254 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Feb. 12, 1910. 
secured the publication of notices of the awards 
in a number of leading Canadian papers. He 
is known throughout Canada and this country 
as well. 
We have nine red flags on our map at locali¬ 
ties where pigeons have been reported during 
1909. These localities are: Southern New Hamp¬ 
shire, Eastern Massachusetts, Orange and Sulli¬ 
van counties, New York; Central Pennsylvania, 
Northern Virginia, Southern Wisconsin and 
Northern Illinois, Southern Kansas. I wish to 
ask again for every report—with date, number 
in flock and direction of flight—of pigeons seen 
during 1909; also for location, number and date 
of all specimens killed for the year. Since the 
birds are so migratory, the fact that they are 
seen in one locality one year is no assurance 
that they will appear there the next. None of 
this information will be published until after the 
nesting season, or used in any way which can 
interfere with the chances or plans of inform¬ 
ants. We do need, however, every encourage¬ 
ment possible to stimulate a thorough search, 
since so much has been published about the 
species being extinct. C. F. Hodge. 
Awards continue to come in. A complete list 
to date is: 
For the first nesting pair or colony of pas¬ 
senger pigeons found undisturbed and properly 
confirmed on the continent of North America: 
Colonel Anthony R. Kuser.$ 3 °° 
Mr. John Lewis Childs. 7 00 
STATE AWARDS. 
John Burroughs, for New York.,. 100 
W. B. Mershon, for Michigan. 100 
A. B. F. Kinney, for Massachusetts. 100 
Edward Avis, for Connecticut. 100 
Prof. C. O. Whitman and Ruthven Deane, 
Illinois . 100 
The Worthington Society, for Pa. and N. J. 100 
Anonymous, for second find in Mass. 100 
A. B. Miller, for first find in Worcester 
county, Mass. 20 
TO BE ASSIGNED. 
John E. Thayer, for five $100 awards to be 
distributed among the five most likely 
States or Provinces for which no local 
offers have been secured by April 15.. 500 
John Lewis Childs, to be distributed among 
subsequent finds . 5 00 
FOR EXPENSES. 
John E. Thayer, toward confirmation of re¬ 
ports . 100 
National Association of Audubon Societies 
(by Wm. Dutcher) . 100 
George Bird Grinnell, office expenses. 25 
C. F. Hodge, for office and traveling. 100 
$ 3^45 
Note.—None of this money has been paid in 
and none will be asked for until nests have been 
reported and confirmed; or until office expenses 
have exceeded the $100 which Dr. Hodge has 
agreed to contribute to the work. 
The following points should also be empha¬ 
sized : 
1. All the above awards are offered solely 
and only for exclusive and confidential inf 01- 
mation of the location on an undisturbed nest¬ 
ing pair or nesting colony of passenger pigeops 
discovered during the nesting season of I 9 10 - 
2. No one connected with this work wishes 
possession of any birds alive or dead. We are 
working solelv for the absolute and universal 
protection of the free wild pigeon. 
3. We can give no information as to value 
or price of skins, eggs or mounted specimens. 
4. All offers—that we know of—for freshly 
killed birds have been withdrawn., 
5. Disregard all nests found on the ground. 
The passenger pigeon always nests in trees. 
Earliest records of nesting are for Iowa and 
Wisconsin the first week in April. 
The Forest and Stream may he obtained from 
any newsdealer on order. Ask your dealer to 
supply you regularly. 
Total to date 
Hunting With Governor Hadley. 
Last November Governor Hadley and a num¬ 
ber of his friends were invited to the Wetmore 
Preserve in Taney county, Missouri, for the pur¬ 
pose of enjoying a deer and elk hunt. Few peo¬ 
ple in Missouri realize that in their own State 
many elk are living in a wild state notwithstand¬ 
ing that they are in an inclosure. 
