[April 13, 1907. 
> 
573 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
. THE WHALE AS MESSRS. CLARK AND ANDREWS FOUND IT. 
Winter Care of Game in Germany. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
.You want to know something about our last 
winter and how game got along? I live not 
far from Hamburg, only an hour and a quarter 
by rail; the Berlin-Hamburg Railroad runs 
through my estate. I tell you this in order that 
you may know what part of Germany I am 
speaking of. 
Well, we have once more had such an old- 
fashioned winter as used to come in former 
years; much snow till the middle of March and 
severe cold, about 15 degrees of Reaumur below 
zero. Now and then for a change we had a 
nasty blizzard. 
Our game not being accustomed to such rude 
treatment in winter had to be looked after of 
course. For the last few years we have had 
very mild weather; now and then a little snow 
and frost—not much to speak of; this winter 
was quite different, with lots of snow and cold. 
I have had much pleasure in sledge-driving with 
my pony. I went as often as possible in the 
afternoon, observing the game and its need of 
food. My sledge, an original Norwegian, is very 
narrow and enables me to go anywhere that a 
man can walk. In such winters as this we feed 
of course, the deer tribe (red fallow and roe 
deer) when necessary, as well as pheasants and 
partridges. As to the hares, they generally 
know how to get along and to care for them¬ 
selves. When there'is heather on German land, 
there is no need of feeding the deer, which 
thrive wonderfully on it. No matter if the 
snow is ever so deep, it lies loose on the tall 
heather; the deer can always get to it, if crusts 
do not cut the deer’s feet. It is the best natural 
food for the winter. 
There is no heather here and so I have to feed 
my game by hand. We give generally roots, 
potatoes, chestnuts, acorns, oats and sweet hay 
under sheds. Wet hay is poison to deer. Sev¬ 
eral small natural brooks that never freeze give 
water enough when it is wanted. As to the roe 
deer, the most delicate of the deer tribe and the 
most abundant here, some are always lost in 
hard winters. Usually we do not shoot the 
does and so, of course, there are very old ones 
about that cannot stand much cold. These, as 
well as some weak kids, have to bite the dust, 
or snow, if you like better. 
Pheasants congregate where the deer are fed; 
if not, they get their feeding places under 
large fir trees where snow cannot bother them. 
They very much like boiled potatoes. These 
are mixed under large quantities of chaff with 
oats, maize and all sorts of grain. 
The cold has been much more severe in 
middle and south Germany (the Harz, Bavaria, 
etc.), and snow has been very deep, so that 
feeding deer (red deer) in the mountains was 
very difficult-—if not betimes quite impossible. 
Many deer had to starve, not being able to 
wander about or to get to the feeding places. 
We have here no mountains to speak of; the 
land is flat, and so we can go and take care 
of the game wherever we want to go. 
Pheasants are becoming very common with 
us; you find them everywhere in Germany, I 
think. Of course we take care of them and keep 
off and destroy their enemies as best we can. 
All the year round we shoot and catch foxes, 
martens, weasels and so on, the worst enemy to 
all small game; also some birds, viz., the hen¬ 
harrier, the kestrel, the common black crow 
and the magpie. These latter two not only 
steal lot's of pheasant and partridge eggs, but 
also kill young birds and hares. Last year two 
magpies were here in the park. I tried very 
hard to destroy them, but could not get at them, 
they were too shy and cunning. By and by I 
found out their deeds. They had killed five or 
six leverets, tore them to pieces and picked their 
bones. Finally one day, I saw one magpie chas¬ 
ing a leveret and killing it. I poisoned the hare 
and the magpies were done for. 
The hen-harrier is the most, destructive hawk 
with us, and the kestrel can ruin a whole pheas- 
antry and kill lots of partridges as long as the 
fields are bare. We have devised several ways 
to catch them, the best is with white pigeons. 
We always select white ones because this color 
can be seen a long way off. These pigeons are 
confined, two for company, in a sort of wire 
cage about one yard high and three-quarters of 
a yard wide with two divisions; the smaller one 
below is for the pigeons, the larger one above 
the traps. As soon as the hawk sees the pigeons 
he pounces on his prey, generally from above, 
loosens a catch, the lid of the cage falls down, 
and there he finds himself safely housed. The 
pigeons being in another compartment cannot 
be hurt. I have five of these traps, in use from : 
August to November and in the spring in March 
and April. My best catch in one year was eigh¬ 
teen hen-harriers. My keeper used to reckon 
for one hawk a pheasant a day. 
One year the keeper had reared about twenty- 
five red-legged partridges—the eggs I received 
from England, here we know only the common 
gray-legged partridge—they were very tame, 
and as soon as the keeper called them, all the 
birds dropped near him or on their feeding 
place and received their meal. One day in 
October when the man was feeding them a hen¬ 
harrier dashed into the flock, secured one bird 
and went off, the other birds were so scared 
that they flew in every direction and never, 
never did we see one of them again; calling and 
whistling was of no avail. They were gone and 
lost forever. 
The hawk and weasel are the greatest enemies 
to our game, not only feathered game, but also 
to hares and tame poultry. I have seen weasels; 
chasing three-quarter grown hares, never leav¬ 
ing off, never losing the trail, till at last poor 
puss had to give in and was killed. No other 
animal is so blood-thirsty and destroys so much 
valuable game, poultry and eggs as the weasel 
A word about crows. They are generally 
poisoned. In winter time you can see hundreds 
flying about the yards and fields. When snow 
lies on the ground we prepare a phosphate 
mixture with blood and small bits of meat or 
bread, we spread it on the snow, securing be¬ 
forehand any dead body we can get hold of, a 
dead small pig, deer or fowl, to show the crows 
where food is to be found and to induce their 
to go where the poison lies. The phosphate 
does not kill the birds on the spot; they gel 
sick, leave the place and settle in trees nearby 
and there you find them dead on the ground am 
gone forever. Of course some are always left 
and when winter comes again they appear id 
the usual number. Our problem is to get rid 0 
them or most of them in spring time wherl 
breeding and nesting goes on. 
Baron Laffert. 
Germany, March 1907. 
Alfred DeCordova. 
Alfred DeCordova, who died at his home ii 
New York city last week of heart failure in hi- 
fifty-ninth year, was a well known sportsman: 
In the early eighties he was one of the gover 
nors of the New York Stock Exchange and con 
nected with banking interests. Since then he had 
devoted a great deal of time to shooting, fishing: 
yachting and other sports. 
THE SKULL BEFORE AND AFTER THE WHALEBONE HAD BEEN REMOVED. 
