208 



FOREST AND STREAM, 



lOCT. 8, 1885. 



BOB WHITE-QUAIL-PARTRIDGE. 



JMiior Forest and Stream: 



"Coalioma" thinks I have ingloriously retreated from the 

 question of Bob White or quail and left him to bear the bur- 

 •den of the controversy. Let me assure him that I did not fear 

 the encounter. When convinced that I amjright, I quail before 

 no man. My reason for not noting the remarks of one cor- 

 respondent was that his style showed that no "glory" could 

 be had from any contest with him. 



In the South Bob White has been called partridge for more 

 than a half of a century. At the aSTorth he was named quail. 

 There are realy no partridges or quail east of the Mississippi 

 or Rocky Mountains. The partridge of Europe more nearly 

 resembles Bob White than he does the ruffed grouse, and. yet 

 the New England people persist in speaking of the ruffed 

 grouse as the partridge. The quail of Europe docs not re- 

 semble Bob Wliite in several marked particulars, still the 

 same people have dubbed our bird quail. If we will use 

 Bob White as the name the error will be avoided. There 

 is no authority anywhere, except the lowest of 

 usage for giving our bird the name of quail. The error 

 ought to be corrected. I have very little respect for any 

 Southern men who has departed from the pitictice of his 

 j^outh and adopted a greater error than the one which, he 

 contracted from his fathers. No man who speaks of the 

 ruffed grouse (called in our mountains pheasant) as a part- 

 ridge should complain of us for applying the same to Bob 

 White, who far better deserves it because of the greater sira 

 ilarity to the European bird. 



No habit which is preposterous can be properly caflonized 

 simply because some people persist in following it. Bob 

 White is not a quail, and all the scribblers on earth cannot 

 make him one. I do not mean to adopt the name, and I am 

 equally opposed to calling the ruffed grouse either partridge 

 or pheasant. 



It is common with us now, but still highly improper, for 

 persons to speak of "running" a farm, a law" office, a black- 

 smith shop or a whisky saloon. Such word is legitimately 

 applied to machinery. ' It may be tolerated . when used in 

 connection with the business last named; for when the 

 products flow freely there is a "running" into debts disgrace 

 and rags. " Wells. 



Rockingham, North Carolina. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



Your various correspondents who have been conducting 

 tiie great Bob White-Quail-Partridge controversy are all 

 wrong. If the bird (or birds) are to be named according to 

 common usage, the word is patridge. giving the a the sound 

 of a in hat. ' Oriole. 



NORTH CAROLINA BEAR HUNTING. 



OUR prospects for sport is brighter than usual this fall. 

 The crop of partridges, or quail, promises to be good. 

 Squirrel are rather more numerous than for some time past, 

 and the influx or overflow of bears is something startling to 

 farmers who have stock ranging the reed lands of the Dis- 

 mal Swamp. The old settlers up at the head of the river 

 declare they have never known them to be so numerous. The 

 chief attraction seems to be a blackberry somewhat resem- 

 bling the "gall berry," but sweeter, which seems to be 

 thicker this fall than usual, though bruin does not con- 

 tine himself to a diet of berries, but changes to beef and 

 pork about three times a week. A party of young men went 

 in a few days since with the dogs and found the bears so 

 thick the dogs failed to run one out to the standers. They 

 found the carcasses of four fine cattle that had been killed 

 and partially devom-ed. 



On last Monday morning I drove up the river and joined 

 the boys in a big bear hunt, and got in just as they had 

 finished the first chase by letting the bear cross the drive (a 

 narrow path cut tkrough the dense swamp) over into the big 

 swamp, where he was as safe as a flea in a sheepskin. We 

 immediately went into another drive, where the dogs struck 

 the "hot foot" instantly, and after a three hours' race the 

 meat again got away. On going into the swamp we saw 

 where seven bears h.ad entered the drive at different points, 

 the tracks being fresh and having been made during the 

 morning, as a rain had fallen during the night and the 

 tracks were perfectly plain. After having lost our second 

 bear we took the dogs, although they were nearly tired out, 

 into a new drive and soon had the thu d bear coming directly 

 toward us, the dogs in full cry and at times stopping to bay 

 as the game showed fight. Our guns are now at full cock 

 and we stand with finger on trigger intently peering into the 

 dense mass of brxish and briers forming the undergrowth; 

 soon we hear the crash and i-ush of dogs and bear as they 

 come straight for us. 



