Marcu 17, 1906.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 

The local branch of the above society, which 
fairly made every school child of reasonable age 
an individual vigilance committee, carried for 
last year a membership of considerably more 
than one thousand big and little folk. It is 
evident that such agencies must enforce a whole- 
some respect for what we sometimes joyfully 
term the majesty of the law. Not that the 
members of the Audubon, Society here or else- 
where will-be able to reach out and directly 
throttle the grouse or quail exterminators, 
Italian or otherwise, but they individually and 
collectively touch a line of influence that radiates 
into ever-widening circles until even the 
lethargic intellect of the outlaw must compre- 
hend. 
Along the waters of the Susquehanna and 
abroad the Central New York Lakes wild ducks 
have loitered to a greater or less extent during 
the winter; but the shooting, for the most part, 
has been light. M. CHILL. 
The Boston Market. 
Boston, Mass., March 10.—Editor Forest and 
Stream: On Friday, March 9, hearings before 
the Fish and Game Committee were scheduled on 
eight different bills, several of them relating to 
shell fish. Some fishermen of Swansea interested 
in taking clams and quahougs, it seems from testi- 
mony given, seek relief from the exactions of 
oystermen, and the nature of the bill they wish 
to become a law has aroused much opposition 
from those engaged in the oyster industry all 
along the Cape and Buzzard’s Bay shores. So 
much time was taken up by the numerous wit- 
nesses on this bill that the bird bills were not 
reached, and our anti-sale bills have been post- 
poned to Monday next, after the adjournment of 
the Legislature. 
Some additional notes from the last hearing 
may be of interest. While Mr. Chapin was before 
the committee Dr. Field asked him if he would 
give some details as to the States from which he 
obtained quail, remarking that as he understood 
it the cold storage people would not object to the 
bill if they were allowed to sell quail in Massa- 
chusetts not illegally taken and shipped from 
other States. Mr. Chapin named Illinois, Okla- 
homa and Indian Territory. He stated that in 
Illinois they have to the first of February for sale 
of quail, and he did not ship from that State later 
than that date. “The law, as it is, is a good one. 
We do not violate the law in this State or any 
State we know of.” 
In reply to Senator Morse, Mr. Chapin said 
some shipments come by freight and some by ex- 
press, usually by express, billed and marked as 
game. The birds come billed as game, but I 
would not say the boxes are marked anything. I 
went West last fall and had no trouble in getting 
all the quail I wanted. “We want the law to re- 
main as it is, allowing us to sell to the first of 
May.” 
Another dealer said he thought “the men who 
bring in quail here do it legally.” He did not 
think a hundred pair of grouse had been brought 
to Boston this year. “Those that are here,’ he 
said, “are what have been here two or three 
years.” 
Mr. George H. Mackey called attention to the 
law in Oklahoma prohibiting export of quail, and 
said a license was required to export them from 
Illinois. ° 
In speaking for the bills 851 and 853, President 
Brewster dwelt especially on the work of the 
State Association in turning out game, and the 
great interest its members feel in their protection. 
“We heartily favor this bill (853), he said, “and 
would include with the quail the prairie chicken.” 
Senator Morse explained that the object aimed 
at by the Association in bringing forward these 
bills is to eliminate from the Massachusetts laws 
the special privileges now granted to “persons, 
firms or corporations dealing in game or engaged 
in the cold storage business.” He then presented 
Dr, Palmer, who, he said, could state better than - 
he could the reasons for the changes proposed. 
Dr. Palmer stated that, as far as he was aware, 
the special provisions under which dealers have 
been selling game from other States first appeared 
in the statutes of 1877. This related to quail and 
prairie chickens. Two years later, by a slight 
change, it was enacted that any person might buy 
or sell or have in possession quail during January, 
February and March. In 1886, he said, we get 
the present reading of the law (chapter 276): 
“Provided, however, that any person, firm or cor- 
poration dealing in game may buy, sell or have 
in possession quail from the 15th of October (at 
that time the beginning of the open season) to 
the first day of May, and native grouse, wild 
pigeons, shore birds and ducks at any season, if 
not taken in Massachusetts contrary to this act.’ 
This, he declared, was “class legislation of the 
strongest kind.” By an addition a little later the 
class was enlarged a little bit by making it apply 
to any person who should buy from such person, 
firm, etc. The privilege of holding game between 
certain dates now allowed does not apply to the 
farmer, By the language of the statute the privi- 
lege is allowed only to dealers and persons who 
buy of them. 
He spoke of the changed conditions since the 
enactment of the present law, saying that at that 
time there were no non-export laws in other 
States, except in Minnesota, and then the law 
was in the interest of the straightforward game 
dealers’ business in Massachusetts. Since then 
there have been great changes in States outside 
of Massachusetts. “The other States have grown 
up around Massachusetts” so that now it is im- 
possible for any dealer to receive quail legiti- 
mately from any State except Mississippi. The 
statement of Mr. Chapin about shipments from 
Chicago, he declared, were correct. By a provi- 
sion of the law in Illinois shipments may be made 
up to the first of February, but no quail taken in 
that State can be shipped out. The birds shipped 
out of Chicago have been shipped from other 
Western States in violation of law. He declared 
it impossible to receive from the West a prairie 
chicken without violating some local law, usually 
more than one—the law of the State wherein the 
bird is shot, the law forbidding shipment out of 
that State, and the Federal law, the Lacey act. 
