Forest and Stream. 



A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 



Terms, $4 a Year. 10 Cts. a Copy. 1 

 Six Months, $2, ( 



NEW YORK, OCTOBER 24, 1889. 



t VOL. XXXIII.-No. 14. 

 1 No 318 Broadway, New York. 





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CONTENTS. 



Editorial. 



The Wild Pigeon. 

 Here is a Mystery. 

 Snap Shots. 

 The Sportsman Tourist. 

 Comanche Chief. 

 En Acadie. 



On the North Carolina Coast. 

 Natural History. 



"in a Garden." 



The Hibernation of Reptiles. 

 Game Bag and (tun. 



The Game Season. 



Pattern and Penetration. 



New England Grouse. 



Chicago and the West. 



Taxing ttie Gun. 



Hudson River Wild Rice. 



Game Notes. 

 Camp Fire Flickerings. 

 Sea and River Fishing. 



The Pleasures of Fly-Fishing. 



Rev. Abner P. Brush. 

 Fishculture. 



The Fishing Industries of 

 Oregon. 



New York Fish Commission. 

 The Kennel. 



Nations 1 Coursing Association 



The A. K. C. Finances. 



The Kennel. 



The Irish Setter Field Trials. 



Central Field Trial Entries. 



The All- Round Dog. 



The Gordon Setter Club. 



The Sooner Dog. 



A Trotting Irish Setter. 



The Canadian Trials. 



Dog Talk. 



Kennel Notes. 



Kennel Management. 

 Rifle and Trap Shooting. 



Flange and (rallerv. 



The New Wimbledon. 



The Tran. 



Nickel Plate Gun Club Tour- 

 nament. 



The Reading Tournament. 

 Yachting. 



Classification by Corrected 

 Length. 

 Canoeing. 



Executive Committee Meeting 



Some More Snips from and 

 Another Snap at the '89 Meet 



The Paddling Trophy. 



Site for the A. C. A. Meet. 



Canoes vs. Sailing Boats. 



The '•Mini" Tent. 

 Answers to Correspondents. 



THE WILD PIGEON. 



A VERY interesting paper by Mr. William Brewster, on 

 the present status of the wild pigeon, in the current 

 number of the Aula, points to the conclusion that this in- 

 teresting bird is by no means extinct, but that driven 

 and harassed by the assiduity with which it was pursued 

 in the States it has betaken itself to uninhabited woods 

 somewhere to the north of the Great Lakes, in British 

 North America. 



This argument is mainly supported by the fact that in 

 the spring of 1888 almost every county in the southern 

 peninsula of Michigan was visited by large flocks of this 

 bird passing northward. A few isolated pairs stopped to 

 roost in the wooded districts, but the main army disap- 

 peared across the Straits of Mackinac about the close of 

 April, much to the disappointment of the oldtime netters, 

 who, concluding that the birds had returned to their old 

 haunts for the season, got out their nets and made prepar- 

 ation for the familiar slaughter. 



Mr. Brewster having been informed that the birds had 

 arrived in large numbers and were preparing to roost, set 

 off at once* to learn as much as possible about the "breed- 

 ing birds, reaching Cadillac on the 8th of May, and ling- 

 gering there waiting for information as to the nesting 

 site selected, until it was evident that the birds had gone 

 North. Here he collected evidence of the flight, prin- 

 cipally from Mr. S. S. Stevens, a resident of the place, a 

 veteran pigeon netter, and one who has a high reputation 

 for veracity and carefulness of statement. Mr. Stevens's 

 testimony was to the effect that pigeons appeared that 

 year in numbers near Cadillac about the 20th April. He 

 saw fully sixty in one day scattered about in beech woods 

 near the head of Clam Lake, and on another occasion 

 about one hundred drinking at the mouth of a brook, while 

 a flock that covered at least eight acres was observed by 

 a friend, a perfectly reliable man, flying in a northeast- 

 erly djreption, Many pther smaller flopke were reported, 



But how do these figures compare with the flights of 

 fifteen or twenty years ago? Mr. Stevens, speaking of 

 the great nesting of 1876 or 1877, says: "It began near 

 Petosky and extended northeast past Crooked Lake for 

 twenty-eight miles, averaging three or four miles wide. 

