8 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Jan. 28, 1886. 



reedy shores, a favorite method of these parties being to creep 

 stealthily upon the game, and a shot at a tempting group 

 Hike that in view would amply repay them for an hour's tug- 

 ging at the muffled oar. The boat of the club was to them 

 also a novel method of approach, and novelty always has 

 attractions of its own. 



, The creeping movements of the boats was keeping some 

 birds in motion from one lagoon to another, and from one 

 part to another of this lagoon, giving the members stationed 

 about an occasional shot, but the parties in the boats were 

 inclined to burn no powder upon the birds passing over 

 them so intent were they upon the large bag to result from a 

 single broadside into the tempting flock nestling in the edge 

 of the reeds ahead of them. They had tugged at those oars 

 until their arms were breaking, they had crouched down in 

 the boat until the muscles of their lower limbs were cramped 

 into hard knots, but they had arrived almost within shooting 

 distance and were full of anxiety lest the game should flush 

 at the last moment before they were at the desired distance. 

 Five yards nearer and their labors would be rewarded by 

 that triumph of skillful approach, which they were burning 

 with desire to demonstrate to the city sportsmen as the sine 

 qua non for these lagoons. In vain small groups of birds 

 would pass over, and temptingly near to "them. In, vain 

 Ralhts ekgam would flush from ' the reeds beside them; in 

 vain Fulim americana would flee in couples and quadruples 

 before them in near proximity, when an effective broadside 

 was so soon to fill their bags to overflowing with Querque- 

 dula diseors. In vain also Tarras gymnostoma railed at them 

 its angry protest against their presence in its f averite haunts, 

 thus proclaiming it to the coveted game had they been of 

 more timid stuff. Several pairs of wicked eyes were now 

 turned upon the hunters from various stations on shore in 

 keen expectation of the sport about to begin and almost 

 simultaneously four streams of fire and smoke issued from 

 that triumphant boat, introducing great confusion among 

 the victims of the fusilade, but, strange to say, none of that 

 large flock took to wing, but hovered in those reeds as if in 

 overweening confidence in their hiding place from the 

 terrible enemy before them. But only a brief respite was 

 given them,_ for a second and a third volley was poured in 

 upon them in rapid succession from the two breechloaders in 

 the boat and Bose and Fetchum were launched out to gather 

 in the dead birds. What a proud moment for these two 

 rustic sportsmen to show off their superior tactics, to their 

 city brethren. Never before in all their shooting experiences 

 had they got away with a whole flock, not one escaping to 

 tell the horrid tale. But alas! In spite of their pride of 

 great experience in the ways of the anatidse that day, they 

 had been destined to receive a new revelation in natural his- 

 tory. To their deep chagrin Bose and Fetchum belied the 

 fame they had given them. They returned empty-mouthed 

 to the boat. They would not retrieve those ducks* It then 

 dawned upon them that there was something strange in this 

 affair, and moving forward with the boat they were initiated 

 for the first time into the mystery of decoys, they themselves 

 having been decoyed to this advanced knowledge of "tricks 

 that are (not) vain." These ducks had not been bred in 

 northern solitudes. They were village ducks, bred in West- 

 port, 1ST. T. Oh, ye shades of Nimrodl judge of the con- 

 fusion of mind that overwhelmed these two at this humili- 

 ating discovery. Instead of the exhibition of superior 

 intelligence, it suddenly flashed upon them that they had 

 effectually exposed their ignorance of modern methods which 

 had demonstrated their efficacy upon themselves in a strik- 

 ing manner. 



Though no members of the club had sat behind the stools 

 on that day, still they had made a fair bag, which was duly 

 divided among all, their visitors included. Of course they 

 were profuse in regrets that they had forgotten to mention 

 to the visitors the little circumstance of the presence of 

 decoys in the lagoon, as they supposed they knew all about 

 such little incidents of duck shooting, and the visitors were 

 as fluent in their protestations of sorrow at their blundering 

 destruction of the properly of their entertainers, which had 

 at least been deteriorated by the numerous discharges of 

 large shot. They were freely forgiven in consideration of 

 the lively entertainment the incident had afforded, and 

 which will long hereafter be remembered as a charming 

 reminiscence of the association, furnishing, as it did, long 

 and agreeable exercise to the diaphram and abdominal 

 muscles of its members. Nemo. 

