Forest and Stream 
Copyright, 1906, by Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 




Terms, $3 a Year. 10 Cts. a Copy. ‘ 
Six Months, $1.50. 

VOL. LXVI.—No. 11. 
NEW TOA, SATURDAY, MARCH 17, 1906. 1 No. 346 Broadway, New York. 


GAME REFUGES. 
Brits have been introduced in Congress—both 
in the Senate and the House—authorizing the 
President of the United States to designate such 
areas in the public forest reserves as should, in 
his opinion, be set aside for the protection of 
game, or of other animals, birds or fish, which 
areas shall be recognized as breeding places for 
these animals, and the pursuit, capture or killing 
of game or fish on them be made unlawful. 
This game refuge project, first suggested years 
ago by Forest AND STREAM and afterward taken 
up by various protective associations, is thus 
once more before Congress. It has been up be- 
fore but was defeated, but it is certain to make 
its way, and sooner or later to become the law 
of the land. It appeals to the plain, hard com- 
mon sense of the people at large, who have made 
up their minds that these wild things are worth 
preserving. All persons who desire the preserva- 
tion of wild game and song birds may properly 
work for the passage of this law, and should do 
everything in their power to urge their represen- 
tatives in Congress to push it forward. 
As has often been pointed out, the Yellow- 
stone Park has long shown and continues to show 
how rapidly game will increase when it is abso- 
lutely protected, and how readily certain species 
of wild animals which we are accustomed to re- 
gard as most shy, come to look upon man as a 
familiar object, no more dangerous to them than 
a horse or a cow. In the Yellowstone Park at 
certain seasons deer and mountain sheep feed 
close to the road, wholly regardless of the passer- 
by, while the shy antelope is almost as tame, and 
the parade ground of Fort Yellowstone is a win- 
ter lounging place for various sorts of wild 
animals, 
The bills introduced in Congress giving this 
authority to the President are intended for the 
protection of useful,native animals. They are 
not intended to protect such birds and animals as 
are, or may hereafter be declared injurious by the 
laws of the State or Territory in which such pre- 
serves are situated. The purpose of the act is to 
protect from trespass the public lands of the 
United States and the animals, birds and fish 
which may be on these lands, and not to interfere 
with the operation of the local game laws as 
affecting State or Territorial lands. 
The passage of such a law and the subsequent 
setting aside by the President of certain forest 
refuges would not only be most useful in pro- 
tecting and increasing in numbers various native 
animals and birds, but it would also tend greatly 
to reduce the destruction of our Western forests 
by fires. A very large proportion of the forest 
fires of the Western mountains are started 
through carelessness of irresponsible hunters. By 
such carelessness millions of dollars’ worth of 
timber is often destroyed, with indirect damage 
to the neighboring country far greater than is 
generally believed. 
FOREIGN GAME IMPORTATION. 
THE decision of the New York Court of Ap- 
peals in the Hill and Silz game cases, reported 
in our last issue, has assumed increased im- 
portance because of the course of action adopted 
by the defendant game dealers. They have de- 
cided not to carry the case to the Supreme Court 
of the United States. This means that there will 
be no endeavor to overthrow the result. The 
statute will be accepted as constitutional and 
binding. And the reputable game dealers declare 
that they will abide by it and obey it. 
On the result of the Hill and Silz cases de- 
pended the disposition of a very large number of 
other prosecutions, the settlement of which had 
been deferred awaiting the outcome of these two 
test actions. Now that the law has been upheld, 
all the defendants are arranging to pay their sev- 
eral penalties. The authorities have adopted a 
schedule of settlements, and the entire list will 
speedily be cleared up. 
While all concerned have thus conceded the 
wisdom of gracefully acquiescing in the finding 
of the Hill and Silz cases, it is contended by the 
reputable dealers, and with perfectly good reason, 
that they should have the privilege of commerce 
in such foreign game as may not in its importa- 
tion in any way affect unfavorably the supply of 
domestic game nor serve as a cloak to traffic in 
American birds. To this the authorities are dis- 
posed to assent. The subject was discussed at a 
hearing of the Assembly Game Committee at 
Albany last week, at which the game authorities, 
sportsmen and dealers were represented; and as 
a result of the discussion then had, it was agreed 
that a bill should be introduced embodying the 
