April 20, 1895. 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
307 
opinion ducks are like the Irishman's whiskey, none are 
bad, but some are better than others; it greatly depended 
upon their stay in the oven." To this, Mr. H., of Wash- 
ington, volunteers the information that he could tell al- 
most every duck by its flavor, especially redheads and 
canvas backs. That was enough. Instantly the wink 
went around. Next morning Mr. W. informed us that 
the provisions were running low, and some of us would 
have to contribute ducks toward supper that night. "I'll 
give a pair of redheads,' "I'll give a pair of blackheads," 
and so on until more than enough were secured. Mr. 
Beck was detailed to superintend the picking. Now of 
all the ducks on the Chesapeake, the coot, or bucket, is 
held in the lowest esteem; but, of course, he saw that a 
bucket was dressed. That evening when we were all 
drawn up around the table, with appetites a yard long, 
one chose this and one that duck, and got it. "Which 
will you have, Mr. H. ( redhead or blackhead?" says 
the obliging Mr. B. 'Redhead, thank you," and the first 
half of ths breast of the bucket was handed over to him. 
My, how we all did enjoy that supper (and I must say, 
the ducks too.) "How's your duck, Mr. H?" says Mr. B. 
"Perfectly delicious, splendid, thank you; I never enjoyed- 
a duck more." "Have the other half of this redhead, 
wont you? I've saved for you?" "Thank you very much, 
I believe I will,' says Mr. H. Tlxe breastfof the bucket is 
handed over to him, and in less than ten minutes the 
whole of that old bucket is safely stowed away beneath 
his capacious vest. They were a gentlemanly lot, those 
good fellows. They knew when to lay down a hand. 
And I have no doubt that when Mr. H. reads his Forest 
and Stream of this issue, as all good sportsmen do, he 
will know for the first time of the manner in which the 
Cedar Point men judge of a man's taste for wild duck. 
The next day, while in the middle blind on the creek, an 
old sou'-southerly floated in to the decoys, and then set- 
tled down across the water two hundred yards off and 
went about iier business of filling her craw full of small 
fish from the river's bottom. Nothing flying, Mr. Walker 
said "L., try her with that rifle and see how close you 
can 'come to her." It was a Winchester 33.40 which a 
guest had been using on deer in the Adirondacks in Sep- 
tember. I took a careful sight and let go, the smoke 
blowing back in my face. 'By George, you've killed it," 
they exclaimed, but I saw nothing m the water.' 
Presently the old southerly came up forty yards off, 
twisting her head around and looking generally as if 
thinking "what in thunder was that?" "Well, you hit 
exactly where she was anyhow— try her again, and rest 
your elbow on the edge of the blind." With a feeling 
that I had better let well enough alone, I at length con- 
sented, and took a careful aim at her side. 'You got her 
this time," they cried, and sure enough, I had— so you 
see the difference of shooting at ducks even with a rifle; 
and at swan with fifty more chances, a matter of nerve. 
Walter duplicated the shot by cutting off the neck of a 
water- witch. Walter also saw me shoot the tail feathers 
out of a goose on the wing with the same rifle, and yet I 
couldn't kill a swan at forty yards. The memory of that 
old swan galled me. . . „ , 
Ani thus it was, gentle reader, if your patience has fol- 
lowed me this long, that we Marylanders spend our days 
at old Cedar Point, the mecca of our shooting hopes. 
And as we take up the decoys for the last time on every 
Saturday morning, we begin to count the hours again 
until we shall throw them into the water the following 
Tuesday. J - L - B - 
A QUAIL HUNT ON HORSEBACK. 
