6 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Jan. 29, 1885- 



loitering in the southern counties as late as May 10. It is a 

 common occurrance to observe numbers about, the dooryards 

 in Tillages, and even in sequestered favored locations in 

 large cities during the latter part of April and early May. 

 These silent wayfarers often make a neighborhood their 

 temporary Lome for a week or more. Such protracted stays 

 occur both in spring and fall, the autumnal migrants usually 

 remaining with us for several weeks, the severe weather of 

 November often finding the hardy fellows frequenting 

 hedgerows and thickets at the edges of woods. 



Though silent while migrating, with the exception of the 

 call note occasionally uttered, the birds break into full song 

 on reaching the breeding haunts, and from May 15 to July 

 SJO the woods are filled with the sweetly modulated notes of 

 these charming singers. The ceremony of mating is usually 

 accomplished with expedition, and soon after, the birds are 

 at their nest-building. As yet I have not heard of a nest 

 being found south of 43° north latitude, and it is reasonable 

 to suppose that the species very rarely, if ever, remain as a 

 summer resident in our southern counties. It is only in the 

 middle and northern portions of the State that the hermit is 

 found plentiful, where in pine lands its beautiful song can 

 he heard almost constantly. 



The nest of this species' is more difficult to find than that 

 of any other member of the family. Placed on the ground, 

 always in a retired situation, concealed by small bushes, 

 weeds and grass, its location can only be discovered by the 

 accidental flushing of the old bird as you walk near the little 

 home where she patiently sets, or by watching the parents as 

 they bring material for the nest. The latter method would 

 be next to impossible, for the birds are unusually shy and 

 very difficult to study. A nest found by Mr. W. A. Gunn, 

 May 20, 1879, was entirely concealed by a fallen withered 

 pine branch. A nest which came under my notice June 10, 

 1882, in Montcalm county, was placed beneath a small bush, 

 and the rim of the structure was even with the surface of 

 the ground. 



The eggs in every instance were three in number, and are 

 of a beautiful blue "color, much resembling in form and color 

 those of the tawny thrush, but a little smaller. The nest is 

 generally composed of grass, fibrous roots, fine twigs and 

 some moss. Those that 1 have met with are not strongly 

 put together. 



This beautiful singer is one of our most common birds 

 north of 44°, where, though not known by the settler, it 

 trills sweet music among the stately pines and gaily passes 

 the pleasant summer months among nature's wildest sur- 

 roundings. 



Mocking Birds Poisoning Yocng.— Oswego, N. Y.— 



Editor Forest and Stream: While in Louisiana we found 

 mocking birds quite numerous, and yet one rarely sees these 

 birds in confinement in these States. We were informed 

 that the reason why these sweet singers were not more fre- 

 quently caged was on account of the difficulty of keeping 

 the birds alive. It was claimed that birds which are at lib- 

 erty, seeing one of their mates in confinement, will bring to 

 its cage a poisonous berry which the imprisoned bird is sure 

 to eat, and from the effects of which it invariably dies. — 

 Doctor. 



fattf* J?## zt\d 



"I inclose you a sketch. These incidents now in the time when 

 bunting is past and a long year of hard labor resumed, sandwich 

 themselves in; and I write them down to look at when I get old," 



SOME REMARKABLE SHOTS. 



Editor Forest and Stremn: 



Your many accounts of remarkable shots reminds me of a 

 shot I once made -while in practice at Lake Megantic, P. Q. 



I was reading one evening on the front veranda of my 

 house, which was about 100 feet from the lake shore, and a 

 loon was making hideous music 300 yards out on the lake. 

