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FOREST • ANDT^TREAM. 



For Forest and Stream and Rod and (Hm. 

 HABITS OF THE RUFFED GROUSE. 



T DO not propose to give a scientific description of, nor an 

 * •*■ elaborate dissertation upon, the habits of the ruffed grouse, 

 as I am not equal to either. 



1 shall merely give you such scenes and incidents as have 

 oome under my own observation. The inferences that I have 

 drawn, and the conclusions that I have arrived at, may not be 

 correct. They, at least, are sincere, and my honest opinion. 

 The result of many years' careful study. You have them for 

 what they are worth. 



I am veiy well acquainted with this branch of the grouse 

 family, and feel quite at home in their society. It is true I 

 never have been " presented at court," nor have I ever even 

 gazed upon the face of their " king." 



I have had so many little social reunions with the "common 

 herd," that were so entirely satisfactory to me, that a desire to 

 force myself into the pieseuce of "royalty" has never entered 

 my mind. 



Frank Forester, that most genial and brilliant writer and 

 accomplished sportsman, does not speak very highly of their 

 game qualities. Now, tar be it from me to say one word tliat 

 would lead any one to think that I do not revere his memory, 

 nor believe that no one has ever done so much to elevate field 

 sports, and to instil iota the mind of the young sportsman 

 correct ideas. 1 am only sorry that he did not love and untler 

 stand them better. Then should we have had from his grace- 

 ful pen such glowing tribute to this " best of game birds," that 

 my feeble effort to give them their " meed of praise," would 

 have been uncalled ier. 



I am well aware tbat a large majority of sportsmen do not 

 agree with me in my estimation of this magnificent bird. 

 They will tell you tbat they are " unreliable, hard to bring to 

 bag, and that there is no pleasure in hunting them." .Not- 

 withstanding all their censure, I notice tbat when they do 

 succeed in gathering them in, there is " joy in their heart" 

 and a light in their eye tbat 1 fail to perceive accompanying 

 the capture of any other bird. 



To be successful in the pursuit of this royal bird, in the 

 first place you must have a good dog, pointer or setter. I have 

 no choice, provided he is a good one. He must have a good 

 nose, and be perfectly staunch ; so staunch that he will not 

 move a muscle should an avalanche overwhelm him. lie 

 must carry his head well up, and be a free and fast ranger. 

 He must instantly stop when he first catches the faintest 

 indication of scent, and hold his point perfectly rigid 

 until, you come up to him, and give him the signal to go on; 

 and he must have the judgment not to obey this sigual should 

 he be close enough, for he must never be allowed, under any 

 circumstances, to flush the bird. 



These qualifications a dog must possess to rank as a first- 

 class ruffed grouse dog. Of course, we all want a handsome 

 dog, of our lavorite color ; one that will retrieve, is clever 

 and quiet in the house, and so on. I think very highly of 

 these latter accomplishments, but do not consider them in- 

 dispensable. The former I must have. It adds very much to 

 the pleasure of the sport to have a congenial conipan on with 

 you. One who can appreciate a good point, and share with 

 you the many good things that are constantly turning up in 

 the course of the day. He should be quick to see, and take 

 advantage of every ciicumstance that wdladd to your mutual 

 pleasure. He should have an eye to the beauties of nature, 

 that you may '' hold sweet communion thereon." 



When your dog is "roadiug" a bird, and you are silently 

 following close in the rear— tor this, as a rule, is always your 

 place— your companion should, with one glance at the lay of 

 the land, instinctively know the direction which the bird will 

 take when flushed, and happen to be there at the right time. 

 He should always keep cool, although in hunting tnis subtle 

 bird I have frequently seeu the coolest heads completely dazed. 

 I have not mentioned his shooting, for we are all good shots, 

 and always bring them down, except, perhaps, when " that 

 little red bush gets in the way," or tue bird makes a curious 

 twist just as we pull. With a brace of such dogs, provided they 

 will back each oiher perfectly, and two such companions, you 

 can make it exceedingly warm for the bird*. 



But do not imagine that you are going to get them all or 

 you will be grievously disappointed. 



