190 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Aran, 7, 1881. 



THE GAME OUTLOOK IN VIRGINIA. 



TniS has been a hard winter — a fact, and observation you 

 have probably beard before > a winter such as the old 

 darkeys love to sit close to their fires and tell of cold weather 

 in " dem times when dey was young." 



" Why, 'fore de Lord," said old Uncle Reuben, reaching up 

 to the narrow mantel-piece and taking down his corn-cob 

 pipe, " you folks talks about de cold ! Why, when I was' a 

 boy 'longing to ole Marsc Bill Carter, over flar in Powhatan, 

 who owned a big place on Jeemes' River, dar was a winter 

 dat done take de rag often de bosh. You all talk about dis 

 time.; why, it wasn't nuffin to dat. I remembers de time 

 well. Everything froze— dat could freeze. My ole ooman, 

 me and the cbillern sot up night after night, side of the fire ; 

 it Was too cold to go to bed. De hens, de turkeys — all froze 

 stiff, and we lost all defowls, 'cepla rooster dat roosted inde 

 chimley. One day ole Marse Hill started us to de pond to 

 get ice, but it had froze solid clean down to do bottom; and 

 seein' as how he couldn't get it out no other way, ole Marse 

 druv two holes in de ice, den put two cedar posts in dem, 

 and den tied a big rope to de posts and hitched six yokes of 

 oxen and ten horses : den de whip was cracked — and I hope 

 I may live to die if he didn't draw up de whole pond to de 

 ice-house and save de trouble of hauling, for we had nuffin 

 to do but chop up de ice and frow it iu de house— and— — " 



'■Uncle Reuben," said Douglas, solemnly, as he started to 

 go, " it is a mystery how an oilman like yourself — some 

 eighty odd — so near to the grave, should tell such a pyrotech- 

 nic lie as that. You'll swear you were General Washington's 

 body servant next ?" 



" I ain't done told j-ou half yit." 



" Well, that will do ;" and we left the old darkey soberly 

 shaking his head. 



But old Reuben was right after all — even if he did fall into 

 the temptation that besets aged people, more than anything 

 else, of telling yarns, for there is nobody to say them nay. 

 When aU of a man's contemporaries die it is a fearful strain 

 for the surviving one to keep to the truth and never draw the 

 long bow. But I digress. 



In looking over some tattered MS8. of the old colonial 

 times I find mention of the coldest winter in Virginia on 

 Record. It was in the year 1779, and history tells us of an- 

 other in 1810. On both of these occasions Chesapeake Bay 

 was frozen solidly across and men and cattle passed in safety 

 over the ice from the Maryland to the Virginia side. Now, if 

 tradition and history have any truth in them at all, those times 

 far exceeded our winter in severity, for, barring floating ice 

 that has formed in the inlets and streams, no man alive has 

 ever seen Chesapeake Bay covered even with a thin skim of 

 ice. To bind the raging waters in its silent fetters would re- 

 quire for days the temperature of Spitsbergen or Iceland. 



But the winter has been severe enough to kill much of the 

 game in this State, and sportsmen are uneasy about the future 

 outlook — fearing that their trusty double barrels wiU lie in 

 their cases all unused next fall. But it is not so. The damage 

 done is greatly exaggerated, and a close survey and scanning 

 Of reports from the country papers throughout the Old Do- 

 minion brings one to a close estimate of the truth of the' 

 game question. 



In the first place, the rabbits have not suffered, as they can 

 live, "chip, peit and sassy," on the hark of the trees, no matter 

 how deep the snow is, and they will be as plentiful as ever 

 next autumn. 



The game bird of this Stale is, of course, the partridge, and 

 they have farad ill or worse according to their section. In 

 the tidewater region of Virginia there has been comparatively 

 little snow, and Bob While ranges the woods and fields in its 

 wonted numbers. In the mountainous southwestern Virginia 

 they have been almost decimateil. Around Lynchburg and 

 the tobacco belt there has been but little snow and the birds 

 are safe. In the great valley they are very scarce, but the 

 Sporting clubs are importing large numbers of live quail and 

 expect ail abundant return. Iu Piedmont, 'Virginia, thepart- 

 ridgeshave suffered severely, and there will be poor shooting 

 in that section for a number of years to come. 



