Fer Billy an' Fer Me

Dad, your gun is in its case Your rod is on the wall— Daddy, when you shooted ducks Did you shoot 'em all; When you killed the deer an' fox An' cut the balsam tree, Couldn't you a' left a few Fer Billy an' fer me? Dad, your factory's on the creek---- Makes a lot o' noise, Churnin' up the water Where you played when you was boys; Daddy, when you built it there. Couldn't you, maybe, Jest a' saved a swimmin' hole Fer Billy an' fer me? Daddy, wouldn't you suppose That if you really tried You could save a little woods An' fields an' countryside? Kind o' keep a' savin' up— You an' Uncle Lee— Just a little out-of-doors Fer Billy an' fer me? F. W. LUENING in The Milwaukee Journal.

CODE OF OUTDOOR ETHICS

The following code of outdoor ethics was compiled by Seth E. Gordon, conservation director of the Izaak Walton League of America, and an outstanding authority on sportsmanship and conservation:

1. Your outdoor manners tell the world what you are when at home.

2. What belongs to the public isn't your own—play fair.

3. Respect the property of rural residents—ask before using it.

4. Save fences, close gates and bars, go around planted fields.

5. People, livestock, trees and birds were never meant to be target practice backstops.

6. Respect the law—catch enough legal fish to eat, then quit.

7. Protect public health—keep springs and streams clean.

8. Clean up your camp and don't litter the highways with trash.

9. Finish what you start—carelessness with fires is cussedness.

1 0. Leave flowers and shrubs for others to enjoy. Do your share.

OUTDOOR NEBRASKA

Official Bulletin Nebrask a Bureau Game and Fish Vol IV JANUARY, 1929 No. I

A Visit With Nebraska s "Jack Miner"

Many people have heard of Jack Miner and his birds. They have heard how he built a sanctuary in Canada where he feeds wild geese and ducks year after year.

But comparatively few people know that Nebraska has a "Jack Miner" of her own, and that he, too, feeds and makes pets of the wild fowl of the air.

The Nebraskan' who feeds the birds is Mr. F. K. Keller, of Antioch, Nebraska. He began to feed and band ducks in 1927, and he has already demonstrated that these birds return year after year, just as they have done at Jack Miner's place in Canada.

"I banded the duck whose nest is shown in the picture in 1927," writes Mr. Keller. I banded 53 of them that year. She left here to go south on November 12th and returned on March 12th the following spring. Her number is 555414."

Among the ducks Mr. Keller banded in the fall of 19 27, reports were received from Colorado, Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Louisiana, where birds were killed.

Mr. Keller has had some rather uiTusual experiences in the nesting of ducks. The duck referred to above nested in a haystack the first season. That was in 19 27. Mr. Keller used the hay during the following winter. Here is what happened in the spring when the mother duck returned. But we will let Mr. Keller tell it.

"We fed the hay during the winter, and when the ducks came back in the spring this duck kept walking around on the barn, so I decided she was looking for her nest. I put a box up on the roof with some hay in it. She immediately took possession and hatched seven little ones. After taking them to the lake she kept losing one after another until she had only two left. These two she turned over to another duck to raise, which had five babies a little larger.

"After turning the two over to the other mother, duck No. 555414 layed her second clutch of nine eggs and on July 2 6 she hatched eight."

It is very unusual for wild ducks to nest near buildings or in boxes. The fact that this duck did so is a tribute to Mr. and Mrs. Keller. It shows what can be done in, as Jack Miner puts it, "in letting the ducks know that you aren't wild."

"We like "Outdoor Nebraska" very much," writes Mr. Keller. "It is doing good work for the protection of game and birds. We have seen a mervelous increase of game and birds on our place since 1918 when I commenced to plant trees and protect game and birds. The beauty of it is they come back year after year, and seem to know that they are protected. All kinds of wild fowl drift in here—wild geese, Sand-Hill cranes, ducks, curlews, grouse—and seem to be glad of a breathing place. Through the summer months we now have all the song and insectiverous birds with us, that I used to know in eastern Nebraska."

4 OUTDOOR NEBRASKA

Education Best Protection

By Chester E. Ager

We who have followed the path of the nimrod and have made a study of conditions as we have gone along, realize the appalling rapidity with which our wild life is being destroyed. How to stop this destruction without taking away the rights of sportsmen is the question which confronts us. We must have our laws and enforcement, our sanctuaries, and our public hunting and fishing grounds.

These help, yes, but only to a small degree. Our fish life can, with comparative ease, be taken care of and increased with the expenditures of money and the use of judgment on the part of the experts who handle that department, because it is possible to raise and distribute fish all over the state in tremendous quantities, and to prevent the pollution of our waters. This enables us to restock the streams with as many or more fish than there have been in the past.

But with our bird life, we meet with entirely different conditions. It is impossible to artificially restock the country with chickens, ducks, and our shore birds. If we expect to continue to enjoy them and have the next generation enjoy them, it is imperative that we take immediate steps with that end in view. We are faced with the problem now of dealing with ten to fifteen times the number of hunters that we had a few years ago. The auto has made the most inaccessible places now a matter of a few hours time. Every body of water, from the smallest pond to the largest lake, is being leased. During the duck season, an early morning trip will show us a score of autos parked around any of these lakes, and every hundred yards or so there is a hungry hunter or two with but a single thought, "Get 'em, all you can, and any way you can."

I believe one point needs emphasis. I do not believe that one hunter out of twenty knows the different shore birds by name and most of our wardens do not know them at all. Some are protected, some are not. The result is a multitude of game-law infractions. The shore birds are doomed very soon to extinction. They are purely helpful, tame little fellows. Now the Phalrope, Greater Yellow Leg, Marbled and Hudsonian, Godwits and the Golden Plover are rapidly following the grand old Curlew and will soon be gone.

How can we save the useless slaughter which is the result of the attitude of our modern hunters? By law? No, not by any act that it would be possible to pass now or at any other time. Laws which could be put on the books now will temper, but not cure. There is only one solution, and that is through education; and if the citizenry of this great State can be brought to a realization of the facts, then we are on the right road, which will make it possible to get all the necessary legislation. But until such a course is adopted, we will merely be going around in a circle. We must have protective laws, and must have wardens to teach respect for those laws. Otherwise they would be ignored by that class lacking in sportsmanship, or who do not think of the future. But the difference between strict and lax law enforcement means very little in comparison to the useless slaughter caused by lack of knowledge, thoughtlessness, hoggishness, and the lust to make a kill.

An educational campaign such as I should like to promulgate, if correctly started, handled and followed through will hit right at the heart of the solution, and is the only system that is fundamentally sound. Unless such a campaign is launched and successfully followed up, no laws that could be passed through our legislature will save our bird life.

I realize that the plan I have in mind will have to be expanded all over the country as regards our migratory birds, but the State of Nebraska can be the first to start the ball rolling and it will be surprising the momentum which it will gather in a short time. As to our local birds, if we do not wait too long, we can increase them by simply giving them a chance. There are laws necessary which are too stringent to be passed during the present legislature, but which could be enacted in two years if proper pressure were brought to bear. The only way to exert that pressure is through education of the people to the extent that they see the necessity for such laws.

What are the things that are causing this wanton destruction? Briefly, they are:

Ignorance of killing range; The hunter's lack of knowledge of what he is doing, including the use of a repeater; Size of shot; Flock shooting; Hoggishness.

How would I start this campaign? I would bring home to the sportsmen of the State the rapid decrease in our wild life, and show them what must be done to stop it.

How would I bring this home to the sportsmen? I would start a general educational program through the agency of such organizations as the Isaac Walton League, the Boy Scouts, newspapers, radio, magazines, manufacturers of guns and ammunition, and others. I would help to organize two-shot gun clubs, for which there is a large field. The man who would join such a club is sportsman enough to work with his friends and persuade them to work with their friends and so on down the line. I would encourage the formation of bird clubs; lectures in schools and at Boy Scout meetings and conclaves by volunteers. I would encourage education of Scout leaders and executives.

