THE AMERICAN SPORTSMAN^S JOURNAL. 



[Bnwred Accoralng 1.0 Act ot Couji-css, ta tUe resn- iSM, by tUo rorefjt ana sti-L-am PuDUsWng Company, to the Office ot the Librarian of Conjjress, flt:Waelilngton.] 



NEW YORK, THURSDAY, JANUARY 6, 1881. 



CONTENTS. 



BUITOBIAL : — 



1'he Qaii Island Clnb ! The Food ol' Yoiiug I^ialies ; Hard 

 Times for tbo Quail j The V. S. Pish CoinmiBBion for 1878 ; 

 •Where We Stand...... H^ 



iHE SponTSMAJ! TouIilST :— 



The Log of the Favorite i The Mountaui Quail 414 



Natdbal HisTonr :— 

 Doal6^ticat^ng Qunil : Habits of Snakes ; Sharks Swallowing 

 Their Young : Chiclcena Hevtrtiug to a Wild State ; Cau- 

 vas-Back.^iu Rhode Island; A Three-Legged Quail; Ciui- 



ous Buck's Head 446 



Fish Cui.tuke ;— 

 The Central Fishcultural Sooietr: On the Food of Young 

 Fi-hes ."., 447 



Sh.*. ASD RlTEB FlSHISCJ :— 



Fidhiue in the Gulf Sti'eam : Pacr or Salniet ; Woodmont 



Club 448 



OAStE B.ia AND Gum :- 

 Mr. Scovol Tukes a Shot at the Gray Squirrels ; Coween 

 Shootiiig : Diieli Shooting and Game Laws in Canada ; 

 Pjnh and Game iu Teuaeseee ; lieynard's WUes : Our De- 

 troit Letter ; TUe Silver Lake Stoud : The Game Law Ee- 

 vision; Onr Philadel|ihia Letter; Jiiohi^'an Sportsmeu'a 

 Association; Indiana Quail Shooting ; Po.x Shooting ; Was 

 It a Dream ; Curritucit ; West Florida ; Notes ; Shooting 



Matches ..., 450 



The Keskel : — 

 The Cooker Club ; More About the Cocker ; It Is Fred 4th ; 

 Nat and Smut; Mr. GanFc'a l^eniiel ; The Irish Setter: 

 Dr. Lyman's Setters ; Kemie! JInnagement ; Kennel 



Notea 453 



Tbp. Rifle :— 

 The Ouji-TravelBr'a 'Dinner; Hunting EiHes; Range and 



Gallery , 456 



TAOaTl^-C. AM) r>->-OEisG :— 

 The OM America ; E.xtracta from Log of Guinevere ; Yacht- 

 ing News 457 



Pdbw.hheh'b Dep-i.kticent :— 

 Answers to CoaKESPOs^DEsrs :— 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



NEW YORK, THURSDAY, JANUARY 6, 1881. 



%* T/ie FoKEST AND Strkam goes to press Wedneadaya. 

 CorregpondenU are requested tn mail their imnmunicaUmn so 

 that they nay reach m before that day. 



The Annual Session for 1881 of the Michigan Sportenien's 

 Asaocialiou mil be held at Lansing, beginning Jan. 35. 

 ■ . '.«.—> 



It Gives Us Much Pleabuke to present to our readers this 

 ■week, from advance sheets, one of the chapters of a new 

 hook by 3Ir. T. S. Van Dyke, on sport in California. Those 

 ■who are acquainted with his numerous contributions to the 

 FoKEST AND Stkeam uced no assurance that Mr. Van Dyke 

 knows hla auljjecl, thoroughly, and the chapter published by 

 113 is sufficient earnest of a most readab e book. We shall 

 notice the volume as it deserves, immediately upon its 

 appearance. 



SqriREEL Shooting is not by any means the highest re- 

 finement of sport, but there is something about it tliat does 

 have more of a charm than any other shooting — and that is 

 the recollections it brings of the days when squirrel shoot- 

 ing, like every other sport, was the best— the days when we 

 •were boys. Something of how these memories cling iu after 

 life is shown In the pleasant letter ou the subject on an- 

 other page, written by a long-time correspondent, and one of 

 the stauudiest of the many thousands of friends of the 

 Forest and Stream. 



Tna GuLii Island Club.— With the exception of Capl. 

 Johnson, who still remains at the club house, all the members 

 of the Gull Island Club have returned from their trip to 

 Pimlico Sound. Slesars. B. Payne, Thos. Hall and Al. 

