FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Feb. 15, 1908. 
258 
Western New York for Protection. 
Rochester, N. Y., Feb. 1. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: On Jan. 8 about one hundred and fifty 
sportsmen assembled in our city and organized 
an association to be known as the Western New 
York Sportsman’s Game and Fish Association, 
with the following officers. P. V. Crittenden, 
President; Charles H. Babcock, Ireasurer; 
James Annin, Jr., Secretary, and an executive 
committee consisting of W. S. Garrett, of Lyons, 
Wayne county; E. A. Bowman, of Medina, 
Orleans county; J. M. Stoddard, of Shortsville, 
Ontario county; W. E. Horton, of Geneseo, Liv¬ 
ingston county, and John R. Fanning, of Roches¬ 
ter, Monroe county. The president and treas¬ 
urer are residents of Rochester, and the secre¬ 
tary is a resident of Caledonia, Livingston county. 
The association hopes that the other counties 
of western New York may become members. 
The meeting with one exception unanimously 
adopted the following resolution after a full dis¬ 
cussion : 
Resolved,' That the laws relating to forest, fish and 
game in the counties of Orleans, Monroe, Livingston, 
Ontario, and Wayne, should be amended as follows, viz.: 
First—That the taking of woodcock should be limited 
to the number of twenty-four for the season and not 
more than six shall be killed or transported at one time 
by the person taking the same, and that the season 
open Oct. 1 to 31, both inclusive. 
Second—That the taking of grouse should be limited 
to the number of twelve for the season to a person, and 
not more than four shall be killed or transported by 
any one person at one time, and that the open season 
therefor be Oct. 1 to 31, both inclusive. 
Pheasants.—That there be an open season for the 
taking of male or cock pheasants, and the same be 
Thursday of each week during the month of October, 
and that not more than one be taken on each Thursday 
by a person, and that the sale thereof be prohibited. 
That any person taking such pheasant shall, on or be¬ 
fore the 1st day of December in each year, make and file 
with the clerk of the county of which he is a resident, 
an affidavit stating the whole number of pheasants taken, 
the date each was taken, and the town and county in 
which each was taken. 
Whereas, All the States, with few exceptions, now have 
a hunter’s license law, as well as all the Provinces of 
Canada, while this State is furnishing free shooting to 
people of all States and nations, we deem a license law a 
necessity as well as a matter of justice. 
Therefore, Resolved, That we cannot too strongly urge 
upon our Governor, the Legislature and the Forest, 
Fish and Game Department that such a law be at once 
passed; and we deem the following fees for license to 
hunt fair and reasonable: To residents, $1; to non¬ 
residents, $15; to aliens, $25 per year. 
Whereas, There has been reported more or less shoot¬ 
ing of ducks in the waters of the bays adjoining Lake 
Ontario off the counties of Orleans, Monroe, and Wayne, 
and Conesus Lake from gasoline launches. 
Resolved, That*Section 21 of the forest, fish and game 
law be amended prohibiting the shooting of ducks, geese 
and brant from any boat containing any propelling de¬ 
vice or appliance except oars or paddles. 
Sunday Shooting.—It is the firm belief of the members 
of this meeting that the unlawful hunting and shooting 
on Sundays is the greatest menace to our game and 
song birds of all kinds, and that the class of persons 
engaged therein is as a rule irresponsible or composed 
of fcfeigners. Therefore, 
Resolved, That the Commissioners of Forest, Fish an.l 
Game is hereby requested, through the game protectors, 
to more rigidly enforce the law; and further 
Resolved, That the sheriffs of the counties of Monroe, 
Orleans, Livingston, Ontario and Wayne, and the con¬ 
stables of the several towns of said counties, be, and 
they are hereby, requested to enforce the law against 
Sunday hunting and shooting. 
Game Refuge.—Whereas, It has been reported that As¬ 
semblyman Eggleston, representing Orleans county, pro¬ 
poses to introduce a bill in the Legislature looking to the 
preservation of the Oak Orchard and Tonawanda swamp 
lands as a forest preserve. It is hereby 
Resolved, that we are strongly in favor thereof, and 
we would respectfully ask the members of the Legisla¬ 
ture from the counties here represented, in both 
branches thereof, to aid Assemblyman Eggleston in the 
accomplishment thereof; and we suggest that the law ‘net¬ 
ting the same aside as a forest preserve, provide that the 
same be a game refuge. 
Whereas, The National Association of Audubon Soci¬ 
eties has issued an appeal for the saving of the wood- 
, cock for extermination; 
Resolved, That this meeting is in favor of an amend¬ 
ment of the law prohibiting the taking of woodcock for 
a period of five years. 
Resolved, That the law should be so amended that the 
open season for taking all kinds of upland game close 
at the- same' time. 
John R. Fanning. 
“My Friend the Partridge.” 
