Forest and Stream 



A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 



Terms, $4 a Yeah. 10 Cts. a Copy. / 

 Ses Months, $2. j 



NEW YORK, MAY 4, 1893. 



( VOL. XL.-No. 18. 



I Ko. 318 Broadway, New York. 



Editorial. 



Live Game for Stocking. 

 The Connecticut Bass Law. 

 Snap Shots. 

 Arthm- Wood. 



The Sportsman Tourist. 



Danvis Folks.— IV. 



My Chance Acquaintance. — IV. 



Natural History. 



Yellow-Breast Chat. 

 Cuckoo or Eaincrow? 

 From Furthest South. 



Game Bag and Gun. 



Chicago and the West. 

 A Duck Hunt on the Smoky. 

 , North Dakota Game. 



A Five Days' Hunt in Mexico. 



Sea and River Fishing. 



Large-Mouth and Small-Mouth. 



On the North Shore —II. 



The Lampreys. 



A Maine Faper Answered. 



Angling Notes. 



In Northern Streams. 



The Kennel. 



Los Angeles Dog Show. 



CONTENTS. 



The Kennel. 



Coursing Near Denver. 

 Bedlington Terriers. 

 Beagle Type. 



Flaps from the Beaver's Tail. 

 Points and Flushes. 

 Dog Chat. 



Answers to Correspondents. 



Yachting. 



A French "One Design" Class. 

 Launch of the Britannia. 

 The Fife 40-Rater. 

 News Notes. 



Canoeing. 



The A. C. A. and B. C. A. 

 South Boston C. C. 

 News Notes. 



Rifle Range and Gallery. 



North End Bifle Club. 



Zettler Rifle Club Season Shoot. 



Rifle Notes. 



Trap Shooting. 



Oiu- Position. 



The Connecticut State League. 

 The AVhmington Tournament. 

 Drivers and Twisters. 

 Answers to Queries. 



J^or Prospectus and Advertising Rates see Page VII.- 



On and after May 1 the Western ofiB.ce of Forest 

 and Stream Pub. Co. will be permanently located 

 at 909 Security Building, cor. Fiftb avenue and 

 Madison street, Chicago. 



We call the special attention of our advertisers to the 

 line in our prospectus in regard to the time for receipt of 

 advertisements, which reads, "Advertisements should be 

 sent in by Saturday previous to the issue in which they 

 are to be inserted." Knowing that we sometimes accept 

 copy later than this date, many of our advertisers have 

 gotten into the habit of sending -as, matter designed for 

 insertion in some special issue, Monday, Tuesday and 

 even. Wednesday before the day of pubKcation. This 

 week there were no less than eighteen advertisements re- 

 ceived at this ofifice during the twenty-four hours after 

 noon Tuesday. Many of them were important, and the 

 majority requested insertion in, or related to, the issue of 

 tills week. None of these advertisements fcould be at- 

 tended to, and no doubt the gentlemen who sent them 

 will call us to account for their non-appearance. For 

 their benefit we will state that it is not possible to handle 

 advertising copy after Tuesday morning, and that adver- 

 tisements sent in Saturday always receive the best atten- 

 tion, and are guaranteed insertion in the following 

 Thursday's issue of Forest and Stream. 



THE CONNECTICUT BASS LAW. 



A DECIDED backward step is now threatened in 

 Connecticut by a change proposed to be made in the law 

 for the protection of the black bass. 



Heretofore there has been a close season for that fish 

 from May 1 to June 10, but as observation has shown that 

 in some of the colder waters of the State the bass are still 

 guarding their spawning beds on the 20th of June, an 

 effort was made to extend the close season over the whole 

 of that month. A further reason for such extension may 

 be found in the fact that, even after the eggs are hatched, 

 the parent fish remain for some time with the school of 

 fry, protecting them from enemies and generally looking 

 after their welfare. This protection before and after 

 hatching is essential to the safety of the annual bass crop. 



A bill providing for a close season during May and June 

 was carefully drawn and presented in the House, referred 

 to a committee, approved by that body, and favorably 

 reported. No hostility to the bill has been met with up to 

 this time, and it was thought by its friends that the meas- 

 ure would pass the House without trouble. When it 

 came up, however, it met with violent opposition, Eft'orts 

 were made to tack on it a number of amendments, and 

 the bill was finally so changed that the close season only 

 covers the month of May. Thus, if the bill should become 

 a law, ten days ^vill have been lost to protection when 

 twenty days should have been gained. 



