Forest and Stream. 



A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 



Terms, $4 a Year. 10 Cts. a Copy. I 

 Six Months, $2. j 



NEW YORK, FEBRUARY 28, 1884. 



( VOL. XXlI.-No. 5. 



1 Nos. 39 & 40 Park Row, New York. 



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CONTENTS. 



Editorial. 



Food for Quail in Confinement. 



Regular Army Rifle Improve- 

 ment. 



Foolish Dog Talk. 



The Wolf Cry in Maine. 

 'The Sportsman Tourist. 



In the Land of the Pharaohs. 



"Like the Bear that Treed 

 Jimmy O'Brien." 

 "Natural History. 



Protect the Small Birds. 



Winter Bird Notes. 



Forests and Floods. 

 •'Game Bao and Gun. 



Woodcock Co-*^^- Near New 

 York. 



Massachusetts Notes. 



Wild Turkey Stories. 



Squirrels and Rifle Shooting. 



The Performance of Shotguns. 



A Hint on Etiquette. 



Game in Idaho. 



The Choice of Hunting Rifles. 

 :Sea and River Fishing. 



Private Ponds out of Season. 



A Pennsylvania Case. 



The Best Color for Leaders. 



The State in Schuylkill. 

 ^Fishculture. 



How to Cook Carp. 



What Fishculture has First to 

 Accomplish. 



U. S. Commission in Michigan. 

 The Kennel. 



Beagles for Fox Hunting. 



The Kennel. 

 Experience with Dogs. 

 Lice on Dogs. 



A Washington's Birthday Run. 

 The Kennel Hospital. 

 AVorking the Dogs on Woodcock 

 Kennel Notes. 

 Rifle and Trap Shooting. 

 Army Practice in 1884. 

 Dominion Rifle Association. 

 History of the Worcester Club. 

 The Clay-Pigeon Tournament. 

 A National Association. 

 Canoeing. 

 Amsterdam C. C. 

 The Winter Camp-Fire. 

 Amateur Canoe Building.— vm. 

 The Galley Fire. 



A Few Hints on Camping. 



Smoke 'em Out. 

 The Chart Locker. 



Inland Waters of Maine. 

 Canoe versus Sneakbox. 

 Springfield C. C. 

 Hartford C. C. 

 Yachting. 

 The Endless Topic. 

 Ho, fortheHygeia! 

 Racing in England. 

 An Easy One. 

 Small Yachts in the Chicago 



Y. C. 

 The Lake Yachting Association. 

 Concerning Sails. 

 The Daisy. 

 Answers to Correspondents. 



FOOD FOR QUAIL IN CONFINEMENT. 



\ T this time of the year, when many of our readers 

 ■£%• are, no doubt, purchasing live quail for turning out in 

 spring, the question of their treatment comes up. Usually 

 the most important point to he considered is that of their 

 food. Often the poor little things have made a long journey 

 without eating or drinking, and when they reach their desti- 

 nation are in a deplorable condition of starvation and weak- 

 ness. At such a time they should not be too liberally fed, 

 and only enough grain should be given them to take the 

 edge off their appetite. 



The best food for quail in confinement of which we have 

 any knowledge is what is commonly known at the feed 

 stores as "screenings." This consists of the light weight 

 grains of wheat or rye with other smaller grains, and the 

 seeds of the plants which may have grown in the field with 

 the crop. The chief recommendation of this food is that 

 there is a great deal of variety to it, and that it is composed 

 of the seeds which the quail eat in a state of nature. A diet 

 wholly of wheat or cracked corn, even though the birds may 

 for a time appear to thrive upon it, is not so good for them 

 as one in which there is more change. A man would soon 

 cease to enjoy his meals if they always consisted of beef or 

 mutton, and in like manner the quail need change of diet. 

 An essential to the well-being of these or any other galli- 

 naceous or grain-feeding birds is plenty of gravel with which 

 to triturate what they eat. Unless they have this, the 

 food is very imperfectly digested, the birds ill-nourished 

 and unable to withstand the diseases which are sure to 

 follow the failure to assimilate what passes into the 

 gizzard. It is not enough to supply them with earth. This 

 is good for them in one way, for they will roll and bathe in 

 it, and it keeps them free from the attack of insects, but it 

 will not take the place of coarse sand or gravel. This they 

 must have. Common building sand, if a little fine gravel be 



mingled with it, is very good ; but the ordinary white sand 



of the sea beach, such as is used for scouring, is too fine for 

 the purpose. 



