July 13, 1895.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



27 



appeasing hunger when our attention was attracted by a 

 slight noise to the right, and looking in that direction we 

 saw a pretty sight. Under the fence from the pasture a 

 bevy of quail were filing along, daintily threading their way 

 between weed stalks and scattered hazel bushes. Eight 

 or ten were in sight at intervals, and still they came. 

 Cautiously picking up my gun and taking quick aim, I 

 fired into the midst of them. The same instant there 

 was a whirring of wings as tbey rose, and my brother, 

 who would not shoot them on the ground, was ready, and 

 brought down one with each barrel in as neat a manner 

 as could be desired. The dog, which had for some time 

 been uneasily sniffing the air, probably having scented 

 the quail before we saw them, was now told to retrieve, 

 and brought in, one after another, five fine, plump quail, 

 three Jiaving fallen to my shot on the ground. I know it 

 was unsportsmanlike, but I was only a boy. 



We finished our interrupted lunch and going into the 

 pasture proceeded to hunt up some members of the scat- 

 tered flock. We found more quail, of which my brother 

 bagged several, and I missed as many — he let me shoot 

 alone— and our hunt was drawing to a close, as it was get- 

 ting late in the day. 



While we were walking along, reviewing the incidents 

 of the day, a partridge rose from a clump of berry bushes, 

 almost at our feet. So sudden and unexpected was his 

 appearance that I did not attempt to shoot. Not so with 

 my brother. His gun came instantly to shoulder, and as 

 he fired the bird shot up into the air, higher and higher, 

 when after a few convulsive flutters it fell to the ground, 

 dead. I learned then that a bird frequently towers in 

 that manner when shot in the head, as this one upon 

 examination proved to be. 



We reached home at night with a respectable bag of 

 game, three quail and two woodcock credited to me, and 

 well pleased with the result of our day's hunt. 



These are some of the incidents of an experience of 

 long ago, and as they come to my mind I write them 

 down so that other sportsmen may read and compare 

 them with their own experiences. W. 



TINAMOUS. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



Replying to the inquiry of "W. O. B." in your issue of 

 July 6, the re about fifty species of tinamous, ranging 

 from Mex< ►o the Argentine Republic. Probably his 

 description refers to some members of the genus 

 Crypturus, and while I cannot tell him where these birds 

 may be purchased — though I doubt if they can be pro- 

 cured in numbers outside the countries which they inhabit 

 — I would not advise him to attempt their introduction. 

 First, because it is doubtful if they would long survive the 

 change of climate. Second, because so far as my experi- 

 ence goes the birds of this genus inhabit the undergrowth 

 and take wing only as a last resort. Indeed, although I 

 have been for months in a country where tinamous were 

 common, I have rarely flushed them. Third, because 

 their flesh is dry and comparatively tasteless. 



Frank M. Chapman. 



American Museum of Natural History, July 8. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



There are various kinds of tinamous, one (Oalodromas 

 ei&gauS) as large as the ordinary mixed blood hen in the 

 United States, and another smaller — '-a little larger than 

 the quail and not as large as the pheasant." The latter 

 kind is found clear down to the islands of the Cape Horn 

 archipelago. While on a journey in the Cape Horn 

 region last summer, I saw three of them, a cock and two 

 hens, brought on board the steamer alive in a big wooden 

 cage. They looked very much like the mountain quail 

 of California. They had been trapped on Navarin Island, 

 the captain told me. They were exceedingly shy, hiding 

 behind a wisp of straw provided for the purpose when- 

 ever anyone approached the cage; but they ate wheat, 

 oats, grass seed, bi'ead crumbs, scraps of meat and table 

 refuse, and were brought eventually to Buenos Ayres in 

 excellent health and spirits. On the other hand, three 

 dozen that were taken on board a steamer at Buenos Ayres 

 bound for New York began to droop soon after we 

 entered the tropics. They ate a variety of grain with relish 

 at the start, but soon refused to eat more than a little of 

 anything. Fresh sand was kept on the bottom of their 

 cage — a huge wooden box — and ample shelter for hiding 

 was provided. The cage was under a good awning and 

 it had, moreover, a double top, light and ventilation 

 being provided for on the sides; but this was all to little 

 purpose. Only a half dozen or so survived the passage. 

 These were taken ashore on Staten Island by their owner 

 and I have not heard their subsequent fate. 



As a game bird for the pot both kinds of tinamous are 

 unsurpassed. As a bird under the dog's nose they would 

 probably please people accustomed to the preserved game 

 of English country places more than one accustomed to 

 the swift, well-sustained flight of North American birds. 

