246 



FOREST ANt) STREAM. 



[OOT. 22, 1885. 



the drivers, while only one was killed by those on the stand. 

 This made seven for the day. The evening is the best time 

 for deer hunting, but the boys were tired and we were out 

 for sport and pleasure. We sat on the bank of the river and 

 caught some large catfish, while a few practiced with the 

 rifle on chickens, which were to be seen by the hundreds in 

 the treetops. 



Can you imagine anything more delightful than to spend a 

 week in this way? If you want to go home and do not wish 

 to drive you can signal a passing boat and in a few hours 

 you arc at home. We spent a week in this way— the most 

 delightful in my life. We trapped foxes and wildcats and 

 other game as pastime, and a', the end of the week loaded up 

 forty-two fine deer, and had we been hunting for profit we 

 could have doubled this number. W. H. Wilt^iamson. 

 BiSMAECK, Dakota. 



G U N-C AL L-G R A M P U S . 



Editor Forest and Stream : 



In your issue for Oct. 1 is an addendum to "Woodcraft 

 which I think good and sound, though I say it as shouldn't 

 say it. But there is a fearful balk or botch in the three 

 sentences commencing at the eighty -third line. I don't think 

 my MS. will show such clumsy work, and it could hardiv be 

 in the proof reading. Some clipping and bungling about 

 the compositor business, I reckon. Anyhow, amend or burn 

 it. If you haven't the MS. let the lines read about like this, 

 commencing at the eighty-third line: "He would start out 

 from camp at early dawn at a five mile gait, and tramp 

 through the woods' all day as if on a wager, while 1 crept 

 about silently or kept quiet watch on the runways, scarcely 

 traveling more than three miles in a day's hunt. He was 

 constantly jumping deer at long range and taking chances 

 on stern shots, by which it happened that he had a great 

 many wounded deer to look after, while my shots were 

 mostly at short range and the bullets tucked snugly in just 

 abaft the foreleg. He made at least four shots to my one, 

 etc." 



And the pleasantest days have come, the best of all the 

 year— to us of the Gulf coast— the saddest to you up there, 

 perhaps. Mercury at 6 A. M. down to 64". Insects — and 

 the list of them is a long one— all gone, or nearly so. New 

 shanty and council-log in running order. The best camp by 

 odds "l ever made, and the pleasantest. It is to be head- 

 quarters for the next six months, and one can afford to take 

 pains with his home. The council-log is of Spanish cedar, 

 and just trims with a crew of five. There is a little hatchet 

 sticking in each end of the log, not for the benefit o£ tourists 

 and canoeists, but I shall have a good many visitors at the 

 camp-fire this coming winter, and it is likely some of them 

 will be fishermen. 



I have the turkey call in practice. You ought to hear me. 

 The first time I tried it I stampeded an old gobbler who 

 nearly broke his neck getting away. But I improve on it. 

 I lie in camp nights practicing for hours ; and you can't hire 

 a young darky to go past the camp after sundown. It is 

 also excellent for stampeding the half wild pigs that come 

 about the camp at night to root and steal. And 1 think with 

 a few weeks' practice I can attain to the inveiglement of a 

 turkey, a half -grown one, say. 



I send a sliver from the council log and trust you will not 

 accuse me of putting on airs because I have a finer residence 

 and surroundings than most woodsmen and outers. It is not 

 that, but red cedar is fine fragraiit wood, and it is likewise 

 distasteful to most insects and reptiles. Sitting on such a 

 log you are less likely to rise up and grab frantically at your 

 trousers on the chance of crushing the industrious scorpion 

 that is hidden therein. I did that a few Sundays agone. 

 And this week I caught it on the port ear. It was about 

 like a bee sting or hardly as severe. But I am a little shy of 

 the deadly grampus. 



My respects to "'Meat-Hawk." Am not conversant with 

 the Nirris and Abors. But if he will spend a few days in 

 my camp I will convince him I am rather cleanly in personal 

 habits and I can cook something which he can eat. Let him 

 read "Woodcraft" more carefully. Nessmuk. 



