Forest and Stream 
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A Weekly Journal. Copyright, 1907, by Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, JUNE i, 1907. 
VOL. LXVIII— No. 22. 
No. 346 Broadway, New York. 
The object of this journal will be to studiously 
iromote a healthful interest in outdoor recre- 
tion, and to cultivate a refined taste for natural 
•bjeCtS. Announcement in first number of 
Forest and Stream, Aug. 14, 1873. 
LEGISLATION. 
The recent sessions of the State Legislatures 
iave not brought forth as many changes as were 
j, nticipated in the game and fish laws. The usual 
lumber of local and county laws were passed, 
complicating rather than simplifying matters, and 
i some States that were on the fence before, 
cn-sale laws have been passed. Some very 
leritorious changes were made in the laws of 
few Southern States, where the market shooters 
ave too long influenced legislation. The resi- 
ent and nonresident license movement gained 
ground in some States which had not previously 
tvored it, and remains as before in others which 
was thought would fall into line. The propo¬ 
tion to tax firearms found in possession in the 
f osed season has met with favor here and there, 
Rut it is apparent that opposition to it is still 
>0 strong for its enactment into law by States 
lat have large game in numbers, if indeed public 
mtiment is not opposed to a change of so radi- 
d a natiire. 
A steady advance is apparent in the movement 
[' prohibit the sale of game and fish, but there is 
i ill a lack'of uniformity in the laws of States 
! at lie side by side. 
In defeating the Knapp concurrent resolution 
\ st week the New York Assembly performed its 
! ity to the people. This measure aroused sus- 
1 cion when it was defended by Mr. Merritt, who 
also interested in the water storage scheme, 
i-he Senate had already passed it, but fortunately 
e Assembly killed it. 
JUNE. 
Perhaps, after all, , the frequently expressed 
lief—that the seismic disturbances of the past 
ar have had something to do w r ith the unusual 
;ather conditions of the past spring—is based 
fact. February weather continued through 
arch, whose raw winds in turn blew through- 
( t April, and what can usually be said of May 
plies to the beginning of June. In short, the 
?t half year has upset all the calculations of 
ie oldest inhabitant,” and on almost any day 
may find winter gone overnight and summer 
th its torrid heat present. 
Sportsmen tourists coming from the same lati- 
i le in Europe have been astonished to find the 
| iage here not as far advanced as was that of 
I * r own countries when they left there a fort- 
:ht previously. 
I he “old fellows,” who look forward to balmy 
ing days with pleasure because their blood is 
aner than it once was, and who love summer 
re and winter less as the years roll by, still 
1 'S sadly to winter clothing and recall the days 
| en they, as barefoot boys, waded the streams 
in early April in search of sunfish, and by this 
time were regular frequenters of the old swim¬ 
ming hole. 
The flowers are backward and even the small 
woodsfolk seem slower than usual in their mat¬ 
ing and other spring habits. The fishermen who 
looked forward with so much eagerness to the 
trout fishing now find June and the black bass 
season at hand ere they can slip away for a few 
days of genuine enjoyment in wading their 
favorite brooks. They take comfort in the be¬ 
lief that when the warm days do come the trout 
and bass will be all the more eager for lures 
presented to them in the most fascinating manner. 
Nature has a way of her own in adapting her¬ 
self to prevailing conditions, and the flower that 
seems to be drooping now may spring forth in 
a day and take its place as a flower of the sea¬ 
son, once the sun shines with its accustomed 
warmth. This fact inspires the hope that the 
furred and feathered game has not been kept 
back by the unfavorable conditions, but that next 
autumn will find it in normal if not in increased 
numbers. 
THE QUAIL DISEASE. 
The menace of a new enemy of our grouse and 
quail, which is referred to in another column, is 
a grave one. The assistance of the Bureau of 
Animal Industry of the United States Department 
of Agriculture was enlisted early last year, when 
the disease was first noticed, and this depart¬ 
ment is devoting particular attention to the matter 
with a view to eradicating or at least arresting 
the disease. 
It is fortunate that our sportsmen have the as¬ 
sistance of an organization of this kind. When, 
in 1817, the grouse disease was first discovered 
in Scotland, and it was said that it was killing 
more birds “than the double-barreled guns of 
the numerous sportsmen,” a great deal of time 
-was lost in ascertaining the cause and finding a 
remedy. Among other things it was claimed “the 
grouse were suffering from lead poisoning, hav¬ 
ing eaten the shot which lay in enormous quan¬ 
tity over the moors from the previous season; 
that they had drunk poisonous sheep dip; that 
they had been enfeebled from gunshot wounds; 
that they had suffered from overcrowding on a 
breezy hillside; that they had degenerated from 
want of crossing; that the blight of the heather 
by the east wind had deprived them of proper 
nourishment, and finally that (according to Dr. 
Farquharson, the chief exponent of this theory) 
it is a contagious epidemic like scarlet fever, 
diphtheria, or typhoid fever.” 
Part of Dr. Morse's report is printed else¬ 
where, as we have said; and a fuller one is forth¬ 
coming. These can be had by interested persons 
who will write to the Agricultural Department 
for them. Every effort should be made to pre¬ 
vent the further spread of the disease, for we 
have too few game birds to lose any through 
diseases that may be prevented. 
THE LONG BOIV IN NATURE WRITING. 
Whatever else may be said of the nature fakirs, 
it is apparent that they have failed in their effort 
to impress on the youth of the country the be¬ 
lief that their stories should be taken seriously. 
Several years ago, when these yarns first ap¬ 
peared, their authors made the unpardonable mis¬ 
take of presenting them in such form as to lead 
young people to believe that the animals and 
birds referred to possessed mental powers not 
very different from those of human beings, and 
sometimes they even declared that these accounts 
were scientific observations lpade under their 
own eyes. Had the writers of these tales given 
them to the reading public for what they actually 
were, without endeavoring to impress on them 
the stamp of scientific truth, they would have 
been accepted as entertaining stories and would 
have served a useful purpose in interesting young 
people. 
While few persons at all versed in woodcraft 
or natural history credited the astonishing state¬ 
ments made about these animal heroes, the un- 
iniated and the ignorant were led to believe a 
great number of statements which are abso¬ 
lutely untrue; and as some of these books may 
outlive their authors and among the uninformed 
may long be accepted as true, the harm may not 
be confined to the present day. 
1 he impossible position in which the nature 
fakirs now find themselves is merely what might 
have been expected. Many of these stories are 
charming and the reading public should have 
been left to derive what amusement or entertain¬ 
ment it could get from them. When, however, 
the writers declared that they had witnessed things 
absolutely opposed to the experience of all natur¬ 
alists, criticism naturally followed and attempts 
at defense have too often proved dismal failures. 
There is no harm in drawing the long bow in 
fiction, but falsification on the part of the nature 
writer is a grave error, if not a crime. 
There is current in Scotland, where so many 
grouse are put out on the moors for autumn 
shooting purposes, a belief that wet and un¬ 
favorable weather at the time when these birds 
are selecting sites for their nests often results 
in larger numbers of young birds than if the 
season be dry and mild. It is argued, and with 
reason, that if the lowlands are wet and damp, 
the grouse will seek high and dry places in which 
to deposit their eggs and rear their young, and 
no doubt this is true with all birds that build 
their nests on the ground. 
It is likely that the trout streams of the At¬ 
lantic States will be visited by a much larger 
number of anglers during the coming week than 
is usual. High water, continued stormy weather 
and cold days have kept all but the most en¬ 
thusiastic anglers away, and it is evident they 
cannot be restrained much longer. 
