Ana. 11, 1892.J 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



117 



designer, and their birth Bhows the quality of that 

 designer. It was no ordinary mind and no ordinary hand 

 which put in color these unhackneyed pictures of form 

 and thought. The artist was Mr. 'W. L. Wells, of this 

 city. His famous pictures of "Mallards" and "Teal" 

 show that he has been on the marsh with both eyes open. 

 As a shooter he is very well known in all this section, so 

 familiarly known, in fact, that almost everybody out 

 here calls him just Billy Wel'i^, though I presume after 

 this we wdl have to speak of him as Signer de Welles, or 

 something of that sort. 



This shooter-artist is as versatile as he is clever; Per- 

 haps some readers of Forest and Sti^.eam may recall 

 the amusing little comic sketches whicb. appeared in the 

 fOEEST AND STREAM report of the Illinois State shoot. 

 These were the work of the same pencil tha,t laid the 

 draughts for this grand Procession of the Centuries. I 

 think there will be many Fokest and Stream readers 

 who at the World's Fair will gaz-^ at this stirring pageant 

 with an added interest, and perhaps with another reflec- 

 tion on the present surprising possibilitieB of the fellow 

 with the gun. 



THAT SNIPE. 



It is probable that before very long Warden Bortree 

 will have something further to say in regard to his posi- 

 tion on the snipe- waterfowl question. Still, as I look 

 over this week's Forest ajmd Stream. I cannot repress 

 the thought that all his trouble must be for naught, since 

 in the end the most valuable authority of all mu't be 

 against him. In short, the thing has already been settled 

 and there is no use talking about it any further. From 

 Ool. Bond's article I take, from the embodied letter 

 written him by Dr. N. Rowe, the following: 



'■Moreover, the snipe is not a water fowl; that I stated 

 in the American Field several times. In regard to this 

 very question you can state positively what I have writ- 

 ten you." 



After this final and overwhelming word on the matter, 

 I cannot see any use in further discussion, and trust that 

 Warden Bortree will consider it in the same light. If it 

 has been editorially stated by the American Field that 

 the snipe is not a water fowl that do settle it, and no 

 reference to the courts is necessary. 



There is another phase of this question, for the sake of 

 which I must again quote the opening sentence of this 

 B 'me letter: 



"There is one thing that everybody is off on in regard 

 to snipe. It was I who, in order to harmonize matters, 

 proposed to remove all protection from snipe, and it was 

 thoroughly and positively understood that snipe should 

 not be protected." 



The alarming position assigned the public by the emi- 

 nent naturalist and rhetorician in question, in that the 

 said public mind be both on and off a thing at the same 

 time, cannot fail to set one thinking. When one thinJis, 

 the carking conviction eats into one's soul that there 

 should be a more explicit statement as to the part the 

 E. N, and R. actually played in that oiieinal legislation. 

 I have just been talking with a gentlemen somewhat 

 posted on the facts, and he tells me that the E. N. and R. 

 did not cut even the figure of head midwife at the birth 

 of that freak in legislation, the Illinois game law. If this 

 he true, my quotation reads larger than it should, I hate 

 like everything to destroy popular idols, but we have to 

 do it sometimes in our business. It's tough. 



THE PRAIEIE CHICKENS. 



A young gentlemen who has lately been out prospect- 

 ing around the edge of town says, "I believe there ai"e 

 more prairie chickens in Cook county than in all the rest 

 of Illinois." He saw a number of pairs, but no young 

 birds at the same time. Last week he bagged eight jack- 

 snipe. Jacksnipfi have also appeared in small numbers 

 near Hammond, Indiana. 



I have heard little from the chicken croj) in lower Illi- 

 nois, and we are not apt to hear much from it. Shooters 

 who know a good chicken hole these days are not swarm- 

 ing into print for the most part. It is certain, however, 

 that there will be good chicken shooting in Illinois, 

 though the best of it will be gobbled before the law opens 

 the season. I should not be much afraid to chance it 

 below Bloomington, and I think a trip with Mason City 

 as an objective j)oint would be very likely to be success- 

 ful. Barring the larger number of posted farms, I believe 

 I would rather risk central Illinois for a chicken hunt 

 than central Minnesota or South Dakota. I believe that 

 northwestern Nebraska is in general the safest country of 

 all to head for. 



