Oct. i, 1910.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
535 
And we went walking the while we did some 
thinking. Some way, after Uncle Hi’s talk, the 
woods appeared different to us. We looked at 
them from a new angle and we saw things that 
our city eyes had never seen before and our city 
brains never measured. These woods were no 
longer mere trees and underbrush. They were a 
message and a lesson. Fred L. Purdy. 
Game and Fish in New Zealand. 
The forty-fourth annual meeting of the Otago 
Acclimatization Society was held in the Govern¬ 
ment Buildings, in Dunedin, New Zealand, on 
June 10 last. There was a large attendance of 
members. 
Mr. Chisholm, the president, in moving the 
adoption of the report and balance sheet, said, 
in part, that the total receipts from fishing 
licenses had not been up to that of the previous 
year. That was accounted for to some extent 
by the miserable condition of the rivers. The 
continuous spell of dry weather had made many 
of the rivers unfishable, and consequently the 
licenses had not been so numerous. The men’s 
licenses last year numbered 934; boys’ licenses, 
363; ladies’ licenses had increased by eleven. 
The red deer licenses were forty-seven; fallow 
deer licenses, ninety-seven. Last year was, 
without exception, a record season in connec¬ 
tion with the number of trout yearlings the 
council had been able to turn out. The fry and 
yearlings distributed numbered 1,769,715; in the 
previous year, 1,128,150. The council was alive 
to the necessity of doing what it could to still 
further supplement the trout in the various 
streams. It had erected in the Clinton hatchery a 
large pond. It was intended to put yearlings into 
the pond and retain them until they were two 
years old, and instead of planting fry, as had 
been the practice heretofore, together with a 
few yearlings, it was intended to plant a great 
many two-year-olds. Those who had given at¬ 
tention to pisciculture at home had found that 
it was infinitely better to plant two-year-olds 
in the streams than fry and yearlings. They 
were not liable to be eaten up by the larger 
fish. 
In connection with their efforts in maintain¬ 
ing the red deer herd they were in difficulty; 
they were face to face with a rather large 
work. It was well known to everyone who 
visited the deer country that the deer were 
getting so numerous and food getting so scarce 
that the deer were deteriorating, and steps 
would have to be taken in the matter. It. was 
a remarkably good deer herd. There was noth¬ 
ing to equal it from what he had heard, and 
it was a great pity that deterioration was going 
ahead as fast as it was. The council had taken 
steps to check this as far as possible with the 
funds at its disposal. Those who had been at 
work culling had done good work, and the 
committee appointed by the council to visit the 
locality, was satisfied that splendid work had 
been done, but it was impressed with the fact 
that more vigorous work was necessary. From 
what the committee saw and from the informa¬ 
tion it obtained it was of the opinion that it 
was highly desirable that some fresh blood 
should be introduced, and with that object in 
view the council had determined to send to 
Scotland for some stags and hinds. 
Mr. Chisholm said they would have liked to 
see much more winged game than they had. 
Most of the winged game imported had been 
a failure. Not that the country was not suit¬ 
able to the birds, and the birds to the country, 
but the action of the Government in introduc¬ 
ing stoats and weasels, with the poisoning go¬ 
ing on, had been the means of exterminating 
the game that had been imported. Now farmers 
were beginning to stop poisoning, and during 
show time some had told him that poisoning, 
except in the high parts, was being done away 
with. Mr. Chisholm then referred to a letter 
from Mr. Adams with regard to partridges 
liberated at Bon Accord, in which the writer 
stated that the birds had been seen. Members 
would see from this that the partridges liberated 
in the Tokomairiro district were making head¬ 
way and were turning out all right. Then there 
was the question of pheasants coming under 
consideration, and he was informed that if they 
1 
HOMEWARD at evening. 
were liberated about Dun robin and Tapanui 
they would not fall victims to poison as in the 
past. They were indebted to Mr. Carr, man¬ 
ager of the Government poultry farm, who had 
been successful in getting the imported Cana¬ 
dian geese to hatch out young geese, and he 
had five at his place at Milton. He had under¬ 
taken to hand over the progeny. As to little 
owls Mr. Farquhar, of Stirling, reported hav¬ 
ing seen them in his neighborhood. 
