March 28, 1896. j 
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MORE UNEXPECTED LUCK. 
J. E. B. in his article headed "Unexpected Luck" tells 
how he and his friend shot at a grouse and killed it, but 
the dogs retrieved two, and they had only seen the one 
bird fly, and he asks if any of the readers of Forest aud 
Stream ever had a like experience. 
I was shooting quail last November in Rawlins county, 
Kansas (one of the extreme northwestern counties of that 
State), and our shooting ground was the bottom land of a 
creek called the Little Beaver, which rises on the ranch 
property of our host and empties into the Republican 
River, and where our party have shot quail for the last six 
years, with but one exoeption. 
My bag ran from ten or twelve birds per day to forty- 
two, and I remember the forty-two represented a stiff 
day's work in the creek bottoms, where the plum thicket 
and the luxuriant growth of sunflowers, in some places 
10 to 12ft. high, made the walking hard, and the heavy 
cover gave the birds a great chance to escape the load of 
No. 8 that greeted the whir of the covey as my old setter 
Sport would flush them from the warm, sunny side of the 
creek, which seemed to be their favorite haunt on these 
cool November mornings. 
We generally started from the rough board house we 
had built for our own use on the bank of the creek about 
9 o'clock A. M. , two of ub going up the creek and two 
down, and I remember the creek was nearly always just 
"a leetle too wide" for us to jump, hampered with 
seventy-five cartridges, a little lunch, pipe and tobacco, 
and the small pocket pistol that most of us carried in our 
shooting coats, to say nothing of the gun in our hands; 
but as one of the boys said, "If you can't do it in one, 
make two jumps of it," and that is the way we usually 
got across. 
This particular morning one" 1 of my friends, who had 
met with poor success the day before, elected to go with 
me down the creek, and I hoped to give him some shoot- 
ing over my steady old dog. After hunting for a time 
with poor results we were looking for a comfortable 
place to eat our lunch, when I noticed Sport drawing 
very carefully to a clump of plum thicket, and in a few 
seconds he was frozen hard on what I judged to be a 
large bevy of birds. I called to my friend, "Come here, 
Lute, he has got them; you take the birds to the right 
and I will take those on the left," and almost before I 
had finished talking they rose with a rush. I killed with 
my right barrel, as did my companion, and I saw a bird 
to my left sailing for the creek. I threw the gun on to 
the bird and pulled the trigger, and to my great astonish- 
ment three quail dropped dead with scarcely a flutter, 
and I thought it was raining quail. Much to my sur- 
prise, instead of retrieving the dead birds that lay in 
plain view, Sport dashed into the creek, so I stepped for- 
ward and picked up the three dead birds, then turned for 
the spot where I had marked the fall of the first quail to 
my right barrel, when the dog came out of the creek 
with a cock quail not quite dead in his mouth, and 
evidently killed by the left barrel, making four quail 
killed where I only saw one. They had evidently swung 
together just as I pressed the trigger and my eye was 
completely filled by the vision of the one escaping bird. 
Several times I have killed two quail on the rise of the 
bevy with one shot, but four full-grown birds, strong cn 
the wing, do not often fall to a single shot, as these did, 
and in these days, when birds are getting scarcer and 
scarcer, and we have to go from sixteen to seventeen 
hundred miles for satisfactory shooting, it is just as well 
it only happens occasionally. James Kirkby. 
THE MAINE CAPERCAILZIE. 
Two noble varieties of the game birds of Sweden — the 
capercailzie and black game — now live and move and 
have their being in the Maine woods. 
As the Republican is the nearest newspaper to these 
birds in America, and may therefore in some sense be 
regarded as their official organ, we have thought that 
some account of these birds and the manner of their in- 
troduction to the American continent would be timely 
and interesting. 
Thirty-three years ago, Hon. W. W. Thomas, Jr. — then 
a very young man recently graduated from Bowdoin Col- 
lege — first Bet foot in Sweden ; sent out by President Lin- 
coln as one of the thirty "War Consuls" of the United 
States. This event was not without importance to Mr. 
Thomas's native State. 
He soon became convinced that Swedish people would 
make a valuable addition to the population of Maine 3 and 
the Swedish birds would help out our supply of game. 
