170 
FOREST AND STREAM 
Feb. 8, 1913 
the best results. The license money footed up 
to $65,000, and it is sure to be more than dupli¬ 
cated in the coming similar period. Fie intends 
to ask the pending Legislature to appropriate a 
sum equal to that realized by the licenses with 
which he hopes to vie with the most successful 
States in the Union in the propagation of both 
game and fish. 
There have been quite a few antelope come 
down from the hills out in Sioux county during 
the past month, and bunches of from four and 
si.x to a dozen or fifteen are seen along Indian 
Creek every day, so I am told by rancher R. E. 
IMerrell. He says so far there has been but 
little snow in the Black Hills, and this makes 
the visits of the antelope sort of strange, but 
he says they are there, and that is all there is 
to it. He says that on his cattle rounds he sees 
them feeding at the haystacks along down the 
Indian Creek valley, and sometimes within 200 
yards of the rancher’s house. There is a heavy 
fine for killing an antelope in this State, and 
Merrell says he has not yet heard of any of 
them being molested. 
From what I have observed on my fall duck¬ 
ing e.xpeditions, and what I have heard from 
other sportsmen, there were more crows in the 
different sections of Nebraska this fall and win¬ 
ter than there have been for many 3'ears. Upon 
the flats northeast of Calhoun flocks of tens of 
thousands of these sable birds assemble daily, 
and all along the Missouri River bottoms they 
have been roosting in countless and actually as¬ 
tounding numbers just as they used to do twenty- 
five 3'ears ago, when the crows were common 
visitors to all the door yards throughout the city 
of Omaha. 
Did 3'ou ever watch the evening flight of 
these birds in the dreary days of December. If 
so, you were certainly amply repaid for your 
trouble and charmingly entertained as well. 
There are thousands and thousands of crows in 
Nebraska; more, I believe, than in any State in 
the Union, and there is no other spectacle in 
nature that fits so completely with the surround¬ 
ings as the afternoon procession of these al¬ 
ways interesting birds from their harrowing in 
the fields to their roots among the thick willows 
in the river’s bottom. 
And in the spring what a boon to the lover 
of the outdoor world is the crow. Long before 
the bluebird's mournful but sweet note is heard 
dropping from the vacuous skies, before the trill 
of even the hardy little field sparrow ripples 
upon the still tingly air, before the soft currents 
from the Southland unpurples the sunny slopes 
and fans the odorous anemone into faint color 
and starts the shrill chorus of the hylas in the 
wet meadows, the crow forms the vanguard of 
approaching spring. 
Mexican Fruit Fly. 
The fact has been determined by the Sec¬ 
retary of Agriculture that an injurious Insect 
known as the Mexican fruit fly (Trypeta 
hideus), new to and not heretofore widely preva¬ 
lent and distributed within and throughout the 
United States, exists in the Republic of Mexico. 
In order to prevent its introduction into the 
L’nited States, the Secretary of Agriculture has 
forbidden the imoortation into the United States 
from the Republic of Mexico of the following 
fruits: Oranges, sweet limes, mangoes, achras 
sapotes, peaches, guavas and plums. 
Shooting in 1818. 
Extracts frovi Nicholson’s British Encyclopedia, 
Published in Philadelphia in 1818. 
Continued from page 135. 
These nets are to be pitched for every eve¬ 
ning flight of fowl about an hour before sunset, 
staking them on each side of the river about 
half a foot within the water, the lower side of 
the net being so plummed that it may sink so 
far and no further. Place the upper side of 
the net slantwise, shoaling against the water, but 
not touching it by nearly two feet, and let the 
strings which support this upper side of the net 
be fastened to small yielding sticks set in the 
bank. These, as the fowl strikes, will give the 
net liberty to play and to entangle them. Sev¬ 
eral of these nets should be placed at once over 
different parts of the river at about twelve-score 
fathom distance one from another, and if any 
fowl come that way, the sportsman will have a 
share of them. It is a good method, when the 
nets are set, to go to places sufficiently distant 
from them with a gun to frighten them toward 
the places where the nets are, and wherever any 
of the fowl are started from, it may not be 
amiss to plant some nets also there to take them 
as they return. The nets are to be left thus 
placed all night, and in the morning the sports¬ 
man is to go and see what is caught. He should 
visit the river first and take up what are caught 
there, and frightening the rest away to the other 
places where his nets are; he is next to visit 
them and take what are there secured. 
