OUTDOOR NEBRASKA 3

Pittman-Robertson Activities

By L. P. VANCE, Supervisor

WITH each new issue of "Outdoor Nebraska," the Pittman-Robertson department will attempt to give you a running summary of what has been accomplished in the field, and plans for new projects.

Our newest activity, started as of February 3, 1941, is a "Study of the distribution, food, nesting habits and nesting mortality of the common upland game birds of Nebraska." This project, under the able leadership of David Damon and his assistant, H. Elliott McClure, reports these activities as of April 1, 1941:

"Our first step was to contact individuals and organizations that would be of assistance to us (and to whom, incidentally, we might be of some assistance). The value of close cooperation cannot be overemphasized. All of us are working toward conservation of one kind or another —conservation of soil, wildlife, plant life, human life, and energy. The efforts of each group in the fields of conservation ultimately join those of other groups until we have a gigantic network of conservation activities. With this in mind, we contacted several departments of the University of Nebraska, including Zoology, Botany, Geography, Conservation and Survey, Rural Economics, and the Extension Forester.

"Other organizations and offices contacted were the Soil Conservation Service, Weather Bureau, National Youth Administration, State Historical Society, State Seed Analyst, and State Planning Board. From each office we obtained or will obtain some valuable information through discussions, maps, charts, etc. The State Seed Analyst has agreed to provide us with a reference collection of weed and crop seeds. The National Youth Administration has provided 133% hours of labor for the coloring of four copies each of several maps. Mr. McClure, assistant leader, had direct charge of the map work and the various maps prepared are mentioned in his report.

"The N.Y.A. is also providing us with the services of Philip B. Berns, a junior in the University of Nebraska, who is doing a fine piece of library research and ferreting out information pertaining to the past history of sharp-tailed grouse, prairie chicken, quail, and pheasant in this and adjoining states. This is an effort to. find evidence of cycles in the three native species and the results of various pheasant plants and rate of natural spread.

"Our Ford panel trucks were delivered the first part of March, and by the middle of the month we made our first trips to the field. Our preliminary work in the office was found to be very valuable to us in the field. The first visits to the field were of a general character, the chief purpose being to acquaint ourselves with wildlife conditions, farming conditions, conservation officers, and certain farmers and sportsmen.

"One trip was made in company with the assistant leader, the chief object being to try trapping (Ohio type trapping) and marking pheasants on the Valentine Waterfowl Refuge for observations on summer movements. Despite several inches of snow, that fell during our three days at the refuge, the birds would not enter the strange shiny-wire enclosure for the abundance of wheat and corn placed there. Nearly 200 pheasants were seen one morning following a fresh wet snow and all were engaged in scratching (with their bills) through the snow for food. Evidently, there was no shortage of food, and winter cover is locally abundant there. We left the trap open and baited so the pheasants could come and go for several days. When Mr. McClure, assistant leader, is moved to his field headquarters at Ord, Nebraska, he will return to the refuge and make another effort to trap the birds, providing the winter flocks have not disintegrated.

"My field investigations thus far indicate that the pheasant and quail occur throughout the state. The greatest pheasant concentrations are in the central and northeastern part of the state. In the southeastern and northwestern sections, the species is scarce. Over the remainder of the state, the pheasant may be locally abundant where there is good winter cover such as along the Republican, Platte and Loup River valleys. The quail is probably nowhere abundant. Although this little bird is probably found in every county, it is most common in the southeastern counties. This is the most humid part of Nebraska, but what connection this has with quail populations remains to be learned.

"The prairie chicken and sharp-tailed grouse are most common in the western part of the state, particularly in the sandhill country. Many grouse were seen in favorable parts of Cherry County, and Logan County was said to have many more chickens than grouse.

"Interviews with farmers and sportsmen indicate that the severe drouth of the past eight years has hit pheasant populations the hardest, with quail ranking next. In addition to possible direct effects of the drouth to game-bird populations, the change from corn to the more drouth-resistant canes or sorghums has probably had some effect on the bird populations. The severe blizzard of last November seems to have reduced the pheasant population considerably where the birds did not have access to good cover. No reports of pheasant mortality have been received from the districts having plenty of winter cover.

"The three workers (the third man to be appointed at an early date) on this project will work independently for the most part, but meetings will be held at each man's headquarters so that each will be familiar with the work of his colleagues. All findings will be reported in detail and discussed at the meetings. Thus, the project will be more nearly state-wide and yet function as a unit.

"Each man will set up a primary study area and one or more secondary study areas and concentrate his observations on these areas over a period of years. The attention of each man will be focused on one or two birds, but he will necessarily keep notes on other species of game birds found in his areas. Thus, Mr. McClure will work with pheasants in the central, north and east; I will work with quail in the southeast; and the third man will work on the chicken and grouse in central and western Nebraska. In addition to the study areas throughout the state, we propose to establish a number of census of each species. By censusing these index areas each year, it is hoped that we can get a picture of population trends in the state as a whole.

"Our panel trucks are being equipped with built-in cupboards, laboratory supplies and cots so that much of our laboratory work can be done on the spot, which will prevent the loss of valuable material such as the collection of parasites from dead birds. Crops for food analysis can be removed and put in a preservative immediately. Being equipped with a cot, the worker can remain in the field all night and be on hand for dawn observations with little effort."

The Cooperative Pheasant Rearing Program is moving along at a rapid pace. At the present time, all of the 12 new units to be added to the program have been located. These new units, together with the men acting as chairmen of their several sponsoring organizations, are located as follows:

1. PapillionGates Lilley 2. Spencer E. A. Wisco 3. EwingFrank Uridil 4. Sutton L. J. Bauer 5. Edgar Alwin N. Seism 6. PalisadeVirgil Strayer 7. Wauneta_Bruce Resler (Continued on page 4)   4 OUTDOOR NEBRASKA 8. Ogallala R. E. Searle 9. Scottsbluff Winfield Evans 10. Ft. Robinson Capt. James P. Burns 11. Nehawka Glenn Rutledge 12. Harrison W. E. Mumby

In addition, five of the first-year units will change location this year. Definite changes are herein listed:

1. Auburn to Syracuse Dr. W. E. Kendle 2. Beatrice to Sterling Raymond Zink 3. Osmond to Plainview Harry Johnson

The two additional expected changes which at present are not entirely agreed upon are:

4. Callaway to Eustis Rev. Z. F. Meyer 5. Lyons to Surprise A. W. Kilgore

Letters and cards were sent to all of the cooperative units seeking information as to whether they planned to raise two broods or one brood of pheasants. To date, we have received 42 replies from the 61 questionnaires sent out. Thirty (30) replies indicated that they planned to raise two broods and twelve (12) planned to raise one brood. This coincides quite closely with the expected number of units that will raise two broods of pheasants during the 1941 production season. Many of the new units have already secured Cooperative Agreements on new refuge areas which will help to expedite the additional work for this season.

The quail program, in the southeastern section of the state, is now definitely producing results. All spring, the men have been busily engaged fencing out gullies and waste corners and are now putting forth all of their efforts toward the planting program. Thousands of trees and shrubs, plus hundreds of pounds of grasses and legume seed, have been planted to provide a more abundant home for wildlife.

Two new projects are now under way. The first is a major expansion of the original quail program which we will now call an upland game restoration project. The following information is from the management outline as it is written in the Preliminary Project Statement:

Throughout Nebraska are areas which are now supporting small populations of upland game. All of these areas were once productive of large crops of game birds. Due to agricultural practices and unrestricted grazing, much of the natural feeds, cover and nesting sites have been limited to such an extent that a suitable increase is impossible and bird distribution is curtailed.

The purpose of this project will be to establish approximately fifty (50) restoration project areas in each group of counties, in cooperation with landowners and tenants.

It is planned to establish and work two county groups per year. One county group will be in the eastern part of the state and the other county group will be in the western part. New groupings of counties will be selected each year the project is renewed until all of the counties have been covered by this program.

