2^6 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
tW i% In- 
side by side in the box. There were forty-three par- 
tridges, twenty-two woodcock and fifty-nine quail. This 
we {nought a pretty good showing for the time we had 
been out, to say nothing of the pleasure and fun that 
we had, and we decided that, taken all together, this was 
one of the most enjoyable trips that we had ever taken. 
We started for home shortly after 2 o'clock, driving to 
Willimantic, where Ethan had business that he said 
would detain us about fifteen minutes, but we did not 
get away from the: place until after 8 o'clock m the 
evening, but we had a good dinner, and were familiar 
with the road, so we jogged along, shortening the jour- 
ney by shooting our birds over again and commenting 
upon the many pleasing incidents of our trip, until we 
had passed the little village of Howard's Valley, and 
were not more than ten miles from home when there 
was a sudden crash, a vicious lurch of the wagon, a fran- 
tic yell of whoa from Ethan, and" then we found our- 
selves and belongings piled in a promiscuous heap of 
men, dogs, guns and crook-neck squashes in the ditch. 
Our host had loaded us down with all the squashes we 
could conveniently stow in the wagon, and they proved 
to be most useful upon this occasion in adding variety 
to the performance by getting up on end and then jump- 
ing on us after we were down. The horses behaved 
nicely— Ethan said they were used to it— and we soon 
regained our feet and proceeded to strike a match and 
take account of stock. The roll call showed that none 
were killed, wounded or missing, and a casual glance 
at the pile in the ditch led us to believe that the bag- 
gage was all right, so we struck another match to see 
if we could throw any light upon the cause of our 
trouble. Investigation showed that the near forward 
wheel was most decidedly off; it had got into a hole and 
every spoke was broken short off at the hub. Both ot 
us had had considerable experience in matters of this 
nature, but nothing just like this had ever come to 
either of us, consequently we had no precedent to guide 
us. After promenading around the wreck two or three 
times and scratching our heads we were about to sur- 
render to the overpowering odds, when Ethan remarked, 
that if it had only been a hind wheel we could fix it with 
a fence rail. This gave me an idea, and I proposed put- 
ting a hind wheel in front, and then proceeding accord- 
ing to the usual custom in vogue when a hind wheel 
collapsed. Ethan fell in love with this idea, and taking 
the wrench from the seat box we soon made the change 
with the wheels, and finding a pole about 15ft. long 
on the fence we confiscated it and tied the butt on top 
of the forward- axle, then fastening it underneath the 
rear one we repacked the wagon and were all ready 
to start. It was past 10 o'clock when we got under 
way, and our progress was rather slow, but we were 
happy, and really had a pleasant time, if we did make 
a night of it. for it was 2 o'clock in the morning when 
we arrived home. Shadow, 
[to be continued.] 
Sport in a Box. 
When the train for Cape Cod left the Old Colony 
station, in Boston, one morning early m September, it 
carried two young fellows bound for the famous flats at 
Chatham, one of the finest grounds for plover shooting 
on the Atlantic coast. We were going to Capt. Gould s, 
the well-known hostelry for sportsmen, situated on the 
edge of the great flats, and only accessible to pedestrians 
or vehicles at low tide, being cut off from the mainland 
by a winding arm of the sea. In our kits, besides guns 
and waterproof clothing, we each earned 500 loaded 
shells; for, should the birds fly usually well, we ex- 
pected during our two weeks' outing to use from thirty 
to fifty shells a day. • & 
We reached the Chatham Branch early in the after- 
noon and a few minutes' ride from the junction brought 
us to quaint and quiet old Chatham, where the gunners 
bus" was awaiting us. As the tide was already on the 
point of turning, the driver hastened the pace of his 
sleepv team as much as possible, but after all we had to 
put our feet up on the front seat while crossing the ford 
and hold our luggage in our laps, while the incom- 
ing tide surged through the body of the wagon, and 
would no doubt have floated it like a boat had it not 
been for the heavy cast-iron wheels, with their wide 
flanges, each weighing over a hundred pounds. Down 
on Cape Cod the people would rather use iron wheels 
and ford as their fathers did, until the millennium comes 
than build bridges. They live so largely m the 
water anyway that a little matter of 4 or 5ft. of tidal cur- 
rent doesn't disturb them or their horses in the least 
lust after crossing the ford the keen-eyed driver spied 
a yellow-leg far down the edge of the channel and halted 
his team while Chandler put his gun hastily together, 
snatched a couple of shells and went stooping along the 
edge of the water, with long, cautious strides. 1 he big 
Yellow-leg ceased feeding after a few moments and raised 
its head apprehensively. But the strange object so silent- 
ly approaching seemed still too far away to be dangerous, 
and the bird began to feed again. Chandler raised the 
hammers of his gun and lifted it half-way to his shoulder 
as he stole noiselessly on. There was a sudden warn- 
ing flirt of the bird's wings. The gunner stopped in his 
tracks and threw up his gun. A puff of smoke and a 
sharp report just as the bird raised off the sand and we 
shouted exultantly as we saw the yellow-leg fall back 
lifeless, killed clean at 60yds. by the long-range choke- 
^"That ought to be a starter for the luck of the trip," 
said Chandler, as he came back with his plover and 
tossed the bird into the bus. 
