March 10, 1887.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



129 



A Robin Wintering at Syracuse.— Syracuse, N. Y., 

 March 6.— Mr. F. B. Klock, who lives in the eastern part 

 of the city, tells ine of a robin which has spent the winter 

 in the city— at least the months of December, January 

 and the most of February, for some days have passed 

 since the red-breasted warbler was last seen. It has fre- 

 quented an English ivy vine on Mr. Klock's grounds, 

 seemingly preferring the dried berries to other food which 

 waB offered it. The bird was seen on one of the coldest 

 days of January and observed for some time. Mr, Klock, 

 who is fond of nature and nature's gifts — an accomplished 

 gentleman sportsman — has watched the bird with much 

 of both curiosity and interest. Is this robin a lunatic that 

 it should have preferred the icy North to the sunny South 

 during the wi titer? Why did it remain here?— Daci. 



*' Game" in Market.— New York City.— Editor Forest 

 and Stream: Have we hi New York a society for the pro- 

 tection of game ? In front of many of the meat markets 

 may be seen almost any day numbers of birds that are not 

 used for food, but are supposed to be protected by law. 

 On Sixth avenue, between Fifty-third and Fifty-fourth 

 streets, I saw to-day, hanging in front of one market, 

 three large gulls, one falcon, two sparrow hawks, one 

 owl, one crow, a porcupine, and a large owl alive, in a 

 box not much larger than itself. I have often seen a 

 number of great red-headed woodpeckers, yellow ham- 

 mers and smaller woodpeckers, and various other birds, 

 often of beautiful plumage. — XX. 



Chipmunk's Burrow.— West Stockbridge, Mass., March 

 3.— The notes lately published in your paper about chip- 

 munks and their burrows remind me of one of my grand- 

 father's stories, which was this: A lot of loafers around a 

 barroom fire agreed to treat if any one of them asked a 

 question that he could not answer. A. commenced by 

 inqiiiring why a chipmunk left no dirt around his hole 

 when he dug it: and as no one could answer replied when 

 called upon, that the chipmunk commenced at the other 

 end of his hole to dig. Then B. inquired how he got 

 there, and as B. could not answer his own question, he 

 treated the bovs amid a roar of laughter.— T. S. H. 



Robins and China Berries.— North Middlctown, Ky. 

 — In reply to Edward Jack and your note thereto in yovu- 

 issue of Feb. 17, in regard to robins eating china berries 

 and becoming intoxicated, let me say a word in defense 

 of the birds. From my own observation during a num- 

 ber of years I do not believe the birds are intoxicated, but 

 by the swelling of the berries in the crop they become 

 choked and fab! to the ground. Out of the thousands of 

 robins that feed on the berries during the day compara- 

 tively few are disabled so as to be caught. I wrote a 

 short article on this subject which was published in your 

 paper in 1877, I think.— Issaquena. 



Recent Akrjvals at the Philadelphia Zoological Gar- 

 den. — Received by purchase and presentation. — One ashy 

 opossum (Didelphys cinercus), one black-striped wallaby (Hal- 

 maturus rZorsalfe),' one Barbary ape iMacacus innuus), live 

 macaque monkeys (Macacus cynomolgns), one common seal 

 (Phoca vitidina), on? sparrow hawk (Faico sparvcrlns), one bluejay 

 (Ciianurus cristatits), two tree sparrows (Spizrlla montteola), one 

 red-tailed buzzard (Buteo horcalis), one red-shouldered buzzard 

 (Butai linratus). and one barred owl (Sifmium uchuloimm). Born 

 in the garden— One Indian buffalo and one hybrid monkey) Rhesus 

 and Macaque). ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 



\mnt §}xg mid $m(. 



Address ad communications to the Forest and Stream PiO). Co. 



A DAY AT GOOSE POND. 



IN November, while camped on the shore of the famous 

 Goose Pond, I had a few days' fine sport after clucks. 

