


GerorGe Biro GRINNELL, 
346 Broadway, New York. 
Forest and Stream 
A Weekly Journal. Copyright, 1907, by Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 
CHARLES B, Reynowps, Secretary. 
President, 
346 Broadway, New York. 
Louis Dean Speier, Treasurer. 
346 Broadway, New York. 


Terms, $3 a Year, 10 Cts. a Copy. 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 1907. 

Six Months, $1.50. 


THE OBJECT OF THIS JOURNAL 
(will be to studiously promote a healthful interest 
in outdoor recreation, and to cultivate a refined 
taste for natural objects. 
| —Forest AND Stream, Aug. 14, 1878. 

HAND-REARING GAME BIRDS.—III. 
EXPERIMENTS in breeding our native quail and 
grouse are now being undertaken on so large 
a scale that only a few years should elapse be- 
fore much knowledge shall have been acquired 
on this subject and some results will have been 
attained. Nowhere nearly so much has been 
accomplished in the effort to breed wild ducks, 
|}something which has been very successfully 
{ carried on in England, where many wild ducks 
stop and nest. With the abolition of spring 
shooting there is no reason why black ducks, 
imallards, teal and a number of other species 
should not nest within the borders of the United 
j States. Any plot of a few acres of land 
and water which can be suitably fenced, and in 
| which a few tame ducks or pinioned wild ducks 
| have their home, is likely to be chosen as a nest- 
ing place by the wild birds, and a single nesting 
i by wild birds will soon bring others. In many 
"| parts of the country it is not difhcult to procure 
| an occasional hatching of wild ducks’ eggs, which, 
‘if put under a hen, are likely to hatch out and 
" do well. In places in England, where wild ducks 
|, are artificially reared, the increase is said to 
| be go per cent. of the eggs; the young ducks are 
/ hardy, have few diseases, and at the age of from 
|! ten to twelve weeks are able to fly. After that 
they need fear only the gun. Young wild ducks 
unshot at, are no more shy than tame ducks, and 
| even old wild ducks, at a place where they are 
never molested, where they are fed and accus- 
tomed to the sight of man, fear man no more 
| than they do a horse, a deer or a sheep. 
Here then is an opportunity for every farmer, 
even every landed proprietor who absolutely con- 
trols a moderate number of acres on which there 
is water. Surrounded by natural conditions, even 
captive birds will breed freely, as is seen in 
zoological parks where the. birds are not too 
crowded, and as has been the experience of a 
number of gentlemen who were interested in 
our wildfowl. 
While individuals here and there have for the 
past thirty years been interested in the rear- 
ing of wildfowl in confinement, it is only within 
the past few years that ducks have been hand 
reared, and—after they reached the flying age— 
have been left entirely free. The practice began 
about 1890 in England with the purpose of mak- 
ing more shooting of the sort called in the United 
States “pass shooting,” and the results have been 
so excellent that a very large number of people 
have undertaken it and with almost unvarying 
success. In the United States one man, a Mr. 
Geo. Irwin, residing in the northern part of New 
York State, reared wildfowl in confinement and 
| | 
| 
| 
| 
= 

then left them free more than fifty years ago, 
and bred in pens on Chautauqua Lake not only a 
number of species of wild ducks, but even wild 
swans. An account of this, written by our long- 
time correspondent, the late Chas. Linden, is 
printed in another column. 
How readily ducks may be made tame can be 
seen by any resident of New York or vicinity 
who in the month of November or December 
chooses to take the trouble to go up to the New 
York Zoological Society's Park in the Bronx, 
and devote a little time to watching the wild- 
fowl ponds there. During the migration the wild 
ducks coming from the north are attracted by 
their captive fellows in the ponds, come down, 
swing over the pond frequently, and at last alight 
among the captive birds. Though at first a little 
shy of the visitors about the place, they soon 
recognize that these moving figures are harm- 
less, and often remain with their tame cousins 
until the waters are closed by the frost. 

