FOftEST AND STREAM. 
£63 
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More About Animals at Play. 
v Forest and Stream: 
pl'e roaming the Adirondack woods one day this 
fer I found a fox hole on a side hill. .Passing on a 
Iteps, I saw a well denned slide on the dry, hard 
fcd; where evidently the animals had attempted 
Iboggan act. The ground was worn quite smooth, 
jhe debris, such as grass, leaves and twigs, brushed 
lean. It lay at the bottom of the incline. The 
| 'cleared was about a rod long and a little less 
Kith. To make sure it was the work of foxes, I 
ted of my guide, who told me he knew the place, 
Kiat he had seen similar evidence of fox fun in 
c time. Juvenal 
}mi\e j§ag md §>tw. 
The "Briefs" Pictures. 
illustrations in the current edition ol Game Laws in Brief, 
Jharles Hallock says, well represent America's wilderness 
The Brief gives all the laws of the United States and 
K for the practical guidance of anglers and shooters. As 
fhority, it has a long record of unassailed and unassailable 
icy. Forest and Stream Pub. Co. sends it postpaid for 25 
tir your dealer will supply you. 
ow Trump Saved Powder and 
Bang Saved Game. 
omp is a good dog. For that matter, there are 
good dogs. Some possibly as good, as Trump, 
inly many worse. Trump is keen, stanch, a good 
ver, and take him all around, a fair, honest and true 
sman, in general assisting to bag game in a sports- 
Ike way. The best of us occasionally sin, however, 
[Trump is no exception, and thereby hangs a tale. 
iSfay of it was this: It was a bright, warm day in 
imber, too nice a day to describe, for the mellow 
]n summer sunshine loses its richness when re- 
Id from paper. Mr. Trump, in company with two 
m friends (the scribe and Mr. Sawgun) and one 
y dog, yclept Bang, hied him forth for a hunt, 
quartette wended their way to a wood of hemlock 
cedar, through the midst of which ran a swift and 
dw river. This wood was known as a popular busi- 
center of the lordly and thunderous grouse. Trump 
the way into the cover with confident step and 
•ing tail signals. Before many rods he fastened 
eious eyes and nostrils on a short, thick bunch 
gars. Eyes grew more intent, nose more confident, 
quarter-past twelve. "Whoa!" Still as a statue, 
iy dog Bang tries his best to imitate Mr. Trump's 
sssional pose, and save for limp crooks in his tail 
a few other discrepancies does very well. "Buzz! 
k!" Well, you know how a flying grouse looks 
a charge of nitro powder has driven an ounce of 
f)s into his smooth brown plumage. Mr. Trump tri- 
hantly retrieved, a process watched with greatest 
est by Bang, such great interest in fact that it was 
d needful to place a restraining hand on his collar 
whisper words of admonishment into his reluctant 
ier this first success Mr. Trump forged ahead with 
id confidence. We pushed along some distance, 
s alone with Trump, and puppy dog did a little work 
is own account with Sawgun. Suddenly in a rather 
I place Trump froze to a point. I beat around, but 
(1 flush no bird. "Trump, you old liar," said I, 
II have to change your name to Ananias." but 
nip insisted that he knew more about it than I did. 
lit 6ft. in front of him was a small log, possibly^ ioin. 
icumference. After a couple of minutes he crawled 
ly forward, crossed the log. and then began wagging 
fail. "I thought so," said I, but my verdict was too 
i, lor he stiffened again, pointing back toward the 
Out of patience, I walked up and kicked the log, 
acting to start out a cottontail if anything. The 
md kick shattered the log, when out ran a nice, lively 
tse. I held my gun ready, expecting the bird would 
and give me a shot, but he seemed to think feet bet- 
fchan wings. Suddenly r there was dash, a hustle of 
s, and Mr. Trump returned with the sprinting grouse 
lis mouth and rather a shame-faced look in his 
as though to say, "I know it wasn't good form, but 
I he is." 
I forgave him, and examined the bird for 
nds, but could find no sign of injury, and finally came 
he conclusion that he was born tired and had fallen 
ctim to his own inertia. Mr. Bang came up just in 
to see the closing act in this small tragedy, and the 
it seemed to fill him with a wild, burning ardor to 
inguish himself. For a dog of ten months he had 
■laved very fair talents in the way of pointing and 
king, but he had received no training whatever in 
levin.o". The 'phenomenon as exhibited in its per- 
ion by Trump excited all his wonder and ambition, 
a a short time a bird flushed, and crossing the river 
flk into cover on the other side. Sawgun decided to 
: wliere he was, so I called the pup and splashed 
ftss. Before we had gone far the youngster began 
how signs, but ere he had arrived at any conclusion 
grouse buzzed up far ahead. It was a bad chance, 
a quick snap started the feathers, and I thought the 
J dropped. I searched the vicinity diligently, but 
lid no bird. Finally I gave up, and walking some 
[yds. came out in the open. In my search for the bird 
subsequent soliloquizing about my bad luck I very 
elessly forgot the pup. Perceiving his absence when 
iached the open, I began to make vocal demands for 
presence in no very pleasant tones. For ten minutes 
preeched and yelled in vain, and had just cut and 
timed a nice slender sapling with painful and hostile 
;ntion, when I heard the puppy come rustling 
ough the underbrush. I involuntarily grioped my 
tch tighter and set my jaw, and — . Judge of my sur- 
je when the young gentleman crawled under the 
Cfi with a fine grouse in his mouth, trotted up and 
handed it to me as though it had been his regular duty 
for ten years, and then began a joyous waltz around me. 
