8 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Jan. 2yim. 
Hi 
tlVB DECOY GEESE jAT SILVER LAKE, 
TWELVE HOURS WITH GEESE. 
I WBOTE Bome time ago about a goose hunt at Silver 
Lake, but beside the one we have just taken the first was 
nothing. I have told you about Widgeon Point, and the 
persons who run it; but since then I have found there 
are others interested, namely, Gary, Keith and Potter, all 
good fellows, making a club hard to beat. 
On the afternoon of Nov. 15 Charles and I went to 
the lake with our traps. On the way we met William, 
the crack shot, and were told by him that the boys had 
killed eighteen geese that morning. Our blood was un 
at once, for we had not forgotten the last hunt. As we 
went into the stand we were met by our shorty friend 
Addison; he looks the same as when we saw him last 
fall; same pleasant smile and hearty grasp of the hand, 
and always ready for geese. Oliver and Old Sleuth were 
there, but rather under the weather. Millard will sit and 
sleep with eye-glasses on his nose and they never drop. 
You can't tell whether he is asleep or not, and it makes 
little difference, for at any time it takes only a word and 
he is wide awake and ready for business. Herb and 
George are in the stand. After greeting them and un- 
packing our guns, we hear George say, "Boys, we will 
get some geese now, Fred and Charles have come." Lit- 
tle did he think how true this would be. 
We got fixed after a while; looked the decoys over, 
about two hundred of them; paid our respects to old One 
Wing, Scituate. Johnson and the rest, and then found 
that our friend Thomaa had just arrived and was getting 
into his shooting togs. Thomas is the same fat, jolly fel- 
low, and everyone who knows him unites in saying he 
is all right. He thought I was a little hard on him in my 
last yam, when I told of his infirmities. He still says I 
am the only one who ever accused him of snoring. 
After supper we stood in the stand, when from gut the 
sky came the faint long honk of geese. There they are, 
and George stirs up the decoys. Old One Wing hears the 
call and straightens out for work. Soon the whole point 
is in one grand roar. The wild geese swing over us and 
we can just make out the line of black rushing through 
the air. They wheel out over the lake, honk a few times 
and we bear them no more. In a little while, as we look 
up the lake, we see a flash, then three or four, and then 
come the reports of the guns. They have shot at a stand 
on the east side of the lake, and now the air is full of 
geese. We try to stop some of them, but it is of no use, so 
this ends the fun for the present. 
It is now about 12 o'clock. Add, Tom, Herb and I "are 
in the stand. George has turned in, having been up two 
nights. There is a light ripple on the water. The moon 
shines brightly and we are saying that it is an ideal night 
for birds, when Herb says: "What is that just inside the 
block?" Tom looks with glasses and says "Ducks, about 
fifteen." They come nearer and are almost near enough 
to shoot when there comes honJe, honk, honk right over 
us. There are fourteen geese with wings crooked scaling 
to our decoys. Have you ever seen them? and didn't 
your blood tingle? Something startles them and they 
whirl to the north, going toward the place where the 
other shot was fired. "Our chance is gone," said Tom, 
"and I am going to turn in." 
As the boys had been up nearly all of two nights, I 
offered to stand watch to-night. As I stood there looking 
at the water it came to me why this place was called Sil- 
ver Lake. The moon shining on the water, which was 
stirred to a little ripple by the breeze, made it seem like a 
lake of silver, and I thought it well named. The geese 
decoys had settled for the night, with only now and then 
the low growl of an old gander, which would be quickly 
answered by one of his goslings on the hill. The faint 
hoot of an owl comes to me from the eastern side of the 
lake, while from the southern end I hear the quick 
guack, quack of some ducks which have just lit. Then 
the soft call of the decoys at the new stand comes to me 
from afar off and startles me from my dreams, causing me 
to stir up the decoys and almost sending me in to wake 
the boys before I knew what it was. As I get over my 
excitement and find that my heart is not in my mouth, I 
hear the boom of a volley of guns at Oldham Pond, then 
in a short time another, and right upon it three reports 
from the new stand. I go into the air about a foot, and 
see Oliver, and Herb close at his heels, bare-headed and 
hair standing on end, although it would be hard work to 
make Oliver's hair stand on end. "Great Scott! Have 
the British landed?" from Oliver, while Herb is saying, 
"What's the matter, Fred; are you trying to blow us up?" 
I explain matters, and as it is after 3 we decide to turn in 
and let the lake take care of itself. Nothing thus far. 
But our time is coming. 