ANDTHE PRESS. 
uncertain 
THE PRESIDENT 
THE conservative newspapers 
just how to regard President Roosevelt's pro- 
posed bear hunt. While their columns 
contain statements relative to the trip, the Presi- 
dent’s fondness for hunting, the game of the 
region, and the men who will camp and hunt 
with him, their editorial columns bear evidences 
of the fact that while they deem it their duty 
to say something, being uncertain of their 
ground, they try to be mildly critical, but in a 
way intended to please all men. 
There are those who applaud the President’s 
acts as a sportsman, while others he 
should use a camera instead of firearms when 
he follows big game. Healthy, normal men in- 
herit their desire to hunt and to fish, and years 
of confinement in the cities away from actual 
temptation does prevent the longing for 
woods and streams that periodically rises in the 
are 
news 
believe 
not 
human breast. 
Shooting game merely for the sake of kill- 
ing is as abhorrent to the sportsman as it is 
to the vegetarian who fancies he is helping to 
discourage the killing of domestic animals to 
supply the markets with meat. There has been 
so much improvement in late years in protective 
laws that, if all men were honest, there would 
be moderate sport for all who are willing to 
assist the State in protecting game, so that it 
could not then be said that total extinction is 
merely a matter of time. 
At the present time there is much encourage- 
ment for the workers. Game mammals and 
birds and insectivorous and song birds, with few 
exceptions, are increasing in numbers wherever 
they are actually protected; and barring un- 
favorable seasons, which kill off more wild life 
than does powder and lead, they will increase. 
It only remains, therefore, to rigidly enforce 
sensible and reasonable laws, and the objectors 
{ VOL. LXIX.—No. 13, 
1 No. 346 Broadway, New York. 
will find themselves without just cause for com- 
plaint. 
Again, those who protest against game shoot- 
ing are beginning to realize that other forms 
of recreation are reducing the number of per- 
sons who actually hunt game while taking vaca 
tions in the country. Canoeing trips and auto- 
mobile tours and power boat cruises and photo- 
graphing tramps take crowds of men and women 
afield, ostensibly to shoot, but these amusements 
in themselves occupy so much time and are so 
absorbing that the rifle and the gun are often 
neglected. 
When all is said, if there was no one to ask, 
“What luck?” the returning hunter would not 
care a fig whether or he 
not had bagged any 
game. And the excuses for not doing so are 
more abundant now than formerly, when the 
successful one was expected to “remember” all 
his friends and neighbors. 

WE are so often asked for detailed informa- 
by intending sportsmen that we 
take pleasure in commending G. B. F.’s article 
Newfoundland, which is 
a model of its kind. So many persons are able 
secure all the information desired before 
going to a certain region to fish or hunt that 
they, perhaps, think others equally fortu- 
nate. That this is not the fact is very evident 
from the large number of inquiries we are con- 
stantly receiving. G. B. F., 
straightforward way, weaves into his story facts 
of great value to other anglers regarding lengths 
tion tourists 
on salmon fishing in 
to 
are 
in a very simple, 
of salmon rods, the favorite flies, the best pools 
for fishing, and other data that will be eagerly 
read by those who intend to go to Newfound- 
season. 
land next 
R 
THE temperate season, now closing, has been 
one of the most successful ones in many years 
for the salt water anglers who find pleasure at 
the fishing grounds of the Long Island and New 
Jersey Weakfish much 
more abundant than usual, and large specimens 
have been taken almost daily. Other varieties 
were captured frequently enough to keep interest 
coast line. have been 
at a high pitch, and these anglers regret the com- 
ing of the autumnal storms and the busy season 
that will keep them away from the fascinating 
influences of the tides and the surf. 
bd 
Mempers of the Forest AND StrEAM Old 
Guard will regret to learn that Cecil Clay has 
passed over the great divide. He died at his 
home in Washington on Sept. 23. His age was 
sixty-five years. Brigadier-General Clay was one 
of our oldest contributors and a sportsman who 
hunted and fished in the palmy days of a half 
century He was also an expert rifleman 
and at one time a contestant in many important 
ago. 
matches. 





































































