228 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Oct. 8, 1891. 



Lung up or laid on a rock or hummock until return, the 

 object being to prevent friction and. pressure while the 

 body is warm and lax. When cold and hard it is best to 

 wrap in cheesecloth, corn meal being freely used at the 

 shot holes, and the mouth and internal nostrils plugged 

 Just before wrapping. But with even the greatest care 

 the feathers will soil and it becomes necessary to clean 

 them. 



If a bird is very bloody when picked up, wipe off the 

 excess of blood with a piece of raw cotton, and do not, if 

 possible, allow the blood to get dry on the feathers; never 

 wash it until you are ready to skin, unless you can dry 

 also, and never wash in salt water if by any means you 

 can get fresh. 



When ready to clean, provide a vessel of warm water 

 and dip the bloody feathers into it, working it the while 

 with the fingers; do this in several waters until the blood 

 is all dissolved out, then dry by pressure with a towel or 

 cheesecloth; now, with a piece of raw cotton partly satu- 

 rated with turpentine, gently wipe the wet feathers 

 downward, so as to leave, as it were, a thin layer of tur- 

 pentine; oji this place dry plaster an inch or more thick, 

 according to the size of the bhd, etc. In a few minutes 

 replace with more plaster, and continue until all the 

 moisture is drawn from the feathers, when the plaster 

 adhering may be wiped off with raw cotton and the 

 feathers blown apart with a bellows, or by taking it to a 

 windy place and smartly striking and alternately raising 

 the feathers, the plaster will be blown away. A second 

 application may be needed if the feathers are stained. 



This cleaning is usually done after the bird is skinned, 

 but sometimes it will be found convenient to doit before. 

 Benzine may be used instead of turpentine, and some- 

 times soap or wasliing compounds will be found useful. 



With small dirty spots the water may be applied with 

 a piece of raw cotton, a sponge or cloth, and the feathers 

 gently stroked downward toward the tail, parting the 

 feathers with the left hand while the right applies the 

 watfer. Cotton is much the best, as when dirty it can be 

 thrown away and a new piece used. 



The essential points in cleaning a bird skin are: (1) 

 Never let the blood get dry on the feathers; (3) always use 

 the plaster immediately after washing, and (3) always 

 blow out the plaster from the feathers. At its best, clean ■ 

 ing feathers is a nasty job, but by following the above an 

 otherwise worthless bird may be made almost as good as 

 an unsoiled one. 



A PEARL FISHERY. 



MR. CHARLES H. TOWNSEND has published in the 

 Fish Commission Bulletin a report on the pearl 

 fishery of the Gulf of California. The season begins in 

 May, and the divers all wear diving suits. The shells of 

 the pearl oyster {Meleagrina margarifdfera) are the chief 

 object of the industry, but the value of pearls adds con- 

 siaerably to the revenues. Pearls are accidental growths, 

 "being caused by the deposition of nacre around some 

 foreign object, as a bit of sand or a parasite, but usually 

 an egg which has failed to develop properly." Some of 

 the most valuable jjearls are black. The largest one seen 

 by Mr. Townsend was about as big as the egg of the blue- 

 bird. The largest one known is Sin. long and weighs 3oz. 

 Mr. Townsend made a descent in a depth of 18ft., and 

 found the experience very uncomfortable. ''The hght is 

 gray and dim notwithstanding the intense sunlight above 

 the surface, but within a radius of a few yards everything 

 is distinctly seen. Owing to the pressure of water and 

 the weights necessary to overcome it, a novice has the 

 same difiQculty in maintaining the perpendicular as a 

 child that stands alone for the first time." The dredge of 

 the Albatross frequently brought up shells of the pearl 

 oyster in depths of 60 to 180ft. in the Gulf of California. 

 The Bay of Mulege has furnished some pearls of rare 

 value, among them "those magnificent pearls of which 

 the collar was made for the Queen of Spain, and which 

 evoked so much admiration at St. Cloud and Windsor 

 Castle." Among the choice pearls are various colors, 

 some white shot with dark specks, some light brown, 

 sandy, gray or black; but the most valuable ones are 

 pink. 



A Queer Little Kitten was seen one fine moonlit 

 night at Woods Holl, Mass., and a thoughtless young 

 rtian, who was on his way to church with a lady, gently 

 kicked the intruder off the sidewalk— gently but dis- 

 astrously, for the kitten was of the black-and-white- 

 striped, strong-scented genus and did not suffer interfer- 

 ence gracefully. The kitten held its ground, but the 

 young couple hastened away and neither of them went 

 to church that evening. 



lame §Hg mtd §utf. 



Antelope and Deer of America. By J. D. Caton. 