To my mind one of the most powerful weapons whose potential power is unlimited is the Boy Scout organization. This great group is made up of both boys and their executives whose minds are receptive to this sort of thought, and they would take it up and develop it. If you have a Boy Scout in your family, you admire him and you will listen to his reasoning. If it is sound, he will convert you. I would try (and I belive successfully) to have incorporated into the scout laws the requirement that first class scouts must possess a thorough knowledge of the game laws of the State and a

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OUTDOOR NEBRASKA 5

Some Curious Facts About Fish

What is a fish?

It is an aquatic animal, the lowest in the order of the vertebrates, or back-boned animals. It is distinguished from the higher forms of animal life in that it breathes thru gills and its limbs take the forms of fins.

The earliest fossil remains of fishes are estimated to date back 40 0 million years. The characteristics are somewhat the same. While scientists are not sure whence they came, it is quite certain that many of the important and essential characters of the higher vertebrates made their first appearance among the fish and that they were the forerunner of all higher forms of life.

The variety of fishes is almost beyond comprehension. There are over 13,0 00 species. Among these thousands are tiny fellows and giants, fat ones and thin ones, round ones and triangular ones.

The smallest fish known, and perhaps the smallest vertebrate in the world, is the tiny Goby which lives in the Philippine waters. It is only about % inch long; in fact its name is longer than it is. Then there are the Carplings which live in most tropical waters. These little fellows are about the same size as the Goby. These fish feed upon the larvae of dangerous mosquitoes. Most of the brilliantly colored fish are only from two to four inches long.

The largest fishes are found among the sharks. The largest is perhaps the Basking Shark, found in subArctic waters, which reaches a length of about forty to forty-five feet. Then there is the dreaded Carcharodon of tropical waters, about the same length. The Vampyre Ray of the West Indies reaches a width across the wings of some twenty-five feet, while the great oarfish is over twenty feet long and weighs over 500 pounds.

As a rule the fish of the tropics are more brilliantly colored and show more variations than the fishes of the temperate zones. But even in the latter some remarkable species may be found. There are the blind fishes of Mammoth Cave, Kentucky; once they had eyes but from years of disuse the organ of sight has decayed. There are curious species found in ocean depths that likewise have little or no organs of sight.

One of the most remarkable fish known is the salmon, which lives in fresh water and in salt water. As a general rule to suddenly change fish from ocean water to fresh water, or from fresh water to ocean water, is to condemn them to death, for their delicate gill-membranes are so nicely balanced to the outer conditions that a change of water acts like poison. But not so with the salmon. It travels anywhere from twenty to a hunj dred miles thru salt water in the course of a season and then when spawning season comes ascends some river to lay its eggs.

Other remarkable fish is the climbing-perch, which occasionally travels short distances over land and has also been known to climb trees. There is the chub which burys itself in the mud in the fall and hibernates. There is the pickerel which reverses the general order and is active and hungry in winter. There are the parrot fishes of the Mediterranean Sea of gorgeous hues. And there is the great weever which is protected by poisonous spines; the swordfish and sawfish with their strange jaws; the electric eel which is powerful enough to stun a man.

The struggle for existence among the fishes is indeed fierce. Not only is there a continuous battle being waged in the depths of the ocean where hundreds of species, great and small, feed upon one another, but there are likewise struggles continually taking place in our lakes and rivers and ponds. Not only do many fish feed upon other species, but a number feed upon their own kind. The little minnow must ever be on the alert for the bass or the pickerel or the perch which is seeking to pounce upon him. The perch and smaller bass in turn must look out for the pickerel and the pike, the pike and pickerel for the muskalonge, and so on. Not only is man, above the water, seeking him, but there are enemies on every hand in the murky depths about him. Life for most fish is ever chasing after food and being chased.

The more active fish are usually the flesh-eaters and are exceedingly voracious. Many of them have elastic stomachs into which they crowd a large number of smaller fish; a few species, like the deep-sea Gastrostomids, allies of the eels, can extend their stomachs and thus swallow a victim larger than themselves. Few fish take time to chew their food. As a rule, the booty disappears as rapidly as possible, probably to prevent a rival having a share. This has led to curious consequences. Eels have been taken with another eel in their mouth which had wriggled its way between the gills and thus suffocated its captor. And live fishes have been taken in the stomachs of others. It is on record that on occasions the live booty has cut its way thru the lining of the stomach and either escaped or embedded itself in the tissues of its captor. Some few fish, among which are the sharks, take a pleasure in killing far more than they can devour at a time. One species combines this lust with such a morbid appetite that it is said to eject the contents of its stomach when full in order to go on feeding.

KILL OF SOUTH DAKOTA WILD GAME EQUALS 10,000 STEERS

"Food value of wild game killed last year in South Dakota equals, from the standpoint of quantity, the meat from 10,000 steers, says C. H. Johnson, state game and fish commissioner.

This includes 4 million pounds of pheasant meat, 31,600 pounds of venison and three-fourths million pounds of wild duck, or a total of nearly 4,900,000 pounds of dressed game. Estimating a dressed steer at 500 pounds, it would take 10,000 of them to equal the meat of the game.

Fish are not included in the commissioner's figures as the number caught during the year is so large and their weight so varied that no accurate estimate could be made of the total."

EDITORIAL

INCREASE IN PERMITS

While it is as yet impossible to close the 1928 books, and the State Auditor will not check the same until next month, it is now estimated that the 1928 receipts will gain about $15,000 over those of 1927.

Here is concrete proof to show that the Nebraska Bureau of Game and Fish is a growing concern. The people of Nebraska desire outdoor recreation and are willing to pay for permits if they can get fair return on their investment.

The transfer of bullheads from overstocked sand-hill lakes to eastern Nebraska and the open season on pheasants show what can be done. As more and more is done for the outdoors, so more and more permits will be sold.

AVILD TURKEYS

The Editor of this magazine has written an article for one of the National sportsmens' magazines shortly to be published which is entitled "Can The Turkey Come Back?"

The article deals with the experiment with turkeys now being made in Nebraska and the plans for the future.

As every sportsmen and game farmer knows the hard part of the job is to get the foundation breeding stock started. It took Nebraska fifteen years to get the first 25,000 pheasants, while during the next five years the state got 500,000.

In order to provide foundation breeding stock for reserves, etc., the following plan will be tried out:

(1) To stock the National Forest at Halsey with a liberal number of birds.

(2) To place breeding stock and eggs with experienced domestic turkey raisers, the state agreeing to buy yearlings back at a fair price.

It is believed with such an arrangement a large number of birds can eventually be released in favorable communities each year and before long the noble old bird of history will be seen in Nebraska again.

FISH DISTRIBUTION

Attention is invited to the report of the fall distribution of fish published elsewhere in this issue

It is believed that this record will stand as a real achievement in Nebraska fishing production records. When it is taken into consideration that the most of these fish were fingerlings, it will readily be seen that much work was done. And this record was made in spite of the fact that one of the hatcheries was partially destroyed by flood.

In the past too little attention has been given to the fish that Nature has been raising each year. By proper rescue and conservation work, together with increased capacity at the hatcheries, still better records should be made.

FEDERAL GAME DEPARTMENTS CONSOLIDATE

In the interest of efficiency and economy, the Division of Game and Bird Rcs3rvations has been consolidated with the Migratory Bird Treaty and Lacey Acts Division of the U. S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Biological Survey. The new division will be known as the Division of Game and Bird Conservation. The division will have under its immediate direction the following major activities:

Enforcement of the Migratory Bird Treaty act and regulations.

Enforcement of the Lacey act, prohibiting the interstate shipment by common carriers of the dead bodies or parts thereof of wild animals which have been illegally killed or which are shipped contrary to the laws of the state from which shipped.