 They get up with a tremendous roar of the wings, but 

 they move slowly and are soon tired out. The usual way 

 of killing them on the pampas is to ride them down with 

 a pampa cayuse and kill them with a blow of the riding 

 whip. They are exceedingly sensitive. Natives told me 

 that the cowboys there very often surround a covey and 

 then charge on it with all the noise they can make, and 

 thus actually scare a half of the covey to death. They 

 say, too, that when a bird has become tired out it can 

 easily be captured alive. The moment it is taken in the 

 hand, however, it feigns death — gasps as one that has 

 received a fatal wound and then tumbles over with its 

 muscles all relaxed. But if then the captor should 

 release his hold on the bird it will recover its life and 

 energy in marvelous time and jump away with a flutter 

 that will entirely upset the unaccustomed spectator. 



Both of the tinamous are skulkers and are hard to put 

 ud. One may walk right through a flock of them even 

 oh the barren plains of Patagonia without seeing them 

 and without starting them awing. Bat should he chance 

 to catch the eye of one of the skulkers, away she goes 

 and. the rest are likely to jump into the air also. That 

 they should be so hard to put up is undoubtedly due to 

 the fact that their worst enemies are hawks. Foxes and 

 even the great desert panthers feed on them (the panthers 

 -run them down), but the peregrine falcon is feared more 

 than anything else. 



I never saw their eggs. W. H. Hudson, in his "Idle 

 Days in Patagonia" (a most interesting book for the nat- 

 uralist), says that the larger bird "lays a dozen eggs as 



arge ae thorn of a fowl, wit/h deep green polished ahelle," 



The smaller bird lays eggs of "a reddish purple or liver 

 color." Hudson also tells a most remarkable fact about 

 the tinamous. He says that the desert birds do not drink 

 — that they live without water. I do not doubt the state- 

 ment. I know they are found on the desert where there 

 is no fresh water at least within fifty miles. I wish some 

 of the bird lovers who know and who read Forest and 

 Stream would tell us if there are birds built in that fash- 

 ion in the United States (in the Colorado or the Mojave 

 desert, for instance), and add other facts about them if 

 any are found so. 



Should U W. 0, B." wish to import some of the tinamous 

 he will find it expensive, but just what it will cost I do 

 not know. Norton & Son, of Wall street, New York, run 

 a line of steamers direct to Buenos Ayres. They are 

 Americans and will do all they can to accommodate cus- 

 tomers. Very likely they can 'get the birds through their 

 agent at Buenos Ayres. If not, W. O. B. might write to 

 Mr. Edward L. Baker, American consul at Buenos Ayres, 

 for the address of a trustworthy dealer in live game. Mr. 

 Baker is one of the few consuls who will always answer a 

 courteous letter. John R. Spears. 



Northwood, N. Y. 



A Handy Knife Scabbard. 



"El Comancho," valued as a contributor to Forest and 

 Stream, is a staff artist on the Seattle, Wash., daily press, 

 and is as handy with the 

 pencil as the rifle. He 

 favors Forest and 

 Stream with a drawing 

 of a knife scabbard 

 which he says he has 

 found very desirable in 

 a rough riding country. 

 The sheath is of heavy 

 leather, riveted, with the 

 top split to let in the 

 knife guard. [Some 

 hunters do not like a 

 guard on the knife. J 

 The scabbard is suspend- 

 ed in the belt by a loop 

 which is let on well back 

 on the top of the scab- 

 bard, by means of a loose 

 rivet which acts as a 

 hinge, the scabbard easily 

 swinging back and for- 

 ward on this hinge. It 

 is claimed that this form 

 of scabbard is safer in 

 case of a fall from a 

 horse, or an entangle- 

 ment with brush or limbs 

 of trees. Any object 

 Btriking the scabbard 

 merely swings it back so 

 that it clears itself. "El 

 Comancho " further 

 makes his knife secure 

 by means of a lanyard 

 -£3^^ snapped to the handle, 

 the lanyard having a 

 loop which is passed 

 about the neck of the 

 hunter, so that if the 

 knife be jarred out of 

 its scabbard, the cord 

 prevents it being lost. A good knife scabbard is some- 

 thing hard to buy in the sporting goods trade, and most 

 of those offered are wrong in principle. "El Comancho's" 

 idea is good if one carries but one knife, Most big game 

 hunters would perhaps prefer the scabbard carrying in 

 addition a skinning knife and a steel, and in that form 

 the hinge idea would not be so desirable. Yet the terrors 

 of a scabbard with its handles sticking stiffly up are sur>h 

 as any hard-riding horseman hunter knows perfectly 

 well. E. Hough. 



Where Ducks Cloud the Sky. 



