370 



FOREST AN£> STREAM. 



I June 3, 18§6- 



THE TRAJECTORY TEST. 



THE full report of the Forest and Stream's trajectory test of hunt- 

 ing rifles has been issued in pamphlet form, with the illustra- 

 tions and the tabular summary, making in all 96 pages. For sale at 

 this office, or sent post-paid. Price 50 cents. 



THE ELUSIVE BLUE GROUSE. 



I. — IN THE SHADOW OF SHASTA. 



I do not know whether the grouse of the Pacific slope 

 ohtains elsewhere or not. In such works on natural history 

 as I have at hand, I do not find it described at all accurately, 

 the prairie-chicken or pinnated grouse, in size and outline 

 resembling it most. The California grouse is only found in 

 the forests on mountains and the high hills, and I think 

 feeds mostly upon the buds of fir and pine trees. The male 

 bird has the sacculated appendage about its neck which it 

 inflates with air when "drumming" — I should say grunting 

 — and which is naked and orange-colored. Both male and 

 female have yellowish-red crescents over the eyes, and they 

 are of a brownish blue in color flecked slightly with white 

 on breast and tail. 



They are a fine table bird, and it is fun to shoot them. I 

 mean by that, it is fun to shoot them after you see them. 

 Of course one must see any game before he shoots, but it is 

 harder to find a blue grouse when you know where he is, 

 and it is more difficult to see him after you find him, than it 

 is to shoot him, cook him and eat him. For instance it is 

 this way: You want a grouse, and you hear him grunting 

 away in a biff tree just over there. You take your gun and 

 step over. After you reach the tree you find you arc mis- 

 taken in his location. He is grunting at frequent intervals, 

 and you listen a little more carefully, and then you find that 

 he is in a tree up half way on the hillside. After climbing 

 to the tree which you have carefully marked, you hear him 

 and get ready to shoot. He grunts again, and you are sur- 

 prised to find that he is further up the hill, and you rest 

 a while. Then you re-locate him and this time you get it. 

 He is in a lone tree on the comb of the ridge. You climb 

 leisurely as the hill is steep and there is no hurry. You 

 reach the comb of the ridge and the tree, and find yourself on 

 a small bench of the mountain, with timbered ridges all 

 around. You listen and scan the tree from its lower branches 

 upward, but you can't see him, so you refrain from shooting 

 him for a moment. You look toward camp and see it a full 

 half mile away, and wonder that you could have heard the 

 dull grunting of the grouse so far. While you look you hear 

 him again. You listen twice, and then you swear, if you 

 want to. He is grunting away, and he is down about where 

 you come from, that is, he must be. Then you hear another 

 and then another, and they are above, further up the hill — 

 or at least they may be, and you hear others in all directions 

 in general, and no direction in particular, and then you be- 

 gin to think you are drunk— if it is at all possible that you 

 may be so. 



But you want a grouse, and the woods are full of them, 

 and you listen, and listen, until you have certainly located 

 one that drums the loudest. He is in a big fir 200 yards to 

 the left, and you start for him, when a small twig drops 

 from the tree under which you have been standing, and look- 

 ing up you seem to see something. As you look you see the 

 head and neck of a small bird, apparently, away up the tree 

 100 feet from the ground, the neck grows larger and a dull 

 heavy grunt booms directly down the trunk. You strain 

 your eyes but you can see nothing distinctly, hut you fire at 

 the locality with your load of No. 4. Then there is a com- 

 motion above, a flutter of wings, a shower of twigs that 

 rattle down the tree, a swish and thud and you have him ! 

 You are surprised somewhat, and think of firing up the tree 

 in hopes of doing it again. You know now how to do it, 

 and at once make for others and locate a great many which 

 are not there, and find about a dozen which you never see, 

 finally giving up the sport with a stiff neck and tired legs. 



Grouse are still drumming all around, but you start for 

 camp. Suddenly as you stride carelessly along, a grouse 

 whirs away from your feet, and watching it, as it is out of 

 range before you can shoot, you mark it down or rather up 

 in a tall tree, and you see an apparent knot near a limb. 

 You are wise and fire straight and true, and await the com- 

 motion as before. But nothing commotes, and on closer 

 investigation you observe that the knot is not the grouse, 

 But he did not leave the tree and you see him half an hour 

 later, just as you begin to despair, higher up than where he 

 alighted and close to the main trunk. He is sitting flat on a 

 limb and his head alone discloses his presence. You blaze 

 away, and this time he comes, and is a beauty. They are 

 both cocks, and the brace will go six pounds. Going to 

 camp you flush a couple of hens, and find a nest with an egg 

 or two as they have begun to lay. The nests are merely 

 bare spote on the ground selected near a stump or a rock. 



