July 29, 1886.] 



i?6ftEST AND STREAM. 



the untrammckd woodland and its many-natured peoples 

 is of itself most lovable. 



And now let tt^ journey out and upward to the limits 

 of the cultiTiited land, let us thread om- way throuRh the 

 helt Of yduug fir plantation which divides the fields from 

 the moorland, and perhaps we may in our jom-ney put a 

 fox on the move; and send liim trotting off through 

 the thick sedge grass, furze, hcathei- and shamWes, which 

 here thickly ch.ithe th(- ground and hide the uimhle rab- 

 bits as they go scampering away, Imt for the most part 

 unseen. (Jorae to the inoor. we shtill find a large, undu- 

 lating sweep of peaty land. Iieatlu?r-clad throughout, 

 only here and there is the darker green and tlie bright 

 yellow of the gorse visible. Thick sedge grasses, chwely 

 growing and crinkly to the tread, short, eloB(_>-grin\ uig 

 heaths, mosses and many minute but distinctly beautiful 

 little moorland wild flowers, occasional patches of spret 

 and rush provide the verdure which decks this bleak and 

 weather-sweiJt expanse. But still it is beautiful, as you 

 will see, whether in your morning, noon or evening vi.sits 

 to it. Not much apparent life about it now, but if you 

 walk across and reach up to that rising gi-ound, which 

 forms the top of the moor, you will scind a few black 

 game whirring across in their heavy, noisy fashion of 

 flight. Or you may put up a moorland harCj some sturdy, 

 well-conditioned one tiiat has run for his life before the 

 hounds and is ready to do it again. 



But it is in autumn time and in winter, if it be mild, 

 that the moor has its merriest time, for then the moor- 

 fowl "come in," as we call it. Plover, snipe, and perhaps 

 ai duck or two in the bog which fills the valley, will put 

 in their appearance on this unpreserved land and favor 

 it as they will none over which the keeper may liold sway. 

 Moorfowl are the "Heathen Chinee" of birds of sport. 

 Their Avays are to the furthest extent peculiar. Uncer- 

 tainty is iheir ruling feature; they are eccentric in their 

 habits as they are peculiar in their flight, and as wary as 

 they are eccentric and peculiar. But "still year after year 

 they return to the moor, and year after year they afford 

 to many sport and healtloful exercise in their pursuit. 

 We could iU spare our %vildf owl, and must respect them 

 because they are not amenable to the persuasions of the 

 preserver and yet do patronize our moorlands. 



And here \ve have reached the boundary of our land. 

 We have seen how a small head of game manages to just 

 maintain itself against the attack of vermin imiumerable; 

 how, despite the non-preservation of the game, a few 

 pheasants, a sprinkling of partridges, a modicum of ral> 

 bits and an occasional hare or two will still eke out a pre- 

 carious existence upon the farm lands; and how the 

 moorfowl and the black game ui ones and twos will find 

 a congenial haunt upon the unwatered woodland adjacent, 

 while over the whole land the rabbits thrive and multiply. 

 Sometimes an estate like this will lie idle for a year or 

 two, both as a farm and as a preserve. The fields uncul- 

 tivated will throw up a luxmiant crop of weeds, the grass 

 lands produce a rank and fulsome pastiu'age, the hedge 

 acquire an irregular, imkempt appearance, the gateways 

 fall abroad from sheer ruin. Then has the non-preserved 

 estate a truly woebegone aspect and but poor chance of 

 maintaining 'the small head of game upon it. Poachers 

 from the village hard by will have a free run of the place 

 and hy then persevering pot-hnnting destroy every pheas- 

 ,;a,nt and {jartridge and hare upon the estate, leaving but 

 the conies as prey for the numberless vermin, f m-red and 

 otherwise, which will soon accumulate and ravage tins 

 mom-nful waste. 



