SOS 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Oct. 1, 1891. 



Worcester, Mass., Sept. 26.— At the meeting this week 

 of the Worcester Fur Company the following names were 

 proposed for membership: Arthur C, Moore, Sturbridge; 

 D. F. Joslin, M. A. Moffic. H. M. Ingraham, E J. B ite?, 

 A, L. Joslin, Oxford; H. C. Newell, Ashburnham; W. P. 

 Brigliam, Boylston; F. E. Harrington, West Brookfieid; 

 Samuel Smith, Wilson White, Hopkinton; E, W. Gill, 

 Princeton; Byron Stewart, Millbury; W. L. Tafb, Whit- 

 insville; Chas. Crompton, H. W. Wyman, Harry W, 

 Smith, Gilbert J. Rugg, W. B. Gage, Col. H. B. Verry, 

 Caas. A, Merrill, Mdcon Rand, Chas, A Allen, Asa R. 

 Jacobs, Oliver A. Benoit, J. Henry Locke, Jos. A, Smith, 

 C. Harry Morse, of Worcester. 



An Indiscreet BRA^ao-i bt named Helm, of Hartford, 

 recently boasted in a Ciiicago shooting paper that he had 

 been out shooting on Sunday and had eluded the vigil 

 ance of Game Warden Collins. Now, Mr. Collins lives 

 in Hartford, and it was not to be supposed that he would 

 let such a case as this go by default; he haled the Sun- 

 day game killer into court and compelled him to put his 

 helm hard to starboard with fine and costs as in such cases 

 provided. 



Mr, Austin Corbin sends us a map of Blue Mountain 

 Forest, his extensive wild game park in New Hampshire, 

 which was described at length in these columns last 

 spring. 



Coons and Coon Hunters. — The season is drawing 

 when the Forest and Stream will have another full 

 page (and perhaps a column or two more) for the coon 

 hunters. 



The Book of the Game Laws. 



A WORD WITH THE ADVERTISER. 



The question is often asked: What Makes tlie Best 

 Adlvertisingr aiedium? Tbe answer generally given is: 

 Tlie best advertising medium is the one which places the advei-- 

 tiser before the largest number of the right sort of people in the 

 way best calculated to produce the effect it Is desired to produce 

 and at the smallest cost. 



This is j ust what the Book of the Game Laws dpes tor advertisers 

 ol: sportsmen's supplies. 



I. There is no waste circulation among those who are not sports- 

 men— euer;/ coptj goes where it will do must good. 



II. Advertisements are placed opposite tresh reading matter^ 

 where they ivilt he read, 



III. Tne Bool: is kept for reference and the adv. thus exerts a 

 lasting influence upon the purchaser. 



lY. Tne advertising rates are reasonable. 

 Write to us about it. 



Forest and Stream Ptjbij.shing Cojipanv, 

 318 Broadway, New Yorls. 



The ettlIj texts of the game fish laws of all the States, 

 Territories and British Provinces are given in the Boofc ol 

 the Game Laws. 



FISHING WITH TRAINED CORMORANTS 



By Captain P. S. Dugmore, R. N. R., Master of the Falconry 

 Cmb 1878 to 1S83. 



Wontinued from page 186.'] 



CHAPTER I. — HOW TO PROCURE CORMORANTS FOR TRAIN- 

 ING. 



WITH the foregoing preliminary explanations, I will 

 now pass on to consider the practical questions that 

 present themselves at the outset to the would-be cormorant 

 trainer. In the first place, following the precedent set 

 by Mrs. Glass in her well-known directions for cooking a 

 hare, I will tell him how to obtain the birds for training. 

 If he is sufficiently ambitious and self-confident to go to 

 work at once with old-caught birds, there is no difficulty 

 in getting them. It is only necessary to ascertain their 

 favorite resting places in any tidal estuary; usually the 

 summits of isolated piles, stakes or beacons, or— not quite 

 so convenient for our purpose — a channel buoy. A large 

 steel trap without teeth, or with the teeth thoroughly 

 well masked with tow, oakum or sacking, as indeed even 

 toothless jaws should be, and concealed by a little sea- 

 weed, will quickly supply our needs. The trap must have 

 a line attacaed of sufficient length to allow it to fall into 

 the water, or the bird's legs may be broken in its strug- 

 gles. The best style of trap is that used on poles for 

 catching hawks, with a semi circular spring round and 

 under the table, instead of at the side. But the ordinary 

 rabbit or fox pattern will suffice for use on a buoy, if 

 large enough. I always use very large traps, made especi- 

 ally for me in Birmingham (England), as if too small a 

 toe may be taken off or the web injured. A noose, if 

 cleverly set, can sometimes be used with advanta>;e. Or 

 if the water be muddy and opaque, a trammel net can be 

 set beneath the surface round the resting post or buoy, 

 off which a cormorant, when scared, will sometimes slip 

 into the water and dive at once without taking flight. 