No purchase of lands will be necessary for this project; the landowners being receptive to the work because of the values received by them through erosion and gully control. Game management agreements will be entered into with landowners and tenants desiring restoration projects on their properties to allow hunting on the restored areas.

Easements, for periods of ten years, will be taken on specific areas of land where actual work is done, such areas to be completely fenced out and hunting will be prohibited on them for the life of the easement.

Each demonstrational area will consist of one farm or more, up to the number of farms included in an area of four square miles. It is not proposed to work units smaller than one-half acre. Actual management work will be on areas affording possibilities for habitat improvement. These will include waste corners, ditches, gullies, timber tracts, hillsides, wasteland, etc.

Lands selected as demonstrational areas will be roughly mapped to furnish the following information:

1. Size of fields. 6. Dry streams. 2. Kinds of crops. 7. Running streams. 3. Fences. 8. Gullies. 4. Waste lands. 9. Woodlots. 5. Natural cover. 10. Ponds. 11. Census information.

All lands included in the project shall first be mapped to show present conditions, locations of favorable feeds and cover areas, location of possible improvement areas such as waste ground, gullies, ditches, stream bottoms and eroded fields. The final mapping will show the locations of food patches, erosion control work, fencing of feed and cover areas, windbreaks, hedgerows, and all plantings made.

Two men will work as leaders for the project; one in the eastern division of the state and one in the western division. Two assistants will operate with each other. The leaders will make all contacts, select lands, secure agreements, make all arrangements for planting and fencing, and supervise all activities. The assistants will carry on such work as fencing, planting of seeds and woody plants, posting of management areas, mapping and assist landowners and operators in a cooperative manner. The liberation of any birds will be by the project leaders.

The second new project, still in the formative stage, deals with the restoration of raccoon in depleted areas. Our feeling toward any game management program to provide a greater amount of shootable game means that attention must be centered on a home. For raccoon, this means an abundance of den trees or artificial dens, availability of feed, and water. The number of raccoon on any given area is governed by these essentials.

Next is the stocking program. On areas in which numbers of raccoon have been reduced to the absolute minimum or are entirely absent, some seeding or stocking must be done to insure a crop. Observations made in other states indicate that the soundest method of stocking is to livetrap wild raccoon and liberate them on selected sites. Records do not show plantings made of artificially reared raccoon to be highly successful.

The third requirement of the management program deals with the harvesting of the crop, which means taking only those numbers of raccoon from a given area that will not deplete the breeding stock.

A letter to the 325 raccoon hunters of Nebraska who bought special raccoon hunting permits last year, setting forth the above mentioned views, brought to us approximately thirty replies and fifteen suggestions as to how to improve raccoon hunting. The suggestions from the raccoon hunters are listed here:

1. Artificial Rearing Program 9 2. Restrict bag limits 16 3. Changing dates of season 12 4. Special raccoon permits be purchased 8 5. Closing areas to hunting 6 6. Protection of dens 4 7. Closing entire state 3 8. Everyone buy permits regardless of age 2 9. Bounty on female raccoon 1 10. Better law enforcement 4 11. Fines for failure to purchase permit 1 12. Restocking wild raccoon 2 13. Keep hounds tied during closed season 1 14. Make steel traps unlawful 1 15. Leave raccoon and opossums to hunters 1

From these suggestions, it is proposed to set up a raccoon restoration project that will enable us to live-trap wild raccoon in over-stocked areas and transport them to areas of lesser concentration. Further, we will plan a program of den restoration where lack of suitable denning areas seems to be a barrier to a normal increase.

Grasshoppers and crickets are good black bass baits. Try them when a brisk wind is blowing, and fish from the windward side of the stream. The fish think that the breeze has blown them into the water. Most anglers use them as surface baits. Small hooks should be used.

OUTDOOR NEBRASKA 5

The Effects of the Recent Drouth Upon Nebraska Fishes

RAYMOND E. JOHNSON Fishing Tackle Manufacturers' Fellow University of Michigan

DROUTHS are combinations of many factors; chiefly, lack of rainfall, excessively high temperatures, and strong drying winds. Such trying weather conditions have visited Nebraska many times since the period of general settlement in the "sixties." Records show that 2- to 4-year periods of drouth occurred about 1860, 1870, 1893 and 1917, and the series of very dry years extending from about 1931 to the present is quite fresh in memory. Perhaps the worst year for the entire state was 1934, when the maximum temperature officially recorded was 118 degrees, the number of days with temperatures over 100 degrees was 67, and the crop yields were cut to 29.3 per cent of the 1921-30 average.

The effects of such drying conditions upon vegetation are immediately noticed, but the effects upon animal life are often slightly delayed and are not so obvious at first glance. Some observations, however, show that fishes, as animals whose lives depend entirely upon the presence of suitable water conditions, have been affected as much as any other group of animals native to Nebraska.

Effects of Drouth Upon Lakes and Streams

Drouth does its greatest damage to fish life by causing the evaporation of lakes and small streams. The surface waters of Nebraska have responded in at least four ways to this drying:

1. Some streams and many lakes have dried completely. The sandhill lakes have done so to the greatest extent as the water table in their area has lowered. There is evidence that the lakes have dried in a similar fashion during past centuries, and have refilled, and as long as their basins remain in place it is likely that they will fill once more should copious rainfall return.

All streams dependent upon run-off water for their flow have also dried, as shown by Weeping Water Creek, the Turkey creeks, Plum creeks, and the streams entering Nebraska from Kansas. The two most surprising stream casualties have been the retreating headwaters of the Elkhorn in the haylands of Rock and Holt counties, and the headwaters of Big Sandy Creek in Thayer County. The latter stream was examined by a United States Bureau of Fisheries survey party in 1930 and recommended as a trout stream. In the summers of 1939 and 1940 it was completely dry.

2. The larger, sandy-bottomed rivers, such as the Platte, Republican and Arikaree, were normally dry in summers, but contained pools of cool flowing water in depressions of their beds. During the drouth these pools have disappeared except in excavations around bridge pilings, and where gravel has been removed for commercial use.

3. Streams such as Clear Creek in Butler County, Spring or Silver Creek in Saunders County, and Rock Creek in Dundy County have continued to flow, but in diminished quantity. These streams are formed mostly by spring waters, or inflowing ground water from the higher, aggrading river beds which some of them parallel, and it would take a severe drouth indeed to lower them further.

4. Waters scarcely affected by the drouth, either as to volume of flow or temperature of water, are the Niobrara, the Snake, and the Loup rivers, and Boardman and Schlagel creeks, all in the sandhills. Gordon Creek in eastern Cherry County has been an exception by going dry, but on the whole the great sponge of the sandhills has retained enough water to keep its streams flowing almost at their usual level.

Secondary effects following this primary lowering of water levels have been several. Foremost was the rise in water temperatures, due to shallowness of water and high air temperatures. Walgren Lake in Sheridan County often had temperatures of 93 degrees Fahrenheit, and on July 21, 1940, the Arikaree River had temperatures up to 103 degrees. At that time thousands of minnows were dying in that stream.

Next in importance was "summerkill" of fishes in a few sandhill lakes. Under the influence of high temperatures, the respiration of dense aquatic vegetation and decomposing of bottom debris used tremendous quantities of oxygen. The small amounts of that gas remaining dissolved in the water were not enough for the fishes, and they suffocated.

In other sandhill lakes, the concentration of alkali salts due to evaporation of the water, and the greater toxicity of other harmful substances due to high temperatures, were also causing some deaths among the fishes.

Effects of Drouth Upon the Fishes

By comparing the list of fishes found in Nebraska during the 1939-40 survey with lists prepared by other investigators over a period extending back eighty years, a few differences can be noted in the kinds of fishes present then and now. The main effects of drouth conditions seem to have been as follows:

1. Fishes have died when isolated in drying lakes and streams. This has been especially evident in the many sandhill lakes where numbers of carp, bullheads and sunfishes have been stranded. Good work by fish rescue crews has prevented heavier loss among such fishes.

