266 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Oct. 27, 1887. 



SHOOTING NOTES. 



ALL sorts of reports have been coming in about the 

 woodcock shooting during the past week. That 

 there are plenty of birds somewhere is attested by a stroll 

 through the New York markets. Mr. Eobins, one of the 

 oldest and most reliable game dealers, whose stand is in 

 Fulton Market, tells me the majority of the birds come 

 from Connecticut. The observance of a close summer 

 season is no doubt responsible for the excellence of the 

 shooting now to be had in many sections of the Wooden 

 Nutmeg State. 



Mr. Harry Leavitt, of Wall street, who is about as good 

 a game shot as the East can produce, had a couple of 

 days' shooting last week near Great Barrington. He 

 bagged about a couple of dozen cock and a nice bunch of 

 partridges. If what the farmers say is true, Mr. Leavitt 

 never misses. I have not seen Mr. Leavitt in the field 

 for several years, but when I did he was a past master in 

 the art of bringing birds down. Once I saw him make 

 some very clever kills in the mountains of northern New 

 Jersey that convinced me that he had trained in a good 

 school and knew how to handle his birds in dense cover 

 remarkably well. 



Mr. Frank Cummins, of this city, has been picking up 

 some birds this autumn. One day last week he shot four- 

 teen cock near Croton Lake. Mr. Chrmmins is a great 

 enthusiast, and shoots this winter in Florida. 



Mr. Gilbert Speir and Mr. Gus Walters, both of this 

 city, shot one day last week near Ramapo, on the Erie 

 Railway. They got seven cock and one of Tuxedo Park's 

 English pheasants. Mr. Speir is another first-class shot. 

 He will shoot ducks at Havre de Grace on the opening 

 day. 



The glory of the once famous Wallkill region seems to 

 have departed. Although the ground both in the swamps 

 along the alder-arched streams is in prime condition, and 

 the mountain swales shaded by chestnut sprouts and white 

 birch are in order to receive' the birds, woodcock were 

 never so scarce as they were last week. A friend of 

 mine who knows every hole and corner in this section 

 took in the whole country and saw but two birds. I 

 nearly experienced the same ill luck in the Pequest low- 

 lands. There the clearing off of the timber and a great 

 forest fire has destroyed the best of the unpreserved 

 woodcock cover. The ground was too dry prior to the 

 rains last week. From the old markings it was evident 

 that there had been some birds about the time of the 

 frosts a week before, but they had evidently gone on their 

 way rejoicing. Mr. F. Satterthwaite, of Newark, was up 

 there at the same time, shooting on his preserve. He 

 was out two mornings and only got eleven woodcock. 

 Of these only one was a hen bird. He said he found 

 every one of them in the spice bushes along the banks of 

 the creek, and not on the outside edges as formerly. 

 There are quite a number of much-shot-at partridges in 

 Warren county. They have about cleaned up the wild 

 grapes in the swamps and have adjourned to the moun- 

 tains to await the opening of the season. Quail are in 

 fair abundance, but many of the bevies are of small 

 birds unfit to shoot for several weeks to come. But what 

 between posted lands, hate farmers and)bull-brier thickets, 

 the quail have got the budge on both local and city 

 gunners. 



In Sussex county, N. J., quail and woodcock are scarce 

 as compared with former years. Mr. Theo. Morford, of 

 Newton, tells me that, in fact, there are very few quail. 

 Mr. Morford no longer fruitlessly walks his legs off in his 

 own State in search of sport, but goes to Tennessee next 

 month where it is assured. There he has a host of warm 

 friends, and with good dogs enjoys a blissful holiday. 



More encouraging reports come from central and 

 southern New Jersey. Harry Height; — the veteran Hart 

 Height's hopeful — says a good shot can average about a 

 dozen buds early in the season in the southern part of 

 Monmouth county. Quail about Allair are only in fair 

 numbers. Mr. R. von Ohl, of Jobstown, N. J., however, 

 informs me that there are more quail in Burlington 

 county than he has seen for the past three years. He 

 says they are very small, however, and that on Monday 

 last he started some that could scarcely fly. As compared 

 with last season the crop is better this year. 



