264 rPLA^'D SHOOTIXG. 



cago, and was afterward killed in Mexico. I asked the 

 Doctor whether Scott could outshoot him. "I usually- 

 got as many birds as the Captain, "" said he, ' • for he was 

 so careful of his reputation of being a dead shot, that he 

 picked his shots, while I blazed away at everything that 

 came along." I doubt if there were two men in America 

 who could hare got more game of any kind in a day than 



Captain Scott and Doctor T . They were both men of 



untiring muscle, with the piercing black eyes generally 

 found in successful hunters. 



There were many good shots in Chicago at that time, 

 game being so plentiful that all who had a taste for field 

 sports could easily gratify it. 



After the grouse, came quail, for those who cared for 

 small game; then came the ducks, which were to be found 

 in every river, creek, pond, and slough. 



In 1840. there was an old swing-bridge at Randolph 

 Street, the only means of crossing to the West Division, 

 which contained not more than a dozen buildings. 

 Above Madison Street, the river banks were uninhabited 

 till you came to a small fai-m, half a mile up the south 

 branch. I have killed many ducks in the river just above 

 Madison Street bridge. In the fall and spring, this whole 

 "West Division was a wet prairie, the haunt of curlew, 

 snipe, and other wading birds. The rare and beautiful 

 bird known as Wilson" s phalarope used to breed in these 

 marshes, and I supplied Eastern collectors with speci- 

 mens. I have seen the snipe so abundant in that region, 

 now the most populous part of Chicago, that you could 

 not walk a rod without flushing one of the long-bills, 

 and perhaps the next day they would all be gone. 



For ducks we usually went to the Calumet River and 

 the Calumet Lake, now the site of a larger and much 

 handsomer city than Chicago was in 1840. I made a col- 

 lection of fowl from that river, and it contained foui 