An Expensive Deer. 
In Forest and Stream last May and June 
mentions were made by correspondents of the 
drowning of a deer in the Long Island Sound 
near Milford, Conn. The persons arrested for 
killing the animal were tried before the local 
justice in Milford and fined $5 and costs, but the 
case was appealed and was recently tried in the 
court at New Haven, where the trial resulted in 
the imposition of a fine of $100 and $40 costs. 
Convictions such as this cannot fail to have a 
wholesome influence and will tend to make peo'- 
ple ponder a little before they boldly violate law. 
Jumping Prairie Chickens. 
“No, sir, Oliver, a man can’t hunt chickens 
without a dog,” said William Pempfield, attor¬ 
ney, authority on guns and game, and withal a 
thoroughly good fellow. “Why, in the first 
place,” he continued, “how are you going to 
find the birds, and in the second, if you are 
lucky enough to stumble on a bunch, who is go¬ 
ing to put ’em up for you?” , 
"I will put them up for myself,” I doggedly 
replied. “Walk them up, as we used to say in 
North Dakota when I was a boy.” 
“But,” insisted the local authority, "you can t 
do it here in the Badger State, that’s sure. For 
one thing we lack the birds, and for another they 
will not lie before a man; only a good dog can 
hold them. You must understand that our birds 
are educated as to the proper method of being 
killed, whatever the wild and untutored fowl of 
North Dakota may have been like fifteen years 
ago. You will find that in order to kill prairie 
chickens here you will have to comply with the 
authorized rules of the game.” 
“I will not,” I retorted. Then a happy thought 
struck me. “Tell you what, Bill, I’ll wager you 
a dinner that I can go out to-morrow and kill 
a bunch of birds without the aid of dog or com¬ 
panion.” 
“Done,” he cried, “on condition that I be al¬ 
lowed to follow at a respectful distance with a 
pair of field glasses and watch you perform the 
miracle.” 
To which reasonable stipulation I of course 
could not object, but mentally I resolved to give 
him the slip as soon as a bird or two had fallen 
before my gun, for I did not propose to have 
my day afield ruined by even distant surveil¬ 
lance. Regarding the outcome of the hunt I 
had not the slightest doubt, for, though I did 
not confess as much to friend Bill, I had killed 
three chickens only the week before without the 
aid of man or dog. I do not hunt chickens in 
such a heterodox manner because I have no use 
for a companion and a dog. I- know the value 
of both, but there are times and moods when a 
companion, even a dog, is a disturbing element, 
then I go alone. In this way I get nearer to 
nature, see and hear things that otherwise would 
remain unheard and unseen, and I return with 
that which makes me infinitely richer and better 
—the ministry of the quiet. 
The next morning Bill was on hand promptly, 
more than ever certain that I was going to fail 
and he secure a meal as well as no end of fun 
at my expense. On the way to the shooting 
ground I insisted that he remain well in the 
background, which he readily consented to do. 
I had decided to hunt ordinary farming coun¬ 
try: open hard timber, brier-grown pastures and 
fields of grain stubble where a few chickens and 
now and then a grouse were to be found. There 
is to be found the true value of a dog. He 
ranges further, covers more territory than a man 
possibly can; hence he who hunts with the in¬ 
telligent beast’s assistance will succeed where a 
lone hunter would fail. Ofttimes chickens are 
found on the broad marshes which border many 
of Wisconsin’s lakes and rivers. There they are 
hard to get without the aid of a dog, but in such 
cover as I had elected to shoot over, a lone 
hunter can get a few if he knows the country 
and the birds’ habits. 
Bill took his position on a little eminence over- 
