Feb. 10, 1912 
FOREST AND STREAM 
175 
New York Legislature. 
Albany, N. Y., Feb. 5 — Editor Forest and 
Stream: At an adjourned hearing of the Senate 
and Assembly joint committees on the proposed 
changes of the fish and game laws held Jan. 31, 
the committee took up parts 5 relative to quadru¬ 
peds, part 6, birds; part 7, fish; part 8, nets and 
netting, and part 9 on fisheries. 
The hearing was attended by fish and game 
clubs from all over the State as well as many 
persons interested in the provisions of the new 
law. The section re'ating to the killing of bucks 
only met with general approval as well as that 
portion of the section requiring bucks to have 
horns at least three inches in length. It was 
contended that if this feature of the law was 
strictly enforced, fewer hunting fatalities would 
occur, as the hunter would then make certain 
of his object before firing. Statistics were pro¬ 
duced showing that in States where the killing 
of does was prohibited, there were fewer human 
fatalities in the season. Some representatives 
advocated the season opening earlier, but it 
was agreed that the great percentage of the loss 
of life was during the ear'y part of the hunting 
season because of the dense foliage, and that the 
codifiers had made no error in this direction. 
Considerable stress was laid upon the pot¬ 
hunters and lumbermen killing deer all the year 
around, and it was suggested that more protec¬ 
tors were required to enforce the law. One 
representative asserted, and all present con¬ 
curred, that if ample protection were provided, 
within three years the deer would be so 
plentiful that every hunter could easily kill three 
deer without in the least thinning them out. 
Seymour Van Santvoord, of Troy, endorsed 
the limiting of the killing to bucks, which he 
said was one of the fine points in this proposed 
law. Mr. Van Santvoord said he had received 
a letter from Dean Hitchcock, seventy-four 
years of age, a veteran hunter, in which he said ; 
“You have a fine law and don’t be afraid of 
it, and New York State has for the first time 
an apparently sensible game law.” 
Among other speakers were John B. Burn¬ 
ham, E. H. Johnson, W. T. Hornaday, T. J. 
O’Conor, Mr. Floughton of the Camp Club of 
America, Mr. Taylor, a representative of the 
Johnstown Hunting Club, and J. H. Henderson, 
of Jamaica, L. I. 
1 he bag limit in ducks developed some oppo¬ 
sition from Long Island hunters, but the senti¬ 
ment of the assembled sportsmen was over¬ 
whelmingly in favor of the amendment, and it 
was generally agreed that the proposed law was 
the best ever offered in fairness to a’l concerned. 
At a hearing on Jan. 30 before the joint com¬ 
mittee of the Senate and Assembly on the pro¬ 
posed changes in the fish and game laws, the 
committee took up for discussion the first four 
parts of the bill. The hearing was largely at¬ 
tended. The committee heard the various peo¬ 
ple for and against the different sections and 
the various ideas. 
The final hearing of the joint committees of 
the Senate and Assembly on the proposed 
changes in the fish and game law was held on 
Feb. I. The parts of the law relating to nets 
and netting, private parks, importation and sale 
of fish and game, and definitions and construc¬ 
tions were taken up. That portion of the law re¬ 
lating to marine fisheries was not discussed for 
the reason that the conservation commission is 
to prepare a separate bill relating to marine 
fisheries and which will be introduced later in 
the session. There were no serious objections 
to any of the provisions of the law which were 
discussed, with the exception of the limit of 
twelve inches placed on blue pike. C. H. Wilson, 
of Glens Falls, well known defender of the 
whitefish, appeared before the committee and 
stoutly maintained that the two pounds in the 
round limit on whitefish should not be removed. 
Assemblyman Coffey, of Westchester county, 
has introduced an interesting bill in relation to 
the acquisition of lands and water rights and the 
use of waters in Westchester county. 
Assemblyman Ruland has introduced a bill 
striking out the provision fixing $100 for each 
offense as the penalty for violation by a non¬ 
resident. This would make non-resident offend¬ 
ers subject to the same penalties as residents— 
$60, and an additional $25 for each animal taken, 
possessed, sold or offered for sale in violation 
of the law. 
These bills have been introduced: 
Assemblyman McDaniels, relating to black 
bass in Cayuga Lake. 
By Assemblyman Sullivan, prohibiting the 
hunting of hares and rabbits in Chautauqua 
county with ferrets. E. C. C. 
Deserved Consideration. 
PiNEHURST, N. C.., Feb. 5.— Editor Forest and 
Stream: A varied series of runs are interesting 
the fox hunters, remarkable for their length and 
diversity', for the gray foxes of this section 
possess not only the craft and cunning of their 
kind, but the endurance of the red foxes, a few 
of which are found roundabout. 
