708 
for this fish. The River Weser yields some fine 
salmon and sturgeon, caught in nets. I never 
heard of anybody there catching salmon with 
hook and line, but I guess that is because Ger¬ 
mans do not know how to angle for them. I 
would have tried my luck at salmon but was 
informed I could not fish for them, because that 
part of the river had been rented to professional 
net fishermen. In Brake I stopped with an uncle 
of mine, a farmer, and he lived in a typical old 
German farm house, one of those long, low one- 
story buildings, with a thatched roof. The front 
door was high and wide enough to drive a team 
through. In the front part of the building, on 
each side, were stalls for the cattle and overhead 
was the hay loft. Chickens and ducks had free run 
of this part of the building. Living rooms, large 
and spacious, were located in the rear of build¬ 
ing, and in every room was one of those quaint, 
high, glazed brick stoves, and in the kitchen was 
a large, open fireplace over which the cooking 
was done. All the floors had a thin layer of white 
sand. The beams and rafters in the front part 
of the building were literally plastered with the 
nests of swallows, and on the roof of the build¬ 
ing a pair of storks and their young had their 
domicile. Certainly a very interesting and quaint 
old place. 
AS I LOOK AT IT. 
(Continued from page 695.) 
and, in my opinion, the extinction of this bird 
came about through some disease; otherwise, 
they never would have been wiped out so com¬ 
pletely as has been the case- There would have 
been a few left, had man been responsible for 
this final and total destruction, and it would 
seem, therefore, that the elements, and disease, 
were the final causes of the disappearance of 
the wild pigeon. 
There is one man, I am glad to say, who seems 
to have the proper conception of the real cause 
of the disappearance and scarcity of the game 
birds at the present time—Dr. Joseph Kalbfus, 
of Pennsylvania. It can be summed up in one 
word, “vermin”—not the “pot hunter,” the “game 
hog” nor the “slaughterer.” 
I am, further, convinced that of twelve game 
birds’ eggs laid in the spring, not more than two 
of the birds therefrom get into the hunting coat 
of the sportsman, and that the re-population of 
our fields and covers with the edible game birds 
will only be brought about when we come to a 
proper realization of the destructiveness of 
prowling vermin, such as the cat, self-hunting 
dogs, red squirrels, weazels, skunks, hawks and 
owls. This list covers the real reason for the 
scarcity of game birds in our covers, not the gun 
of the sportsman. 
Personally, the writer wishes to state that he 
is greatly interested in the Audubon Society, as 
a society. They are doing a grand work, and I 
am pleased to make my annual contribution to 
the cause, as many a worthy brother and fellow 
has done before, but I regret to note, in all the 
circulars received from this society, the absence 
of any mention as to the desirability of the de¬ 
struction of such pests as have been named above. 
It is all very well to have nicely engraved pic¬ 
tures of song-birds, etc., and far be it from me, 
or those whom I assume to represent, that one 
of these be harmed, but it does seem that a step 
in the right direction should be taken by the 
FOREST AND STREAM 
Audubon Society to start a campaign on the ex¬ 
termination of these pests, the same to be carried 
through in just the energetic manner in which 
they handle other matters of importance to the 
society. 
It may be interesting for the readers to know 
that last year I received a permit from the Fish 
and Game Commissioners of this State to secure 
some ruffed grouse eggs, to be used at the Game 
Farm of the American Game Protective and Pro¬ 
pagation Association at South Carver, Mass., and 
that, with this permit, a friend and I sought the 
likely covers. We found five different nests of 
ruffed grouse, and, in four cases out of five, the 
eggs had been sucked. The indications were that 
this was done by red squirrels, there being evi¬ 
dence of their presence around the nests. Is 
this not convincing evidence of the destruction of 
the foundation of our game bird life by vermin, 
blame for which is being laid at the door of the 
“game hog,” the “pot hunter” and the “slaugh¬ 
terer?” This is not someone’s opinion that such 
a thing might have happened—it is something 
that I actually saw. Eighty per cent, of the ruffed 
grouse eggs that we found, right here in this 
State, were sucked in the manner above de¬ 
scribed. Therefore, if my experience is a crite¬ 
rion, and only one ruffed grouse nest in five is 
permitted to escape, it is no wonder that we have 
a scarcity of game birds, which scarcity, I con¬ 
tend, should not be laid upon the shoulders of 
the sportsman. 
I feel that we must insist upon a square deal 
to the sportsman, and it seems to me that this 
extreme campaign of vituperation against him 
has gone about as far as it should go without 
starting’Something from the people who know. 