 Habaka, Cuba, Dec. 26. 



PASSAIC COUNTY ASSOCIATION. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



I have read with very little satisfaction the proceedings of 

 some of the game protectors against violators of the law in 

 New York State. I should think that these paid officials 

 ought to have made a better record, considering the facts 

 that they have a large area of country to look after and that 

 the reports were for a whole year. Compare their reports 

 with the following, the record of the Passaic County Fish 

 and Game Protective Association for the last month, 

 December i 



Abraham Terhune and Thomas Finnegan, fishing with net, 

 $20 each and costs, Edward Ryerson, shooting black bass, 

 $20 and costs. Jacob Ryerson, maintaining eel weir, thirty 

 days in jail. James Ryerson, fishing with set lines, prose- 

 cution abandoned on account of sympathy for family. Frank 

 Kastell, same. offense, thirty days in jail. Thomas W. Gar- 

 rison, same offense, prosecution abandoned on account of in- 

 sufficiency of testimony. Barney Palm and Mike Helson, 

 maintaining eel weir, $20 each and costs, John Milligan, 

 same offense, prosecution abandoned on account of sym- 

 pathy for family. Whitfield Little, John S. Schulster and 

 Thomas Van Orden, unlawfully killing rabbits, $20 each 

 and costs. William Snedeker, trapping quail, $20 and costs. 

 In the cases of the eel weirs mentioned the weirs were all 

 destroyed. The fines were not collected in every case, but 

 none got off without paying at least the larger "portion of 

 the costs. 



In addition to this the Association has almost perfected 

 arrangements for stocking Greenwood Lake and other 

 Passaic county waters with alewives, and has discussed 

 plans for the improvement of the shooting and fishing in the 

 county. This is one month's record, and December was try 

 no means an exceptionally good month. The Association 

 consists of fifty-five members who pay fifteen cents a month 

 as dues, and nearly all the business of the Association is 

 transacted by the secretary. One association of -this" kind 

 with a few live members and a handful who pay dues is 

 worth a half a hundred hired game protectors. Still, sports- 

 men do not seem to see the benefit**-! may say necessity — of 

 organizing, A little energy pnd ft little money go a great 

 way when properly applied, * 



INITIATION. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



Time has dealt kindly with me, and I am almost aston- 

 ished that it has me hovering around in the vicinity of fifty. 

 It seems a long, long time since I shot and killed my first 

 deer, when I was about fourteen. It was in the mountains 

 of Huntingdon county, Pa., and not more than two and a 

 half miles from where I was born, and I have been shooting 

 ever since. How vividly we remember important boyhood 

 exploits. It seems like an occurrence of but a few weeks 

 ago. I remember it all— How I coaxed my father and uncle 

 Sam to go along and how I rubbed up the old smoothbore 

 rifle that no one else would think of taking to the woods to 

 shoot deer with; the sleepless night before the start; the 

 early start; the hunt begun along the south side of Tussey's 

 Mountain; how I watched the man above me and the one 

 below me more than I watched for deer, afraid of getting 

 lost ; how while looking for the hunter below me I saw a 

 magnificent buck loping along not thirty yards down the 

 mountain; how I bleated and he stopped broadside; how my 

 gun was discharged and when the smoke cleared away I had 

 a palpitation of the heart and found that the buck was 

 wounded; how I yelled like a Comanche, and how the mau 

 below me, Sam Stryker, came up, tried to shoot him in the 

 head to save the skin and venison, and instead shot him in 

 the nostrils, and how the buck made off down the 

 mountain; how I wanted to follow him, with my gun 

 empty, of course; how he would not let me, saying 

 that the deer would stop in a short time; how we waited un- 

 til my father and uncle Sam came to us, when we all went 

 in search of his buckship, there being no snow, no dog — and 

 no buck until his skeleton was found nearly a mile from the 

 scene of the tragedy the following summer. Oh, how 

 well I remember how I mourned the loss of that deer. It is 

 hardly necessary for me to say that I thought more of the 

 old smoothbore after that day's hunt than I ever did be- 

 fore. 



