Forest and Stream 
Terms, $3 a Year, 10 Cts, a Copy. 
Six Months, $1.50. 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, JANUARY 9, 1909. 
VOL. LXXII.—No. 2. 
No. 127 Franklin St., New York. 
A WEEKLY JOURNAL. 
Copyright, 1908, by Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 
George Bird Grinnell, President, 
Charles B. Reynolds, Secretary. 
Louis Dean Speir^ Treasurer. 
127 Franklm Street, New York. 
THE OBJECT OF THIS JOURNAL 
will be to studiously promote a healthful interest 
in outdoor recreation, and to cultivate a refined 
taste for natural objects. 
—Forest and Stream, Aug. 14, 1S73. 
SOME ENEMIES OF SOUTHERN QUAIL. 
For nearly a generation it has been an axiom 
among sportsmen Jhat to get good quail shoot¬ 
ing one must go to the South or Southwest. 
North Carolina, Florida, Louisiana and Missis¬ 
sippi especially have been places where birds have 
always been very abundant, and where, to the 
man who could spend enough time to make a 
fair average, good shooting was assured. 
Nowadays, however, the South is beginning to 
suffer from troubles like those which have so 
depleted the Northern States of their quail sup¬ 
ply. This year we are told that southern Vir¬ 
ginia and North Carolina are practically bare 
of quail, that there do not now appear to be as 
many birds as there were last winter and spring 
at the close of the shooting season. This aston¬ 
ishes citizens of the State and visitors alike, and 
people are racking their brains to find a reason 
for the scarcity. An explanation that finds 
much favor declares that heavy rains last August 
drowned off the birds. Nothing is said about 
excessive shooting by whites and negroes, or of 
the destruction of eggs, newly hatched birds and 
adults, by the dogs which in many localities hunt 
constantly for pleasure and for a living. These 
dogs, of which almost every white man and 
every negro owns from one to a dozen, spend 
much of their time in the woods and fields, and 
must of necessity destroy thousands upon thou¬ 
sands of birds. Many of these dogs are never 
fed by their supposed owners, but subsist wholly 
by hunting. They are true vagrants. 
A private letter just received tells where the 
quail go jn one Southern State. From a town 
in Mississippi a friend writes; “You would be 
surprised to see how quail have disappeared in 
the South. The negro quail shooter is found 
everywhere and some of them are excellent 
shots. I heard that a negro came into town the 
other day with eighty quail of which he had 
killed fifty-six in one day. He sold them here 
in town, though it is against the law; and al¬ 
though the bag limit is twenty birds, no one 
said a word to him. The negro pays no atten¬ 
tion to signs on posted lands, but goes where 
he pleases. If he is caught, he explains that he 
is hunting rabbits, but his cur dog hunts birds, 
though he does not point them. His master 
follows the dog, as he trails and wiggles along. 
and downs the birds when they rise. The maga¬ 
zine guns are playing a sad part in exterminating 
the quail here.” 
Citizens of the Southern States and managers 
of transportation companies, who have long re¬ 
alized that the fish and game form a powerful 
attraction to draw Northern travel Southward 
in winter must soon consider the problem of the 
quail supply. To many people it signifies dollars 
and cents. 
THE VIENNA HUNTING EXPOSITION. 
In response to the invitation of the Austro- 
Hungarian Government that the United States 
should participate in the Vienna Hunting Ex¬ 
position of iQio, President Roosevelt has asked 
Congress to appropriate the sum of $250,000 
for a Government exhibit. 
This first International Shooting and Field 
Sports Exposition will be devoted primarily to 
hunting and shooting with special consideration 
of their historic development and their value 
to trade, art, agriculture and traffic. 