2. Some kinds of fishes have disappeared from streams still containing water. The trouts, suckers, chubs, darters and sticklebacks apparently have found temperatures too high or other conditions not satisfactory in such streams, and have gone. Thompson, Willow and Turkey creeks, all tributaries of the Republican River, have suffered this type of fish loss.

3. Fishes have been concentrated into holes, in such streams as possess them. Beaver Creek in Boone County, Turkey Creek in Pawnee County, and most of the Platte River have water-filled holes under bridges or under-cut banks, and in these holes as many as seventeen kinds of fishes have been found living together. When so many species are crowded into such small spaces, hybrids between two distinct kinds may result. Seven such crosses have been recorded from Nebraska.

4. Fishes in the larger rivers, that is, the Niobrara, lower Platte, Loups and Missouri rivers, have been only slightly affected. The shifts in populations and changes in abundance in those species probably have not been caused by drouth conditions.

5. The most abundant and widespread fishes now found in Nebraska are the black-headed minnow, the red-finned minnow, the plains and zebra topminnows, the green sunfish, and the prairie sunfish. These species have been the least hampered by habitat changes resulting from drouth.

The distribution of many fishes has been restricted, for, with waters drying or changing, it is impossible for some fish to live where they once did. Trout are not so common along the southern border of Nebraska now, but still are plentiful along the northern line. The small-mouthed bass, pumpkinseed sunfish, rockbass, redhorse sucker and some cold-water minnows are also not as widespread as formerly. The wall-eyed pike might be expected to decrease in numbers even beyond its present low point, but oddly

(Continued on page 9)

EDITORIAL

Are Nebraska lakes coming back? That is a question that is vital to Nebraska fishermen as well as hunters, but especially fishermen. Formerly Nebraska's sandhills were dotted with many lakes that teemed with fish and myriads of ducks, and shore birds nested in the immediate vicinity during the spring and summer months. These lakes formerly were virtually a sportsman's paradise for many fishermen and hunters who annually followed dim trails in and out, through the hills to their destination, returning with a full bag of bass, crappie, perch, bullheads or ducks, depending on whether he be fisherman or hunter.

Drouth conditions the past few years have depleted these lakes in number until very few remain of the thousand or more formerly existing.

Apparently the drouth cycle has ended as reports coming from that area lead us to believe that our sandhill lakes are coming back.

If this improved condition continues, then Nebraska sportsmen will cease their treks to other states for their fishing and hunting activities. These refilled lakes will not be restocked with fish until they have proved their permanency. But, in the meantime, fishermen who cannot afford to go elsewhere, will not have to park their tackle until that time, as Nebraska has a number of newly created lakes that will add much to our fishing pleasures.

There are a total of 32 of these lakes recently created by the Tri-County Power and Irrigation District having a combined shore line of 241 miles and an area of 32,894 acres with a depth of 5 to 58 feet. These lakes are located in the central part of the state and within a few hours' drive from the center of our population. The Tri-County Board has agreed that these lakes will be kept open to the public for a period of 25 years or longer, providing the public will cooperate in taking care of the property.

This new recreational area reaches from Lewellen in the North Platte River to a point between Elwood and Lexington, and includes the Kingsley Reservoir which, when filled, will be the state's largest lake, having a shore line of 105 miles and covering 32,000 acres with a maximum depth of 150 feet. The state has started stocking these waters with bass, crappie, sunfish and catfish, and when they are opened to the fishermen in 1942 some wonderful catches should be made.

OUTDOOR NEBRASKA 7

Boys, Robins and Fishing Worms

W. H. LYTLE

ONE Saturday afternoon last summer I was trimming the hedge in the front yard while my little boy stood near by watching the clip, clip of the hedge shears and the severed branches as they fell to the ground.

Saturday afternoons and Sundays were the only days of the week that I had time to do anything around home as my work called me away during the week and, as a result, I had little time for home or family, and especially my little boy. The rope on the schoolhouse bell had been tied up for the duration of the summer vacation and time hung heavily on his hands.

Oh, yes, he had a bicycle, roller skates and a stub-tailed pup, but that was not enough. Something was lacking. The shiny bicycle had ceased to attract, the roller skates lay idly by, and the tugging of his stub-tailed pup at his pant leg was of minor importance.

As the last clip of the hedge shears finished the job, a robin in the garden just over the fence caused a sudden turn in the events of the day. There he was with both feet braced against the ground tugging at a long fishing worm that meant food for the family in a nest in the cedar tree by the garden gate. Summer weather, robins and fishing worms sometimes cause sudden ideas to come to little boys, and one had arrived at that instant and out it came. "Oh, Daddy! Let's go fishing. Mother won't care, and I have a big can of the fattest worms that I picked up last week when they plowed the garden. You promised me we would go when the weather got warm, and this is a swell day. Come on, Daddy, let's go." It did not take much persuasion, as I still remembered how I thrilled with the coming of spring, of barefoot days and fishing time back in the Blue Ridge Mountain country when I was a boy his size. I am afraid that the mad whirl of the world today, and the speed of the automobile, has been inclined to cause us to forget those boyhood days when a shrill whistle from the other side of the fence would cause us to drop everything, grab an old birch pole and a can of worms, and head for the dam by the old mill. Boys are the same today as in those days, but we have changed.

It did not take long, with mother's help, to get our lunch, fishing tackle and some blankets packed in the car, and after telling the home folks not to look for us back until morning, we were on our way, fishing.

Have you ever seen that look of unbounded joy on the face of your little boy, or the face of some little boy who doesn't have a dad to take him fishing, and listen to that endless chatter about how much fun it is to go fishing, and the big ones he is going to catch?

Before we had gone far I had contracted his thrill and eagerness and wondered why we had put off this day.

We arrived at our destination after a thousand questions of "How soon will we be there, Daddy?" or "How far is it yet, Daddy?" and soon had our rods assembled and lines ready. We seined some minnows from a near-by stream and were soon fishing.

Business and the cares of life were momentarily forgotten and there were just we two in the whole wide world. A little boy and his dad out fishing.

I soon discovered that he could cast a plug or a fly almost as well as I, and in a whisper he told me that he had been practicing in the back yard at home.

I hadn't noticed it before, but it seemed to be an extra fine day. The sky was a little bluer, the breeze more soothing, and the song of the birds in the nearby woods seemed more entrancing. It was a great day to be alive and I had almost forgotten that fishing was such fun.

An old muskrat silently slid into the water dragging a reed after him as he made his way across the pond.

Occasionally we would see a commotion among the minnows as they scattered, showing that the bass were beginning to feed and the fun was about to begin.

He was the first to score. Out of the water went an old he- bass trying to shake the hook from his mouth like an angry bulldog, then down to the bottom and back to the surface of the water and into the air again. Was my fishing partner excited? Sure he was, but not nearly as much as his dad, and in my excitement 1 felt that he needed an old hand to help him land it. Over I went and with the landing net in hand I waded out into the water, but in some manner the bass, landing net and I got all mixed up, and with a flip of his tail he was gone. I felt foolish and disappointed at losing the fish for him, but all he said was, "Oh! don't feel bad, Daddy, maybe we will catch him the next time we come." Then, after a short pause, "You know, Daddy, I believe I could have landed him if you had let me try."

I was the next to score, landing a nice twelve-inch bass, and then without the fumbling assistance of his dad, he landed two nice ones, both larger than the one I had taken.

With a boyish grin he said, "Dad, some time I'll take you fishing."

We then had our lunch, and as darkness fell we laid out our blankets on the sand, crawled in between, and settled down for the night.

There we were, a boy and his dad out in the wide open spaces looking up into the starry sky listening to the flapping of the feeding fish on the water, the night birds in the woods, and the many other voices of nature's children that seem to come to life when darkness settles over the land.

The day was done and just before he drifted away into slumberland he snuggled a little closer and in a sleepy voice said, "Daddy, I'd rather go fishing with you than any place in the world."

