FOREST AND STREAM 
[March 28, 1908. 
494- 
any birds that want to take advantage of it. 
Here during the early summer, so I am in¬ 
formed by a friend who lives close by, the old 
birds can occasionally be seen swimming about 
with their broods, and I know that many birds 
are killed here during the fall shooting season, 
I myself having seen and killed a number in this 
vicinity. Some years as many as twenty-five or 
thirty birds have been killed on the edge of this 
swamp. My informant states that he knows 
positively one pair of wood ducks bred there in 
1906, for he repeatedly saw the old birds enter 
and leave the hollow tree where their nest was, 
and subsequently saw them with a brood of 
eight young. He states that early in April, 
1907, two pair of wood ducks made their ap¬ 
pearance in this swamp and had not left late in 
May, the last time I spoke to my friend about 
them. Whether they bred there or not I can¬ 
not state at this writing. Unfortunately, the 
hollow tree above referred to had been cut 
down during the winter. 
In this same county between Flushing and 
Jamaica are many ponds and pieces of marshy 
woodland, and in this section I have often seen 
and killed wood ducks in the early fall; and I 
know of several places in this vicinity where 
they breed. One place in particular, Kissena 
Lake, Flushing—recently purchased by the city 
t’or park purposes—has been for many years 
noted as a breeding place for wood ducks, for 
which it is exceptionally well adapted, as it is 
an oozy stretch of woodland fed by innumerable 
springs, and even in our severest winters does 
not freeze over. I have seen several beautiful 
drakes that were killed there in mid-winter. 
There is another large wooded swamp on the 
road between Flushing and Jamaica, that is 
much frequented by wood ducks, and I have 
been informed by several friends whose farms 
adjoin this swamp, that they have often seen 
the broods of young ducks swimming about 
in the stretches of open water. During last 
spring and summer I frequently saw singles and 
pairs of wood ducks enter and leave this swamp. 
Standing on the edge of this latter one evening 
in the fall of 1905 I saw at least forty wood 
ducks fly into it, several of which I killed. On 
several other occasions the same fall I visited 
this swamp and always saw wood ducks, but 
never so many as above. 
There are several other places in this vicinity 
where these ducks still breed, and can occasion¬ 
ally be seen of an evening flying back and forth. 
Further east on the island I have observed 
and shot these ducks in several different local¬ 
ities. One stream, the Peconic River, I know 
to be a favorite resort, for I have seen and killed 
many of them there in the early fall. I have 
in my possession now, mounted, several very 
handsome drakes that were shot there. Paddling 
up this river one October day a couple of years 
ago I flushed wood ducks from around almost 
every bend, sometimes singles, sometimes pairs 
and several times flocks of ten or a dozen. This 
trip was really a revelation to me. for I had not 
the slightest idea so many of these ducks could 
be found in any one locality hereabouts. 
I have received information of their breeding 
in many other parts of the island An em¬ 
ployee of the railroad has told me of two pairs 
that have bred for years in an old apple orchard 
near Hauphaug, Long Island. Other favorite 
places are the swamps and streams emptying 
into the Massapequa water works ponds; the 
Carmen’s River from its source north of Yap- 
hank to its outlet near Brookhaven; and the 
ponds, marshes and little streams in the vicinity 
of Smithtown. 
I have also seen and shot some of these ducks 
at several other places in the middle of the 
island, and believe that they can be found regu¬ 
larly in the ponds and marshy woodlands 
throughout the whole of Long Island. 
If the gunners and sportsmen frequenting 
Long Island will only club together and plant 
wild rice and other duck food in our numerous 
ponds and streams, I believe much better shoot¬ 
ing will be the result. If the gun license law 
passes, in all probability we can induce the 
Forest, Fish and Game Commission to appro¬ 
priate a certain sum for this purpose. 
John H. Hendrickson. 
The Wildfowl Shooting Seasons. 
We publish this week a map which shows at a 
glance the conditions under which North Ameri¬ 
can wild fowl may be shot, in the Provinces of 
Canada and in the United States. This map was 
prepared and is furnished to us by the kindness 
of Dr. A. K. Fisher, the eminent ornithologist of 
the Biological Survey, who is not less keen as a 
sportsman than he is accomplished as a man of 
science. It was Dr. Fisher’s admirable paper on 
“Two Vanishing Game Birds’’ which some years 
ago startled the public, by pointing out the dan¬ 
gers which threatened the wood duck and the 
woodcock, a paper which had for its result some 
excellent legislation and a considerable increase 
in numbers of the wood duck. 
