Feb. 19, 1910.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
299 
The quail season ended on the last day of 
January, and the closing days were marked by 
considerable activities, but only light bags were 
secured on account of the weather conditions. 
There will be but little more in the hunting line 
done until next fall and sportsmen are now turn¬ 
ing their attention to the inanimate targets. 
A. P. B. 
Los Angeles, Cal., Feb. 7. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: Owing to the surprisingly small amount 
of rain which fell in January, the outside ponds 
and puddles have dried up quite generally, and 
the clubs again control the majority of fresh 
water acreage, together with the incidental con¬ 
centration of the bird supply. It is rare, in¬ 
deed, to find the shooting improving after the 
third week of January, but such seems to be the 
case at present. This unusual state of affairs 
merely adds another to the already long list of 
sporting vagaries exhibited by the present duck 
season. 
A sprinkling of bluebills has been evidenced 
in the bags, and on the salt sloughs particularly 
these little birds seem to be in rather more than 
usual supply. Hard frosts preceded the warm 
spell and drove out the snipe to spring holes 
and other spots where the mud did not set too 
hard for their sensitive bills, but with the moder¬ 
ation of the weather they returned in force, be¬ 
ing rather more plentiful than previously this 
season. To bag this number of jacksnipe in any 
one day is indeed a taste of royal sport. To my 
mind no gamer bird than the jacksnipe flies, and 
there is a keen satisfaction in making a decent 
bag both as regards the sporting aspects of the 
performance and the delicious meal that is to 
follow. 
Such snipe as have come to hand lately are 
not in prime condition, although fat enough to 
show their characteristic flavor. It is a pity that 
the once grand snipe shooting of Southern Cali¬ 
fornia had to go the way of all birds that in¬ 
terest the market shooter. They now have the 
same protection as to season given ducks and 
a smaller limit of twenty is allowed one gun 
per day. Edwin L. Hedderly. 
New York Legislature. 
Albany, N. Y., Feb 14. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: The following bills have been intro¬ 
duced : 
By Assemblyman Reed, of Cayuga.—Striking 
out the provisions (Section 96) regarding open 
season for Mongolian ring-necked pheasants and 
substituting provisions that the open season for 
male pheasants shall be Thursdays and Satur¬ 
days in October. Not more than four shall be 
taken or possessed by any one person in a year. 
They shall not be sold or offered for sale. The 
burden of proof is upon the possessor to show 
that pheasants in his possession are lawfully 
held. Some exceptions are made for Suffolk, 
Dutchess and Fulton counties. 
By Senator Coats and Assemblyman Macdon¬ 
ald.—Relating to the open season for black bass 
in Franklin county. 
By Senator Alt, of Brooklyn.—Providing that 
there shall be no open season for black and gray 
squirrels, the open season under the present law 
being from Oct. 1 to Nov. 30, both inclusive. 
By Assemblyman Evans.—Permitting the tak¬ 
ing of suckers through the ice in Sullivan county. 
The Assembly has advanced to third reading 
the bill of Assemblyman Merritt, authorizing the 
Forest, Fish and Game Commission to reforest 
lands in the forest preserve, to propagate or pur¬ 
chase trees for that purpose, and to sell trees 
under proper restrictions to citizens of the State 
for reforesting land. The bill carries an appro¬ 
priation of $10,000. 
E. C. C. 
Cold Weather South. 
Raleigh, N. C., Feb. 7. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: Exactly what was expected in regard 
to the action of the Legislature in taking away 
a number of counties from the protection of the 
Audubon game law is beginning to happen, and 
the newspapers are setting out the fact that the 
next Legislature must have the game laws made 
uniform, eliminating the separate county laws 
which not even a lawyer can now keep up with. 
It is declared that two-thirds of the violation of 
game laws in North Carolina is caused by ignor¬ 
ance, there having been so many changes in the 
laws lately that the majority of people do not 
know what they are. 
The winter has continued to be rather un¬ 
favorable for hunting, owing to the fact that 
rainy periods have alternated with hard freezes, 
though January was not nearly so severe as De¬ 
cember, which was the coldest in a number of 
years. Conditions have generally been quite 
good for shooting on the coast, and the duck 
hunters have enjoyed themselves, though there 
have been stormy periods in the sounds. One 
of these storms drove into a haven Senator Sim¬ 
mons and the congressional party who were in¬ 
specting the inland waterways. The water in 
the lower Neuse River and in part of Albemarle 
Sound was lower than in fifteen years and many 
vessels were completely exposed. 