Mr. Chas. A. Rathbone, of Detroit, Mich., has the fol- 

 lowing to say in regard to the "game pocket" I have been 

 keeping on ice for Forest and Stream people: 



"I have just received your letter of Aug. 1, and desire 

 to thank you for your kindness in giving me the address 

 and remembering me. I am uncertain about getting 

 West this year; but should I go I will be glad to take ad- 

 vantage of the knowledge and use it in the proper man- 

 nei*," 



; As stated last week, I have written to all the gentle- 

 men who inquired earlier about this chicken country, or 

 have attempted to do so. If by chance any inquiries 

 have bepn missed, I wish they might address me again 

 so that I may get the names and addresses. Moreover, I 

 should be glad if any reader of Forest and Stream who 

 wants to have a pleasant chicken shoot this fail would 

 write for this address. I believe there is room for all, 

 and while I know too m ich to guarantee shooting to 



. anybody, I believe this is the place a good many men 

 are looking for. Two days before the season opens there 

 will still be the same number of men who will want to 



' know, right away, where they can go quick and kill 



■ about 100 chickens a day, easy, not too far from the 

 railroad. That isn't the wise way to do nowadays. It is 

 wiser to begin plans for a chicken shoot at least a month 

 ah«ad. 



Unfortunately, the market-shooters begin their plans 

 about a month ahead, also, and they get there, too. The 

 ' unscrupulous are the most successful in the chicken 

 game. Early chicken shooting is not sport for any one 

 who ever did much of it and can shoot a little bit. The 

 market-hunters do not shoot these "cheepers" for sport, 

 but for so much a per each. It is a wonder they don't 

 take the eggs home and kill the birds with a club as 

 soon as they hatch. Great country, America. 



E, Hough. 



Neio Editions: The Gun and its Development, $2,50, 

 The Modern Shotgun, $1. For sale at this offlce, 



UPLAND PLOVER SHOOTING. 



Don't think from this heading that it i^ my intention 

 to describe my success in shooting Tipland plover or to 

 give my views as to the best way of shooting them. I 

 am merely going to give an account of an incident in 

 connection with upland plover shooting, which, though 

 not exciting or thrilling, is certainly uncommon, and I 

 trust that it may be of interest to the reader. 



I was driving over the hills of New Hampshire one 

 afternoon late in July, just before the uplanders leave the 

 inland pastures for the sea, when my attention was at- 

 tracted by the whistling of some plover. Looking up I 

 savv a pair flying over my head, and presently I saw them 

 alight in a field where several more were feeding in the 

 long grass. This promised sport; and a few days later I 

 took the same drive with a gun in the wagon. When I 

 arrived at the field where I had seen the plover feeding, 

 I found that the grass had been cut and a number of men 

 were loading hay into an ox-cart. In the lower corner 

 of the field, however, I discovered a number of plover 

 quite near a stone wall. Having hitched my horse, I 

 made a long circuit and crept up to the wall, on the 

 other side of which I had seen the plover. They 

 were still there and within easy range; so I stood 

 up and as they ran fired at them. Whether I got 

 any or not is neither hei-e nor there; but no sooner had I 

 fired than one of the men whom I had seen loading hav 

 came running toward mc, shouting to me to get out and 

 to take myself off to warmer climes, and calling me all 

 manner of hard names, I waited till he came near and 

 then tried to tell him that I was bent on no harm but was 

 merely shooting plover. "Shooting plover!" he shouted. 

 "Don't you suppose I know what you're doing?'" and then 

 he came very near calling me more names. Pi-esently he 

 became calmer, and then he told me that he had most as 

 soon I went into his house and shot his children, and that 

 he had much rather I shot his chickens. "Why," he said, 

 "them plovers have been here every summer since I was 

 a boy, and I wouldn't have them drove off and not hear 

 them hollering and a whistling round the lot for nothing." 

 I began to feel very mean and tried to say something 

 about ' 'sport," but whatever it was sounded very weak, 

 and I went back to my wagon cured of all desire to shoot 

 upland plover for the rest of the summer. 



It is very rare to find such an appreciation and love of 

 birds among farmers of New England, and it is this that 

 makes me think this little incident worthy of note. 



BlJATTLEBOKO, Vt. J. D. B. 



OLD DAYS IN MAINE. 



Machias, Washington Co., Maine. — These notes refer 

 to the region watered by the Machias River and its tri- 

 butaries. Memory carries me back for more than 60 

 years. At that time there were caribou in certain local- 

 ities. In winter they collected on the plains where the 

 moss grew upon which the fed, obtaining it by pawing 

 the snow, making lai^ge heaps when the snow was deep. 

 I remember seeing one brought into town alive, caught 

 in spring on the crust. They were soon destroyed. I 

 think there has not been a caribou on the river for 50 

 years. 



