REST AND STREAM 



301 



Bit— Boston, Won. V.— How common is the 

 following incident: We found in the marshes near Fresh 

 Pond. Cambridge, Mass., a full-grown male American bittern 

 in a dying Condition, from what proved on Dissection to be a 

 large specimen of horned pout, firmly fastened by the spines 

 top and gullet, from, whence the struggles of the 

 bint could ot dislodge it, We should have thought that the 

 bint would have " known better," according to hereditary 

 traits (Darwin), or experience in a minor degree of seventy". 



Sawbones. 



For Forest and Stream and Bod and Chun, 

 BREAKING DOGS ON RUFFED GROUSE. 



SINCE expressing in a former letter the opinion that this 

 bird is the worst for the purpose of initiating a setter or 

 pointer on game of all that are shot in this country over dogs, 

 there has been considerable disoussion upon the - 

 And although the majority of sportsmen who have had practi- 

 cal experience in shooting ruffed grouse over these dogs agree 

 with the above opinion, yet there are those who advocate this 

 bird as the one par cxcelknce upon 'which to break young 

 dogs. 



One writes to a contemporary from Massachusetts : "I will 

 agree to place you at ten yards rise to the wildest birds that 

 n find in this viciuity. Not always, perhaps, but we 

 will fiDally succeed in making the birds lie to a point and 

 allow us to approach very often within a yard. " It is pre- 

 sumable that the birds in that well-populated district arc fre- 

 quently shot at, especially as we know that Springfield 

 abounds in good sportsmen and dogs. But if the birds will 

 lie to a point and suffer one " to approach very often within a 

 yard," in the open season, autumn, the ruffed grouse in the 

 vicinity of Springfield differ in their habits to an exl raordinary 

 degree from all others of the species similarly located, a 

 yard rise may be instanced as one extreme, yet six rods rise, a 

 long range in covert, would probably not prove to be the 

 other extreme. But what fine sport might be had where fifty 

 shots are to be obtained in one day if the coverts are open 

 For one always to see the bird at six or more rods dis- 

 tance. The habits of ruffed grouse, as of many other birds, 

 vary much according to locality. So many seemingly iucon- 

 tatements have been made regarding the habits of 

 these birda in Maine that I will give a brief explanation. 

 Throughout the extensive territory of this State the ruffed 

 grouse are to be found in comparative abundance. But a 

 statement might be made regarding their habits in one portion 

 of the State that would be untrue as applied to another por- 

 tion. It is partly owing to great extent of territory that there 

 exists go much confusion as to what would be the most de- 

 sirable game law. For the majority of those interested in i lie 

 game laws of any State know little of the habits of birds out- 

 side of their own immediate vicinity. This is especially truo 

 of Maine, where some species of birds breed in one portion of 

 the State and are never even seen in another portion. While 

 at Augosta during the last session of the Legislature, and 

 using my humble efforts toward securing the passage of such 

 a game law as would be most desirable and practi- 

 cal for the -whole State, one that would be observed by 

 sportsmen and easily enforced if violated by others, my 

 lied to various petitions, etc, in regard to the 

 close season for ruffed grouse, some desiring the season to 

 open August 15th, and others not until October 1st. But the 

 law as passed fixed upon Sept. 1st, thereby wisely maintaining 

 the previously existing law and a date not only uniform with 

 that for woodcock and snipe, but one that is well known to 

 all our sportsmen. In the more thinly populated portions of 

 the Stave the grouse are "so unacquainted with man their 

 tameness ia shocking to me." They are usually in Thick 

 woods, where they will suffer a near approach but seek safety 

 by running or by going to the branches of the nearest trees. 

 Even here they do no not lie well to dogs, and but little sport 

 can be had with them. Many can be shot, however, and for 

 the table they are unexcelled by any of the grouse family. A 

 method that has been much resorted to in obtaining 'these 

 birds is to drive at early morn or evening along the roads 

 leading through their favorite haunts. At such times they 

 may be seen, singly or in families, scratching and nestling in 

 the road in a manner similar to common barnyard fowls. 

