226 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[March 17, 1894. 



ADIRONDACK FOXES. 



The Lake Placid correspondent of the Elizabethtown 

 Post has furnished his paper some interesting particulars 

 on the length of time a fox can stay in his hole. In com- 

 mon with coons and bears, though to a much less extent, 

 foxes seem to have the power of hibernating through the 

 coldest winter weather. We doubt, however, if this 

 record has ever been excelled: 



"A young man from North Elba, whose name I will not 

 disclose, took his gun and dog a few weeks ago and went 

 fox hunting. After an exciting chase of several hours 

 the fox was driven into a hole in the ground. When the 

 young man arrived on the spot he discovered by examin- 

 ation that there were two foxes in the hole. He accord- 

 ingly set a trap there, which he carried with him, and 

 came home to await results. An old hunter with consid- 

 erable experience told that nine days was the longest, to 

 his knowledge, a fox had stayed in the ground. The 

 young man watched his trap daily; soon the nine days 

 were up and still no fox. 



'At the end of the twelfth day, however, he found a fox 

 in his trap. He set the trap over again and thought sure 

 that a day or two more would be as long as the other fox 

 could hold out, but in this he was mistaken, for he did 

 not get the fox till the twenty-fifth day. It seems 

 almost impossible that a fox could live in a hole twenty- 

 five days without anything to eat, but such was the fact, 

 and although very poor and weak he would have given a 

 dog a good race when caught. In the meantime this 

 young man was not idle with gun and dog, he went out 

 again on a similar hunt, and strange to say similar was 

 the result. The fox could not stand it to run long in the 

 deep snow and soon went into a hole where also another 

 fox had gone in the morning, making two foxes in that 

 hole. When the hunter came to the hole he set a trap, 

 and as there was nothing handy to fasten the chain he 

 stepped some twenty feet from his trap to cut a stick; in 

 so doing he discovered another hole, and immediately 

 began to stop it up with a small tree, when to his surprise 

 he heai-d his trap snap. He ran quickly to the other hole, 

 but was too late, a3 the trap had gone beyond sight and 

 reach. The young man, however, was not discouraged. 

 He stopped up both holes and returned home. The writer 

 was sojourning at the home of the hnnter at that time 

 and volunteered to go with him and dig out the trap if 

 not the foxes. 



' 'If any of the readers of this article ever helped dig out 

 a fox in the winter in the Adirondacks, they know with- 

 out explanation what a job we had. We chopped frozen 

 ground and shoveled dirt five hours steady, getting a hole 

 down some 6 or 8ft. We were rewarded at last by getting 

 hold of the chain of the trap and pulled out of the hole a 

 nice fox caught by the lower jaw, the trap having a good 

 firm hold. Have any of my readers ever heard before of 

 the wily fox being caught by the jaw in a No. L} trap, 

 uncovered, unfastened, and a man within 20ft. at the 

 time? No, I do not think you ever did, but such is a fact. 

 By the time we had this fox dispatched darkness bad 

 overtaken us. We had quite a strip of woods to go 

 through, say nothing of the long stretch of clearing to 

 reach home, and we decided it was time to start, fox- 

 staying all night in the woods in winter is not very pleas- 

 ant, as many will undoubtedly imagine. We stopped up 

 the holes securely as we supposed and wended our way 

 homeward. The next morning we went after the other 

 fox; but the crafty fox had got out during the night and 

 eft for parts unknown." 



ON IOWA PRAIRIES. 



VlOTON, la.— Editor Forest and Stream: It has been an 

 excellent winter for game in this State so far. In this 

 section there was snow in November, but it was not deep, 

 and it melted off before Christmas, and there has been but 

 little snow since and but little zero weather. Inconse- 

 quence of the early snow a good deal of corn was not 

 husked until January, and the chickens visited these 

 fields every day, and they must be in fine condition to go 

 through the rest of the winter. 



It was an unusually good season during the past spring 

 and summer for ground birds of all kinds to hatch and 

 raise their young. It was dry throughout the season, 

 there were occasional rains but no floody spells, yet I am 

 disappointed as to the amount of game this season in this 

 immediate vicinity, but I know what the trouble is. One 

 mile west of my place are some low hills, used mostly for 

 grass, with no buildings near them. A creek runs from 

 the hills by my place, and the land along this creek is 

 used for grazing, and since I came to this State, eleven 

 years ago, there has always been a chicken roost in those 

 hills, and in the fastnesses near them. Last winter a flock 

 of chickens would, nearly every day, come down the 

 creek, and would frequently alight in the trees around my 

 buildings, and when spring came and the flock broke up 

 there were 150 chickens in it, and during the summer the 

 little broods of chickens were quite numerous. 



