rKJimoL \AINJJ.- S'lK-KAM. 



31 



GAME PROTECT! 



IBo reads us follows :— 



r That it shall be unlawful lor any person to net or trap at 

 Way time, or kill any duck between i he fifteenth day of Apr!] 

 and the first day of September in each year; and any person 

 violating the provisions of this act shall, upon conviction 

 thereof, be lined in the sum of two dollars for each wild duck 

 so unlawfully trapped, netted or shol 



The Tolleston Qlnb, of Chicago, have united with ( he local 

 authorities at Tolleston<, and flic law is to be enforced al all 

 hazards. 



[qwk— Cedar Rapids, Aug., 8. —Our game law, asarnended 

 by chapter 132, laws of 1876, makes it unlawful "for any 

 anywhere, at any timeof the year to shool or lull any 

 prairie hen or ohisksn tci ihi purpost i' shipping to any peini 

 within or without the State for the purpose of serlin°' the 

 same for profit." Penalty $5, each bird. A person mav ship 

 any of our game birds to a person within or without the Slate, 

 not exceeding one dozen in any one day, by making proper 

 affidavit and delivering a true copy thereof to the common 

 ror railroad agent, which must pet forth; 1, That the 

 shipper is a resident of this State; 2, That the same is not 

 shipped for sale or profit: 3, Name, and jpbst office address 

 of consignee; and 4, The number of birds shipped. Amicus. 



Michigan— Saginaw, Aug. 9.— Notwithstanding the fact 

 that the game laws of Michigan forbid the shooting or killing 

 of deer, wild turkey, partridge, quail, and every species of 

 wild duck and water fowl at this season of the year, it 

 is a fact well known that the game laws are being vio- 

 lated in this vicinity in a shameful manner; scarcely a 

 day passes but new cases of deer and duck shooting come 

 to light. As high as sixteen or eighteen wild ducks have been 

 counted in the boats of these law-breakers, as the result of 

 only one day's shooting. Rumor has it that wild duck can he 

 :d at certain restaurants in this city and Saginaw city 

 upon call. Young ducks, fledglings and whole broods share 

 the general slaughter. 



If is also a well known fact that deer are now being daily 

 killed along the line, of the Jackson. Lansing & Saginaw and 

 Flint & Pcre Marquette Railways, though the law prohibits 

 their shooting until the loth of September. Game is rapidly 

 idng exterminated and driven farther and farther from the 

 d the rich rice marshes north of the city, which, a few 

 years ago, woidd yield fifty or sixty ducks to a single gun in a 

 day, are now nearly depopulated of their web-footed inhabit- 

 ants. 



Michigan— The game laws of Michigan which have long 

 been openly violated in the game districts about Saginaw and 

 Saginaw City, Mich., are now to he enforced. A meet- 

 ing of sportsmen was held Aug. 9th, at East Saginaw, when a 

 permanent organization was effected with the following offi- 

 cers: Pres., Reuben Fail child ; Yiee-Pres., H. if. Roney • 

 Sec. and Treas., Leander Lee'. 



Florida- Tampa.— The game law is well observed in this 

 joining counties. One man in Manater County killed 

 Sic other day; but he won't violate the law again— it 

 took about all he had to pay the fine. W. II. S. 



—The fancy prices at which deer forests in Scotland are 

 nowadays let would have sent Dumbiedikes, Ellangowan, and 

 Monkbarns into fits. Sir John Ramsden gets £8,500 for two 

 mouths for one, and i'3,000 a year for another, and a compe- 

 tent authority estimates the annual lettings of Inverness and 

 Ross-shire at £80,000 a year. Half a century ago they would 

 not have been worth a, tenth of that sum. Holders of almost 

 Valueless Adirondack district property may yet have their 

 day. There are nowadays ten times as many men of pleasure 

 here as there were fifty years ago, and a great deal of cash has 

 gone out of the pockets of rich Americans into that of Scot- 

 tish lairds.— Ex. 



BOB WHITE. 



[FRMI OTTE Kl'KOIAL COREBSFQH DBNt] 



F.ekn Bank, July 19, 1877. 

 Editor Foeest and Stream : 



I wish to correct a statement of mine in your issue of July 

 12 as to the close season for quail iu the State of Ohio, to the 

 it was extended so as to include the current year. 

