Forest and Stream 



A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 



NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER 13, 1883. 



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o 40 Park Row. 



forest and Stream Publishing Co, 



New York City, 



Editorial. 



Ruffed Grouse. 

 The Sportsman TouRrsT. 



The Cruise of the Sairy Gamp. 

 Natural History. 



Use of Zoological Collections. 

 Game Bag and Gun. 



In the Moose River Country. 



Breeding Quail in Confinement, 



Massachusetts Game Notes. 



Arkansas "Snipe." 



Philadelphia Notes. 



Mountain Plover. 

 Camp Fire Flickerings. 

 Sea and River Fishing. 



The Coming Tournament. 



Black Bass at St. Clair Flats. 



That Big Trout. 



A Wyoming Trouting Trip. 



Restigouche Salmon. 



Sturgeon Fisheries of New 

 Brunswick. 



ABecollei-ti"!! ..it. • ii- Chaudiere. 



Cruise of the "Blue Goose." 



Black Bass in Fox River. 

 Fishci-ltcre. 



Fish Commissioners. 

 The Kennel. 



Bench Shows and Field Trials. 



CONTENTS. 



The Kennel. 

 The Status of the Bulldog. 



'•'Ml " 'C'VV ' In.-.'. 



The London (Out ) Dog Show. 



i'og< and Critics. 



Registered Dogs. 



Manchester Dog Shos-. 



Kennel Notes. 

 Rifle and Trap Shootino. 



Muzzle vs. Breech, 



The Choice of Hunting Rifles. 



The Canadian Wimbledon. 



Expert Marksmanship. 



Range and Gallery. 



The Creedmoor Programme. 



The Trap. 



The Clay Pigeon. 

 Canoeing. 



Canoe Steering Gears. 

 Yachting. 



What Will You Call Her? 



"Therefore." 



Spinnaker Gear for a Single 

 Hander. 



Receipt for Whitening Sails. 



Hull Y. C. 



The Cobourg Matches. 



The Modern Sharpie. 

 Answers to Correspondents. 



Withits compact type and in its permanently enlarged form 

 of twenty-eight pages this journal furnishes each weeK a larger 

 amount of first-class matter relating to angling, shooting, the 

 kennel, and kindred subjects, than is contained in ail other 

 American publications put together. 



RUFFED GROUSE. 



IN many of the States it is now lawful to shoot ruffed 

 grouse, and the "roar of their quick-beating pinions," 

 and the sound of the breech-loader is heard in the land. 

 Although a large amount of tramping will be done, and a 

 large quantity of ammunition expended, there will be no 

 serious diminution of their numbers until after the frosts 

 have denuded the thickets of their foliage and the wander- 

 ing propensities of our beautiful feathered friends have be- 

 come satiated and they setttle down to quiet life in their 

 chosen retreats. Until this season arrives there is not much 

 of genuine sport in their pursuit, although occasionally, 

 under favorable circumstances, there will be exceptions to 

 this rule, when the ardent sportsman will be given a fore- 

 taste of the royal sport that can only be enjoyed to the full 

 in its proper season. 



A very large proportion of the grouse hunting in September 

 and October is done by the tyro, who manages somehow to 

 bag or drive away most of the birds that are to be found in 

 the easy places, and just as the proper season commences he 

 becomes disheartened at the apparent scarcity of birds and 

 retires from the field, not more than half satisfied with his 

 success as a sportsman, and thoroughly convinced that, 

 so far as the pleasure of grouse hunting is concerned, a vast 

 deal more than the truth has been told. His lack of suc- 

 cess, and the disappointment which naturally follows, are 

 owing mainly to a lack of knowledge of the habits and 

 peculiarities of these shy birds, and to the fact that his ex- 

 perience with them has been just at the time when their 

 habits and peculiarities could be observed to the least ad- 

 vantage. The weary tramping in the sweltering heat, as 

 well as the many discomforts attending the exploration of 

 the tangled thickets at this season of the year, also play no 

 unimportant part in producing this result. 



