Dec. i7, 1910.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
977 
Manly Hardy. 
Manly Hardy,, the eminent field naturalist of 
Brewer, Me., died on Friday, Dec. 9, at his home. 
He was the only child of Jonathan T. Hardy and 
was born in Hampden, Me., Nov. n, 1832, but 
lived most of his life in Brewer. 
As a lad and young man he was small and 
rather frail, suffering much from illness and 
from injuries received in the woods. In a letter 
written not long ago to Charles Hallock he said: 
“Between wounds and various sicknesses I have 
had few days really free from pain, but have 
always kept in the open air when I could 
move, and enjoyed life better than many well 
people.” 
In early life, while studying for the ministry, 
intending to take up mission work in Africa, he 
injured his eyes so that for many years he could 
not read at all. He was thus obliged to give up 
his hoped for work, and at thirty years of age 
he definitely abandoned these plans, and soon 
after married. It was the loss of the use of his 
eyes that developed his extraordinary and un¬ 
failing memory, on which he depended as an¬ 
other might rely on his note book. 
In the early part of the Civil War, Colonel 
J. L. Chamberlin, “the hero of Little Round 
Top,” who was promoted on the field of battle 
by General Grant himself and appointed to re¬ 
ceive Lee’s formal surrender at Appomattox, 
asked Mr. Hardy to take command of a com¬ 
pany of sharpshooters. He was most anxious 
to accept, but he was an only child, his father 
was dying and he felt that he could not go. 
Later when drafted he was rejected for physical 
disability. 
In the year 1861 he served for a time with the 
Maine State Scientific Survey, with which were 
connected men like Dr. Holmes, Gooddale, 
Packard and Hitchcock. 
~ For the greater part of his life, Mr. Hardy 
had been an earnest business man, attending 
with his whole mind to the practical affairs of 
life, and turning to hunting, trapping and orni¬ 
thology for relaxation and pleasure. He was a 
hunter of deer, moose and bear, and was also 
fond of hunting seals and porpoises from a 
canoe, a sport which was often dangerous, and 
always full of excitement. Fie had made a long 
study of the ruffed grouse, and was one of the 
first authorities of the country on that biffd. 
The son of a fur dealer, he was until the last 
twenty years a buyer of furs, and wonderfully 
skilled in this occupation. At times when his 
eyes were useless he seemed to judge furs by 
his sense of touch, and his estimate formed 
from this sense seemed quite equal to that of 
another man who possessed in addition the full 
use of his eyes. It was his practice to ship his 
furs direct to London, to C. M. Lampson & Co., 
for their great auctions, which, with those of 
the Hudson Bay Co. and the sales at Leipsic, 
control the fur prices of the world. 
Many years ago Mr. Hardy made the acquaint¬ 
ance of Major Bendire, the eminent ornithologist 
and author of the two volumes of “Life His¬ 
tories of North American Birds.” Major Ben- 
dire more than once visited Mr. Idardy. and 
they became close friends. The author consulted 
him on many points of ornithology, and when 
his volumes were published, it was found that 
he had written into them most of what his friend 
had told him. The friendship which existed be¬ 
tween the two continued till Major Bendire’s 
death in 1896. 
Mr. Hardy’s stern love of truth sometimes led 
him to correct sharply in print statements which 
he knew were incorrect, and it was in such 
critical writings that his name was most often 
seen. Yet it was not his nature to find fault. 
On the contrary he was a genial, humorous and 
wholly friendly man, who would much rather 
praise than blame, yet who possessed the simple 
feeling that no one was entitled to especial credit 
for telling the simple truth. 