Tarpon SpRDres, Fla., Oct. 8. 



ON BUZZARD'S BAY. 



MONDAY morning bright and early we went on 

 board the Minnie, a cat-rigged craft, Capt. Al- 

 bert Dunlap, with guns, fishing tackle and provisions for 

 a week. The last four days had been cold and rainy, but 

 now the sun was out as bright as a new silver dollar. 

 When we left, as the clock was striking seven, there was 

 very little wind and things looked as though we we were 

 sure to have a fair day ; but before we got to Black Rock, 

 seven miles down the bay, it was blowing a gale, so good-bye 

 to fishing. We ran around inside of Jacob's Neck, hove 

 over the mud hook, got the oil stove going, had the coffee 

 hot, fried salt pork in which to fry our quahogs, got out the 

 hard bread; and some of your readers can guess how ii tasted 

 to a man who had not been on the water for a year. 



After dinner the covers came oft" the guns, and getting 

 into the skiff we pulled for a creek which makes into the 

 island for about a mile. You can judge of our surprise 

 when after tramping the shores and marshes for two hours 

 we had only one yellowleg and two ringnecks. We found 

 our old enemies the mosquitoes here, and I stand ready to 

 match West Island against any place in New England for 

 mosquitoes, both for size and ferocity. Tired out we went 

 on board and had supper. Oapt. Dunlap got in both barrels 

 at a crane, but missed at forty yards, when I gave him an 

 ounce and a quarter of No. 8 shot and brought him down. 



Tuesday it rained all day, but we went off to a lone rock 

 and caught some tautog and one scup; but as the wind was 

 beginning to blow quite fresh again we ran in shore and 

 anchored. Then I taught the captain to make an Irish 

 stew. 



Wednesday morning we went ashore and tramped, around 

 the island about five miles, but got never a feather. We 

 left the island about 10 o'clock and ran to the south and 

 west of Black Rock, where we caught fifty pounds of tautog 

 the largest being one of five pounds; and at 3 o'clock we 

 started for a beat to windward of ten miles, arriving at the 

 wharf at half -past 4 o'clock. 



Take it all around we had a good time in spite of the very 

 bad weather. I shall always remember that trip; there weie 

 no birds, no good weather, ' 'no nothing" but mosquitoes, 

 but the lively captain kept me from having the blues, as he 

 always does for his passengers. Will some one tell us why 

 we did not find more birds, or were we too late in the season ? 

 West Island has always been a good place for them. 



Old Pahd, 



JFlTCHBBKO, MasB., Oct, 18. 



MICHIGAN'S SHAME. 



Editor Forest and Htream: 



I have just returned from a trip up the Hue, over the 

 Menominee mineral range. As the season lor killing deer is 

 now open, every train brings in from six to twenty hunters. 

 I stopped at Crystal Falls for one week. The deer brought 

 into the village averaged twenty-five saddles per day. Only 

 the saddles are brought iu, for the local buyers refuse to buy 

 anything else; and outside hunters find it very inconvenient 

 to ship whole carcasses in barrels, sd they ship only saddles. 

 Every express train carries boxes and " barrels of venison 

 marked "Cranberries, handle with care." So, notwith- 

 standing we have a non-export law, the slaughter still goes 

 on. Local buyers pay the small price of four and five cents 

 per pound for saddles and hides. In summer the hide hunter 

 kills only for hides. As the open season approaches the 

 deer butchers can see visions of dollars ahead that he cannot 

 get during the hide-gathering season. 



I saw every day does brought in, their udders distended 

 with milk; many of them in the velvet. One load of eight 

 had been killed so long that the carcasses were rotten, and 

 the buyers refused them. The deer butcher, one Clark, 

 simply jerked off the hides and dumped the saddles into the 

 river. Such is an every-day occurrence. This Clark was 

 accompanied on this trip by a professional gentleman from 

 Cleveland, O. My only regret is that any one of high social 

 standing should stoop' low enough to accompany such a 

 brute in the woods. 



