Dec. 9, 1886.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



88S 



A RASH JUDGMENT. 



JEditor Forest and Stream: 



In a recent issue a correspondent notes the failure o£ 

 an attempt to rear nift'ed gTOUse chicks hatched m an iu- 

 Gubator, He follows tliis with a declaration that it is 

 only another illustration of "the folly of attempting to 

 domesticate the ruffed grouse." If it were not for seem- 

 ing impohte, I should say his declaration illustrates the 

 f oUy of founding so sweeping a proposition on a single 

 experunent, especially when that experiment begins at 

 the wrong end. Old "hunters are common who, having 

 been familiar with the ruffed grouse aU their lives, declare 

 that the adult birds will not even Live in captivity. 



There ar'e some of us who believe the domestication of 

 the raffed grouse not only possible, but practicable; yet it 

 will not be accomplished tlu'ough the hatching of wild 

 eggs by an incubator. It will begin with the adult birds 

 winch will first be so far tamed as to mate, nest and incu- 

 bate in confinment, and chicks so hatched will have ten 

 olianccs for reaching maturity to one for those submitted 

 to the tender mercies of incubators and brooders. But 

 the undertaking will not be an easy one; fii-st, l)ecausethe 

 general opinion is that it is impossible, and, second, 

 because whoever makes any attempt of this character 

 finds himself utterly in the dark and obliged to depend 

 entirely upon that very expensive instructor, experience. 

 And if your correspondent is not already a long ways past 

 three score and ten, I hazard the opinion that he will yet 

 live to find himself in error. Jay Bebe, 



Toledo, O., Nov, ^7. 



FORESTRT IN CALIFORNIA.— The State Board of Forestry 

 of California has j)repared for presentation to the next 

 State Legislature a concurrent resolution which reads as 

 follows: "Whereas, the interests of California, like those 

 of all countries, necessitate the reservation of a certain 

 portion of land in forest for the best interests of agricul- 

 tm-e; and Whereas, the in-opox-tion of land in the greater 

 art of California in forest is already much less than is 

 eemed essential by scientific meii; and Whereas, the 

 land laws of the United States and of this State, applying 

 to forest lands, are unsuited to the honestly conducted 

 lumber trade, and fail totally to guard against waste or 

 destruction by fixe, and provide no protection for a future 

 lumber and fuel supph^, or for the preservation of the 

 water sheds of om- State; and Whereas, when these laws 

 * are good, the absence of adequate machinery for their 

 execution forms a bar to their utility, and thus fraud, 

 dishonesty and waste ai-e rife, and robbery of the timber 

 of the general govermnent and from the State school 

 lands, is common; and Whereas, these practices and 

 wrongs shordd cease; therefore, be it Resolved, by the 

 Senate and Assembly of California, that the Senators and 

 Reisresentatives of this State, in the Federal CongTcss, are 

 hereby requested to use their utmost endeavors to im- 

 prove' the present land laws applying to timber lands, and 

 especially to provide for an immediate withdrawal of all 

 government timber lands in Galiiomia from sale, until a 

 definite stuwey shall have ascertained what portion of 

 such lands should be reserved to secure a permanent and 

 continuous supply of timber and fuel for om- citizens, and 

 to protect the agriculture of the State from injury and 

 destruction by flood and drought." 



"Bird Notes from Long Island."— Under this title Mr. 

 William Dutcher has published in the October Auk a 

 paper of exceptional interest on the rarer birds of Long 

 Island. Ml-. Dutcher has made Long Island Ms special 

 field of study, and this field, although so often worked 

 over by others, has yielded him very important results. 

 He adds to the Long Island list of birds Megalestris skua, 

 its most southern resort; Sterna fuUginosa, Vanellusvan- 

 ellus, first record for the American continent south of the 

 parallel of 60', and Turdus alicice bicknelli. Besides these 

 interesting occurrences there are noted the occurrence of 

 such rare birds as the harlequin duck, the corncrake, the 

 three species of phalaxope, the oyster catcher, black vul- 

 ture, summer tanager and Carolina wren. There are also 

 a number of notes on the breeduig of species not before 

 known to summer on Long Island. ISIr. Dutcher is to be 

 congratulated on the interesting material which he has 

 presented to ornithologists. 



"Weapons in Game."— Editor Forest and Stream: I 

 am glad to be able to give some information to j'our cor- 

 respondent "Sancho," who writes under the above head- 

 ing to Forest and Stream for Nov. 25. The ivory 

 arrowhead, which he describes as being found in the 

 breast of the wild goose, is undoubtedly one of those made 

 by the Eskimos of northwestern Alaska, such as we 

 have some hundred or so of in the Museum. The natives 

 in the neighborhood of Point Barrow make a slender 

 polygonal ivory arrowhead, about five inches long, for the 

 special purpose of shooting large fowl such as geese and 

 swans.— John Murdoch (U. S. National Museum, Wash- 

 ington, Nov. 39). 



