Notes from St. Vincent. 
Apalachicola, Fla., Feb. 6. —Editor Forest 
and Stream: The quartet of Indian sambur deer 
—three does and one buck—which I purchased 
through Dr. Wm. T. Flornaday, Director of the 
Bronx Zoological Park, last October, and of 
which Forest and Stream about that time made 
mention, were received through the express 
companies in good condition, and after being 
kept in a woods paddock for a month were re¬ 
leased to run at large on this twelve thousand 
acre island preserve. The three does seem to 
be doing nicely, but the buck unfortunately early 
sickened and died. I think, however, his loss 
was due to the caretaker giving him artesian 
well water to drink instead of that flowing in 
the fresh water creek nearby. The artesian 
water is quite a laxative and set him to scour¬ 
ing and gave him, as I believe, a severe colic, to 
which he quickly succumbed. I hope to secure 
another buck and, profiting by this experience, 
to see my little herd of these noble animals 
thrive and multiply. 
The three does came up a few times for food 
put out for them after they were set at large, 
but soon discontinued their visits and now seem 
about as wild as the native small deer. One of 
them is expected to have a fawn soon. 
The native whitetail deer have increased in 
numbers at a rather astonishing rate for three 
years past, during which time they have been 
well protected; but why should they not? If 
we are to give full credence to the estimated 
annual increase of these animals in large ranges, 
where they have an abundance of food, as pub¬ 
lished in a bulletin on “Deer Farming,” issued 
by the United States Agricultural Department, 
we should expect a yearly addition to their num¬ 
bers of 75 per cent. This rate of increase seems 
like an overestimate, yet it is no doubt based 
upon extensive observation and carefully col¬ 
lected data. My experience on St. Vincent 
Island has been that, whereas when I first visited 
here, three years ago, one had generally to do 
a good deal of tramping on the average to see 
a deer, now it is a very common experience to 
see from five to eight or ten deer in a short 
evening or morning walk from our main camp 
and naturally they are not as plentiful in this 
part of the island as in many others where they 
are less disturbed. 
Discounting the Government estimate of 75 per 
cent, annual increase by one-third and counting 
on only 50 per cent, annual increase, and sup¬ 
posing the number of deer now on the island 
to be only 400—which I am well satisfied is an 
underestimate—and we get on this conservative 
basis of calculation over three thousand as the 
probable number of deer to be expected in five 
years from now and over ten thousand for an 
eight years’ estimate. 
With the considerable number of wild cattle 
and hogs to be found on the preserve at the 
present time, with their natural increase this vast 
increase would overstock the twelve thousand 
acre range, for both cattle and hogs make a 
pretty rapid increase. But nature has a way of 
keeping down overproduction when threatened, 
whether in man or the lower animals, so I am 
not troubling myself about the apparent impend¬ 
ing overproduction. 
Deer, wild cattle and hogs are not the only 
wild life that has noticeably increased from the 
protection afforded them. All the different 
species of herons which abound here as well as 
bitterns, galinules or marsh hens, different 
species of rail, pelican and shore birds, too 
numerous to mention, are in evidence in greatly 
increased numbers. Quail are also becoming 
more common since we have been waging war 
by trap and poison on the ’coons and wildcats. 
Alligators have for several years been pro¬ 
tected until they have come to be a nuisance. 
They kill many swine and of late have attacked 
three of my horses and mules and bitten them 
on their hips quite badly. I have decided that 
they must now be exterminated. Their skins 
being now of considerable commercial value, it 
will not be difficult to get men to engage in 
their slaughter. The expert alligator hunter 
goes in quest of them in the night time “shin¬ 
ing their eyes” with a jacklight, and being able 
in this way to approach them closely, shoots 
them in the top of the head with a large rifle 
ball or a charge of coarse shot, either of which 
tears a great hole in a most vital part of the 
’gator’s anatomy and paralyzes him so completely 
that he is easily gathered in. Unless taken from 
the water right away others of his kind are apt 
to seize upon and devour him quickly, for the 
’gator is cannabalistic in his nature and for this 
reason one seldom sees a small one in a pond 
where large ones abound, the little fellows being 
all devoured by the big specimens of their own 
species. 