 Price $2.50. Wing and Glass Ball Shooting ivith tlie 

 Rifle. By W. C. Bliss. Price 50 cents. Mile, Mod and 

 Gun in California. By T. S. Van Dyke. Price $1.50. 

 Sliore Birds. Price 15 cents. Woodcraft. By "Ness- 

 ■muJc." Price SI. TrajectoHes of Hunting Rifles. Price 

 50 cents. Wild Foicl Shooting; see advertisement. 



The full texts of the game laws of all the States, Terri- 

 tories and British Provinces are given in the Booh of the 

 Game Laws. 



AUTUMN. 



THE sweltering days are over. Cool nights have come. 

 The harvest has been gathered, but the stubbles are 

 sprinkled with scattered grain and the shocked but 

 unhusked corn dots the fields. The thunder showers are 

 less frequent. The apples are being carted in, and the 

 cider mill gives out its well-remembered creak as old 

 Dobbin goes her round. 



Now, if you are the true, keen field sportsman, whose 

 slumbers of late have been broken by grouse's whirring 

 wings or the sound of the shrill whistle of the woodcock, 

 you know your time has come. You take from the 

 closet the breechloader and look it over, throw it to your 

 shoulder and glance along its barrels. The feeling is 

 growing on you. How your heart thrills as you think of 

 the bags last season and anticipate the present season's 

 port I And fortunate you are if you happen to have been 



country born or to have a friend or relative at an old 

 country place where you are welcome in the autumn 

 time. You know where to go for Bob White along the 

 hedges by the old buckwheat field and down toward the 

 hazel thicket, and for woodcock down along the spring- 

 holes in the alders, and for the lordly grouse beyond the 

 berry patch and bordering the sugar bush on the hillside 

 facing the warm sun. The same old sugar bush! What 

 a place it used to be in your boyhood for squirrels, gray 

 and black and the little saucy red chickadee. 



You step forth in the crisp morning air and feel the 

 pure ozone as it fills your lungs. What a breath you 

 draw in! How your eye glistens as you glance over the 

 landscape! The grasses are dead and dry at the tops, the 

 soft maple leaves are turning to crimson and gold, and 

 perhaps you may perceive a slight tinge of frost on that 

 upper rail as you leap the fence. And your dog— ah! 

 how he enters into the spirit of the occasion: with what 

 frantic rushes he bounds here and there, away from you 

 and back again, but watching your every motion. Lpt 

 him go; he will be all right after you have crossed a field 

 or two. Let him run and roll over and give tongue in 

 the mad excitement of the first outing of the season. 



The thrills at your heart are increasing, and will in- 

 crease and keep on in volume and intensity untU— but we 

 will not anticipate. You cross the pasture down to that 

 swale fed by the spring holes. You know the place well; 

 its alders and bogs have been trampled through by the 

 cattle in the hot days just past. Steady, Dash! He is 

 making game. How carefully he stops, now almost 

 crouching. He pauses. See the swift backward glance 

 of the eye to assure him that you are ready. How your 

 heart is beating now! He comes to a point, and soon the 

 bird springs from the bog and skirts toward that opening, 

 or essays to climb up through the small treetops. Your 

 heart stops beating, your nerves ai-e on a tension; and, as 

 Frank Forester says, with "eye of faith and finger of 

 instinct," you touch the trigger and seethe puff of feathers 

 drift oft" to leeward, and the lordly bird turn over and 

 pitch down by that water birch, or that clump of oak 

 turning red and yellow under the magician's touch. 



And, ah! when your faithful dog brings it to you, 

 holding it so gingerly and yet so securely in those vise- 

 like jaws, with not a feather ruflled, you gently take it from 

 him and pat his head, .^ajdng, "Good dog; good fellow." 

 And if it is a woodcock, you hold it up by its long bill and 

 gaze at that large, full eye, fast glazing in death, and 

 mark its round cinnamon breast and soft velvet-streaked 

 back. Or if a grouse, you lay it on its back on the palm 

 of your hand and stroke the feathers from the black ruff 

 around the neck down its plump breast, calculating with 

 the judgment of a sportsmen on its weight. How your 

 breast is thrilhng now! And as you stow it away in the 

 recesses of your shooting coat you feel that the world is 

 very grand and that you are one of the very fortunate 

 ones "in it." Jacobstaff. 



NOTIONS ABOUT GUNS. 



THERE has been a lot of talk about feather-weight guns. 

