14 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[July 2, 1910. 
monwealth, united with the Grange societies, 
thereby forming a combination or trust to 
force drastic game laws on a people that, by 
their votes in town meetings and by their ef¬ 
forts to revise the present laws, show conclu¬ 
sively that they do not want such prohibitive 
laws placed on our statute books, and as mem¬ 
bers of the above combination can not well 
leave their business to shoot in the spring, 
they have, we think, enacted laws more for 
their especial use than for the birds’ protection, 
and by the employment of able attorneys (by 
the score) and other means, they have suc¬ 
ceeded in thus far overcoming the people’s 
will. But the matter is only begun, and it is 
the intent and determination to fight to the 
finish and give these wealthy men a run for 
their money by those who think the common 
people still have some rights, which we are 
bound must be respected. 
Now it is a fact that all kinds of wildfowl 
have increased in Massachusetts waters, and 
your paper stated not long since that there is 
an increase along the whole coast line, and it 
is also a fact that can not be controverted that 
it is simply impossible to exterminate the mi¬ 
grating bird. “Here today, gone tomorrow,” 
as I have often found, in a long life behind the 
gun, that uncounted thousands pass north in 
the spring flight to one bird killed, and I have 
watched a flight of two days’ duration, and 
probably in the nights also—a flight of shel¬ 
drakes north—and bagged two birds, and this 
is the ^experience of about all gunners in this 
locality. As to the drastic law now on our 
statute books, it is a yearly close season on 
whistlers, birds which arrive about January 1— 
the open season’s close—and depart in March, 
the result being that not a bird is taken; we 
therefore ask for an open season to May 20 
for and on these food birds, and by the ballot 
we expect to win out and thus overcome trust 
and money influence. In the end, the rights 
vested in the common people must be re¬ 
spected. 
I have shot in my time from Cape May to 
Cape Cod, and have shot in the Great 
South Bay, from the west to its east end, and 
off Bellport for about fourteen or fifteen years, 
and by the records kept the last bags exceeded 
the first ones. We of Massachusetts have now 
come to feel, and to fully realize, that we are 
facing the question of life or death for gunning 
in Massachusetts, and we shall use every energy 
within us to hold on to and perpetuate the 
rights handed to us from our fathers, under 
the former righteous game laws of our old 
commonwealth. Orville D. Lovell. 
Destruction of East African Birds. 
Herr Hermann Grote reports that a French 
planter at Lindi, German East Africa, slaughters 
and sells to a millinery firm in Paris kingfishers, 
whydahs, golden-backed weavers, bronze-green 
trogens, glossy starlings and touracous. Plerr 
Grote urges that the export of birds be pro¬ 
hibited, or that at least all shooting be prohibited 
during the breeding season, when the plumage is 
at its .best. Travel and Exploration, an English 
magazine, publishes this report, and gives strong 
editorial support to Herr Grote’s recommenda¬ 
tions. 
Adirondack Observations. 
Little Falls, N. Y., June 18 . —Editor Forest 
and Stream: I had a thirty-odd miles’ tramp 
from Bull Hill through the woods of the 
Jerseyfield country to Salisbury Center last 
week. This is the Nat Foster country, famous 
sixty years ago for its game, and where the 
land is still wild. 
Deer tracks were all through the woods; in 
all the southwestern part of the Adirondacks, 
for that matter, and woodsmen agree that 
there seem to be more deer this year than 
usual, doubtless because the winter was not a 
hard one on them. At the log camps I was 
told deer were numerous, and I do not think 
many are being killed around the clearings. 
It is more dangerous to violate the deer law 
now than it ever was before. Woodsmen 
themselves declare that a deer on the hoof is 
worth a hundred dollars to any locality. Lum¬ 
ber camps are not now fed on venison in the 
Jerseyfield country. A few years ago a camp 
had one deer in the summer. One day the 
boss and a logger had a row. A few hours 
later the logger filed a complaint which cost 
the jobber over $200. That was emphatic. 
A number of fawns have been seen, and I 
saw the tracks of two. I did not keep count 
of the deer tracks I saw, but there must have 
been more than one to every mile I traveled 
along trails. Other trips this spring showed 
deer tracks in equal numbers. On my way 
from McKeever to Woodhull I saw one deer 
and several tracks. From Woodhull across 
to North Lake there were many tracks. Be¬ 
tween South Lake and the Honnedaga Lake 
road the mountain tops and sides were as 
full of tracks as I ever saw anywhere. 