As might be supposed, the birds will do best when they 

 have a constant change of food. A few heads of lettuce or 

 some leaves of spinach thrown to them, twice a week during 

 the winter, will do much to keep them in good condition, 

 and to make them well and strong at the time for turning 

 them loose from their prisons in spring. If they are confined 

 in a warm room, a handful of canary seed sowed in some 

 moist earth, and protected until it has had time to sprout 

 and send up shoots an inch high, will be eagerly eaten by 

 them, and the exercise of scratching among the dirt will 

 prove very beneficial. 



"We have sometimes fed the birds a little finely chopped 

 beef, which they devoured with relish, but this is perhaps 

 pampering them a little too highly. 



It is well worth the while of any one who is keeping 

 quails over the winter to devote a little time and thought to 

 the question of his birds' appetites, for on this may turn the 

 whole success or failure of his attempt at stocking his 



grounds. 



= • 

 REGULAR ARMY RIFLE IMPROVEMENT 



T> Y General Orders No. 21 from the headquarters of the 

 ■*-* army. Lieut. -Gen. Sheridan makes known the results 

 of the army rifle practice for the season of 1.883. The re' 

 turns are instructive and encouraging, and with the start 

 already made and the records made it is pretty certain that 

 drill in ball firing has been placed on a substantial basis in 

 the regular army. The progress made may perhaps be more 

 readily appreciated by the comparison of the number of 

 marksmen qualified in each of the recent shooting seasons, 

 during which period there has been little change in the ag- 

 gregate army roll. In 1880,123 marksmen were qualified; 

 in 1881, 612; in 1882, 1,737, and in 1883 the number on final 

 classification ran up to 4,834, or nearly 25 per cent, of the 

 total firing force. Of this last number 3,333 are in the in- 

 fantry arm of the service, 898 in the cavalry, 479 in the 

 artillery, and the remainder in the engineer battalion and 

 on the general staff. In the several departments, Dakota 

 leads with 1,655 of these tested experts; also leads in per- 

 centage to the strength of the command, rising to thirty- 

 five in the hundred. The other department returns showed; 

 Missouri 909, Platte 654, East 466, California 304, Texas 

 285, Columbia 258 and Arizona 221. Among the army 

 posts Fort Sisseton holds the front place with a figure merit 

 reaching 95.70, followed by Fort Bennett with 91.80 and 

 Fort Sill with 91.55. 



The figure of merit of the several organizations has been 

 made up, but in many cases the regiments are so scattered 

 among the various forts tnat the figure of merit suffers 

 through the inability of all the members to take proper range 

 practice. The 24th Infantry ranks No. 1, with a figure of 

 merit of 79.52; the 11th Infantry is second, with 72.40; the 

 18th Iafantry is third, with 61.43; the 3d Infantry next, with 

 61.04; the 17th Infantry next, with 57.72; the 1st Artillery is 

 sixth on the list with 56,62. 



In individual scores the showing is a very fine one, and 

 among the leaders there is a close crowding up to the highest 

 possible. There were nine members in the army who, in 

 the course of the season, made 94 or upward in qualifying 

 for the marksman's badge. Their names and scores are: 



200 300 600 Av. 



yds. yds. pr. ct. 



Name and Rank. 



1. Private Eskete, A, 3d Art 



2. Lieut. Partello, B, 5th Inf 



3. Sergt. Dougherty. M, IstCav.... 



4. 1st Sergt. Hickey. D, 31st Inf 



5. 1st Sergt. Murphy, I, 1st Cav 



6. Lieut. Brant, K, ist Inf 



7. Capt. Blunt, Ord. Dept 



S. Capt. Carr, 1, 1st Cav 



9. Lieut. Anderson, M, 4th Art 



as 



..94 

 ..92 

 ..92 



100 95.33 



100 95.33 



92 98 95.33 



96 94 95.33 



92 98 94.67 



92 98 94.00 



94 96 94.oqj >United 



90 96 94 0<T 



92 94 94.00 



Rifles as Mortars. — J. H. Brown, maker of the Brown 

 standard rifle, has been busying himself in the invention 

 of a rear sight which converts the ordinary army rifle into 

 a mortar, so that by its use a shower of bullets may be sent 

 over a hill, wood or other intervening obstruction, directly 

 upon the heads of an advancing foe, or from an outlying 

 position within a fortification where the enemy may be 

 massed. Such a fire, it is well known, is of a most demor- 

 alizing sort, and if it can be brought within controllable 

 limits, will be a most valuable mode of attack. 