 Heritage came back a week ago ; F. Harrison and R. Hiuich 

 followed a few days later, and the rear was brought up by 

 N. E. Kaah, F. M. Thomson, E. Wright and G. B. Eaton. 

 The pleasure of the trip was somewhat marred by the tem- 

 pestuous weather which has prevailed on the Atlantic coast 

 for a fortnight past; but the Jersey boys report themselves 

 well pleiwed with their adventm'es. We have a full account 

 of the doings of the club, from the pen of "Jacobstafi," 

 which will be published next week. Messrs. N. 8. Nash, D. 

 Tolley and Al. Heritage will probably retm-n to the shooting 

 grounds ia the latter part of this month. 



THE FOOD OF YOUNG FISHES. 



WE print this week, in the proceedings of the Central 

 Fishcultural Society, a paper -with the above heading 

 from the pen of Prof. S. A. Forbes, of the Illinois State Lab- 

 oratory of Natm-al History at Normal, to which we commend 

 tlie attention of all thinking fishcultuiisla. It is not enough 

 to stock streams and lakes with fish in a promiscuous manner, 

 trusting to their getting a living " out of the water." In the 

 near future fish culture and science will go hand in hand, and 

 the flshculturist who best understands his bvisiness will be 

 he who follows up all the side branches and knows what 

 influences are brought to bear upon success, or the reverse. 



Prof. Forbes' investigations have been made in a hitherto 

 untrodden field, and if they are not complete, or if but few in- 

 dividuals of a species, genus or even family have been ex- 

 amined, it must be remembered that he has just begun. His 

 valujible work on the food of birds and insects has been 

 recognized as of value, and his work is bound to be of practi- 

 cal benefit to agriculturalists and others, as we predict it will 

 be to fishcidturists. He is not a flshculturist, nor a farmer, 

 but a man of science, pure audsmiple, who works for knowl- 

 edge for knowledge's sake, and it is for practical men to ap^ 

 ply his discoveries. He joined the flshcultm-al society merely 

 to be of use to it— it is of littleu.se to him- and we hope that 

 his work will bring him the only reward he expecta^the ap- 

 preciation of those for whom he works. 



The great struggle for existence, as all flshculturists 

 know, is iu the early life of the fish, and here Prof. Forbes 

 shows that fishes whose food is widely different in adidt life 

 feed on nearly the same food in their infantile period. Who 

 imagined that a sucker ever competed with a gar for its food ? 

 And yet it seems that the young gar feeds upon those bug or 

 shrimp-like forms upon which the adult sucker lives. And 

 so with other fishes of whom some have said their presence 

 does no harm, but which, from the light shed by the paper in 

 question, we incline to think that the good they do by serv- 

 ing as food when older may be more than compensated for by 

 their presence in their jounger days. 



It is too soon to draw positive conclusions on this subject, 

 which is a vast one, including the struggle for existeuce and 

 the survival of the fittest, i. e., the one which gets the most 

 food, but it is a beginning, and we hope that this work will 

 continue until we have as full and complete knowledge on 

 the subject of fish food in the dawa of fish life as well as in 

 the adult stage, and the intelligent fishculturist be able to 

 know how to balance the value of fish life and to form an 

 idea whether the food which the young suckers furnish h: 

 trout is all clear gain when bred in his ponds, or whether the 

 minute animal life devoured by them does not deprive his 

 troutlets of a needed article of diet worth more than the food 

 the adidt trout get. 



The paper makes no claim to be more than a record of 

 what little has been done, but contains many germs of 

 thought for the practical man, and we would call special at- 

 tention to the last three paragraphs of the paper as of especial 

 importance. 



HARD TIIMES FOR THE QUAIL. 



THE heavy snow and bitter cold of the past week will 

 make sportsmen tremble for the fate of the quad. The 

 earth is covered witli a thick mantle of snow, which effectu- 

 ally prevents the birds from reaching the food on the ground, 

 and all that they now have to depend on are the few buds and 

 berries that they can obtain from the trees and berries, and 

 such seeds as are left on the tall weeds that still project 

 above the deep snow. At such a time as this the sympathies 

 of all are felt for the birds, and imless these sympathies lake 

 some active shape the piospects for shooting nest fall are by 

 no means enooiuaging. Every sportsmen who is so situated 

 as to be able to give assistance to the half-starved bevies 

 should now do what he can to keep the birds alive through 

 this terrible weather. It is food that they especially need, 

 for as long as their bellies are full they can withstand the 

 cold. We killed birds about the middle of December which 

 were, it seemed to us, as large and as fat as any we had ever 

 seen. They were then well prepared to endure the hardships 

 which were in store for them. But under the stress of such 

 snows and cold as we are now having their surplus fat must 

 soon disappear, and unless the ground becomes bare large 



numbers must perish of hunger. The man who killed a 

 quail December 31 found it, we venture to say, a very much 

 lighter bird than those captured two weeks eiulicr. No on 

 should shoot the birds in this weather. 