A covey of sixteen quail wintered with me, and I put 

 out grain and every day I would see them. There was a 

 severe spell of weather and deep snow during the latter 

 part of the winter and the little flock was somewhat 

 reduced in numbers, yet during the summer I would fre- 

 quently see the young coveys and knew that some of the 

 quail that had wintered with me had done well, yet I 

 have not heard or seen one since early in the fall, and no 

 member of the family has shot one, or a chicken during 

 the past season. 



A few weeks before the open time commences sports- 

 men from the city are accustomed to scour the country 

 with their dogs, not to spot the coveys, but "just to give 

 their dogs a little practice." There would always be 

 more or less shooting, "not at game, but at blackbirds 

 and crows, so as to get their hands in." Well, they get 

 their hands in all right. 



It was so dry here during the fall that dogs could not 

 do good work and some chickens escaped, and I think 

 others have come in from other parts of the country, for 

 there is a flock of 1^5 chickens here now and only 25 in 

 the flock early in the winter. One year ago the flock of 

 chickens began with about 25 and kept increasing all 

 winter. 



One of our local sportsmen, William Brown, is spend- 

 ing the winter in the South. He is at the present time 

 at Lake Charles, Louisana, and is having great sport. 

 We here in Iowa knew that he was making a good deal 

 of disturbance down there, because on Jan. 18 a flock of 

 50 geese and a flock of less size passed over here going 

 northwest, and on the 28th or 29th ducks were flying in 



the same direction, while to-day a flock of 22 geese went 

 over. All went in the same direction and all were 

 hustling right along as though they wished to get away 

 from something behind them mighty quick. Mr. Brown 

 ought to be ashamed, he knowing what cold weather we 

 have here in Iowa. Mt. Tom. 



A NEW JERSEY PHEASANTRY. 



Harper's Weekly gives this account of Mr. Vernier De 

 Guise's pheasantry in New Jersey : 



The fields are all fenced in with wire netting with 2in. 

 meshes, and from the surface in which it is securely 

 embedded, it rises to a height of 10ft. In the summer 

 time one can hear the musical "peeping" of the little 

 fledglings, and the answering "clucking" of the mother 

 hen, with an occasional cry from the cocks in the breed- 

 ing pen as something startles them. The noise they make 

 sounds like the first tentative efforts of a young rooster, 

 except that whereas the latter flaps his wings and crows 

 afterwards, the former "drums," and then sounds his 

 note. In drumming they move their wings so rapidly 

 that they seem like gauze. 



The laying season begins about the middle of April, and 

 before that time all the birds that are wanted for this pur- 

 pose are caught from the field, where they have run all 

 winter, and put in huge pens. These are 18ft. square, or 

 thereabouts, and are arranged in one large rectangle, with 

 alleys between each alternate double row, so that access 

 can be had to them through doors or gates left in the 

 wire meshing for that purpose. The corners are darkened 

 with water-proof hoods smeared with a disinfecting mix- 

 ture, as indeed is everything about the place. These 

 retreats are for the birds to lay under. The pens being 

 in an apple orchard, the leaves afford shade and worms 

 and larvee also, for the insatiable crops beneath. Clumps 

 of grass are left to grow about in spots, the rest of the 

 ground loosened to encourage "bathing" and scratching. 

 Five hens are put in with one cock, and unless they do 

 not get along well together, the family is not disinte- 

 grated until the end of the season — and not then, for all 

 are kept in one field. Birds one year old are preferred for 

 laying, the older ones being sold off to preserves where 

 they will be less confined. Two or three years in such 

 small quarters make a difference in their powers of propa- 

 gation, but they recuperate rapidly in the woods. Great 

 care is exercised in choosing healthy birds, but if a weak 

 one should be discovered — and they are rare — hi§ neck is 

 wrung on the spot, for Mr. De Guise has no hospital for 

 contagious diseases. Sickness, to reiterate, is not fre- 

 quent enough to require one. The manner of catching 

 the birds to put in the pens is simple. They are driven 

 into a large box commodious enough to allow two at- 

 tendants to get inside comfortably, with the top and sides 

 covered with baggiug to prevent injury to the captives in 

 their efforts te escape. Wide "wings" of wire netting ex- 

 tend out into the field from the entrance to the box, and 

 when a man is sent to walk slowly towards the birds all 

 within the radius of the wings run wildly to their fate. 