But as I say it is fun to shoot grouse when you see them. 

 With a good dog the hens could be readily found and shot, 

 but the grunters are the birds to kill, and if they ever come 

 out of the trees, I have not found it out in my experience. 

 In the fall, when in coveys, they take to trees as soon as 

 flushed and scatter, but the whole flock may then be shot 

 (as they rarely fly a second time when disturbed) — if you can 

 see them. Esatj. 



Shasta, California. 



WILDFOWL OF WESTERN WATERS. 



(Concluded from page 348.) 



OF the ducks to be found in the West the mallard (Anas 

 boscas), sometimes called greeuhead, is our staple, all 

 things considered. Some other kinds are more numerous, 

 while two other species bring a better price in market, but 

 this latter arises largely from prejudice, as a plump, fat 

 mallard, especially if corn fed, is as fine eating as any duck 

 that flies. 



In the fall of the year mallards are generally found about 

 the wild rice marshes or at their roosting ponds, and vast 

 numbers are killed before cold weather closes the waters and 

 drives them southward. But it is in the spring when the 

 bottom lands are overflowed, and the water is a foot or two 

 deep in large tracts of . pin-oaks, soft maples and other kinds 

 of timber, that the best shooting is to be had, and the num- 

 bers killed at such times are almost past belief. 



One man, during the mild winter of 1877-8, killed over 

 three thousand of this species, the water being up in the 

 heavy limber nearly all that season. As a matter of curios- 

 ity I wish to mention that this man once killed a mallard, 



which was to all appearances a female in every respect ex- 

 cept the head, which was green like a drake's, thus furnish- 

 ing a parallel to the bearded woman or an antlered doe. 



The Black Maliard (Anas obscura), formerly known as 

 the black or dusky duck, is not plenty here, but some sea- 

 sons there is a notable increase in the numbers, although 

 compared with other kinds they can never be regarded "as 

 numerous. They are known only as black mallards in the 

 West, under the mistaken impression that they are only in- 

 stances of melanism in Anas boscas. Their haunts and habits 

 with us are very similar to the latter, but they are an entirely 

 different species. I am glad, however, that the authorities 

 have accepted the Western name, as it is more distinctive than 

 black duck, which might apply to any species of dark plum- 

 age. 



Gadwalls (Ghaulelasmus sireperus), locally known as gray 

 duck, cannot be called plenty, yet when shooting other va- 

 rieties of shoal water ducks which inhabit rather open water, 

 the bag will usually show a fair sprinkling of them. 



Pintails (Daflla acuta), known universally in the West as 

 sprigtails, sometimes sharptails, and rarely as water-pheasants. 

 These birds for some unknown reason are usually scarcer in 

 the fall, both relatively and absolutely, than most other 

 species, although a good many are killed. But in the spring 

 when the country is alive with countless millions of wildfowl 

 of every kind known to the West, I think I am safe in saying 

 that pintails outnumber by far any other one species. Im- 

 mense quantities are killed, and were it not for the fact 

 that the market-hunters do not care particularly to pursue 

 them owing to the low price, the numbers shot wont be 

 much greater. The pintail crosses rather frequently with 

 the mallard, producing a hybrid partaking of the character- 

 istics of both in about equal degree. This is the only hybrid 

 I know of whose existence is at all common in a state of 

 nature. There is occasionally a peculiar coloration of the 

 pintails which I have never seen mentioned in any work or 

 writing on ornithology. In this case the feathers of a drake 

 on the forepart of neck, breast and under the wings, instead 

 of being pure white, as it should be in the regulation 

 plumage, is a rather bright brick-dust red. I am satisfied 

 it is cot due to age, season or condition, neither is it anything 

 like the dull gray of the summer plumage. When the sun 

 shines fairly on "the breasts of a flock of these reddish sprigs 

 they present a very queer appearance. 



Baldpate (Mareca americana). — Generally known here as 

 widgeons. These ducks are somewhat more plenty than 

 gadwalls, and considerably more of them are killed, as they 

 decoy better and are apparently not so sharp-sighted and sus- 

 picious, still some other kinds are so much more numerous 

 that widgeons do not seem to constitute any considerable 

 portion of the masses. 



The Shoveller (Spatula clypeata) always called spoonbill 

 here, is fairly well represented at times, and seems to sell as 

 readily as other "small ducks," yet few care to make any 

 special effort to get them, and they are looked on with a 

 good deal of contempt. 



