614 
FOREST AND STREAM 
Live Notes From The Field 
Being Reports From Our Local Correspondents 
SPRING SHOOTING OF GAME IN PRINCE 
EDWARD ISLAND. 
A few years ago the Prince Edward Island 
Fish and Game Association, at Charlottetown, 
passed two resolutions relating to wild geese and 
brant. One was that the spring shooting of wild 
geese be limited from April io to May xo, and 
for fall shooting, from October x to December 
31, the balance of the year to be a closed sea¬ 
son. The second was that the spring shooting 
of brant be limited from May 15 to June 10, and 
the fall shooting, October 1 to December 15, the 
balance of the year to be a closed season. Need¬ 
less to say those resolutions were never acted 
on by the Provincial authorities. It might safely 
be said that the greater majority of those pres¬ 
ent of that Charlottetown meeting know little 
about shooting, and far less concerning the habits 
of the birds, for whose protection they seemed so 
solicitous. With an experience of thirty years’ 
shooting more or less in my native province of 
Prince Edward Island, I think I may be par¬ 
doned if I should conceive that I can speak with 
more authority on the question than the majority 
I have lived in Ontario for the past seven years, 
but have come down to the Island almost every 
spring during the goose-shooting season, as this 
spring. I may say that in late years I have 
always come too late for the shooting of the 
white-bellied geese, the largest and best that come 
to our Prince Edward Island shores, for the 
very good reason that those birds come to our 
shores with the first southerly winds after March 
15 and remain only about ten days, after which 
they fly farther North. 
Thus it will be seen that with a close season 
in March and early April, none of those fine 
white-bellied birds would be shot at all. This 
species of geese remain for the winter off the 
Digby Coast of Nova Scotia. Later on the grey 
geese arrive from the South and begin mating 
here about May 1. If protection be required, 
which of course is unnecessary, why not close 
the season on May 1? These are the geese that 
are now being shot in this section by boys be¬ 
cause the larger and finer species of white-bel¬ 
lied are now away to the North. 
Of brant and their habits a great many sports¬ 
men are in the dark. Marsh writers evince gross 
ignorance of the habits of these birds. There 
are three different species of brant. 
One kind flies up the McKenzie River and 
on to Herchell Island. Another kind flies across 
the land and hatches in the marshes of Manitoba 
with which species we Islanders are familiar, 
although some of them which stay with the 
geese off the coast of Digby, N. S., for the win¬ 
ter, come from the South, and hatch on the 
west coast of Greenland. Mr. H. A. Leslie, of 
Prince County, is an ardent and observing sports¬ 
man of thirty-five years’ experience, has kept a 
diary of the flights of this bird in the Richmond 
Bay, the best brant and goose shooting grounds 
—the Maritime province—with the result that 
the leaving date of those birds averages May 
31st. His diary, so far back as 1887, shows the 
leaving date May 31, and even as early as May 
23,—in 1889, while most of the years recorded 
place the date at either May 31 or June 1. One 
year, 1907, the date was at late as June 15, but 
this was a solitary exception. 
Brant remain in some parts of the Island to 
a later date than in Richmond Bay. They fatten 
more quickly in Richmond Bay than in most 
other parts of the Island, on account of the 
great amount of herring spawn, which adheres 
to the sea-weed, upon which spawn brant feed. 
Both geese and brant are just as plentiful now 
as they were thirty years ago; with a true sports¬ 
man a certain amount of hardship is necessary 
for true pleasure and satisfaction but some 
would-be sportsmen would want climatic condi¬ 
tions changed so that the killing of birds would 
be unattended with the natural difficulties of 
early spring shooting. 
A great many of our Island farmers who are 
true sportsmen usually are able to spare a few 
days from their ordinary pursuits at the early 
part of the season for recreation before the diffi¬ 
cult work of sowing their crop. Goose shooting 
in Prince Edward Island is rare sport indeed. 
J. A. Macdonald. 
Hermanville, P. E. I. 
CALLS DEER LAW BRUTAL. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
Perhaps some of your readers may be interest¬ 
ed in what is substantially a copy of a letter I 
have just mailed to The Connecticut Fish and 
Game Protective Association. 
I am in receipt of your bill for annual dues 
for the coming year. You may strike my name 
from your list of members right now ; —It would 
seem that if the association had any influence in 
the protection of game it might have exerted it 
to a good purpose last winter. The late enacted 
deer law is a monstrosity, a most outrageous 
example of class legislation, and it reflects no 
credit upon its originator or friends. In what 
other State does such a law exist, or one which 
approaches it in injustice or barbarity? If its 
special privileges be fully invoked they will be 
fully attended by cruelty, such as should not be 
tolerated by a civilized people. It paves the way 
to and makes easy the work of all who would 
violate its provisions, and renders their convic¬ 
tion more difficult. 
As a lover of venison this law benefits me 
personally, but I denounce it as a disgrace to our 
State. _ . 
Do not deceive yourselves with the notion that 
the farmer cannot lawfully put his venison in 
the open market. Should the State attempt to 
prosecute for such an act it'will meet with failure. 
F. Powers. 
Westport, Conn., Aug. 31, 1915- 
P. S. The only way you can do any good now,, 
is in an appeal to the farmers to show mercy. 
The law to which Mr. Powers refers, or rather 
the law as he interprets it, is set forth in a com¬ 
munication published by him in The Sun of New 
York and in the course of which he says: 
“A rather remarkable example of class legisla¬ 
tion is ‘An Act Concerning the Killing of Deer,’ 
passed at the last session of the General As¬ 
sembly. ... . ' 
“You or any member of your family or, with 
your permission, any person or persons in your 
employ, may at any time (unless on Sunday) 
with shotgun loaded with shot or with bullets 
wound, kill or capture any deer found on your 
premises, whether such deer be buck, pregnant 
doe, nursing mother or suckling fawn, and any 
deer so killed or captured shall be your property, 
apparently to do with as you please. 
“For all others than land owners or land hold¬ 
ers the law and penalties for violation thereof 
remain as heretofore.” 
MOSQUITO AND FLEA PREVENTIVE. 
While knocking about Chesapeake Bay in a 
small catboat, it was my custom to camp on 
shore at night. These camps were generally in 
(Continued on page 616.) 
Finishing a Thorough Day s Work. 
