March. 20, 1890.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



169 



other gentleman has the quota of quail for his location 

 still in confinement in a large room". They have bfcom^ 

 very tame, eating grain freely from his hands. These 

 qUH.il he will liberate as soon as he deems the weather to 

 be suitable. 



Still more quail are to be received by the committee, 

 the contributions toward the good work hav ng been 

 quite free, in addition to the money furnished by the 

 association as a body. They also expect some pin- 

 nated gmufe, and some sharptail grou&e they have 

 already engaged. It is also hoped that other forms of 

 game may fall to their lot. The committee feels much 

 encouragt d by the way their work is being appreciated. 

 They are beset with application*, not only for quail fjee 

 of cost, but resp >nsihle parties desire to. purchase them, 

 to restock localities in which they take an interest. 



Special. 



The regular monthly meeting of the Massachusetts Fish 

 and Game Protective Association was held March 13 at 

 Hotel Thorndike, Boston. President E. A. Samuels pre- 

 siding, and 125 members present. The following were 

 elected members: Jos. B. Lncke, Cecil M. Caverly, Edw. 

 Brooks, Allen Dan forth, Hon. Edward D. Hay den, Wm. 

 O. Blake, Philip Little, Wm. P. Lawrence, Samuel A. 

 Hopkins, A. A. H. Meredith, Wm. Minot, Jr.. S. M. Weld, 

 Howard Stockton. Francis B. Greene, Loren G. Du Bois, 

 Fred. Dodee, David M. W lliams, Chas. F Munroe, H. E. 

 Smith, Wilmot R. Evans, Walter S. Brewer, William J. 

 Wright, W. W. Daviw, Chas. H. T inter, W. C. Prescott, 

 Prof. B. M. Watson, Jr., and A. W. Dexter. Twenty-six 

 more were proposed for membership. Mr. Henry J. 

 Thayer, secretary of the committee on the importation of 

 game, gave a very interesting report of the work of the 

 committee in the procuring and distribution of game; 700 

 quail have been liberated in different localities. Other 

 shipments are expected foon and will be sent to persons 

 applying for them, who will see that they are properly 

 cared for and protected. Owing to the open season hav- 

 ing already closed, the work of securing pinnated grouse, 

 sharptailed grouse. California quail Virginia quail and 

 wild turkeys, must be largely preparatory for the coming 

 summer and autumn, when we hope to be able to procure 

 plenty of these varieties. However, the committee ex 

 pect quite a number of pinnated grouse, providing a fair 

 amount of snow comes in States in which they can be 

 ©btained. 



The success of this new undertaking has exceeded the 

 most sanguine expectations. tNot only has the committee 

 been helped in its labors by the members of the Associa- 

 tion, but also through the general interest displayed by- 

 sportsmen and clubs throughout the State. Offers, one 

 upon another, have been received, to pay for and take 

 care of any birds intrusted to their care; and also unso- 

 licited offers of financial aid from persons neither mem- 

 bers of the Association nor asking for birds. The mem- 

 bership list of the Association also shows names of genu- 

 ine sportsmen, added from this action alone. 



Dr. John T. Stetson, Messrs. John Fottler, Jr., and 

 James Russell Reed, also gave some very interesting ac- 

 counts of how the work of distributing and feeding the 

 birds was being done. 



Richard O. Harding, Secretary. 



NOTES FROM THE GAME FIELDS, 



West Virginia. 



TTUNTINGTON, West Virginia, March 10.— Sportsmen 

 XX in this part of the country have become quite 

 numerous, and the hunting season is anticipated with 

 much eagerness. Twelve years ago I brought a breech- 

 loader here, and it was regarded as quite a curiosity; but 

 now the use of the muzzleloader is looked upon as old- 

 fogyish and unsportsmanlike. ^ 



The last quail season was excellent in amount of game, 

 and there need be no fear that Bob White will not hold 

 his own if the laws are obeyed. I regard it as a mistake 

 to prohibit shooting for several successive years that the 

 game may increase, especially quail, because at the end 

 of the term the game will be pursued with redoubled 

 vigor and the number of birds at once brought down 

 to the old standard. As it i-i the shooting season is short 

 —and that is right — and the law forbids trapping at 

 any time. Therefore I am happily able to say that 

 better shooting has not been had for ten years than we 

 had last f ill. I suppose all the towns along the Ohio 

 witness, as does Huntington, the occasional, 1 may say 

 yearly, visit of quail in the midst of them. In the fall 

 one may wake up in the morning to hear the whistle of 

 Bob White and see him perched upon the house tops. 

