46 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



|Feb. 14, 1884. 



Bird Migration.— In the number of Forest and Stream 

 for Jan. 24 was printed the general circular on migration of 

 the committee of the American Ornithological Union. As 

 superintendent of the '"Mississippi Valley" District" I wish 

 to supplement it by a special appeal to the sportsmen of that 

 portion of the United Slates. Exact reports on the migra- 

 tions of 1he water birds in the Mississippi Valley nre yet to 

 be written. We have plenty of notes on "Ducks and Geese," 

 "Snipe and Plover, " but for the accurate study ol migra- 

 tion, such notes are, to say the least, unsatisfactory, because 

 the several species are not separated. The observers are not 

 to blame for this; they have done the best they could. Like 

 the most of mankind, they cannot distinguish the different 

 kinds at a distance. What we want, in addition to the gen- 

 eral reports on all birds, which we are glad to get from any- 

 body, is special reports from those who from profession br 

 by practice have learned to recognize the various species of 

 water and shore birds, both in the hand and on the wing. The 

 Mississippi Valley contains many who are eminently fitted 

 to aid in this woik. There is hardly a lake in that broad 

 territory where some one is not now anxiously awaiting the 

 disappearance of its ice and the appearance of the water 

 fowl; hardly a marsh that some one will not later be watch- 

 ing for the first signs of the birds that are to give him such 

 glorious sport. These are the persons whose help we want- 

 But the professional hunter is the man par excellence whom 

 we are- after. He is the one who is at home with the birds, 

 whose business it is to watch and note accurately their com- 

 ings and goings, and if he will contribute his observations, 

 the spring of lb84 will see for the first time an extended 

 series of exact observations on the migration of our water 

 biieis. Let all, then, wbo are willing to give us the benefit 

 of their notes send in their names and I will furnish a fuller 

 statement of plans and wishes.— W. W. Cooke (Caddo, Ind. 

 Ter. ) 



Screech Owls in a Chimney. — Lockport, N. Y. ( Jan. 

 29. — The inclosed was taken from the Lockport Journal of 

 yesterday: "About two weeks ago a stove was put up in a 

 room in the residence of J. H. H. Clark, on Chestnut street, 

 which had not been occupied for some time, and every night 

 a rattling and scratching noise would be heard in the previ- 

 ously unused chimney. Occupants of the room endeavored 

 to get the uneasy visitors out of their quarters, but without 

 success until last night, when the fire became too hot and 

 two full fledged screech owls, who had lodged in the chim- 

 ney, came tumbling down into thejfire place, overcome by 

 heat. It is very seldom that screech owls make their homes 

 in chimneys." The birds were brought to my son to be 

 stuffed and mounted, and were male and female, and I think 

 last season's birds; they were in good shape, but very poor, 

 and I think they could have had but little to eat during the 

 two nights they have occupied the chimney. My son has 

 stuffed a number within the oast month, and with this ex- 

 ception they have all been very fat.— J. L. D, 



Tame Quaii,.— Monroe, La.— A lady friend of mine, Miss 

 Slaughter, has a tame quail of our* small varietv, which 

 domesticated itself. Miss S. lives on the bank of the 

 Ouachita, near Monroe, the premises being surrouuded by 

 corn and cotton fields. The bird, a female, came volun- 

 tarily into the yard and associated itself with the domestic 

 fowls. It has been in the poultry yard about a year, and 

 rarely leaves its domestic companions, it takes an active 

 interest in matters at feeding time, and by its extraordinary 

 pugnacity secures for itself a fair share of the food thrown to 

 the chickens. Miss Lou says it will ruffle up its feathers 

 and boldly attack a hen of erdinary size. A very curious 

 feature about this case is that the bird built a nest in the 

 garden last spring and laid some dozen of eggs, having no 

 contact with any other member of its tribe. " Part tff the 

 eggs were placed under a setting hen, and I believe the bird 

 itself sat on the others, but none of them were hatched, 

 owing, I suppose to want of impregnation. — Ouachita. 



Another Tame Crow.— Preferring to Mr. Sprague's tame 

 crow, I am reminded of one formerly owned by a family in 

 a village one and a half miles from my residence. This 

 family ran a hack several times a day to the railroad station, 

 one mile distant. For several weeks this young crow at- 

 tempted to accompany the hack to the station but was in- 

 variably attacked at the outskirts of the village by some 

 kingbirds who quickly drove him back to the house in 

 which he at once took refuge. This crow became such an 

 inveterate thief that the family gave him away to a young 

 lawyer in the- neighborhood. He kept him confined 'in his 

 office till he became attached to his new home, when he al- 

 lowed him to fly about the neighborhood. Although this 

 young lawyer was fairly itching for business he soon had 

 more "petty larceny" cases than he could attend to and was 

 compelled to dispose of his crow, which soon went where all 

 bad crows go. — M. P. P. 



