J"m,v i), 1885.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



469 



These tire but a few of the manv beautiful guests to be found 

 at nature's fete ehampitH. Their forms are hovering all 

 about us iu silent play, now here, now there, dancing fantas- 

 tic figures by the light of tiny liviu»- torches that float in the 

 air, or glisten from the leaves and flowers; and to complete 

 the enchantment of the lovely scene, the moon is sailing up 

 the heaveus and casting the shimmer of her silver light 

 among the crowd of little sparkling stars. "Wilmot. 



New' York City : __ 



Recent Arrivals at the Philadelphia Zoological Garden.— 

 Received by Purchase— One American porcupine (JSrethizon dorsa- 



tus\ one puma (F&iSCOnct'lor). five Guinea baboons (Cynocephalas 



sphinx-), two male and two female American flamingoes {Phanii-tip- 

 terus ruber), one English skylark (Alanda arvensis) und one pine 

 snake (Pityophis men a-uoleucus). Received by I'resentation— One 

 Guinea pitf, one opossum and four young I Jhdelphys viiyiniana). 

 four red foxes iVkltpes fulvus), one gray fox ( I'ulpes cinereo-arc/en- 

 tatus), tour doves {Tartar risorius), one turkey buzzard [Cathartes 

 aura), one flicker (Melauei-jies L'iulhn>eepliulirs),'nne red-tailed hawk 

 (Buten borealis), two blue jays '(Cyanurus crista! us), five alligators 

 (Alligator mis ' and one mud turtle (Giuuslenium penn- 



i-ylcnnicum). Born in the Garden— One male fallow deer {C4fOus 

 daiiiat and one male Virginia deer tOrr-its Virginian as). 



$w\* B%$ %qd {B Uf i< 



Address all communications to the. Forest and Stream Publish- 

 ing Co. 



ON THE ARKANSAS. 



DURING- the month of November, 188- it was my good 

 fortune to receive an invitation to accompany an offi- 

 cer of the United States Army, Lieut. F,, on a short shoot- 

 ing trip to an army post in Indian Territory. I accepted 

 most gladly, as I had heard great accouuts of the abundance 

 of feathered game in that vicinity, among which the prairie 

 chickens anil wild turkeys were an especial attraction, as 

 they were new game to me. The only time I had ever seen 

 prairie chickens had been from the windows of a railway 

 train as they started up near the track and sailed away over 

 the prairie, and as for wild turkeys, I never had the pleasure 

 of seeing but one, and that I mistook for a tame bird be- 

 longing to some neighboring farmer, and iu consequence, 

 though I covered him carefully with my shotgun, as he 

 stood in plain sight upon an old'stump not thirty yards dis- 

 tant. I refrained from pulling trigger, fori was unacquainted 

 with the locality, and had no idea there were wild turkeys iu 

 the neighborhood. The turkey, apparently, had as little 

 idea that there w T ere any sportsmen iu the neighborhood, for 

 when lie turned and saw me, he departed with most astonish- 

 ing rapidity, and I did not see him again until he rose from 

 the ground about eighty yards away, and I then realized for 

 the. first time the chance I had had and lost. The weather 

 will be chilly, however, for the next turkey 1 meet in the 

 woods, be he wild or tame. I shall shoot on sight, and then 

 if necessary pay the bill afterward. 



On the evening previously agreed upon, Lieut. P. and my- 

 self, rigged out in shootiug attire, with guns and necessary 

 traps, met at the depot and rode to Kansas City, where we 

 had to change cars and take a train going south. We might 

 have made ourselves very comfortable, but Lieut. F., who 

 had traveled over the route tbe year previous, asserted that 

 the Pullman sleeper, which was attached to the train, would 

 leave us about midnight, and another sleeper for the travel- 

 ers going through Indian Territory would be attached to the 

 train. So we asked no questions but piled into the smoking 

 car, bag aud baggage, and varied the monotony of the next 

 four or five hours by watching our fellow passengers, amoDg 

 whom were some typical cowboys, going back to their 

 Tanches, and smoking cigars until our throats were dry and 

 parched. 



