FOREST AND STREAM. 



409 



SEA SERPENT OF BISHOP PONTOPPIDAN. 



numbers as we have supposed, may be so seldom seen? Is 

 i! not rather a wonder that they come within our reach as 

 often as they do': 



' : i\ perhaps therefore (oncludc that ii, is not. so foolish 

 after all. to "believe in the existence of the sea serpent," 

 while we takefrom him his snake-like character and relegate 

 him from the domain of mystery to that of b iug a simple 

 saurian or series of saurians, though his ancestry reaches 

 b- ck to the clays when earth was young. 



May be, by and by, some lucky' yachtsman, may have' the 

 opportunity of immortalizing himself, by putting a charge of 

 canister through oue and thus securing a specimen such as 

 now nowhere exists. Or one may come within the wide sweep 

 of the explorations of the. U. S. Fish Commission; no better 

 destiny for him, andno surer means of solving all his mysteries 

 could "possibly be asked. 

 New H.»ven, OO nn. - 



Ssowv Owls.— Boston, Mass., Dec. 18, 1988,— Ettior 

 Foirsl iini Slrnmi: Three snowy or Arctic owls have, been 

 shot in tile vicinity of Longwood. One was taken as early 

 as November 26, the Others OH the 15th and 16th of this 

 month. The average spread of wJn£S from tip to tip was 

 tiity-nine inches. Weight about four pounds.— P. Lewis. 



$int[t J?<*ff m\d 0ut(. 



GAME SEASONS. 

 V eojiiprehonsive statement of the game laws ut America will be 

 found in the issues of this journal for December 7 and 14, 1883. In- 

 dividuals and game clubs are requested to inform u« of the enact- 

 ment of new local laws and of changes that may be made in the laws 

 of tho several States and Territories. 



DECEMBER. 



[With '-Iron Ramrod's" compliments to -'Diek"-scu issue Sept. SI.] 

 "VTOW the man with trusty choke-bore 

 -Li ut 



Jowly through the. brush, 

 led grouse in terror 



•'Gels up' 



ivith 



i'-.e. 



To his shoulder leaps the ten-gauge, 



But. the hammers fasl are blocked, 

 And the little weal he utters 



Tells us that it wasn't cocked. —Iron Ramrod. 



D 



OUR NEW JERSEY LETTER. 



ID I promise to write you in December? I could ha 



had bill little idea of what that agreement would de- 

 mand of me, for if there is any oue thing that I perfectly 

 "disgust" it is to act. the scribe under conpulsio t or force of 

 circumstances. And what of sporting matters is there to 

 write -about from New Jersey in December? 



Tue abundant promise of a favorable breeding season for 

 the quail has not been fulfilled by either large or frequent 

 coveys, and the general verdict is that the season has been 

 a failure. If the number of birds killed is the bjaJy "point" 

 bv wdiich the matter is to be judged, this verdict is correct, 

 but taking other views of the subject, I .am inclined to dis- 

 pute the decision. While it is true that even our best hunt- 

 ers have reported but few bevies antl the birds hard to get, I 

 am inclined to believe, that there were more quail in the 

 State this fall than there have been for many years, and I 

 am glad to know that, they arc slill heic. 'For various 

 reasons many a fine bunch of birds has passed the season, 

 almost under the hunters' nose, and been permitted to si 

 vive Thanksgiving. The gunner h»s tired himself out flay 

 after day rangine; the stubble fields and buckwheat p tlches 

 according to his usual custom, and returned at, night with 

 empty gainebag and a firm conviction that there Were no 

 birds'. He forgets that the long summer and trustless 

 autumn have promoted the growth and maturity of all kinds 

 w forest nickntiQis.a and swamp luxuries upon which ortyx 



delights to feed. While dog and man have b-eu tramping 

 the fields the quail have kept in the woods. This is not mer< 

 surmise. During the late snow we discovered the retreat of 

 a number of bevies in neighborhoods that had been 

 thoroughly hunted, and where we were assured there were 

 no quail, and we know of more birds that are alive to-day 

 than wc had heard of after two weeks of the open season 

 had passed. Plenty of quail next year if we can have a 

 favorable wittier, but, alas! the "moon rule." says sixteen 

 snows. Vennor is on a regular rampage, a new prophetic 

 humbug has appeared over in Canada, and the hawks were 

 never more abundant. Alas! for Bob White's chances when 

 all the "probabilities" are against him. 



