THE AMERICAN SPORTSMAN'S JOURNAL. 



L Entered According to Act of Congress, in the year 1879, by the forest and Stream Publishing Company, in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington 



Terms, «4 a fear. 10 Cts. a Copy. I 

 Si* Ho's, *:», Three Mo's, St. f 



NEW YORK, THURSDAY, JUNE 10, 1880. 



CONTENTS. 



Answers to cobbespon dents - 373 



Ahoheby :— 

 The Grand National Meeting; An Co-Irani Archer: A Chul- 

 lenae 3TO 



ClUCKHT;— 



Koports of Matches and News Notes , 372 



Eoitoriai,: — 



Letters to Herbert ; America a t Berlin; The Eraser River 



Salmon; Wanted— A "New y rk State AssooJaHpn for 



the Protection of Fish and Gauio;" Migratory QuaJl; 



How it Works; Valuable Contributions : One of Many 



Letters 371 



Fish Culture:- 

 Plau of the International Rxhiuition ; The international 



Fishery Exhibition at Berlin, V.— Living Fishes 389 



Gamb Baij and Gun :— 

 A New Firm; Fountain Gun Ciub ; Texas Slate Association : 

 ich Dittmar Powder; Shoo 



Mate 



; Ho 



. 375 



Dogs for Prairie CtiieUon Shooting; Training Foxhounds: 

 Charcoal as a Cure for Worms; How lo Give Pills to 

 Dogs; Cockers for Sale; Notes . , 371 



Wild Turkey Hunting in the South 387 



^••eFraagr River Salmon ; Woodcock Carrying their Voting; 

 v\ Into Hares Again; Nautieits Snake ; Arrivals at Clholn- 



Nuw Publications :— 



Canoe and Camera 373 



Pcbusuehs' Depaktment , 373 



The ItTFM:— 



Range and Gallery 378 



Sea and River Fishing :— 



Map of the Magallowav; A Veteran Sportsman; A Now 

 Purchased; Canada Salutou; New Hamp- 



shire Notes; TheBluek Bass" cirri 



VACU TING AND CANOEING :— 



\ .tenting News; The Canoe Congress; Congress and the 

 laohting Laws; \achi and Boat Sailing ; Classilical ion 

 Waotnd— Not Handicaps 



:i7ii 



JHUild S&m[kqg §hoating in % 



REEK bottoms, black jack ridges, low swales thick 

 ' with bamboo briers, old sedge fields, witit the 

 broom six or seven feet high, pea fields lying contigu- 

 ous to these— such are the chosen haunts of the wild 

 turkey. 



Much has been written and said in sporting books 

 about this bird, most of which is hearsay, for the writers 

 display a most lamentable ignorance of its history and of 

 i f s habits. 



The hardest of all birds to raise in the poultry yard, 

 Whey are the hardiest in a wild state. The old hen will 

 Select the driest spot foi miles around with an intuitive 

 perception that the season is going to be a rainy one. 

 pie will cover this nest up so skillfully that the most 

 practiced eye will fail to discover it. When found, 

 ifliere is something pathetic about the manner in which 

 she tries to hide her round, bright eye, knowing as well 

 as you do that here is her vulnerable point. At such times 

 you may walk up and study her at your leisure, for she 

 5k>es not intend to leave that nest unless you become too 

 familiar, when with a low '"chut!" "chut!" of angry 

 remonstrance she flies away. 



When first hatched they do not look like domestic 

 turkeys, but have an indescribable, wide-awake look, as if 

 they had inherited from their paternal ancestor, the old 

 gobbler, some soupcon of the guile that so eminently 

 distinguishes that wise and wary old bird. Indeed, when 

 he young turkeys begin to walk about this mundane 

 ihere the young gobblers, not a month old, will uu- 

 inseiottsly put on airs and begin to look wise. So strong 

 •e inherited traits in birds, or in men ! The young liens, 

 on the contrary, are very meek and mild, with a strong 

 fendency to lurk and cry out peevishly for the old hen 

 if they see their father with his majestic and Turk-like 

 beard too near them. So strong is sex in woman or 

 birds ! 



About the middle of September in our climate they are 

 about two-thirds grown, and then is the time to" kill 

 them. Full feathered and strong on the wing, yet their 

 heavy bodies make them fly very slow, and they fall an 

 easy prey to the sportsman. At this time, too, being 

 entirely uneducated, they will come to the call of the 



veriest tyro ; and, indeed, will come better to a slight 

 whistle, made by the mouth, in imitation of the cry of 

 the young birds, than to any call. Next to the email, 

 the most social and gregarious of all birds, thev seek each 

 other after being scattered, and the plaintive "crv of the 

 ambushed hunter leads many a promising young bird to 

 his ruin. 



