FOREST AND * STREAM. 



287 



would certainly win where a united team has lost; but we 

 believe that experience lias shown that an Irish team, as such, 

 can do better work than when commingled with men of 

 whom little is known. Let us take the conditions under 

 which a united team is formed, and we shall see that they are 

 utterly opposed to the theories laid down by Mr. Rigby and 

 by Major Leech, and to the practice of the most successful 

 riflemen alive. The best of the English, of the Scotch and of 

 the Irish are taken; but what do they know of each other ? 

 . The men find themselves shoulder to shoulder ; but there is no 

 interwoven sympathy, the result of steady practice and 

 mutual assistance. We believe our United Kingdom team is 

 in its very essence a mistake; and we object to the Irish hav- 

 ing to add to their already long list of disabilities the woeful 

 honor of sharing in a defeat whieh is pretty well a foregone 

 conclusion. That this is not mere presumption is evident 

 from the fact that the late Irish team fought fai- better at 

 Creedmoor than the united team, although the experience 

 gained prior to the contest was far inferior to that attending 

 the other. We hope that in future our Irish team, pure and 

 simple, will mam tain the reputation we have won in the 

 matter of rifle shooting. We think this cession of distinct 

 nationality worse than a nustake— we regard it as a very in- 

 genious absurdity. We do not wish to harbor suspicion un- 

 duly; but we believe that Ireland was allowed to participate 

 so that the defeat might be borne the easier. Had success 

 crowned the effort, very little would have been heard of Ire 

 land; the praise would have been for the British team. If 

 there is such a burning anxiety to be joined with us, let the 

 Queen's prizes at Wimbledon be opened to Irishmen, and let 

 our country be recognized as existent. When this is done, we 

 may consider the wisdom of going to America under the 

 English flag, taking our share in the loss, and being ignored in 

 the victory^ 



The Volunteer Service Gazette contains some very interest 

 ing correspondence. Mr. Herbert P. Miller writes an excel- 

 lent letter to the journal, from which we make the following 

 extracts : 



' ' It appears that during the last ten years but little, if any, 

 improvement has been made in the manufacture of small arms. 

 The result of this is, Mr. Rigby points out, the Americans 

 have stepped in front of us, and are now monopolizing a branch 

 of industry which once belonged to this country ; so we now 

 see British honor and " British interests " affected at one and 

 the same time. I do not mean to assert as a matter of fact, 

 that the American rifles are more accurate than those used by 

 the British team ; but I do say that, under the circumstances, 

 there is a fair presumption that they niay be so. Whenever 

 this match is shot, the contest is sure to be a very close one ; 

 and if the Americans have ever so slight an advantage in the 

 way of rifles, it will be quite sufficient to turn the scale 

 against us. Of course, it may turn out, on investigation, that 

 our rifles are as accurate as the Americans'; but, at any rate, 

 this should be clearly ascertained before another match takes 

 place ; we shall then, in the event of another failure, be able 

 to put the saddle on the " right horse, " and know where to 

 look for a remedy. Mr. Rigby thinks my suggestion, that 

 both teams should be armed with the same rifle, would be dif- 

 ficult to carry into practice ; perhaps so, as regards the Ameri- 

 cans, but with us the matter ought to be easy. Surely, the 

 maker of the selected arm would be able to loan a few rifles 

 for the purposes of this match. Again, why do owr team stick 

 to' the muzzle-loader f How can we possibly create much in t7ie 

 •performance, of an arm -which, in a military sense, is as ob- 

 solete as niglti-watchmen and stage-coacfies ? In the event of a 

 vietoiy but little attention will be given to the matter by 

 "foreign governments," unless it is gained with a breech- 

 loader. Match small-bore shooting will not receive much 

 permauent encouragement unless it is shown that some practi- 

 cal good may follow. Wimbledon itself would soon dwindle 

 away if there was no other object than the mere pleasure of 

 shooting. May I offer the following suggestions for consider- 

 ation:" 



[The italics are our own.] Another correspondent, a " Sni- 

 der Man," writes: 



" From all accounts I think it is clear that the days of the 

 muzzle-loader are ended, and the Americans have solved the 

 problem which our gunmakers have tried in vain to master. 