 The birds arrived in two separate bodies, one directly 

 from the south by land, the other following the east coast 

 of "Wisconsin and crossing at Manitou Island. We saw 

 the latter body come in from the lake at about 8 o'clock 

 in the afternoon. It was a compact mass of pigeons, at 

 least five miles long by one mile wide." Again referring to 

 the nesting season of 1881, Mr. Stevens estimates that five 

 hundred men were engaged in netting pigeons, and that 

 they secured on an average 20,000 birds apiece during the 

 season. That is to say, ten million birds, equal in food 

 food substance to a herd of thousands of oxen. 



Mr. Brewster concludes: "It is probable that enough 

 pigeons are left to rr-stock the West, provided that laws, 

 sufficiently stringent to give them fair protection, be at 

 once enacted. The present laws of Michigan and Wis- 

 consin are simply worse than useless, for, while they 

 prohibit disturbing the birds within the nesting, they 

 allow unlimited netting only a few miles beyond its 

 outskirts during the entire breeding season. The theory 

 is that the birds are so infinitely numerous that their ranks 

 are not seriously thinned by catching a few million of 

 breeding birds in a summer, and that the only danger to 

 be guarded against is that of frightening them away by 

 the use of guns or nets in the woods where their nests 

 are placed. The absurdity of such reasoning is self evi- 

 dent but, singularly enough, the netters, many of whom 

 struck me as intelligent a,nd homest men, seem really to 

 believe in it. As they have more or less local influence, 

 and, in addition, the powerful backing of the large game 

 dealers in the cities, it is not likely that any really effec- 

 tual laws can be passed until the last of our passenger 

 pigeons are preparing to follow the great auk and the 

 American bison." 



In our issue of Sept. 5, Mr. Geo. Board man reported 

 that after an absence of some years the wild pigeons had 

 returned in small flocks to the neighborhood of Calais, 

 Maine. Last week a Massachusetts correspondent re- 

 ported having observed scattering birds in that State. 

 Now a report comes to us that many wild pigeons have 

 been seen this year in Prince George's county, Md. On 

 Oct. 11 Mr. Geo. Marshall, of Laurel, saw three and shot 

 two of them, a third was picked up by Mr. Robert Ridg- 

 way. Mr. Marshall has noticed only five of these birds 

 this season. He was told that a boy living near the 

 Pecosin Swamp had killed three, and it is currently re- 

 ported that there is a flock of twenty-five in the neigh- 

 borhood. 



HERE IS A MYSTERY. 



ON a certain farm in New Jersey, not far from New 

 York city, there was once excellent quail shooting. 

 No special attention was paid to protecting the birds, 

 they had to run all the risks and brave all the perils that 

 beset the average game bird in its hard struggle for exist- 

 ence in New Jersey. Despite their natural enemies and 

 the assiduous pursuit by enthusiastic and persevering 

 gunners, the birds held their own, and year after year 

 the farm covers yielded a reasonable quota of game. 



It would appear to be a reasonable assumption that if 

 such a natural quail ground were carefully preserved, 

 the parent stock replenished , and the public kept off from 

 it, there would be some return to furnish a commensurate 

 reward for the pains of the proprietor. So at least rea- 

 soned one of the gentlemen who had shot on the terri- 

 tory. He converted the farm into a game preserve. It 

 was surrounded on all sides by a fence of netted wire, five 

 feet high, above which was a smooth sheathing of tin, 

 and above the tin another wire netting; boards were sunk 

 into the ground below the fence, and the entire inclosure 

 was thus made proof against the inroads of vermin from 

 without. 



It is believed that nothing but snakes can get through 

 the fence: and it is the testimony of the game keepers, 

 who are constantly employed on the place, that the pre- 

 serve is free from vermin. The land is posted, and tres- 

 passers are rigidly excluded. The shooting privileges of 

 several adjoining farms are leased, and outsiders are also 

 prevented from shooting on these tracts. For several 

 years supplies of quail have been brought from Georgia 

 and other Southern States and put out on the farm. They 

 bare evidently prospered and multiplied; at Je&gfcjbere 



has been every evidence to that effect in the breeding 

 season. 