In the morning about 8 o'clock, after Thomas and Mil- 
lard had gone home, George said, "I am looking for a 
large flock of geese to day." He had gone to feed the de- 
coys, when Gene said, "There are geese." We pressed 
the button, and in a nujiute ^ weye in. the stand. "There ^ 
they are," said George, "I never saw so large a flock be- 
fore. As they came out over the lake the new stand let 
out their flyers, then Gunner's Point let theirs go; and 
when George and Herb pulled on them, the way those 
goslings went from the hill was a caution. The wild 
ones see the flyers and hang, then crook, and then scale 
toward the water. They head Into the wind, then wheel 
and come up in the wind, then settle into the lake, and 
there they are. "Pour acres of them," says George. I 
shall nev^ forget how those geese looked coming in. 
Talk about pictures, it was the prettiest oiie I ever saw. 
Such a large flock of wild ones, with about 300 decoys 
flying around the three stands, was enough to open any 
sporteman's eyes. The gunners at Gunner's Point break 
about a dozen from the bunch, but do not shoot at them; 
the rest come toward us, George says, "They can't help 
it." We get fifty near enough to shoot; then another 
flock of twenty came, and eight lit with our decoys. 
Charles and I were going to attend to these, but they 
swam away before George could get the rest as he 
wanted them. We rushed up beside Add and George, 
and as George said, "Get on to them," we rose up 
over the stand. Geese everywhere, where shall I 
shoot? I see four together, with some more in range. 
I hold on the four. "Are you ready? Firel" What 
a roar from the guns, and also from the wild geese 
and decoys. Twenty-seven dead and wounded geese. 
We are not to shoot flying, but William from force 
of habit shoots and says he knocked his goose. Well, 
the world was full of them and some must have flown 
into it. They circle around the lake and light every- 
where. Ten come with our decoys. We "get on to 
them" and kill nine. In a few minutes six light with the 
decoys at the north end. We go up there and kill them 
all. Now they shoot at the new stand, then at Gunner's 
Point, and about a hundred light in the lake in front of 
us. We get out the boat and pick up the game, then 
hustle after the flyers. As we are driving them in we 
see one among them looking rather wild. "Close in on 
them, boys, that is a wild one," says George. It proves 
as he says and we have driven in a wild one. He will 
make a decoy another season. After we got the flyers in 
I hear Add say, "Here comes a single goose; nail him, 
Fred." I grab a gun, shoot twice and the goose flew on. 
"Eazzle-dazzle," Add is saying; "you are a pretty shot; 
I think you had better take a few lessons from Bill." 
When we got cleared up after the shooting we took ac- 
count of stock and found we had thirty-eight. 
I hear some one saying "Well, well; good boy," and 
Thomas is beside me. We had wired him the news and 
he could not stay at home; but what a shame he could 
not have been in it. It is a cold day, however, when his 
luck goes back on him and it was not going to play him 
false to-day. 
After dinner we try for the flock, which is in the lake 
in front of us. Tom sees a flock of seven coming; they 
light with the others. After a time thirty-six start to 
come on ; they get almost near enough to shoot when 
they turn and swim away as fast as they can. What's 
the matter? We are no longer in doubt, for a man comes 
into the stand, having walked around the shore. He 
must have had an idea he was goose hunting in the Frog 
Pond on Boston Common. 
Soon we see another large flock coming, fully as large 
as the first. They come over and we throw on them; it 
does the business, and they light. I would like to know 
how many geese there are in the lake now. We drew 
about sixty, but could get only twenty-two together. 
Thomas gave the word, George not being there. We 
killed twenty-one. George came into the stand just as 
we fired, and we had the laugh on him. By this time it 
was dark. Geese were honking all over the lake. We 
drew on six and killed them all. I would rather not say 
anything about the next shot, but perhaps it will be as 
well to give the bitter with the sweet. There must be 
some hitch, and here it was: Eleven geese near enough; all 
hands in the stand, and as George said "Get ready" some 
one shot. We all fired at the break of the gun, but only 
got three. George was mad, and the way he talked left 
no doubt in any mind what his opinion was of the man 
who shot. Put yourself in our place and see how you 
would feel. It was too bad, but could not be helped. 
We find that we have made a record for the stand, 
sixty-eight geese in twelve hours being the most ever 
killed in the same time at any stand at the lake. One 
amusing incident at one shot was of a young fellow who 
had never shot from a stand before. He was standing 
beside his father when the word was given. After the 
shot he said, "I, fixed one on the wing. Dad, I saw him 
drop." 
He did not think that five or six guns were shot on 
the wing and perhaps they were fired at the same bird 
that he saw drop. His chance was as good as the rest, 
but it made his "dad" smile. 
