_ things. 
small body of ex-game wardens and professional 
protectionists who have been devoting all of their 
energies to the creation of this new federal bureau 
which was to provide them with life time federal 
jobs and comfortable cabins built and supported 
by the every day sportsmen of this country, not 
one in a thousand of whom would ever come within 
a hundred miles of the so-called public shooting 
grounds. We want game refuges and public shoot- 
ing grounds but we want them for game birds and 
men not for federal wardens and a favored 
ew. 
SPRING FEVER 
ITH the ebbing of Spring floods, the animus 
of winter passes into memory, into the 
Valhalla of things. Up and down the North 
Country a warm and odorous stillness settles upon 
the landscape. The days are limpid, buoyant, free. 
From dark brooks to white-lipped rivers earth 
throbs in an ecstasy of growth and vernal strength, 
a sorcery of bursting buds and infantile leaves. 
Along the silent and lonely, spruce-shadowed 
reaches of blue lakes the air is quick with the thin 
yet subtle scents of strange wood flowers. Song 
that drips unceasingly sweet and clear from birdy 
throats rides the soft winds along pine-girt shores 
of lost ponds, and the sable shadows of north-bound 
migrants late in passing move like magic arrows 
on the placid waters. Two things deeply stir man, 
wildlife, the earth itself—the sun, the smell of 
Spring. 
Earth is restless under the silent thunders of a 
great movement. The forest trees ache with it—in 
the sap, the buds, the young green leaves. Mighty 
as are these old trees the strength of their madness 
is not more powerful than in the dwarfish growths 
of the humble yet lovely blossoms of the violet, the 
painted trilliums, the trailing arbutus. In the 
flight of birds, the immeasurable depths of the 
songs of love and mating, the mystery of nest build- 
ing, man feels the impact of hidden and magic 
He sees it in the wide ranging of members 
of the animal kingdom, the reptile world, the insect 
colonies. Earth itself is susceptible to the spell of 
the wanderlust, and man being impressionable is 
most poignant with this strange, unexplainable 
restlessness. 
PISCATORIAL TIMES 
HE noisy clatter of kingfishers disturbing the 
river quietude have one message for man— 
it is fishing time. May and June send many an 
angler to the haunts of living dreams, to seek the 
_ brook trout, the intimacy of growth and wild life. 
_ Friendly brooks and May! 
This is the very poetry 
_ 6f a season in passing. The homing angler plod- 
_ ding wearily back down the road to his waiting car 
_ hidden in the bushes hears in the shroud of dusk 
' and faint scents the first whippoorwill of the year. 
: 
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The plaintive calls rips to tatters the twilight still- 
hess and throw a cold chill down the back of the 
Superstitious, yet the doleful and repeated refrain 
is a pleasant thing to one who knows and appreci- 
ates the hour in a passing moment of time. It 
‘ceaseless sings ever a note of wail and woe,” but 
this I fear is a matter of man and temperament. 
CHANGES IN NEW JERSEY TROUT LAW 
PENING of the trout season in New Jersey 
was postponed from April 1 to April 15 by a 
measure passed by the Legislature and ap- 
proved by Governor Silzer. The act, which is gen- 
erally pleasing to resident anglers, was effective 
this year. There will be no shortening of the 
actual fishing period, as the closing date of the 
season is extended two weeks to July 31. 
Advocates of the later season for trout fishing 
declare the streams will be in more satisfactory 
condition and that thousands of anglers will benefit 
by the new arrangement. Another argument ad- 
vanced for the new date was that the opening of 
the New Jersey trout season on April 1 has here- 
tofore encouraged anglers from other states to flock 
to Jersey streams ahead of the opening of the sea- 
son in their home states. The result has been that 
many Jersey streams were fished out before the 
season was at its best. 
One important benefit from the later season, 
wardens say, is that the new opening date will per- 
mit adult trout planted in the streams in the early 
Spring to become more widely distributed beyond 
the points of release and better acclimated before 
fishing begins. In all of the counties where there 
are trout streams, wardens are now planting fish 
from the state hatchery at Hackettstown. These 
include three species—the brook, the rainbow and 
the brown trout. These fish have reached a size of 
from six to twelve inches and may be caught legally 
this season. Heavy plantings of adult trout and 
fingerling also were made last Fall. 
UPLAND GAME AND RAIN 
AME is perfectly able to keep itself dry in 
the heaviest rain, for, with feathers tightly 
clasped, not a drop penetrates to the skin. 
Disturb birds, and they soon become drenched, a 
very short flight in pouring rain being sufficient 
to get them in this plight. Pheasants, if they are 
able to pick their way through undergrowth reek- 
ing with wet, keep absolutely dry; but in front of 
beaters they rush hither and thither and become 
soaked. Game birds engaged in hovering broods 
are in a very poor predicament during heavy rain, 
for the plumage is fluffed out, and rain soon pene- 
trates every part of it. It is a well-known fact that 
waterfowl have a copious supply of oil, and con- 
tinually use it to proof their feathering against 
water. 
One thing the rain has taught pheasants, and it 
is the wisdom of roosting in evergreen trees, where 
the exposure is not so great. Partridges in rain 
seek the shelter of fences, or linger beneath trees 
which afford some protection. They are little seen 
in rain except they be flushed. Root crops they de- 
test in rain, for there is nothing which reeks of 
moisture more. Hares at once desert low-lying 
ground and resort to fields where water speedily 
disappears beneath the surface. Coverts they leave 
as soon as they can when the trees commence to 
drip. Rabbits cease to lie out, and soon commence 
to scratch out more underground accommodation 
if that available is insufficient. Directly a fine spell 
occurs game of every description seeks the open, 
intent on feeding and getting dry. It is a good op- 
portunity to ascertain what stock there is on the 
land. 
279 
