Dec. 5, 1908.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
»95 
New York Stale Game League. 
Syracuse, N. Y., Nov. 27 .—Editor Forest and 
Stream: In addition to the regular notice which 
appeared in Forest and Stream of Nov. 2 re¬ 
garding the annual meeting of the New York 
State, Fish, Game and Forest League, announce¬ 
ment is made that Game Commissioner John A. 
Wheeler, of Illinois, will address the convention. 
There seems to be a strong sentiment through¬ 
out the State among sportsmen who have paid 
for hunting licenses that the money so raised 
should be applied to a fund for the purpose of 
restocking the covers of the State. It is argued 
that all sportsmen, whether they confine their 
indulgence to fishing alone or hunting, or both, 
contribute their share through general taxation 
to the support of game and fish protection of 
the State. 
The sportsmen who hunt are asked to pay a 
fee of $1 for the privilege. This money goes into 
the general treasury of 
the State and it will 
be necessary to have 
an appropriation made 
from it in order to be 
available for use by 
the Forest, Fish and 
Game Department of 
the State. I under¬ 
stand that it is planned 
to have a number of 
additional game pro¬ 
tectors appointed and 
supported with this 
fund which may be ap¬ 
propriated from the 
hunting license reve¬ 
nue. No doubt we 
need more game pro¬ 
tectors to properly take 
care of this vast ter¬ 
ritory, but the hunter 
is already contributing 
to that end and de¬ 
mands for his special 
tax something which 
will represent value 
received. At the pres¬ 
ent rate of bird slaugh¬ 
ter, even with the safeguards of prohibited sale 
and very limited bags, there will be no birds in a 
short time for the man equipped with his license 
to shoot at. Something should be done to re¬ 
plenish the covers of the State. Other States 
are doing such deeds for their sportsmen, and 
with the aid of the license revenue it does not 
affect the pocketbooks of any citizens not partici¬ 
pating in the sport. This seems like an ideal 
arrangement for the hunter to pay for the spec¬ 
ial benefit which he receives as a result of the 
small investment of all his brother sportsmen 
intelligently invested in birds placed in the de¬ 
sirable covers in all communities. Investigation 
shows that such a plan meets with the approval 
of the farmer by whose courtesy we are allowed 
to exercise the privileges permitted in the 
license. 
I have heard of hundreds of protests from 
farmers, directly and indirectly, against the 
State issuing licenses for hunters to come on 
their lands to seek birds and other game. So 
many hunters, assuming that the license gives 
them all rights while afield to remove all ob¬ 
stacles to their comfort, have committed acts 
which have turned farmers against sportsmen 
as a class, and something must be done to har¬ 
monize the sportsmen’s and farmers’ interests. 
A great many farmers like to hunt, and if their 
woods were stocked with birds their interests 
and the sportsmen’s interests would be mutual 
in enjoying the hunt and in protecting the birds 
from pot-hunters. 
Of course this problem will take time to be 
w'orked out successfully, but it will be in vogue 
earlier if put in operation this year than later, 
therefore it is necessary for all sportsmen who 
are in sympathy with this movement to express 
themselves and work with their legislators this 
winter to the end that the moneys raised from 
the hunting licenses be used for the purpose of 
restocking the covers of the State with game 
birds. 
Any sportsmen living in sections of this State 
where there is no game club with representatives 
ANGLERS’ CLUB HOUSE ON ONEIDA LAKE. 
This club house, which is owned by members of the Anglers’ Association of Onondaga County Syracuse, 
■nt y “i, as snacious verandas large dining rooms, commodious lounging rooms, sleeping rooms, baths, and a 
wdl aJointed griand sideboard.Steam-heated and hot and cold water throughout the building. , The Anglers 
Associ P aU ? on ha S g at the present time over 2800 members. This is probably the finest sportsmen s club house 
cn any inland water of the country. The delegates to the State League convention at Syracuse, Dec. 10 and 
11, will be entertained here on the evening of the 10th. 
expecting to attend the State League meeting, 
are invited to attend this meeting, and they will 
be given the privilege of the floor to speak upon 
this or any other subject pertaining to the wel¬ 
fare of fish and game interests. 
The State League meeting will be held in 
Syracuse Dec. io and n. The sessions will be 
held in Assembly Hall, University Block. 
F. S. Honsinger, President. 
President Roosevelt’s African Trip. 
As time passes, Mr. Roosevelt's plans for his 
trip to Africa are maturing, and he has at last 
definitely settled on the men who shall make up 
his party and go with him as companions and 
as collectors of zoological material. Of these 
men there will be three. 
Dr. E. A. Mearns is eminent as an authority 
on birds, mammals and botany, but is perhaps 
best known as an ornithologist. Dr. Mearns, 
who holds the rank of major in the United 
States Army, has served over much of the 
West, especially the Southwest. He will un¬ 
doubtedly have a special charge of the ornitho¬ 
logical side of the expedition. 
J. Alden Loring, of Owego, N. Y., is well 
known to readers of Forest and Stream by his 
frequent contributions to its columns. He is 
an authority on the smaller mammals, an expert 
collector who has worked in many sections 
of North America, but 
especially in Alberta, 
British Columbia and 
Alaska. He was at 
one time connected 
with the New York 
Zoological Park. 
Edmund Heller is a 
zoologist who was for¬ 
merly with the Field 
Columbian Museum, in 
Chicago. He accom¬ 
panied Carl E. Ake- 
ley’s collecting trip to 
Africa in 1905, and 
has done much col¬ 
lecting on the Ameri¬ 
can continent. One 
of his notable trips 
was to Lower Califor¬ 
nia, whence he brought 
back a large collection 
of material. 
These men will take 
care of the zoological 
side, while it is under¬ 
stood that Mr. Roose¬ 
velt's boy Kermit will 
look after the photog- 
[Just as we go to press a dispatch comes from 
Syracuse stating that early in the morning of 
Dec. 1 the Anglers’ club house was totally de¬ 
stroyed by fire. There were a number of mem¬ 
bers in the house at the time, but all escaped. 
Details have as yet not reached us.— Editor.] 
Ducks in Winnebago. 
Writing from Fond du Lac, Wis., a sports¬ 
man says the number of wild ducks seen on 
Lake Winnebago in recent early mornings show 
that the breeding season in the North was a 
favorable one. Thousands of ducks were to be 
seen in the air and in the water. 
raphy. The safari will of course be a consider¬ 
able one, and no doubt there will be white 
guides and professional hunters who know the 
country. 
The expedition is not to be looked on as a 
trip merely for sport—hunting or shooting. The 
killing of mammals and birds will have especial 
reference to the needs of the National Museum 
for African specimens, while, of course, a safari 
of fifty or sixty men will require a great deal 
of flesh food. 
Statements have been made that certain Afri¬ 
can game preserves, controlled by foreign gov¬ 
ernment, would be thrown open to the President 
and his companions for shooting purposes, but 
it may be assumed from what we know of the 
President’s feelings on these matters that he will 
not take advantage of such permission, even if 
it should be offered to him. A foreign sports¬ 
man who had the proper feeling about game and 
game preserves would hardly care to shoot in 
the Yellowstone National Park, even if permis¬ 
sion to do so should be given him by the Gov¬ 
ernment of the United States. It would be too 