Early Migration of Woodcock.— On Thursday morn- 

 ing, Feb. 7, while out with my beagles, I flushed a wood- 

 cock. The bird was evidently a fresh arrival, as he seemed 

 tired ana loath to rise, being sprung several times, and al- 

 ways taking short flights. The weather had been mild for 

 several days, and the "morning in question was raurkj' with 

 drizzling rain. He was found in a low piece of woodland 

 on the very verge of West Philadelphia, a spot that thirty 

 years ago was a favorite haunt of these birds, but the steady 

 growth of the city westward has trenched on this territory 

 until now the houses are built up in solid blocks to within 

 one hundred yards of where this bird was found. In a loDg 

 experience I never remember to have seen woodcock so early 

 in the season, and the case is especially remarkable, as up to 

 within a week the weather has been very cold and the ground 

 covered with snow and sleet. — Rustictjs (Philadelphia, Pa.). 



Recent Arrivals at the Philadelphia Zoological Garden.— One 

 grizzly bear yVrsus horribilis), two raccoons (Prucyonlotor), two gray 

 squirrels (JSciurus carotinensis), one opossum (DiOel phyn virginiana), 

 one great horned owl (Bubo virginianus), one herring guil (Larus 

 n.rgentatus), one broad -winged hawk (Buteo pennsylvanicwm)\ two 

 yellow-shafted woodpeckers (Golaptex auratus), one Amherst's 

 pheasant (Thaumalea amherstice), two museovy ducks, one diamond 

 rattlesnake (Crotalus adanumteus), Ave alligators (A lligator miss-ts- 

 uippiensis.) ^ __ _^^_^__ 



N. B.— In our notiee of pictures received from Mr. G. Hill, 

 Hudson, N. Y. (page 83), that gentlemams name was inadver- 

 tently printed Mills. Find in answer to "N. D." (same issue), 

 dam of Snop should read Hill's Tilley. 



&ni* §%g ztfd 



THE CHOICE OF HUNTING RIFLES. 



[Oim tinned from page 30.] 

 Editor Forest and Stream: 



The man who asserts that he can remedv the defect of too 

 much curve in the trajectory, either by "high sighting, by 

 taking "coarse lead" on the front sight, by holding over or 

 high upon the game, or by elevating sights, or by any other 

 plan, simply asserts that, he is a quick and accurate judge 

 of distance under the ever-changing conditions of ground 

 and light; and that, too, in the very face of game that is 

 generally ready to leave on the instant, and is often in 

 motion. Every method of remedying this defect in the 

 field involves the calculation of distance. There is posi- 

 tively no escape from it. With any man who makes such 

 an assertion I have nothing to argue. Our experience is 

 antipodal; there is no common ground upon which we can 

 meet; no premises that we can use as a common starting 

 point. 



The man who asserts that a .40-caliber solid ball is large 

 enough for deer, antelope, etc., simply asserts oue of these 

 three propositions : 



First— That he can hit his game just where he chooses; or, 



Second — That a ball is just as effective in one part of an 

 animal as in any other part; or, 



Third — That the crippling and torturing of game is a 

 matter of no consequence. 



I challenge the world to point out any way of escape from 

 impalement upon the point of one or the other of these 

 propositions. 



With such a man also I have nothing to argue. There is 

 no common ground between us. He is a being from a loftier 

 sphere from that in which I live and for which I write. For 

 years I have known that genius of the field who is never 

 troubled with the eccentricities of lead. I have seen him 

 perform. For a mere "duffer," a blockhead who has not 

 sense enough to place every ball in the heart of a bounding 

 deer to offer advice to such a demigod, requires more cour- 

 age than this "duffer" happens lo possess just at present. 



There are, however, many clods of commen clay who, like 

 myself, feel compelled to bow to the vagarie's of lead. 

 Especially so when it is traveling upon a high curve, and 

 the game is traveling upoa a still higher curve. And we 

 are weak enough to prefer a bullet that may take effect when 

 accidently planted at .87.906 of an inch from the precise 

 point where our aforesaid friend would plant it. And 

 so weak are we in this respest, that we are hopelessly 

 blind lo the loss of an extra square inch of "pelt." and can 

 even endure with composure the loss of fifteen and a half 

 ounces of meat irretrievably "mussed" and ruined by an 

 expansive bullet. 



Such persoHs now prefer a bullet made expansive, and 

 some prefer it even larger than .40. By some it is objected 

 that expansive bullets are not sufficiently killing for want of 

 penetration. 



The effect of expansive balls has been immensely over- 

 rated. A large amouut of twaddle has been written about 

 "express shock," etc , tigers wilting like wet rags under a 

 single bullet, and grizzlies' heads pulverized like puff balls, 

 etc., etc. One .who has never tried one of these balls but 

 had only read of them, could conceive nothing less than a 

 bottled up thunderbolt suddenly let loose in an animal's 

 body. There is nothing to be done but to make the contact. 

