252 
FOREST AND STREAM 
[Feb. 13, 1909. 
increasing, and the number of birds killed by 
them would continue to increase were not our 
people beginning to apply the remedy in the 
shape of a high license law for the alien hun¬ 
ter and its supplemental and necessary statute 
the license for the resident hunter. Within a 
few years all the Northern States will have 
such laws upon their statute books, and then and 
not until then shall we be able to check this 
slaughter of the innocents. 
Edward Howe Forbush, 
New England Agent, National Associa¬ 
tion of Audubon Societies. 
Colonel Vernon’s Kelics. 
Asheville, N. C., Feb. 6. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: There is in Salem, Ohio, a private 
collector of curios—a man whose life has been 
spent to a ripe old age traveling in the fire in¬ 
surance business—a collector not for gain, but 
on account of his love for the curious and the 
old relics; a man whose collection will some 
day be famous. I refer to Col. J. R. Vernon 
and his “Old Curiosity Shop.” 
1 he collection is on exhibition, filling several 
large rooms in the insurance building. Several 
3'ears ago he catalogued the collection, the num¬ 
ber at that time running up to 6,000. Since then 
he has almost doubled it, both in interest and 
in numbers. 
Probably the most interesting part of the col¬ 
lection to readers of Forest and Stream would 
be the old guns and the Indian collection. The 
gun collection is not so large in numbers (num¬ 
bering seventy), but comprises almost every de¬ 
sign found in any museum, dating from the 
“touch hole” anch fuse periods down to the 
present time; no duplicates. The swords, bolos, 
kris spears, knives, etc., from Spain, the Philip¬ 
pines, Porto Rico, Cuba, the plains and the 
Northwest probably cannot be surpassed in in¬ 
terest in this country. 
The colonel states that in the gun or sporting 
line he thinks his stone cannon ball is about as 
interesting a relic as he has. This stone ball 
had been in a Philippine arsenal for 300 years— 
record and authenticity complete. 
The Indian collection alone now comprises 
over three thousand pieces, from a complete 
medicine man’s outfit down to the smallest 
article of Indian manufacture, including bows 
and arrows, scalping knives, tomahawks, war 
clubs, axes, pestles, skinners, ornaments, scalps, 
clothing, moccasins, etc. 
Hiawatha (as herewith shown) is of the 
colonel’s own make. The Indian is life size 
and is made up of 485 perfect arrowheads of 
different colors. 
Clocks, watches, musical instruments, natural 
history objects, pewter, plate, pottery, bells, 
canes, pipes, pictures, books, including a Martin 
Luther Bible published in 1656, and innumerable 
hand made articles made during the time of the 
settlement of the country are part of the col¬ 
lection. For instance a hickory buggy spring 
(still in good condition) made early in the last 
century. 
The colonel is not a collector from a financial 
point of view, but purely from the love of it. 
Anyone interested can get his catalogue by in¬ 
closing a stamp. His “Old Curiosity Shop” is 
well worth visiting. C. P. Ambler. 
Better Protection for Birds. 
Lamont, Iowa, Feb. 4.— Editor Forest and 
Stream: I commenced to take your paper only 
Jan. I, 1909, and am surprised to see how much 
is being done to protect bird life. 
I have always been a great lover of the feath¬ 
ered tribe and can remember when the flight of 
wild ducks and geese in spring and fall was a 
great sight to witness. Some twenty-five years 
ago ducks and geese went North in the spring 
and South in the fall by thousands. Now only 
a few scattering flocks are seen. Some say they 
take a different route, but I am inclined to think 
that they are gone never to return. 
That wild animals must disappear before the 
col. Vernon’s “hiawatha.” 
onward march of civilization is not to be won¬ 
dered at, but it does seem as if bird life might 
be better preserved. Most game and song birds 
are beneficial to mankind. Much education is 
needed along this line to remove the great de¬ 
sire of man to slaughter every wild thing. In 
our State we have very poor laws to protect 
game and they are poorly enforced. I am much 
pleased to learn what the Audubon Societies 
are doing in the South by means of bird reserva¬ 
tions. They should be encouraged and aided by 
the United States Government. I believe that 
all the small islands and marshes along the 
Southern coast from Florida to Mexico should 
be set aside as game reservations and controlled 
by the National Association of Audubon Socie¬ 
ties. I trust that the society will get control of 
Cat Island and a great many others. The market 
hunter ought to be forever banished. If a market 
hunter is allowed to kill twenty-five game birds 
a day for a period of' from three to four months 
of the year, is it any wonder that our game birds 
are disappearing? If we had universal laws over 
the United States prohibiting the shooting of 
game birds after Jan. i—as they are mating after 
that time—it would work wonders in the in¬ 
crease of birds. Twenty-five birds in one day 
are too many for any one person to make proper 
use of. 
I hope the time will come when hunters for 
market and milliners will be a thing of the past. 
What the Audubon reservation has done on 
Breton Island can be done on all of the islands 
of the gulf coast. Bird Lover. 
Avocet in New Jersey. 
Philadelphia, Pa., Feb. S-—Editor Forest 
and Stream: A short time ago I sent you a 
note in regard to the avocet seen by me on the 
Jersey coast last fall, and I wish to add a detail 
or two of explanation. I can lay no claim to 
being an ornithologist, I must say also that this 
is the only avocet that I ever saw on the wing 
or in a state of nature. But I have always been 
fond of birds and animals, have kept myself in¬ 
formed in regard to species and their habits, in 
a general way, and I pronounced this bird an 
avocet without hesitation, because that is the 
only bird that I ever heard of in this region 
with a long, upturned, slender bill. I was con¬ 
firmed in this by reference to Chapman’s “Hand¬ 
book of Birds of Eastern North America,” which 
I happened to have with me at the shore. The 
bill of the bird I saw was, I think, at least four 
inches long and very decidedly upturned. 
It would scarcely be possible to have a more 
satisfactory view of a wild bird on the wing 
than I had of this one. It came across from 
the meadows to the beach near the Avalon Life 
Saving Station, flew at an even height of, I 
should say, about forty feet from the ground, 
turned north at the edge of the surf, and, after 
keeping in sight for about half a mile, disap¬ 
peared around the bend of the beach on the south 
side of Townsend’s Inlet. I was there for two 
or three weeks after that and kept a sharp look¬ 
out to see it again, but neither saw nor heard 
any more of it. I. W. Griscom. 
Otter and Pike Fight.] 
An exciting battle, which lasted for over an 
hour, was witnessed by Mr. Hughes, of Sylles, 
at a pool in the River Blackwater at Sylles, near 
Middletown, between an otter and a pike, says 
the Armagh (Ireland) Guardian. The otter was 
first observed running up and down along the 
bank of the river, after which it plunged in. 
The pike resorted to various artifices to elude its 
enemy, but the otter persistently kept its prey 
on the move. Occasionally the otter would swim 
on the surface and then suddenly dive under 
and both would again reappear several perches 
up the pool, which had now become red with 
blood. Eventually the pike showed signs of 
distress, and the otter dived down and brought 
its prey to land. A well aimed shot from Mr. 
Hughes’ gun left the otter and pike at his mercy. 
The pike scaled 23 pounds and the otter is an 
unusually large one and had lost its right ear 
in its struggles with the fresh water shark. 
