Dec. io, 1910.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
937 
The Massachusetts Deer Problem. 
Boston, Mass., Dec. 3.— Editor Forest and 
Stream: Last week 1 gave the number of deer 
killed in the open season of six days as by re¬ 
turns made to the State commission up to that 
time as 668. During the past week additional 
reports have come in of 631. making the total 
to this time 1,299. In one instance a report was 
sent to the office of the State Association (in¬ 
stead of the commission) two days after the 
killing took place, the hunter explaining that he 
was not aware that he was required to send in 
a report until “somebody told him" of this feat¬ 
ure of the law a day or two after he had killed 
the deer. This is a good illustration of the 
necessity of publicity in reference to the game 
laws. 
This leads me to st^ite a fact, known to com¬ 
paratively few, that the first manual of the 
Massachusetts fish and game laws ever printed 
was compiled by a former president of the State 
association and was issued and distributed at the 
expense of the association for many years. The 
late Captain Collins saw the importance of this 
work and had several thousands copies printed at 
the expense of the State, and the custom has 
been kept up by the commission and by the State 
association. But this year, owing in part to the 
hunters’ license law and in part to the open sea¬ 
son on deer, the supply was insufficient to meet 
the demand. 
Deputies are now doing a 1 they can to find 
the deer that have been wounded, but not se¬ 
cured. Exact statistics of these cannot of course 
be obtained, but in a few days we shall know 
the approximate number. More than one hun¬ 
dred have already been reported. The comments 
appear to justify the prediction made last win¬ 
ter while the bill for an open season was pend¬ 
ing by Commissioner Wentworth, of New Hamp¬ 
shire, who said “they will be sick of it.” He 
had seen the workings of the law in the south¬ 
ern counties of the Granite State last year. One 
res'ult there was the posting of many farms 
against shooting. Prior to the opening date many 
thousands of acres in the western counties were 
posted. Nearly the whole of certain townships 
were posted, notwithstanding the law had been 
urged, and in fact had been put through by the 
persistent efforts of the grangers. The Wor¬ 
cester Gazette, in commenting on the killing, 
says “there are many who hope if the deer are 
found to be overnumerous and damaging to 
crops, some more humane means than slaughter 
under present conditions will be devised.” 
The lawmakers next winter will have a prob¬ 
lem to solve that is not an easy one. The deer 
constitute a valuable asset to the State. If their 
numbers must be reduced to relieve the farmers, 
the deer certainly should not be killed at a sea¬ 
son when they are not desirable for food. In 
framing the present law our legislators were 
under considerable pressure to leave Berkshire 
county out of the list of those in which an open 
season should be allowed, and in some of the 
Berkshire towns a campaign has been started for 
the repeal of Section 2, Chapter 545 of the Acts 
of 1910. and Senator Treadway is taking the lead 
in that movement.' He says in an open letter to 
the Springfield Republican : “From every direc¬ 
tion and from every viewpoint there seems now 
to be a unanimity of opinion that the open sea¬ 
son should not be allowed to continue longer,” 
and he urges the circulation of petitions in all 
the towns in the western portion of the State to 
be sent to the incoming Legislature against its 
continuance. 
A leading Boston Daily pertinently says edi¬ 
torially that the mere repeal of the existing law 
■will not be sufficient to satisfy intelligent public 
opinion. Farmers say “Away with the deer.” 
Owners of foxhounds say the same. The hun¬ 
ter who is willing to shoot anything eatable says, 
“Give me a chance at them.” 
I know many sportsmen who enjoy hunting 
big game in the Northern wi'ds who would not 
shoot a half tame deer on any account. 
Henry H. Kimball. 
Photographing a Skunk. 
West Grove, Pa., Nov. 26.—Editor Forest and 
Stream: An interesting history might be given 
MR. BURTCH’S SKUNK. 
of the skunk shown in my photograph. I have 
known him for no less than two years. He is 
shown at the entrance of his burrow eating the 
bait which is attached to a trap camera of my 
own device. 
' I can assure you that he left promptly after 
the explosion of the flash powder, taking the 
meat with him. Previous to the taking of the 
photograph I had fed him regularly for a week, 
and the very night after the photograph he came 
and took the bait again and continued to do so 
throughout the winter, regardless of the flash¬ 
lights. 
The skunk did not emit his objectionable'odor 
when the picture was taken as I had expected 
him to do. Herbert Harker. 
Photographing Young Ruffed Grouse. 
While hunting birds’ nests in a large swamp 
on May 31, 1909, I came suddenly on a mother 
grouse and her family of young. The young 
were evidently but a day or two out of the egg. 
The mother grouse, as is usual when surprised 
with her young, feigned a broken wing and went 
tumbling away uttering her peculiar whistling 
cry of distress, trying to lure me away from her 
babies, which at the very first cry scattered in 
every direction, some running under a dead weed 
or leaf and others just squatted on the dead 
leaves where they immediately “froze,” and 
being just the color of a dead leaf, it takes a 
keen observer to distinguish them, even when 
he knows right where they are. 
I dropped to my knees and soon had two of 
the little ones under my hat, and then after 
searching for nearly a half hour, could find but 
two more. All of this time the mother was close 
by, sneaking around through the shrubbery, 
sometimes quiet and again uttering her plaintive 
whistle, then dashing out in front of me and 
fluttering off, trying to lure me away. 
I had some plates with me, but no camera, 
so had to wait about a half hour for my friend 
C. F. Stone to come up. The young remained 
quiet under my hat, and when I raised it they 
did not stir or move so much as an eye, but re¬ 
mained perfectly quiet while we focused and 
made three exposures at varying distances, the 
last being but eighteen inches from them. Then 
I picked them up and when placed on the ground 
again they ran away a few feet and hid as be¬ 
fore. 
Just one week afterward we were in this lo¬ 
cality and ran on to the family again. This 
time the young flew in every direction ; some 
dropping to the ground and others alighting in 
the bushes where we could plainly see them, but 
it was impossible to get near enough to photo¬ 
graph them before they flew away. 
Verdi Burtch. 
[One of Mr. Burtch's remarkable photographs 
is reproduced on our cover. — Editor.] 
American Firearms. 
Charles W. Sawyer, of Boston, is about to 
issue the second volume of his work entitled 
“Firearms in American History.” 
The first volume covers the period from 1600 
to 1800, and is devoted to old-time arms, mili- 
tarv and sporting. It treats of their varying 
forms and development, their historical back¬ 
ground and worth, and their national and inter¬ 
national influence. 
The second volume will deal with the revolver. 
The subject is one of much interest and wholly 
American in its development. 
There are multitudes of people interested in 
the history of firearms, and we do not doubt that 
Mr. Sawyer’s book will interest all of these. He 
writes with much charm and would make even a 
dry subject interesting. 
Major de Radio’s Adventure. 
In writing of the death of Major de Rudio 
in Forest and Stream of Nov. 12, the statement 
was made that his extraordinary adventure in 
the Custer fight had never been related. This 
was an error. Major de-Rudio’s own account of 
the occurrence was printed in Harper’s Weeklv 
for Sept. 25, 1897. 
