Nov. 22, 1888.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



34B 



HUNTING HATCHET WITH INTERCHANGEABLE HEAD AND PIKE. 



HUNTING HATCHET. 



BEAVER, Pa., Oct. 29.— Editor Forest and Stream: 

 Early in the summer I wrote you asking for design 

 of hatchet. You kindly sent me the address of the maker 

 of the double blade or Nessmuk hatchet. Thinking the 

 matter over, I wrote you in reply (and you kindly (?) pub- 

 lished it) that ''I did "not like the hatchet, as there was 

 nothing to drive nails with, or to dig with for that mat- 

 ter," and that I would get up one of my own and send 

 you outline sketch of it as soon as completed. Please 

 rind it inclosed. The pike is square, hole the same, just 

 back of the head, so as to fit the wrench. The head may 

 be used in and around camp putting up bunks, etc. And 

 when you go on a hunt, by the proper application of the 

 wrench, you can in a very short time have a hatchet that 

 will be of great use, should you wish to climb a tree, 

 dig a hole, go prospecting or administer the coup de grace 

 to a badly wounded buck or bear. The hatchet is not 

 patented, and should any brother hunter fancy my 

 idea I will take pleasure in having one made for him. 

 Mine is made of finest steel, and in such a way that the 

 head will not jam or stick. I hope "Nassmuk" will par- 

 don the criticism. G. A. ScROGGS, M.D. 



THE WOODCOCK SUPPLY. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



As I have shot woodcock here for the last fifteen sea- 

 sons and have been a close observer of the movements of 

 the birds, I will give Mr. Lathrop the benefit of my obser- 

 vations about here. I do not (ir.d as many woodcock as 

 I used to ten or fifteen years ago, but I have seen very 

 little change in numbers in the past five or six years. 

 The year 1885 was a good season, 18S6 not as good, 1887 

 better than any season of late, and 1888 fully up to the 

 average for the past six years. I consider the best shoot- 

 ing here the l ist week in September and the first week 

 in October, but in some seasons birds are quite plenty all 

 through October. The birds began to move southward 

 very early this season on account of the cold weather 

 and cold storms, and I am inclined to think that the best 

 flight passed Springfield, Mass. , before they were expected. 

 The birds were most numerous here the past season from 

 Sept. 22 to Oct. 5, and my largest bag was twelve wood- 

 cock on Sept. 29. 



My observations go to show that woodcock begin to 

 move southward in cold, wet seasons like the one just 

 past, early, and are gone before they are expected in 

 many localities. I have shot about twice a week the past 

 season and have killed seventy woodcock alone, not 

 including grouse and birds killed by companion. 



N. A. Plummer. 



Bbattlebobo, Vermont, Nov. 16. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



I see a good number of the correspondents of the For- 

 est and Stream are wondering where the woodcock have 

 gone this year. Some say the blizzard killed them, while 

 others think that too much shooting is the trouble; and, 

 as is the case in a controversy like this, sportsmen don't 

 agree. So I have still another theory, perhaps I might 

 call it a theorem, for certainly it is to be proven, whether 

 correct or not. 



Going back to the early shooting this season. I am very 

 confident that there were more woodcock on my preserve, 

 which is entirely a woodcock cover, than there have been 

 for two previous seasons. I have also made extensive in- 

 vestigations in western Connecticut and find this: that 

 for the past six or eight years there have been no wood- 

 cock raised in this locality to speak of, and that all the 

 woodcock sportsmen could get here were flight birds; but 

 this year seems to have been an exception — the covers 

 were well stocked with woodcock; and trout fishers and 

 others, who had occasion to go through them, found them 

 in unusual numbers in the summer time, and up almost 

 to Oct. 1. In fact, a Mr. Kinney, on Schtacoke Moun- 

 tain in the southwestern part of Litchfield county, inves- 

 tigated the matter in September and reported to my 

 friend Northrup that he could easily move 30 to 50 wood- 

 cock in a day— an almost unheard of thing for that lo- 

 cality. I found the same state of things all over the 

 county, but on Oct. 1, when we tried for them, they 

 had gone, and instead of the 30 or 50 native woodcock 

 promised by Mr. Kinney, we actually moved 7 very wild 

 flight birds. I found the birds in my Massachusetts cover 



very wild, and moving as early as the middle of Septem- 

 ber, or immediately after the second heavy frost; and the 

 freeze of the morning of Sept. 29 set them all humming 

 for warmer climes, and, aside from a few flights of birds 

 which were old-fashioned indeed in numbers, there have 

 been but few seen except stragglers. 