 About 4 o'clock A. M. I was aroused by a poke in the ribs 

 by Mose, who said, "Git out of this and chuck up." With 

 this gentle hint I arose and prepared breakfast in a short 

 time and rolled Mose and A. out of bed. A. went out of 

 the shanty, and on coming in reported a northwest wind. 

 "That's business," says Mose, "we'll have some fun to- 

 day." 



Breakfast over, we went down to the boats, turned 

 them over, got in and shoved off ,just as the eastern sky 

 began to get a little light. Five minutes' run brought us 

 to our stand. We took a place on the east side of a small 

 island and built hides about two rods apart, Mose on my 

 right and A. on the left. We put the decoys a few yards 

 in front of us, arranged the quills around our boats and 

 waited for the flight. A few minutes passed, when a 

 lone "broady" comes in over the decoys and turns to the 

 right, but is neatly shut up by Mose's gaspipe, as A. calls 

 the little side snap English gun. "She is a close shooter," 

 Mose remarked. "Yes," says A., "her former owner sent 

 her over to the Ke wanee pipe factory and had her choked. 1 ' 

 At this point of the debate a flock of twenty mallards 

 came in over the decoys, and just as they hung their 

 red feet down to light, we gave them * six barrels. 

 Four came down with a splash, while the rest 

 strained their wings to get to a safer height. 

 Mose. and A. claimed two apiece, while I felt sure I had 

 killed with the first barrel. The white breasts of three of 

 them lay upturned in the water. Ducks in this position 

 always scare incomers, so I poled out and took them in. 

 Next a spiketail drake came over pretty high up, but 

 when A?s 10-bore spoke he let go all holds and nearly ]fell 

 into my boat. In a short time three spoonbills came' in. 

 Mose killed two with his first barrel and then we shot a 

 load apiece at the remaining one, which flew two or three 

 hundred yards and fell in the tall rushes. Then a flock 

 of mallards came over up well out of reach, but Mose 

 sounded his call vigorously and they took two or three 

 circles and sailed in. Wo paid our compliments to them 

 and five came down, two of them with broken wings. 

 One started for the rushes but was halted by a load of 4s 

 sent by the gas pipe. Starting after the' other, which 

 kept diving among the decoys, I ran up to the spot where 

 he had gone down last and raised my paddle to flatten 

 him. When he came up I struck at him and missed. 

 Next time he arose I drew back to strike, but he seeing 

 the descending paddle dove again, when I stayed the 

 blow to be ready for him on his reappearanc. "Balk," 

 said A. (a ball player of no mean pretentions). The wily 

 greenhead thought he would take his base any way, for 



he made a long dive and came up about thirty yards 

 away. I picked up my Parker and stopped him. The 

 flight ceased a couple of hours, and then somebody routed 

 them out of St. Peter's marsh, and such a flight of small 

 ducks. We shot till our guns were fairly hot, when the 

 birds stopped flying. On picking up the killed, about a 

 dozen, we calculated that one or two of us had made a 

 good many goose eggs. The flight was mostly of teal, 

 with a few bullet ducks and sawbills. It was well on 

 toward noon when we quit the marsh and went to lunch. 

 On our arrival at the shanty We found long John W. of 

 N., an ardent duck hunter and a good follow generally. 



After lunch we went out again, Mose taking John in 

 his boat. The sky became overcast, and black ragged 

 clouds came up from the northwest and the wind in- 

 creased to a gale, twisting the rushes and churning the 

 water into foam. The decoys, though close to the lee- 

 ward of the island, were nearly all overturned. The air 

 was full of ducks. They hugged the crest of the waves 

 in flying in, and when we rose to shoot the wind carried 

 them out of gun shot in a twinkling. The second barrel 

 was useless and their feathers fit so close that the first 

 barrel was not always effective. The killed floated against 

 the east shore. The water being so cough that we could 

 not pick them all up till morning, when it was calm. 