 This habit is known by the term "dusting." Besides the 

 gravel and occasional food found there, it is probable that the 

 warmth retained by the dust heated by the noonday sun is a 

 source of attraction to the birds when the nights begin to be 

 frosty. With one person to drive and another to shoot many 

 birds may be killed from the wagon, and pausing only to re- 

 trieve the bird or birds each time, the gunners drive on, until 

 they halt by some lake or stream to pass the day 

 in fishing. While driving home in the evening with a fine lot 

 of trout or pickerel, perhaps both, in the bottom of the wagon, 

 more grouse and it may be a hare or two will be added to 

 their game score. But now let us, kind reader, drive over 

 the same route, and instead of trying to see how many birds 

 we can kill, we will tarry by the wayside now and then and 

 watch their movements. Soon we see a covey in the road 

 ahead of us. Drive right on but don't shoot. As we approach 

 I i- and run or walk to the side of the road, most of 

 them disappearing in the wood either side. But one may 

 keep in the road ahead of us for a while, and you may 

 Bee another hulling at the edge of the wood as we pass 

 within fifteen yards of it. 



Alighting from the wagon and entering the woods you may 

 hear them running before you. With a sudden rush and 

 noise put them to flight if you can. With a great flurry 

 they will rise all about you. Flip-flip they go into the 

 trcifes, and then silence reigns supreme. Now look about 

 and try to find them. There is one in that spruce tree 

 nearest to you. "You cannot see it perched on a branch 

 and close to the trunk of the tree? Well then, sit down 

 on a stump and remain perfectly still and motionless while 

 I walk away. The birds are not much frightened, and 

 after a short time you Will hear a call from one in the near 

 vicinity. " Putt," answers the one in the tree watched, and 

 you are now convinced that a bird is there, although you 

 fail to see it. "Putt— Putt," calls another bird, Then you 

 hear a slight rustle and one walks cautiously forth from be- 

 neath the branches of a fallen tree and looks about. Do not 

 move a muscle now, not even to turn your head for a better 

 view. Bye and bye down from its perch in the tree comes 

 your vainly looked for bird. Don't shoot now, but if yon 

 u ave a cautious dog by your side try him on the birds. As 

 nu approaches they steal away with rapid steps and lowered 

 D tads to an old fallen tree-top near by. The dog strikes the 

 scent, and following up finally comas to a point. Keep- 



heels so as not to lose si ht of him, you 

 ■ well concealed birds, but, with no effect. 

 slub into the treetop or underbush where you sup- 

 pose them to be, a flurry in heard but not a feather seen as 

 they rise. But listen! Hip-flip, you hear one alight, and 

 with dog at heel pou. approach, carefully sqanning the trees. 

 Suddenly you catch sight of your bird on the branch of birch 

 notnjore than a dozen yards away, 



aim, and if you feel nervous from the ex- 

 citement of the occasion, rest the gun over the limb or against 

 the trunk of a tree. Bung goes "Old Reliable," and the bird 

 is yours. By looking about carefully .you may procure several 

 others of the same covey in like manner. Try to break your 

 ter or pointer first on these birds, and you will find 

 that as much or more time will be required to prevent his 

 acquiring faults than for the teaching of virtues elsewhere. 

 After he is Caught not, to chase the birds he will learn to find 

 them without flushing, but in the manner that is most suc- 

 cessful, a Blow, pottering gait, with head carried low. hunting 

 fur the fool scent, when this is found he will trsil 

 the birds until they reach thick underbrush or some favorable 

 cover, and lie to a point. In favorable places they will occa- 

 sionally lie well to a dog, but almost always will run at the 

 approach of either (Jog or man. 



Altoougli ruffed grouse will barely ever dispute the passage 

 of a pedestrian in the autumn, they will frequently do so in 

 spring and summer, when accompanied by their young broods. 