Enforcement of Section 84, as amended April 15, 1924, protecting wild animals and birds and their eggs on Federal refuges.

Maintenance of the Federal big-game and bird reservations under the jurisdiction of the U. S. Biological Survey and the establishment of additional ones as they may be authorized from time to time by Congress, including the Upper Mississippi River Wild Life and Fish Refuge authorized in 1924, and the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge under the Act of April 25, 1928.

Exercise of the functions delegated to the Biological Survey under the Alaska Game Law and cooperation with the Alaska Game Commission in its activities.

The offical title of the head of the new division— Colonel H. P. Sheldon, Washington, D. C, will be U. S. Game Conservation Officer. The title of each U. S. Game Warden will be changed to U. S. Game Protector, and of each Reservation Warden to U. S. Reservation Protector.

WHY I ENJOY BEING A GAME WARDEN

"I enjoy being one of Virginia's game wardens because I believe with all of my heart in the great work of conservation of wild life. I am glad that I have a part in this great work in helping to make Virginia .a sportsmans' paradise. Not only for those that love to hear the sound of dog and gun at this time, but also for those that shall follow after us, that they too may enjoy this great sport.

My second reason is that I enjoy having a part in educating the young sportsmen by teaching them to observe our game, fish and dog laws. By doing this and enjoying this confidence we are building up better citizens for our Commonwealth.

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OUTDOOR NEBRASKA 7

FROM OUR NEW CHIEF

Nebraska is a great state. Not only are we wonderfully blessed with rich soil, splendid climate, and pure water, but ive have much in the way of wild life resources.

Nebraska is a growing state. Many of our natural resources are as yet undeveloped. As one of the younger states, with an abundance of wild life and playgrounds, we have not found it necessary to give so much attention to the conservation of our natural resources as to the more practical things of life. However, conditions are changing. Our population is rapidly increasing and our western counties are being settled. Our improved highways are taking each year more and more of our citizens to all parts of the state. They are seeking recreation and diversion. This fact is attested by the increase in fishing, hunting, and outdoor-camping permits that are sold each year.

During my administration I shall do everything possible to conserve our natural heritage and to build up the playgrounds of the slate. There is no better way of entertaining our boys and girls than providing wholesome recreation in close contact with nature. I shall do everything I can to bring to the attention of our citizens these advantages and the benefits that flow from them.

A. J. Weaver.

8 OUTDOOR NEBRASKA

Finances of Last Four Years

FINANCES

Below is a report of all expenditures and receipts of the Bureau of Game and Fish during the past four years, or the last two bienniums: It will be noted that during the four years over a half million dollars were expended. This is a record never before made in the history of Nebraska, in fact in few middle western states.

On the other hand, the receipts were over $700,000, another record for the state. There is now approximately $200,000 in the state treasury belonging to the game fund, of which about $75,0 0 0 is encumbered to meet outstanding bills and legislative appropriations.

EXPENDITURES Salaries ................................... Supplies................................... Expenses ................................. Material, (Parts and Repairs) Equipment, Game Birds Etc. . Lands and Buildings............... TOTAL....................... Dec. 1, 1924 to Dec. 1, 1925 $ 29,413.83 8,916.23 11,048.18 4,641.36 3,527.86 28,351.73 $ 85,899.19 Dec. 1, 1925 to Dec. 1, 1926 $ 37,143.99 9,801.67 15,746.54 4,954.44 27,167.92 13,665.49 $108,480.05 Total For Biennium $ 66,557.82 18,717.90 26,794.72 9,595.80 30,695.78 42,017.22 $194,379.24 Dec. 1, 1926 Dec. 1, 1927 Total to to For Dec. 1, 1927 Dec. 1, 1928 Biennium Salaries ...............................----------.................................... $ 42,758.34 $ 53,859.85 $ 96,618.19 Supplies.............................................................................. 14,198.29 15,164.57 29,362.86 Expenses............................................................................ 19,203.87 23,371.45 42,575.32 Material, (Parts and Repairs).................................._____ 7,575.23 19,098.61 26,673.84 Equipment, Game Birds, Fish, Eetc................................. 43,897.35 21,745.96 65,643.31 Lands and Buildings......................................._______....... 25,767.48 33,966.06 59,733.54 TOTAL.................................................................. $153,400.56 $167,206.50 $320,607.06 GRAND TOTAL.................................................................................................... $514,986.30 RECEIPTS (Sale of Hunting and Fishing Permits, etc.) GRAND TOTAL Dec. 1, 1924 Dec. 1, 1925 Total to to For Dec. 1, 1925 Dec. 1, 1926 Biennium $174,204.94 $168,621.06 $342,826.00 Dec. 1, 1926 Dec. 1, 1927 Total to to For Dec. 1, 1927 Dec. 1, 1928 Biennium $166,360.31 $200,074.02 $366,434.33 ... $709,256.33

OUTDOOR NEBRASKA 9

What Our Readers Think

LIKES MAGAZINE

Editor Outdoor Nebraska: —

I want to congratulate you on the dandy cover and the splendid articles in the July number of Outdoor Nebraska. I enjoy your magazine very much and quote from it often in my column "On the "Wing" which appears now and then in the Argus Leader.

Thanking you for keeping me on the mailing list, and wishing you success in the great work you are doing for game and fish conservation, I am,

Yours sincerely, DR. FERDINAND BROWN, Sioux Falls, S. D. PHEASANTS IN DOUGLAS COUNTY (By Otto Wilson)

Some eighteen months ago the State Game department shipped us two crates of pheasants which were released north and south of Waterloo where fields of corn, small grains and hay meadows borders the timber and brush covered banks of the Elkhorn river.

Previous to that time pheasants were rarely seen in this locality, but that they increase fast is apparent as one drives along the country roads when singles, pairs and even flocks can be seen.

Large areas were posted, local sportsmen, including many farmers and businessmen joined hands and combined their efforts to protect these splendid birds against the law-breaking unsportsmanlike toters of guns. To my knowledge the birds have not been molested.

STOP MISSOURI RIVER SEINING

To the Editor: —

As a further supplement and additional reason why commercial fishing for cat fish in the Missouri river should be stopped, I am sending you a kodak picture of a beautiful channel cat fish caught in the Elkhorn ten or twelve miles above Norfolk. What can be a better argument for aiding these fish who are putting up a game battle against extinction by nets, traps, throw-lines and set-lines, etc.,—a native fish that can provide the angler with all the thrills and glory of a magnificient battle comparable with the salmon battles that occur in the Great Northwest.

The fish weighs 11 lbs. in this picture (the one with the fins) put up a glorious twenty minute battle, and the line on my casting rod was extended from about three feet from the tip of the rod to thirty-five yards out, and this baby was from one side of the river to the other.

Fishing is poor this year in this locality and I believe it is due to the cutting off of our supply at the mouth of the Missouri. I hope that this can be stopped by next year.

Yours truly, E. F. BOWEN, Pierce, Nebr. PREFERS NETTING TO ANGLING

Editor Outdoor Nebraska: —

On page three of the July number of your publication is a short article on "What is Sport?" Sou say one should be as fair with game as with an opponent in games or athletics. Would one in a foot race hide a wire that could be jerked at the opportune time and not only defeat the other reaching his goal but would possibly injure him permanently? That is the thing that is done when a fisherman hides a hook in a nice juicy morsel and lays in wait for a fish to come along whose goal is a good feed. If one is in need of food is it less fair to the game to catch it in a painless net?

Again we hear it said that one should not "potshot" a covey of quails, that the quails should be given a chance! A fine chance they have with no weapons against a man with a gun! Would it be sportsmanlike to fight a dual giving one man a gun and the other man a chance to run? If you need the flesh of the quail I can not see that it is less sportsmanlike to kill them when they are least expecting it than it is to give them the scare of their young lives and then when they hope they are getting to safety to "let go" and take the thrill of being a good shot.