We are now standing about twenty feet apart and each one 

 imagines himself to be the "lucky fellow," when there is a 

 sudden stop, then a roar, as the bear stops. On getting the 

 scent the hounds rush at him opened-mouthed, and with 

 deep-toned baying make the old swamp resound. Pi-etty 

 soon there is a scream as one little fellow, "half bull, half 

 hound," more brave than discreet, rushes in and pinches 

 bruin, and receives a "tender caress"- from his heavy paw 

 which tears a triangular hole in the ' 'seat of the pants" of 

 the brave little dog, but this only enrages the pack the more, 

 and they crowd down on the bear en masse, and he takes 

 "leg bail" for other quarters, making for the big swamp, 

 but we head Mm off, and as he attempts to cro.ss the drivers' 

 path a ball and nine buckshot cut short his career, and a 

 fine "old he" lies stretched before us, killed by tlie very man 

 of the party who was looked upon as being the least likely 

 to kill anything. Thus I missed the chance of killing the 

 bear, though standing within twenty feet of the young man 

 who shot him, but so dense was the woods and undergrowth 

 it was impossible for me to see anything for any distance 

 over six or eight feet. In fact, the bear was not more than 

 two lengths of his gun from the man who shot him. It 

 seems almost incredible that a party of men well armed and 

 with good dogs will allow the bear to get away time after 

 time, but any one who has ever hunted in this desert, as it is 

 called, will understand at once how easy it is for the bear to 

 get away, and how hard it is to kill one. 



We went hunting again the next day and ran out three 

 bears and one deer, and then came home empty-banded, 

 though we learned afterward that Monroe (my favorite 

 hound, who would not run a bear) brought the deer out to 

 the settlement, and both dog and deer were mixed up pro- 

 miscuously in a gentleman's barnyard, both being too much 

 worried to jump the fence. Whether the deer was caught 

 or not we did not learn. 



We are now^ arranging for a grand hunt next week, and 

 if we carry out the programme I will let your hear from me. 

 1 will at my earliest convenience give you an account of a 



tour-days detjr liunt over at East Lake during the first part 

 ot Septetober, which 1 enjoyed in company with Capt. M. 

 li. Gregg, of Washington, D. C. ; Ben Thach, of this county, 

 and Bill Basnight, the noted bear hunter of East Lake. We 

 had a good time and enjoyed the trip greatly. A. E. R 



Bklvidebk, N. a_ f a J 



GAME IN NEW BRUNSWICK. 



REPORTS of game from all parts of the Province are 

 favorable. The warm and dry season has assisted the 

 brecdmg of the birds, and here In Moncton. boys may daily 

 be seen carrying bundles of from six to a dozen ruffed grouse. 

 A Frenchman coming in from the country to-day shot fif teeh 

 along the road without going out of his way. There. has not 

 yet been enough wet weather to develop snipe shotitins:, but 

 the prospects arc considered good. Last Week a caribou 

 cajjie out on the northern divisioh ol the Intercolonial Rail- 

 way and rau ahead of the train for some distance before 

 taking to the woods. He had fine antlers, and his beauty 

 aroused cohsiderable enthusiasm among the passengers. 

 Geese have not begun flying south yet, but black ducks have 

 appeared in numbers. Gilmore Brown, C.E., discovered a 

 new woodcock ground on Friday while surveying for the 

 Short Line Railway, north of Salisbury. Wetmore, one of 

 his party, succeeded in bagging a dozenj although he had no 

 dog. ■ B. 