 The instantaneous paralyzation of every nerve and muscle in 

 the victim results as a matter of course. Stop now, my friend, 

 you need not give me a record of so many tigers'or bears 

 killed with a single shot each. I can find you a single muz- 

 zleloader of ,45-caliber in this county that has killed fifteen 

 grizzhes in just fifteen shots, all solid balls. I know, too, 

 how it was done. By following the bear hunter's rule, viz., 

 "let a bear alone unless you can get a dead sure shot." Any 

 good hunter with any kind of a rifle that is accurate, will 

 make runs of six, or seven, or eight deer killed in succession 

 with the single ball, and all falling within sight. And it is 

 probable that more deer have been killed at a single shot 

 from small-bored muzaleloaders with round ball than have 

 ever been killed or ever will be killed with all other rifles 

 put together. 



All such things prove exactly nothing exoept that the ani- 

 mal happened to be hit in the right place. Give me the 

 formula for reaching the right spot and I want nothing bet 

 ter than a .38 or .40 solid ball. On what are known as the 

 vital points of deer and antelope the difference between the 

 most destructive express balls and the small solid ball 

 amounts to little. For dangerous game it may be different, 

 and even very little of course amounts to something. But I 

 believe that even there the effect is immensely exaggerated. 

 I have often seen deer, struck at the point of the shoulder, 

 run 'fifty or sixty yards with 400 grains of leaden "splash" 

 driven almost to the skin on the opposite side and tearing 

 lungs and heart completely into shreds. The majority so 

 struck will run some distance precisely as when struck with 

 a solid ball; and the latter will bring many down in their 

 tracks as quickly as the expansive one will. Nor can I dis- 

 cover any material advantage (in this respect) from increase 

 of powder. And the principles of so much "force ex- 

 pended in an animal's body," "express shock," etc., I can 

 find little or nothing in — so far as the vital spots are con- 

 cerned. And I doubt if any one living shoots as large a 

 powder proportien as I do, or has cut the hole of expansion 

 bullets into more varied sizes. 



But when we come to shots not on the vitals, the differ- 

 ence between the solid and the expansive ball becomes im- 

 mense. And the place where common mortality is liable t'a 

 plant a bullet in an animal running, or one a little too far off, 

 or in bad light, or in brush, etc., ete., and which are not 

 immediately vital, comprise almost two-thirds of the body. 



While few or none will dispute this last statement, there 

 are still many who claim that the solid ball, defective as it 

 is, is still better than the expansive one, because of its better 

 penetration. 



There is some truth in this. Seven years ago I said in 

 these columns that, in the long run penetration was about as 

 essential as expansion. Ever since then I have been using 

 expansive balls of various sizesfcand shapes, and am fully, 

 satisfied that for 100 shots taken as they generally urn a 

 solid ball is better than an expansive ball that opens too 

 quickly or that goes into splash upon flesb. I said then that 

 the expansive hole in the bullet should be small and tapering 

 to a point at the bottom. The more I use them the smaller 

 I make the hole, and the more I am convinced of the neces- 

 sity of making it small. 



If the ball opens too quickly no amount of powder will 



give it sufficient penetration for those shots in which pene- 

 tratioB is needed. It simply makes a wider flesh wound but 

 without sufficient increase of depth to be of practical use. 

 *or such shots as a little too far back of the shoulder, or in 

 the brisket, it will still be far better than the solid ball, but 

 it will be inferior for nearly all the raking or quartering 

 shots, where a ham must be shot through before the ball can 

 enter the body. The expansive ball must in any event have 

 a very heavy powder charge behind it. as even slight expan- 

 sion checks it immensely, and no atnoitp 'Vri powder will 

 suffice for good penetration unless uit ' n , /nude to open 

 slowly. ° a n , . 



1 think all the objections to the efl?f „..,/' of expansive 

 balls are caused either— , ou ' 



First — By too much expansion; or, 



Second— By too little powder. 



Both of these are combined in the Winchester express. 

 The ball goes to pieces «n flesh alone without touching bone; 

 and though far superior for shots on the stomach, too high 

 or too low in the shoulder, etc., of a deer, it is not equal in 

 efficiency on some raking shots from behind to the .45-60 

 of the same company. The copper tube adds little or no 

 strength to the ball; it is needless for accuracy or any other 

 purpose whatever, except to catch gulls who think it has 

 some marvelous virtue. If the hole were made narrower, 

 shallower and tapering to the bottom, it would .be far more 

 effective, in the long run, though for some shots it would be 

 less quickly fatal than as at present made. It also needs 

 more powder, fully fifteen grains being needed to balance 

 the increase caliber over the .44, the larger tube requiring 

 always a little more powder for the same weight ol lead. 