Glancing westward we find that the members of the 

 great ducking clubs near Toledo and on the St. Clair Flats 

 are having but poor shooting at the ducks. Mr. William 

 B. Wells, of Chatham, Ont. , who has just returned from 

 a very successful shooting trip to Manitoba, writes me 

 that up to Oct. 20 fowl were scarce on the Canadian side 

 of the marshes. 



Still further west I hear of Mr. Elliott Smith, of the 

 Westminster Kennel Club, having fair sport at many 

 kinds of game in Dakota. . There are a number of Eastern 

 men out there this season, among whom Mr. John Illings- 

 worth, of Newark, and some Boston friends. 



Mr. J. Fred Titchenor, of Newark and New street, has 

 just returned from a five months' visit to California. On 

 his way home he stopped with his friend Mr. Bob Wood- 

 ward, of San Francisco, at the North Belle Isle Mine 

 Ranch, on Chicken Creek, in northeastern Nevada, close 

 to Idaho. Mr, Titchenor tells me this is the greatest 

 game country left in the United States, that during his 

 short stay he and three friends killed about nine hundred 

 sage hens, prairie chickens and fool hens. They shot the 

 sage hens and chickens, and thumped the fool hens on 

 the head with their guns. 



Mr. James L. Anthony, of this city, has gone for two 

 months' shooting to his preserve at Lynch"s, Va, He will 

 be joined there later on by Mr. Chas. Heath, of Newark, 

 who is Mr. Anthony's partner in the Graphic Kennels. 



Mr. Arthur Livingston Sewell, of Pleasure Bay, N. J, 5 

 accompanied by Mr. Ben West's pointer dog, went to 

 Mantoloking, N. J. , on Saturday for a morning's outing, 

 Mr. Sewell moved fourteen English snipe, of which he 

 killed twelve without a miss. He also secured a fat 

 yelper, which he says he shot a mile high. Lots of wild 

 yellowlegs were on the meadows. 



While the majority of places in this country are troubled 

 from a scarcity of game, that is not now the case in Ore- 

 gon. Six years ago a number of Chinese pheasants were 

 planted in several localities in the State. They were at 

 once protected by a law which forbade their being shot 

 for a term of ten years. I am informed that the foreigners 

 have multiplied in such numbers in the Willamette Val- 

 ley section that the fanners will endeavor to have the 

 law repealed this winter. They say that the pheasants 

 are destroying their wheat and assert that one pheasant 

 will eat and scratch up more grain than four healthy 



wild geese. While the cock birds fight like game fowl 

 and occasionally kill one another, the hens overbalance 

 this by raising two full broods every year, and are said 

 never to lose a chick. My informant has just returned to 

 this city from Lane county, and he says there are thous- 

 ands of pheasants there. 



The experiment of raising foreign game in America is 

 a very interesting one. We have seen the success made 

 by Mr. Pierre Lorillard on the Rancocas Farm preserve 

 with both English pheasants and partridges, and the good 

 results secured by the Fisher's Island Club in introducing 

 ground game. 



There are a number of gentlemen owners of big estates 

 in this vicinity who have also imported through Chas. 

 Reicke& Co., of Chatham street, this city, large quanti- 

 ties of foreign game. When properly cared for the birds 

 have been found to thrive and increase. I am looking 

 this matter up and may some time give a detailed ac- 

 count obtained from headquarters. The season is now a I 

 hand for the importation of the pheasants. They are 

 netted in Germany and shipped in low crates to this 

 country by steamer. These birds are very hardy and 

 afford good sport. 