To enjoy the sport to its lull, you should be able to appre- 

 ciate and commend the artistic manner iu which some of these 

 knowing birds will very often defeat your best laid plans." 

 Right here 1 wish to enter my solemn protest against the advice 

 of almost all who have written upon the subject. They tell you 

 to " Shoot him at sight ;" " Pot him on the ground ;" "Any 

 way to get him. " if you do, "tuny his blood be on your 

 head." This noble bird that affords ua such keen sport is 

 worthy a better fate. Give him a chauce for his hie, and it 

 you cannct stop him in full career you will at least have the 

 satisfaction of feeling that yon have not done a dishonorable 

 and unsportsmanlike act. Your true sportsman doeB not take 

 eo much pride iu the quantity of game in the bag as he does in 

 its quality and the manner iu which it was takeu. There is 

 more real pleasure and heartfelt satisfaction in the killing of a 

 few birds in a truly scieutific and sportsmanlike manner, than 

 to slaughter bushels ot them by unfair means A true sports- 

 man is, to use an original saying, "born, not made." Now, 

 to become a first-class ruffed grouse hunter, you must not 

 only be "born " with proper msuuet, but you must be "made," 

 also. You must not only be a good shot, but a very quick 

 one as well. You must not only possess an " eye of lailh and 

 a finger of instinct," but you must have the perseverance to 

 follow up and the judgment to so place yourseli that when the 

 bird rises you may have a chance to display these "henven- 

 born gilts." This magnificent bird not only has powerful in- 

 stincts that teach him to keep you at a respectful distance, 

 but he is also possessed of reasoning faculties of no mean 

 order. You may smile at this, but I venture to say that you 

 will not find a careful student of their mauy devious ways but 

 will agree with me. You should therefore always keep cool 

 and have at command a large fuud of resources to meet their 

 cunning tricks, that are not always vain. You must have a 

 very large btock of patience, tor without this you may never 

 hope to succeed. I know that it is Leart-rcnaing w hci 

 miles perhaps of weary, unsuccessful tramping, you finally 

 obtain a staunch point and have your bird all counted, with 

 nothing to do but just lay him out when he rises -, it is indeed 

 a bitter pill to have him rise perhaps from under your feet, 

 arid deliberately place the truuli of a tree right in luc way, 

 and keep it mere until he is ac a safe distance. Many persons 

 extricate themselves from this and similar predicaments by 

 giving the dog a good licking, which, L presume, is as " balm 

 to their wonuded heart." There are many peculiarities con- 

 nected with the life and death of this interesting bird that you 

 should become familiar wilh. There is one thing that is in- 

 explicable to me, and I have never found the man able to ex- 



plain it. I have seen perhaps a dozen instances where the 

 bird was shot down in plain sight, and the keenest nosed dog 

 would be unable to obtain the least scent of it, although the 

 bird would be lying in plain sight. In each case the bird 

 would not be quite dead, although nearly so. I do not re- 

 member to have seen this occur with any other bird, and 

 should very much like an explanation. There are eo many 

 bewildering strategems practiced by this artful bird, that you 

 can never tell what tactics he is going to pursue, very often 

 to your sorrow. One disgusting (rick he has, which L am 

 pleased to know iB heartily condemned by every true Sports- 

 man, for the bird not onl} ; generally escapes, but your mind is 

 left in an unsettled condition that is not conducive to good 

 shooting. Sometimes, when your dog has settled on his point, 

 and you are some little distance in the rear quietly working 

 your way up to get a shot, and calmly meditating upon tbat 

 wonderful provision of nature that enables your dog with 

 subtle magnetism to hold spellbound so wild a bird, and 

 thinking that you have him sure, you are suddenly startled 

 out of all propriety by his rising in your rear, and nine times 

 out of ten making good his escape. Don't kiok the dog, but 

 calmly smile and follow up the bird and try him again. The 

 probabilities are that he will show you some other trick that 

 will well repay you for your time. Should you finally suc- 

 ceed in bringing to bag one of these preteruaturully wise, old 

 birds, what joy and satisfaction deep down in your heart: 

 with what pride you gaze upou his voluptuous form, and, as 

 you admire his beautiful plumage and think over the many in- 

 cidents iu this si niggle for lite, you mentally resolve that 

 there is no sport in the world that can compare with the pur- 

 suit of a crafty old cock grouse. 3. T. H. 