Blue- Winged Teal (Querquedula dticors) are at times 

 very plenty in the fall, especially in certain localities which 

 seem to have peculiar attractions for them, and as they pack 

 close together in large flocks and require such a light blow to 

 kill or disable them, very many are often killed at a single 

 discharge and large bags made. Both kinds of teal bring 

 the same price, though by the knowing ones this species is 

 regarded, fancifully I think, as superior on the table to the 



Green- Winged Teal (Neltion carolinensis), which, while 

 not so plentiful in the fall as the preceding, is more so in the 

 spring, but as they are usually in smaller flocks and are much 

 more tenacious of life, perhaps not so many are killed. 



The Cinnamon Teal (Querquedula cyaaoptera) I have 

 never seen and believe it never visits these parts, although 

 the appearance of one flock on the Illinois Bottom was re- 

 ported to me some years ago by a man who might possibly 

 have been mistaken, albeit he claims to have killed one. 



Wood Dock, Summer Duck (Aix sponsa) is the only 

 species which breeds in this immediate vicinity in any con- 

 siderable numbers. When they arrive in the spriug they are 

 almost always paired off, and commence nesting from the 

 latter part of March on through April. By the first of July 

 many broods can fly, and all are able to take wing by Aug. 

 15, when the open season commences. About the middle of 

 September the most of them have been killed off or gone 

 south, although some scattering ones are to be found until 

 quite heavy frosts set in. In the summer and fall they are 

 in small flocks, and rarely in large droves like most other 

 ducks. 



The Scaup Dtjck (Fulix marila) and Little Blackhead 

 (Fulix affinis) are both known as bluebills with us, and the 

 names under which they pass in the East, such as broad- 

 bills, blackheads and scaups would hardly be intelligible 

 here. Rarely they are called "blackjacks," but this name 

 is almost invariably reserved for the next species. Blue- 

 bills at times are remarkably abundant, especially in the 

 spring, and enormous numbers of them are killed, even by 

 the regular market-shooters, who do not hold them in as 

 much contempt as they do pintails and some others, though 

 the price is no better. They decoy so readily, fly so con- 

 tinuously, and their flight is so steady yet swift, that it is 

 hard for the hunter to resist the temptation, unless large 

 ducks are very plenty, and besides there are always chances 

 for canvasbacks and redheads when shooting bluebills. 



The Ring-billed Blackhead (Fulix collaris) would not 

 be recognized here under any other natneitban "blackjack.'' 

 When we wish to be facetious we call him "colored John." 

 Sometimes they are called "ringnecks" on account of the 

 chestnut collar. The remarks on bluebills will apply about 

 equally as well to this species, which perhaps is not quite so 

 much appreciated. 



There is a duck which formerly visited this section 

 in pretty fair numbers, but of recent years neither I 

 nor hunters to whom I have spoken about it have been able 

 to get a specimen. 1 can find no name for nor description of 

 it in any book on the subject, and the Smithsonian authori- 

 ties are not able to identity it from my description, although 

 professing their ability to do so if they could see a specimen. 

 The bird, evidently belongs to the scaup tribe, and I have 

 abundant reason to think that I cannot possibly be mistaken 

 about its former existence. To make my description per- 

 fectly clear, I will begin by stating the well-known fact that 

 the bluebills are very light colored on the back, nearly as 

 much so as the canvasback (I am confining my remarks to 

 the males in this description), while the ringneck (F. col- 

 laris) has the back a very dark brown, nearly black. Well, 

 mv great unknown has the size, shape and color of cvllarism 

 everything except the bill. My recollection is that the eyes 

 are not so bright a yellow either. Premising that I am a 

 very poor draughtsman, and that I draw from memory, I 

 submit the following crude outlines of the bills of the three 



species, representing them as if seen from above. The nos- 

 trils are not shown. 

 Fig. 1 is intended to represent he bluebills'3 bill, the 



whole being a light bluish lead color, except the nail which 

 is black. Fig. 2 belongs to the ringneck, in which the base 

 and tip are black, and the center bluish lead color, with two 

 narrow, pure white bands extending clear across, separating 

 black from lead color. It will be noticed that the bill is 

 nearly straight along the sides, not widening near as much 

 as the bluebill's. Fig. 3 gives a faint idea of the unnamed 

 duck. In this case the bill widens toward the tip, not quite 

 as much as the first, yet more than the ringneck's, but in- 

 stead of being pale blue in color it is black, except four little 

 ill-defined spots, which are bluish white, shading off into 

 the general black. Now that is as good a description as I 

 can give from memory. I have handled a good many, also 

 killed them myself, both male and female, both spring and 

 fall, so it is not a variation due to sex or season. The last 

 one I ever saw was one I shot in the spring ot 1876. Since 

 then, as before stated, I have failed to secure one for de- 

 termination, but a fiiend just returned from the Sangamon 

 reports a hunter who has noticed them later, so I hope to secure 

 one before long. It may possibly be a cross between marila 

 or affinis and collaris, which might account for the bill, but 

 then the plumage should resemble both species, which it 

 does not. So until I can secure a specimen and have it 

 identified the subject must remain a mystery. 



