THE AMERICAN SPORTSMAN'S JOURNAL- 



Sntered According to Act ot Congress, In the year tssi, by the Forest and Stream Publishing Company, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 



NEW YORK, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 20, 1881. 



CONTENTS. 



Editorial :— • 

 Change the Programme ; The Migrations of Shore BirdB; Field 

 Rifle Practice ; Bye-Ways of the Northwest 224 



The Sportsman Tourist :— 



Atlantic Coast Shooting Grounds 225 



Natural Histoex:— 



Range and Rotary Movements of Limicolse 225 



Game Bag and Gun :— 



Wild Tnrkey Hunthig ; The Decrease of Game Birds ; State 

 ^ Pigeon TouinaniirilB ; Way Down East ; Illinois Ducking 

 ""' Grounds : The Hurtling Grouse ; Rust Spots iu Gun Bar- 

 rels 229 



Sea and River Fishing :— 

 Bluefixhiog ; Canoeing in Northern Michigan ; Whiteflsh 

 Take the Hook; Buss Fishing m Bear Lake ; A Fishing 

 Clab Report; Poachers in Jail 232 



JflSHOELTTJBE :— 



How tho Distilleries Destroy the Fish ; The Berlin Exhibi- 

 tion ; Fisheries of tho Great Lakes ; Food of Young 

 Piahes 233 



The Kennel :— 

 Dog Dealers ; Fox Hunting at Springfield ; Pennsylvania 



Trials ; Cockers and Treed arouse 283 



Rifle and Trap Shooting 235 



Yachting and Canoeing : 



The Madge RaceB 236 



to Correspondents 237 



TO CORRESPONDENTS, 



The Forest and Stream Is the recognized medium of entertainment, 

 Instruction and Information between American sportsmen. 



Communications upon the subjects to which its pages are devoted 

 are Invited from every part of the country. 



Anonymous communications will not be regarded. No correspond- 

 ent's name will be published except with his consent. 



The Editors cannot be held responsible for the views of correspond- 

 ents. 



Subscriptions. 



Subscriptions may begin at any time. The subscription price Is $4 

 per year ; $2 for six months. Remittances should be sent by regis- 

 tered letter, money order, or draft payable to the Forest and Stream 

 Publishing Company. The paper may be obtained of newsdealers 

 throughout the United States and Canadas ; and Is on sale In Europe 

 by The American Exchange, 449 strand, W. C, London, Eng.; and by 

 Em. Terquem, is Boulevard, St. Martin, Paris, France. 

 Adveriis<'Uiints. 



Inside pages, nonpareil type, 25 cents per line. Special rates for 

 three, six and twelvemonths. Reading notices so cents per line— 

 eight words to the line, and twelve lines to one inch. Advertisements 

 should be sent In by the Saturday of each wees previous to the issue 

 In which they are to be Inserted. 



Address: Forest and Stream Publishing Co., 



Sos. 39 and 40 Park How, New York City. 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



Thursday, October 20. 



Specimen copies of the Forest and Sirtam will be sent free 

 upon i pplication. 



Among the Vaxuarle Books destroyed in a large Are in 

 this city last week was a copy of Audubon's Ornithology, 

 owned by Mr. Cornelius Vanderbilt, and valued at $1,200. 



Live Quail Wanted. — Any one having live quail for pale, 

 or in a position to secure a large lot of birds, will please 

 communicate particulate to editor of ibis paper. 



Back From the West. — Mr. John Davidson, of Monroe, 

 Michigan, has just returned from a shooting trip in the Red 

 River Valley in Minnesota where be had grand sport among 

 the sharp-tailed grou'e. He had with him a number of his 

 well-known dogs among which were Abbess, Scottish Chief, 

 Prince Charlie, Lauderdale and Champion Tramp. 



The 1 j ast Week was signalized by a very interesting 

 trial of speed at the grounds of the Gentleman's Driving As- 

 sociation, of New York, between St. Julieu and TriDket. In 

 the ibree beats trotted the horse won, but the speed shown 

 by his competitor was suck as to give the brightest promise, 

 when we c< usider her youth, for her future on the track. 