 Is not the priuciple that calls forth a 12-bore of this 

 pattern an incorrect one, because of the recoil that is con- 

 sequent? The feather-weight shoots much the same load 

 as the heavy gun of the same bore. It is the bore, not 

 the weight, that requires the proportions of powder and 

 shot. One can hardly get along without Sjdrs. in a 12- 

 bore, and that load, shot in so light a gun, is bound to 

 recoil most uncomfortably after much shooting. My ex- 

 perience comes from using a light single-l arreled la-bore 

 now and then and a 7ilb, arm, which latter I have shot 

 many hundred times in a few hours, with black powder, 

 and my shoulder told me the result better than I could 

 describe it. I am aware that the nitro powders do away 

 Avith much recoil from black powder, and while I am a 

 wood powder advocate I am also aware that any force 

 sufficient to send the shot out of the barrels at a high 

 velocity must also expend a part of its energy back 

 against the breech. I have found this so with a light 

 gun and wood powder, and to such an extent that con- 

 stant shooting would have proved very unpleasant. The 

 gun I now shoot is a 91b. 13-bore, yet it is too heavy. For 

 constant handling, long tramps and quick shots the 5^ 

 or 61b. gun is a delightful weapon, and, all other things 

 equal, would soon handicap the heavy gun, but a black 

 and blue shoulder is worse than a cannon to carry. 

 Hence, I believe, all things considered, that the happy 

 medium, the best all-round weapons, is the light 16-bore. 

 My boyhood shooting was with a muzzleloader of iG bore 

 and I was often very successful, even killing wild turkey 

 with it. However, it must be true that the larger bore 

 will do greater execution and a 12 bore as light as a 16^ 

 bore dare be, with no greater recoil than a 91b. 12-bore, 

 would be a wonderful weapon. But is such a thing nos- 

 eible? 



Is there anything comphcated about the proper use of 

 wads imder varying conditions ? I cannot see it, though 

 I know that in different guns different proportions of 

 powder and shot are necessary. I have found in shoot- 

 ing two very different 12 bore guns that two black-edge 

 wads would give much greater penetration than one 

 black-edge, and just as much penetration as three or four 

 of the same. The principle is simply this: The wad 

 next the powder is often blown to pieces, the next one is 

 not and it has sufficient stiffness to drive the shot per- 

 fectly, and another wad does not help in the least. I 

 have made this experiment a number of times, but only 

 with black powder. I cannot see why two black-edge 

 wads are not as good as pink-edge or felt, they are good 

 enough for me. Now, who knows it all concerning this? 



One of your correspondents tells the young sportsman 

 to carry his gun always at the half cock. The principle 

 rather to be followed is never to touch the trigger till 

 the gun is to be fired; but when trami^ing after game, 

 expecting or at any time liable to shoot, the sportsman 

 should always carry cocked and be careful where the 

 muzzle of his gun is. IE he waits to cock at a sudden 

 rise of birds or jump of rabbit he is in more danger of 

 shooting his companions when trying to get the hammers 

 back in a hurry by his finger slipping oh the hammer 

 before the trigger catches than he would be by carrying 

 the gun cocked all day long. Most boys hold a gun about 

 horizontal when they are cocking it, and the muzzle 

 maybe anywhei-e if they are in a hurry. And if you 

 wish to teach a boy to shoot quickly and steadily, don't 

 handicap him with a half-cocked gun at a flush. Let 

 him begin by doing as the old sportsman does, and be 

 careful from the first. Again a gun with rebounding 

 locks, or with the half-cocked notch properlynflled so that 



the trigger cannot be pulled away from the tumbler 

 when in the notch, together with a strong trigger spring, 

 is a safe enough weapon to be cai-ried loaded in a wagon, 

 a boat or a cyclone. Enough has been said of the ham- 

 merless, and enough may be seen on very short acquaint- 

 ance to convince any one without a prejudice for new- 

 fangled notions that the weapon is vastly superior to the 

 hammer gun in every way, safety included. 



I think most sportmen are ignorant of the easiest, best, 

 cheapest and simplest method of cleaning guns. In the 

 first place, and most important, don't clean the inside of 

 your barrels at all when you return from shooting, no 

 matter how long the gun is to rest in its case or stand in 

 the corner. Merely wipe over the outside of the gun with 

 a rag that has been saturated with melted cosmolene (or 

 some such like preparation from petroleum), rubbing a 

 little hard. Then wipe with a dry rag if the gun is left 

 too greasy. Before the weapon " is used at all the inside 

 working parts— the locks, ejectors, etc.— should be warmed 

 and melted cosmolene run into every opening and joint. 

 When the parts cool the grease hardens and stays, and it 

 will last for years and preserve perfectly. When you are 

 ready to go shooting again, swab and wipe out the bar- 

 rels, which you will find are perfectly preserved under 

 the burnt powder dust. They will look as new and 

 bright after the wiper as if just polished. I have never 

 known guns to rust even in salt air and drizzle when 

 thus cared for. I have known cleaned and oiled barrels 

 to get rust spots inside in spite of every other precaution. 



S. F, A. 



PRESERVING TROPHIES. 



