Oct. 16, 1890.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



249 



WAYS OF THE RUFFED GROUSE. 



THE ruffed grouse is essentially a ground bird. When 

 he flies into a tree it is almost solely for the purpose 

 of escaping from a persistent pursuer, or for the purpose 

 of feeding on buds or grapes, whose vines depend from 

 its branches. When the occasion has passed he returns 

 immediately to the earth. 



He sleeps on the ground, as is well known by every 

 observant sportsman, and can be easily proved. When 

 the grouse is feeding among the grape vines he instantly 

 drops to the ground on the approach of footsteps. 



He has also a trick to escape from his enemy; when 

 two are together, as they frequently are late in the fall, 

 one will fly and the other will lie flat on the bare ground 

 till the person has passed, when they will again join each 

 other. 



The gait of the grouse is curious. Ordinarily he walks, 

 turning hiniself to the right and left, in a sort of waltz- 

 ing manner, so as to take in every point of the compass. 

 If at the time he is startled by danger, the exact character 

 and location of which he has not made out, he frequently 

 titters a low clucking noise, walking slowly and looking 

 around. This is entirely distinct from the cluck of the 

 female with young. One other noise also he makes, and 

 I believe one only (the whirring soar always excepted), a 

 sort of faint shrill peeping. "He does this when much 

 alarmed, just before and when taking wing. 



When the grouse wishes to go a little faster than a 

 walk he runs and sometimes swiftly, too; but his best 

 pace is made by jumps. I do not think he uses his wings 

 (as the ostrich does) to aid him in bis locomotion, 

 although of this I will not be positive. Once, while I 

 was hunting in the gorges among the Glewill Hills, a 

 grouse started and fle w up ahead of me and lit near the 

 top of a hill, I followed after, but not caring to walk up 

 the hill, kept along the base. After I had passed the 

 bird he started on a keen jump back along the ridge. I 

 had a fair view of him for 40 or 50yds. I have observed 

 the same gait several times since. 



The gronse in full flight cannot alight on the ground 

 without first circling or sweeping around unless he 

 chucks down into a pile of leaves or some other soft 

 material. On one occasion in the month of December I 

 saw a grouse attempt to do so on the bare frozen ground 

 while in full flight. I was walking in the woods, when 

 the bird, started by another hunter, passed me from be- 

 hind at a tremendous speed. When about 35yds. from 

 me he struck the hard bare^ground, but not being able to 

 stop himself went over it for about 20ft. on his toes, as it 

 looked to me; he then left the ground and flew a half 

 mile and lit on an open meadow. I followed this bird 

 after I had marked him down and shot him. He allowed 

 me to get up to about 25l't. of him before he flew. 



Dorp. 



IN MILL BAYOU. 



T T was some time in the month of October, 1878, that 

 JL I received a note from John Belk stating that he and 

 his brother Jim would be at my house to go on a camp 

 hunt, and that I must be ready to go with them. I was 

 always willing for a hunt, so I had enough provisions 

 prepared to last us several days. The day after re- 

 ceiving the note I concluded to go down Mill Bayou to 

 some licks that the deer visited every fall in great 

 numbers, to see if they had commenced using there. In 

 the afternoon I took Jake, a negro boy, and started. The 

 firot lick was jut below the crossing on the bayou, but as 

 the deer did nut use there so much I did not get off my 

 horse to look, but rode on; and as I was about half-way 

 across the bayou Jake called my attention, and said he 

 thought he saw a deer at the lick. I slipped from my 

 horse and waded to the opposite side of the bayou, then 

 took advantage of some widows and got within 75yds. of 

 the lick, and on looking saw two deer. I fired at one, 

 which fell; the other stdl standing there. I threw another 

 cartridge into my rifle and fired. At the crack of the 

 gun the deer jumped up the bank of the bayou. I saw 

 that it was inc. Jake brought my horse to me and we 

 went to where the dead deer was, and found that the 

 bullet had broken its neck. I also saw blood where the 

 other one had gone off, and told Jake to dress the one I 

 had killed and I would follow the trail of the wounded 

 one. The trail was easily foil jwed, as the deer was bleed- 

 ing very freely. I had followed it about 200yds., keppiog 

 a sharp lookout, when I saw a small bear feeding under 

 a persimmon tree, about 50yds. from me. As the bear 

 bad not seen me, and was walking about picking up 

 persimmons, to make it stop I gave a sharp whistle. 

