April 6, 1898. | 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



^97 



THE MONGOLIAN PHEASANT. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



There has been much written of late years regarding the 

 Mongolian pheasant in Oregon, and thus readers of 

 Forest and Stream doubtless know the facts regarding 

 their introduction and the success attending the same. 

 For the enlightenment of those not familiar with tlie 

 facts I would say tlie birds (ring-necked Mongolian pheas- 

 ants) were imported from Cliina some eiglit or ten years 

 since. Quite a number were liberated in tlie Willamette 

 Valley and the Legislatare of the State passed an act pro- 

 tecting the bu-ds for a period of years. This protected 

 period expired but last September and the birds may now 

 be shot during the same months the State allows for the 

 killing of native grouse. Despite the fact that the birds 

 have been under the protection of the law since their 

 introduction, of course hundreds and thousands fell vic- 

 tims to pot-hunters and farmers. Harrassed as they were 

 the buds have been a great success and there are now 

 thousands of them to be found from one end of the valley 

 to the other. 



With the fear before me that I am perhaps telling an 

 old story, I would like to say a fcAv words regai-ding tlie 

 breeding and game qualities of these beautiful birds. The 

 Mongolian pheasant is as nearly as 1 can determine identi- 

 cal with the famous pheasant of merrie England. The 

 birds are very prolific and often rear from two to three 

 broods during a season. The full grown male is a magnifi- 

 cent bird with a large tail and a pliunage rivaling the 

 rainbow. The mature male weighs about four pounds, 

 but the female is smaller and of much more sombre 

 plumage. The birds live in jarairie and brushy country, 

 and have no use whatever for the dark pine and spruce 

 woods. They will always be found in country sufficiently 

 open to allow of easy, fair shooting, and as sprinters they 

 rival the wild tm-key. I cannot say the bnds will lie to 

 the dog as well as does the ruffed grouse and Bob White, 

 but the fact remains that a rapid and cautious dog will 

 mark them down without trouble. They will then often 

 allow the gunner to fairly kick them from the cover, and 

 despite tlie fact of their brilliant plumage they very 

 eflEectually secrete themselves in short grass and stubble. 

 In flushing they do not make such a bustle as does the 

 rufEed grouse, and in flight they are not so rapid as that bird. 

 Knowing the great success these birds have been in Oregon, 

 Eastern sportsmen have of late been making many inquiries 

 with a view of introducing them into their respective States. 

 But there has always been a serious doubt— and it is ex- 

 pressed by nearly every one who writes to me regarding 

 the birds — will they stand the rigors of the Eastern win- 

 ters? This question is what prompts the writer to inflict 

 this letter on the readers of Forest and Stream. Our 

 weather tliis winter has been much more severe than is 

 usually the case. The temperature was not so very low, 

 not worse than zero, but we had from 1 to Sift, of snow, 

 which remained on the groimd about a month. I was 

 very much afraid that the long continued and deep snows 

 would be very hard on the bu'ds, and that the larger part 

 of them would perish. 



I took the trouble to correspond with several of my ac- 

 quaintances in different parts of the valley, and I now 

 know the condition of affairs. I learn that the birds of 

 the river bottoms and brushy localities had no trouble in 

 finding a living, but that those of the prairies and more 

 open country did not fare so well. Such birds were driven 

 to the farmers' hay and straw stacks, and they also 

 gather about the barns and follow the stock. Here they 

 pick up a living, and if the farmers' boys do not merci- 

 lessly pot the birds they will easily survive. I know of 

 a party in Canada who has successfully reared some of 

 these birds, and he reports that they can stand a tem- 

 Ijerature of from 15° to 20° below zero. This, to my 

 mind, clearly demonstrates the fact that if food is pro- 

 vided for the hivds they will siu-vive the coldest and 

 roughest weather. The gaily dressed foreigner is difiicult 

 of capture, for he is suspicious and cautious; but the late 

 deep snows have doubtless resulted in the taking alive of 

 a good many. I regard this Mongolian pheasant as the 

 coming game bird of this country, and I want to see them 

 in every State and Territory. 



Several months since I published a notice to the effect 

 that I knew of several parties who made a business of 

 capturing and breeding the birds and ofl:ering to furnLsh 

 to any one sending me a stamrjed and self -addressed en- 

 velope the names and addi-esses of the above-mentioned 

 people. I received many letters from Maine to Missis- 

 sippi; and regardless of the fact that some of them were 

 unaccompanied Avith stamps I have always given the 

 desired information and a courteous reply. Live birds 

 are scarce and expensive, but in -the spring and summer 

 numbers of wild eggs can be procured at a nominal cost. 



