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FOREST AND STREAM. 

[Juty 6, 1907. 

Massachusetts Fish and Game. 
Boston, June 29.—Editor Forest and Stream: 
Your Bay State readers, if no others, will be in- 
terested to know that by a recent change in by- 
laws the powers, duties and responsibilities which 
for the last twenty years have been held by the 
board of management of the Massachusetts Fish 
and Game Protective Association, are now in 
the hands of the executive committee, which con 
sists of twelve men including thé president and 
secretary ex-officio. Heretofore the members of 
that committee were ‘members of the board as 
were the vice-presidents and members of 
the membership and fund committees The 
change was adopted at a meeting held on the 
24th ‘of April. At a meeting of the 
also 
executive 
committee at Young’s Hotel on the 21st of June 
a letter from Mr. Paul Butler was read resign- 
ing his position as a member of the committee. 
and Mr. Charles H. Taylor, Jr. (of the Boston 
Globe), was elected to fill the vacancy. 
At this meeting several committees were ap- 
pointed, one on ways and means, consisting of 
C. W. Dimick, Andrew Gray Weeks, Charles H. 
Taylor, Jr., H. S. Blake, and George B. Clark ; 
vone to investigate the rearing of game birds in 
«captivity, consisting of R. Wilton Lockwood, 
John E, Thayer, E. L. Parker and C. W. Dimick. 
\s a committee to consider and report on a 
series of “Smoke Talks’ or social meet- 
ings, W. S. Hinman, Dr. A. R. Brown, Ed- 
win DeMeritte, Dr. M. A. Morris and George B. 
Clark were named. The president, who, _ by 
Article V. of the new by-laws, is made ex-officio 
chairman of all committees, is of course chair- 
man of the committee above named. 
At this meeting President Brewster reported 
that Mr. John E. Thayer, who has raised a good 
many wild ducks in the last fews years, had said 
to him in a recent conversation on the subject 
that there is no more difficulty in rearing ducks 
than there is in raising chickens. The president 
expressed the belief that it,is possible to restore 
duck shooting in Massachusetts within a few 
years to the extent to which -it existed many 

years ago 

The members of our State fish and game com 
nussion have recently held an examination of 
about 100 candidates for the position of deputy 
commissioner and have selected nine to whom ap 
pointments have been given as follows. viz 
James E. Bemis, of Framingham; Joseph Jason, 
Jr., Cohasset; Allen A. David, Taunton: Samuel 
J. Lowe, New Bedford; Lyman E. Ruberg, 
Hoosac Tunnel; DeWitt Smith, Great Barring- 
ton; Edward J. Cogan, Boston; James Hain, 
Kast Boston; Irving O. Converse, Fitchbure: 
John H. Hersey, Haverhill. I have known Mr 
Converse for many years as an_ enthusiastic 
sportsman and a man well versed in the habits 
of game animals, birds and fish and as a man 
who can be relied on to do his duty under all 
circumstances. Besides his other qualifications 
he has been an active worker for protection, not 
only in the local club of his city, but in the State 

association as well. The name of Mr. Ruberg 
has been on our list of correspondents for several 
years, and I understand he has- shown himself 
useful and able as an unpaid deputy. Captain 
Joseph Jason has been for several years ‘harbor. 
master and harbor policeman of Cohasset and 
is to have command of the fish and game com- 
mission’s launch, Scoter. He also has done good 
service as an unpaid deputy and has been a 
licensed pilot for nineteen years He has re 
cently been engaged in placing lights at the en- 
trance to the harbor of Cohasset for the benefit 
of yachts by permission of the lighthouse depart- 
ment upon petition of the yachtsmen. Some 
Framingham members of the State association 
express much pleasure from the appointment of 
James E. Bemis of that town. One advantage 
derived from our system of unpaid deputies is 
the fact that members of the commission have a 
chance to test the abilities of men on that branch 
of the force and know something about them be- 
fore placing them on the regular salaried list of 
deputies. 
It is no small affair to direct the enforcement. 
work to the best advantage, and it would seem 
wise to have a chief warden who should give 
his whole time to the ‘supervision and direction 
of that work. It is hardly to be expected that 
any man would be able to attend to a multiplicity 
of other important matters and also direct. the 
enforcement work to the best advantage. 
In my next letter I hope to review the fish and 
game work of our Legislature which has just 
been prorogued. H:. H. Kimpatt, 
Owego Rod and Gun Club. 
Oweco, N. Y., June 28—Editor Forest and 
Stream: The Owego Rod and. Gun Club was 
organized about three years ago, and now has 
a membership of more than 250, which is con- 
Stantly increasing. The object of the club is to 
create and foster a public sentiment in favor 
of better fish, game and forest protection; to 
stock the waters with fish and the forests with 
game; to suggest and aid the enactment of laws 
for the protection of fish and game, and for the 