 The ball is heavy enough, and if made to simply expand to 

 about four-fifths of an inch, and backed by 120 or lb(J grains 

 of the very best powder, the gun ought to be the most effec- 

 tive of all rifles tbat can be held to the shoulder, its repeat- 

 ing power overbalancing all else. 



The expansion of a ball can be tested only upon flesh, 

 Soft clay may possibly do, but tests made upon wood, etc., 

 are worthless. I have seen bullets with copper tubes hold 

 together on wood and make good penetration, while the same 

 bullet would invariably go to Hinders upon flesh. If. the 

 makers of repeaters or rather express rifles will listen a mo- 

 ment 1 can give them some good advice that will tend to 

 reconcile and unite all the conflicting opinions upon this 

 point. 



First — Make the ball light enough and the rifle heavy 

 enough to prevent much recoil, so that a difference of twenty- 

 five grains in the weight of the ball will not require any 

 change of sights at ordinary range. 



Second — In every box of cartridges let one-half the balls 

 be solid ones, so that those who do not like expansive balk 

 or want some solid ones can be accommodated. 



Third— Make in the point of the rest a hole only half the 

 length of the ball, tapering to the bottom and not over oue 

 tenth of an iuch wide at the top, and leave it open. 



Fourth— Upon the box cover inform the purchaser that 

 the latter balls can in a moment be made expansive to any 

 extent desired with a gimlet, reamer or point of a penknife. 

 Also that if he thinks the hole will affect the ball's accuracy 

 that he may close it with wax or tallow, but that there is no 

 need of anything. 



Fifth — The last and best. Throw the copper tube to the 

 dogs, stiffen the ball with tin and put behind it the last 

 grain of powder that the repeater action will bear. 



Quite an effective rifle may be made of a .40-caliber, with 

 100 grains of powder and 200 of lead. And I see no reason 

 why such a rifle eould not be made to take a curt ridge of 120 

 of powder and 250 of lead. If the latter could not be 

 worked through the magazine, it might be inserted in the 

 barrel by hand wheu the carrier block is down and there is 

 no haste* in loading. 



I think, however, if any one can only overcome the un- 

 manly fears of a little recoil — entirely unfounded— and en- 

 dure the sacrifice of a few ounces of meat, he will find no 

 trouble with the .50-caliber of the Winchester, remedied as 

 above suggested. For all-around work, for penetration, 

 expansion and retention of velocity, a ball must have actual 

 weight. Without weight, momentum or force is impossible, 

 and without solid walls around the hole in a bullet slow ex- 

 pansion is impossible. Make the hole too braaJJ in a narrow 

 ball and it does n«t expand enough. Make it large enough 

 and it may go to pieces too quickly. Put weight enough im 

 a . 40-caliber ball to force its expanding front very far 

 through flesh and you must make it too long to have good 

 initial velocity. 



How, then, shall we strike, a compromise between the three 

 conflicting elements of high velocity, weight, and sufficient 

 striking surface? There is but one possible way to give a 

 ball weight without cutting down its velocity. And that is 

 by widening it. Of course it will need more powder, but 

 give it that and you may get as high a velocity from the 

 larger caliber as from anything. The late rifle trials in Eng- 

 land show 1,946 feet a second velocity for a .50-caliber; 

 powder 138, lead 342; while the .40, with the same propor- 

 tion, 82-209, gave 1,873, and the .45, with 110-322, gave 

 1,776 feet. From the smaller caliber you may get the higher 

 velocity from the same amount of powder, the tube being 

 smaller. But it is only in the larger bore that you can unite 

 comparative lightness of the bullet with sufficient actual 

 weight for good penetration and crushing power. 



S. T. Van Dyke. 



California. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



So long as there are different patterned rifles and men o€ 

 different patterned ideas to handle them, and each handling 

 attended by different circumstances, into which the merits 

 of the handler enter as largely as the merits of the weapon 

 handled, so long will different ideas be entertained relative 

 to the efficiency of the various makes, each advocate in- 

 variably standing by the bridge that carried him safely 

 ovatr. 



In the discussion now carried on in the Forest and 

 Stream on the "choice in hunting rifles," I join in favor of 

 Sharps army carbine, for frontier use, against all comers. 

 I, for reasons strong as life, believe tbem unexcelled and 

 far superior to any magazine rifle that has yet come into 

 notice. For close and rapid shooting the magazine rifle 

 may be without a peer, but such a happening comes but 

 once in a hundred times, and when it does come the man 

 that handles it must be its master, or nine shots out of ten 

 go wide of the mark. Few men there are that can hold 

 such a rifle to their shoulders and manipulate it effectually 

 on objects distant fifty to one hundred yards. 



Looking back over a long and varied experience in the 

 use of rifles against both man and beast, I have yet to sec- 

 it done. At long or short range, the carbine referred to is a 