 /Springfield, Mast. 



.~~*. — • 



For Forest and Stream end Mod and Gun. 

 MARINE PAINTING. 



ONE need not visit the exhibition at the Academy of De- 

 sign to be made aware of much in art, wherein the 

 majority of artists fall lamentably short, of excellence. I do 

 not mean to discuss the " treatment" of their subjects, nor 

 do I propose to air my possible familiarity with the vocabu- 

 lary of phiased cant whereon the conventional critic runs the 

 gamut of his praise or censure, though tbat is very simple. 

 It consists in speaking of a picture as though it were a 

 musical composii ion, and vice versa. 1 do not quarrel with 

 that method. If it suites the puolic taste, by all means let 

 us see our music and listen to our pictures. But, if the read. 

 er will permit me, 1 will say what I have to say iu my own 

 way, and if I call a spade a spade, pray pardon me. 



Among the imperfections to which 1 referred « hen I began, 

 nothing is moie apparent than the lack of technical knowledge 

 betrayed in the productions of so m a n y ruariue painters. It 

 might be supposed that the eludy and observation which are 

 implied in the reproduction of a subject upon canvass would 

 surely serve to guard against tie commission of such glaring 

 faults as those which shock us constantly ; for it is a shock 

 to see, in an otherwise meritorious picture, errors and incon- 

 gruities which mar or even ruin it. Perhaps ihe artist does 

 not regard as essential some features whereof the presence or 

 the absence would not be noticed by the ordinary observer. 

 If so, he errs. The carpen er who lratnes his picture strives 

 to do such work as shad stand examination by a fellow crafts- 

 man. Should the artist do less? I know but few murine 

 paintings which would stand the trst of ciiticiam at the hands 

 of a common sailor— and that is exactly what they ought, to 

 do. But how often would they not Instead present to his 

 wondering gaze some absurd looking crall, with abnormal 

 spars and ridiculous anils, in impossible positions? if the 

 vessel be a steamer, he is asked to believe that her smoke may 

 go in one direction and Ler flag in another, while her sails 

 (which are always set) indicate that the course of the wind 

 is at right angleB to both. 



However, iney are seldom as bad as this. Their faults are 

 mostly confined to misshapen sails and inaccuracies ol rig, 

 which, though unuoticeuble to landsman, damn them utterly 

 in the eyes of the very class of men whose approbation is 

 most worth having. For myself, 1 do not care to look at the 

 picture of a schooner whose spriugstay is much lower than 

 the peak of her foresail, it worries me so to think what a 

 deal of trouble they must have whenever she goes about. 

 Nor do 1 like to see a mast painfully striving to si and erect 

 under a load of shrouds and ratlines that threaten to capsize 

 the craft by their mere weight. It makes me nervous. And 

 it is not just the thing, you know, to be told, pictorialy or 

 otherwise, that a ship may sail on an even keel while her spars 

 are bending to a ten-knot breeze, nor is it usual for her to 

 carry more than five or six jibs. 



Our really greut marine painters, De Haas, Moran, Cary 

 Smith, Brown aud Bricher, seldom, it ever, offend iu these 

 particulars, and yet I well remember seeing at the Academy, 

 two or three years ago, a " morpbrodite brig" by one of 

 these gentlemen, whereof the bad drawing of the leach of her 

 mainsail spoiled a picture almost faultless in other respects. 

 Another boat was ruined by the bowsprit, which was not only 

 out of line, but wretchedly fore-Bhorteued. But I have yet to 

 see a Cary Smith which is marred by any Considerable flaw. 

 f'heie must be some sacrifice iu painting to " effect," but he, 

 I think, approached perlectiou iu the drawing of a yacht to a 

 dcgiee which would redeem the picture, if needs be, from 

 grave faults of coloring or treatment. Take for instance his 

 "Schooner Sappho in a Yacht Race," of which a photographic 

 copy is before me as 1 write. With every stitch ol canvas Bet 

 and drawing, the lovely vessel buwls along, followed by the 

 ruck of yachts and steamers so familiar to regatta goers. 

