18 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Jan. 7, 1911. 
Fines for the Reckless. 
Boston, Mass., Dec. 31. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: Hon. J. W. Brackett, chairman of the 
fish and game commission of Maine, has been 
doing some thinking on the subject of prevent¬ 
ing the accidental killing of hunters while in 
pursuit of big game. He suggests in his annual 
report that the man who shoots another while 
hunting be required to pay a heavy fine for the 
benefit of the family of the victim. He would 
also dispense with the investigations of coroners’ 
juries, believing them to be a serious hindrance 
to county attorneys. He declares that the ver¬ 
dicts rendered by such juries have usually ended 
all proceedings looking to the punishment of 
the guilty persons, notwithstanding the statute 
provides that these cases be investigated by 
county attorneys. His plan is to have such cases 
go directly to the grand jury for investigation. 
His reasoning is that if the hunter realizes in 
advance that he must pay a heavy fine if he 
shoots a man, he is not likely to shoot at every 
moving twig. 
The commissioner’s theory is that the offender 
fires without seeing anything but moving bushes, 
and in his intense anxiety to shoot a deer he is 
wholly oblivious for the moment of the danger 
to human life. The certainty of being obliged 
to pay a heavy fine would seem to be reasonable 
punishment, but if insufficient, it might very well 
be supplemented by imprisonment. It is cer¬ 
tainly for the advantage of all parties interested 
that the inexcusable killing of human beings be 
brought to an end. 
I am confident that not a few sportsmen have 
been deterred from making trips to Maine for 
big game because of the numerous cases that 
have occurred in the past few years of hunters 
being shot. Many of the Massachusetts hunters 
who formerly hunted in Maine prefer to go to 
regions where game abounds and the woods are 
not “full of hunters” as they express it. 
Raymond Whitaker, a young man residing in 
Lynn, is now in the hospital of that city as the 
result of exposure while hunting in the White 
Mountains. He started out from Jackson with 
a companion named Linberg. They were lost 
on Doublehead Mountain, a spur of the Presi¬ 
dential Range. They came upon tracks of sev¬ 
eral deer which they followed, and in crossing 
a stream Whitaker fell in and was obliged to 
pass the night there endeavoring to dry his feet 
by a fire that they kindled, but not a good one, 
as they could only get small branches and twigs 
with which to keep it alive. The next day lie 
was obliged to walk nine miles with frozen feet, 
the mercury being ten degrees below zero. He 
was able to get word to his father in Conway 
where medical aid was obtained, but was told 
that his toes would have to be cut off, and for 
that purpose he was sent to the Lynn Hospital. 
Whitaker says he supposed when they started 
into the woods that his companion knew the 
way. H. H. Kimball. 
The Chickaree’s Mistake. 
Three men working in the woods near here 
witnessed a most unusual spectacle a few days 
ago, says a Montreal Herald correspondent. 
They were engaged in cutting wood when a 
partridge hopped out of the bush and stood 
motionless a short distance from them. The 
men ceased work and watched the bird. Just 
then a red squirrel came out of his den and 
began chattering. A dog which had accom¬ 
panied the men to the woods heard the squirrel 
and made a dart toward it. The little animal 
gave a frightened glance around, and espying 
what he took to be a stump hopped on top of 
it. The motionless object proved to be the 
partridge and it immediately rose up and flew 
away, carrying the squirrel with it. The aston¬ 
ished choppers watched the unusual sight until 
partridge and squirrel disappeared from view, 
but how far the partridge carried this strange 
burden they could not ascertain. 
Ducks Abundant. 
New Orleans, La., Dec. 31.— Editor Forest 
and Stream: Two large hunting parties are ex¬ 
pected to arrive here from the North and East 
within the next ten days. One party will come 
from Philadelphia, headed by Sidney G. Fisher 
and Mr. Pratt, the other party from Milwaukee. 
The visitors will spend some time hunting ducks 
and other game in the vicinity of Lakes Charles 
and Arthur, Louisiana. Thousands of ducks, 
geese and brant are around Lakes Arthur and 
Charles, and a number of hunting parties from 
New Orleans and elsewhere are enjoying the 
sport. Ducks are also plentiful at The Jump 
near the mouth of the Mississippi River. Re¬ 
cently Mr. Grunewald, of this city, had for his 
guests Councilman J. J. Frawley and a party 
of visiting friends on his yacht Josephine. They 
spent several days at and near The Jump and 
came home with numerous wild geese and ducks. 