But ah me ! what a difference in the same birds three 

 months later ! Then the most practiced eye cannot tell a 

 young gobbler from an old one as they rise on the hill 

 above the swamp and sail majestically across the creek, 

 far out of range of any shot gun. They cannot then be 

 approached at all, under any circumstances. Acci- 

 dentally, as you walk out of the swamp into a pea field 

 you sometimes walk into the midst of a flock scattered, 

 feeding upon the dearly loved pea. Then, if you shoot 

 straight at the heads of the crossing gobblers, you have 

 the satisfaction of seeing two fine, fat fellows fail to your 

 aim. It is with a feeling of personal triumph that one 

 kills two wild turkeys in successive shots, nor is it often 

 done ; once in a way, or twice, but not ofteuer. 



But it is chiefly upon strategic movements that the 

 experienced hunter of turkeys relies. I have often 

 thought, while lying in my" blind, that the greatest 

 strategist in the world, Napoleon Bonaparte, would have 

 made an accomplished turkey hunter. Absurd ! you 

 say. Well I have my reasons for mv belief, and I think 

 that you will agree with me when you come to the end of 

 this article. However that may be. there are old gobblers 

 extant, to capture whom would require an amount of 

 patience, energy, woodcraft, knowledge of the habits of 

 your game, and skill, that if exercised hi another direc- 

 tion, education taken for granted, would make a good 

 general. Me judice. 



Yes, there are gobblers in the South who would put to 

 shame Minerva and all her owls. If Mentor, whom wo 

 all remember in the Telemuque as the utterer of the 

 most delightful platitudes, were to attempt to stalk an 

 old gobbler he would make a most ignominious failure, 

 and would find to his amazement and sorrow that it 

 would be easier to rescue a hundred lady-like Telemaques 

 from the wiles of a hundred sea-green" Calvpsos than to 

 circumvent one wily, veteran old turkey. ' ' Deep sir, 

 deep and devilish tough !" would be the praise bestowed 

 upon that bird by Major Bagstock, to whom, in my 

 wrath and vexation. I have often compared an old bird, 

 who obstinately remained just out of gun shot ! 



Yes, a very knowing bird, indeed, is the graduate, who, 

 after being shot at by all the negroes in the neighbor- 

 hood, with pot metal, double-barreled guns and Old army 

 muskets until he knows their range exactly, will strut 

 by the hour just one hundred and fifty yards from the 

 blind, behind which the sable sportsman lies snugly 

 ensconced, rolling his eyes in eager anticipation of that 

 sharp old bird's coming nearer ; an anticipation, it is 

 needless to say, never to be realized. Sometimes, in 

 utter anguish of heart, the wearied and hopeless darkey 

 will fire at him only to hear the derisive gobble of the 

 veteran re-echo the report of his gun. 



Wild legends are in circulation among the negroes, 

 anent some old gobblers. How, once upon a time, when 

 old daddy Nero was "settitv fur turkey," a huge old bird 

 made his appearance behind old Nero's back and gave 

 him a dig with his long sharp beak that was very pain- 

 ful indeed, whereupon old daddy Nero, having fired both 

 barrels at the feathered fiend, fainted. A strict cross- 

 examination revealed the fact that Nero had gone hunt- 

 ing with a pint of " pop skull " whiskey in his pocket, 

 that he had fallen on his back amongsome canes that had 

 been bitten off by the cattle, leaving sharp stubs, and 

 that one of these had entered his back when he fell. But 

 he saw his Satanic majesty for all that, in the shape of a 

 turkey. 



It is only in the bright, still mornings of early spring 



that you can shoot the old gobblers. They lose some of 



that wariness that so distinguishes them at other times. 



" Luve rules the court, the camp, the grove," and, we 



might truthfully add, the wise old gobbler. 



But let no tyro in turkey hunting think to put the 

 " oomether" on one of these old birds. He can tell one 

 of their "yelps" just as well as the old turkey hunter 

 can, and refuseth to come to a call, compounded of a 

 grunt, a squeal and a whistle. He incontinently takes 

 to his heels and goeth the other way, with steps quick- 

 ened by a knowledge fchatin that way" lies safety. Though, 

 for that matter, he might have come to the call with 

 perfect impunity, for not one man of a hundred can kill 

 a turkey after being called to the blind without he haw 

 some previous experience. 



Suppose some still morning in March, when all tht 

 woods in our climate are gay and fragrant with the yel 

 low jasmine, and the snow-white blossoms of the dog- 

 berry contrast vividly with the scarlet flowers Of the 

 maple, your feet press violets and lady's slippers and 

 " star eyes," crushing perfume at every step ; all around 

 is heard the myriad hum of insects that wake to life in 

 early spring ; the woods are vocal with the sweet strains 

 of the mocking bird, the cat bird, the thrush, the black- 

 bird and the "rain crow." On such a morning as this, 

 you take down the trusty old gun, put a shell marked 



BBtn the right barrel and one marked 8 in the left, 

 ad soon you are seated behind an old log, with the firm 

 etenninalion that to-day the old gobbler, your favorite 

 version, on foot, or wing, shall die, for is not this the 

 lircl day ? By Mercury, the patron of rascally turkeys, 

 is the fourth ! 