Regarding the shipment of eggs I would say this. Last 

 summer I obtained from a gentleman in this city one 

 dozen eggs and carefully packing them in excelsior I 

 sent them per express to a correspondent in Mississippi. 

 Now it is a long distance from Oregon to the above-men- 

 tioned State, but my friend writes that the game hen 

 under Avhich he sat tlie eggs hatched 70 per cent, of them 

 and that those imhatched were apparently not fertilized. 

 Unfortunately, his country was visited by a protracted 

 rain about the time the yoimg birds were hatched and 

 they became wet and perished. 



lintil about a month old the chicks axe delicate, but 

 from that on they are hardy and thrive. They must be 

 kept dry and given suitable food. The eggs I sent my 

 friend were from semi- domesticated hens and were per- 

 fectly fresh, but I am afraid wild eggs would not hatch 

 so successfiilly. I would earnestly advise those who wish 

 the birds to try some eggs, however, for I have known 

 people who upon finding a wild nest of eggs and trans- 

 ferring them to a chicken have hatched and raised nearly 

 all of them. Eggs are comparatively cheap, and if but 

 three or foiu- of a dozen hatch the sportsman may get a 

 start and then all is well. 



I would advise those who have large and valuable pre- 

 serves which they wish to stock with the long-tails to 

 buy a number of the birds and keeping them in captivity 

 hatch their eggs under domestic chickens. Two hens 

 owned by the jjarty from whom I obtained my eggs laid 

 ui one summer 2io eggs. I now deshe to again make 

 the offer to fm-nish information as to how to obtain these 

 bhds to those who will address me and send stanip for 

 reply. I have no individual or pecuniary interest in the 

 matter, but in the interest of the sportsmen of this coun- 

 try I will go to the trouble of making answer to those 

 who care to write me. Thos. G. Farrelt.. 



Portland, Oregon. 



Spring Shooting and l^arge Bags of Game. 



Matlock, la. — 1 notice in the columns of the Forest 

 iVND Stream many articles on the evil effects of spring 

 shooting. I agree with them in some respects, but "cir- 

 cumstances alter cases." Where there are marshes and 

 breeding grounds for ducks, no one will deny that spring 

 shooting is an injury. On the other hand, in this region 

 it is spring shooting' or none. No ducks breed here, and 

 they do not stop here on their way South in the fall and 

 only for a short time in the spring. The result is that you 

 must take advantage of them while they are here or shoot 

 ducks in your dreams only. 1 beheve most heartily in 

 game protection, but not in such protection as will prevent 

 all shooting. 



I also notice in your columns, as well as in other papers, 

 reports of large bags of game. In your issue of March 9 

 Mr. Hough, in speaking of Mr. C. E. Willard's Southern 

 trip, says he kiUed in one day 113 quail, and in another 

 day 269 doves, Is this sport— true sport? Most decidedly 

 it is not. Such shooting is, to my mind, simply slaughter. 

 I believe the amount of game kUled should be hmited by 

 law. Any sane man should be satisfied with a bag of 25 

 to 40 birds, and if he has not the quahties of a true sports- 

 man about him to stop when he has made a reasonable 

 bag, then there should be a law to compel him to stoji. 

 Do not let this wanton and useless slaughter go on under 

 the name of sport, and at the same time condemn the 

 man who shoots a half dozen ducks in the spring and call 

 him a pot-hunter. Union Machine. 



Rifle Shots at Geese. 



Fredericksburg, la., March 26.— Ducks and geese are 

 very jilentiful here this spring. We had lots of snow last 

 winter, and going off this raises the streams very high. 

 The Wapsie, our nearest river, is all over the bottoms, and 

 the ducks settHng near the center are very hard to get at 

 without a boat. The geese often alight in the cornfields. 

 To-day, as I was sitting up-stairs reading, I heard the 

 ]i07ik, honk, we aU know so Avell, and going to the window 

 saw a large flock circhng aroimd back of the barn. I 

 rustled down-stairs, threw on my coat, and went out and 

 climbed up on the windmill to see if they would light. 

 They flew aroimd toward the cornfield, and settled near 

 the edge on a plowed field about 60 rods from a large 

 snoAvbank on the edge of our grove. I "came off my 

 perch" and ran in the house to get my .32 Winchester re- 

 peater with nine cartridges in tlie magazine, and then 

 sneaked out behind the snowbank. The geese were scat- 

 tered around three or four in a bimch. Hastily raising 

 the sight two notches I lined up on the largest bunch 

 and fired. They all flew up. This made me so mad I 

 pumped the other eight shots as they rose. At nearly the 

 last shot one set his wings and came sailing to the ground. 