From Connecticut and South Jersey I hear of several 

 rows between sportsmen and farmers. It seems impos- 

 sible in these days for any stranger to enjoy shooting in 

 these States. For this reason I kill all my quail West, 

 where there is no one to bother me and where I can find 

 more birds in a day than I can possibly move in a week 

 in the Eastern or Middle States. While I respect the 

 rights of the actual landowner I must say the ignorant 

 squatting farmer makes me very tired. There are agricul- 

 turists residing on mortgaged farms or on leased prop- 

 erty for which they have not paid the rent, who will 

 leave their dinners of cake and pork, run miles in stiff 

 cowhide boots, through green brier swamps, and by their 

 horrible profanity endanger every chance of Heaven, to 

 be in time to see a city sportsman shoot the tail off his 

 pedigreed pointer, such is their enthusiastic desire to 

 assert their authority. Then after driving the sportsman 

 off a neighbor's land or accepting a fee for granting per- 

 mission to shoot thereon the farmer sneaks home and 

 abuses "down country folks." It is therefore obvious to 

 most people that shooting under such circumstances 

 ceases to be sport, and those who want their fun sand- 

 wiched between peace and quiet go and spend their 

 money in the South or West where game is abundant and 

 every petty lessee of land is not a skinflint or a mad- 

 house candidate. 



The fact of the matter is there are thousands of crusty 

 farmers who do not shoot themselves, and whose only 

 stock in trade is ignorance, a second-hand collection of 

 farm implements and half a dozen live quail, who are 

 ready to ' 'bite the noses off their faces" to spite some 

 stranger, who, if treated even decently, would open his 

 purse for far more than all the birds were worth. On the 

 other hand, it is the farmer's own neighbors, not the city 

 sportsmen, who tear up stone Avails and cut down trees 

 for rabbits. Now, just fancy a city sportsman Hfting a 

 ton of rock for a bunny or cutting down a tree. Even if 

 he wanted to do so, he could not handle the rocks, and it 

 would take him a month to learn how to handle an axe 

 before he could chop the bark off the butt. Yet it is the 

 gentleman sportsman who commits all the havoc in the 

 country. At least so says the average farmer. The an- 

 tagonism, therefore, between the sportsman and the 

 bumpkin of this vicinity is very great and equally sense- 

 less. Every one knows that any sportsman who owns 

 more than one dog is usually bowed down with enough 

 care without being pestered by some rustic. The stumb- 

 ling blocks in the path of sport are too many without 

 having to bump up against every owner of half an acre 

 of ground. To stagger under the all-pervading dif- 

 ficulty of the chase is about all one man can success- 

 fully accomplish. Dogs will point cats and go home; 

 boots will gall holes in ankles; briers will assert them- 

 selves in the epidermis; game will be non est; guns 

 won't hit anything, and tired hunters will sit on snakes 

 or on yellowjackets' nests. Whimsical exaggeration will 

 fill capacious game bags, too, but those who spend their 

 time in figuring on events, say that from careful calcu- 

 lation it is found that the sportsmen of the world, all 

 told, average a walk of two miles for every bird within a 

 radius of thirty miles of any city, and that the average 

 cost of every bird killed under such circumstances is ex- 

 actly §1.37|. Yet, there are some people who speak 

 sneeringly of the markets where game can be bought. 

 Let these unsophisticated people try a day's shooting any- 

 where within thirty miles of this city. They will jeer no 

 more. In South Jersey the farmei-s are angry enough to 

 do anything to the non-resident shooters. Those of Cape 

 May county propose to test the law which gives power to 

 the West Jersey Game Protective Society to issue passes 

 to Philadelphia and New York sportsmen to shoot on their 

 farms. The farmers should remember that the society 

 has spent a great deal of money in re-stocking, and that 

 such farmers who were sportingly mclined reaped the 

 benefit by having good shooting and exorbitant board 

 paid them. 