 We started in before dark, well pleased with the day's 

 shoot. The little boat that carried double required skill- 

 ful handling to prevent a capsize, but we finally reached 

 our grounds right side up. Walters. 



Sheffield, 111. 



NOTES FROM WORCESTER. 



V\70RCESTER, Mass., March 3.— The annual meeting 

 T* of the Worcester Sportsmen's Club was held in 

 Temperance Hall, Monday evening, Feb. 28, with a very 

 fair attendance. The secretary's report was very satis- 

 factory and furnished abundant/evidence of faithful work 

 on the part of that officer. The report of the treasurer 

 showed the financial condition to be excellent, with a net 

 gain to the treasury of over $200, the present surplus 

 being $297. The officers for the ensuing year are : Presi- 

 dent, Maj. L. G. White; First Vice-President, A. B. F. 

 Kinney; Second Vice-President, M. D. Gilman; Secretary, 

 E. F. Swan; Treasurer, Alba Houghton; Executive Com- 

 mittee, G. J. Rugg, Webster Thayer, W. L. Davis and 

 E. S. Knowles. The club has been in existence thirteen 

 years, and lias without doubt spent more money in the 

 enforcement of the game laws and feeding of quail in 

 severe winters thanany club in the State outside of Boston. 

 There has nearly always been a handsome surplus in the 

 treasury and never an assessment in the club's history. 

 When the new club house was built, they found after it 

 was completed and furnished that more money had been 

 expended than was expected, the treasury empty and 

 still a few unpaid bills. As soon as this became known 

 some $300 were raised by subscription, and the club was 

 again on a solid basis. At the annual meeting the retir- 

 ing secretary, Mr. Corren Doane, was presented with a 

 fine grade Spencer repeating shotgun in appreciation of 

 his services the past year, Maj. White making the pre- 

 sentation in a very neat speech. Mr. Doane was com- 

 pletely surprised, but made a very graceful acknowledg- 

 ment. 



The fox hunting season of the Worcester Fur Company 

 closed Monday night, after the usual duration ot five 

 months, beginning Oct. 1, 1886. The closing day was 

 cold and windy, with a hard snow crust, and nobody 

 ventured out. The season, taken as a whole, has been 

 about up to the average in point of number of foxes 

 killed. The first half the weather was exceedingly good, 

 but since Jan. 1 there have hardly been a dozen good 

 days for the sport, nearly every snow storm winding up 

 with rain which f oi-med a hard crust. 



Of the thirty or more active members in the company 

 nineteen have succeeded in capturing one or more foxes, 

 and of the total number, forty-one, there is not one of 

 rare color. This is something very unusual. Nearly 

 every year some member having killed a cross gray, and 

 within five years two pure black foxes have been killed, 

 one by Alvin Fisher, who sold it to the Boston Natural 

 History Society. The other, killed by J. H. Locke, is now 

 the property of A. B. F. Kinney, who makes a standing 

 offer of $100 for one that will match it. Uncle Nathan 

 Harrington, president of the company, took the con- 

 tract to kill five, but fell just one short of it; a remark- 

 ably good score, however, for a man seventy-two years 

 old* and which is beaten by no member save John M. 

 White, Messrs. Bates, Slocum and French being the 

 only members who equal it. It should be said, however, 

 in justice to Mr. Slocum, that he has been laid up with 

 rheumatism nearly half the season. He ranks as one of 

 the most successful fox hunters in the State. In years 

 when the last half of the season has been exceptionally 

 unfavorable an effort has several times been made to ex- 

 tend the open season one or two weeks, but Uncle Nathan 

 has always "sat down" heavily upon all such schemes, 

 arguing that it would only work mischief, and the 

 movers have never been able to carry their point. There 

 will be no effort in that direction this year, and if any 

 member should yield to temptation and kill a fox before 

 the first of next October — a thing which is not likely to 

 occur — he would be summarily read out of the company. 