I have in the foregoing tried to pictm'e to you a typical 

 Enghsh estate as it would be when left to deteriorate from 

 being a well-worked preserve to a mere farm, perhaps not 

 even that. I have sought to show what sort of a basis one 

 would have to work on if seeking to institvute or reinstate 

 a game preserve here. Of com'se there are many places 

 which would exhibit but a few details of these I have set 

 down. That, however, is inconsequent. You may take 

 it that such as I have endeavored is typical, and that is, I 

 assume, what Ave want. With this before us, we can go 

 into the practical portion of the matter and learn of the 

 habits and haunts of the birds and animals to be preserved, 

 fostered and increased; both those in the fields, in the 

 woods, and upon the moors; of the sport they afford, 

 of the vej min wliicli prey upon them, and of the men wha 

 would poach them. This is the scheme of a task I have 

 set mj'self , and it is to the due fulfillment of that task that 

 I hope from time to time to address myself in these 

 columns. Moorsian. 



JJJTGLAND. 



[to be continued in issue of AUG. 12.] 



ABOLISH SPRING SHOOTING. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



In your last issue I notice under the head of "Spring- 

 Snipe Shooting," a letter from my friend, Hon. Robert B. 

 Roosevelt, who seems to be so much occupied with his 

 new novel that he has failed to look at the Laws of 1885 

 Chap. 485 — when he says it is provided that snipe cannot 

 be shot on Long Island before the 15th of July. This law 

 really makes the close season end Julj^ 10, and was discussed 

 by the New York Association for' the Preservation of 

 Game, of which he is the honored president, was approved 

 by that association and by Mr. Roosevelt himself and be- 

 came a law by the earnest efforts of that society. 



A large number of our bay birds, if not disturbed in the 

 spring, will nest on our shores, and it was thought best to 

 protect these birds by closing the season until July 10. 



I am sorry to say I have no shootuig box in New Jersey 

 to which to invite Mr. Roosevelt, if I had I should ask 

 him to come and help me to protect the shore birds there 

 by allowing them to mate and breed in the spring unmo- 

 lested. 



I am sure Mr. Roosevelt is too good a sportsman and 

 friend of our game and fish, to allow himself even thought- 

 lessly to give one argument to the many pot-hunters who 

 are now trying to do away with the law in question and 

 all laws that help preserve for the many our birds and 

 fish. Alfred Wagstaff. 



New York. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



In his article on spring snipe shooting in Forest and 

 Stream, July 15, Mr. Roosevelt illustrates the point I 

 sought to make in a short communication some months 

 ago, viz., that State regulation is inadequate to prevent 

 ■spring shooting. Mr. Roosevelt makes a point on Senator 

 wagstaff for prohibiting shooting in New York bays when 

 the New Jersey gimner is allowed to kill all the snipe. 



The plaint of Mr; Roosevelt is evidently hnmbrdusly 

 aimed, but it hits the point. There is so ranch jealousy 

 over State lines and State rights in this country, that 

 notliing Ijnt national legislation will bo fit any avail in 

 stopping th.e spring slaughter of birds, and especially 

 those of a migratory character. 



Will those who affirm that there is no power in Con- 

 gress l,o regulate these matters, please give their authori- 

 ties or facts relied upon? The scope of legislation by 

 Congress has bef^n wonderfully enlarged in the last 

 quarter of a centm-j^j and if there is no power to regulate 

 this matter of vital importaiice to the sportsmen of the 

 next if not the present generation, it is time such power 

 were being conferred, Jap. 



Mew Axbany, Ind., July 17, 1888. 



FOXES AND FOXHOUNDS. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



It is not an uncommon occuiTence here in Northwestern 

 Vermont for our hounds to catch a fox; and I think that 

 our foxes are as long-legged as any of tlieij* \^aTiety. The 

 veteran fox hunter of this section, E. W. (reer, Esq., 

 Slieldon, VL., some years ago owned a hound a cross 

 between the otter hound and English foxhound, that in 

 his younger days ^\-ould even on "dry leaves in the fall 

 catch nearly every fox started ^sdtliin tA^ enty mmutes or 

 half hom-'s run unless tlie fox escaped by holing in the 

 rocks or sandbanks. This hound. Old Hunter, had a 

 most acute nose, and was seldom bothered by the fox 

 taldng to naked ledges or dry ploughed fields in freezing 

 weather. Old Hunter lived to the ripe age of thirteen; 

 after lie was eight years old he began to run slower, and 

 then an old fox would sometimes bother him for a time 

 by taking to the glare ice in a cold windy day. 



