
nies, and the flames and smoke cleaned out a 
portion of territory where in other years Hazle¬ 
ton gunners secured good bags of game during 
the hunting season. 
Quail are practically extinct in the Hazleton 
region this year, because of the numerous se¬ 
vere blizzards that covered the ground with 
four feet of snow during several months of the 
winter. The birds starved and the Hazleton 
Fish and Game Protective association is con¬ 
sidering planting new stock so that when the 
shooting season opens some sport may be af¬ 
forded the gunners of the section. 
Another live bird match is to be arranged 
shortly between Patrick Smith, of Hazleton, and 
Edward Beach, of Harwood, to settle the cham¬ 
pionship of this part of Pennsylvania. In their 
last meeting Smith trimmed Beach by grassing 
six out of eight birds while Beach only dropped 
four. The friends of Beach claim that he had 
an off day and will do better if given another 
chance. 
Something new in the anthracite coal fields of 
Pennsylvania is the action of the companies in 
turning into protectors of trout. The Upper 
Lehigh Coal Co. has planted thousands of young- 
fry -in the Honey Hole dam in Butler Valley, ten 
miles from Hazleton, and requires all who wish 
to angle in these waters to take out permits that 
the trout may not be fished out by aliens. At 
Cranberry, three miles from Hazleton, A. Par¬ 
dee & Co., another coal mining corporation, have 
stocked reservoirs with state trout fry and watch¬ 
men have been placed to prevent fishing without 
permits. 
HOPE FOR SPRING SHOOTING. 
Kansas City, Mo., May 20.—Although sports¬ 
men of Missouri and Kansas openly violated the 
new Weeks-McLean law relative to killing migra¬ 
tory birds, they now have hopes of a modification 
of the regulations which will provide for spring- 
shooting, as well as fall shooting, in this sec¬ 
tion, thus making the law conform to a great 
extent to the Missouri and Kansas state laws. 
Possibly in no part of the United States were 
sportsmen so bitterly opposed to the migratory 
bird regulations as right in this section, because 
the geographical location of Missouri and Kan¬ 
sas makes fall shooting almost a hopeless sport, 
while spring shooting is good. The new law 
placed both states in a zone with northern states 
where fall shooting is good, thus giving Mis¬ 
souri and Kansas only fall shooting. 
As soon as the law went into effect the sports¬ 
men of the two states organized the Sportsmen’s 
Interstate Protective Association, with headquar¬ 
ters in Kansas City. They sent members out 
to shoot ducks on the rivers in the season al¬ 
lowed by the state law, but prohibited by the 
Weeks-McLean law, to get a test case, believ¬ 
ing the law unconstitutional. The United States 
attorney here refused to issue a warrant. The 
association was informed by United States Sen¬ 
ator James A. Reed and other able attorneys 
that the law was unconstitutional. 
Efforts to get a test case were given up, and 
the association decided to use its funds for fight¬ 
ing in the courts the constitutionality of the 
law, in sending men to Washington to try to 
induce the Secretary of Agriculture to modify 
the regulations, as pertaining to Missouri, the 
new law providing that this official have the 
right to separate the different states into zones 
and provide the open and closed -seasons for 
these zones. After considerable argument, in 
which Senator Reed and others from this sec¬ 
tion are said to have aided the association. W. 
L. Moore, secretary of the association, received 
from John Wayland, of Kansas City, an assist¬ 
ant sergeant-at-arms of the United States Sen¬ 
ate, who also has been in sympathy with the 
association, a telegram stating that Acting Sec¬ 
retary of Agriculture Galloway has agreed to 
