Forest and Stream 
A Weekly Journal. Copyright, 1907, by Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 
Terms, $3 a Year, 10 Cts. a Copy. 
Six Months, $1.50. 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 1907. 
I VOL. LXVIII.—No. 7. 
/ No. 346 Broadway, New York 
The object of this journal will be to studiously 
promote a healthful interest in outdoor recre¬ 
ation, and to cultivate a refined taste for natural 
Objects. Announcement in first number of 
Forest and Stream, Aug. 14,1873. 
IN FEBRUARY FIELDS. 
The snow of untrodden fields lies fair beneath 
the cloudy sky. Stone walls and rail fences, 
piled high with white, interrupt the nearer dis¬ 
tance, and beyond the view is cut off by the 
woods, which show as a blacx band parting the 
whiteness of the snow from the leaden hue of 
low-hanging clouds. 
One hesitates to walk out over these fields and 
to mar with careless footprint the smooth even 
covering that the kindly skies have spread over 
the earth, as if to protect Nature’s plant-children 
from the winter’s bitter cold. 
At a distance the landscape seems lifeless, yet 
he who traverses fields and woods with open eyes 
will find familiar friends not a few. The hedge 
rows which border the lanes or separate the 
fields, shelter a multitude of birds, that stay with 
us during the whole long winter; song sparrows 
and whitethroats and blue snowbirds and tree 
sparrows, all busy about their daily tasks. In 
the apple trees, feeding on the frozen thawed 
fruit still clinging to the stems, a group of pine 
grosbeaks may be found; siskins work in the 
birches, and crossbills among the cones of spruce 
and hemlock. In the cedars and chokecherry 
trees along the fences, a busy company of tit¬ 
mice is searching each crevice and cranny of the 
bark for insects, and their eggs, voicing their 
contentment by the cheery call that has given 
them their name. 
Wherever weed stems stand above the snow, 
tiny line-like depressions show the tracks where 
little sparrows have passed from one weed stalk 
to another, tearing to pieces each seed particle, 
looking for food. These are hard times for the 
small folks of fields and woods, when at the 
same time they feel the bite of cold and the pinch 
of hunger. 
Corn and meadow lot alike, are marked by 
long lines of tracks much larger than those of 
the crows. In the corn lot, holes in the snow 
show where the birds have dug down and un¬ 
covered a few grains of corn, and in the meadow, 
soil and blades of grass scattered on the snow 
show that here too they have unearthed some 
food, perhaps a few grubs or maybe a meadow 
mouse. By what special sense do these canny 
birds so find their food? 
Over these fields night and morning through 
this inclement season, the crows fare backward 
and forward in sable procession on their way to 
and from the salt water, where they feed at low 
tide. Yet if the cold is too bitter and the mud 
flats are ice-covered, even this uncertain food 
supply is cut off. 
As we draw nearer the woods we see that 
they are no longer black but gray—a gray that 
grows paler as we draw nearer. At their very 
border we can look far into them, and see white 
snow within through a screen of interlacing 
twigs and tree trunks. What mysteries may not 
this screen conceal ? Rabbits and ruffed grouse, 
and gray squirrels and perhaps a coon. Among 
the branches of these still gray trees may be 
resting, silent and watchful, great birds of prey 
ready to descend upon meadow mouse or squir¬ 
rel—devourers of the farmers’ crops. 
It is the hardest time of the winter, yet even 
now a change is at hand; day by day the sun 
is gaining power, and at midday it gives out a 
grateful heat. Under its frozen covering the 
earth is already beginning to grow warmer and 
to stir, as if it feels some faint premonition of 
the awakening that is to come ere long. 
RAILWAYS AND THE TREES. 
It seems only proper that the railways, after 
cutting away vast forest areas to obtain crossties, 
should endeavor to provide for a future supply 
by planting and cultivating trees. This is being 
done by a few of the great railway companies, 
and the work of planting is being conducted 
along the same scientific lines that will regulate 
the cutting of these trees when they from time 
to time reach a size suitable for ties. 