When the novice, lamenting the scarcity of the birds, and 

 inveighing against their wildness, closes his campaign, the 

 veteran "girds up his loins;" and, with joyful anticipations 

 of glorious sport, seeks the well-known haunts of his dearly 

 beloved favorites, and with consummate skill and tire- 

 less patience forces from the innermost recesses of stately 

 forest and tangled copse their brightest treasures, and wins 

 them for his own. The preternatural wisdom— miscalled 

 wildncss— displayed by these crafty birds, affords a relish 

 and gives a zest to their pursuit, and is to him a source of 

 ever increasing pleasure and admiration. Not by him are 

 the dead bodies of the victims of his skill taken 

 into account while summing up the results of the 

 day; far nobler thoughts light up the eye and inspire 

 the smile that chases the wrinkles from his brow as, "in 

 slippered ease," he fondly strokes the head of the loved com- 

 panion of his sports, while he reviews the incidents of the day. 

 Again he basks in the bright, sunshine of the pleasant glades 

 and strolls among the dark shadows of the grand old woods; 

 again, with "feasting eyes and swelling heart," he treads 

 amid the majestic charms of the everlasting hills; again, with 

 buoyant step and quickening pulse, he follows the wily 

 patriarch to his most secret retreat; and as the incidents of 

 the day thus pass in review before him, come priceless mem- 

 ories of other days of rarest sport to join his newest treas- 

 ures, thus crowning his restful hour with a halo of delight- 

 ful recollections that he would not exchange for a kingdom. 

 The poet who wrote of — 



"Drear November's chilling blasts," 

 we venture to say was not a grouse hunter, for it is during 

 this much maligned month that the adept in this royal sport 

 finds the most enjoyment in ruffed grouse shooting. Were 

 the pursuit of this magnificent bird restricted to this month a 

 far greater amount of sport would be realized by the new be- 

 ginner as well as by the adept, and soon, with the protection 

 thus afforded, many a former haunt of the grouse that now 

 is desolate would teem with countless numbers of this, ' 'the 

 best game bird in the world. " 



There are so many varying circumstances constantly aris- 

 ing when one is in pursuit of the ruffed grouse, that it is 

 next to impossible to give to the beginner much advice that 

 will be of practical benefit to him. A few hints, however, 

 may prove of service. Birds that have been frequently dis- 

 turbed by the hunter become shy and wary and are very 

 prone to take flight as soon as they discover the least sign of 

 danger. There is nothing that w ill startle them more quickly 

 than the sound of the human voice; and one of the first lessons 

 to learn then is to keep absolute silence, so far as the voice 

 is concerned, when in their vicinity. Upon the other hand 

 the noise of approaching footsteps frequently does not seem 

 to alarm them, provided the hunter keeps moving and 

 does not undertake to stealthily creep upon them 

 when they are lying to the dog. We have always 

 found that we could get to closer quarters when in pursuit 

 of these wary birds by advancing boldly with even stride, 

 and without the slightest halt, not directly toward their sup 

 posed hiding places, but in a direction that would lead them 

 to imagine that we were to pass them by; and always taking 

 care to go between them and the direction in which they 

 would naturally endeavor to escape. It is also of vital import 

 ance that you at once follow up your birds and keep then 

 moving, until, finding that they cannot evade your pursuit, 

 they crouch and seek to escape by allowing you to pass by. 

 You will find that a light gun and ordinary charges will 

 prove more satisfactory than a heavy weapon and loads that 

 cause unpleasant recoil. We always use, in a 12-bore gun, 

 3 drs. of good powder, } oz. of No. 10 shot for the first 

 barrel, and a scant ounce of No. 8 for the other. To 

 bring down the hurtling grouse in his arrowy flight at 

 three-fourths of all fair shots is an achievement of 

 which any one may well be proud; but far greater 

 skill may you boast when you can "with eye of faith and 

 finger of instinct" "cut loose" at every one that rises with- 

 in shooting distance and score one-half. Words and sen- 

 tences, no matter how well chosen and smoothly turned, 

 would be poweiless to give you this proficiency, nor is there 

 any written formula by which you can learn to tell at a 

 glance just where to place yourself while your companion 

 flushes the bird. It is only by close and intelligent obser- 

 vation, and long practice, that you may know the how, the 

 where and the when to work the different coverts upon 

 different days, and the different times of the day; and it is 

 alone by great perseverance and long experience, coupled 

 with natural tact and love for the sport, that you can hope 

 to be initiated into the mysteries, which are revealed only 

 to masters of the craft. 