 I have often come upon them unawares, when trout fishing, 

 in Mayor June. The hen would dart r.t me, or place her- 

 self with ruffled plumage and drooping wings before me, 

 way I turned. I have of ten rapped her across the 

 hack with my rod, but always failed to make the affectionate 

 mother seek sa.'ety in night before she was satisfied that her 

 little ones had escaped. I have captured the young by hand, 

 but with great difficulty, even when they were a day old. But 

 nowhere in the autumn need any one fear being bitten by these 

 birds. 



As u locality where the habits of the ruffed grouse differ 

 from those cf the same species whose habitat is such as to 

 render them comparatively unacquainted with man and his 

 engines of destruction, I will select, for the sake of compari- 

 son, the vicinity of my house, Portland, Me., situated in the 

 best woodcock county in the State. Instead of suffering a 

 near approach, and taking to the nearest trees when flushed, 

 they are very wary, unci when flushed go straight away as if 

 shot from a cannon, sometimes crossing the open to another 

 copse, and (lying a half mile ere alighting. When taking 

 these long flights they usually alight on the ground. They 

 arc swift runners, and usually take leg-bail themoment danger 

 is suspected. 



Seldom lying well to a dog, tbey too often take wing out of 

 range. In open hardwood growth I have frequently flushed 

 them so far away as to render a Bhot useless. Birds that 

 habitually run before the dog cannot be justly said to lie well, 

 and ruffed grouse, whether unusually wary or otherwise, do 

 not lie well, oven if they finally lie close enough for a point 

 and shot. 



Ruffed grouse abound throughout the Northern and Middle 

 States as well as in the Canadian Dominion, and for many 

 sportsmen they are the most available birds to break dogs on. 

 This is almost their sole recommendation for the purpose. 



Considering the subject from a general and not a local 

 standpoint, we must regard the dogs as intended for use on 

 various sorts of game. 



Therefore the more varied a dog's experience the more use- 

 ful he will become, if the experience be of such nature as to 

 teach only virtues. 



Iu alternately hunting various sorts of game ; various quali- 

 ties are alternately brought into most prominent use, and 

 there will be a proportionate development of such qualities. 

 If a special quality is desired consider how it may be devel- 

 oped without the incidental acquisition of faults or any 

 i of inherent or acquired virtues. 

 It is easier to teach an old dog new tricks than to break him 

 of a bad one learned. A dog cannot be kept constantly in 

 sight when in covert, nor can a check cord there be used to 

 advantage. More time, patience and perseverance would be 

 required to obtain a well broken dog if ruffed grouse should 

 be selected for the purpose than would be required if some 

 other game should be chosen • and very much more than is 

 usually devoted toward accomplishing such a result even 

 under other and more favorable circumstances. 



This will especially apply to sportsmen who break their own 

 dogs from the beginning. Too many of them are unwilling 

 to make a season's shooting secondary to the education of 

 their dogs, and the result is that such sportsmen shoot all 

 through life over dogs but half broken. They seldom arrive 

 at a higher standard than staunch pointing and fair retrieving, 

 caring little whether a dog carries the head and stern high or 

 low, nor for the style of action, so that the game sought is 

 found and not prematurely flushed. And others would quite 

 as soon shoot without a dog if as much game could be bagged, 

 since they go into the iield solely for the game or the pleasure 

 of shooting it, having no regard for contributive accessories. 