When we arrived at the junction we hustled around to find 

 the promised sleeper and were finally shown into the identical 

 car which we had brought from Kansas City. To say that 

 we were mad and disgusted does not express our feelings tit 

 all, and as we thought how uncomfortable we had been for 

 the last four or five hours, we fairly felt like kicking our- 

 selves. "We lost no time, however, in turning in, and were 

 soon asleep. When we awoke the general appearance of the 

 country through which we were passing had changed com- 

 pletely, and instead of a succession of neat, tidy farms, with 

 well kept buildings, we could see nothing but prairie stretch- 

 ing away for miles on both sides of the track. It was rain- 

 ing hard, and judging from the amount of water which lay 

 in pools along the track, it must have been laining all night. 

 It was a depressing outlook from the rear platform of the 

 train, but fortune favored us, and when we alighted at the 

 station there were some rifts among the clouds, and the rain 

 had almost ceased. When we came out from breakfast the 

 clouds had broken away, the suu was shining brightly and 

 with everything freshened up by the rain we could not have 

 had a more perfect morning for our ride to the post, which 

 was distant about fifteen miles from the station. The mail 

 stage soon came to the door, and packing our guns and traps 

 under the seats we started across the prairie, with one com- 

 panion, a native, who, armed with a repeating rifle, was on 

 his way to join a party of friends who were hunting deer on 

 the Verdigris River. 



The only game we saw as we drove along was a solitary 

 prairie chicken, which started up just in front of the horses, 

 flew to one side, and lighting about thirty yards from the 

 road on a slight rise in the prairie, stood motionless. How I 

 wished my guns had not been so carefully tucked away in 

 the bottom of the stage. As it was I was almost inclined to 

 ask the driver to stop the stage and let me try to get a gun 

 out; when the native with the rifle suddenly "spoke up and 

 said he reckoned he'd try "that there bird ;" and as the driver 

 halted the stage he extracted his rifle from its case, and 

 drawing a careful bead, pulled trigger. There was a sudden 

 cloud of feathers where the bird had been but the remains 

 bore slight resemblance to a prairie chicken, for the ball had 

 evidently struck the bird fairly iu the side and there was not 

 enough left to pick up. Our companion, anxious to display 

 his skill with his rifle, and at the same time fearful of miss- 

 ing the bird's head, had potted the poor bird and ruined it 

 for eating. It was a lubber's shot, for no rifleman could 

 have asked for a prettier mark at that distance than tbe 

 chicken's head, as it stood watching us, perfectly motionless. 



After crossing the Arkansas on an old-fashioned ferry 

 boat, we soon reached the post, and were heartily welcomed 

 by the officers stationed there. After a most capital lunch 

 we made our arrangements to try an evening shoot at the 

 lake near the post, where mallards and woodducks were said 

 to be very plentiful, and always gave good shooting toward 

 evening. About 3 o'clock we started in an ambulance with 

 a pair of mules and a darkey driver, Col. O, Captain I. and 

 Lieut. P. and myself comprising the party, while Captain J. 

 agreed to come over later on horseback if he could finish his 



work in time. Crossing the river in a flat-bottomed ferry 

 boat, we drove out to the lake over three miles of the rough- 

 est kind of a road, with mud and water frequently up to the 

 hubs of the wheels, and in one place we found a small brook 

 so swollen by the rains of the previous night, it was quite a 

 question whether it would be possible to cross it or not. 

 Col. C. and Captain 1. having hip boots, waded across it 

 first, and we managed to get the mules across, though the 

 water came through the bottom of the ambulance, and it 

 looked as though tin? current would upset us, We saw num- 

 bers of mallards and woodducks as we rode along, sitting in 

 the ponds and not even taking the trouble to fly away, un- 

 less they happened to be very close to the road, but it was 

 not until we had gotten our positions for shooting that I 

 began to appreciate how numerous ducks could be. Reach- 

 ing the lake we left the ambulance in charge of the darkey, 

 and walked along the lakeshore to where the boat was hid- 

 den, the mallards rising from the other side of the slough by 

 dozens with noisy quacks, showing up beautifully against 

 the dark background of the trees. Leaving Capt. I., Lieut. 