 The Gentleman's Driving Association numbers among its 

 members many of our most respectable citizens, and its influ- 

 ence on trotting cannot fail to be of the greatest benefit. 

 With such names as are found among the subscribers to this 

 A'sociation, it will take the same place in trotting matters as 

 does the American Jackey Club in running racing. 



CHANGE THE PROGRAMME. 



THE annual meetings of some of the State game protec- 

 tive associations of this country are entirely taken up in 

 the competitions to determine who can kill the greatest num- 

 ber of pigeons. The conventions are pigeon-killing tourna- 

 ments, "State shoots." Nothing more. 



The time has come for a change of programme. The in- 

 terests of the associations, of the individual clubs which 

 make up the association, and of sportsmen in general, 

 demand this. 



A change of programme will bring to the associations the 

 support cf public opinion, which it is most desirable that 

 they should hive, but which they have estranged by the 

 magnitude of their pigeon slaughters. 



It will bring back into the active work of the associations 

 many of the old members who have withdrawn from the 

 annual convention since it was turned into a tournament. 



It will add to the associations many sportsmen, not now 

 members, who are in sympathy with the expressed aims for 

 which the societies were formed, but not with the manner 

 in which these purposes have been forgotten and are slighted. 

 These men are ready, with their time, money, influence and 

 personal effort, to join the associations whenever the latter by 

 a change of programme invite such accessions of strength.. 



The change is due to the individual clubs which make up 

 and support the State societies. These local clubs are each 

 something more than pigeon-shooting clubs. Why should 

 their true character not be recognized in the annual conven- 

 tions ? 



This matter rests with the clubs ; they can make the 

 change if they see fit. Will they ? 



THE MIGRATIONS OF SHORE BIRDS. 



Shobb Birds are a group which receive and deserve con- 

 siderable notice at the hands of sportsmen. They are also 

 extremely interesting to the ornitholog'st, by reason of their 

 extended wanderings, the short period which Ihey spend on 

 their breeding grounds, and their varying course during the 

 migration. The thoughtful and studious essay on the migra- 

 tion of the Limicolce, printed in our Natural History columns, 

 will be regarded by all ornithologists as an extremely valua- 

 ble contribution to tho literature of the migration of birds. 

 The questions here discussed are those which have puzzled 

 students in every country, and the flood of light thrown on 

 the subject by Mr. Hapgood will be welcomed by all. To 

 the careful thought and extended investigations, of which 

 the present paper is the outcome, has been added the expe- 

 rience of a sportsman of many years standing. The com- 

 bination is a happy one, and shooting and scientific men will 

 highly appreciate the result. 



Ho ! foe Florida ! — Dr. Henshall informs us he is making 

 up a party for cruising and camping in Florida this winter. 

 He is going with Mr. Frank Strobhar, who has a light-draft 

 schooner, 34 feet long, and will visit all the inlets and rivers 

 on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of Florida, beginning at 

 Titusville, at the head of Indian River, on the east coast, 

 and ending at Cedar Keys, on the west coast. The trip will 

 consume three or four months. Mr. Strobhar is an experi- 

 enced sailor, hunter, etc. , and his charges will be moderate — 

 one hundred dollars per month. This includes everything. 

 Dr. Henshall will be accompanied by his wife, and would 

 like another gentleman and his wife to be of the patty. 

 Three or four more gentlemen are yet needed to make up the 

 complement. Any one who wishes to go must apply imme- 

 diately, with references if required, to Dr. J. A. Henshall, 

 Cynthiana, Ky. The health of the party will be looked after 

 by the Doctor without charge. 



Steam Steering Gear.— The New York Herald, with 

 characteristic enterprise, struck a new course in daily jour- 

 nalism, when it gave to the public something of practical 

 value in the shape of a series of articles on steam steering 

 gear, and capped the climax, last Wednesday, with a number 

 of plans and elevations, whicb would have been a cred ! t to 

 ny engineering journal. 



All communications should be addressed to the Forest and 

 Stream Publishing Company, and not to individuals con- 

 nected with the paper. 



FIELD RIFLE PRACTICE. 