 They do not try to fly unless startled, but their legs carry 

 them along very fast. Once inside they are handed out 

 one at a time to have a wing clipped. Even in this con- 

 dition they make strenuous attempts to fly when alarmed 

 in' the pens, turning ludicrous somersaults in the air, only 

 to come down unceremoniously and try again. 



The average hen will lay about forty eggs in the in- 

 terval from the beginning of the season to the middle of 

 July, when it is practically over. During this period the 

 birds are fed twice a day — in the forenoon on a mixture 

 of cracked dog-biscuit, meal and pulverized oyster-shells 

 softeui d milk, and in the afternoon the diet is changed to 

 grain. With the appearance of the first eggs attendants 

 begin to go around in the lite afternoon, near sunset, 

 with flat-bottomed baskets in which to collect them. 

 This is done every day as regular as clock work, for the 

 hatching is not done by the pheasants, but by common 

 barn-yard hens. 



Several weeks before the first eggs are laid the farmers 

 in the neighborhood are notified that sitting hens will be 

 needed at the pheasantry, and soon after All-Fools day 

 they begin to bring in all their surplus stock. These are 

 purchased at market prices and confined in ventilated 

 boxes arranged in tiers inside the barn the hens being 

 satisfied to sit on porcelain eggs until needed for actual 

 utility. When the pheasants have supplied enough eggs, 

 the work of putting the latter down is begun. Back of 

 the barn, on a gentle slope, are long rows of oblong coops, 

 each one consisting of a closed box with a removable lid 

 for the nest, and a diminutive yard a few feet in area for 

 the hen to exercise in. This is inclosed by wire netting, 

 and provided with a separate drinking-pan of earthen- 

 ware. From fifteen to eighteen eggs are set in each nest, 

 the number depending upon the size of the hen, which 

 may be a bantam or a Plymouth Pock. When she is very 

 large she may take twenty, for they are smaller than 

 their own, light green in color, and so rich that only their 

 expensiveness precludes their coming into general use for 

 salads and mayonnaises. Each one is tested to see that it 

 is not cracked, and the date of the setting is marked on 

 the top of the nest box. The period of incubation is 

 twenty-four days, and should, in the daily inspection, 

 any hen show a disposition to shirk her duties, she is 

 promptly disqualified, and another is substituted. But 

 generally they are assiduous, and remain at their posts till 

 the end. 



When the young birds begin to appear before June 1, 

 the constantly increasing duties of the attendants reach 

 their maximum. Every evening the coops are examined 

 to collect the little peepers, from whence they are trans- 

 ferred in baskets to one of the inclosed fields, in which 

 light wooden coops are set down in regular rows in the 

 grass. Around each of them is a little space fenced in 

 with boards, and while the foster-mother is secured in- 

 side, the chicks can run out between the slats into the 

 yard. By the time they have become strong enough to 

 leap the low walls of their prison, they have also learned 

 to know the "cluck" of their protector, and where to 

 come back at nightfall. Six times a day they are fed on 

 a sort of custard, made of cracked pheasant eggs and 

 milk, from which the whey has been expressed. When 

 two months old they are trapped and removed to another 

 field, having no further need for the shelter of their 

 mother's wings. The number of feedings is gradually 

 reduced in the mean time to three a day, and the food be- 

 comes more substantial by the addition of grain. They 

 grow wilder every day, and it is difficult to get more 

 than a momentary gfimse of them as they dart through 

 the grass, rustling the blades like a summer breeze. By 



October the early birds have attained to full growth, pas- 

 sing the winter undisturbed and with need for little care. 

 The only discomfort they undergo is in the ti<aps when 

 their wings are clipped. 



A GAME REFUGE. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



Having quite a tract of woodland in one of the Eastern' 

 States that had been gunned and gunned over by parties 

 who sold their game, so shat scarcely a partridge could be 

 found on it, some six years since forbade hunting there 

 and have kept the land" well posted ever since, and pre- 

 vailed on several of the neighboring farmers to see that 

 the order was carried out, so that but very little hunting 

 has been done on the tract during the time. Now, mind, 

 I did it not for my own special benefit, for I have not 

 shot a partridge nor any other kind of game there during 

 the past twenty years, but to keep the grounds as a pre- 

 serve or breeding place so as to prevent the game from 

 being nearly or quite exterminated, since other suitable 

 lands for breeding purposes are getting very scarce in 

 these parts. And now for the result of my prohibiting 

 shooting there. 



