Forest and Stream. 



A Weekly Jouknal of the Rod and Gun. 



NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER 20, 1883. 



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CONTENTS. 



Trap and Field Shooting. 



Kastern Field Trials. 

 7 . e Sportsman Tourist. 



A Disappointment and a Joy. 



Cruise of the Sairy Gamp.— v. 



Spare the Swallows. 

 Natural History. 



The Fangs of Serpents. 



The Birds of Maine. 



The Cai-tus of Sonora. 

 Game Bag and Gun. 



The Kennel. 



Field Trials. 



Show Experience. 



The Great Dane Club. 



The Leonberg Dog Marco. 



The Bulldog. 



Montreal Dog Show. 



Kennel Management. 



Kennel Notes. 

 Rifle and Trap Shooting. 



II. I 1 . "i I J ' ■! .'Ml. 



The Clav Pigeon Tournament. 

 Range and Gallery. 



Philadelphia Notes. 



Hi. its tor a Winter's Trapping. 



The Outlook in Vermont. 



Black Squirrels for DetroiteiS. 



Shooting in jlexico. 



The Slaughter of Sea Gulls. 

 Sea and River Fishing. 



Rod Fishing for Tarpom. 



Starvation Camp. 



Pound Nets versus Seines. 



The National Rod and Reel As- 

 t-ociation. 

 Ftshcclture. 



'J lif PemjM-h-.iui.-j Coiuijiissiiiii. 



The Sunfish Question. 

 The Kennel. 



Bench Shows and Field Trials. 



Springfield Dog Show. 



Bench Shows in England. 



Watertight Compartments. 



New York Canoe Club. 



Canoeists' Saturdav Night. 

 Yachting. 



Toronto Y. C. 



Once More the Sad Sea Dog. 



A Well-Planned Catboat. 



Tne Speed of Yachts. 



Nothing Like Experience. 



Atlantic Y. C. 



Royal Canadian Y. C. 



"Therefore." 



Catboats. 



Shadow and Maggie. 



Beverly Y. C. 



A Yachtsman on a Coaster 

 Answers to Correspondents. 



With its compact type and in its permanently enlarged form 

 of twenty-eight pages this journal fiu-a ishes each ivecK a larger 

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

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

 American publications put together. 



EASTERN FIELD TRIALS. 



THE fifth annual meeting of the Eastern Field Trials Club 

 to be held at High Point next November, promises to 

 be the most important and interesting that has yet been held. 

 Many of the best field performers in the country -will be 

 present, and the "battle of the giants" will be worth going 

 a long distance to witness. Birds are unusually plenty upon 

 the grounds leased by the club, and they will be strictly 

 preserved. Many well-known sportsmen from all parts of 

 the country have signified their intention to be present, and 

 the gathering will undoubtedly be the most notable that we 

 have -yet seen. Nearly all of the handlers who have made 

 their appearance iu public will be there, and the exhibition 

 of talent displayed in working the dogs will well repay 

 the spectator for his time and trouble iu attending the 

 trials. 



The executive ability of the gentlemen comprising the 

 club gives ample assurance that nothing will be left undone 

 that will minister to the pleasure and comfort of their guests. 

 To the liberal prizes offered by the association several valu- 

 able specials have been added, and besides the honor and 

 fame, the winners will receive substantial tokens of their 

 victory. The club has been very fortunate in securing for 

 judges the services of gentlemen so thoroughly well quali- 

 fied for the position as Messrs, Adams, Bergundthal and 

 Wilson. All of them are practical sportsmen, with many 

 years' experience in the field, and all have acceptably per- 

 formed the duties of judge at some of our most important 

 meetings, and are possessed of a thorough knowledge of the 

 requirements of a field trial. 



