658 
FOREST AND STREAM 
I'ublished Weekly by the 
Forest and Stream Publishing Company 
Chas. A. Hazen, President Charles L. Wise, Treasurer 
W. G. Beecroft, Secretary Russell A. Lewis, Gen. Mgr. 
22 Thames Street, New York. 
CORRESPONDENCE: — Forest and Stream is the re¬ 
cognized medium of entertainment, instruction and in¬ 
formation between American sportsmen. The editors 
invite communications on the subjects to which its pages 
are devoted, but, of course, are not responsible for the 
views of correspondents. Anonymous communications 
cannot be regarded. 
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THE CHANGING HABITS OF GAME 
Nothing is Fetter understood by sportsmen 
generally than that wild animals are susceptible 
of education. The wildfowler of long experi¬ 
ence knows that to-day the canvasbacks fly 
higher and are more wary of approaching the 
battery or the blind than they were in the days 
of his youth. The upland shooter is convinced 
that the quail of to-day are better educated 
than those of old times. They come out from 
the swamps for a shorter time, often instead of 
walking to the feeding grounds they fly, and the 
dog is therefore unable to find them, unless by 
some fortunate chance he passes so close to the 
brood as to wind them. So with the pinnated 
grouse. In old times, in the treeless portions of 
the West, it flew and alighted in the grass 
Later it took to the corn for shelter, then to 
the windbreaks, and then to the trees of the 
timber claims. Now the birds sometimes even 
alight in trees; things that the species once 
knew not of. 
With large game it is the same. Sixty or 
seventy years ago the wild sheep—now the most 
alert of North American game animals, and the 
wariest—was as stupid and gentle as the buffalo 
used to be, and did not know enough to run 
away: but it has learned its lesson, though even 
now in certain sections where it is little hunted 
or not even hunted at all, it is still gentle and un¬ 
suspicious. 
But. if game which is persecuted learns the 
lesson of self-preservation, the converse is also 
true, and the game that has been wild become 
tame, if the dangers which it has learned to fear 
cease to exist. The big game of the National 
Park has become quite educated. Bears—under 
most circumstances the shyest of creatures— 
wander contentedly among the tourists, feed 
close to the hotels, and occasionally are even 
enticed into the hotel office by the offer of a piece 
of pie. Antelope and mountain sheep under¬ 
stand very well that man is not a danger¬ 
ous animal, and there have been cases where of¬ 
ficers driving along the road between Gardiner 
and the Hot Springs have come upon sheep lying 
in the roadway which declined to get up so as to 
permit the vehicle to pass. 
The white-tailed deer which in one form or 
another is scattered over the whole of temper¬ 
ate North America, has within the past few 
years undergone considerable changes of habit 
in certain fairly well-settled portions of the 
country. More than twenty years ago a writer 
on the deer family of North America said; 
“The keenness of the deer’s olfactories has be¬ 
come proverbial, and the experienced hunter 
when starting out always satisfies himself as to 
the direction of the wind; for a deer, when its 
nose has told it a man is in the neighborhood 
waits for no more information on the subject, 
does not seek to learn just where he is, nor how 
far off, but makes the best of its way from the 
spot.” This used to be the fact everywhere, 
but in some localities the deer have learned new 
things about man. Recently an old Ma-ine deer 
hunter, narrating his experiences of the last 
twenty years, related that in old times when 
hunting on the border between his state and 
Canada, he found that if a deer got his wind it 
promptly ran away, going so far that it was use¬ 
less to follow it. Subsequently, when hunting 
deer in the southern counties of Maine, where 
people were more numerous and the deer far 
less hunted, he discovered that there the ani¬ 
mals had become accustomed to the scent of 
man. and no longer regarded it as a thing to be 
greatly alarmed at. It was a question of use. 
The same thing, of course, has been observed on 
Long Island, where deer, even if persons pass to 
windward of them, manifest no alarm. 
In New England of late years deer have great¬ 
ly increased in number. Maine, New Hampshire 
and Vermont are well supplied. Massachu¬ 
setts has a few, which, with protection, are in¬ 
creasing. There are a very few in Connecticut 
and Rhode Island. Reasonable protection will 
unquestionably insure a constantly increasing 
supply of these animals, which, like others of 
their kind, will become tamer and tamer, and 
feeling secure will increase rapidly. 