 Mark how the spray spurts upward from ber keen cut-water, 

 and how she spurns it foaming from her bilges at the leeward 

 foreetiaiu plates— just where,' if anywhere, it ought to break. 

 .Note the sagging of that big jib top-sad, just enough to show 

 a portion of the windward topmast BiiTOUd ami stretcher. 

 Her jib and staysail are hauled down and snugly stowed, and 

 in their s ead is swelling out, far out to leeward, a vast 

 balloon, that leads clear aft aud seems to almost lift her out of 

 water, ilie wind is on her quarter, and she is flying on the 

 homestretch. Vainly the overloaded steamers struggle in 

 her wake, uith black smoke belching from their funnels, and 

 white foam gushing from their latticed paddle-boxes They 

 might as well attempt to overhaul the wind. Ihe rounded 

 outlines of her great mam Loplnasl Btaj -stud, her topping-nit 

 so deeply sunk into the yielding whiteness of her mainsail, the 

 gracetul bunding of her top-sail duns aud the dangling slack- 

 ness of her leeward shrouds, ad attest the strain and pressure 

 they withstand. To wind ward of her are a schooner, ship and 

 lighter, each faultless in its lig and relative position 10 the 

 wmd. Here are no blunders, contradictions, inconsistencies; 

 here no liberties with nature and no di.-propo: tions. J trst the 

 effect the wind would have on Bail and spar aud bull is here 

 portrayed, ihe very waves themselves are motion crystal- 

 lized and one constantly discovers new beauties to admire. 



No picture could be more imbued with life and snap, but this 

 fact, is not that which 1 desire to obtrude. My point lies in 

 the close adherence of the artist to nature and reality. No 

 necessary detail suffers slight or is neglected, aud, look where 

 you will, you may observe the evidences of intelligence and 

 careful study, without which no skilfuluess of treatment, no 

 subtle management of light and color, will elevate a painted 

 canvas to a work of art. J. L. K. 



Perth Amboy, iV. J., May, 1878. 



A FEW FACTS ABOUT FISH. 



WrtTTE AND BLAOK BAIT. 



Editor Forest and Stream : 



I have been out of town and hence unable to see the Forest 

 and Stream lately, and do not know what fresh blunders 

 have been made by your correspondents on the eel question. 

 There are some points still to be settled, and as our streams 

 on Long Island do not furnish the information, I desire some 

 one, who can both see a thing and tell what he sees, to advise 

 me when mature eels begin to descend to the sea in tbe 

 autumn, in what condition tbey then are, and how long they 

 continue to descend ; aud, to reward such person, I will give 

 him two new discoveries, which I have just made and which 

 are important. 



Raising tadpoles into frogs has been a hobby wilh Seth 

 Green, although he has never yet got as far us Ihe fro 

 has. some fine'tadpoles at Caledonia aud has had them for 

 three years, and he hopes lor (rdgsbfelbre he dies. Feeling 

 a sympathy tor him, I set to cultivating tadpoles — which ap- 

 pear with us in July in a diminutive shape, like blots of iuk, 

 with rudimentary Utile — and placed some hundreds in a small 

 aquarium, in which there was nothing but a few small mini 

 turtles — the common spoiled pond nrucl turtles. The Intter 

 are usually accounted harmless fellows, having a mild eye 

 and a smooth, round, gentle expression of the back, aud are 

 popularly supposed to live on vegetables. But, false to their 

 reputation, false to the demands of science, false to the uni- 

 versal brotherhood of f]9hes, these speckle-backs inconlinenlly 

 proceeded to eat up the undeveloped possibilities of future 

 ErOgB, and thus gave the lie to their scientific friends, who 

 said they were herbivorous, and proved themselves little if 

 any better than mere reptiles. Bo, while I am no farther 

 ahead than Seth Green on the main issue— tbe parent frogs 

 having no heirs apparent— I have learned that the- mdd man- 

 nered mud turtle is a monster of meat-devouring depravity, 

 who spares not the pretty pollywog, nor possibly the Infant 

 trout, and hence IS deserving of condign condemnation. To 

 test the lull measure of his" wickedness, 1 offered him raw 

 meat, which he devoured greedily before my very eyes. 

