Forest and Stream 
Terms, $3 a Year, 10 Cts. a Copy. I 
Six Months, $1.50. 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, MAY 16 , 1908 . 
. VOL. LXX—No. 20. 
I No. 127 Franklin St., New York, 
A WEEKLY JOURNAL. 
Copyright, 1908, 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 interest 
in outdoor recreation, and to cultivate a refined 
<taste for natural objects. 
—Forest and Stream, Aug. 14, 1873. 
MAY VISITORS. 
If May is the month of flowers, it is also 
pre-eminently the month of birds. All through 
March and April the procession of hardy brown - 
coated sparrows has been marching slowly north¬ 
ward ; but with the warmer days of middle and 
later April more delicate birds begin to make 
their appearance from the south; warblers, clad 
in gay colors and active as fairies, and other 
bright plumaged birds suggestive of tropical 
beauty, or at least of the light and warmth of 
the northern summer. 
. It is about the first of May that the warblers 
begin to appear in numbers, but it is not until 
the 10th or 12th that they swarm about the 
newly-budding trees. Nor is their stay long, 
since many of them pass on to more northern 
regions and are not seen again until autumn, 
when, in their modest fall plumage, they are 
not recognized except by the bird student. 
With the later warblers come other birds that 
remain with us all through the summer, and 
whose bright colors and cheerful notes make 
glad our hearts. How beautiful is the plumage 
of the Baltimore oriole, and how cheery his 
whistle, as he works his way deliberately along 
the twig on which he is feeding, sounding the 
while notes of encouragement to his mate swing¬ 
ing in the home that hangs from the bending 
twig of a nearby elm. 
Still more gorgeous is the scarlet tanager as 
he flashes into the light and stops on some 
branch in full view, where for a moment he 
blazes like a flame and then plunges into a 
thicket, which hides his gorgeous colors. Beau¬ 
tiful, too, either when seen or heard, is the rose- 
breasted grosbeak, seen less often than heard, 
but always a joy. 
If early May is the time when beautiful birds 
come to delight the eye, the ear takes more 
pleasure in later May and early June. Catbird 
and woodthrush and brown thrasher and veery 
and a host of other birds, that are with us now 
or will be soon, do each their part to fill with 
joy the hearts of the outdoor men and women. 
Now is the time to start out with opera glass 
and note book, and perhaps with one of the 
pocket volumes, of which there are now so many 
which tell one how to identify the birds. There 
is a world of pleasure in the discoveries that 
one may make in spring. 
“NESSMUK.” 
The first day of May brought the anniversary 
of the death of “Nessmuk” (Geo. W. Sears), the 
woodsman, nature lover, poet, author and trav¬ 
eler, who is still warmly remembered by the 
older contingent of Forest and Stream. A day 
or two later a feeling article in commemoration 
of his life and work was published in a Philadel¬ 
phia newspaper, paragraphs from which we print 
in another column. 
Nessmuk was born in 1821 and died May 1, 
1890. He was long a frequent and very highly 
valued contributor to Forest and Stream, and 
after his death readers of Forest and Stream 
contributed liberally to erect a monument to the 
man who had given them so much pleasure, but 
who had himself no desire for any monument 
other than the grateful remembrance of those 
who had delighted to read his writings. 
When Nessmuk was born in Massachusetts 
there were still Indians there and Indians of 
pure blood, and it was from the name of one 
of these Indians—meaning wood drake—that 
Nessmuk took his pen name. 
Nessmuk was a philosopher—a believer in the 
outdoor life. He was a most effective mis¬ 
sionary of the gospel of getting close to nature, 
for he possessed the happy gift of writing of 
it so simply and so entertainingly that he con¬ 
verted many a man to the beliefs which he so 
strongly held. 
UNCLE BILL HAMILTON. 
Wm. T. Hamilton, perhaps the oldest remain¬ 
ing representative of the old-time Western trap 
per, mountain man and scout, is very ill in 
St. Vincent’s hospital, in Billings, Montana. 
“Uncle Bill’’ Hamilton, as he is affectionately 
known all through the West, was born in Scot¬ 
land in 1822 and reached this country when only 
two and a half years old. At the age of twenty 
years he started from St. Louis with seven free 
trappers under Bill Williams and Perkins on a 
trapping and trading expedition to the rnoun 
tains, and from that time to this has been a 
resident of the plains and the mountains. He 
was long famous as trapper, scout and Indian 
fighter, and is said to be the best sign talker in 
the world. The Indians generally acknowledged 
his superiority, and some of them used to say 
in joke he made many signs that they them¬ 
selves could not understand. 
Mr. Hamilton is a man of close observa¬ 
tion and keen intelligence. Not a few of his 
experiences have been printed in the Montana 
Historical collections. He wrote a very interest¬ 
ing book entitled, “My Sixty Years on the 
Plains,” published by the Forest and Stream 
Publishing Co., in 1905, and has contributed not 
a few interesting bits of early Montana history 
to these columns. He has always enjoyed the 
high regard of his neighbors in Montana, and 
the news of his serious illness has brought many 
of them to Billings to see him. 
His great age, and the nature of his disease, 
make it certain that though he may live for 
some time his recovery is hardly to be hoped 
for. When he dies a landmark of the early 
West will have passed away. 
There are numerous sportsmen residing in 
Newfoundland who are always ready to reply 
to letters sent them by anglers in the United 
States, asking for information as to the salmon 
and sea trout fishing. But while the former are 
patient, it is unjust to expect them to give the 
desired information and pay the postage, too. 
It should be borne in mind that letters sent to 
Newfoundland bearing a two cent stamp are de¬ 
layed, and that the person addressed must pay 
the larger part of the tariff in order to receive 
them. Therefore, when asking a favor of a 
Newfoundlander, inclose five cents or a stamp 
of that denomination, and place a five cent stamp 
on the envelope. 
The effect of teaching school children as well 
as adults to refrain from disturbing or killing 
insectivorous and song birds is becoming notice¬ 
able in a number of the Eastern States, and in 
Pennsylvania the increase in the number of these 
birds is particularly gratifying. Along the coast, 
too, the protection of gulls and of other birds 
and non-game waterfowl is adding new life to 
regions which had been gradually stripped of ’t 
in the days when every living thing that could 
be sold for cash was destroyed. 
The work that has been done in restocking 
the streams of New Jersey with trout is begin¬ 
ning to show. Since the season for trout fish¬ 
ing opened in that State some nice baskets of 
trout have been taken from streams said to be 
fished out. Residents of nearby towns in New 
Jersey are proud of the fact that they can take 
trolley cars to their favorite streams and come 
home with several nice trout. 
* 
Anglers who were unfortunate enough to 
select last week for their trout fishing trips in 
the hill country of New York State found the 
conditions very unfavorable. A cold rain fell 
almost continuously for more than ten days, 
the rivers became roaring torrents and every 
little rill overflowed its banks. The foliage is 
everywhere late in consequence, and reminds 
one of early April rather than mid-May. 
m 
Governor Hughes has signed Senate Bill 932, 
which provides for a commission to secure 
options on land for a site for a new State rifle 
range to take the place of the Creedmoor range 
at Queens, Long Island. The land and the 
equipment cannot exceed a cost of $300,000, 
$25,000 of which is now available for the pre¬ 
liminary expenses of the commission. 