Now the puzzling fact remains, that with all the intel- 

 ligent effort expended to better the quail shooting on this 

 New Jersey farm, the exact reverse of what was to be 

 anticipated has been the result. The shooting is not so 

 good as it used to be in the old days when the birds were 

 left to take care of themselves, and when the fun was 

 shared with other gunners of the neighborhood. Why 

 this should be so the proprietor is at a loss to explain. 

 The grounds are restocked with new birds; they appear 

 to breed well, but when the shooting season comes around 

 they are not to be found ; and to Bob White may not in- 

 appropriately be applied the boisterous refrain of De Quin- 

 cey's Society of Connoisseurs of Murder, after they had 

 kicked out Toad-in-the-hole : 



Et interrogatum est ab omnibus— Ubi est ille Toad-in-the-hole? 



Et responsum est ab omnibus— Non est inventus. 



What adds to the mystery is this, that after the shoot- 

 ing season is over and it has come time to put away the 

 guns, these elusive birds are said to reappear and once more 

 to people the covers of the old farm. It may be that the 

 birds actually do not come back, and that this alleged 

 reappearance is only the apparition of unreal spook 

 birds, presenting themselves as an uncanny hallucination 

 of the mystified game preserver and his friends whose 

 brains have been too severely taxed in grappling with 

 the mystery ; but all are stout in their assertion that the 

 birds are to be found both before and after the shooting 

 season, but never while their feathers might be lawful 

 game. 



The preserve proprietor is at his wits' ends to account 

 for this mysterious disappearance or to circumvent the 

 cunning birds. One theory is that the birds migrate to 

 the South; that having come from Georgia they do not 

 take kindly to New Jersey autumn weather, but follow 

 other migrants to sunnier climes. This is a tenable 

 hypothesis, but it leaves out of account the alleged 

 materialization of the quail still later in the season and 

 in harsher weather. 



The most reasonable conclusion is that the quail are of 

 an educated stock, "up to snuff" and altogether too cun- 

 ning for New Jersey craft, even though it be backed up 

 by wire netting, paid keepers and all the paraphernalia 

 of modern game preserving; and if the proprietor of the 

 farm wants quail shooting he must stock his preserves 

 with unsophisticated birds. But in these days of shot- 

 guns universal, where shall one go for an uneducated 

 strain of quail? 



SNAP SHOTS. 



"QPORTSMAN" is a better term than "nimrod" to 

 ^ designate the field shooter of feathered game or 

 the hunter who pursues larger game. It is simpler, more 

 natural, less affected, and in every way an appropriate 

 designation. "Nimrod" is much more affected by the 

 "lay press" than by a paper devoted to sportsmen's inter- 

 ests; and it usually appears in some such connection as 

 this, "John Doe and Richard Roe, the well-known nim- 

 rods of our village, were out shooting this week and 

 returned with a brace of bunnies each, one of which 

 found its way to the editor's table. Thanks, Richard." 



Mr. Wm. P. Seal's suggestion that it may be proved 

 practicable to transfer some of the valuable salt-water 

 species of food and game fish to inland waters, points to 

 a new field of fishcultural enterprise as novel as if suc- 

 cessful its results will be vast and important. The ex- 

 periments in this direction will be watched with eager 

 interest, for the possibilities are tremendous. 



American types of small pleasure craft are making their 

 way around the world. The publishers report repeated 

 sales of Stephens's "Canoe and Boat Building" in Aus- 

 tralia and Japan. In that particular line of boat building 

 America leads to-day, and it is not to be wondered at 

 that foreign nations should come to us for instructions. 



We have known many a man to be so lavish of right- 

 eous indignation against game law breakers that he had 

 none left for himself when he went into the woods and 

 ran deer out of season. 



We give, to-day the story of "Comanche Chief," from 

 "Yo's" "Pawnee Hero Stories and Folk-Tales," and we 

 hope-soon, to announce that, \hd bpok is re.atfj/pr^Jj-verY, 