About the middle of October (the 16th I believe) Mr. 

 Bevan, of Winsted, found a very large flight and moved, 

 as reported, 25 or 30 birds in one small piece. On Oct. 30 

 he encountered another large flight, killing 21 birds. I 

 believe a few scattering birds could be had for the hunting 

 any day up to the present time, but not in such numbers 

 as are usually met with, with the exception of the two 

 notable flights above referred to. 



Now this is my theory about the matter, that for some 

 unknown reason the woodcock did not go as far north 

 this season as usual, stopping in Connecticut to breed 

 inetead of going further north. Again, the heavy frosts 

 of September, which were very severe, started the birds 

 earlier than usual, therefore the larger part of the birds 

 were gone before sportsmen knew that they were moving 

 or even had a chance to shoot at all in Connecticut. Lastly, 

 if these sorrow-stricken ones will wait patiently till our 

 long-billed friends return, I think they will find them as 

 plenty as usual, and by using discretion and only killing 

 a few each year, they will be made to last a great deal 

 longer than we do. * Notliks. 



Colebhook, Conn., November. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



I have noticed one or two articles in the Forest and 

 Stream regarding the failure of the flight of woodcock, 

 and they have been of a very discouraging nature. Pos- 

 sibly a note or two from my book of remembrances on 

 hunting will be of a more cheerful nature. I have hunted 

 woodcock for a longer or shorter, "usually longer," period 

 each season for the past eight years. This season I en- 

 joyed the sport but two days, Oct. 22 and 23. Mr. T. H. 

 B, was my companion. The result of our trip was 

 twenty-three woodcock, two quail and one gray squirrel. 

 Our hunting ground was in Dingletown, Mass. Now, 

 my dear brother sportsman, don't look on your map for 

 the town of Dingletown, as this is only a local name. 

 My past record shows no two consecutive days with a 

 "diminution" total equal to the two days of the present 

 season. I am inclined to think the great amount of rain 

 this fall has saved many a woodcock's life; what has been 

 good fall ground in past seasons has this year in many 

 places been from one to four inches under water, and the 

 birds seeking other cover have safely run the gauntlet. 



A. B. C. 



Boston, Mass. , 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



I am perfectly satisfied that the failure of the woodcock 

 crop results from the deadly telegraph wires. Who has 

 not found dead and crippled birds under the wires, where 

 they are destroyed while making their flight in the night? 

 I know of a great many birds that have been found by 

 other parties than myself. I found the first one twenty 

 years ago, and have found several since. It is useless to 

 try to estimate how many of these beautiful game birds 

 are destroyed that are never found. As long as the wires 

 keep up their silent, deadly work, we will not have any 

 woodcock, unless we can get the woodcock to migrate 

 by daylight or have the wires placed underground. 



"The English snipe shooting this fall has been a failure 

 here, but that is easily accounted for. It has rained about 

 every day, and the upland has been so wet the birds 

 could not feed without resorting to the lowland. I flushed 

 them on the stubbles, where I never saw them before. 



Alfred A. Fraser. 



The Cedars, Oakdale, Long Island. 



Follow trp aMay-be-hit Bird.— Gorham, N. H., Nov. 

 17.— Editor Forest and Stream: In last week's issue 

 Sus Q. Hannah makes mention of a number of ruffed 

 grouse getting away with the loss of a bunch of feathers. 

 I have once this fall and tv^o or three times last fall had 

 fair shots at birds without in the least, seemingly, to 

 touch a feather, but upon following up the direction in 

 which they new the dog has found them dead and 

 brought them to me. I think it is a good rule to always 

 follow np a bird at which you have had a good shot with- 

 out stopping it.— H. F. M, 



MISSOURI GAME INTERESTS. 