 I laid down my paper, stepped into the surgery, and took up 

 a government regulation rifle, a converted Enfield, and tak- 

 ing a few cartridges, thought I would utilize the loon as a 

 target. I raised the sight to 300 yards and fired. The ball 

 fell short of the loon, which immediately disappeared, but 

 came up a little further away. I raised the sights to 400 

 yards and fired again, this time splashing the water beyond 

 the bird. I waited till he came to the surface and fired 

 ao-ain. To my surprise the loon "turned its toes to the 

 daisies." 1 got into my boat and rowed out to it, and upon 

 examination I found the ball had entered the right eye and 

 made its exit out of the left. The bullet was just the size of 

 the eye, and the conjunctive of the right eye was not injured 

 in the least, that of the left being slightly lacerated. 1 sent 

 the loon to the taxidermist and had it set up. It weighed 

 twelve pounds, and is a beautiful specimen. It stands now 

 on the mantle in my office, and as a matter of course, every 

 one thinks I am telling a whopper when I say: "I shot that 

 bird through the eyes with a Snider rifle at a distance of 

 400 yards. 



I claim no superiority of marksmanship. It was one of 

 those chance shots that happen once or twice in a lifetime. 

 I have fired hundreds of shots at loons and at closer ranges, 

 and never wounded one (with this exception), which is, I 

 think, the experience of a great many sportsmen. I once 

 though got near enough to a loon on Lake Nicolet to shoot 

 it with duck shot. I thought the bird acted a little "looney," 

 and upon investigating found it had a hook in its mouth, 

 and following up the line found a night line attached over 

 1,000 feet long, which a habitant had baited with minnow. 

 I'not only had the pleasure of confiscating and destroying 

 the fine, but found four or five "speckled beauties" on it, 

 the smallest of which was a four-pounder. H. B. 



Boston. 



Editor Forest and Stream'. 



To call the incident I am about to put on record a "re- 

 markable shot" seems a misnomer; it is rather the remark- 

 able effect of an ordinary shot. Mr. A. P. H., of Cape May, 

 who is known all over the country as one one of the most 

 accomplished and genial, as well as one of the most popular 

 of hotel men, fills up a good share of the enforced abundant 

 leisure of his calling in the winter with duck shooting, at 

 which he is an expert. About two weeks ago he was out 

 in a cabined yacht in the sounds near Cape May with two 

 friends for a week's shooting. One evening about sunset he 

 took his sneakbox and went alone to a sandbar where the 

 tide was slowly rising and put out his decoys. At dusk one 

 black duck came in, which he shot and put in his boat. 

 Shortly afterward three black ducks came ^n, one alighting 

 among the decoys, and the other two stopping about seventy- 



five yards below. These last swam up to the other duck, 

 and when the three were in range he fired, killing two, the 

 other climbing up into the darkness, H. snapping a defective 

 cartridge ineffectually after him. As he was rising to re- 

 trieve the dead birds, and was half way out of his boat, he 

 heard a thud in the narrow hold of' the sneakbox, and a 

 struggle. Supposing it to be a return of vitality to the duck 

 he had first shot, he caught the struggling bird and wrung 

 its neck, and then went out and brought in Ms two dead 

 birds from the sandbar. Placing them in the boat, he rowed 

 back to the yacht, and when he took out his birds found 

 that he had four black ducks, the one whose neck was wrung 

 having been pierced by but a single shot which had pene- 

 trated the brain. F. S. J. C. 

 Bridgeton, N. J., Jan. 20, 1885. 



Editor Forest and Stream; 



I had been wild turkey hunting, and in some unaccount- 

 able way made some strange misses at game. My wife de- 

 sired me to shoot one of her domestic turkeys for dinner the 

 next day; and as she had slyly touched upon my failure to 

 bring home a wild turkey, I got off about forty yards from 

 the gobbler she desired killed, as I was determined to show 

 her that I could shoot. My gun was loaded with No. 8 

 shot. Just in the rear of the turkey was a dense box bush. 

 I fired, and the turkey dropped dead, and a commotion un- 

 der the box bush led to the discovery that I had killed three 

 of my wife's hens and wounded several others, which had 

 congregated under the box bush. C. L. L. 



Goochland Cowry, Va. 