Probably very few sportsmen of the New England 
States have experienced anything half as delightful as a 
quail hunt on horseback, Taking together the pleasure 
from the- saddle, the gentle, cooling breeze wafted 
through the resinous pines, the beautiful bouthern sky, 
and above all, to watch the motions of a good dog as it 
moves about eager to catch the scent so pleasing to its 
nostrils, makes a trip of this kind the beau ideal of a 
sportsman's life. „ , . , « 
The country of Southern Florida is well adapted for 
horseback riding, being flat and free from underbrush, 
and scattered over it is a growth of the stately Georgia 
pine, growing forty or fifty to the acre. The short, thick 
growing grass or "rough," as it is here called, covering 
the earth like a soft carpet, affords a hiding place for in- 
numerable quail . . . , T 
Rising with the sun one morning, Cousin John and I 
took plenty of shells and after eating our breakfast, 
mounted our steeds and rode through the woods, ac- 
companied by our setter dog Fanny, in search of Bob 
White Our dog soon came to appoint, and we dismounted, 
throwing the bridle reins over the horses' heads, and leav- 
ing them to feed, while we went forward with guns 
ready, waiting for the flush of the birds As they rose, 
we each dropped one bird, and marked down the covey 
in a thick bunch of palmettos, which grew about to one a 
knee Having secured the dead birds, we started after 
the scattered flock. The dog soon found them and two 
rose; one of them to fall a victim of the gun, the other 
getting away safely, but as I fired, two deer, which had 
been lving in the palmettos, almost under my feet, rose 
and iumped away as if there wa« no need of particular 
hurrv and indeed there was not, as it was close season 
for them and we were loaded for quail. They made a 
picture not easily forgotten as they jumped away almost 
without muscular effort. We got one more bird out of 
that covey and left them, as they had now gotten into 
the thicket of the palmettos, where it was hard to flush 
tll As we were passing an orange grove some distance on, 
our dog pointed in one corner of it. As we dismounted 
we saw a notice "no trespassing," but as no good sports- 
man would call off his dog on such a gamey point as lan 
had, we determined to risk the wrath of the owner by 
Xmcing a shot. We went in and the dog started for- 
ward, reading them first out of the grove, and we were 
in hopes of being on safe ground m a moment, but soon 
she turned and went into the grove again, almost crawl- 
in- along the ground, and we knew the birds were near. 
Thev rose with a flurry of wings about twenty of them, 
and we dropped four out of the bunch We got two 
mnri* hpfore they flew into a thicket of bay bushes, 
winch Se ^impossible to follow thom. These bay 
bushes -row at intervals throughout the pine forest, and 
Sea°safe hiding place for the flushed coveys. Many 
flocks of quail might be entirely killed by ruthless 
hunters if it were not for these harbors of refuge for the 
frightened little fellows. No man or dog can drive them 
out, once they seek safety there. We were not disturbed 
by the owner of the grove, and soon left his premises. It 
is not often one finds such signs in this part of the 
country, and most of them are posted to warn off the ever 
gay and festive tramp, who is always found where fruit is 
plenty and work scarce. I do not mean that a deserving 
man cannot find work in this country, but none of these 
rough and "reddy" individuals ever lost his eyesight look- 
ing for it. 
We continued on the trip, aud soon our dog showed 
signs that told us that more quail were near. We left 
the horses and hastened to where she was pointing. Slie 
then moved about in nearly a circle, and came up to the 
windward of the birds. We knew that they lay between 
the logs and ourselves, somewhere near the base of a 
large tree, and as we moved forward again, the birds 
rose. We were lucky enough to drop four on the rise, 
and following up the flock succeeded in getting three more 
birds. 
It was near noon-time, so we concluded to eat our 
lunch, feed our horses, and then ride home. We saddled 
up again after eating and resting awhile under the shady 
tree and started homeward, well satisfied with our fore- 
noon's hunt. 
On our way home we saw some wild pigeons feeding in 
a field, and John sat down at the edge next to the woods 
to "knock" them, while I went around the field to drive 
them over him, I flushed the pigeons, but John must 
have been |m°ditating, for he allowed the flock to pass, 
and pilled only the last one that flew over. 
We had bagged that day seventeen quail, one fox and 
a wild pigeon, which was sport enough for one day. 
Taking into consi deration that we had to eat all the quail 
we killed, we thought we got that day sufficient, as we 
had no desire to challenge any Massachusetts champion 
quail eater. 
This is only a sample of the many happy days I have 
spent in the South, and 1 hope it will not be many years 
before I can again sit in the saddle and follow the dog 
after quail on horseback. Web Worcester. 
NEBRASKA SHOOTING. 
Hastings, Neb., April 7.— The Nebraska Legislature 
has adjourned without passing the much needed game 
laws, and — if the daily papers are to be believed — without 
passing anything save vicious and boodle-laden measures. 
The bill, as framed by the Nebraska sportsmen, was in 
the main a good one, though it had some objectionable 
features to my way of thinking, chief of which was the 
clause compelling non-residents to pay a license of $50. 