Moncton, N. B,, Sept. 29. 



RIDGE-HUNTING DEEH. 



MJitor Forest and Stream: 



I read with much interest all articles in I^orest axi^ 

 Stream on the subject of hunting deer with hoiind ddgs. 

 I propose to go to the cOunty of Highland and Augusta, Va , 

 about the 10th of the present mouth to hunt deer. Now I 

 have hunted over the same gi-Ound for the last twenty years; 

 ever since our late "i\cipleasantness," and I find no scarcity 

 of the cute animals within that period of time. We always 

 hunt them with dogs and hound dogs that wdl run a deer 

 quick and sharp. We do not, however, run them to the 

 water, and our dogs will not run over half an horn* nor will 

 these dogs "carry" a deer'out of the country. We run what 

 is known to all hunters as ridge dogs and we shoot at the 

 deer on watches where there are crossings on runways. I 

 have often stood the entire day on a "watch" and heard the 

 dogs without having a shot. I have again had deer i-lin to 

 me, almost over me, and never heard the dogs. 1 have again 

 had deer run to me and stop and listen for the miisic Of the 

 hounds when I have not before heard a sound of the dogs. 



I would rather hear the music of the hounds in full cry 

 than shoot all the deer in the woods. It Is not the meat we 

 go for, it is the excitement consequent on the cha.se, Posses- 

 .sion palls the senses, and after the chase we are as harmless 

 as oloves. With us the chasing of deer with trained hounds 

 does not diive them away from their haunts. In our hunt- 

 ing region I can start the same deer every day in the week 

 and within half a mile of the same place. He or she will 

 always go back to his or her habitat — dogs can't drive them 

 away from it. It is the long-winded chase, driving to the 

 water, that is objectionable and drives deer away from their 

 haunts. Ridge-hunting and the killing deer on runways 

 before the hounds does no harm. It is like shooting hares 

 in a warren. Ridoe. 

 BAiTiMORE, Md..Oct, 8. . 



SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA. 



OUR game season promises to open magnificently. Quail 

 have not been so plentiful for several years^ and the 

 countrj" is fairly overnm wi.th them. My home is about a 

 half mile distant from our court house (which is in the center 

 of town), and only about one hundred yards from the Flor- 

 ence Hotel, one of our leading hotels, and yet there is a 

 covey of birds numbering over a hundred located within 

 gun " shot of the house. I have not disturbed them, but 

 intend to have some royal sport when the season opens. I 

 regret to say that many hundred quail have been killed so 

 far this year, but we in Southern California hardly feel 

 inclined to protect them. The immense amount of cactus 

 which infests every canon, a fiord a secure sanctuary for our 

 beautiful pest, and if all the market hunters in our section of 

 the country killed 10,000 apiece a year I hardly think it 

 would be noticed. Year before last one party of three 

 shipped to market 3,700 dozen birds; besides this numerous 

 other parties hunted them, and it is safe to say that in this 

 county in the winter of 1883-4 there were killed and shipped 

 in the vicinity of 80,000 quail; yet this season they are more 

 numerous than ever. 



Our viniculturists and small fruit farm men look upon 

 them as the worst pests they have, and Eastern .sportsmen 

 at their first coming here gaze in horror upon the farmer who 

 curses the bird that destroys for him annually' hundreds of 

 tons of grapes. But when the said sportsman has located 

 here himself he experiences some of the benefits of protecting 

 our beautiful crested valley quail, in my eyes the most 

 beautiful game bird of America. 



Several immense bands of ducks numbering in the 

 thousands have passed over going south, and a number of 

 pintails (or "sprigs" as the boys commonly call them) have 

 been killed in the near vicinity to town. Black brant 

 {Bernida nigricans) have made tiieir appearance on the bay — 

 something almost plienoinenal for this time of the year, and 

 every indication goes to show that the cold weather has set 

 in remarkably early up north, and that our water fowl are 

 going to be plentier than ever this winter. The copious 

 rains of the winter of 188d-4 filled all our ponds to overflow- 

 ing, and last winter our duck hunting was superb, and 

 promises to be equally fine this winter. 