A. O. U, AND THE AtTDTTBON. — American Ornithologists' 

 Union, Washington, D. C, Dec. 1. — Editor Forest and 

 Stream: I have the honor to inform you that at the 

 foui-th Congress of the American Ornithologists' Union, 

 held in Washingd;on, D. C, Nov. 16 to 18, 1886, it was 

 Resolved, That the thanks of the American Ornithologists' 

 Union be extended to the Forest and Stream Publishing 

 Company for valuable assistance rendered the Committee 

 on Protection of North American Birds, and for advancing 

 the interests of the Audubon Society.— C. Hart Mer- 

 RiABi, Sec. A. O. U. 



Connecticut.— Thomaston, Nov. 31,-1 add another to 

 the list of albino squirrels, ha\ang on the 11th inst, killed 

 one of the gray species, white, with a faint yellow tinge. 

 Ruffed grouse are quite plejitiful this fall iu this vicinity, 

 and more quail are reported than usual. Have seen but 

 three woodcock this year; shot two of them. Numerous 

 coons have been bagged about here by the aid of Pat 

 McKane's celebrated coon dog. Bangs, a oabmet size 

 photograph was recently taken of the dog with a coon on 

 each side of him, which he captm-ed the evening previous. 

 —Pointer. 



Otters in New England.— Center Harbor, N. H,, 

 Dec. 1. — Moses and James Thompson and myself captured 

 two fine otters last Monday. Both were males, weight 

 191bs, each, lenght of skin 5ft. 61n. They were hard sub- 

 jects to handle without gloves, as Jim can testify. — Geo. 

 H. Piper, 



Weather Wisdom.— Mon-istown, N. J., Dec. 3.— On 



Thanksgiving Day a very large wliite or "snow" owl was 

 shot in the subm-bs of tliis city. It was a female, 5ft. 

 from tip to tip, and having but few spots on the snowy 

 whiteness of its plumage. On the same day another was 

 killed at Denville, six^ miles above here, apparently a 

 male. In view of the mildness of the weather lately, 

 their appearance so far south created much surprise 

 among our local sportsmen and naturalists, and some of 

 the wise fellows held it to presage the near and sudden, 

 approach of winter in all the name implies. They were 

 right. Winter reached the latitude of Morristown Dec. 

 3.— F. B. D. B. 



Athens, Pa., Nov. 39.— A party of htmters while after 

 rabbits on Thanksgiving Day, shot a fine specimen of the 

 snowy owl, which measured 5ft. 6in. from tip to tij) and 

 was 35in. long. I mounted it for a gentleman of this 

 place and it attracts considerable attention, as it is the 

 first one ever known to have been killed around here.— 

 W. K. P. 



A Silver Fox.— Ferrisburgh, Vt., Nov, 211.— -Editor 

 Forest and Stream: In his day, fifty years ago, Uncle 

 Bill Williams of Charlotte was a great fox hunter, and in 

 one season shot sixty foxes. His sons inherited his love 

 of hunting, and in great measure his skill and luck, so 

 that it was always said of the Williauas "bOya" that they 

 were lucky himters. The old man's mantle seems to have 

 descended to his grandson. Will Williams of tliis town, 

 for on Oct. 30 he killed a veritable silver gray fox near 

 the "Cove" in Charlotte. This is a "streak o' luck" such 

 as never struck any other hunter in this town. The 

 other fox hunters here have had a poor season so far, 

 hardly one scoring more than two foxes, and they only 

 reds. Most of us would be glad of a cliimce at even one 

 of these, which are unusually scarce, and the few appear 

 to have the "biled down cunnin' " of all the generations 

 of their race. — Awahsoose. 



A Kansas Eagle.— Paola, Kan., Nov. 36.— Mi-. Albert 

 Lyder, of Six Mile, brought into town this morning an 

 immense eagle, measuring 7ft. Gin. across the wings. He 

 brought the huge bird to the ground from a distance of 

 80yds. Seeing him soaring about the poulti-y yard, 

 evidently with an eye on some fine Thanksgiving turkeys, 

 Mr. Lyder loaded up his faithful old fowling piece w-itli 

 about five charges of powder and a few buckshot. The 

 bird, on falling to the ground wounded, made an attack 

 upon his enemy, who had to defend himself with another 

 well directed shot. — R. H. C, 



"That reminds me." 



TWO civil engineers employed on the levee in Coahoma 

 county, Mississippi, are quartered at the residence of 

 Mr. Simpson, who is by the way a very hospitable gentle- 

 man. A few days ago as they came in from their work 

 they noticed fresh deer tracks in tlie vicinity of the house. 