Charles and I picked up our traps apd very reluctantly 
\ 
went home. If we had not been obliged to go it would 
have taken a yoke of cattle to have drawn us. Millard 
went to the stable with us, and as we harnessed we heard 
a nice flock strike into the lake. We told Millard to go 
back, and as we drove away we would stop and listen fot 
the volley, which we knew would come sooner or later. 
We had the pleasure of witnessing two sights that day 
that the oldest gunner in the crowd said he had never 
seen before and probably would never see again. Two 
such large flocks of geese coming into the pond. I would 
have liked everyone who enjoys a trip with dog and gun 
to see this sight, as we saw it. It was certainly a picture 
and it will be in our minds for many a day. 
The boys say that we brought them good luck, and we 
say "Hurrah for Widgeon Point and the boys who run it." 
Does Thomas ever get left? We guess not. May we all 
live to have another day together is the wish of 
F. E. WOOD-VVARt). 
V 
WAYS OF THE RUFFED GROUSE. 
In Forest and Stream of Dec. 13 Mr. G. S. Ellis, of 
Maine, does me the honor of bestowing some kind words 
on my paper devoted to the ruffed grouse, taking excep- 
tion, however, to my statement that that bird seeks its 
habitat apart from the abode of man. Mr. Ellis cites his 
experience in Oxford and Cumberland counties, of Maine, 
wherein he found many birds on the skirts of the woods 
near farmhouses, I feel quite sure that had Mr, Ellis 
noted carefully all the pertinent local circumstances he 
would have found local conditions which forced the birds 
near the haunts of man in those counties; that is to say, 
their food supply was in those places wherein the birds 
were found. 
A forest may be both dense and secluded, yet if it con- 
tains insufficient food it is not an available habitat for the 
birds. In my experience, which covered many a day in 
pursuit of the ruffed grouse from dawn till dark, when I 
found them near dwellings they were in such cover as 
gave them a ready refuge and a certainty of protection, 
it always being the best cover in the vicinity available 
for that purpose, the abode of man near by being but an 
incident irrelevant to the bird's existence, In such sec- 
tions as have is a dearth of food and cover, or where the 
competition for food and cover is great owing to the num- 
bers of birds, they must make the best of what is available, 
and some birds must necessarily be forced to content 
themselves with the less desirable places. If their food is 
not in such places as they fancy, they must compromise 
by going to the best places where it and a certain security 
may be found. And each bird may venture into the open 
betimes, though rarely far from cover. 
Pellets, in Forest and Stream of Dec. 19, also differs . 
from me on this point, though there is such a serio-comic 
tone in his objection that it is difficult to determine wheth- 
er it is really an objection or the relation of a rare inci- 
dent. The single circumstance of finding three birds at 
the edge of an ojiening near some cottages could hardly 
be advanced as proof that such was a habit common to 
the species. Once in North Carolina, while shooting with 
Mr, S. T. Hammond, a charming companion and a skill- 
ful shot, we found a bevy of quail in an abandoned log 
barn, yet that one circumstance would not warrant a con- 
clusion that all quail sought and used bams as a part of 
their habitat. 
In severe winters, when the snow covers their food, 
birds are forced to approach the dwellings of man, that 
they may glean such food as is accessible, Cause and 
effect then being so apparent, there is no difficulty in 
readily understanding them, but the intermediate stages 
of green fields and forests and yet a dearth of bird food 
are not so readily understood by the superficial observer. 
But if either one of my critics will consider the difficul- 
ties of writing a monograph on this subject, abounding 
as it does in such an infinity of detail, they will find, if 
they confine their writings to a certain amount of space, 
that only the traits common to the species can be con- 
sidered; to note the individual exceptions would make a 
task as endless as it woxdd be unprofitable to writer or 
reader. B. Waters 
Proposed League of New York Counties. 
BiNQUAMTON, N. Y. , Dec. 21.— Editor Forest and Stream: 
I have just finished reading the Christmas number of 
your valuable paper and can find but just one fault with 
it: I very much miss your motto, "Stop the sale of game." 
I doubt not that there is not another thing that is so ear- 
nestly desired by so great a number, and has so little said 
in its favor, as this one thing, Among the shooters of my 
acquaintance the ratio is at least ten to one in favor of 
prohibiting the sale of game. Those of the minority are 
a class of men who, as a rule, woi;ld be on the wrong 
side of most any question, and not one of them go shoots 
ing for the sport derived. 
I have just finished trhat I cqnsider a ver^ 