In these days of widely spreading interest in 
nature study, a large portion of the general pub¬ 
lic is beginning to have a new feeling for our 
wild things, for the mammals, the birds, the rep¬ 
tiles and the plants; and in this newly aroused 
interest is to be found a great hope for the 
preservation of many of our wild creatures, 
which have been regarded as speedily approach¬ 
ing extinction. 
THE STATUS OF TRAPSHOOTING. 
In every branch of sport, and for that matter 
in every branch of the affairs of men, there are 
those who, being abnormally wise, declare its 
decadence and predict its ending. To them, no 
special process of reasoning, in this connection, 
is considered as an essential in making a con¬ 
clusion. The most meager data concerning some 
particular serve them in making an estimate of 
the total situation. Let methods change, and dis¬ 
integration is denoted; let the scene of activity 
change, and it further denotes the hastening of 
the end. In short, the pessimistic condition of 
mind for an actual state of external affairs. 
The matter of trapshooting has not escaped 
the notice of those who make a specialty of ob¬ 
serving the downward trend of established insti¬ 
tutions. 
Notwithstanding the many mistaken regrets 
over imaginary decay of trapshooting, it may 
safely be asserted that never in its history was 
this sport, throughout the length and breadth of 
the United States, in such a prosperous condi¬ 
tion. Gun clubs abound everywhere. Whether 
indulged in as a matter of pleasurable competi¬ 
tion, or as a matter whereby skill with the shot¬ 
gun may be required, trapshooting has a place 
everywhere, whether cross-roads, hamlet or city, 
throughout the land. 
It is true that it has been through many stages 
of evolution, in respect to its comparative fea¬ 
tures in the past few years; but such may be 
considered as incidents of the sport, and not the 
sport itself. 
It, too, has betimes been affected by the vicis¬ 
situdes of the business world. When hard times 
prevail, sport for the time being is less, or in 
abeyance. Yet, all in all, it has held more than 
its own in public favor as compared with other 
sports. 
As a true index of its pervading popularity, 
the national interest manifested in the Grand 
American Handicap, to be held at Dayton, 
Ohio, in September, and the more than national 
support which will be accorded it, are pertinent 
to the case in point. The most conservative esti¬ 
mates are that not less than 600 shooters will be 
present at that great event, and there are other 
well grounded estimates that there will be not 
less than 800. Others, again, more optimistic, 
place the number nearer 1,000. In any event, if 
will be without doubt the greatest gathering of 
mighty trapshooters in respect to skill and num¬ 
bers that the world has ever known. Such a 
happening, truly, could never have a place if 
trapshooting was in a state of decay. It per se 
is an index of universal activity and approval. 
There is here much for both individual and 
national gratification—the sport affords the 
wholesome relaxation and recreation to the indi¬ 
vidual ; to the nation which has a skilled shooter 
in every citizen, there is always a ready defense 
from all enemies. 
AN EXPLANATION. 
Elsewhere, in this issue, we print a letter from 
Hartie I. Phillips. We publish this letter to 
show that we are truly contrite for having edi¬ 
torially classed, inadvertently, surf anglers with 
line pullers and pot hunters. In reply to a 
score of letters of protest received this week, 
we want to repeat that our editorial of May 
second referred not at all to the surf caster to 
whom the horizon sun and the broad ocean incor¬ 
porate all nature’s beauty, as the woods, moun¬ 
tains and streams furnish delight to the fly 
fisherman. 
OPPOSE HUNTING BY AUTO. 
Sentiment in favor of the strictest possible 
enforcement of the game laws, especially those 
features which prohibit the molesting of ducks 
and geese on their feeding grounds, was ex¬ 
pressed at a recent meeting of the lake region 
hunters with the members of the North Dakota 
game board at Devils Lake. That the penalty 
for “running” birds with automobiles should be 
greatly increased was the verdict of sportsmen 
who responded to the invitation of the board to 
air their views. 
That the automobile is the greatest enemy of 
the game bird, especially the duck and goose, in 
North Dakota at the present time, was the sen¬ 
timent of the hunters. 