 The extraordinary performance, of Sergeant Gilder in making 

 sixteen consecutive bull's-eyes at 1,000 yards, with a Sharp's 

 breechloader, the first and the last of the series of eighteen 

 shots being centres to the left, is worthy of notice ; and these, 

 too, with a perfectly strange rifle. Does it not follow that all 

 our small-bore men must provide themselves with breech- 

 loaders ? Prom what I have gathered from the newspapers, 

 and the evidence of competent eye-witnesses, I believe that 

 our team had not yet learned the very A B of organization ; 

 but although this was the case, it must not be imagined that 

 all teams of English shooting men fail equally in elementary 

 knowledge." • 



All we have to say is, that we think that Mr. Miller and 

 " A Snider Man" are in the right direction. No one can be 

 more conscious than ourselves of the advantages of drill and 

 the American supremacy in team shooting. Such toutensemble 

 may be thirty per cent, in the achievement of success, but 

 the other seventy per cent, is in having the right kind of a 

 gun. When " A Snider Man " writes " How can we possibly 

 create much in the performance of an arm, which, in a mili- 

 tary sense, is as obsolete asnight-watebmen and stage-coaches," 

 this rifleman has hit it exactly. We predict quite a revolu- 

 tion at Wimbledon before long. 



Glisn Duake Rifi.k Range.— At Pelhamville, on the 17th 

 the Wright; medal will he shot for. On the 29th subscription, 

 and other matches, including a prize rifle. Matches to com- 

 mence at one o clock. 



Wolves in the Ottawa Vallet.— Writing from the 

 Wakefield Mountains under date of October 15. Mr. Vennor 

 says : " Wolves are at present abundant on the rocky hills and 

 mountains of Templeton and Wakefield. Some thirty sheep 

 have been killed wiririu the past few days in the neighborhood 

 of our quarters. In Portland Township and along the Priest's 

 Creek hardly a night passes without the howl of the wolf be- 

 ing heard, and here also the sheep have been killed in large 

 numbers. Mr. Pelissier, of Wakefield, informs me that two 

 years ago an army of wolves came down along the valley of 

 the creek just referred to, and destroyed everything in their 

 Hack. Some two hundred sheep fell victims to these blood- 

 thirsty creatures in Portland alone within a comparatively few 

 days. In the Gore of Templeton these animals are just now 

 particularly abundant, and this locality is barely fifteen miles 

 from the East Templeton wharf on th« Ottawa River, 



jf #g »nd §>wu 



GAME IN SEASON IN NOVEMBER. 



!.•/</, 



■iiadomiii. 



Moos A Ircse, i 



But or wapiti, 



Daren, bfOWD i 



Wild turkey, .1. 



Woodcock, I'h 



Ruffed grouse, Jlona«a uinbiiluti. 



Plover, niuradriinve. 



Godwit. 



Hail?, Hallux virgimarms. 



Snipe ami Bay Birds. 



Cariboo, Tarandus remgiftr. 



Red Deer. CnHnvits vmiininnun. 

 Squirrels, red, black ami gray. 

 Quail, O/itt/.r- oinjinutiii'S. 



Pmnateu Grouse, Cupido Owptdoma 



Curlew, Xuhuntus arquarM. 



Saudpipers, Tringana; 



Willets. 



Reed or Rice Birds, Dolkhonyx oriz- 



vorn8, 

 Wild Dnok. 



"Bay birds" generally, including various species of plover, sand 

 piper. 'snipe curlew, oyster-catcher, sort birds, plialaropes, avocets 

 eta,, coming under the group Limucolm or Shore Birds. 