While some of the friends of forest preserva¬ 
tion see much that is commendable in this work, 
the facts are that business policy and not senti¬ 
ment is responsible for the tree planting by the 
railways; but, while this is true, the mere growth 
and maintenance of these tie-tracts will be bene¬ 
ficial to the country, the game and the fish, each 
in proportion to the cover provided and the 
water held back in ponds and streams. 
Aside from this insistent demand for tie 
material, however, the railways are face to face 
with the proposition that the “line” offering the 
best shooting or fishing has much to boast of. 
To this end some railways assist in game pro¬ 
tection and in the distribution of fish, and while 
it is all for a selfish end, the men assigned to 
this work take a personal interest in it, and much 
good results in the long run. 
WATER POLLUTION. 
It now seems that the report of wildfowl 
dying in numbers in Utah, referred to in these 
columns last week, is true. Sportsmen who car¬ 
ried the information to Salt Lake City also took 
with them a number of ducks, both dead and 
alive, which had been found near the mouth of 
the Jordan River, and Mr. Harms, the city 
chemist, began an investigation. At the mouth 
of the Jordan, say the sportsmen who discovered 
the deplorable state of affairs, all varieties of 
ducks common to that region were found in large 
numbers, some dead, others dying or so weak 
that they could easily be caught. 
This, following the destruction of large num¬ 
bers of fish in the same waters recently, and the 
fact that the Jordan is polluted with refuse from 
smelters and other industrial plants, is but one 
more chapter in the history of the progress of 
commercial interests and the consequent giving 
way to it by the sportsmen and anglers. Where 
the drinking water of a city is not actually pol¬ 
luted, it is extremely difficult to persuade the 
proper authorities that the game fish are of suffi¬ 
cient importance to warrant a strict enforcement 
of the laws against water pollution. 
It was a very fitting honor that was conferred 
last Saturday night on Mr. W. T. Hornaday, the 
Director of the New York Zoological Society’s 
Park in the Bronx. In the presence of a large 
number of members and guests of the Camp-Fire 
Club the toastmaster announced that the board of 
governors had determined that each year here¬ 
after a gold medal shall be presented by the club 
to the member who during the year had rendered 
the most distinguished services in the fields in 
which the club is especially interested. The pre¬ 
servation of wild game and the forests and the 
promotion of a love of nature and of outdoor 
life are these fields, and it was decided that Dr. 
Hornaday by his book “Camp-Fires in the Cana¬ 
dian Rockies” had performed such service as 
entitled him to the first gold medal of the club. 
Mr. Hornaday has written an excellent book on 
wild life in the northwestern mountains, but be¬ 
sides that he is trying in conjunction with his 
friend Mr. Phillips to induce the British Colum¬ 
bia Government to set aside a portion of the 
territory of that Province as a permanent game 
and forest preserve. This we hope may be done. 
■S ■ 
So far we have not heard of much opposition 
to Mr. Merritt’s resident and nonresident license 
bill, now before the New York Legislature. The 
change from the present method, which it would 
set aside, is but the result of the experience 
gained by other States. The present law is well 
nigh impossible to enforce, and no resident 
sportsman will object to contributing one dollar 
per annum for the privilege of hunting deer when 
he knows that nonresidents will be compelled to 
pay twenty dollars for the same privilege, or 
about what he would be required to pay for a 
license in the State from which they come. If 
it will also compel aliens to pay a large sum or 
refrain from hunting, it will serve a double pur¬ 
pose. 
As the Forest and Stream is being printed the 
library of Gen. Garrett H. Striker is being sold 
in this city. Among the items offered for sale 
is a set of the first octavo edition of Audubon’s 
“Birds of America,” 7 volumes, 8vo. 1840-1844. 
The work is still in the 100 original parts. Of¬ 
ferings of the first octavo of Audubon are seldom 
made, and we know of only one set in parts hav¬ 
ing been sold at auction for a long time. This 
one, which belonged to the late L. H. Chubbuck, 
of Boston, brought $315, and we should look for 
a better price for the set that is now to be sold. 