The moose were quite plenty in those days, but the 

 crust hunter annihilated them some 80 years ago. I was 

 told that one spring the Indians had as many as 15 car- 

 casses in one pile, killed on the crust. There came a thaw 

 and took off the snow so that they could not get them out 

 of the woods and so lost them. 



The deer in my young davs were not very plenty. 

 They increased so that about 1845 they were quite plenty 

 and kept so for about 20 years. In 1844 or '45 the first 

 wolf was seen on this river. They seemed to come from 

 the north, appearing first at the head of the river. They 

 increased very rapidly, thinning out the deer. They 

 reigned for some twenty or twenty-five years and then 

 left and there has not been one seen or heard since. 



After the wolves left, the deer increased. Bafore the 

 game laws were passed I knew of two hunters who killed 

 thirty-three deer in four days still-hunting in October. 

 The hunters thinned them off till the law was passed pro- 

 tecting them, since then they have increased, till now 

 they are as plenty as ever. One day last fall one of a 

 party of hunters got lost and was out all night. The next 

 morning his comrades with as many others as they could 

 muster, some eight or ten, formed a line, each keeping 

 within hailing distance of the other, and marched through 

 the woods in the direction they though, him to be, shout- 

 ing and making all the noise they could; this of course 

 drove the game before them, and the man counted fifty- 

 four deer go past him before the men came in sight. 



Bears have always been plenty in this section. One fur 

 dealer in this town tells me that he handles about twenty- 

 five skins in a year killed within thirty miles of town. 



Ducks of different kinds are plenty in autumn in our 

 fresh water streams and ponds. Partridges are plenty 

 some years and some years are not, owing I think to the 

 state of the snow the previous winter. They have a habit 

 of diving into the snow when it is light enough, to spend 

 the night. Occasionally there comes a sleet storm in the 

 night which forms a crust and they are imprisoned, and 

 unless there comes a thaw in time they die. We have a 

 few snipe and some woodcock in their season. 



Pigeons were plenty in my boyhood days. We used 

 to catch them in nets. I have caught 150 at one spring 

 of the net. I know men who have caught over 5,000 each 

 in a season. The i^igeon had a habit of coming to the 

 salt marshes for a drink of salt water about sunrise. As 

 there were no trees for them to alight on, as they wanted 

 to do before going down to drink, we u^ed to puc up what 

 we called a raker: which has a pole set in the grouud 

 with another across the top with slats for them to alight 

 on. The sportsman (?) would hide behind a blind with 

 the largest kind of a gun (we called them King's arms) 

 loaded with fine shot. Tne top pole was i)ut in such a 

 position that a gun fired from the blind would rake it 

 "fore and aft." The pigeons would frequently come in 

 so large a flock that the raker would not hold them, As 

 many as could would alight, the rest would flutter for a 

 moment over those already alighted, when the old King's 

 arm would speak and down they came. I have known 

 100 as the result of two shots. But that is all gone. I 

 have not seen a pigeon for years. 



We have pickerel in our river, white perch yellow perch 

 chubs etc. , in our ponds. All of our small streams and 

 many of our ponds abound with trout. 



Now I do not think this & paradise for sportmen, but I 

 do think there is sport to ba had here in the gea(,son, In 



the summer, fishing; in the fall hunting combined with 

 fishing. I think too there is one of the best if not the 

 best chance for a deer park in the State. There is a tract 

 of land in the market oE over 30 000 acres which can be 

 bought for about what the timber is worth standing on 

 it, easy of access, no settlers and no turnpike crossing it, 

 that takes in the best section of deer ground on the river. 

 It was on this tract the man mentioned above saw the 

 fifty-four deer. I would not be afraid to guarantee any- 

 where from 500 to 1,000 deer already on it. If protected 

 they would double every year. As it is in one block my 

 plan would be to enclose with a wire fence, the posts, 

 iron rods driven into the ground. Such a fence would 

 not burn or blow down and would not be very expensive. 

 I should want about four men for game keepers. The 

 timber on it would pay a good pa''t of the price of the 

 land, the increase of the game the cost of running it. 

 This tract is about 15 miles from here, a turnpike within 

 three or four miles, a buck bo ird road the rest of the way. 

 To get here, we shall have a steamer three times a week 

 from Rockland via Bar Harbor. L. 



NORTHWESTERN DEER DESTRUCTION. 



