778 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Nov. 12, 1910. 
The Outlaw Buffalo. 
Many of those who last week read Forest 
and Stream’s mention of the plan by Canadian 
officials and others to go to Montana and hunt 
and kill the outlaw buffalo, which Michel Pablo 
found himself unable to capture and deliver, 
probably asked themselves, “What about the 
law?” The Montana statutes absolutely protect 
moose, bison, caribou, antelope and beaver, and 
it is the duty of the State authorities to enforce 
its statutes. 
The story of the origin of the Pablo herd of 
buffalo was told in detail in Forest and Stream 
eight years ago. They are descendants of calves 
captured in 1877 by a halfbreed Indian on the 
plains of Montana, and are the undoubted prop¬ 
erty of M. Pablo, to keep or to kill, to sell or 
to give away. There was no question about this 
so long as the animals were under fence, or in 
charge of herders—as in fact they have been 
almost continuously for many years until the 
herd was scattered by the efforts to capture and 
deliver them to the Canadian authorities. As a 
result of this scattering many of the buffalo 
took to the rough hills and have been and are 
absolutely out of reach. In Forest and Stream 
of July 10, 1909, we said: 
“While the Pablo herd of buffalo in Montana 
was last year rounded up in part, and in part 
delivered to its purchaser, the Canadian Govern¬ 
ment, there was still a portion not gathered, and 
as we were then informed, not likely to be gath¬ 
ered. It was known more than a year ago that 
of the buffalo sold and intended to be delivered 
there were 150 or 200 head that were absolute 
outlaws, without fear or respect for horse, man, 
rope or fence. It was impossible to handle these 
bison. They were ready to fight any one who 
attempted to drive them, or if they ran they 
went so fast and so far that they could not be 
overtaken, or if overtaken and roped, they threw 
the horse and his rider and went off with the 
rope. It was stated that at one time last year 
it looked as if the buffalo could not be gathered 
for shipping. A train was expected to carry 
away 200 head, at a time when only sixty-nine 
had been corraled. 
“After this train was loaded, efforts to gather 
the remaining buffalo failed. The best riders on 
the Flathead reservation had so many falls and 
made so many failures that they gave up the 
work and refused to ride for the buffalo. Word 
was sent across the mountains to the best riders 
on the Blackfeet Indian reservation and a num¬ 
ber were gathered there to do the work. Some 
weeks since it was announced that the roundup 
had begun, and that soon all the Pablo buffalo 
would have left the United States except those 
that he had arranged to retain—twelve head of 
full-blooded cows and two full-blooded bulls. 
The statement made those aware of local con¬ 
ditions smile a little, and they were not greatly 
surprised to see recently another statement de¬ 
claring that a second attempt by the Canadians 
to load the Pablo bison for shipment to the 
Dominion resulted in the corraling of 170 head, 
or about half the number of bisons purchased 
and taken away last year. The work of round¬ 
ing up is reported to have been hard, and it is 
said that the bison repeatedly broke through the 
fences and that many escaped to the hills. It 
is added that the attempt to gather the buffalo 
has been abandoned and that the remainder of 
the herd will be presented to the United States 
by Canada. 
“This statement may be received with skepti¬ 
cism, though the Dominion Government might 
perhaps be willing to transfer its contract with 
Pablo to the United States Government or some¬ 
one representing it. It is not at all likely, how¬ 
ever, that many of the remaining Pablo buffalo 
will ever be transported from the range they 
have so long occupied. If they or part of them 
could be transferred to the neighboring Montana 
National Bison Reservation it would be a very 
fortunate circumstance. They will always do 
well in this region. These buffalo are likely to 
end their days in the land of their birth-—a band 
of outlaws.” 
Ihis question, as to whether these outlaw buf¬ 
falo are wild or tame, has occurred to citizens 
of the State of Montana, one of whom, Charles 
Schatzlein, of Butte, is reported to have been 
the first to make complaint to the State authori¬ 
ties in regard to the attempt to kill all these 
buffalo by other than their owner. The State 
game warden, Henry Avare, took up the matter 
at once and applied to Attorney-General Galen, 
asking him what was the status of these outlaw 
buffalo. Mr. Avare is disposed to regard them 
as wild buffalo, entitled to the same protection 
as other wild game, and the attorney-general 
has rendered an opinion that if the Pablo buffalo 
cannot be captured—if they cannot be reduced 
to possession by their presumed owner—they will 
be regarded as wild animals, will come under the 
State game laws and so must be protected by 
the State authority. 