 I certainly understood " Gloan" to say so and gave him as my 

 authority for the statement, but finding it doubted by several 

 well-posted members of the Cincinnati Shooting and Fishing- 

 Club, I referred the question back to "Gloan" who addressed 

 me the following letter, which I hope you will find room for. 

 Dear Col. 



the latest law— the very latest, mark you — the prohibi- 



gainat quail-shooting iu this State expires in November 



he season is then open until January 1. 



This will be pleasing information to our sportsmen which 



will be enhanced by the knowledge that never for years have 



the birds been so abundant as now. 



By the inclosed you will see that you are not alone in your 

 Uumanitarian views of the glass bail trap. 



The Executive Committee of the Cuvier Club at its last 

 neeting presented the following report, which was adopted 



"Mr. Logan, from the Executive Committee, read the fol- 



owmg report: 



"The Executive Committee take pleasure in informing the 



**"* V." ° purchase a glass ball trap, to be 



; disposal oi all members of the Club who wish louse 



1 } b l' ';'"■' ' '■ ' ". ' ' ' ' "'"' ' J s "' e t0 sl;lte the reasons which have 



jg-Pted their action. 



"It is well known that the Cuvier Club has always reso- 

 utely opposed prize pigeon shooting in all its phases 



"The Club was not insensible to the arguments by which 



flich practices were sought to be upheld. There were the im 



m markmanship, health fulness of out door exer 



;;se the encouragement of a taste for the gun, and the much 



om business, 



these the Club gave its hearty approval. Indeed, 



al those are mtunalely^blended >ilh| tuoj avowed obi, 



ttie Will). Lut as against them there were counter arguments 



unnecessary to be repeated, which outweigh the other consid- 



'This action has provoked the displeasure of some, who 

 have openly charged that the Club was an iconoclast; that it 

 destroyed but never created, and that the interests of the gun 

 ware purposely ignored. 



"In the introduction of the glass hall the Club sees what it 

 hopes may prove a solution of the difficulty, a pastime which 

 embraces all the benefits, without the drawbacks, of the pigeon 

 trap. R may happen, however, that in time the one may be- 

 come as much perverted and objectionable as the other in 

 winch event it should be immediately abandoned, 



1 lo avoid (his, the committee desire, to aid it by their en- 

 couragement, that it may not, fail from the first for want of 

 reputable recognition; and while the Club as a, club does not 

 intend to inaugurate or carry on trap matches, yet it provides 

 that, as one of the many sources of recreation tor 'its members " 



1 am sure you will second these sentiments. Oi.oan. 



1 am glad that I was mistaken, for from my own observa- 

 tion and from what I hear from all parts of the State birds 

 rarely been so abundant as now and they have had a fav- 

 orable season for the hatching, and we have had no torrential 

 rains to drown the young broods. 



Apropos of Bob White, permit me to take this opportunity 

 of relieving my conscience for ever having assented to call 

 this -take him all in all, the sport which he affords when shot, 

 over well-trained dogs, and his edible qualities, the noblest of 

 all our game birds— a quail. 



it maybe because I was born and grew to manhood in a 

 Southern State, but I will confess that I have never, as I have 

 often done, called our Perdix mrghuanus a quail without a 

 certain degree of compunction at having contradicted, as it 

 were, such illustrious men as Nuttail, Wilson, Audubon, Bona- 

 parte, and others who have devoted time and labor to the 

 special study of ornithology, and who all call the bird a part- 

 ridge! 



I have shot the email proper on both sides of the Mediter- 

 ranean, and, knowing his habits and qualities thoroughly, I 

 feel as if 1 were inflicting a wrong on our game little whistler, 

 and insulting him by calling him a quail. There is physically 

 a wide difference between the two birds and that greatly to 

 to the advantage of our native Bob White. The quail proper 

 is not as large by half as our own bird, nor is his plumage half 

 so beautiful ; his flesh is dark ; and, having no tail to speak 

 of. he compares with our Virginian partridge as w^onld a dung- 

 hill fowl with one of Yan Winkles or Perry Baldwin's game- 

 cock's. The, quail proper is an immoral little cuss after the 

 manner of the Mormons or Mohammedans, taking as many 

 wives as he can get ; and, worse than the human poligamist, 

 he disdains the cares and responsibilities of paternity. What 

 a noble moral contrast does our bird present ! He has hut 

 one wife, and all the affections of his faithful little heart are 

 bestowed upon the gentle mate won at the risk of his life in 

 many a hard fought battle. And what a model husband Bob 

 White makes when alive, and what a succulent pie when dead ! 

