162 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
red specks these have black specks, and golden sides, dark 
backs, light bellies, little or no scales, huge mouth. The 
golden color is not upon all, which seems to be a distinc¬ 
tion in the kind. The speckles are round, black and run 
in lines the whole length of the body. The smallest one I 
have seen weighed three-quarters of a pound, and ten 
pounds full was the weight of one an Indian speared, but 
the average is two and a half and three pounds, many being 
heavier; The meat'is darker than whitefish, of good flavoi, 
some bones in the smaller ones that bother about eating, 
especially with “store” teeth. Most people prefer the one 
pound trout, on account of the sweeter flavoi. Idont, 
bones too numerous and small. They sell at 12i cents per 
pound in this market. Great quantities are sent to San 
Francisco and Sacremenio while the weathei is cold enough 
to send safely. The lines used are the ordinary linen lines 
or grass lines. Cane poles, or any that are strong enough, 
and the longer the better, to get the bait cast out to the 
middle of the stream or as near as possible in the deepest 
channel of the river. There are no fish laws in Nevada, 
nor any game laws except for quail, which expire, in 
August or Septemberr Enterprising men have imported 
the eastern quail into California recently, and they seem to 
do well. Eastern fish are also brought to this coast. At 01 
near Tahoe is a man engaged in fish culture; what he does 
with them I cannot say. The silver trout, so called, of the 
Truckee River, differ but little from the darker ones, being 
a lighter color only. 
Reno, Nevada, March, 1874. 
-— 
If telegraph wires are used (as they should be), the 
marker at the butt signals the number, as well as the hit, 
thus:—B. 41, or C. 69, or O. 2, as the case maybe. It there 
is no telegraph, the marker holds his disk over the square 
hit long enough for the recorder at the firing range to re¬ 
cognize what square it is, which he can do _ from its posi¬ 
tion, aided by the knowledge of whether it is bulls eye, or 
centre, or outer. At very long ranges a telescope would 
be necessary. The number of the square hit is entered in 
the rifleman’s notes, along with the degrees and minutes oi 
actual elevation, the state of the weather, etc., etc. -this 
system is used on practice days, when the object should be 
to give all the information possible to the rifleman. . 
But match days should be looked upon as examination 
days, to see how much progress each man lias made. The 
rifleman then should be told nothing, and not allowed to 
use a telescope. The only use of the squares (which should 
be recorded as usual) would be in determining ties. For 
example—of two bulls eyes, one is in square 41, the other 
in square 56; 41 is of course the highest. Some squares 
are of equal value as removed from the absolute centre, 
but it would be easy to get over this difficulty by agreeing 
to rank the squares ’which are equal in position by their 
numbers. Thus of the four bulls eye squares—30, 31, 42, 
and 43—it should be agreed that 43 was the highest value 
expressed as a rule. Ties shall be decided by taking the 
hit upon the nearest square to the centre as the highest; it 
both hits are on squares equally distant from the centre, 
that upon the square numbered the highest shall be taken 
to be the highest. The adoption of this rule would abol¬ 
ish the tedious shooting off of ties, which everybody, we 
believe, heartily abhors. T. 0. O. 
sight. We add table of elevations for the Remington rifle 
^he sights are graduated to single minutes of elevation. 
The graduations on front sight correspond to 2 inches per 
each 100 yards, or say 20 inches at 1,000 yards. 
The table of elevations will be published by us later. 
Ijihml Hfktorjj. 
For Forest and Stream. 
HOW TO SHOOT AT LONG RANGE. 
For Forest and Stream. 
BIRDS OF LAKE OKEECHOBEE. 
THE NEW SIGHTS ON THE REMINGTON 
RIFLE. 
NUMBER FIVE. 
T HE last source of error that we have to describe is 
that of the operator, or rifleman himself. All of this 
class of errors may, we believe, be included 
in one grand one, and if he avoids this he 
will escape all the rest. This is, not pulling 
the trigger at the right moment. No rifleman 
need ever expect to hold his rifle still. So 
long as its butt rests against a human organ- 
ism the movements of respiration and circu¬ 
lation will cause the muzzle to describe a 
series of curves, infinitely small perhaps, but 
quite perceptible if one looks through a tele¬ 
scopic sight. The only thing that can be 
done is to accept the fact of a movement, 
and pull the trigger while the axis of sight 
is moving toward the bulls eye, and at that 
happy instant, so that the projectile will 
.neither fail to reach it nor be thrown be¬ 
yond it. 
This art can be acquired, and, when ac¬ 
quired, kept by practice only. Moreover, 
practice at Mr. Conlin’s suspended bullet, 
at seventy-five feet distance, is just as good 
as practice at the Creedmoor bulls eye at 
1 000 yards. When the rifleman has acquir¬ 
ed this union of the nerves of volition and 
action, so that he pulls, without;jerking, just 
at the right moment, he can tell as soon. as 
lie has pulled the trigger, andbefore hearing 
from the marker, whether his shot has 
been a good one or not. That is to say, if his cartridge 
was properly loaded and his rifle properly sighted. 