The law is a dead letter wit;hout the game wardens to pro- 

 tect the game. The season of three months is loo long. One 

 month is enough and more at the present rate of kilfing. 

 Escanaba and Marquette are at present the greatest shipping 

 points. Fish cars are filled, hauled aboard of steamers, 

 marked "Fish," and are made on every steamer. No one 

 stops them nor tries. In lumber camps hunters supply deer 

 at $1.50 to $3 per head, reserving hides. 



The trout law is also openly held to be a dead letter. Not 

 a week passes but that large shipments are made. In winter 

 they are easily caught under the dams with nets. When 

 frozen they are packed in pork barrels and shipped as pork. 



One trader on Pike River, Wis , bought and shipped dur- 

 ing _ the winter of 1883-84 eighty -five thousand pounds of 

 venison. In September I saw fifteen pairs of saddles at a 

 trader's, being packed to ship, This was during the close 

 season in Wisconsin ; so Michigan is not alone in the non- 

 enforcement of her laws. Snow fell at Ciystal Falls on the 

 2d, and now the deer are rutting and are easily killed in the 

 night with a headlight, although the law prohibits it. Sev- 

 eral men have been shot within the last year, two cases 

 fatally, besides numerous horses and cattle. " S. E. B. 

 MENomNEK. Mich., Oct. 10, 1885. 



BOB WHITE-QUAIL-PARTRIDGE. 



Editor Fared and Stream: 



"Wells" reappears ouce more and comes up — well, I was 

 going to say ".smiling," in his difference with "Coahoma" — 

 but from the tenor of his article I hardly think that is the 

 correct word. It grieves me to witness their heat. I would 

 that they could reconcile their diffeiences and dwell together 

 iu unity. "Wells" says Bob White, "Coahoma" says part- 

 ridge. Which is it to be? There should be unanimity, for 

 we have been told that "a house divided against itself cannot 

 stand," wherefore have a care that you be not disconcerted 

 in the tumble. "Wells" says the bhd has been called part- 

 ridge in the South for fifty years; and therefore he says it is 

 "our bird." Will he permit me to add to his information 

 on the subject by telling him that the bird has been called 

 quail at the North for more than that length of time, where- 

 fore residents of the North might call him "our bird" also; 

 but they don't wish to monopolize a good thing. They will 

 share with their Southern brethren, who may also call him 

 quail. Supposing, as "Wells" says, that the people of 

 New England do call the ruffed grouse "partridge," I know 

 of no one who justifies it. No one who calls ruffed grouse 

 "partridge" or "pheasant" complains of "Wells" when he 

 calls quail "Bob White." He is on the wrong .scent. He 

 says "the partridge of Europe more nearly resembles Bob 

 White than be does the ruffed grouse." "Well, then, why 

 does he not call it partridge instead of Bob White? He also 

 says, "if we will use Bob White the error will be avoided." 

 But there isn't any error. "Wells" has simply forgotten the 

 facts, and I liope he wiU refresh his memory. "He says, 

 "there is no authority anywhere, except the lowest usage, 

 for giving 'our bird' the name of quail," Um! Let me 

 read that again. Well, after due consideration, I think if 1 

 had used such language I should say I was sorry and 

 wouldn't do so any more. And I might say, as he has said 

 of Bob White, "the quail is not Bob White, and all the 

 scribblers on earth cannot make him so;" but I wouldn't for 

 anything. 



