304 
FOREST AND STREAM 
March 9, 1912 
Hall Camera Co., Brooklyn, N. Y. 
Rustic Construction Works. 
Apple Products Co., Sufifern, N. Y.—Cider. 
Lawrence Verity, Seaford, L. I.—Guide, ninety- 
three years of age. 
Von Lengerke & Detmold—Sporting Goods. 
H. M. Brill—Burnt Leather Goods. 
John Simmons & Co.—Pipe Fitting and Valves. 
A. Starkenstein—Razor Strops. 
Nassau Lighter Co.—Fire Lighters. 
W. H. Allen, Penniac, New Brunswick—Guide. 
■ Western Novelty Co.—Novelties. 
Nugget Polish Co.—Polishes. 
Bangor & Aroostook R. R., Bangor, Me.— 
Sportsmen’s Territory. 
Grand Trunk Railway System, Montreal— 
Sportsmen’s Territory. 
Col. C. J. (“Buffalo”) Jones—Moving Pictures, 
Concert Hall. 
Clubman Publishing Co.—Polo Monthly Maga¬ 
zine. 
Colt’s Patent Firearms Mfg. Co.—Revolvers 
and Pistols. 
Bird, Jones & Kenyon—Hunting Clothing. 
Sanford Novelty Co.—Fly Books. 
Wm. N. Gokey & Co., Jamestown, N. Y.— 
Shoes. 
Gold Medal Camp Furniture Co., Racine, Wis. 
•—Furniture. 
Newland, Tarlton & Co., Nairobi, B. E. A.— 
Safari Outfitters. 
Massachusetts Legislature. 
Boston, Mass., IMarch 2. —Editor Forest and 
Stream: At the conference of delegates from 
sportsmen’s clubs and natural history societies, 
in December, committees were appointed to draft 
laws on several subjects. Frank Murphy and 
William Minot, of Boston, and C. F. Maynard, 
of West Newton, were appointed to draw a b;ll 
to minimize the damage done to bird life by cats. 
Several years ago a bill for the licensing of cats 
was exposed to much ridicule, and “laughed 
out of court.” The committee above mentioned 
had its bill for a license of one dollar for a 
male cat referred to the Committee on Agricul¬ 
ture, and our State ornithologist, Mr. Forbush, 
and the chairman of the Fish and Game Commis¬ 
sion, Dr. Field, appeared before the committee 
in support of the bill, and while it won some 
friends in the committee, it was so far success¬ 
ful as to win “reference to the next general 
court.” Eventually it is bound to win, I believe 
In reference to the bill for “reasonable re¬ 
straint of dogs,” George B. Clark, of Boston, 
has given your readers full information. It is 
only a matter of time with that bill in all proba¬ 
bility, for Mr. Clark is hoping to outlive its most 
formidable opponents, and he is a husky fighter. 
William P. Wharton has his “armor on” all the 
time and is an attendant at most of the hearings 
at the State House. H. H. Kimball. 
Minot’s brief for argument in favor of licens¬ 
ing cats says in part: 
An average country cat kills fifty birds each 
year. If this is so, and each of our 30000 farms 
in Massachusetts average five cats, we have 150 - 
000 cats killing 7,500,000 birds per year. This 
does not include wild domestic cats, which per¬ 
haps, kill as many again. A. C. Dike watched a 
cat for a season and saw it kill fifty-eight birds. 
How many more it killed we can only guess. 
Nearly 100 correspondents of Mr. Forbush all 
over the State declare that the cat is one of the 
greatest destroyers of birds. Mr. Forbush 
states one case where a cat that was watched 
killed seven birds in one day. 
The effect produced by cats is convincingly 
shown where they have been introduced on 
islands, i. e.. Sable Islands off Nova Scotia and 
Aldabra Island off ^Madagascar, In both, the 
introduction of cats nearly exterminated the 
birds. 
John Burroughs, the eminent naturalist, states 
that cats probably destroy more birds than all 
other an'mals combined. William Dutcher, Presi¬ 
dent National Association of Audubon Societies, 
considers the cat one of the greatest causes of 
bird destruction known. Reprint from Year 
Book, Department of Agriculture, for 1903, “The 
Economic Value of the Bobwh'te,” states: “Do¬ 
mestic cats, as well as foxes and certain hawks, 
prey on their young.” 
Reprint of Year Book, Department of Agricul¬ 
ture, for 1909, pamphlet called "Does it Pay the 
Farmer to Protect Birds,” by H. W. Henshaw, 
states: “Above all should the farmer pay atten¬ 
tion to the cats on his farms. It is only recently 
that the extent of the depredations of the house 
cat on wild life, especially on birds, has been 
recognized. Many who have studied the matter 
believe that, taking the year around, cats are re¬ 
sponsible for the death of more birds, especially 
young ones, than all wild animals put together. 