 These are ihe ones that care not to pause, even for a moment, 

 to admire, the graceful movements of a dog when bunting, or 

 the rigid form, eager eyes and quivering nostrils of the animal 

 wbenpuin:. ,,n ior a shot lest delay should oc- 



casion a smaller score to the gun for the day. Such persons, 

 however, measure the pleasure of the day by the " bag," and 

 regard the dog as they do the gun, merely as a useful servant, 

 and not as an agreeable companion whose presence contributes 

 a large share of the pleasure obtained. 



finally, my chief reasons for considering the ruffed grouse 

 (a bird that in some localities affords tine sport to a good shot) 

 as the worst of our game birds upon which to break setters 

 and pointers, are . 1, Because they are found in coverts, fre- 

 quently very dense ones. 3, Because they are habitual run- 

 ners. 3. Because their strong foot scent and habit of run- 

 ning leads the dog to become a trailer. They sometimes re- 

 flelds, but cannot be approached there except by 

 stealthy stalking, with some cover to aid. Just fancy, oh I 

 ye who have shot in the old country, any one advocating the 

 pheasant as the best bird to break a setter or pointer on ; and 

 of American game birds shot over these dogs the one that 

 nearest approaches the pheasant in habits is the ruffed grouse. 

 But after your dogs have been broken on other game and 

 have become steady, then teach them to hunt ruffed grouse, 

 and you may have much finer sport than pheasant shooting. 

 Id localities where the birds are abundant and not too much 

 shot at, if found in hard wood growth most excellent sport 

 can be had, and I think that you will allow that clean killing 

 shots ar. ruffed grouse give a pleasure to the sportsman that is 

 not, derived from a similar number at, that game so over-rated 

 for sport, the woodcock. Of all our game birds the wood- 

 cock ranks number one when in the bag. But wUl not many 

 woodcook shooters agree with me that when indulging in 



their favorite sport more pleasure is derived from a successful 

 shot at a grouse than at. a woodcock? Although no doubt 

 you would rather bring home a, dozen woodcock "than an equal 

 number of ruffed grouse. Although affording fine sport, the 

 ruffed grouse is not a desirable bird upon which to break 

 young setters and pointers. Everett Smith. 



FROM MR. DAVIDSON. 



„ „ Monroe, November 9. 1878. 



Editob Forest and Stream: 



That some tales are lies from end to end was never more 

 fully demonstrated to me than on reading in the Ohicago 

 Field ot November 9 an article entitled, "He Who Excuses 

 Himself Accuses Himself." The whole article is one con- 

 tinued train of falsehoods, malicious and base, with the slight 

 exception of, in part, what he says of the dog Charm. When 

 Mr. \\ hitman bought, the dog from me ho did so with the full 

 understanding that I did not value him as a field dog. What 

 he paid for him, whether fifty or five huudred dollars, is no 

 more Mr. Rowe'a business than it is my business that he should 

 now be soliciting orders for pups out of Blanch and Peg 

 (Leicester-DartV at fifty dollars each. Or his business that I 

 thought I could ' uy better for one-half that sum. I take no 

 exception to his combining the business of dog-breeding with 

 that of editing and peddling a newspaper. 



That Mr. Whitman has bred a puppy by Charm not only 

 good looking, but good enough to win fairly second place in 

 the nursery stakes at the Minnesota Field Trials, is a thing of 

 the past, notwithstanding Mr. Rowe's futile attempts at show- 

 ing any fraud, in which he has ingloriously failed. 



The mere assertions of Mr. Rowe arc no proof whatever of 

 anything farther than a malicious disposition, his whole mo- 

 tive being "rule or ruin," unless when he is toadying to in- 

 fluence or position— then his dependent, servile nature crops 

 out. When I am shown by some competent authority, not 

 the Chicago Fitld, that the Minnesota Kennel Club cannot 

 take care of its own affairs, and that the National American 

 Kennel Club is the proper place to bring this matter up, then 

 I at once accept his invitation to bring it before them. 



Mr. Rowe has no control over my actions. I am perfectly 

 independent of him, and can go with whom I please and where 

 I please without asking his coosent, and will not allow him to 

 dictate to me in matters which are purely my own ; and de- 

 cline any further controversy with one whose paper is noto- 

 riously known for stirring up strife and ungenerous feelings 

 amongst sportsmen, and I will not be drawn into personalities 

 by him. Knowing his own wants, I am pleased to learn that 

 he has become possessed of a cap he has so long justly merited 

 and toward which his friends ought to have contributed long 

 ago, with the motto of " Concentrated Infamy " inscribed in 

 large letters of brass in the most conspicuous place. 



