Feb 22. JRS3. ] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



69 



ASLEEP AT HIS POST.-Dhawn 



SUMMER SHOOTING. 



•'Hear tilt Other snip.' says the pniverb. — " CVeri'mx. " 

 Editnr Forest ami fjtrmttll 



"Clericus." in Ilia article on "Summer Shooting," in your 

 issue of Fein-miry 13. laments the restrictions cruelly put on 

 certain Iniinan beings nailed "brain-workers." These poor 

 creatures, as he groups them, are clergymen, college pro- 

 fessors, school teachers, lawyers, actors, artists of all kinds, 

 and die "physicians at least of the wealthy classes." 

 [Hera many "classes" haye we in this republic?] This list 

 excludes engineers, whether military, mining, mechanical, 

 or eivil, that is if the last named do not meddle with the 

 architects; sea-fanug men. baggage-masters, officers of the 

 army, telegraph operators, foreigu ministers, street-ear 

 drivers, dentists, hotel clerks, members of Congress, dealers 

 in fishvug tackle, officers of the internal revenue service and 

 plumbers and pawnbrokers and a few other "classes." 



Finding myself in the smaller and more exclusive class, I 

 feel privileged to joiu the lament with that of "Clericus." 

 "Clericus" asks: "Now is there nothing owed to the above 

 classes?" (That's my class, you ri 

 starts right, for he puts us. /. ,., <mi 

 of tie sheet. The reader will note 

 lougs to the class containing the offk 



md the pawnbroker, i 



made in their behal 



You see h> 



class, on the Cr. sule 



that the plumber be- 



:-r of the internal rev 



",.\ re there no conces- 



" What lover of the 



3 to go to the Korth Woods if there is no chance 



rf This last lament in behalf of my class is no 



■ight, but to me reads a little ambiguous. 



e. who lias just read it, says: "It ts all clear 



means that 'Oleiicus' won't go to the woods if 



Mve nay chance. How stupid! My dear, your 



1" "No, my love, my brain is' not 



enues 



sious to 

 chase cat 

 on the dj 

 doubt all 

 My w 

 enough, 

 the deer 

 brain is 

 overworked— worse than that — I' 



vietii 



"WhaC 



my money, I hope!" No, love 



I'm the victim of the strange 



Who!!" "One 



"Oh! thai 'sail. 

 ?9 he has badly. 



He al- 



Victim' Havn't lost 



— don't! — just oue momeu 



fascination of " "Wh 



darling, of— of the. (rigger, 

 &nd that's what 'Clei icus' i 

 says it is hard to get rid < 

 encouragement for the professional 

 you know,, my dear] to gi 

 which, like sleep, 'knits up 

 balm of hurt mind* and < 

 Those are his words and h 



take to the woods' and " 



me to listen to an article yo 



Stkicam?" "On, ves, Ifor„_.. 



like yourself, my North Woods woman, my angleitrix," 



It is to me, a "brain- worker," incredible how a "Cleri- 

 ciis" could have written thai article advocating; summer 

 shooting. The close season docs not suit the time of the 

 vacation of clergymen find others. This is a reason, sufficient 

 to "Clericus," why the game laws shuuld be changed The 

 law of the laud and the law of nature are against summer 

 shooting. The game laws, after much discussion and infi- 

 nite 1 rouble, have been laid down so that, on the whole, 



the ravel'd sle 

 lief uourisher i 



knOWS. lies; 



' Mt dear, I thou 

 ad written for 



Yes, and he 



"There is no 

 '. ,-., our class, 



a recreation 

 Sve of care, is 

 n life's feast.' 

 ,ys I ought 'to 

 trht you called 



Forest ahd 



they follow the law of nature, which fixes certain times and 

 seasons for the bringing forth of young, aud for the mother's 

 care for her offspring. ' To shoot her then, in the fullness of 

 her love, aud to leave her darling to the merciless elements, 

 aud beasts of prey, or starvation, is a cruelty that no one, if 

 thoughtful, can be guilty of. This is the sentiment which 

 underlies that legislation whose intent is to protect our game 

 during the season of motherly love ami of helpless infancy. 



A. Professor'. 



MICHIGAN NOTES. 



THE wiuter ill this region has been unusually severe. 

 In December there was a depth of forty-six inches of 

 snow at oue time, and there arc now ten feet or more on the 

 around. This has no crust, but is very solid, so as to make it 

 difficult for any animal of large size to wade through it. 

 There were a good many deer liete last fall, and a number 

 were shot. I do not think many have been killed since the 

 expiration of close time, but, "a few have suffered. Those 

 ■who hunt out of season keep it quiet, as there is a strong 

 feeling among many of our hunters that the practice should 



dis 



I lei 



n, living on the, "Six 

 ur deer and has them in 

 ad the law against "hunt- 

 season. This same man 

 his turn may come again, 

 yelv enough on the first. 

 t the track of one buck. 



that on< 

 Lakejias captured three or fc 

 his barn alive. Probably he has not re 

 iugor pursuiug" these animals out of 

 ff as once fined for crust-hunti ng. aud 



The deer were, hustled about li 

 snows. I ktiew eight men to meet oi 

 and they didn't get him. cither. 



