Feb. 4, 1911.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
177 
with the darkness and cold of autumn and win¬ 
ter nights, seemed strangely out of place. I 
left the plow and hurried down the hill to wit¬ 
ness the performance. 
The foxes, for there was a pair of them, were 
evidently not of one mind, which accounted for 
the commotion. They were standing two or 
three rods apart, facing each other. Suddenly 
one rushed forward, the other meanwhile stand¬ 
ing motionless. Then I heard a succession of 
hoarse yelps and the advancing one wheeled 
and retreated to his former position. This 
performance was repeated several times. I 
could not be sure which fox was doing the 
barking, but thought it was the motionless one. 
At a distance of 175 yards they paid no atten¬ 
tion to me. 
The opportunity was not to be lost. I ran 
down to the house and ten minutes later when 
I returned with the gun they were still at their 
play. Screened by the clumps of witch-hazel 
and hardhack that dotted the pasture, I ap¬ 
proached almost within gun shot unobserved, 
but the ground, honeycombed by the frost of 
the previous night, crunched under my feet and 
at last betrayed me. I caught a glimpse of the 
pair as they cleared the wall and a good view 
as they loped gracefully up the hill. One was 
large and dark, the other smaller and lighter 
in color, male and female undoubtedly. 
Twice before I had heard the fox bark by 
day. Both times I was quite sure it was a 
lonely male advertising his bachelor condition; 
on this occasion I imagine it was the female 
reproving a too ardent admirer. 
Will W. Christman. 
Old Time Numbers of Antelope. 
Albert Lea, Minn., Jan. 26. —Editor Forest and 
Stream: In the summer of 1873 with a com¬ 
panion I took a river boat at Prairie du Chien, 
and went down to Burlington, Iowa. There 
\\ a,s a merry crowd on the boat. The scenery 
along the Mississippi was grand, between lofty 
bluffs—many wooded to the top—while on the 
other side were almost bald peaks of great 
height. One never tired of this wonderful 
panorama. 
From Burlington I went west to Salina, Kail., 
on the Kansas Pacific—or buffalo route—thence 
I went on foot up the Salina River, a long, hot 
walk of about forty miles to the northward. I 
saw great high points of bare rock with the 
country rising on either side into great divides. 
I came to a great sheep ranch and saw herders 
sitting about on their horses with rifles in hand 
protecting the sheep from coyotes. 
As I came out into the more open country I 
could see thousands of what I supposed were 
sheep, but could see no herders, and as I won¬ 
dered at this I saw one of the animals running 
past at short range, and for the moment it looked 
like a small deer. Then it came to my mind it 
was an antelope. 
For me to undertake to give numbers is use¬ 
less, as there were bands of hundreds as far 
as the eye could survey, and here in this clear 
atmosphere that meant many miles. One would 
suppose that such numbers could never be killed 
off. Yet like a mist they have faded away be¬ 
fore the white man’s smoke, and gone with the 
red man to the plains beyond. II n 
Sane, Simple and Scientific Game Laws 
Bennington, Vt., Jan. 28.— Editor Forest and 
Stream: Since the publication in your issue of 
Dec. 31 of my article on the importance of fish 
and game protection, I have received a number 
of inquiries from your readers, and from the 
tenor of several of these I am afraid I did not 
make myself as clear as I had thought I had. 
A sportsman from New York State, who is a 
member of the present assembly, writes me: “I 
was very much interested in your story, but in 
some respects it was rather vague, and I am 
sorry you did not go more into details so we 
could all understand just what you mean by 
sane, simple and scientific game laws.’ Can you 
not do this in a later number of Forest and 
Stream?” I must confess that I had thought 
these matters so thoroughly understood that they 
needed no detailed explanation. 
I must give the protectionists’ ideas of scien¬ 
tific laws first. In framing a law to protect a 
certain species of fish, bird or animal, we in¬ 
quire: When is the pairing or mating season? 
Next, what is the period of incubation or gesta¬ 
tion ? Then, how long a time do the young of 
this species live by the aid of the parent fish or 
animal, etc. This information being scientifically 
determined, we must insist upon an absolute close 
season for the fish or animal during this time, 
and not permit them to be molested or disturbed 
under any consideration. But how is the ordi¬ 
nary sportsman to obtain this information? We 
cannot all be skilled naturalists and fish cul- 
turists. It can usually be obtained from your 
State commission, but if you do not care to con¬ 
sult the commission, call upon the Federal Fish 
Bureau or the Biological Survey. In those de¬ 
partments are trained experts who will be only 
too glad to furnish you with the desired infor¬ 
mation at any time, and their data may be thor¬ 
oughly relied upon. 
