504 
FOREST AND STREAM 
April 20, 1912 
Published Weekly by the 
Forest and Stream Publishing Company, 
127 Franklin Street, New York. 
Charles Otis, President, 
C. B. Reynolds, Secretary, 
S. J. Gibson, Treasurer. 
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Forest and Stream is the recognized medium of 
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communications will not be regarded. 
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THE OBJECT OF THIS JOURNAL 
will be to studiously promote a healthful in¬ 
terest in outdoor recreation, and to cultivate 
a refined taste for natural objects. 
—Forest and Stream, Aug. 14, 1873. 
THE NEW YORK CONSERVATION LAW. 
On Monday last, on the eve of opening day 
for trout fishing in the southern counties of New 
York State, Governor Dix signed the new con¬ 
servation law, which went into effect at once. 
The trout season was the subject of greatest 
moment everywhere, for April i6 was the open¬ 
ing date until the time was postponed to May i 
by the Governor’s pen, thereby overturning the 
plans of many anglers who were waiting, hand 
baggage in hand, so to speak, for the coming of 
the i6th and a little vacation after a long and 
trying winter. 
It was unfortunate that less than one day’s 
notice of the change was given protectors and 
anglers, and it is probable that scores of persons 
who would not voluntarily violate the law were 
fishing for trout on Tuesday in places where 
news spreads slowly: Indeed, there was a per¬ 
sistent rumor in the Catskills that the new law 
would not go into effect until next year. On the 
other hand, it is believed that May i is early 
enough for trout fishing throughout the State, 
particularly in years like the present one, which 
has been cold, so that only the destructive bait 
fishing is likely to prove successful until such 
time, as the water warms and the trout begin to 
look to the surface for their food. The mini¬ 
mum length limit for trout remains as before, 
six inches. It should be seven, as proposed. 
No fishing license is required and wild bass and 
trout cannot be sold. 
The protector force is increased to 125, which 
is a very important change for the better, as it 
gives thirty additional protectors. Deer shooting 
is limited to two bucks only for each person in 
the open season, and as these bucks must have 
horns at least three inches in length, it is be¬ 
lieved that a little more care than has hereto¬ 
fore been employed will govern the actions of 
greenhorns in the woods. 
The same regulations as were incorporated in 
the Bayne law apply to the sale of foreign game, 
and to the sale of domestic game -raised for the 
market. There will be no spring shooting, but 
the bag limit of twenty-five waterfowl for each 
person or forty for two or more persons shoot¬ 
ing in company is still too large. 
Heretofore great dissatisfaction has existed 
among sportsmen who go to other States for 
the deer shooting, over the restrictions against 
passing them through New York city. For ex¬ 
ample, men who shoot two bucks in Maine, and 
who bring them, properly tagged, out of that 
State in the open season there with the inten¬ 
tion of taking them to their homes in New Jer¬ 
sey or elsewhere, have only been permitted to 
pass them through New York city by courtesy 
of the protectors, who have' declined to take ad¬ 
vantage of their lawful right to seize game that 
has been bought and paid for in another State 
and which the owner must have a moral, if not 
a legal right, to take with him to his home, even 
though the season is closed in this State. Under 
the new law he can do this until New Year’s day. 
THE CASE OF THE STARLING. 
» 
The Harrisburg correspondent of the Phila¬ 
delphia Press says: 
The game wardens in Pennsylvania have been in¬ 
structed to keep a sharp watch for flocks of English 
starlings, and to kill them on sight, in order to prevent 
the predacious British bird from becoming a pest like its 
cousin, the sparrow. Starlings, thus far, have appeared 
cnly in Bucks and other eastern border counties, not far 
from New Jersey, and the numbers have not been great. 
