June ii, 1910.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
937 
points, however, while ducks were abundant, 
shooting was not good. This was particularly 
noticeable on the California coast, from which 
complaints have come that the ducks flew high 
and that many of them migrated by inland 
routes. The season was rather poor at the out¬ 
set on the Illinois River, but later the flight was 
very satisfactory. Both in Wisconsin and Illi¬ 
nois the season as a whole was unusually favor¬ 
able. 
A Sad Case. 
Many of the older readers of Forest and 
Stream who were interested twenty years ago 
in dogs and dog shows will remember J. Otis 
Fellows — often called Uncle Dick — who was a 
breeder of cocker spaniels, a leading judge at 
dog shows and an authority on dogs. A sad ac- 
» count of his condition, published June* 1 in the 
Rochester-Democrat and Chronicle, says that he* 
was found in his house at Hornell by officers of 
the Flumane Society lying helpless and alone 
with a number of starving well-bred dogs. 
The house was in a condition of almost un¬ 
imaginable disorder. Furniture, clothing, cook¬ 
ing utensils, bones and various other things were 
piled in confusion in each of the four rooms of 
his home on the outskirts of the city, and the 
sanitary conditions were frightful. The dogs 
were found in all stages of starvation and dis¬ 
ease and in every part of the house. Some of 
them were unable to move on account of hunger. 
Fellows, who is deaf and has but one arm, 
was unable to move from his bed. He was 
taken to St. James Mercy Hospital in the ambu¬ 
lance in a very weakened condition from lack 
of nourishment and suffering from mental 
aberration. Flumane Officer Moredock took 
charge of the house and the forty suffering 
canines in it and in the kennels close by. 
Fellows has judged at dog shows in every im¬ 
portant city in the United States and Canada and 
' has bred some of the fanciest dogs in America. 
To Massachusetts Gunners. 
Under this heading a call for a meeting has 
been issued by a voluntary temporary committee 
of practical gunners, consisting of Fletcher Os¬ 
good, Boston; Henry A. Ellis, Yarmouth; Arthur 
F. Means, Jr., Duxbury; F. S. Hersom, Essex, 
and Chas. H. Shriver, Dedham. Gunners are 
urged to meet Wednesday, June 15, at 7:45 p. m. 
in Lower Arcade Hall, No. 7 Park Square, Bos¬ 
ton, to effect a permanent organization of gun¬ 
ners representing the whole State of Massachu¬ 
setts. 
The circular declares that an agency bent upon 
destroying all gunning in Massachusetts has prac¬ 
tically had its own way in multiplying and shap¬ 
ing prohibitory game laws, and that gunning may 
be saved by an organization. Invitations have 
been sent to gunners in every city and town in 
Massachusetts and a large attendance is asked 
for. It is proposed to form an executive com¬ 
mittee and committees on inland shooting 
and on sea and shore shooting. Local gunnAs’ 
clubs are to be encouraged in every city and 
town in the State, and local correspondents ap¬ 
pointed in each such community, so that the 
latest facts concerning game can be intelligently 
1 furnished to Legislatures each year. It is espe¬ 
cially hoped that gunners from the central and 
western counties will attend. 
New York Legislature. 
Albany, N. Y., June 6 .—Editor Forest and 
Stream: The Senate has passed the bill of Sen¬ 
ator Davis, amending the forest, fish and game 
law relative to the jurisdiction of the Public 
Service Commission over persons and companies 
operating railroads in the forest preserve coun¬ 
ties. 
The Seriate committee bill, embodying all the 
proposed fish and game amendments to the exist¬ 
ing law, which were offered in separate bills in 
both Houses of the Legislature during the pres¬ 
ent session, and which had the approval of the 
State Forest. Fish and Game Department, is now 
before Governor Hughes awaiting his considera¬ 
tion. It will undoubtedly be approved. For sev¬ 
eral years it has been the policy of the legisla¬ 
tive leaders not to pass a mass of indiscriminate 
and incongruous amendments to the fish and 
game laws, but rather to collect together all 
such measures as they were introduced, and to 
hold them in the respective committees on fish 
and game of the Seriate and Assembly. Later 
during the session a conference is had between 
the members of the two committees and the 
forest, fish and game commissioner, and an agree- 
men| is reached as to what sections of the law 
shall be amended. Then such amendments are 
grouped in one bill, which is easily passed 
through the. Legislature. 