Since those days I have hunted in Michigan, Minnesota, 

 Dakota, Iowa and Pennsylvania with varied success, but 

 none of my many outings ever gave me as much pleasure 

 and sorrow combined as the first deer hunt on Tussey. 



Shongo. 



THE DUCKS OF THE PACIFIC. 



TO-DAY my thoughts have gone back to the day last 

 February I spent with Walter N. Shoemaker, of Chi- 

 cago, among the ducks, quail and jack snipe in El Cajon 

 Valley. We left the city on Wednesday morning for a 

 twenty-mile drive to that favorite hunting ground, famous 

 for its raisins and oranges, its immense ranches, and last, 

 but not least, its great coveys of quail. 



Nine miles from town our dog flushed a covey, and, leav- 

 ing the team with Shoemaker, Jr., we proceeded to bag a 

 couple of dozen, which afforded us about an hour's sport. 

 Driving on ten miles further, we arrived at Ben Hill's ranch, 

 on which was a laguna covering ten acres of ground. Look- 

 ing down on the water from the hill, we could see thousands 

 of ducks feeding. We halted right there. Going down to 

 the edge of the water we found hundreds of tumble weeds, 

 which make the finest blinds in the world. Quickly con- 

 structing a blind I stationed Mr. S. within it, and, telling 

 him not to fire until I was in position, I went down the 

 other side so as to approach the ducks from the trees on that 

 side, as they had floated down to the further end of the 

 laguna on seeing us. Crawling up to within gunshot of the 

 water, I cautiously rose up and— whiff, whiff, went dozens 

 of wings, as mallard, sprig and teal jumped frantically into 

 the air, with quack, quack, as I poured right and left bar- 

 rel into them and succeeded in bringing down several, among 

 them a royal old greenhead. Bang, bang, went Shoemaker's 

 gun, telling me that the birds were circling over him, and I 

 had hardly time to slip two more shells in my gun when 

 s-h-e-w came a dozen or more sprigs right over my head 

 down into the laguna; and two more came tumbling down. 

 Still I could hear Shoemaker firing up at the other end. We 

 stayed there until I had bagged twenty-seven ducks, as nice 

 and fat as one could wish for. Then, as the ducks had about 

 all left the laguna for the smaller ponds down the valley, we 

 thought it best to hunt them up. My friend had secured 

 about as many as I had, and we felt highly elated with our 

 success so far, for it was only about noon and we had a fine 

 bag already. 



Driving down the valley I spied through the trees a dozen 

 big ducks sitting on a sandbar about the middle of the river. 

 We again left the team, and after making a detour crawled 

 down to the edge of the river and found ourselves right op- 

 posite the ducks, which proved to be mallards. We sat 

 there admiring them until Shoemaker got uneasy, and rous- 

 ing up we discharged a couple of barrels into them and two 

 more as they rose in the air, and we had the pleasure of re- 

 trieving half a dozen as fine greenheads as I ever saw. Then 

 we went back to the wagon and drove up to Mr. Winches- 

 ter's ranch house, about a mile further, to get feed for our 

 team and eat lunch. Asking the only man in view if he 

 could accommodate us with hay, we received a negative 

 reply, and were also informed that Mr. Winchester had left 

 orders that no hunting was to be allowed on the ranch. I 

 looked at Shoemaker and he at me, and as I knew of a splen- 

 did duck pond on the ranch which I had hunted before 

 with good success, the news was a damper. 