Obviously the exhibition will divide itself into 
two principal departments, of which one has to 
do with the animals pursued and the methods 
by which they are taken, while the other will 
broadly cover the commercial side of field sports 
—the industries and manufactures connected 
with them. In this will be included weapons, 
ammunition, clothing and all the various articles 
employed in hunting or in reaching hunting 
grounds. Besides this, the effect of sport on 
agriculture and on forestry, will be considered; 
the foods of game, the damage done to agricul¬ 
ture by game, horticulture and the rearing of 
wild and domestic birds and animals. The ex¬ 
hibits in forestry will have to do with educa¬ 
tion, instruction, materials, methods and pro¬ 
ducts. 
Until Congress has expressed its views on 
the subject of representation at Vienna, no for¬ 
mal acceptance of the invitation of the Austro- 
Hungarian Government can be made by the 
United States. The executive branch of the 
Government, however, is interested in the mat¬ 
ter and hopes that the United States will make 
a satisfactory showing. 
Sportsmen all over the country will feel a 
lively interest in this matter and will be anxious 
that the United States shouM be well repre¬ 
sented. We have already suggested some of 
the exhibits on the side of sport which would 
be of especial interest to sportsmen of Europe, 
and the commercial side will be considered by 
the large manufacturers. 
There are no better sportsmen in the world 
than those of Austria and Hungary, and among 
these many of the best and most famous are 
taking an active interest in the exhibition to 
be held in 1910. It is very desirable that the 
American Government should be well repre¬ 
sented there. 
FOREST AND STREAM STORIES. 
Since the first announcement of President 
Roosevelt’s intention to go to East Africa to 
hunt big game, interest in that vast region has 
been keen. Already several parties have been 
organized to hunt in British or German East 
Africa, and among them is the veteran, Fred¬ 
erick C. Selous, who will go with the President 
to Mombasa, but, it is said, will not hunt with 
him. Instead, Mr. Selous and William McMil¬ 
lan will head an independent party and will hunt 
for three or four months only. 
Particular interest attaches to all that Mr. 
Selous has written concerning his adventures in 
Africa, and his books are in constant demand, 
especially his latest one, “African Nature Notes 
and Reminiscences.” In this he deals largely 
with the habits of big game, and shows the 
effect of the destructive methods employed by 
hunters in the past. On this subject Mr. Selous 
is our first living authority and on it he has 
written an article for Forest and Stream, to 
be published shortly. 
Winfield T. Sherwood, who wrote “Camp 
Don’t Hurry,” which appeared serially in these 
columns early in 1907 and attracted widespread 
attention, has written another series which will 
run for several weeks beginning with an early 
issue. In “Where Barefoot Boys Look for 
Trout” he sums up the evidence gathered at 
many conferences between the “Camp Don’t 
Hurry” characters concerning the best places 
for trout in the streams fished by city anglers. 
The papers are of especial practical value to 
beginners, although veteran anglers will find in 
them much entertainment. 
Stephen P. M. Tasker has contributed an ac¬ 
count of a journey made two years ago across 
the Labrador Peninsula, when Mrs. Tasker ac¬ 
companied him. The paper and its illustrations 
are of great interest to those who know noth¬ 
ing of the Northland,. and his descriptions of 
the rapids, the big trout and the game are enter¬ 
taining. 
Fox-hunters will enjoy an account of their 
favorite sport in New Hampshire, and “A. L. 
W.’s” “The Brook and the Angler” will appeal 
to readers about the time they first “get the 
fever” to go trout fishing. 
In “Tramping and Camping Along the 
Peshtigo,” O. W. Smith contributes an excel¬ 
lent paper, of practical value to all outdoor men 
and women, for in this he tells how his wife and 
daughter fared as his companions in the woods. 
In “Trout that Hop,” Edward B. Rice gives 
us another practical angling paper ; and Charles 
Lose, Will W. Christman and many other con¬ 
tributors will assist in the entertainment and in¬ 
struction of our readers, young and old. 
A large number of papers were submitted in 
our prize competition. These are being con¬ 
sidered and the results will be announced at 
the earliest moment possible. 
