Forest and Stream 

Copyright, 1906, by Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 



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NEW YORK, SATURDAY, APRIL 28, 1906. 

The object of this journal will be to studiously 
promote a healthful interest in outdoor recre- 
ation, and to cultivate a refined taste for natural 
objects. Announcement in first number of 
Forest AND STREAM, Aug. 14, 1873. 


SEURIOUS SPORTS. 
Tue changes which take place from time to 
time in the viewpoint of sportsmen as to the 
ethics of their own sports and in the attitude of 
the public in that relation are always interesting. 
It is but a few years since it was a frequent prac- 
tice in certain sections of the United States to 
turn out rabbits in an inclosure and to course 
them there with greyhounds. There were occa- 
sional cases where fox hunters attempted to chase 
a bagged fox that had been in captivity, and in 
consequence was either unable to run any im- 
portant distance or refused to do so, and so was 
quickly caught and killed. 
Only a few years ago the shooting of live 
pigeons was practiced everywhere in this coun- 
try. About thirty years ago the New York State 
Sportsmen’s Association shot from plunge traps 
thousands of wild passenger pigeons which by 
long confinement had in many cases been almost 
deprived of the power of flight. In many sec- 
tions of the country a strong public feeling is 
now arrayed against such practices, and has mani- 
fested itself either by statutory prohibition or by 
the expression of an irresistible public opinion. 
In England sport is practiced differently as to 
method, but in both countries there is a tendency 
to view it alike as to ethics. 
In England they rear many of their game birds 
artificially, for the purpose of killing them a little 
later; and they do kill them most conscientiously. 
In America we have not yet passed beyond the 
point where game is regarded as wild. In Eng- 
land it is not wild but domestic, a merchantable 
product of the field and woods. Nevertheless 
even there a change of sentiment.is taking place, 
and shows itself in the introduction in Parliament 
by a Mr. Luttrell of a bill entitled “The Spurious 
Sports Act,’ which, if passed, will be likely to 
do away in England with much of the so-called 
sport of the present day. It would put an end 
to live bird shooting from the trap, to rabbit 
coursing and hare coursing, where the rabbits or 
hares were put down after captivity, and to the 
pursuit of the carted stag and the bagged fox. 
It would also put an end to the practice of 
turning out into the coverts in the morning a lot 
of tame pheasants and to be shot in the after- 
noon of the same day. This practice is explained 
by the statement that it is necessary to shoot 
these pheasants at once because the birds, coming 
directly from the breeding pens, are so lacking in 
experience that they do not know enough to fly 
up into a tree to roost, and if they should spend 
the night on the ground, the foxes would then 
destroy them. 
Though there is much opposition to “The 
Spurious Sports Act,” some English writers are 
suggesting that it will be well to accept the bill 
in part, consenting to the abolition of rabbit 
coursing and hunting the carted deer, in the hope 
that by these concessions they may retain liberty 
to kill live pigeons at the trap and to kill the 
turned down pheasants. 
SAN FRANCISCO. 
THE appalling catastrophe which has _ over- 
whelmed the greatest and fairest city of western 
America thrills the civilized world with horror. 
Not for centuries has there occurred so terrible 
a cataclysm swiftly followed by such terrible de- 
vastation. Never in the new world has there been 
such loss of life and property from such com- 
bined causes. Just what is the loss of life, and 
what of property, cannot, as yet, be known, be- 
cause of the confusion resulting from the almost 
total destruction of the city by fire. Hundreds of 
millions of property have been destroyed, and 
hundreds of thousands of people have been turned 
adrift without a roof to shelter them and with- 
out food or water. The earthquake cut off the 
water supply; there was no food, for the build- 
ings where food was gathered and where food 
was sold were shattered and destroyed by fire. 
Railway transportation in many directions was 
cut off for days, and food supplies could not be 
brought into the city. The great multitudes who 
were herded in the public parks suffered for lack 
of food. Starvation threatened. 
In the face of such an appalling calamity words 
fail. The piling up of adjectives cannot convey 
an idea of what has happened. But if Americans 
cannot realize all that has taken place, they can 
feel and act, and all over the country money has 
been generously contributed for the immediate re- 
lief of our brothers who have been overwhelmed 
by this act of God. 
The War Department, with astonishing prompt- 
ness and efficiency, has hurried forward troops, 
tents, medicines and rations to aid these stricken 
people. Congress has appropriated liberal sums 
and will appropriate more, if necessary. Gover- 
nors of States and mayors of cities are collecting 
vast funds; the trusts, so roundly cursed by the 
thoughtless, the much abused rich man and the 
obscure poor have all alike given lavishly. Vast 
sums have been furnished, but still vaster sums 
will be needed. The generous American heart, 
which annually contributes millions of money for 
the benefit of the heathen and for the aid of suf- 
fering humanity in distant lands, has swiftly and 
ably responded to this cry for help from our own 
people, and will continue to respond. It is the 
duty of all to be prepared to do their part, how- 
ever small, to relieve this suffering, and they will 
do it, 
In the week that has elapsed since the disaster, 
much has been done. Fires have been put out, 
order has been restored, temporary abiding places 
have been found for the homeless, food and water 


