Teruin, Five Dollars a Year. 
Ten UentN a Copy. 
NEW YORK, THURSDAY, APRIL 27, 1876. U Chatham St! (CityHnll Si|r.) 
For Forest and Stream . 
)tf! = W m id golfings in 
UToit Forest asd Stream:— 
N the great Georgian anniversary I started with my 
friend L. .T. (his headless Irishman), arid Mr. J. M., 
ibe, Tip, Jim, and Cora, two ambulances, my fides acha- 
J. D., for Gray town, twenty miles south of here on the 
a Antonio. We had heard loud talk of the cranes, 
tpe, and contingent ducks and turkeys there to be seen 
d, peradveuture, to be gathered into our gamo bags, 
ie preceding day had been warm and of general 
ilian summery look. In the night the Venetians of my 
rth window began to bang and rattle. No mistake in the 
saning of that. A norther had sprung up. Wenolon- 
r felt anxious os to how our setters and Zip would stand 
: heat. Their initials wore embraced in two letters— 
I. K." As Sol Taised his upper eyelid lo see how the 
irltl was awakening, we sallied out of this ancient city of 
ny days, and were on our way to the happy hunting 
funds. I had my little Holland double rifle, and did 
(lack for targets in the shape of Mexico’s national bird 
lies m/sriemus), cf the great Texan bare (Rabbitvs jack- 
iptfs), or of that SUaksperean bird, which a knowing 
bisk prince could tell from a handsaw in certain condi- 
iis of the wind. There were prairie owl's, it discretion, 
ips that seem to have no hindrance in daylight, and 
rich would sometimes rise, a dozen at a time, from the 
squite “perrayrer.” I bowled over one of them on the 
ng with my rifle, as he sailed, as he sailed away, some 
htyor ninety yards distant, never dreaming that I had 
d about Captaiu Kidd, or that the old New Bond street 
amakev’s conical ball would catch up and overhaul him. 
Duld not make B. E. believe (as I believed) that it was a 
iitcb, in billiard parlance. He saw me cut Ibe leathers 
, of a hawk under similar circumstances, and would not 
persuaded that it was not purely intentional on my 
t. 
Ye went before the wind, and being protected by the 
;k curtain of the “avalanche,” as Monroe culls it, did not 
fer. How the poor Mexicans (Greasers) we met suffered 
feould be hard lo tell. Every beggar of them had his 
pket or poncho lightly wrapped about his noble form, 
far in as the lower edge of his nose. Whenever it 
! possible they had stopped the transportation business, 
wled under their wagons, the more quietly and com- 
lably to shiver, or else had taken out their oxen, built a 
of mesquite wood, and gone regularly into the busi- 
8 of keeping warm. It is comical to see them in our 
lets whenever what we call a bracing day comes. The 
dy and cake peddlers crawl into any chance sheltered 
k, pull up their blankets, and go into a happy state of 
pless misery. Their nature and aspiralions differ en- 
ly from ours. When we have lhatweather which makes 
seek the shady side of our streets, they are in. their glory; 
m we sniff the northern breeze, and holding up our 
lers towards Lite pole star, say, “Was I here ever such 
’oavenly climate!" the Greaser’s winter of discontent 
{Wests itself in the flesh, as he wonders at the glorious 
imer behavior of the sun of (New) York. How in his 
rt he then despises “los Gringos” it is impossible for 
pen to describe. They aTe a peculiar people, those de- 
idants of the Aztecs. As teamsters, concurrent testi¬ 
ly fully establishes their excellence and worthiness of 
it; as workmen With tools, tillers of the soil, or in the 
ftCity of servants, they are docile and industrious; as 
sc thieves, even when a little gentle murder comes in 
dy. a3 a help in their game, they are unsurpassed. 
