494 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Jan. 8, 1891, 



afternoon's spoils that we had hung up nineteen rabbits, 

 four quail and one squirrel, not having actually hunted 

 more than half a day. My trip, originally solitary, lone- 

 some and at Shelby much disgruntling, had now changed 

 to a very bright and roseate-colored little experience, and 

 I almost forgave the cook at Shelby for his designs on 

 my life, thinking that after all this is a fairish sort of a 

 world to live in sometimes. 



One's mother calls it "out of order," and the doctor 

 calls it "bilious," and writers call it "megrims," and the 

 ignorant call it "ugliness;" at any rate, I had all those 

 things when I left the Smoky City. But now, between the 

 handcar and Mrs. Oroxell's butter, chicken and coffee, all 

 this had fled utterly, and in the morning I arose in that 

 state of mind and body usually attributed to fowls of 

 fighting proclivities. The early sun, unspeakably mild 

 and pleasant for the date, shone clear and peaceful over 

 a very beautiful landscape of rnotte, and marsh, and blue 

 timber line beyond; the air was clear and pure, and to 

 look and breathe was a privilege and a blessing. No 

 megrims. No bilious. Plain glad to be alive, as any 

 animal, human or otherwise, ought to be, 



Mr. Spencer could go along to-day, and so could Andy, 

 Mr. Granger's boy, and so could another boy, anxious as 

 all boys are, to go rabbit hunting. So we numbered four 

 guns and a dinner pail bearer. 



The rabbits were just as numerous and just as obliging 

 as ever on that day, and by half-past two o'clock we had 

 twenty-odd cottontails piled up on a big stump near the 

 railroad track, to be left till called for, Mr. Spencer had 

 done yeoman work with his pump gun, Hank had done 

 about the same with his pump gun, Andy had a few 

 scored to his single-shooting, double- barrel, suapand-go- 

 sometimes shotgun, and I had some. We all had a lot of 

 fun, but I believe old Sport had more of that than all of 

 us put together. Certainly, so far as results in rabbits 

 were concerned, the hunt was an intense success and we 

 were content to go home early in the afternoon. 



That evening I left my new foundfriends, the better off 

 for having met them, the richer for one more experience 

 in shooting around Chicago and the more firmly con- 

 vinced that it paysnever to change one's mind, especially 

 about going hunting. After dark my faithful friend Tim 

 Curtin was again on hand with his automatic inquisi- 

 tion machine, the handcar, and soon we were rolling 

 away toward Shelby. It was a lovely moonlight night 

 and we had no trouble in finding our cache of rabbits on 

 the stump. The whole top of the handcar was covered 

 with rab >its. Not a head of all the game could I prevail 

 upon Charlie or Hank to take, and so I turned toward 

 the city with nearly 1501bs. of game at least, I should 

 think. I know that when I reached my office I had a 

 four-bushel coffee sack full of rabbits, and it was all two 

 men could comfortably lift. So all the office had rabbits. 



The moonlight handcar ride was something of a new 

 experience itself, and my two companions were good 

 comp my enough for a king. All in all, what more does 

 one want than may lie in the possibilities of a plain rab- 

 bit bunt, much sneezed at sport as it is? I would not 

 ask a pl^as inter trip or pleasanter companions or better 

 fun. Charlie Simmon missed it by not being along. 

 But, never mind, he'll be wanting to go fishing some 

 time next year and th n I won't go with him, so there, 

 now. I believe 1 mentioned that Mr. J H. DeLong, of 

 New Y >rk, just back from a long trip through Mexico, 

 had debited going on this trip with us. D >ubtl< ss he 

 would have seen some fun if he had gone. Rabbit hunt- 

 ing as conducted by Messrs. Spencer and Granger at De 

 M >tte, with Snort as le ider of the hunt, is one of the ap- 

 plied sciences, and an hour on a handcar with Tim Cur- 

 tin on th - other br ke, is an Irish movement cure whose 

 virrue> have never yet been buffieiently sung. 