At this point the Doctor unrolled before the 
committee a map of the United States showing 
by ocular demonstration that the State of Missis- 
sippi, shown white on the map, was the only one 
having no non-export law. He also showed other 
maps elucidating conditions in the various States, 
and declared that there are now but few States 
which retain provisions allowing dealers to re- 
ceive game and place it in cold storage, among 
them Massachusetts and Illinois, while a very 
few simply allow the putting of it into cold stor- 
age. Colorado, Nebraska and Iowa allow five 
days’ exemption after the season closes for mar- 
ketmen to dispose of any game they have on 
hand. Illinois allows forty-two days, which 
brings it to the first of February; New York 
allows thirty-one days, New Jersey 156, Massa- 
chusetts 154 on quail, and on black and other 
ducks 184 days. 
At this point the Doctor unrolled a map show- 
ing by the length of heavy black lines the relative 
length of time allowed by various States, per- 
tinently remarking that the paper was not long 
enough to show the time in Massachusetts in full, 
the line terminating at the edge of the paper. 
The Massachusetts law is not a “square deal.” 
The reasons prairie chickens are commonly 
shipped via Chicago were because if the game 
could be got into Chicago they can ship and 
break the chain of evidence, and again the heavy 
wholesale dealers are in Chicago. As a matter 
of fact very few shipments are marked “game,” 
as they should be marked. . The marking required 
by the Lacey act—the shipper’s name and address 
and a complete statement of contents of the pack- 
age—is not found on game shipments as a rule, 
for the reason that they would not move ten 
miles if they did appear. Some of the packages 
are marked butter, household goods, and in some 
cases electrical goods. 
To such an extent do the market exemptions 
in this State invite violations of game laws that 
about twenty per cent. of the cases under inves- 
tigation in Chicago by the Department were 
billed for Boston. The effect of these exemptions 
results in regular and systematic violation of 
game laws in other States. Some of these ship- 
ments were, in 1901, 1,256 quail from Indian 
Territory; another, 3,000 quail for Boston mar- 
#25 
ket; 204 quail and two prairie chicker 
lowa, in 1905, 196 quail and 156 prairie npiytem 
in December, 1905, twenty-nine quail and 102 
prairie chickens, for which the shipper was;fined 

400. 
The shipments brought to the notice of the De- 
partment, he declared, were not a drop in the 
bucket, scarcely one-tenth of one per cent. ofall 
the shipment. The long period of sale, he said, 
led dealers to take great risk to get the game into 
the Boston. market. The Doctor explained 
lucidly how this reacts against Massachusetts. 
The quail States of the South and West prohibit 
shipments, and if you go to them for shipments 
for propagation they answer, ‘No, if you make 
an exemption on live birds they will be shipped 
alive and their necks wrung and the birds will 
be put on the market.” The people in Oklahoma, 
he said, would be glad to allow the shipment of 
live game to this State for purposes of propaga- 
tion if they could stop the shipment of dead game, 
but failing in that they will stop all shipments if 
they can. 
The question in a nutshell is, “whether the 
dealers, the commission men, the market men, the 
cold storage interests or the people of Massa- 
chusetts are to be consulted.” 
Dr. Palmer explained that Professor Brewster 
had shown that the heath hen of Martha’s Vine- 
yard is different from the Western bird, the pin- 
nated grouse, and, he said, if the definition is 
restricted, the Western bird will come here and 
the same old question will come up of receiving 
a kind of game from the West which is not al- 
lowed to be sold here. As regards the wood 
duck the Doctor remarked that instead of offer- 
ing a bounty on foxes he would offer one of 
$1 to every boy who would raise a wood duck. 
On the gull bill (Senate 115) Dr. Palmer said 
that the privilege now allowed of taking the 
black-backed and herring gulls between the first 
of November and May of the following year 
should be stricken out so that they would be on 
the same footing as other gulls, that clause hav- 
ing been inserted originally as a compromise, it 
being urged that those gulls were used as food. 
To-day, he said, gulls are protected on the At- 
lantic seaboard throughout the year from Maine 
to Florida, and to allow an open season on them 
is to put a premium on their destruction, and 
render nugatory the efforts of the various agen- 
cies which are expending large sums of money 
for the protection of the breeding colonies. In 
speaking of the good results of the law making 
the sale and shooting seasons on shore birds iden- 
tical the Doctor said he had been informed by a 
man in authority in North Carolina that the ° 
Massachusetts law had done more for the pro- 
tection of shore birds than al] the other legisla- 
tion that has been enacted. 
In reply to a question as to the reason for his 
presence at the hearing the Doctor said that the 
National law rests on the local or State law and 
the protection of game was the object of each. 
He also commented on the increased number of 
hunters until now it is out of all proportion to 
the amount of game. Two years ago there were 
over a million hunters in ten States; at present 
there are probably two or three times that num- 
ber. H. H. KimMBA tt. 
A Skunk in the Trail. 
In the Big Hole Basin, Mont., last fall I was 
riding a sleepy little cayuse through a creek bot- 
tom in the foothills, when I saw a skunk in the 
trail about twenty yards ahead. I supposed the 
cayuse saw him too and paid no attention to him. 
It seems, however, that he had not, for when we 
came within about four feet of the skunk, he 
suddenly realized that we were there, got his 
back up like an indignant Maria cat, whisked his 
big bushy tail up over spine and the cayuse made 
one of the allfiredest jumps that ever a scared 
horse made, I reckon. He went about twenty 
feet square sideways, and when he did strike the 
earth he drove my spine clear up into my hat. 
Fortunately I was prepared for some little dis- 
turbance and had a good seat, so he didn’t get 
out from under me, but after that when I saw a 
skunk ahead of me I always rode round through 
the next school district that the cayuse might 
not see him. Cocoa, 
