Oct. 2, 1909.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
.535 
immer call of the bird, tingling over the har- 
;st fields, and the occasional sight of his plump 
>rm as he sits on the top of some fence post, 
about all they get of him. But out here he 
a common sight in the roads. Mornings and 
•enings he resorts to these highways to bask 
the sun and roll in the dust, and frequently, 
late July, the little brood will rise with a 
>ft whiz in front of your horses as you drive 
ong, and go over the barbwire fence into the 
irn or grass. Often, when the yellowish green 
a of the prairie is starred with the soft gold 
the moccasin flower and the soft purple of 
e sabbatia tones down the brilliant of the 
nsitive and sunflower, and you advance upon 
)ur stiff set dog expecting to see a brood of 
>ung prairie chickens burst forth before him, 
e anxious mother quail flutters up with those 
nder notes that tell of little ones in the 
ass. And sometimes the white-collared daddy 
the brood assists the mother in her efforts 
make you think she is lame or wing broken, 
hile the little fuzzy babies hide in the crypts 
the fern and grass where neither man nor 
>g can find them. 
Often, too, in early September, when the deep 
'ue of the vernonia is fading on its tall stalk, 
hen the ironweeds’ purple shafts are gray 
ith dust, the last of the wild morning glories 
ive faded and gone, and you are certain that 
e dog has one of the chickens flushed twenty 
inutes before, and which you so carefully 
arked down, a bevy of quail rise before you 
ith a startling whirr of full grown wings and 
il off over the knoll and on down into the 
eek’s bottom where the devious tangle of the 
ushwood discourages any attempt at follow- 
g; indeed, Nebraska sportsmen can consider 
emselves the favored ones, for with the rapid 
sappearance of most all kinds of wild game, 
ibwhite is unquestionably on the increase, 
ith his semi-domestic characteristics he thrives 
ithin the borders of the most thickly popu- 
ted districts, and while the chickens must go, 
■ will remain and thus again is the natural law 
compensation exemplified. 
Speaking about the mother quail’s attempt to 
ceive one when in proximity to her little ones 
minds me that this trait is also marked in 
any other species of birds. It is the same 
th the ruffed grouse. You approach her brood 
id in her anxiety to mislead you she will feign 
jury, tumbling and fluttering away in the path 
fore you as though sorely wounded. If a 
>g ventures near she changes her tactics. Ris- 
g with a loud cackle from under his very nose, 
e skims just over the fallen leaves and grass 
lumbering flight. The dog bounces at her, 
rely missing her tail feathers with his jaws. 
Jund after bound he makes, but by incredible 
uge of distance and speed she keeps just out 
reach till well away, then with sturdy wing- 
"oke she rises and swings back in a wide circle 
her young, leaving the discomfited canine. 
iere are, as I said before, many other birds 
at display great sagacity in leading their 
emies astray, while again there are those 
nch, by over-anxiety and noisy expostulation, 
tray the very fact that they should desire to 
uceal, and that is proximity to her little ones. 
Ihe quail crop this season is an abundant one, 
1 they cannot be molested until the fall of 
11. 
That redtail and gray marsh hawks have been 
more than ordinarily plentiful this spring and 
summer, no one who has had an outing in the 
sandhills will deny. While canvasback shooting 
with Tom McCawley out on Swan Lake last 
March, in one afternoon we counted twenty- 
eight hawks in view at one time, and during 
the whole day must have seen fully one hundred. 
It is one of the singular things of bird life 
that the beautiful, graceful king of the air, the 
redtail hawk, is nowhere found so numerously 
as about the little landlocked lakes of our West¬ 
ern sandhills. I have always seen scores of 
them on my hunting trips, but during my recent 
hunt I noticed more of them than in all my 
life together before. While crouched in a blind 
in the rice or reeds on a calm March or Octo¬ 
ber afternoon it is not uncommon to see ten or 
a dozen of these handsome but wary birds 
awing. They are inordinately fond of wild¬ 
fowl flesh, and few crippled ducks escape them. 
They circle above the rice and rushes, this way 
and that, in and out, now mounting high, now 
sweeping low until their rufous wings sweep 
either the rice tips or water’s surface, here, 
there and everywhere, until their keen eyes de¬ 
tect the hiding duck, when down they dart, and 
it is death to the ducks. Although I have never 
found a nest or a red-tailed hawk, I know that 
they breed in the sandhills and build their nests 
in the sand, and as there are no rocks, ledges, 
trees, snags nor any sort of lodgment where 
they can deposit their eggs and perform the 
duties of hatching and rearing their young 
within a reasonable distance from these, their 
favorite feeding grounds, it must be done in 
the small blowouts of the hillsides. 
