200 



RECREATION. 



the birds flew right toward us. George 

 shouted, 



".Shoot, shoot, you blanked idiot! Dont 

 you see the things are mosquitoes?" 



Sure enough, they were, and as big as 

 robins. We both had 4-bore magazine 

 shot guns, and the magazine of each held 

 16 shells. George's shells were loaded 

 with y 2 pound smokeless powder and 98 

 No. 5 buckshot to the shell. I used $i 

 pound of smokeless powder to 105 No. 8 

 buckshot. We emptied our muskets at the 

 birds, and then began to shoot at them with 

 ouf 10-bore pistols. By that time the mos- 

 quitoes were well thinned out and the rest 

 of them flew away. We then found they 

 had fallen so thickly about the boat that 

 we were entirely hemmed in. We had to 

 portage the boat over the bank of flesh into 

 clear water. 



We soon settled in a good blind, and 

 George had pointed out an approaching 

 flock of ducks when I felt a severe pain 

 in my left arm. I looked down, and there 

 was a mosquito with his proboscis clear 

 through the thick part of my arm. I fin- 

 ished him mighty quick. I then turned to 

 the ducks again. They were nearly close 

 enough to shoot at, when a bunch of the 

 mosquitoes darted up from the grass and 

 tackled them. It was a curious sight. 

 The poor ducks tried to get away, but it 

 was no use. A mosquito would dash at a 

 duck and down the duck would go, dead, 

 pierced to some vital point by the mos- 

 quito's proboscis. 



Soon the sun rose, and we had good 

 shooting. About 7 o'clock we saw 3 geese 

 approaching. George killed 17 of them at 

 one shot from his toothbrush and I knocked 

 over the other 6 with 2 shots from a bottle 

 of soda water I had in my pocket. 



About noon, when my gun happened to 

 be empty, I attempted to fire my husking 

 peg at a flock of ducks, but it failed to go, 

 and I found the hair spring was broken. 

 This I felt to be a great loss, as it had 

 been a faithful timekeeper 17 years. > 



After a heavy afternoon's shooting, _ we 

 got home about 7.30 p. m. We went into 

 the kitchen and unloaded the game from 

 our coat pockets. George had 843 ducks, 

 17 geese, 46 wild turkeys, 108 mudhens, 93 

 pelicans and one rabbit. The rabbit he 

 killed accidentally, as it was with some 

 turtles. I had 711 ducks, 6 geese, 3 wild 

 turkeys, 215 mudhens, 48 pelicans, 28 

 ptarmigans and one condor, which I mis- 

 took for a chicken hawk. It was so high 

 that it spoiled before reaching the ground. 

 I had neglected to soak my shot in salt 

 water before leaving the sea shore. We 

 were proud of our showing, and I doubt if 

 anybody else could take the 22 caliber 

 single shot rifles we used and do better. 

 Van T. Grover, Stillwcll, Md. 



GAME IN THE PHILIPPINES. 

 To him whose chief delight is hunting, 

 the Philippine islands are a paradise. We 

 * have game of various kinds in abundance, 

 but now we must follow Recreation and 

 protect it or the conditions will be like 

 those in the States. The people here kill 

 deer, ducks, etc., all the year round. We 

 ought to have a law prohibiting the kill- 

 ing of deer and other game, except during 

 certain months. There is a gun club in 

 Manila but instead of trying to protect the 

 game, the members are destroying it. 

 Among the common game may be men- 

 tioned, deer, wild boars, ducks of several 

 species, wild pigeons, jacksnipe, doves, 

 wild chickens, mountain quails, etc. Deer 

 are numerous in the mountains and are 

 much hunted by natives, Americans and 

 foreigners at all seasons. The native man- 

 ner of catching deer is as follows : The 

 trail is followed to where it branches into 

 2 or 3 paths, and where the natives stretch 

 a rope net. The deer are then chased by 

 natives and dogs until they run into the net. 

 In this way most of the Americans hunt, 

 by hiring natives and their dogs. The 

 Americans are stationed along the trail 

 by the natives, and the deer gets shot, or 

 runs into the net. When the men return 

 to the towns they brag of the good luck 

 they had. 



Boars are hunted in a similar manner, 

 and speared with sharp instruments fast- 

 ened to bamboo poles. Wild chickens are 

 abundant in the foothills, but are hard to 

 get on account of the dense thicket, and 

 underbrush. Ducks abound in all lake 

 regions, rice fields, etc. 



Owing to cholera in Manila, we were 

 unable to have fresh meat shipped us 

 here, so I decided to go to a small lake 

 near Bautista and see if the fresh meat 

 was not floating around on the surface 

 waiting to be taken to the band mess. 

 Early one morning with haversack filled 

 with ammunition, canteen with distilled 

 water, lunch and my Winchester shot gun. 

 I started on the train for Bautista. Our 

 trains make about 15 miles an hour, and in 

 an hour's time I reached my destination. 

 At the lake I hired a bamboo raft and an 

 hombre. The raft was 2 feet wide and 12 

 feet long. The hombre took his seat in the 

 rear with a big bamboo pole and I took 

 the front end. We had gone only a few 

 yards when the raft upset. I got on again, 

 discharged the hombre and hired a better 

 one. On account of the noise I made, a 

 big bunch of ducks rose from the water 

 and went toward the other end of the 

 lake. I pushed on in pursuit, and saw 

 them in the middle of the lake. At about 

 80 yards, they got up, passed me and 

 made for the other end of the lake. They 

 circled back again, until the air was full of 