Massachusetts— Taunton, Nov. 9.— The birds in this 

 neighborhood have been less scarce this fall than usual, but 

 very wild. The woodcock frequent the dense swampy thick- 

 ets of^which there are so many about here. The oldest hunters 

 and best shots complain that, unlike good little children, they 

 I saw, however, the other day a fine 



Tennessee — Nashville, Nov. lo.— Ducks are abundant 

 above the reservoir and at Shelby's Pond.j 



Louisiana — New Orleans, Nov. 6.— The Times devotes a 

 column to the field sports about the city. We learn that no 

 time has yet, been fixed for the proposed hunting match be- 

 tween the 'New Orleans and Montgomery gun clubs. The 

 hunt is to be confined to the marshes, bayous, lagoons and 

 lakes for some ten miles around Lake Catharine, and limiting 

 the varieties of game to be killed to the snipes, geese, brantC 

 rails and the twenty odd varieties of ducks that are found m 

 that region. It will, in short, chiefly be a grand match duck 

 hunt. 



Game is still scarce. The southward flight of ducks has 

 been unusually backward this year. Game at this season was 

 never before so scarce. This is an indication of a mild winter 

 at the north. Crack wing shots, who are usually good for 

 thirty to sixty ducks in a day at Lake Catharine find it diffi- 

 cult to bag lvlf a dozen. The cold weather of the last few 

 days, however, is bringing the flocks in, and shortly the shoot- 

 ing will doubtless be quite good. A great many snipe, in ex- 

 cellent condition, have recently been killed within the city 

 limits, on the upper side of the new canal beyond the white 

 bridge. Most of the ducks in the market come from La- 

 branchc, up the Jackson railroad. Quail and woodcock from 

 the highlands of Tagihapee are scarce and high. Large rab- 



are heard, but not seen. 



lot of birds which fell to the gun of a man who has had ex- | bits from the Mississippi swamps, and small ones from the 

 perience in every State from here to California, five plump piue woods, are plentiful, as arc also the delicious ground 



~ doves from across the lake. Reports from the Attakapas 

 country represent game in that paradise for sportsmen as 

 plentiful. Great bags of woodcock, snipe and ducks are be- 

 ing made, especially in Vermilion. There is good snipe 

 shooting at Kenuerville. Labranehe is a noted place for ducks, 

 particularly the' plump French or mallard. Freniere is good 

 for snipe and ducks as well as squirrels, while Manchac is a 

 favorite resort for deer, interspersed and seasoned with adven- 

 ture by an occasional wild cat, and, at rare intervals, black 



woodcock and six ruffed grouse, fat and tender. Very few 

 quail havo been shot. The clucks are beginning to fly over 

 the Middleboro ponds. A party of three got two canvas backs, 

 fifteen black ducks, twelve coots and one wild goose in eighteen 

 hours, and the season may be fairly said to have begun. There 

 has been some good fishing during the summer in the ponds 

 about here. I got nineteen black bass one day, all over a half- 

 pound and under two pounds. A small boy of eight years, 

 with a stick, a little twine and a hook and a worm, " playing 

 catch bass " along the shore of Assawamsett Pond, is high 

 hook with a five-pounder. Strings of 200 and 100 odd white 

 perch in a few horns have been caught. H. D. J> 



Wareham, Nov. 10.— Quail and partridges are unusually 

 plenty hereabouts. 



Connecticut— New Haven, Nov. 8.— Aparty of well-known 

 business men, among whom were F. A. Gilbert, E. S. Kim- 

 beriy, Charles Kimberly, Frank H. Hooker, H. S. Holcomb, 

 George E. Spare and two or three gentlemen friends from New 

 York, returned yesterday from a hunting excursion to Col- 

 chester. They brought back a dozen partridges, eighteen 

 gray squirrels, twelve red squirrels, a fine lot of quail and 

 three gray coons. A party of students shot a deer at Lake 

 Saltenstall the other day. Possibly the animal had escaped from 

 some collection, as deer are now rare visitors in this neighbor- 

 hood. 



Hartford, Nov. 9.— The Hartford Fox Club, consisting of 

 Dr. David Crary, David Clark, J. G. Lane, E. C. Kellogg, 

 Martin Bissel and George Downing, with their dogs, visited 

 Talcott Mountain Monday morning, aud before they returned, 

 Dr. Crary' had the good fortune to send a charge from his Par- 

 ker gun into a fine fox, which was bagged and brought to 

 town as a trophy. 



