Forest and Stream 
Terms, $3 a Year, 10 Cts. a Copy, . 
Six Months, $1.50. f 
A WEEKLY JOURNAL. 
Copyright, 1911, by Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 
George Bird Grinnell, President, 
Chari.es 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. 
TO GET THE BEST WORK. 
The report of Deputy Forest, Fish and Game 
Commissioner John B. Burnham for the last 
fiscal year of his term as chief game protector 
of New York State is full of meat. Mr. Burn¬ 
ham has devoted his energies to building up 
a force of subordinates whose members should 
feel in their work as much interest as he did 
in his. This is the most effective thing he could 
have done. Many of our game laws are good 
enough in themselves; the weak spot lies in the 
failure to enforce them. 
1 he holding of a public office too often seems 
to take out of the holder all energy and initia¬ 
tive, and to make him absolutely lethargic and 
inert. An official of this type after a time 
ceases to feel any interest in his work except 
that part of it which has to do with drawing 
his pay. Mr. Burnham has made it his business 
to drop the inefficient men from the force as 
fast as possible, and to replace them by others, 
each of whom he has tried to infuse with his 
own enthusiasm. One result of this course has 
been a great increase in the number of cases 
handled by the protectors, which for the year 
ending Sept. 30, 1910, numbered, including viola¬ 
tions of the fish and game laws and actions for 
trespass on State lands, 1,534 cases. The amount 
of penalties recovered was over $58,000. In 
order to encourage the protectors by giving them 
a reasonably certain tenure of office, they have 
been put under the operation of the competitive 
civil service law. 
Beyond this there should be a system of re¬ 
wards for good work; and these rewards might 
fitly take the form of progressively increased 
pay with the years of efficient service, with the 
prospect that, at the end of twenty years’ ser¬ 
vice, the protector should be retired on half pay. 
Protectors should understand that if they do not 
achieve certain results, based on faithful service 
and cases brought, they will be dropped from 
He force; but that after a'certain period of 
satisfactory service each man will receive an in- 
suggestd y ’ Whh thC retl ' ring PriviIegC ab0ve 
nuL^ Aft °V He Pr ° tect0r is now $ 9 oo per an- 
ceive 7 7 arS ’ Service each should re- 
everv t ^ Sh ° Uld haVC 30 increas e of pay 
ITZ 7 n yCarS af ! er that th e sum reaches 
*1,200. Any year ,n which a protector fails to 
do satisfactory work—even though his work be 
good enough to justify his retention on the force 
—should be disregarded in counting the time for 
an increased salary. The privilege of retire¬ 
ment after twenty years of service should also 
depend on the work that the protector had done. 
Half-hearted—perfunctory—service is an ob¬ 
stacle to much of the work in public office, and 
in recommending that by means of a system of 
increased pay and a pension, each protector shall 
be given an incentive to put into his work the 
very best that is in him, Mr. Burnham shows 
that he has a clear idea of what the service most 
needs. State officials interested in game protec¬ 
tion will do well to ponder the recommendations 
of this report. 
GROUNDHOG DAY. 
The outdoor man would think that there was 
something wrong if the early days of February 
went by without a reference to the groundhog 
and his day. 
„ ^ year or two a &° we gave in Forest and 
Stream a. brief account of this superstition and 
of its origin. Imported from Europe, though 
adapted to fit an animal of the new world, the 
saw concerning the groundhog is an article of 
faith for most Americans. 
If the groundhog sees his shadow in the sun 
Six weeks more of winter will -have begun. 
The faith in this jingle, however, is largely 
misplaced. It is painful to be obliged to say it 
of one of our most familiar wild animals, but 
the groundhog makes frequent mistakes. Whether 
his observation for 1911 is or is not accurate only 
the event can tell, but it is certain that on ground¬ 
hog day this year on the North Atlantic coast no 
groundhog had the privilege of seeing his own 
shadow. Hence—if we place our faith in the 
rhyme quoted above—winter is ended. To this 
must be added the fact that along that coast 
Feb. 4 was ushered in by a violent thunderstorm, 
another unfailing sign—in the popular belief— 
that winter is at an end. Three days later came 
an equally severe snowstorm with bitter cold. 
Whether there exists on this broad continent 
any man who has kept a careful record of suc¬ 
cessive groundhog days or not, we cannot tell. If 
such a man exists, it would be interesting to learn 
the result of his observation. 
1 VOL. LXXVI.-Ne. 6. 
1 No. 127 Franklin St., New York. 
black bass and wall-eyed pike. The bluffs, for 
which the region is noted, are of great natural 
beauty, and the hills above them are mostly scant 
of soil—stony, clothed with scrub cedar and oak, 
and unfit for cultivation. In autumn and early 
winter the air is balmy, hazy and soothing to 
weary men and women, and the broken hills 
temper the fury of the storms. 
All this the sportsmen of Missouri know, and 
they propose that Hahatonka be purchased for 
a park, but in an unusual way. They contribute 
nearly $150,000 annually to the shooting license 
und of the State, and their suggestion that a 
portion of the fund be devoted to acquiring the 
eleven thousand-square-mile tract is a novel one. 
At one time it was the home of great numbers 
of deer, wild turkeys and quail, and the cold 
streams contained hordes of game and food fish. 
With rigid protection the tract would again be¬ 
come a natural game and fish refuge. As the 
region round about Hahatonka is gradually be¬ 
coming more accessible, the land values are in¬ 
creasing. No time should be lost in securing the 
tract if this can be done. 
HAHATONKA PARK. 
Among the broken hills on the northern slope 
of the Ozark Mountains in Missouri nestles 
Hahatonka Park. Once the rendezvous of those 
tribes of Indians which pursued the deer in the 
rough country and idled on the placid waters 
of the cold streams, that section has come to be 
the vacation ground of the hard workers of 
Missouri. It is a natural wonderland. The 
limestone bluffs are honeycombed by caves of 
all sizes, and great springs gush forth from the 
rocks, forming brooks and rivers that teem with 
MIGRATORY GAME BIRD PROTECTION. 
The introduction last month in Congress by 
Representative Weeks of a bill forbidding the 
spring shooting of migratory game and other 
birds is an interesting sign of the times. It is 
now six or eight years since Mr. Shiras intro¬ 
duced in Congress a bill giving the Federal Gov¬ 
ernment the control of migratory birds and 
fishes and nearly twice as long since the subject 
was first broached. In all these years nothing 
has come of this, save a quiet and continued 
discussion of the subject by the people. 
There is no doubt whatever that sportsmen and 
game protectors everywhere believe that those 
birds which are not local in habit, but which 
travel from north to south and again from the 
south to the north, properly fall under the care 
of the General Government, and should be pro¬ 
tected by it. On the other hand, the conserva¬ 
tism of lawyers and legislators, together with 
their general lack of interest in and acquaint¬ 
ance with .the subject, makes it most difficult to 
secure any action on the subject, or in fact 
even to bring about a full discussion of it. Un¬ 
doubtedly the time is approaching when Con- 
giess will take hoVl of the matter, but the day 
for action may still be distant. 
The sentiment in favor of better protection 
of our natural things is growing day by day 
and the education of the public is constantly 
progressing. This is encouraging. Precisely the 
same thing took place in connection with the 
movement toward forest protection about thirty 
years ago, and we may hope that in the near 
future laws protecting game and fish and their 
enforcement will be vastly improved, just as 
to-day they stand changed and improved over 
what they were thirty years ago. 