Mr. Thomas's first idea he carried out in 1870, when he 
founded the successful colony of New Sweden in the for- 
ests of Maine which has caused the wilderness to blossom 
as the rose, and has added more than 3,000 to the popu- 
tion of our State. 
A practical beginning toward carrying out Mr. Thom- 
as's second idea was made a few days ago, when four ca- 
percailzie and seven black game, just imported from Swe- 
den, were set at liberty in the same woods where a quar- 
ter of a century ago Mr. Thomas founded his Swedish 
colony. 
The steps that have led up to this event are as follows: 
Although Mr. Thomas began to advocate the introduc- 
tion of these birds into Maine more than thirty years ago, 
yet no definite result followed his private efforts. 
At length, however, early in 1890, Mr. Thomas, then 
residing in Sweden as American minister there, in an offi- 
cial report to the Department of State fully described 
these valuable game birds, and warmly recommended 
their acclimatization in the northern wooded sections of 
the United States, 
This valuable report was at once published by the De- 
partment of State in April, 1890, and reprinted in the 
Forest and Stream and other newspapers. 
This report was the first official and public proposal to 
introduce the capercailzie and black game into the United 
States. All attempts to introduce these birds date from 
and were caused by this report. 
Mr. Thomas gave a still fuller description of these birds 
and their natural history in his large illustrated work, 
"Sweden and the Swedes," published in 1892, and here 
again he warmly advocated their introduction into the 
United States. 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
The first attempt at acclimatization was made by Mr. 
D. F. Stillman, of Rhode Island. Through Mr. Thomas 
be procured a number of capercailzie from Sweden. 
These were shipped in April, 1893. They were not prop- 
erly cared for on shipboard, and only two reached New 
York alive; and they were in such poor condition that 
they died within a week. They were, however, the first 
capercailzie on the American continent. 
Early in 1894, Mr. E. G. Gay, President of the_ Maine 
Game and Protective Association, succeeded, with the 
assistance of Mr. Thomas, in importing into Maine a num- 
ber of both the capercailzie and black game. At the 
hearing before the Legislative Committee on Fisheries 
and Game, at Augusta, in January, 1895, Mr. Gay exhib- 
ited four lively specimens of the black game in a cage. 
These birds continued to be kept in confinement, and died 
one after the other, although a number survived for more 
than a year. Indeed, eggs were laid and some black game 
chickens hatched in confinement. They all perished, 
however. 
Now one step further has been taken in the enterprise. 
The Maiue Game Commissioners, through the good 
offices of Mr. Thomas, have obtained both capercailzie 
and black game from Sweden, and have set them at 
liberty in good order and condition in the woods of New 
Sweden. This has taken place early enough so that the 
birds will have opportunity to breed this present year. 
The greatest doubt about the success of the enterprise 
arises from the fact that only so few birds have been in- 
troduced — seven of one species and four of the other — 
scarcely enough to guaxd against the many accidents to 
which they may be exposed in a new country. One of 
the greatest dangers, however, we hope these feathered 
strangers may absolutely escape — that is, the slaying hand 
of man. There is a heavy fine for killing or hunting 
these birds, but we hope it may never be necessary to en- 
force this, and that everybody will treat our new wood- 
land guests with true American hospitality. 
We reprint from Mr. Thomas's work on "Sweden and 
the Swedes" the chapter on the "Capercailzie and Black 
Game," which the Forest and Stream, the leading sport- 
ing journal of America, calls ' 'the best available informa- 
tion respecting the game qualities" of these valuable birds. 
It is hoped that the good work of stocking Maine woods 
with the valuable game birds of Sweden, first suggested 
by Mr. Thomas, will prove as successful as that gentle- 
man's founding, in this county, of a grandly successful 
colony of the honest and industrious sons and daughters 
of Sweden. It is p noble, enduring monument, fitting 
indeed the characwr of one of the most distinguished 
sons of the Pine Tree State, and it will tell the story of 
his perseverance and success during the coming of future 
generations. — Aroostook Republican. 
ONTARIO GAME INTERESTS. 
We have received the annual report made by Dr. G. A. 
MacCallum as chairman of the Ontario Game and Fish 
Commission, from which we extract the following: 
Game Laws are Observed. 
