Forest and Stream. 



A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 



Terms, $4 a Ysjab. 10 Cts. a Copy. ) 



Six Months, $2. f 



NEW YORK, OCTOBER 21, 1886. 



J VOL, XXVir.— No. 13. 



1 Nos. 39 & 40 Park Ro-w, New Yobk. 



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Forest and Stream Publishing' Co. 

 Nos. 39 AN© 40 Park Row. New York Citt. 



CONTENTS. 



Editoriai,. 



A Use for Falconry, 



The Season and the Game. 

 The Sportsman Toubist. 



Sam Level's Camps— ix. 

 Natural History. 



The Sport of Hawking, 



Ospreyor Eagle. 



Rattles and Fangs. 



An Exceptional Snake. 



Burrow of Striped Squirrel. 

 Game Bag and Gun. 



Newfoundland Caribou Hunt- 

 ing. 



Nessmuk's Poems. 

 Where are the Woodcock? 

 Hunting in the Rockies. 

 Goats, Swifts and Bears. 

 Southern California. 

 The Dismal Swamp. 

 Rochester Notes. 

 Georgia Game. 



Proposed Preserve in Canada. 

 Pennsylvania Notes. 

 Sea and Riyer Fishing. 

 The Nepigon. 

 Memories of Mastigouche. 

 Clearing the Susquehanna. 



CAJiIP-FiBE FlilCKEBINGS. 

 PiSHCUIjTUBE. 



The New York Commission. 

 The Kennel. 



English Judges Abroad. 



Western Field Trials Entries. 



Greenburgh Dog Show. 



The Irish Setter. 



Irish Setter Field Trials. 



Kennel Notes. 



Kennel Management. 

 Rifle and Trap Shooting. 



Range and Gallery. 



Newspaper Marksmen. 



The Trap. 

 Yachting. 



Resistance of Mayflower and 

 Galatea. 



Measurement Rules Abroad. 



The Scotch Challenger. 



Electrical Launches. 



Launch of the Alva. 



Cruise of the Coot.— xxvi. 

 Canoeing. 



A Cruise on the Wisconsin. 



Sagamore C. C. Regatta. 



Florida Hygiene— Diet. 

 Answers to Correspondents. 



THE SEASON AND THE GAME. 



THE very vridespread drought is entailing grievous 

 losses upon farmers, who see their wheat fields dry- 

 ing up and withering away. Lakes and streams are very 

 low. Stumps in Greenwood Lake which have been in- 

 visible for years stand out boldly enough now. Many 

 brooks have dried up, and fish are dying by myriads. 

 October gunners report that the woodcock covers are dry; 

 many famous haunts, usually wet at this time of the year, 

 are parched and cracked, and barren of birds. Many 

 woodcock have been killed, but they have been found 

 only along the water courses and in the deepest covers. 

 They have been rarely found on the high grounds. The 

 same holds true of grouse; they are reported fairly plenty, 

 but wild and very much scattered. 



Shooters relate that where birds were plenty in August 

 and September, they fail to find them in any supply now. 

 Some shooters hold the theory that on account of the early 

 season the birds matm-ed sooner than is usual and scat- 

 tered earlier. Better shooting is anticipated next month, 

 when the birds shall have become settled in their winter 

 quarters. Possibly one reason why more grouse have not 

 been found is that, as they are notorious wanderers at this 

 season of the year, because of the extreme dryness of 

 the ground, scent has not lain well and the dogs have 

 been unable to f oUow their trail. 



One novelty of the season has been fair shore bird shoot- 

 ing in haunts where for several years past disappoint, 

 ment has rewarded a day of hard work. The advantages 

 of a general and absolute cessation of spring shooting are 

 gradually dawning upon the minds of sportsmen, and a 

 sentiment is making in favor of the abolition of all shoot- 

 ing in breeding season. The men hardest to convince of 

 the wisdom of permitting the birds to go unmolested on 

 their way to northern nesting grounds are many of them 

 to be found among the oldest gunners, who, just because 

 they have always enjoyed fuU license to shoot in the 

 spring, have come to regard any other order of things as 

 a direct interference with their long-established personal 

 rights and privileges. It is a subject of sincere regret 

 that these shooters, favored beyond their younger breth- 



ren, should not all come to the conclusion that, having 

 had a fair share of the fun with gtm and shore birds, 

 they should be the first and most willing advocates of a 

 new order of things, 



A USE FOR FALCONRlt. 