 The bear stood upon its hindlegs with its back to me, 

 looking for the noise it had heard. I drew a full bead 

 between the shoulders and fired. Down Ouffy went, and 

 on examining I found 1 had broken its neck. I returned 

 to the deer's trail, and did not go far before I found it 

 dead. I had hit it behind the shoulder. I went back to 

 Jake and helped him to get the first deer up the bank of 

 the bayou and hung it up. Then we dressed the other 

 deer and bear, hung them up and started on down the 

 bayou to the other licks. I told Jake to go to the middle 

 ones and I would go to the lower or last one and we would 

 meet, he hunting down and I up the bayou. Before I 

 got to my lick I heard Jake's rifle. I knew he had found 

 deer, and probably had killed one, as he was a good shot. 

 I was then about half a mile from the lick to which I was 

 going. When near I got off, hitched my horse, stole up 

 to the bank of the bayou and looked into the lick, but 

 saw no deer. 



I knew that the deer used that lick more than any of 

 the others, so I concluded to remain and let Jake hunt 

 the other. I cut some palmettoes and made a screen. I 

 had not long to wait before I saw a deer coming around 

 a bend in the bayou toward the lick. It must have 

 winded, me, as it stopped when it got within 100yds. 

 of me, threw up its head and began to stamp its foot and 

 whistle. I was afraid to wait longer, as the sun was get- 

 ting low and the deer might run off, so I concluded to 

 try a shot. The deer was standing with its breast to me, 

 which is not a very desirable mark, distant 100yds. and 

 shooting from a high bank down at it. I drew a careful 

 bead and fired. At the crack of the gun the deer started 

 off up the bank and I saw it was badly shot. 



Just as I got up to go after the deer, some turkeys 

 began flying up into the trees all around me. I dropped 

 two, when Jake opened fire, and between us we got six. 

 After gathering our turkeys we went after the deer, and 

 soon found it dead. I had hit it in the hock joint and I 

 suppose the shook had killed it, as that was the only place 



I could see that had been struck. Jake had killed his 

 deer and left it up the bayou. We got the one I had just 

 killed across the bayou on to my horse, with part of the 

 turkeys and started to where Jake had left his horse and 

 deer. Grot that on his horse, and then went on to where 

 we had left the first dear and bear, When we reached 

 them it was so dark that we concluded to stay thereuntil 

 morning. The night was quite cold, but we soon had a 

 roaring fire and spent the night very pleasantly. We 

 were not hungry, as we had eaten our dinners before 

 leaving home, but Jake broiled some of the liver, though 

 as we had no salt it did not taste very good. By the time 

 it was light enough to see next morning we saddled our 

 horses, loaded them with the two deer and the turkeys 

 and started for home, arriving there about 10 o'clock. 

 Jake took two boys and went back after the other two 

 deer and the bear. The deer were all does, but in fine 

 condition. The bear was not fat, but the turkeys were 

 just prime. I sent two of the young gobblers to my 

 sweetheart. She is now Mrs. M. (M. stands for my name), 

 with three little Ms. 



John and Jim came that evening. I will tell you about 

 the camp hunt next time. Hunter. 



Point Pleasant, Louisiana. 



SPORTING TRIPS FROM THE HUB. 



STILL the gunners go, and still they have more or less 

 of success. But oh, the glory of those autumn days! 

 The foliage is simply wonderful. The weather has been 

 fine, or a good deal of it. Who can speak the charms of 

 an October day in the woods, when not a leaf is stirring, 

 when the sun is bright? Such has been the weather for 

 one or two days since October came in, and these days, 

 some of the more fortunate sportsmen have enjoyed. No 

 very heavy bags of game are reported, but the outing has 

 more than paid. Partridge are not plenty in the back 

 woods of Maine, or at least they have not been found as 

 plentiful as last year. One guide suggests that they have 

 not yet left the thick woods. His theory is that when 

 the mountain ash and other berries native to the old 

 woods are plenty, as they are plenty this year, that the 

 grouse are slow about coming to the lumber roads and 

 other open places, and that the best bags are not made 

 till after the early snows. In Massachusetts the gunners 

 veport the partridges fairly plenty, but very hard to get. 

 E. M. Gillam, commercial editor of the Boston Advertiser, 

 went over to Reading gunning on Saturday, and scared 

 up nearly a dozen grouse, but though accompanied by a 

 good dog, he secured but one. He describes the birds as 

 unusually wild. 



J. H. Jones, salesman with J. M. Emery, in the fresh 

 fish market, starts on his gunning and vacation trip on 

 Tuesday. He is a native of Buekfield, Me., and is a great 

 lover of the rod and gun. This time he has put off his 

 vacation till late, in order to secure "a deer and a bear." 