ST. LOUIS, Mo., Nov. 17.— The duck shooters were 

 finally rewarded by a fair flight of ducks the fore 

 part of the present week. The Manitoba wave, which 

 the signal service predicted, came, and with it came the 

 web-feet. While they were here good sport was had on 

 them, and a few good bags were reported. They did not 

 remain very long because the weather became warm, and 

 the ducks departed with the same suddenness that they 

 came. 



Heretofore they have been in the habit of remaining 

 among us for quite a little while in the fall of the year 

 when they did make their appearance, as usually the 

 food in the lakes hereabouts is most plentiful. But now 

 they don't seem to have any use for this locality what- 

 ever. They come, but they don't stay. They evidently 

 have no great love for this part of the country, and give 

 it the grand go-by. 



A party of gentlemen went up to the Grand Pass game 

 preserve, which is located about eighty-three miles above 

 here on the Illinois River, the latter part of last week, 

 and had fair sport. They returned a few days ago with 

 quite a good bag of ducks. 



Another party took in the Ellsberry grounds, which are 

 located sixty-two miles above here in this State, with fair 

 success. When they landed at the Union Depot they 

 could produce but thirty-two ducks and a few snipe. 

 Considering that they were gone but one day, this was 

 doing quite well. 



Reelf oot Lake reports poor shooting so far this season. 

 There is a party of nimrods from this city down there and 

 they are having very little shooting at ducks. In a letter 

 from one of the gentlemen to a friend here he states that 

 they have had no shooting to speak of yet. They have 

 now been down there about ten days and expect to remain 

 that length of time or longer. 



Quail are plentiful in the vicinity, and as there are no 

 ducks the party writes that they are putting in most of 

 their time on them with good results. 



Fishing is also fair, and the gentlemen are whiling 

 away part of their idle time angling. 



A snow is anxiously awaited by the field sportsmen in 

 this city to break down the prolific growth of weeds that 

 at present very much interferes with the successful 

 pursuit of the quail. There are quite a good many in 

 this locality, but it is very unsatisfactory to hunt them 

 while the weeds remain in their present thick state. 



A gentleman who was out on a hunt for them during 

 the week, says it is very tiresome to try to make one's 

 way through the weeds. Why, he said, I walked through 

 a field while I was out, which was not more than a quar- 

 ter mile across, and when I reached the opposite side I 

 was as completely worn out as though I had been knee 

 deep in mud all day. He said that his dog found a few 

 coveys of birds, but could do nothing with them to speak 

 of on account of the weeds. It is not only hard work for 

 a person to make his way through the weeds, but is also 

 very hard on a dog. A dog can run through them, but 

 has to leap up continually and make his way along in that 

 way. Now, of course, as anyone can imagine, this is too 

 much to expect of a dog, and a sportsman who thinks 

 anything of his dog at all will not give him much of such 

 work. A little of it goes a long way. 



He also reports having seen many half -grown birds, 

 which he allowed to fly away without shooting at them. 

 This fact is remarkable, and why it is so cannot be 

 explained in any other way than that the wet weather in 

 this section ot the country last spring retarded then breed- 

 ing. 



Among a shipment of birds from Kansas, which was 

 received by a firm of game dealers on Third street a few 

 days ago, there were many small birds. This firm received 

 on last Monday and Tuesday over 300 dozen alone from 

 the above State. There was a heavy fall of snow out 

 there, and it is quite evident from the number shipped 

 here that the market shooters had a great bonanza slaugh- 

 tering them. 



Just so long as the East puts the premium on game that 

 it does, just so long can there be found parties out there 

 who will get game, no matter how they get it, to supply 

 the markets of the East. It is quite certain that of all 

 the quail shipped from Kansas last season, which prob- 

 ably would exceed a thousand dozen, not one-third of 

 them were shot, but driven into a net, and then caught 

 and killed, to be sent to the Eastern market, where they 

 sell for $3 a dozen. 