"Well, it can't be helped," remarked Mr. S., "but it's 

 rough on the horses, as we brought no feed." And I felt 

 considerably irritated, for Californians, as a rule, keep "open 

 house." We talked the man into giving our horses some 

 feed, however, and he explained that some weeks before that 

 a couple of sportsmen (?) had visited him, and on going to 

 the ponds had shot into his hogs which were feeding in the 

 marsh, had scattered shot among his stock, and on being 

 remonstrated with, had consigned him to perdition, where- 

 upon he made up his mind to stop all hunting. We told 

 him that, of course, we would respect his right to keep us 

 from hunting, and at the same time expressed our opinion 

 rather strongly concerning men who would act as the hunters 

 aforesaid, as such men always did more damage than they 

 did good. On leaving the ranch we had gotten as far as the 

 gate when he called to us and said, "If you will drive down 

 ;he fence half a mile you'll find some good duck and snipe 

 grounds. Don't shoot any of the stock, and you can kill all 

 the birds you wish. Good bye," and into the house he went. 

 - "Well/' said S., delightedly, as I whipped up, "that fel- 

 low's a jewel after all," in which opinion I heartily coincided. 



Down the fence we drove and ere long came to as pretty 

 ground as one would wish to see. Filling pockets with 

 shells, we had not tramped twenty yards from the carriage 

 when scaipe went a longbill and bang went Shoemaker's 

 Pieper; scaipe scaipe, and up jumped two more, and the fun 



waxed fast and furious. Shoemaker held his own royally, 

 and I did the best shooting I ever did in my life, scoring 

 thirteen straight without a miss. We left that snipe ground 

 thoroughly satisfied, and all our hunting was done inside of 

 three acres of ground. It was the best snipe ground I ever 

 saw, and I think my friend S. will say the same if he reads 

 this letter. As the afternoon was waning we took the road 

 toward home, and after getting into two or three more 

 coveys of quail and filling our coats we reached San Diego 

 about 8 o'clock in the evening, thoroughly satisfied with 

 ourselves and the day's sport. 



We brought in somewhere near 150 pieces of game, num- 

 bering duck, jacksnipe, quail, dove, rabbit and jack rabbit. 



Our game this season is fine. Ducks and quail are here 

 by thousands, and we anticipate m«ny a day of fine sport 

 among the geese, which do not arrive' here until after the 

 New Year. Three market-hunters, located twelve miles 

 from town, are shipping on an average seventeen dozen quail 

 daily, and still they seem to be as plenty as ever. Black 

 brant are not so plentiful on the bay as last year, and the 

 duck crop I think is hardly as large, but we are having 

 glorious sport nevertheless. Ad. B. Pearson. 



San Diego, Cal.. Dec. 18, 1885. 



MteniGAN Deer.— Escan aba, Mich.. Jan. 16 —My in- 

 formant was mistaken about Lud Leopold shooting a man at 

 work. He raised his gun to do so when his hunting partner 

 stopped him ; Leopold thought it was a bear. Not long after 

 that Leopold shot his hunting pard and killed him. When 

 arrested he waived examination and was tried in Circuit 

 Court and found guilty, and was given one year or two 

 hundred dollars fine. I hear he paid the fine. Cheap. Two 

 years ago next month I saw 1,400 deer skins at Escanaba, 

 some red coat, some blue, some heavy gray, some of the 

 latter quite green, a large share of them killed out of season. 

 One week later 1,400 more of the same kind were brought, 

 in and shipped away. All of them came from Manistique. 

 This fall I tried to get two deer heads for a friend in Buffalo 

 but could not get them as the hunters only bring out the 

 saddles as a general thing. — Blank. 



Fooled by a Grebe.— One day I was rowing leisurely, 

 when I saw a red-necked grebe. The grebe appeared to be 

 pretty far off, but I thought 1 would risk a shot, so I blazed 

 away, and the shot took effect. I paddled up and secured 

 the bird and laid him on the bottom of the boat. He was a 

 fine specimen, and I was glad to get bim. Then I turned 

 the boat toward home. I had got about half way there, and 

 had turned half round in my seat to see my way among the 

 rocks, when I heard a splash. I looked round just in time 

 to see that grebe's tail disappearing in the briny deep. I 

 never got him again. He conducted his operations very 

 well indeed, and I supposed he deserved to get away. — J. 