I enjoy the flesh of wild game and I enjoy capturing it to study it and to tame it, but I do not enjoy murdering it, for the kick I get out of it and then call it being a good sport.

Yours,

C. E. LEACH, Fairbury, Nebr. AMERICAN FUR INDUSTRY

Although the United States is the largest fur producing country in the world, its standard of living is so high that it also is the largest consumer and, therefore, in addition to 254 million dollars worth of furs produced domestically, 13 5 million in furs are imported. Against this there is an offset of $30,893,000 in exports.

The production end of the business arises in the main from hunting and trapping but, in recent years, the demand for furs has been so great that there has been what might be termed industrial production. Reference is made to the fur farms. Silver and black foxes are the principal fur-bearing animals raised in this way. They are born, raised and killed in captivity, for the most part, although occasionally a few are added to stocks from the wilds. To some extent companies lease marshes for the trapping of muskrats and these may be classed as fur farms.

How the fur business, as a great and profitable addition to American enterprise, has grown may be realized from consideration of the statement, made by the bureau of the census, that at the beginning of the century the value of manufacturers of fur was only $1,400,455 for dressed furs. It took 15 years for this figure to double but when the war altered the fur traffic of the world the industry began to grow in earnest.

In 1927 more than 32 million skins were handled by the American fur manufacturers. The greatest number were muskrat skins with squirrel second.

Even though manufacturers have shown the greatest ingenuity and resourcefulness in dressing and treating pelts to look like the fur of almost any animal de-

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10 OUTDOOR NEBRASKA

Fall Distribution of Game Fish

THE following list shows the complete distribution of game fish during the fall of 1928. This, beyond all doubt, is the largest distribution of fingerling fish ever made in the history of Nebraska. When it is recalled that the spring distribution of 1928 was exceedingly large (see October, 1928 issue "Outdoor Nebraska") it will be seen that 192 8 was a banner year in Nebraska fish distribution.

