The daily chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Ind. Ter. [Okla.]) 1898-1902, 1899-10-24

r,orinr III coyes for iilies and pickerel,
she summer visitor III Maine often
watches with pleasure the movements
\ of his fellow fshcrmap, the BIG blue
heron. Standing motionless on one LEG
IN shoal water, watching for chance e
spear d frog Or minnow with his heakl
\ wading Or flying from point 70 point
along the shore, Or Tapping his way %
ana from the heron's nesting colony In
she trees Of some impossible swamp,
this lone fisherman IN ever picturesque
and interesting. 1t was with surprise
that New York man summering IN
Maine recently learned that the board
OF game and fish commissioners OF the
state was unfriendly to the heron and
urged his assassination on the ground
that the bird ID supposed sometimes to
feed on trout. Two years ago an order
went forth from the commissioners
that the heron OF the Sebec lake region
should be accounted outlaws to be
killed on sight BY the game wardens,
and that their nesting colony on Bur
den pond should be broken up. But the
country people OF Maine, with all their
shrewdness in business, have q vein OF
sentiment In their nature and they
stand by the old residents of the state.
When the order to kill the Sebec
herons was issued the people Of Pisca-
taquis. the great game and fish county
OF the state, raised such protest that
d hearing Of the matter was had at
Dover, and 1t was attended by many
representative citizens. Their testi-
mony was all in favor Of the heron, who
rendered the state excellent service in
Kidding the waters Of useless and OBJ
iectionable fish and reptiles, while in
terfering little or not at all with the
game fish. The commissioners brought
evidence to show that herons had been
known to catch trout. To this allega-
tion the citizens responded that there
were other features in the attractive
ness OF the Maine wilderness to be
considered besides fish; that there
were many natives and visitors who
valued the picturesqueness Of the land
and waterscape, to which the heror
lent an ever pleasing feature, and that
they did not want the birds killed.
The result of the hearing was q
suspension Of hostilities against the
herons, but the commissioners renewed
their attack In the next session OF the
legislature BY getting the herons i'm
cluded in the list OF birds, like crows
and hawks, which are exempted In the
| game laws from protection at all sea
sons. 1t was expected that by this move
every hit-or-miss gunner Of the class
| which makes life unsafe in Maine in the
| shooting season would be encouraged
To blaze away at the herons. But the
| scheme has failed, for the guides and
genuine sportslnen will not fire at the
birds in any season, and the amateurs
| who travel with guns and the ambition
TO kill something easy to shoot have
| found their experiments in heron shoot
ing too unpopular to induce their con-
tinuance. So the big birds flap TO and
from Burden point, back OF Granny
Cross mountain, md stalk the shadows
OF the Sebec lake coves as unconcerned-
ly as II the commissioners mad never
conspired against their peace ana no
man molests them.
One Of the guides, 9 master hunter
and fisherman, when asked about the
herons and whether they really destroy
trout, replied:
well, It stands 70 reason that = her-
on will eat trout as quick as ne VIII
any other fish that might swim within
reach OF his beak. But where does he