A warm welcome from Capt. Gould, and an equally 
welcome meal from the hands of his wife, put us in good 
spirits and good condition for the evening shooting; and 
at 4 o'clock we donned our hip boots and canvas suits 
and started for Box 4, the blind assigned to us for that 
eV pk>ve'r shooting on the flats is done from boxes sunk 
in the sand, and provided with low bench seats, where 
the gunners may comfortably sit, with their guns up- 
right between their knees, and their eyes on a level with 
the edge of the box, so that they can see approaching 
birds In front of each box, with its sloping rampart 
of sand are fixed about a dozen wooden decoys mounted 
on sticks that are stuck in the sand. The novice is sel- 
dom allowed to put out his own decoys, as much de- 
pends upon their natural position and arrangement. 
They must be grouped properly, with heads all pointing 
in the same general direction, and bodies slightly in- 
clined, as if in the act of feeding. 
Two gunners are generally allotted to a box, one 
keeping watch on the right and the other on the left 
of the box. Each is provided with a caller, a small tin 
whistle, which, in the hands of an expert, is capable of 
imitating exactly the mournful, tremulous whistle of the 
flying plover. When either gunner sees or hears a bunch 
of birds approaching 'he calls softly, "Mark right!" or 
"Mark left!" as the case may be; and then both gunners 
lie low and ply their callers as seductively as possible. 
If the sportsmen are well concealed, the decoys properly 
placed, and the callers used to good advantage, an ap- 
proaching bunch of birds, unless recently fired into 
and badly frightened, will always wheel and either alight 
just outside the decoys or hover suspiciously over them. 
The usual method with gunners after a "big bag" is to 
allow the birds to alight and bunch, and then 
give them two barrels on the sand and two 
more as the survivors rise on the wing. De- 
structive as this method may seem in theory, 
the novice will find that it takes many a day of practice 
before deceptive distances on the flats can be so ac- 
curately measured by the eye as to insure a successful 
pot shot. The more sportsmanlike method of shooting 
single birds on the wing is often the more successful 
method at first, as a bird in the air does not deceive the 
eye like a bird on the flats. 
No sooner had Chandler and I made ourselves com- 
fortable in Box 4 than a double report from Box 1, far 
off on the right, told us that the evening flight had be- 
gun. The bunch of birds into which the gunners m Box 
1 had fired, apparently while on the wing, swung in 
alarm far outside of Boxes 2 and 3, but returned to the 
waterline in time to be attracted by our callers and de- 
coys. There was a swish of wings over our heads, and 
the whole bunch wheeled and dropped gracefully a few 
feet in front of our decoys. They proved to be stibbs, 
a comparatively small grayish plover, excellent eating, 
but hardly large enough to waste shells upon m singles. 
So we let them bunch, and with four barrels secured 
eighteen; the rest even hovering around the decoys after 
they got on the wing, and offering us another chance, 
which we refused to take, as we considered that we had 
stibbs enough for that day's bag. ' 
Next followed a bunch of peeps, smaller even than 
the stibbs; and we let them light among our decoys 
and go away unmolested. 
"Here comes a bunch of rose-breasted plover! ex- 
claimed Chandler, excitedly, a few moments later. "You 
take the first and I'll take the second." 
We had hardly time to spring to our feet, as the 
beautiful rose-breasts skimmed by, utterly unmindful of 
our decoys. Here was a chance for sportsmanlike work. 