BATTERY SHOOTING. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



I have just read your editorial in your issue of Jan. 1 en- 

 titled "Battery Shooting," and it is so completely atvariance 

 with my experience and observation, gained by some thirty- 

 five years' enthusiastic pursuit of wildfowl, that I feel 

 tempted to reply to you, first premising that I know nothing 

 about how battery shooting affects the fowls in the Great 

 South Bay, or other waters of Long Island, butconnniug my 

 remarks entirely to the waters of the Chesapeake, 1 begin 

 with the head of the bay. There is no doubt that there is 

 too much shooting there, not alone of box-shooting, but the 

 ducks are harassed in every way. I think the remedy there 

 would be to lessen the number of days in the month for 

 shooting, confining the shooters to two, or even one day in 

 the week, or another plan would be to confine the number 

 of boxes licensed to a much smaller uumber, and allow no 

 others on the grounds. This latter plan might seem unfair, 

 as not giving all an equal chance, but it is no more unfair 

 that the efforts of point and bar shooters to decry the 

 battery, so that they can control the shooting. What were 

 the facts some years ago when box-shooting on the "flats" 

 was stopped by the oyster police force of the State in a great 

 measure? It was found by the gentlemen shooting on the 

 Bush, Gunpowder and other rivers, that the ducks congre- 

 gated on the flats in immense beds, and being undisturbed, 

 did n&t come into the adjacent livers in any great numbers. 



Now take the Elk and Bohemia rivers, at the head of the 

 bay; it has only been within a few years that sinkboats were 

 allowed to be used in those rivers, and this privilege was 

 accorded the sportsmen of Cecil county because they found 



they could do little or nothing with th.© duoks from the 



shore. The ducks frequented the rivers named in large 

 numbers, but they would not decoy from the shore or fly 

 over the points, so the sportsmen were obliged to try some 

 other way of getting at them; hence the sinkboats. Ducks, 

 like all other things, have advanced with the times, and as a 

 rule will not approach the shores as they did years ago, and 

 other methods have to be adopted by the sportsman. The 

 facts in regard to the waters of this county and the adjacent 

 counties of Queen Anne and Dorchester are the same. Some 

 twenty years ago some point-shooters on the Choptonk con- 

 ceived themselves to be annoyed by the few boxes in the 

 county (1 think there were only three or four at the outside), 

 and had a law passed to prevent box-shooting. The ducks, 

 notwithstanding those "destructive" boxes, had been driven 

 from our waters, continued to diminish in quantity, and to 

 get still more wary about approaching the shores, until shoot- 

 ing almost came to an end. Then we had several seasons 

 when food was abundant in our waters (and the want of 

 which was the real cause in diminishing of the number of 

 fowl in the previous years), and the ducks and geese com- 

 menced to increase, and have continued to do so up to the 

 present winter; but notwithstanding that the fowl were in 

 all our wide waters they afforded no shooting, as they would 

 not decoy from the shore or fly over the points, so the sports- 

 men interested had the law repealed and allowed the bona 

 fide residents of the county to use sinkboats, and although 

 there are now some dozen or fifteen sinkboats used here they 

 have not driven the ducks out, and will not as long as we 

 have plenty of feed. 