 Then it is that the hoodlums of the streets and unprin- 

 cipled men pelt and otherwise persecute them. At first 

 I wondered how they came to get into the city ; but after 

 a little reasoning I am certain as to the cause or causes. 

 They are first found in the city in the morning, and are 

 so bewildered as not to know how to get out. I presume 

 they are flushed in the nisiht by boys or wild animals, or 

 it may be the innocent hare in his nocturnal gambols, 

 and fly in the darkness they know not where. I have no 

 doubt that great numbers perish in the Ohio by being 

 flushed at night, especially when fogs are dense, for I 

 have noticed that during the time of fall fogs they are 

 found scattered about the city. 



Last year- there seemed to be more woodcock than 

 usual ; indeed they seem to be on the increase, though 

 still very scarce. As to grouse, they are indeed a vara 

 avis, and not only that, they seem much wilder than 

 those in New York, being seldom found outside the close 

 tin-f>ber. However, a strange thing happened one day 

 that I could hardly believe had another told it to me, I 

 was hunting quail in the timber when Mick c <me to a 

 "dead stand," and I »oking I saw perhaps not 10yds. from 

 me a phea>ant ^quitting close, and upon ground as bare 

 of cover as the sidewalk of Broadway. It was the only 

 grou-e I have -hot in the western part of West Virginia. 

 I have shot a considerable number of snipe, though they 

 may not be considered plentiful. N. D. E. 



Missouri. 



Seneca., Mi. — I am glad to note the fact that the 

 shooting season closed this year with fine weather, and 

 the effect is th^t the market-hunters have been badly set 

 hack and we have an abundant supply of quail left for 

 next season. It' they increase as rapidly this year as they 

 did last, this part of the country will be abundantly sup- 

 plied with them. We had tome fine quail shooting last 



season; some of our town sportsmen were out and killed 

 from 15 to 60 in one day's shooting. We did not have 

 any duck shooting last fall; the weather was so fine that 

 when they started south they took through trains and did 

 not stop on their way. We have had a cold wave and 

 the ducks are coming in in great numbers, and we are 

 having fine sport. Four of our sportsmen came in Mon- 

 day evening with 144, which is the largest kill of the 

 season. The writer was out last Thursday, the day the 

 blizzard struck us, and downed 15 ducks as fine as I ever 

 saw. 



I would like to meet some of the Eastern sportsmen 

 and have a j ood camp-out for a week or two, and let 

 them enjoy a hunt in the S uthwest. Some of the finest 

 sport in the land can he had very near this place. I hope 

 it will not be many years before we can have some of the 

 field tri Is run on our fine prairies, where there is no brush 

 to interfere with the dogs or their handlers and where 

 there are plenty of birds, and all dogs could have equal 

 chances. 



I would like to see a company formed and a sports- 

 man's club organized here, and then we could lease some 

 of the Territory land on the Neosho River, where there 

 are some fine lakes, good fishing and fine duck shooting 

 in fall and spring, with snipe and plover; and then when 

 the season opens chickens and quail are in abundance. 

 Think of this, fellow sp> rtsmen, and when you want to 

 have good sport and plenty of good pure air 'and as fine 

 water as ever flowed from the earth, just come to this 

 part of the vineyard. R. H. Fesperman. 



Arkansas Wild Turkeys. 



Arkadelphia, Ark., March 7.— The close season on 

 quail has begun, and we must give them a little respite 

 and allow them to "be fruitful and mulriply." We can, 

 however, further "divert" by gathering our wits to out- 

 general the wily old gobbler. The gobbling season is 

 just coming upon us, and the State game law does not 

 draw its protecting folds about this noble bird until May 

 1; so we have full six weeks before us for the enj ryment 

 of this splendid sport. A brother hunter from the coun- 

 try reported to me a few days ago that he had found or 

 located several fine bunches in the Terre Noir bottom, 

 and, to use his language, "they were gobbling to beat 

 Johnson!" They are easily found now wherever there is 

 a sufficiency of mast to feed upon — pin oak and white 

 oak acorns and especially hickory nuts. Do your readers 

 know that wild turkeys "eat hickory nuts, and that they 

 are never so fat as when they can feed on them? My 

 friend told me that on the trip mentioned he called up & 

 very fine gobbler, and that he came to him strutting and 

 gobbling while a considerable rain was falling. This is 

 quite a rare occurrence. Geombeck. 



Connecticut. 