Jan. 3 —Mr. L. P. TJiterback, of Nebraska City, a gen- 

 tleman and shooter who travel i in Nebraska and West, 

 is in bp<yn t - is w ek. He reports quail as having been 

 unusually abundant in Nebraska the past season, es- 

 peci h lly along the R publican Valley. At Eed Cloud the 

 bhooting wa,s remaikably fine. 



Mr. John Gille^p e is again sick and absent from his 

 corner at Jenney & Graham's. His friends miss him, 

 but hope he will .soon pull out all right. 



Messrs. C. F. Smith and Geo. Rankin, of Pekin, 111., 

 with pei haps others, will start in a few days for a 30 days 

 hunt in Arkansas, the scene of former successes. 



Mr. Geo. J. Maillet, of Crown Point, Ind., is in the city. 

 I saw him down in an oyster house, eating Blue Points 

 and looking happier than anybody. 



Charlie Burton and Hank Smith did go rabbit hunting 

 up at McHenry, after all. They tried ferreting without 

 any muzzle on the ferret, though not till afternoon, prior 

 to whicn time they had bagged 14 or 19 rabbits. A 

 farmer dug a well down after the ferret the next day, and 

 found the rabbit it had killed in the hole, but the ferret 

 had absconded and will now probably proceed to do 

 some rabbit burning on his own hook. 



Mr. David Oliphant is in receipt of a big pickerel, 

 caught through the ice at Lake Wauconda, where the 

 destruction of fish is going bravely on. Mr. Bangs sends 

 down the fish. Mr. Bangs keeps an alleged hotel in the 

 summer, and loves anglers. Yet on this very lake Mr. 

 Oscar Blomgren tells me he once had an invitation, not 

 from Mr. Bangs, but from a resident fisher, to go out and 

 assist in dynamiting some fish. Mr. Blomgren made the 

 fellow leave the lake. These are methods of the summer 

 hotel men; to be careless, summer or winter, who fishes 

 or how he fishes. Money, and the last cent of it, as quick 

 as possible, is what is wanted at Wauconda and plenty of 

 the other lakes around here. The hotel keepers and 

 natives catch the fish in the winter, sell them to the ang- 

 lers at 5 cents a pound, and then expect the anglers to 

 come and pay $5 a pound the next summer. 



A Swedish gentleman of northern Minnesota is import- 

 ing some specimens of the great grouse known in Sweden 

 as arre, and once known in Scotland as capercailzie. He 

 wishes to introduce the bird into the wooded regions of 

 his locality, and thinks it will do well there. If this great 

 bird, nearly as large as a turkey, and as wild and shy as 

 any game bird, could by care and effort be added to our 

 game birds, a most desirable event would be added to the 

 history of sport. But this is a poor country to bring a 

 bird to if it needs any protection. 



On the ledge above the windows of my office the Eng- 

 lish sparrows congregate, and my friend Oliphant, who 

 lives above, tells of a duel he lately saw fought out on the 

 stone ledge below his window between two of these pug- 

 nacious and gritty birds. He says they fought to a stand- 

 still, and lay eyeing each other, with wings stretched out 



and breasts throbbing, but too tired to make a movement. 

 He thinks both birds died. 



Some days ago a gentleman residing in the East, 

 but well known throughout the Union for his patience 

 and knowledge in ornithological matters, wrote in 

 regard to the use of the term "tiger brant," em- 

 ployed in the casual mention of a Dakota shoot- 

 ing trip from which some Chicago gentlemen had 

 lately returned. The query was in this form: "I want to 

 know the species referred to, and whether the term is in 

 common use in any locality." From what I had heard 

 of the bird referred to I supposed it was the one known in 

 the West, especially along the Arkansas River, as the 

 "speckled brant," although the name "tiger brant" is, so 

 far as I ever heard, unknown there. I replied to the 

 query practically to the above effect. Since then I have 

 been able to talk with Mr. Geo. T. Farmer, the shooter 

 who used the term "tiger brant." As his words may 

 bring out yet further discussion of the vernacular names 

 of several of our wildfowl, I may perhaps be permitted 

 to give them here. Mr. Farmer once was with the Hud- 

 son's Bay Co., stationed above Winnipeg. He remarked: 