:y subsist on nearly as little as a Digger “Injun'’ or the 
.politan Lazzaroui. It frequently 1 occurs to them to 
somebody’s cow. With the peculiar curing influence 
Ihe air of Texas nothing is easier than to have the meat 
ted by simply cutting the beef into slips and hanging 
p anywhere out of reach of carniverous critters. With 
ore of this, some red pepper and onion3, or garlic, they 
ai to he perfectly independent of our Lone Star Del- 
monicos. An easy and common means of gaining their 
weekly fifty cent? is to go off to the mesquite groves witli 
their wagon and ox team, pay $3 a load for the privilege 
of cutting, and turn their head cityward. Every night, 
should there be no rain, they make up a fire, and sleep a la 
belle etoile, turning their hobbled oxen loose to forage for a 
living. At three or four A. M., they arc up and on their 
way lo the market plaza of San Antonio, where the careful 
citizen buys thqirload for $3.50. Then the Greaser exults. 
He has done well and wisely. He is in funds, and like 
Longfellow’s blacksmith “can look llio whole world in the 
face, for he owes not any man”—perhaps! I saw one the 
other day who had just received his 350 cents. Unfortu¬ 
nately my Spanish has broken loose and got away. I could 
not catch enough of Castile lo soft soap the fellow (much 
as he needed it) and conversationally worm myself in bis 
confidence. As a rule I believe Ihe Mexicans of low de¬ 
gree cordially bale the American hidalgo. With regard to 
their morale, I fear it would be crooked truth to say that all 
their sons are brave, or that any of their daughters are 
.Maria Edgeworths. Next year I hope to converse with 
the better class in their native lingo. I wish I know it ss 
well as I know the Teuton tongue. Although I don’t speak 
that “fluidly," I can get along perfectly well in all transac¬ 
tions of business or pleasure. 
These paisanos have put me off the track of my shoot¬ 
ing narrative —Revenvns a, nos moutons! The country 
through which we wended our way was picturesque, after 
the manner of the rolling prairie I have more than once 
described. We crossed the devious stream on which we 
live, twenty miles south of the table on which I am now 
writing. The banks were very precipitous, needing not 
only strong application of llie brake to our wheels, hut 
also that L’s Irish idiot should take hold of the rear 
spokes so as to check the (ambulance’s) “avalanche’s" fall 
as much as possible. The usual flying ferry-boat landed 
U9 at Ihe foot of the other side's steep ascent. Then I lie 
only break of which wo thought was llial which might oc¬ 
cur in some part of our harness. Luckily we met with no 
mishap of that son, going or coming. Arrived at G- 
town, the very obliging tavern-keeper, merchandize!', and 
postmaster, Herr Seliute, not only directed us to the suipe 
and duck grounds, but took up Ids Ballard rifle and went 
with us, as guardian, guide, and friend- We were disap¬ 
pointed as to tlie game whereof such glowing accounts had 
been given us. Out of six discovered snipe we bagged 
five; out of a very fair number of ducks, unapproachable 
in their behavior, we only secured due, which the German 
shot, knocking off its head at a hundred yards with his 
rifle. I shot a blue-winged teal, and L. a mallard. Both 
fell into the tule grass, working retrieviogly in which was 
impossible to our setters. II. would have been tickled to 
see Ihe manner in which Jim swam out with L.’s big setter 
Tobe to the headless duck and took the bird away from the 
rival retriever; also would his muscles of appreciation have 
been brought into action had he seeu Jim repeat his per¬ 
formance of making a beautiful stand on a fresh pariridge 
as he was bringing me in one I had just killed, in his 
mouth. We had a hard night of it at Herr Schule’s. His 
pretty little wife did her best to make us comfortable. My 
bed was composed of some planks, on which a lick with 
some corn shucks was placed. This was covered with a 
much-used and most venerable cotton sheet, that by two 
time-honored blankets of dark complexion, the which had 
surely given aid and comfort to many a son of the soil. In 
justice to Mrs. S., I must not omit to state that the lace 
edging on my pillow-cuse was at least one inch and a quar¬ 
ter wide. I took off but few clothes, and by using my big 
ulster, managed to come in contacl with but little that was 
foreign, M. made us up a rousing fire of post oak and 
mesquite, and Morpheus mildly manumitted us from mis¬ 
ery. In the early morning M. had a cup of coffee that 
would not be easy to match. It was made from J. D.’s 
mocha-Jaya mixture and perfected by a big, rolling, tea¬ 
spoonful of the condensed eagle milk. This, with fried 
pig, fried eggs, and a bit of bread set us up for the day. 