After he had gone to sleep I lay there long into the night looking at the stars and thinking. There is no other place where you can check yourself over more carefully, or think more clearly, than when you are bedded down on old mother earth with the starry sky above you. I thought of the future of the little fellow by my side and of the future of other little boys who perhaps did not have the protection or opportunity he had. The thought came to me that the boy who spends his spare time on the banks of a stream or pond with a fishing rod in his hand has a better chance of making good in his life's work than the boy who spends his spare time around the pool halls or city streets. Mother Nature seems to instill a vision of greatness in the heart of a boy during the hours he spends with her in our great outdoors. A vision that will go with him the rest of his life and have a tendency to keep him from evil. Let us have more fishing places in Nebraska and then encourage our boys to spend as much of their spare time as possible in the open country, and if we do this, the future of our Younger Generation will be assured. Fishing and reform schools don't mix.

I know of no better place to get acquainted with your boy than on the bank of a stream or lake with a fishing pole in your hand.

8 OUTDOOR NEBRASKA

In The Mail

"A TRUE STORY OF MY PIONEER FAMILY" To Outdoor Nebraska:

The story that I am about to relate is about the hunting and fishing ability and experiences of my relatives.

My people were very truthful hard-working people, back in the early '70's when Nebraska was in the raw and prairies stretched as far as the eye could see where antelope, coyotes, prairie chickens and grouse thrived and the streams were full of fish, and geese, ducks and cranes swarmed through the air in enormous flocks, why I remember my father in the spring of '70 making a shot with his old double-barrel muzzle loader that I will never forget as long as I live.

The wind was blowing real hard from the northwest and the geese were flying between the house and barn in large flocks going to their roosting grounds. We were out of meat and mother informed dad that something had to be done about it, so dad got the old gun out and found that he had plenty of powder but no shot. He was in a devil of a fix, but not for long, as he happened to think about a keg of shingle nails he had bought the fall before, so he put in a hand full of powder and a hand full of shingle nails in each barrel and rammed in the wads.

Now dad was very conservative in his work, so he waited until the geese were flying by the north side of the barn and he let them have both barrels and, would you believe it, he nailed 34 geese to the side of the barn, and all mother had to do was to take a goose down whenever she wanted one. Thus the meat question was answered for the rest of the spring.

The greatest fisherman of all times was my Uncle Jim. Now folks, if you have never met my Uncle Jim you have missed something. He was a very pleasant, good-natured sportsmen, always in possession of fast horses, a fighting dog and a greyhound, and the greatest fisherman of all times.

On this particular morning he was rowing the boat up the Elkhorn River in the vicinity of West Point with one dog sitting on the rear of the boat, the other one tied to the boat and swimming in the water. Now Uncle Jim did this to exercise and develop the leg muscles of his dogs to give them better stamina and he could check his fish lines at the same time.

It seems as though there never was a time that the river was so infested with large catfish as at that time. Several people had disappeared while in swimming, but this didn't bother Uncle Jim—he just kept right on fishing. As he rounded the bend next to the north bank he heard a terrible swish and everything turned dark and, sure enough, one of those mammoth catfish had charged the dog swimming behind the boat and swallowed dogs, boat, Uncle Jim and all.

The dogs got to fighting and Uncle Jim started clubbing them over their heads with an oar and this so nauseated the fish that he became hysterical and started down the river at a terrific rate of speed. So great was the speed that he ploughed the water over both banks and left the dry sand behind him as he neared what is now known as Scribner. He had gained such speed he couldn't make the curve and he ploughed a furrow through the prairie eight feet deep and one hundred feet wide for two miles, striking the river again at that point, cutting off all the river that is now known as dead timbers, leaving a beautiful park and fishing ground for generations to come.

Now when the fish struck the opposite bank he still had speed enough to turn a somersault out on the prairie and in so doing it tossed Uncle Jim forward and the oar he had in his hand stuck in the throat of the fish, holding his jaws apart, letting Uncle Jim walk out. He immediately went home and got Uncle Bill and they returned with a sixteen-foot crosscut saw and sawed for three days before they got the fish's head cut off and, would you believe it, those dogs were still fighting. They didn't know what to do with all the meat so they notified the Indian reservation agent and he sent fifteen hundred Indians over and it took them three weeks to haul all the meat away.

Now this is a true story and my Uncle Jim says he thinks there were several fish larger than this one that got away.

—ROY. E. OWEN. HOW WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE SKINNED ALIVE? To Outdoor Nebraska:

Not a very pleasant thought is it—and yet the thing happens every day in the fishing season, not to humans, but due to their, let us say, thoughtlessness—for who would be so sadistic as to do such a thing intentionally?.

We refer to the skinning of fish—live ones, and mostly of the scaleless variety, although scale fish may suffer more or less too.

KILL YOUR FISH BEFORE YOU SKIN OR SCALE IT. That is easy, humane and simplifies the task of dressing. Just lay your fish out on a board or solid surface, hold it down firmly and strike it (catfish or bullhead) a sharp blow across the base of the head in the little hollow almost directly above the gills. A hammer, iron bar or even a heavy pair of pliers will do the trick and dispatch the fish neatly and mercifully. The pliers or pincers are an excellent tool for removing the skin after shallow incisions are made just back of the head. You hear of all kinds of trick methods of killing and skinning fish such as cutting into the head and sticking a straw into the brain. There is no point in going to all this trouble, when a simple blow across the back of the head will do the business.

In the case of a scale fish, kill them the same way and remove scales by cutting them off with a thin-bladed knife.

Some will tell you that fish can feel no pain; maybe they can't, but take no chances on that one—kill your fish first, for that's the only humane and merciful way.

—H. J. MOSS, 1127 No. 51st St., Lincoln, Nebraska. NEBRASKA BETTER FISHING ASSOCIATION

The Nebraska Better Fishing Association was organized in Lincoln, March 18, 1941.

It chose as its temporary officers, V. M. Wilson, president; G. W. Hart, vice-president; Howard Nelson, treasurer, and Dick Wait, secretary.

The purpose of the association is to unite fishermen of Nebraska, to promote better fishing throughout the state, to promote the propagation and distribution of all species of fish wherever lakes or streams will support fishlife, excepting coarse fish.

To cooperate with the Nebraska Game Commission in ascertaining likely locations for propagation sites other than the existing hatcheries, to promote a better understanding between farmers, landowners and fishermen, to promote adherence to all fishing laws and endeavor to improve upon them.

To set aside a week to be known as "LET'S TAKE THE KIDS FISHING WEEK."

Our purposes are laudable and will not work to the disadvantage of any other sportsmen's group.

We are supporting H. R. 3361, which is commonly known as the "Buck Bill." This bill is now in the hands of the Committee on the Merchant Marine and Fisheries.

Anyone wishing a copy of this bill may send either to their congressman or may write to me, 914 "K" Street, Lincoln. This bill would do much to improve fishing. Write your senators and congressmen requesting them to support H. R. 3361.

The Nebraska Better Fishing Association appreciates very much this opportunity of telling you something about our new organization and for what we stand.

—DICK WAIT, Sec'y, Neb. Better Fishing Ass'n.

OUTDOOR NEBRASKA 9

"LUCKY DEVIL"

DR. F. B. GARRISON

This article is prompted because of my knowledge of many fishermen who seem not to have much trouble in sallying forth most any time and getting a fair mess of fish, while others who go frequently just can't produce. It is the latter who come home and cuss our streams and lakes and our Fish and Game department for not stocking our waters. "By gum, for that dollar we pay we should catch lots of fish."

It is too bad, to put it mildly, from my own point of view, to think it necessary to drive miles from Nebraska waters for a mess of fish, with our own waters at one's elbow. Of course, Nebraska fishin' is not primeval fishing. The fish aren't crowding each other out on the shores; still there is much water and plenty of room. In fishing our waters one must use plenty of lore. It will be necessary to get out of the upholstery and wade and really work.

I have frequently come upon folks who have evidently parked their car in some attractive spot with the urge to fish in their hearts and an ill-advised equipment in their hands. Often they joint up a slick little rod with a line on it that would do for a tow rope and hitch a big gob of worms on too large a hook, spit on the bait, and go after it. Having gone through these rites, they throw in, listen to that pound sinker go ker-plunk, and stand or sit to wait for results. The optimistic matron with a scorching frying pan in her hand is waiting for her man to bring in something to go with the bacon. He was fishing in the open bright sunlight in shallow still water, on a hot day, while the fish were reposing in shady pools of deep water. You may rest assured that they had bacon for dinner without the trimmings.