St. Louis, Mo., July 1. — Editor Forest and Stream: I 

 have read with much interest your article pertaining to 

 the gathering of wild duck eggs for commercial pur- 

 poses. The theory whenever mentioned never failed 

 to produce audible smiles. Did any of the theorists ever 

 try to find a wild duck's nest? Sad, but only too true, the 

 secret of decimated ranks lies more with those fortunate 

 enough to get where ducks use, and with the market 

 shooter in particular, who is on the ground all the time. 

 No, wild ducks are not all dead yet, not if we may judge 

 from the vast multitudes to be seen in the swamps of the 

 sunk lands of Missouri and Arkansas. 



In October of '94 a party of four from this city and four 

 from Cincinnati shot over 1,000 ducks in one week, and 

 from the hordes still seen it didn't look as if any were 

 missing. To the average amateur the piles of ducks 

 would have looked like three times the quantity, as nine- 

 tenths of them were choice mallards. 



Nor were these all the ducks shot in this quiet and cele- 

 brated spot that week. Five market hunters are in there 

 all the time, and in this particular week averaged from BO 

 to 140 ducks per day each. 



A netter was also at work, who made shipment of 20 

 barrels of mallards at one time. Again to the average 

 amateur and even the semi-professional this may sound 

 "fishy." If the steamboat receipts, which brought the 

 ducks to this market, will be proof they can be produced. 

 The netter made no more shipments, for the natives forced 

 him out of the country with Winchesters. 



In these days of plenty of sportsmen and as some say 

 "scarcity of game," it is truly a question, where will we 

 go? 



At any time after the middle of August to Sept. 20 or 30 

 it is an easy matter to get from 100 to 200 killing shots on 

 wood ducks at the evening flight. After that they have 

 moved on and the big ducks begin to arrive, 



There is plenty of game of all kinds in this State: deer, 

 ducks, geese, snipe, quail, turkeys, some chickens, squir- 

 rels and rabbits by the wagon load. Any of the counties 

 in the sunk lands of Missouri and Arkansas will afford 

 plenty of deer, duck, geese, turkey and squirrel shooting. 



But the sportsman must get into the locality where the 

 game uses. Plenty of game does not mean that it comes 

 to you. One oar the Campers. 



[And outsiders will please remember that Missouri h^a 



a Obiaese'waU non-resident sportsmen faw.] 



[Lumbermen as Sprinters. 



Hartford, Conn.— Editor Forest and Stream: In 

 Forest and Stream of last week I read a most interest- 

 ing communication entitled "Those Adirondack Deer." 

 In it Mr. Raymond S. Spears, its author, gives a most 

 graphic description of the heartless and wanton slaughter 

 of Adirondack deer, which in itself cannot fail to arouse 

 the sympathy of any humane man, but the indignation 

 evoked by Mr. Spears's realistic picture of the killing is 

 dissipated by the feeling of profound wonderment at the 

 supernatural fleetness and endurance of the lumbermen, 

 of whom he says, "The lumbermen are as children at 

 times. They chase the deer and a cruel death winds up 

 the sport. Then on they go again. And so deer after 

 deer is slain." Before reading Mr. Spears's truthful tale, 

 I had supposed that to catch a deer was a task for the 

 best of dogs or fleetest of horses, but when I 

 read of those lumbermen-children chasing a deer to 

 its death in a calm-like and easy-like manner, I won- 

 dered greatly at their marvelous fleetness; but when I 

 read that they then went blithely on slaying deer after 

 deer, my wonder was beyond bounds at both their fleet- 

 ness and demoniacal endurance. Such fleet runners 

 could break all records on the race track, whether of men 

 or horses, or bicycles, or even the famous World's Fair 

 Flyer No. 999. Pray do not think that I doubt Mr. Spears's 

 statements. Much credit is due him for the discovery 

 that the lumbermen can run down a deer and then go on 

 running down another one, and another ad infinitum. 



He also says: "The bosses at (lumber) camp forbid 

 venison." Those dear good bosses. Of course they do. 

 Would anyone suppose for a moment that an aesthetic 

 lumber camp boss would permit his men to eat venison 

 when he could buy provisions for them to eat? Of course 

 not. Any boss would prefer to pay for his meat in pre- 

 ference to getting it for nothing. Those kind, good 

 bosses! Dick. 



Adirondack Deer Destruction. 



