24B 



F'ORESt AND STREAM. 



[6cT. 15, 18dl. 



THE DUCKS IN CONVENTION. 



WHAT has become of the ducks? This question is so 

 frequently asked and not satisfactorily answered, 

 that it is now called the great duck puzzle. Manj' are in- 

 terested in this matter and it has caused the State thous- 

 ands of dollars for the protection of ducks that visit our 

 waters. Yet we are compelled to say that our duck laws 

 are very little respected. Sports and pot-hunters have to 

 pay a license for the privilege of gunning, which is 

 handed over to the duck police, appointed by our Gover- 

 nor, like all other State officers, through the recommen- 

 dation of a lot of political bosses. 



I feel safe in saying I have accidentally learned the 

 answer to the puzzle. I learned it in this way. 



One day while on a visit to Spesutia Island, where I 

 was born and raised, and the dearest spot on earth to me, 

 I took a stroll around the beach, and looking out on the 

 Susquehanna I saw several flocks of ducks. Feeling tired 

 I sat down to rest and soon fell asleep. While asleep I 

 had a remarkable di'eam. I dreamed that one of our 

 native ducks, called black duck, came near where I was 

 sitting and asked me if I lived on the island. "No," said 

 I, "but I was born and raised here." He said he had 

 often heard his family speak of five brothers who occupied 

 the whole of the island in 1813, when John Bull's fleet 

 came and anchored near here and stole all the chickens, 

 turkeys and geesp on the island. 



I told Mr. Blackduck this was true — they were my 

 ancestors. Then he said, "You are all right. I was afraid 

 you were a Havre de Grace bird." He then gave me an 

 invitation to attend a duck meeting, to take place near 

 by, where would be representatives of some of the most 

 noted families of ducks that visit these waters. The invita- 

 tion was so remarkable that I accepted it promptly, and 

 was escorted to the meeting, where I was introduced as a 

 friend of the ducks. 



The ducks flopped in and were soon ready for business. 

 I saw my old friend Canvasback was boss. He called the 

 meeting to order, and made some sensible remarks. He 

 said that as the time was drawing near when the duck 

 families would go to their native homes, they had de- 

 termined to stop here a few days to see the great perform- 

 ance on the Susquehanna flats, which had been played for 

 several years, and also hold a little experience meeting. 

 Seeing me on the beach with a book in my hand they 

 concluded I was a newspaper reporter and had sent one 

 of our Southern birds to invite me to the meeting. 



I told Mr. Canvasback I felt much flattered by the in- 

 vitation, and was glad to see the duck families again in 

 our waters. 



"Yes," he said, "for a few days only, for as soon as your 

 sports and pot-hunters see us sitting around, theii- navy 

 will be ordered out and the great theatrical performance 

 will commence." 

 I interrupted him to ask him what he meant. He said: 

 ' '1 am astonished that you should ask the question. Have 

 you not heard that your Susquehanna flats are and have 

 been for many years under the control of a large flock of 

 birds called sports and pot-hunters, who have changed 

 the programme and now have a dramatic company or 

 variety show? If you have never been there during the 

 gunning season you have lost the best leaf of the history 

 of your life. They don't play any of ilr. Shakespeare's 

 pieces, but their scenery and costumes are certainly 

 grand." 



Mr, Canvasback then gave me a programme of the 

 play and said that before you will be admitted as a mem- 

 ber you will have to go to Bel Air and procure a season 

 ticket. A box ticket will cost you but you can get 

 a second-class whacker's ticket for igS, No reserved seats, 

 as this is a grab game. The fellows who can say the 

 most bad words generally get the best seats. Your pro- 

 gramme wiU tell to be sure to be on the feeding and 

 roosting grounds at 5 A. M., when you will see a grand 

 sight. As if by magic himdreds of lights spring up in 

 every direction, and you will conclude you have made a 

 mistake and have alighted in the center of a large city. 