 What grand sport he affords to the sportsman and what gusta- 

 tory delight to the epicure. 



But there are other differences between the birds. The email 

 proper is as strictly migratory as the swallow. He changes 

 his climate twice a year on wings which bear him across the 

 broad Mediterranean Sea, on both shores of which he is found 

 hi great multitudes, whereas our Perdix virginiawus is a home- 

 staying, domestic bird, associating for the greater part of the 

 year with his own family only, the wife of his bosom and the 

 pledges of their mutual love. Perdix does travel from one dis- 

 trict to another in search of food or better cover, but his powers 

 of flight are not equal to migration across seas and continents, 

 for he cannot cross over larger rivers. 



The above are some of the reasons for my reluctance to de- 

 part from the Southern nomenclature and degrade gallant Bob 

 White into a quail. 



But seriously, Mr. Editor, our writers on field sports should 

 be less careless in the nomenclature of om game and as solici- 

 tous for the instruction of their breeders as for the enforce- 

 ment of the game faws. j\ ^ g 



I kaud.— Early in June I noticed in Foeest and Stream 

 an ad.," inserted, I presume, by some parties styling them- 

 selves the "Western Gun Works," 69 Dearborn street Chi- 

 cago offering, on receipt of $3, to forward to any address a 

 handsomely got-up revolver. Assuming, from the respecta- 

 bility of your paper, that the " ad." was genuine, I forwarded 

 the money ($3), but have not got the revolver although I 

 have written several times to know the reason why On Au- 

 gust 2 I wrote to M. C. Hickey, Esq., Chief of Police who 

 replied: "There was such a firm here, but they are now 

 busted. 1 ' WPS 



Brooklyn, Aug. 9, 1877. 



[Three dollar revolvers are a fraud, and so are the $5 rifles, 

 both inadvertently advertised by us. Wc do not intend any- 

 unreliable article or concern shall be advertised in our col- 

 umns, but unfortunately, through press of business, etc., due 

 to the Consolidation, the Western Gun Works of Chicago and 

 $5 rifle— which, is nothing but the old Star carbine— obtained 

 a single insertion in our columns. Accidents will happen, 

 but we have taken measures to prevent their recurrence.— Ed.] 

 ^~^^__ 



Remington's Catalogue.— Remington & Co. have just 

 issued a new catalogue for the present year of their breech- 

 loading firearms. This leaves nothing to he desired, being 

 not only a complete catalogue, but a treatise on rifle shooting, 

 history of gunmaking, record of international rifle matches] 

 and rules and regulations for shooting at long-range. The 

 well-known character of Remington & Co. is evidence su Indent 

 as to the correctness of this elegant little work. 



OUR WASHINGTON LETTER. 



Ortolan and Reed Bird Siiootimi m T11K Maepiifs- 

 Do Ortolan Have Fits?-Rekd Bird Diet foe Snakes 

 and Eels. 



[FROM orju special cokiiesi'ondent.J 



Washington, D. C, Aug. 10, 1877 

 piEE season for marsh-shooting on the Potomac and uei-di- 

 -1 boring streams in this vicinity as well as in Maryland 

 and Virginia is drawing near, and there will toon be fine, sport 

 among the ortolan and reed birds which frequent these marshes 

 during the first month or six weeks of autumn. Ortolan 

 (Porsana WroUna), or as they are. often called, sora rail, reach 

 here about the middle of August on their return from 'the 

 breeding grounds on the borders of the great Northern Lakes 

 and always tarry here, finding abundance of food in the 

 marshes in this locality, among which are those just off the 

 city adjoining Analostan Island, and opposite, covering au 

 area of several hundred acres. The largest marsh, however is 

 that near Benning's Bridge, on the Eastern branch, which is 

 about four miles long, and varies iu width from a quarter to a 

 half of a, mile. Other marshes are lower down She river in the 

 neighborhood of Alexandria and Fort Washington, and upon 

 all of tbem the birds find abundance of food, skulking amid 

 tall reeds and grasses, both by day and night, in search thereof 

 During the first two or three days of the season, which begins 

 on the 5th of September, as many as six or eight dozen ortolan 

 are sometimes killed by one gunner on a single tide, but as the. 

