Forest and Stream 
A Weekly Journal. Copyright, 1907, by Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 
Terms, $3 a Year, 10 Cts. a Copy. I 
Six Months, $1.50. 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, MARCH 16, 1907. 
, VOL. LXVIII.—No.Ill- 
) 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. 
HIDDEN THINGS. 
It is given to but few of us to penetrate the 
mysteries of the heavens Above, or the earth 
beneath, or .the waters which are under the 
earth. The stars in their courses are too high 
for us, the vast riches buried in the earth too 
low. We cannot penetrate the deep unfathomed 
caves of ocean where the priceless gems are 
said to lie. Yet if we had eyes trained to ob¬ 
serve we might see all about us, thousands of 
beings existing and of operations going on in 
plain sight to which now we are blind. These 
beings and these operations are of absorbing 
interest if their relations to other natural things 
are understood, but the great majority of us do 
not see them, do not know that they exist; they 
are as well hidden as if they were buried deep 
in the earth or overflowed by many fathoms of 
the sea. 
How many men among us—to say nothing of 
women and children—know where the blue bird 
lays her eggs? Yet this is a subject of common 
knowledge to the country boy, and even to his 
little brothers and sisters, whom as a great 
favor he may take out into the orchard and lift 
up so that they can look down upon the pale 
blue treasures. How many know the great 
crested flycatcher, and what she always uses 
in her nest building? How many of us have 
ever seen the nest of the partridge, or the wood¬ 
cock, or the prairie chicken? How many know 
where the field mice have their young, or have 
seen the tiny mother, driven from her nest, 
clumsily seeking a refuge as she drags with her 
half a dozen young ones clinging to her 
body? 
How many know where the mountain sheep 
drop their young, or when? What is the early 
life of these staggering mites? Does their 
mother hide them as the deer and elk and ante¬ 
lope hide their young? Certainly when they 
are grown a little older she makes a brave fight 
in their behalf against the sounding plunge of 
the fierce eagle, or leads them swiftly up the 
perpendicular rocks, if sight or scent of panther 
reaches her. 
How many of us walking along some country 
path through the fields and seeing in it holes 
as large as a lead pencil know what creature 
made these holes and why? How many know 
what the blue mud wasp nest contains, and 
why its contents are stored there? How many 
know where the first frog spawn may be found 
in early spring, or where the first water turtles 
are seen after the breaking up of the winter, or 
what life may be found under the great stones 
that lie in and near the brook’s course in the 
swamp? Who knows that the squirrels and the 
field mice often have their homes in deserted 
woodpecker’s holes? That tiny owls often spend 
the day in similar situations, and that if you 
carefully introduce your hand and grasp them, 
their little claws pierce the flesh like needles. 
Who knows where the rare plants of his own 
district are found, the gorgeous yellow lady- 
slipper, or the pitcher plant, or the northern 
Linncea, or the tiny low-growing cornel, or 
whether near his home grows the wild pansy, 
the two-colored form of one of the violets? 
Who knows the natural foods that grow in the 
woods? Not merely the nuts and berries, but the 
roots and the different plants that when cooked 
furnish succulent and nutritious food ? 
These and other such matters ought to be 
known to all outdoor men. Much of this lore 
is known to the men of the wilderness, the 
guides and trappers, whose winters and sum¬ 
mers and autumns and springs are passed close 
to nature. 
When the city man whose life is chiefly spent 
between four walls has acquired some of this 
knowledge, how much wider the interest that he 
finds in his infrequent excursions through forest 
and by stream. Each step shows him some ob¬ 
ject of interest or suggests some new question. 
The time is now at hand when we shall all be 
breathing warmer airs, and longing to take our 
walks abroad away from stone and brick and 
mortar, and it is well for each one of us to try 
to learn something about the ways of the natural 
things likely to come under our eyes, so that we 
may in some degree understand them and may 
thus take a more intelligent pleasure in our 
outings. 
To a multitude of the readers of Forest and 
Stream many of these common and wonderful 
things are as an open book; but to a far greater 
number they are secrets—hidden things—not 
known, though so well worth knowing, and by 
proper effort so easily to be known. For the 
means of knowledge lies within the reach of 
each one of us. There are books and writings 
on most of these subjects, though not all these 
writings are simple and straightforward enough 
to be instructive to the novice. Nevertheless, 
there is always Forest and Stream, whose 
columns are full of comprehensive matter bear¬ 
ing on nature subjects, interesting and in¬ 
structive alike to the scientific man and to the 
student of nature who craves knowledge of her 
wonders for their own sake. 
Late advices from the Adiropdacks, where the 
long cold season continues, are to the effect that 
only those deer that are feeble from age, or in 
poor condition, are showing signs of succumb¬ 
ing to the elements. Cutting balsams has saved 
a number of deer, and it seems their inability 
to obtain water will not continue much longer. 
THE SPORTSMEN’S SHOW. 
The Sportsmen’s Show which. was held in 
Madison Square Garden last week, while not 
as important, in point of the number of ex¬ 
hibitors, as the shows held in other years, was 
an improvement over those of the past three 
winters, at least, and we are encouraged in 
the hope and belief that the annual affairs to 
be held in the future will be, as the first ones 
were, worthy of the title bestowed on them. 
This year the division of the motor boat and 
sportsmen’s interests into two exhibitions was 
a wise step, so far as Madison Square Garden is 
concerned, and the separate interests were 
pleased; for this exhibition hall is not com¬ 
modious enough for the advantageous display 
of a large number of space-filling motor boats 
and for the booths of those who wish to show 
sportsmen’s goods and trophies. 
Next year’s show will cover a longer period 
of time than usual—three weeks, we understand 
—and it is to be hoped that it will be a first- 
class one that will attract not only the Broad¬ 
way crowd, which will go to anything held at 
the Garden under the name of “show.” but the 
sportsmen of the country and the best manu¬ 
facturing firms that cater to their demands. 
THE NEW YORK LICENSE BILL. 
On Wednesday of this week, too late for re¬ 
port in the issue of Forest and Stream, the New 
York Legislature at Albany will take up the bill 
providing for a general hunting license. The 
bill provides that a gun license of $1 shall be 
paid by residents of this State, and that non¬ 
residents and aliens shall pay a license fee of 
$20. 
The bill protects the interests of land owners 
in private that each land owner may shoot on 
his own land without a license in the following- 
words : 
* * * “the owner or owners of farm land, 
or the lessees thereof shall have the right to 
hunt and kill game on the farm land of which 
he or they are the bona fide owners or lessees 
during the season when it is lawful to kill game 
without procuring such resident license.” 
This is a measure which should be carefully 
worded, lest a loophole might be found here for 
evasions of the law. 
The bill, we believe, has the support of sports¬ 
men and bird protectors throughout the State. 
It will provide for the payment of the expenses 
of fish and game and bird protection by the class 
most directly interested, and it is believed that 
clubs and individuals throughout the State recog¬ 
nize the substantial justice of such a measure. 
Each license must be signed by the licensee, 
in ink, and must be in his or her possession while 
engaged in hunting, ready for inspection by pro¬ 
tectors. It is believed the necessity of holding a 
license to hunt will put an end to much of the 
pursuit by aliens of small birds. 