Deer are very plentiful this season. One farmer living 

 within ten miles of town, has since the first of July last 

 killed twenty-nine. Walter Morgan and M. Chick, left 

 town this morning at 6 o'clock in a buckboard, drove about 

 five miles and got back to town as the 13 o'clock whistles 

 were blowing, and brought in two fine deer. Although I 

 am not a deer hunter I have been strongly tempted to 

 shoulder my rifle and "try them one," but I'm not much of a 

 walker and a deer is, so I am content to wait until I get a 

 shot at one on the sly. 



If any reader of Forest and Stke.vm proposes to come 

 out this way this winter, we will treat him well, and I can 

 assure him that finer duck hunting cannot be had in America. 

 We are always pleased to meet our Eastern friends, and will 

 give them one and all a first-rate chance to "Avipe our eye.s," 

 if they will only come. Ad. E. Pearson, 



San Biego, Cal,, Sept 13, 



The St. Louis Convention was very fully reported by 

 the local press, especially by the Missotm BepvMican and the 

 Olobe-Deraoerat. 



i^f t^^*^''^^ PR0l^08iTK» -Harttefd, Conh-,, Sept. ^'6. 

 -^Edik>rFm»% a¥Ld Stimm The litoe has ohce moi^e arrived-, 

 m one life at least, to lay aside the type wt-iter and the lipS 

 and downs Of shorthand and to hie away for a vacation- aiid 

 hOw we cah laUgh at the . bOys who take their vacations iii 

 July and August-, and boil doWn in the suh. Bo we sbehd 

 a day Or two loadibg shells and getting out tent, blankets, 

 nsh-pole ttnd iilieS, gun and provisions, and hie for a week 

 ia the woods'; and then, dropping half our luggage; pick utj 

 opr dog for two more weeks among the birds. I liaveiouiid 

 nine coveys of quail and a n'Amher 'of woodcock within two 

 miles of my house and three and a half from the heart of 

 the city, and 1 blush for Hartford .sportsmen when I report 

 that I know of over twenty birds that have been shot since 

 the 8th of this month up to the 34th ; and if any sportsman 

 here wants to know their names I will send them with proof 

 and will stand my share of the expense of punishing any 

 offender.?, if a protective society is started here, so that we 

 may not lose all our birds by early shootujg. By the way, 

 one of those offenders is a member of a gun clubj and he 

 has told a friend of mine that he shot five partridge (ruffed 

 grouse) one day last week,— Cal. .45. 



YeSmont.— Feitisbili'gj Sept. ^d.- This i§ a perfect d#- 

 a blue sky and a gentle north air^ neithei: hot nor cold, th^ 

 ttees ate getting gay, though we have had ho frost yet -Just 

 here; but yesterday the Green Moiintains and the Adiroiidacks 

 ^ere white with snow. In ihy few rambles in the woods 

 since Sept. 1.1 find ruffed grouse very scarce and very wild, 

 and baVe no reports of their being plenty hereabouts. One 

 (■ame flying over my head this A. M. as silently as an owl 

 and lit in a tree near by. He had been flushed by my 

 hound. When I started him out of the tree he went with a 

 "w-r-r-r-r-r-r-h!" It is good to be in the woods on such a 

 day. — Awahsoose . 



Bear in Monroe County. Pa.— A bear has for sometime 

 past been committing depredations in the neighborhood of 

 Stauffer's Mill?, Monroe county. Pa. Seten cattle and 

 nearly a score of sheep haVe fallen victims to his hunf ei". 

 and the farmers sought for him in vain, llul'ing the Baal 

 week, however, he was tracked to his lair and killed, tii'e 

 bear when dressed weighed 160 pounds. Owihg to the 

 great amount of damage perpetrated it is almost sure there- 

 is a thate to t'iis heal- still in the neighborhood, and the hunt 

 for the fethale will be continued.— Homo. 



