June 14, 1913 
FOREST AND STREAM 
749 
The Devastating Dog. 
New York City, June 2. —Editor Forest and 
Stream: Two or three years ago Forest and 
Stream’ urged strongly that the different States 
pass laws forbidding owners of dogs to permit 
them to run at large. Bills to carry out this 
suggestion were introduced in several States, but 
met with opposition. The fox hunters espe¬ 
cially were indignant that anybody should sug¬ 
gest that the hounds that they found so effective 
in chasing foxes would interfere with ground¬ 
nesting birds. 
On the other hand, gunners and naturalists 
declared their belief, and gave their reasons, that 
the farmer’s dog, and the foxhound, and, in fact, 
any other dog that runs loose through the sum¬ 
mer, is very destructive to all ground-nesting 
birds, and that means of course to all game birds. 
The late Bernard Waters, whose experience 
was probably far greater than that of anyone 
who reads these words, often declared that the 
self-hunting dog was far more dangerous to wild 
birds than was the self-hunting cat. I believe 
there is no doubt about that. 
Occasionally I am fortunate enough to be 
able to spend Sunday in the country, usually in 
Connecticut. Within two or three weeks some 
examples of the harm done, or likely to be done, 
by dogs running at large have come under my 
observation: 
A little niece who rides much on horseback 
and is usually followed by one or two of the 
household dogs, told me that the week before 
last while riding slowly along the road by a 
sw'amp the family foxhound that had followed 
her came out of the woods with a dying par¬ 
tridge—ruffed grouse—in its mouth. A day or 
two later, riding along a wood road, a great 
dane which was following her, made a sort of 
lunge at a brush pile not far away, from which 
brush pile emerged a partridge—ruffed grouse— 
which by pretending to be injured lured the dog 
onward for forty or fifty yards and then left 
it. Except for the device of the bird, the dog 
would probably have found the partridge’s nest 
and destroyed it. Another member of the family 
out walking within half a mile of where this 
last incident occurred, accompanied by the fox¬ 
hound above mentioned, saw the foxhound go 
into a little covert and immediately emerge again, 
following an apparently wounded partridge, 
which presently took wing. Finally, on June i, 
as I was on my way to inspect a nest where 
for two or three weeks I had been watching a 
sitting partridge, I intercepted two dogs—one 
bearing some resemblance to a foxhound, the 
other a cur—apparently on the way to this nest 
and close to it. I drove them away by the use 
of clubs and bad language, and when I reached 
the nest, found that the bird had hatched a day 
or two earlier, and apparently taken her little 
ones off in safety. 
I believe, and I think most upland shooters 
and naturalists will agree, that in the summer 
dogs destroy far more birds than do cats. Of 
course, cats kill an occasional individual bird, 
but the dogs gobble up a whole nest full of eggs, 
or the young ones, if they have hatched. 
It seems to me that Forest and Stream, as 
the organ of the sportsmen, could not perform 
a more useful service than to try next winter to 
induce State Legislatures to pass laws prohibit¬ 
ing dogs from running at large, and to see that 
these laws are enforced. Certain associations 
which have done much for the preservation of 
wild life, as the New York Zoological Society, 
the National Audubon Societies and the Ameri¬ 
can Game Protective Association, ought to give 
this matter their attention. Old Man. 
North Carolina Fox Hunting. 
Raleigh, N. C., June i .—Editor Forest and 
Stream: North Carolina has always been a not¬ 
able State for fox hunting. The hunting has 
been for sport and not for style, and so there 
have been no scarlet coats or any sort of flub¬ 
dub about the hunters, and the past and present 
one have gone in simply and solely for catching 
foxes, using the very best hounds they could 
possibly buy or breed. One of the famous old 
packs, now broken up, was owned by the late 
John A. Carver, of Fayetteville, and he had a 
record of 512 foxes caught, with a wonderfully 
small percentage of misses. People from a num¬ 
ber of States have been out with his pack, the 
existence of which covered the period from 
directly after the close of the Civil War until 
about 1895. Another widely known pack was 
that of the late William Boylan, of Raleigh, a 
man of large wealth and devoted to outdoor 
sports. He considered fox hunting the greatest 
of all sports and kept a large pack of hounds, 
known in all this section of the State. He, too, 
hunted after the Civil War and until a period 
not more than fifteen years ago, and had a record 
of hundreds of foxes caught in Wake, Johnston, 
Chatham, Harnett and other counties in this sec¬ 
tion. He also hunted much in Mississippi, where 
he was a large landowner. Plis son, William 
Boylan, now living in Raleigh, rode with his 
father from his earliest boyhood in many a fine 
chase of the gray fox, the only kind found in 
this section of North Carolina, red foxes being 
rare in this State. One of the features of all 
the hunts was “Old Charles,” who had been Mr. 