That the sinkboat is more detrimental to shooting than the 

 same amount of shooting from the shore, I deny in toto; all 

 thai can be urged against their use is that they afford addi- 

 tional shooting points, and to that extent tend to frighten 

 the fowl, as every shot fired at them does, as I don't think 

 a duck cares whether the gun that frightens him is fired from 

 a point, a booby blind, a sailboat, or a sinkbox. In proof of 

 this, if proof were wanting, let me relate two circumstances 

 that took place last winter. While on one of my shooting 

 trips I found an immense bed of redheads using in one of 

 our smaller rivers. I put my box out in the bay where tbey 

 were feeding, but before I had had a dozen shots it came on 

 to blow so hard the box would not live, so we were obliged 

 to take up. One or two of the party then went ashore and 

 commenced shooting from the point, the wind blowing so 

 hard that it set the ducks on the point close enough to make 

 some shooting; they continued to shoot there all the after- 

 noon. The next day being favorable, I got my box out be- 

 fore daylight, and expected to have had a splendid day's 

 sport. But only one small bunch came into the river that 

 day. The point above spoken of, and the "narrows" near 

 by, are two of the very few places in this county where we 

 occasionally have that kind of shooting. Now for the other 

 case that happened in the same locality. I found another 

 large "bed" of redheads in the same small bay, and put out 

 my box; this was about 1 o'clock in the afternoon. I only 

 had one shot, as the ducks did not return ; about half past 

 three I commenced to take up my box. It fell calm just as 

 I had everything picked up, so I had to anchor in the bay. 

 The ducks commenced to pour in about 4 o'clock, and con- 

 tinued to do so until long after dark. Two gentlemen (sons 

 of the owner of the "narrows" on which the ducks passed) 

 saw the flight, and came down and shot as fast as they could 

 load and shoot, until long after dark. The next morning 

 I expected to have had fine shooting, but not a duck came 



n from outside. Now, what was the cause of the ducks not 

 coming back on these two occasions? Was it my dozen or 

 so shots in the first instance and my one shot in the second 

 case that frightened them, or the incessant hammering they 

 had on the narrows and from the point. I think in the last 

 case it was the shooting from the narrows that did it, and in 

 the former case, if it was not the shooting from the point, I 

 think the ducks had consumed most of the feed in the small 

 bay and were ready to seek new feeding grounds. I think 

 this last reason caused many of the changes of locality we 

 find in the large beds of ducks we have,"as it takes an im- 

 mense amount of food for some ten or fifteen thousand 

 ducks. This change is often unjustly attributed to the box- 

 shooter. 



You object to the box "being anchored on the feeding 

 grounds of the fowl," but so is the booby blind, and the 

 latter put there permanently ; whereas where the box was 

 anchored to-day you will of ten find a bed of ducks feeding 

 on the next day, or as soon as the box is removed. 1 know 

 the sportsmen that shoot from the shore decry the sinkboat, 

 "in season and out of season," but in their case it is purely on 

 selfish grounds. If they could break up the boxes it would 

 lessen the number of shooters, and give them a better chance, 

 they think; but there is no reason why the shooting should 

 be legislated into the hands of the owners and renters of the 

 points. To test their sincerity, if box-shooting must stop, I 

 propose that all ducking points shall be open" to all sports- 

 men. If the above sportsmen had to accept one of these two 

 horns of the dilemma, I think they would accept the sinkboat, 

 if the consequence of driving her owner off the shooting 

 grounds was that they would have to share their privileges 

 with him. 



Now as to the humanity of the two modes of shooting; for 

 every duck bagged off a point it is safe to say that two or 

 more are crippled. I am speaking of shooting into flocks, 

 flying by points, and over bars, especially with the large 

 guns used at Carroll's Island and other places in the vicinity. 

 These ducks go off to die a lingering death, and although all 

 shooting is more or less cruel, I think we ought to avoid 

 any unnecessary amount of it. Now the amount of ducks 

 killed on a point, if we take in all that are struck and lost as 

 well as those bagged, in a good day's shooting, is not much 

 less than those killed out of the box, only in the former case 

 from one-half to two-thirds are wasted, "while nearly every 

 duck struck out of a box is killed, and the reason of this is 

 evideut, when it is understosd that as a rule only small 

 bunches of ducks decoy to a box, and generally spread out 

 as they come in, so that a single ducklias to be sighted at 

 and killed or missed, as the case may be, and not a quarter 

 of a pound of large shot poured into a large bunch of ducks, 

 killing one or two and crippling a half dozen more that are 

 lost. 