But there comes a charm after every irt, and the great foe 

 of the partridge— infinitely more destructive that the hawk, 

 more' deadly ihan the cat, more rapacious than the mink — 

 has been destroyed in vast quantities. 1 allude to the crow — 

 "old black Jim Crow" — who eats the eggs of the setting 

 birds, and is a greater foe of our pet game bird than all others 

 put together. I must confess to my auprise that the Forest 

 and Stkbajw, when mentioning the gauntlet of enemies that 

 the partridge was compelled to rim a-niuck, said nothing of 

 the crow, that enjoys a nest of partridge eggs as much as 

 a bear a hive of honey, or an alderman a dish of terrapin 

 stew. 



This winter baski lied untold numbers of these black thieves, 

 the intense freeze caused many to go perfectly blind ; and 

 when it is cold enough to ntake the crow go blind you can 

 swear that the thermometer is pretty low in the bulb. Every 

 farmer can bear witness to the singular antics of these ravens 

 who have lost their sight, and every farm throughout the 

 State has scores of these dead birds tying just as they have 

 fallen. 



So taking all things into consideration, there will be but 

 little noticeable difference in the quantity of game in Virginia 

 next fall, except, as I wrote before, in the Piedmont section. 

 One singular fact connected with the great bird famine was 

 observed on the farm of Mr. Isham Keith, near Warrenton, 

 Va. A hawk was seen eating the dead body of a crow— the 

 first instance, I believe, on record of such a thing. — Chab- 

 bub. 



Tnji Winter tn Maryland— Bockville, Md., March 27 — 

 Quail are very scarce in our county, owing to the severe win- 

 ter. 1 have heard of whole bevies being frozen to death. 

 Still there are some in our locality. Around our town there 

 has been seen several bevies, from three to twelve in each. 

 The farmers do not feed them through the winter, as a gen- 

 eral thing. We have a law for the protection of game, but 

 it is very badly observed. We will endeavor to get a law 

 passed this session of our Legislature to prohibit shooting ior 

 two years. — W. H. R. 



Canada — Three Rivers, March 30. — Spring shooting for 

 ducks will commence here in a few days and promises to be 

 good.— H. W. 



Bunker Hilt. Club. — At the annual election of officers of 

 the Bunker Hill (Illinois) Gun Club, held March 20, Mr. Abe 

 Harris was elected President, and Mr. Wm. Morris Secretary 

 and Treasurer. The club is a wide-awake institution and in 

 good condition, and proposes to look closely after law-break- 

 ers during the close season and enforce the law. 



GROUSE TREEING. 



IN view of the sad reports with which your columns have 

 been filled of the destruction of our game birds by cold 

 and snow, it is pleasant to be able to note one Bectiou of our 

 common country wherein the reverse of this state of affairs 

 has existed. The present winter has been all that could be 

 desired for the preservation of our ruffed grouse, especially 

 iu the northern portions of the State. The snows came 

 early and deep, and not a drop of rain fell from November 

 till after the middle of February, the deep, light snow afford- 

 ing the noble birds all the protection they require to success- 

 fully rosiBt the severest weather of which our rugged climate 

 is capable. During a three months' sojourn in Pranklin 

 county, from which I have just returned, not a day passed, 

 when the weather was suitable, that I did not see them "bud- 

 ding" on the birches, sometimes three and four in a tree. I 

 have not seen them so plenty in years. One habit of theirs 

 I have observed this winter which before I had not particu- 

 larly noticed. When the thermometer is much below zero 

 they do not come out of the snow at all during the day, no 

 matter how calm and bright it may be, and during one cold 

 snap, when the thermometer marked from 13 deg. to 81 deg. 