 This net, however, must be closely watched, or the bird 

 will be drowned if not promptly extricated. A dollar or 

 two judiciously disbursed will often get a wild cormor- 

 ant brought home uninjured by fishermen in whose nets 

 he has got entangled. In fact, an unlimited supply of 

 the old birds can be procured almost anywhere and at 

 any season. 



With the young birds it is very different. 

 The breeding places must be ascertained and visited at 

 the right moment, and a supply obtained in the spring 

 sufficient to cover possible loss by casualties of various 

 kinds that are pretty stire to happen before next breeding 

 season comes round. 



In the North the dangerous ledges of precipitous cliffs 

 must be visited for the young biids, while m the Soijth, 

 especially in Florida, the cormorants nest (toward the 

 middle of April) on low trees, mangroves and other 

 brut^hwood growing out of the water in some secluded 

 bayou, generally very easily accessible. North and South 

 alike, they breed together in large and unsavory numbers, 

 in "rookeries," as their colonies are named in Florida; 

 one such breeding place will probably accommodate for 

 domestic purposes all the cormorants resorting to a 

 Stretch of fifty or sixty miles of coast. 



The young birds sliould not be taken until nearly 

 fledged, with black feathers showing plentifully through 

 the white down of the infantile period of their existence. 



Supposing that the embryo trainer can procure old or 

 young birds with equal facility, it will be well for him, 

 before deciding, to consider well the comparative advan- 

 tages of devoting his energies to old-caught birds or nest- 

 lings. He m ust remember that nestlings are much the 

 easier to tame, wild birds by far the easier to train, after 

 the indispensable preliminary of taming has once been 

 got over. And old-caught birds are generally much the 

 best and most intelligent workers, though I have had 

 nestlings that could not possibly be surpassed. 



Nothing in the world can be easier than the taming of 

 the young birds; in fact they tame themselves, and 

 rapidly become even troublesoraely affectionate and 

 familiar. The only difficulty comes after they have 

 learned the lesson of obedience, and consists in teaching 

 them to catch fish. This difficulty disappears if theij- 

 owner possesses even one bird that has previously gone 

 through this very necessary past of his education^ as his 

 companions will very quickly learn to follow his ex- 

 ample; in no birds is the spirit of emulation more strongly 

 developed; so that an efficient working team can always 

 be kept up, and strengthened from time to time without 

 any difficulty, so long as one properly trained bird and 

 good worker remains on hand. I consider it quite Avorth 

 the while of a novice in the art, who does not care or feel 

 competent to work ordinarily with wild-caught birds, to 

 keep one or two of them, even if only half trained and 

 scarcely manageable, solely for the purpose of saving 

 many an hour from being lost in teaching the young 

 bu'ds how to fish. 



Half-trained wild birds that cannot be trusted in open 

 waters may yet be worked with success in small ponds or 

 in narrow brooks. One objection to them is that they do 

 not take to changes of diet quite so readily as young birds; 

 this may be rather awkward in localities, few, I believe, 

 in America, where the fish supply is apt to run short, 

 rendering a temporary recourse to butcher's meat un- 

 avoidable. 



For myself, I infinitely prefer the old-caught birds (a 

 similar rule holding good in falconry;, while notwith- 

 standing counselling the average beginner to go in for 

 nestlings (when procurable), with which his ultimate 

 succpss, though much longer delayed, is an absolute 

 certainty. 



I once trained a wild green cormorant so rapidly that 

 I took fish with him in the Froome River in Dorset, Eng- 

 land, a fairly broad stream, as old country rivers go, just 

 forty- eight hours after his capture. This I believe to be 

 the fastest thing on record, and possible only in the case 

 of a particularly good-tempered bird, and with a trainer 

 like myself, able to read the bird's thoughts and to com- 

 municate his own. 



CHAP. II.— TREATMENT OF YOUNG BIRDS; TRAINING TO 

 THE DINNER SIGNAL. 



We will now proceed with the management of the 

 young birds as soon as taken from the nesting-place. 



