The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1911-07-21
CONSERVATION OF
A PROBLEM
Automobile and AGrOpIanC
Used In Hunting.


~ makes a report covering the
Il progress of game protection In
the United States The reports
mark steady progress in the move
ment for the increase of game by prop
agation and the establishment Of game
preserves. This years report, just
published, Is made by T. S. Palmer and
Henry Oldys They relate that the in
creased popularity of the automobile
by huntsmen was marked, and the
possibility of utilizing the aeroplane in
duck shooting was demonstrated by
an experiment in southern California
last November. So far as is known,
this was the first attempt made to use
the aeroplane In shooting game.
Another innovation was frowned
upon when a Maine court imposed a
fine upon q nonresident for using one of
the recently invented silencers on his
rifle while out after deer. This was
the first conviction in any court for
this new offense Another important
court decision was that Of the supreme
court of Pennsylvania prohibiting the
use of automatic guns. In Pennsyl-
vanfa also the law prohibiting the
possession Of firearms by aliens was
upheld in the lower courts, and In con-
sequence the disarming of aliens has
made rapid progress.
A count taken by the American
Bison society shows a total Of 2,10S
pure blood buffalo In North America
as compared with 1917 at the date Of
the last census, made In 1908. OF
these 1,007 are in captivity in the Unit
ed States, GIG are in captivity in Can
ada and 475 are wild The CORE
spending figures for 1908 were 1,116,
476 and 325. The decrease in the num-
Der In the United States was caused
by the large purchases made by the
Canadian government. The total num-
Der of buffalo has, however, increased
by nearly 200.
The largest herds In private hands
are now those Of the Soldiers Creek
park at Belvidere, Kan; the remain
der of the Pablo herd at Roman,
Mont; the Blue Mountain Forest as
sociation herd at Newport, n. H.; the
Lille herd at Pawnee, Okla; the Phil
lips herd at Pierre, S. D., the Good
night herd at Goodnight, Tex, and the
Dooley herd on Antelope island, In
Great Salt lake. The outlaw buffalo
belonging to Michel Pablo, which have
thus far defied all attempts at cap
ture, are supposed to number about
seventy-ffve- 1t was announced in the
autumn that a hunt would be organ
lied by the owner of the herd The
state warden Immediately took steps
to prevent the hunt under the pro-
visions of an old Montana law prohib-
iting the killing of buffalo at any time
in the state.
Waterfowl and Woods Game.
From the gunner's viewpoint the
waterfowl season was not satisfactory
last year, but from the standpoint Of
the game conservationists it seems to
have been very favorable. On the At
lantic coast the number of canvas
backs and redheads was greater than
usual in the Long Island bays and on
the Massachusetts coast, but much
smaller than usual on the Susquehan-
na flats and Currituck sound, where
these species are usually abundant.
Canvasbacks are reported as numerous
and increasing on Cayuga lake, CEN
trail New York, where they were very
scarce dozen years ago.
Introduced pheasants seem to have
held their own in sections where they
have become established and In some
instances show an increase In the
region around Buffalo, N. Y, where
shooting is permitted for a short sea-
son in the fall and where $4,000, It is
estimated, were killed in 1908, the
stock does not seem to have been d.
mlnished. In the Genesee valley and
in the region around Canandaigua
pheasants have become quite runner
Gus. In Massachusetts the birds seem
to be holding their own, and the same
is true of Ohio.
In no place where they have been
liberated have Hungarian partridges
yet become fully established, and in
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