A National Association. — It is proposed to form a 

 national trap-shooting association, which shall exercise con- 

 trol over tournaments, adopt shooting rules, provide cham- 

 pionship medals, act as a board of arbitratien, and in general 

 serve the trap-shooting interests of the country. There is no 

 doubt that such an union would be advantageous. 



FOOLISH IX )(i TALK. 

 ^T<HE anti-dog talk indulged in by some of the agricultural 

 -*- papers, and often by newspapers, in the columns de- 

 voted to agriculture, must disgust a majority of readers; for 

 mankind, to its credit be it said, loves dogs and dislikes such 

 abuse of its friends. 



The silliness of a deal of this talk is immense. Take for 

 instance this which the New York Tribune quotes, with the 

 commendation of being "sensible" from its Chicago name- 

 sake. "One important charge made against them [the dogs] 

 would he that they help men, who should be in better busi- 

 ness, to kill birds winch if permitted to live would keep 

 down the number of insects injurious to food crops. It may 

 be no fault of the dog that he is thus brought into the busi- 

 ness of increasing the cost of living, but it certainly is the 

 fault of the industrious and honest workers, who are ever 

 called upon to pay the cost of the necessities and the pleas- 

 ures of the idle and the vicious." As if trapping and netting 

 were not more destructive of game birds thau the legitimate 

 shooting of them over setters and spaniels; and as if all who 

 lake pleasure with dog and gun were cither idle or vicious 

 or both. The farmer who so recreates himself amid his 

 many days of toil with now and then a happy one in woods 

 and fields will not relish being placed therefor in these 

 classes more than will the haid-worked professional man 

 whose only play spell in all the year is in the few days when 

 he takes the field. 



Further on it is said, "observant flock owners * * * 

 declare that the shepherd dog, that embodiment of canine 

 intelligence, is not a profitable investment on the farm even 

 in caring for sheep. * * * An average boy of ten can do 

 all that the shepherd dog can do, and much more." That 

 is, we suppose, he can keep all day on foot, without food 

 from morning till night, herding a large flock of sheep, can 

 bunch them in an open field, drive in all stragglers, catch 

 any sheep pointed out to him, aud so on to the last of the 

 things which a well-trained shepherd dog is expected to do, 

 and "much more." Now, if it is true that "an average boy 

 of ten" can perform all these duties, to say nothing of what 

 may be included in the "much more," there are very few 

 people aware of the vast amount of unused valuable material 

 lying idle in the country. But it is not true, as "observant 

 flock ow T ners" know, and this dog-hater knew when he wrote 

 this "sensible talk about the dog nuisance." And besides 

 being untrue, it is sheer nonsense, as is almost all that is 

 written and said by those who are urging a war of exter- 

 mination against, the dog. It is as senseless to demand -the 

 killing of all dogs because some dogs are bad or worthless, as 

 it would be to ask that all men should suffer death or im- 

 prisonment because many of them are knaves and good-for- 

 nothings. 



But we need not be greatly alarmed for the dogs, for 

 though this writer declares that "when the whole subject has 

 been thoroughly sifted, there is to be found in favor of the 

 dogs little more than a misdirected and mawkish sentiment, 

 which leads otherwise sensible people into the filthy habit 

 of fondling flea-bitten aud carrion-loving beasts." This 

 "mawkish sentiment" is so deep-rooted and so active, that 

 the time is far in the future when the preachers of the dog- 

 crusade will get much of a following. 



More truth and sense than is contained in what we have 

 quoted, is the saying of a more appreciative writer, that "the 

 best part of a man is the dog that is in him." Therefore, be- 

 ware of him who hates dogs. 



Fishculture. — A very able article on fishculture is con- 

 tributed to our columns by Mr. Charles W. Smiley, of the 

 States Fish Commission. It presents the case of 

 fishculture, in the best and fairest light that we have yet seen, 

 The infant industry has suffered from enthusiastic friends 

 who have claimed that an acre of water will produce more 

 than an acre of land, etc., and who have raised hopes of tons 

 of food fish from the planting of a few fry in some stream. 

 They have proved their position by figures, such as can be 

 found in the older fishcultural books, and have not taken 

 into consideration the many other forces operating against 

 the fishculturist. Mr. Smiley has covered the whole ground 

 in an exceedingly short space, and condensed as much in- 

 formation in his article as some men put in a volume. 



"Woodcraft." This is the title of a book on camping 

 out and kindred topics. The author is "Nessmuk." Who is 

 better fitted to write such a book? It will be published in 

 March, and will bear the imprint of the Forest and Stream 

 publishers. Unless we err greatly, "Woodcraft" will add to 

 th» well-deserved fame of its author as a writer on woods 

 themes. 



