June 17, 1911.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
937 
able to apply some of the monqy now paid to 
game wardens to the more urgent need of fire 
warden service. While admitting that it is de¬ 
batable whether the combined duty could be per¬ 
formed by one set of men, he neverthe’ess be¬ 
lieves it feasible to combine all this work—as it 
is done in New York—under a central manage¬ 
ment of forestry, fish and game. This proposi¬ 
tion will doubtless be thoroughly debated in the 
House and Senate. 
Members of the Massachusetts Forestry Asso¬ 
ciation and the Boston Chamber of Commerce 
were in attendance at a hearing at the State 
House yesterday by the committees on constitu¬ 
tional amendments and taxation sitting jointly 
to hear arguments in reference to the Governor’s 
recommendation relative to taxation of wild and 
forest lands. Among the speakers were Henry 
James, Jr., representing the Forestry Association, 
and E. Blakely Hoar, of Brookline, who appeared 
for the Chamber of Commerce. The hearing 
was adjourned until June 13. 
Henry H. Kimball. 
New York Legislature. 
Albany, N. Y., June 12.— Editor Forest and 
Stream: Senator Fiero, of Greene county, has 
introduced in the Legislature by request a bill 
providing for the appointment by the Governor 
of a commission to consist of three members to 
investigate the State’s claim of title to lands in 
counties containing portions of the forest pre¬ 
serve. The members of the commission are to 
receive compensation at the rate of $25 for each 
day they are actually employed, in addition to 
their actual necessary expenses. The commission 
is given power to employ a stenographer and 
other necessary assistance; to require the attend¬ 
ance of witnesses and the production of records; 
and to hear and determine, after notice, the ap¬ 
plication of persons claiming title adverse to the 
State for the cancellation of tax sales made by 
the State comptroller. But no order of the com¬ 
mission cancelling any tax sale is to be valid 
until approved by the comptroller. The bill 
carries an appropriation of $5,000. 
The Assembly has passed the bill of Assembly- 
man C- W. Phillips, relative to pheasants. 
The Assembly has passed Assemblyman Gur- 
nett’s bill relative to the distribution of copies 
of the forest, fish and game law to persons pro¬ 
curing hunting licenses. 
The Assembly has passed Senator Fiero’s bill 
relative to hooking suckers through the ice in 
Ulster county. 
The Senate has passed Assemblyman Brere- 
ton’s bill relative to pike perch and angling 
through the ice in Lake George. 
The Senate on June 2 passed the Long bill to 
extend the season for shooting wild waterfowl 
on Long Island from Jan. 10 to Feb. 1. There 
is no change made in the date for the beginning 
of the open season, Oct. 1. 
The Assembly without discussion substituted 
for the Sheide bill Senator Long’s wildfowl bid 
and passed it. 
Governor Dix has signed the bill of Assembly- 
man McDaniels, providing that any fish, except 
black bass and pike perch, may be taken in a 
certain portion of Cayuga Lake by spearing from 
April 15 to June 15. 
Governor Dix has signed the bill of Assembly- 
man Evans, amending the forest, fish and game 
law by permitting the propagation of skunks. 
Catbirds Exempt. 
Hendersonville, N. C., June 7.— Editor Forest 
and Stream: As usual I have been reading with 
very much interest the several articles and letters 
in my favorite weekly magazine, Forest and 
Stream. Among others of interest is one from 
another one of w. b. s.’s pictures of the 
captured mountain sheep. 
Toronto, by “A Canoeist,” who speaks of the 
“pot-hunters of the Southern States” and says: 
“We are aware of the fact * * * that they have 
nearly exterminated every insect-destroying bird 
that nests in the North and migrates to the South 
in winter.” 
I think he is rather local as to this. I have 
never seen the catbird, thrush and other song 
birds shot or killed even by pot-hunters down 
here, and to-day they are quite plentiful, and per¬ 
sonally as far as I can see as many as fifty years 
ago in this neighborhood. 1 rather believe these 
birds have met far worse enemies in the new 
foreign population north of Mason and Dixon’s 
line than even the negroes south of it. 
We have a perfect concert here every morning, 
the woodthrush, robin, catbird, song sparrow, 
cardinals and thrashers vieing with each other. 
Ihis begins now each morning at the first dawn 
of day, the robins and woodthrushes being the 
first to pour forth their sweet songs. True, many 
robins have been shot, but these from the Gulf 
to the Great Lakes, not solely in the South. 
The pot-hunter is everywhere, I think, and he 
did his work pretty thoroughly with both the 
buffalo and passenger pigeons, the first in the 
far West, the latter very largely in the Middle 
West, the South no doubt shooting some of them, 
but most were trapped by men from the large 
cities of the North and Middle West, or others 
in their employ. 
It is quite true we have in this State the poor¬ 
est system of game laws one can find in any part 
of the L T nited States—county game laws, with no 
machinery of Government to enforce them; yet 
even with this so we have plenty of songsters 
here in this State. 
True it is that Americans have been and are 
still very short-sighted as to the inevitable re¬ 
sults of promiscuous bird shooting, but this is 
not wholly in the South. 
1 sincerely wish our State Legislatures would 
take a lesson or so from Canada, for there is 
ample room for improvement. 
Ernest L. Ewbank. 
Helpless Wildfowl. 
Filled with compassion for the hundreds of 
starving ducks that lie helpless on the Marin 
shore from the effects of crude oil dumped in 
the bay, Town Recorder Herbert de la Mon- 
tanya has converted his home into a refuse for 
the birds. His friends are bringing them to 
him by the score and De la Montanya spends 
his spare moments cleaning the oil from their 
feathers with hot water and wood ashes. 
Aided by his three sons, he has built coops 
for his feathered patients. His artistic country 
estate has taken on the appearance of a duck 
ranch. In one portion of the inclosure the town 
recorder has erected a shed which serves as a 
receiving hospital for the ducks. 
The feathers of the birds are glued to their 
sides from the thick coating of oil. Recorder 
de la Montanya places the birds on an impro¬ 
vised operating table and scrubs them with 
ashes and water. When the oil is removed he 
gives them a good feed and places them in a 
coop. 
The free duck hospital is divided into wards, 
ducks being housed together according to their 
species. Canvasbacks, teal, widgeon, bluebills, 
each have their special department. When the 
ducks are fat and well again De la Montanya 
will turn them loose in San Pablo Bay for the 
good of the sport.—San Francisco Call. 
The Forest and Stream may be obtained from 
any newsdealer on order. Ask your dealer to 
supply you regularly. 