 At 6 o'clock the lights are extinguished, which is a signal 

 for the show to begin. When the sun shows his beautiful 

 face above the treetops on old Bull's Mountain you will 

 see the greatest navy that ever floated on top of the cel- 

 ery beds of the Susquehanna flats. Boats of all sizps, 

 from a floating palace to a common 16ft, flat boat, and 

 sports and pot-hunters of all classes and colors, from the 

 city millionaire to a second-class colored gentleman. In 

 front of every box are from 100 to 500 of those hateful 

 wooden images called decoy ducks; but not a man can 

 he seen — all are hidden in the boxes and whack boats, 

 where they spend the entire day waiting for a dart or a 

 scull, 



Mr. Canvasback said some of the actors had been try- 

 ing for years to learn the duck language, as he had fre- 

 quently heard them attempting to caU his family, 



Mr, Blackduck and Mr. Widgeon both spoke up and 

 said they had often been fooled by these sports and pot- 

 hunters with a whistle, 



Mr. Canvasback said all this was rough on the ducks, 

 but the big-gun pot-hunters with sneak boats that can be 

 found every calm nigh cruising all over the feeding and 

 roosting grounds are worse. They go with large cannon- 

 like guns, murdering the duck families by hundreds. 

 When one of these big guns is discharged its roar can be 

 heard for twenty miles, and Mr. Blackduck's family be- 

 gin to cry, "Lindsay, Lindsay, why don't you come and 

 see us again? If you have handed in your checks and 

 your spirit can come, that will stop the big-gun pot- 

 hunters." Lindsay was a strange bird that made his ap- 

 pearance in these waters some years ago, and after get- 

 ting very sociable with the big-gun pot-hunters took his 

 flight, but soon returned with two more birds out of his 

 flock and gobbled up the whole flock of big-gun pot- 

 hunters, with then- cannon, boats and everything, 



Mr. Canvasback said some people thought he ought to 

 feel proud that his name and that of a fellow called Ter- 

 rapin headed the list at all the gi-eat dinners, and that 

 members of his family, even when dead , had been sold in 

 the markets at $1,35 a pound. He was not proud, he said, 

 and was willing to leave all such vanities to other duck- 

 lings. 



He then introduced Mr, Redhead, who told about the 

 manner of warfare carried on in the lower rivers and 

 creeks. He said there was no navy in those waters, but 

 all the shores are rented or owned by a large flock of 

 sports who live in the cities, and that on every point is a 

 masked battery, with from 400 to 500 decoy ducks in front 

 of it. This battery resembles a large bird's nest, as it is 

 built of marsh grass, and is just large enough to accom- 



modate two men, a Chesapeake Bay dog, a jug of water 

 and a bottle of old rye. Here the sports spend the entire 

 day, remindirg you of a land terrapin, for when they see 

 a duck they draw their heads into the nest, and you can 

 see nothing but their eyes, but if any of the duck family go 

 near these innocent-Looking nests you will hear it thunder 

 out of the clear sky. 



Mr. Eedhead told a good joke about one of these nests 

 on Bengie'e Point, where he saw a strange looking bird 

 peeping out, and offered to bet no one could tell what it 

 was. I said it was an American eagle. You came within 

 one bird of it, said he. They call him Bennyharrison, 

 and said he was the biggest bird in Uncle Sam's flo6k. 



This remark came very near causing a row and the 

 noise woke me up before any other members of other 

 duck families had a chance to give their experience. But 

 there was grim reality in all that I heard, and yet people 

 ask, "What has become of all the ducks?"— Caj^t E. B. 

 Galhvp in Bel Air {Md.) ^gis and Intelligencer. 



CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 



CHICAGO, Oct. 3,— A prairie fire is reported to have 

 burned over a strip of country 200 by 300 miles in 

 extent west of the Missouri Eiver, N. D. The report 

 comes from Fort Yates. A bone gatherer of the plains is 

 said to have started the fire. Much game must have 

 been scattered or destroyed. 