THE Boer war, so short and decisive in it3 effects on 

 British arms, is living on in the influence it is exertine 

 upon rifle practice over the Scotch and English ranges. It 

 has been discovered that an army composed of men, where 

 every one in the ranks may be ornamented with a marks- 

 man's badge fairly won, may be defeated simply because 

 they do not know how to shoot, or rather do not know how 

 to apply the rig d class practice they have had at immovable 

 targets over fixed and known distances to the rapid judgment 

 and snap shooting of the skirmishers' line. It is not enough 

 that men be able to do this or that amount of hittin r under 

 the con ditiocs which usually hold on the rifle range. They 

 must be able to determine distance and then guide tl eir 

 aiming accordingly, otherwise, pitted againsr, a foe capable 

 of so judging and aiming, they are practically helpless. 

 Experiments upon our own ranges and recent imitations of the 

 Creedmoor "Skirmishers' Match" en the Scottish ranges, 

 show that the men are wofully deficient in this double prac- 

 tice. An average of one hit in ten shot s at the figure of a man 

 at indeterminate distances between 000 and £00 yards, was 

 shown at the recent practice of a crack Scottish corps. Bet- 

 ter results have been recorded on Ametican ranges, yet the 

 general marksman, who may do very fairly at known distan- 

 ces with a rifle properly sighted, is yet unable to cope with 

 this more practical style of shooting. 



To neglect the old formal class practice, however, simply 

 because a lack is seen in another direction, would be a 

 grevious error. Such class drill is the first requisite in a 

 course of marksmanship. The men must receive a certain 

 amount of theoretical instruction, and then, with the element 

 of distance fixed, learn to cope wiih the various details of 

 accurate hitting. The men become thus f-imiliar with their 

 arms, but to make the drill of troops in rifle shooting begin 

 and end with class practice, would be to make them little 

 better than raw recruits in the face of an enemy, drilled in 

 fixing of distance as well as shooting over it when fixed. 

 To be sure it would appear that this jurlging-distance drill 

 was more important in the case of regular troops, liable to 

 be called into miscellaneous field work, than in the ranks of 

 the militia, where the main duty will in all probabili-y con- 

 sist in close- point-blank work in streets. Yet the perfected 

 rifleman is he who can make the utmost of his weapon. To 

 do this be must have this elementary practice well looked 

 after. To attempt general and mi-cellaneous snap shooting 

 before correct habits of holding and recording have been 

 formed is worse than useless. Officers and men need con- 

 stant and persistent instruction in this direction. It may not 

 be the part of an officer to handle the rifle on service, but it 

 is his duty to superintend, to instruct, to guide, and direct 

 his men to attain the best results, and to care for them and 

 their work in every respect. The onus of theoretical and 

 technical knowledge of arms and their use is placed on the 

 officers. Special marksmeu will always exist, bcajise of 

 the special physical and mental conditions which make some 

 men, in spite of themselves, shoot better than others, but 

 there is no reason why the poorest meu-ber of a regiment, 

 fit to serve, should not be able to shoot his rifle respectably, 

 and this would point to the most earnest attention being 

 paid to the old and recognized systems of drill on tho range, 

 while at the same time keeping an eye out to the necessity 

 of the cultivation of a force of field riflemen whose quick eye, 

 steady nerves and intuitive judgment, as to atmosphere and 

 distance, wind and light, would render untenable any corner 

 in which an enemy might be concealed. 



Madge.— The cutter has again given proof of her superior 

 speed and excellence as a seaboat, this time pitted agdnsj 

 theShadow, a craft acknowledged to be without a peer in 

 America. The first race was nominally lost, but owing only 

 to a fluke of the most palpable sort. When tlw sloop and en'- 

 ter had au even wind the cutter went to the fore every time. 

 The second race was as fair a test as could possibly be 

 wi>hed,andthe little cutter, sailing, against a sloop one quarter 

 as large again, added still another win to her splendid record 

 by scoring by more than twel ve minute3 over a thirty mile 

 triangular course, thus proving again the superiority of fine 

 form, large displacement and the cutter rig. Our reports of 

 these races in the East will be found elsewhere, and are the 

 most complete and reliable published. 



