April, 1918 
FOREST AND STREAM 
221 
when he is nearest invisible when dressed in the French 
“horizon blue.” The reason is that this is the color which 
artists have found “gives distance.” When khaki is 
worn it is very invisible against certain backgrounds, but 
very visible against others. But “horizon blue” is less 
visible against all backgrounds at a certain distance, be¬ 
cause it is of the same color as the distance. When one 
paints a landscape, in the immediate foreground, in day¬ 
light, objects are given their natural colors. In the mid¬ 
dle distance, after painting their natural colors, I 
“Scramble” over the paint when dry a mixture of white 
and blue—the “horizon” color of the French Army. This 
puts the object “back,” by making it look as if there were 
air between it and our eyes, and appears indistinct. The 
farther “back” the object, the more “horizon” color is 
scrambled over it, until possibly the far distance is all 
blue haze—“horizon” color—and no detail. This, then, 
is the reason the French use it for their uniforms. It is 
Nature’s way of blending objects into their surroundings. 
The result of wearing “horizon blue” is that the wearer 
artificially makes his distance appear greater than it 
really is, and proportionately indistinct. It is like look¬ 
ing at him through field-glasses reversed. Another point 
is, one recognizes a man by his shape, not his color; so 
his shape should be broken by having cap, tunic, and 
breeches different colors. A moufflon, the wild sheep of 
Corsica, has a black neck, brown body, grey legs, and a 
white patch in the middle of his body, and he is much 
more difficult to see when still-hunting, although larger 
than a roe-buck, which is all one color. The reason is 
that one does not see the shape of the moufflon. He 
looks like a rock, dry grass, and a patch of snow. 
A SPECIALLY TRAINED FISHING DOG 
jWI R. MARSTON, the distinguished editor of the Lon- 
don Fishing Gazette, recently published the follow¬ 
ing interesting letter, which will appeal to all dog lovers 
as well as to devotees of the rod: 
“Dear Mr. Marston— I am much grieved to inform 
you of the death of my dear father, who died on Nov. 
14, aged seventy-four. My father was a very keen 
angler, and in former years used to spin a lot for trout 
with mother-of-pearl minnows of his own make, a most 
killing bait. These last few years he had taken to worm- 
fishing for trout and eels. His method was to set some 
five or six rods in likely spots, covering a stretch of 
some two hundred yards. He remained in the centre 
smoking his pipe while his specially trained fishing dog 
Miraud was going from rod to rod at his command, giv¬ 
ing a “call” when a fish was on. My father was one of 
the 1870 volunteers, and took a keen interest in the pres¬ 
ent fighting, doing his bit by sending parcels to the boys 
at the front. As he told me the day before he died, his 
great regret was not to have lived till the day of victory. 
“A. P. Decantelle.” 
It is a pleasant picture of the old French fisherman 
and his companion, passing on from a peaceful old age 
after a life which had experienced the vicissitudes of a 
soldier. A fishing rod and a pipe, we are all familiar 
with, but a dog that will tend the floats and report cap¬ 
tures is a novelty to American anglers. 
SWANS IN NEW ENGLAND 
A Massachusetts sportsman recently wrote to a Chi- 
cago friend, announcing that last autumn eighteen 
whistling swans alighted in Kezar Pond, Maine, and that 
two of them were shot and are now. in the State Museum. 
In the same pond this fall were taken, on the authority 
of the same sportsman, four canvasbacks and one Euro¬ 
pean widgeon. It is well recognized that in the past few 
years the canvasback has been occurring in New Eng¬ 
land much more frequently than in old times, when it 
was considered excessively rare. The European widgeon 
also is being more and more frequently taken in all sec¬ 
tions of the country. It is often killed in Currituck 
Sound and the January issue of the Auk records,a speci¬ 
men identified near Madison, Wis. 
It is well known that in modern times swans are seldom 
seen in New England. No doubt in primitive days they 
were much commoner there, though after all the rough 
New England coast is rather out of the line of migration 
of the swans, which breed in the interior of the conti¬ 
nent. The tragedy of the swans at Niagara Falls years 
ago, when hundreds caught in the rushing rapids, were 
carried over the Fall, and many of them killed in the 
swift water below will be recalled by many readers. The 
notes on New England birds recorded by Mr. E. H. 
Forbush mentions several occurrences of swans in New 
England during the present winter. 
It is believed that the Federal law protecting swans has 
resulted in their very considerable increase, and in the 
places where swans gather during the winter there is a 
strong feeling that this protection should be removed. 
DR. GOVE’S ARTICLES TO CONTINUE 
I AST summer Forest and Stream published a num- 
ber of articles on the artificial fly by Dr. Harry 
Gove, of Lambertville, Deer Island, N. B., that at¬ 
tracted wide attention for the scholarly manner in 
which they were written as well as for their accurate 
knowledge of the subject under consideration. The 
publication of these articles was interrupted by Dr. 
Gove’s illness. We are glad to announce that Dr. 
Gove has entirely recovered and that the continuation 
of his articles may be looked for in an early issue. 
Few men have given the question of the artificial fly the 
careful study bestowed on it by Dr. Gove, and few have 
had a wider experience or brought to the subject a mind 
so carefully trained and logical. These characteristics 
he shares with the late J. Harrington Keene, and it may 
interest our readers to know that they were firm friends 
who labored together. A letter recently received from 
Dr. Gove says: “For quite a number of years I have 
had an idea of writing an article regarding my old and 
lamented friend, John Harrington Keene, introducing in 
it his ideas of just what an artistic fly should be and 
practically demonstrating them. . . He came express¬ 
ly to spend a week with me on a New Brunswick river, 
to discuss with me points in connection with the subject 
of Angling.” 
THE LEADING EXTERMINATOR OF LIFE 
A DVICES reaching the United States Forest Service 
show that Emperor William of Germany up to 
1908 had killed 61,730 pieces of game. “According to 
one German forestry journal,” the Forest Service says, 
“the Kaiser in 1908 killed 1,995 pieces of wild game, in¬ 
cluding seventy stags, elk and roebuck. At that time 
he had slaughtered a total of 61,730 pieces of game, more 
than 4,000 of which were stags, and was the leading 
exterminator of wild life in the world.” The Kaiser 
holds the world’s record as slayer of game—and men. 
"THE photographs of a ruffed grouse drumming, which 
A illustrate an article by Frederick K. Vreeland, else¬ 
where in this issue, were taken by the author who has 
fully protected them by copyright. The photographs are 
unique and unusually interesting, as the opportunity to 
take a complete set of pictures of a grouse in the act of 
drumming has never before presented itself. 
