DCT. 9. 1909 ] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
e of the sights of the place, and is always 
eresting. 
\fter spending several seasons in dear, de- 
htful, always reliable Maine, we decided this 
ir to try the Belgrade Lakes, and did so with 
:h pleasurable results that now we are among 
: most ardent advocates of these waters as 
a healthy, beautiful section, free from winged 
;ts. They afford, beside good salmon and 
ut fishing, by far the best small-mouth black 
;s fishing we have ever been able to find, 
large sheets of fresh water, cool and spring- 
, restricted with a twelve-inch law and ten 
s a day to each rod, all streams closed within 
adius of thirty miles, what wonder that the 
ing is good? One can go out on these 
es and catch the legal allowance every day 
the open season, and I personally know of 
other bass waters of which this may be 
hfully said. 
luring the outing season a special summer 
n, known as the Bar Harbor Express, leaves 
Grand Central Station at night. You can 
step from this train the next morning at Bel¬ 
grade Station; a six-mile drive over good roads 
brings you to the lakes where you find hotels 
and boarding houses, but not one place for the 
angler. By this I mean the summer vacationist 
is considered, but the angler never. If you 
want a cup of coffee early or a late luncheon, 
avaunt! get thee to a camp; it is “the only way.” 
Let the poor enthusiastic angler go to one of 
the rocking-chair veranda hotels where the 
clerk ogles dimity in the office. The head 
waiter watches the clock, and some seventh-rate 
cook, called “chef,” for the first time in his 
dyspeptic promoting career, runs the house. 
The angler will get on the water when he ought 
to be starting for camp, or he will go without 
anything to eat. The best he can get, at any 
rate, is the usual country boarding-house fare, 
and to have to race with the dining-room key 
for that at the expense of sport is too much 
for a sportsman who travels half a thousand 
miles to enjoy a few weeks’ angling. In our 
camp we were served with coffee and bread or 
571 
toast at 4:30 a. m., and 5 o’clock saw us, if not 
on our favorite water, at least on the way there. 
At jo we returned to camp for breakfast, en¬ 
joyed the usual loafing, letter-writing and read¬ 
ing until 3 p. m., then a swim in the lake, dinner 
at 4 o’clock, giving us from 5:30 until dark on 
the water. In this way we got the morning 
and evening fishing, avoided the midday sun, 
kept in splendid health and had the best of sport. 
Some day possibly the country hotel keeper 
will realize the importance of catering to the 
angler and understand that when one wants to 
fish, the morning and evening must be kept 
free for the sport, and the hours for meals 
arranged to admit of the sportsmen being able 
to see the sun both rise and set without the 
risk of getting little or nothing to eat. The 
Belgrades are in many ways the most reliable 
waters in Maine, the climate delightful, the 
people good, hospitable, country folk who think 
more of your comfort and satisfaction than 
their immediate gain. They expect to see you 
again, and you will, in all probability, go again. 
Birds or Squirrels? 
.TILO, Ill., Oct. I.— Editor Forest and 
am: The subject resolves itself into this 
tion when you are deciding with what 
life you would populate your parks and 
es. It is an indisputable fact that you may 
have both. 
iave long known the red squirrel to be 
greatest enemy of the birds in their 
is homes. They do not change their 
fs when placed in the semi-domestic sur¬ 
fings and introduced in our groves. They 
greater destroyers of bird life than the 
1 maligned hawks, because they may easily 
1 both the nests on the branches and the 
y nests. Nearly, if not quite, one-sixth of 
species of birds of any vicinity nest in 
ies, and the red squirrel is a constant 
ice to all. 
e screech owl is the only bird of Illinois 
I have found able to defend the home 
1st this arch enemy. This year a sparrow 
home I was watching was broken up by 
rels, the five eggs broken and the female 
1 on the nest. What bird of less strength 
murage has any show whatever? Only a 
'ears since the grounds of the University 
nnois near my home village were alive 
bird life and furnished homes for at 
twenty species each summer. Since the 
't of the beautiful but treacherous red 
'cl, the grounds are all but deserted by 
athered population. Now, when the leaves 
he trees are bare. Where formerly al- 
every tree contained the proof of a suc- 
1 bird family launched forth during the 
er months, we are now confronted with 
Tsitive knowledge that the beautiful trees 
and shrubbery are surrendered to the usurpers. 
Birds know their natural enemies and simply 
will not attempt home-making where the red 
squirrel prowls. Only the Baltimore oriole may 
feel at all safe in the squirrel parks of to-day. 
Its pensile nest is hung far out on the slender 
branches—too near the ends to tempt even the 
most acrobatic of these playful creatures. 
The authorities of the university are awaken¬ 
ing to the real facts in the case, and the near 
future, I feel confident, will see the banishing 
of the squirrel from the grounds. Such letters 
as that of W. B. Mershon, of Saginaw, Mich., 
in your issue of Sept. 4, are needed to acquaint 
the public of the fact that the red squirrel is 
really a nuisance. 
When the people become cognizant of this 
fact and awake to the idea that the allowing of 
cats to run at large is a crime against nature, 
the birds will come in to their own. 
Isaac E. Hess. 
Rochester, N. Y., Oct. 3 .— Editor Forest and 
Stream: This is the season for squirrels. We 
do not know much of the squirrel during the 
winter, spring or summer season. When 
autumn approaches and the chestnut, hickory 
nut, butternut and corn ripen our attention is 
called to the squirrel. 
There are many kinds of squirrels. They are 
all attractive in personality. They are very 
playful and graceful, and have cute and cunning 
ways. When I was a boy I took delight in 
shooting squirrels, but now that I know these 
little creatures better, and have come into 
closer contact with them, I prefer to see them 
escape and climb to their holes in the trees 
rather than to see them fall lifeless at my feet 
at the crack of my gun. The red squirrel, 
though exceedingly interesting and easily 
tamed is the most mischievous of the squirrel 
family. He is the only squirrel that I have 
personally known to disturb or rob birds’ 
nests. He is the only squirrel that steals into 
our corn crib and granary and helps himself 
to our store of grain, but he does not con¬ 
sume nearly so much as the rats, and he is far 
more interesting. 
The gray squirrel has been introduced into 
nearly all of the large city parks of this coun¬ 
try. The fashion was begun in Central Park, 
New York city. In this park the gray squirrel 
attracts more attention, at scarcely any ex¬ 
pense, than the monkeys and bears in the 
zoological annex. I once saw a gray squirrel 
in Central Park climb up the trousers leg of a 
policeman and dive into his pocket for peanuts. 
One of these squirrels made a leap at me, but I 
brushed him away, not realizing he was at¬ 
tempting to alight on my shoulder. Every 
day we see many people feeding the squirrels 
in Central Park with peanuts. After they have 
eaten all they require, they bury the rest under 
the turf for a season of famine. 
It is not unusual for squirrels to migrate 
from the large city parks in the suburbs to the 
small parks in the center of the city and to the 
larger private residences. Here they are usu¬ 
ally welcome. It is a pretty sight when you 
walk out in the early morning while the dew 
is on the grass to see a large gray squirrel 
skipping over the lawn or leaping from tree 
to tree. 
My neighbor has protected the gray squirrel 
in the grove near his house where now he has 
hundreds of them living in the hollows of the 
trees. Occasionally they wander away to the 
neighboring lands, where they are shot. This 