One of the most novel hunts of the season 
was enjoyed on Monday and Reynard is still 
at large as a tribute to his originality by M. F. 
H., Janies T. Twitty. Started after rollicking 
trailing of an hour and a quarter, the pack burst 
into full voice close up, indicating a speedy run 
and a quick catch. Half an hour the hunt fol¬ 
lowed, expectant, covering some ten miles in 
as clean a figure eight as ever was cut with 
skates; then a swing to the north down wind 
varied the monotony and another figure eight 
which lost itself in another half circle dash only 
to reform again into the graceful number. 
“Dun beats me,” was Huntsman Nat’s puzzled 
comment. “Don’t seem ter be gainin’ er mite. 
I reckon we’re runnin’ a couple foxes an’ they’se 
relayin’ an’ restin’ up on us.” 
Master Twitty’s reply was inaudible, but 
presently his absence was noted from the hunt. 
Half an hour later he rejoined the chase, still 
in full cry, like a stage steeplechase on a tread¬ 
mill, almost but not quite. “Call ’em off, Nat,” 
was his strange command, and old soldier that 
he is, Nat obeyed without question, casting side 
glances at the master, whose laughter mingled 
with the mellow horn. 
“What do you suppose we are up against?” 
he queried, when the last straggling hound had 
ceased to protest. “That chap’s been doubling 
up and running close behind us; just having a 
lovely time letting the pack set the pace. He 
certainly deserves some consideration, and so 
I am going to keep him for special occasions. 
He beats an anise seed bag flat.” 
Herbert L. Jillson. 
Game Birds in Iowa. 
Fort Dodge, Iowa, Feb. 2. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: Game conditions in this part of Iowa 
were not such during the past season as to make 
sportsmen enthusiastic to a degree calculated to 
produce exhilaration. 
The pinnated grouse, or as locally known, 
prairie chicken, has been hunted and shot in 
season and out, until the hope of sport in the 
pursuit of this noble bird in this vicinity has 
ceased to enter into the calculations of those 
who observe the game laws. The few grouse 
hatched about here are shot long before the 
season opens, or the birds have attained size 
and strength sufficient to afford even the semb¬ 
lance of sport. 
There are hundreds of grouse here now. The 
birds keep to the cornfields, where they are 
assured of plenty of feed. These birds drift in 
during the fall from Minnesota and the Dakotas, 
and if one-fourth of the effort, in either labor 
or expense, was made by those to whom the 
protection of the game of this State is entrusted 
to protect and propagate the prairie chicken, as 
is put forth to introduce foreign game birds and 
protect them, the sportsmen of this State would 
have shooting that would in every way surpass 
anything that can be even hoped for from the 
introduction of the pheasant or the Flungarian 
partridge. 
There have been liberated in this section about 
fifty pairs of the Hungarian partridges. During 
the fall it was reported that several coveys of 
these birds had been raised, and that the birds 
were strong and in apparent good condition. 
What the effect of the weather since Dec. 26 
last will have upon these birds I do not know. 
The ground has been covered with snow to the 
depth of a foot or more, and since Dec. 29 there 
have been but four days on which the ther¬ 
mometer has not registered zero some time 
during the day, and on several occasions from 
22 to 35 degrees below. Such weather has 
no terror for the pinnated grouse. They have 
endured it since the white man has known them, 
and in spite of all its rigors they feed, thrive 
and prosper where other game birds fail. 
Owing to the dry weather of the late summer 
and fall, the ducks and jacksnipe found little 
to tempt them to tarry in this region. Some 
mallards dropped in late in October after the 
fall rains had.filled the few sloughs and ponds 
which have escaped the all-absorbing tile drains, 
but the duck shooting was of short duration and 
not very good while it lasted. The best was 
probably in the Missouri valley above Council 
Bluffs. I had some fair shooting on the grounds 
of the Mondamin Gun Club for one or two days, 
and this was largely due to the fact that these 
grounds are leased from the owners by the gun 
club for shooting purposes, and the use thereof 
limited to the club members and invited guests. 
I was afield with a beagle after cottontails from 
Oct. 15 until Christmas on an average, I think, 
of once a week; have hunted through some ex¬ 
cellent quail cover, and the nearest approach to 
the sight of a quail was when in company with 
my shooting companion we found the scattered 
feathers of one, evidently killed by a hawk. I 
fear the severe weather has wiped out every 
quail in this county. The deep snow, the in¬ 
tense cold and lack of shelter have been more 
than bobwhite is able to endure. 
