July i, 1911.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
15 
for hares and rabbits in Richmond and Wyoming 
counties, and relative to hunting them with fer¬ 
rets in certain counties. Senator Burd’s, pro¬ 
posing a constitutional amendment in relation to 
storage reservoirs and hydraulic developments 
in the forest preserve. Senator Roosevelt’s, rela¬ 
tive to the taking of sturgeon with nets in the 
Hudson and Delaware rivers. 
Senator Walters, of Syracuse, has introduced 
a bill appropriating $60,000 for the acquisition by 
the forest, fish and game commissioner of six 
game farms or reservations at such places with¬ 
in the State as the commissioner may determine. 
Senator Ramsperger, of Buffalo, has intro¬ 
duced a bill inserting a new subdivision (19) in 
Section 240, defining whitefish as including the 
Great Lakes whitefish and Otsego bass. The 
minimum weight restriction of two pounds in 
the round is not to apply to whitefish in Otsego 
Lake or in the Great Lakes. 
Senator Roosevelt’s, relative to the payment 
of hunting licenses. 
Assemblyman Hoyt’s bill, permitting thumping 
on Wappinger’s Creek below Hibernia Falls, and 
relative to the use of nets in the Hudson and 
Delaware rivers. 
Senator Emerson’s, providing that not more 
than thirty pounds of fish shall be taken in a 
single day from the waters of Lake George when 
fishing from one boat. 
Assemblyman Shannon’s, relative to the num¬ 
ber of leaders on a line for taking trout in Lake 
Keuka. 
Assemblyman Cosad's, changing the open sea¬ 
son for lake trout in Lake Keuka from the 
period between April 16 and Aug. 31, both in¬ 
clusive, to the period from May 1 to Aug. 31, 
both inclusive, and providing that lake trout less 
than two pounds in the round may be taken in 
Seneca county from April 16 to Oct. 31, both 
inclusive. It also prohibits the use of nets or 
seines with meshes having less than a two-inch 
bar in Seneca Lake. 
Following is the text of Governor Dix’s veto 
of Senator Long’s bill: 
“ ‘An act to amend the forest, fish and game 
law in relation to the open season for certain 
wildfowl on Long Island.’ 
“This bill amends the game law in relation to 
extension of the season for shooting ducks on 
Long Island. Numerous -protests have been filed 
against this bill, and even the game protective 
associations of the locality affected are opposed 
to its provisions, and in my opinion it is an un¬ 
necessary extension of the shooting season. 
“I therefore disapprove the bill.” 
The Governor has signed these bills: 
Assemblyman Gurnett’s, providing for an in¬ 
crease in the number of copies of the compila¬ 
tion of the forest, fish and game laws and pro¬ 
viding that the forest, fish and game commis¬ 
sioner shall supply such copies to the various 
county, city and town clerks and to each person 
securing a hunting license. Two of Assembly- 
man Gurnett’s, relating to suckers in the inlet 
to Seneca Lake and carp, etc., in Schuyler 
county. 
Governor Dix has signed the bill of Assembly- 
man Constantine, amending the forest, fish and 
game law by providing that there shall be no 
closed season for blue pike in Lake Ontario. 
The Assembly has passed Senator Platt’s bill 
fixing the open season for lake trout in Lake 
Keuka from April 1 to Oct. 15. E. C. C. 
Hungarian Partridges’ Eggs. 
In view of the fact that the importation of 
Hungarian partridges into this country has in¬ 
creased enormously in recent years, the follow¬ 
ing extract from the London Field is of interest: 
After years of fancied security and reliance 
upon assurances that Hungarian partridges’ eggs 
are supplied from legitimate sources, it is some¬ 
what startling to purchasers to be now informed 
through the medium of a game protection society 
in Vienna that 90 per cent, of the eggs exported 
from Austria-Hungary to England are stolen. 
The society referred to is the Lower Austrian 
Game Protection Association and Vienna Sport¬ 
ing Club, and it is to be presumed that the state¬ 
ment has not been made without good reason 
and sufficient evidence to support it. We pub¬ 
lish the statement for which the society vouches, 
as it is their evident wish that we should do so. 
But this will be very unwelcome news to pur¬ 
chasers of Hungarian eggs in this country, and 
will at the same time be a source of much em¬ 
barrassment, for would-be purchasers will now 
be at a loss to know from whom they may safely 
purchase eggs without incurring a charge of en¬ 
couraging poaching. Nor can we believe that 
the proportion of 90 per cent, can bear the test 
of accurate investigation. 