Fred. A. Olds. 
Washington Sportsmen’s Show. 
Washington, D. C., Feb. 9.— Editor Forest 
and Stream: A sportsman’s show under the aus¬ 
pices of the Washington Sportsman’s Associa¬ 
tion will be held in the Fifteenth Street Armory 
the week of April 11-16, inclusive. As we will 
have as many contests for prizes as we can satis¬ 
factorily arrange, we expect this, the first affair 
of its kind, to prove a big success. It is well 
financed, and the promoters all interested dealers, 
who will divide honors of providing the different 
entertainments to be introduced. 
A permanent organization was perfected on 
the evening of Feb. 8, when the National Sports¬ 
men’s Association was formed at a meeting at 
1504 H street northwest. 
The following officers were elected: Claude 
Turner, Chairman; Harry F. Seamark, Treas¬ 
urer, and George F. Appleby, Secretary. A com¬ 
mittee, which will have charge of the finances 
and the allotment of space, was chosen and is 
composed of the above officers and T. N. Mudd, 
J. R. Thomas, Charles A. Miller, Reid S. Baker, 
C. H. Cross and William Jose. B. C. Washing¬ 
ton has been selected manager, and Fred Reh 
will look after the decorations of the hall. The 
hall will be divided into forty-three spaces, and 
it is expected that everything from automobiles 
to fishing tackle will be displayed by local and 
out-of-town dealers. 
B. C. Washington, Manager. 
Springfield Fish and Game Association. 
Springfield, Mass., Feb. 11. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: The following report of our meeting, 
held last evening, was printed in the Springfield 
Republican, which said, in part: 
The Springfield Fish and Game Association 
feasted at the Highland Hotel last night, re¬ 
ceived sixty-one new members and meditated on 
fish and game matters. The members expressed 
themselves as very much in favor of having 
Hungarian partridges liberated by the thousands 
in Massachusetts to furnish sport by means of 
another needed game bird, and voted, by rising, 
their satisfaction with the proposal that the 
legislative committee on fish and game may make 
to have different fish and game laws for different 
sections of the State. 
A report was heard from the committee ap¬ 
pointed to report on the fish and game matters 
that the Legislature is going to take up this year. 
The committee favored the purchase and libera¬ 
tion of 5,000 pairs of Hungarian partridges an¬ 
nually, the erection and maintenance of a fish 
hatchery in Western Massachusetts, an open sea¬ 
son on deer and an open season on gray squir¬ 
rels in 1910. The report was unanimously 
adopted. On the recommendation of the same 
committee it was voted to send a committee to 
the Legislature to appear before the committee 
on fish and game, when matters of interest to 
Springfield sportsmen are being considered. 
H. A. Ellis said that every true sportsman is 
interested in the protection of fish and game. 
Besides these there are some who pose as pro¬ 
tectors, like the Audubon societies, which at one 
time may have had a really worthy object. Their 
motto is, “Let all birds live and die a natural 
death.” The men who belong to these societies 
are estimable men. A good many nice old ladies 
are members, too, and a few gentlemen who 
might be designated by the same name. The 
Audubon societies send their requests to the 
legislators, and as these requests have often in¬ 
fluential names to support them, they have their 
effect with the legislators. Bills pertaining to. 
fish and game should have the attention of fisher¬ 
men and sportsmen, and not of sentimentalists^, 
who are often misinformed. 
Mayor Lathrop said that Western Massachu¬ 
setts fares so badly with the Legislature because- 
it does not know what it wants. It is a very- 
difficult thing to get a complete consensus from 
Western Massachusetts, and until the people of 
this section assemble in judgment and in person 
and manifest to the Legislature what it desires, 
it will never get anything. 
Hadley P. Carter, of New Britain, secretary 
of the Connecticut Fish and Game Association, 
told of the development of protection in Con¬ 
necticut within the short time since it was taken 
up. The scarcity of game he attributed to the 
large number of hunters for the small area of 
the State, but did not recommend a close season 
on game, because there is need of the revenue 
derived from the licensing of hunters. Ex-Com¬ 
missioner John M. Crompton, of New Haven, 
urged the giving of attention of ways to feed the 
game birds in the winter. 
The next meeting of the Springfield Fish and 
Game Association will be held March 16, when 
James S. Whipple, fish and game commissioner 
for the State of New York, will give an illus¬ 
trated lecture. Geo. H. Graham, Sec’y. 