 This stirred, up their ardor as sportsmen, and lia\'ing 

 heard much about the abundance of deer in that locality, 

 their inflamed imaginations were not much shocked at 

 the sight of a real live deer in a cotton patch a few yards 

 from the house. They hastened into the house ancl pro- 

 cm-ed a gun. Selman with the gtm approached the deer 

 and fired at short range with No. 6 shot. The deer 

 dropped instantly and appeared to be gasping his last 

 gasp. Kent rushed up and jumped on the deer, threw 

 his hat up into the sky and shouted. They called Wil- 

 liam, the colored man, to fetch a butcher knife. William 

 came, and after looking sadly at the deer for a few 

 moments remarked in sepulchral tones, "Dar now, you 

 done kill Mr. Eldridge pet deer. Dat deer been in dis 

 yard most ebery day. He come in de house if you had er 

 let him.'" 



Let us draw a veil for a few minutes while the two 

 engineers recover. The silence was broken by two simul- 

 taneous exclamations, "We've played it!" The funny 

 part was that Kent thought he had' killed the deer and 

 was disposed to take all the onus on himself. Selman 

 had some trouble to assure him that he (Selman) had 

 done the shooting. After some consultation they told 

 William to cut the deer's throat and take the carcass over 

 to Mr. Eldridge. But when William essayed to inaugu- 

 rate the second act, the deer got up and quietly proceeded 

 to browse around, and seemed as well as ever. The two 

 engineers retired to their room and indulged in a think- 

 ing spell, during which they overheard the followmg ob- 

 servations by William m the adjoining room: "Miss 

 Simpson, ain't I better put up dem turkeys? Dem wliite 

 gentlemans shoot mighty wild 'round 'dis yard. Dey 

 shoot dem tiu-keys sho if dey ain't in de hen 'ouse." 



Coahoma. 



198. 



A few days ago McLaws, the levee contractor, had an 

 Irishman plowing up the ground preparatory to build- 

 ing a levee. Barney plowed up a torpid snake which 

 he careftdly stepped over without any remarli. McLaws, 

 who was just behind, exclaimed: "Barney, didn't you see 

 that snake?" Barney stopped his plow and looked back: 

 "'An' is it a snake. Mister McLaws? I wasn't goin' to say 

 a worred; sure thin I'm jist afther having a two weeks' 

 drunk, and I didn't know if it was a snake or not." 



Coahoma, 



Memphis, Term, 



199. 



In your paper of Nov. 35, I enjoyed reading "First 

 Lessons." The rabbit stew at the evening meal "reminded 

 me" of the well-worn story of the preacher and his rabbit 

 stews. A preacher who, for the sixth time, had dined on 

 rabbits with the same family, said grace in the following 

 words; 



Rabbits hot and rabbits cold, 



Rabbits young and rabbits old; 



Rabbits tender and rabbits tough, 



We thank thee, O Lord, we have rabbits enough. 



G. 



OVED, Michigan^ 



Errata. — In "Canadian Hack Lakes," Nov. 25, for farm of Lind- 

 say read town of Lindsay; for wasting pan, roasting nan; for sus- 

 pect, I suspect; for thonco make a portage, and make a portage; 

 for greater part of an hour, quarter of an hour; for liy into in the 

 evening to roost, morning to roost; for when skiff was hauled oat, 

 where skiff was hauled out. In "Lake St. Francis," Dec. 3, to 

 paraphrase Hood should have been printed to paraphrase Moore, 



0nme md §utf. 



Acklress all communications to the Forest and Stream Pm&. Co. 



SUMMER WOODCOCK SHOOTING. 



NEW YORK, Nov. 2.— Editor Forest and Stream: 

 Have you within the last live years noticed the 

 yearly decrease of woodcock? Not only have they be- 

 come fewer and fewer every year, but they ha\'e actually 

 become scarce, and at this rate wit! nn the next decade 

 they will certainly be practically exterminated. The 

 cause of this is very simple and easily traced. 



Of aU the game birds, the woodcock is the most hunted. 

 During the summer and fall months it is hunted and shot 

 in our Northern, Eastern and W^estern States; dming the 

 \vintcr months it is killed in our Southern States; in fact 

 it is a wonder there are any left at all. It has really only 

 three breathing months, during the montlis of April. May 

 and June, and even then it is killed by the pot-hxmler. It 

 is a delicacy for which the marketmen and hotelkeepers 

 pay a good price, therefore it is sought for by the market 

 shooters. Let the sj)ortsmen think of this seriously, and 

 they will not wonder any more why woodcock have been 

 so scarce. There cannot be a totarstop put to this exter- 

 mination, it is really only a matter of time. Woodcock 

 will have to disappeai- before the progress of swamp 

 cultiu-e and civilization. But the evil day can be put olf 

 quite a lengtli of time through a coTuljination imd union of 

 sportsmen. Let all summer woodcocli shooting be stopped 

 north of Maryland and east of Ohio. Let there be no 

 woodcock shooting before the middle of September or the 

 first of October. 