Having acquired this power, his chief effort should be to 
so adapt himself to external circumstances as not to inter¬ 
fere with it. He should therefore take that position m 
which he finds he can do it best, whether it be kneeling, 
sitting' or lying flat. He should dress in such a manner as 
to keep himself perfectly comfortable, and not cramp Ins 
freedom of movement. He should eat, drink, and smo e 
(if he is a smoker) with moderation, for any disarrange¬ 
ment of the stomach acts upon the nerves at once, and the 
power is lost. Finally, he should keep liis temper, whether 
a bulls eye or a miss is recorded against him. 
Match rifle shooting is very like match billiard playing. 
Some men can do very well in private what they utterly 
fail to do in public. These are not the men to compete 
with the Irish team. If the Irish team are beaten, we be¬ 
lieve it will be because their bodily condition will not be as 
■rood as it is at home. It is child’s play to shoot at long 
range at Creedmoor, where the clear light of an American 
afternoon scarcely varies, and those optical illusions that 
we have described are rare compared to Wimbledon, with 
its broken ground, and mirage arising from the moist Eng- 
lishw constantly changing the elevations of sights It 
is a fortunate thing that the challenge was for American 
ground, and not for English. Here we have gome ^ nce 
for beating them; there the chances would have been de¬ 
cidedly against it. 
Wo have a few words in conclusion to say about mark¬ 
ing, and then our sermon is done. The Wimbledon sy - 
tem of marking, admirable in other respects, has one'defect 
It is not sufficiently accurate either to record our shots, ,o 
that practice may teach us experience, or for the 
of determining ties. A slight addition wil reme y 
defect leaving the system untouched. In addition to the 
usual marking of centre and bulls eye, divide the target 
into squares of one foot apart. Number these squares like 
the sections of a western township, from right to left.and 
from left to right. These numbers need not actually b 
put on the target, but on a diagram. 
ONG ago we pointed to the necessity of constructing 
_ carefully adjusted sights for our rifles. Believing 
that our breech-loaders, as far as mechanism and material 
went, were ver} r nearly perfect, we felt certain that all that 
was wanted to achieve excellence was, that our manufac¬ 
turers should pay greater attention to their sights. We 
[Herewith we publish the first list ever obtained of the 
birds of Florida peculiar to the Lake Okeechobee region; 
and we can share to a certain extent the pride and satisfac¬ 
tion of our most indefatigable Florida commissioner in 
thus being able to contribute this valuable addition to the 
fund of natural science.]—E d. 
1 Wilson’s thrush, ( Tardus fuscescens). Saw one speci¬ 
men on Lookout Island, the only island dry enough to af 
ford residence to birds of this family. 
2. Cat bird, {Galeoscopte s Garolinensis). Upon the eastern 
shore, saw several in the elderberry thickets. 
3. Blue gray gnat-catcher, {Polioptila caerulea.) Abund¬ 
ant in the boxwood and ash on the eastern shore. 
4 Troc/lodytes aedon , (common wren.) Rarely seen. 
5. Yellow redpoll warbler, {Dendroeca palmarum.) The 
most abundant species of the warblers here as elsewhere. 
6. Yellow crowned warbler, ( Dendroeca coronata.) This 
species seemed to delight in the maple swamps, and where 
those trees were interspersed among the cypress, these 
beautiful little birds were to be found; comparatively 
abundant . . . 7 . _ , 
7. Maryland vellow throat, ( Geoihlypis tnchas), Rarely 
seen in the marshy hammocks bordering the shore. 
8 White bellied swallow, ( Tachycineta Ucolor.) Numer¬ 
ous- flocks of them were seen flying over the marshes near 
Kissimmee Bay and along the western shore. 
9 The purple martin, {Progne purpurea). Was abund¬ 
ant in the pine woods near the Kissimmee above, though 
none were seen near the lake. 
10. White eyed viero, {Vireo noveboracensis.) 
Common in the°cypress belt, wherever there 
was a thick undergrowth. Its peculiar note 
was the one most frequently heard. 
11. Savannah sparrow, {Passercuius savan¬ 
na). Not numerous. 
12. Cardinal bird, {Cardinalis Virginianus). 
We missed the pleasing song of this bright 
songster as soon as we “left the live oaks 
upon the Kissimmee, but after we had 
emerged from the desolate marshes and 
gained the first maple island their notes fell 
upon our ears; not numerous. 
13. “Chewink,” {Pipilo erythrophthalmus). 