BLi> LCK BASS Where Planted County Number Where Planted County Number Sand Pit Lake Kearney 500 Carter Lake Nursery Douglas 1,200 Lockwood Lake Adams 4,000 Fontenelle Park Lake Douglas 400 State Ponds Dodge 8,000 Hofeldts Lake Douglas 300 Whitemore Lake Douglas 8,000 Seymour Lake Douglas 200 Crystal Lake Dakota 8,000 Carter Lake Douglas 1,000 Lingford Lake Howard 2,000 Kountze Park Douglas 300 Wright Lake Grant 1,000 Carter Lake Douglas 500 Yawney Lake Grant 1,000 Kountze Park Douglas 100 Beems Lake Grant 1,000 Lakes Douglas 50 Beems Lake Grant 2,500 Walton Nursery Merrick 5,000 Sand Beach Lake Box Butte 3,000 Chain Lakes Holt 600 Crane Lake Box Butte 2,000 Mill Pond Holt 600 McGinn Lake Custer 500 Pish Lake Holt 600 Blacks Lake Box Butte 1,000 Pish Lake Rock 600 Rock Creek Sherman 2,500 Johnson Lake Stanton 400 Loop Lagoons Custer 2,500 State Lakes Dodge 3,000 Doris Lake Custer 2,500 Sand Pit Lakes Douglas 1,000 Loup Sloughs Sherman 2,500 Carter Lake Douglas 2,000 Loup Sloughs Buffalo 3,000 Chain Lakes Holt 600 Sand Pit Lakes Cass 2,000 Mill Pond Holt 600 Sand Pit Lakes Sarpy 3,000 Whitney Lake Dawes 800 Linoma Lakes Saunders 2,500 Pish Lake Dawes 600 Sand Pit Lake Cass 2,000 Emmett Lake Dawes 200 Ericson Lake Wheeler 5,000 Pish Lake Rock 600 Combs Pond Hamilton 200 Marsh Lake Cherry 400 Wilson Lake Brown 1,500 Johnson Lake Stanton 400 Pawn Lakes Sheridan 1,500 State Lakes Dodge 3,000 Wahlgren Lake Sheridan 1,000 Sand Pit Lakes Douglas 1,000 Whitney Lake Dawes 2,000 Carter Lake Douglas 3,000 Rat and Beaver Lake Cherry 3,000 Enders Lake Brown 600 Clear Lake Brown 800 Choke Cherry Lake Sheridan 600 Chain Lake Brown 800 Spring Lake Sheridan 500 Enders Lake Brown 800 Wahlgren Lake Sheridan 500 Willow Lake Brown 800 Whitney Lake Dawes 800 Fish Lake Rock 2,500 Jordan Pond Sioux 300 Sand Pit Ponds Holt 800 Mill Pond Holt 800 Abbotts Lake Butler 800 Gosches Lake Antelope 200 Beaver Creek Boone 1,600 Wendts Lake Madison 200 Chain Lake Holt 1,500 Abbotts Lake Butler 300 Gosches Lake Antelope 1,000 Niobrara Lake Boyd 700 Bossards Lake Madison 300 Crystal Lake Dakota 3,000 State Lakes Dodge 1,500 Arterburn Lake Chase 1,500 No. Pork Elkhorn Madison 800 Champion Lake Chase 1,500 Roth Lake Gage 300 North Lake Sheridan 300 Pothast Pond Gage 200 Lyman Richey Lake Colfax 600 Mill Pond Saline 1,000 Burlington Pond Platte 600 Mill Pond Saline 1,000 Irrigation Pond Cheyenne 200 Sand Pit Lake Kearney 300 Pibel Lake Greeley 500 Sand Pit Lake Kearney 100 Lyman Lake Buffalo 800 Forest Lawn Ponds Douglas 300 Carter Pond Lincoln 100 Oberfelder Lakes Cheyenne 600 Spring Lake Lincoln 200 Gardner Lake Cheyenne 500 Sand Pit Lake Lincoln 500 Lodge Pole Dams Cheyenne 1,200 Upper Reservoir Kimball 200 Sand Pit Lake Morrill 500 Niobrara Slough Dawes 600 Rush Lake Scottsbluff 2,500 Loup Sloughs Buffalo 600 Childs Lake Scottsbluff 500 Carter Lake Douglas 10,000 Anderson Lake Scottsbluff 200 Shrine Pond Lancaster 500 Tracy Lake Dundy 500   OUTDOOR NEBRASKA 11 Where Planted County Number Where Planted County Number Nolen Lake Dundy 2,000 Enders Lake Brown 1,500 Reids Lake McPherson 2,000 Enders Lake Brown 500 Dads Lake Cherry 2,000 Clear Lake Brown 500 Bossards Lake Madison 700 Enders Lake Brown 800 Evans Lake Antelope 600 Enders Lake Brown 150 Evans Lake Antelope 1,000 Enders Lake Brown 1,200 Chain Lakes Holt 1,000 Enders Lake Brown 300 Chain Lakes Holt 500 Enders Lake Brown 300 Chain Lakes Holt 2,000 Enders Lake Brown 200 Lyons Lake Emmett 500 Enders Lake Brown 250 Swan Lake Atkinson 2,000 Chain Lakes Brown 100 Clear Lake Brown 1,500 Mill Pond Holt 200 Willow Lake Brown 1,500 Fish Lake Holt 200 Wendts Lake Madison 500 Lyons Lake Holt 200 Y. M. C. A. Pool Madison 50 Fish Lake Rock 400 Willow Creek Pierce 300 Walton Lake Dodge 500 Homer Lake Saunders 4,000 Spring Lake Sheridan 300 Nans Lake Pierce 300 Enders Lake Brown 150 Walton Lake Knox 1,000 Enders Lake Brown 300 Spencer Dam Boyd 10,000 Whitney Lake Dawes 400 Mitchell Lake Butte 2,000 Irrigation Pond Sioux 200 Arrasmith Pond Hall 50 Irrigation Pond Sioux 200 Ice House Lake Antelope 2,000 Irrigation Pond Sioux 200 Johnson Lake Stanton 500 Irrigation Pond Sioux 100 Forest Lawn Douglas 300 Irrigation Pond Sioux 100 Denny Lake Stanton 1,500 Enders Lake Brown 250 Sand Pit Lake Cass 1,000 Enders Lake Brown 100 Lockwood Lake Adams 1,200 Enders Lake Brown 75 Walton Lake Kearney 3,000 Enders Lake Brown 150 Country Club Lake Harlan 2,000 Gosches Lake Antelope 200 Carter Lake Douglas 12,000 Wendts Lake Madison 200 Mill Pond Holt 3,000 Burlington Pond Platte 200 Pelican Lake Cherry 6,000 Cotton Mill Lake Buffalo 300 Moon Lake Brown 6,000 Lodge Pole Creek Kimball 200 Horton Pond Keya Paha 1,000 Lake Helen Dawson 200 Sand Pit Lake Cass 1,000 Cotton Mill Lake Buffalo 200 Sand Pit Lake Cass 1,000 Schimmer Lake Hall 100 Sand Pit Lake Cedar 1,000 Sand Pit Lakes Merrick 200 Quinnebaugh Lake Burt 2,000 Lodge Pole Creek Kimball 300 Toman Pond Howard 200 Johnson Lake Stanton 200 Cedar River Greeley 1,000 Kane Lake Cuming 300 Mira Creek Valley 800 State Lakes Dodge 500 Loup Sloughs Garfield 2,000 Sand Pit Lakes Douglas 500 St. Micheal Sloughs Hall 3,000 Mill Pond Holt 200 Doris Lake Custer 1,000 Fish Lake Holt 200 Helspen Lake Thomas 500 Emmett Lake Holt 200 McAllister Lake Colfax 1,000 Fish Lake Rock 400 Bairds Pond Dawes 100 Enders Lake Brown 150 Military Pond Dawes 200 Enders Lake Brown 75 School Aquarium Otoe 50 Enders Lake Brown 50 Sand Pit Lake Platte 200 Enders Lake Brown 50 Kinney Lake Rock 300 Enders Lake Brown 100 Mitchell Lake Boyd 500 Lingford Lake Howard 500 Walton Lake Knox 200 Enders Lake Brown 1,000 Reids Lake McPherson 1,000 Enders Lake Brown 350 Rifle Range Pond Saunders 300 Wahlgren Lake Sheridan 500 State Lakes Dodge 1,000 Whitney Lake Dawes 500 Linoma Lakes Sarpy 500 Walton Lake Johnson 400 Sand Pit Lakes Colfax 1,000 Mill Pond York 400 Markworth Pond York 200 TOTAL BLACK BASS 252,400 Turkey Creek Saline 100 Walton Lake Kearney 500 CROPPIES Gosches Lake Antelope 500 Enders Lake Brown 800 Chain Lake Holt 500 Enders Lake Brown 1,000 Wendt Lake Madison 200 Enders Lake Brown 800 Homer Lake Saunders 500   12 OUTDOOR NEBRASKA Where Planted Walton Lake Bazile Creek Spencer Dam Mill Pond Sand Pit Lake Ice House Lake Johnson Lake Denny Lake Linoma Lake Sand Pit Lake Walton Lake Walton Lake State Ponds Clear Lake Toman Lake Sand Pit Lake Sand Pit Lake TOTAL CROPPIES STRIPED Wahlgren Lake Spring Lake Irrigation Pond Irrigation Pond Irrigation Pond Irrigation Pond Irrigation Pond Irrigation Pond Gosches Lake Wendts Lake Walton Pond Abbotts Lake Lyman Richey Lake Sand Pit Lake Carter Lake Spring Lake Irrigation Pond Lodge Pole Creek Sand Pit Lake Cotton Mill Lake Schimmer Lake Sand Pit Lakes Lodge Pole Creek Lodge Pole Creek Loup River Winter Creek Lake Huffman Lake Highway Lagoons University Lake Marks Lake Katzer Lake Government Lake Whitney Lake Maywood Lake Irrigation Pond Irrigation Pond Owens Pond Kunel Pond Mill Pond Dads Lake Hasenyager Pond Lincoln Creek Mill Pond Mill Pond Mill Pond County Knox Knox Boyd Butler Hall Antelope