452 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Dec. 26, 1889. 



MAINE DEER. 



LIGHT snows in Maine, followed by not very cold 

 weather, have made excellent opportunity for deer 

 hunting, and it has been improved to some extent. Still 

 the reports of success are not just what might have been 

 expected. Three hunters from Boston laave been in the 

 woods for a week or more, and yesterday a letter an- 

 nounced that one of the party had killed his first buck. The 

 story is that the deer, though fairly plenty, are very wild 

 and hard to approach. Still it is probable that a want of 

 skill in hunting that very timid animal is what is gener- 

 ally lacking. B. F. Coburn, of South Moluncus, informs 

 a friend here that he is in possession of the skin of a white 

 deer. It was taken o?f from a deer killed in that section 

 this fall, and Mr. Coburn says that it is very white; 

 nothing in his experience ever having been seen like it. 

 His friends desire to ask the Forest and Stream if such 

 an animal is on record in scientific works? 



It seems that the shipping of deer from Maine to the 

 Boston market in barrels has been stopped by some means 

 or other. Only one haB been seen of late, though there 

 were a good many of them here a few weeks ago. It is 

 evident that commissioners and wardens have taken the 

 matter in hand, for one chap writes a commission house 

 here that he would like to ship them several more deer, 

 but that the game wardens have got on to him. The 

 head of the house answered his letter discouraging 

 the further shipment of such game. In this case only 

 the fact of the letter can be obtained, and not the name 

 of the illegal shipper of game. The shipments of deer to 

 this market are heavy from Minnesota. The other day 

 there came in one invoice, fifty-two whole deer and 

 about half as many saddles. It is a shame that game 

 must be slaughtered in such a wholesale way. Generally 

 the best of marketmen are not pleased with it. They 

 do not make very high profits, especially of late years, 

 since public opinion has come to be against the traffic. 

 I know of several gentlemen, very fond of venison, who 

 will not buy a pound in the market, for the reason that 

 they are lovers of field sports, and they do not like to see 

 game in the market, and they will not encourage the 

 trade by their patronage. A prominent dealer in veni8on 

 tells me that the trade is not what it was formerly. 

 Venison that has been rotted in the market with the skin 

 on. is not received with the favor it was formerly, not 

 even on the tables of fashion. Special. 

 December Hi. 



CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 



/ CHICAGO, Dec. 6.— Mr. W. W. Carney writes from 

 v Great Bend, Kan.: "I stole off last week and went 

 on my annual quail hunt. I alone killed forty-seven; 

 had I had company could have killed several more, as 

 they got cunning and would all get up on the opposite 

 side of the hedge. There has been fairly good duck 

 shooting since October, but there was almost too much 

 water to be pleasant." 



Rabbits have been numerous about Vandalia, 111., this 

 season. Over 8,000 have been shipped from Vandalia 

 alone. The crop extends over three counties, according 

 to reports. 



Messrs. A. M. Fuller, Chas. Morris and S. Dingee start 

 this week for an extended quail shoot in southwestern 

 Arkansas. 



Large strings of quail are being brought into this city 

 every day by countrymen from south of this city. It is 

 very probable that extensive trapping of quail is going 

 on in this State and in Indiana. 



Comment has been made in earlier articles on the fact 

 that the ducks of Western waters have changed their 

 habits. Mr. Sellers, president of the Nee-pee-nauk Club, 

 remarks that on Puckaway Marsh the mallards now sit 

 down on the open water nearly all day and feed like 

 deep-water ducks, even diving in 4 or 5ft. of water. 

 Other shooters are beginning to notice these propensities 

 in the mallards, and perhaps this is the reason the birdB 

 have been so hard to "work" this fall. They have learned 

 that their only safety lies in the open water. Some 

 shooters do not believe that the ducks have changed or 

 will change in their habits. To them may be offered the 

 following in regard to a bird called the Diduneulus, a 

 specimen of which is mentioned as being kept in the 

 London Zoological Gardens: "'This little pigeon is inter- 

 esting for the ingenious way in which it has defeated the 

 machinations of that enemy of the bird tribe, the cat. 

 Didunculus lives in Samoa, where there were originally 

 of course no cats. These were introduced and made 

 short work with the "manumea," as the natives called 

 the bird, killing not only the adult, but the chicks in the 

 nest. Owing to its habit of nesting upon the ground, 

 the bird nearly became extinct; suddenly, however, it 

 took to building its nest upon the treetops, where it could 

 bring up its young ones in peace, and since that time the 

 bird has again become fairly plentiful." 



