Forest and Stream 
Terms 'S;^S. aC ° Py -| NEW YORK, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER u, 1909. 
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VOL. LXXIII— No. 11. 
No. 127 Franklin St., New York. 
A WEEKLY JOURNAL. 
Copyright, 1909, by Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 
George Bird Grinnell, President, 
Charles B. Reynolds, Secretary, 
Louis Dean Speir, Treasurer, 
127 Franklin Street, New York. 
THE OBJECT OF THIS JOURNAL 
will be to studiously promote a healthful interest 
in outdoor recreation, and to cultivate a refined 
taste for natural objects. 
—Forest and Stream, Aug. 14, 1S73. 
THE NEWS FROM THE NORTH. 
The news from the North has created a pro- 
I found sensation and has stirred the civilized 
world deeply. The North Pole has been reached 
by white men, and the narratives that will be 
I published broadcast ere long will furnish in¬ 
structive reading for the sportsmen of the 
■ world, and of America particularly, for these 
men are natives of the United States. 
Dr. Frederick A. Cook was on a hunting ex¬ 
pedition when he decided to try to reach the 
pole. If his records withstand the tests to which 
they will be subjected in due time, all honor will 
be accorded him. 
Commander Robert E. Peary and his Ameri- 
| can companions reached the long-sought goal 
on April 6 of this year. After twenty-three 
years of almost constant endeavor, Mr. Peary 
has attained that which has cost so many lives 
since polar exploration was begun. He and his 
party were fully equipped, and besides the 
honor attending his achievement, he will ere 
long make public a fund of information that 
will not only prove to be very interesting read¬ 
ing, but will settle many questions concerning 
the land and water of the polar region and the 
animal life, if any, he found there. 
There was a time when arctic exploration was 
extremely hazardous, but advantage was taken 
of the mistakes of old-time explorers, and the 
data furnished by hunters being of material 
value, recent expeditions have traversed vast 
areas in something resembling comparative 
safety. Mr. Peary, profiting by the errors of 
judgment made by himself and others in times 
past, was able to reach the pole and return in 
very rapid time, and his accomplishment will 
go down in history as the culmination of al¬ 
most a quarter of a century of earnest and 
painstaking effort. 
Not only is his achievement a tribute to the 
pluck of this man who has overcome seemingly 
impossible obstacles, both in preparing for and 
in attempting what he recently accomplished, 
but full credit is due to the work of American 
shipbuilders, and the producers of all those 
articles Mr. Peary carried with him, and which 
played an important part in the latest and most 
successful of all his journeys. 
WILDFOWL BREEDING. 
Only to those who do not give the matter 
close attention does it appear to be remarkable 
that wild birds and animals seek sanctuaries in 
parks and preserves in close proximity to man 
and his industries. 
The cartoonist and the comic paper jokesmith 
eke more or less material from the habits of 
animals, which, they would have it appear, know 
when the shooting season begins and closes; 
but while their pleasantries are based on a 
semblance of truth, readers do not always delve 
into the question and master the solution, simple 
though it be. 
The close season begins late in the autumn 
or in winter, at a time when game cannot hide, 
with full stomachs, for long intervals, and when 
hunger drives them forth they are bolder than 
in early autumn. It does not take them long 
to realize that men with guns no longer lay in 
wait for them, and as the winter wanes and the 
woods remain free from this danger, they grad¬ 
ually feel a sense of security. Even when the 
anglers and summer tourists make their appear¬ 
ance in spring and early summer, deer soon 
learn that these people do not intend to harm 
them, hence the large number of deer that are 
seen and photographed in all the back woods 
resorts. 
Just how wildfowl come to recognize safe re¬ 
treats in city parks is of course unknown, but 
it is never long after man closes certain waters 
to shooting ere wildfowl resort there and go 
about their domestic duties without fear, though 
they are sometimes preyed on by vandals and 
must know that not all men or boys are to be 
trusted. The history—so much of it as is known 
—of a pair of black ducks that breed in Central 
Park in New York city every year is given on 
another page, and similar observations have 
been made in numerous places by our readers. 
Rut while these ducks are wild in every sense, 
they know they are secure in the sanctuaries 
established for them. 
Once in hand, however, if they are managed 
with care and prevented from flying away, they 
adapt themselves very readily to domestication 
and become a source of pleasure or of profit, as 
the case may be, to their masters. The domesti¬ 
cation of wildfowl is not new, nor is it so well 
known as to be carried on under well-under¬ 
stood rules, as, for example, in poultry raising. 
A few men follow wildfowl breeding for amuse¬ 
ment, a few others for profit, but each one 
learns slowly the facts he must master ere he 
can become a successful breeder, and so far it 
is only through the interchange of experiences 
that breeders assist each other in the work. 
Several men are devoting time and money to 
these interesting experiments. In some respects 
they have succeeded, in others they have failed, 
but the careful, painstaking efforts put forth 
are gradually bringing results, and in time they 
will succeed in breeding in confinement species 
that so far have not responded. 
We have in preparation some very interest¬ 
ing data and illustrations concerning the amateur 
breeding of wildfowl, and these will be printed 
ere long. 
Preparations for the International Hunting 
and Field Sports Exhibition, to be held next 
year in Vienna, are well advanced and the de¬ 
mands for additional space have encouraged the 
promoters. With success assured a new plan 
has been formulated. It is proposed to make 
the exhibition permanent; in fact, an American 
sample exhibition. For a number of years our 
consular agents in various European cities have 
urged on American manufacturers the value of 
permanent sample rooms in the trade centers, 
and this one will, when established, be con¬ 
ducted on the most approved lines. The manu¬ 
facture of sportsmen’s goods of every descrip¬ 
tion is an important industry in the United 
States, and those engaged in it are ever eager 
to invade new territory and meet all demands 
for their manufactures. It is pointed out that 
the proposed sample exhibition will attract or¬ 
ders that can be obtained in no other way, or 
if obtained through the usual channels, will en¬ 
tail large expense. To maintain an exhibit of 
samples, either with attendants or accompanied 
by literature, need not be a costly investment, 
and the returns are likely to be large and to 
result in permanent commercial relations be¬ 
tween maker and buyer. It is proposed to es¬ 
tablish the sample exhibition in Berlin. 
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The sun was setting and flooding the avenues 
of Woodlawn Cemetery in Jacksonville, Fla., 
with its last rays when all that was mortal of 
Harvey MacLeod was being lowered to its last 
resting place. Grouped about the grave were 
his relatives and his pallbearers, among them 
his favorite shooting companions. Only the low 
and impressive words of the minister broke the 
silence of the place, but as the service came to 
an end, there came from different parts of the 
cemetery the calls of the quail that find sanctu¬ 
ary there. To the friends of Mr. MacLeod the 
call, “Bobwhite,” took on a new meaning, for 
they knew his love for the little brown birds, 
and some of them had been with him when, 
last winter, although too ill to hunt, he had 
driven out to see the dogs work and to be with 
them for the last time. Tuberculosis carried 
him off in his prime. 
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Edmund Barrachin, one of the few sports¬ 
men who still practice the art of falconry, died 
recently at his estate, Beauchamp, in France. 
His age was eighty-five years. Not only did 
he breed and train goshawks, falcons and eagles, 
but he was an authority on the breeding of 
pheasants and other old-world game birds. 
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