 He will go to Byron in that State, going up Swift River 

 from Mexico, and visit the new gold diggings, as well as 

 hunt. He will not be satisfied without a bear this time, 

 and bears are plenty in that section. His fellows in the 

 store declare that he will be afraid of a bear, and they 

 suggest that he learn to say his prayers before he gets 

 into the woods, as did an old Mr. Record, a bear hunter 

 of former years, in the same town where Jones was born. 

 Record was a brave hunter, in his own ideas, though 

 many knew him to be a, great coward. His bejrs were 

 all taken in steel traps or deadfalls, the latter of which 

 he was very skillful in setting. But it was seldom that 

 he ever visited his traps alone. He always wanted a 

 neighbor or a neighbor's boy to go with him; not that hp 

 was afraid of bears. Oh, no! Then if a bear should 

 happen to kill him, it would be pleasant to have some 

 one to tell the story. On one occasion a bear began to 

 come into a neighbor's clearing at night to destroy the 

 green corn, just in' the milk. The tracks showed that he 

 was a big one, and Record was self -appointed to get a trap 

 for him. He concluded that a big deadfall, just at the edge 

 of the corn, would be the thing. This he proceeded to con- 

 struct, with the help of his neighbors. It was duly set, so 

 that the old bear in crossing a certain line, which he would 

 be sure to cross in approaching the corn from the woods, 

 would spring the deadfall and be buried under a flood of 

 logs and stones. The trap was to be visited the next 

 morning. Record loaded his old flintlock, and, taking a 

 neighbor's boy with him, he started for the trap. They 

 came pretty near. The deadfall was down. Record 

 stepped back, suggesting that they would not go up too 

 fast, for possibly the bear might not be secured. He 

 crawled with his gun cocked and at his shoulder. There 

 was a rustling among the corn leaves. There was a 

 crunching sound and more rustling. Record's hair stood 

 on end. He cautioned the boy to be ready to run in case 

 his shot should not stop the bear. Another rustling fol- 

 lowed, and the glimpse of a black animal appeared in the 

 corn. Record rose from his crawling position to his 

 knees. He was not a man of many prayers, but now he 

 was thoroughly frightened. The corn rustled again. 

 "Gad'l mighty!" he began, "save my soul, before I shoot 

 this charge." The corn rustled again, and nearer. A big 

 black animal hove in sight. "Gad'l mighty !" and Record 

 up and ran like a scared colt, dropping his gun and leav- 

 ing the boy to his fate. Almost cleared from the corn- 

 field, he turned to see the boy torn and eaten; when 

 behold the boy and a big Newfoundland dog coming 

 toward him. Record was known as "Gad'l mighty" ever 

 after. The bear was not under the deadfall; it had fallen 

 of its own weight. 



The gunners are having some good sport with the shore 

 birds in the vicinity of Boston, though it is as yet too 

 early for the flight of coot and other ducks. The heavy 

 storms of late in October and in November are expected 

 to bring the birds into Essex River and off Anisquam. 

 At Brant Rock is another favorite shooting station. 

 Frank S. Raybold is something of a gunner for a boy, and 

 he likes it, following his grandfather. On Saturday, with 

 a companion, they went gunning off the Point of Pines 

 and secured a bag of a handsome dozen birds. They took 

 a dinner with them and made camp in good style. 



There is something peculiar about the flight of "dough- 

 birds," as the local gunners term them. It is said that 

 they bring $1 apiece in the Boston market. Messrs. Gordon 

 and Albert Plummer, already mentioned in the Forest 

 and Stream, seem to have run into strange luck in seeing 

 these birds on their way from their recent shooting ex- 

 cursion to Nantucket. They explain to a Boston Record 

 reporter that they saw the birds after their shells were all 

 boxed and on the team for Boston. Three splendid flocks 



lit in the very roadway before them. Their guns were 

 empty. They drove on a little further, when another fine 

 flock came circling around them and settled not far away. 

 In sheer desperation they left the team standing and 

 rushed to a house in the distance for shells, starting 

 another flock of these splendid birds. Their inquiry for 

 shells brought out a lot of 14 gauge; the hunters' guns 

 were both 10 gauge. The keeper of the cabin told them 

 that the doughbirds had been flying nearly all day; be 

 had never seen a flight so heavy before. The hunters had 

 to take the next boat for Boston. Special. 



ADIRONDACK DEER. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



I am pleased to think that the sentiment against hound- 

 ing deer in the Adirondacks is becoming more prevalent 

 among sportsmen. It is hard to imagine that any sports- 

 man in the true sense of the word can take any pleasure 

 in thus killing a deer, struggling for its life in the water, 

 deprived of all means of escape. 