There arc uo quail neai here. Ruffed grouse have been 

 quite abundant this fall, and there are a good many winter 

 ducks in the open rivets connecting our lakes. 



Foxes are abundant, and a few are shot. No one can 

 keep hounds here, as the still-hunters always shoot them. 



Two or three bears were shot this season; one of them 

 was pursued one day by se 

 covering a few hundred ac 

 they g;ive it up at night, and 

 Next day an old hunter went 



.■n hunters through a swamp 

 K, The snow was deep and 

 rent to bed. So did the bear. 

 ilone and shot him. 

 weeks interested in the gambols of 

 and about the open water at the head 

 river which empties therein. The 

 jo years ago, and although the crea- 

 rere often seen within a few rods of the bridge, 1 do 

 nk that any of them were injured during their stay. 

 Some of the boys tried to shoot them; but you know their 

 guns generally miss or "hang fire." One of them, ihow- 

 ever (not tlie'boys, but the otters), probably owed its, ifcto 

 the courtesy of one of our best shots and hunters, who had 

 his carbine levelled on it at point-blank range, but. refrained 

 from starting because he knew that if killed the animal 

 would sink and be lost in the deep water. 



It has heretofore Kearny impression that otters seldom 

 remained for so long a time in one place, unless wheu the 

 young were very small, and it seems strange to me that they 

 should stay so long in sight of a village, and play about in 

 title range of a eonstauliv traveled thoroughfare." X. 



(,'k:<thal Lake, Mich,. Feb. II. 1HS3. 



We were for 

 three or fourott 

 of one lake, and i 

 same thing occurred t 

 ture 

 not 



EFFECTS OF SPRING SHOOTING. 



'"piIE sportsman that has lived in the Quaker City for the 

 1 past twenty years can note many changes that have 

 taken place in the shooting grounds in aud about Philadel- 

 phia county in that time. Where one particular spot was 

 yearly visited by snipe and a fair bag could always be 

 counted on, it has long since been deserted by the birds", and 

 they have to be sought for elsewhere. Who that lias shot 

 at all does not remember the meadows bordering Darby 

 Creek, Potts' meadows, the grounds near the Gross Keys 

 and around Captain Serrill's? All were, close to the city, 

 where ten or twelve years ago it was a poor day when 

 twelve or fifteen birds could not be killed in proper season. 

 Now a tramp over all these meadows would not start a 

 brace of snipe in the most propitious weather, unless, as il 

 was last autumn, an unaccountable flight suddenly ap- 

 peared and reminded the old stager of what had been once 

 a common occurrence, especially in the spuing. 



The writer can call to mind the daily killing in the after- 

 noon, ten years ago, of two or three brace of snipe by Mr. 

 George Twaddell and himself within the limits of "West 

 Philadelphia, not a mile from Mr. Twaddell's homestead. 

 This favorite feeding ground is now never visited by ihe 

 birds, and it is evident their numbers are yearly decreasing, 

 doubtless owing to spring shooting, which we are all guilty 

 of and which we will still indulge in so long as it is allowed 

 bylaw. 



It was common not many years ago to rind good wood- 

 cock shooting within aud but a short distance of Philadel- 

 phia. Many birds yvere killed along the Schuylkill River, 

 and almost every rivet cripple harbored a pair, and the 

 covers fringing the different creeks in Philadelphia county 

 were sure to be the home of more than one longbill. Some 

 of the Philadelphia readeis of Foiiest asd Stream can re- 

 member how they once slipped in back of Woodland's 

 Cemetery early of a July morning aud brought out two or 

 three woodcock, and can call to mind the excellent feeding 

 grounds on the Cobb Creek running at. the foot of Mb 

 Moriah enclosure. All these giounds are as they once were, 

 not a whit changed. But the birds arc not there as of yore. 

 Would it not be wise to abolish all summer woodcock shoot- 

 ing as a means to increase the number of our fall visitors? 



Bunting's thicket, long since cut down, and a growth of 

 sapling— now a wood— just .outside Philadelphia county 

 limits, on the Baltimore, turnpike, was a dozen years ago 

 regularly frequented every autumn by woodcock." Similar 

 good ground lies in the same neighborhood now, but it is 

 seldom a woodcock is found there" We are tola that the 

 main cause of this scarcity of snipe and woodcock in the 

 immediate vicinity of Philadelphia of late years may lie at 

 tributed to the increase of sportsmen, the' improvement in 

 Shotguns and to the education of the mass in shooting mailers 

 by sporting journals. All this may be true In a measure, 

 but the prime reason is the killing of migratory game birds 

 in the spring of the year Granting that sporting literature 

 le> - done its share in fosteriug a desire for field sports on the 

 part of the public, for this very reason it should advocate 

 the total stopping everywhere of all spring shooting, and 