Nevertheless this is fishermen's water, but the fisherman must get down to brass tacks. These are fished waters and must be fished as one fishes such waters. Not all fish are educated, but enough are either educated or sufficiently finicky to try any angler's skill. Why some folks entertain the idea that a gob of worms dangling from a clothes line will fool any bluegill or sunnie in fished waters is more than I can understand. In their minds a trout is the only fish that was born with sense, and the result is an empty creel and bacon for dinner.

I have seen the youngsters of the family romp and play on the banks and let out yowls because the primitive in them was once more out because of their freedom. Dad turns, and with the look of murder in his eye, shouts, "For heaven's sake quit that hollerin'—do you s'pose anybody could catch a fish with all those blood-curdlin' yells going on?" The fact of the thing is that the noise has nothing to do with it, but the vibrations on the ground caused by the stampeding and running is an entirely different story.

Just around the bend "Old Timer" is carefully working the water with fly rod. His line is small and on the end is tied a few feet of fine gut. For a sinker he uses only a small split shot, and his hook is very small. Carefully and cautiously he takes each step to avoid vibrations. His worm is not threaded on his hook, but is attached so that the two free ends project out as they quiver and squirm. With scarcely a ripple his bait strikes the water and is carefully pulled back and forth across the pool. He is careful that his shadow does not reflect across the hole he is fishing. No, it isn't a worm they want today, so he tries a hopper or cricket, and decides that a small spinner in front causes attraction. With this contraption that hole nets him two bluegiUs and a sunnie. The next hole produces two nice crappie, this time with nothing but a cellophane bow knot tied on a bare hook. They were easy to fool, but seemed heavy with spawn, so with a wet hand he carefully released them and slid them back into the water. A dragon fly which he placed on his hook brought a black bass to the surface as he skittered it along under yonder willow. What a whorl he made as he missed—but he shouldn't have struck the second time as he soon was wrapped in wet moss and placed in Old Timer's creel.

The family group were pretty well tuckered out as Old Timer rounded the bend, and swore they'd never fish that pond again; all fished out, damned kids wouldn't keep still, should have come alone, too hot, moon ain't right, oughta plant more fish!

"Hi! Old Timer, doin' any good for your country?"

Old Timer's eyes sparkled as he replied: "Picked up enough for a mess for mother and I; don't need many for we two you know. You doin' any good?" "Naw! Nothin' in this pond any more, and the kids wouldn't keep still."

The kids came a-runnin' and poked their noses into his creel, and then came "Oh!" and "Ah!" "Daddy, why can't you do that?" Mother had a look too and smiled when Old Timer said, "Dad don't hold his mouth right, I guess."

Dad wasn't paying much attention to the fish, looked kinda grouchy, and as Old Timer walked away I heard him say "The lucky devil."

Theater-goers used to spend their money to see "Ten Nights in a Barroom," whereas nowadays many of them spend it to see ten barrooms in a night.

Effect of Drouth on Nebraska Fishes

(Continued from page 5)

enough it appears to be making a strong comeback in a few northern streams.

Exterminations probably have not occurred. The drouth has not been severe enough to dry all of the waters, and while a certain species may be killed in one area, it still will survive in another. No one of the ninety or so species formerly found within Nebraska has been lost.

Permanent damage to fish species or populations is equally unlikely. Most native species still remain in sufficient numbers to restock newly formed streams and lakes accessible to them, should times of greater rainfall return. Fish rescue work and fish planting activities of the Game, Forestation and Parks Commission have prevented the loss of countless fishes, and will allow their reintroduction into lakes and streams when more water is available. Drouths have occurred previous to this one and fishes have survived them. It is expected that they will do so again.

"Yep, I fished there all day and all I caught were a dozen 'bosom bass,'" the angler was telling a group of friends.

"'Bosom bass?'" they queried. "And what are they?"

"Oh, they're the small bass that you try to hide in the bosom of your shirt when you see the conservation officer coming," was the explanation.

10 OUTDOOR NEBRASKA

Notes From The Field

ERNIE Wisco, general manager of the Nebraska Hydro - Electric Power Company dam at Spencer, has turned big game hunter or quite possibly "big game fisherman," or maybe you would call it something else.

While excavating in the shale bank on the north shore of the Niobrara River near the power house at the dam, Mr. Wisco came upon some odd vertebrae and small bone processes that had the bony material replaced by shale and by iron pyrites. Subsequent examination of these vertebrae by Mr. Henry Reider, the eminent paleonologist at the University of Nebraska Museum, proved them to belong to an extinct species of sea serpent, "Mosasaurus".

Mr. Reider further identified the serpent, "Mosasaurus Platycarpus", as being about twenty-five feet in total length and the vertebrae he examined as having come from near the base of the tail.

Old "Mosasaurus" was a flesh eater. The museum has two reconstructed skeletons mounted and on exhibition, plus several skulls. The skull of this animal is about three feet long, one foot thick at the base and less than six inches through at the snout.

The skull is extremely interesting as it shows the lower jaw to be double-jointed. The first joint of the jaw is located just where you and I would expect it to be, but the second joint is located about midway of the base and tip of the lower jaw. You can easily demonstrate just how this jaw operates by extending your arms out in front of you and to one side with the hands about six inches apart. Hold your upper arm rigid and then pull the lower arm back. Some mouthful! The teeth in those jaws are wicked. They extend about two inches out from the bone, are three-fourths inch thick at the base, and taper to a sharp point.

Sam Moser, produce house operator at Lincoln, got a wild duck. During the recent heavy spring migration of pintails, one pintail drake hit a telephone wire near the produce house and came hurtling down. As only one wing was damaged and no bones were broken, it was only a short while until he was able to rejoin his companions.

Not all of the northward migrants were so fortunate. One white fronted goose (more commonly called "Speck") hit an obstruction near the Niobrara River. Result—one broken wing. The bird was captured and delivered to a veterinarian in Spencer, who promptly administered first aid and a splint. It is expected that the wing will heal and another goose will be left to thrill the many sportsmen.

A strange sight met the eyes of Carl Shuster of near Hickman, Sunday morning, April 6th, as he went into his employer's corral to round up the cows. Over in one corner of the yard, old "Bossy" stood nosing around some strange animal that was sitting on its hind legs and slapping old "Bossy" in the face. As Shuster approached the animal, it changed its tactics, standing on its head and front feet and proceeded to throw dirt with its hind legs. You've guessed it, it was a beaver, but how it got there is a mystery, as the corral is fifteen miles from a running stream. This beaver has since been liberated in the southeastern part of the state where there is feed and water.

Ask H. J. Dollinger of Scottsbluff if there is wild deer in Nebraska. On a recent drive through the Wildcat Hills, south of Gering, he saw ten and then he didn't see any. There are probably more deer in the state than most of us realize.

Vic Dayharsh, supervisor of the Bessey National Forest at Halsey, reports 450 on the forest land, and Capt. James P. Burns at Fort Robinson reports about 1,500 on the military timber reservation. Occasional deer are seen along most any heavily timbered watercourse in the state.

Ward Sharp, refuge manager of the Valentine Migratory Waterfowl Refuge located south of Valentine, reports 23 per cent more sharp-tailed grouse on the 69,000-acre refuge this last winter than the year before. This increase, piled on top of last year's increase of 40 per cent on the refuge, accounts for the greater numbers reported by many of the people living in the grouse country.

Dewey Grace, conservation officer in Cherry County, counted 250 in forty-five minutes one morning shortly after sunrise while driving on his pheasant census.

Prairie chicken do not appear to be recovering as rapidly as are the grouse.

John L. Emerson, State Director of the Prairie States Shelterbelt Service, has reported some interesting observations on use of shelterbelts by upland game. According to Emerson's reports, there has been planted in Nebraska, 22,792,757 trees in 3,205.75 miles of shelterbelts on 41,613 acres on 5,251 individual farms from 1935 to 1940, inclusive.