Snow fell in Montana and over much of the British 

 Possessions Sept. 30. 



The West and Northwest remain very dry. No fall 

 flight of ducks can be expected in this part of the coun- 

 try. At Horicon marsh. Wis, , snipe have been abundant, 

 though the water is still too low for successful duck 

 shooting. At Fox Lake, lower down on the flight, snipe 

 are now scarce, and the northern birds not in, except a 

 good run of teal. Ed, Howard wrote down yesterday 

 that he thought the shooting would be good. The cold 

 storm north may have set the flight down a bit, but the 

 shooting will not amount to much, 



Horicon marsh, above the Diana Club line, has been 

 burning for some time, the fire having gone six miles 

 wide and six feet deeji, into the peat, Kankakee marsh, 

 below here, is dry enough to burn as badly. Little shoot- 

 ing is reported from the Kankakee. Jack Whiting, who 

 last week got twenty-eight ducks in a day and a half, 

 sixteen of them mallards, is pointed out as a phenomenon 

 of luck. 



Mr. John Houston and his friend Mr. Brady, just back 

 from the Platte, in Nebraska, report any quantities of 

 snipe. They got fifty-seven ducks in two hours one day. 

 Mr. Houston also had the singular fortune of killing a 

 glossy ibis, a bird certainly not usually found so far 

 north. The specimen is to be mounted. I have not seen 

 it, but the name is so given by Dr. VeUe, of the Academy 

 of Sciences, 



A shooter, whose name I do not get, bagged sixty snipe 

 near Sioux City, la., one day this week. ""The birds seem 

 all west of us. 



I was out in Iowa this week. At Des Moines I met 

 Charlie Budd, C. O. Perkins, "Friday" Eason, Mr. Royal 

 and Irish Setter Perry, all sportsmen of the deepest dye. 

 Mr. Perry shows hopes, for a dog man at least, inasmuch 

 as he is now engaged in the newspaper business. Charlie 

 Budd told me he could get some quail not far from Des 

 Moines, and a few woodcock below the city, Mr, Per- 

 kins reported a very successful two days' shoot at chick- 

 ens in Hamilton county, below Mud Lake. This is the 

 county where I used to shoot when I was a boy. It was 

 quite wild then, but all settled up now. Tbe corn pro- 

 tects the birds, I am glad there are some left on that 

 once marvelously prolific region. 



At Newton, Iowa, I heard of two or three coveys of 

 chickens not far from town. Shooting at these birds in 

 that county (Jasper) has not been thought of in late years, 

 but a few of the birds hang round the old farms. My 

 father has showed me where inside what are now the 

 town limits of this quiet village, he used to kill 30 to 40 

 chickens a day if he wished. No one dreamed in those 

 days that these birds would ever be scarce. 



Mr. Valentine Hicks, of the Rising Sun Game Park 

 Association, Ashton, III,, writes me to-day that they are 

 still prosecuting trespassers on their leased grounds. He 

 says he would like to ask me out to shoot, but the new 

 by-laws forbid it. There are chickens in that section. 



Mr. Geo. T. Farmer this week took one day off at 

 Monico Junction, Wis., bagging 7 woodducksanda 231bs. 

 mascallonge. 



Mr. Spross, of this city, bagged' 97 ducks on the club 

 marsh at Toledo, O., Sept. 1. 



Oct. 5. — Unquestionably a season of scarcity is upon us 

 so far as wildfowl are concerned. A few birds are down 

 ahead of the late cold snap north of us, but we have little 

 to ofl'er them by way of attractions. The Kankakee has 

 no wet marsh. ' Tolleston Club loses the best of its shoot- 

 ing by reason of a natural gas company laying pipes 

 across its marsh, the workmen disturbing the birds. The 

 niinois Eiver is very low. The Mississippi River at Daven- 

 port is lower than it has been for 37 years, I have al- 

 ready spoken of the lowness of the water on Horicon 

 marsh. Wis,, and I append a letter from my friend, Mr. 