We traveled slowly homo, shooting ou the way. On turn¬ 
ing out our hag after reaching the M-Hotel, our score 
was 136 partridges, o snipes, 3 doves, 3 chaparral cocks, 8 
hares, and 1 duck (gadwali). You must not forget that 
nearly all our shooting was done before noon of Tuesday 
and Wednesday. 
I regret every duy my ignorance of natural history; es¬ 
pecially did I regret it yesterday, when I took a very beau¬ 
tiful “paesano,” as the Mexicans call the chaparral cock, 
to be skinned by a Teutonic taxidermist. I mean to have 
him set up in New York. He is a carniverous chap, feed¬ 
ing on mice, moles, lizards, and small snakes. He looks 
somewhat like a pheasant, as he struts proudly along witli 
his handsome crest exalted and thin neck feathers spread 
out. His color is brownish gray, with shootings of green 
on the back and wings. Behind the ears are orange colored 
spots, about the size of a silver franc piece, denuded of 
feathers. These he conceals with the neighboring plumage, 
except when in full dress. His tail must be a foot in 
length, equaling in that dimension Ihe body. In size and 
weight he is about the equal of a curlew. M. broiled him 
nicely for our dinner, bringing 8. and me to the conviction 
that we had tasted nothing like its delicious flesh since we 
came upon the territory of Texas. I ought to tell you that 
his wings are shortish, and that he rarely flies. If you 
shouldn’t forget it, you may hear more about Senor Paesa¬ 
no from some army officer who has had a hunter's experi¬ 
ence down in these parts. 
Five R M., four hours later.—In buying a fresh newspa¬ 
per yesterday, I asked the clerk if lie could refer me to an 
ornithological account of my above-mentioned bird. Ho 
said “No, but I will try to find some one who does know.” 
Tills P. M. he showed me that the name given by my for¬ 
mer informants was pretly surely a corruption of the word. 
“Faisau,” which means pheasant. That which I have 
previously written (paesano) means “peasant”—country¬ 
man—and I was told had been given to the bird because be 
looked as though he were native and to the manor born. 
Alas! slob is tradition! So many respectable and appar¬ 
ently truthful men bud told me wrong, that I had quits ac¬ 
cepted tbeir rendering of the word. On our way we met 
many Mexicans traveling on horseback. Yery often they 
had a horse, uncaparisoned, save by a baiter; this was be¬ 
ing led in order to be used when No. 1 should show signs 
of fainting by the way. In some oases the led horse was 
horrible to behold. His back—that part on which the sad¬ 
dle is placed—was one gu at sore. Mercilessly the unfeel¬ 
ing Greaser mounts him, frequently with a heavy load, 
when the time to change has come. I passed several steeds 
so wretchedly emaciated, andsolaceraledas to their backs, 
that I felt like taking up my rifle and ending their misui- 
able career. I am sure that llenry Bergh would have jus¬ 
tified me in the act.. Now there are no flies. Conceive 
the torture of said poor beasts in sfummor when their name 
is legion. 
S. and I have just taken a walk to sec ournewly acquired 
territory. How I wish you and D. could have been along. 
At present Lhere^ is endless room for the builder, farmer, 
and landscape gardener, not to speak of him with the veget¬ 
able prefix. The aeequia or irrigating ditch runs through 
our northeast corner, and can be readily used whenever 
needed. 1 shall have some fencing to do, aud have already 
sent word to Monsieur Lacoste, that pear, plum, aud peach 
trees may he set out. Already we have pceau trees and 
figs. One of the former measures eight or nine feet in di¬ 
ameter six feet from the ground. Its spread is that of a 
giant Gin. Dr. M., ray uexL door neighbor, lias some 
twenty banana trees, which will bear this year, barring a 
killing freeze. One side Of our place has a fine hedge of 
osnge orange trees. As I came along it a covey of nearly 
twenty partridges flushed at my feet, and distributed 
.themselves on the grounds. One doesn’t have to go very 
J ar to find game, yon see. Did you ever see the Wallace 
sisters play? Mr. L. took me to the Casino last night to 
witness their performance in “Minnie's Luck.” From the 
programme I inclose you can sec wliat sort of a cast it 
was. The audience was large, select, aud enthusiastic. I 
think I have seen almost as good acting at Wallack’s in my 