Lr^aNGSTON County, N. Y.— "O. G. L." wishes to know 

 of game in Livingston county. For grouse Ossian is the best 

 town in the county. The country is similar to Northern 

 Pennsylvania, being very hilly, with numerous ravines. 

 Dansville is the nearest raUroad' station, five miles distant. 

 There is no squirrel shooting in the county that we can hear 

 of. This scarcity is general throughout Western New York. 

 In a three hours' tramp only two were bagged by your cor- 

 respondent.— W. Y. P. (Tuscarora, N. Y., Sept. 28). 



Salem, Mass., Oct. 2. — Have just returned from a week's 

 shooting on the marshes at Ipswich. Found the birds rather 

 scarce, though we got a sprinkling of jack curlew, beetle- 

 heads, chicken birds, gra.ss birds, sanderliug and red-backed 

 sandpipers, of which sport twelve birds fell to a 10-bore 

 Parker in the hands of my wife. AYe got some teal (green 

 wing) and one gray duck (gadwall). Coots numerous in 

 Squaw Bay. I think after this easterly spell of we ather the 

 sport ought to be good. —X. Y. 2. 



North Ferrtsburgh, Vermont, Oct. 8.— Grouse are tnoro 

 plenty with us than they have been for several years. Ducks 

 are not very plenty as 5^et, but we arc expecting a visit from 

 them on then way South as there is quite good feed here 

 this fall. Gray squirrels are very scarce for there were but 

 few nuts last fall and they did not winter well. Although 

 many young foxes were killed in early summer there seems 

 to be quite a number left, and we are looking forward to 

 fine sport with them. — NiMrod. * 



Wild Rice.— We have reports from Cincinnati, O., that 

 the wUd rice seed put out by the Mercer County Shooting 

 and Fishing Club at St. Maiy's Reservoir, has grown well. 

 From Cobourg, Out., comes a like report of successful rice 

 planting in a pond, in which the water ranged from two 

 feet to six feet in depth. In both places the crop of the year 

 was very full. 



Wild Geese. — Shelton, Neb., Sept. 35. — A few flocks of 

 geese, the first of the season, came from the north to-day. — 

 A. W. S. 



"That reminds me." 

 170. 



APROPOS of Flickerings, I am tempted to relate a little 

 story myself, as told me by Dr. B., an old Kentuckian. 

 When he was a very small boy his name was Joe, and ho 

 had a brother, Herman, slightly older than himself. In the 

 orchard was a cherry tree, where manj'^ woodpeckers re- 

 sorted for food. Joe "and Herman improvised a pistol by 

 taking a couple of joints of cane, usiug one joint for the 

 handle and the other, with a small perforation for a "touch 

 hole," as the barrel. Having carefully loaded it with a large 

 charge of powder and shot they repaired to the orchard to 

 shoot w^oodpeckers. Arriving at the cherry tree it was ar- 

 ranged that Herman should hold the weapon and do the 

 aiming, while Joe ajiphed a "chunk of fire" to the "touch 

 hole." The cherry tree had a large representation of the 

 red-headed tribe of woodpeckers fluttering around it, and 

 Herman, with much care and painstaking, pointed his 

 weapon where the birds were thickest, while Joe diligently 

 applied the fire. But the cane pistol failed to respond ; so 

 Joe, in the warmth of his zeal, stuck his mouth down close 

 to the "chunk" and proceeded to blow. There was suddenly 

 a mighty explosion. The cane w^as shattered to pieces, and 

 ,1 oe's face was blackened and his sight suddenly darkened, 

 even as the darkness of Egypt, for verilj^ he was sorely 

 burned by the powder; and Joe being a small boy, and taken 

 completeXv by^surprise, that part of the performance not 

 being in the programme at all, without tiny unnecessary 

 delay lifted up his voice and wept audibly. Herman w^as 

 niuch frightened at the result of the experiment, and wasi 



