MARcH I0, 1906.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 

by varying climatic conditions. It would be un- 
wise to entirely prohibit the importation of game 
into the country during a part of the year, when 
in some of the States the taking and consumption 
of such game-is lawful. So it is said practically 
to the citizen: We do not prohibit the importa- 
tion of foreign game, but subject it to the local 
laws, and you must see to it at your risk that you 
do not violate those laws. The term “trans- 
ported” is used in the Wilson act of Congress 
relative to intoxicating liquors (enacted Aug. 8, 
1890), as in the present act. Yet, it seems in- 
credible that Congress intended to suffer the 
State of Maine to seize liquor in original pack- 
ages when brought from Massachusetts, but not 
when brought from Canada or Europe. The 
words of the section before us are sufficiently 
comprehensive to include all game brought into 
the State from whatever place, and we do not 
think it profitable to enter into a verbal analysis, 

“Esteban would never have any but the heavier loads.” 
Photo by Dr. S. C. Crittenden. 
save in one respect. It is urged that the con- 
cluding section of the sentence, “This act shall 
not prevent the importation, transportation or 
sale of birds or bird plumage manufactured from 
the feathers of barnyard fowl,” excludes all birds 
from its operation. We think not. The qualifi- 
cation “manufactured from feathers of the barn- 
yard fowl’ applies as well to birds as to bird 
plumage. Birds mentioned in this sentence are 
plainly artificial birds, and so the Treasury De- 
partment of the United States has ruled. 
The order of the Appellate Division should be 
reversed, that of the Special Term affirmed, and 
the relator remanded to custody. 
’ The case of Silz is somewhat different. The 
affidavit on which the warrant in this case was 
issued creates a strong suspicion that the prose- 
cution was instituted by collusion. It states not 
only that the defendant had in his possession the 
prohibited game, but also almost every fact by 
which the defendant’s counsel hoped to relieve 
his client from the penalties of the law; facts 
which it is difficult, if not impossible, to see how 
they could have been within the affiant’s knowl- 
edge. For that reason, we should be inclined to 
refuse to entertain the cause had not the Attorney 
General intervened and prosecuted the appeal. 
Substantially all the questions raised by the aff- 
davit, save one, are disposed of by the views we 
have already expressed. The exception is the 
statement in the affidavit “That said imported 
golden plover and imported grouse are different 
varieties of game birds from the game birds 
known as plover and grouse in the State of New 
York and from any birds native to America. 
They are different in form, shape, size, color and 
marking from the game birds known as plover 
and grouse in the State of New York.” Of 
course, if the birds, the possession of which is 
charged against the relator, are not grouse or 
birds of the grouse family, then no crime is 
stated in the affidavit, and the relator should be 
discharged. But, in view of the express allega- 
tion at the commencement of the affidavit that the 
defendant was possessed of one imported grouse, 
we are inclined to the view that the statement 
quoted should be construed as meaning not that 
the bird so possessed was not a grouse, but that 
it was a different variety of grouse from that 
which is native to the State of New York. So 
construed, this fact constitutes no defense, nor 
does the allegation that they are different in form, 
shape and color from native birds. It was for 
the Legislature to determine in the protection of 
native game, how far it was necessary or wise to 
include within the penal provisions of the statute 
birds of the same family and of a similar char- 
acter, though differing in some respects. Of 
course, this statement is made within limits. To 
protect pigeons, turkeys could not be excluded. 
In the present case, however, we are clear that 
the Legislature has acted within its power. 
The order of the Appellate Division should be 
reversed, that of the Special Term affirmed, and 
the relator remanded to custody. 
Don Esteban’s Eleventh Hour. 
THE morning of the last day in camp came 
all too soon, as is the way of last days. The 
gray dawn stole through the square windows at 
the side and end of the log camp and through 
the leaky skylight, dimly disclosing the familiar 
shapeless masses of garments dangling from the 
dusky ridgepole, dried over night it was to be 
hoped. The monotonous drip of melting snow 
kept accompaniment to Tenderfoot’s peaceful 
snore, but all else was silent save for the gentle 
breathing of Fernaldus and Esteban and that of 
four-footed Buster. At length, with a rattle 
of his chain, Buster shook himself awake with a 
sleepy yawn—like that of a school boy awakened 
too early to the stern call of book and bell. 
Fernaldus rolled over, opened one eye tenta- 
tively, then the other, with a shiver reached for 
his crimson sweater and was quickly astir, 
skillfully dodging the low rafters. With heroic 
self-sacrifice he picked his chilly way over the 
well-ventilated puncheon floor to the cold stove 
and kindled a fire. Soon limped forth Esteban 
from his warm blankets and, perching upon a 
rude bench, removed the woolen swathings from 
his swollen knee. Tenderfoot snored on until 
the warm breath of the cheery fire reached his 