Haddam, Conn., Feb. 27. — The quail and partridge in 

 this section have wintered finely, and there were more 

 left over from last fall's shooting than I had expected, 

 and as there were no tracking snows daring the late fall 

 and winter, the boys and pot hunters could not trail 

 them to their cover and slaughter them. While driving- 

 through the country my dog flushed several partridges 

 and one woodcock. I saw no quail, but learned from 

 others that quite a number survived last season's fusil- 

 ade. One rnan told me he saw a bevy of about a dozen 

 cross a road on which he was driving about the first of 

 the month; these by singularly good luck must have 

 escaped the hunter's gun entirely. On my last tramp 

 during last season I left from four to six birds in four 

 different bevies from which I shot, and I learned that 

 two of the bevies had not been disturbed after I left them. 

 This gives a fair outlook for next season's[shooting. * *May 

 we be there to see." A. 



WATERPROOFING TENTS. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



Several items have recently appeared in relatiou to 

 waterproofing garments and tents with alum and sugar 

 of lead. Not only will that compound waterproof, but I 

 am satisfied it tends to prevent the fabric becoming rot- 

 ten. Tents will frequently leak when there is a hot fire 

 in them, heaw fabric more readily than lighter. 



In 1861 1 had a Sibley tent of 12oz. duck in use. on the 

 plains and mountains. At the close of that season I had 

 another made of lOoz. duck; both of them would leak 

 when there was a hot fife in them, commencing 3 or 4ft. 

 from the ground. 



In 1867 or 68 I treated the latter tent and a small old 

 tent made of drilling with 61bs. alum and same amount 

 of sugar of lead. Those tents have seen much service 

 since that time, and so far as I can see the fabric is as 

 strong as when thus treated and turns rain as well. 



I have a large wall tent of lOin. duck which would leak 

 sometimes, fire or no fire. I had it in use in 1888, and on 

 one occtsion when standing broad- ide to a driving rain 

 it leaked very badly; so much so that had it not been for 

 a plenty of rubber blankets on hand, we who occupied 

 that side of the tent would have passed an uncomfortable 

 night. 



L<st summer I treated the latter tent with 51bs. alum 

 and 61 bs. sugar of lead, putting the tent into the liquid 

 when hot, let the tent lay in soak two or three d<iys. 

 Last fall I had that tent in use, the same side exposed to 

 driving rains, and it did not leak. 



Tents thus treated let the light through the fabric more 

 readily than w^en not thus treated. There is a marked 

 effect in that regard. H. L. 



Pekhaps a Vermont Deer.— Saratoga Springs, N. Y. 

 — Morris M. Jones, an employee of a. slate quarry at Paw- 

 let, was recently arrested and fined for the killing of a 

 deer in the town of Granville, "Washington county, N. Y. 

 The deer is supposed to have been one of a number turned 

 loose by the Rutland (Vt.) Fish and Game Association, 

 and had probably stra t > ed f rum the others. J ones says he 

 was so surprised at seeing the deer, that law was for- 

 gotten.— Don RlOARDO. 



Gun Test — The 12-arauge Lefever gun reported in last 

 week's 1-orest and Stream, appeared in the heading as 

 of gauge 10. The gauge given in the detailed reports 

 was correct. 



Quail near New York City. — I spent several weeks 

 at Lakewood, N. J., in November and December this last 

 season, and one day with a borrowed gun and a hired 

 man with his two dogs, I went in search of quail.. We 

 flushed six coveys, one being the largest I have ever seen, 

 andifour partridges, besides kicking up a number of rab- 

 bits. We t-hot only three quail and one partridge, owing 

 in a measure to the poor quality of the cartridges. The 

 man said he had bought a lot for \\ cents apiece. Time 

 and time again I would knock the feathers out of a bird, 

 but he would quickly recover and fly on. I had no idea 

 that birds were eo plenty in such an accessible locality, 

 and I send you this line'thinking that some of your city 

 readers, who have a day now and then to spare from their 

 bnsiuess, would like to make a note of this for next fall.— 



F'LIN. 



That North Carolina Trip. — Editor Forest and 

 Stream: An examination of the contents of my letter in 

 the Forest and Stream of the 6th inst. will show that it 

 does not c in ta in any remark as to my having found six 

 coveys on precisely the same ground as "H. W. K," 

 would lead us to believe. "H. W. K." does not note that 

 the fifty biro's killed in Ihree hours bad been done by four 

 persons and eight barrels, not by two p c rsons and four 

 barrels, as in his case. I did not have two companions 

 with me on the day of my little unpleasantness with the 

 litigious Sherral, as I do not consider a paid guide my 

 companion; and the other was merely a ringer-in. — P. K. 



"That reminds me." 

 300. 



THE yarn was spun by my old-time trapping chum 

 Jim Morehead, the whitest man who ever wore a 

 No. 13 boot. Said he, "I was down to R'a {;-\ new ariival 

 from Maine) the other day, and when I met him out by 

 the woodpile, says he, 'Jim, did you ever eat coon?' 