Questionnaires sent to 2,335 cooperators revealed this startling information:

Pheasants increased 30.2 per cent per farm; quail, 35.5 per cent; prairie chicken, 35 per cent; sharp-tailed grouse, 40 per cent; song and insectivorous birds, 27 per cent, and small game animals, 18 per cent.

The Nebraska Shelterbelt Service plans to plant 600 miles of shelterbelts which will require approximately four million trees during the spring of 1941.

Hats off to any individuals or organizations providing more homes for wildlife!

Winfield Evans, the man who built the first house in Scottsbluff and is still a resident of that thriving community, wants quail. He knows that without suitable cover, quail cannot exist and has planned accordingly. On his farm, located between Scottsbluff and Lake Minatare, he planted the irrigation ditches to shrubs, wasteland to grasses, and has provided travel lanes between. Within a short span of time, he will have provided a perfect home for quail.

Frank Uridil of Ewing is a conservationist of the first water. During a recent March storm, thousands of field sparrows passed over Ewing with disastrous results. Many flew into wires and sides of buildings and were killed. Mr. Uridil managed to find seventeen of those less seriously injured and nursed them back to health in a cage in his lumber-yard office. With their strength returned and their wings healed, they have been released.

The friends of Geno Amundson, manager of the Federal Big Game Refuge at Valentine, will be pleased to learn of his recent promotion. Geno is now an associate refuge manager, and after May 1st will be located on a 1,868,000 acre refuge in Arizona. A Mr, MacDonald from the Souris Refuge in North Dakota will take over the Valentine Refuge.

From the weekly report of H. Elliott McClure, assistant on our new Investigation and Survey Project, we glean this bit of information on the winter food habits of pheasants: "Today, I went through the pheasants that we picked up last week. Seven of them were in a condition which could still be worked with and all but one had full crops. The food of each was of interest. Not one had eaten food similar to another. One was full of bibionid and cutworm larvae; one was full of corn; another full of wheat; another, sunflower seeds; and the last, a seed which I did not recognize. What was most interesting about these was that one seed appeared in each crop almost to the exclusion of any other. It is apparent that when a pheasant finds a good supply of one food, it fills the crop with this rather than hunting further."

12 OUTDOOR NEBRASKA

Some Reminiscences of Early Days

W. A. ANDERSON, Ord, Nebraska

THE writer is not a native of the Goldenrod state, but after a residence of more than 62 years can qualify as one of the state's old residents. As a boy my life began in northeast Iowa. My father was a pioneer from Kentucky. In 1830 he came as a pioneer and his father came to Kentucky as a pioneer from Virginia and the original Anderson came in 1745 from Scotland, so I come from a race of pioneers.

As a boy I roamed the woods and hills and fished in the running brooks, and always there are times when in memory I go back to those boyhood days of long ago.

My father was a surveyor and was away very often and some way I often got permission to go along and enjoyed those rambles through the woods and fields and later went along as helper, flagman or chainman. Those were happy days and the glories of the woods in those September and October days I will never forget.

My father was an expert with a gun and from him I perhaps inherited my love for outdoor life. The woods were full of small game, such as pheasants and squirrels, and that was a time the passenger pigeon were numbered in billions. In early March they came north in clouds that almost darkened the sun, and farmers had to almost stand guard over their grain fields to prevent their ravages. This movement at fall and spring continued up to about 1870, and about that date very few pigeons came, and soon none. I can recall when carloads of them were shipped to Chicago and now not a bird of that variety exists. That was my first lesson in game preservation, for I had bought a net to trap them, but I never got to use it. Learning to hunt in the woods came natural to me, but when I came west to hunt in the open it needed a new and different method.

When I crossed the river at Omaha from Council Bluffs we had to wait for several hours for a chance to cross in the big transfer car and take our turn with the crush of immigrants waiting for their turn as at that period of 1879 it was high tide in the great western movement. On the way up the Platte Valley we were only one among an almost endless line of covered wagons. Everyone seemed friendly and some lasting friendships were made and renewed in later years. The North Loup Valley at that period was still pretty open as the grasshopper plague of the '70's had discouraged many of those very early settlers who left, never to return. Those who were in the endless trail of wagons were mostly young, and plenty of them were veterans from the Civil War who had come back to their old home and found their job gone and so were forced to go west and try a start elsewhere. Many were like the writer, full of courage but financially not very flush. A team of oxen or horses, perhaps a cow, and often less than a hundred dollars in cash, would be about an average. A more cheerful lot it would be hard to find, for all had high hopes that they might attain a home of their own and need call no man master.

The writer had a friend, a former- school teacher of blessed memory who had been in the valley several years and who kindly located me on a tract in northeast Valley County. I had one neighbor who had come west also, and no other neighbor nearer than about five miles. One might think we were lonesome, but we were so busy we had no time for that with a sod house to build, break up a tract to plant our sod corn, and grow a garden. Oh, there were disagreeable times for us; while we camped out on the open prairie a three-day cold rain came and we had no shelter only our covered wagon, and almost impossible to keep a fire. However, I have found in my experience in life that as the poet has well said: "Into all lives some rain must fall," and those three days were miserable. The soil needed the rain and in only a few days our prairie was green and the sun shone out and our hopes grew brighter and we could look into the future and dream dreams of the happy future in a few years.

After filing on my claim and buying some windows for the "soddy", some well rope, some picket rope and a few bushels of grain for the stock, my finances were down to zero. Fortunately we had some flour and some cornmeal also, and we had a cow and milk, so we would not starve. There were greens, and young nettles make very good greens, and good soup can be made from the buffalo peas, which were abundant.

But we needed fresh meat and almost daily we could note antelope in the near distance, but we were too busy getting a few acres of land broke and other things needing attention. Finally one day I took my gun and sauntered out to the sandhills for a try for game of some kind. After a few hours I came home disgusted, without game, and also dogtired.

The next time I tried I rode my brown mare Jennie, and from then on hunted only on horseback. Soon the urge came on me and I started out one afternoon over the hills to the northwest where it was very rough and broken to try for game. It was about 4 P.M. and as I rode along the high ridge I could have a fine view of the coulees or draws below me.

Before going more than a mile or two I noted the red side of a deer not over a half mile away. He was feeding on the tops of nettles and moving slowly up the coulee. At once I got busy and rode around further up the canyon where he soon would be. I got in position and waited for him to come opposite me, which he soon did. I was ready and not over forty or fifty yards away. When I fired he dropped down among the nettles, but at once two others sprang up and were soon out of sight. I went over to my first deer and pulled him out on the bank. After bleeding him I went out and got my mare, but she was frightened and I could not get her near the game. Finally I evolved an idea. I stuck the muzzle of my gun in the ground so I could reach it when I was on my horse. Then I took off my blouse and covered her head and forced her in the ditch, then threw the deer on in front of the saddle, got on, and the fight began to get me and the deer off.

Of course I had to balance the deer and hold on also. Finally she gave up and we started for home, after getting hold of my gun. Once in a while the deer's legs would strike her and we had more attempts to get rid of her load, but by the time we got home she was quiet and I never hunted after that only on horseback. That was my first deer and was indeed very welcome, and we divided with our neighbor, and dried quite a lot of the meat.

In August my father made a trip to Neligh, in Antelope County, and I decided to go and visit him and my sister. At that time there were no settlers between the Cedar River and Beaver River. So I crossed the Cedar about two miles below where Ericson now is and took my course by the sun. No track, no indication that anyone had ever been in those sandhills that I wound around. I finally struck the Beaver River and where a man named Staples had a claim. He gave me some directions as to where to strike the head of Clearwater Creek and I went on, finally reaching the ranch of my brother-in-law on Elkhorn Valley.