Stanton Stanton Saunders Cass Kearney Kearney Dundy Brown Howard Garfield Hall PERCH Sheridan Sheridan Sioux Sioux Sioux Sioux Sioux Sioux Antelope Madison Dodge Butler Colfax Kearney Lincoln Lincoln Cheyenne Kimball Lincoln Buffalo Hall Merrick Kimball Kimball Thomas Scottsbluff Scottsbluff Scottsbluff Scottsbluff Scottsbluff Scottsbluff Scottsbluff Dawes Frontier Cheyenne Cheyenne Dundy Chase Cherry Cherry Johnson Seward Butler Saline Saline Number Where Planted 300 Enders Lake 500 Walton League 11,000 Sand Pit Lakes 500 Carter Lake 200 Enders Lake 500 Enders Lake 600 Tracy Lake 500 Arterburn Lake 1,000 Champion Lake 500 Frenchman Creek 400 Willow Lake 200 Enders Lake 100 Enders Lake 120 Willow Lake 100 Highway Ponds 100 Winter Creek Lake 100 Beatty Lake Torrington Lake Drainage Ditch 40,120 Ericson Lake Walton Pond 500 Choke Cherry Lake 600 Walton Pond 300 Forest Lawn 400 Marks Lake 200 Rush Lake 200 Crane Lake 200 Reids Lake 300 Wendts Lake 200 Y. M. Pool 200 Willow Creek 400 Walton Pond 200 Bazile Creek 600 Spencer Dam 600 Mill Pond 200 Lincoln Creek 200 Ice House Lake 400 Johnson Lake 40,000 Denny Lake 1,000 Linoma Lakes 4,000 Sand Pit Lakes 4,000 Schewe Pond 5,000 Little Blue River 130,000 Walton Lake 40,000 Larrick Pond 200 Walton Pond 10,000 State Ponds 10,000 Enders Lake 10,000 Enders Lake 10,800 Moon Lake 4,000 Linoma Lake 4,000 Sand Pit Lake 4,000 Sand Pit Lake 1,000 Quinnebaugh Lake 2,000 Toman Lake 500 Loup Sloughs 400 Lincoln Creek 200 500 8,000 500 St. Micheal Lake Doris Lake Helenpen Lake 300 Sand Pit Lake 200 McAllister Lake 200 School Room 500 Little Blue River 500 Linoma Lakes County Number Brown 19,500 Dodge 500 Douglas 2,000 Douglas 2,000 Brown 5,000 Brown 6,800 Dundy 1,300 Chase 1,000 Chase 1,500 Chase 800 Brown 800 Brown 50 Brown 850 Brown 800 Scottsbluff 30,000 Scottsbluff 30,000 Scottsbluff 1,000 Scottsbluff 5,200 Sarpy 500 Wheeler 20,000 Dodge 500 Sheridan 500 Clay 1,000 Douglas 100 Scottsbluff 500 Scottsbluff 800 Garden 800 McPherson 800 Madison 1,000 Madison 50 Pierce 1,000 Knox 1,000 Knox 500 Boyd 4,000 Butler 1,000 Seward 500 Antelope 1,000 Stanton 500 Stanton 1,000 Saunders 2,000 Cass 1,000 Cass 500 Adams 800 Kearney 1,000 Webster 100 Harlan 400 Dundy 200 Brown 5,600 Brown 1,800 Brown 1,000 Saunders 4,000 Cass 2,000 Cass 3,000 Burt 4,000 Howard 100 Garfield 500 Seward 200 Hall 2,000 Custer 1,000 Thomas 2,000 Colfax 1,000 Colfax 1,000 Otoe 50 Clay 500 Saunders 400   OUTDOOR NEBRASKA 13 Where Planted County Number Where Planted ' County Number Kinney Lake Rock 500 Linoma Lakes Saunders 800 Rifle Range Ponds Saunders 1,000 Rifle Range Ponds Saunders 1,200 Curtis Pond Richardson 200 TOTAL STRIPED PERCH 480,710 TOTAL BULLHEADS 460,100 BULLHEADS SUNFTSH Todds Lake Douglas 500 Lingfords Lake Howard 1,000 Kountze Lake Douglas 10,000 Christensen Lake Howard 1,000 Schimmers Lake Hall 200 Schimmers Lake Hall 1,500 Frenchman Creek Chase 1,500 Burlington Pond Buffalo 1,500 Choke Cherry Lake Sheridan 600 Sand Pit Lake Hall 1,000 Spring Lake Sheridan 400 Willow Lake Brown 32,000 Wahlgren Lake Sheridan 400 Willow Lake Brown 80,000 Whitney Lake Dawes 600 Chain Lakes Brown 18,000 Irrigation Pond Sioux 300 Enders Lake Brown 400 State Ponds Dodge 2,000 Crystal Lake Dakota 275,000 Carter Lake Douglas 2,000 Diamond Lake Brown 4,000 Burlington Pond Platte 400 Bartzat Pond Lancaster 600 Cotton Mill Lake Buffalo 400 Sand Pit Lake Saunders 1,000 Jackson Lake Lincoln 200 Walton Lake Dodge 1,000 Loup River Thomas 100 Sand Pit Lakes Douglas 500 Whitney Lake Dawes 500 Carter Lake Douglas 1,000 Walton Lake Johnson 200 Bunns Lake Washington 3,000 Irrigation Lake Cheyenne 700 Whitney Lake Dawes 500 Irrigation Lake Cheyenne 200 Irrigation Pond Sioux 400 Irrigation Lake Cheyenne 2,000 Irrigation Pond Sioux 1,100 Sand Pit Lake Morrill 200 Abbotts Lake Butler 800 Rush Lake Scottsbluff 500 Irrigation Lake Cheyenne 300 Tracy Lake Dundy 200 Upper Reservoir Kimball 200 Willow Creek Pierce 300 Walton Lake Clay 1,000 Spencer Dam Boyd 400 State Ponds Dundy 200 Mehring Pond Hall 200 Lingford Lake Howard 200 Johnson Lake Stanton 200 Sand Beach Lake Box Butte 300 Denny Lake Stanton 400 Crane Lake Box Butte 500 Schewe Pond Cass 200 Highway Ponds Scottsbluff 2,000 Walton Pond Kearney 300 Wahlgren Lake Sheridan 1,000 Carter Lake Douglas 500 Whitney Lake Dawes 2,000 Loup Sloughs Garfield 100 Turkey Creek Pawnee Johnson 400 100 Sand Pit Lake Hall 200 Hasenyager Pond Pothast Pond Gage 100 TOTAL SUNFISH 26,400 Lincoln Creek Seward 200 Mill Pond Butler 300 RAINBOW TROUT Mill Pond York 500 Lake Minatare Scottsbluff 50 Markworth Pond York 200 Walton Pond Thayer 100 Turkey Creek Saline 1,500 Lodge Pole Creek Cheyenne 1,200 Walton Pond Clay 1,000 Lodge Pole Creek Cheyenne 700 Kunkel Lake Chase 300 Lodge Pole Creek Kimball 2,200 Wendts Lake Madison 1,000 Pumpkin Seed Creek Morrill 1,500 Willow Creek Pierce 1,500 Lake Minatare Scottsbluff 750 Nuns Lake Pierce 500 Darin Ditches Scottsbluff 800 Spencer Dam Boyd 500 Lake Minatare Scottsbluff 1,500 Mill Pond Butler 1,000 Sheep Creek Scottsbluff 1,000 Lincoln Creek Seward 1,000 Sheep Creek Scottsbluff 500 Little Blue River Adams 600 Elm Creek Webster 500 Larrick Pond Webster 100 Elm Creek Webster 500 Country Club Lake Harlan 400 Fairfield Creek Brown 1,500 Loup River Grant 2,000 Spring Creek Pierce 400 Loup River Grant 2,400 Verdigree Creek Holt 800 Horton Lake Keya Paha 4,000 Steele Creek Holt 800 Horton Lake Keya Paha 1,000 Eagle Creek Holt 800 Sand Pit Lake Cass 2,000 Spring Creek Pierce 500 Sand Pit Lake Garfield' 300 600 Spring Lake Hall 1,000 Lincoln Creek Seward Little Blue River Clay 1,000 TOTAL RAINBOW TROUT 17,900   14 OUTDOOR NEBRASKA Where Planted Lodge Pole Creek Lodge Pole Creek Walton Pond Elm Creek Spring Creek BROOK County TROUT Cheyenne Cheyenne Thayer Webster Boyd Number 600 900 100 1,100 200 TOTAL BROOK TROUT 2,900 BKOWN TROUT Lake Minatare Scottsbluff 2,200 Spring Lake Hall 200 Spring Lake VN TROUT Hall 600 TOTAL BRO\ 3,000 CATFISH Wahlgren Lake Sheridan 100 Whitney Lake Dawes 200 Abbotts Lake Butler 400 Mill Pond Holt 200 Bartzat Pond Lancaster 200 Sand Pit Lake Saunders 200 Sand Pit Lake Kearney 100 Niobrara River Sheridan 200 Loup River Thomas 200 Cotton Mill Lake Buffalo 200 Walton Lake Clay 200 Little Blue River Adams 400 Whitney Lake Dawes 200 Turkey Creek Pawnee 100 Mill Pond Butler 300 Little Blue River Adams 100 Walton Lake Kearney 100 Pclnicky Pond 1SH Webster 50 TOTAL CATP 3,450 ROCK BASS Sand Pit Lakes Douglas 200 Carter Lake Eouglas 300 Loup River Thomas 200 Walton Pond Johnson 900 Golf Club Lake Pierce 200 Walton Lake Kearney 200 Mira Creek : BASS Valley 400 TOTAL ROCE 5,850 BULL FROGS Whitney Lake Dawes 1,000 Thompson Slough Cuming 1,000 Kane Lake Cuming 2,000 Sand Pit Lakes Eouglas 2,000 Carter Lake Douglas 2,000 Spring Lakes Sheridan 2,000 Wahlgren Lake Sheridan 1,000 Cotton Mill Lake Buffalo 1,000 Runnels Slough Holt 2,000 Blue River Pond Saline 1,000 Cedar Sloughs Greeley 1,000 Slough Pond Douglas 1,000 Cedar Sloughs 0 Greeley 1,000 Sand Pit Lake Platte 1,000 TOTAL BULL PROGS 19,000