 below, I never saw a bird excepting those I drove out ot the 

 snow; and, by the way, I know of nothing that will more 

 thoroughly startle one than to have them suddenly I ear out 

 of the snow from between one's snow-shoes, filling' hair and 

 eyes full of snow. I have been watching with mixed 

 feelings of interest and amusement the "partridge tree- 

 ing" discussion iu your columns, and was congratu- 

 lating myself on being able to close it up in good style. But 

 alas for the vanity of human hopes! "Mic Moc " has com- 

 pletely taken the conceit out of me His article " tells it 

 all." The " wonderful instinct " which enables certain dogs 

 to find the birds in a tree, no matter how far Ihey fly, is all ex- 

 plained by the fact of their hunting up the droppings. 1 

 know a dog, half coach and half bull, whose fame extends 

 into several towns, which will find grouse in this manner no 

 matter how high they may be perched or how long they 

 have been there. Penobsoot. 



Nmop&rt, Me., March. 



Wkbtfield, Mass. 

 In the Forest and Stream of Feb. 24 " Mic Mac " seems 

 to doubt the possibility of treeing partridges by the use of a 

 dog in this State. Ho says -. "If our friend Jean Baptist 

 should bruig his little cur to Mass.' and walk through the 

 woods, he undoubtedly would hare the pleasure, of seeing 

 him put up some partridges if the undergrowth was not too 

 thick; but that would be all he would see of them unless he 

 followed them up to repeat the same unsatisfactory perform- 

 ance." We have still living in our village a hunter of ye 

 olden time who, with his cur dog and Queen's arm (proba- 

 bly similar to Jean Baptist's King's arm, but of different 

 gender) has brought in more treed partridges than I have 

 seen before or since killed before bird-dogs in a sportsman- 

 like mariner, The dog finally died, and he never owned an- 

 other that would fill the bill So he played dog himself, by 

 tracking the birds on the snow, and when flushing them he 

 gave a number of Bhort, quick yelps, very much much resem- 

 bling those of the dog, and has often successfully treed the 

 birds iu this manner. I well remember my first gun and 

 the first bird I Bhot with it. Il was in the month of Febru- 

 ary, snow knee deep, and a crust that wotdd almost bear my 

 weight, when I stalled out to try the new gun. In passing 

 through a grove of pines a short distance from the village I 

 flushed about six partridges (I don't suppose I made an ac- 

 curate count I was so frustrated). I did not see them leave 

 the pines, so I made a thorough search of every tree in that 

 grove, and passed and repassed beneath a certain tall pine, in 

 which, hugging close to the body of the tree, I found and 

 Shot my first partridge, and not four rods from this tree I 

 shot another that had not been disturbed by the noise WhUe 

 on the subject of charming partridges I will relate an amus- 

 ing incident (at least it was so to an eye witness). Three of us 

 boys started for Hampton Ponds, about fire miles from the 

 village, to prospect for ducks. We carried one double- 

 barrel gun. Finding no ducks, we were leisurely rowing 

 back to the landing when one of the party espied a partridge 

 ou the near shore. It was the work of a moment to turn that 

 boat to shore, and one of the boys grabbed the gun, landed, 

 and commenced to dance, hoot and whistle in a very extrava- 

 gant manner, loading the gun the best he could in the mean- 

 time, and between every Btanza of his song he would call on 

 the rest to imitate him. So we all engaged in a regular In- 

 dian pow-wow until the gun was loaded and the bird shot. 

 Partridge charming seems to be most successful in the winter 

 months, and the nearer spring the better. All the above 

 happe&ed a few years ago, when the open season extended to 

 March 1 in this State, but it was only last winter I knew of 

 a partridge being kept in a tree until a muzzle-loading gun 

 was charged and the bird shot by making a great noise as 

 above. — S. 



Wenonah, Gloucester Co., N. J. 



Our winter here as elsewhere has been unprecedentedly 

 severe, and I fear our quail are all dead. Immense numbers 

 of small birds which usually winter with us have perished, 

 it was warm all last week. The snow nearly all left us. 

 Blue birds, robins, etc., made their appearance. 