My father was unable to return with me and I only remained one day and started on my return about noon. I reached Beaver River and crossed about 5 o'clock. I kept my course southwest and had not gone a mile among low dunes when I   OUTDOOR NEBRASKA 13 noted a band of antelope feeding only a chort distance away. Turning my team around to the wagon I took my gun and started for the game. There were so many of them, and they were so scattered among the dunes, it was difficult to approach them unseen. Finally I got larger dunes between me and them and made the attempt as just beyond there were several in gunshot. As I trailed along keeping the dune between myself and the antelope, up jumped an antelope between me and the dune and only sixty yards away. I fell to the ground at once and tried to get a bead on the animal, but the sun was low and right in my eyes. I had on a big straw hat and moved to cover my eyes to get a better sight.

The antelope had stood there staring at me, but now started to get the wind of me. That took the sun out of my eyes and it only moved about a dozen yards and stopped to look. Again it moved to circle me and when it stopped I was ready and fired. At once it jumped up in the air, made a jump, and fell.

The other antelope in the band were all in motion in an instant (perhaps there "were thirty or forty of them), but in a few minutes they had disappeared in the sandhills. I bled my game and dressed it. I hitched my team to the wagon and started on as it was now getting dark and I did not like being in the sandhills overnight. However, I drove on for perhaps an hour, but soon realized that I did not know where I was going as it had clouded up. So I turned my team around to the wagon and lay down under the wagon. I must have slept sound as when I awoke the clouds had gone, the moon was in sight, and I could now know how to keep my course. I hitched up at once and drove on. It was cool and pleasant with almost a full moon. I had got to where I could see the Cedar River valley when a fog came on and had I not got up and driven by moonlight I would have been entirely lost in those sandhills. I washed my antelope in the river and before noon was home. That was my first antelope of maybe ten or more. I never hunted game to sell, but only for food.

Once that first winter I was entirely out of money and I needed various little items—some stamps, also some medicine—and so I took to Ord a quarter of venison to sell. It was a fine quarter and would weigh about twenty or so pounds. H. A. Babcock was then county clerk and had made out my filing papers and I knew him. He gave me $1.50 for the venison without much grumbling, and that was a lot of money then. That was the only time I ever sold any of the game I killed. Of course I had all kinds of experiences in hunting until the game was gone. Several times I could have killed more deer but refrained to allow some other hunter a chance. The game has vanished, which was inevitable. But what of the future?

Perhaps no one had greater enjoyment in hunting than myself, but always, if possible, preferred to hunt by myself. Sometimes I had to take a friend along, but only in a few instances did we get any game. It takes a lot of patience to lay behind a sandhill when it is 15 or 20 degrees below zero and wait for the game to come into position to the hunter's advantage.

About forty years ago I was visiting in Ord with my friend Charles Partridge. At that time he had an idea that the Chinese partridge could be raised in this country, as he said the prairie chicken and quail were disappearing rapidly. He was proprietor and owner of the Hotel Ord at that time and known to every traveling man in the state. That was about the year 1900, if I recall correctly. I think he had a half dozen birds at the time. He had an old barn and a screened-in yard for his pheasants. He asked me to go in with him hatching the eggs. I agreed and he furnished me two settings of ten eggs each. He had a bantam hen to do his hatching, but I used ordinary Plymouth Rock hens and between us we grew the young birds to about the size of quail. Then we had a discussion as to the best place to turn them loose. As I know the county as well as any man living here then he deferred to my judgment as to locality. I decided on the northeast part of Valley County where, at that time, there were dense thickets of plum and buckbrush. About August I took about fifteen or twenty of the birds we had jointly hatched and turned them loose. They were frequently seen that autumn and several survived the winter, which was fairly mild. I am not certain these were the first pheasants distributed in the state.

We had fairly good results in the hatching, but rats and cats took quite a toll of them. Now the part of Valley County where those first birds were placed is our best pheasant district. The pasturing of our rough land has destroyed the breeding ground of the quail and they are almost extinct. The prairie chicken seemed to be going also, but under our game laws are coming back. The only place they can hatch in safety is in the sandhills where the grouse also is on the way back.

Every citizen of Nebraska should help maintain our game laws. I am one of those few left who had the full benefit of sport when large game was to be had and could write a book about those days.

—W. A. ANDERSON, Ord, Nebraska. March, 1941.

DEFENSE

Washington, D. C.—The importance of the sportsman in national defense was emphasized by the recent attempts to prepare the British Isles against invasion, according to Major General M. A. Reckord, commanding officer of the 29th Division and Adjutant General of Maryland.

Record believes that the scarcity of Englishmen experienced in the handling of firearms in the field seriously hampered defense activities. He also pointed out that the small peace-time demand for sporting arms and ammunition in the British Isles has resulted in a critical shortage of small arms and ammunition necessary for home defense when an attack by Hitler's forces was impending.

"All this created a very grave situation which would have been avoided had there been more men in the British Isles with peace time experience in the handling of firearms," Reckord said.

"This might all have been avoided had the British Isles not curtailed the use of firearms during peace time," Reckord believes. "So many restrictions were placed on the possession and use of firearms before the war that thousands of men who might have enjoyed hunting or shooting as a sport turned to golf or tennis or other pastimes that were not so hamstrung by regulations."

Reckord stated that the United States was far better prepared in small arms than most other countries. He stated that there were about 1,500,000 or 2,000,000 experienced shooters in this country which was a small number in proportion to the total population, but a large number in comparison with the qualified shooters in other countries.

"The experiences of the British Isles should prove a warning to us," Reckord said. "Every once in a while a movement is started to register all firearms in the United States, which would greatly curtail shooting and hunting and cut down on the number of Americans experienced in handling guns. All these movements have been unsuccessful in the past, which is one reason that in the matter of small arms we are better fixed defensively now than the British were in time of actual war."

DID YOU KNOW THAT—

The Mallard Duck, that has survived excessive hunting better than many other ducks, is an efficient mosquito control agency and has entirely eliminated mosquito larvae from many a badly infested pond?

Sora Rails do not seem to have any great flying ability and yet travel from 2,500 to 3,000 miles on their spring and fall migrations?

14 OUTDOOR NEBRASKA

Tattoo Snakes to Study Depredations on Ducks

Enterprising circus managers who feature unusual ladies and gentlemen in their sideshows may add a new attraction in the form of a tattooed snake charmer with tattooed snakes, if they follow the work food-habits investigators of the Fish and Wildlife Service, United States Department of the Interior, are doing on the Crescent Lake National Wildlife Refuge in Garden County, Nebraska. The biologists are tattooing bullsnakes that raid wild duck nests to eat eggs.

The reptiles are being marked so that the biologists can determine the bullsnake's range and institute effective methods to control its predations on nests. Last year bullsnakes destroyed more than 40 per cent of the wild duck eggs on the 43,349-acre refuge, which is one of the important nesting sites for migratory waterfowl and other birds.

Before a snake can be tattooed, of course, it must be caught, and to meet that problem Ralph H. Imler and E. R. Kalmbach, biologists of the Division of Wildlife Research, in cooperation with refuge personnel, developed a snake trap. Two years ago 182 bullsnakes were captured in 25 traps. Last year, 38 more traps were constructed and 549 bullsnakes were captured.

Imler and Kalmbach worked for 3 years to perfect a practical trap. The traps are made of coarse-mesh screen and are oblong in shape. Getting the snakes to enter the traps was a difficult problem until the investigators discovered that the reptiles like to glide along the lake shores in search of food. Drift fences between 30 and 100 yards long are set at right angles to the shoreline and lead to the trap. A bullsnake looking for choice duck eggs and coming up against the 2-foot high wire tries to get around the obstacle by following, or drifting, along the fence Shortly another bullsnake is captured.

To cope more effectively with this control problem, Imler devised the tattooing technique. Bullsnakes caught in the traps will be marked. After noting the marking and the date and place of release, the egg-stealer is liberated. When a tattooed bullsnake is recaptured the date and place of recovery is recorded. Within a few seasons, the biologists hope to know enough about the reptile's migration habits to institute better control methods.—Department of the Interior.

EYES WRONG

Although the fox is a member of the canine family and very much like a small dog, its eyes are cat-like ... a dog's eye is very different from that of a feline ... it is more round in shape and has other differences.—American Wildlife.