The arguments used by those in favor of it were that it 
kept out market hunters and gangs of so-called sports- 
men who came in private cars, killed game by the whole- 
sale and left it to rot beside the track. While its sup- 
porters were honest and sincere, it always looked to me 
as one-sided and selfish in the extreme. In the first 
place, the majority of the market hunters are residents 
of the State and it would not affect them. In the second 
place, a fee of $50 would not keep out the market hunter. 
If compelled to pay it, he could make several hundred 
dollars by shooting for market; and again, as this class 
of men hunt mostly in a thinly settled, and often entirely 
uninhabited part of the State, where they would not 
likely be interrupted, it would be hard to collect it. If 
found by a game warden, they would claim to be resi- 
dents of the State, a thing hard and expensive to dis- 
prove. 
The game butchers, on the other hand, that come in 
private cars are men of wealth, or they could not afford 
the luxuries and expenses incident to traveling and liv- 
ing on Pullmans, and a license of $50 or even more would 
not materially increase their expenses, or if it did it 
would cut no figure with such men. 
The real prompter of this clause was the infamous Blow 
bill, of Illinois; this clause, like the similar one passed 
by North Dakota, was but an echo of the recent agitation 
in Illinois. 
The best feature of our proposed bill was promptly 
killed in committee; that was the provision for a game 
warden and deputies. Without such officers, and good 
o'nes at that, the State might just as well wipe all game 
laws off the statute books, for all the good they do. 
Illegal and wanton destruction of game and fish go 
merrily on from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, and if there have been 
ever an arrest and conviction I never heard of it. Market 
shooters and fishermen carry on their trade openly and 
above board all the time, and game is shipped out of the 
State with no more attempt at concealment that if it were 
so much hogs and cattle. 
The "Sand Hills," the northwestern quarter of the 
State, is about the only place left in which prairie chick- 
ens and grouse can now be found, and even there the sup- 
ply is being decimated at such a rate that before anotner 
Legislature meets it will not l e worth one's while to go 
there; in that section the market hunter and game hog 
reign supreme. They shoot hens while laying eggs and 
young chicks not able to fly, and indulge i a all sorts of 
like pleasantries. Not six weeks ago, while in Shelton, 
Neb., I heard of a gang of market hunters that were still 
in the "Hdls" shoot' ng for market; on-* of them was 
in town at the time (the whole gang live in or near Shel- 
ton), and stated that he had just received $80 for a lot of 
chickens snipped to Omaha dealers. He came in for sup- 
plies, and was going back to join his party on the head 
waters of the Dismal River to get more chickens. He 
also stated that several other parties were shooting for 
market in that section. Is it any wonder game is get- 
ting scarce? As for fish, why seines and purse nets are 
more plentiful than fishing rods in Nebraska. The 
average resident of the smaller towns and large towns as 
well, scorns any method of taking fish that is slower 
than a good sized seine. 
I read Sandy Griswold's account in Forest and Stream 
of the scarcity of dueks and geese this spring, and can 
vouch for the accuracy of his statements from painful ex- 
perience, for I very recently spent a week on the Platte. 
It is no wonder they are scarce, with no feed or water to 
keep them here, and no peace or rest if the small re- 
mainder of the once countless flocks stu uld come. I have 
watched the fast diminishing flocks for a good many 
years, and am only surprised that a single goose remains 
alive to-day, for the constant and never ending slaughter 
has gone on from the first day the white man discovered 
this famous goose ground. Such wanton destruction 
would long since have annihilated anything less wary 
than a goose, and even their once countless flock has 
dwindled down to a corporal's guard. For every goose 
now seen in the river, there were a thousand twelve or 
fifteen years ago. The average man explains this by stat- 
ing that the main flight now passes much further west; 
while this is true, it is only so in a measure. Years of 
observation on the river, from Plattsmouth to the Colo- 
rado and Wyoming line, has convinced me that this 
grand game bird is fast following the buffalo. So come 
on, you fellows, and let's kill them all off and be done 
with it. If you don't hurry up they will ail be gone. 
Come early and bring lots of shells and kill all you can 
or the other fellows will get them all. 
On my recent trip I first stopped at Clark's, one of the 
best points on the eastern end of the river, and thought 
surely 1 wonlcl get a few birds, as I have always been 
fortunate enough to do in the past. But on reaching the 
river, I soon came to the conclusion that I had lost no 
geese in that neighborhood. Hp and down the river for 
miles there was a man with his gun ready every ten feet. 