The Canvasback (JElhyia vallisneria) is the prince of 

 ducks. Some think we don't have genuine canvasbacks in 

 the West, but we do, and of just as fine flavor as any celery- 

 fed ones that ever paddled the waters of the Chesapeake. 

 They are seldom plenty in the fall, but in spring, especially 

 with high water after a hard winter, they are here in force. 

 Doubtless not so many as along the coast, but enough to 

 enable those who are fixed for the business and understand 

 it to make bags sometimes of over a hundred a day. It has 

 been reported to me of two hunters, living within fifteen 

 miles of here, taking two hundred and sixty in one day, 

 but one of them I know to be one of the best hunters on the 

 river. 



Redhead (JEthyia americana), occasionally called redneck. 

 Usually very plenty in spring and very many are killed, 

 especially by those shooting bluebills with which, and also 

 ringnecks, they frequently travel in the same flock. 



Barkow's Golden Eye (Clangula islandica). — Not at all 

 common. My hunting partner killed one in the spring of 

 1881 and I had it identified by Prof. S. F. Band, who stated 

 that it was a northern species, not often found so far south, 

 except in the higher Rocky Mountains where it breeds, but 

 that its presence in Illinois had once before been reported 

 from the Wabash River by Mr. Ridgway. 



American Golden Eye (Clangula glaucium americana).-- 

 Generally known here as the whistler, but often called big 

 ice duck, big river duck, big butterball, and sometimes big 

 shellduck, from their feeding on shellfish, etc. While not 

 plenty, yet seldom a season passes without more or less of 

 them making their appearance, but their feeding grounds 

 are generally different from those of the ducks pursued for 

 profit, and therefore they are only killed when they come in 

 the way. 



Butterball; Bdfelehead (Clangula albeola).—A\so vari- 

 ously known as little whistler, little ice duck, etc. This 

 beautiful little fowl is usually moderately plenty, but not a 

 great many are killed, for the same reason given for the 

 whistler. 



The Ruddy Dtjck (Erisniatura rubida), called in the East 

 "stifftail," "spinetail" and "rook," so far as my informa- 

 tion extends, is of such rare occurrence here as to have no 

 local name, nor indeed any name at all, though specimens 

 are sometimes secured. 



The three species of fish ducks (American sheldrake [Mer- 

 gus merganser america nils'], red-breasted sheldrake [Mm-gus 

 serrator] and hooded sheldrake [Lophodyies cucullatus]) all 

 visit this section, but are never pursued by the regular 

 hunters. ■ • - 



These are all the species of ducks and geese which, to my 

 certain knowledge, make their appearance along the Illinois 

 River. If any other of the sixteen species of North Ameri- 

 can ducks which I have left unnoticed ever stray in even 

 casually, I am ignorant of the fact. I have purposely 

 avoided all mention of the loons, cormorants, pelicans, 

 herons, etc. Junius P. Leach. 



Note.— Since the above was written I have discovered an- 

 other hunter who claims to have killed a cinnamon teal, so 

 that its occasional occurrence here may be considered as 

 proved. Very recently a hunter sent me a bird for identifi- 

 cation which he had shot on the Illinois River and which 

 proved to be a young male surf duck (Pelionetta perspicil- 

 lata). It certainly is a rara aris with us. J. P. L. 



Nepissing and Thout Lake.— W., of Cobourg, Ont,, 

 asks for more information about hunting and fishing at 

 Nipissing and Trout Lake. Partridges were not particularly 

 plenty, though we saw a number of broods; they were 

 almost as tame as chickens and quite different from the 

 wary bird of this vicinity. There are plenty of deer and 

 moose there. October is probably the best time for them, 

 though were it not against the law they could be easily found 

 in July by floating. The usual way of hunting deer there 

 in the fall is by running them to water with dogs. Still- 

 hunting is very little practiced till snow comes. R. B. Jes- 

 sup, North Bay, can give more information about the hunt- 

 ing than we can, as we were there in August. September 

 is a good time to go for lake trout and maskalonge; probably 

 the bass would not be biting as freely as iu August, but the 

 maskalonge fishing would be better, and the latter are to be 

 found of thirty pounds and upward. The lake trout are 

 in deep water till they go on the spawning beds about 

 October. Live bait, minnows, etc. are best, though they 

 are not very particular. — B. and H. 