This suggests to me to say that there is one remarkable 

 feature of the shooting around New York, and that is the 

 famous sport always said to be on tap in the immediate 

 vicinity of country hotels. Already has the proverbial 

 partridge bumped his head against each of them this 

 season. The barrooms, as usual, have been invaded by 

 bevies of quail, and the manure heaps in the barnyards 

 have been stamped down level with the ground by the 

 rabbits. But though the sportsman may learn to his dis- 

 gust that all these signs fail and game is not in sight, yet 

 there is one creature that is never scarce in the locality, 

 and that is the guide. These men are the sand burr of 

 the city sportsmen's existence. There is no getting rid of 

 them. They will rope in for drinks with better success 

 than any race of human beings under the sun. Every 

 man in the hotel bar is a farmer on whose land there are 

 stacks of game. Each one has a team to hire to drive you 

 there. This is always done, for guides are never known 

 to walk except at their own expense. I have heard at 

 least a dozen guides in my life brag how they enjoyed 

 leading city sportsmen astray, where there were no birds, 

 and subsequently killing the game themselves. Warren 

 county, N. J., is full of such men. To beat this business 

 the only way the sportsmen should do is to agree to pay 

 the guide according to the quantity of game shown and 

 shot. So much for guides and farmers. 



The Wise Acre. 



New Yobk Citt, Oct. 24. 



THE CANVASBACKS. 



GUNPOWDER RIVER, Md., Oct. 16.— The canvasbaet j 

 shooting season is now opening, and already the 

 shrill whistle of the thieving baldpate, herald of the com- 

 ing canvasback a,nd redhead, makes itself heard above and . 

 below the long bridges of the Baltimore and PMladelphM 

 Railroad across the Gunpowder and Bush and Bac&'j 

 rivers; and the sounds of preparation are heard at the prfc-* 

 jectingpoints of these rivers, where blinds are being erected 

 and made ready for the coming season. The Gunpo wder, 

 Bush and Back rivers and the coves are all more full tJH 

 duck feed (valisneria) than has been known for yeazgH 

 This is what gives to canvasback and redhead the delpl 

 cious flavor which the gourmet can appreciate. 



The whole of Gunpowder and Bush rivers with tkg3 

 many coves and inlets form a paradise for duck skooter&'l 

 Carrol's Island at the mouth of the Gunpowder stretches | 

 in a long narrow point across, and ducks flying from the 

 bay to their feeding grounds up the river cross this bar 

 in rapid flight. Here J. Swan Prick, P. Norris and F. 0( 

 Latrobe, of Baltimore, know how to stop the flying birds, 

 Which cross the bar at a rate of seventy or eighty mil<& 

 an hour. 



Higher up the river comes Grace's Quarter point, wher4 

 John Gill, of Baltimore, and Wihnot Johnson reign. 

 Opposite is Maxwell's Point, the old home of Gen. Goof 1 

 Cadwalader, now owned by John Cadwalader, of Phila- 

 delphia, a home the gunner may envy and where sport 

 and comfort is combined. 



From Maxwell's Point to Gunpowder Bridge, with afi* 

 equal length of shore on Bush River, is the home of the 

 San Domingo Ducking Club. Their club house, abouS 

 one hundred yards fi'bm the water on a rising ground! 

 overlooks the whole river, and with them the season will 

 open on Oct. 18. Of this club H. T. Weld, of Moitn$ r 

 Savage, Md., is president and Charles H. Raymond, of 

 New York, vice-president. Robert Sewell, Geo. F. Bakd£ 

 and Warren Delano, of New York, Dudley Olcott, of 

 Albany, R. G. Hoffman, Jesse Tyson, Seth Holmes, John 

 Ridgely, and last but not least, the veteran John Stewart, 

 are the executive committee. 



At Havre de Grace, in the head of the Chesapeake, the) 

 season does not open till Nov. 1, but the tributaries ate 

 alive with ducks long before. Great are the anticipations 

 for this season. Last season was a failure for want <|j 

 duck feed in the rivers. At San Domingo a lovely littt§ 

 pack of seven beagles makes the whole air ring to thji' 

 music, and there, too, are setters of unblemished lineage, 

 children of Pride of the Border and Guy Mannering, all 

 owned by Charles H. Raymond, to make up deficiencies 

 of sport when ducks do not fly. X. 