1 he next consideration is to so arrange our 
open seasons with regard to the means used in 
taking the fish or game, and the bag limit per 
day and season to each individual sportsman, 
that, as near as we can estimate, only the normal 
increase will be taken from the waters or covers 
each year. As Mr. Burnham well puts it: “The 
ideal game law is one so arranged as to season 
and method of hunting that no more than the 
increase of any game variety is killed during 
the open season, so that a sufficient breeding 
stock is left over each year to maintain the sup¬ 
ply. When this balance is seriously impaired, the 
extinction of the game is only a matter of time.” 
It ought to be plain to all sportsmen that when 
they see the supply growing short this extinction 
is being accomplished. It is difficult to get abso¬ 
lutely reliable and correct information upon the 
question of decrease, but the State commissions 
keep in close touch with the different localities 
in the State and can estimate very closely, while 
another source of information is to be found 
at the meetings of sportsmen’s associations and 
organizations of wardens. At times the ques¬ 
tion is obscure, but we can draw in our lines 
from time to time and take care not to go amiss. 
Any law not founded upon the above principles 
is not a protective measure and should not be 
permitted to parade under the guise of such. 
People are always desiring to loosen the lines 
and let down the bars by legislation, so they can 
take more game or fish, and their representatives 
in the Legislature are prone to assist them to 
accomplish this end and to forget the vital prin¬ 
ciples involved. This is just where the real ad¬ 
vocates of protection must keep constantly upon 
the alert and forestall such efforts. 
By “sane and simple laws” I mean laws in 
simple and plain language, without too much 
legal verbiage, so that all laymen may under¬ 
stand them when read, and so that courts will 
have no difficulty in interpreting and construing 
them when cases come up for adjudication. By 
sane laws we mean those framed by practical 
men familiar with the field work of enforcing 
these laws. No lawyer, however great in his 
profession, can draft good working game laws 
unless he is familiar with the practical enforce¬ 
ment of such laws in the field. But this result 
can easily be obtained by combining the lawyer’s 
efforts with those of the field staff of the fish 
and game department. A “sane” law should not 
contain too many technical restrictions, or the 
average sportsman will look upon it as ridiculous 
and be prone to disregard it altogether. 
I believe the above embodies what the real 
protectionists are working for in the way of 
law—as far as legislative enactments will save 
our game and fish, and it strikes me that those 
legislators who desire to make a sincere effort 
to get good game laws upon our statute books 
need have no difficulty in getting accurate infor¬ 
mation upon the subject. Harry Chase, 
County Warden. 
The Razor-back’s Work. 
Hendersonville, N. C., Jan 28 —Editor Forest 
and Stream: Our State Legislature is now in 
session and all kinds of bills on the game ques¬ 
tion are up for consideration. The usual num¬ 
ber of county game bills, of course. Heretofore 
bills for game protection and for fish protection 
also, but no provision has ever been made for 
wardens to enforce the bills passed. T. Gilbert 
Pearson has a good bill in view, and Mr. Dillard, 
of Cherokee county, has a bill that has much of 
good to commend it. 
Without a license tax of $1 or $2 from each 
resident sportsman, I do not see the use of any 
game legislation. I sincerely hope that before 
all the game has been destroyed, as were the 
passenger or wild pigeons, our Legislature will 
be induced to pass proper laws. It takes money 
to protect game and fish, and if the sportsmen 
and those desirous of having game for the 
future do- not care to pay the trifling amount 
of $1 or $2 each year for the proper enforce¬ 
ment of game laws, then we must make up our 
minds to have no game in the future. Remem¬ 
ber the passenger pigeon; remember the buffalo. 
The partridges (quail) are scarcer than I ever 
saw them in all my shooting experience of near¬ 
ly fifty years. This is accounted for by the 
heavy and continuous rains last summer. Most 
of the birds found are in the uplands away from 
river and creek. 
I have so far not shot a ruffed grouse or wild 
turkey this season. About a week ago I took 
about a fifteen mile walk after grouse in the 
mountains of Transylvania county, but not a 
grouse did I see. After a couple of hours my 
dog got pretty well disgusted and took little in¬ 
terest in the game prospects, but simply ran 
about in an aimless way. 
The razorback hog has fulfilled his mission of 