A practical example of the extent it is possi¬ 
ble to work up easily influenced and impression¬ 
able people into a condition bordering on hys¬ 
teria, has recently been seen in this State, over 
what these same people have called “The 
Slaughter of the Pheasant.” They bombarded 
our Governor with letters and personal appeals 
to such an extent that he gave them a hearing on 
the advisability of closing the season on pheasant 
altogether, and this was done in the middle of the 
season. It is apparent that the Governor saw 
the inconsistency of these appeals, as the law 
was permitted to continue on our statute books. 
The English pheasant was imported into this 
State and put out by and for the benefit of the 
sportsman. The birds have multiplied wonder¬ 
fully—in fact, in my opinion, we have at least 
200,000 of these birds in the State to-day, as a 
natural consequence of being protected for the 
past six or seven years. On the outskirts, hav¬ 
ing been fed by people who were kindly disposed 
toward them, some of them have become what 
might be called “tame” pheasants, being more or 
less accustomed to civilization. When the season 
opened, therefore, these birds, whose haunts had 
been in the suburbs of our cities, naturally fell 
an easy prey to the guns, and, as an equally 
natural consequence of the long closed season, 
each man who could get hold of a gun for the 
opening day went afield, and it must be admitted 
that quite a number of these tamer birds were 
killed, but the pheasant is a wily bird, and it did 
not take them long to discover that they were 
being pursued, so that, after about three days, a 
majority of the tamer birds were felled to the 
gun, and those left went into thick cover, and if 
a man wanted a pheasant the latter part of the 
season, he had to work for it, as those in our 
covers at present are quite able to take care of 
themselves. 
At the hearing before the Governor, the Audu¬ 
bon Society, also, very much to my surprise, the 
Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Ani¬ 
mals, were ably represented. Where the 
“cruelty to animals” comes in, in the shooting of 
some pheasants, was something beyond my intel¬ 
ligence to comprehend. It was stated that the 
pheasant was a pretty bird and should not be 
killed at all, in spite of the fact that he was 
brought here by the sportsmen for that express 
purpose. 
At the American Game Protective and Propa¬ 
gation Game Farm from fifty to eighty eggs a 
year from a hen pheasant is not unusual. Of 
course, at the farm the eggs are taken from the 
bird and hatched under hens, but in the natural 
cover the nests contain from 14 to 16 eggs, and 
one or two broods are raised each year, so that 
any talk about their extermination is ridiculous. 
If there is one bird that can be raised artificially, 
it is the ring neck pheasant, as is evidenced by 
the large numbers annually bred and shot in 
England and Scotland. 
Again, these petitioners overlooked the fact 
that the shooting of the pheasant relieved to 
some extent the pressure on our native ruffed 
grouse and quail. As a matter of fact, owing to 
the open season on pheasants this year, there 
have been fewer grouse and quail shot than in 
any year for the past seven years, so that the 
pheasant is doing a double duty—giving the 
sportsmen something to hunt and diverting atten¬ 
tion from our almost depleted quail and ruffed 
grouse covers, which is certainly most desirable, 
but these things have been entirely overlooked 
by this very magnanimous crowd of petitioners, 
who would, if they had their way, not allow a 
pheasant to be shot at any time. This, of course, 
is simply an illustration of the tendency of the 
times against the shooting of any kind of a bird 
or animal, game or otherwise, vermin included. 
As another illustration of the insane condition 
that some well-known minds have gotten them¬ 
selves worked into, would say that one of the 
prominent bird protectors told me that the marsh 
hawk was not destructive to bird life, that his 
food generally consisted of mice. At our Game 
Farm at South Carver a short time ago, a marsh 
hawk was shot in mid air by the keeper, in the 
very act of carrying off a two-thirds grown 
pheasant in his talons, the pheasant being almost 
as large as he was. If he will do this to a bird 
as large as a pheasant, I should like to know 
what chance the quail, or similar birds, would 
have, providing their presence was known? 
I am pleased to note that the general opposi¬ 
tion to all kinds of shooting, and the attempt to 
curtail our privileges, come from people who, 
in most cases, have never fired a gun in their 
lives. They know nothing about the sport, yet 
they assume to tell those who do love to go afield 
what they shall and shall not do. To those of 
our friends who delight in the study of art and 
works of art, I might say that it pleases me to 
know that they derive satisfaction or pleasure in 
looking at beautiful pictures, etc. As for me, 
the mighty mountain, the beautiful valley, the 
winding river and the golden sunset—those are 
the pictures that appeal, seen face to face. And 
those who delight in music—the Symphony Con¬ 
certs, where sweet strains from Mozart, Wagner 
