May is, 1909.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
771 
helps one materially in judging distances on 
the water, and in rapid and accurate aiming, and 
these are things which cannot be acquired at 
known distances on rifle ranges. 
Along small streams in freshet time there 
are often plenty of water snakes and rats to 
shoot at, but I have never had better amuse¬ 
ment of this sort than is obtainable during 
floods along the Ohio, Mississippi, Missouri and 
Platte rivers. In April vast numbers of crows 
frequent the willow-clothed sandbars and tow- 
heads. These black rascals interfere sadly with 
the nesting arrangements of other birds, so that 
it is a pleasure to knock one over now and then 
as it drifts by on some log or rubbish in the 
current. 
This is all open shooting, for one can be cer¬ 
tain no person is in range of the tiny bullets, 
and so slight is the report from nitro powder 
that I have often shot for half a day along the 
levees of good-sized towns without being inter¬ 
fered with by peace officers. Such places are 
even better than those outside the towns, as 
big water rats may be seen frequently, while 
the floating targets are as numerous there as 
elsewhere. 
* * * 
In examining one of the English double ex¬ 
press rifles, did you ever turn up the curious 
step-like sights and try to determine what they 
resemble most? These are frequently set in a 
heavily matted rib. The one nearest the eye 
is for short range shooting, and is fixed. In 
front of it is a leaf that, when turned up, gives 
the 100 yard range. The next is for 150 yards, 
then one for 200, and so on, three or more to 
the set. Turn them all up at an angle of 45 
degrees and hold the gun at arm’s length. The 
resemblance to something more familiar to 
Americans is striking. These little leaves with 
their hinged bases look just like so many 
freight trucks grouped alongside the platform 
of a country railway station; the sort of truck 
that is always in your way when, rod case and 
bag in hand, you are rushing to catch a train 
home from the stream where you have been 
fishing. Grizzly King. 
Enemies of the Birds. 
Wytheville, Va., May 5 .— Editor Forest and 
Stream: As a new subscriber and admirer of 
your woodsy fragrant weekly, I venture to send 
you a short contribution. 
I am an ardent nature lover, especially of the 
birds and beasts of the forests, the fields and the 
waters, but although a true bird lover, I have 
always refrained from taming and feeding wild 
birds about the house-—even the humble chippy. 
This apparent selfishness may startle many bird 
admirers, but I will give my reasons. I hold 
that the taming of our wild birds and coaxing 
them too close to our dwellings serves only as 
a quick method of their destruction. They 
are glad to get the food thrown out for 
their use, but it tends to destroy the 
sense of fear on which depends the very exist¬ 
ence of wild life. The little visitors coaxed and 
fed at your door will naturally put faith in man 
in general. They believe your neighbor as kindly 
as yourself and during the course of the day 
the bird may be found pecking at the window 
of your neighbor or ringing aloud for crumbs 
and waste scraps. Your neighbor may not see 
the little beggar, which is thus compelled to 
go elsewhere, perhaps to some place where may 
reside a youth, some lover of powder, shot and 
death, and he bangs away at the petted bird 
which the next moment may be a mere hand¬ 
ful of carrion. 
Whose fault is this? Not the bird’s, but that 
of the boy and the bird lover that feed it. The 
bird was deprived of its natural protecting fear, 
the sense that means life. 
Such a case as this has often happened, but 
I do not mean to decry bird feeding. Such 
kindness extended to the birds in the right sea¬ 
son is of much value. There are thousands of 
birds in the cold winter months that need such 
care, but the back door and window sills are 
not very suitable feeding grounds^, for this tames 
the birds into fearlessness which may lead to 
their destruction. Grounds far better suited for 
bird feeding are your orchard and pasture lands 
or a quiet nook at some distance from the house 
where one can enjoy all the pleasure and friend¬ 
liness of his feathered friends. 
Up in New Jersey I have seen robins nest and 
rear their young not a dozen paces from a human 
dwelling. There the robins are protected the 
year round, so they remain unharmed. But 
down here in Virginia robins are unprotected, or 
were so last year. One-half of the robins and 
bluebirds that migrate over this section go as 
far north as New Jersey and New York for 
their summer nesting. Thus we have these 
tamed and fed birds for a short stay with us, 
hopping about hostile back doors where a rifle 
or shotgun hangs just inside and always ready 
in willing hands for its brutal work. 
Thus, not a few robins and other migratory 
birds are next seen in the form of a pot pie or 
bird-on-toast. 
We need universal bird protection; that is, 
the same laws and acts over all the country, each 
and every State alike. It will never do to have 
migratory birds shot and lawfully killed in one 
State and protected in another. Protection in 
every State should be the cry of every bird 
lover. Then go ahead and feed and make close 
friends with the birds. The more you make 
the better you make the country, for the orchard 
and farm are in need of birds. 
Dudley Thompson Warren. 
Sullivan County, N. Y., May 8 . —Editor 
Forest and Stream: The article by B. on “The 
Grouse Enemy” in the issue of Forest and 
Stream for April 17 was extremely interesting 
and important. I had known for some time 
from my reading that the rabbits, or hares, of 
the far North were attacked by a disease which 
almost exterminated them every seven years, 
and that this was a very serious matter to the 
Eskimos and Indians. I had no idea that this 
epidemic had any effect or influence upon our 
own game birds, ruffed grouse more particu¬ 
larly. 
In Scotland where red grouse are unusually 
abundant upon the moors, they are not infre¬ 
quently attacked by a disease which carries them 
off wholesale, and I had presumed that an epi¬ 
demic of the same kind had killed off our birds 
in the summer of 1907. The ruffed grouse or 
partridge had been gradually increasing for some 
years and was quite plentiful in the autumn of 
1906. 
Our game laws are subjected to many amend¬ 
ments and there has been quite a crusade against 
the wearing of feathers on the headgear of 
our women, but we hear little or nothing of the 
horrible destruction of bird life by one of our 
domestic animals, namely the cat. For a num¬ 
ber of years I have been in the country during 
the spring and summer throughout the breed¬ 
ing season of the most charming and confiding 
of our birds. The extent of the tragedy slowly 
dawned upon me and for the past two years I 
have been keeping an eye on the doings of the 
Toms and Pussies in the neighborhood of my 
temporary domiciles. It is simply murder, 
murder, murder, from the time that the feath¬ 
ered pairs construct their nests until long after 
the young birds are full grown. At every house 
on all the farms there is at least one cat, often 
three or four, and sometimes a litter of half 
wild things at the barn. In addition to these 
there are usually a number of tabbies that take 
to the woods for the summer. I shot one of 
these that appeared to be as wild as any of the 
so-called wildcats. 
Many of the beasts that live at home are ex¬ 
tremely expert in catching birds of all kinds 
and will climb large trees to get at the nests. 
Last summer it seemed to me that hardly an 
hour passed during the day without a hubbub 
among the old birds accompanied by the short¬ 
lived screams of some wretched young victim. 
Tender-hearted women, who are really fond of 
the birds around their homes, pet and pamper 
these furry demons; in fact, there are ladies 
who are always surrounded by a regular colony 
of cats. 
The robins seemed to be the worst sufferers, 
but it is difficult to be sure, of this, as these 
birds make such a piercing outcry when in 