1 read with interest your article iu last week's issue upon 

 the destruction of hawks. The present has been a good win- 

 ter for thinning them out. Impelled by hunger they have 

 been unusually bold, and an unusual number have been de- 

 stroyed in this region. During the past two or three years I 

 have myaoK succeeded in killing a good miuiy. I use an old 

 fashioned 16 lb. target rifle that did service through the war 

 in my regiment (the U. S. Sharp Shooters) and although I 

 am getting old and am seriously disabled I do not often miss 

 a hawk at 200 yards and even more. There is a high clump 

 of trees 806 yards from ray residence from which I have kill- 

 ed several hawks firing* from the window. Nearly all my 

 gunning is done in this way, and my game is hawks, king- 

 fishers, herons, muskrats and other intruders about my fish- 

 ponds.' I can still knock the head off a water-snake while 

 swimming across the ponds twenty or thirty yards distant. 

 I am the only person in the region who uses a rifle, and I 

 have used rifles generally from comparatively early boyhood. 



1 notice the correspondence relative to killing grouse from 

 trees. When a boy Hived on the " Western Reserve" and 

 had a small, mongrel dog about the color of an Italian grey- 

 hound, but rather clumsily built. As a general hunting dog 

 I never saw his superior. In those days black and grey squir- 

 rels were veiy numerous in all that region. Let me take 

 down the old rifle, and this little dog would be wild with de- 

 light, and long before I could reach the woods he would be 

 there and have a squirrel or sometimes a ruffed grouse treed. 



I could approach near enough either to knock their heads off, . 

 which I invariably did. In later years I was in western 

 Massachusetts where ruffed grouse were very abundant. A 

 man in the neighborhood who rarely took a gun in his hands 

 had a little dog, a half-blood English rat-terrier, the other 

 half being an unknown mixture. This dog would go with 

 anyone carrying a gim into the woods, but would go with 

 no stranger without. He would always soon find and tree 

 ruffed grouse, and many a one have I thus shot over him. In 

 tin- same region some years later lowned a flue old fox hound 

 which I had bought from an experienced fox hunter. He 

 was splendidly trained and would rarely follow a fox out of 

 the usual hunting season, tie was a wonderful coon hunter, 

 and during the woodchuck season turned his special atten- 

 tion to those mischievous animals. One damp day in the 

 haying season I took my rifle, and, calling the hound, started 

 for the back fields on a woodchuck raid. I had to pass some • 

 two or three hundred yards through some open, large timber 

 (a maple sugar place). About 100 yards from me I noticed 

 the hound walking slowly with his nose to the ground, but 

 his tail did not manifest much interest in the scent. Finally 

 I noticed the hound sitting down, something very unusual 

 when I was out with a gun. As I was about passing near by 

 he gave me a very solemn look, and then tinned his eyes and 

 nose upward. Glancing in the direction, and within fifteen 

 feet of the dog and not over fifty feet from me, there sat on a 

 maple limb a large, male grouse. Within three or four 

 seconds Ids head had mostly disappeared, and he dropped 

 within a yard or so of the hound, and bounded around very 

 lively for about a minute. The bound did not offer to take 

 hold of it, but with his nose rolled it over two or three times 

 as it became quiet. Milton P. Plekob. 



DUCK SHOOTING IN TENNESSEE. 



Savannah, Tenn. 



HAVING an idle afternoon yesterday I crossed the river 

 to the cypress pond, where I had heard there were a 

 great many ducks and geese. The pond is huge and shadow, 

 encumbered with logs, "brush, stumps and trees, and is almost 

 inaccessible, being surrounded with sloughs overgrown with 

 cane and other undergrowth, and at this season of the year 

 full of water. After much exertion and no little wading, 

 my companion and I reached the pond, and fouud there a 

 great many ducks and a few geese. As the day was warm 

 and calm the birds were exceedingly wild, especially the 

 geese, which flew at our approach and did not return during 

 the afternoon. 