 Therefore 1 advise all trout growers to show no mercy to the 

 mud turtle, but. to wipe him out and clean him up as they 

 would other plunderers of their ponds. 



My second discovery was the finding of bluefish fry less 

 than an inch long at Far Rockaway. There is an early tuu 

 Of large bluefish at our inlets about May 24, and these are, 

 doubtless, spawning fish. The second run, which is smaller 

 in size, ClOSS not appear till after July 4, while the small fish, 

 known as "snapping mackerel," are caught. from and after 

 Aug. 1. Observing 'shoals of tiny fish in the inlet at, Fur 

 Rockaway on .July 10, I asked the boatmen who tail forward 

 and back "a hundred times a day across „ ferry from shore to 

 shore for the conveyance of hotel guests to the surj 

 " what these little fish were." They did uOi. know. I then 

 asked when they first made their appearance. They hud 

 never si en them before. I pointed them out. Having learned 

 all 1 could from that source, f fished a lot out in a straw hat, 

 aud unless the Smithsonian Institute is perverse and converts 

 them into tailor-shad, or all other unknown 



species, they were young blucflsli Try, not over a month old. 

 If so, we have fry an inch long, young fish six inches long, 

 and grown bluefish fifteen inches long— all in our wateis at 

 about one time. 



By the way, what a splendid chance this offers for the fur- 

 nishers of whitebait. They now kill about a thousand voung 

 shad, or herring, or alewive", to make half a meal for a sati- 

 ated man : why do they not kill len thousand younf Iu 

 in tbe same laudable attempt? They had better extirpate all 

 our fish at once, [or they can surely beat the best efforts at 

 fish breeding if they try bard. Then they can give up selling 

 fish and go to raising cabbages. If they do, however, I in- 

 sist they shall include the tadpoles. I hey may call them 

 " black. bait " if they choose, but they are luscious looking 

 little fellows. Just thick of a plate of pollywogs— concen- 

 trated frogs! If frogs arc delicious, how much more so 

 should be 'squab frogs, the tiny tadpoles ! The fish dealer 

 who introduces "black-bait" will make a name wilhout 

 doubt, and Will deserve as much as those who introduced 

 Whitebait. Before 1 Close. I must BBJ I have one tadpole left. 



He is developing into a frog in spite of the bites the vicious 

 turtles to k out of his comely tail. In so far. then, I am 

 ahead of Seth Green. Robeut B. Roosevelt. 



To State Commissioners and others Wanting Eoos as 

 the California Salmon. — We are glad to learn that there is 

 an excellent prospect that tbe United States Salmon Hatch- 

 ing establishment on the Bt. Cloud River, in California, will 

 secure a large supply of salmon eggs for distribution ; and as 

 Professor Baird, the Commissioner, is always ready I 

 applications for the same ftom Stale Fish Commissions, tish 

 clubs and hatching establishments generally, we would advise 

 that he be addressed promptly for such number as may be 

 desired. It is understood that the expenses of transportation 

 of the eggs are to be paid by the recipients. In our last issue, 

 we described the work of the U. 8. Fish Commission at Buii'd, 

 on tbe St. Cloud River, under date of July the 10th. 



Kki.s Going Up STBKAii— Jjibertp'Bguare, Pa., July 2S— 

 Mr. Editor: I have Often seen eels going up the Susquehanna 



and always along the. shore. 1 have caught ilimi i 

 net for bail t rom three to six inches in length. When they 

 start, you will find them all along the river ;' when I 

 at one point you will find they stop all along the river. I 

 have noticed Oh Several occasions, when they "begin to move, 

 you will jjpd them going up at. all points along the chore on 

 both sides, but never along the islands. Although the river 

 may be filled with them, I never saw any eels going ''own 



G. P. 