Boylan’s slave, and who was absolutely devoted 
to him. Sometimes, when foxes could not be 
found, the dogs were for exercise allowed to 
catch rabbits. On one occasion, a few days be¬ 
fore the Christmas holidays, Mr. Boylan and 
“Old Charles” and a number of invited gentle¬ 
men had such a rabbit hunt and caught several. 
One of the gentlemen pulled out a $5 bill and 
handed it to Charles, telling him it would “come 
in mighty good” for him and his “Old Woman” 
Christmas time. Charles took the bill in his 
hand, and the giver said: “Uncle Charles, I 
give you this on condition that when we ride 
into Raleigh you hang the rabbits at your saddle 
bow.” Old Charles looked at the gentleman very 
earnestly, and at the same time handed back the 
bill to him, saying, in his most decided yet amia¬ 
ble way: “Boss, 1 simply couldn’t take dat 
money. Ef I wuz ter ride inter Raleigh wid 
rabbits er hangin’ on my saddle, I would think 
I wuz etarnally disgraced, and I could not look 
Marse William Boylan in de face no mo’.” 
Charles would have liked to have had that 
$5 bill, but a veteran hunter who had ridden so 
many times with one fox and sometimes two at 
his saddle could not afford to demean himself 
by bringing in rabbits in any such fashion. He 
added: “My ole woman, an’ she’s my sweet¬ 
heart ef we has ben married nigh on to forty 
year, would be ashamed uv me, an’ lackwise 
would be de boss and dese dawgs.” Old Charles 
was a sportsman right, and his first thought was 
of Mr. Boylan and his next of “dem houn’s.” 
He was a perfect type of the faithful old darkey, 
without any frills, but as dependable as the pole- 
star itself. Mr. Boylan, true sportsman that he 
was, was not at all surprised at Charles’ declina¬ 
tion of that $5 bill. Fred A. Oi,ds. 
Ohio Game and Fish Laws. 
Columbus, Ohio, June 5 .—Editor Forest and 
Stream: A new edition of the fish and game 
laws is being printed and will be ready for dis¬ 
tribution some time during the next ten days. 
The principal changes made by the General 
Assembly at its recent session were, first, pro¬ 
hibiting the killing of quail, ruffed grouse, 
pheasant and Carolina dove until 1915. 
A resident hunters’ license law was enacted, 
fee being $i with 25 cents additional, which is 
granted county clerks for issuing them. 
The most important alteration was the con¬ 
solidation of the fish and game with seven other 
State departments under one board, to be known 
as the Agricultural Commission. This does 
away with the old commissioners of fish and 
game. Otherwise the laws and their adminis¬ 
tration remain intact. 
The Agncultural Commission is authorized 
to create bureaus and departments, and it is the 
common understanding that a bureau of fish and 
game, with a directing head, will be established. 
At the present writing, however, efforts are being 
made to submit the law to a referendum vote. 
We will know definitely regarding this about 
the middle of July. 
A new law prohibits the killing of skunk 
except from the 15th day of November to the 
1st day of February, also makes it unlawful to 
take such animals from their dens or burrows, 
or to have their pelts in possession at any time 
other than the open season. These were the 
only changes relating to game. 
None of the inland fishing laws were 
amended. Some few changes occurred in the 
laws relating to commercial fishing on Lake 
Erie. John C. Speaks, 
Chief Warden. 