The list of entries for the Derby contains the names of 



representatives of nearly all of the best pointer and setter 

 blood known to the world, and the contest for supremacy 

 will be watched with absorbing interest. The Members' 

 Stake, from all that we can learn, will be the most interest- 

 ing event of the kind that has been provided. As we have 

 often said, this should be the most important feature of the 

 meeting, and we heartily congratulate the club upon the 

 enthusiasm of its members with regard to this stake. The 

 All-Aged Stake will undoubtedly bring out the finest field 

 of dogs that were ever seen together, and the spectator who 

 is endowed with perceptions that enable him to enjoy the 

 beauties and excellence of the many fine performances that 

 arc constantly occurring, will enjoy a feast that he will long 

 remember. 



TRAP AND FIELD SHOOTING. 



/"VNE October day some years ago we went out woodcock 

 ^— ' shooting with a New York business man. Our compan- 

 ion had spent much time in practice with his gun at flying 

 targets, such as stones, apples and potatoes, thrown from 

 the hand — for it was before the day of glass ball traps — and 

 in this style of shooting he had acquired much skill. Aside 

 from the professional shooters like Carver, we have never 

 seen his superior. To place his gun on the ground behind 

 him, throw an apple into the air, turn and seize his gun, and 

 then wheel and shoot the appple before it fell to the ground, 

 was for him the simplest child's play. 



AVhen we had reached the cover and the dog came to a 

 point, the New Yorker being the guest, was given the first 

 shot. The bird flushed and he missed it "clean" with both 

 barrels. He missed the second bird, and the third, and 

 fourth, and fifth, and sixth. Then he owned up that he had 

 never before shot at a bird in the field. A few more trials 

 convinced him that the proper thing was to go home, and 

 he accordingly went. 



This shows that a very good shot may be a very poor 

 shot. It partially answers the question which has been 

 raised of the utility of trap-shooting as a preparation for 

 field work. A recent objection made in these columns to 

 clay pigeon shooting was that it did not make one a crack 

 field shot. Certainly it does not ; nothing but actual expe- 

 rience with the real birds ever can do so. On the other 

 hand, the discipline of trap-shooting will accomplish a vast 

 deal toward the acquirement of such skill, for it accus- 

 toms the shooter to the handling of his gun, teaches him 

 how to bring it to the shoulder, how to hold on and ahead, 

 and when and how to shoot. This is all so much drill which 

 will surely tell when he goes into the field. By it he is put 

 just so far ahead of the novice who has never handled a gun 

 at all. 



A medal won in trap-shooting, however, will not necessa- 

 rily serve as a prophylactic agaiust the nervous excitement to 

 which most gunners are subject when they for the first time 

 walk up to a bird in the field. No matter how cool, calm 

 and collected he may have been when shooting off ties for 

 first,;iie will be flustered when he now hears the first whirr 

 of the game. So in rifle-shooting; practice at the target will 

 teach a man very much, but he may expect to go through 

 the "buck fever" before he brings down meat. 



A man may excel in trap-shooting and yet never become 

 anything of a field shot; it is not in him. There arc men 

 whom neither trap work nor field work can ever make crack 

 field shots. We have frequently been out shooting with a 

 friend, whose company we value most highly; lie has a large 

 fund of woodcraft, is a close observer, and as full of ardor 

 as any sportsman we ever knew. He has followed the dogs 

 day in and day out, tramped hundreds of miles in pursuit of 

 woodcock, grouse and quail; fired no one knows how many 

 thousands of shots at the birds. The total amount of game 

 actually brought to bag by him in the last ten years com- 

 prises two ruffed grouse and one woodcock — and there is 

 every reason to believe that the grouse were killed by acci- 

 dent. As a field shot this man is a vc'ritable, incorrigible 

 "duffer." But at the traps he can break ten glass balls 

 straight, or kill the live birds sprung from a trap as often as 

 any other gunner in his vicinity. 



It is also noticeable that some very good field shots have 

 but indifferent success at the traps, they never win a match, 

 and their clumsy misses usually means defeat for the side 

 which is so unfortunate as to claim them. 