Hendersonville, N. C., Feb. i .—Editor Forest 
and Stream: I have been so much interested in 
following the story of “My Friend the Par¬ 
tridge,” by S. T. Hammond, that I desire to ex¬ 
press my full appreciation of it. I, too, have 
had about forty years’ intimacy with this splen¬ 
did game bird, and have read during that time 
so much nonsense written about it, that it is 
refreshing to read something that personal ex¬ 
perience has again and again verified, 
I have read each copy of Forest and Stream 
carefully, and Mr. Hammond’s story with very 
much pleasure, largely so because it is so evi¬ 
dent that what he writes he has experienced— 
the cunning of the bird in covering its flight 
with a large tree, for instance.. I remember a 
couple of years ago being out with a friend 
when my pointer dog came to a stiff point on a 
little mountain brook, my friend on one side 
and I on the other, the dog just between us 
and no large timber in the way, though plenty 
of small growth, and hardly any cover. The 
grouse did not wish to rise; and so I picked up 
a piece of wood and tossed it to the spot I felt 
sure the bird was. It fell nearly on the bird. 
It rose at once, but not over six feet from the 
ground, so F scarcely had a chance to shoot 
above the dog. It was a close shot, and I 
bagged it. Had there been large timber, he 
would no doubt have risen behind it. I have 
often seen this. 
Again Mr. Hammond well describes the drum¬ 
ming of the grouse. I remember reading but 
a few years ago something a certain so-called 
sportsman wrote of his having walked up to 
about twenty feet of a log on which an old 
cock was drumming, and that he saw him drum 
by beating his wings together above his back. 
An impossible thing—they can’t be put together 
without unjointing them, and the grouse is not 
so tame anyhow. 
To me one of the great charms of hunting 
this bird and bagging him, is because of his 
foxy nature. You never can tell what he is 
going to do. And, too, the charms of the 
woods in which he is found add so much to 
the sport of hunting him. 
Here in the North Carolina mountains we 
may tramp for hours without seeing a grouse 
and get discouraged—if not used to the ways of 
the bird—and then having shouldered your gun 
in disgust, up gets an old cock in a most un¬ 
expected place. One must be always on the 
qui vive, ready at any time to shoot, as it often 
happens that after you have passed by one, he 
will rise and go the other way. and you must 
be quick. All this and so much more has Mr. 
Hammond seen, and each number of Forest 
and Stream I get, I turn at once for his story. 
Ernest L. Ewbank. 
New Publications. 
Days Off and Other Digressions. By Henry 
Van Dyke. New York, Charles Scribner's 
Sons. Illustrated in colors; 322 pages, $1.50. 
All who have read Dr. Van Dyke’s “Little 
Rivers” and “Fisherman’s Luck’’ should have 
a copy of “Days Off.” The definition of the 
term, he says, is “a day that n man takes to him¬ 
self”; but “nine times out of ten he will find 
that he can’t get a really good day to himself 
unless he shares it with some one else. * * * 
Every man owes it to himself to* have Some .days 
in his life when he escapes from bondage, gets 
away from routine, and does something which 
seems to have no purpose in the world, just be¬ 
cause he wants to do it. * * * There is a bene¬ 
fit as well as a joy in finding out that you can 
lay down your task for a proper while without 
being disloyal to your duty. Play time is a part 
of school time, not a break in it.” 
Among the doctor’s stories is one that has to 
do with a young man who was to have been mar¬ 
ried at 12 o’clock on a certain day at a little 
chapel in Tadousac. But in the morning he rose 
and hooked a great salmon that fought long and 
stubbornly, so that the canoe men followed hint 
down a long series of rapids before he was finally 
subdued. It was a record fish, and in the exulta¬ 
tion of the victory, its captor forgot, as he had 
forgotten all through the fight, of the passage cf 
time. When his attention was called to that 
fact, he was twenty miles from town, with many 
rapids to be poled up, a long drive at the end, 
and less than two hours’ time. The canoe men 
made haste, but on the road the buckboard broke 
down, a horse fell and was lamed, and the bride¬ 
groom arrived at 12:30 to find a note wishing 
him luck in his fishing. 
Ornithological and Other Oddities. By Frank 
Finn, B.A., F.C.S., late Deputy Superin¬ 
tendent of the Indian Museum, Calcutta. 
With 56 illustrations. Cloth, 295 pages. New 
York, the John Lane Company. 
Mr. Finn believes that the average man feels 
more interest in natural history, as in other in¬ 
tellectual matters, than most learned folk give 
him credit for, and this belief has led him to 
bring together in this very beautiful book thirty- 
eight brief chapters, chiefly on birds, but three 
or four of them on mammals, articles which in 
the past he has contributed to various English 
periodicals. The volume is profusely illustrated 
by good photographs, some of them of very rare 
birds. The author’s position in India gave him 
great opportunities for observation, and in many 
cases he not only sets down things about the 
birds which are well known to naturalists, but 
also some matters which are new. 
The subjects of which he treats are most vari¬ 
ous, beginning with Sexual Selection, the Court¬ 
ing of Birds, Hybrid Birds, and so *qn, he runs 
on to Mimicry, Moulting, the Toilet, Talking 
and Fighting. There are chapters on “Osprey’ 
Farming, a Calcutta Bird Colony, Indian Game 
Birds and Wildfowl, Japanese Aviculture, and 
the Zoology of Herodotus. The chapters are 
written in a light and pleasing style, and Anieri 
cans who read the book will learn a great deal 
of birds and of some mammals that hitherto they 
have only heard of. The book can be heartily 
commended. 
