578 
FOREST AND STREAM 
[April io, 1909. 
An amendment to Section 78" permits the ship¬ 
ment of deer or venison from private deer parks 
through permits issued by the commissioner. 
Grouse, \voodcock and quail from other States 
may, according to the provisions of this bill, 
be sold in this State under bond. Possession 
of these birds, however, is to be regarded as 
presumptive evidence that they were taken in 
this State, save as to those who have given 
bond for the purpose. 
The trout section remains as at present, with 
the exception that in Delaware county the open¬ 
ing date is made April 16 instead of May i, and 
the addition of local provisions for parts of 
Wyoming, Cattaraugus and Chautauqua counties. 
At a public hearing on April r the railways 
protested against the proposition to compel 
them to maintain fire patrols, but no changes 
were made in that respect. 
Spring Duck Shooting. 
Chenoa, Ill., March 30 .—Editor Forest and 
Stream: I began taking Forest and Stream 
Feb. I, 1909. It is, by the way, the best sports¬ 
man’s magazine I have yet taken, and seems to 
fill the bill to the letter. 
As an amateur sportsman, I have an ambition 
to arouse public sentiment to a point where if 
the States affected do not properly regulate 
certain game laws, the National Government 
shall be forced to take hold of it. I refer to 
the State laws governing the killing of wild 
ducks. In most of our States the game birds 
of the forest and field are at present quite ade¬ 
quately protected—at least this is so in our 
own State of Illinois, and the results are al¬ 
ready being realized in a healthy increase of 
quail and prairie chicken—but the State laws 
governing our wildfowl are entirely inadequate, 
and the time is ripe for more rigid laws in the 
States where they pass south in the fall and 
north in the spring, and especially in States 
where breeding and hatching take place. 
Under the present State laws, where the open 
season begins in early fall and extends until late 
in the spring, our past army of ducks are 
rapidly and surely being slaughtered in such 
numbers that if this is allowed to continue, it 
will in ten or fifteen years amount to practical 
extinction, so that we can count them as we 
do our deer and elk to-day. 
Spring shooting is by far the most ruinous. 
January i should be the date in all States for 
the beginning of the closed season for the fol¬ 
lowing reasons: Not long after the first of the 
year mating takes place, and, too, thousands of 
female ducks containing incipient eggs are 
wantonly killed after Jan. i. Thirdly, the hatch¬ 
ing grounds during the closed season should 
be well protected from the thieving egg 
gatherers who rob these helpless birds of their 
future young. It might be well to have the 
open season in the very Northern States begin, 
say, two weeks before the Middle and Southern 
States, and close two weeks earlier than the 
Middle and Southern States. This feature can 
be easily arranged. The great fact to bear in 
mind is that the spring slaughter of these birds 
is the annual death blow that will soon put an 
end to our duck hunting altogether. 
Another feature in the State laws that should 
be changed is the number of ducks that may be 
killed by a licensed hunter in any one day. The 
limit should be made ten instead of twenty 
ducks. We are not allowed to sell them, and I 
am sure that no one family in any one day 
would think of eating a quantity of meat to 
exceed ten ducks. No sportsman likes to hunt 
ducks better than I, for I take my annual hunt 
every fall and enjoy it, but no true sportsman 
should get more than his share. Let us give 
the birds a chance, and all put our shoulders to 
the wheel and help the good work along. I 
appeal to the sportsmen of America to help at 
this until the correct legislation in the proper 
States will so regulate the shooting of ducks 
that we can feel assured that we will have one 
good hunt a year for many years to come, and 
that, too, a better one than usual, and perchance 
the sons and grandsons of our present-day 
sportsmen will appreciate a duck hunt as well 
as ourselves. LeRoy Allen Knapp. 
On Thursday, April i, the Long Island Game 
Protective Association held a meeting in the 
rooms of the New York Board of Trade and 
Transportation. There was a resolution passed 
to oppose the Lupton bill at Albany to extend 
the open season for ducks, geese, brant and 
swans from Dec. i to March i. The bill aims 
to revive the spring shooting of waterfowl. 
Andrew T. Meloy spoke against the Lupton 
bill and spring shooting of wildfowl from its 
inhumanity. The female ducks and geese shot 
then had been mated and were in egg, a fact 
Meloy had discovered years ago which had caused 
him to give up spring shooting on Long Island 
before there was a law against it. He stamped 
as barbarous the slaughter in sport of a preg¬ 
nant animal or bird or of the female with young, 
and pronounced spring wildfowl shooting as a 
cruel interference between the mating of the 
female and the fledging of the young. 