Such shortening of the close season would sei'iously in- 

 jure if it did not altogether ruin the bass fishing in Con- 

 necticut, which in the past has been very good. There 

 are in that State many waters which have been stocked 

 by private means at considerable expense of time, trouble 

 and money, and which are now open to the public, and 

 give good fishing to all. It is a short-sighted selfisliness 

 that would imdo all the effort that has been expended in 

 replenishing Connecticut waters, by making it legal to 

 destroy the bass at the season of the year when they most 



need protection. It is certainly to be hoped that no such 

 unfortunate change as the one proposed wiU be made. 

 Instead of this, further legislation extending the close time 

 to the first of July should be had before the present ses- 

 sion of the Connecticut Legislature comes to an end. 



LIVE GAME FOB STOCKING. 

 Our issue of April 20 contained a note from a Chatta- 

 nooga correspondent alluding to the netting of quail for 

 exportation from Tennessee, to stock exhausted game 

 fields in other States. Elsewhere in the South quail net- 

 ting is conducted on an extensive scale, notably in West 

 Virginia; and tens of thousands of the birds annually are 

 sent North for stocking purposes. For the most part this 

 industry is prosecuted in direct and more or less open 

 violation of law, for the export of live quail is specifically 

 forbidden. 



Last week a Wyoming correspondent wrote of the cap- 

 tru-e of big game alive for shipment to Eastern game pre- 

 serves. It will be recalled that a year or two ago an 

 outcry was raised by certain Maine club men on the occa- 

 sion of the capture of live deer in the snow for Mr. Austin 

 Corbin's game park in New Hampshire. The big game 

 industry too is in violation of law. 



How well founded may be the comialaints that this ex- 

 portation of small and large game alive affects the native 

 supply to an injurious or appreciable extent, we do not 

 imdertake to say. In the Maine deer case it appeared 

 hardly probable that the capture of a few deer would 

 have any measurable effect one way or the other upon 

 the superabounding stock in those woods. Certainly the 

 purpose of the capture is a commendable one; and since 

 that purpose is not the destruction of the birds and the 

 deer, but their increase, some provision might be incor- 

 porated in the law by which the business of transporting 

 game from one section of country to another should be 

 conducted to a reasonable extent legitimately and openly 

 and above board. 



Under existing conditions, a sportsmen's club in the 

 North, which orders live birds from West Virginia, for 

 stocking, is ^drtuaUy inciting, aiding and abetting a viola- 

 tion of the West Virginia quail law. The end sought, it 

 is true, is a good one, and of all violations of the game 

 laws, this is perhaps the one which might be winked at. 

 It is a case concei-ning which, as the good old Knight of 

 the "Spectator" would say, "much might be said on both 

 sides." And yet the position is one in which the average 

 sportsman would hardly care to place himself. 



As the preserve system shaU. grow — -and it is developing 

 with giant strides— the traffic in Live game will increase in 

 a proportionate ratio. Foreign species wiU in a degi'ee 

 supplement the American birds, and if quail netting could 

 be restricted to capture for stocking pm-poses only, there 

 would be slight ground for apprehension that the traffic 

 would seriously impair the native stock. 



SNAP SHOTS. 

 A CLIPPING from a Texas paper announces that an 

 official of one of the Panhandle counties of that State has 

 made a contract with a Kansas City firm to deliver 30,000 

 dozen larairie chickens within the next five months. These 

 birds, it is said, are to be sent to Chicago to fill a contract 

 made with parties in that city, so that Chicago may have 

 a supply of these birds during the whole time of the 

 World's Fair. It is hard to imagine that 360,000 j)rairie 

 chickens could be delivered by any one contractor, but it 

 is certainly worth the while of the authorities of Texas to 

 investigate this matter and to endeavor to protect the birds 

 that stiU exist in the Lone Stai' State. The game of 

 Texas, like that of other plains States, has been ruthlessly 

 slaughtered, and to-day there is little of it left in compari- 

 son with what there used to be. This little shovild be pre- 

 served by evei-y legitimate means. The destruction of the 

 prairie chicken over so large a portion of the territory 

 where it was once enormously abundant is still fresh in 

 the public mind. This is one of the birds whose extermi- 

 nation over a vast territory has been complete, and tmless 

 measures for its preservation are soon taken in sections 

 where it stiU exists, it seems likely that in the course of a 

 few years it will stand in the same position now occupied 

 by its relative the heath hen of Naushon; that is, may 

 exist only in little colonies which are always growing 

 fewer in numbers and axe speedily to die out. 



