Sept. 16, 1911] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
453 
_ 
Hunting in California. 
San Francisco, Cal., Sept. 7. —Editor Forest 
and Stream: That some sort of an epidemic is 
raging among deer in the northern part of the 
State is the belief of hunters who have been 
visiting the Pitt River country. One party that 
went into this section reported that in the course 
of a two days’ tramp, eleven does and three 
bucks were found dead. The fact that the car¬ 
casses were not mutilated led to the belief that 
some disease must be rampant. From Trinity 
county similar reports have been received, many 
dead deer having been found there during the 
past month, the deer invariably being found hear 
some stream, apparently indicating that the ani¬ 
mals were afflicted with a fever and longed for 
water. 
Deer have been protected for several years by 
stringent regulations in Solano and Napa coun¬ 
ties, and in the Green and White Horse Valleys 
they have become so plentiful that fruit growers 
declare them a menace. 
The board of supervisors of Contra Costa 
county will shortly discuss the proposition of 
passing an ordinance prohibiting the killing of 
deer during the next five years. Thomas K. 
Duncan, county game warden, is back of the 
movement for the protection of the deer and 
his ideas are upheld by sportsmen generally. 
This season but two deer have been killed to 
date in Contra Costa county, while five years 
ago forty-eight bucks were slain in one day's 
hunt. 
Prophets who base their weather predictions 
on the flights of wildfowl say we will have an 
early fall. Wild geese have been flying into the 
upper Sacramento Valley for the past two weeks 
in large numbers. This is very unusual, there 
being no records of wild geese having com¬ 
menced their flight into this State so early in the 
season. 
The war that has been declared by the health 
authorities on the ground squirrel is proving 
disastrous. As the ground is now very dry, no 
attempts are being made to kill the squirrels by 
gaseous fumes, but poisons are being used al¬ 
most exclusively. Poisoned grain is being dis¬ 
tributed in immense quantities where the squir¬ 
rels are to be found, this " rk being carried on 
in about ten of the interior counties. The grain 
is scattered around the squirrel holes, and it is 
declared that doves that congregate there to take 
dust baths pick up much of the food with fatal 
results. Thousands of meadow larks and small 
birds are also being killed. 
Miss Gretchen L. Libby, so widely known as 
“the little lady in brown,” the member of the 
Audubon Society of California, who worked so 
faithfully to keep the meadow lark on the pro¬ 
tected list during the last session of the State 
Legislature, is the author of a booklet on the 
birds of California that is shortly to be distri¬ 
buted as a text book for bird study in the public 
schools. Miss Libby is a deputy of the State 
Fish and Game Commission and is devoting most 
of her time to spreading information in regard 
to California birds. Her victory last year in 
securing protection for the meadow lark may 
not be a permanent one, however, for Assem¬ 
blyman J. W. Stuckenbruck, author of the bill 
to remove this bird from the protected list, is 
keeping up his war on it. At his instigation a 
thorough investigation of the habits of the lark 
is being made, and a detailed report will be sub¬ 
mitted to the next Legislature. A large num¬ 
ber of the birds in the Farmington section have 
been killed by Deputy Fish and Game Warden 
Alfred Williams, Jr., and these have been ship¬ 
ped to the University of California, where the 
contents of their stomachs will be examined. 
Each bird has been tagged to show when it was 
CHARLES H. AMES, 
Whose death occurred on Sept. 9. 
shot, where found, whether in grain field, or¬ 
chard or vineyard, and other information. 
Monarch, the big grizzy bear, for years the 
pride of Golden Gate Park, and who was killed 
a few months ago on account of paralysis which 
he had contracted, has been mounted and is now 
in the Park Museum in the place of honor at 
the entrance. Monarch was captured in 1889 in 
the mountains of Ventura county and was the 
largest grizzly ever in captivity. 
J. S. Henderson, of Durham, and E. PI. Bick¬ 
ford, of Chico, recently killed a big black bear 
in the Yola Bola Mineral Springs district that 
measured nine feet in length and weighed 600 
pounds. This is the largest bear that has been 
killed in Northern California in several years. 
A movement is on foot to remove the State 
Game Farm from Hayward to Folsom at the 
c'ose of the present season. The farm in use 
at the present time is leased and there is no 
assurance that this can Be secured again under 
the former terms. The fish and gjime commis¬ 
sion thinks the move would be of advantage,' as 
it is believed that the warmer climate of Folsom 
would be better for the turkeys and pheasants 
that are being reared. 
California hunters have besieged the Oregon 
State Fish and Game Commission for permis¬ 
sion to*-bring deer killed in Oregon into Cali¬ 
fornia, but the attorney-general of that State 
has announced that such permits could not be 
lawfully issued and the law will be enfosced as 
interpreted. Golden Gate. 
To Fight the Moths. 
Boston, Mass., Sept. 2. —Editor Forest and 
Stream: State Forester Rane and his assistant, 
M. C. Hutchins, formerly of Albany, have made 
a beginning in the work of establishing fire sta¬ 
tions in Massachusetts for which the last Legis¬ 
lature appropriated $10,000. Towers are already 
established on Wachusett, Mount Tom and Great 
Blue Hill in Milton. Other mountain tops where 
observations are to be established are Grace, 
Greylock, October, Mount Everett, Bald Pate 
and Shelburne Falls and Bourne Hill in Sand¬ 
wich. In the town of Plymouth there has been 
a station for several years.' On Wachusett and 
Mount Tom are towers connected with the hotels 
which are available for the use of the fire war¬ 
dens. 
Recent developments have brought to my mind 
the opinion expressed by the late Edward A. 
Samuels that “the only way to fight the gypsy 
moth was by parasites.” 
Many and discouraging have been the experi¬ 
ments of the scientists in their efforts to pro¬ 
cure effective parasites. It remained for V . H. 
Fiske to find in Europe a parasite unknown to 
American scientists and to collect 125,000 speci¬ 
mens of them and get them shipped safely to 
America ready to do the work expected of them 
“within less than a month.” 
Most sincerely and earnestly should all the 
great host of nature lovers lend their hearty co¬ 
operation to those who labor in the work of 
saving our shade and forest trees. 
H. H. Kimball. 
Local Names of Waterfowl. 
Raleigh, N. C., Sept. 1 .—Editor Forest and 
Stream: That most interesting article on "Local 
Names of Waterfowl and Other Birds,” by W. 
L. McAtee, published in Forest and Stream 
for July 29, has impelled me to send you here¬ 
with a few names not included in either 1 rum- 
bull’s list or this later addition. They are all 
local North Carolina names, and are as follows: 
Mallard.—Blackduck, Cape Platteras. 
Blackduck.—English Duck, Cape Hatteras. 
Long-tailed Duck.— Knock Molly, Cape Hat¬ 
teras and nearby waters of Pamlico Sound. 
Scooters.—Booby, New Bern; Sea Coot, North 
Carolina coast (to distinguish them from the 
grebes, which also bear the name of coot around 
New Bern and on the waters below there). 
King Rail.—Double Rail, New Bern. 
Virginia Rail.—Single Rail, New Bern. 
Woodcock.—Night Flit, Currituck. 
Turnstone.—Maggot Eater, Cape Lookout. 
I recently heard the name Duckinmallard 
used by an old resident of Bladen county in 
speaking of the varieties of ducks frequenting 
White Lake in winter. This, of course, applies 
to the mallard and is mentioned by Trumbull. 
H. II. Brimley. 
