JAN. 20, 1906.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
sis 

enthusiastically applauded. He deprecated the 
cutting of timber in the Adirondacks, and said 
the grand old forest should be maintained in its 
pristine glory, a place of recreation and rest for 
the people of the State. Incidentally, and to 
show how the forest is being devastated, he said 
that 800.000,000 feet of timber had been taken 
out of the Adirondacks the past year. He urged 
the guides to-support the State in its efforts to- 
ward the preservation of the forest, and said that 
it was among them game protectors could be 
found. 
Assemblyman Merritt complimented the Asso- 
ciation on the work it is doing, and said it 
should branch out. He advised the guides to 
strengthen the organization as much as possible 
and to form other organizations of the same kind 
in other parts of the woods. Such organizations 
would result in a mighty force for the protec- 
tion and preservation of the Adirondacks. 
Strengthen your own Association and multiply 
was the keynote of his address. 
Harney V. Radford read a paper in which he 
reviewed the work being carried on and urged 
that all keep at the good work. 
Four hundred people partook of the banquet, 
which was enjoyed not only by the guides and ~ 
their visitors, but by their wives and children as 
well, and it was a joyous occasion. 
W. E. Wotcort. 
Uarcay N.Y. Jan. 12. 
A Feeding Box for Quail. 
We have had so many calls for Mr. Cyrus A. 
Taft’s description of a feeding box for quail, 
printed in a November issue, that we reprint it 
in part for present practical use. Mr. Taft wrote 
from Whitinsville, Mass. The box will be found 
efficient wherever the birds have to contend with 
the snows: 
I send two photoes of the winter feeding box 
for quail which we have used in this section for 
two winters past with considerable success. One 
is shown bare so the construction can be readily 
seen, and the other is shown with the covering of 
pine boughs as it is set up for the use of the 
birds. This particular one carried through a 
covey of seven quail last winter. 
We liberated each lot directly beside a feeding 
box. The feeding box illustrated shows a cov- 
ering of pine boughs, but we used the limbs of 
shrub oak at times when pine was not easy to get, 
and they seemed to do very well. 
In covering the boxes with boughs they should 
be placed so that the butts are on the ground, and 
these butts should be trimmed free of small 
branches so that the birds can have easy and 
free access in and out at all times. In case a 
foe should come up on one side it is quite es- 
sential there be a free run left for quick egress 
on the other. 
We had fourteen of these feeding boxes for the 
twelve dozen birds. We did all the liberating in 
one day, and as we had a large extent of coun- 
try to cover, it made a long job. I want to ac- 
knowledge here the very efficient help and ad- 
vice of Mr. A. F. Wood, of this place, in con- 
nection with the putting out of these quail and 
in getting those that scattered back to the feed; 
also for his persistent and methodical care of the 
various coveys during the rest of the winter. 
This methodical attendance is absolutely neces- 
sary, we believe, to get the best results. We 
found that in the middle of the winter it was 
necessary that the feed be replenished once a 
week at least. Everything feeds then, bluejays, 
sparrows, kinglets, chickadees, squirrels and mice. 
Crows take some feed, but they are rather shy of 
the closed-up appearance of things. Bluejays are 
a pest, as they carry off more grain than they 
eat. We could find no way, however, to stop 
their thieving and we had to make good the loss. 
The feed we used is what is sold at the poultry 
stores as “scratching food.” It is composed of 
a number of grains and seeds of small size and 
seemed to fill the needs of the case very nicely. 
The second day after liberating we visited 
every feeding box and found that one-half of the 
coveys were using the shelter and food provided, 
the rest were scattered. We found them, how- 
ever, close by in every instance and we toled them 
all back to the feed by laying a line of hay chaff 
on top of the snow from the feed to the place 
where we found them. We also sprinkled a little 
grain in the chaff. This plan worked splendidly, 
and when we again visited the birds we found 
that they had all followed the line of chaff and 
were all using the feed. We had no more trou- 

FEEDING TROUGH FOR QUAIL, 
ble on this account, as when the quail once got 
the grain fairly located they visited it regularly 
thereafter. 
We found it of advantage to clear away the 
snow after a heavy fall so the sun would melt a 
bare place. The birds seemed to like to get on 
this little bare ground and sun themselves. We 
often saw them so. 
We placed all the boxes so that they would 
have a sunny exposure, and we looked for spots 