 season advance* the birds are killed off, others migrate south 

 ward, and in a few weeks they become scarce. They seem to 

 have a premonition of a sudden cold snap, and often vacate 

 the marshes in a single night in case of a sudden change in the 

 weather, seeking the more sunny skies of the South Although 

 a spring visitant they remain here but a short time at that 

 season, evidently being in a hurry to reach their breeding 

 grounds. On their return in the fall their flight is much 

 slower. 



For ortolan shooting in this locality the requisites are- 

 first, a light skiff drawing but two or three inches of water 

 so it will slide over the weeds and grass at hign tide 

 when the marshes arc covered with water; next, the services 

 of an experienced pusher must be secured. He is furnished 

 with a pole twelve or fourteen feet in length, having a cross 

 piece about six inches long at the end to prevent it sinking "in 

 the mud. The gunner takes his position in the bow and his 

 pusher in the stern of the boat, and about two hours before 

 high water they can enter the marsh. As the tide rises the 

 birds are more, easily put up, and the sport continues until 

 about two hours after high water, when it becomes a difficult 

 matter to push the boat, on account of the receding tide • be- 

 sides, the birds are then able to hide under the weeds and will 

 not rise. It is the business of the pusher to always mark the 

 spot where the dead bird falls, and direct the boat thereto as 

 the gunner generally has all he can do to load and fire as the 

 birds rise, two or three at a time, all within shot, but from 

 different places. Ortolan will only rise when the 'tide is too 

 high to prevent them hiding at the approach of a boat and 

 then they fly with dangling legs, proceeding but a short dis- 

 tance, when they drop with outspread wings among the reeds 

 It is an easy matter to put the same bird up two or three 

 times, but after that they become frightened and dive keep 

 ing their bill only above the water. 



I have known of two instances where ortolan were suddenly 

 approached by a boat, and manifested such fear that they had 

 convulsions and rolled over and over a half a minute or more 

 before recovering consciousness. In one case, the bird, after 

 going through various antics, flew and was killed, but in the 

 other the bird, after regaining its senses, dove, and could not 

 be put up again. I mention this fact as the result of actual 

 observation, and have no doubt that the same thing has bee,, 

 observed here and elsewhere by those accustomed to noticing 

 the habits of birds of this character. 



Reed birds, as they are called in this vicinity, but rice 

 birds further South, and bob-o-links in Northern States are 

 here in the fall in incredible numbers, and as they are always 

 found in flocks many are often killed at a single shot. About 

 two weeks after their arrival here they grow fat upon the 

 wild oats which constitutes their principal food Indeed I 

 have known them to be so fat that they could not fly any 

 great distance, and when in this condition they are esteemed 

 as a great delicacy, frequently bringing from 75 cents to 

 $1.25 per dozen in our markets, where they find ready sale 

 Numbers of them are wounded during the season, when flocks 

 are fired into ; but those unable to fly, although they may suc- 

 ceed in hiding from the sportsman after being dropped, soon 

 fall the victim of suckers and eels. On several occasions I 

 have knocked down reed birds, and upon going to the spot to 

 pick them up, have found a villainous water snake, some- 

 times two or three feet long, feasting upon the bird, having 

 grabbed the dead or wounded bird which happened to fall 

 near his snakeship. It is needless to say I invariably gave 

 the snake the contents of one barrel. 



Eels, too, frequently capture dead birds and drag them off 

 under the weeds, where they soon devour them. 



Reed birds, unlike the ortolan, seldom penetrate into the 

 interior of this country, but from the time they reach oil* 

 shores from the West Indies, in early spring-, seen, to pnfet 

 the marshes bordering the Atlantic coast. The plumage f 

 the male bird changes in the gprlng "to brid.t 

 and attractive colors, but after the breodii 