Gloversville, N. Y., June 28.— Editor Forest and 

 Stream: On my recent annual fishing trip to the Adiron- 

 dacks I took occasion to make considerable inquiry in regard 

 to the reported slaughter of deer in or near the locality I am 

 in the habit of visiting, and although I was satisfied from 

 previous observation that most of the residents of that com- 

 munity had but slight regard for game laws, I was horrified 

 to learn to what extent depredations had been committed 

 against the game supply, which they all naturallv ought to 

 be interested in protecting. Judging from the reports of 

 people who annually visit both the West Canada and Cedar 

 lakes, as well as the guides who hunt and fish in that vicinity 

 during the open season and trap fur-bearing animals in the 

 close season, there seems to be no doubt that the number of 

 deer in that vicinity is rapidly diminishing. 



It is well known by everyone within fifty miles of those 

 lakes that certain parties have been lumbering the entire 

 length of West Canada Creek, as well as someof the streams 

 and lakes which form its source; that some sections have as 

 many as seventy-five lumbermen at work. There seems to 

 be no question that the principal meat supply of those lum- 

 ber camps consists of trout and venison. Men are hired 

 ostensibly as choppers when it is positively known that they 

 are (on account of their proficiency as still-hunters) paid to 

 kill deer for the consumption of those camps. And when 

 those log jobbers and camp keepers have not the nerve to 

 keep a game butcher in their own camp, they hire the deer 

 killed by such men as John Leaf, a half-breed Indian, who 

 was tried and convicted last winter at Lake Pleasant, and 

 who, through the machinations of some of his friends or 

 accessories, escaped with the insignificant fine of $40 or forty 

 days in jail, and after he had served twenty-six days in jail 

 was liberated by paying f 14. This is the way the laws are 

 enforced in the face of the reported evidence of a dozen deer 

 carcasses which were found around his camp. It is also said 

 that a man by the name of French Louie, who lives near one 

 of the West Canadas, is in the habit of furnishing deer to 

 some of these lumber camps. 



Another cause for the depopulation of deer in the Adiron- 

 dacks is the misuse of the hounding law. Hounding in the 

 neighborhood of Arietta, it is said, is commenced as early as 

 July by certain parties, who also night hunt as early as 

 June. But of all the deer which are killed illegally nine- 

 tenths go to wood choppers. 



A man, who worked last winter in a logging camp not 

 more than six miles from Piseco post office, told me that he 

 had eaten what he was satisfied was fresh venison from 

 December till the last of March; and in that camp as road 

 cutter and hunter was employed one of the worst old game 

 butchering reprobates that tramps the woods. 



John Richardson, of Gloversville, who in company with 

 Dr. Beach, of the same place, has annually visited the 

 Cedar Lakes for the last twenty years, reports that although 

 they were in camp a week or so earlier than usual this year, 

 nevertheless where in former years they had counted fifteen 

 or twenty deer during the two hours preceding darkness 

 this year they comparatively speaking had seen none. They 

 express the opinion that there is not one-quarter the number 

 of deer of three years ago. 



What can you expect toward the conviction of violators 

 when the nearest game protector is fifty to sixty miles 

 away; and when everybody knows within two hours of his 

 arrival in the neighborhood. I was told by a number of 

 guides and people who seemed to he interested in stopping 

 this wholesale slaughter of game that, whereas a few years 

 ago they had ample protection through the efforts of 

 James Higgins, of Ruddeston, who was a game pro- 

 tector at that time, now nearly everybody in that 

 community seemed to take a hand in violating the game 

 law. I also discovered considerable evidence of illegal 

 catching of trout. It seemed to be common talk 

 that the son of a certain hotel-keeper at Piseco had set lines 

 in the lake, and as evidence which would seem to verify this 

 common rumor he is known to visit the lake after dark or at 

 a time when no one else is on the lake. It is also known 

 that this same man and his friends are in the habit every 

 spring of taking advantage of the April 15 trout law and 

 catching them through the ice at T Lake. 



With the appointment of a man with the sterling qualities 

 of this man James Higgins all such violations could be 

 eventually stopped. I speak of him not that I am anv 

 friend of Mr. Higgins, as I have never had the honor of his 

 acquaintance, but think that being so near at hand to these 

 violators, and being held in such great respect by them as 

 well as the law abiding citizens of that locality, he would be 

 an excellent person for the position. I also wish to sneak 

 in condemnation of the party of alleged sportsmen who 

 about a dozen strong, with their guides, dogs and plenty of 

 whisky, go to the Cedars each year, and not content with 

 a decent amount of sport and venison, must kill, eat and 

 feed vemson to the dogs for two weeks, and then each bring 

 out a whole deer, generally nearly all does, simply because thl 

 law allows this wanton slaughter. Such game destroyers 

 are nearly, if not quite, as bad as the men who kill for the 

 lumber camps. All it needs in order to stop this terrible 

 slaughter is a determined and efficient game protector ap- 

 pointed who resides in the same community with the un- 

 scrupulous violators of the game Javfs, Cayadutta 



