June 4, 1910.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
895 
many years and from my experience, if you stop 
winter shooting, you have none at all except 
coot and scaup ducks. This winter shooting is 
all at blackduck and sheldrakes. The blackducks 
live far out to sea during the day. At dusk, or 
evening, we get out on the marsh islands and 
have good shooting as they come in to feed. It 
is a pretty good proposition to kill a cross-flying 
duck by moonlight or to knock one down as he 
springs into the air from a creek bed at 2 A. m. 
I never saw any spring flight of ducks going 
North as they do in the West. I believe that 
be stopped altogether everywhere, and for the 
following reasons: If a duck is killed on its 
way to the breeding grounds it is prevented from 
raising a brood and just so many ducks are lost 
besides the original, while if she is not killed 
there are a number of others to furnish sport 
in the fall, and there are certain to be several 
left from that brood to raise more the follow¬ 
ing summer. According to my way of looking 
at it, if spring shooting is stopped there will be 
more ducks to breed every summer, and conse¬ 
quently the number of our wildfowl will steadily 
Association, A. D. Thomas, and several of the 
prominent sportsmen of this county with whom 
I have spoken are likewise opposed to it. Ducks 
are protected in spring in this Province with the 
exception of one county, Cumberland. Why this 
exception was made I do not know. 
Nova Scotia is an important breeding ground 
for blackduck, a fully sufficient reason for pro¬ 
tecting them without going further into the ques¬ 
tion. We have no geese in this part of the 
Province, but they are shot in very early spring 
on the south shore in numbers. I am not well 
NEW BORN CALF ELK. 
From a photograph copyrighted by New York Zoological Society. 
spring shooting should be allowed on the ducks 
that follow the New England coast. We people 
on the coast here think we have done well if 
we can get a dozen ducks during the winter. 
There are big flocks of thousands, but they are 
well able to take care of themselves. We know 
nothing about mallards, pintails and canvasbacks. 
None are seen here. My vote for our open sea¬ 
son will be Oct. 1 to April 1. J. W. B. 
* Schuylerville, N. Y., May 21.—Editor Forest 
and Stream: There are very few ducks around 
here, but in the last two or three j r ears thev 
have begun to breed here, which is unusual and 
is attributed to the stopping of spring shooting, 
and the law is favorably regarded here as the 
cause of the increase. 
C. E. Brisbin. 
Denver, Colo.. May 23.— Editor Forest and 
Stream: I think spring duck shooting should 
increase, there being a larger surplus left over 
from the fall shooting every year. 
There is yet another reason why spring shoot¬ 
ing should be stopped. It is my belief that ducks 
mate before reaching the breeding grounds, and 
if one of them is killed they will not mate again 
that season. 
Sportsmen here seem to be about evenly divided 
in opinion as to spring shooting, but there cer¬ 
tainly has been a great 'decrease in the number 
of wildfowl in the past two years in this State, 
which, I believe, is largely due to spring shoot- 
ing, although the increased number of reservoirs, 
etc., is responsible to a great extent, causing the 
birds to scatter much more than formerly. 
H. P. C. 
Annapolis Royal, N. S., May 21 .—Editor 
Forest and Stream: I am opposed to the shooting 
of wildfowl in spring, and the president of the 
Annapolis branch of the Nova Scotia Guides’ 
enough acquainted with their habits to express 
an opinion. Edward Breck, 
President Nova Scotia Guides Ass’n. 
Babylon, L. I., May 29. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: As a shooter of ducks on the Great 
South Bay, of Long Island, for the past twenty 
years, I heartily endorse the law prohibiting the 
shooting of ducks during the spring. The birds 
have increased so rapidly that it is with astonish¬ 
ment the old-time gunner views the immense 
flocks of broadbills returning in their fall flight 
to the South Bay; in fact, there were more birds 
last fall returning to their old feeding grounds, 
not being disturbed on their Northern migra¬ 
tion, than has been seen in our bay for years, 
and the shooting was all that anyone could wish 
for. 
I strongly oppose the law allowing the shoot¬ 
ing of geese and brant in the spring after the 
duck season closes. C. D’B. W. 
