Nov. 23, 1907.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
; 857 

any season of the year. The true sportsman is 
satisfied with a few birds. He seeks a day’s out- 
ling in the open and plenty of exercise, and the 
shooting is simply a means to this end; but the 
market hunter, who never desists as long as there 
jis another bird he can add to his bag and slaugh- 
ters large quantities of birds, causes all the 
trouble. Mr. Dutcher declared it important that 
|there be a uniform law to stop the killing from 
Jan. 1 to the opening of the season in the fall. 
He said there would always be found market 
|hunters so long as there is an opportunity to 
|sell game. 
| Many subjects were touched upon by the mem- 
bers of the committee, and each one was invited 
|to give his views on certain topics: such as stop- 
ping all shooting of gray squirrels; imposing a 
\license on resident hunters; providing for stock- 
ling the trout streams; protecting pheasants; pro- 
jtecting streams from sawdust pollution; increas- 
}ing the powers of wardens; limiting the bags of 
|game; further protection of deer; prohibiting 
sale of all game at all seasons; providing sanc- 
tuaries for game; providing a closed season of 
two years on upland birds. 

H: H. KimBatt, 

, . 
Opening Day. 
LE. F. Duffy in the Newark, N. J., Star.] 
Every man and boy who glories in the pos- 
¢}session of a shooting iron, and who is able to 
shoulder one, is looking forward to the opening 
{}day, Noy. 10, when he will forget that he ever 
sj}had a home or friends and hike to the tall tim- 
bers and marshy bottoms in quest of partridge, 
quail, pheasant, rabbit and squirrel, which the 
law will then allow him to kill. 
It is not amiss at this time to call the at- 
tention of the sportsmen who will take: advant- 
age of his privilege to suggest that he curb his 
appetite for game to the extent of allowing 
jjsome seed to remain for next year’s growing, 
.jand to remember that a pheasant or two, three 
.}or four rabbits and as many quail or partridge 
will make a pretty good bag, and if the hunter 
: who possesses such a bag, really makes his own 
1 kill, he need not be afraid to tell his friends of 
jithe success of his day’s outing, for théy will 
ecall him mighty and free from the taint of a 
:igame hog. 
; Much has been written about the passing of 
sthe mative game animals.of New Jersey, and 
| there is much to be done toward their preserva- 
-tion and propagation for future sport, if sports- 
ijmen are to have any. A movement begun at 
‘\the Montclair Club a week ago by the members 
lot the Montclair Gun Club, and representatives 
from many other gun clubs throughout the 
State, is expected to bring forth results for 
which many true sportsmen» have labored for 
years. : 
.| Protection can only be given through the en- 
jactment of new laws, and to this end the ma- 
jority of men interested will lend their help. 
The coming Legislature will be asked to pass 
aws to prohibit the shooting of any game bird 
or animal in the spring, against the shooting 
-}of woodcock in the month of July, and also to 
stop the sale of game at all seasons of the year. 
In regard to the spring shooting it might be 
well to give a reason why it should end. When 
wild fowl, for instance, reach our shores as 
sarly as February they are mated, and on their 
\way north to their natural breeding grounds, 
jand from this it can be seen that it is actually 
wrutal and inhuman to destroy a mated pair. 
[he writer has had real knowledge as to the 
ruth of this statement, for in January, 1900, 
while near Swainton, in Cape May county, a 
‘}yair of blue-winged teal were sighted, and at 
he first shot the drake fell dead. The mate 
j:ircled two or three times and lit within one 
-}oot of its dead mate and only twenty yards 
-}rom the muzzle of the gun, also to be killed, 
_| The occurrence seemed so strange that, upon 
feturning home the duck was examined and 
ound to contain eggs developed to about the 
‘ize of a pea, thus proving conclusively that the 
eal had mated. If allowed to proceed on their 
vay north, they would’ have brought a-brood 
of ten or a dozen young back with them in the 
all. This event converted the writer to the 
-o 
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ea 



ranks of those who wish to prevent spring 
shooting. 
A similar case occurred on the Hanover Neck 
meadows in Morris county last March, while 
the Legislature was in session, when a pair of 
wild geese were killed and the female was found 
to contain fourteen eggs larger than an old-time 
dough-bag. These facts alone. should be 
sufficient reason to prohibit the shooting of 
wildfowl in spring. 
Now as to the shooting of woodcock in the 
month of July. From personal observation and 
study of these birds it is an absolute fact that 
the young of these birds are not full-feathered 
in that month, and are only able to fly from 
twenty to thirty yards without lighting, and a 
whole brood may be followed and killed in an 
hour’s hunting. In the latter end of the month 
the old birds begin to moult, and they have 
been seen by sixes and dozens on dry side hills ° 
utterly unable to fly and almost nude. 
The essential reason for stopping the sale of 
game throughout the year is to eliminate a vast 
army of pot-hunters,, who begin to shoot a 
month before the law is off and place their 
game in cold storage. 
The game laws of New Jersey have been 
grossly violated for years, owing to the lack 
of vigilance on the part of wardens who failed 
of their duties. In this respect there is much to 
be done by the new Fish and Game Commission 
in the matter of the appointment of wardens. 
The system of appointing wardens under the 
retiring commission was entirely wrong, be-> 
cause a warden in many cases was afraid to 
make an arrest for violations, fearing political 
death or the enmity of his neighbors, with whom 
he would be on friendly terms. 
To avoid this in future, wardens should be ap- 
pointed and given a better compensation, and 
be compelled to patrol a remote section of the 
State from their own homes, so that neighborly 
or other reasons would not be an incentive to 
give immunity. For instance, the warden or 
deputy appointed who lives. in Essex county 
should be sent every other day to some county 
or district where he is not known, and, even 
at that, the chances are that he will need watch- 
ing himseli. 
And again, there should be a thorough house- 
cleaning of the wardens and deputy wardens, 
for, as a rule, they are men not fitted for the 
positions, some of them being hotel and saloon- 
keepers. The new appointees should be men 
who have no other occupation. The work 
mapped out for our future wardens will carry 
them well into the spring of the year, for it will 
be necessary for them to visit the haunts ot 
game during the winter, carrying food to be 
scattered around and perhaps building a lean-to 
here and there in the dense thickets so that 
quail may find protection from its greatest 
enemy—heavy snow falls. 