The question is a very nice one and we be¬ 
lieve it has never before come up in the same 
form. If Pablo should take the matter to the 
courts, as he well might do since the money in¬ 
volved amounts to a considerable sum, the argu¬ 
ment and the decision would be very interesting 
and instructive. 
It may be conceived that Pablo would be act¬ 
ing wholly within his rights if he were to start 
out with a gun and devote himself to the killing 
of these animals. Certainly his rights in them 
differ very widely from those of a hunter in 
pursuit of wild game, and these rights cannot 
be ignored. Much may be said on both sides 
of the question, and sportsmen and game pro¬ 
tectors everywhere will watch for further news 
of the matter. 
The Warner Case. 
John P. Warner died in Flower Hospital, 
New York city, on Nov. 3, aged twenty-eight 
3'ears, from the effects of knife wounds and 
clubbing. It was on Oct. 31 that Mr. Warner, 
dressed in shooting clothes and carrying his gun 
in its case, was walking from his office toward 
the Pennsylvania station, where he was to take 
a train for the Long Island wildfowl waters. 
He was stopped by men supposed to be in sym¬ 
pathy with those engaged in the expressmen’s 
strike and who mistook him for a strike breaker. 
His gun was taken from him, he was badly 
beaten, stabbed several times and left on the 
street. After a time he made his way to one 
of the traffic policemen, by whom he was sent 
to Flower Hospital. 
All the game laws of the United States and 
Canada, revised to date and now in force, are 
given in the Game Laws in Brief. See adv. 
Pheasant and Partridge Rearing 
in Britain. 
Nowhere has the rearing under domestication 
of birds that were originally wild been carried 
so far as in Great Britain. The reason for this 
is not far to seek. It lies in the Englishman’s 
love of sport and in the efforts carried on for 
generations of people to provide birds to satisfy 
this craving for sport. While in the United 
States we have been trying to rear game birds 
for only three or four years, in Great Britain 
they have been doing it for three or four gen¬ 
erations. During this time they have gained a 
vast fund of experience which we wholly lack, 
and they rear more wild birds to the acre than 
are produced in any country in the world. The 
work of rearing them has been reduced to an 
actual system and as much attention is given to 
it as to any other branch of farming. Keepers 
know just about how much their young birds 
should cost them, and if the cost runs over their 
estimates, they wish to know the reason why. 
Here in this country pheasant rearing has be¬ 
come to some extent an industry, but it has 
never been carried on with such success that 
the birds became at all cheap. The artificial 
propagation of the European partridge has not 
up to this time been practiced in the United 
States. 
At some points in Pennsylvania and especially 
at Blooming Grove Park great success has been 
had in rearing pheasants, and in Illinois and 
Colorado there are said to be game parks or 
farms which have been very successful, but it 
is difficult to secure on these subjects any but 
the most general information. 
On many estates in Great Britain great num¬ 
bers of wild pheasants are reared under condi¬ 
tions that are wholly natural. It is said that 
on one estate where the surroundings are espe¬ 
cially favorable, with large woods, good feeding 
grounds and abundance of water, as many as 
3,500 wild-bred pheasants are shot each year out 
of a total bag of 5,000 birds. A case such as 
this is, however, exceptional, and under ordi¬ 
nary conditions artificial breeding is almost uni¬ 
versal. There are farms which make it a busi¬ 
ness of supplying pheasant’s eggs—eggs which 
are productive—and the cost of rearing these 
birds comes back to the owner in the autumn 
when his birds go to market. The object then 
is to rear as many pheasants as possible for the 
money put into the plant, and pheasants which 
are good and strong birds. On many estates the 
rearing of birds has been so reduced to a system 
that it is treated absolutely as a commercial 
business, and in many cases is a profitable part 
of the farming on the estate. 
At such places, before the shooting season be¬ 
gins, say about the first of October, the hen 
pheasants are caught and put in a large pen and 
are kept there until the approach of the breed¬ 
ing season, say about the first of March. Here 
the birds are especially fed, with soft food in 
the morning, and in the evening with dry mixed 
grain. It is important that they should be well 
fed and that all the food that is offered to them 
should be consumed. 
About the first of March the hens are sepa¬ 
rated and are transferred to smaller pens, each 
one holding about twenty hens and five or six 
cocks. The birds’ wings are clipped so that they 
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