SOME attempts have been made in England and on the 

 Continent to revive the antiquated sport of falconry, 

 the great hunting amusement of the lords and ladies gay 

 of the Middle Ages; but the number of those engaged in 

 the sport is meagre and does not appear to increase very 

 rapidly. In America the art of hunting birds and small 

 game with trained hawks is practically unknown; it is 

 perhaps foreign to the genius of our institutions, or it may 

 be there has been no opportunity to make anything out 

 of it. If, however, it can be shown that falconry would 

 be a profitable form of sport, it might be introduced into 

 the United States; and there is some likehhood that we 

 may soon see just such a curious phase of the development 

 of civilization. This at least has been suggested by Dr. C. 

 H. Merriam, the Government ornithologist of Washing- 

 ton. 



Under the direction of Dr. Merriam the Department of 



Agriculture has been making a series of investigations 

 into the food habits of various species of birds, to deter- 

 mine their economic value or harmfulness. Some of the 

 conclusions drawn from data already collected have been 

 given to the press. The English sparrow appears to de- 

 serve all the ill that can be said of him; Dr. Merriam is 

 reported to have placed the bird at the head of the list of 

 feathered pests which threaten destruction to vahiable 

 branches of industry. The present rate of increase of the 

 sparrows is enormous; the new country invaded by them 

 each year is estimated at more than 180,000 square miles. 



Another bird to which the Bureau of Economic Oi'nithol- 

 ogy has given much attention is the bobolink of the North 

 or rice bird of the South. In the North this bird is insec- 

 tivorous, and because of its services to agriculturists, is 

 very properly protected from destruction. But when the 

 bobolink puts on his traveling suit and goes to a warmer 

 clime, he reaches the Southern rice fields just at the time 

 when the rice is in its milk stage and a most inviting food 

 for small birds. The rice birds tarry some three weeks, 

 in myriads upon myriads, and their havoc is stated to be 

 enormous. Their annual destruction of rice is estimated 

 to be in value between $3,000,000 and |4,000,000. Many 

 devices are employed to keep them off or drive them off 

 from the fields. Men and boys with guns and other noise- 

 producing instruments are employed, and American in- 

 genuity has been exhausted in the invention and devis- 

 ing of multitudinous forms of scarecrows; but in spite 

 of the hubbub and shot and effigies, the birds 

 devour the rice. Dr. Merriam has been on the ground 

 investigating the situation for himself, and he is reported 

 to have suggested as a solution of the difficulty the em- 

 ployment of trained hawks. According to the press 

 reports he "caused a number of stuffed hawks with wings 

 outspread to be suspended by strings from tall poles, so 

 as to sway with the breeze over the fields. This device 

 proved a safeguard for only two or three days, by which 

 time the bobolinks had mastered the trick, and thereafter 

 they treated the dummies with contempt. However, one 

 day while the effigies were still swinging, and after the 

 robbers had again settled down to their work, Dr, Mer- 

 riam noticed a single live hawk high up, sailing over the 

 flats. The bobolinks rose in great clouds and remained in 

 the air until the peril was passed, although the hawk 

 apparently paid no attention to them. Dr. Merriam 

 thinks that a single hawk trained as were the falcons 

 with which the sportsmen of the Middle Ages amused 

 themselves would be an effective protection to a rice field 

 of 200 acres. It is probable that an experiment in this 

 direction will be tried if a person of sufficient experience 

 in the training of birds can be found to imdertake it." 



Here, then, is a new field for sport, enterprise and 

 profit. There are hawks enough in the country to pro- 

 tect the fields, if hawks will do it; and by following the 

 very clear and explicit directions for their training, to be 

 given in the Forest and Stream, any person of average 

 ability who has a taste for the work and an inexhaustible 

 stock of patience may become an expert falconer. The 

 first of these papers is given to-day, and the others will 

 follow. 