The work of building these shelters would 
consume only a few hours a week of each 
warden’s time, and food placed near them each 
week would insure escape from the rigors of a 
hard winter, and find them healthy and strong 
in the’ spring. As a practical illustration of 
this method of caring for quail during the 
winter months, the writer has had under his 
own observation more than two hundred quail 
and partridge, the result of protecting a single 
brood of each for about three years, and dur- 
ing the past season these quail and partridge 
have perhaps more than trebled their numbers. 
Time was when each member of an incorpo- 
rated fish or game protective association could 
make an arrest and lodge a complaint for vio- 
lations of these laws, but the iron hand of the 
defunct Fish and Game Commission sneaked 
laws through that took away the power of com- 
plaint and had it vested in the wardens and 
themselves only. This law should be stricken 
from the books of this State and every mem- 
ber of a recognized protective association should 
be reinvested with the power of complaint. In 
this way wardens would be helped out materi- 
ally, and violators would very soon learn to 
dread the laws of New Jersey as far as fish 
and game are concerned. 
The new commission is composed of at least 
two honest sportsmen, and there is a great deal 
expected of them in the way of future legisla- 
tion. Surely they are going in with eyes wide 
open to the need of laws for the better protec- 
tion and the means for the propagation of game, 
and much help will be given them by sportsmen 
who will reap the benefits. 
One of the most serious handicaps to the 
passage of laws for game protection during the 
past few years has been the lack of interest 
shown by legislators and members of the 
Senate, as, for instance, last year there was not 
a single member of either house who could 
claim knowledge of the handling of a gun and, 
therefore, could not become interested in the 
movement, netwithstanding the fact that more 
fish and game bills were presented than of any 
other class of legislation asked for. 1 
However, the various clubs succeeded in hav- 
ing passed through the lower house about four- 
teen bills for the protection of game and the 
regulation of the fish and oyster laws, but not 
a single bill pased the upper’ house, owing to 
the violent opposition of Senators Shinn, of 
Ocean, and Brown, of Monmouth, who were 
backed up by several cold storage owners, hotel 
keepers, pot-hunters and pound net owners of 
the coast counties. 
Other legisiation that will be asked for this 
year will be that of compelling every resident 
gunner to pay a license of $1.00, nonresidents 
$10 and aliens $25. With this license system the 
State will be enriched in the neighborhood of 
$30,000 2 year, which will be ample funds to 
meet the payments of wardens’ salaries and 
other incidents and leave a surplus from which 
our depleted forests may be restocked with game. 
_ During the month the Society of New Jersey 
Sportsmen will hold a meeting, at which the 
several committees, to be made up of one mem- 
ber from each gun club and sportsmen’s associ- 
ation, will arrange a dinner to which the mem- 
bers of the new Fish and Game Commission 
will be invited. 
It is the purpose of the new organization to 
work hand in hand with the commission and in 
this way carry to a successful issue the long- 
sought-for legislation for the better protection 
of fish and game. 

Potent Factors. 
Boston, Mass., Nov. 12.—Editor Forest and 
Stream: While I cannot claim to be one of 
“the Old Guard,” of whom I see frequent men- 
tion in your pages, I have been for many years 
a more or less constant reader of your pages 
(since the early ’80s), and cannot restrain the 
impulse to write in commendation of your 
efforts in advocating the protection of bird 
life, and especially game birds, the almost com- 
plete extinction of some varieties of which I 
have witnessed in parts of my native State, 
‘Texas, : 
Jn this, the most potent factor has been the 
negro and cheap shotguns, ably seconded by 
the white pot-hunter and the small boy with 
the .22 caliber rifle in. and out of season. Not 
game birds alone, but all bird life has suf- 
fered severely. Anything feathered that flies 
is game to the last-named. The dearth of bird 
life in some sections simply appalls one. This 
has been an active agent in the propagation of 
the cotton boll weevil and the Mexican sharp- 
shooter, which have caused the Texas farmer 
enormous losses in the last few years. Thanks 
to the efforts of the United States Bureau of 
\griculture, and its agents, their eyes have 
been opened, and they have taker steps to 
stop such indiscriminate slaughter, by posting 
their fields, demanding a longer close season 
on quail and prairie chicken. 
The last-named birds have almost com- 
pletely disappeared, because’ of the,man who 
strives for a record and the market-shooter. 
The wild turkey is fast following. I knew 
personally of several flocks seriously deci- 
mated during the mating season three years 
ago, when I was in the eastern part of the 
State, by lumbermen, and no effort was made 
to prevent this. I was persona non grata both 
with officials and citizens because of too free 
expression of my opinion on this and kindred 
subjects. Pe G. PUCKER, 

