

AvuG. 10, 1907.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
217 

_ — 
ness and exultation. I showed him the location 
where my bare feet could not go, and his heavy 
walking shoes soon stamped a path to the bird 
which lay where it had fallen, stone dead. 
“What is it, Daddie?”’ I asked him, as he came 
back with the bird in his hand. ‘I’ve killed a 
number of them back in Canada, but this is the 
first I ever came across in this country. My, 
but isn’t he a beauty? Just look at that glorious 
eye!” He had all the while been smoothing out 
the torn and rumpled feathers and he now held 
the beautiful bird up to my wondering eyes. It 
was considerably larger than a quail, much the 
same general brown color as the female quail 
especially, but a richer tone to its marking of 
velvety chocolate and brown, and its strong 
black bill some two inches in length. The bird’s 
large round eye, black and full, expressive even 
in death, made it an extraordinarily handsome 
creature, and still consumed by curiosity, I began 
to experience a share of Daddie’s enthusiasm, 
“What is it—I mean what kind of bird is it, 
Daddie?” I again asked, somewhat impatiently, 
be it confessed; but he paid no attention to me. 
“Come and [’ll show you where I flushed 
him!” and he led the way down into the ravine 
till he came to a small sandbar where he showed 
me a number of small holes where the bird had 
driven its bill down into the mud and sand in 
search of worms, while the white splash of its 
sign was here and there beside its tracks. 
After an interesting and somewhat drawn ac- 
count of the history and habits of the bird and 
its many excellencies, he concluded with some 
feeling: 
“Vou will never kill many of them, Jack, as 
they are getting scarcer each year, and in fact 
they were never plenty, at least in my time; but 
if you should ever ‘have the good fortune to bag 
one, remember, it will be the happiest moment 
of your life. Take a good look at this one, son, 
as you may never see another as long as you 
live!” 
“But what is it, Daddie?” 
“This sir,” said he, pride swelling up his chest 
until to my great amazement his voice grew husky, 
“is the grandest bird that flies; the crowned king 
of all American game birds, the eagerly-sought, 
highly-prized, and in a dual sense evanescent 
qwoodcock!” Joun S. Roesuck, Jr. 

Virginia Field Trials Association. 
Ricumonp, Va. Aug. 3—Editor Forest and 
Stream: The board of governors of the Vir- 
ginia-Carolina Field Trials Association met at 
the Mt. Elliott Hotel, Mt. Elliott Springs, Va., 
on Aug. 2 and 3. It was decided to hold the 
sixth annual meeting at Spray, N. C., Tuesday, 
Nov. 19, 1907. There will be three stakes, a 
members’ derby, all age, and a free-for-all. The 
purses will average $500. There will be given 
also three beautiful silver cups, one by the asso- 
ciation, one by Mr. Geo. C. Thomas, Philadel- 
Get and one by B. Frank Mehane, of Spray, 
ei 
The Virginia-Carolina Association is the largest 
in the country, it being open to all amateur 
sportsmen, and the initiation fee is.only $5.° The 
next meeting will be the biggest in its history. 
Cuas. B. CooxkeE, Sec’y. 

Game Birds in Town. 
Sayre, Pa., Aug. 1—Editor Forest and Stream: 
In a vacant lot in South Waverly, which is prac- 
tically a part of Sayre, a bevy of quail have taken 
their residence, and there, amid the turmoil and 
hustle of a busy community, the little chaps 
whistle and make merry with no apparent fear 
of molestation. 
The prohibitive measures in force against the 
use of firearms within municipal limits insures 
the feathered colony immunity from harm at the 
hands of the pot hunter, and with the care and 
attention giyen the birds by local sportsmen it 
is hoped to induce the brown pipers to become 
permanent residents of the village. 
M. CHILL. 
Tue Forest AND STREAM may be obtained from 
any newsdealer on order. Ask your déa'er to 
supply you regularly. 
The Wood Duck. 
Boston, Aug. -3.—Editor Forest and Stream: 
This beautiful duck, whose numbers have been 
so rapidly depleted in the last two decades, is 
now protected for a term of years in Massachu- 
setts. It is a great pity that all the New Eng- 
land States do not give them the same protec- 
tion. The laws on fish and game in these States, 
which are in so nearly the same latitude, should 
be uniform. Not only would it bea greater pro- 
tection, but it would lighten and lessen the labors 
of the game wardens in making arrests. 