"The 'tiger brant' is a bird which is I think undoubt- 

 edly a mongrel between the Norway goose and the laugh- 

 ing goose. I think it a freak. It is not usually numer- 

 ous, and I do not think it a clear species. It is not known 

 by that name widely, probably nowhere but in a limited 

 region in Manitoba and Dakota. I may have been the 

 first to give the bird that name, so far as I know, though 

 I have often heard it so called since in these regions, and 

 never heard it called by any other name. In description, 

 this bird has a slate colored breast; it has no white collar, 

 like the Canada goose, but the neck is white and slate 

 blended. One distinguishing mark is the long and pointed 

 feathers which are set on back of the wing, just as you 

 will find on the pintail duck. 



"The Norway goose, as I always heard it called, is a 

 mottled gray and brown in body color, with white neck, 

 white breast, and yellow bill and feet. 



"The laughing goose is, I think, the same bird that in 

 lower latitudes is known as 'speckled brant.' The breast 

 is heavily mottled. 



"The wavy goose, as known in the Northwest, is a white 

 bird, with black tips to the wings. The snow goose is 

 much the same, barring the black tips to the wings. 



"The Hutchins goose is marked much the same as the 

 Canada goose, but is very much smaller. 



"There are two kinds of Canada geese, the long-necked 

 and the short-necked. They are of about the same size 

 and markings, the only difference being in the length of 

 the neck. I have often killed both sorts, I killed two 

 tiger brant on the Dakota trip this fall. As I under- 

 stand it, we have no real brant in this country, the true 

 brant being a salt water bird." 



Mr. Farmer's remarks are interesting because they give 

 the local names, from a shooter's standpoint, and not 

 from that of a naturalist. If I may be allowed, 1 would 

 like to give the local names of some of these same birds 

 as we knew them on the Arkansas River, in Kansas, 

 which was the only place where I ever shot them to any 

 extent. 



The Canada goose is largely known along the Arkansas 

 as the "honker," rarely as "honker goose" and sometimes 

 as "Canada goose." I never heard of the long or short- 

 neck distinction there. 



The Hutchins goose is the commonest goose on the 

 Arkansas except the "white goose." The Hutchins goose 

 is there commonly called the "gray goose." When a 

 shooter there spoke of having killed "so many geese" he 

 always meant these "gray geese" (Hutchins) or " white 

 geese." The honker was always specially mentioned. In 

 this country in Illinois, Indiana and Iowa the hunter in 

 speaking of "geese," or "wild geese," always means the 

 Canada, goose, because that is now almost the only one 

 seen here. 



Tne terms "wavy," "waver," or "wavy goose" I never 

 heard on the Arkansas, The "white geese" all come 

 under one head, and no distinction in name was made 

 for the black wing tips. 



The term "speckled brant" was not used any oftener, 

 and perhaps not so often as the name "brant," referring 

 to the same bird. I never have killed one of these birds. 



The terms "Norway goose" and "laughing goose," or 

 "laughing brant" I never heard on the Arkansas. In our 

 sh< toting there we used often to kill white geese with 

 reddi&h feathers mottled all over the breast, and other 

 geese mottled in all sorts of ways in slate, brown and 

 gray, but these we always lumped off under the 

 general name of "geese," and considered as mon- 

 grels of the different clearer species. I imagine 

 that one of those big flocks of the Arkansas River 

 would have presented an interesting variety of geese 

 for the naturalist to study. But in all of our experi- 

 ence there I never knew a bird which, in memory at 

 least, tallies quite with the detailed description given by 

 Mr. Farmer of the "tiger brant." Neither did I ever hear 

 the names "Mexican geese" and "blue geese" given by 

 Capt. Bogardus in his book "Field, Cover and Trap 

 Shooting" to some wildfowl known near this locality in 

 earlier days. 