Trume Haskell, a guide, says that the strict 
enforcement of the game laws by the Adiron¬ 
dack League Club has had much to do with 
this increase. The club watchers keep tab 
on the woods, and it is dangerous for hunters 
to violate the laws. If deer killing is done, it 
is in the back lakes or over salt licks at night— 
not as it was years ago, openly and at all 
times. The department game protectors have 
been closing in on Wilmurt and Piseco Lake 
violators, and arrests have brought the lesson 
home. 
The woods have been exceedingly wet this 
spring, the trails full of “soup,” and the under¬ 
brush dripping. It has made the woods work 
hard and disagreeable, compared to dryer sea¬ 
sons. Nevertheless, in one log camp I came 
across a railway fireman taking his summer 
vacation “undressing hemlock,” which is about 
as arduous a task as one could imagine. The 
logging work has been little bothered by black 
flies, mosquitoes and punkies—too cold. 
Punkies showed up first on the tenth; one or 
two warm days brought out the black flies, but 
mosquitoes have hardly been seen. 
Young ruffed grouse are flying, and only 
a little larger than sparrows. I saw two mother 
birds with their young, but it seemed as though 
the young birds were few in number—two or 
three birds only, but perhaps other birds were 
hidden in the leaves. 
I should not be surprised to hear of wild 
pigeons in the Adirondacks again. An old 
woodsman, who knew the flocks of old, claims 
that last summer he and his son saw seven of 
the birds flying up West Canada Creek. He 
was fishing, his view of them was clear, and 
he thinks he could not be mistaken. Eighteen 
or nineteen years ago I saw some strange 
birds a mile above Northwood, and when I 
described them to my father, who had killed 
wild pigeons in Ohio, he said the birds were 
wild pigeons. 
The wet spring has interfered with bird life 
a good deal. I think most of the nest builders 
have had hard times trying to keep house. 
Most of the birds seem to be discouraged, and 
they do not seem to be singing nearly so much 
as usual—perhaps because of little sunshine. 
The effects of the sleet storm which stripped 
the branches on the south side of the moun¬ 
tains are less visible to the eye, rot having 
quickly gotten in its work on the fallen limbs, 
which now break down with their own weight. 
It was feared these branches would offer oppor¬ 
tunity for fires, but unless an abnormally dry 
season comes within two or three years, no 
fire evil will result. It is questioned, however, 
how much damage fungi will do to the living 
hardwoods, the broken branches having offered 
free access to the tree diseases. 
A man was fined at Herkimer for cutting 
two trees on State land. The damage was 
75 cents for each tree, and $10 penalty. The 
trespass was on a State lot in the Jerseyfield 
patent, and this indicates the effort to prevent 
depredations on the State property. The 
Dunn and Ballou case, of which mention has 
been made in Forest and Stream, may be re¬ 
opened. The accused paid over $§,000 several 
years ago, but the indictments have never been 
tried out. They were said to have been dis¬ 
missed a year or so ago, but the record was 
not entered in the county clerk’s office, and 
the Herkimer county district-attorney has 
found the indictment papers, and may reopen 
the matter, if it has not been outlawed, or 
disposed of. This was a case of “getting over 
the line,” but such cases are rare nowadays. 
In fact, when there is any doubt, local State 
officials are asked to go over the lines, and 
surveys are made if the lines are not plain. 
Raymond S. Spears. 
The National Beagle Club of America. 
Camden, N. J., June 14 .—Editor Forest and 
Stream: At a meeting of the executive commit¬ 
tee of the National Beagle Club of America, 
held in New York city on June 6, 1910, it was 
ordered that the T. wenty-first Annual Field Tiials 
of this club be held at Shadwell, Albemarle 
county, Virginia, on Nov. 10, 1910, and that the 
Fourth Show of Beagles be held at the same 
place on Nov. 13, 1910. At this meeting the 
following committees were appointed: 
Field Trial Committee—Charles R. Stevenson, 
Chairman; Henry Dickson Bruns, George B. 
Post., Jr., Raymond Belmont, George F. Reed, 
James W. Appleton, C. Staley Doub, G. A. 
Wertheim, T. Dudley Riggs, Ernest Lester Jones, 
LePage Cronmiller, Henry W. Warner, Chet- 
wood Smith, Thomas D. Griffith, Elliott C. Cow- 
din 2d, G. Mifflin Wharton, James P. Van Dyke 
and Arthur L. Burden. 
Bench Show Committee — Ramsey Turnbull, 
Chairman and Secretary; G. Mifflin Wharton, 
Henry W. Warner, Arthur L. Burden, Raymond 
Belmont. Chas. R. Stevenson, Sec’y. 
