THE AMERICAN ^SPORTSMAN^S JOURNAL. 



LBntered According to Act of Con^rress, in the year 1879, by the Forest and Stream PiibUshlng Company. In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington 



NEW YORK, THURSDAY. SEPT. 2, 1880. 



CONTENTS. 



Editoriax;— 

 Anonymous Letters ; Germans at the Butts ; TBe Coming 

 Field Trials ; Mr. Ober's Return ; John W. Lon^ 83 



Tht3 Sportsman Tourist :— 

 liough Notes from tlie Woods ; Camp Cream O 'Tartar 84 



NATtrBAL HlSTORY:— 



The American ABsociation Meeting; A Tripartite Contest ; 

 Kingbirds Catch Fish ; A Conundrum ; Crows «8 Fruit 

 Thieves; Unlucky Crow 85 



Fish Ctn,TtmB :— 

 The First Decade of the United States Fish Commission ... 85 



Sea ASd HrvER FTSHI^-c ;- 

 How Birds Destrfiy .Fiisli ; Salmon of the Pacific Coast; Bass 

 in Vermont; Bass and Pike Peroli in the Susquehanna ; 

 Big Brook Trout; St. Clair Fiats ; Notes 87 



Gamb Bag and Gtrs :— 

 Chicken Shooting in August; Field Sports in Minnesota; 

 iVllgratory Quail Returned ; Do it Now ; More Evidence 

 Against tlie Cat ; Another Woodchuck Blunderer; Louis- 

 iana ; Bear Lake Shooting Club; Something Wrong with 

 the Game Laws ; Follow it Up : Notes ; Shooting Matches. 87 



The KENNEt, :— 

 Pennsylrania State Field Trials; Plaiu Words about Dog 

 Murderers; Of EngUshe Dogges; Eastern Field Trials; 

 The Field Trials Rules Discussed ; Kennel Notes 89 



Thb KllTLE :— 

 Ontario RiHe Assoeiatlou ; Range and Gallery ; The Mug- 

 hunters' Champion 93 



Archerv:— 

 The Private Practice Club m 



Cricket:— 

 Matches ; News Notes 94 



Yachting and Cakobino:— 

 ■ After the Battle ; Hull Yacht Club ; Yachting News ; About 

 Catamarans 95 



Answers to Correspondents 96 



PuBMSHEHS* Department 89 



J^or advertising rates, instructions to correspondents, 

 etc., see prospectus at end of reading matter. 



Forest @)Stre 



AM, 



NEW YORK, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 1880, 



Anontmods Letters.— There is one form of epistle 

 frequently received in all newspaper offices to which, be- 

 sides a cursory glance and a toss into the waste basket, 

 no further thought is ever given. If these letters, which 

 usually come signed "A Reader," "Truth," or perhaps 

 by the dishonestly assumed title of some organization, 

 ai'e full of petty spite, immeiited personal abuse, insinua- 

 tions, inuendoes, hints, vituperations, tlireats and stage 

 fury, they are apt to provoke a laugh or an impatient 

 grimace, according to the mood of tlie recipient, but be- 

 yond this— nothing. An anonymous letter intended for 

 publication may be, if it finds its way into print, either 

 contemptibly ridiculous or cowardly and mean. Con- 

 signed to the waste basket, it can be neither ; and such 

 is the fate of ail such letters which come to the Forest 

 AND Stream, even when their peculiarities of handwrit- 

 ing disclose their authorship. The individual who pens 

 abusive letters and sends them to tliis office anonymously 

 is simply wasting time, ink, paper, postage and, let lis 

 hope, is sacrificing self-respect. 



Germans at the Bctts.— The New York Schuetzen 

 Corps, Major George Aery, captain, will hold theii- annual 

 fall festival at Thompson's PaviUon, at the Highlands of 

 Navesink, on the 14th and 15th of September. Special 

 arrangements have been made for the transportation and 

 hotel accommodation of the entire corps, with their in- 

 vited guests. The interesting features this year will be 

 oflE-hand shooting, as usual, and prize bowling by ladies, 

 none but those accompanying the members of the asso- 

 ciation being allowed to compete. There will be a ball 

 the first evening, and an exctirsion and a fishing match for 

 the ladies the next morning. 