Mr. Hardy was long devoted to ornithology 
and gathered together a remarkable collection 
of 3,300 United States birds, all mounted, and 
most of them by his own hands. So complete 
THE LATE MANLY HARDY. 
is this collection that it lacks less than twenty 
of those species which had a full number in the 
old A. O. U. Check List. Most of those lacking 
are gulls, cormorants and other sea birds. The 
collection includes every kind of hawk or owl 
ever taken north of the Mexican line, except the 
so-called dwarf screech owl — of which only one 
is known—every kind of duck and goose, eighty- 
five different kinds of sparrows and a long list 
of other most interesting birds. 
Mr. Hardy was a field naturalist of the high¬ 
est type. His statements commanded the implicit 
faith of scientific men, who also had great re¬ 
spect for his opinions. He was a careful, thor¬ 
ough observer, with an immense practical experi¬ 
ence in the woods of Maine. This experience was 
held in his extraordinary memory, which was con¬ 
firmed by journals which he kept. He possessed 
an unequalled fund of woods lore for his own 
locality. A volume of his experiences and ob¬ 
servations would constitute a very complete 
natural history of the birds and mammals' of 
Maine, besides containing an enormous fund of 
woods experience, extending over more than half 
a century. 
No large group of men will regret Mr. Hardy’s 
loss so much as the readers of Forest and 
Stream, some of whom have kept in touch with 
him by his writings and otherwise for nearly 
forty years. His last extended contribution was 
printed in the spring of 1910 and was entitled 
“A Fall Fur Hunt in Maine.” Only a few days 
ago we received from him a letter with two 
pictures of odd deer heads, and at the time of 
his death he had just finished a long promised 
article on the otter. 
His death came after an illness of only thirty 
hours. Fie fully expected the end, and had made 
all preparations for it, and at the last he passed 
away without suffering. 
Mr. Hardy was of the old-time steadfast New 
England stock, and possessed ability and earnest¬ 
ness such as few men have. By nature he was 
shy and retiring and not at all disposed to ap¬ 
pear in print, except where he felt that he must 
correct some error. It was only the knowledge 
that he was giving information to others who 
could never acquire that information for them¬ 
selves that led him to contribute as freely as he 
did articles and letters to Forest and Stream. 
It is hard to think of an outdoor man who will 
be so missed and mourned. 
New Jersey’s Game Law. 
Hackensack, N. J., Dec. 10 . — Editor Forest 
and Stream: Young law students who are fond 
of intricate legal problems will find them in 
abundance in the game laws of New Jersey. 
Not long ago the sportsmen around Barnegat 
were complaining that, while they observed the 
section closing wildfowl shooting at sunset, others 
were banging away after dark. Perhaps they 
failed to read up carefully, for had they done 
so they would have learned that, while they may 
shoot “duck, swan, goose, brant and shelldrake” 
until sunset, they can then fire away at black 
ducks until 7 o’clock p. m. At the present time 
it is dark as Erebus long before 7 o’clock when 
there is no moon. Even so, I have been in the 
blind more than once when no black ducks ar¬ 
rived before sunset, and few of them before it 
was too dark to see them save when they were 
outlined against the western sky. Frequently no 
ducks were moving until sunset, and from that 
time until dark was the best hour of the day. 
If one shoots until 7 o’clock on a dark night, is 
it fair to punish him if he mistakes another duck 
for a black duck and bags it? I do not think so. 
Take the section applying to Northern New 
Jersey which forbids hunting grouse, pheasants, 
quail, woodcock, squirrels and rabbits “while 
there is snow upon the ground in such condition 
that any such bird or animal may be tracked 
therein.” This places both the hunter and the 
warden in a quandary. 
There is snow on the ground as I write, but 
it is melting rapidly, and although a fair trailer, 
I doubt if I could follow a rabbit’s trail on it 
across any field. To me it is not a tracking 
snow, but I am prevented from going out with 
my gun because I might run across a warden 
whose expert opinion on snow and tracks I could 
not dispute. 
There is a date when snow can reasonably be 
expected. The season should close on that date, 
thus giving well-meaning sportsmen a definite 
time to hunt — and not the uncertain provision 
that obtains now. Bergen. 