The Commissioners are pleased to be able to congratu- 
late the Government upon the remarkable success which 
has attended the working of the game laws, for not only 
are they becoming more popular as they are becoming 
better known, but the farmers, those most largely inter- 
ested, hail them as a means of keeping idlers and poachers 
from trespassing upon their lands, trampling down their 
crops, and killing off great numbers of useful insectivor- 
ous birds which are the farmers' best friends. The Sab- 
bath, which before the present act came into force was 
often chosen as the day for hunting, is now seldom or 
never desecrated, except perhaps in some of the remote 
parts of the Province. 
Wardens. 
The Commissioners are pleased to be able to testify that 
the wardens have done much valuable work during the 
year — especially have they been efficient in preventing 
violations of the act in the northern sections of the 
Province, where the temptation to kill deer both before 
and after the open season is very great. In fact, these 
men have been unremitting in their efforts to enforce the 
provisions of the game and fish laws, thus earning 
directly for the people of the Province many times their 
salary. Of course much more efficient work could be 
done if the number of wardens were greater; for, owing 
to the great extent of territory which each warden has to 
protect, it is utterly impossible that every violation can 
be detected and punished. They have also made it their 
business to see that the provisions of the insectivorous birds 
act are carried out; although this is not strictly a part of 
their duty, yet it is quite in their line of work and is done 
by them for the great good it will accomplish. 
Deputy Wardens. 
There are now about 460 of these men — a force, if effi- 
cient, large enough to make the protection very suc- 
cessful; but, while there are a number of good 
and painstaking officers among them, the major- 
ity siruply do nothing. They give as an excuse 
for their inactivity that they gain very little pecuniarily 
even in a successful prosecution, while they risk the loss 
of a good deal by offending neighbors, and if they should 
fail to obtain a conviction they are mulcted in the amount 
of costs, which most of them are unable to bear, there 
being no provision by which they are recouped. The 
Commissioners think that some plan might be devised by 
which the deputies would not be deterred from doing their 
duty through fear of the expense in case they are unsuc- 
cessful, it may be before an unfriendly magistrate. 
Game in Ontario. 
Although the enforcement of the game laws has had an 
undoubted effect in preserving the game during the last 
three or four years, the act might be made much more 
protective by restricting the number of birds to be taken 
or killed by any person in a day or year; for instance, in 
the case of ducks, if it were enacted that not more than 
twenty should be taken in a day or 300 in a season it would 
have a good effect. The same plan might be adopted with 
reference to the other game birds — quail, snipe, woodcock 
and partridge. The Commissioners are pleased to know 
that the Long Point Co. have set the laudable ex- 
ample to other clubs by making a by-law that not more 
than 500 ducks shall be shot on their reserve during a 
season by any member; formerly as many as 2,600 ducks 
289 
have been taken by one gun in a season. The Long Point 
Club are no doubt induced to this action by the observa- 
tion that there is an undoubted decrease in the number of 
deep-water ducks, as the redhead, bluebill or scaup ducks. 
Wood duck too are becoming scarce. 
There is an increasing feeling among sportsmen that 
further and greater efforts must be made in the near future 
looking toward the restocking of game covers, and quail 
seems to be the only bird which offers a fair compensa- 
tion for the outlay of time and money. As is well known, 
none of the other native game birds admit of propaga- 
tion; so that restocking with them is out of the question. 
Some ardent sportsmen have introduced the Mongolian 
pheasant and also the English pheasant, but sufficient 
time has not yet elapsed in which to test the success of the 
experiment. 
The Commissioners are strongly of the opinion that 
Algonquin Park offers a most favorable opportunity for 
the introduction of the capercailzie and black grouse. 
These birds are natives of Norway and Sweden as well as 
the Highlands ot Scotland, where they do well in the pine 
forests and other covers. The capercailzie is the largest 
of the grouse family, weighing as much as 10 or 121bs., 
and of excellent qualities for the table. The black grouse 
is not so large, averaging only about 31bs. in weight, but 
quite equal to our own ruffed grouse for tbe table. They 
have been introduced into the forests of Maine and are 
reported to be doing well. 
Deer. 