 May be I didn't make the mud fly getting to Avhere he 

 feU. He was stone dead, the buUet going through him 

 lengthwise. An old goose hunter would have thought 

 nothing of this, but it was my first goose, and it Avould 

 have taken a hat two sizes larger to fit my cranium just 

 then. F- J- 0. 



You Can Get the Sense of It. 



The following interesting and queer piece of composi- 

 tion was received recently by Sam Cornell, of this city. 

 The Avriter is a full-blooded Sioux Indian and puts in his 

 time limiting and acting as a guide for himtiug parties. 

 It was in the capacity of a guide that Mr. Cornell met 

 him. His education Avas procured at an Indian school on 

 the reservation near his home. The letter is given in its 

 quaint and original makeup and here it is: 



Wolf Point, Mont., Feb. 12, 1893.— Friend Sam: Your letter of Jan. 

 6th, and I was very glad to hear from you, that you was gots some elk 

 skin; well, I never get hold of any elk teeths my life, no elk In this our 

 country & some Bears in little rocky mountain, But I never go up 

 there, and some sheeps too. Plenty of deers & enloves too and I have 

 killed 7 nice dose & 13 enloves & redfox. Deer skins 20c lbs. Some of 

 the skins weigh 7 or 9 lbs. We have hards winter we ever know of ; 

 I think we have get drown this spring, to dam deeps snow; just above 

 my knees of snow. We have colds and storms and hale IS days. I 

 think we get warms next time. I was out of hunter foui- weeks; I got 

 just home one more. I take ti-ips of little rocky mountain until I hear 

 from you again. Some time ago I use to go hunting with Proctor, 

 and we saw one old Black-tail buck he standing alongside the httle 

 creek; and Proctor shot a times; he missed, I shot one taock down. I 

 think Proctor remember for that. Yours friend, Peter Matthews. 



The Proctor spoken of in the above letter was one of the 

 party Avhich Mr. Cornell was hunting with when he met 

 Matthews.— Toiingstoivn, O., Evening Vindicator. 



Out of Winter Quarters. 



Juniata County, Pa., March 25.— Our interesting friend 

 of the Avood, the coon, has again been brought out of his 

 retirement by the warm, murky evenings of the past 

 week. A feAv evenings since, juat before dusk, I heard 

 one of Ms tribe, out of his retreat, noisily welcoming the 

 coming spring. He was in a woods of old oaks bat a fcAv 

 hundred yards from the house, and he kept up his peculiar 

 solo for an hour or more. One of our teamsters last week 

 bagged an old coon by hiding (so his story runs) behind a 

 wood rank and catching its hindlegs as, with three young 

 ones, it came trooping doAvn the mountain. Of comrse it 

 was not edible at this season, and the man received at the 

 store but 35 cents for the coat. Onyjutta. 



Deer and Railroad Train. 



Philadelphia, N. Y., March 27.— While the passenger 

 train that leaves Philadelphia for Watertown at 5:45 



I F, and S. April 13.1893- 



I Stories told 

 • on One Another 

 I by a 



I Country Parson | 



p. M. on March 35 was climbing the steep grade a- half 

 mile from the depot a doe was struck and badly wounded. 

 It did not die tiU the next morning and the manner of its 

 death is questioned. 



The doe was badly crippled by the passenger train, but 

 was still alive— according to the crew of the freight train 

 that stopped to pick it up. Not caring to run the risk of 

 prosecution by the game protector, they— according to 

 their story— placed it on the track and ran over it Avith 

 the train. The deer was run over less than SOOyds. from 

 the depot. 



If the deer was still alive when the freight train ran 

 over it — as the freight train's crew said it was — it must 

 have had an extraordinary vitality , for its throat had been 

 cut and its viscera removed before being mutilated by the 

 cars. 



Its body was warm at 9 o'clock on the morning of the 

 26th. The hind and forAvard quarters had disappeared at 

 12 M. , having probably been taken by some villager, the 

 meat not having been mutilated except just back of the 

 foreshoulders where the wheels had divided it. The deer 

 had been seen several times lately by farmers and others 

 in the country hereabouts. 



Eobins appeared on March 18, while crows and wood- 

 peckers have been here for several weeks, A bird was 

 seen carrying a string probably for its nest this morning. 



Eaymont) S. Spears. 



Game Notes from the Pecos Valley. 