 'Many a time,' says I. 'When I heard folks talk about 

 eatin' coon,' says he, 'I thought they weren't fit for food; 

 but I killed a big fat one the other day and my wife 

 baked it nicely in the oven, and I tell you Jim we all 

 liked it, it was just tip-top, there's the skin of it,' and he 

 pointed up toward the gable end of the house. I looked 

 up where he was pointing, '"an' thar was the onhuman- 

 liest badger skin I ever seed." Orin Belknap. 



301. 



In the progress of our survey along Red River we have 

 had some good quail shooting, and the character of our 

 operations afford an occasional opportunity for some 

 members of the party to indulge in the sport. 



We have in the party a German engineer, Kotzbue, 

 who affords us much amusement by assuming the airs 

 and mien of a sportsman, while betraying a wonderful 

 degree of innocence of any knowledge of the craft. 

 "Kotz" had a breechloader of which he was very proud, 

 having brought it over from the Faderland. He Usually 

 carried it slung across his back, needle gun fashion, and 

 making a very imposing appearance, 



I asked him if he was fond of quail shooting. "No," 

 he replied, "dey ar-re doo easy to szhoot. I can gill dem 

 efery time." During the first part of the trip Kotzbue 

 generally hunted alone, and most of the birds tie claimed 

 to have killed "fell into the veeds" and couldn't be found. 

 On his return from a hunt the following colloquy usually 

 ensued : 



"How many birds did you kill, Kotz?" 

 "Seven or eight, but dey vail in de veeds. I vould not 

 vaste my time looking for dem." 

 "How manv did you find?" 

 "Two." 



Charley A. went out with Kotz one day, and found out 

 how his birds "fell in de veeds." "When he fired at one, 

 the smoke, together with his nearsightedness, prevented 

 his seeing the bird fly off. "I kill dat bird," says Kotz. 

 "No you didn't," says Charley, ""I saw him fly away." 

 Nevertheless Kotz woiud look for his dead bird several 

 minutes, and then say, "Ah! you cannot find dem in dis 

 veeds. If dey have de least bit life dey goneeal dem- 

 selves." 



I ran across Kotz one day with a covey of birds scat- 

 tered all around bim. I asked what he had killed. He 

 said he was shooting No. 8 shot, which were too small; 

 he had wounded three birds, but "could not get dem." 

 Pretty soon a bird was flushed and Kotz fired at him a 

 hundred yards off, just as he was about to alight. The 

 bird was too far off to be frightened by the shot, eo sailed 

 gently to the ground. 



"Ah!" said Kotz, "you see dat! I am shooting shot 

 No. 8. Dey ar-re too small. Dey joost deesaple de-pirds, 

 so dey ar-re joost aple to vly on, Ven dey hit de ground 

 dev_r-run like fe-e-fty, und you can't find dem any more." 



He now shoots "shot number four" altogether at quail. 

 He says; ' Yen dey hit dem, dey come down," 



Kotzbue had a pointer. Poor Sam was whipped on every 

 occasion. I saw Kotz one day shoot at a rabbit, A few 

 minutes after Sam got ud another and gave chase. "Dat 

 vas a r-rabbit," said he, "but he vas doo quick for me. I 

 could not git a shot. Gome here, Sam. You know you 

 must not r-run dem!" And Sam was duly thrashed. 

 For a while after, whenever Sam no^-ed a bush Kotz 

 would say; "Dat is a r-rabbit! You know you must 

 not!" Aud Sam would catch it again. On one occasion 

 Sam got up a rabbit too far from Kotz for a shot, but it 

 ran near Charley. "Catch Sam ana vip him for me ! He 

 must not run r-rabbits!" But Charley shot the rabbit and 

 let Sam go in peace. "Oh! you got him Charley?" said 

 Kotz as he came puffing up. "Dat is nice. Gome, Sam, 

 old fellow: good dog!" and Sam was fondly caressed. 



On<> of the party relates the following: "I was walking 

 by a thicket when some one fired from the opp >site side 

 and sprinkled me with bird shot. I cursed the fellow and 

 told him he would find it to bis interest to look where he 

 svas shooting next time. I received no replv, so went to 

 an opening and looked through to see who had shot me. 

 I saw Mr, Kotzbue with shouldered gun, walking off 

 briskly but quietly down a cotton row, and occasionally 

 casting an anxious glance over Ms shoulder." 



When Kotz tells how many birds he killed now. we 

 ask if they are two-legged birds. He replies very seri- 

 ously: "Yes; you know pirds all have two legs." 



Tripod. 



Mississippi. 