The most praiseworthy quality possessed by the origin- 

 ator of newspaper fakes is ingenuity, and when to this 

 ingenuity is added a knowledge of the subject about 



which he is writing, the fakir often succeeds in giving a 

 veiy realistic air to his inventions. The average gunner 

 will hardly give credit for success in this respect to the 

 originator of the yarn recently published about the Con- 

 necticut blind man who, though totally blind, is a most 

 enthusiastic and successful gunner. It is said that he has 

 been blind for many years, but his love of shooting was 

 so great that he would not aUow his infirmity to keep 

 him out of the woods, so he went abroad with gun and 

 dog, shooting at the sound when the birds got up. At 

 first he was unsuccessful, but after a while he learned to 

 locate the bird from the sound, and he has now become 

 so expert that nearly every shot tells. Those of our 

 readers who are familiar with the eccentric and buzzing 

 flight of Connecticut ruffed grouse, quail and woodcock, 

 and so know how difiicult it is to stop them, even when 

 one is in possession of all his senses, will hardly need to 

 be assured that this tale is one of the many inventions of 

 the fakir. There is no such blind man; if there were he 

 does not go shooting, and if he did go shooting he does 

 not kill his birds. 



No great surprise wiU be felt, we suppose, at the general 

 satisfaction expressed by our readers on the reappearance 

 in Forest and Stream of the ' 'Danvis Folks. " In ' 'Uncle 

 Lisha's Shop" Mr. Robinson first introduced us to these 

 living characters of a century ago, and in "Sam Level's 

 Camps" their sayings and doings were still further chron- 

 icled. So it is that to our older readers Uncle Lisha, Sam 

 Level, Gran'ther Hill and the inimitable Antwine are old 

 friends. It is good to see them once more and to feel 

 that their quaint humor and their simple joys and sorrows 

 wiU bring to us again, as in years gone by they have 

 brought, laughter and tears. So we welcome once more 

 these people, who by their very simplicity and naturalness 

 are so remarkable, and the more we see them the stronger 

 grows our affection for them. To every man, woman 

 and child who has lived along the border between New 

 England and Canada, these characters appeal with a 

 strength that can hardly be measured in words, and many 

 of those who were once familiar with such charac- 

 ters, and then moved far away and lost sight of 

 them, feel in reading Mr. Robinson's sketches as if they 

 had been carried back to the days and the associations of 

 their youth. It is perhaps natural that already we should 

 begin to compare "Danvis Folks" with the two volumes 

 from Mr. Robinson's pen which preceded this series, but 

 it is not time to do that yet. No intelligent comparison 

 can be made until the present series has been completed; 

 but we believe that most of those who have read the three 

 will regard the one now appearing as equal to, if not sur- 

 passing in interest and charm, either "Uncle Lisha's 

 Shop" or "Sam Level's Camps." 



By the recent change in the New Brunswick game law 

 the non-resident license fee provision has been expunged 

 from the statute books of that Province. New Bruns- 

 wick game is now as free to outsiders as to the residents 

 of the Province, and the neighborly spirit thus displayed 

 wiU no doubt be apxjreciated by all Americans. 



ARTHUR WOOD. 



It is with sadness that we record the death of our correspondent, 

 Arthur Wood, of Grand Rapids, Micliigan. 



Although Sir. Wood's health had been poor for years, no great 

 anxiety was felt about him, and his death n^as entirely unexpected. 

 He had gone to his office on the morning of April 24, and after com- 

 plaining of weariness lay down on the lounge and in a few moments 

 breathed his last. Mr. Wood was born in England in May, 1832. His 

 parents came to this country when he was yet a child, and settled in 

 Massachusetts. At the age of 20 he went to Grand Rapids. He served 

 in the war with high credit, and at its conclusion embarked in the 

 business of carriage making at Grand Rapids. This business he carried 

 on successfully up to the time of his death. Sir. Wood was an enthusi- 

 astic angler and was long a contributor to Forest and Stream. Many 

 of our readers will have read with interest the quaintly humorous, 

 short sketches under the title "My Chance Acquaintance," at present 

 being printed Mr. Wood suffered from deafness contracted during 

 the war, and it was perhaps in part this infirmity which made him so 

 fond of angling. The Grand Rapids De>nocrat says of him: 



"Mr. Wood, of all things, was a fisherman. Shut off from the 

 ordinary intercom-se of society, he took his rod and in his boat com- 

 muned with nature alone. He never lost a certain charming warmth 

 of manner which made him friends with young men, and at sixty his 

 greatest pleasure was to sit around and tell a good story— fishing 

 story — which would pass the laugh along. His business career was 

 made successful by honor and industry. In private life he was a 

 clean man ; a true friend, a good husband and father." 



Mr. Wood's private letters to this oflice showed him. to be a man of 

 most genial, kindly nature, as well as of clear, logical mind. His per- 

 sonal qualities greatly endeared him to all those with whom he was 

 brought in contact, and in the city which for many years he made his 

 home, his death leaves a real gap which will not easily be filled. 