EDUCATION BEST PROTECTION

(Continued from Page 4)

knowledge of the habits and characteristics of all our game birds. I would have them know how to build shelters and feed our upland birds such as quail and pheasants. I would have them understand and be able to explain the damage done by the repeater, and understand why they should never be used; why they should work toward the ultimate abandonment of them. These Scouts are the next generation of sportsmen and the older ones are now hunting. I would try to see that a special merit badge was given to the more advanced Scouts for outstanding work in conservation and education which would require the signed statement of some hunter that he would shoot a two-shot gun for one season. That boy would have saved the lives of from a few to several dozen birds.

In a short time I would have ten thousand junior deputies working to see that the game laws are enforced and transmitting their knowledge and ideals to their parents, relatives and friends, without cost to the State. I would give to each Scout a badge showing that he is a junior warden, whose duty is to report all game-law infractions. As a student of boys, I assure you that the badge would be highly esteemed and the responsibility connected with it would be cherished.

Another source of useless destruction arises from the fact that many hunters kill birds which they know cannot be recovered. Education alone can remedy this evil.

I would work with the idea of gradually eliminating the repeater. The hunter who owns one would not need to buy a new gun, as his old gun could be plugged so that it would hold one shell in the magazine and one in the chamber at a very small cost.

I would work to the cutting of bag limit to a minimum.

A trip to the Sand Hills is usually a combination of chicken and duck hunting with fishing mixed, in, and the hunter gets his pleasure out of the trip and his associations. If he can shoot enough game to have his fill while on the trip, he is satisfied.

I would earnestly endeavor to secure the passage of a law prohibiting the killing of any shore birds at any time with the exception of the wily jacksnipe, whom Nature has well endowed with protection.

I will venture the statement that for every duck that actually reaches the table there are eight or ten which are killed and never recovered. Most of the wounded ones eventually die, possibly a month after they were shot. The two-shot gun tends towards deliberate aiming and clean kills. The repeater tends to hurried shooting and shooting out of range as it is difficult to gauge the range while looking down the barrel. The result is that the average shooter keeps unloading after the birds are too far away to register clean kills. But the spread is so great that at seventy-five or eighty yards there may be fifteen or twenty birds penetrated but not with enough power to bring them down at the time they are shot.

Birds are found with the spot where the pellet entered healed over, but the shot lodged in his intestine, which ultimately caused his death. These results are due to the extra three to five shots which should not

OUTDOOR NEBRASKA 15

EFFECTIVE GAME CONSERVATION Game Resources "Punch Drunk"

As I say, it has taken about thirty years to knock our game resources "punch drunk," but it is not going to take nearly that long to see whether they are going to "stay the limit" or definitely "take the count." For this reason! The gunner of today is coming into his own in a mechanical age and a greedy one. He springs fully armed, as it were, into a speeding world looking for, demanding and determined to get "what's coming" as fast and with as little personal inconvenience as gasoline and electrical short cuts can devise. A fast car, a hard road, a swift outboard motor, a cheap automobile that tackles inaccessible rural areas like a mountain goat; a magazine gun, loads guaranteed to "kill a mile" and a burning desire to "knock off" more than the other guy or beat him to what is left.

The gist of all this is if something isn't done to get this hunting business out of its jam, the well-to-do, "go-when-and-where-he-pleases" sport will take his fun, not as hunting but as mere recreation incidental to an outing. And the ordinary hunter, that dear old glorified "one-gallus boy," will take the leavings. And he will take them just as he does now when such rich windfall presents itself, namely, all he can bump off. Such a pity, too, when so much could be accomplished if both sides would only take the trouble to devote a bit of their spare time in closed seasons to reading, digesting and helping take an interest in constructive conservation. When the general public realizes how little game there really is left, the chances for hunters to get their business out of a jam is going to improve to some extent.

The Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers' Institute is having a game survey made of the United States. This may or may not be news to some sporting goods dealers. I very sincerely doubt if ten per cent of those 8,000,000 gunners even know that such a survey is taking place. The work, or I might say with more accuracy, the task, is being done by Mr. Aldo Leopold, an able forester, scientist and thorough-going sportsman equipped with long experience in problems of game administration. The sponsors of this game survey realize fully that such an undertaking, even at it best, can reveal scarcely more than an outline of existing conditions. Remember this, that at the present moment there is no national policy so declared in game control.

Qualified Men at the Helm

There is no need here to reflect that the sporting industry, so to speak, has been a long time coming to the rescue, or for some disgruntled shirkers to growl at what they may term the sporting industry's tendency to ask aid in having their chestnuts pulled out of the fire. Sporting goods dealers, the hunters, and the general public interested in conservation should rejoice that men are now at the helms of these gigantic concerns with brains and sportsmanship enough to recognize and declare openly that their support of and participation in game restoration is sound business insurance. They seek no credit or acclaim; it is merely the exercise of common-sense protection, which, aside from its sources of personal inspiration and gratification to men who like to hunt, means the perpetuation of livelihoods to which they and their thousands upon thousands of employes are honesty entitled.

Mark this—jobbers, wholesalers and dealers in sporting goods. Listen to, build up and broadcast this platform of game restoration. Digest the conservation matter that comes to your dignified executives desks and relay it to your field forces for their personal contactings with the rank and file of consumer hunting. For remember, this problem of game restoration will, of sheer necessity, go back whence it springs, namely, to the rich brown earth. The type of folk best suited to materially assist live closest to that same rich brown earth. The true hope of game restoration lies in our agricultural high schools and state colleges, and in the class-room of schools tucked away about the country.

There is no use attempting to minimize the conditions of bag limit excesses, game bootlegging and seasonal violations occurring in practically every hunting center in the United States. No one hears of such tactics any sooner or more often than the average dealer in sporting goods. There is but one answer and remedy for such a problem — more state game wardens and more Federal game wardens, and in addition, the spotlight of press and public condemnation turned upon such rotters and the spread of public opinion in turning up and turning away from such violators.

A forward step in game restoration was taken in the recent formation of the National Committee on Wild Life Legislation. The basic seat of game restoration in this country for practical purposes is the Bureau of Biological Survey at Washington. The strongest branches supporting these national conservation agencies are our state game departments. But the most urgent need of game restoration today is that the existence of and workings of these bodies shall become household words in every home in the United States. Conservation is either a national reclamation project to be so recognized and acted upon by the United States Government or it is a mere "scrap of paper," clothed in false ideas to be ,lost sight of as a robust heritage and to become a tainted memory save for the extremely rich.

If you doubt this, go into a club composed of wealthy duck hunters; visit some outlying district in a quail country, or attempt to discuss game restoration work in the average sporting goods store. The ignorance of what is going on and lack of personal interest in trying to "snap out of it" will astound you.

At present, certain things are definitely obvious to anyone who dares to say what he thinks about the game situation, or is fool enough, perhaps, to think out loud. Game and fish are mechanically over-matched. A large proportion of our population is more easily finding methods of luxurious contact with game and fish. From a game protection standpoint we are pitifully undermanned, federal and state, and many states are cursed with political entanglements that impede progress. Last, but not least, there exists in game circles, among rich and poor, a disrespect for all laws.

Sometimes, as an ex-sporting goods dealer, I wonder if as a body the sporting goods dealers of the United States realize the necessity for unification of purpose in perpetuating game and fish within the scope of their service. But conservation is more than doing its part. Each year its voice is a little louder and its purpose and morale unshaken and more stable. The sporting goods dealer had better do his part—or else!

16 OUTDOOR NEBRASKA

THE LITTLE WARRIOR

THAT little-known but ever present marauder the mink, is one of the most widely scattered representatives of the weasel family; from the arctic to the gulf, from coast to coast he holds his own. Civilization holds no terrors for him, in fact, it has added to his natural food supply, as many an irate poultryman can testify. What the poultryman doesn't realize, however, is that the same mink would as lief feast on the houserat that also follows civilization.

The mink will usually attack and eat anything alive from twice his size down to the smallest shrew. Being amphibious, he adapts his appetite to his surroundings; while he is in or near water he relishes fish, frogs, clams, craw-fish, ducklings and muskrats. When on land, birds, eggs, all the rodents from the rabbit to the smallest wood-mouse, snakes, in fact, he asks only that his meals be preceded by the chase of some terrorstricken prey.

This killing instinct is so strong that when, as occasionally happens, this little warrior gets into a henhouse, he goes berserk, and slaughters as long as a fluttering victim remains. This is an infraction of the universal rule of Nature—kill when necessity compelsand as a consequence the mink has few friends among mankind. We admire his skill and endurance in the chase, his courage in attacking animals twice his size, his ability to withstand the rigors of cold winters, but we do not like his competition when it comes to the pursuit of game birds and animals.

