376 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[March ii, 1911. 
Utica Sportsmen Meet. 
Utica, N. Y., March 4 —Editor Forest and 
Stream: The Utica Fish and Game Protective 
Association held a special meeting at Bagg s 
Hotel, in this city, last night for the purpose of 
considering various proposed amendments to the 
game laws now pending in the Legislature. 
F\ A. Cassidy and Major H. J. Cookinham, 
who represented the association at the annual 
meeting of the New York State Fish, Game and 
Forest League in Syracuse this winter, stated 
that the two resolutions adopted by the Utica 
association, one regarding the season for grouse 
and woodcock, and the other in reference to the 
pollution of streams, received the endorsement 
of the State League. 
It was announced that application had been 
made to the State for ring-necked pheasants to 
be placed in covers in Oneida county. 1 he 
proposition is to place birds in six or eight 
towns. Application has been made for fifty 
birds and 400 eggs. A committee of three was 
appointed to act with the secretary in placing 
the birds and eggs. 
The association has been granted 2,500 brown 
trout and 3,000 brook trout to be placed in 
Skenandoa Creek at Oriskany Falls, 3,000 brook 
trout for Sauquoit Creek and 3,000 brown and 
2,000 rainbow trout fingerlings for Oriskany 
Creek, one of the best trout streams in the coun¬ 
try. A sort of hybrid trout now inhabits its 
waters. The brown trout was spoken of as a 
better fighter than the brook trout and a good 
substitute. 
The secretary was instructed to write to Sena¬ 
tor Ferris and Assemblyman Manley, asking them 
to do all they can to defeat the Long Island 
wildfowl spring shooting bill. 
A bill will be drafted and presented in the 
Legislature limiting the number of ducks which 
a person can kill in one day to ten, the number 
which can be had in possession at one time to 
twenty, and the number for one season to fifty. 
Major Cookinham was appointed to draft such 
a bill and see about having it introduced in the 
Senate and Assembly. 
A motion was carried declaring it to be the 
sense of the association that the plumage bill is 
an iniquitous measure and would do away with 
the good work done by the Audubon Society 
and similar organizations for the protection of 
song birds and certain plumage birds, and direct¬ 
ing the secretary to write to the Senator and 
Assemblyman from this district urging the de¬ 
feat of the bill. 
Secretary French urged the importance of pro¬ 
tecting the song birds, speaking of their great 
value to the agricultural interests of the coun¬ 
try. Fie called attention to the statements of 
scientists that if the birds were destroyed, human 
life could no longer exist, as the country would 
be overrun with insects, and every green thing 
would be destroyed. He said that if women 
would stop wearing the plumage of birds, the 
slaughter of song birds would cease. 
The proposed amendment closing the season 
for grouse until 1915 was discussed, and some 
of the members cited instances where cutting off 
the shooting for a term of years had proved a 
failure. The opinion was expressed that one 
of the chief reasons for the scarcity of grouse 
was the lack of good cover. Some of the mem¬ 
bers thought that placing a bounty on foxes, 
skunks and certain hawks would do more to 
protect grouse than closing the season for a 
term of years. It was stated that skunks did a 
great deal of harm by breaking up the nests of 
grouse, and still those animals are protected by 
law during a portion of the year. The red 
squirrel was declared to be a worse enemy to 
the birds than foxes. It was declared to be the 
sense of the association that Senate bill 237, 
providing for a close season on grouse until 
1915, should not be passed. 
The association favored extending the closed 
season for brook trout in Oneida county from 
April 15 to May 1. 
The president was authorized to appoint a 
committee of three to attend the meeting of 
sportsmen to be held in Albany March 9, and 10 
to consider proposed game law legislation. 
The association is opposed to the use of fer¬ 
rets in hunting hares and rabbits. The bill, 
which proposes to incorporate a provision in the 
game laws to prohibit Sunday shooting, was 
briefly discussed. 
The association decided to have a banquet 
Monday evening, March 20. W. E. Wolcott. 
Nebraska Wildfowl. 
Omaha, Neb., Feb. 22. —Editor Forest and 
Stream: Old winter seems to be petering out 
pretty rapidly just now, and you can almost 
smell spring. The weather is bright and sunny 
and the winds are soft and caressing, but it is 
only a biuff, for February is invariably our 
hardest winter month. Of course the sportsmen 
are in a fever of expectation, for already the 
pintails have arrived and some larger flocks have 
been seen reconnoitering up and down the Platte, 
the Loup and the Missouri rivers. With the 
next wintry blast, however, they will all go to 
the south, but the old duck hunter is not to be 
fooled. The sunshine, the warm winds, the 
swelling maple buds and the sight of a few 
venturesome pintails cannot deceive him, and 
he will be content to linger before the fire a 
little longer and dream of the joys that have 
gone before. 