The map which shows the open season for wild 
fowl in the various States and Provinces, needs 
little explanation. It gives the dates of the open 
seasons, and number of shooting days in each 
season. It will be seen that in all the Canadian 
Provinces, except British Columbia dnd Quebec, 
the shooting season closes Jan. 1, or earlier. In 
Quebec the season is left open to March 1, not 
for the duck shooters, but in order that certain 
of the poor natives, whose subsistence depends 
largely on the eider ducks which come down to 
the mouth of the St. Lawrence River, may have 
food during the winter. For the fresh water 
ducks in that northern country, March 1 is equiv¬ 
alent to Jan. 1. 
Passing down into the United States we find 
that Montana, LRah, Minnesota and Ohio and a 
section of New York are the banner States, each 
having about three months of open season, while 
Nova Scotia and Manitoba are in the same class. 
Next after these come New York at large with 
106 days of shooting, Idaho 107, Michigan 124, 
Alabama 120, and so on. Down toward the tail 
of the list, where there is practically no protec¬ 
tion for the ducks, stand Pennsylvania with 222, 
Kentucky 228, Illinois 228, Kansas 227, New Jer¬ 
sey, Wyoming and both the Dakotas with 242, 
and Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and Arkansas 
with no protection at all. 
On the Pacific coast the season closes Feb. 1 in 
Oregon, Feb. 15 in California and March 1 in 
Washington. 
For the New England States, which are too 
small to have the open seasons marked on them, 
a table of open seasons will be found at the 
right hand side of the map. Every sportsman 
should study this map. for each one of them may 
learn something from it. 
Likely to Starve to Death. 
Forest and Stream, November 26, 1904. 
The increase in the game which has followed 
the close protection of the park makes the ques¬ 
tion of their winter subsistence a problem of 
ever-increasing importance. Major Pitcher’s ex¬ 
periment of sowing, alfalfa on the winter range 
of the antelope has solved this question for these 
animals; and, since this flat is used by the ante¬ 
lope only in winter, it will produce during the 
summer crops of alfalfa hay which will serve to 
feed the sheep of the Gardiner valley and the 
deer of the post all through the winter. The 
very large bands of elk which winter in the val¬ 
ley of the Yellowstone, and on its tributaries, 
still remain unprovided for, and in exceptional 
winters these animals must be fed if we would 
not see them die of hunger. As things are at 
present in ordinary winters the elk can get along 
well enough. There will always be some starva¬ 
tion just at the end of the winter and in March 
and April, and many old and poor animals will 
perish; but this will only be a natural death rate. 
Once in a while, however, at intervals of ten, or 
fifteen, or twenty years there comes a winter 
with heavy, deep snows and early spring crust- 
ings, and at such times the elk must be fed or 
they will be swept away almost to the last hoof. 
The cost of providing hay for these animals—to 
be used only in case of necessity—will be com¬ 
paratively trifling, and the Department of the In¬ 
terior, with an eye to just such a possible dan¬ 
ger, should see that the superintendent of the 
park takes proper measures to provide against it. 
Forest and Stream, January 28, 1905. 
In Major Pitcher’s recent report on conditions 
(in the Yellowstone Park) there is reference to 
the necessity of feeding the game. This must be 
done, for as the wild animals increase, the food 
supply for each individual must decrease,, and 
although in ordinary seasons when the grass is 
good and the snow is light, there is still ample 
grazing for all these animals, a winter may soon 
come of deep snows, of crusts and of hard 
spring storms, which will sweep away thousands 
on thousands of elk, deer and antelope and will 
destroy in a month the results of all the thought, 
time and money that have been devoted to the 
preservation of game here. Major Pitcher should 
be given funds sufficient to enable him to irrigate 
certain extensive flats on the Yellowstone River 
and its tributaries, on which could be grown 
crops of hay to be harvested and held against 
some season of deep snows and bitter cold, when 
food will ,be greatly needed. These river valleys 
will grow thousands of tons of alfalfa or timothy 
and are close to water, but ditches must be dug 
and crops sown and harvested, and for this work 
money is needed. The extraordinary success of 
the small alfalfa fields near Gardiner in attract¬ 
ing the antelope is an object lesson which shows 
what can be done in this matter. It is to be 
hoped that Congress and the Interior Depart¬ 
ment will unite in furnishing the needed funds 
to the superintendent of the park. All that is re¬ 
quired is the money to make a start. Major 
Pitcher will do the rest. 
President of American Humane Associat 
from a resident of Montana, March. 1908: 
“This country is settling in places where 