Upon the Kissimmee I saw them in abund¬ 
ance, and a few upon the dry sand of Look¬ 
out Island, scratching among the dead 
leaves. I also detected the local variety, 
or species, discovered by Mr. Maynard on 
the St. John’s, having the iris white instead 
of hazel. 
14. Cow blackbird, {Molothrus pecoris). 
Not so numerous as the red wing. 
15. Red winged blackbird, {Agelaeus phoe- 
niceus. Yery abundant. Everywhere seen 
in the marshes, enlivening us with their pres¬ 
ence and song. 
16. Meadow lark, (SturneUa ludoridana). 
The pine woods near the Kissimmee con¬ 
tained this species|in abundance, but none 
were observed near the lake, owing to the 
swampy character of the shore. 
present to-day to our readers a carefully executed cut of 
the Remington sights, which will be used this season at 
Creedmoor on their target rifles. The back sight is placed 
juft behind the hammer, on a permanent pedestal, but the 
upright can be removed at pleasure. It moves on its joint 
backwards, forwards, and when the sight is not in use it 
can be brought down flat to the cheek piece of the rifle. 
The back sight has an orthoptic aperture, a minute hole in 
a cup-sbaped convex disk. This disk can be raised or low¬ 
ered to the various elevations required, and is worked by a 
thumb screw. There is a vernier scale allowing the most 
minute measurements to be appreciated. When moving 
the sight up or down, the disk is slightly loosened, one turn 
or so secures the whole apparatus and it remains fixed when 
the proper elevation is obtained. The whole is carefully 
darkened, so as to give no sparkle of light, which might 
dazzle the marksman. The front sight is the bead one, 
FRONT SIGHT. 
neatly covered over, so as sliade it properly, mounted on a 
transverse bar, so that it can be moved by means of a 
screw at right angles with the barrel to the right or left, in 
order to correct drift or effects of wind. When the front 
sight is the central position, it rests between two division 
marks designated by a little mark on each. When the sight 
is moved either way, the distance is read from the mark 
opposite the direction in which it is moved. The whole ar • 
rane-ements are very perfect and compact inform, and will 
doubtless add immensely to the efficiency of the already 
lastly celebrated gun, when used at long ranges. We 
notice also, that to meet the w'ants of various riflemen, these 
target rifles are now made when required with a combina¬ 
tion pistol-handle. The whole mechanism reflects great 
credit on the Messrs. Remington, who have spared no pains 
or expense in producing a most accurate and convenient 
17 Parole grakle, (Quiscalus purpweus). Yery numer¬ 
ous, 'this and the Florida species, Q. . 
18 Boat tail grakle, (Qi modus major). Extremely aliut 
dant, fssociatinl in flocks with the red wings and purple 
S 19 Common crow, (Oorms Americams). 
wlmref made S hivoc with the eggs in heron rookene* 
ItBlLlay™ t^uru» cristatus). None seen; few heard 
°Va 1 Yewe? teiyorius fuscui). V ery few seen in the larger 
ha 23 m Kingflsher, (Oeryle alcyon). Comparatively abundant 
along the Kissimmee and all sides of the lake. .. ^ 
24? Chuckwill’s widow {Antrostomus 
few heard at the deserted Indian village on the 
25 Ivory bill woodpecker, 
satisfactorily identified, though I caught a g imp 
eral which T then thought to he this species. , 
26. Pileated woodpecker, 'diecy- 
ant; its noisy, rattling note could he heald inai 
P1 27 S Red bellied woodpecker UM 
merous; the most abundant of th epicidae here, 
Ya ' Gdden winged woodpecker, (Ootaptes aumtui). Not 
11 29. Paroquet, (Conurus Carolinem *). 
Along the upper portion of oui route cy press 
they were abundant. I tliink they breed m the 
belt of the east shore. Q pvery where 
30. Turkey vulture, (Oathartes aura). Seen 3 0 f 
sailing high over the lake, or suddenly flappm 0 
some thick cypress. T> orp 
31. Black vulture, {Cathartes atratus). R • nU mer- 
32. Caracara eagle, {Polyborus vulture of 
ous. Regarding this species and th ® ® cr “ mber . 
Bartram, I shall have some notes ;“Y» Abundant along 
33. Falco sparrenus , (sparrow hawk)* aouu 
the Kissimmee; rare on the lake. , Most numer 
34. Buteo lineatus , (red shouldered hawk). collec fion 
ous species, having young in nearly eveiy larg 
0f 35 re Fishl, a .wk, (Pandion 7mKeius). 
ant in the lake. None of the white ^®? f ^ d ps e t s g eV erywhere. 
in the whole trip, though the osprey had * e ^ er0US J . y0 uug 
36. Barred owl, {Bymiumnebidoswn). N m 
found a week old. Its liootmgs filled the air 