It is a matter of surprise that foxes are plentiful around 

 Worcester, yet the oldest members declare that they have 

 never known them more numerous than the past season, 

 and it is a fact that during the last two months a track 

 could be found on almost any good morning within ten 

 minutes' walk of the terminus of the horse railroad at 

 Adams Square, scarcely two miles from the city hall. 

 The following summary of the season's hunting may be 

 interesting: Nathan S. Harrington 4, John M. White and 

 A. B. F. Kinney 9, John A. Slocum 4, J. H. Locke 2, Geo. 

 T. Bates 4, Samuel Thayer 2, Andrew Thayer 1, John T. 

 Perry 1, R. D. Perry 1, Chas. Knight 1, Fred Weather- 

 head 2, Tyler Newton 1, L. E. Divoll 1, Horace Adams 1, 

 Wm. L. Davis 1, Leonard Rand 1, Milton Rand 1, Martin 

 M. French 4. Total, 41. E. Sprague Knowles. 



In a Worcester exchange we find this: "Mr. Elisha 

 Knowles knows a good thing when he sees it, but it was 

 not expected that he would recognize the surprise present 

 at Ms store on Pleasant street when he entered at 7 o'clock 

 last evening, for his friends who were there before him 

 had contrived to shut off the gas. Elisha was at the store 

 a few minutes before 7 o'clock, but was called out by Mr. 

 Eugene F. Swan to discuss matters connected with the 

 Sportsman's Club. While he was out hie friends assembled, 



among whom were Messrs. Balcom, Allie Perry, W. S. 

 Perry, Henry Mitchell, C. R. B. Claflin, Ed. Whitaker, 

 R. D. Perry, S. Foreman , Corren Doane, Nathan Harring- 

 ton, A. B. F. Kinney, L. D. Hubbard. D. S. Jackson and 

 M. D. Gilman. At 7 o'clock Mi-. ' Knowles returned 

 accompanied by Mr. Swan, and finding the gas out con- 

 cluded something was wrong with the meter. The whole 

 thing was explained to him a few minutes later, when 

 some one touched a match to the gas, and Mr. A. B. F. 

 Kinney called the storekeeper's attention to five cushioned 

 arm-chairs, which, in behalf of the sportsmen cf Worces- 

 ter, he presented to Mr. Knowles in token of then- esteem 

 and friendship. To say that Elisha was surprised and 

 gratified, expresses his acknowledgment of the gift, which 

 he made in a few words gracefully and appropriately 

 spoken." 



A MINNESOTA GAME REGION. 



FIR, Marshall county, Minn.— I have noticed an absence 

 of reports from this little northern corner of Min- 

 nesota, a hunter's paradise; and although of a selfish 

 nature, I am at all times willing to let brother sportsmen 

 share my enjoyment, especially when there is so much. 

 Shooting begins in April on geese on then- northward flight, 

 though many gray geese hatch in this Roseau Muskeag. 

 For about four weeks we have all the sport one may desire, 

 first on gray goose and brant, then on the snow goose or 

 wavy; which destroys hundreds of acres of newly sown 

 grain previous to taking flight about May 18 or 20 for its 

 floating hatching ground in Hudson's Bay. Theplains at 

 this same season are covered with curlew and golden 

 plover, to say nothing of yellow-legs, snipe, rail birds and 

 other small fry which are shot in the East, but are left 

 entirely unmolested here. This spring hunting from 

 stands is very pretty sport, particularly if one is able to 

 call the different varieties of geese and thoroughly under- 

 stands their habits. From the time the wavys feave all 

 is peace until the much-longed-for piairie chicken and 

 duck shooting begins. Then the country for miles is alive 

 with game, thanks to the game laws which are fairly 

 well observed. By the time this sport is becoming 

 monotonous, back come the geese in thousands. I have 

 seen them rise from a little lake of 200 acres near my 

 house, when one could hear nothing else for their noise. 