In my boyhood, in central Iowa we used occasionally 

 to kill a bird which was known all through that region 

 as the "brant." In size it was between the Canada goose 

 and the mallard duck. It was marked almost identically 

 like the Canada goose, white color and all, but as I 

 vaguely remember it now, this bird was certainly not the 

 same as the Hutchins goose. It had no name but 

 "brant" in central Iowa, and was much prized as a 

 game bird. I very well remember the shrill chattering 

 gabble of these birds in flight. It was the note of the 

 Canada goose, keyed very much higher and given more 

 rapidly. But we never used the term * 'laughing brant" 

 there. I never have seen one of these "brant" in Illinois, 

 and I never saw a "white" or " wavy" goose in either 

 Illinois or Iowa. These seem now to cross further west, 

 stopping on the Platte and Arkansas rivers. 



It would be very interesting if Mr. Thos. Johnson, who 

 lives at Winnipeg, and shoots all through that country, 

 would give us the names of these birds as he knows them 

 in his section. And I wish "Shoshone," who certainly 

 knows a great deal about the wildfowl along the Platte, 

 would, of his wider experience, tell what the same birds 

 are called out there. Thus a considerable distance in the 

 north and south migration will have been covered, and 

 perhaps somewhere in that stretch of country we may 

 hear more of the "tiger brant" or of these strange crosses 

 and mixes in the goose family. E» Hough. 



COMPARATIVE POWDER TESTS, 



IN presenting the cuts of the leading targets made in 

 the comparative powder test a good opportunity 

 occurs to comment somewhat upon the various points of 

 that test. Above all things it emphasizes what we have 

 often take occasion to remark, and that is the influence 

 of loading upon the result attained. Thus it was that 

 the Lyman powder, loaded by the powder inventor for 

 all-round work, turned out the leading per cent, and far 

 ahead of a previous article of the same brand. So 

 it was that the E. C.,the Schultze and the Dead Shot 

 powder, loaded by Von Lengerke & Detmold, the ac- 

 credited agents for these powders, came to the range 

 loaded in the very best fashion. On the other hand the 

 wood powder, which was purchased at the last moment, 

 came from a stock of factory-loaded ammunition put up 

 nobody knows when and it is claimed not loaded for 

 the best results from the particular powder employed. It 

 would even appear from the analysis that the proper 

 charge of powder, according to the label, is not found in 

 the cartridges. 



Upon this matter of loading, we would once again 

 allude to the importance of having wads of a size large 

 enough to fully fill the gun barrel from the chamber 

 mouth to the muzzle of the piece. This is especially true 

 of nitro powders and where a wad pushed a short distance 

 into the barrel shows a ring of light all about it, there is 

 little wonder that the gas passing by the wad mixes with 

 the shot and sends the pellets in a confused scattering 

 shower, without any sort of a, pattern at the point aimed 

 for. 



Our test of Nov. 28 then turned out to be a test of load- 

 ing as well as of powders, and those who study the results 

 for all they are worth, will not be convinced that the 

 wood powder cartridge did that brand of explosive full 

 justice in the comparative exhibit. 



Another point of note, in giving credit where credit is 

 due, is in the shells used with the E. C, the Schultze 

 and the Dead Shot powders. They were made by the TJ. 

 M. C. Co. for Von L. & D., and are differently constructed 

 from the other Arnarican makes of cartridges. Instead 

 of a flat cap with which the flash of the fulminate has to 

 travel around the anvil and then through a long narrow 

 paper funnel or channel before reaching the lower end of 

 the powder charge— these are made like the new English 

 cases, with deep narrow caps delivering the heat and flash 

 of the exploding fulminate well into the charge of 

 powder. 



