Forest and Stream 
Terms, $3 a Year, 10 Cts. a Copy, j 
t Six Months, $1.50. 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, JANUARY 28, 1911 
. VOL. LXXVI.—N». 4. 
1 No. 127 Franklin St., New York. 
A WEEKLY JOURNAL. 
Copyright, 1910, by Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 
George Bird Grinnell, President, 
I Charles B. Reynolds, Secretary, 
Louts Dean Speir, Treasurer, 
127 Franklin Street, New York. 
THE OBJECT OF THIS JOURNAL 
will be to studiously promote a healthful in¬ 
terest in outdoor recreation, and to cultivate 
a refined taste for natural objects. 
—Forest and Stream, Aug. 14, 1873. 
| -- 
PREPARING FOR A BATTLE. 
Officials of the National Association of 
Audubon Societies express the belief that dur¬ 
ing the year just opening great efforts are to 
be made by commercial interests to break down 
the various game and bird protective laws 
which have so slowly and painfully been built 
up in many of the States. Movements are Re¬ 
ported to be on foot to repeal laws prohibiting 
spring shooting in several States, while the 
feather dealers, representing millions of capital, 
are to strive to have the laws against the use 
of bird plumage by women repealed. So the 
Audubon Societies and all other protective 
clubs call upon bird lovers, farmers and sports¬ 
men to join forces against feather dealers and 
market shooters to protect the insect eating 
birds and game birds that work for the farmer 
and that are so well beloved by the sportsmen. 
Already in New York State one or more 
bills have been introduced to open the spring 
.to the shooting of wildfowl. Many game 
dealers declare that the public demands spring 
ducks, and quite forgetful of the increase of 
the wildfowl brought about within two or three 
years by the stopping of spring shooting, wish 
to extend the shooting season on Long Island 
until the migrating birds have all departed for 
the North. 
In Connecticut the shore shooters purpose to 
strive to have spring shooting reopened, de¬ 
claring that the coots and old squaws can be 
most effectively killed in spring—which of 
course is very true. They do not regard the 
fact that within the past two or three years 
black ducks have bred in Connecticut where 
they never before bred within the memory of 
living man, and that the black duck shooting 
in the fall has been better there than for many 
years. 
In Massachusetts efforts are to be made to 
repeal laws restricting the storage and sale of 
game and to permit the shooting of ducks 
wherever they are found. 
Last year New York State enacted a law for¬ 
bidding the use of aigrettes and the sale of 
these ornaments has been hurried by the mil¬ 
linery trade in order to get rid of their stock. 
Yet it is said that an effort is to be made to 
repeal that law, and the feather dealers are re¬ 
ported to be prepared to spend great sums of 
money to accomplish this end. 
In preparation for the expected battle the Na¬ 
tional Association of Audubon Societies is gath¬ 
ering ammunition to prevent the repeal of this 
wholesome legislation. It seeks the aid of far¬ 
mers, sportsmen, orchardists and ranchmen of 
the whole country. It is prepared to furnish 
evidence to everyone of the good the birds do 
and calls earnestly for help from that wide pub¬ 
lic who have no special interests to serve but 
' only consider the good of the whole country. 
TWO NEW ANTELOPE HERDS. 
On a number of occasions since the establish¬ 
ment of the Wichita Game Preserve and the 
Buffalo Preserve in Montana, we have pointed 
o.ut the importance of introducing a herd of 
antelope on each of these fenced preserves. This 
species, unique in all the world, is especially de¬ 
serving of preservation. Its numbers in North 
America are constantly growing smaller, and 
while most of the States and Provinces protect 
it by law, the area which it can inhabit is ever 
contracting, and the antelope are constantly de¬ 
creasing. It is, therefore, of especial importance 
that new herds should be established at different 
points where they will be adequately protected. 
It is gratifying to learn that the Boone and 
Crockett Club, under authorization of the Sec¬ 
retary of the Interior and with the help of 
Major Brett, the acting Superintendent of the 
Yellowstone Park, has caused to be trapped on 
the winter range of the antelope near Gardiner, 
Mont., twenty-three animals, of which twelve 
were sent to the buffalo park in Montana and 
eleven to the game preserve in Oklahoma. Of 
the twenty-three animals so captured, four were 
lost, killing themselves in the crates in which 
they were shipped, but there are believed to be 
nine antelope on the Oklahoma preserve and ten 
on that in Montana which are practically unin¬ 
jured. Each of these groups should be the 
foundation of a large herd in coming years. 
This matter was initiated and the expenses 
connected with it paid for by the Boone and 
Crockett Club, to which great credit must be 
given for performing so good a work. It is very 
encouraging to find private associations willing 
to. make such contributions to the public welfare 
as have been made by the New York Zoological 
Society and the Bison Society, which stocked 
with buffalo the Wichita Game Preserve and the 
Montana Buffalo Preserve, and now by the Boone 
and Crockett Club, which has presented to each 
of these preserves a herd of antelope. 
Harry I. Griffith has been appointed super¬ 
intendent of the Bellefonte hatchery in Pennsyl¬ 
vania. He succeeds Howard M. Buller, whose 
death occurred recently. 
BONDED WILDFOWL. 
The New York Association for the Protection 
of Game has brought suit against the Conron 
Bros. Co., of New York city, alleging the pos¬ 
session of wildfowl in the close season. The 
defendant company, in its answer, claimed that 
the wildfowl were held legally, according to 
Section 241 of the forest, fish and game law. 
This section, the association maintains, is un¬ 
constitutional, as being class legislation, giving 
to dealers a special privilege denied other per¬ 
sons in the State. It is pointed out that wild¬ 
fowl shot in another State may be brought into 
New York State for sale, under bond, until 
March i, the last day for possession under bond 
in this State of such game; then placed in cold 
storage until the opening of the ensuing shoot¬ 
ing season, on Sept. 16. 
Under ordinary circumstances Judge Blanch¬ 
ard’s opinion may not be expected until some 
time next month, and if the association’s claims 
are affirmed, the wildfowl now being legally shot 
in other States and legally stored here, as may 
now be done, cannot be disposed of legally. 
The Pennsylvania Legislature will this winter 
be again asked to pass a law providing that 
residents of that State who wish to hunt game 
must provide themselves with a license. The 
game commission has issued a brief setting forth 
its reasons for advocating the passage of this 
measure, and the State Sportsmen’s Association 
has indorsed the plan. Already the State has 
a law which prohibits aliens from shooting or 
carrying guns, and requiring a non-resident 
shooting license, but so far all attempts to oblige 
residents to pay a fee to shoot have failed. The 
commission, in its brief, says among other 
things that unless better measures are taken to 
preserve the game, the man of moderate means 
will within a short time be compelled to hang 
his gun upon its hooks forever. A resident 
license fee fund will, it is claimed, be the means 
of averting this otherwise inevitable condition. 
At one dollar it is estimated the fund would 
total $150,000 per annum. It is believed that 
better protection of the game will be possible 
if the law is passed. 
K 
While the Long Island gunners are just as 
persistent this year as last in their efforts to 
secure a longer season for wildfowling, they 
have modified their demands slightly. They pro¬ 
fess to be content with a proposition to make 
the open season for ducks, geese, brant and 
swan just a half-year long, closing on all fools’ 
day, and with possession until mid-April. This 
is not in strict accord with the baymen’s de¬ 
mands, made at a meeting last month. At that 
time they seemed to think March i should mark 
the close of the season, and that gunners should 
take up their batteries at sunset, as the law now 
provides. 
