458 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[March 19, 1910. 
New York Legislature. 
The Assembly has advanced to third reading 
the bill of Assemblyman Clark, of Otsego county, 
empowering the forest, fish and game commis¬ 
sioner, on a request of the majority of the town 
board of a town, to prohibit or regulate the tak¬ 
ing of birds or game on lands set aside with the 
consent of the owner as bird and game refuges 
for a period of not to exceed ten years. 
By Assemblyman MacGregor, amending the 
forest, fish and game law by making the open 
season for black bass from July 1 to Dec. 3 1 - 
(Senator Hill introduced the same bill.) In¬ 
creasing from $60 to $500 the penalty to be im¬ 
posed, in addition to that imposed for the mis¬ 
demeanor, for using explosives in violation of 
Section 135 of the law. 
By Senator Emerson, relating to the identi¬ 
fication, establishment and preservation of boun¬ 
daries and landmarks in the forest preserve 
counties. 
By Senator Hill, increasing the penalties for 
violation of Sections 131 and 132 in relation to 
pollution of streams, and Section 135 in rela¬ 
tion to explosives. 
By Assemblyman J. W. Phillips, of Allegany 
—Empowering the forest, fish and game com¬ 
missioner to lease for a term not longer than 
ten years land within a forest preserve, not more 
than five acres in one parcel, to any person for 
the erection of camps or cottages for the use 
and accommodation of campers. The bill pre¬ 
scribes the form of lease. Among the condi¬ 
tions set forth in the lease are the following. 
No timber is to be cut or removed or any min¬ 
ing or quarrying done; no exclusive hunting or 
fishing privileges are granted; a right of way 
is reserved to the forest, fish anti game commis¬ 
sion; a person is to be entitled to preference in 
an application for a new lease if he has made 
improvements or erected buildings on the prem¬ 
ises, the terms of the new lease to be fixed by 
the forest, fish and game commissioner and ap¬ 
proved by the Governor. 
Starving Ducks. 
In the Yates County (N. Y.) Chronicle of 
March 2, Verdi Burtch, who is familiar with 
the outdoor life of the region about Keuka Lake, 
says: 
“The Branchpoint end of the lake did not close 
up until the first week in February, and as is 
usual the channel through the bar into the basin 
remains open. 
“Before the lake froze over there was a large 
flock of ducks here numbering close to a thou¬ 
sand or more, and when it froze over, the greater 
part of them left for open water, but quite a 
number stayed in the channel and on the ice in 
the middle of the lake. Those left were mostly 
canvasbacks and black ducks, with a few Ameri¬ 
can goldeneye and a white-winged scoter. 
“What little feed there was in the channel was 
soon exhausted, and this whole flock of ducks 
has been slowly starving to death with the ex¬ 
ception of the river ducks (blacks and mallards) 
which go up the creek where there is open water 
to feed. 
‘'My attention was first called to these ducks 
Feb. 20, when C. F. Stone and myself noticed 
a gull on the ice picking at a dark colored ob¬ 
ject, and a crow was standing close by looking 
on enviously. As we approached, the gull flew 
away, while the crow started to walk off, turn¬ 
ing back again, reluctant to leave a square meal, 
but his fear of man got the best of his hunger 
and he flew away. We found the object to be 
a dead canvasback duck, the eyes gone and a 
lot of its breast had been eaten by the gull and 
crows. As we neared the channel the few ducks 
that were there left and joined more of their 
kind that were on the ice in the middle of the 
lake. Next the goldeneyes and a few of the can¬ 
vasbacks left, but circled around and lit in the 
water again. The most of the canvasbacks did 
not leave, but crowded to the opposite side of 
the channel. On the ice around the channel 
were the remains of two canvasbacks and at the 
edge of some floating ice in the water was a 
dead goldeneye and a dead canvasback, and an¬ 
other poor canvasback was floating with its head 
down, and as we stood there it roused up, hooked 
its bill over the edge of the ice, managed to pull 
itself almost on to the ice, but fell back, and 
with its head under water paddled around in a 
circle a moment, then tipped over on its back, 
and after a convulsive movement of its wings, 
was still. 
“After dinner we went down there again and 
Mr. Stone scattered about a half bushel of corn 
into the water and got several photographs. We 
did not see the ducks get any of the corn while 
we were there, but Mr. Gilmore told me that 
it was all gone the next day. 
“Both Mr. Gilmore and Ed. Evans have been 
feeding them since, but still they are dying off. 