Just now in these days of waiting it is next 
to the real thing to lounge before the open fire¬ 
place and to recall the ravishing delights of the 
spring shoots of the past, the days when the 
cares of business and the perplexities of life 
were laid aside and forgotten. The early rise 
in the clear frosty mornings, the tramp to the 
blind, the genial camaraderie of feilow sportsmen. 
But of all my hunting days, and they have 
been many, none have been more pleasant or 
filled with life-prolonging and beautifying quali¬ 
ties than those spent with the venerable Jake 
Snider and good old Sam Richmond in their 
little wall tent on the romantic Loup. 
The Windsor is another new sportsmen's club 
composed of the following well-known shooters: 
Frank Beard, President; Charles Battelle, Sec¬ 
retary and Treasurer; Wm. Simpson, John Mc¬ 
Donald, Frank Togg, James Lynch, Chas. Izard, 
Jim Craig, M. F. Kunier, W. M. McKay, Wm. 
Dorrance, A. Reed, Grant Cleveland and W. L. 
Hodder. Just now they are busily engaged get¬ 
ting ready for the shooting at their new log 
lodge on the Missouri River near Herman. Ihey 
have one of the finest locations on the stream 
for shooting and fishing and know how to ap¬ 
preciate it. They have built a commodious and 
up-to-date lodge with a large storage wing for 
boats, decoys and other accessories. They have 
a ninety-nine year lease on the grounds. 
In the maples in front of my Dundee bungalow 
on the morning of Feb. 10 I counted eighteen 
bluejays and they were making life miserable 
for a couple of squirrels that had come down 
from the grove for their breakfast of nuts the 
boy never fails to spread for them. Cold as it 
has been, these jays have been here all winter, 
and in the midst of the late blizzard even I 
heard their squawking above the blast. Malapert 
as the jay bird is, he is one of my favorites of 
all our American birds. Sandy Griswold. 
Michigan Legislature. 
One of our Michigan correspondents has this 
to say regarding the proposed legislation in his 
State: 
“The shooters along the Detroit River and 
the St. Clair flats are opposed to stopping spring 
shooting. Many of them are pot hunters. The 
present law allows the killing of twenty-five 
ducks in a day, and one can have fifty in pos¬ 
session. A threat is made by the inland sports¬ 
men that if these duck club members and De¬ 
troit River shooters will not at this time restrict 
by stopping spring shooting, that they will put 
through a bill limiting the daily bag to six and 
not over twenty-five in possession, and not more 
than fifty to be killed during the season. 
“Two other bills were introduced in the Michi¬ 
gan Senate last week; one for the hunters and 
trappers’ license. It provides no change in the 
deer law which is, non-resident’s license $25; 
resident license, $1.50; privilege of killing two 
deer. For hunting and trapping other than deer 
the non-resident’s license is $10; a resident alien s 
license $10. This is to put a stop to the irre¬ 
sponsible foreigner who shoots our song birds 
for the pot. For the resident hunter an annual 
fee of $1. All of this money to go to the game 
warden’s department for the propagation, pro¬ 
tection, etc., of game and fish. The other bill 
is the creating of a non-partisan, honorary com¬ 
mission of five to be appointed by the Governor 
to take over the duties of the present fish com¬ 
mission, and the duties of the present game 
warden’s department. To give said newly 
created commission a good deal of authority. 
For instance, it is contemplated to set aside 
game refuges, to create game preserves in cer¬ 
tain portions of the public domain, to extermi¬ 
nate vermin, to offer bounties on the same, to 
appoint game keepers who will also' be protec¬ 
tors, and who will know how to take care of 
game, to feed it when necessary and to plant 
food for it and to exterminate vermin and pre¬ 
vent the destruction of game covers by fire, tres¬ 
pass, etc.” 
Ducking in the West. 
Los Angeles, Cal., March 1 .—Editor Forest 
and Stream: During the shooting season now 
closed the prevalence of quiet weather on shoot¬ 
ing days was brought home to returning club 
men by the great rafts of sleeping wildfowl that 
could be seen lying in acres out on the placid 
Pacific opposite the station where the cars are 
taken for home. About quitting time some of 
these rafts would break up, and thousands of 
ducks would begin moving at once, making a 
stirring and inspiring sight. Edwin L. Hedderly. 