 Wendell, Jr. 



Virginia.— Lynchburg, Va., Jan. 20.— The weather with 

 us was open and beautiful until the 8th iust. ; indeed we 

 thought we would have no winter at all. But on the 8th a 

 snow storm and the cold wave struck us at the same time, 

 and for a week the mercury was at and below zero. It was 

 the coldest weather experienced here for a long, long time. 

 From the most authentic sources I learn that the game, and 

 specially our partridge (quail), escaped and are now doin^ 

 well; but it is reported that in other portions of our State 

 near Staunton the game birds fared badly. Bob White is a 

 sturdy little fellow, and if given half a chance will come out 

 all right.— W. A. 8. 



Corinth, Miss. — I left New York on the evening of the 

 10th inst,, and did not reach home until Wednesday at 7 

 o'clock A. M., nearly twenty-four hours behind time. Was 

 stuck in three drifts before I reached home. It was fear- 

 fully cold, and we bad a very disagreeable trip. The weather 

 was 6° colder here than it ever has been within the memory 

 of the traditional "oldest inhabitant," or any other man. 

 Ice six inches thick. The cold wave reached this place 

 Thursday morning and New York Friday night about 1 1 

 o'clock, as I can testify. Has been cloudy with a cold rain 

 almost every day since' last Thursday, and fearfully muddy. 



— GUTON. 



Kansas Babbits.— Paola, Kansas, Jan. 15. — One of the 

 late hunting and trapping books says that in hunting rabbits 

 the runways should be manned, the hound turned loose and 

 silent watch kept for the rabbit. This may do very well in 

 some States, but in Kansas all that is required is a small dog, 

 a good hickory club and two or three inches of snow and a 

 person can return at the end of an hour with fifteen or 

 twenty rabbits. — R. H. C. 



New York Association for the Protection op Fish 

 and Game. — The officers for 1886 are: President, Robert 

 B. Roosevelt; Vice-President, Benjamin L. Ludington; Sec 

 retary and Treasurer, Thomas N. Cuthbert; Counsel, Charles 

 E. Whitehead; Executive Committee, Stephen A. Main, 

 Alfred Wagstaff, Henry N. Munn. 



Stoneham Sportsmen's Club.— Stoneham, Mass., Jan. 

 21. — At our regular meeting, Jan. 7, the following officers 

 were elected: President, P. H, Home; First Vice-President, 

 Elbridge Gerry; Second Vice-President, A. O. Emerson; Sec- 

 retary and Treasurer, H. P. Brett; Trustees — Geo. Coburn, 

 W. P. Howe and H. H. Dane. 



The Forest and Stream's Grizzlies.— Santa Barbara, 

 Cal., Jan. 11.— Put 'em (the grizzlies I mean) in Central Park 

 garden with Forest and Stream tag on them, and like 

 designation prominently on their house (or den). You can- 

 not make a better contribution to curiosity and popular in- 

 formation. — W. N. B. 



Progress, N. O., Jan, 32.— We have been baviDg some 

 very bad cold weather here, hut it is fine now. 1 have care- 

 fully examined the grounds in this vicinity, and am pleased 

 to find the birds all right. I have a couple of basset hounds, 

 and tbey are having lots of fun with the cotton tails.— T. M. 

 Aldrich. 



Blooming Grove Association.— Officers for 1886: H. 

 W. Nason, President, 74 Broadway ; Spencer M. Nash, Vice- 

 President, 23 West Thirty-third street; A. J. Post, Treasurer, 

 102 Broadway; N. S. Smith, Secretary, 95 Nassau street. 



Trajectory Test.— The shop number of the Bland riffc 

 tested at our rifle trajectory tests was 1426S. 



