664 
FOREST AND STREAM 
Published Weekly by the 
Forest and Stream Publishing Company 
C has. A. Hazen, President Charles L. Wise, Treasurer 
W, G. Beecroft, Secretary 
22 Thames Street, New York. 
CORRESPONDENCE:—Forest and Stream is the re¬ 
cognized medium of entertainment, instruction and in 
formation between American sportsmen. The editors 
invite communications on the subjects to which its pages 
are devoted, but, of course, are not responsible for the 
views of correspondents. Anonymous communications 
cannot be regarded. 
SUBSCRIPTIONS: $3 a year; $1.50 for six months; 
10 cents a copy. Canadian, $4 a year; foreign, $4.50 a year. 
This paper may be obtained of newsdealers throughout 
the United States, Canada and Great Britain. Foreign 
Subscriptions and Sales Agents—London: Davies & Co., 
1 Finch Lane; Sampson, Low & Co. Paris: Brentano’s. 
Entered in New York Post Office as Second class matter. 
DRIFTING FOR DUCK. 
Over on Great South Bay they have a game 
known as drifting for duck. A power boat, with 
an under water exhaust, puts out with a duck 
boat in tow. When the launch gets to windward 
or tideward of a raft of duck, the duck boat 
with a gunner therein, casts adrift. The power 
boat runs around to the lee or ebb side of the 
flock and awaits the drift of the duck boat. The 
occupant of the floating blind keeps well below 
the gunwale. The time being after sunset finds 
the raft pretty well settled for the night and not 
at all on the alert. Sensing no danger the flock 
allows the boat to drift pretty well into its midst, 
when the shooter gets up and, if he shoots at all 
well, bags two or three of the sleeping raft. 
Those that get up naturally fly over the power 
boat, when two or three more become absentees 
from the next school. Dusk sihooting, as well 
as shooting from a power boat, is against the 
game laws, and yet there seems to be no warden 
in Great South Bay to capture these marauders. 
SYMPATHY VS. JUSTICE. 
“Public Opinion and Maudlin Sentiment’’ ap¬ 
pear at this time to be absolutely detrimental to 
the New Jersey sportsmen’s welfare. A “young 
boy” was arrested for shooting a rabbit in his 
own back yard and, more than that, he shot it 
with an automatic rifle. He was arrested and 
fined, the equivalent of his fine being 120 days 
in jail. On comes the summer attorney, with 
business slack, if he ever had any. He takes 
the president of the New Jersey Game Commis¬ 
sion to task. Mr. Napier, said president, runs 
over to Plainfield, where the commotion is ram¬ 
pant. It is found, on investigation, that the 
“Youngster” is a grown man and that he shot 
the rabbit in the woods and not on his own cab¬ 
bage patch, of which he has none, because he 
never displayed enough energy to cultivate one, 
and in addition to breaking the game law, he 
felt immune from it and threatened and black¬ 
guarded the game warden after being arrested. 
Commissioner Napier says he will not try to up¬ 
hold the sentence, rightly imposed by the judge 
before whom the case was tried, as he does not 
want any boy to serve a jail sentence. To this 
we reply: Mr. Napier’s sentiment is good but 
his judgment not so good. A boy of this soft 
deserves the limit. President Napier seems in¬ 
clined to be lenient with this “young boy.” We 
hope for the greatest good of the greatest num¬ 
ber of those gentlemen who, in New Jersey, pay 
shooting license, Mr. Napier may change his mind. 
FEW FATALITIES THIS YEAR IN THE 
WOODS. 
Elsewhere in this issue appears a statement of 
the number of persons injured and killed during 
the hunting season (deer) in New York State. 
It is mighty gratifying to find that only two per¬ 
sons were killed and a few injured this year as 
against many times this number last year. This 
proves that the efforts of the Conservation Com¬ 
mission have not been in vain. Deer hunters 
each year show more intelligence in their hunt¬ 
ing. They look before they shoot. This means, 
not only less lives lost but less does killed. Thus 
far the annual cry that does are dead in great 
numbers has not come forth. Can it be that even 
the noise from the vari colored press has been 
silenced by unusually active game wardens in the 
woods of New York State? It seems so. 
THANKSGIVING AMONG SPORTSMEN. 