While the several powders were under trial, another set 

 of cartridges were brought out. They had reached 

 the office of Foeest and Stream accompanied by the 

 following explanatory note: 



Philadelphia, Pa.— Editor Forest and Stream: As 

 there has been some discussion as to whether American 

 wood powder deteriorated with age I take the liberty of 

 forwarding to you twelve cartridges loaded in October, 1888. 

 They were loaded as follows: No. 12, U. M. C. Club cases, 

 primed with black powder as much as was. held by a small 

 cup, made by wrapping a piece of paper around a 

 leadpencii and then doubling the end over, SJCdrs. 

 American woodpowder, trap grade, Bridgeport Gun Im- 

 plement Co.'s measure struck off was then added and 

 settled by shaking and striking the block with a small 

 wooden mallet. Three No. 12 black-edge wads were 

 then inserted and each settled separately with a blow of the 

 mallet. On this l^'oz. Spark's No. 8 chilled shot were added 

 and then a cardboard wad and the shell crimped. In using 

 wood powder I have never found the slightest difference in 

 the loads and have never been jarred by a single one in the 

 slightest degree; neither have 1 been troubled with pitting 

 of my gun barrels, possibly because I clean my gun after 

 each day's use. As these shells are loaded with No, 12 wads 

 it would be advisable to use in trying them a gun bored 

 small instead of one that will allow a 12 wad to drop through 

 the barrels. — G. G. D. 



On analysis the cartridge showed up as follows: 



Shot. 



Loading. Powder. ' 



Card over snot and B.E. ( 1. .44 grains, 

 and P.E. over powder. K 2. .42 grains. 

 Black powder at base. ( 3. .44 grains. 



545 srrains. 510 pellets. 

 553 grains. 514 pellets. 

 544 grains. 505 pellets. 



Average 43 grains. 547 grains. 510 pellets. 



Three shots were fired from each barrel of the Colt gun 

 under trial. One of the right barrel shots was aimed too 

 far off to be a fair showing, but the others pan out as 

 follows, the left barrel, although a full choke one, not 

 showing best pattern: 



Bight Barrel. Left Barrel. 



Aimed Seleeled Peuetra- Aimed Selected Penetra- 



Circle. Circle. tion. Circle. Circle, tion. 



1.191 pellets 25S pellets Ssheets 1.159 pellets 171 pellets 4 sheets 



2. . . . .". 2.289 pellets 253 pellets 9 sheets 



3.293 pellets 293 pellets 6 sheets 3.295 pellets 295 pellets 8 sheets 



242 pellets 275 pellets 5}^ sheets 231 pellets 240 pellets 7 sheets 



This it will be seen gives a percentage of pellets ac- 

 counted for in the selected circles of 54 in the right and 

 47 in the left barrel. The powder turned out from the 

 cartridge in good shape, and. there is no doubt that some- 

 what of the rather medium result shown come from the 

 looseness of the wads in the barrel, bored as American 

 barrels too largely are, very appreciably above the gauge 

 marked on them. 



In examining the targets following, the point A is the 

 center of the "budd" placed on the white sheet and the 

 point C is the center of the circle struck for best pattern, 

 as in all these cuts the object in giving them is to show 

 how even the arm patterns, as this important point is 

 not covered in the tables of figures. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



To guard against misapprehension by the public will 

 you kindly permit us the following statement regarding 

 your article on "Comparative Powder Tests," in your 

 issue of this date, Jan. h 



Those of our cartridges which you call "Lyman No. 3" 

 were not, as you seem to suppose, "specially prepared," 

 nor were they "loaded with special reference to their 

 work as test cartridges." Those that were used at Clare- 

 mont were taken from the stock on hand at our agency 

 in New York city and differed in no respect from the 

 regular goods that we were then, and are still, selling to 

 the public. 



Regarding the statement that our so-called No. 2 car- 

 tridges were "loaded by experts," this is no more true of 

 the cartridges used at Claremont than it is of all the 

 goods of our manufacture. The peculiarities of our pow- 

 der are such that, in order to bring it into a compact per- 

 forated cake that shall have all the advantages incident 