THE COMING FIELD TRIALS. 



FROM the inauguration of field trials in America, at 

 Memphis, Tenn. , in October, 1S74, up to this date, 

 this mode of practically testing what a dog really is at 

 bottom has steadily been gaining favor in the eyes of the 

 American breeder and sportsman. In this, and in last 

 week's issue, the Forest and Stream contains a list of 

 the comingautumnal fixtures, the official programmes of 

 each event, the data of management, and the rules by 

 vyhich each trial is to be governed and under which it is 

 to be run. We have published these in full, acknowledg- 

 ing their great necessity and confidently expecting that 

 the growing interest will increase until we shafi .see evei-y 

 State in the Union have its own field trials club and its 

 annual competitions. Meetings of this kind are of para- 

 mount importance, not only as a means of bringing our 

 sportsmen into contact, thus affording an opportunity for 

 them to compare notes, and from their experience im- 

 prove their breeds, but also as opening a way to infuse a 

 gi-eater admiration for the noblest and most inteUigent 

 of all dumb animals. Rightly conducted, field trials can- 

 not but tend to raise the standard of the sport of shoot- 

 ing game birds, and greatly to increase the number of 

 well-broken dogs. A perusal of the rules of both the 

 National American Kennel Club and the Eastern Field 

 Trials Club shows us that several of them have not been 

 drawn up as carefully as we would wish to see. One in 

 particular does not meet our views. We refer, to the in- 

 struction to .judges on the subject of chasing. We con- 

 sider this so grievous a fault tliat the dog so ott'ending 

 should be instantly disqualified as unworthy of a place in 

 tlie competition. As dogs, and particularly young ones, 

 are imitative, it can be readily seen what a deal of harm 

 such a bad example might produce. We would not shoot 

 in the field with a man who owned a brute that ran his 

 birds. Evil communications, certainly in dog flesh, as 

 among men, are quite sure to corrupt good manners. 



No laws for competitions of this kind can be too fully 

 or plainly expressed. They should be explicit and admit 

 of but one construction. The success of eveiy enterpyise 

 depends upon the straightforwardness and intelligence 

 by which it is run. Indefinite rules, framed carelessly, 

 even by inadvertence, are Uable to be twisted by inter- 

 ested parties so that they shall seem to mean the very op- 

 posite of what is intended. Dissension and cavil rob all 

 true sport of its pleasm-es, and disgust all men of gentle- 

 manly instincts. Wherever competitions of any kind take 

 place there have been since the world began men who can- 

 not take a beating in a manly way : and occasionally per- 

 sons are met with who would resort to any means to 

 bring about their o^vn desired results. If they cannot 

 winjthey do not wish to see their neighbors do so. 



As a protection for tlie judges, the laws and instruc- 

 tions should be clearly given, and it wiU cause the gen- 

 tlemen who accept the onerous office much trouble if 

 they are not. Fortunately the selection of judges thus 

 far has been most excellent, and we cannot let this op- 

 portunity pass without congratulating the committees we 

 have heard from on their tact and the soundness of their 

 choice, and their good fortime in having these gentlemen 

 accept. As long as such men as Messrs. Morf ord and 

 Wilson, Capt. Henry and Dr. Twaddell are found to the 

 fore, there need be no fear but what every owner will 

 get his dues. 



Mr. Ober's Return.— Mr, Frederick A. Ober (Fred 

 Beverly) arrived in this city, from St. Thomas, last Fri- 

 day. Mr. Ober began his ornithological explorations of 

 the Lesser Antilles in 1876 under the auspices of the 

 Smithsonian Institution, and was engaged in them two 

 years, when, the funds giving out, he was obliged to re- 

 turn, with the work unfinished. The great success of 

 tills mission in a scientific way (twenty new birds having 

 been discovered and a vast amotmt of information re- 

 specting the islands having been obtained) impelled Mr. 

 Ober to return and complete a work so auspiciously 

 begun. But a few islands of the chain remained unex- 

 plored, and a few hvmdred dollars would have been suffi- 

 cient to complete the survey. Even this small amount 



the Smithsonian was unable to advance, and conse- 

 quently Mr. Ober went^out, at his own expense, to finish 

 a work which should have been accomplished by aid 

 from English or American scientific societies. 