The best possible place for them is a pig-stye, or a lit- 

 tle yard or pen arranged like a pig-stye— if paved, so 

 much the better— with a shelter at one end in case of 

 rain and a few large stones for the birds to sit upon, 

 sufficiently high to keep their tails well clear of the 

 ground. With a fence of upright laths, planted close to- 

 gether, clear of any horizontal supports inside, there will 

 be no fear of their climbing over for some time to come, 

 at any rate. If they do get over they will make a straight 

 beeline for the kitchen, where their presence will scarcely 

 be appreciated, their habits not being so scrupulously 

 cleanly as might be wished, and their odor being about as 

 musky as the scent of an%,lligator. 



The first thing is to give them plenty to eat — failing 

 fish, meat without bone or fat, bullock's heart, or occa- 

 Kionally bullock's liver — ^until their feathers shall have 

 finished growing and their bones shall have become well- 

 knit, the utmost pains being taken to promote the great- 

 est possible development in size and strength. They 

 should be fed, at first, three or four times a day, at least, 

 with a gradual reduction to twice a day, morning and 

 evening. 



On no account whatever are they to be allowed to get 

 into the water for a moment until all the white down has 

 disappeared; the result would probably be quickly fatal. 

 When first taken from the nest the less they are on their 

 legs the better; so long as they will be contented to lie 

 still and open their mouths, convenient pieces of fish cut 

 into long strip^i, clear of fins and sharp bones, should be 

 quietly slipped therein. 



When, however, they begin to walk about and to look 

 out for their feeder, it will be time to commence their 

 training by makingthem acquainted with a call meaning 

 "dinner," and, simultaneously, with the basket or metal 

 can into which they will eventually be required to sur- 

 renderthe fish caught by them for their master's benefit. 



It is important that "their infantile minds should be 

 early and permanently impressed with the idea that this 

 basket, can or pail, answering to the "lure" used in fal- 

 conry, represents their dinner table. 



Most trainers use a wicker fishing basket, but a reson- 

 ant metal pail or can of fishing basket shape, something 

 like a live bait receptacle but larger and much deeper, pos- 

 sesses the very great advantage that a loud tap on it will 

 always serve as a dinner-bell; and on working days will 

 generally bring the laziest or most inattentive and dis- 

 obedient bird helter-skelter to the bank. As a comj)ro- 

 mise, a tin ]3ot, for the purpose pure and simple of noise- 

 producing, can be attached to a wicker fishing basket. 



The vocal call used at feeding time and invariably re- 

 peated loudly while the trainer is approaching their in- 

 closure ^ith food may be "Come along, come along." 



Cm e 



Qpmz do, 



FiG. 1. 



mouth and outstretchf d neck; and then the food recep- 

 tacle, again rattled loudly, should be lowered among the 

 eager throng, who will very speedily empty it without 

 further assistance or persuasion. 



I should have premised that, the sci=sor-like edpes of a 

 cormorant's beak are capable of inflicting a very nasty 

 gash, perhaps accidentally in the general scrimmage for 

 food, and that the trainer should on this account be pro- 

 vided with a strong pair of thick leather gloves or gaunt- 

 lets. Horfehide is preferable. The hooked end of the 

 upper mandible, too, is apt to give a severe scratch or 

 tear if the bird should chance to strike at the face or eye. 

 Nearly all cormorant trainers are in the habit of pi otf ct- 

 ing themselves by a wire fencing mask; in fact T imag- 

 ine I am the only European member of the fraternity 

 that has never adopted this precaution, preferring to 

 make myself sure of the bird's good -roHi — I may say 

 affpction — for except the goshawk, the cormorant is per- 

 haps the most affectionate of winged beings — before allow- 

 ing it to perch on my arm within dangerous distance of 



Or a peculiar whistle may be used, but with less advan- 

 tage. Arrived at the pen, morsels of food should be 

 taken out and dropped back into the basket or can in full 

 sight of the young cormorants while the call is being 

 sounded and the vessel noisily rattled; a piece of fish may 

 be thi-own to each bird, to be cleverly caught with open 



(foW TO TAi*,E HOLD OF. A TRA(/Vei> CdRAiORAWT 



FIG. 3. 



my face. I have never met with the slightest accident 

 in this way. Still I should be slow to advise less experi- 

 enced trainers to risk an eye, which could be lost much 

 more quickly and easily than it could be replaced. 



All this time, while the young cormorants are getting 

 thei3r feathers, they can be gradually accustomed, at 

 feeding time only, to more or less handling, always about 

 the head, beak and neck. 



