March 13, 1909.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
Game Le^islaGon in California. 
Los Angeles, Cal., March 3. — Editor Forest 
and Stream: The proposal to reduce the bag 
limit on wildfowl to twenty-five has met with 
favor among club shooters. The thirty-five bird 
limit was a compromise between some north¬ 
ern shooters and the Southern California duck 
clubs, which two years ago advocated twenty- 
five for a limit instead of fifty. The champions 
of the game protective cause at that time were 
confronted with severe opposition ' from the 
north in their efforts to curtail the limit, some 
thinking fifty too low a figure, but by a com¬ 
promise, thirty-five was agreed upon, and that 
number has ruled for two years. 
It is not altogether pleasant to have to relate 
that much of the hardest fighting done in the 
cause of game protection is perforce directed 
against many wealthy men who would feel in¬ 
sulted if their status as sportsmen was ques¬ 
tioned. Their chief argument is that they spend 
their money for sport, and some of them take 
the position that inasmuch as they are 'estab¬ 
lishing large tracts for the preservation of 
game, they are entitled to take their full pleas¬ 
ure on it. 
The California Legislature, now in session, is 
of a broad and catholic mind regarding game 
and fish preservation; probably the most 
favorable legislative body in this regard we 
have ever had. Sportsmen make up a consider¬ 
able percentage of the Assemblymen and 
Senators; they know at first hand something 
of the needs of various sections, so measures 
intended to alleviate special conditions do not 
lack champions. I understand a bill prohibit¬ 
ing the sale of ducks has been introduced, and 
with better chances of success than ever before. 
The indications now are for a more compre¬ 
hensive game law, and one in which common 
sense has played a larger part, with general 
restrictions of the taking privilege all along 
the line, which is in accord with the trend a'l 
over the country. The interests of the sports 
men are being recognized as the sound econo¬ 
mic value of the argument that game and game 
fish are worth more as incentives to the chase, 
than as merchandise on the market slab, im¬ 
presses itself upon those who make our laws. 
There is, however, one serious menace to the 
welfare of the game in any state, and particu¬ 
larly this one. The average sportsman rests 
content whenever a good law is passed, seem¬ 
ingly without considering the uselessness of 
the best laws unless enforced and made a thing 
of terror to all evil-doers. In the past and in¬ 
cluding the just-closed duck season, the law 
has been openly and shockingly mocked at in 
several sections of the State. There are per¬ 
sons in the San Joaquin Valley who make a 
practice of hunting for the market with big- 
bore guns and trained steers, to whom neither 
bag-limit, day or night, impose any restriction. 
Likewise at Imperial, ducks are shot at all 
times without let or hindrance; the law is 
laughed at openly. The excuse for permitting 
these things to go on is the hostile attitude of 
the ranchers, whose crops are damaged by the 
duck armies. Officials say it would be impos¬ 
sible to get a conviction under such circum¬ 
stances. 
Quail are split up into small bunches, cocks 
and hens separate, and a few already have be¬ 
gun to pair off. Before favorable breeding sea¬ 
sons they always behave in this manner, and 
sportsmen regard the early mating as an ex¬ 
cellent augury for a big year later on. There 
is need, foi" never have I known the quail to 
be so badly broken uj) and so scarce as they 
w'ere in the season just closed. 
Edwin L. Hedderly. 
Dangers to Yellowstone Antelope. 
Yellowstone Park, Wyo., March 4. — Editor 
Forest and Stream: On Feb. 3, just after look¬ 
ing at a copy of Forest and Stream of Jan. 
30, which had come to the office and in which 
there was a picture of a lynx which had killed 
a mountain sheep, I took a ride of some ten 
miles out over the park. 
I saw what appeared to be a dead antelope. 
LYNX KILLED BY MAYOR BENSON. 
and, riding up to it to investigate, I found 
crouched behind it in exactly the position that 
the lynx had been placed behind the sheep in 
your picture, a lynx. This I fortunately suc¬ 
ceeded in shooting, from horseback, with a re¬ 
volver, and later had the photograph taken of 
the animal, a copy of which I inclose herewith. 
Whether this lynx had killed the antelope or 
whether the antelope had died a natural death 
1 cannot determine. Later developments show 
that one or two antelope die each week, from 
what cause is not known, though they do not 
die violent deaths. The outpost in that vicinity 
have on one or two occasions seen them stagger 
and fall and have immediately gone to them and 
found them unable to arise, dying some two or 
three hours later. I inspected one of these im¬ 
mediately after death and found a large ulcer 
on the side of the face, but in two other cases 
no sore or injury of any kind could be dis¬ 
covered. H. C. Benson, 
Major Fifth Cavalry, Superintendent. 
417 
Wild Ducks in Connecticut. 
Essex, Conn., March 4. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: In a recent issue of Forest and 
Stream you speak editorially of the great abund¬ 
ance of ducks on the north shore of Long 
Island Sound, and also of the proposed change 
in the present Connecticut game law which pro¬ 
hibits spring shooting. So far as the abundance 
of ducks is concerned, you have spoken with 
great truth, if conditions prevail all along the 
shore similar to those here near the mouth of 
the Connecticut River. Washington’s Birthday 
being a fine, warm day, I took a paddle out 
on the river and also examined the cove on the 
opposite side. Everywhere were ducks. Large 
flocks could be seen at almost any time flying 
here and there; others could be seen settled in 
the water in favored spots. In Lord’s Cove 
they were particularly abundant, ducks of 
various kinds being scattered all over the bay. 
Most of these, however, were mergansers, or 
sheldrakes, as they are more familiarly called, 
yet a few whistlers and black ducks were in 
evidence, a flock of about twenty of the latter 
flying away at my approach. 
I have been told by two or three different 
persons that, before the cold snap in January, 
when the coves hereabout froze over, a flock 
of fully 400 black ducks was feeding regularly 
in Lord’s Cove. 
With such conditions prevailing, it would 
seem a pity to alter in any way the present 
law, unless it were to shorten the season still 
more. There is not the slightest doubt that 
the present law is working admirably, and I 
hope soon to see laws passed in all States 
in the Union prohibiting the shooting of ducks 
in spring. 
In your editorial you speak of the abundance 
of ducks in Connecticut as not being due to 
the protection given them there, but to me it 
seems that in a measure, at least, it is. We 
surely give them a good stopping place on their 
spring migration and no doubt a great many 
remain over to breed. I personally know of 
two well authenticated cases of black ducks’ 
nests being found in this section last year, 
these cases having recently been brought to my 
notice. One nest was found in a meadow at 
the head of Lord’s Cove, and the other was 
found in the town of Killingworth in a marshy 
place near a stream, a tributary of the Llam- 
monasset River. This would prove conclusive¬ 
ly that ducks are breeding here, and the fact 
that they are, is due almost wholly to their be¬ 
ing unmolested in the spring. 
It is sincerely hoped that those who take 
any interest whatever in the protection of our 
game birds will do all in their power to defeat 
any bills that may come before the present 
I-egislature to be acted upon that will lengthen 
out the open season in the least. I would urge 
all sportsmen in Connecticut to talk the matter 
over with their representatives, pointing out 
to them, if-necessary, the fact that in the great 
breeding grounds of the North, the Canadian 
Provinces, the ducks are fully protected in the 
spring as they are also in a great many States 
of the Union, at least in the States that are at 
all progressive and up to date. Let us keep 
in line with this great movement. 
Geo. W. Comstock. 