The result has been highly satisfactory, as several new 

 birds have been discovered, much new information elic- 

 ited regarding the topography of the islands, as well as 

 the fauna, and the scientific world is to be, for the ffi-st 

 time, put in possession of a complete history of the birds 

 of the Lesser Antilles. The catalogues of the birds of 

 each island will be published in the " Smithsonian Re- 

 ports," supplementing the other various catalogues pub- 

 lished two and three years ago. Mr. Ober has with him 

 a live specimen of the great imperial parrot, inhabiting 

 only a single island iu the Antillean chain, and known 

 nowhare else in the world. He sent, three years ago, 

 the first skins of this bird that ever reached the United 

 States, and now brings the first specimen afive. He has 

 also a pair of agoutis — animals peculiar to South Am- 

 erica and the West Indies — and a monkey, peculiar to 

 one of the islands, about which the naturalists are in 

 doubt — as to the species — whether it is an inhabitant of 

 the new world, or was introduced from Africa. 



Tlus question, as well as many other curious and inter- 

 esting problems that have vexed our scientists for years, 

 will be settled by the specimens now in possession fof 

 Mr. Ober. He has visited every island between Porto 

 Rico and Trinidad, and among other recent visits has 

 paid one to the famous BoiUng Lake of Dominica, which 

 surprised the inhabitants of that island last January by 

 an eruption of hot water, mud and stones. In the inter- 

 val between his two exploring trips Mr. Ober wrote a book 

 describing his adventtires in the forests of the Caribbean 

 Islands. This book was published by Messrs. Lee & Shep- 

 ard, Boston, and has since appeared in England, meet- 

 ing with a good reception on both sides the Atlantic. 

 Having made engagements to lecture this winter, he re- 

 turns to fulfill those engagements and to write out the 

 further adventures of his recent trip. 



Pacific Coast Fishes.— The west end of the United 

 States Fish Commission, composed of Prof. D. S. Jordan 

 and Mr. C. H. Gilbert, are; actively at work. They have 

 made stations for collection and study of fishes at San 

 Diego, San Pedro, .Santa Barbara, Monterey and San 

 Francisco. Twenty-eight species, new to science, have 

 been introduced into the system thus far by them, viz. : 

 h.9aiB.(_Aphoristia) ; a flounder {PleuronichtliAjii), and two 

 new genera of flounders. A new ray (Baia) ; a sting-ray 

 (Dasybatis) ; a ray of a Chinese genus {Platyrvhina), and 

 a ray of a new genus ; two new Enibiotocoids (genera 

 Abeona and Braohyistius) ; three new bleunies {Xi^yhis- 

 ter — two species ; Apodichthys, one) ; a new Agonus, and 

 a new deep water fish, which, with one previously de- 

 scribed by Mr. Lockington, seems to constitute a new 

 family (Icosteidce), and, finally, no less than thirteen new 

 species of the "rock fish," genus Sebastichthys. These, 

 with the twelve species previously known, are now all 

 brought into the San Francisco markets with more or 

 less frequency. Most of the new species are from deep 

 water, and were not in the markets in Dr. Ayres' time, 

 twenty years ago, since which time no one has atten- 

 tively studied this group on our coast. 



Numerous species known from further south have 

 been added to the United States fauna. Notable among 

 these are eight sharks : the great basking shark (Ceto- 

 rhtnus) ; the man-eater (Careharodon) ; the tiger shark 

 (Oaleooei-do) ; the mackerel shark (i.stw«s) ; the swelling 

 shark {Cephaloscyllium) ; the horned shark (Pleurocro- 

 inylon) ; the blue shark (Carcluirinus) ; and the oil sha.rk 

 (Galeorhiivus). 



Joseph W. Lono.— Joseph W. Long, the author of 

 "American WUd Fowl Shooting," died recently at Osce- 

 ola, Nev. Mr. Long was well known as a practical gunner, 

 and liis book holds a deservedly higli place among the 

 few books of sport that are really worth anything. 



—The very interesting review of the work of the Fish 

 Commission wUI repay a careful perusal. It is a good 

 Bhowing of results. 



