652 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Oct. 28, 1911. 
Published Weekly by the 
Forest and Stream Publishing Company, 
127 Franklin Street, New York. 
Edward C. Locke, President, 
Charles B. Reynolds, Secretary, 
,S. J. Gibson, Treasurer. 
CORRESPONDENCE. 
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communications will not be regarded. The editors are 
not responsible for the views of correspondents. 
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—Forest and Stream, Auj. 14, 1873. 
AN UNFORTUNATE BLUNDER. 
A remarkable document is the opinion handed 
down by the attorney-general of Michigan in re¬ 
lation to the sale of aigrettes. The new game 
law of that State very plainly forbids the sale of 
egrets or their plumage, but the attorney-general 
holds a contrary opinion. He says: 
In reply thereto would say that Section 14 of Act No. 
S75 of the Public Acts of 1911, purports to make it un¬ 
lawful for any person to kill, catch or have in possession 
any wild non-game bird, living or dead, or purchase, 
sell offer or expose for sale any such wild non-game 
bird after it has been killed or caught, except as per¬ 
mitted by said act, and that no part of the plumage, 
skin or body of any non-game bird protected by said act 
shall be sold or had in possession for sale, and this 
irrespective of whether said bird was killed or captured 
within or without the State. 
I understand that an aigrette was at one time a part 
or portion of the plumage of a bird, and also that m 
its finished stage it is a distinct article of manufacture 
and trade and sold under a distinctive name, and that 
nearly all of them as found in this State were manufac¬ 
tured in other States and countries. 
It is my opinion that as such distinct articles of 
manufacture and trade they have lost their identity as a 
part of a game or non-game bird within the meaning of 
Act 275 of the Public Acts of 1911. 
If "this should-not be the correct position on this 
ouestion it would follow that the sales of a great many 
articles ’of commerce and trade which are sold indis¬ 
criminately in the various places of business in this 
State would be unlawful. There are a vast number of 
articles of trade and commerce which in whole or in 
part represent that which at some time or other was a 
part or portion of an animal or bird protected by the 
laws of this State in its wild state, either dead or alive. 
I can direct your attention to no better illustration than 
knife handles, which are made from the antlers of a deer. 
In examining the title of said Act 275 of the Public 
Acts of 1911, it does not appear from anything therein 
contained that it was the intent of the Legislature to 
prohibit the sale of distinct articles of manufacture and 
trade sold under their distinctive names, where such 
articles had lost their identity completely as a part of 
the carcass, or body of a game animal or bird. I would 
therefore advise you that in my opinion said Act 275 
does not prohibit the possession and sale of either the 
snowy aigrette* or the American aigrette* referred to, 
whatever difference there may be between the two classes. 
*So m the copy of the opinion transmitted to us. 
The Michigan law was drawn up for the sole 
purpose of aiding New York, New Jersey and 
other States in putting a period to the killing 
of egrets and other birds of no food va.ue. 
Egrets are shot by men in the direct or indirect 
employ of the milliners’ supply houses. I he 
only object in killing these birds is to secure 
the feathers which, after slight grooming, are 
sold for headgear ornaments as aigrettes. It is 
assumed that the Michigan legislators were fully 
informed as to the main purpose of the bill 
which was approved by them, by the Governor 
and the people of Michigan and is now a law. 
But the attorney-general shows a woeful lack 
of information on a subject that has been given 
wide publicity in the press and on the lecture 
platform, the result of which is that the milliners’ 
stand is not supported 'by the public. The public 
is of one mind: the shooting of egrets for then- 
plumage must be stopped. 
The placing of aigrettes in the same category 
as “stag-horn” knife handles is unfortunate and 
ill advised. Only those plumes which are plucked 
from egrets freshly killed are purchased by the 
milliners, and there is no demand for discarded 
plumes, even if it were possible to collect these, 
which it is not. The plumage of moulting birds 
is of no commercial or other value. 