After a long search wo found a small and crazy batteau, 

 half full of water. Bailiug this out, we embarked on the 

 pond ; but, fearing on upset, 1 left the boat and ensconced 

 myself among three huge cypresses that grew out of the 

 pond with their conical trunks nearly touching; These trees 

 made an excellent blind, and there 1 remained while my 

 companion paddled away to the upper end of the pond and 

 concealed himself among the grass and weeds. In a short 

 time the ducks began to return, singly and in small flocks, 

 Offering several close shots, and leaving some of their num- 

 ber floating quietly on the Water. Although the trees af- 

 forded perfect concealment, their thick tops interfered great- 

 ly with my aim, causing me to lose some excellent shots. 

 Calling to my companion 1 got him to land me upon a fallen 

 tree, on which I found a rude blind constructed of bark and 

 grass. Here I had very fair shooting until about sundown, 

 when the ducks ceased to come. Just after sundown a lorae 

 flock of turkeys flew up into the high trees in the upper end 

 of the pond, where, I Suppose, they are accustomed to pass 

 the nights 



My companion, hearing the noise made by their flight, 

 came up after mc, and, colleetuig the ducks I had killed, we 

 started in the batteau to approach the turkeys. So alert were 

 these cautious birds I hat. even the slight noise made by our 

 light craft was sufficient to alarm them, aud they flew away 

 into the high timbers toward the river. On our attempting 

 to follow them we became entangled amongthe vines, brush 

 and cypress kness, and it was dark before, after much hard 

 work'and several narrow escapes from capsizing, we at last 

 reached the shore of the pond directly opposite our road 

 home. Now we commenced to pay for our sport, and were 

 not long in realizing the truth of the old adage of the rose 

 and its thorns. Our path homeward led " thorough brush, 



on slimy and treacherous 

 icp in mud and tangled 

 ■re serenaded by the de- 

 ducks we were carrying 

 wciirht, and when at last 

 rand saw the lights of the 

 we were glad enough to 

 id after a few 



thorough brier," across dark slo 

 foot-logs, through slashes knee d 

 grass, and our uncertain steps w 

 moniac hooting of owls. The 

 seemed momentarily to increase in 

 we emerged on the bank of the riv< 

 village shining bright on the bluff, 

 rest. The passage over was aooj 



minutes more I was at home, divested of my dripping shoot- 

 ing togs, clad in warm dressing-gown and comfortable slip- 

 pers, and seated before a blazing -wood fire enjoying a hearty 

 meal. Wonderful is the spell that the chaste. Diana throws 

 over ber worshipers. In a few moments the leaky boat, 

 the clinging vines, the protruding kness of the ghostly cy- 

 presses, the deep mud and treacherous logs, faded from 

 memory, and instead came pleasing visions of the swift flight 

 and folding wings of the wary fowl, and the abrupt Splash 

 which followed the loud report, of my trusty gun. Will. 



•ap 



California. — At the last session of the California State 

 Legislature an amendment to the game law was passed 

 tail. This aiuend- 

 e capture of small 

 ates, but that is a 

 Otliei .States much 

 liu California. 



i, net, pound, 

 , or any per- 



ave in his or 

 e that have been 



making it a misdemeanor 

 ment if. enforced will of course prevent, in 

 lots of quail for shipment to the other St 

 mattei that will interest the residents of 

 more than the friends of game preservalioi 



The following is the text of the aniendir 



"Any person or persons who si isj] at an 

 weir, cage or trap any quail, partridge, or § 

 son or persons who shall sell orgi [WSJ 

 their possession any quail, partridge .,, _,■ 

 scared, captured or taken, in or by means of any net, pound, 

 weir, cage or trap, is guilty of a misdemanor." 



Connecticut.— Quail, which were very plenty last season, 

 have all vanished. Friends and myself kept feeding differ- 

 ent flocks at various places, but one terrible snowstorm 

 settled that business as the snow was so deep it became im- 

 possible to go to the places where they lived. Of the six 

 flocks of which I knew, only one is left. About eighteen 

 or twenty birds in it. Spring birds have begun to arrive.— 

 F. K. 



The vigor ot youth tor the aged ana Infirm In Hop Bitters. 