"Coahoma" says that Northern men brought the innova- 

 tion (quail) down there and now some "dudey" sportsmen 

 affect the name. Score one for the "dudeys;" 1 have hopes 

 of them yet. I fully believe both "Coahoma" and "Wells" 

 when they solemnly assert that they never, never will call 

 the bird "quail," and I assure them that it will be entirely 

 satisfactory to me. We agree to disagree, that is alh I 

 claim, first, that the bird in question has been called quail as 

 long as, and perhaps longer than, anything else in this 

 country; second, that he has some points, at least in resemb- 

 lance, to his European congener; third, there is nothing 

 derogatory in the name quail ; and fourth, that American 

 quail is the most proper, the most dignified name. Scientific 

 sportsmen use it, the Forest and Stream and other sports- 

 men's journals use it, and American quail I doubt not it will 

 be long after "Coahoma" and "Wells" have passed over to 

 the majority with S. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



It is said by very high authority that the names partridge 

 and quail are applied to more than twenty different species, 

 and of more than one genus. Even in New England the appli- 

 cation varies within short distances. AX the South, however, 

 "partridge" has been universally applied to the Ortyx vir- 

 giniana, and to no other bird. No one ever heard the word 

 "quail" applied at the South to Bob White until after the 

 war. The average darky or poor white man would not 

 know what you were talking about if you called Bob White 

 a "quail." But in the discussion of this question by the 

 several correspondents of Forest ASiT> Stream it seems to 

 be clear that there is an irreconcilable diversity of opinion 

 as to what this favorite bird should be called." The judg- 

 ment is governed entirely by early association and education 

 and the locality where the several disputants were reared. 

 In other words, the matter depends upon the question 



whether a man has been raised on "pork and beans" or 

 "bacon and greens," If on the former, then he will "guess" 

 that quail is the proper appellation; but if on the latter, he 

 "reckons" that partridge is con-ect. One correspondent, 

 under the non de %ilume of "S.," with singular and unparal- 

 leled intolerance sneers at the idea that any other name than 

 quail is proper; while "Wells," with far"^ more wit and ele- 

 gance, combats this view, and iu my opinion, with a great 

 show of reason, is steeled against the application of the word 

 "quail"_to his beloved Bob White. 



Partridge is certainly more dignified and euphonious than 

 quail. And how much more beautiful and musi(;al is 

 "welccmie partridge." the name applied to one of the species, 

 than it would be if the word quail be substituted for partridge. 

 It IS bad enough to use the monosyllable as a substantive in 

 this connection, but when it is coined into a verb, as has 

 been done by some of your correspondents, it becomes in- 

 sufferable. When a man writes that he "went quailing" the 

 expression not merely argues of ignorance, but is lowering to 

 the dignity of Bob White. Indeed if the name of this gentle 

 bird IS to be changed I would suggest to "Wells" that he 

 should not be curtailed of any part of the name suggested 

 by his love call, but let him be called "Ah Bob White." 

 The only possible danger which could ariee from the adop- 

 tion of this name would be the propensity of some wag to 

 drop the surname, and call him "Ah Bob." 



But to return to the main question. In order to ascertain 

 the correct name we must, as in all similar cases, inquire of 

 those who are acknowledged as authority on the subject. Be- 

 yond question the great weight cf authority establishes that 

 partridge is the proper term to apply to the Ortyx virginiana. 

 Dr. Bachman calls the bird a partridge. Dr. Coues states 

 that it is the "Virginia partridge," also called quail. Bob 

 White. He styles the other varieties Florida partridge, CJal- 

 ifornia partridge, etc. But our highest authority is Audu- 

 bon. That charming and accomplished naturalist calls it 

 "the common American partridge," and says: "The com- 

 mon name given to this bird in the Eastern and Middle dis- 

 tricts is that of quail, but in the Western and Southern 

 States the more appropriate appellation of partridge is be- 

 stowed upon it." Ah Bob. 



NEBRASKA GAME NOTES. 



QUAIL are more plentiful here this season than I have 

 known them for a great many years. T found one 

 nest, near the house, that contained twenty eggs, and every 

 one of them was hatched by the old bird. "^ Another old bird 

 within twenty rods of the first was caught off a npst of 

 twenty eggs. One bird nested in a pile of wood thirty steps 

 from our door and hatched sixteen out of nineteen eggs. 