ChewelAH, Stevens County, Wash. — The game is going 

 fast from the Pacific coast, and we have not the power to 

 prevent it, because away back in the mountains there is 

 absolutely no game law, and no one to enforce it if there 

 was one; so everybody who has a gun, except the true 

 mountaineer, will shoot and kill any a,nd everything he 

 sees in the hills and at any and all times, and the small 

 handful of sportsmen in this country cannot prevent it. 

 All through the month of Febitiary the snow shoe hunters 

 follow the deer so relentlessly in the deep snow that they 

 are frequently driven down into the settlements, and 

 shot or killed with dogs, the Justice of the Peace and the 

 Sheriff taking a hand in the general slaughter. One man 

 of my acquaintance long carried a black eye and a large 

 section ot sore I'ibs, the effect of a personal encounter 

 with a buck deer in the deejo snow. Being unable to kill 

 it in any other way, he broke all its four legs with a club, 

 and then went home for a knife and returned and cut its 

 throat. Then he boasted of his daring and valorous deed, 

 and his friends appeared to admire him. A while ago 

 the Indians in this neighborhood made a drive in the 

 mountains and killed seventy in one day. If the illegal 

 killing of deer is allowed to continue long in that manner 

 it will not be many years before venison will cease to 

 occupy such a consj)icuous place on the bill of fare of our 

 city restaurants on the first day of March. 



I notice an occasional contribution to the columns of 

 Forest and Stream from the pen of Orin Belknap, of 

 this State. He is one whom I admire very much, because 

 he is, to my own personal knowedge, one of the genuine 

 sportsmen in this part of the country ; a man who would 

 not kill a deer or chicken out of season if his breakfast 

 depended on it. K. 



DON'T BLAME US. 



Wh4T lover of shooting has not been called a fool or 

 some other equally unpleasa.nt name for being fond of 

 such a childish and nonsensical sport as hunting? 



If, however, those who ridicule some friend for walk- 

 ing and working hard all day in rain and mud just to 

 get a few little birds which he could have bought for 

 quarter the money would look at it from a psychological 

 standpoint they would not wonder why others go shoot- 

 ing, but would be surprised to find that they themselves 

 do not. 



Human beings, like other animals, possess many in- 

 stincts, and the hunting instinct is one of them. 



If evolution and the survival of the fittest be true at all, 

 the destruction of prey and human rivals must have 

 been among the most important of man's primitive func- 

 tions and these have become ingrained. 



The hunting instinct is a transitory instinct, and if it 

 is not exercised at all it may even entirely die out; and 

 this is what has happened to most of the present civi- 

 lized world. This desire is sure to make its ajopearance 

 in each one of our lives at some time, generally before 

 we are fifteen years of age, and if it be satisfied it becomes 

 a habit, otherwise it disappears. 



If we could retrace our lives we would undoubtedly 

 find where this instinct has made its appearance. So, 

 when in the spring or fall we get "the fever," and are 

 blamed and scolded far going shooting, we can say that 

 the bill is not to be settled with us, but with mother 

 nature. M. 



What the Snipe Is. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



It seems to me some contributors are wasting a great 

 deal of ink on the snipe question. 



AEcer exhausting the stock of modern opinion they 

 seem to be raking over the piles of ancient lore for "argu- 

 ment," as if a man's opinion was of greater value because 

 he was a forefather! 



If Adam himself had left a written assertion that a 

 jacksnipe was a waterfowl, it would count for little with 

 me, for I don't believe he ever shot one in his life. In 

 fact, the most authentic ancient history doesn't state that 

 there was any mud in his garden, and no snipe could live 

 without mud. As the insignificant little thing that is 

 now convulsing the con*"inent could not possibly live in 

 the water and would starve to death on dry land, why 

 not compromise the matter and call it a mudfowl? 



DlDYMUS. 



The Massachusetts Acclimatization Fund. 



Massachusetts Fish and Gasie Protective Associa- 

 tion, Committee on Acclimatization. — Boston, Aug. 8. — 

 The committee on acolimatizxtion of the Massac tiusetts 

 Fish and Game Protective A-isociation wish to acknowl- 

 edge the receipt of the following contributions for the 

 work of restocking the State with game, viz.: Mr. D. 

 Kirkwood, $5; Mr. Richard Baker, $-25; total, $30. 



By the omission of three words in the Massachusetts 

 paragraph of close seasons, in your issue of July 21, the 

 close season for pinnated grouse in Massachusetts was 

 stated to be between .Jan. 1 and Sept. 15. The birds are 

 protected at all times. Without such protection the 

 Massachusetts Fish and Game Protective Association 

 could not expect to stock the covers with imported birds. 



He;nby J. THATE5, Secretary, 