In an editorial in Forest asd Stbeam, published four 

 years since, we advocated the feeding by sportsmen and 

 farmers of the game birds, which, during severe seasons, 

 have so much to contend against. Some of the remarks are 

 so applicable to the present situation that we transcribe them 

 almost without change : 



The ipiestion now arisea : Can we not alleviate their Bufferings 

 and aave some of then- Uvea ? The baiting of game has long been 

 practiced for piu-posea of captme, and with jutt aa small trouble 

 and expense tbo quail may be led and saved through tbia severe 

 weather. On the afternoon of the 3Uth ult. we flushed a bevy of 

 twenty individuals. Having secured one bird, and findmg it unfit 

 to eat ou account of its emaciated condition, we defcitsted from fol- 

 lowing the bevy. If these bu'da are saved tUi-ough the wmte 

 there wlU be, say, eight paha breeding next spring. Quail wiU, on 

 an average, raise twenty bii-da m a eeasou to the pair, there bemg 

 two nests of eggs of about fifteen each. The eight pak will giv 

 iu this way 160 bu-dfl, or about eight bevies iu the foUowmg falL 

 Thia rate of increase U not placed at too high a figiure. 



'SVeather like this will account for the alternathig acaroity ana 

 p'enty of bii-ds iu different years. But it seems to na that a great 

 many quail could be preserved through the wmter if thoae inter- 

 ested would make an effort in this liirection. A apot should be 

 cleared at the border of some swamp which tbe quail are likely 

 to frequent for food or fheiter. On tbia clearing, buckwheat, corn, 

 oats, or the ecreenings of wheat and its shoidd be scattered, to- 

 gether with hay and hayseed ; leading from this in variona dueo- 

 tions gram should be sparsely scattered to some 'distance, formmg 

 paths, which the bkde coming upon wiU follow up. Dmmg the 

 weather that is now upon us quad are forced to (ravel over a great 

 deal of ground to find a hving. Aa soon as the baitmg place is 

 discovered they wiU remain near by until long alter the supply of 

 food ia exhausted, and if it ia occasionally replenished they will 

 settle iu the immediate locality, and probably b'-eed neai- by in the 

 apmig ; one would be am-prised to know how Uitle the bu'da can 

 eat and yet hve. We must exerciae foresight and take a Uttle 

 trouble in tbia matter, and those of us who love the golden daya of 

 October, and theu: accompanying deUgbts with dog and gun, 

 should try now to help the quail amvive the rigora of these bitter 

 winter mouths. 



THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMIS- 

 SION REPORT FOR 1878. 



ANOTHER large volume is added to the valuable litera- 

 ture of American fishes and fish culture, making the 

 sixth of the series, in the report now before us, whose 

 title page merely gives the Ibies " Inquiry into the Decrease 

 of Food-Fishes," and "The Propagation of Food-Fishesin the 

 Waters of the United States," as a key to its contents, which 

 are so varied as to include, in the appendices, many subjecta 

 either under or related to these headings. , 



The report proper includes an account of the operations of 

 the United States Fish Commission for the year 1878, al- 

 though the work on the salmon extend.? to the disposition 

 of the fish iu the following spring. The work of inquiry in- 

 to the decrease, and research into the character of fishes was 

 placed in charge of Prof. G. Brown Goode, assisted by Dr. 

 Tarletou H. Bean ; the collection and investigation of ma- 

 rine invertebrates by Prof. A. E. Verrill, assisted by Mr. 

 Richard Rathbun, Mr. Sanderson Smith and Mr. Warren Up- 

 ham. The propagation of food-fishes was under the superin- 

 tendence ot the late Prof. James W. Milner, assistant com- 

 missioner, aided by Frank N. Claik and Mr. T. B. Ferguson. 



The fact that the beam-trawl, which is the main reliance 

 of the English coast fishermen, is practically unknown pn 

 our coast as a means of taking the bottom fishes, is referred 

 to and a belief expressed that its Introduction would add to 

 our facilities for procm-iug food all along oivc sandy coast 

 south of Cape Cod ; and attention is called to the fact that in 

 the Loffoden Islands cod are taken iu gill-nets, whereby the 

 expense of bait and the vast amouui of labor cxjiendetl iu se- 

 curing it ia saved. The Commissioner recommends the estab- 

 lishment, either by the General Government or iu connection 

 with the States, of a thoroughly reliable and exhausiive sys- 

 tem ot recording fl.shery statistics for the future, to be com- 

 bined annually and published by some of the public depart- 

 ments of the government, as it is very difficult to establish 

 data upon facts furnished by one Slate, and it is only by 

 coafiidering the subject in its relalionB to the wUolecountry 