THE TROUGH COVERED. 
where the snow did not naturally lie*as deep as 
it did in others. The south side of a thick pine 
tree was as good as any, particularly if the tree 
grew on the south bank of a hill. We also tried 
to get the feeding boxes near “quick cover,” like 
a thick swamp or a brushy hillside, so the birds 
could come and go without exposing themselves 
very much, and a cover they could drop into 
quickly in case an enemy got after them at the 
feed. 
We liked to have the box near water also, but 
this we do not think is so essential as some of 
the other things. 
We think the best way to liberate is to provide 
as many boxes with cloth top and drop trap door 
as there are to be coveys. Transfer the birds 
from the shipping crate according to number 
wanted. Place the liberating box on the ground 
with the trap door under the edge of the roof of 
the feeding box; put a few branches over the 
whole so the quail will not fly as soon as they 
leave the box; quietly drop the trap door and step 
quickly away. It is better if the birds come out 
when no one is in sight; they are more quiet then 
and will notice the feed, which is what is wanted. 
If the liberating box is wanted for use again it 
can be secured the following day. There is no 
harm then if the covey is flushed, they have had 
a chance to locate the feed and will return to it 
again. 
In attending to the birds we bought we also 
fed a number of native coveys. The native quail 
did the best. They were stronger and also more 
wary. Practically all the natives lived after they 
found the feed. We used lines of chaff to tole 
these to the feed the same as for the others. I 
have in mind one covey of eleven quail that we 
got to feeding the middle of January, 1905, that 
apparently came through intact. 
We began to look for the native coveys with a 
view of feeding them on the first light snows, 
and we found three coveys. Two other native 
coveys we found after the snows got deep and 
forced them into the highway. They were then 
seen and reported and we easily got them to feed; 
they were so hungry they met our efforts more 
than half way. 
Our experience, so far, leads us to believe that 
quail will stand any amount of cold if they can 
get something to eat, as pointed out in a former 
sketch which was published in your issue of Oct. 
15, 1904; also, that they can successfully be led 
to feeding places by a little study and persever- 
ance, 
The food should be placed in a sheltered loca- 
tion where it will not be covered up with snow 
or washed away by rains; it needs to be replen- 
ished at times. When the snow is deep all over 
the country more grain is required than at any 
other time. GYRUG UAL eb AIT: 

Are Currituck Waters Protected ? 
Our North Carolina correspondent, Mr. F. A. 
Olds, has more than once recently spoken of the 
good work done by Mr. John R. Upchurch, the 
North Carolina chief game warden, who has 
charge of the Currituck Sound district. Accord- 
ing to Mr. Olds’ information the work of pro- 
tecting the waters of Currituck Sound is excel- 
lently performed. 
There are others, however, who believe that 
this work is not well done, and we have recently 
received letters from correspondents north and 
south, who declare that infractions of the law are 
common, Inquiry from a variety of sources seems 
to indicate that up to Dec. 15 or thereabouts there 
was little or no night shooting in Currituck 
Sound, but that from about that time on, night 
shooting has been common. 
A northern sportsman who spent the last half 
of December at one of the club houses on the 
Sound declares that he never heard more shooting 
at night than during that time. 
A resident of Currituck county, living on the 
shore, owning ducking land and a gunner of ex- 
perience, writes us: “I think the game warden 
have had enough free gush in the paper. I don’t 
believe one of them dare arrest a man. I have 
seen men with decoys shooting on rest days. Even 
if they wished to do so, how can the wardens ar- 
rest men when they go in a boat that can be seen 
and heard half a mile away?” 
Here is a letter of like tenor which appeared 
recently in the Twice-a-week Virginian Pilot of 
Norfolk: 
“WATERLILY, N. C., Dec. 27, 1005.—Dear Sir: 
In the issue of your paper of the 19th inst., you 
publish the substance of a letter from John R. 
Upchurch, chief fish and game warden of this 
district. You quote Mr. Upchurch as stating 
that only two guns have been heard fired at night 
in the waters of Currituck Sound during the pres- 
ent season. * * * Permit me to say that Mr. 
Upchurch is wrong with reference to the condi- 
tions now existing here as regards night shooting. 
From Noy. 1 until the present time there have 
been guns fired at intervals of fifteen or twenty 
minutes between sunset and sunrise in these 
waters, to the truthfulness of which assertion any 