I met Mr. Ward the other day, and he had a grieved 

 look on his face. "Say," he began, "I used to think a 

 good deal of you, till you wrote that story about my 

 buying a cow for a retriever. Any one that will let a 

 fellow like that man Cook, load him up with a lot of 

 stuff about me that way, is no longer entitled to my con- 

 fidence. Why, do you really think I'd buy a cow for a 

 retriever, and lead her— it, I mean— forty miles down 

 through the Indiana mud? It don't stand to reason! 

 Now, I wouldn't tell a story like that about Cook for any- 

 thing in the world. But say," and Mr. Ward's voice 

 sank to a tone of infinite pity as he led me aside out of 

 hearing of the lady stenographers, "do you know what 

 that man did while he was down at the club house, that 

 time he told you he got a 'nice string of mallards?' Well, 

 he hunted twelve days and never killed a thing but three 

 fish ducks, and his pusher says he killed them all at one 

 shot! Sent up to town and got a hundred tin birds, and 

 counted them all in the bag! I don't know whether he 

 shot them in the box or not. Why say, he couldn't hit a 

 duck, and he went to hunting mnskrats out in the marsh! 

 Staid down there two weeks, and then he 9ent home to 

 his wife three fish ducks and a wooden decoy, with 'Killed 

 by E. C. Cook, Nov. 30, 1889, on De Golyer Marsh. Great 

 sport,' written on the bottom of the decoy. I tell you, 

 that decoy is the only mallard that man Cook ever shot 

 m his life. Next morning after he got home, Mrs. Cook 

 told him it cost him just $100 or she'd give the decoy 

 story away to every friend he had. He didn't put up the 

 f 100, and now every man that meets Cook on the street 

 just laughs and says, 'Great times down on the marsh 



hey?' Why, I'm sorry for Cook, I am actually, they guy 

 him so." 



"Oh now, see here, Mr. Ward," said I, "you don't 

 mean to tell me Mr. Cook ever sent that old decoy up to 

 his wife with any such inscription !" 



"Oh, I don't, don't I?" Well, now, if you don't believe 

 it. you go ask Mrs. Cook, and she'll say she got just such 

 a decoy. Or— say, you go upstairs and ask Holt. Holt'll 

 tell you the same thing." 



I went upstairs and asked Mr. Holt, and Mr. Holt said 

 he guessed it was so; at least he knew all the boys were 

 saying "Great times down on the marsh, eh, Cook?" To 

 be perfectly sure I was getting the facts straight, and not 

 doing Mr. Cook any injustice, I asked Mr. Ward once 

 more if he was positive as to his statement. 



"Why, of course I am," he replied. "A man that 

 would deliberately say I bought a cow for a retriever, 

 and led it forty miles down to the marsh, wouldn't stop 

 at anything, let alone sending a wooden mallard home to 

 his family," 



I don't know what will become of these two men. 

 They never seem to agree about anything. E. Hough. 



RIFLE AND PISTOL, 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



In your issue of the 12th hist., I notice a communi- 

 cation from Mr. C. H. Ames in regard to form of rifle 

 bullets. I sincerely hope Mr. A. is not in the habit of 

 placing the cartridges in the magazine of his gun after 

 he has so sharpened them. If such has been his custom, 

 and he finds life worth living, let him not delay in thank- 

 ing a merciful providence that this mortal coil still en- 

 circles him, and that he also retains the frame of his 

 rifle intact. I supposed that every gunner understood 

 that the peculiar shape of the fl&t end bullet was simply 

 to protect the primer of the following cartridge in the 

 magazine from an accidental discharge by the preceding 

 bullet, which would, of course, discharge the whole 

 magazine in rotation and might lead to a surprise party 

 of the first magnitude for the shooter. 



Replying to Mr. A.'s other inquiry, I have always used 

 the method of two-hand revolver shooting he mentions 

 and found it very effective, especially in shooting game, 

 a great deal of which I have killed with this weapon, in- 

 cluding even the partridge or grouse. While I might be 

 called a very indifferent shot on a target, I find it an en- 

 tirely different matter shooting at game. As in archery, 

 that instinct which wraps the undivided attention for the 

 time being seems to guide the hand and eye until it is 

 almost an impossibility lo hit other than the object 

 aimed at. 



Let shooters try the following lor the revolver: Bluet, 

 the extended fingers and thumb of the left hand on the 

 right breast just below the arm, with the left elbow well 

 elevated above the horizontal. Now grasp the pistol in 

 the right hand in the usual manner and place the right 

 forearm resting upon and parallel to the left (right hand 

 shoald rest on left elbow) and you have a solid rest on a 

 level with the eye, with which the pulsations of the heart 

 and the action of breathing will not interfere. 