The Ceylonese have great plenty of water- 
fowl wild on their island and have a very re¬ 
markable way of catching them, which is this: 
The fowler enters a lake or other water, which 
has a good bottom, and is not very deep. He 
puts an earthen pot upon his head, in which there 
are bored holes, through which he can see. He 
keeps himself so bent down in the water that 
only the pot is above the surface. In this man¬ 
ner he enters the place where the wildfowl are 
in clusters, and they think it is only some float¬ 
ing block. He then takes some one by the legs, 
and gently draws it under water and wrings 
its neck till he has killed it. Then putting it 
into his bag, which is fastened about his middle, 
he takes hold of another in the same manner, 
and so on, till he has got as many as he can 
carry off, and then he goes back in the same 
manner in which he came, not disturbing the 
rest of the birds, who never miss their com¬ 
panions, as they seem to dive down for their 
diversion when the fowler pulls them under. In 
places where this has been practiced so long, or 
so carelessly, that the birds are shy, the fowfler 
uses a gun, but this he does in the following 
manner: He makes a screen of about five feet 
high, and three feet wflde, which he carries in 
one hand straight between himself and his game, 
and in the other hand his gun. The birds are 
not alarmed at what appears only a bush, for 
this screen is always covered with branches of 
trees, fresh cut down, and full of leaves so that 
the sportsman behind advances as near as he 
pleases, and then putting the gun through some 
crevice of the screen, he fires. 
Game.— It is a maxim of the common law 
that goods of which no person can claim any 
property belong to the King by his prerogative, 
hence those animals, ferae naturae, which come 
under the denomination of game, are styled his 
Majesty’s game, and that which he has he may 
grant to another, in consequence of which an¬ 
other may prescribe to have the same within 
such a precinct or lordship. And hence origi¬ 
nated the right of lords of manors or others to 
the game within their respective liberties. For 
the preservation of these species of animals, for 
the recreation and amusement of persons of 
fortune, to whom the King has granted the same, 
and to prevent persons of inferior rank from 
misemploying their time, the following acts of 
parliament have been made. The common peo¬ 
ple are not injured by these restrictions, no right 
being taken from them which they ever enjoyed; 
but privileges are granted to those who have 
certain qualifications therein mentioned, which 
before rested solely in the King. To entitle any¬ 
one to kill game, he must now take out a certifi¬ 
cate, upon which a stamp duty is payable. These 
certificates are to be dated the day of the month 
when issued, and shall be in force till the first 
of July following, and no longer; and if any 
clerk of the peace, his deputy, or steward, clerk, 
etc., issue certificates otherwise than directed, to 
forfeit 2ol. 25 Geo. HI. sess. 2. No person to 
destroy game, until he has delivered an account 
of his name and place of abode to the clerk of 
the peace, or his deputy, or to the sheriff, or 
steward, clerk of the county, riding, shire, stew- 
artry, or place where such person shall reside, 
and annually take out a certificate thereof, which 
must have a stamp duty of 3/. 3^. 25 Geo. III. 
sess. 2. Any person counterfeiting or forging 
any seal or stamp directed to be used by this 
act, with intent to defraud the revenue, or shall 
utter or sell such counterfeit, on conviction there¬ 
of, shall be adjudged a felon, and shall suffer 
death without benefit of clergy; and all pro¬ 
visions of former acts relative to stamp duties 
to be in force in executing this act. 25 Geo. III. 
sess. 2. Every qualified person, shooting at, 
killing, taking or shooting any pheasant, par¬ 
tridge, heathfowl, or blackgame, or any grouse 
or red game, or any other game, or killing, tak¬ 
ing, or destroying any hare, with any greyhound, 
hound, pointer, spaniel, setting dog, or other 
dog, without having obtained such certificate, 
shall forfeit the sum of 20/. Id. Clerks of the 
peace, or their deputies, or the sheriff, or stew¬ 
ard clerks, in their respective counties, ridings, 
shires, stewartries, or places, shall, on or before 
Nov. I, 1785, or sooner, if required by the com¬ 
missioners of his Majesty’s stamp duties, trans¬ 
mit to the head office of stamps in London, a 
correct list, in alphabetical order, of the certifi¬ 
cates by them issued between the 25th day of 
March in the year 1785, and the first of October 
in the same year; and shall also in every subse¬ 
quent year, on or before the first of August in 
each year, make out and transmit to the stamp 
office in London, correct alphabetical lists of the 
certificates so granted by them, distinguishing 
the duties paid on each respective certificate so 
issued; and on delivery thereof the receiver gen¬ 
eral of the stamp duties shall pay to the clerk 
of the peace, etc., for the same, one halfpenny 
a name; and in case of neglect or refusal, or 
not inserting a full, true and perfect account, he 
shall forfeit 20/. Id. Lists may be inspected 
at the stamp office for u. each search; (id.) 
which list shall once, or oftener, in every 3'ear, 
be inserted in the newspapers in each respective 
county. If any qualified person, or one having 
(Continued on page 188.') 
