Forest and Stream 
Terms. $3 a Year. 10 Cts. a Copy. , 
Six Months, $1.50. 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 4, i 9 n. 
, VOL. LXXVI.—No. 5. 
1 No. 127 Franklin St., New York. 
A WEEKLY JOURNAL. 
Copyright, 1910, 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 in¬ 
terest in outdoor recreation, and to cultivate 
a refined taste for natural objects. 
—Forest and Stream, Aug. 14, 1873. 
BIRDS OF PREY IN TOWN. 
That Manhattan Island attracts large numbers 
of persons to its shores every day is well known. 
That it attracts birds of prey is evident to com¬ 
paratively few of its inhabitants. In the parks 
strange birds are seen during migrations; wild¬ 
fowl build their nests along the lake margins, 
and gulls in great numbers rest in safety on the 
larger reservoirs of the water system. All these 
things the public knows, but it sees little or noth¬ 
ing of the eagles and the hawks which, in the 
winter, put aside their fears and circle closer 
and closer to the great city in search of food. 
The eagles are not so bold as the hawks; 
still, one or more of these great birds can be 
seen occasionally, from Riverside Drive, sitting 
on or hovering over the drifting ice floes, often 
close to the pier line of the Hudson River. 
These eagles find shelter and comparative safety 
in the Palisades Park, where they are frequently 
seen in autumn if not throughout the year, but 
their natural food is not abundant, and this, 
coupled with the fact that they are seldom 
molested, makes them bold. 
The hawks have gone further and actually 
visit the city in search of food. The cornices 
of the tall business blocks and apartment build¬ 
ings furnish nesting sites for stray pigeons. 
Others are kept in lofts and attics by persons 
who raise them for pleasure or profit, and car¬ 
rier pigeons are kept in similar places. Hawks 
seem to know that pigeons can be picked up with 
comparative safety, and no doubt a great many 
are caught and carried to safe retreats far above 
the busy thoroughfares, there to be eaten at 
leisure. So many stray pigeons live on the 
housetops that it is impossible to estimate the 
extent of the hawks’ depredations, but the dis¬ 
appearance of valuable carrier pigeons is not an 
infrequent occurrence in winter, and now and 
then someone tries to balance the account with 
shot or small bullet, generally with indifferent 
success. 
Perhaps the sparrows are, through a similar 
agency, prevented from increasing in numbers. 
They have many enemies, but survive them all 
—even the occasional blizzard. Sparrow hawks 
are bold and abundant, but as they are hardly 
powerful enough to cope with pigeons, no doubt 
the lesser birds fall to their lot. 
FOR A BUREAU OF NATIONAL PARKS. 
In his annual message, President Taft recom¬ 
mended the establishment of a bureau for the 
control and management of the various national 
parks, national monuments and national reser¬ 
vations, with a view to having the control of all 
these reservations placed under a single head, 
instead of, as now, scattered about in different 
bureaus of various departments. He said: ‘‘Our 
national parks have become so extensive, and 
involve so much detail of action in their control 
that it seems to me there ought to be legisla¬ 
tion creating a bureau for their care and con¬ 
trol.” 
Following out this recommendation, Mr. 
Davidson, of Wisconsin, has introduced in the 
House of Representatives a bill for the estab¬ 
lishment for the Bureau of National Parks, and 
a similar bill has been introduced in the Senate 
by Senator Smoot, of Utah. 
The bill provides for the appointment of a 
commissioner, with such experts and assistants 
as Congress may from time to time authorize, 
and appropriates $75,000 for the maintenance of 
the bureau. 
The introduction of such bills is gratifying as 
indicating the growing interest in these national 
pleasure grounds, the importance of which is 
only now coming to be appreciated by the public. 
STRANGE STORIES FROM AFRICA. 
Almost every one of the many hunters who in 
recent years have visited Africa has heard and 
has brought back with him some tale of mystery, 
for that vast continent unquestionably holds a 
multitude of unknown animals that are still to 
be described. 
Most returning hunters are willing to repeat 
stories, told them by other white hunters or by 
natives, of mysterious beasts not like anything 
known to naturalists. On the Elgayo Plateau 
for example the natives tell of an enormous 
snake so great that elephants are its common 
prey. Writers tell of a mysterious monster— 
apparently a reptile—which inhabits a river or 
rivers, and which has never been attacked by 
the natives, though they often see it. 
It was by such reports from the natives that 
some African animals, now well enough known, 
first came to the notice of the white men. 
Natives tell also of animals resembling 
small elephants which live for the most part 
under water, and not very long ago an explorer 
named Prof. Le Petit reported that on the 
north banks of Lake Leopold II. he saw a 
group of five animals not unlike small elephants, 
but with short trunks, small ears, necks longer 
than an elephant and apparently no tusks, which 
answered the native descriptions of these ele¬ 
phant-like creatures. The animals were seen at 
a distance of 500 or 600 yards, but as soon as 
they discovered the human beings, they rushed 
into the water and swam away, showing only 
the tops of their heads. When the trail was 
found, the natives identified the tracks as those 
of what they called the water elephant. 
Wonderful stories have been coming out of 
Africa ever since the time of Herodotus, and 
of these stories very many have proved true. 
There are a multitude of interesting zoological 
discoveries still to be made in Africa. 
The motor car is being used in Florida this 
winter as it has been employed in California, in 
quail shooting. Pushed as it may be in regions 
favorable to its use, the motor car can be made 
a very destructive agent in the scattering and 
harassing of game birds, and very effective in 
the bagging of quail that flush ahead of the 
machine as it traverses country roads. The 
California Legislature is considering measures 
intended to restrict the use of motor cars in 
hunting, but just what form the final measure 
will take remains to be seen. If motor car 
owners abuse the privilege they enjoy, they 
alone will be to blame, for in many places these 
cars aie regarded as a great convenience to the 
hunter. In Maine, Wisconsin, Michigan and 
elsewhere, parties have motored to and from 
the deer forests, and they have only the highest 
praise for their cars. Many old sportsmen have 
expressed surprise and satisfaction as well at 
the obstacles overcome in the woods by motor 
shooting parties that obey the laws. 
The measure enacted last year by the Legisla¬ 
ture of the State of New York, known as the 
Shea law, prohibits the sale or possession of the 
feathers of birds of the same family as those 
found in the State. 1 his law becomes operative 
July r, 1911. The feather dealing interests of 
New York, in view of this event, recently sub¬ 
mitted to the Forest, Fish and Game Commission 
one hundred specimens of feathers used in mil¬ 
linery, requesting to be informed which of them 
may legally be sold. These specimens, which 
represented seventy-nine species of birds, were 
studied by W. De Witt Miller, of the American 
Museum of Natural History, who reports that 
forty-three of the species are forbidden under 
the law. Among these forbidden species are 
three kinds of herons, two terns, a pelican, a 
scarlet ibis, the screech owl, the condor, the 
magpie, Bohemian waxwing and jay. 
** 
Older readers of Forest and Stream will be 
saddened to learn of the passing away of an¬ 
other of the old guard. “Tarpon,” Samuel D. 
Kendall, was a contemporary of Nessmuk, of 
Rowland E. Robinson, and of Fred Mather. ’ He 
was an especial friend of Nessmuk, who spent 
two or three of the last winters of his life 
camping with Tarpon in Florida. Tarpon’s life 
was one of adventure by sea and land, and many 
of his experiences were printed long ago in 
Forest and Stream. Of late years, owing to 
illness, he has not been able to write. 