If this is true, perhaps Secretary Kalbfus will 
enlighten us as to the grounds for the commis¬ 
sion’s snap action. The preponderance of testi- 
money on the starling is favorable so far, hence 
it is a trifle early to establish a dead line around 
Pennsylvania. The crow we have always had 
with us, but to-day we are still asking each other 
for opinions as to the good and evil done by the 
crow. How, then, can any man or small group 
of men" pass judgment on the starling when its 
habits here in America are not generally known, 
and when those few persons who have had op¬ 
portunities to study it assert stoutly that, if it 
has some bad habits, it also has good ones. 
The brown trout of Europe —the trout of 
Izaak 'Walton—has become a fixture in America, 
but in many places it is still held responsible 
for real and fancied scarcity of native trout. 
While there is no denying that every angler pre¬ 
fers brook to brown trout, not a few of them 
shut their eyes to the fact that there is good 
fishing for brown trout in streams that have 
been so much abused that the native trout can¬ 
not exist in them. In short, with fario we have 
trout fishing; without this species there would 
be none at all in many waters. 
We hold no brief for the starling or the 
brown trout, but we do believe that a convic¬ 
tion should follow, not precede, a fair trial. In 
the case of trout it is not conclusive to assume 
that, in waters where both brown and brook 
trout are planted, and the brown trout thrive 
while the brook trout disappear, that the brown 
trout have eaten the natives. Better evidence is 
needed, and yet few efforts are made to keep a 
record of water temperatures in waters in which 
■fontinalis do not thrive. It is generally known 
that the brook trout is to a certain extent can¬ 
nibalistic, and evidence is given at times to 
prove that fario has similar depraved tastes. 
One is condemned because it is an alien, while 
the sins of the other are forgiven because it is 
a native. That is human nature, but it is not 
good logic. The better way is to give alien 
birds and fishes a trial. And yet, there are the 
carp and the English sparrow. Because there 
has been no help for it they have been tried and 
found wanting, but they seem to thrive on perse¬ 
cution, and will probably remain a thorn in the 
nation’s flesh. 
Meanwhile, the starling is increasing so rapid¬ 
ly that it is to be doubted whether it would be 
possible to exterminate it now. 
In another part of this issue is printed a por¬ 
tion of the testimony and arguments presented 
at the recent hearing in Washington before the 
Congressional Committee on Eorest Reservations 
and the Protection of Game on the subject of 
migratory birds. To the proposition the objec¬ 
tion most often heard is that it would be un¬ 
constitutional, but the scores of endorsements of 
the plan that are a part of the record of the 
hearing, but which lack of space forbids quoting 
at this time, show that men of all walks in life 
have agreed that, as States have failed properly 
to protect our migrants, it is only a question of 
time before the Eederal Government must super¬ 
vise or regulate the shooting of wildfowl. 
•t 
The Virginia Audubon Society has started a 
campaign of education to insure the enactment 
of a game law in 1914, for a State Game Com¬ 
mission and a hunting license. It is proposed to 
copy the Alabama game law closely. To this 
end the treasurer of the society, M. D. Hart, 
Box 107, Richmond, Va., invites sportsmen, prac¬ 
tical farmers, bird lovers and all other persons 
interested, to send him expressions of opinion 
for or against the plan. Such letters, Mr. Hart 
believes, will have great weight with Virginians 
who do not favor the desired reforms, or who 
are as yet undecided. Circular letters in which 
these expressions of opinion will be embodied 
will be sent broadcast over Virginia. 
Last week we recorded the fact that the New 
York Legislature had appropriated a sum of 
money to reimburse the three codiflers of the 
new flsh and game law for the work they per¬ 
formed for the Conservation Commission. Two 
of the members of that committee are attorneys, 
and no doubt entitled to compensation for their 
time and work. The third, John B. Burnham, 
president of the American Game Protective and 
Propagation Association, offered his services 
gratuitously and will not accept one-third of the 
sum appropriated. We are glad to be able to 
make this correction of a wrong impression, and 
to do so voluntarilv. 
•t 
Governor Wilson has signed the bill recently 
passed by the New Jersey Legislature, prohibit¬ 
ing the carrying and use in the woods or on the 
waters of that State of any gun or rifle capable 
of being fired more than twice without reloading. 