A large pair of black mallard ducks are being 
exhibited at the store of Henry Martin & Co. 
on St. Charles street. They were killed near 
Lake Arthur by R. B. Worthan. They are the 
largest and handsomest mallards seen in this 
city in years. Ducks are plentiful in the marshes 
and lakes on the Louisville and Nashville road 
between New Orleans and Bay St. Louis. Harry 
Farwell entertained a large party of friends on 
his houseboat on Bayou Barataria recently. The 
party succeeded in killing fifty ducks and landed 
a number of large redfish. The party spent four 
days fishing and hunting. 
A number of complaints have been registered 
with the State game commission by hunters 
against the railroads. It is stated that roads 
will not allow hunters to carry their game in 
the regular passenger coaches and will require 
them to place their game in the baggage car. It 
is claimed this is quite an inconvenience, and it 
is probable the hunters will file a petition be¬ 
fore the game commission asking for a ruling. 
It is likely, however, the commission will hold 
that this is a matter for the State railroad com¬ 
mission to settle. 
Commissioner Miller is enforcing the rule 
vigorously in regard to requiring all shipments' 
of game to bear tags descriptive of the number 
of game and character and where and when 
killed and by whom. The hunters are furnished 
daily with tags, and if they do not employ them 
they must take the consequence. Several large 
shipments of game have been confiscated by the 
game wardens and sent to various city hospi¬ 
tals on account of the failure to tag the game 
properly. 
Quail are plentiful this season and wild tur¬ 
keys are abundant. It is thought the number 
of deer killed up to date will not equal the 
record of last year. F. G. G. 
New Publications. 
American Game Bird Shooting, by George Bird 
Grinnell. Cloth, 575 pages, illustrated, $3.50 
net. New York, the Forest and Stream Pub¬ 
lishing Company. 
“American Game Bird Shooting” is the latest 
work from the pen of Dr. George Bird Grinnell, 
author of many books, notably “Pawnee Hero 
Stories and Folk Tales,” “Blackfoot Lodge Tales,” 
“The Story of the Indian,” the Jack Series, etc., 
and his more recent authoritative shooting 
work, “American Duck Shooting,” which has 
passed through several editions and bids fair 
to pass through many more. 
The modest title, “American Game Bird Shoot¬ 
ing,” falls far short of conveying an adequate 
idea of the real scope of this book. The same 
comment, with equal pertinency, holds good in 
respect to “American Duck Shooting,” since 
each work comprehends a complete ornithologi¬ 
cal account of the birds treated therein as well 
as-descriptions of the methods employed in their 
pursuit and capture by the sportsman. Thus 
the two works are complementary, covering al¬ 
most the entire field of game birds taken with 
the shotgun, with a complete description of 
their natural history features. The completion 
of this work was a large task, requiring excep¬ 
tional qualifications, knowledge and experience, 
and was never before accomplished by any other 
author. 
There is nothing extraordinary, nothing mys¬ 
terious, in the success of Dr. Grinnell’s books. 
He knows his subjects thoroughly. He is an 
accomplished naturalist, and therefore is fully 
qualified to write accurately and instructively on 
the ornithological features. He is a practical 
sportsman, with a long and broad experience in 
wildfowl and upland shooting East and West 
and North and South. Therefore, he writes 
from first hand knowledge, without which no 
writer can properly impress his readers, or hope 
for more than ephemeral success. 
The average Eastern shooter, if asked to state 
how many kinds of game birds there are, would 
probably answer that there are five, the bob- 
white, the ruffed grouse, the prairie chicken, the 
woodcock and the snipe, showing thereby a 
lamentable lack of knowledge on the subject. 
Part I. of “American Game Bird Shooting,” 
contains 282 pages devoted to thorough descrip¬ 
tions of the upland game birds, their habits and 
habitats. Seven -species of American quail are 
enumerated and ten species of American grouse. 
Of special interest are the chapters devoted re¬ 
spectively to the mysterious woodcock and snipe, 
and to that most sagacious and alert of game 
birds, the wild turkey. 
Part II. treats of the various kinds of upland 
shooting, and contains 167 pages of instructive 
matter as to sportsmanlike methods of capture. 
The cunning and strategy of the pursued in 
evading the pursuer, each species having its own 
peculiar methods, was learned only by close ob¬ 
servation and long experience. He is indeed an 
accomplished hunter who does not acquire much 
new information on reading this work. 
The matter of proper clothing and footwear 
is quite thoroughly treated—a subject of much 
importance, having to do with the comfort, pro¬ 
tection and freedom of movement of the shooter, 
all so important in the success of an outing. He 
who has been crippled in the atteihpt to break 