The Commissioners regret having to report that 
although the open season was last year shortened by ten 
days, yet, owing to the insatiable craze of hunters to take 
part in the sport of hunting this animal before it is finally 
exterminated, greater numbers than ever have been killed 
during the late "open season. It is estimated by the 
wardens who had charge of Muskoka and neigboring dis- 
tricts that fully 3,000 deer were killed during the fifteen 
day 8' open season. The chief factor in this unreasonable 
slaughter is the use of hounds, which, to the number of 
about 800, were let loose upon the deer this season. 
When dogs are used, and so many hunters are at the 
same time scattered through the woods, a deer when once 
started is almost certainly killed, if not on the runways, 
then while helpless in the water. If the dogs are stopped 
there will be little or no slaughtering in the water, which 
practice does so little credit to the sportsman. 
We are of the opinion, too, that hounding during the 
rutting season is no small factor in rendering the does 
barren, not to speak of the diseases caused by plunging a 
tired and overheated animal into ice water. 
The Commissioners are disgusted with the details of the 
wanton slaughter of this noble animal, and they are con- 
fident that if greater restrictions are not imposed at once 
the deer will in a very short time be an extinct animal in 
Ontario. 
At the annual meeting of the Commissioners the ques- 
tion of hunting deer with dogs was discussed fully, and 
on a resolution prohibiting their use being submitted, it 
was lost on a division of three to two. In spite of this, 
however, there is a decided feeling over the whole Prov- 
ince that the use of dogs causes too great slaughter of this 
animal and will eventually exterminate it; while if only 
still-hunted, owing to the great expanse of bush and 
favorable covers for deer in northern Ontario, they may 
still become fairly plentiful for a great number of years. 
The Commissioners would also recommend that some 
plan be adopted by which each hunter may be checked 
trom killing or taking more than his quota. The issu- 
ance, at a nominal sum, to every hunter of a license with 
two coupons attached would probably answer the pur- 
pose by compelling the hunter to attach a coupon to each 
of his deer, then any deer being sold or transported with- 
out the coupon would be prima facie evidence that it was 
not legally taken and would be liable to seizure. 
Insectivorous Birds. 
The Commissioners do not consider with pleasure the 
fact that a number of permits granted to take birds for 
their skins and to collect their eggs has reached the un- 
reasonable number of sixty-eight for the year. In view 
of the rapidly decreasing number of our native birds, 
nine-tenths of which exist only to enhance the beauties 
of nature and to destroy myraids of noxious insects and 
weed seeds, it is to be deplored that a force of sixty- 
eight collectors should be let loose upon these inoffensive 
creatures to collect their skins throughout the whole year 
and their eggs during the breeding season, and not only 
for their own use in study, but also for foreign exchange 
as well as exchange at home. It should be remembered 
that the plumage of birds is finest during their mating or 
breeding season, consequently it is then that the collector 
gets in his work. It should be remembered, too, that 
often a great many specimens are killed before one is 
secured fit for mounting or making a good skin, and , when 
it is considered that at this particular season nearly all 
have nests or are mated, some idea of the destruction of 
our valuable and beautiful insectivorous birds may be 
estimated. 
The Commissioners would recommend that greater 
care still be exercised in the issue of these permits, inas- 
much as they fear that in some cases at least the skins 
and eggs are being made articles of trade. The example 
set by some of the neighboring States should be followed, 
in which very few of such permits are granted. Maine, 
for instance, only grants ten in any one year. 
Fisheries. 
Still the question of jurisdiction over Provincial waters 
remains unsettled, and as a consequence the usefulness of 
the Commission is curtailed, for immense tracts of depleted 
waters could be very profitably restocked and thus a cheap 
and wholesome food furnished the public. The Commis- 
sioners would urge that, if possible, the Government 
should take such steps as would force a settlement of this 
delayed question. 
The Commissioners have to report that vast numbers of 
pickerel were during November thrown upon the north 
shore of Lake Erie, apparently throughout its whole 
length. A space about 4ft. wide along the shore was 
covered with fish of all sizes, averaging about forty to 
the square yard. They were gathered by the farmers to 
use for fertilizing purposes. In order to verify the cause 
of such an immense loss of valuable fish the Commis- 
sioners sent samples of the diseased fish to Dr. R. R. Gur- 
ley, of Clark University, Worcester, Mass., who recently 
held the position of specialist in diseases of fish on the 1J, 
