148 
Canadian explorers. To reach the lake requires 
a several weeks’ trip north from the end of the 
railway at Lake St. John, and the route has 
been so difficult, on account of the rushing rivers 
and rapids encountered, that only a very few 
men of the hardier type have ever attempted it. 
The new Transcontinental will not go anywhere 
near Lake Mistassini, but it will enable the woods 
voyageur to get into waters that are known even 
less to civilization than Mistassini itself. 
NEW JERSEY TO GET 8,000 - ACRE 
PRESERVE. 
Charles C. Worthington, a wealthy lover of 
birds and animals, has offered 8,000 acres of 
mountain land to the State of New Jersey for 
use as a game preserve. Announcement of the 
offer is made by Ernest Napier, president of the 
State Board of Fish and Game Commissioners. 
Mr. Worthington not oniy offers the use of the 
land -for an indefinite period but wishes to give 
the property outright as a perpetual game re¬ 
serve if it is possible for the State to accept it. 
He makes the provision that the property be 
used as a refuge for wild animals and birds. 
The Worthington acres are at present a refuge 
for many kinds of animals. The largest of these 
are the white tailed deer. There are also a 
great many smaller animals. 
The land also abounds in bird life. Partridges 
and quail are the most numerous and probably 
the most important of the feathered refugees. 
Mr. Worthington’s offer recalls the fact that 
in 1904 he set aside a large area of land near 
his home in Monroe county, Pennsylvania, as a 
refuge for birds and as a place where a study 
of their habits might be pursued. 
William E. D. Sco'tt, curator of the ornithologi¬ 
cal museum at Princeton University, was placed 
in charge of the property with a free hand to 
conduct what experiments and studies he wished. 
Persons interested in the refuge formed the 
Worthington Society for 'the Investigation of 
Bird Life. 
GAME CONDITIONS IN MARYLAND. 
Baltimore, July 25, 1914. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
In an article censuring the Federal Government 
for allowing reed -bird shooting in Maryland and 
other states herealbout, your correspondent is 
evidently not familiar -with conditions here and 
in Virginia and Carolina. He states, among 
other things, that they arrive here about October; 
the first flocks have already arrived on the Mary¬ 
land marshes (July 24), and are nearly all gone 
before the first of October. 
This has been a very good breeding year for 
birds in this part of the country; it has been 
dry, and insects have been numerous and have 
provided more than the usual amount of bird food 
Which has made housekeeping easy for the 
mother and father birds who have to rustle 
bugs for a large and hungry family; second 
broods are therefore in order. It looks good for 
a fine gunning season. 
From four ducks, closely related, taken from 
my flock of wild green head mallards, one of 
my friends has so far raised 91 wild ducks this 
season. 
FOREST AND STREAM 
Eight eggs presented to another friend from 
the same flock last summer resulted in the sur¬ 
vival of one drake and three hens, which four 
have succeeded, with the assistance of some com¬ 
mon hens to do the hatching, in raising a fine 
family of 86. 
If the wild ducks of the north on their natural 
breeding grounds have been as successful, and 
they probably have been as they were undis¬ 
turbed on their way north this spring, the Federal 
Bird Bill will be in luck, and no man will raise 
any objection to it after the fun he will have 
this fall, unless it be some of the class of men 
who are at this time trying to repeal the Cali¬ 
fornia no-sale game, law for their own greedy 
ends and mercenary gains. 
We have succeeded in adding one good piece 
of State Legislation to the Maryland conglom¬ 
eration of local laws this year, wiping out at one 
stroke twenty-three different county laws on the 
subject. Due to the efforts of State Game 
Warden James P. Curley we now have a uni¬ 
form opening date for partridges, pheasants, 
rabbits, woodcock, wild turkeys and squirrels for 
the entire State—Nov. 10. With the Federal 
season on ducks uniform Nov. 1 to Feb. 1 our 
old table of open and closed seasons is very 
much simplified, much to the gratification of the 
hunter who wants to obey the law, but could 
not make it out. 
The Maryland Game Laws for 1914 will be 
ready for distribution by the State Game Warden 
about Aug. 1. 
TALBOTT DENMEAD. 