I was out there last Friday and counted eleven 
dead ones, among them the white-winged scoter. 
“It is unaccountable their staying here the way 
they do, with Seneca Lake and open water only 
about fifteen miles away.” 
This is a matter which has long seemed in¬ 
explicable to us. When the waters freeze, the 
local ducks will often remain and sit on the ice 
and apparently starve to death, even though a 
few miles, or less than a hundred miles in some 
other direction, there may be open water and 
presumably abundant food. We have seen this 
same thing happen in New England and North 
Carolina, and we do not understand it, nor have 
we ever heard it explained. 
Massachusetts Legislature. 
Boston, Mass., March 12.— Editor Forest and 
Stream: The legislative committee on fisheries 
and game has held several hearings recently and 
the number of persons in attendance has been 
unprecedented. After having heard a score or 
more of witnesses from the South Shore and 
Cape Cod towns in favor of the repeal of the 
law of last year, which cut off the shooting of 
wildfowl after Dec. 31, and quite a large num¬ 
ber of remonstrants led by State ornithologist 
Forbush, the members of the committee held 
public hearings in Yarmouth, Hyannis and Oak 
Bluffs (formerly Cottage City), and since its 
return the committee has voted favorably on 
H. Bill 395, which allows the shooting of shel¬ 
drake, whistler, coot and brant between Sept. 15 
and May 20 following. 
Whether the majority of the Legislature will 
stand by this report of the committee remains 
to be seen, but the opponents of the bill think 
not and they are not idle. 
The Audubon plan for prohibiting the killing 
of peeps and some other species of the small 
shore birds has met with strenuous opposition 
from shore gunners led by Fletcher Osgood, and 
the fate of that bill is hanging in the balance 
with small prospect of success apparently. 
The farmers’ bill for the removal of all pro¬ 
tection from deer has been pressed urgently by 
Secretary Ellsworth, of the Board of Agricul¬ 
ture, and some farmers especially interested in 
the raising of young fruit trees. The counties 
in the central and western parts of the State 
were those chiefly represented by those who 
spoke in favor of the measure, and before tak¬ 
ing action the committee proposes to visit those 
sections from which the complaints are loudest. 
H. H. Kimball. 
Hunting on the Coast. 
San Francisco, Cal., March 5. — Editor Forest 
and Stream: While duck and quail shooting is 
at an end for the present, owing to the close of 
the season on Feb. 15, wild geese and snipe are 
still to be had and several of the local sports¬ 
men have been enjoying sport with these. Geese 
are very plentiful, but there is now so much 
overflowed land that they are rather difficult to 
reach. The grain farmers are very glad to have 
hunters visit their farms, for geese have done 
much damage to growing grain, so much that in 
some places watchmen have to be employed to 
keep the birds off the fields, and at night time 
rockets are shot off to keep them away. 
There have been several violations of the law 
since the quail season closed and Deputy Fish 
and Game Commissioner Hunter arrested three 
men recently in San Mateo county and all were 
fined. 
The Empire Gun Club celebrated the close of 
the duck hunting season by dedicating its huge 
fireplace in the addition that has been made to 
the club house. The size of this may be judged 
from the fact that 30,000 bricks were used in 
its construction. It is planned that each mem¬ 
ber of the club shall present a hunting trophy 
to the club house, and already there have been 
received an immense moose head secured by W. 
B. Sanborn in Alaska, and a fine black-tail deer 
head shot by Floyd Judah. 
The Blackjack Gun Club has secured a four 
year lease on a tract of land near Collinsville 
and will prepare for duck shooting next season. 
A. P. B. 
Helping to Harvest. 
Packerville, Conn., March 12. — Editor Forest 
and Stream: My neighbor, a great lover of fox 
hunting (with the shotgun), during the recent 
snow crossed a cornfield where about an acre of 
shocks had been left unhusked, and saw four 
gray squirrels, fourteen quail, about twenty black 
ducks and nearly a thousand crows, according 
to his estimate, all busily engaged in saving the 
farmer the trouble of husking and shelling the 
corn. 
A trapper at Mooseup, this State, found a 
skunk track and followed it to a hole in the 
ground within the city limits. He dug it out 
and found it in the company of thirteen others. 
Fourteen skunks in one hole within the city 
limits, and the skins worth up to four and more 
dollars each ! Is it any wonder quail and ruffed 
grouse cannot successfully hatch a larger per¬ 
centage of the eggs they lay? 
E. P. Robinson. 