RnoDB Island— Newport, Nov. 7.— There are plenty of 

 coots flying in our bay, and the shooting is good over at the 

 Dumplings. Castle Hill, Dyer Island and Hope Isle are fine 

 places for black ducks. No end of black ducks have been shot 

 there. Some sport has been had shooting teal. Some snipe 

 and .yellow leg shooting has been had here, but think it is 

 about over for the season. 



New York — Bloomingburgh, Nov. 10.— The shooting good. 

 Had fine sport this week. Mr. Werzel, Mr. Junk of Hoboken 

 and myself making a fine bag in two and one-half days' shoot- 

 ing ; nine partridges, nineteen rabbits, ten quail and eleven 

 woodcock. Woodcock are becoming scarce now ; partridges 

 plenty. - Milo. 



Cayuga, Nov. 9. — The ducks are scarce just at present, but 

 cold weather is expected to bring great flocks of them to the 

 lakes. The game constables are rigidly enforcing the law, and 

 the batteries have been effectually banished. 



Glens Falls, Nov. 11.— Mr. A. B. Abbott, one of the man- 

 agers of the Hallock Sportsmen's Association, -was on Tuesday 

 last elected Member of Assembly from Warren County, "by a 

 large majority." A hundred or more geese passed over yes- 

 terday, bound South. Ruffed grouse have not been as plenty 

 as usual this fall, owing to the forest fires at nesting time last 

 spring. Glen Falls. 



New Jeeset — Kinsey's Ashley House, Barncgat Inlet, Nov. 

 6. — The shooting up to date has been fair. Black ducks very 

 plenty ; sprig-tails, until last few days, ditto ; shelldrakes 

 never more plentiful ; broadbills are making their appearance 

 in large numbers, and 80 per cent, young birds. The young 

 growth of mussels in the channel affords them excellent food, 

 and will afford us JKnie fine shooting this fall, as every day 

 increases the uumwr. Your correspondent bagged 20 Satur- 

 day. 



Very few geese yet, and I have only noticed some half doz- 

 en bunches of brant. This looks fashionable, as the old gun- 

 ners say they are holding back for their young ones. We al- 

 ways notice the later the brant are the larger proportion of 

 young birds, and consequently better shooting. B. 



Pennsylvania— Dunn's, Nov. 6.— Two men here last week 

 killed 21 ruffed grouse, 6 pigeons, 3 rabbits, 1 duck. Game 

 is moderately plenty for this part of the country. P. 



Centre. — Mr. Sam. Weis, of Centre township, according to 

 thd Sunbury Gazette, brought down three wild turkeys, and 

 wounded a fourth, at one shot. 



Greenville, Nov. 10.— Capt. Nelson, E. Christie O. Luke and 

 A. Bright aud myself have just returned from a three-weeks' 

 duck and chicken hunt in Western Ohio and Indiana, Hunts- 

 ville, Ohio, and Syracuse, Indiana. Nelson nod Luke shot 

 four wild turkeys. Ruffed grouse are quite plenty in this 

 section. A fine bag was brought in to-day by three of the 

 club. 



— The Wayne Democratic Press says : "The number of 

 woodcock and partridge that have been shot by our sportsmen 

 this fall exceeds that of any other year within a space of 

 five years." 



Yx.—BeUefonte, Nottaway (Jo. —Our correspondent, Capt. 

 John M. Taylor, writes us that he is off for a hunt, and has 

 taken with him his Betters, retrievers and foxhounds, so as to 

 combine all the pleasures of the chase. Now, if qnail, duck 

 or deer come in Captain Taylor's way, he will be fully pre- 

 pared. 



Michigan— BelUtuc, Nov. 4. — Shot three woodcock yester- 

 day, all plump and fat. Very late for the birds. We are to 

 have a game protective club here soon. 



Kansas — Bosedale, Nov. 7. — Quail plenty, pinnated grouse. " 

 woodcock and ducks scarce. T. D. J. 



Minn. — AsMand. — Deer shooting is ex ellent thisfall. C. 



California.— Brannan Island and the lower half of Andrus 

 Island are fairly overrun with ducks and geese, and sportsmen 

 could not desire any better sport than can be there obtained. 