Oneonta, N. Y. Americus. 



[Our correspondent is quite right in drawing that dis- 

 dinction which is so often found between target and 

 game shooting, so it is that in testing shotguns, an after- 

 noon of fifty shots at the paper screens is far more weary- 

 ing than a double number of shots fired at game, and 

 while target shooting admits of being taught by precept 

 and drill, field shooting must come through individual 

 practice. Our correspondent is somewhat wrong, how- 

 ever, in assuming that flat-pointed bullets are made so 

 only for safety in magazines. This form of bullet helps 

 much in securing steady flight. 



THE ADIRONDACK DEER LAW. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



Now that the season for legal deer hunting has closed, 

 it is proper to look back and view the results obtained 

 through a very limited channel. The present law, while 

 a very good one in some respects, in the clause relating 

 to transportation of carcasses of deer especially — in others 

 is not strict enough, as we will try to show. 



The open season, Aug. 15 to Nov. 1, is too long: but by 

 far the greatest menace of deer is the hounding season, 

 Sept. 1 to Oct. 20. From Sunday morning, Sept. 1, 1889, 

 until Sunday evening, Oct. 20, wherever deer were to be 

 found the deep baying of hounds could be heard relent- 

 lessly searching on the trail; beside every lake and pond 

 men and boys with guns of all kinds kept the ranks full; 

 and they came from far and near. 



A young man from this place had to go as far as Indian 

 Lake, Hamilton county, during the hounding season. 

 This man in his own words said: "I'll bet you I saw over 

 a thousand deer beside the road, in wagons and every 

 way." Another young man, who worked in one of the 

 hotels at Saranac Lake, told me that six V ermont farm- 

 ers went into the woods, taking only one guide, and 

 brought out twenty-one deer — all the law would allow — 

 "and they were not out a cent only what they paid the 

 guide, for they brought their grub with them." Another 

 hunting crowd from Philadelphia brought in twelve 

 dogs and violated the law so badly that they were fined. 

 The hotel keeper with an eye to business paid the fine; 

 and the hunters stayed long enough so that a balance 

 resulted to his credit. 



Eleven deer were killed ahead of two hounds at the 

 State dam, foot of Ragged Lake, one Sunday. No ex- 

 ceptions being made in favor of does and young fawns, 

 they suffer the fate of the antlered king. Can such 

 slaughter oontinue without deer being a thing of the 

 past, and that very soon, too? 



Then there are the cruster and June jacker, who get in 

 their silent work. There are those who know where to 

 put salt in the spring of the year and in the warm eve- 

 nings of June and July watch by the lick and bring them 

 down. There are lazy wretches who will not work, but 

 who will don snow shoes and tramp to the yards and 

 slaughter at pleasure. All through the Adirondacks are 

 such men; still the law is strong enough in regard to 

 penalty, but it lacks one essential, and that is to pay the 

 informer. 



To me it seems that the legal season is too long. I 

 would like to see the game law in relation to deer so 

 amended that it would in substance Hbe: "Open season, 

 Sept. I to Nov. 1, hounding season, Oct, 10 to Oct, 20," 



with the exceptions in such counties as are now in force 

 to remain so. A ten days season is long enough to hound, 

 for there is the great danger of their extermination. Let 

 there be a $25 reward to the informer, to be paid by the 

 State upon presentation of certified copies of the court's 

 sentence upon an offender against the deer law. I 

 would strongly urge this reward to informers for this 

 reason, that everybody's business is nobody's business, and 

 no matter who he may be, the June jacker or cruster has 

 his friends, who will try to shield him, and if a person 

 will make nothing — only enemies — by informing, they 

 escape trial oftener than they are brought to justice. 

 Another reason why the State should be made responsi- 

 ble is that nine out of ten illegal hunters are not worth 

 enough to pay the fine, and so if the informer is sure of 

 his pay he will be sure to give the desired information. 



Put a money value upon the proof of such illegal deer 

 hunting and there will be some one who knows, and will 

 for the money try and land the illegal hunter in the 

 officers' hands. In my opinion the State will not be out 

 much on account of payment to informers, for when the 

 would-be lawbreaker knows there is a ' price on his 

 work," he will stay at home. Michigan has prohibited 

 hounding, but in a recent article I observe that one of 

 the State game wardens put out the dogs for a. party of 

 hunters. Would he have done so if some one could have 

 got $25 for proving he did so? Our game warden is an 

 energetic and faithful officer, but he is very often ham- 

 pered instead of helped by the friends of illegal hunters. 