We brand with the stigma of disgrace the pot hunter who, 

 after a long tramp onsnowshoes, murders the floundering 

 deer in the snow crust. But how much worse to employ 

 the hound to drive the deer into the water, where it is 

 reduced to the same condition as the deer in the snow 

 crust. Wherein, then, is the difference? One (be it to 

 the shame of the State of New York) has the sanction of 

 the law, the other has not. The abominations committed 

 at Chateaugay Lake and those cited by your correspondent 

 "J. W. B.," of Southboro, are being committed all over 

 the Adirondacks during the hounding season, and will 

 continue to be perpetrated so long as the law makes it 

 possible for the self-styled sportsman and pot-hunter to 

 gratify their brutish instincts. An employe of the Smith 

 Lake "Hotel told me that he saw a fawn butchered in the 

 water a few days ago by the same magnate that sank a 

 dozen or more deer in Bog Lake a few years since. Yet 

 no dissenting voice is raised for fear of losing guests 

 at the hotel. It makes me sick at heart to go through 

 the Adirondacks now and seethe slaughter of deer that 

 it going on to-day. You will find at every lake and 

 pond a pack of hounds and hunters, and the ground strewn 

 with the debris of slaughtered deer. Loads of mutilated 

 deer pass here almost every day. Seventy-five is a small 

 estimate of the number of deer that are being killed each 

 day now, and the number will increase as it gets later, 

 as deer take to water sooner when pursued by dogs. At 

 least twenty -five deer daily are fed to dogs during the 

 hounding season. 



Reformation is needed, and if the present state of 

 affairs continues, a few years will witness the extinction 

 of all the big game of the Adirondacks. Mtjsset. 



Number Four, Oct. 8. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



It is all well enough for your correspondents who don't 

 believe in deer hounding to argue against it, if they want 

 to, but would it not be as well for them to stick to facts 

 and reason. There was a writer in your paper, the other 

 day, who talked about being kept awake at night by the 

 baying of the hounds. But they don't hound deer in the 

 night time in any part of the Adirondacks I know any- 

 thing about. What did "J. W. B." mean? 



Again it was foretold a few yews ago that if hounding 

 were to be permitted there would be no deer left in five 

 years. From my own observation, and from what I am 

 told, I judge that deer are more plenty in the North 

 Woods to-'lay than they have been for twenty five years 

 before. What have the anti-hounders to say to that? 



Hubert. 



Utica, N. Y. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



Two davs ago a man sat on thp shore of Beaver Lake, 

 waiting for the hound to drive a deer into the water. He 

 had not long to wait, for soon a deer with panting breath 

 pounced into the water and with a sense of security 

 struck out for the middle of the lake. The hunter waited 

 until the deer got well out into the lake, and then rowed 

 his boat up to it. He had his gun with him. but in this 

 case he thought the club the most sure weapon, and 

 attempted to strike the deer on the head; but in the act 

 he up^et his boat, dumping himself, gun and club all into 

 the lake. He clung to the. boat and drifted about the lake 

 for over half an hour; and when he was nearly exhausted 

 and chilled to death, another man by pure accident came 

 on to the lake and towed him ashore more dead than 

 alive. A few hours after he expressed a desire to join an 

 anti-hounding club. The deer escaped, and the gun is 

 still on the bottom Of the lake, where it will doubtless for- 

 ever remain. Soso. 



Adirondacks, Oct. 8. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



One of our party at Middle Branch, North Lake, in the 

 Adirondacks killed on Oct. 1 a buck which dressed 

 3sM)lbs. He looked like an ordinary deer, but had remark- 

 able antlers, which arched in the form of a heart, the 

 tips nearly touching. At the tips the horns were flat and 

 measured 71in. straight across the flat part. One side 

 had eight prongs, the other six. O. T. S. 



Whitbsboro, N. Y. 



Georgia Game.— Augusta, Ga., Oct. 8. — Last week we 

 had very fine snipe and woodcock shooting. A cold spell 

 from the northwest brought the snipe, and the high 

 waters ran the woodcock from the swamps, which made 

 good highland shooting on these birds. Parties have 

 made bags of nearly a hundred birds. The past season 

 has been an unusually good one for breeding quail (Bob 

 White). Within a radius of two miles of the outskirts of 

 this city, I have spotted nine coveys, and there are per- 

 haps more. The majority of birds are half grown, Ixrt 

 some are full grown. We anticipate good snort, as birds 

 are reported plentiful everywhere.— J. M. W. 



Adirondack Bears.— Number Four. Oct. 8.— Two 

 large bears have been caught at Number Four during the 

 past week. They were both caught within less than 

 eighty rods of the Fenton House. Twenty-six ladies, 

 guests of the house, joined in following the trail until the 

 bear was found about one-fourth of a mile from where 

 the trap was set.— Musset, 