When the promoters of this preserve twenty- 
five years ago decided to stock their grounds 
with deer and elk, they had one object in view 
and no other, and that was to raise wild game 
under wild conditions, so that when the time 
came for pursuit of the denizens of the wilds, 
all the hunters’ caution and knowledge of the 
animals’ habits would be as necessary to secure 
their quarry as when the game in its native 
state roamed ad libitum. 
Taney county, one of the roughest and wildest 
sections of the Ozark Mountains, was selected 
for this park, and thousands of acres in the 
rough hills towering over White River were in¬ 
closed with barbed wire—hills of rocks, growths 
of cedar and stunted oaks creeping through the 
better parts, where some soil gave them a chance 
for life, and carpets of blue joint sedge and 
other hardy grasses formed the covers for game. 
From the ledges of rock small springs seeped 
here and there, finally losing themselves in the 
vast sweep of waters of the great White River 
hundreds of feet below. Overhead the clear 
blue skies of the Ozarks and the ozone-laden 
air formed a fitting home for both the game 
and the hunters of game. 
The inclosing fence is nine feet high, com¬ 
posed of fourteen strands of barbed wire with 
cedar posts ten feet apart. It takes a man a 
full day to ride around one side of the park. 
Two men are kept continually riding along the 
fences for fear that some accident may cause 
a breach large enough for the game to get 
through. So well has this point been guarded 
against that escapes on the part of the animals 
have been so few as to be almost unworthy of 
notice. There are about 700 elk and 2,000 or 
more deer in the park—all the increase from a 
modest number placed there twenty-five years 
ago. The deer had a sudden check to their in¬ 
crease a few years back, 400 succumbing to black 
tongue, a disease which has never bothered the elk. 
While I have in the Western Rockies in some 
instances seen larger heads among the wapiti, I 
never saw as large, massive males as I saw last 
fall in the wilds of Taney county. 
The game is not fed except during severe 
snow storms; food for them is everywhere, and 
when the weather becomes so unfavorable that 
feeding is necessary, the stacks of alfalfa raised 
in the White River bottoms await them. Every¬ 
thing within the whole inclosure is just as it 
was before the park idea was formulated in the 
minds of the promoters, except a few acres 
where the keeper and his family live, and it may 
be added that around the keeper’s home is the 
only place where any tame game can be seen. 
A few deer have become accustomed to the sight 
of their only human near neighbor and on every 
occasion possible levy tribute on the corn that 
falls from the crib. 
The task of stocking this place must have been 
a mighty one, especially when consideration is 
given to the 1 fact that the animals were hauled 
in ordinary farm wagons twenty-five miles over 
hill roads rougher than most men are accus¬ 
tomed to see. With some attempt at, road im¬ 
provement of the present day—still an atrocity 
—what it was twenty years back cannot be esti¬ 
mated. Even an Ozarker would now think twice 
of it before making an attempt to haul a light 
wagon over them. Hauling a crated elk over 
the trails of Trigger Hill, was certainly an ac¬ 
complishment that necessitated a team of sure¬ 
footed horses and a “hill billy’’ driver caring 
nothing for consequences. 
Recently the Missouri Pacific Company built 
the White River Route through these hills and 
the little city of Bronson is but seventeen miles 
from the park. It impressed me as a very long 
seventeen mile drive through a dense mat of 
cedars, for I made the journey at night and it 
was a pretty arduous drive for a seasoned hill 
climber. 
Governor Hadley’s party consisted of State 
Bank Examiner John E. Swanger, Frank Wight- 
man, State Game Commissioner Jesse A. Tober- 
ton and myself. Early morning following the 
long drive found the Governor impatient for the 
hunt. Major McCann, whose guests we were, 
informed Governor Hadley that he was expected 
during his stay to kill ten elk and ten deer, but 
not before he should witness a picturesque view 
of landscape that one who is accustomed to the 
environments of city life is seldom prepared for 
—sunrise in the White River country. Many 