Sandy Griswold. 
A Resume of Michigan Game Laws. 
Osseo, Mich., Sept. 25. — Eitor Forest and 
Stream: Every two years the Legislature of 
the State of Michigan meets in regular session, 
and usually every two years sees a change in 
the game laws of the State. In some respects 
this may be for the best. It is for the best in 
that the laws are gradually becoming more 
strict and some of the animals and birds re¬ 
served entirely from the sportsman’s gun for 
various periods of time. Thus we note that 
the shooting of prairie chicken, Mongolian and 
English pheasants, wild turkey, hazel grouse and 
wild pigeon is prohibited till 1910. We also 
note that no European partridge may be shot 
until 1912, while moose, elk and caribou are pro¬ 
tected till 1913. The killing of deer is also re¬ 
stricted in certain counties for periods ranging 
from 1910 to 1918. 
This is as it should be; in fact, the laws have 
already been too long in coming for some of 
these animals. The moose, elk and caribou left 
in an entirely wild condition are too few to be 
worthy of mention. A few of these animals 
may possibly remain in the northern peninsula, 
but if so I know nothing of their whereabouts. 
The protection of deer is another point which 
will be left in like manner until the animal is 
practically extinct unless more stringent meas¬ 
ures are adopted in the near future. At every 
session when new and more stringent laws are 
proposed the story is told that deer are more 
plentiful than ever, that they are eating the 
settlers’ crops in “the back sections,” etc. From 
other quarters just as reliable we hear the re¬ 
port that the number of deer is generally de¬ 
creasing. 1 hat wolves, and shooting in season 
and out, have gradually reduced their numbers 
until a new law is needed even if the number 
of hunters in season remains the same. But 
does it remain the same? 
1 here is hardly a fair-minded man anywhere 
who is posted on the subject but will say that 
the number of men who go annually into the 
Michigan north woods to hunt deer during the 
present open season is decidedly on the increase. 
Young men are growing up, sons of hunting 
fathers, who realize that if they ever boast of 
having shot a deer they must perform that act 
jn the near future or the opportunity will be 
forever gone. 
Added to this the fact should be considered 
that every year witnesses an increase in the 
number of deadly weapons invented, manufac¬ 
tured and taken into the woods. The old hun¬ 
ter will get his limit with an old style rifle, but 
the young, inexperienced sportsman would make 
many a miss of the one or two shots which 
would be the limit possible for him to fire with 
an old style rifle. 
Another faulty law is that permitting spring 
shooting of ducks and geese. Few of these birds 
breed within the State, a fact which is true 
partly on account of the continual shooting 
whenever they alight for rest on their spring 
flight northward. This shooting every time they 
alight for food or rest frightens them so that 
but one result is possible: the birds rarely stop 
for any length of time, and in a few years will 
cease to cross this region. 
At present the open season on ducks and geese 
is Sept. 1 to Jan. 1, and for certain kinds an 
added season extending from March 2 to April 
25. 1 his is much too long an open season on 
any game bird found in the United States at 
the present. No species is so abundant as to 
make this open season desirable or advisable. 
Michigan has one desirable feature in her 
laws which other States having deer and other 
large animals to preserve may well copy. There 
is a State bounty on wolves of $25 for full size 
and $10 for kits under three months of age. 
Added to this some of the northern counties, in 
which the ravages of this animal are most in 
evidence, have offered a further bounty rang¬ 
ing from five to fifteen dollars each. This 
brings the wolf hunter from $30 to $40 a wolf 
without counting the hide. The ravages of 
wolves have done and are still doing much to 
thin out the deer and other game. Many of 
the young of deer are annually killed by wolves 
and this largely accounts for the recent failure 
of the deer to keep their number good. 
A non-resident license fee of $25 is helping 
to keep out the irresponsible hunters from other 
States. If reports are true many a hunter along 
the Ohio and Indiana borders suddenly becomes 
a citizen of Michigan only to as suddenly re¬ 
nounce this citizenship when the deer season 
closes. ' 
The remedy for failure to enforce this and 
other game laws is the employment of more 
wardens and the influencing of public sentiment 
so that an infraction of the game laws will be 
considered as grave an offense as the breaking 
of any other law. Whether or not this senti¬ 
ment will prevail in time to save the game is 
a question which only time can answer. 
C. L. Chamberlin. 
