FOREST AND STREAM 
813 
South to understand that no game birds can be 
brought into this State at the present time on 
which our season is closed. In the case of ducks, 
geese and brant, the same prohibition will apply 
after Jan. io, 1916. 
Under the law game seized is presented to va¬ 
rious public institutions, and already donations 
have been made to the Presbyterian Hospital, 
Roosevelt Hospital, Polyclinic Hospital, Oph¬ 
thalmic Hospital, Salvation Army, Lincoln Hos¬ 
pital, Volunteer Hospital, St. John’s Home, St. 
Malachy’s Home, and as further game is seized 
it will be distributed to other institutions. 
Edmund Gallagher, Division Chief. 
Conservation Commission, New York, Jan. 8, 
1916. - 
NOTES FROM CALIFORNIA. 
By Edward T. Martin. 
The quail season just ended in California closed 
as disappointingly as it began—at least as far as 
the central part of the state is concerned. Limit 
bags since the first two days have been rare and 
the places where shooting has been so poor as to 
hardly justify a trip out with dog and gun 
very numerous. 
What is true of quail shooting likewise ap¬ 
plies, but in a lesser degree, to waterfowl. At 
times on the baited ponds there has been plenty 
of ducks but except on very stormy days the 
flight has been late. There has been much after¬ 
dark shooting in direct violation of both state 
and Federal law and few arrests. Said one such 
gunner, “From just before dark until an hour 
after I have at times shot until my gun became 
so heated the barrels would burn my hand. The 
birds worked well also on moonlight nights. Vio¬ 
lating the laws? Oh, yes. I know it. What’s 
the use of kicking? Everybody does. Might be 
arrested? Haven’t seen a game warden this year 
around the ponds where I shoot.” 
The talk back awhile was “wait until we get 
a good old fashioned storm. Then there will 
be plenty of shooting.” Well, a great storm out 
of the North finally did come and with it lots 
of birds. Bay, lakes, ponds, marshes, all were 
full of them but the real good shooting lasted 
only while the wind blew and the rain fell, then 
it was back 10 the same old thing except that 
great flocks set on the bay sunning themselves. 
These were chased by launches, hunted at night, 
caught in gill nets and so persecuted that they 
went somewhere and are there yet. The game 
authorities were in a measure powerless to pre¬ 
vent these frequent violations of the law. Before 
the season opened, owing to some tangle with 
the state liability-for-injuries law it was deemed 
necessary to refuse reappointment to some four 
or five hundred half way wardens, men wearing 
the star of a deputy and authorized to make ar¬ 
rests but receiving no compensation other than 
a certain sum for every case where their evi¬ 
dence led to conviction. With these out of com¬ 
mission all the work was thrown onto about sev¬ 
enty regularly appointed and paid wardens, ob¬ 
viously an inadequate number. Of the seventy, 
less than a dozen were assigned to duty in San 
Francisco and Alameda counties with 50,000, per¬ 
haps 75,000 shooters licensed, and unlicensed, to 
keep tab on, besides the greater part of San 
Francisco Bay to watch. Is it any wonder vio¬ 
lations are many and arrests few? The Commis¬ 
sion should double or treble the force of war¬ 
dens, and to raise the necessary money either 
_, 
it. 
Marry Hershfield 
Geo.M c Menus' 
[Maurice i 
Cliff Sterrett, 
Robert Carter 
I Wfnsor M c Cay 
TTuumuum; \ 
Ti A.Dorflan(TAO){ 
These Celebrated Cartoonists and Hosts of Other Famous 
Americans Keep in Good Humor by Smoking TUXEDO 
You know ’em all—-the great fun-makers of the daily press—agile-brained 
and nimble-witted — creators of world-famed characters who put laughter into 
life! Such live, virile humans as they just naturally must have a. live, virile pipe- 
smoke. And so they keep their good humor at the bubbling point by smoking — 
All of these men have endorsed 
Tuxedo — because it’s so deli¬ 
ciously mild, so mellow and 
smooth, that they can keep their 
pipes going all day long. 
Tuxedo is made of the choic¬ 
est, richest Burley leaf grown in 
Kentucky — sun-ripened — then 
nature-aged for 3 to 5 years until 
it reaches sweet, mellow maturity. 
But it’s the original secret 
“Tuxedo Process” that puts 
Tuxedo in a class by itself. Takes 
out all bite and irritation, and 
makes Tuxedo delightfully sooth¬ 
ing to the most sensitive throat 
and tongue. 
Try Tuxedo for a week—that 
will settle the smoke question 
for you forever. 
YOU CAN BUY TUXEDO EVERYWHERE 
Convenient, glassine wrapped, Famous green tin with gold "I A 
moisture-proof pouch.DC lettering, curved to fit pocket J. DC 
In Tin Humidors, 40 c and 80 c In Glass Humidors, 50 c and 90 c 
THE AMERICAN TOBACCO COMPANY 
spend less on fish or increase the shooter’s license 
fee. 
There is an old wreck sunk in a shallow part 
of the Bay several miles from the nearest land 
around which the gulls, coots and cormorants 
feed. Half of this is above water when the tide 
is out and the first day of the storm here is 
where the writer stationed himself, his decoys 
set under lee of the wreck and watched what 
was going on in nearby waters. Within sight of 
his field glasses were four great flocks of canvas 
and blue-bill. Tens of thousands in all. A care¬ 
ful estimate of the nearest made by counting 
some and guessing at the rest put the number 
of ducks in it at over 11,000—“a million” one man 
said but he was only talking. There were twenty 
blinds along the shore line within easy sight. 
From these during the several hours before the 
storm forced us to run for shelter perhaps all 
told a dozen shots were fired. While not a duck 
came to my decoys. They were well educated 
and knew where safety lay. And this is why 
shooting on quail and on ducks has been so poor 
this year above all others. The birds are better 
educated this year than last and will know more 
another year than now and I foi^ one am glad 
of it. 
A subscription to Forest and Stream is about 
the best gift that you can make a friend, and in 
proportion to the pleasure received, the cost of a 
presentation subscription is almost nothing. 