Ten years ago, when similar disclosures were 
made respecting the illicit sale of partridges’ 
eggs in this country, the subject was seriously 
investigated by the Field Sports Protection So¬ 
ciety (before its amalgamation with the Game 
Guild), when, warnings and prosecutions having 
proved of little avail to check the evil, it was 
decided that the way to effect the desired object 
was to publish the names and addresses of the 
wrongdoers; that is, the receivers of stolen eggs 
and their consignees, and this was accordingly 
done. It was hoped that this wou’d lead to ac¬ 
tions for libel, with the result that the most 
damaging evidence would be produced at the 
trial in justification of the course taken, but it 
is a significant fact that those implicated in the 
matter shrank from further publicity, and ab¬ 
stained from taking any steps to clear themselves 
from the charges brought against them. As a 
result, a severe check was given to the practice 
of stealing partridges’ eggs, and the trade in such 
eggs visibly declined. 
In view of these facts and in order to co-operate 
so far as possible in carrying out the wishes of 
landowners and game preservers in Austria-Hun¬ 
gary, we would suggest to the committee of the 
Lower Austrian Game Protection Association 
that a similar course of action should be taken 
by them, and that they should, as soon as pos¬ 
sible, secure the names and addresses of those 
who are legitimately qualified to export game 
eggs from Austria-PIungary to this country. It 
is only by such co-operation that the interests 
of sportsmen in both countries can be efficiently 
protected. 
At the same time we do not lose sight of the 
fact that at the present time there are enter¬ 
prising Englishmen who rent sporting rights in 
Austria-Hungary for the express purpose of 
being thereby enabled to export both birds and 
eggs to this country. With this arrangement of 
course there is no desire to interfere. The sport¬ 
ing rights are paid for, and the landowners have 
no cause for complaint. The English lessees 
must take their own course to protect their own 
interests, and prevent their eggs from being 
stolen. But what sportsmen in both countries 
would like to see effected would be some sort 
of registration of properly authorized dealers 
and exporters from whom both game birds and 
game eggs may be purchased with confidence 
and without causing any injury to our friends in 
Austria-Hungary whose sporting rights we have 
every wish to respect. 
If it is illegal to export eggs from Hungary, 
and if the Government now desire to enforce 
penalties, an official statement to that effect 
should be transmitted to the proper authorities 
in this country. 
Game Conditions Northwest. 
St. Paul, Minn., June 24 .—Editor Forest and 
Stream: This season has been very favorable 
for game of all kinds. Quail nested early and 
the same may be said of prairie chickens in the 
Dakotas and Minnesota. Weather was excep¬ 
tionally dry during the fore part of the mating 
season and the birds had no trouble to get to 
nesting at once, the mating being accomplished. 
From all over the southern part of the State 
and along the rivers and creeks of the central 
portion of Minnesota come good reports about 
the numbers of young quail, d his is encourag¬ 
ing in view of the great numbers that have been 
winter killed. 
It seems as if a new sort of experiment in 
keeping plenty of game in Minnesota covers is 
going to be adopted by the State Game and Fish 
Commission, as it has been working well for a 
couple of years. This is the trapping of quail 
by certain reliable people who will care for them 
during the winter and release them in pairs in 
the spring. If twenty people in each county 
where quail breed would trap ten pairs or mote 
each after the first snowfall, and then care for 
them out-of-doors in specially built pens so they 
would not lose any of their vitality, every county 
wou’d have its share of quail shooting. 
I know one man who did not have permis¬ 
sion from the State to trap and carry over some 
birds who took twenty pairs through the winter 
in a sort of natural pen in the woods, the birds 
being fed and watered by him and the snow 
being kept cleaned away from their shelter of 
boards and brush. The past spring he liberated 
a pair each few days after the danger of a big 
storm was over, and reports the cover in his 
vicinity alive with little birds at this time. The 
idea is a good one, I think; at least I should 
like to see it discussed. Amos Burhans. 
’Gaior Climbed a Fence. 
Raleigh, N. C., June 17.—Editor Forest and 
Stream: Recently I told of the capture of an 
alligator at Raleigh by a party of boys and a dog 
and of the bringing of this saurian to the city 
park. He was placed in one of the lakes at the 
park among the lotus plants. 1 he alligator hav¬ 
ing attained a length of five feet, climbed the 
wire fence, about four feet in height. When 
keeper Howell heard a commotion among the 
swans and geese one look told him what was 
the trouble, and he ran for his gun. The alli¬ 
gator was closely pressing a swan. He would 
dive, come up near the swan, make a dash at 
the latter, and as the bird tried to fly, the ’gator 
would make a fresh attempt to catch him. Mr. 
Howell shot the rascal. Fred A. Olds, 