We commend this scheme of protective falconry to some 

 of the epicurean philanthropists, who are so concerned 

 for the Southern rice planter, that out of pure love for 



their fellow man they consume reed birds on toast in 

 Northern restaurants, and protest vigorously when the 

 law of the land happens to interfere with their gustatory 

 deeds of benevolence. 



The Maine Border Bandits. — As time goes by the 

 several classes of those who pursue game and fish are 

 becoming better defined, and the public is given superior 

 oppoi-tunities to judge of the character and deserts of the 

 number who obey the statutes and hunt or fish only in 

 season, and those who attempt to evade aU law and play 

 the pirate. One very significant incident was the descent 

 of a number of New Brunswick lawless characters upon 

 the fire-stricken town of Eastport, Me., last week. These 

 fellows came in true buccaneering style, ransacked ware- 

 houses and stores, and loading their plunder aboard made 

 off with it to their strongholds in Passamaquoddy. Now 

 these men are the same plunderers who in winter and 

 spring, when the crust serves, cross over the border into 

 the Maine woods and butcher yarded deer, smuggling the 

 carcasses and hides into Canada. They are, as a class, 

 piratical ruffians, a curse both to New Brunswick and 

 Maine. It is difficult for the game officials to reach them, 

 and their illicit hunting goes on year after year. It is 

 only when some such opportunity as that afforded by a 

 town in flames brings out their misdeeds into full pub- 

 licity, when their crimes are committed in the glare of 

 a burning seaport the world sees them in their true light; 

 the atrocious villainies they commit in the depths of the 

 forest are little known. 



In West Virginia deer hunters are not afraid to wet 

 their feet. The President went to Romney, West Vir- 

 ginia, on a deer hunting expedition last week, and had an 

 experience down there somewhat different from his Adi- 

 rondack hunting under the tutelage of Dr. Ward. The 

 last deer shot by the Cleveland party in the Adirondacks 

 was stated to have sunk to the bottom of the lake, and it 

 took the guides three hours to recover the carcass. In 

 the West Virginia incident there was no waiting for hired 

 men to fish up the prize. The deer took to water and was 

 followed by the hunters, Messrs. Bivins and Miller, the 

 latter, according to reports, "plunging through water up 

 to his shoulders." This last feat would be impossible any- 

 where outside of a newspaper report of a Presidential 

 deer hunt. Mr. Bivins, who was also plunging through 

 the water, shot at the deer and just missed Mr. Miller, 

 and then Bivins and Miller and the buck and a shotgun 

 and knife and reporter's fancy played their respective 

 parts, and the deer was brought ashore in triumph. 



Make it a Preserve.— At the recent meeting of the 

 Supervisors of Suffolk Co,, N, Y., at which it was pro- 

 posed to stop netting in the Great South Bay (see account 

 elsewhere), Mr. S, A, Titus, of Babylon, opposed the 

 scheme as one looking to turning the Great South Bay in- 

 to a g-reat fish preserve for the benefit of a few favored 

 visitors to the South Side. If instead of saying "for a few 

 favored visitors" Mr. Titus had said "for the benefit of 

 every man who lives about the Bay or visits it," w« 

 would agree with him. We have steadily maintained 

 that the value of the fish taken in nets in the bay was 

 but a trifle compared to what would be left among the 

 baymen by anglers if the fish were protected there. By 

 all means make it a preserve for the benefit of all, includ 

 ing Mr. Titus and the net fishermen who will get more 

 money out of it as a preserve than their nets now bring 

 them. 



The Field Trials of 1886 promise to be more numer- 

 ous and more largely attended than those of any previous 

 year. The entries published in our columns for the several 

 meetings show an unprecedented number of entries, and of 

 them a large proportion are of superior merit. The hand- 

 lers who have gone South with then- dogs report that 

 there will be some fine work when it comes to rtmning 

 the heats; and if their enthusiastic suggestions are to be 

 accepted as literally true, about one-half of aU the dogs 

 that run will deserve, if they do not receive, the first prize 

 in each stake. 



Nessmuk's Poems, — The forthcoming volume of poems 

 by "Nessmuk," to be issued by subscription, will contain 

 a portrait of the author. We repeat this week the blank 

 subscription form, which intending subscribers are re- 

 quested to kindly return promptly. 