principles outlined. As drafted the measure 
provides: 
Blackcock, rebhuener, redleg, lapwing, Egyptian quail 
and hazel hens, if imported from a European country, 
may be possessed and sold under regulations as herein 
contained and not otherwise. No person shall possess, 
sell, or offer for sale, any of such birds except with the 
feathered head and feet on, nor until he shall have given 
a bond to the people of the State of New York, as pro- 
vided in this section. The bond shall be for a specified 
time, and shall continue in force during that time unless 
sooner disproved by the Commissioner of Forest, Fish 
and Game for breach of its condition or failure of 
sureties. Such bond must be approved by the Com: 
missioner as to its sufficiency and form, and be filed in 
the office of the Forest, Fish and Game Commission, 
and shall be conditioned that the birds intended to be 
possessed have in fact been imported from a European 
country; that the person bonded shall not possess, sell 
or offer for sale such hirds or either or any of them 
except with the feathered heads and feet on; that he will 
not violate any provision of the Forest, Fish and Game 
law, and it shall contain such other conditions as to the 
inspection of books, papers, and premises and of the 
production of evidence by way bill, bill of lading or 
otherwise, as the Commissioner may require. A breach 
of any provision or condition of the bond shall, in 
addition to other penalties, work a forfeiture to the 
people of the State of New York of the amount named 
therein as the penalty thereof, which said sum shall be 
considered as liquidated damages, and the privilege of 
giving any other bond under this section, may at the 
option of the Commissioner, be denied to the person so 
bonded. The burden of proving that the birds are pos- 
sessed within the meaning and provisions of this section, 
shall be upon the possessor, and no presumption that 
sucn birds are possessed lawfully within this State shal¥ 
arise in any proceeding before the Gourt, magistrate o2 
justice, until it affirmatively appears that the provisions 
of this section have been complied with. 
The species named are such as may readily be 
distinguished from American birds, provided the 
marks of identification, the feathered head and 
the feet, are retained; and we may be confident 
that the game protective authorities will insist 
upon a strict compliance with the law. 
WE are told that during the earlier half of the 
last century there used to be fair woodcock shoot- 
ing about the Collect Pond, where the New York 
Tombs now stands, and good snipe shooting on 
the Lispenard Meadows, now for many years 
covered with tall office and manufacturing build- 
ings. A good deal later—in the latter half of 
the last century—there was an occasional wood- 
cock to be shot, and there was a rookery where 
the herons annually reared their broods, in a 
great swamp which lay between about 160th and 
175th street and Amsterdam and Audubon ave- 
nues in New York. To old New Yorkers mem- 
ories of those ancient conditions will be called up 
by the article in our natural history columns on 
“Wild Birds Nesting in New York,” which is full 
of interest for all nature lovers, and may well 
excite the curiosity of the most casual reader. 
The fashion in which birds so shy as members 
of the rail family carry on their ordinary domes- 
tic operations in the midst of the noisy bustle of 
a busy transportation line only shows—what has 
been demonstrated many times before—that wild 
creatures are ready to adapt themselves to al- 
most any Surroundings, and will live their lives 
in close proximity to man, provided they are not 
disturbed by him. 
Bird lovers are to be congratulated on the 
patience and keenness of observation of the 
correspondent who contributes this article to us. 
It is of exceeding interest. 

Tue late George W. Van Siclen once wrote 
that having a shelf of choice angling books he 
fancied that he would add to them a copy of 
Dame Juliana Berners’ “Treatyse on Fysshynge 
wyth an Angle,” and set about procuring ftae ele 
found that it would cost from $2,500 to $3,000. 
This was in the early seventies; probably the 
cost to-day would very greatly exceed the figure 
named. , The “Boke” has taken its place among 
the rarities of literature to be possessed only by 
those who have the longest of purses. Any re- 
production by modern processes of an ancient 
work must lack the peculiar charm which invests 
the actual original, and yet there is much satis- 
faction in looking on the two pages of the 
“Treatyse’ here printed to-day, and thus gaining 
some notion of what manner of book it was the 
angler of the fifteenth century had for his guid- 
ance in the art of fishing and in the principles 
of the true sportsmanship of his day. 
