FOREST AND STREAM 
33 
Being Reports From Our Local 
Correspondents 
PRAIRIE CHICKENS SO NUMEROUS FARM¬ 
ERS REGARD THEM AS PEST. 
Milton, N. D.,—A new situation regarding 
game has been discovered here. The farmers 
have complained that the prairie chickens are so 
numerous they have been eating corn left in the 
fields. The majority of them are not disposed 
to protest very much, however, as they regard 
the birds of sufficient value in the summer time 
in killing off insects to earn What corn they eat 
in the winter. 
MINNESOTA MAY STOCK STATE PARK 
WITH BUFFALO HERD. 
A state-owned buffalo herd in Minnesota, 
where bison used to roam the prairies by thou¬ 
sands, is the aim now of the state forestry de¬ 
partment and the state game and fish commission 
of Minnesota. The great Scotty Phillips herd 
near Pierre, S. D., is being offered for sale by 
the executors of Phillips’ estate, and the legisla¬ 
ture of Minnesota will be asked this winter to 
appropriate money to buy a part of the herd, and 
stock one of the state parks with it. There 
are 430 animals in the herd, 200 of them mature 
bulls and cows, and they are offered at a price 
averaging about $300. 
BULLET PASSES THROUGH PARTRIDGE 
AND SLAYS BUCK. 
Virginia, Minn., Dec. 11—While hunting in 
the woods near Camp No. 35 on the line of the 
Duluth, Winnipeg & Pacific railroad, north of 
this city, Charles Dubs and Aid. E. F. Murray 
saw a partridge. They were armed only with 
deer rifles. Dube took aim and fired. The part¬ 
ridge fluttered to the ground, and as they picked 
up the bird they heard a commotion in the un¬ 
derbrush a few yards distant. Investigation 
showed that a buck had been struck by the bul¬ 
let that killed the partridge. The deer was 
tagged and shipped to Virginia. 
MAINE FIRE WARDEN’S TESTIMONY TELLS 
HOW RUFFED GROUSE “DRUM.” 
Light is thrown upon the operation of the 
drumming of the ruffed grouse cocks or “part¬ 
ridge,” as this bird is called in the woodland dis¬ 
tricts, by the testimony of Fred L. Hutchings, a 
Maine fire warden, located at Tumbledown moun¬ 
tain, Franklin county, in the heart of the great 
game country. There are many disputes over how 
this noise is produced, but the word of the 
woodsman, who has observed the grouse at close 
range, should prove conclusive. His written tes¬ 
timony follows: 
“In several of the popular sporting magazines 
at different times I have read articles by some of 
my brother hunters and campers on ‘the drum¬ 
ming of the partridge.’ These articles were 
written with the idea of demonstrating or show¬ 
ing the way the partridge ‘drums.’ I remember 
one article written by a woman. She said the 
partridge made that drumming sound by striking 
his wings very rapidly against the sides of the 
log on which he was sitting. Another writer, a 
man from Wyoming, I believe, said the drum¬ 
ming was made by the partridge beating his 
wings against his sides very rapidly. 
“I have had the opportunity for the past two 
weeks to watdh two old drummers very closely 
several times a day. I am fire warden at Tum¬ 
bledown mountain and am in the land of a great 
many partridges. One old drummer comes right 
behind my camp almost every day and is very 
tame. 
“I was within ten feet of him one day, lying 
down behind a spruce log, when he commenced 
to drum. The drumming goes something like 
this : Thrump—thrump—thrump-fh-r-th-r-th-r-r- 
r-r-r-^r-r-rthrump. 
“The first few beats are slow and then faster 
and faster for six or seven seconds, and then he 
stops. He makes that thrumping by beating his 
wings up against his breast. He does not strike 
the log at all with his wings. He seems to lean 
back when he drums and after the drumming, 
for perhaps fifteen minutes, apparently listening, 
and then he will drum again.” 
WISCONSIN WILD GAME SCARCE. 
Chippewa Falls, Wis.—Sportsmen in this sec¬ 
tion of the state agree that the next session of 
the legislature will have to revise the game laws 
very radically if the wild game of northern Wis¬ 
consin is to be conserved. Some strongly advo¬ 
cate a closed season next year for deer, part¬ 
ridges, grouse and prairie chiokens. Every kind 
of wild game is becoming very scarce. 
KEEPING WATCH ON $600,000 LICENSE 
FUND. 
Warned of an impending raid on the great 
resident hunters’ license fund of almost $600,000, 
which was contributed by the hunters of the 
State “for the protection and propagation of 
game and for the payment of bounties,” the con¬ 
ference of Western Pennsylvania sportmen’s or¬ 
ganizations, which is planning for a new state¬ 
wide organization, is sending out an alarm to all 
the orgaizations of the State, urging the hunters 
to unite and stand firmly together to insure that 
this money is used solely for the purposes for 
which it was contributed. If necessary legal ac¬ 
tion will be taken to prevent the use of this 
money for other purposes, but it 'is felt that if 
the sportsmen will stand firm and make plain to 
the legislators the fact that any appropriation of 
this money except for the proper purposes will 
bring down the wrath of over 300,000 voters on 
their heads, this will insure proper legislative 
action. 
The leaders of the new movement plan, if nec¬ 
essary, to call mass meetings of the licensed 
hunters in every town of size in the State and 
crystallize sentiment against the proposed raid on 
the hunters’ license fund, and declare that any 
legislator who votes for the misappropriation of 
this great fund contributed for the betterment of 
the wild life of the State will earn and receive 
political oblivion. 
An important program of needed legislation 
for -the preservation of wild life has been pre¬ 
pared at great expense by the various sports¬ 
men’s organizations and a majority of the candi¬ 
dates for the legislature had already pledged 
themselves to support it, before election, and if 
they go back on these pledges there will be 
trouble all over the state. 
The local conference has adopted resolutions 
outlining t'heir suggested plan for the new or¬ 
ganization and naming J. H. Nicholson and Jesse 
T. Lazear as their representatives on a commit¬ 
tee on charter and by-laws. R. T. Brown, of Ell- 
wood City, is president of the conference which 
is expected to hold another meeting soon and 
arrange for the incorporation of the new organi- 
tion from the western counties, while other con¬ 
ferences in other parts of the State are selecting 
the men to represent their respective sections. 
DEER POT HUNTERS DO THRIVING TRADE. 
Game Board Member Explains Mystery of 
Amateur Nimrod’s Universal Success. 
When a hunter is unable to obtain a deer, it 
is a common practice to buy one from a pot 
ihunter, declared F. B. Myers of the Minnesota 
game and fish commission to-day, which may 
explain why nearly every hunter returning from 
the northern woods has brought back a deer 
this year. 
Without a market the poachers soon would 
be driven out of business, said Mr. Myers, who 
said the purchasers of venison illegally obtained 
should be made to suffer heavily in the hope of 
discouraging such offenses. 
Sixty Prosecuted at Hibbing. 
Mr. Myers said the game wardens had -more than 
sixty cases pending at Hibbing for violation of 