Every sand bar had one or more blinds, all there was 
room for, and every blind, as far as I could learn, con- 
tained in addition to several men, a good sized jug of 
"snake medicine." It was as hilarious a crowd as I ever 
ran across, and its members were more dangerous to them- 
selves than to the geese. The reckless way in which guns 
wpre pointpd made a man with a light life insurance do 
a lot of hard thinking. I didn't stay there long, and did 
not even take my gun out of the case. If a flock of 
geese did come in sight, they didn't stay long, and were 
followed by a general bombardment all along the line. 
It mattered not if they were half a mile high, these gen- 
tlemen had a contract to use up a certain number of 
shells, and were bound to keep it. How they avoided 
several serious accidents, to me is a conundrum. From 
where I stood behind a tree I could see that several of 
them could not stand up without reeling. 
From Clark's I went to several favorite points of mine, 
and found things very little better; there were fewer men 
and not so much drunkenness, but very few geese any- 
where. The result of my week's shoot was just eleven, 
and over half of these wer6 brant. One box of twenty- 
five shells was more than sufficient for a week's hunt. 
On comparing notes with friends and acquaintances, I 
found that everyone had had the same experience. 
Quail are reported as having fared very badly this 
winter; farmers all report having found whole bevies 
frozen to death. A recent clause to the proposed game 
laws was to make a close season for three years on quail, 
but this, with the rest of the game bill, went to sleep in 
the committee room. W. R. H. 
TEXAS AND THE SOUTHWEST. 
As the generous spring sheds its beneficent glow over 
the sunny Southland, the writer tourist and sportsman, 
following in the waye of the swift- winged bird of pas- 
sage, turns his face northward and prepares his nose for 
the grindstone of business — that is if they have any busi- 
ness. 
It is with deep regret that the Southwest Texas end of 
Forest and Stream announces the departure of Richard 
Merrill, of Milwaukee, and A. W. Adams, of Chicago, 
and while regetting the Northwest migration of these gen- 
tlemen, it might also be whispered to the sportsmens' 
world that their absence will be felt until their return. 
They both have ingratiated themselves in the good 
graces of our people, both in the field and at the trap, and 
in doffing its sombrero as a parting salute, Texas Field 
fondly wishes au revoir. 
Speaking of Northern and Southern sportsmen, reminds 
me that some individual who was evidently long on 
abuse, but intensely short on facts and truth, caused to 
be printed in one of the Northern sportsmens' journals 
that when a shooter crossed the eighty pei cent, line and 
had won a pair of fifteen-cent spurs at that magnificent 
gait, that he was henceforth immediately barred from 
anticipating in the tournaments in Texas. Desiring at 
one fell swoop to give that individual his newspaporial 
quietus, and at the same time doing my full duty as a 
correspondent to present the facts, and thereby undeceiv- 
ing the trap shooters of the North, I cheerfully point to 
the fact that the annual tournament of the Texas Sports- 
men's Association, to be held at San Antonio May 15, 16, 
17, 18 and 19 is open to the world, and that it means that 
our old friends Rolla Heikes. Charlie Budd,- DuBray, 
Money, McMurchy, Dr. Carver, Elliott, Brewer, Fulford, 
and all the Northern cracks are cordially invited to come 
down here and take a place in the squads composed of 
eighty per cent. men. It means that the $500 in cash 
and the $500 in merchandise are as open to them as to any 
one who is proud to claim the Lone Star State as his perma- 
nent home, provided, however, that these gentlemen 
hold the gun straight. One Texas enthusiast, Mr. M. F. 
Hope, of Farmersville, writes to-day: "Good! Let 'em 
all come!" 
The game procession has almost passed northward, and 
we are now in the midst of a large flight of plover of all 
kinds; the golden bird is here, so is the upland and our 
Southwest Texas prairies are covered with curlews and 
other birds of that ilk. Texas Field, 
CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 
MUSK OX AND BUFFALO. " 1 
Chicago, 111., April 12.— The Free Press, of Winnipeg, 
Man., prints in its issue of April 10 a very interesting in- 
terview with Mr. Harry Munn, an intrepid traveler just 
back from the far North, where he had considerable ex- 
perience with the great game of a practically untraveled 
country. The interview is so well done and gives so 
much news that I scarce know how to shorten it. It 
will be news, for instance, to learn that the musk ox, an 
animal supposed to be seen only upon the rarest occa- 
sions, let alone pursued extensively, has become the sub- 
ject of protective laws. If this be so, what shall we say 
or do for the game of our own worn-out covers? Much 