Professional Men* and Game. — It is a most mortifying 

 and disheartening fact that among the summer visitors in 

 the Maine woods detected in breaking the game laws there 

 are many individuals of high professional standing, men 

 who occupy a recognized place in the community where 

 they live, persons of influence, leading citizens. They are 

 the persons whom we should expect to be most careful of 

 their good fame, solicitous to conduct themselves as gentle- 

 men and law-respecting citizens; wary of giving offense by 

 a bad example. But if, on the contrary, such men of learn- 

 ing, culture and influence persist in ignoring both the irre= 

 vocable laws of nature and the explicit statutes of the State, 

 what are we to expect from others in humbler walks of life? 

 We allude to the matter just now, because in New England 

 wide attention has recently been directed to an accident by 

 which a professor in a Massachusetts college lost his life. 

 With a Connecticut clergyman and another companion, 

 whose profession is not given— presumably a lawyer— he was 

 hunting Maine caribou in August (the law forbids it before 

 October). In reaching for his gun to shoot the game, he 

 accidentally shot and killed himself. 



Is It Good Evidence?— The citizens of Mount Vernon, 

 having been annoyed by the hordes of curs of low degree 

 which nightly bay the moon, the offending dogs and their 

 owners have been brought into court, Justice Weeks pre- 

 siding and meting out due punishment. It is reported that 

 "after a number of complaints had been lodged against per' 

 sons who said they were not the owners of offending dogs, 

 the justice took the evidence of Chief of Police Sternhagen, 

 which was that in each case he had seen the respective dogs 

 follow the respective defendants. The court decided that it 



as good evidence of ownership for a dog to be seen to fol 

 low a man, and impose 1 flues accordingly." Though best, 

 tatfhg to dissent from the opinion of so high a judicial 

 authority as the Mount Vernon justice, we think it quite 

 possible to conceive of certain instances where the mere act 

 of following could not be construed as implying possession. 

 For example, the scene a pear orchard, the follower a bull- 

 dog of ferocious aspect, the followee a small boy, making 

 for the picket fence. Would the court hold that the boy was 

 seized or possessed of the bulldog? 



Spare the Swallows. — The milliners now demand the 

 breasts and wings of swallows for decorating ladies' hats. 

 To supply the call thousands of these birds are killed by 

 agents of the millinery taxidermists. The birds that nest 

 under the eaves or fly in at the diamond-shaped swallow 

 hole, ought not to be sacrificed to this new whim of woman. 

 Spare the swallows. Their companionship about the barn is 

 something — it ought to be worth more than the lucre to the 

 fellow who shoots them for gain. If sentiment has no re- 

 straining influence there are other considerations; the swal- 

 lows are insectivorous; their value as destroyers of noxious 

 insects cannot be estimated. The farmer cannot afford to 

 have his fleet-wingedjallies destroyed.by the shiftless ne'er-do- 

 well who shoots them for gain. The laws forbid the killing 

 of insectivorous birds; let the laws be enforced. There are 

 many honest ways to earn a living in this country; shooting 

 barn swallows foi millinery shops is not one them. 



The Shore Bird Shooting of 1883 has been miserably 

 meagre. The flights were not heavy, the birds "were up to 

 snuff." and the bags ridiculously small. Disappointed 

 gunners are ready with all sorts of plausible explanations of 

 the deterioration of their favorite sport. The summer beach 

 hotel, the reclamation of waste lands, the Labrador egg col- 

 lectors, and various other agencies are recited ; and against 

 these they inveigh most vehemently, while all hands blaze 

 away at the birds in spring, and again on the southward 

 flight. It never occurs to any one, however, that the axio- 

 matic truth "you cannot eat your cake and have it too" ap- 

 plies to bird shooting. Until spring shooting is abolished 

 there will be no arresting the steady decrease of the migra- 

 tory birds. We commend that proposition to the sober con- 

 sideration of shore bird gunners. 



Fishing Trips sometimes have tragic endings. A Con- 

 necticut man on his return from a sea fishing excursion the 

 other day was met on his return by the intelligence that his 

 daughter had been murdered. He fell in a fainting fit upon 

 the deck. 



Dogs' Fdnerals.— Costly and elaborate funerals are 

 given to pet dogs. This custom, which is growing, is 

 most disgusting. Common sense should come to the rescue 

 of such sickly sentimentality. 



