704 
FOREST AND STREAM 
December, 1918 
FOREST and STREAM 
FORTY - SEVENTH YEAR 
FOUNDERS OF THE AUDUBON SOCIETY 
GOVERNING BOARD: 
GEOROE BIRD GRINNELL, New York, N, Y. 
CARL E. AEELEY, American Museum of Natural History, New York 
FRANK 8. DAGGETT, Museum of Science, Los Angeles, Cal. 
EDMUND HELLER, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C. 
C. H ART MERRIAM, Biological Survey, Washington, D. C. 
WILFRED H. OSGOOD, Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, Ill. 
JOHN M. PHILLIPS, Pennsylvania Game Commission, Pittsburgh, Pa. 
CHARLES SHELDON, Washington, D. C. 
GEORGE BHIRAS, 3rd, Washington, D. C. 
WILLIAM BRUETTE, Editor 
TOM WOOD, Manager 
Nine East Fortieth Street, New York City 
THE OBJECT OF THIS JOURNAL WILL BE TO 
studiously promote a healthful interest in outdoor recrea¬ 
tion, and a refined taste for natural objects. Aug. 14, 1873 
THE VANISHING ANTELOPE 
LETTER printed in another column again calls at¬ 
tention to the seasonal movements of the antelope 
referred to in Forest and Stream of last June. The 
record pointed out is interesting as the earliest known ob¬ 
servation of movements that sixty or seventy years later 
had come to be well understood by hunters. 
The future of the antelope is depressing to hunter and 
to naturalist because, notwithstanding the protective laws 
that have been passed almost everywhere over its former 
range, the species continues rapidly to decrease. The 
prong-horned antelope is unique—unlike any other ani¬ 
mal in the world—and when it becomes extinct a most in¬ 
teresting species will have gone; to take its place with the 
wild pigeon, the great auk and the huge rhytina of the 
Bering Sea. 
How many prong-horned antelope there are in the world 
today no one knows. A census of them ought to be 
taken. During the spring of 1914 the Oregon State Game 
Commission sent out a naturalist to investigate the ante¬ 
lope in Oregon east of the base of the Warner Moun¬ 
tains. He reported about two thousand animals for this 
great district and his estimate was afterwards corrobo¬ 
rated. In the eastern part of the state there may be a 
thousand more. In Montana the species is nearly or quite 
extinct, but there are still some in Wyoming and in 
Nevada, the number there being increased in winter by 
herds that move from Oregon to the warmer plains of 
Nevada. There are possibly a few antelope in Colorado, 
and more in Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. Almost 
everywhere they are killed without regard to the law, and 
we have even heard of a Wyoming game warden who 
proposed that in that state the prohibition against killing 
antelope should be taken off. 
The species is nowhere holding its own. The increase 
of antelope in the Yellowstone Park is not encouraging; 
the attempt made by the Boone and Crockett Club to es¬ 
tablish a herd in the Wichita National Game Preserve 
failed. Yet that Club had better success with those which 
it placed on the Montana bison range and apparently had 
some success with those put in the Wind Cave National 
Park. A year or two ago there were about two hundred 
antelope under fence on the Bell Ranch in New Mexico, 
but the Bell Ranch is now being broken up and sold, and 
that does not promise well for the antelope there. 
Every sportsman ought to endeavor to impress on his 
fellows the importance of preserving the antelope, but it 
is hard to persuade men to hold their hands. Each one 
thinks that the few antelope that he kills will not make 
• any difference, yet the aggregate of those destroyed by 
hunters all over the country is slowly but surely wiping 
out the species. Every man ought to do all in his power 
to preserve these wonderful animals. 
SOME BIRD KILLERS 
F XAMPLES of the unintended destruction of birds 
by human agency are constantly occurring and some 
of them are odd and unexpected. During the mi¬ 
gration vast numbers of small birds are destroved 
by flying against the glass of lighthouses along the 
coast, and in a single morning in spring baskets full of 
small birds—warblers, thrushes, vireos, tanagers and the 
like—have been picked up at the base of a lighthouse. 
Dr. Forbush recently called renewed attention to the 
great numbers of migrating small birds found under tel¬ 
egraph wires in certain parts of New England. 
Almost every sportsman has had his attention drawn 
to the injury of woodcock and ruffed grouse by flying 
against telegraph and telephone wires. Grouse have 
often been killed by flying against houses and wire 
fences. Some years ago there was picked up on the 
green of a New England village one spring, a male old- 
squaw duck, that had wintered in the unfrozen sound 
nearby, which had killed itself by flying against the 
weather vane of the church which overlooked the green. 
Not far from the crushed body of the bird lay the bent 
vane, knocked from the church steeple. 
The most recent example of these odd incidents is re¬ 
ported in a newspaper despatch, which states that near 
Klamath Lake, Oregon, a pelican flew against a wire car¬ 
rying a heavy voltage, knocked this wire against another 
and so caused a fire that consumed a considerable portion 
of a large electrical plant. The pelican was found lying 
dead near the crossed wires. 
As America becomes more and more full of people,- 
there is obviously less and less room for the wild crea¬ 
tures that once possessed it all. Their ranges ana their 
breeding places are always contracting. After a time 
there will be left for them only the national parks and 
forest reservations, which are not subject to general 
occupancy by man. 
A WORD FOR THE DOG 
ERHAPS he has not been hunted before this season; 
it may be that he is just off from chain, and not in 
what one would pronounce field trial condition. His 
muscles are flabby, his flesh is soft and long continued 
work will not only tire him for the present day, but will 
be quite apt to incapacitate him for the next day. Unless 
old and steady his spirits will be exuberant, as well as 
those of his master, and on this account he will be deserv¬ 
ing of quite as much forebearance and patience on his 
master’s part as his master will require of his own con¬ 
science. A short preparatory run where there is no game 
will often tone down a dog under such conditions and fit 
him for work. 
If one be away from home on a hunting expedition, the 
first care should be to see that the dog has proper quarters 
for the night; and the care of him should not be delegated 
to the hotel servant, but the master should by personal 
inspection assure himself of the comfort and proper feed¬ 
ing of his dog. For hunting a dog should be fed very 
sparingly in the morning. Give him a bite or two of your 