 As a native of those grand old woods and a friend of 

 those beautiful yet timid creatures, I am moved to lifting 

 my pen against leaving the avenue open to their slaugh- 

 ter. Will any and all who are of my mind please send 

 me name and address with such ideas as may suggest 

 themselves, and perhaps by co-operation we may accom- 

 plish the desired end. Wm. H. Gordon. 



Ellenburg Center, Clintou County, N. Y. 



THE CHOICE OF RIFLES. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



The extremists have had the most to say in this discus- 

 sion, and though their views may not be accepted by a 

 majority of your readers who are. interested in rifle 

 shooting, they are worthy of respect, being, to a certain 

 extent, the results of experiments and practical tests. 

 To this class we are indebted for many improvements, 

 and from them we expect still more. Only create a de- 

 mand, and Yankee ingenuity will supply the article. 

 The perfection of the small calibers well illustrates this, 

 as does also the development of the express principle. 



There are other things, however, to be looked after in 

 selecting a rifle than the most suitable caliber and the 

 charge of powder and lead. Leaving the question of 

 action aside, which is largely a matter of choice, and 

 presuming that the rifling is properly done, attention is 

 directed to the barrel. For a given charge, what should 

 be its length and weight? It would appear that the 

 lighter a gun is and the shorter its barrel within certain 

 limits the more convenient it is for hunting ; but it is 

 likewise apparent that reducing the weight diminishes 

 its accuracy and penetration and increases its recoil, 

 while shortening the barrel to too great an extent would 

 raise the trajectory and affect the accuracy also. 



Now, the question is how far can this reduction of 

 weight and length be carried without materially impair- 

 ing the efficiency of the aim for hunting purposes. 



A considerable variation in weight and length of barrel 

 is noticeable in rifles using the same cartridge, even 

 when made by the same company. For instance, guns 

 ranging from 7 to 10 lbs., and from 24 to 82-inch barrel, 

 use the same charge. If the lighter weight is sufficient, 

 of what use is it to carry around tilbs. extra ; if 24 inches 

 is long enough, why is it necessary to stick 8 inches 

 more on the unhandy end of a gun ? 



We look first for accuracy, but if we can put dow-n the 

 weight and reduce the length of barrel without ma- 

 terially affecting this condition, we gain an important 

 point, and one that is appreciated more at the close of a 

 day's tramp than at its beginning. F. H. G. 



Elizabeth, N. .T. 



QUAIL IN NORTH CAROLINA. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



I have just returned from a three weeks' trip to Little- 

 ton, N. C, The weather was simply perfect, not a drop 

 of rain, with the thermometer averaging 60°. There are 

 as many birds there now as at any time in the past, and 

 they are large and fat. The lands are, some of them, 

 posted, but only against the pot-hunter, which will insure 

 good shooting for years to come. It is not an unusual 

 thing for hunters to put up from four to eight coveys of 

 quail each day; add to that the fine climate and high 

 elevation of that part of the State, and the average man 

 can be dry happy and healthy there. 



I was very fortunate in finding accommodations with 

 a private family, who made my stay exceedingly pleas- 

 ant. "Mine host," Mr. Garrett S. Bellis, is a native of 

 New Jersey, and is glad see and entertain his former 

 neighbors; parties or individuals from the North can 

 have such cooking as they are used to at home, with 

 good sleeping accommodations. The law allows the 

 shooting of quail until April 1 , and those contemplating 

 a trip South could not do better than write to Mr. Bellis, 

 Littleton, North Carolina, and then pack up and follow 

 by next train. C. M. Hathaway. 



New Tobk. 



Staten Island Rabbits.— A petition was recently 

 presented by about sixty residents of Richmond county, 

 requesting the board to prohibit the shooting or trapping 

 of rabbits during the month of January, as the rabbits 

 were liable to become extinct altogether. The season 

 usually ends on February 1. The signatures were headed 

 by Francis Endicott, the president of the Game and Fish 

 Protection Society. 



Virginia Quail.— Buffalo Lithia Springs, Va., Dec. 

 10.— I am engaged in surveying a railroad here and am 

 consequently out pretty much all the time. I never in 

 all my life have seen such a quantity of quail. It is a 

 a common thing to see three or four coveys of thirty or 

 forty in an hour. Yet the people here do not seem to 

 take any interest in shooting at all.— A. B. G. 