 Several cats are about ihe house, too, but didn't find the 

 nest. 



Prairie chickens hatched well, but "sportsmen" from town 

 have been shooting them ever since the last of July. The 

 deputy sheriff of this county ha« several times been seen 

 hunting them before they were one-half grown. One mem- 

 ber of the Gun Club of Falls City (and perhaps more) shot 

 chickens before the law was off. They will have to keep it 

 up only a few more years, till prairie chickens will be gone 

 from this part of the "country. 



Some wild geese and sanahill crane were seen going south 

 last week. They do not come down this way as they did 

 ten and fifteen years ago. At that time settlenients were not 

 so numerous on the Platte and there was not so much feed 

 up there for them, then they came down the Missouri by 

 hundreds. 



I have not killed a goose' since February, 1884, when I 

 bagged three in one day with a .40 90 rifle, with bullets 

 weighing 230 grains. I have been using 370-grain bullets 

 and found the trajectory was so high that it was hard to hit 

 a goose over 150 yards, guessed distance, on a sandbar. I 

 then got a new pair of moulds and got game with the light, 

 bullets much oftcner than with the heavy ones. I heard 

 geese in the morning on the bar, and started with thirty 

 shells in my belt, and 1 missed a few shots before I got my 

 first goose of the day. Some of the shots were not mo^'e than 

 300 yards and the geese flew. I then fired for another gang 

 which I saw, and ac the third shot killed the one at which I 

 aimed at 345 yards. The next one I aimed at was at 375 

 yards, at the second shot, and the last one was 300 yards, 

 fourth shot. All the shots were off-hand. I .shot some shots 

 flying and several at longer disti nces, some as far as 600 

 yards, and shot twice at a duck, and came home without a 

 loaded shell, but feeling well satisfied with my little hunt. 



J. F. L. 



Salem, Neb. 



PHILADELPHIA NOTES. 



LAST Thursday a large flight of ruddy ducks, called stiff"' 

 tails by our local gunners here, reached the waters of the 

 Delaware River; and many were killed quite near the city. 

 Howell's Cove, below Gloucester, N. J., was full of them; 

 and fatigued by their migration, were easily paddled on and 

 shot over. It seems a pity that this pretty little duck should 

 have been shot in such numbers before they had recovered 

 from their fatiguing flight; as they were in wretched order, 

 as are all the ducks which the late storm brought to us. A 

 great many big yellowlegs were shot just before the gale on 

 the New Jersey Atlantic salt meadows and our market is 

 full of them. Some brant have reached Tuckerlon Bay. 

 Six were killed there by a local gunner last week, but they 

 were mere frames with skin and feathers drawn over them, 

 A few wild geese have also appeared, one or two also hav- 

 ing been brought to bag in the same section in like terrible 

 order. 



The redheads which will reach tlie New Jersey bays will 

 show themselves in Barnegat Bay first and appear in Tuck- 

 erton Bay a week later. Whistlers and bhiebills are already 

 very plentiful there. Rail shooting on the Delaware River 

 is about ever. A few very fat birds remain, too lazy to 

 start south. The next cold snap will hurry them; tiesidea, 

 there is little left of the reed seed to supply their wants. 

 "Quite some snipe," as a professional remarked to the writer, 

 have dropped into the meadows round about Philadelphia 

 within the last week. In fact, the late storm brought many 

 migratory birds to us, and fairly good shooting may be ex- 

 pected for those who consider the quail season opens too soon 

 by a fortnight, and who will remain here and devote the 

 time to the migratory specimens that have lately come. The 

 woods and tlucket.s" are yet in full leaf; the quail will be 

 hard to find and veiy hard to kill when found in such cover. 

 The birds are yet small, and two more weeks' grace given 

 them will add much to their garaeness on the wing and cer- 

 tainly tetter condition fer the table. Homo, 



PSXtAPEI-PHIA, Oct, J 7. 