The two guns cracked almost together, and both plover 
whirled over in the air and came drifting down on the 
flats— as pretty a shot and as pretty a brace of birds as 
one might wish to see. The rose-breasted is one of the 
larger varieties of plover, though not among the largest. 
It is perhaps the most beautifully colored of all, is com- 
paratively rare and difficult to decoy, and is always 
counted as a special prize in the gunner's bag. We were 
accordingly highly pleased at bagging a brace of these 
birds. 
The tide now being at its height, the flight ceased, 
and we returned to the hotel. Plover as a rule fly only 
when the tide is encroaching on their feeding grounds. 
At high tide, or when the tide is going out, few birds are 
stirring. . 
The best flight is in the early morning, for two or three 
hours after daybreak. In drawing lots for boxes, 
Chandler and I found ourselves assigned for the -morn- 
ing shooting to Box 10, on the extreme left of the line 
and some two miles' walk down the flats. Accord- 
ingly we were up long before the stars began to pale, 
ate a hasty breakfast in the kitchen, and started for 
our box while the night was still black and mysterious 
about us. How desolate and unearthly seemed the vast 
flats, as we slowly dragged across them in our heavy 
hip boots, steering as best we could by the half-obliter- 
ated path and the dim outlines of the mainland shore! 
After a good deal of wandering and getting set right 
again, we reached Box 10 just as that first pearl gray 
tinge appeared in the east, heralding the break of day. 
The tide had just turned on the flood, and before we 
could see to shoot we heard the shrill quavering call 
of bunch after bunch of uneasy plover flitting through 
the darkness. 
As soon as objects became visible the sport began, 
and for two hours our gun barrels had little chance 
to cool. Curlews, yellow-legs and sickle bills— the big 
fellows of the plover tribe — came whistling down to our 
decoys, and we were almost constantly firing or retriev- 
ing till the sun had been an hour out of the sea. After 
the first few pot shots our bag was so large that we 
decided to devote the rest of the time to the more skill- 
ful and pleasurable sport of trying for singles and 
doubles on the wing. That was indeed the star morning 
of the trip in more senses than one. Sport so thick 
and fast I have never enjoyed before nor since. When 
we returned to "breakfast No. 2," as Chandler put it, 
our string of birds was the largest brought into the 
gun room. It numbered 23 yellow-legs, 4 pigeon plover, 
7 sickle bills, 12 curlews 3 rose-breasted, 31 ring-necks 
and 26 stibbs. 
So the days passed, bringing health and strength and 
happy spirits, as well as royal and memorable sport. 
The 'great ocean winds, "fresh from Spain," soughed 
and roared over the little two-story hotel at night, liter- 
ally rocking and singing us to sleep; and after the 
morning's sport in the boxes there were tournaments 
of clay-pigeon shooting out on the sands, and refresh- 
ing naps in wind-swayed hammocks, and merry trips 
"to town" for the imail, and hauling the nets for blue- 
fish and a dozen other healthful, happy ways of spend- 
ing' our two weeks' vacation. And when the morning 
came for us to leave it was with a sense of regret 
amounting almost to heart-sickness that we bade good- 
' by to Capt. Gould and his wife, and our jolly gunner 
friends and intrusted ourselves once more to the iron- 
wheeled bus on its trainward trip across the ford. 
Paul Pastnor. 
CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 
Sept. 2. — Warden Loveday reports rather an interes' 
ing state of affairs at Galesburg, in this State. When h 
looked for the prosecuting attorney to bring suit again: 
Weinberg Bros., whom he had arrested for handling 
illegal grouse, the attorney could not be found, and 
second search did not develop his whereabouts. A le 
ter has now been addressed to him, and he will now 1 
heard from 410 doubt. It is said that the birds take 
from Weinberg Bros, were really killed by some 1 
the Galesburg shooters, and that a great many offende; 
would be implicated if all the truth could be brought ou 
There has undoubtedly been a great deal of illegal shoo 
ing at that point, and just to show the density of tl 
ignorance of the game laws there, I might quote tl 
following from the local newspaper which speaks of fac 
as it has found them: 
"Hundreds of doves have been shot in Knox coun 
this year. Perhaps some of the 'doves' were chickens ai 
quails, but hundreds of the real birds have been she 
Aside from making good potpies, doves are not wor 
much. They are not good shooting, and yet some 
the hunters who have been slaughtering them insist th 
their only object in doing so is to get them under t 
protection of the game laws." 