But rabbit shooting in the central part of the State has 

 been unusually good, and in spite of the trackimr snow, the 

 suctplyisby no means exhausted. We notice, too, an un- 

 usual number of raccoons, opossums and other varmint have 

 come to grief . That reminds of the adventures of Mr. W. 

 F. Scott, of Hightstown, who took his gnu and dog with 

 him one day recently when he went to his work. At. noon 

 Tie hearu the dog barking near the Assnnpink Creek, and 

 found that he had something treed. A companion climbed 

 up and punched out a large" opossum, into the carcass of 

 which two loads were poured. Another punch bronchi, out 

 something which at first was supposed to 'be a bear, but it 

 proved lo be a large raccoon. Scott found he had forgotten 

 his box of caps, so lie attacked thebeasfwith a club, but it ran 

 for the creek, into which the excited hunter plunged boldly 

 in pursuit. Finding himself in a corner, the coon turned 

 upon his adversnry.nud then ensued a fight that was worth 

 recording. Grteco-Roman, side hold, cateh-as-citeh-ean, 

 ami every other known style, of wrestling was exhibited, 

 until Scott got his hands around the creature's neck ami 

 literally choked the. life out of him. 



Spi-akins? about, hawks, my friend, Mr. George Robbins, of 

 Dutch Neck, who is quite a'pigeon fancier as well as a lover 

 of the forest and stream, informs me that he has more trouble 

 with the little "bullet hawk" than any other. This diminu- 

 tive but courageous bird of prey, while hardly able to master 

 an adult pigeon, will boldly enter the cote and take the young 

 from the nest, ifyfrieud says that after a heavy fall of 

 snow which would close the entranced to the nest's, he has 

 captured the hawks which had been imprisoned with the 

 pigeons. Did they go there for plunder or for refuge and 

 company? Dr. Franklin left it. on record that he had known 

 taitie sparrow-hawks to live with pigeons. A. 



jeem to he generally accepted: but it is a slander upon the 

 i'reedman to charge him as the guilty party. 



In the first place if is a significant fact, that quail are more 

 abundant iu those Southside and tide-water counties nien- 

 liohed by your correspondent, where the negro population 

 is in such an overwhelming majority thai the districts ci in 

 posed of these counties are known as the "black districts." 

 in the next, place, the counties where I he quail arc scarcest 

 are those Northsidc and Piedmont counties, where there are 



80 few negroes that they 



■onst.ii.t 



te ncilhei 



a social nor a 



political factor of much in 



fluenct 



The fre 



edmau is not a 



part ridge or quail hunter. 



He i 



eligbts in 



hunting hares.. 



opossums, raccoons, aud 



qiat- 



s. but. wi 



h i.ireexcep- 



tions. aspires to nothing high 





lortsman. 



Hewasrever 



known to fish for trout, b 



it is i 



cath to c 



ttfish aud eels. 



Living all my life with aL 



d SUIT 



ouudeil b\ 



a dense negro 



population, I have never se 





cgro with 



a quail which 



he had killed, aud never he 



ml of 



i quail he 



ng killed by a 



negro in the nesting season. 



I ha 



ve known 



them- to rob 



the partridges' nest during 

 tent lo do anv serious dam* 



he ha 



vest, but 



ill these 



lever to an ex- 

 instances the 



eggs were iiivariahlv presoii 



ed t0 i 





er or nnsire-s. 



who, bv signs oi Irrepresai 



ile del 



ght, nevei 



failed to en 



courage the robberv . Thai 



Degioi 



s ma v kill 



piail occasion- 



ally on the ground 1 do no 



i deny 



Ivul they 





hunt with broken bird dogs. 



They 



hunt with 



curs, bulldogs. 



hounds, terriers, and till vai 





the race. 