Old alligator hunters inform me that hunt¬ 
ing them at night with a jacklight one will see 
a dozen where only one is to be met with in 
the day time, as like most wild creatures they 
feed mostly during the night time. The alli¬ 
gator having from his wanton attacks upon 
peaceable and useful domestic animals become 
an outlaw, no quarter will hereafter be shown 
him either by day or night. 
Apropos of game preservation which every 
true sportsman has so much at heart, I hear 
that Dr. Hornaday, Director of the New York 
Zoological Park, has been requested by the 
president to deliver an address before the con¬ 
vention of international delegates from Canada, 
Mexico and the United States to meet at Wash¬ 
ington in February to consider the proper steps 
to be taken for the conservation of the natural 
resources of these countries, and that the sub¬ 
ject assigned him upon which to address the 
convention is the conservation of wild life. 
I think it exceedingly fortunate that the wild 
creatures of this continent are to have so able 
an advocate to speak in their behalf, and r.ay 
the doctor’s earnest efforts bear abundant fruit 
is, I am sure, the devout wish of every lover 
of wild life. R. V. Pierce. 
Robins Killed in the North. 
Boston, Mass., Feb. i .—Editor Forest and 
Stream: Many good people were horrified when 
they read the statement published in the press 
a year ago that a million robins were killed each 
year by the Southern people. Nevertheless, I 
have no doubt that within recent years a million 
robins have been killed annually in the North 
by our foreign born population and their chil¬ 
dren. A few figures may be needed to convince 
the reader. The people of Eastern and South¬ 
ern Europe are largely bird killers. They shoot, 
trap and net birds to eat or for millinery pur¬ 
poses. Game officers in this country frequently 
find Italians, Greeks and Slavs with large bags 
of small birds. A party of Greeks who had 
lined up to drive the woods of a New Hamp¬ 
shire town were taken in the act. Such people 
go out in gangs and use all sorts of means to 
evade the • officers. Robins, meadow larks, 
cuckoos, thrushes, bluebirds, swallows, sparrows 
and all kinds of small birds are taken. Some 
of these people work quietly with nets, snares 
and bird lime. The metropolitan police arrested 
two Italians near Boston several years ago with 
a bag full of birds taken with bird lime. A 
game warden within ten miles of Boston found 
that a gang of contract laborers practically 
cleared the woods of all birds in a section of 
his town, leaving the earth about their camps 
strewn with feathers. Their chief game bird, 
the robin, now has a market value of sixty cents 
a dozen. 
Within a few miles of the capital building of 
one New England State six “Polackers,” armed 
with pistols and small guns loaded with fine 
shot, sat under the wild cherry trees one Satur¬ 
day afternoon and early Sunday morning and 
shot robins. The next day the heads of 105 
robins were counted where the women had 
plucked and dressed them for the pot. These 
things are done regularly and frequently. Immi¬ 
grants from Northwestern Europe are not as 
a rule of the bird-killing class, but a great part 
of our immigration now comes from Southern 
and Eastern Europe. Taking foreign born per¬ 
sons as a whole, it is safe to assume from our 
knowledge of hunting statistics that three per 
cent, kill birds, and it is within bounds to say 
that each bird killer will destroy fifty birds per 
year. We need not reckon the number of birds 
destroyed by their children or by our native men 
and boys. I have known a native boy to kill 
fifty small birds in a day with a shotgun. 
The census of 1900 enumerated 8,921,270 for¬ 
eign born persons in the more Northern and 
Eastern States. Three per cent, of this num¬ 
ber would be 267,367 foreign born bird hunters 
and trappers in the North, without taking ac¬ 
count of those in the State of Nevada, Idaho 
and Washington. If each of these people kills 
but fifty birds each year we have 13,381,850 birds 
killed in the Northern and Eastern States. It 
is certainly within bounds to say that one mil¬ 
lion of these birds would be their favorite 
robins. The number of immigrants is constantly 