 F. and myself at the boat, Col. C. started up the slough by 

 himself to start the birds toward us, aud Capt. I. soon located 

 Lieut. F. and myself in our positions. My position was on 

 a strip of land running out into the lake, covered with tall 

 forest frees, and Capt. I. was directly opposite to me. The 

 birds which we had started in taking our positions were 

 flying over our heads in all directions, but so high that it was 

 useless trying to kill them, and after firing about twenty 

 shots with a nearly clean record of either misses or cripples, 

 I came to the sage conclusion that they were higher than I 

 supposed and beyond my reach. I noticed Capt. 1. was 

 wasting a good many shots in the same way, aud 1 began to 

 fear our bag would be very light by the time we started for 

 home. 



About this time we saw the result of the Colonel's explor- 

 ations up the slough, for mallard and woodduck in countless 

 numbers appeared from the direction in which he had dis- 

 appeared and the sky was fairly dotted with them as they 

 streamed along high up in air, above the treetops, striving 

 to escape the danger which menaced them, and hurrying to 

 reach some quiet place where they could feed aud plume them- 

 selves undisturbed. It was the grandest sightof the kind I ever 

 had the pleasure of witnessing, but it was very aggravating 

 at the same time, for they were too high to shoot, and every 

 once in a while, when a pair of woodducks would skim by a 

 trifle lower than their companions or a big greenhead mal- 

 lard, owing to his size, looked as though he was an easy bird 

 to kill, the temptation was too strong to be resisted, and 

 time and time again the old gun spoke out, first one barrel 

 and then the other, and generally the only result, if any was 

 noticeable, was a badly wounded bird or two, which sailed 

 away to drop dead in the woods and make a repast for fox, 

 'coon, mink, or some such vermin. Once iu a while they 

 would come low enough to kill, and my string of ducks was 

 slowly increasing in size, but out of all proportion to the 

 rapid decrease in my cartridges, the number of which was 

 already painfully small. I could see Captain I. cutting the 

 birds down every once in a while, but like myself more often 

 "straining his gun" at sky-scrapers without result. I could 

 hear Lieut. P.'s gun quite frequently, but he was out of sight 

 from my stand and I could not judge of his success. Further 

 down the lake some one else was shooting, as I could see the 

 birds double up and come down as the charges struck them. 

 From the position of the shooters I felt certain it must be 

 Captain J, , who had come on after us, as he had agreed, and 

 so it proved, and when we finally assembled at the ambulance, 

 Captain J., though the last one to arrive on the ground, had 

 the "boss"' string, with thirteen or fourteen mallards, fine 

 old green-headed fellows, fat as ducks could be and with 

 their crops filled with acorns, their favorite food. Colonel 

 0. had more birds, but not so many mallards. Captain I. aud 

 myself had eight or ten apiece, and Lieut. F. about the same 

 number. In all we had about fifty ducks, of which about 

 one-half were mallards and the remainder woodducks, 

 widgeon and gadwall, with one or two bluebills. 



The road seemed rough when we came in by daylight, but 

 now after dark, with the light of a single lantern, carried 

 ahead by Captain J., as our only guide, it was an experience 

 not to be easily forgotten. I shall never cease to wonder 

 how that ambulance ever held together. We were ail heartily 

 a:lad when we emerged from the woods, and it was a right 

 tired lot of sportsmen who finally dismounted at the post. 

 Alter dinner, which was most acceptable, seated around an 

 old-fashioned open wood fire, we killed our ducks over 

 again and explained, so far as we were able to do so, why 

 we did not get more birds for the number of cartridges we 

 shot away. For my part, 1 found this explanation quite 

 difficult, for I had always had a sort of notion that I could 

 sometimes kill ducks with fair success, and I knew that this, 

 my first experience with shooting ducks among forest trees, 

 had been anything but a brilliant performance; and some of 

 the stories which I remembered having told before I started 

 for the lake, of the sport I had had on the marshes of Lake 

 Erie, seemed sadly fishy as I pondered over the number of 

 misses I had lately made and the poor string of eight or ten 

 birds I had brought in. All I can say is, that duck shooting 

 in the woods, standing in mud and water up to your knees 

 where one can_ scarce turn around, is much more difficult 

 sport than killing the same varieties, as they come up to de- 

 coys, on the marshes of Lake Erie; and practice at shoot- 

 ing over decoys does not prepare one for the proper killing 

 of the ' 'sky-scrapers" as they come along over the treetops 

 with a smart breeze at their backs. The trees appeared to 

 make it particularly difficult to judge the proper distance 

 necessary to hold ahead of the birds in order to kill cleanly 

 and creditably. One was too apt to kill "the last bird first." 