The Marsh Hawk refueled in midair long before airplane pilots thought of it. The male will fly over his mate and drop a mouse that the female will seize long before it can touch the ground.

VACATION TIME IS HERE! CHADRON STATE PARK PC Nebraska's Forest Playgrounds' Cabins in the Woods, Swimming, Horseback Riding, Skyline Hiking, Picnic Shelters You will find hundreds of acres of pine forests where the nights are cool and exhilarating. Camp in your own tent or rent a cabin. Eight miles south of Chadron on State Highway No. 19. VACATION TIME WILL SOON BE GONE/ IT IS TIME for you to relax—to get out-of-doors for a few days. WHY NOT GO to Nebraska's Own Great Park—CHADRON PARK—this year? PERHAPS YOU DO NOT KNOW that you can enjoy yourself right in your own state park. Beautiful Pine Ridge scenery, excellent water, comfortable cabins, swimming, skyline hiking or horseback riding, rustic picnic shelters, playgrounds, restaurant, store—everything to please the visitor. THERE ARE 800 acres of pine forests ready for you. Cabins (some with fireplaces) off in the woods away from the crowds. Good roads and trails where you can go by car or afoot. KEEP YOUR VACATION MONEY in your own state where it will come right back to you! See the Pine Ridge country this year! Rates are reasonable. See Nebraska This Year! MAKE CHADRON STATE PARK YOUR NORTHWEST HEADQUARTERS Write Notv for Rates and Reservations Chadron State Park MR. D. C. SHORT, Su.pt. Chadron, Nebraska

Nebraska Fishing Laws and Regulations

Effective September 15, 1940, to September 15, 1941 OPEN SEASON, BAG and POSSESSION LIMITS, GAME FISH

The following open seasons, bag and possession limits are fixed, prescribed and published, effective September 15, 1940, and shall remain in effect until September 15, 1941.

Specie Open Season (Both Dates Inclusive) Area Open Size Limits Daily Bag Possession Any Time Trout Mar. 15 to Nov. 30 Entire State (except state-owned lakes) Keep All 10 10 Bass (L.M. & S.M.) April 1 to Nov. 30 Entire State 10 inches 5 10 Crappie April 1 to Nov. 30 Entire State 6 inches 15 25 Sunfish April 1 to Nov. 30 Entire State Keep All 15 25 Rock Bass April 1 to Nov. 30 Entire State 6 inches 15 25 Bullheads April 1 to Nov. 30 Entire State 6 inches 15 25 Perch Jan. 1 to Dec. 31 Entire State Keep All 25 25 Catfish April 1 to Nov. 30 Entire State (except Mo. River permit) 12 inches 10 15 Pike, Walleye April 1 to Nov. 30 Entire State 12 inches 5 5 Pike, Northern April 1 to Nov. 30 Entire State 12 inches 5 5 Pike, Sauger or sand April 1 to Nov. 30 Entire State 12 inches 5 5 Trout April 1 to Nov. 30 State-owned lakes i. e., Fremont Sand Pits, Louisville Sand Pits, Rock Ck. Lake Keep All 5 5 Catfish Jan. 1 to Mar. May 1 to Dec. 16 31 Missouri River only by Commercial Permit 13 inches No Limit No Limit

It shall be unlawful, except in the Missouri River under commercial permit, to take a daily bag or have more than twenty-five (25) fish of all species combined in possession at any one time.

All fish caught that are under the size limits enumerated above must be returned to the water at once with as little injury as possible.

"Daily Bag" means fish taken from midnight to midnight.

"Possession any time" means fish in possession of person taking same at any and all times.

Carp, buffalo, suckers and other non-game fish may be taken with hook and line at any time without limits on size, bag or possession. They may be speared between sunrise and sunset from April 1st to December 1st.

Under proper Commercial Permit issued, catfish may be taken from the Missouri River by nets, the meshes of which are not less than one and a half inches square, at any time of the year except from March 16 to May 1.

It is POSITIVELY FORBIDDEN to take the legal bag of fish and return to fishing waters and take another bag the same day. Fishermen are warned that persons so doing will be prosecuted and full damages of $5.00 per fish assessed.

Effective January 1, 1940, the Hunting and Fishing fees are as follows:

Combination Hunting and Fishing _......_$1.60 Hunting ........................................$1.10 Fishing .........................................$1.10

The Nebraska state laws require every person (male or female) over sixteen years of age to hold a permit.

INFORMATION ABOUT NEBRASKA FISHING LAKES (Season of 1941)

Certain state-owned lakes are not open at all times or hours to fishing. The following information, which is posted at the lake, is for your information:

PIBEL LAKE (Wheeler County) VERDM LAKE (Richardson County) Open daily April 1st to November 30th. Pishing hours 4 A.M. to 10 P.M. Open daily April 1st to November 30th. Pishing hours 4 A.M. to 10 P.M. daily. Bag, 15 game fish, 5 of which may be bass in proper open season. daily, Bag limit on an flsh; not more than 15 in any one day. MEMPHIS LAKE (Saunders County) WELLPLEET LAKE (Lincoln County) This lake will be open April 1st and then will be closed Thursday, Friday Open daily April 1st to November 30th. Daily bag and possession limit, and until noon Saturday of each week. Pishing hours 4 A.M. to 10 P.M. 25 Same flsh. 6 of whlch may be bass- Pishing hours 4 A.M. to 10 P.M. daily. daily. The bag limit on fish is not more than 10 in any one day, all species combined. HASTINGS STATE RECREATION GROUNDS LAKE SAND PIT LAKES (Dodg-c and Cass Counties) (Adams County) Louisville and Fremont Sand Pits open daily April 1st to November 30th. Open daily April 1st to November 30th. Bag limit, 10 in any one day, Pishing hours from 4 A.M. to 10 P.M. Bag limit, 15 game fish, 5 of which all species combined, may be trout. DUKE ALEXIS LAKE (Hayes County) COTTONWOOD LAKE (Cherry County) Open daily April 1st to November 30th. Fishing hours 4 A.M. to 10 P.M. Open daily April 1st to November 30th Fishing hours 4 A.M. to 10 P.M. daily. Bag limlt 15 game flsh 5 of wnlch may be bass, daily. Bag limit, 15 game fish, 5 of which may be bass. COTTONMILL LAKE (Buffalo County) LOUP CITY LAKE (Sherman County) Open daily April 1st to November 30th. Fishing hours 4 A.M. to 10 P.M. Open dally APr11 lst t0 November 30th. Fishing hours 4 A.M. to 10 P.M. daily. Bag limit, 15 game fish, 5 of which may be bass. dally- Bae llmlt' 15 same fish, 5 of which may be bass. ROCK CREEK LAKE (Dundy County) GUIDE ROCK LAKE (Webster County) Open daily April lst to November 30th. Daily bag and possession limit, Open daily April lst to November 30th. Fishing hours 4 A.M. to 10 P.M. 25 game fish, 5 of which may be trout, and 5 of which may be bass. Fishing daily. Bag limit, 15 game fish, 5 of which may be bass. hours 4 A.M. to 10 P.M. No fishing is permitted at any state-owned lakes from 10 P.M. to 4 A.M.

On state-owned lakes do not use other than regular lines attached to poles having not more than two hooks thereon and not more than two lines to any one person.

GAME, FORESTATION & PARKS COMMISSION

LINCOLN, NEBRASKA

NATIONAL WILDLIFE RESTORATION WEEK

April 14 through 19, 1941

The issuing of Wildlife Conservation Stamps again coincides with NATIONAL WILDLIFE RESTORATION WEEK. The 1941 series of stamps will be an important addition to your collection if you have the 1938, 1939 and 1940 issues, or will prove a delightful introduction to this new educational art medium. Information concerning these beautiful colored pictures of North American Wildlife may be obtained from national, state or local Wildlife organizations.

NATIONAL WILDLIFE FEDERATION 1212 16TH STREET, N. W. WASHINGTON, D. C.