Eddy, N. M., March 23.— F. D. White, a stockman who 

 has a pasture of some 30,000 acres on the Staked Plains, 

 east of Eddy, came in the other day and reports that there 

 are a great many large gray wolves on his range, and that 

 they are killing a good many calves and colts. He states 

 that mountain lions are also numerous, and is anxious to 

 have some hunters come out and help thin them out. He 

 says there are thousands of antelope on the plains between 

 here and his range, and some 200 in his pasture. They are 

 confined by the wire fence and can not get out. 



A lady Avho lives on a homestead fifty miles up the val- 

 ley, says that one morning in the latter part of February 

 she got up and found several hundred antelope within a 

 quarter of a mfle of the house. There had been a snow- 

 storm the day before and the antelope had drifted in and 

 taken refuge among the brush in an arroyo that crosses 

 the farm. 



Some prospectors who drove up the valley a week or so 

 ago saAV a coyote catch a jack rabbit. They stated that 

 the chase was a long and exciting on; that near the close 

 of it the jack cut and doubled, and at each turn the coy- 

 ote gained on him until he finally picked him up. Two 

 other coyotes that had been watching the chase and 

 ready to take a hand in it came in at the finish for their 

 share of the lunch. 



Duck shooting has been good along the Pecos River and 

 the big canal aU winter, and several good bags have been 

 made. The varieties most nmnerous here are canvasbacks, 

 redheads, maUards, widgeon and teal. G. O. Shields. 



Small Game Preserves. 



Ann Arbor, Mch.— I inclose a mite for the "Nessmuk" 

 memorial. His game laws are the only ones to be trusted 

 — his and those of the Indian before him — namely, limit 

 the killing to the physical wants of the person or persons 

 concerned. No one has a "right" to kill 75 wild ducks a 

 day, or any such number, on his OAvn grounds, or any- 

 Avliere else. The private preserve is meeting opposition. 

 It Avill some day meet the question of what rights of kill- 

 ing it gives the owners, only to find that it does not con- 

 vey the right of unlimited, exclusive slaughter. The wild, 

 barbarous red man (Indian) had better game laws than 

 our "civilized elegancies" can boast, 



I am reminded in this connection of a fact, often in- 

 sisted on in Forest and Stream, that even a small, strictly 

 "preseiVcd" area is of the greatest benefit in keeping our 

 wild neighbors from total extinction. In a village I know 

 of there is a little group of large forest oaks where the 

 Pennsylvania fox squirrel has been safe for 30 years. In 

 consequence he is safe now ui the whole village. He lives 

 in the trees on the streets and in the dooryards. He seems 

 to be doing quite well in the world, too. 



Once, years ago, I saw in the grov^e above referred to 

 perhaps 350 or 300 of these squirrels gathered on a few 

 trees, four or five large Avliite oaks, racing and chasing 

 each other about at a rate that brings the rattle of the 

 bark to my ears now. J, B, D. 



Shooting by Proxy. 



'PiSECO" writes from Port Royal, S. C: "This has 

 been a A'ery good season for snipe, mallard and teal, 

 which have been abundant in the fresh water marshes 

 and ponds of several of the sea islands, and a number of 

 good bags have been made, rather the best that I knoAV of 

 by myself, shooting, as I usually do in these autumn days 

 of my career, by proxy. My proxy is a first-class 01. e. 

 Our arrangements are that I furnish gun, ammunition, 

 etc. , and he attends to the sport. He is a dead shot and I 

 find this is really a comfortable method. I wish I liked 

 to shoot birds as well as I do to catch trout." 



Horrible Nuisance in~a Blind. 



I HAATE just noticed "Todgers's" appeal for a remedy for 

 tlie ' ' \vi-etch" who makes puns. From the examxile given , 

 this looks like a very severe and chronic case. A friend 

 of mine Avas in the habit of taking advantage of me when 

 we were together in a duck shooting blind. Each pun 

 caused me to miss the next shot, and aa entreaty was of 

 no avail, I was in dispair. I at last struck an unfailing 

 cure. Every time he got off a pun I proceeded to give 

 him a long explanation as to the point of his joke, and 

 where the point — if there happened to be one — came in. 

 After one or two ti'eatments the patient Avas cured. 



Doctor. 



North CaroUna Quail. 



March 30. — I have just returned from a week's quail 

 shooting in North Carolina, and notwithstanding that it 

 was the last week of the open season, I enjoyed fine sjiort. 

 1 was extremely comfortably housed and very weU treated 

 at the Eenfro Inn at Mount Any. I believe this place was 

 advertised in Forest and Stream this Avinter. I shot over 

 good dogs and had the use of a competent guide, and all 

 in all I can most sti'ongly recommend the place. 



T. DE C. 



