Forest and Stream 
Terms, $3 a Year, 10 Cts. a Copy, * 
Six Months, $1.50. 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, MARCH 25, 1911 
■ VOL. LXXVI.—No. 12. 
1 No. 127 Franklin St., New York. 
A WEEKLY JOURNAL. 
Copyright, 1911, 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. 
THE FIGHT OVER SPRING SHOOTING. 
In three of the Eastern States a notable fight 
by sportsmen and game protectors is being car¬ 
ried this winter to hold the gains made in re- 
cents years for good methods in sport, and for 
the preservation of our wildfowl. 
In New \ork—although the great majority of 
gunners are wholly opposed to the practice of 
spring shooting—the Senate has already passed 
the bill to repeal the law which forbids the kill¬ 
ing of wildfowl in spring, on Long Island, and 
no one knows very clearly what action the As¬ 
sembly will take in the matter. 
In Connecticut the question is still in abey¬ 
ance. Many shore gunners wish the season 
opened in spring as it used to be, but a majority, 
we believe, are earnest that the law shall stand 
as it is, or that if any concession be made, it 
shall not be in the nature of a lengthening of 
the season, but rather in the moving forward for 
a month the date of opening and closing the sea¬ 
son. Such a change would deprive Connecticut 
shooters of much of their black duck shooting 
and all the shooting of bluewing teal. In ex¬ 
change it would give them some coot and old 
squaw shooting in winter. 
In the Massachusetts Legislature a very hot 
fight is going on. All the naturalists—such 
familiar names as William Brewster, C. F. 
Batchelder, C. W. Townsend, E. H. Forbush, 
C. J. Maynard and many others—are opposed to 
spring shooting as are all the natural history 
associations. Colonel Theodore Roosevelt has 
written to the Boston Society of Natural His¬ 
tory, saying: 
I heartily approve of the law prohibiting the 
shooting of ducks and geese between Jan. i and 
Sept. 15. I wish it were universal. I think it 
will be a real misfortune if Massachusetts, a 
State to which we have been accustomed to 
look for guidance in these matters, takes a back¬ 
ward step.” 
A number of gunners of the Cape ask the 
Legislature to permit the shooting of coots, 
whistlers, sheldrake and brant after Jan. 1, and 
the friends of protection are fighting the three 
bills proposed to bring this about. 
The folly of spring shooting and the damage 
wrought by it are shown in the protest brought 
forward by the Boston Natural History Society 
confirmed by the testimony of other naturalists. 
Ihis shows that two important lines of bird 
migration cross each other at Cape Cod, and that 
for this reason the shooting there should be 
limited—because the birds may more easily be 
killed there than elsewhere. Some of the evi¬ 
dence as to the decrease of the wildfowl is given 
by men whose testimony cannot be ignored. Thus 
Henry B. Bigelow, naturalist at the Agassiz 
Museum, is quoted as saying, what is well known 
to many gunners, that the brant are decreasing 
at an alarming rate: 
Twelve years ago brant were very common 
in winter in the salt bays of the eastern 
shore of Virginia near Cobb’s Island and 
Cape Charles, and over nearly the whole of 
I amlico Sound. Near Cobb’s Island they have 
decreased very much in the last five or six years, 
and in Pamlico they now winter plentifully only 
in the neighborhood of Ocracoke and Hatteras. 
I hey used to be the most abundant waterfowl 
near Pea Island, some forty miles north of Hat¬ 
teras; now but few are seen there.” 
Walter H. Rich, of Maine, author of an ad¬ 
mirable book on shooting, “Feathered Game of 
the Northeast,” declares that in the last ten years 
the coots have diminished 50 per cent. 
Frank M. Chapman, of the American Museum 
of Natural History of New York, and E. W. 
Nelson, president of the American Ornithologists’ 
Union, both urge that spring shooting shall be 
given up everywhere. Since the law forbidding 
spring shooting was passed, there has been a 
notable increase in local wildfowl in Massachu¬ 
setts. Black ducks have returned to that State 
to breed as they have in Connecticut. S. Pres¬ 
cott Fay told of a visit made a year ago to Dux- 
bury where he found the harbor full of black 
ducks. Similar observations have been made by 
Gardner G. Hammond on the Vineyard and by 
members of the Old Colony Natural History 
Society of Plymouth. A like story comes from 
Connecticut. 
The situation seems to be that all the experts 
wish to have the present law remain unchanged, 
while a few Cape gunners wish to have it re¬ 
pealed so that they may shoot when they like. 
The bill to license resident shooters in Penn¬ 
sylvania has been killed in committee. It was 
urged by the Game Commission as a means to 
raise funds for game preservation, but was so 
vigorously opposed by the press and by various 
interests that further consideration of the meas¬ 
ure was postponed indefinitely. 
X 
Tennessee sportsmen are urging the passage 
of the resident license measure now before the 
Legislature. The Tennessee Game Commission 
has practically no funds to prosecute its work, 
and cannot, therefore, employ many competent 
wardens. 
CONNECTICUT GAME PROPAGATION. 
1 he announcement some time ago that the 
State ornithologist of Connecticut intended to 
establish one or more stations for the rearing 
of game birds awakened much interest in that 
State. Individual sportsmen and protective clubs 
are considering the subject, and much discus¬ 
sion and correspondence are being had about it. 
The State Agricultural College and the Com¬ 
missioners of l'isheries and Game have ranged 
themselves on the side of Mr. Job and purpose 
to help him, so far as is possible. The State 
Game Commission has made a preliminary ap¬ 
propriation, and has authorized the ornitholo¬ 
gist to begin what may become, if successful, a 
State Game Park. A tract of land at Storrs, on 
the premises of the Connecticut Agricultural 
College, wi.l be used, and the earliest experi¬ 
ments will be made with quail. At the place 
of Geo. D. Tilley, Darien, similar experiments 
will be carried on in a small way with quail, 
ruffed grouse and various wildfowl. 
Shou d the effort to raise quail be successful, 
the first surplus birds reared will probably be 
distributed to individual experimenters, with 
careful instruction as to methods and with any 
needed supervision. For the present the quail 
problem will be the chief one to be attacked. 
Not a few people in the State, among them 
sportsmen of much experience, who, in view of 
the depletion of the stock of quail in that State, 
have for years refrained from shooting quail, 
are now anxious to try to rear birds in confine¬ 
ment, not to be shot, but to be turned out for 
the general good. 
In addition to all this it is announced that a 
New \ork man, T. A. Howell, has purchased 
a large section of land—about four square miles 
—in the town of Hartland, Connecticut, where 
he purposes to construct artificial lakes and to 
experiment in the wholesale propagation of 
native wildfowl. 
1 he State of Connecticut seems thoroughly 
aroused and high hopes are entertained of the 
results which may follow these experiments. If 
only a portion of the money which has been ex¬ 
pended in the purchase of foreign gallinaceous 
birds can be put into the work of experiment¬ 
ing under proper conditions with native wild¬ 
fowl, grouse and quail, it is believed that the 
outcome will be such as to astonish the experi¬ 
menters and to offer an object lesson of great 
value to the country at large. 
Representatives of the Arcadia Country Club 
appeared before the Missouri Legislature a fort¬ 
night ago and asked that its 3,000-acre preserve 
in St. Franqois and Iron counties be accepted 
by the State as a game and fish reserve. A bill 
to this end has been introduced in the Legisla¬ 
ture and favorably reported out of committee. 
It is planned to maintain the park with a por¬ 
tion of the license fee fund. 