 W. Y. Wentworth, State Warden and club superintendent 

 of Blackhawk Club on Lake Koshkonog, Wis., which 

 shows a bad outlook for that once famous water. Mr. 

 Wentworth says: 



"Black H.^wk Clxjb House, Lake Koshkonong.— As 

 is the case all over the West, the long-continued drought 

 has caused all our streams and lakes to be very low. I 

 don't think there can be found in Lake Koshkonong any 

 water Cft, deep at this date. The bog north of the house 

 is nearly dry, and it is an impossibility to push a boat 

 through it. There are less birds here now than I ever 

 knew at this season of the year. I cannot account for the 

 scarcity, but such is a fact. There is an abundance of 

 feed; rice and celery never gi-ew more abundant in our 

 water. Usually at this date we have teal, mallai'd, blue- 

 bill, black-head and red-head, but strict search does not 

 find them now, and we must be content and wait their 

 arrival from their nesting grounds. 



'•We have had good fishing here most of the season, 

 large catches of bass, Oswegoes principally, a few small- 

 mouth. Good fishermen have not failed of good catches. 

 Swan and Grossman, of Milwaukee, and Geo. Bluhn and 

 Duft'ee, of Chicago, can testify to above statements. 



"The club has made several improvements to their 

 grounds, having purchased and leased more lands; they 

 now control nearly 500 acres of land. Have posted some 



and propose to control it for their own use and their 

 friends. Have built a new cottage, making more room. 

 The membership is full, and all active members, 50 being 

 the Kmit. 



"If you can make it convenient to come up hefe, if 

 only for a short time, please let me know and I will send 

 you a permit and try to use you well while here.— W. Y. 

 Wentworth." 



Mr. John Stockton, of Swan Lake Club, whose grounds 

 are near Lake Senachwine on the Illinois River, has an 

 item of great interest in his story of the planting of the 

 wapato, or Indian potato, on Swan Lake grounds. The 

 wapato, as many will know, is a great duck food on the 

 Northwest coast. It is not learned t(^ be native east of 

 the Rockies, I believe, nor low down the coast. Hon. 

 John Dean Caton, that eminent naturalist who has done 

 so much in many ways for sportsmanship, suggested to 

 Mr. Stockton that he try planting the wapato, adding 

 that he thought it would spread all through the Illinois 

 Valley, as he had himself tried it in one of his ponds in 

 the home park at Ottawa, where it bid fair to take pos- 

 session of the whole water. Mr, Stockton fiurchased |60 

 worth of the bulbs of Mr, Geo, L, Curry, Jr., Portland, 

 Ore., and last spring these were planted. It has been, so 

 far, impossible to tell what success has attended the ex- 

 periment, and the season has been unfavorable at best; 

 but some of the pushers report a "new plant" as having 

 appeared, and eventual success is probable. 



While upon the topic of the Swan Lake Club, I should 

 say a word about protective matters. It will be remem- 

 bered that Dr. M. D. Green, the La Salle fish warden, 

 had some rather slighting words to say about the sport- 

 ing clubs in his recent story of the work he had done in 

 apprehending ihegal fishermen. Swan Lake Club must 

 have been meant, though not mentioned. The facts are 

 that the Woods boys, keepers of Swan Lake Club, were 

 among the party arrested on Senachwine by Warden 

 Green, and the latter probably thinks that the club might 

 employ better club keepers than illegal marketmen, 

 jumping from this to the conclusion that the club favors 

 lawlessness. 



Than this last conclusion nothing could be further 

 from the facts. Swan Lake Club sportsmanship is 

 genuine, and as good as that of any of us, and the club 

 would lend itself to no form of lawlessness. I know 

 personally that the Woods boys were told that if they did 

 anything illegal they could not look for help or sympathy 

 from the club. I know further that last January the club 

 actually paid these same T\roods boys $250 cash to keep 

 them from doing what they could legally do, %1'io not to 

 shoot any mallard ducks and $125 not to catch any bass. 