preservation of the forests; to aid in the en-. 
forcement of the laws for the protection of song 
and insectivorous birds, and to prevent thé 
wanton killing of any harmless bird or animal; 
to seek and destroy all illegal devices for the 
capture of fish and game, and to prosecute all 
violators of the law we are.able to apprehend 
in Tioga county. 
The officers of the club’are: President, John 
D. Ringrose; Vice-President, Lewis 4H. 
Leonard; Secretary, Philip S. Farnham: Treas- 
urer, Eugene F. Barton, who, with four other 
members of the club, compose the Executive 
Committee. Four other committees, consisting 
of the committee on legislation, committee on 
brooks, committee on forests and committee 
on river, look after the matters pertaining to 
their respective committees, 
A year ago last spring the club liberated 
forty pairs of quail, but with unsatisfactory 
results. The following winter was either too 
severe for the birds or else they nearly all 
migrated to, other points ‘ 
The club has also planted in the trout brooks 
in the county several hundred thousand trout 
Iry and fingerlings within the last three years 
with very satisfactory results, and each year the 
Susquehanna River in Tioga county has been 
stocked with pike fry through the efforts of 
the club 
Early this“spring the club liberated fifteen 
pairs -of Mongolian pheasants at different 
points in the town of Owego, and adjoining 
towns as an experiment, 
Reports brought in by farmers from différent 
localities indicated that the birds ‘have mated, 
and in four five instances young birds in 
broods of from é¢ight to twelve have been seen. 
At a farm on the south side, not more than 
two miles from the village, a cock pheasant 
has taken up his.abode with a flock of chickens 
and roosts at night with them in the hen house. 
Evidently his mate is nesting somewhere in the 
vicinity, and becoming Jonesome the old man 
has sought out the domesticated fowls for com- 
pany while his wife attends to the duties of the 
family in bringing forth a brood of young 
Early one morning about a week ago a farmer 
living about six miles from Owego shot and 
killed a cock pheasant. The matter was at once 
reported to the rod and gun club which noti- 
fied State Game Protector Legge, of Bingham- 
ton. He immediately started “John Doe” pro- 
ceedings and secured a confession from the 
farmer that he killed the bird. He was fined 
$25, which he paid. The farmer claimed that 
he did not know what kind of a bird it was, and 
that he saw it chasing his turkeys which were 
back-pedalling for the turkey house to beat the 
band with the brilliant hued apparition in hot 
pursuit, and thinking that it might be a new 
species of turkey hawk, he shot it to save his 
Thanksgiving fruit from destruction. He went 
home much wiser in natural history and lighter 
in pocket. vowing that hereafter he would con- 
sult a.naturalist before plugging a bird he was 
unacquainted with. 
A wild deer has been seen several times with- 
in the last two weeks in this locality. This is 
the first wild deer to be seen in Tioga county 
for more than fifty years, and much speculation 
is rife as to where it came from. 
Frep J. Davis. 
or 
The Game Warden of To-Day. 
By R. W. Williams, Jr., Assistant, Biological Survey, 
in the Year Book of the Department of Agriculture. 
For several hundred years the enfofcement of 
criminal laws of all kinds in the United States 
has been intrusted to sheriffs, constables and 
police officers, and until the middle of the nine- 
teenth century this method was considered satis- 
factory. But with the growing demand for more 
stringent ‘enactments for the preservation of 
game and the increasing complexity of statutes 
for this purpose it was found no longer practi- 
cable to include the burden of enforcing them 
among the duties devolving upon general officers, 
and their enforcement has consequently been in- 
trusted to special officials, usually called game 
wardens. 
The origin of the term “warden” in relation 
to game is somewhat obscure, but it was prob- 
ably adopted in analogy to church and wood 
wardens, in England, where the word first came 
into use. However this may be, a game warden 
is now generally understood to be an officer 
charged with the enforcement of laws for the 
protection of game and fish. Several substitutes 
for the term are in use in a’ few States and 
Canadian provinces. Thus in New York all, and 
in New Jersey and Pennsylvania some, game 
officers are styled “protectors”: in New Hamp- 
shire the designation “detectives” js employed ; 
in. Prince Edward Island, “inspectors,” and in 
Alberta, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan, “game 
guardians.” 
Wardenships for the protection of fish existed 
quite early in the history of this country, and 
some time after the establishmeet of similar 
offices for the protection of game the duties of 
the two were united and intrusted to the same 
officers. Consequently to-day, in all but a few 
States, the game warden is a fish warden also 
and performs manifold duties in that capacity. 
The present article does not deal with this phase 
of his duties, but is limited in scope to those 
he performs solely as a game warden. 
In the United States the establishment of a 
special office for the protection of game and the 
enforcement of the game laws dates back to 1852, 
when the Legislature of Maine created the office 
of moose warden, directed the governor to ap- 
pomt one tor each of the counties of Oxtord, 
Franklin, Somerset, Penobscot, Piscataquis, 
Aroostook and Washington, and allowed the 
warden three-fourths of the fines recovered for 
killing moose and deer contrary to law. This 
seems to be the first game wardenship estab- 
lished in this country. For three decades. there 
was very little further activity in this direction. 
A few States authorized the appointment of local 
wardens, but the experiment was almost entirely 
a failure. During the period between 1878 and 
1888, however, the urgent necessity for enforce- 
ment of game laws forged to the front, and in 
that decade ten States created a State office or 
department charged with the enforcement of the 
game laws. Other States quickly followed, and 
at the present time in thirty-six States and Ter- 
ritories the enforcement of the game laws is in- 
trusted to a State board, a warden, or, as in 
North Carolina and Delaware. to an incorporated 
association. Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louis- 
iana, Nevada: and South Dakota still adhere to 
the county warden system, and Texas, Alabama 
and Arkansas provide no special officer for pro- 
tection of game. Correlated with the establish- 
ment of these offices has been the increasing 
complexity of game laws, until ‘at the present 
time the modern game statute assumes the mag- 
nitude of a criminal code, and to enforce its pro- 
visions and exercise the powers thereunder re- 
quire a highe degree of judgment and skill. The 
necessary qualifications of an officer in this de- 
partment. of the State’s service are consequently 
much greater to-day than formerly. This is ap- 
parent trom an examination of the one hundred 
and fifty-six sections of the Colorado game law, 
which, it may be noted, do‘ not include the pro- 
visions relating to non-game birds. 
The Office of Game Warden. 
Since the establishment of State offices or de- 
partments for the protection of game, the posi- 
tion of warden, whether the jurisdiction extends 