The sportsman has much to be thankful for 
this year; in other words there is more to 
Thanksgiving Day than the President’s proclama¬ 
tion. Covers are better, thanks to propagation 
and conservation. Fewer persons are killed in 
the woods, thanks to regulations that insist on 
looking before you leap, wearing clothes that 
protect from the reckless shooter and a provi¬ 
dent ra'in that enabled the shooter to have use 
of the woods and killed the fires that threatened 
to wreak great damage to game in many states 
throughout the Ufiion. Game laws have been 
changed to the advantage of the real sportsman, 
the game hog has been suppressed and every indi¬ 
cation points to, not only a good year for game 
but an indefinite prospect for the shooter and 
fisherman. 
FOREST FIRES AND THE GUNNER. 
Massachusetts is not alone in the layman’s 
howl that forest fires are to be laid at the door 
of the sportsman. President Napier, of New 
Jersey’s Game Commission, shows us a letter in 
which is told the sad story of New Jersey forest 
fires set by sportsmen’s cigars- Imagine, if you 
can, a man roaming the woods, adorned with a 
cigar. Mr. Napier attributes most of the fires 
in the New Jersey woods to railroad locomotives. 
He is most considerate of the picknicker and 
stroller. It has been proved in Massachusetts 
that the shooter is responsible for almost no 
forest fires, for the simple reason that the sports¬ 
man has been persistently warned against the set¬ 
ting of fires either through coals from his pipe, 
lighted matches thrown on the ground or leaving 
of embers after his lunch fire—which he seldom 
has. We doubt not that sportsmen in New 
Jersey are as careful as those in New York, 
Massachusetts or elsewhere. If the man who 
uses a narrow viewpoint to put troubles on 
someone else would take out a hunting license 
and study the shooting proposition from a sports¬ 
man’s viewpoint, he undoubtedly would learn to 
keep his tongue from speaking guile. 
MAKING A CHRISTMAS PRESENT. 
We have a little suggestion to make you—in 
fact it is a sort of Christmas present to you. 
Presuming that you have enjoyed Forest and 
Stream during the last year, would it not be a 
bully Christmas present for a sportsman friend? 
It seems to us it would, hence this suggestion. 
We will allow any subscriber to send to a friend 
a year’s subscription to Forest and Stream for 
TWO DOLLARS. With this subscription we 
will send a card telling by whom 'the magazine 
is sent and enclose appropriate Christmas greet¬ 
ings. This offer does not apply to renewals nor 
to subscriptions from other than subscribers to 
the magazine. In other words we suggest to you 
a saving of 33 1-3 per cent, on this year’s 
Christmas present. 
PHEASANTS IN MASSACHUSETTS. 
A great flurry is being fermented in the granite 
state over the killing of the pheasant. The home 
body says the pretty bird is being slaughtered by 
the gunner. The gunner says he is killing only 
what the law allows. The game commissioners 
agree with the shooter- Public opinion, aside 
from the licensee, is against the shooter. An 
amicable settlement seems to be out of the ques¬ 
tion. Says a home body: A pair of beautiful 
pheasants that we have watched all summer is 
missing from its usual haunts—probably killed 
by a soulless hunter. The issue waxed hotter 
and hotter as the season went on. The local resi¬ 
dent cannot see what right the game commission 
had to allow the hunter to slay the beautiful, 
insect eating pheasant, nor can the man who 
takes out his license see why the non-hunter has 
any kick coming. As to the merits of the case 
they seem to be these. The planting of tl 
pheasant, which is not native to Massachusetts, 
was paid for by the men who took out licenses 
to shoot in the state during the past two years 
and not by the stay at home party who is so fond 
of seeing the beautiful bird about. The fact of 
the matter is that the hunter who pays his license 
has the same right to kill pheasants as the poultry- 
man who has a yard of fine fancy fowl. The 
game belongs to the licensed hunter, within legal 
limit, just as much as does the yard fowl to the 
breeder. The fact that 10,000 pheasant were 
killed during the shooting season is no business 
of the man who pays no shooting license, because 
the birds were planted with money supplied by 
the shooter. If there is any right in the matter 
it lies on the side of the gunner. He pays for 
his right to kill the pheasant and should be up¬ 
held in that right. The mere fact that the season 
was opened on Columbus Day does not enter into 
the matter, for why should not the man who 
gets off to shoot only on a holiday, be given the 
same chance as his more fortunate brother, who 
can get off any day in the season. We feel that 
in opening the season on October 12th the com¬ 
missioners did the best thing for the greatest 
number of sportsmen. The hue and cry should 
not affect the commission one iota, as the com¬ 
plaint comes from those who have no premise 
in the matter. 
Bear are abundant in the woods this fall. The 
writer who has just returned from a hunting 
trip of five days in the woods saw several bear 
tracks in the snow the latter part of the week 
and on Thursday Frank Rollins of Wytopitlock 
shot a large Bruin. 