NATIONAL AMATEUR CASTING TOURNA¬ 
MENT. 
Chicago, July 18, 1914. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
The second annual tournament of the Na¬ 
tional Amateur Casting Association will be held 
at Washington Park, Chicago, beginning Aug. 
22 and lasting two or three days as conditions 
may determine. The events to be played will be: 
Salmon Fly— V2 oz. Distance bait— V2 oz. Ac¬ 
curacy bait—-Light Tackle Dry Fly Accuracy— 
% oz. Accuracy bait—Light Tackle, Distance Fly 
Light Tackle Accuracy Fly. Suitable and appro¬ 
priate trophies will be awarded in all events, and 
special trophies will be awarded to those winners 
who have not before competed in a National 
Tournament. 
There will be degree awards known as “Blue 
buttons,” for those whose combined averages in 
two accuracy bait and fly events '(2 each) equal 
98 per cent, or better. 
.The “All Around” Amateur Championship— 
that much coveted honor—will be awarded to the 
caster with the least number of points, and for 
this a special trophy will be awarded. 
All casting will be judged strictly under the 
rules of the National Amateur Casting Associa¬ 
tion and trophy awards wili be known distinctively 
as the “National Amateur Championship.” 
On the evening of Aug. 24th our annual dinner 
will be given, when he names of winners will 
be announced and trophies awarded and an op¬ 
portunity afforded to members to felicitate one 
another on the magnificent strides, made by the 
National Amateur Casting Association within 
the past year. 
For the information of those interested and 
not informed, it may be stated the “N. A. C. A.” 
is budded along the lines of individual member¬ 
ship and the requirement for admission is that 
the applicant be a gentleman and that he sign 
a “Declaration of Faith,” which defines the 
status of an amateur in terms so clear and un¬ 
mistakable that he who reads may run if he 
wishes to. 
One slogan is “sport—for the love of the sport 
only,” on purpose to eliminate all semblance of 
the baneful influence of commercialism and place 
the “N. A. C. A.” upon the foundation of true 
amateur sportsmanship. 
Programs or further information may be ob¬ 
tained by addressing the secretary Mr. O. C. 
Wehle, 5471 Kimbark Ave., Chicago. 
O. C. WEHLE, Secretary. 
PHEASANT ARE RELEASED IN NEWTOWN 
WOODS. 
Newton, N. J., July 24.—Fish and Game War¬ 
den, J. B. Hendershot has released about 200 
pheasants, which he obtained from State game 
farm at Forked River, where they had been 
hatched and raised under State supervision. 
There has been a scarcity of pheasants in this 
vicinity for several years and in response to the 
requests made to the State officials the game 
warden released the birds. 
A HUNDRED-MILLION ROBINS IN THE 
EASTERN U. S. 
Partial returns from the census of birds which, 
for the first time in its history the United States 
Government is now undertaking, indicate that 
there are wide variations in the bird population 
in different parts of the country. It is too early 
yet for any exact averages to be given and com¬ 
plete results will not be published for many 
months. 
A call for volunteers was published some time 
ago for observers to help in the bird census and 
replies have come from all parts of the United 
States. Each volunteer observer was asked to 
select a certain definite area of from 40 to 80 
acres and enumerate the different kinds of birds 
occuring there and the number of pairs of each 
kind actually nesting within each territory. 
The most numerous bird life so far reported 
is in Chevy Chase, Maryland. An average was 
found there of about 7 pairs per acre. Only a 
few places report as high a population as four 
pairs per acre, while it seems probable from the 
data so far received that the average for the 
whole United States east of the Plains will be 
not far from a thousand pairs to the square mile 
after omitting the land in corn and potatoes 
where there would be small chances for any birds 
to nest, and after omitting also the land covered 
entirely with forests. Timber land supports a 
much smaller bird population than an equal area 
of farm land. 
The most extensive census of forest so far re¬ 
ceived comes from Montana, where the careful 
counting of the birds on nearly a thousand acres 
showed an average of one pair to each three acres. 
Apparently the most abundant bird in the 
United States east of the Mississippi River is the 
robin, with an average of about fifty pairs to 
the square mile, or a hundred millions robins in 
the eastern United States. 