A full mile from you, sitting on the fence of an old 

 sedge field, is your old foe, the wisest turkey in South 

 Carolina. He is evidently dreaming of tall and lithe 

 turkey hens whom he has appointed to meet this very 

 morning. He wonders why he does not hear them, as 

 he knows that turkey hens, unlike human beings, are 

 very punctual to their appointments. Hark ! borne on 

 the still morning air, comes a plaintive " cluck, cluck 1 " 

 to his attentively listening ear. How changed in a mo- 

 ment ! Now, full four feet high, with majestic beard 

 nearly a foot long, he struts about waiting a repetition 

 of the call. The seconds grow into minutes, the min- 

 utes into hours, and he hears nothing more. Just as he 

 beginning to think that he may have been mistaken ; 

 Cluck, cluck ! " Ah ! that is the voice of Mary Jane,' 

 that tall and graceful young tttrkev hen to whom he 

 was introduced last week, and with whom he fell in love 

 at first sight. With wings outstretched and head thrown 

 fat forward to catch sight of the charmer, he speeds to 

 the chosen trystmg place, on the branch near the old 

 pine log. He has run over half the distance, when a 

 deadly fear stops him short in his mad career. What if 

 that mellifluous sound, instead of coming from the beau- 

 teous beak of his own Mary Jane, should have been made 

 by a turkey bone ? For a long time be stands, drawn up 

 to his full height, watching on every side for the danger. 

 Hark 1 no turkey bone ever threw that amorous, inviting 

 cry upon the scented air. He is now fully satisfied. He 

 pauses no longer, but on the outstretched "wings of eager 

 love he hastens forward to the old pine log. One step 

 more, and there rings out the left barrel loaded with the 

 No. 8's, and with head shattered to pieces, the noble bird 

 falls headlong to the earth. Your sable henchman, whom 

 the loud report, just at his ear, has wakened from a 

 sound nap, immediately springs upon the prostrate bird 

 fully convinced that to him alone is due all the merit of 

 killing "dat smart old gobbler, "and with loud yells of 

 joy he shoulders a bird weighing, when dressed, fully 

 twenty-five pounds. The darkey speculates how much 

 will fall to his share when the turkey shall have been 

 roasted, and makes a solemn vow to eat until he cannot 

 walk, if the mistress will allow any such gluttony. 

 Elated, you wend your way homeward, having killed a 

 turkey that was a regular graduate. 



Another method of shooting wild turkeys is to dig a 

 trench some two or three feet wide, and then scatter corn 

 in the bottom of it. After a few days the whole flock 

 will come with great regularity to the food. Of course 

 all their heads are in the trench at one time, feeding and 

 the shooter fires a gun, heavily loaded, down the trench 

 at their heads. Many are killed at one discharge, and 

 many more are wounded, and escape to die a lingering 

 death. None but the most incurable pot-hunters practice 

 this mode, which is as reprehensible as it isunspo-tsmau- 

 hke. It is the favorite mode with the negroes, who can- 

 not call turkeys, and are passionately fond of eatinsr 

 them, ° 



There is a peculiarity about the wild turkey, and in- 

 deed in all gallinaceous birds, that is very curious When 

 pons or traps are made for them, they are built of small 

 logs, and a hole is dug under the trap large enough to ad- 

 mit a lull grown turkey. Corn is scattered for a long 

 distance m the woods, ending in a bountiful supply hi the 

 pen. The top of the pen is left open, so that when the 

 birds have eaten up all the corn, or sufficiently o- or o- eci 

 themselves, they fly out at the open top, This is repeated 

 for several days, and then the top is closed and the pen 

 baited as before. The turkeys, never suspecting any- 

 thing wrong, go into the pen as usual, and when they try- 

 to fly out they had the top closed. With a fatuity not to 

 be expected from such sharp birds, they never look down 

 for the hole by which they entered, and are captured to 

 a bird. 



Quail will do the same tiling, and, I believe, all birds of 

 that kind. 



There is still another mode of hunting the wild turkey, 

 and that is to "roost" them, or watch them when they o-o 

 to roost. On moonlight nights, when they roost in trees 

 that are not too tall, by getting the birds between you and 

 the moon some can be killed in this way, by using buck- 

 shot in a close shooting gun. So tenacious are they 

 of life, that unless they are shot in the brain they often fly 

 long distances, and fall dead entirely cut of reach of the 

 disappointed hunter. This is only another mode of pot- 

 huntmg, and is not much in favor with the Bkillful sports- 

 No. All the pleasure of true sportis not in killing for 

 the sake of slaughter, but an intelligent knowledge of 

 seeking game difficult to kill, and, when killed, eating it 

 well cooked and with thankful hearts. Ah, me ! when I 

 look back over the days when, with eUistic step and 

 bounding pulse, I could shoot an old gobbler square 

 through at one hunched yards, and on an emergency 

 could kill him on the wing nearly every time, I am re- 



