April 22, 1911.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
615 
There is no doubt that for these firms the law 
would mean an obstruction in their business. 
They may even lose money, because they bought 
stocks of birds that would now become worth¬ 
less. 
But all this cannot satisfy the general demand 
to stop murdering the pretty forest songsters. 
Surprising has been the destruction of wild 
life in this country. Not more than fifty years 
ago the number of passenger pigeons in this land 
was enormous. In our neighboring State Con¬ 
necticut, says an author, the winged immigrants 
arrived. They had been flying in long rows, 
covering the skies for two days in succession. 
1 hey were divided in three flocks. Every flock 
contained more pigeons than there were human 
beings on earth; and now? For over two years 
an award of five thousand dollars has been of¬ 
fered to the one who will locate a nest of these 
pigeons. So far no one has won the prize. The 
passenger pigeons have actually been rooted out 
by the professional hunters. 
Our forests still have beautifully colored and 
charming songsters, but should present conditions 
continue, then within ten or fifteen years they all 
will be destroyed. 
Let us Jews not participate in this tragedy. 
We Jews are merciful children of the Merciful. 
We were the first in the world to preach about 
mercy to animals. In our Temple there were no 
other images except those of Cheruvim—birds. 
Let us help protect these charming forest en¬ 
chanters. 
As Jews, we urge Assemblyman Levy to leave 
this bill for others, and let himself, as a Jew, 
help defeat such a bill that is neither Jewish, nor 
humane, nor just. 
Let us hope that the Jewish milliners will finally 
withdraw this bill, and that the Jewish women 
will be the first truly civilized, and will refuse 
as head wear the little dead bodies of the pretty, 
forest songsters. 
Minnesota Birds. 
Minneapolis, Minn., April 3 . — Editor Forest 
and Stream: During the last week the weather 
has been cold with more or less snow. This has 
given the ground a good wetting which was 
badly needed. Several of our summer birds 
have arrived. The bluebird came March 12, 
the robin on the 21st, while the crow arrived on 
the 1st of March. The tree sparrows and the 
juncos are here in numbers at the present on 
their journey to their more northern summer 
home. A few fox sparrows were seen on the 
26th. 
I am glad to see that the bill to allow spring 
shooting in New York was defeated. It is a 
crying shame that men will make an effort to 
pass such bills. 
The passing of a law in Iowa so as to allow 
boys to hunt without a license is sad. What 
every State needs is a law to prohibit boys 
from carrying firearms. The sight of a flock of 
boys roaming the woods carrying .22 caliber 
rifles, shooting every animal that comes with¬ 
in their range, is certainly sorrowful to see. 
How long are the people going to tolerate 
this? The boy with the .22 caliber is a more 
potent factor in the destruction of our smaller 
birds and mammals than all other causes com¬ 
bined. 
The majority of the people are indifferent to 
the protection of wild life, although many of 
our wild animals play an important part in our 
daily life, even in the bread and butter that we 
eat. For instance, the value that we receive 
from insect and weed-destroying birds and mam¬ 
mals cannot be overestimated. Let us all do 
our best to preserve our birds and mammals. 
J. W. Franzen. 
Big Wolves in California? 
Through the kindness of John B. Babcock, 
Chief Deputy of the California Fish and Game 
Commission, we have received notice of the re¬ 
ported killing of deer in California by wolves 
hunting in packs over the snow. This is suffi¬ 
ciently startling, but, while requiring further in¬ 
vestigation, the report comes through District 
Game Warden A. D. Ferguson, and one of his 
deputies, W. G. Scott, in a report dated Soulsby- 
ville to Tuolumne county, California. 
Deputy Scott had been on patrol for about 
a month, following along the snow line on the 
mountains. The snow was melting fast and the 
deer were moving back higher into the hills as 
it receded. He is quoted as saying about the 
end of March: “Last week I received word 
from a trapper who is trapping some twenty- 
five miles above here to come up and visit his 
camp. I went there, and when I arrived he told 
me that wffiat he called wolves were traveling 
in packs and were killing deer by the dozen. I 
could hardly credit this, but he took me out and 
I saw them running deer myself, and during 
half a day's ride we saw the remains of fifteen 
carcasses of deer that had been killed by them. 
“While I was there he caught one of these 
animals which must have weighed over eighty 
pounds. It was gray on the back and along the 
sides, with tan colored facing on the side of the 
head and under the belly, and looked to me like 
a cross between a timber wolf and a coyote. 