As a matter of fact, it is just as much against the 1 
to shoot doves in Illinois, at any time of the year, 
it is to shoot chickens before the opening day. To 
sure, I have known of a great many cases where shoo 
ers, some of them members of gun clubs, have made 
practice of shooting doves, just for the reason that 
one has ever appeared to enforce the law. Of course, 
shooters know very well that the habits of the doves 1 
such that the shooter often pursues them upon the stv 
bles, just where he would go after prairie chickens 
does not need a dog, and he may often get hedge ri 
or water hole shooting at doves, but the feeding grour 
of these birds are on the wheat fields. In the opini 
of many sportsmen it would be much better to prob 
doves, not all the year, but part of the year, allowi 
an open season on them of even dates with that of 1 
chicken season. This would prevent the excuse urg 
above, though, of course, the excuse is to-day absolu 
ly invalid and illegal. The main conclusion seems to 
that Galesburg is a good place to watch. 
At Ottawa, 111., this week, suit will be brought 
the warden against J. D. Towney. for killing ille 
birds. At Monmouth, last week, three sooners w 
convicted, one, a negro, going to jail. At Rochelle, 
Ogle county, an odd case came up. Warden Hizer 
rested a grave and reverend Catholic priest, wb 
name shall under the circumstances be kept secret, £ 
found he had three illegal birds. The deputy took 
birds, and told the priest he would see him later, 1 
priest hied himself- to the justice, and got himself fii 
and Avas on his way home again before the deputy got 
the office to swear out his complaint. This sort of clei 
al penitence is a good thing. 
A great deal of illegal game is now coming in fr 
South and North Dakota. This week Warden Love 
seized eleven dozen chickens and six dozen teal, all fr 
North Dakota. These birds were nearly all spoiled, | 
were thrown away. They had been shipped with 
ice and were badly packed. In this warm weather g3 
would spoil before morning if not put on ice. Th 
is something of a suggestion in this in regard to 
early opening date. It is nearly always pretty warm 
the Northwest at Sept. 1, let alone at an earlier dafc 
There seems to be a sort of misunderstanding, 
something or other, up in South Dakota about 
game law, and I am disposed to think they may beli 
their chicken law "unconstitutional." The Minneap 
Journal of Aug. 26 says that shooting has proved \ 
good in South Dakota, especially along the Bad Ri 
where one party killed forty-five chickens, another thvj 
another twenty, etc. The birds were shot in brush cc 
along the stream. Inasmuch as the law of South Dal 
did not open until several days after the reports 
this shooting came in, it would seem that the law c 
not go for much this fall in that part of the world 
hear that there is, indeed, some confusion of the d 
some thinking that the old date of Aug. 15 still he 
It is singular how in a case of confusion like this 
fellows always take the earlier date. 
Summer Skin Hunter. 
I have often heard that the residents of the I 
River country, of Minnesota, have taken the matte 
the game laws into their own hands, and served ne- 
on all game wardens that they would better keep ( 
the grass of Deer River. A great many deer and rat; 
are killed there, and I should not be surprised if j 
a while the wardens disregarded the old-time warning 
1 got in there and made some arrests. Much such a! 
of country is that in Lake county, the same State, 
this week Deputy Warden Helving, with Marshal 
lien and Jas. Graham, of Two Harbors, went in t! 
and arrested two summer skin hunters in their c;i 
near Split Rock, taking over thirty hides of moose 
deer. The men arrested are Jas. Watson and Dan W<! 
and. it is said that they have been skin hunting in 
region for a long time, of course, careless of the g| 
laws. It is stated that they concealed certain of 
evidence against them by burning the carcasses ?j 
the skinning. 
Mauser Rifles. 
The other day I was talking with Opie Read, 
novelist, and he had occasion to say that he would 
to get hold of "one of those Mauser rifles that 
Spaniards used," as he thought it might be a good sc 
rel gun. Nobody knew where he could obtain the m 
of indulging this singular fancy, and it was explaine 
him that maybe he wouldn't need quite so long-rang 
gun for his squirrel shooting. Yet this week the \ 
known firm of Messrs. Hartley & Graham, of New \ 
city announce that they can supply a limited quantitj 
the genuine Spanish Mauser rifles, 7mm., with t 
bayonet and leather scabbard; also cavalry carb 
same as used by the Spanish army, and also largeh 
the Cubans in the late war. They will also be abli 
supply the Spanish Mauser smokeless powder cartnd 