Our foxes here'seldom play around when started, but 

 lead off out of the town and it is rarely that a slow dog- 

 will follow them longer than twelve or fomteen hom-s at 

 a time; and a fast dog, if the running is fair, will catch 

 or earth his game within a few hours run, and if the run- 

 ning is bad, such as a light snow crust, they will use 

 themselves up within six or eight hoiu*s. The surface of 

 the country about Sheldon and Fairfield, Vt., is of a 

 broken character, steep ledges and high hills faMy weU 

 wooded, just tlie place to try both a dog's and a fox's 

 mettle and staying power. ' Parker Leach. 



HiGHGATE, vt., July 17. 



Editor Forest and Stream,: " 



Thanks to Mr. R. E. Eoliinson for his "Notes Concerning 

 an Outlaw" in last week a issue. He has seen fox liunting 

 as a genuine lover of the sport always sees it. As for Mr. 

 Steck's experience, I want none of it. He tells how after a 

 two hours run the fox, at considerable labor, was dug out 

 and killed. Now he tells of the exquisite pleasure of 

 lugging home a gun on one shoulder and the mutilated 

 remains of the fox on the other. Well, when I go Inmt- 

 ing I always bring my gun home, and if I am lucky 

 enough to kill a fox I take his handsome jacket carefully off 

 and put it in my pocket and leave Ids mutilated remains 

 in some tree for the jay birds to feast on. Of com'se 

 there is not so much exquisite pleasure as may be had 

 with, iron bars and shovels digging oTJt and miudering, 

 not shooting, the fox. We have plenty of that Idnd of 

 fox Iiunters in tliese parts. I know of parties in adjoin- 

 ing terras that commence then- hunting by September 1 

 and hunt till the middle of April, killing tliree-iom-ths of 

 their foxes in September wlien tlie young ones are still 

 hanging round tlie old bm-row, and it is no more trouble 

 to kill them than rabbits. These are near- relatives of the 

 trout hog. 



But to go back to the dog question. No real fox hunter 

 wants a slow, pottermg dog; it takes them too long to get 

 a fox started, and though perhaps more foxes can be 

 killed with them, still all the sport of fox hunting is not 

 kiUing the fox; and there is little excitement in one of 

 those dogs which, as Mr. Steck says, analj^zc each step. 

 A dog tliat will rattle the ti-ack right along, ^vitllhead up, 

 suits me, and the same dog that would never catch an old 

 fox here would, if taken to Virginia %\dth a dozen more of 

 the same kind, catch liis fox as well as their dogs do. I 

 have tried them from all parts of the country, and I know 

 we have as good breeds of foxhounds as any. 



"Hotmding," of Pine View, has just sent me what he 

 calls a choice pup, and says if he equals his sire and dam 

 he will clean up anything in Massachusetts. 1 shall give 

 him a good chance, and when he does it will let it be 

 known through the Forest and Stream. 



H. C. Newell. 



AsHsniiNHAM, Mass^ 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



I have been much interested in reading the articles 

 about fox hunting that have recently appeared in Forest 

 AND Stream. For more than half -a century I have spent 

 most of the time each winter in folio wing the sly varmints 

 with dog and gun among the hUls of Ncav England. I 

 have not been so very successful in taking pelts, but then 

 I have had more real fim than I fairly knew how to man- 

 age, although I would not s^vap cme iota of it for the 

 handsomest skin that ever esca])ed me. 