The next morning Lieut. F. decided to accompany one of 

 the officers on a turkey hunt, and started away soon after 

 breakfast, while Captain J. and myself determined to try 

 our luck among the chickens and quail. The quail near the 

 post had been pretty well hunted and the chickens had 

 mostly gone into packs; but with two Irish setters belonging 

 to the Captain, we started and had a pleasant day's sport on 

 the edge of the prairie. Bruce, the older dog of the two 

 which accompanied us, was a grand ranger, with great 

 powers of endurance and a fine nose. He was one of 

 the Campbell strain of Tennessee. The other dog was little 

 more than a pup. 



We had not gone far before Bruce struck game, and soon 

 located the birds, the pup backing him most admirably. 

 Taking our positions the Captain ordered Bruce to go on, 

 and as eight quail jumped I managed to secure a right and 

 left, while the Captain, who was in a poor position, cut 

 down the ouly bird which offered him a shot. Not stop- 

 ping to hunt up the scattered birds, we soon left the under- 

 brush and came out upon the roiling prairie. Bruce here 

 showed his powers as a ranger, and certainly got over more 



ground in a shorter time than any dog I ever saw, while the 

 pup vainly endeavored to keep up with him. The old dog 

 finally found game, and from the surroundings we felt cer- 

 tain it must be chickens. Hastening forward, we had 

 scarcely gotten up to the dogs when seven prairie chickens 

 jumped, and as they showed up against the sky I thought I 

 had never seen a more perfect picture. Anxious to distin- 

 guish myself, 1 tried to score a pair with my first barrel, but 

 railed most lamentably, for unfortunately nothing dropped; 

 so taking more care with the second barrel, I fairly centered 

 an old cock bird, and dropped him handsomely. As the re- 

 maining birds flew off, we saw a wounded one leave his com- 

 panions and light, while a second, evidently body-hit, sailed 

 away too far for us to follow, Gathering the dead bird, we 

 proceeded and soon found the fust cripple who, weakened 

 by the loss of blood, was unable to rise a second time. A 

 short distance further on we missed Bruce, and finally dis- 

 covered him standing on point on a knoll at some distance. 

 As we approached three chickens arose, and taking careful 

 aim I dropped a right and left, and then, as the third bird 

 sailed away unshot at, found that through carelessness, the 

 Captain and myself had covered the same birds. It was bail 

 work, for by good rights we ought to have scored all three, 

 and would have done so had either of us reserved his fire for 

 a moment. In the corner of the next field we started a fine 

 bevy of quail, and as they scattered uicely, we added eight 

 or niue of them to the bag. 



Strolling out, Bruce flushed a chicken way ahead of us, 

 and as I thought, out of shot, but to my surprise, Capt. I., 

 who was using a little 16-bore, took a shot at it without effect, 

 however. Now, I am not one to let a possible chance goby, 

 and so I thought I would see what my No. 12 woulddo at 

 that distance, as the chicken did not seem to care for the 

 No. 16, and throwing up my gun I gave the bird which was 

 quartering, about six feet allowance and an elevation of 

 about two feet; and as I cut loose he doubled up, to my 

 amazement, and came clown as dead as a stone. When we 

 picked him up we could hardly find a shot mark upon him, 

 but a single pellet had probably pierced his brain. He must 

 have been at least seventy yards distant, and it was a true 

 chance shot, for at that distance a bird would be safe niue 

 times out of ten, at least when I am holding the gun. On 

 the way home we started several bevies of quail, all of which 

 paid toll; and a pack of probably seventy-five chickens 

 which arose about one hundred and fifty yards ahead, and 

 with a roar like distant thunder sailed off, with the excep- 

 tion of one deluded bird, who for some reason best known to 

 himself came right at us, and as he flew by a charge of No. 