Thus, if one bird is observed to be crowded out and 

 unable to get his head into the food receptacle, an out- 

 stretched right hand may with advant ge meet his eager 

 head, just touch the upper mandible, glide over it and 

 over the crown of his head, gently seize him by the neck 

 and raise him on to the left fore-arm, presentijig him with 

 a delicate mouthful of fish before he has time to under- 

 stand or protest against his sudden elevation. And so, in 

 the course of a few days, it will come to pass that a 

 motion of the helping hand will be eagerly looked for, 

 and met by a general clamor of "Lift me, too ! " in cor- 

 morant language; the fortunate bird often coming in (after 

 the manner of humans) for a jealous bite or so on being 

 relegated from the post of honor back into "the madding 

 crowd." 



All this takes some time and trouble to explain, because 

 I am anxious that my pupils should thoroughly compre- 

 hend the rationale of all that 1 ask them to do — a perfect 

 acquaintance with the ichy and the loherefore is the 

 surest foundation for proficiency in any art, and, above 

 all, in one dealing with highly intelligent living creatures; 

 but the beginner will find it all wonderfully plain (and 

 quick) saiUug when he comes to put it in practice. It is 

 necessary for me to tell him precisely how to touch or to 

 lift the bud, to save him from the mistake of roughly 

 collaring it by a wing, round the body, or by goodness 

 knows what part that might first present itself to his 

 grasp; with the result of a scrimmage, possible injury to 

 both parties, and consequent certain loss of just what we 

 want to gain and keep at all hazards, the biro's confidence 

 and good will — I might add, self-respect. 



A cormorant must never be laid hold of excepting by 

 the beak and neck. In grasping the neck the palm of the 

 hand should lie on and cover the entire top and back of 

 the head, leaving the eyes clear; the fingers, excepting 

 the forefinger, bending round under and behind the lower 

 jaw, and the thumb pointing down the neck, the back of 

 the hand always upward. (See Fig. 2). While so holding 

 it a slight caressing motion' of the fingers can be em- 

 ployed to tickle the bird about the ears, the surest method 

 of appealing to the affections of all feathered beings that 

 will permit of the liberty being taken. Singularly enough, 

 while falcons (long-winged) will rarely, if ever, allow 

 this famdiarity, it is used with ease and with the greatest 

 advantage in the training of hawks (short-winged). 

 Wlien the feathers are fully grown it will be necessary to 

 decide whether or not to cut one wing. In the case of 

 old-caught birds this is, unfortunately, cle rigueur. With 

 nestlings it is quite optional. They wiU never fly away, 

 or, if they do, will speedily return. Its only advantage 

 with them is that it prevents them from taking liberties, 

 that in the exuberance of their affection are apt to become 

 somewhat overpowering and embarraesing. 



It is all very well taking our walks abroad with a mob 

 of clamorous birds thronging round our legs like a flock 

 of geese, but when it comes to half a dozpn great lumber- 

 ing fellows with flapping wings di^puting for the perch 

 of honor on one's shoulders, or on top of one's hf^ad, a 

 man's equanimity is not always quite on a level with the 

 occasion. Personally, I have such a horror of interfering 

 with beneficent and always beautiful nature, or of crip- 

 pling, however slightly, the powers given by nature, that 

 I always leave some at least of my nestlings in full pos- 

 session of their means of flight, and put up with t-uoh 

 trifling mishaps as getting my hat occasionally knocked 

 over my eyes by their unintentional buffets. If, how- 

 ever, it is decided that the quills of one wing are to be 

 cut, it should be the left, always supposing that the 

 trainer means to follow my own practice of carrying the 

 bird on the left arm, leaving the right free to handle the 

 head and neck, and to parry any little plRyful dashes at 

 the face. Cut quills on the right wing would mean a lt:ft 

 cheek constantly scratched instead of lightly brushed. 



[TO BE CONTINUED.] 



Adirondack Teout. — Wawbeek Lodge, Adirondacks. 

 — Wawbeek, N. Y.,Sept. 36.— Trout fishing in September 

 was certainly shown up at its best on the 15th of this 

 month. Mr. R. L. Banks, Jr., of Albany, stopping here, 

 caught 10 lake trout, weighing 66lbs., in five hours time, 

 the largest weighing IS^lbs. Tois is the largest catch 



made in the given time in the Adirondacks this year. 



T. Edmund KEuaiBHOLZ. 