There appears to be some misunderstanding as to how 

 long and how far foxes and dogs can run. Now, there are 

 dogs and dogs and the same may be said of foxes — per- 

 haps more so. When you have the right kind of day and 

 get the right dog after one of these "more so" foxes^ look 

 out for a long road, quick time, and lots of fun if you are 

 smart enough to keep in the hunt. I have known scores 

 of dogs that would stay with their fox from "early morn 

 to deAvy eve," and on manj^ occasions 1 have witnessed 

 runs of more than tAveiity-four hours dtu-ation. My old 

 Loud (alas! he has long been dead) was a wonderful 

 stayer. I well remember his first long race when he was 

 scarcely more than a pupjjy. The groimd for several 

 days had been covered with an inch or two of solid ice. 

 Finally, the longed-for snow came to the depth of several 

 inches; and at daylight the next morning Loud and I were 

 on a fresh track, and in fifteen minutes Loud jumped his 

 fox and was "arter" liim in fuh cry. Although they 

 went down wind to the south and were" soon out of hear- 

 ing, 1 followed the back track, thinking that the fox 

 belonged on a range of hills about four miles to the north, 

 and that he would soon make for them. Arriving on the 

 groimd, I selected a likely looking stand, and had iiot long- 

 to wait before I heard ' Loud screaming about a mile to 

 the east; and a few minutes later I heard two other 

 dogs that had joined him. As they were going straighc 



horth I also mbvfed in that direction to the top of a hill 

 about a mile dista,nt. When I arrived tliere I could just 

 hear the dogs in the distance still going north. I then 

 made for the roa,d, a, short <listanc<;' a.wa.y, where I was 

 lucky in finding a, friend in his cutt<:'r going my way. 

 Jum]:iirjg iu we were soon rattling along at a, fine rate. 

 With occasional halts upon tlie hilltops to listen for the 

 dogs, we kept on until nearly noon, wlien we reached niy 

 friend's destination, twenty-three nii]es from home, with 

 the dogs gone out of heariiig still nortli. iVccepting an 

 invit;ition_ to tlinner, 1 Avas about to start in the direction 

 the dogs lia.d taJicn Avhen a man came along and told me 

 that the fox was playing on Buck's hill, which was a 

 good six miles away, and that if I would wait five min- 

 utes hi' Aroiild carry irie I'iglU; there. Thankfully accept' 

 ing his offer we Avere soon under Ava.y, and in little more 

 than a half hour Avere at tlie hill, wliert^ Ave coidd hear 

 the dogs in full cry. The \yM-h had ineroasod to aljout a 

 dozen, and as each one a])peared to be trying to ouiwoice 

 the others, the music Avas indeed glorious. Evitlently 

 tills was the home of the fox, as he had been playing here 

 for some tinn;. Leaving my companion 1 made for the 

 top of the hill, Avhere 1 arrived just in time to see the dogs 

 cross an opening below me, and Avas mucli ]:leased to see 

 my puppy well up with the foremost. 1 K^mained at my 

 stand until after sundown listening to the dogs, and then 

 I went to a house near by and made arrangements for 

 passing the night. After supper I went out and feasted 

 my fill of the glorious music until ]:iast midnight. 



In the moi-ning I Avas up at daybreak and hastily de- 

 voured a cold bite that had been set out for me the night 

 before, and ]Mitting the fragments in my ]iockets I again 

 Avent to the top of tlie hiU. "There Avas not nearly so mutdi 

 music in the air as there had been the preA'ious evening, 

 as all but Loud tuid tAvo otliers liad droi:)i3ed out, and all 

 of these ap^jeared to be used up, nevertheless they AA'ere 

 going at a fair pace and Icoejiing up the music fairly Avell. 

 I stuck to my post until nearly noon and then crossed to 

 a ridge a half mile south, over Avhicli the chase had led 

 several time. Just as I reached the top I spied the fox 

 coming nearly toward me with Loud not more than three 

 rods behind him. Both liad their tongues out and they 

 looked decidedly the Avorse for wear. Waiting until the 

 fox had got out of range with the dog 1 pointed the old 

 flint-lock well ahead and pulled the trigger, but the old 

 gun only flashed in the pan. This ttu'ued the fox, but 

 at about his second jimip he landed on a steep slojie 

 \\die_re the wind had blown off the suoav and he lost his 

 footing and slid and rolled down the slope. Loud saAv 

 him tumble and Avith renewed life he made a foAV prodig- 

 uous leaps and landed on the bare ice, and so much advan- 

 tage had lie in send off that he got there as soon as the 

 fox, and before he could gather, Loud closed his jaws on 

 his ribs and the long chase was over. 