OUR FOURTH DAY OUT. 



WE had killed a large buck during the previous day 

 and were in fine spirits over our success. Two at. 

 the Tunouts to be watched were quite a distance frotDi 

 camp, and the men delegated to stand at these points 

 started out half an hour ahead of the drivers. 



There was frost enough in the ah to chill one's blood 

 but the weather was delightful for a November mornin 

 Our dogs had been of so little use before that we plac 

 no confidence in them, except a small cur with which 

 first deer was secured. The section to be driven was 

 long brushy hillside sloping to a stream, while here 

 there narrow ravines led to higher ground on the < ipposi 

 side. At the mouth of one of these ravines Doc station 

 himself and the balance of the watchers occupied p 

 tions along the brow of the hill, advancing as circ 

 stances required. 



Down on the point where the drivers started in, an 

 buck had been lying keeping vigilant watch for the safe 

 of his hide, for no doubt lie knew the surrounding da 

 gers, as this was not his first year in the woods. 



It was not long until the music of the cur came ringi 

 through the frosty ah, and we knew full well it betoken 

 something of interest to us. More and more distinc 

 the yip, yip, of the little fellow was heard, and in a 

 moments the glittering antlers and glossy coat of the deer 

 came into view as he fled before drivers and dog. BeforSi 

 venturing across the creek and within several hundred 

 yards of Doc', he stopped to take in the situation. What 

 must have been his thoughts, if deer do think? He had 

 been forced to a guarded inclosure and his pursuers wer$ 

 close on the trail. Not long to decide, however, so at 

 venture he breaks for the stream. Cautiously approach- 

 ing the dark ravine and once amid its tangled under- 

 growth, he again stops to listen. Oh! cruel sentinel 

 crouched behind yonder tree, here where I ran for safety 

 from your murderous, hand, outwitted and entrapped. A 

 shot rings out followed by a second and third, the deer 

 plunges through the laurel and crosses higher up stream. 

 We call our party together and hear the story of the man 

 who did the shooting. Of course, the deer had been moi^r 

 tally wounded and could not go far. This we were ifl&i 

 clined to believe and took the trail, thinking a f'eroj 

 minutes' time would bring us to our game. Alas! tk|? 

 cleer kept far enough in advance and flagged us aftgk 

 about an hour's tramp. It was then decided that he had 

 not been so severely wounded as first supposed, but Wa 

 were determined to have him. 



One of the dogs was a sheep killer, and his owner being' 

 desirous of getting rid of the animal, recommended luxfly 

 as a good deer dog. When away from camp he followed! 

 the drivers very closely and always looked as if he haaj 

 done something mean when spoken to. The buck kept a> 

 respectable distance ahead, and thinking it useless to 

 lead the dog on his trail we concluded to loose him anfll 

 take the chances. In a little while the barking of all 

 three dogs indicated that they were in close quartegB 

 with the deer and we lost no time in reaching the sceuai 

 Sure enough, they had smrrbunded him and a battle, 

 seemed imminent. At this juncture a shot brought hiiS^ 

 to the ground, when the sheep dog immediately began a^j 

 exhibition of his skill by taking hold and holding ppj 

 until relieved by the party. This was not our first deep-, 

 by any means, but we never knew until then what it was 

 to have hold of a wounded buck which we would rathe^i 

 be released from, but were afraid to let go of. After^ 

 several unsuccessful efforts to regain his feet the po<p] 

 fellow lay there panting, and without ceremony lytjfi 

 throat was cut, and until the last drop of blood ebbeSlj 

 away the lustre of his eye remained undimmed. 



Doc occupied an elevated position wheu he shot anjtL 

 felt positive that the baU had 'entered the deer's back and; 

 passed down through his body; but no wound could fee.' 

 found in that locality. Turning him over a broken ano; 