President Lindsay Russell appointed Mr. 
Meloy and O. H. Van Norden, with power to 
add to their number, a committee to attend 
the hearing on the Lupton bill at Albany on 
April 5. It is also intended to take other means 
to oppose the bill, and persons opposed to the 
Lupton bill are requested to urge their represen¬ 
tatives at Albany to oppose it. 
A resolution was passed also against the net¬ 
ting of ducks on Long Island. The Long Island 
Game Protective Association will advocate also 
the repeal of the law allowing brant to be shot 
until May i and the law allowing possession of 
ducks by dealers to March i. 
Snipe Shooting in California. 
Los Angeles, Cal., March 29. —Editor Forest 
and Stream: Warm weather to the present time 
has brought a few jacksnipe into the country 
and the subsidence of the heavy rainfall’s pools 
makes ideal hunting conditions. At the Chico 
Gun Club there is an excellent snipe bog, and 
Joe Gioia bagged twenty one about three weeks 
ago. That is the best I have heard of, but kill¬ 
ings of ten to fifteen have not be uncommon. 
Dogs are beginning to become popular among 
snipe hunters here. The conditions for the use 
of a dog are, in the main, better than for most 
quail hunting that is to be had in this part of 
the State. Many men make needlessly hard 
work of snipe shooting by handicapping them¬ 
selves in selecting ammunition. A sixteen or 
twenty-bore gun is ample; in fact, a twenty- 
eight-bore in the hands of a good shot is a splen¬ 
did arm for the work. It is light, handy and 
has range enough to kill any snipe that ought 
to be shot at. The trouble with many men is 
that they use larger shot than is advisable. No. 
IO chilled will kill snipe in splendid style, gives 
a close pattern, considerable distribution, and 
does not mangle the birds as No. 7^, which 
many use, is apt to do. Few guns will not 
handle No. lo shot to excellent advantage. For 
years I used No. 8, then went to No. 9, and 
of late have been surprised at the excellent work 
done by No. 10. It gives a pattern in- a twenty- 
gauge gun that at thirty-five yards will stop 
smaller birds thaq snipe. A stiff load of pow¬ 
der behind the small shot is advisable, as it 
builds up the killing power of the charge, in¬ 
creases velocity, obviates much “stringing” of 
the pattern, and generally contributes effective¬ 
ness. E. L. Hedderly. 
Game and Fish in Sullivan County. 
Sullivan County, N. Y., April 3. — Editor 
Forest and Stream: The past winter has been 
very favorable to the ruffed grouse and from 
reports received from several ^counties in this 
part of New York it is evident that more of 
these birds were bred last year than was gen¬ 
erally supposed to be the case. It is possible 
that a good breeding season in 1909 may put 
them back where they were three or four years 
ago. Ruffed grouse were quite abundant in 1906. 
Per contra, the outlook for trout fishing is 
not encouraging. During the long drouth last 
summer and autumn many brooks dried up en¬ 
tirely and some of the larger streams were not 
in much better condition. The loss in fish life 
was very great. The show of trout on the 
spawning beds last fall was very poor, but it 
is possible that the low water may have pre¬ 
vented many fish from reaching the usual 
grounds. More restocking is being done this 
year than in igo8, but it will be several years 
before these trout are large enough to afford 
much sport to the angler. 
Last March eight deer were frequently seen 
on Bald Mountain, near Claryville, Sullivan 
county, and I hear that the herd is now about 
twice as large as it was then. They were seen 
in the first Sunday in March from the hotel in 
Claryville. A large doe sought shelter in a 
barnyard near the village recently. Both hind 
legs were so severely injured that she died in 
a short time. It was supposed that she had been 
shot, but no one cared to meddle with the car¬ 
cass for fear of being held responsible for the 
death of the doe. 
A lynx, commonly called wildcat in this region, 
was shot near Aden, above the Neversink, in 
February. Bears seem to have been scarce in 
the Catskill country. We usually hear ' of a 
number being killed. There has been a con¬ 
siderable advance in the value of farm lands 
in Sullivan county during the last five year. 
This is in part due to the influx of Hebrews 
who have not only bought property in villages 
on the railroad, but many farms in the country. 
This return of Jews to the land is interesting, 
but it remains to be seen how they will succeed 
as agriculturists. Their principal objective is 
probably the keeping of summer boarding 
houses. Theodore Gordon. 