A fcAv minutes later, Avliile I was picking my way doAvn, 

 one of the other dogs came up and strilving the ice pitch- 

 poled to tlie bottom." Although he appeai-cd to be greatly 

 astonished he gamely grabbed the fox and gave Idui a 

 shake or two and then lay doAvn beside Loud who had 

 curled himself up in the snow. Hoa\- long this dog had 

 run I had no means of knowing, but Loud had been going 

 more than thirty hours and undoubtedly had coA'ered 

 more than one hundred and fifty miles. Talie it all around 

 this was the stoutest and gamestrunthat IhaA^e ever seen, 

 but I remember seA-eral others that very nearly ajiproach 

 it, although none of them could boast so fine a finish. 



O. M. 



THE PRAIRIE CHICKENS. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



Now is the time to put in your valuable work to prevent 

 the slaughter by market hunters of prairie chickens. This 

 prevention AviU liaA^e to be done in a gTeat measure by 

 sportsmen and farmers in the various sections of the States 

 affording in great numbers this very pleasant game bu-d. 

 Please urge these men to drive out the market hunters in 

 every proper Avay, and thus allow a charming game bird 

 to remain AA-ith us "yet a little longer';' true sportsmen 

 Avill never exterminate any game. I intended to liaA'e 

 AAuitten an article on this subject, but have not had the 

 time, and you can do it so much better. I hope you Avill 

 get in a broadside quick and keep it up. A. 



Chicago, IU., July SO. 



Southwestern Kansas, July.-— This locahty is about 

 twenty-five miles south of the Arkansas River, in Hamil- 

 ton county, on the western border of the State. Less than 

 a year ago there Avas no one living in this region between 

 Bear Creek and the North Fork of the Cimarron; now 

 scores of shanties, houses and dugouts are seen, dotting 

 the imdulating prahie in every direction. Here the buf- 

 falo, wild horse, Avolf and antelope roamed in undistaurbed 

 security a year or so ago, and their bones lie bleaching in 

 the sun by the Avagon load. They have not wdioUy 

 deserted us yet, for only last Aviater a party of hunters 

 from Garden' City near here killed seven or eight buffaloes 

 out of a good-sized band. The buffaloes go through here 

 on their way to NeAA- Mexico from the north. Wild horses 

 haA-e left us altogether, I think. Antelope are fauly 

 plenty j^et, but not as they Avere last fall. In less than "a 

 day's drive then we counted seventy-five or eighty, and 

 were not hunting them, either. One can sometimes see 

 ten or fifteen at a time noAv, but it is more usual to see 

 from one to a half dozen. We settlers, having nothing 

 but salt meat to eat, are apt to look with longing upon the 

 fat, sleek bucks, and if hj any chance or strategy Ave 

 manage to get within rifle range, we will have fresh meat. 

 But on this almost level prairie that is a difficult matter 

 to accomplish. I discovered that they haA'-e a regular pass 

 near my east line, so one evening 1 took a spade and dug 

 a pit four feet deep. Hiding in this, I seldom fail to get 

 a shot when the wind is in the right quarter. There is a 

 hound in this neighborhood wliich kills antelojie just for 

 the pleasure he finds in it; that is, he is actuated by the 

 same spirit as a sheep-kUhng dog, and goes out hunting 

 alone. He attacks the young kids; Avhen the doe rushes 

 in on him, then he attacks and kills her. I saw the per- 

 formance last week. In the way of birds Ave have num- 

 bers of cmlcAv (almost impossible to get within range of 

 tliem), some ploA^er, and that's about all at this time of the 

 year. In the fall aa-c have teal and other small ducks in 

 the ponds, some geese on the river, and also flocks of 

 sandhill cranes and brant, Prahie chickens and quail have 

 not yet come so far out in the "Great American Desert," 

 — Al. Falfa. 