 8 struck him fairly, and he. let go, bouncing afoot as he 

 struck the ground. When we reached the post we bad six 

 prairie chickens and twenty quail. The chickens were full 

 sized birds. 1 carried four of them tied to my belt, and cer- 

 tainly I think for their size they were the heaviest birds I 

 ever carried; their weight seemed to increase every step. I 

 would not like to say what they weighed. I might, and 

 probably should, exaggerate. 



We found Lieut. F. and his companion had returned be- 

 fore us, but had failed to discover any wild turkeys, or tame 

 ones either, so I felt well satisfied that I had tried the 

 chickens. 



The next day we again tried the ducks at the lake, and, 

 profiting by my experience of the former trip, I chose my 

 own position further out in the lake and away from the tall 

 forest trees, and by utilizing the birds as decoys as fast as I 

 killed them, I managed to kill eighteen by sundown. Our 

 bag footed up in all about sixty, and among them were 

 a number of gadwalls, which variety, though scarce in some 

 places, was quite plentiful there. The swollen brook had 

 gone back to its usual size, and the road having dried up 

 considerably, the ride to and from the lake was much easier 

 than it had been the first afternoon. 



As my companion had to get back to his duties we had to 

 leave the following afternoon, and so our kind hosts arranged 

 to hunt quail with us between the post and the station the 

 next day. The Colonel kindly took me under his care in one 

 ambulance, while Lieut. P., Captain I. and Lieut. M. started 

 in another. The Colonel has a fine pair of pointers, and the 

 country was said to be full of birds. The Colonel and my- 

 self were not, however, particulary fortunate, for we only 

 bagged seventeen birds. The others did as well or better, 

 and when we got to the depot, unloaded our game from tbe 

 ambulances, aud regretfully bade farewell to our hospitable 

 hosts, Lieut. F. and myself found ourselves fairly laden 

 down with ducks, quail and chickens, one hundred and 

 twenty-five head in all. 



Reaching home the following morning, we enjoyed the 

 pleasure of distributing our game among our friends, and 

 killed it over again with those who wished that they, too, 

 had been guests of Uncle Sam's officers on the Arkansas. 

 Bowse, 



HITS AND MISSES. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



I am really fearful that "Wells" has, iu his heart of hearts, 

 set me down in the class of "game and fish liars" simply be- 

 cause, in a moment of exultation, I sent in a score which he 

 says he knows of no man who can equal, and I rejoice also 

 that he seemed satisfied with a score of one-half. That was 

 honest joy. I didn't mean it in a crowing way. I really 

 meant that it did me good to know that such veteran and 

 practiced sportsmen as he were satisfied with one-half and 

 called it good shooting, at the same time hoping that I might 

 attain to such an average without aspiring to excel it. The 

 score of one-half is a good one, and, although many claim 

 more, few attain even that mark when shooting in a country 

 where briers, bushes and other obstacles intervene. It is as 

 good as the most absurdly ridiculous boastful sportsmen do, 

 however much they may" claim. I hope I may be able some 

 day to lay claim justly to such an average for the season. 

 The season's score sent in by me should properly have gone 

 in the column for remarkable shots, since it was an un- 

 usual occurrence, although it was strictly true, and I did kill 

 the eighteen quail at eighteen shots, all on the wing, but — 

 'twas wrong to brag about it. I know that many of us 

 younger sportsmen do shoot better with our mouths and 

 pens than with shotguns and rifles; but we do some good 

 shooting with the latter implement at times, and we feel so 

 elated we must tell of it. When we grow older aud wiser 

 we will probably keep back the accidental good work and 

 only relate the average. 



Like "Wells," I am always nauseated when a man tells 

 me he, or some one whom he knows, can "kill a bird on the 

 wing every pop." I have shot on the prairies of Kansas and 

 Dakota with that class of "blowhards," and always found 

 them poor shots who could not kill more than one-fourth of 

 the half-grown prairie chickens shot at. 



The "shotgun liar" is another nuisance; he has a shotgun 