Trap-shooting tit artificial targets has never been more pop- 

 ular in this country than it is at present. The demand for im- 

 proved implements has stimulated invention, the object being 

 to devise a target which shall imitate as closely as possible 

 the flight of the actual bud. The clay pigeon is, in this re- 

 spect, the nearest approach to nature; its flight is Hot that of 



the real bird, but resembles it so much as to answer all prac. 

 tical purposes. The shooter who is an expert with the 

 "clays." may reasonably expect, with short practice, to mak e 

 a fair field shot. 



Trap-shooting differs essentially from a tramp after birds , 

 In the one competition and rivalry are the stimulants, in the 

 other the pleasureand exhilaration of out-door surroundings. 

 But for the thousands of busy men who cannot "get away" 

 for a trip to the grouse cover, and for sport during the close 

 game season the clay pigeons afford a very fair substitute 

 for quail and woodcock. 



The Game Season. — From all quarters come very favor 

 able reports of an abundant quail supply. The birds ap- 

 pear to have nested well. In many localities, on account of 

 the drought, they have retired from their usual haunts to 

 the denser woods, but though the birds themselves are not 

 seen, their whistling is heard, and that is sufficient promise. 

 The ruffed grouse are generally in good supply, although on 

 certain grounds, where they have been plenty of late years, 

 none are found this fall. The periodical disappearance of 

 the ruffed grouse is a topic of much animated discussion. 

 Many theories are advanced to account for the fluctuations, 

 but though some of these are plausible, none of them ap- 

 pear to us wholly satisfactory. We have noted the facts for 

 forty years, but an explanation of them is yet to be found. 

 In a certain locality where the birds have been abundant, 

 the supply will begin to decrease, and in three or four years 

 the game will have become almost extinct. Then the num- 

 ber will gradually increase, and in time the shooting will be 

 good. We have heard of no especially remarkable wood- 

 cock shooting this season. The dry weather has driven 

 these long-billed favorites into closest cover, and they have 

 been difficult of discovery and approach. As noted in a 

 former issue, the shore bird shooting has practically amounted 

 to nothing. 



Tttf, Congress of Ornithologists. — The first meeting 

 of the American Ornithologists' Union will be held in the 

 lecture-room of the American Museum of Natural History, 

 New York, next Wednesday, September 26, at 11 o'clock - 

 A. M. Dr. Coues informs us that the responses to the circu- 

 lars of invitation have been prompt, cordial and unanimously 

 favorable. Though this initial meeting may not be numer- 

 ically a very large one, there is every reason to expect that 

 it will lead to the secure and successful founding of the 

 Union to the best interests of the future of ornithology in 

 America. Mr. E. P. Bicknell, No. 8 Wall street, New York, 

 is one of the committee of arrangements. 



Festive Riflemen.— The Elcho Shield, now in possession 

 of the Irish by virtue of a well-won victory at Wimbledon 

 in July last, has been making a triumphal trip from Dublin 

 to Cork. The trophy is in the custody of the municipality 

 of Dublin, and w T as loaned to the managers of the Cork ex- 

 hibition now in progress for display there. The transfer 

 took place on the 6th hist., and was made the occasion of 

 many well turned compliments from the gentlemen of the 

 Irish capital to their countrymen of the "South. Major 

 Leech was there, of course, bubbling over with honeyed 

 words and bewmiling the fact that everyone of his country- 

 men is not permitted to carry arms. 



The Fly-Casting Tocrnament, as announced iu our last 

 issue, will be held October 16 and 17, in this city. We 

 publish elsewhere the rules which will govern. Those who 

 attended the tournament last year cherish very pleasant 

 memories of the occasion, and it is hoped that the second 

 meeting will be equally enjoyable. 



The Ship Proteus, which left St. Johns, N. F., on June 

 29, to go to the relief of the Greely expedition, was crushed 

 iuthe ice near Cape Sabine, July 23. Her crew escaped by 

 the shore, and were brought back by her companion ship, 



theYanlic. 



The Adirondack Season has been an unfavorable one for 

 tourists, especially invalids, because of the great amount of 

 rainfall and the cold. 



A National Sportsmen's Association is being talked of 

 in connection with the clay pigeon tournament in Chicago 

 next year. 