Its preferred habitat is along some wood-land stream offering both refuge and food, in summer or winter. Its home may be an abandoned muskrat den in an overhanging bank, or in a hollow log adjacent to the stream, or even in a rock-pile or a cavity under a tangle of tree roots. The nest is lined with incidentals of the chase, feathers, bits of fur and other debris.

From this home spot the mink covers a wide radius in his hunting activities with a tireless pace of easy bounds; when forced to a slower gait he drops into an awkward waddle, easily understood when we contemplate his short legs and long slim body, wonderfully adapted for swimming and pursuit in narrow cavities. One day he will follow the stream-bank for miles, catching an unwary frog in a stangle of water weeds, or a crawfish scuttling for the shelter of a rock; occasionally a sucker, handicapped by shallow water, loses a battle in his own element and furnishes a bounteous meal.

The next day he may take the overland trail and work the thickets and woodlands, looking for mice or chipmunks, or easily accessible birds' nests, or the extraordinary pleasure of stalking a strutting patridge or pursuing a wild-eyed rabbit, futilely trusting his life to his flying feet. Or he may chase a squirrel into his arboreal retreat or find a pleasing repast in a den of young wood-chucks. As winter closes various sources of food supply, he depends more and more on the food obtainable along his favorite stream, which he may patrol thoroughly for miles. He prefers to hunt by night, but may also be found on the trail during the day.

Sometimes in April or May the young are born; the litter will vary from two to ten, with a usual average of five. After about a month of nest-life the young will start doing a little hunting of their own, although the family circle is maintained sometimes through the summer. In the fall, when the hunting is beginning to get ' crowded, the young will gradually start out and build up a hunting territory of their own, in which trespassing by other minks is deeply resented; the outcome of such a meeting is usually the "survival of the fittest."

The fur of the mink, like other widely distributed animals, varies somewhat as to its habitat; on the average, it is light to dark brown, with a bit of white on the throat, the under fur being thick and soft, and with rather stiff, shiny, dark-colored guard hairs. The Minnesota mink is well above the average—a certain grade representative of northeastern Minnesota, is known to the fur trade as "Superior" mink, being smaller than the average and very dark and fine. In contrast, southern Minnesota occasionally produces what is called a "cotton" mink, one in which the fine under fur is a grayish white, and which has very little value to the fur trade, as it must be dyed before being made up. The average price for the past few years for Minnesota mink has been in the vicinity of $10.00, although extra-fine pelts have brought $20.0 0. One Minnesota trapper had the good fortune to enter a mink pelt in national competition last year which brought him first prize and $1,000.00 for the best prepared pelt entered in the contest.

—S. B. Swenson in "Fins, Feather and Fur."

Nebraska Game and Fish Laws 1928-1929

OPEN SEASON

Black Bass: (Not less than nine inches in length) : Season open from January 1 to May 1 and from June 10 to December 31. Bag 15, possession 25.

Bass, Rock, White, Striped: Not less than six inches in length) : Open season January 1 to December 31. Bag 15, possession 25.

Catfish: (Not less than 11 inches in length) : Open season January 1 to December 31. Bag 15, possession 25.

Croppies: (Not less than six inches in length) : Open season January 1 to December 31. Bag 15, possession 25.

Perch: (Not less than six inches in length) : Open season January 1 to December 31. Bag 2 5, possession 25.

Sunfisli: (Bluegills, Pumpkinseed, etc.) (All lengths) : Open season January 1 to December 31. Bag 15, possession 2 5.

Trout: (Not less than eight inches in length) : Open season April 1 to October 31. Bag 15, possession 25.

Pickerel: (Not less than twelve inches in length) : Open season May 1 to December 31. Bag 15, possession 25.

Bullheads: (Not less than five inches): Open season January 1 to December 31. Bag 25, possession 25.

Pike: (Not less than 12 inches in length); Open season April 1 to October 81. Bag 15, possession 25.

Frogs: Bull frogs protected, all sizes, during all season. Grass frogs may be used for bait.

Minnows: Minnows may be used for bait. Take same only with minnow seines not more than 2 0 feet in length nor more than 4 feet in depth. Minnow seines and traps MUST have one-fourth (1-4) inch mesh.

CARP, Buffalo, Suckers, Gar (all lengths): Open season January 1 to December 31. May be taken with spears during months of March to November, inclusive. These fish under Nebraska law classified as coarse fish and not game fish.

Prairie Chicken, Grouse: Open season October 1 to November 1, inclusive. Bag 5, possession 5.

Waterfowl (Ducks, Geese, Coots, Brants) : Open season September 16 to December 31. Bag, 2 0 Ducks, 5 Geese, 2 0 Coots, 5 Brants. Possession: 40 Ducks, 5 Geese, 40 Coots, 5 Brants. Waterfowl are also protected by federal laws.

Pheasants: No general open season. From time to time short season may be opened by order Department of Agriculture.

Squirrels: Open season from September 16 to December 31. Bag 10, possession 20.

Raccoons, Muskrats, Opossums, Foxes and Otters: Open season on raccoons and opossums November 1 to February 15. Open season on muskrats, foxes and otters, November 16 to March 1.

NO OPEN SEASON

Elk, Deer, Antelope, Mountain Sheep, Beaver, Minnows (except for bait), Bull Frogs, Wood Ducks, Doves, Quail, Swans, Imported Game Birds, Song and Insectivorous Birds, except Sparrows, Crows, Blue jays and Hawks.

BAG LIMITS

IN ONE DAY—5 prairie chickens, 2 0 ducks, 5 geese, 15 rails, 2 5 snipe, 20 coots, 15 game fish, except bullheads and perch which are 2 5.

AT ANY ONE TIME—5 prairie chickens, 40 ducks, 5 geese, 2 5 rails, 2 5 snipe, 40 coots, 2 5 game fish.

PERMIT FEES

Permit required for all persons over 16 years of age for hunting or fishing. Permit required for ALL persons trapping regardless of age.

Permits necessary for women same as men.

Permits must be carried on person.

Resident—To Hunt and Fish $1.10. To Trap $2.10.

Citizens of the United States but not a resident of Nebraska — To Hunt and Fish $25.10. To Trap $25.10. To Fish $2.10. Aliens—To Fish $5.10. To trap $25.10 (No alien hunting permits issued because illegal for alien to carry firearms in Nebraska.)

SPECIAL PERMITS

To breed and raise game birds, $1.00.

To breed and raise game or fur-bearing animals, $2.00.

To buy furs, resident $1.00, non-resident $10.00.

Private fish hatchery, $25.0 0.

To sell coarse fish taken in Nebraska with hook and line, $2.00.

GENERAL LAWS

Unlawful to use artificial light, or spot light in hunting protected game birds and animals.

Unlawful to hunt on private land without owner's consent.

Unlawful to shoot game from automobiles.

Unlawful to put game in storage without tags issued by Bureau of Game and Fish.

Unlawful to keep game in storage more than 10 days following close of season.

Unlawful to ship game by auto, train, private car or express without tagged with tags issued by Bureau of Game and Fish.

Unlawful to use nets, seines or traps to take fish.

Unlawful to have seines, nets and traps in possession.

BUY YOUR LINCOLN LICENSES NOW!

Hunting and Fishing Permits Expired December 31st

It is unlawful to hunt, fish or trap without having a license in your possession.

Money derived from the sale of permits is used for purchase and upkeep of State Recreation Grounds, Fish Hatcheries and Game Refuges—for purchase and distribution of game and for the protection of our wild life and enforcement of the game and fish laws.

Help protect our game and fish by observing the law and asking others to do the same.

State Hunting and Fishing........$ 1.10 Non-resident Hunting and Fishing... 25.10 Non-resident Fishing............. 2.10 Trapping..................... 2.10

You can buy these licenses from County Clerks or banks, hardware stores, sporting goods stores, etc.

BUREAU GAME AND FISH LINCOLN