Last August I took several strolls over the grounds and 

 saw in one covey hot less than fifteen partridges, and per- 

 haps even more, and quite tame at that. At other places 

 I saw two, three, four or more together; sometimes I 

 could almost have hit them with a stone. I was greatly 

 surprised, as one might well be, since I could scarcely 

 travel for a distance in almost any direction without see- 

 ing them or hearing their quit, quit. How I would have 

 liked to take a few snap shots at some of those groups, 

 with a camera- 

 Being asked with some show of hard feeling by one of 

 the local gunners why I forbade hunting there since I 

 was not living near so as to shoot over the grounds myself,. 

 I told him in reply that as long as game was well pro- 

 tected on that land it would spread in more or less quan- 

 tities over adjacent grounds, so that he as well as others, 

 could always have from fair to good gunning in the vicin- 

 ity. And 1 also said to him that instead of his feeling; 

 aggrieved about my posting the land, he and other hunt- 

 ers would thank me in after years for doing it; and he 

 even admitted as much himself before we parted. 



I really think that if every township had one or more 

 suitable tracts of land on which game was fully protected 

 at all seasons, the result would be more than satisfactory, 

 and am fully persuaded that many of my fellow sports- 

 men will agree with me there. A. L. L. 



HERE IS A BEAR RECORD. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



Several months ago there was an allusion in your 

 columns to an old gentleman 74 years of age who had! 

 killed 74 bears, one for each of his 74 years. This was 

 considered by his friends an achievement of large pro- 

 portions. Our most famous bear hunter in this region is- 

 Mr. E. E. Bobo, who was the first white child born in 

 Coahoma county, and is now about 45 years old. Mr, 

 Bobo is a substantial cotton planter and a prominent 

 citizen of the county, whose- veracity is not questioned! 

 by those who know him. I met him yesterday on the: 

 train and mentioned the above matter to him. He said 

 he had no correct idea as to the number of bears he had' 

 killed altogether; that he had kept a record for some 

 years, but it was burned several years ago with his dwell- 

 ing. He stated, however, that he and Mr. F. A. Payne 

 in 1884 killed 151 bears. They made that number of suc- 

 cessful runs without losing a bear. From September, 

 1873, to September, 1874, were killed by the parties who 

 followed his dogs, white and negroes, 304 bears. On one 

 occasion he and Mr. "Nels" Harris (present sheriff of this 

 county) went out one day and returned the next, bring- 

 ing in 13 bears. On a similar occasion they brought in 9, 

 all large ones. During last Christmas holidays he hunted 

 five days and killed 9 bears. There is no reason to doubt 

 these statements, which, I presume, can be easily 

 verified. Coahoma. 



Clabksdale, Miss., March 6. 



American Testing Institution. 



Pursuakt to a call, the members of this institution 

 met on Thursday, March 1, at No. 10 Murray streeL, New 

 York, for the purpose of effecting an organization of the 

 institution and for discussing the question as to a fixed 

 plan upon which work should be conducted hereafter. 

 Mr. Wm. Edward Carlin was called to their chair and 

 Mr. Justus von Lengerke was asked to act as tempo- 

 rary secretary. 



After a liberal exchange of views, it was resolved to 

 delay the permanent organization for three months, and 

 meanwhile prepare a prospectus and formulate a basis of 

 operation, for which purpose a committee on organiza- 

 tion was appointed consisting of Messrs. J. A. Dressel, 

 John Dannefelser and C. H. Slater. 



The following gentlemen consented to serve on a com- 

 mittee for the purpose of drafting a suitable prospectus: 

 Mr. Armin Tenner, D. Kirkwood and J. von Lengerke. 



Armin Tenner was elected temrjorary manager and 

 offered to operate the institution for three months at his 

 own risk financially to prove to the members that the 

 same would be self-sustaining. 



The committee on organization agreed to act as provi- 

 sional executive committee until the institution should be 

 permanently organized. 



Winter Notes from Ontario. 



The first wild geese of tho season were seen flying over 

 the city this morning. The deer reported to have been 

 killed in Prince Edward proved to have been a yearling, 

 which was killed by dogs that got after it. A large doe 

 that wintered near the city has been driven off by fox- 

 hounds that got on her track and chased her twice. 



A large number of partridges perished in the snow in 

 which they were imprisoned by a heavy crust that formed 

 during one night in January. 



Fox hunters have had many good runs, but their sport 

 for the season is ended. 



Many hares have been shot out of season in this dis- 

 trict owing to a misunderstanding as to the distinction 

 between hares and rabbits. 



Mr. H. K. Smith, our game warden, is an active officer 

 and has done his duty faithfully. R. S. B. 