 The flock was variously estimated at from 5,000 to 10,000, 

 and there they stayed till it froze up, going to the grain 

 fields morning and evening. 



The geese having gone we turn our attention to the 

 heavy game. Moose, unprotected, may be killed at any 

 time, and as there are a considerable number ranging 

 from here to the Lake of the Woods, it is no uncommon 

 tiling to get them. I myself fell in with four in the 

 latter part of September, a bull and three cows, but alas I 

 my rifle hung in the houso three miles away. Words 

 ■would fail me to describe my feelings as I watched that 

 monarch making love that warm evening. I was unseen 

 by them and in nice shot. 



A number of black bear have been killed along the two 

 rivers by settlers, but as they den up about the time they 

 get prime it is only luck if one finds a good hide. 



Elk are in large numbers and several have been killed 

 about twenty miles further ea^. I saw nine, before the 

 season came in, at different times around here, but have 

 not been able, owing to sickness, to follow them to their 

 winter quarters as they always band together about the 

 first snow and go east. Deer "aire thick; I've killed eleven 

 near home. How many species of small deer have we? 

 There are the blacktail and whitetail, but there are 

 many different heads, some with long whitish ears and 

 head, others short, chubby arid Uark; some with a little 

 round small horn, as big as a-'d/e r with a great cradle on 

 his head. I have certainly kilcd four different shaped 

 heads. 



This country is easily accessible, and the great Roseau 

 Muskeag, the breeding ground and grand natural pre a 

 serves for all species of game is not likely to be dry 

 enough for the Indians to burn again during the next 

 twenty-five years, so we may hope for a continuance of 

 sport till the march of civilization drains all this country 

 and drives the game to the more distant forests of the 

 north. 



I have not alluded to fish, knowing nothing of them, 

 except that a few Indians catch four or five different 

 kinds by sleigh loads, selling them at five cents each. 



I. F, 



ABOUT PENETRATION. 



AUGUSTA, Ga., March 2.- Editor Forest and 

 Stream: "Von W.," hi your issue of Feb. 24, in com- 

 menting on my test for penetration, say3 he is at a loss to 

 imagine what results I expected to get. Well, I got 

 exactly the result expected, and that is, that a multiplica j 

 tion of wads in a shell, with a corresponding reduction in 

 the quantity of powder, would not give as good penetra- 

 tion as a lesser number of wads and'moie powder. 



In my article of Feb. 2 I did not enter into a discussion 

 of the merits of the test I made, but simply gave it for 

 what it was worth. The reason for my making the test 

 was on account of a good deal of argument about here on 

 the penetration of powder closely confined in a shell with 

 many wads. Some contended that this confinement 

 would enable the shooter to load lighter charges, etc. 

 Some men have put as much as 2 felt wads and 10 to 12 

 card wads on powder, and loading about 2A drams, claim- 

 ing this gives better penetration than the ordinary way 

 of 3 to 8f drams and 2 wads. The claim was, the closer 

 the powuer was confined the more powerful the explosion. 

 I did not hold to this idea, hence made the experiment 

 for self -gratification, and having done so, gave it to your 

 paper. 



I trust "Von W." has gotten out of the snow sufficiently 

 to make the experiments he desires, and will give your 

 readers the benefit thereof. I and others will be interested 

 in them. While he is at it, I would suggest that he also 

 test the strength of the various makes or brands of pow- 

 der. The best powder in our market is Hazard's Eagle 

 Ducking and Orange Ducking. I use either, but prefer 

 the former, because I think it cleaner. I am anxious to 

 get a powder with little smoke, strong and clean. It is 

 said that the Quick Shot is of this quality, but it is not in 

 our market. J. M. W. 



Writes a Montana Hunter: "I think Forest and 

 Stream is the boss paper, and I will subscribe just as soon 

 as I can ship my furs and get the price." 