If any shooting is to be stopped, that is the kind I should 

 like to see put an end to. It lakes little or no skill (I am 

 speaking of flock shooting), and only requires a young can- 

 non with unlimited ammunition. All shooting out of sail- 

 boats, or out of boats of any kind moving about among the 

 ducks and chasing them off their feeding grounds, ought to 

 be stopped entirely, but do not attempt to make risk of one 

 and fowl of the other by saying sinkboats must be stopped, 

 as that is only another way of saying that the shooting must 

 be handed over to the fortunate owners and renters of points. 

 Nott suppose -wo pvit tfac Tiicittcr iu another way, and 

 all shooting at wildfowl except out of wtriptoeats: Tfiis will 

 put every man on an equal footing, as no one can commit a 

 trespass in the water. I honestly" believe it would increase 

 the number of ducks, as it certainly would lessen very much 

 the number of those shooting, as it requires a thorough 

 lover of the sport to go through all the rough 

 work and exposure required of the box-shooter, taking the 

 winter'ssport right through. I think we might ask this with 

 as much justice as for the others to ask us to give up our 

 manner of shooting for their benefit, particularly when I am 

 well satisfied that battery-shooting, as pursued here, is no 

 more detrimental to the fowl than the same amount of shoot- 

 ing in any other way, and far more skill and genuine sports- 

 manlike qualities are required for it than for any other form 

 of duck shooting. Of course, where good shooting can be 

 had from the shore over decoys, as is the case, I am told, in 

 the Rush, Gunpowder and other rivers in that vicinity, it is 

 very well not to use boxes, as there is no comparison between 

 sitting in a comfortable blind on the shore and the hard 

 work necessary in setting and taking up your box on a cold 

 day. But here the case is entirely different, and I would 

 and do much prefer all the work and discomfort necessary to 

 box-shooting, to sitting in ever so comfortable a blind on the 

 shore and getting nothing. As to point and bar-shooting, as 

 compared to decoy-shooting, to my taste (and of course it is 

 all a matter of taste) there is just the difference between going 

 into the field with dogs and being without them. In other 

 words, a great deal of the pleasure, to me, consists in seeing 

 and working the ducks up to the decoys. 



In concluding, give us fair play. The box-shooters will 

 die hard unless you can prove to our satisfaction that our 

 manner of shooting is more destructive to the fowl than your 

 own. If you can do this, I am too genuine a sportsman not 

 to give up what has been proved to be unsportsmanlike and 

 destructive. In the meantime, if something must be done to 

 lessen the number of shooters— and I admit that something 

 of the kind is very necessary— stop all and every kind of 

 shooting at fowl except out of 'the box, putting us all on an 

 equal footing, as the water is free to all. This, I guarantee 

 seriously, will do far more to protect the ducks than any 

 other measure, for, if perfectly carried out, it would stop all 

 banging from all kid-glove gentry, whose idea of duck shoot- 

 ing is a pull at the whisky flask for every duck shot at. Stop 

 all greenhorns firing at everything that comes within a quarter 

 of a mile of their blinds; stop all boat-shooting by day or 

 night, and, finally, deprive no man of shooting because he 

 was not fortunate enough to own or rent a point. Then 

 limit the shooting out of boxes, if they get too numerous, to 

 oue or two days in the week, and you have the remedy for 

 the over-shooting of the present day. In your article you 

 speak of the introduction of boxes on Currituck Sound. Is 

 not one cause for this, in addition to the box being the more 

 successful and certain way of killing fowl, owing to the fact 

 that so many (all in most cases) of the points are taken up by 

 the clubs, and general shooting impossible? I will only add 

 that I shoot solely for amusement, and am in no way inter- 

 ested in killing game for market, although I do not think 

 that the fact that he sells his game should be a slur on any 

 one, so long as he secures it in a legitimate and sportsman- 

 like manner, observing the close seasons and carrying out the 

 game laws. Seskboat. 



Easton, Md. 



fOur correspondent has fallen into the not uncommon 

 error of imagining that we have some selfish motive in urg- 