REX, 
to do yeoman service at the trencher .along with 
his strenuous comrades. 
The situation was worthy of remark. Fortune 
had not disdained this camp. Not at all! Her 
largess of deer had certainly not lacked in 
number. But Fernaldus and Esteban were 
corner and the sound and savory odors of the 
morning sacrifice greeted his senses. Then he, 
too, stretched out his length, thumping his head, 
as usual, against the low rafter, and after an 
ablution in the snow-embanked brook was ready 
cervicides of long and crimson records. With 
gentle humor they regarded the zeal of Tender- 
foot to whom the frisky fawn, hardly out of his 
spots, was noble game. With huge delight they 
355 
pledged his health when he staggered home 
under what they at first sight thought was a 
rabbit, but which upon examination proved 
really to be a deer. They hung the animal se- 
curely to the projecting end of a roof timber 
that he might not be blown away and vigilantly 
guarded him from the onslaught of whiskey 
jacks—the thieving Canada jays—lest they carry 
him off bodily. But for themselves, no! It was 
entirely proper and in order to slay a deer or 
two while in the deer woods, and they did bring 
in a choice specimen or two for camp use or 
for friends at home. But Fernaldus was touched 
with ursimania. He would become an ursicide. 
The notion of possessing a bearskin rug pleased 
his fancy, and over the hill, in a dense tangle 
beside the brook, he had come across fresh signs 
of a monster Bruin. How carefully those three 
plotted against the life and liberty of that planti- 
grade of the glossy black coat as they, in a cosy 

“They hung the animal securely.” 
Photo by Dr. S. C. Crittenden, 
row along the browse bunk, burned their even- 
ing incense of Havana! How Bruin kept his 
glossy coat for his own use, however, in spite 
of the covetous Fernaldus and his co-conspira- 
tors, pertains not to this tale. 
But Esteban, he of the steady nerve, had be- 
come a head-hunter. He stood ready to aid and 
abet Fernaldus in his raids into Bruin’s strong- 
hold; he was glad to help Tenderfoot drag 
homeward his fawns; but upon his wall at home 
was a space just suited to an antlered head— 
not a spike-horn, neither a head of two or three 
points, but that of an old hero of a hundred 
battles and risky amours, thick in the neck, 
grizzly with vigor, topped by antlers stout of 
beam and polished as Achille’s spear at its tips. 
Other heads he had, but not the head—that of 
the monarch of the deepest swamps, battle- 
scarred, breathing defiance from his red nostrils 
and bearing pride enthroned upon his antlered 
occiput. 
But to obtain this head seemed not to be his 
fortune on this trip. Nine days had Phoebus 
guided his fiery chariot across a clear blue sky. 
Brown October gave crisp days, the clean cold 
air deliberately tinctured with the flavor of 
balsam and cedar. And every night the great 
hunter Orion, with his favorite dog Sirius at 
his heels, winked jokingly down upon the frosty 
camp, and the two bears‘with Lepus, the hare, 
and Leo, and even the celestial hunting dogs 
twinkled in great glee about the pole! For their 
earthly pet, Rex Cervorum, the mighty antlered 
one, was perfectly safe in such weather, deep in 
his sanctuary. The open beech parks were 
ankle-deep with dry brown leaves that under 
the most cautious step of even Esteban cried 
aloud, “Look out! Here I come, and I seek 
the great Rex!” And Rex heard and kept aloof, 
In vain did Esteban steal into the beech clear- 
ings and become a gray stub upon some fallen 
giant of the forest, practicing for hours the 
high art of sitting upon a log. In vain did he 
work through the thick borders of the swamp, 
and seek at dusk the outlying birch flat above 
the hollow. He was abroad at peep o’ day, and 
until the stars began to wink at him through the 
treetops he sat motionless in a thicket that com- 
manded a thoroughfare. In vain! Guileless 
does would saunter through the spruces and 
fawns gamboled across the ridges, but they 
knew they were safe. Now and again in some 