TAKING LESSONS IN CLIFF CLIMBING. 
Massachusetts occupies an unique position in 
being next door neighbor to four out of five of 
the New England States. Some of these States 
are divided by streams on one side of which fish 
and game are protected, while on the other they 
can be taken. Again, the line between the States 
may run for miles through a forest where it 
would be hard to know whether you were shoot- 
ing in one State or another. It does not seem 
fair for one State to protect certain kinds of 
game, only to have it destroyed in an adjoining 
State. We have an excellent board of commis- 
sioners who I believe would be only too glad to 
meet, confer or work with the game commis- 
sioners of the other New England States, so 
that we might have uniform laws on fish and 
game which would benefit all alike. 
Our two migrating game birds, the woodcock 
and the woodduck, seem to be in the greatest 
danger of extinction, as they are relentlessly 
pursued by sportsmen North and South. We 
are burning the candle at both ends. It seems 
as if only a Federal law, applied to all the States, 

can save these birds from being wiped off the 
face of the earth. Nature’s insurgent son, man, 
must be careful how he interferes with her laws. 
The woodduck is very prolific and under favor- 
able conditions and proper protection would in- 
crease rapidly: I know of one nest this season, 
in an old hollow apple tree, that contained twenty- 
five eggs from which twenty-three were hatched 
and safely led away to the nearby brook by the 
parent birds. I have heard of as many as forty 
eggs being found in a nest, but think it a very 
rare exception. 
There are several causes for their lessening 
numbers; a changed condition in the clearing 
away of the old forest growth with the old hol- 
low trees, the building of summer cottages near 
the ponds where they used to breed, the increas- 
ing number of sportsmen who are tempted by 
the brilliant colors of the male and pursue them 
relentlessly. Audubon called it the handsomest 
duck in America. Thoreau speaks of having 
seen them often-in his rambles along the Con 
cord River, where they were numerous forty or 
fifty years ago. They are an early migrant. 
Very few are found in this section after Sep- 
tember. They are well named the summer duck. 
Mr. Brewster, author and ornithologist, who 
has a summer camp on the Concord River, makes 
a very good suggestion that boxes be made and 
fastened to the trees along the banks of the river 
in order to attract the woodducks back to their 
former haunts. With their sharp claws they can 
climb a tree like a squirrel. 
Some years ago some boys I knew caught a 
number of the young, and placing them in an 
empty barrel thought they had them safe, but 
they soon regained their liberty by climbing up 
the side of the barrel. ; 
They are*not so wild as many other kinds of 
ducks, and are easily domesticated, and as game 
for the table are considered among the finest of 
the duck family. Uniform laws to protect them 
both North and South are very much needed. 
Geo. L. Brown. 
New Publications. 
“SprriItT LAKE” is a new book every youth who 
loves the woods and stories of Indian life will 
read with deep interest and profit, for it is a 
tale of the wanderings for a year of Standing 
Wolf and his family (Saulteaux, a branch of 
the Ojibway tribe of Indians) in search of 
fur bearing animals in the Strong Woods of 
Canada, The story, which was both written and 
illustrated by Arthur Heming, opens with the 
preparations for departure from Fort Determina- 
tion, in September, the long voyage of the fleet 
of canoes to Spirit Lake, the camp building and 
trap making, hunting, fishing and home life of 
the Indians: their habits and failings. _Wab- 
ud-ow, a conjurer, had warned Standing Wolf 
not to hunt at Spirit Lake, as, should he do so, 
he would surely be killed by the spirit wolf that 
haunted the vicinity, but it transpired that the 
conjurer’s visions were selfish ones, for he was 
found trapping on the hunting grounds of Stand- 
ing Wolf, who finally overhauled and crippled 
him in a fight, and afterward saw him disappear 
in Lonely River, a victim of the Snow-Wetigo. 
Mr. Heming’s pictures are as good as the story 
they serve so well to illustrate. The supersti- 
tions, beliefs and habits of the Indians he has 
woven into the story so pleasingly that one learns 
something useful in every chapter, while the mild 
thread of romance adds a charm all its own. 
Published by the Macmillan Company, New York 
“Tight TACKLE SEA FISHING,” concluded in 
this issue of Forest AND STREAM, may soon ap- 
pear in book form. Mr. Eddy is considering the 
matter, and as nothing relative to. the use of 
light tackle for sea fishing has as yét appeared 
in book form, his friends are urging him to 
supply the needed manual. 
Tue Macmillan Company will publish “Gray 
Lady and the Birds” in the near future. This 
is Mabel Osgood Wright’s latest book, and while 
it will appeal strongly to the young people, it 
cannot fail of the approval of all who are work- 
ing for the protection of our native birds. 