* * * Even the well-fed and well-housed cal 
is responsible for many valuable lives.” 
At a recent hearing upon this subject. Dr. 
Field brought in a large cock pheasant (as big 
as a small hen) which he saw a cat in the act of 
killing. 
New York Legislature. 
Albany, N. Y., March 4.— Editor Forest and 
Stream: The Conservation Commission’s bill 
providing for the immediate development of the 
hydraulic resources of the State has been intro¬ 
duced in both branches of the Legislature. 
The bill amends the conservation law of last 
year and provides for immediate State construc¬ 
tion, control and maintenance of a Statewide sys¬ 
tem of electric transmission with water storage 
reservoirs to be constructed by the State for the 
public use and benefit in accordance with the 
policy of Governor Dix. 
Under its provisions the Conservation Com¬ 
mission will have power to lease, construct, ac¬ 
quire by purchase or condemn any property 
necessary to the undertaking; and may contract 
to furnish municipalities with power, energy, 
electricity or water for the purpose of lighting 
public streets, highways, public and private build¬ 
ings, and for heat and power, to the end that 
the “municipality and the citizens thereof shall 
secure at cost the benefits to be derived from the 
utilization of said power and water.” 
The bill also provides that any existing public 
service corporation at present supplying a munici¬ 
pality with light and power may enter into a con-, 
tract with the municipality for the distribution of 
such current as is furnished the municipality by 
the State, but only at a rate to be approved by 
the commission. No contract either with the 
State or with an existing company can be entered 
into by the municipality until after the proposi¬ 
tion shall have been approved at a special election 
at which all electors within the municipality can 
vote. 
The surplus and other available waters of the 
Barge canal are put under the jurisdiction of the 
commission, which may lease water wherever the 
best interests of the State require; or may de¬ 
velop and distribute water, light and power in 
the same manner as provided with impounded 
waters. The commission is given authority to 
contract with riparian or other owners benefited 
by the regulating of the flow of any stream. 
Assemblyman Vert has introduced a bill 
amending the Penal Law (Sec. 1897) by provid¬ 
ing that this section, which prohibits the carrying 
and use of dangerous weapons under certain cir¬ 
cumstances, shall not prevent the issuing of a 
hunting license under the forest, fish and game 
law to a person under sixteen years of age, or 
prevent the offering, selling, loaning or giving 
to such a minor who holds a hunting license, of 
a firearm of a size which may not be concealed 
upon the person. 
Assemblyman Shannon has introduced a bill re¬ 
ducing from twenty-five pounds to ten pounds 
the amount of lake trout that may be trans¬ 
ported at any one time by any one person. 
E. C. C. 
Condition of Adirondack Deer. 
Albany, N. Y., March 4.—Editor Forest and 
Stream: Wild deer in the Adirondacks have not 
suffered much from the severe winter now clos¬ 
ing. The game protectors employed by the Con¬ 
servation Commission have been sent out to re¬ 
port on the condition of these animals, and find 
that the deer have wintered well. One of the 
protectors who took a snowshoe trip of over 
forty miles through the Nine Mile Creek and 
Hamilton Stream sections reported that the 
woods look like a sheep pasture as far as deer 
tracks are concerned. He saw a large number 
of deer which were in fine condition, and the 
absence of any snowshoe tracks showed that the 
deer were not being molested. 
Another protector who has been investigating 
the condition of the deer in the vicinity of 
Saranac reports that at one beaver meadow 
where hay has been cut and stacked, there were 
fifteen deer that wintered on three stacks of this 
wild hay, and they were in prime condition. As 
the experiment of cutting and stacking wild hay 
during the summer for the feeding of deer dur¬ 
ing the winter is proving a success, it will be 
carried on very extensively by the Conservation 
Commission hereafter, and no doubt it will be 
the means of saving a great many hundreds of 
deer during the more severe winters. 
J. D. W. 
Hon. George A. Stevens, of Lake Placid, when 
asked by the Troy Times about winter condi¬ 
tions in the woods, said that there was an un¬ 
usual lack of snow in the woods and that the 
ice was about eighteen inches thick. He said 
that the weather was very cold. 
The deer were wintering very well; in fact, 
they were so plentiful that fox hunters often 
found them a nuisance, for dogs would frequent¬ 
ly start a deer, mistaking it for a fox, and of 
course the services of that dog were lost for 
the time being. Mr. Stevens is one of the best 
informed men about the woods in the Adiron¬ 
dacks. 