I know it will be very hard for some of our best sports- 

 men to acquiesce in this, but we will have to come to it; 

 and the sooner the better. 



For the last twenty years I have not missed one single 

 opening day of woodcock shooting, either in New Jersey 

 or New York, and sometimes 1 have earned the war into 

 Pennsylvania. I have braved the heat and the mosquitoes, 

 and I have enjoyed it immensely: but after a good deal of 

 reasoning with myself, I liave been ouKged to come to the 

 conclusion that, altliough the la^v lias been on my side, 

 I have been doing wrong. There arc hundreds of good 

 sportsmen wlio have been doing as I have, and to these, 

 most pai'ticularly, I now appeal. 



Let all true sportsmen rouse themselves and use their 

 influence, no matter how small, against summer wood- 

 cock shooting. Let all game clubs memorialize their 

 legislatures against suxmner woodcock shooting; but by 

 all means let us pull together and unite. Let us be wary, 

 and let us not be beguiled by a few politicians or dema- 

 gogues, calling themselves sportsmen. They are either 

 pot-hunters themselves, or the representatives of market- 

 men or hotelkeepers. Do not let us compromise on a 

 half-way law, but let om- motto be, no mobe summer 

 woodcock shooting. Then withm a very lew years our 

 fall shooting will be something like what it used to be. 



A Meiveber of the Brooklyn Gun Club. 



NEW ENGLAND GAME. 



THE gunners in this section are not very well satisfied 

 with the late fall shooting. The drought was fol- 

 lowed by successive rains that have precluded outdoor 

 sports to any but the most hardy. The shore bird shoot- 

 mg has been almost a failure, and now the gunners are 

 waking slowly up to tJie necessity of aboHshing spring 

 shooting if they would have any birds in the fall to shoot. 

 The birds tliat have come into the bays and inlets of the 

 Massachusetts coast have never been' so shy as this fall; 

 so the gTinners say. There has been an abundance of 

 snow in many parts of New England for nearly half of 

 the month of November, but it could not be improved for 

 ti-ackmg in many places, because it has been followed by 

 crusts. Still there has been some partridge shooting in 

 Northern Maine, as wdtness the few boxes that have been, 

 smuggled through from Maine and New Hampshire. But 

 the game dealers of this city have got but very, very few 

 grouse this year. Indeed the sight of that bird in this 

 market has almost been rare this fall. The dealers say 

 that it is because they have been very scarce, but the 

 reports of Maine gunners, who formerly shot for this 

 market, prove to the contrary. They have killed their 

 fifties and hundreds of birds, hut the non-exportation law 

 has prevented the sending of their trophies to Boston. 



I have a few reports of deer killed since the snows, but 

 the universal verdict is that it has been very poor track- 

 ing owing to the crust, tho-agh the deer are very plenty 

 in some parts of Maine. In Dixfield, in that State, 

 several have been killed, some of them not far from the 

 town; so I am told, at least. Some of the real sportsmen 

 of Maine have also been into the woods on their annual 

 deer hunt. It gives everybody pleasure to hear that they 

 have been successful. They are ardent workers for the 

 protection of game in the close season, but in the legal 

 time they hunt for the genuine pleasure it gives, and 

 there is no game killed to go to waste. A deer a piece is 

 enough. I learn that one of them has missed his deer 

 this year — a magnificent buck, that he had spent days in 

 tracking, but at last brought within easy range, and that 

 too of buckshot. It was a dead miss, and thc'deer trotted 

 away as though nothing had happened. This was in the 

 vicinity of Lake Molechunkamunk, but the htmter won't 

 let me give his name, though it was in the midst of the 

 open season, and he had not killed his three. The dam- 

 age to his reputation as a dead shot at a deer would hurt 

 him. 



I saw two carcasses of venison in the market to-day, the 

 first I have seen this jeax that looked like Maine deer. 

 The cutting of the flesh' looked like that freshly done, and 

 those deer never came from the W^est. I asked the mar- 

 ketmen in charge where those deer were from, and one 

 or two of them referred me to the other one, but the other 

 one did not know. Ho would look at the invoice, but the 

 man with the invoice winked to the other man; and "'Be- 

 hanged if the invoice shows where they come from." 

 Singular, was it not? Tliey would have answered me 

 almost any other question coiTectly. They had just 

 miboxed a lot of mutton from Aroostook county, Maine, 

 and the venison lay just beside the mutton and the boxes. 

 The Boston marketmen won't give away the methods by 

 which game illegally reaches them, but they are watched; 

 let them rest assured of that. Special, 