FROM Ward's Natural Science Establishment, Roches- 

 ter, N. Y., comes a handsome booklet with excellent 

 engravings of mounted heads of big game. The moimt- 

 ing of sportsmen's trophies is growing to be an extensive 

 business with the establishment; and we quote the direc- 

 tions given for preserving such objects until such time as 

 they can be put into the taxidermist's hands: 



"To prepare and preserve heads of deer, elk, etc., divide 

 the skin in a circle around the neck just forward of the 

 shoulders. Cut it open along the top, to a point between 

 the ears, from that point make a cut to each antler. 

 Take off the skin, being careful not to cut the eyehds, and 

 leaving part of the lining of the nostrils and the lips. 

 Skin out the ears. Cut away all loose flesh and cure with 

 plenty of salt, letting it dry in a shady place before pack- 

 ing. Skulls of all animals are interesting and valuable. 

 They should be enthe, without broken jaws, bullet holes 

 or broken teeth, if possible. Disjoint from the neck with- 

 out cutting the back of the skull. Wrap jaws so that 

 teeth shall not be broken or lost. Skulls with antlers may 

 be bleached and mounted on shields, and skulls of puma, 

 bear, etc. , on pedestals with brass standards. 



"To Preserve Fish for Mounting.— The easiest method 

 for the sportsman is simply to remove the entrails through 

 a slit in the belly, and seal the carcass up tightly in 

 spirits; or if the specimen is to be sent but a short dis- 

 tance and mounted immediately, a strong brine will 

 answer as a preservative. In general, however, the skin 

 should be removed, especially in the case of large fishes. 

 To do this, make a flap of the entire skin on one side of 

 the fish, choosing the side most injured by the gaff Or 

 loose scales. Make an incision from the back to the belly 

 just back of the gills, along the belly to the base of the 

 tad, and up again to the back. Raise this flap, carefiilly 

 cutting the flesh away, and separating the fin from the 

 body close under the skin. With this flap laid back, the 

 dorsal and belly fins can be cut away from the body just 

 under the skin, the backbone severed close to the tail 

 and the fleshy body lifted out, cutting it away from the 

 head last. Then all fleshy particles should be scraped 

 from the skin, the inside of the head cleaned, eyes re- 

 moved, etc. For the more perfect mounting of the speci- 

 men, any striking colors of the various parts should be 

 noted, and the color of the eyes. After removal, the 

 skin should be thoroughly rubbed with salt or alum and 

 kept in a cool place. The sooner it is shipped for mount- 

 ing the better. In case of a large fish, such as a tarpon 

 or large muskallunge, it is desirable to mount only one- 

 half longitudinally on a panel, in which case the flap 

 turned back in skinning need not be preserved. A sharp 

 knife and a pair of scissors are necessary implements." 

 The booklet is well worth sending for. 



MAINE GAME. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



Deer are reported very numerous in eastern and northern 

 Maine this lall. Residents hunt them very little as yet, so 

 they will just look up as one passes and, in some cases, 

 continue to gaze. The best hunter in La Grange told me 

 that on the east side of the Penobscot River, well back in 

 clearings, 40 to 50 have been seen in droves and passed 

 within easy range. A. C. Adams. 



A Boston correspondent writes: Inclosed find a 

 letter I received on my return home from the West. It 

 is not the first one of this kind, and in discussing the de- 

 merits of Maine native and visiting sportsmen you might 

 like to know such facts. The letter comes from a Maine 

 post-office and was written in August last. It reads: 

 "Dear Sir— Do you have any use for fresh game? K so, 

 how^ much do you pay for venison saddles? If you do not 

 want game please write me what places would pay good 

 prices for fresh game. This is a business letter and 

 strictly confid ential." 



Moose Hunters Hunted.— New York, Oct. 2.— A gen- 

 tleman just returned from the Metabatchouan River tells 

 ine that Mr. W. H. Briggs, of Bridgeport, Conn., was out 

 trout fishing with his guides near the club house the 

 other day when they saw a cow and bull moose swim 

 across the pond. That day they had left their rifles at 

 home, as they were not expecting to go any distance. 

 They cut off the bull and the guide struck at him with 

 his hatchet. The moose swung his head to escape the 

 blow, which broke off a piece of an antler. This enraged 

 the animal and he made a plunge for the boat, putting 

 both forefeet aboard and smashing the canoe. The occu- 

 pants barely escaped with their lives and were rescued 

 from drowning by some members from the club house; 

 but everything in the canoe was lost. — W. H. 



Newfoundland Caribou.— Messrs. Cecil Clay and son, 

 of Washington, and W. Holberton, of this city, saUed 

 from New York last Saturday for a caribou hunt in New- 

 foundland. 



