238 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Aug. 5, 1911. 
Resorts for Sportsmen. 
NEWFOUNDLAND 
A Country of Fish and Game. A Paradise ior the Camper and Angler. Ideal Canoe Trips. 
The country traversed by the Reid Newfoundland Company’s system is exceedingly rich in all kinds of fish and 
game, ffAll along the route of the Railway are streams famous for their SALMON and TROUT fishing, also 
Caribou barrens. IJAmericans who have been fishing and hunting in Newfoundland say there is no other country 
in the world in which so good fishing and hunting can be secured and with such ease as in Newfoundland. 
Information, together with Illustrated Booklet and Folder, cheerfully forwarded upon application to 
J. W. N. JOHNSTONE, General Passenger Agent, Reid Newfoundland Company, St. John’s, Newfoundland. 
NEWFOUNDLAND.] 
Do you want good salmon or trout fishing? Or to shoot 
the lordly caribou? Apply J. R. WHITAKER, 
Bungalow, Grand Lakes, Newfoundland. 
MODERN FISH CULTURE 
In Salt and Fresh Water 
By FRED MA THER 
This book covers the entire field, including the cul¬ 
ture of trout, salmon, shad, the basses, grayling, white- 
fish, pike, pickerel, carp, muscalonge, smelt, crappies, 
perch, alewives, sturgeon, lobsters, with chapters on 
parasites, diseases and enemies of fish, tables of eggs, 
working of ponds, fish characteristics. Cloth, illustrated. 
Postpaid, $2.00. 
FOREST AND STREAM PUBLISHING COMPANY 
Manual of the Canvas Canoe 
By F. R. WEBB 
In a thoroughly interesting and readily understood 
manner it tells how to build cruise and live in a canvas 
canoe. Contents—Practical Construction, Cost, Specifica¬ 
tions, Plans and Patterns, Putting on the Canvas, Paint¬ 
ing, Finishing, Camp Equipment, Camp Cookery, Cruis¬ 
ing and Camping, Plans and Working Drawings. Cloth, 
illustrated. Postpaid, $1.25. 
FOREST AND STREAM PUBLISHING CO. 
Manual of Taxidermy for Beginners 
By C. J. MAYNARD 
A complete guide in collecting and preserving birds, 
animals, fishes, and reptiles. Implements, supplies, di¬ 
rections, formulas, etc., all plain and readily understood. 
Cloth, illustrated. Postpaid, $1.00. 
FOREST AND STREAM PUBUSHING CO. 
during the breeding season with the result that 
there is always a large and possibly increasing 
stock to draw upon when the catching season 
begins in the autumn. When any sparrow club 
allows such a policy as this to be pursued, one 
is forcibly reminded of the tactics employed by 
the cunning old rat-catcher who, being rewarded 
on the system of so much a tail, caught his rats 
alive, and having cut off their tails, let them 
loose again to perpetuate their species. In the 
case of the sparrow, for whose head instead of 
his tail a reward is paid, the principle involved 
is not quite the same, but anyone will see that 
there is some analogy between the two separate 
instances of sowing with one hand and reaping 
with the other. 
In order to support its avowed reason for ex¬ 
istence the sparrow club, while paying reward 
for its victims, should also do all in its power 
to discourage any attempt toward “nursing” the 
enemy for the sake of ultimate reward. One 
is aware that in some cases maney is paid for 
eggs and young birds from a nest, but when the 
rates of remuneration for either of these is on 
a lower scale than that paid for adult birds, it 
is obvious what the result may be. As a matter 
of fact, if sparrows are to be kept down, a 
higher reward ought to be given for early 
hatched young ones than for adult birds in 
autumn or winter, for although many young 
sparrows do not breed their first season, it is 
pretty certain that those hatched early in the 
spring will do so. The killing of a single young 
sparrow as a nestling may, therefore, be the 
means of stopping the existence of several later 
on. What is equally important is the fact that 
the young sparrow in the nest is a bird in the 
hand; when it flies it is a bird in the bush, and 
even if it be ultimately caught and killed, it may 
have done much mischief before that object is 
attained. It would undoubtedly be a good plan 
to pay rewards for sparrows on a sliding scale, 
the rate of remuneration being highest in the 
spring and becoming lower as the year goes on. 
At any rate, a better price should be paid for 
all birds killed before harvest than afterward, 
for a sparrow that has never spent an August in 
the cornfields has not committed half the amount 
of mischief that it will have achieved by October. 
It may be doubted whether it is a good plan to 
pay reward for the eggs of sparrows at all, for 
the result of taking a nest with eggs is simply 
that the old birds will go off and build another 
nest—possibly on the second occasion in some 
spot where it cannot be got at or may never be 
found. By all means let the birds waste their 
time in incubation and rearing their families, 
but take the young birds before they are able 
to leave the nest. 
According to the methods employed by the 
majority of sparrow clubs the catching season 
begins in the autumn and ends in the spring. 
During that period of course the birds go to 
roost in places where they are more easily taken 
with the net or the lantern (or both) than at 
any other period of the year, but there are other 
and quite as deadly methods of sparrow catch¬ 
ing that can be adopted in spring and summer. 
Trapping during the warmer weather should, in 
fact, be as important a part of the sparrow club’s 
program as netting in winter. No great number 
of old birds will be taken by this method, but 
any place can be practically cleared of young 
ones if trapping is persisted in from the begin¬ 
ning of April until the end of July, or even later 
if necessary. The best patterns of traps are 
those known as Newton’s sparrow trap and the 
wicker work kind, either of which can be pur¬ 
chased through an ironmonger. Both are deadly 
if frequently moved from place to place, and it 
is a good plan to leave one or two birds in the 
trap, each time the victims are removed, to play 
the part of decoys. The best bait is meal as 
mixed up for chickens. Some arrangement might 
be made by sparrow clubs to purchase some 
traps and loan them to the members in turn, and 
it is certain that if this were done, more spar¬ 
rows would be caught every summer than would 
fall to the lot of all the nets employed in the 
winter. Sparrow catching in summer should be 
pursued with vigor everywhere, as by its means 
half the damage done by the birds may be pre¬ 
vented.—The Field. 
Forest and Stream Subscription Blank 
Subscription Price, $3.00 a Year; $1.50 for 6 Months 
Foreign Postage, $1.50 extra a year; 75 cents extra for 6 months 
Canadian Postage, 1.00 extra a year; 50 cents extra for 6 months 
FOREST AND STREAM PUBUSHING CO., 
127 Franklin Street, New York City. 
Gentlemen: 
Enclosed find $. for which please send FOREST AND STREAM 
for ..., commencing. 
.191 ., to the following address: 
Name 
Date. 
Address. 