 This may seem like hush money, but it is not, as will 

 apj)ear from the terms of the Swan Lake leases. To get 

 possession of this marsh, much of which was taken from 

 "old man Woods," the privilege of legal netting and cer- 

 tain shooting was expressly reserved. Therefore, within 

 the limits of the law, which, under that old "corijorate 

 dam" clause, have never yet been actually determined, 

 the Swan Lake Club can not stop the Woods boys from 

 netting. Yet, as if to expressly show and prove their 

 opposition to any waste of wild game or fish, they have 

 put their hands in their pockets and paid, in addition to- 

 their lease and to the keepera' salaries, this extra money 

 to save the bass and birds. As for the coarser fish, not; 

 game fish, the Woods boys will not give uj) anj' rights; 

 they can legally get there, for they make a considerable- 

 amount of money at that. The club deprecates this, but. 

 can not stop it. Stopping that form of fishing is for Mr.. 

 Green and the rest of us. Swan Lake Club will con- 

 tribute its share toward stopping illegal fishing in the 

 Illinois Valley. "T wish we could get a law to prohibit, 

 seining and netting altogether," said Mr. Stockton to me. 

 I believe this to be the voice of the club, and I know the 

 club is one of sportsmen worthy of that name in every 

 way. Certainly they should not be blamed for what they 

 can not help, and when it is seen just how it is that this 

 peculiar feature of netting is in existence on their grounds, 

 I do nos believe that bl-ime will be attached to them by 

 any reasonable man. When the IlUnois Valley Associa- 

 tion want funds let them send to Swan Lake Club, 

 through Mr. Stockton, let us say, and I think the result 

 will set at rest any doubts as to their willingness to help 

 any proper measure in protection. I will go further 

 than this and say that I do not believe there is a legiti- 

 mate Chicago club which would oppose a warden in his 

 work, or which would not aid him in his work if possi- 

 ble. If there is a single specific instance against this 

 general proposition I should like to hear of it and to pub- 

 lish it. 



Bright shining like a good deed in a naughty world is 

 Mr. Sharp's bag of thirty-six snipe one day last week on 

 Mak-saw-ba grounds. This is the only bunch of snipe' 

 I have heard of for some time. We are in the dol- 

 drums. 



An Atchison, Kas., man sends on for inspection by 

 friends here a new target which is affording them some 

 fun in the Sunflower State. This is a target for night 

 shooting. In appearance it is much like the ordinary 

 composition target, except for an elastic band crossing 

 from two hooks let into the sides of the target. These 

 hooks also carry each a bit of fuse paper. The target is 

 placed in the trap, any one of the ordinary traps serving, 

 and before being thrown these fuses are hghted and burn 

 brightly during the flight. If struck by a shot the rub- 

 ber band pulls the two separate fuses together in one 

 compact flame. This night shooting is said to be great 

 sport, I have not yet seen it anywhere, but some of the 

 country clubs here may take it up. E, Hough, 



Connecticut Notes.— Since the rain and cooler 

 weather I have been out with a descendant of Grouse - 

 dale trying to enjoy the weather and invigorate myself 

 among the game birds in the vicinity of Willimantic, and 

 with satisfactory success, for the game bag averaged 

 three quail, one woodcock and one partridge a day. For 

 this success we will thank the stars or rather the 

 unusually good seasons since the blizzard, for they have 

 been excellent ones for the birds to increase, multiply 

 and reijlenish. One of the land owners, with whom I 

 caught a ride, told me that he heard more shooting in 

 the latter part of September than he had since and for a 

 number of days about the Fourth of July; he heard a good 

 many shots to the southward, toward the creek. They 

 were presumably after woodcock, and it's a great pity 

 that any shooter would punish himself and dog so much 

 in those hot days of July for the sake of proving that old 

 Adam has not been thoroughly outbred yet, — C. N, B. 