On the other hand, the “stag-horn” from which 
the side-plates of pocket knife handles and the 
handles of carvers and hunting knives are made 
may not be staghorn or any horn at all, but a 
manufactured imitation. Even when such articles 
are made from the antlers of our deer 01 elk 
and European elk and deer, it by no means fol¬ 
lows that these animals are killed for the cutlery 
trade. None are killed for this purpose; it is 
unnecessary when all these animals shed their 
antlers annually and these discarded antlers may 
be picked up in the preserves where the majority 
of such animals are found. 
The antlers of only a small percentage of all 
deer shot are kept as trophies, and great quanti¬ 
ties of the antlers of deer consumed as food are 
sold to taxidermists, to cutlers and others. They 
are utilized in precisely the same way as are the 
horns of steers that are butchered for market, 
and it would be folly to say beeves were killed 
to supply manufacturers with steers’ horn. 
Fortunately, the opinion of Michigan’s attor¬ 
ney-general may, and no doubt will, be set aside. 
Otherwise there will be no protection in that 
State for any of the song and insectivorous birds, 
whose feathers have a commercial value. 
In the United States Circuit Court in this city 
on Oct. 13, Judge Ward handed down a decision 
upholding the plumage law of New York, the 
millinery interests recently sought to obtain an 
injunction to restrain the Conservation Commis¬ 
sion from enforcing the law, claiming loss of 
business and deprivation of property without due 
process of law, and that the law was unconsti¬ 
tutional. Judge Ward, however, held that the 
milliners had had a year’s time in which to dis¬ 
pose of their stocks before the plumage law went 
into effect, and this was deemed sufficient. He 
also held that it is within the police powers 
of the State to pass laws protecting birds native 
to it, and that the plumage law is constitutional. 
Medals and cash awards have been granted 
by the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission to per¬ 
sons who have displayed unselfish courage in 
saving the lives of others from fire, drowning 
and perils of all descriptions, but one of the most 
recent awards had to do with a bison, and is, 
therefore, out of the ordinary in modern times. 
It was in i\larch last that Phaon Hausman, an 
old man, was attacked by a park bison at 
Schencksville, Pa. James M. Snyder threw his 
overcoat over the bison's head and both men 
escaped from the inclosure. To Snyder the com¬ 
mission gave a bronze medal and $1,000 in cash 
for the purchase of a farm. This statement 
lacks the romance of others which tell of the 
brave rescue by athletic young men of beauteous 
maidens from the raging billows of Podunk 
Creek, but to calmly waik up to an excited buf¬ 
falo and bestow on him a garment so necessary 
in winter as an overcoat requires courage of a 
high order. The Laird's face in bronze reposes 
in a worthy pocket. 
About three years ago Captain Joshua Slocum 
sailed from New Bedford in the sloop Spray, 
bound for the Orinoco River in South America. 
Since then no word has been received from him, 
although at one time there were rumors that the 
Indians had told travelers of a white man and 
a small vessel which might have been the famous 
little sloop. It was the captain’s intention to 
ascend the Orinoco and the Atabapo rivers, 
thence by the Guanini River to the Rio Negro 
and the Amazon. Captain Slocum’s family is 
much concerned as to his fate, and his son, 
Victor J. Slocum, is planning to follow the cap¬ 
tain’s course. 
* 
The importation of foreign game bids fair 
to return a substantial sum to the State of New 
York. Every game bird and animal brought 
into the port of New York for sale under the 
Bayne law is tagged by game protectors, who 
col'ect a fee of five cents for each bird or ani¬ 
mal so tagged. During the month of September 
the receipts of the Conservation Commission 
from this source alone were nearly double those 
from shooting license fees for the same time, 
or $9,571.70 in imported game fees and $5,278 
for shooting license fees. All funds collected 
by the Conservation Commission are turned into 
the State treasury. 
* 
It is rumored that one of the largest manu¬ 
facturers of gun and rifle ammunition in Great 
Britain is bui'ding a cartridge factory at Trans- 
cona, Canada. 
K 
Reforestation of the Is’and of Kahoolawe wi’l 
be begun shortly by the Hawaiian Government 
under instruction of the Federal Forest Service. 