San Francisco, Nov. 4— Ducks are reported plenty in the 

 San Joaquin Valley, and at other places in the interior, but 

 are rather thinly scattered on the bays and marshes yet. In 

 two weeks more they will probably be plenty at Alameda, 

 Saucelito and San Bruno. D. S. L. 



—They are doing a great deal of moonlight duck shooting in 

 California. There can be no better plan to entirely extermi- 

 nate the ducks. Some day their moonlight duck shooting- 

 will be all moonshine. 



Blue Rocks off the Coast of Ireland. — We have the 

 following interesting facts from the well known pigeon 

 shooter, Ira Paine, Esq.: 



Perhaps it may interest some of your readers to know about 

 shooting the true and original blue-rock as found in its wild 

 state. Of course we all know that the blue rock is the swiftest 

 of the pigeon family. But there is the greatest difference be- 

 tween the blue rock as it is bred in a domestic condition, and 

 the wild one. The wild bird is rather bigger, has greater 

 stretch of wings, and consequently a more rapid flight. The 

 prepared skins of two wild blue rocks I sent to your office last 

 week, will also show you some other slight differences. Off 

 Queenstown, from ten to twenty miles, are clifs using up 

 from the water side some fifty to two hundred feet. These 

 cliffs are high and perpendicular. Just above high water, or 

 where the surf might strike, there are clefts or crevices, small 

 caves as it were, due to the decomposition of the stone. Just 

 here is where the blue rocks breed. I took a boat, manned 

 by four good oarsmen. The shooting is only possible when 

 the wind is off shore ; when it blows on, the risk of being 

 swamped precludes all sport. You have to shoot from the 

 boat, and approach these places where you can see two or 

 three pigeons, then you strike the gunwale of boat with a 

 stick, and away sky-rocket the birds. It won't do for mc to 

 say what kind "of a shot I am, modesty would prevent that, 

 but what with the teetering of the boat, and the lightning-like 

 rapidity of the birds, it was as nice shooting as I ever saw. 

 The speed of the birds was terrific. My companion was Mr. 

 E. Hodder, the son of Dr. Hodder, of Toronto. We killed 

 together some thirty-six birds. Mr. Hodder has killed as 

 many as sixty on a favorable day. Save shooting birds over 

 dogs, shooliug blue rocks is the finest sport I know of. 



—In reply to a correspondent who wrote to us complaining 

 that he could not obtain the §17 gun, advertised in our col- 

 umns by Hyde, Shattuck & Co;, that firm writes that they are 

 now making only the twist barrel gun, price $20. 



— The editor of the Virginia City Chronicle is.a noted Nim- 

 rod. On arriving at his favorite field, one day last week, and 

 finding tnat some one had mischievously cut the mouth of the 

 bag of live birds stored .with his usual foresight under the 

 buggy seat, he rushed back to his sanctum and penned and 

 primed the followiug sarcastic item: "Live quail are being- 

 shipped to this point in considerable numbers. They are a 

 necessity to every hunter's complete equipment." 



Tit foe Tat.— A farmer in Chester County, Pa., prose- 

 cuted three hunters for trespassing on his premises, for which 

 they were fined. They retaliated on him by telling him they 

 would give him three days' time to remove all the noxious 

 weeds from off his farm, and, in case he did not, they would 

 institute suit against him for a violation of a special law for 

 Chester county, which is punishable with a fine of f 50. The 

 fanner, taking the hint, has four men busily engaged in cut- 

 ing and pulling weeds. 



An Old Pistol.— Mr. Otis Fellows, of Ilornnellsville, N. 

 Y., has an old rifle, captured during Napoleon's campaign 

 before Berlin. It is 33 inches long," the length of the barrel 

 being but 18 inches. It is heavily made, and weighs 8 pounds. 

 It carries a two onuce ball. There is also a pistol made by 

 the celebrated gunsmith, " I. Patrick, Liverpool, maker to the 

 Duke of Gloucester." It is said that it has been carried by tie 

 Duke and by Aaron Burr. He also has a powder horn wlfich 

 was carried in the French and Indian war, and in the Revolu 

 ion. 