Ball," which preclude-, all p, 







g quail. I'pou 



the other hand, I know wh 









called here "poor white t 





Vim shoot 



quail on the 



and shoot a whole brood of 





ttei befort 



th.Y .IT: kill' 



grown. Two or three sucl 







community do 



QUAIL IN VIRGINIA, 



Editor J-'"Mi and Stream? 



A writer in your issue of the 80th tilt, alludes to the 

 scarcity of the partridge (Ortyj:. virtji-niunm, or more popu- 

 larly, Bob White), in this, the Piedmont section of Virginia, 

 and mentions the well-established fact, of their .abundance 

 in the tide-water and Southside counties. In all this he is 

 perfectly accurate. But he goes on to say that the cat use 

 of this 'scarcity is due to the freed men, who. he claims, 

 " kills the old birds duting the nesting season, and i hen. in 

 autumn the city sportsman goes out. with his teu-borc breech- 

 loader and slaughters them, etc " I think th it your corres- 

 pondent is clearly mistaken as to his conclusions, ta J will 

 p:oc:ed to demonstrate. Antt-in order thai my opportuni- 

 ties for forming an opinion on this subject may appear, and 

 that it may aiso be seen that I am not unduly biased in 

 favor of the freeduian, permit me to say that I dwell in one 

 of the largest of the old slave-holding counties of Piedmont, 

 Virginia, where the freedmeu are in a large majority; that 

 lam a "bourbon democrat," a persuasion generally sup- 

 posed to be not too partial to the freedmen, and lliai. i have 

 neen all my life an ardent and active sportsman. In con. 

 junction with some friends, I am the owner of several thou- 

 sand acres of land formerly noted for t.ie abundance of 

 quail, which we have carefully preserved, and upon which 

 no city spoilsman has for year- set Bisfootj yet quail and 

 other game are scarcer on these lands than for twenty-five 

 years, and this scarcity is general. 



What is the cause'/ No perfectly satisfactory reasons 



quail in this section were almost totally destroyed. By <-oni- 



gradually increased. After the slaves were emancipated, 

 having been previously prevented by law from carrying fire- 

 arms/they naturally exhibited a childish delight' in exer- 

 cising their constitutional privilege. Where you see one 

 i'reedman hunting now, in the years immediately succeeding 

 the war you would have seen a dozen, yet Until a few years 

 :iuail continued to increase. 



The most s 

 quail are the folk 

 hardest we have 

 titudes of birds a 



spoilsmen. 



is assigned for the scarcity of 

 The winter of LcWl was the 



if, and equally aevei'U. Mill- 

 he spiing of 1*81 opened with 

 purposes. Just before and 

 •n the most remarkable and 

 er of foxes, a fact universally 



(.lie 



of a fox in 



see them in the day time, and after a snow or rain the' r tracks 

 may be seen forming Ii network in almost all directions. 

 There, is littte exaggeration in this statement. These pre- 

 daccous \erinin now infest the country in such numbers that 

 unless something shall be done toward there extermination 

 this region will he completely denuded of quail and small 

 game constituting their prey. 



Such is the opinion prevailing here among the most intel- 

 ligent and observing men. The poor ireedmaii has his sins 

 to account for, but do not lay this to Lis charge. No one 

 who litis been a Constant attendant before the criminal 

 courts of the country can fail 10 testily as to the freedman's 

 rapid and gratifying moral improvement. Fifteen veins ago 

 there were ten negroes arraigned for crime, where to-day 

 there is one. He is by no means the |,est .some believe him 

 to be, but as a rule is 'useful law -abiding, humble and con- 

 tented, trusting implicitly those who, by fair dealing, have 

 won hla confidence. M. 



X'OUTHSIIIE, Vu.. Dee. It. 1-Si. 



ss to it li. Pooler, Serena, i.a Salle 

 6 a hue colored lithograph repre 

 ^ouihe prairies, also n catalogue 

 &C, — Mr. 



An) pei sen sending their aihlr. 

 Co., III., will receive in return fn 

 seating pinnated grouse shoot n 



et cartridge holders, belts, waste 