VOL. LXVI.—No. 17. 
| No. 346 Broadway, New York. 
have been made available. The accomplishment 
of these good results is due in large part to the 
efficiency of the regular army stationed in San 
Francisco. 
To-day San Francisco lies in ruins, but the 
virile inanhood and indomitable courage by which 
Californians in two generations transformed an 
uninhabited wilderness into the garden spot of the 
earth, will swiftly raise from its ashes another 
greater, richer and more imposing city, still to 
be the metropolis of our western coast. 
RULERS WHO HUNT. 
Tue Emperor of Germany is expert in the use 
of rifle and shotgun, and his hunting parties— 
so called—are notorious for the great quantities 
of birds and animals slaughtered. Former Presi- 
dent Loubet, of France, enjoys a day afield and 
is still a good strong walker after partridges. 
King Edward of England is a capital shot and 
always gives good account of himself with the 
grouse and the pheasant. 
In our own country the hunting trips of Presi- 
dent Roosevelt, Mr. Cleveland and Mr. Harrison 
have often been exploited in the newspapers, Mr. 
Roosevelt being especially famous as a big-game 
hunter whose record of different species of 
American game killed perhaps exceeds that of 
any other American sportsmen. Mr. Cleveland 
and Mr. Harrison were great duck shooters. 
It appears that President Diaz, of Mexico, is 
also fond of hunting, for he is reported as having 
recently returned from a trip into the mountains, 
where his party killed seventeen deer and three 
mountain cats. 
In this northern land the month of April is 
not regarded as a particularly desirable time for 
deer hunting, but it appears that they manage 
things differently in Mexico. Its vast territory 
is still sparsely settled by a population not given 
to hunting, and has been as yet penetrated by 
comparatively few sportsmen of the destructive 
Anglo-Saxon race. It will be well for Mexico to 
beware lest a time come when its deer may all 
be killed off, and to forestall such an event by 
passing and enforcing game laws. 
THE two coyote pups nursed by a cat, of which 
mention is made elsewhere, seem to match up 
very well with the trio of gray foxes captured 
five or six years ago as blind puppies at Milford. 
Conn., and for some weeks a mystery to the 
neighborhood. These foxes, like the coyote pups, 
were reared by a cat, and a full account of them, 
with illustrations, was given in the ForEsT AND 
StrEAM. Cats are common and are frequent 
breeders, and it is perhaps for this reason that 
they are so often selected as foster mothers for 
small animals. When they are assigned this task 
they almost always perform it well. We have 
known of their nursing rabbits almost to ma- 
turity, and accounts of cats nursing squirrels are 
common enough. 