“He tells me that he has caught twenty of 
them this winter and has shipped their pelts 
east.” 
District Game Warden Ferguson comments on 
the above by referring to the rarity of wolves 
in California. He is speaking of the large 
wolves commonly called gray, timber or buffalo 
wolves, an animal believed to be exceedingly 
rare or non-existent in the State. In the high 
mountains to the north of California and espe¬ 
cially in British Columbia and perhaps Washing- 
ton, wolves in the mountains are not very scarce, 
but in California they are very rare, so much so 
that many people believe that they are extinct. 
On the other hand coyotes are very abundant. 
The statements made here are very extraordi¬ 
nary, yet the men who make them are thor¬ 
oughly reliable and believe the statements made 
are true. If it were not for their character the 
story might receive little credence. 
Chief Deputy Babcock has given instructions 
to have the matter looked up as thoroughly as 
possible, and we may hope that before long 
something more will be known on the matter. 
Book Exchange. 
No doubt there are many of our readers who possess 
old books, and others who would be glad to possess 
them, and we are, therefore, making a special place in 
our advertising columns, which may be called a book 
exchange, where those who wish to purchase, sell or ex¬ 
change second-hand books may ask for what they need, 
or offer what they have. 
California Advancing. 
San Francisco, Cal., April 8 .—Editor Forest 
and Stream: The California Legislature, re¬ 
cently in session at Sacramento, has framed 
many new laws of special interest to sportsmen, 
and it is believed that, taken as a whole, the 
changes will be for the best. One of the most 
important of these measures provides for dividing 
the State into game districts—the result of 
years of effort on the part of sportsmen and 
their organizations. The great climatic differ¬ 
ences in the various sections of the State made 
it impossible to establish just game laws for 
the State as a whole, for in some parts the 
breeding season is from a month to six weeks 
later than in other sections. The framers of 
this law provided only for the division of the 
State into six game districts, all other matters 
such as seasons, bag limits, etc., having been 
left to those framing the so-called blanket bill 
and the trout bill. The following list of coun¬ 
ties will show the manner in which the State 
has been divided into game districts: 
First—Del Norte, Siskiyou, Modoc, Lassen, 
Shasta, Trinity, Humboldt, Tehama. Second— 
Mendocino, Glenn, Colusa, Lake, Sonoma, 
Napa, Yolo, Solano, Marin. Third—Plumas, 
Butte, Sierra, Yuba, Sutter, Nevada, Placer, El 
Dorado, Sacramento, Amador, Alpine, Cala¬ 
veras, Tuolumne, Mariposo, Mono. Fourth— 
San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Merced, Madero, 
Fresno, Kings, Tulare, Kern. Fifth—Contra 
Costa, Alameda, San Francisco, San Mateo. 
Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, San Benito, Monterey, 
San Louis Obispo. Sixth—Santa Barbara, Ven¬ 
tura, Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego, Im¬ 
perial, Riverside, San Bernardino and Inyo. 
Prominent among the changes to be brought 
about by the blanket bill are changes in the sea¬ 
sons for killing ducks, doves, quail, and the 
withdrawal of protection from sage hens and 
grouse. Restrictions have been placed on the 
shooting of cottontail rabbits. The season for 
ducks will open Oct. 15 instead of Oct. 1, ex¬ 
cept in districts 1 and 6, where the old date will 
be in force. The season will extend to the first 
of March. The reason for making the change 
in the opening date is that the weather is often 
warm early in October and thousands of ducks 
have been slaughtered and allowed to spoil 
during the open days in the past. 
The quail season, which formerly opened on 
October 1, will not commence until two weeks 
later, and in all districts with the exception of 
No. 6 the closing date will be Feb. 15. In 
Southern California, where quail are getting 
scarce, the closing date will be Nov. 15. No 
change has been made in the daily bag limit of 
ducks or quail, with the exception of mountain 
quail, only ten of which may be killed in one 
day. However, through the efforts of sports¬ 
men a weekly limit of 50 has been set on ducks, 
thus making it difficult for the market hunters 
to operate at a profit. 
For the first time in the history of the game 
laws of the State a close season and a bag limit 
have been placed on brush and cottontail rab¬ 
bits, the closed season being from Feb. 1 to 
July 31, and the bag limit 15. 
The open season on plover, curlew and snipe 
will be Nov. 15—April 30; limit, 20 a day. Rail 
are to be protected until Nov. 1, 1912, and fol¬ 
lowing that date are to be shot only during 