This year’s omnibus fish and game bill does 
not make many important changes to the fish 
law, although there are some new features in 
the game law provisions. One of the first 
changes is a department matter to give the first 
assistant chief protector $1,500 instead of $1,400 
a year and the division chief protectors $1,200 
a year. 
A new proposition altogether in the bill and 
for the law is that providing that “the commis¬ 
sioner may, on the request of a majority of the 
town board of any town, prohibit or regulate the 
taking of birds or game on lands set aside with 
the consent of the owner or owners thereof as 
bird and game refuges for a period of not to 
exceed ten years from the date set in the appli¬ 
cation.” 
A provision relating to the forest commis¬ 
sioner and the forest lands empowers the com¬ 
missioner to bring in the name of the people of 
the State any action or proceeding in a court of 
justice which an owner of land would be en¬ 
titled to bring to perfect the State’s title or 
record title to land owned or claimed by it in 
the forest preserve counties of the State, and 
any other action or special proceeding with re¬ 
spect to such lands which an owner of lands 
would be entitled to bring. 
The provision for a fifteen days’ longer hunt¬ 
ing season for bucks than for does is taken out, 
and the general season for deer hunting remains 
the same as before, namely from Sept. 16 to 
Oct. 31. 
Squirrel hunters will take note that only in 
Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Chenango, Essex, 
Steuben and Washington counties is there an 
open season for black and gray squirrels, and 
that is from Oct. 1 to Nov. 30, and nowhere else 
in the State. 
An open season for sable and marten is estab¬ 
lished by the bill from Nov. 1 to March 15, which 
is the same as the mink, skunk and muskrat sea¬ 
son. But skunks that become a nuisance or de¬ 
stroy property may be killed at any time. 
The season for ducks, geese, brant and swan 
will open on Sept. 16 and end Jan. 10 with pos¬ 
session to Jan. 15. 
Grouse, woodcock and quail shall not be bought 
and sold, nor shall these birds, killed without 
the State, be bought or sold in this State. There 
shall be no open season for woodcock, grouse 
or quail in Dutchess county until Oct. 1, 1913. 
In Seneca, Cayuga, Niagara and Yates coun¬ 
ties male Mongolian ring-necked pheasants may 
be killed on Thursdays and Saturdays in Octo¬ 
ber. In 1914 the open season in counties now- 
closed shall be that of Livingston and the coun¬ 
ties above enumerated. 
In the special trout law, Tioga is added to the 
list of counties where the open season for trout 
is from April 16 to July 15, both inclusive. 
The penalty for using explosives in streams 
and lakes for the killing of fish is increased by 
the bill to a year’s imprisonment and a $500 
fine, and an additional penalty for each fish 
killed. 
I he provision against fishing in streams in- 
'habited by trout is modified to permit hooking 
suckers, bullheads, eels, dogfish and carp from 
Dec. 1 to May 15, both inclusive, in certain 
waters. E q c 
Spring Wildfowl Shooting. 
Portland, Ore., May 26. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: I cannot see that there has been any 
appreciable increase in wildfowl in Oregon dur¬ 
ing the last tw T o years, but I think I am correct 
in saying that the sentiment of a majority of 
the sportsmen in Oregon is decided.y against 
the shooting of wildfowl in the spring. 
Strenuous measures should be enacted to pre¬ 
vent spring shooting, as it is a crime against 
nature to permit such destruction during that 
portion of the year—after the middle of January. 
All game laws throughout a State should be 
as nearly uniform as possible, because any other 
kind of a law is difficult to enforce, as experi¬ 
ence has demonstrated here in Oregon. 
All sportsmen throughout the country should 
unite in a common effort to make our game laws 
better and more effective and to see that they 
are properly enforced. F. B. 
Carlisle, Ind., May 26. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: Situated as we are here, I feel hardly 
able to give a fair statement of spring wildfowl 
shooting. Our marsh land is all drained and 
leveed and we are therefore out of the duck 
country. At only one time in the year is there 
any duck shooting here and this generally comes 
from Feb. 15 to April 1. 
We have had large flights of mallards, sprigs 
and teal in the last few years in these months, 
but this year they appeared only in small num¬ 
bers. Only occasionally do we have a few shots 
in the fall, so you see that all the shooting that 
we have here is in the latter part of winter or 
early spring. 
However, I am in favor of conserving the 
birds so as to benefit the greatest number of 
sportsmen. G. G. A. 
The Forest and Stream may he obtained from 
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supply you regularly. 