John Daytdson. 



« — ••-—• _ 



CONDITIONING OF DOGS. 



THE economy of thoroughly conditioning sporting dogs is 

 a topic which comparatively few keepers and kennel 

 m en ever consider. How very often do we find in private 

 kennels of pointers, setters and spaniels that keepers and ken- 

 nel men have not the least system of getting their dogsin trim 

 for their work. Of exercise they get little or nothing, or per- 

 haps are taken out one day and are given a thorough bucket- 

 ting ; they come home footsore, and don't see the outside of 

 the kennel walla for another month. The consequence is that 

 when the shooting season comes round you have the mortifi- 

 cation of finding your pointers and setters come to a trot after 

 a couple of hours' range, and your spaniels reduced to path- 

 finding in an equally short space of time. It is not always the 

 keeper's fault, that the animals have such scanty preparation, 

 as the former's soleattention and labors are often devoted to the 

 all-absorbing endeavors to get up a good head of game, but 

 they might often do a great deal more in this direction than ia 

 done by the majority of them. Twice the number of dogs 

 that are actually^ necessary are often kept merely because half 

 the number, which would otherwise be sufficient, are simply 

 and solely for want of condition unable to do a fair amount of 

 work. Some of our sportsmen whose pointers and setters ap- 

 pear at field trials are juBt as particular as a M. F. H. in see- 

 ing to the conditioning of their dogs, but those gentlemen who 

 systematically go in for field trials may be counted on the Au- 

 gers ; and even at field trials we have often seen competitors 

 in s-uch a plethoric condition of body as would in a Chinaman 

 or South Sea Islander give rise to thoughts which if they took 

 shape would be likely to materially curtail the career of those 

 dogs. Luckily for such, however, at field trials there is no 

 test of endurance. 



The amount of work a well prepared pointer, setter or 

 spaniel will stand is astonishing, and it is equally surprising how 

 quickly either of them will be knocked out of time if not in 

 trim. 



It is a common practice with those who havechargeof dogs 

 to give them a lot of physic to reduce them just a week or so 

 previous to the time they know the animals will be required 

 for work. It saves time and they look presentable, so the 

 master is deceived by the fictitious appearance of good condi- 

 tion, and when he finds the dogs flagging before half the day 

 is overis satisfied that the number he has is insufficient for 

 the work, or, what is more likely to happen, he becomes dis- 

 gusted with shooting over dogs and determines never to use 

 them again if it can possibly bo avoided. Some of our thorough 

 dog-and-gun sportsmen lay great stress on condition and few 

 of them, principally those of the old school, are men who 

 never care to have a dozen dogs to do work that they know 

 six should well be able to accomplish. Most of the more 

 modern school of sportsmen, who do take an interest in the 

 working of their dogs, have it, however, considerably leavened 

 with the also modern paramount desire for large bags of 

 game. Their dogs, therefore, must work at. railroad speed all 

 the time, to try as much ground as possible in the day, so 

 that as soon as one brace begins to slacken, another is sent 

 off to be replaced by still another in an hour or two. As a 

 consequence, unless their dogs are in good trim they are 

 obliged to take such a team as would in numbers be a very 

 respectable muster for a M. F. H. That, thorough old dog. 

 and-gun sportsman, Mr. John Colquhoun, says that kennel 

 expenses might be greatly reduced if proper attention were 

 given to conditioning dogs for their work. He maintains 

 that with proper treatment, five thoroughly conditioned dogs 

 will, ealsriapar&w, do more work and do it infinitely better 

 than fifteen prepared and trained in the usual slovenly man- 

 ner. His plan is to give them little medicine and to harden 

 them by degrees to their work. For six weeks before the 

 shooting season begins^the course he advices is to turn the 

 dogs out at six in the morning before they are likely to foul 

 the kennel much, and give them a six-mile run behind a trot- 