I don't care if the deed was a trifle irregular; he had a 
good excuse for being conceited when I had finished 
talking to him about it. 
It is a comfort to close a day's hunt by a clean, slashing 
shot, and it chanced that on this day we were comforted. 
We stood upon a wooded ridge, whose brush-covered 
sides sloped toward the west. The sun had set, but 
still flashed its scarlet danger signals in the sky— warn- 
ings that the black train of night was whirling in on a 
down grade. We were silently admiring the beauty 
of it, when Trump (who had other things in mind than 
sunset) came to a point some distance down the slope. 
It was a little dark to shoot, but we plunged down the 
side hill, thinking "just to hear 'em fly.'" The dogs stood 
in front of a small hollow, looking like white ghosts in 
the dusky cover. "No chance in this light," said Saw- 
gun. "Well, we'll take what chance there is." So we 
placed ourselves in a hollow, that if possible we might 
see the game against the sky, and I picked up a large 
stone and tossed it into the thicket. My, what a bees' 
nest! Whir— whir! Three, five, six birds, but not a 
feather could we see. Whir — whir — three more! Ah, 
those are higher. Two swift-moving, dark spots against 
the crimson west. "Bang! bang!" Well, that was luck, 
"Fetch, boys; good dog, yes he was, both of him," and 
we started home well pleased with the dogs, and the 
dogs well pleased with themselves. "Happiness from 
giving others pleasure is surely a dog's religion," quoth 
Sawgun, as he patted his game pocket complacently. 
J. R. B. 
Utica, New York. 
Game in Western Nova Scotia. 
The shooting for a sportsman in western Nova 
Scotia begins at the seashore with the sand peep and 
ends with the moose away back in "the wildest forest. 
First, there are the sand peep and the shore birds in 
August. From the first of September to the following 
March, black or blue-winged ducks are to be had along 
the shore of the Atlantic on the south, and St. Mary's 
Bay and Bay of Fundv on the north. On the extensive 
marshes that line the tidal rivers, and following the 
rivers back to the interior lakes, the blue-winged duck 
will always, be found in season-. 
About the middle of November teal, sheldrake, red- 
reads and blue-bills come along, but these are only to 
be found near salt water. Before the duck shooting be- 
gins, from the ist of August to the ist of November, 
there is good snipe shooting in all the salt marshes and 
swamps. They are more plentiful than woodcock, but 
are harder to kill. I am speaking of what is called Eng- 
lish snipe, that flush so closely, and with such startling 
rapidity; sight, gun and bird must be simultaneous. In 
August the sand peep flock, and like a silver cloud flut- 
ter, swerve and skim along the beaches and flats, with 
their incessant calling. It fills the heart of the small 
boy with delight to be able to see and hear the game, 
shut both eyes and bang away. I can remember in 
youthful days, too eager after the "bang" to bother with 
the gun. flinging it down in the muddy grass and water 
and starting on the run with both hands, gathering up 
the spoils; little balls of fat, juicy and tender. 
Curlew and plover that were plentiful in former years 
are getting scarce. They are to be found on St. Mary's 
Bay and are in first flight about the middle of August. 
Jacksnipe come in a little later and are in flocks on the 
marshes in September. 
To ?et to higher ground, the first bird of the season 
is the "woodcock. They come to Nova Scotia the last 
part of March, and as early as the ioth of April young 
birds are hatched. They are on the wing the middle of 
August. The game laws make shooting legal the ist of 
September. Go up any of the rivers, going back on 
either side to the bench land, which as a rule is the 
pasture land or back fields of the farms, and in the 
alders, swales and wet, spots the woodcock are feeding. 
They feed everywhere, from barnyard to forest, and 
from ploughed ground to mountain spring. In wood- 
cock or snipe shooting there is little need to worry over 
gun, shell or weather; the luck rests with the dog. 
Every spring, when picking the first Mayflowers,- the 
children and I never fail to hear the drum of the par- 
tridge, and I say to him, "All right, old boy, may your 
family do well and prosper." We stop picking flowers 
and listen to him as he begins with slow and almost 
measured beat, and quickens with a rush his drum- 
ming. The partridge family has a homelike fondness 
tor old pastures and wood roads, the outskirts of old 
farms, and seems to like to be within sound of the axe 
at the woodpile, and the clanging bells of the farmers' 
cows. Off from the railroad and back from the post- 
roads, in nearly every part of western Nova Scotia, are 
old settlements, inhabited or deserted. In all these 
settlements good partridge and cock shooting are a 
surety; a sportsman is certain of finding game. This 
spring I happened to mention to a woodsman in one of 
the settlements that the Game Society had a new law 
passed that no person shall hunt, kill, buy, sell or have 
in possession any partridge for two years, that is to say, 
until Oct. i, 1 901. He would have taken it more kindly 
if I had hit him with a brick. "Why." said he, "there 
are 15,000 partridges in Dalhousie settlement that never 
saw a white man; tell you what, if they fly into my 
arms I am going to hold them tight; if they crowd into 
the house, some one is going to eat them." Neverthe- 
less he cast a longing eye on the old gun hanging on 
the wall, and I am afraid this autumn there will be 
partridge feathers flying in the air. However, take 
warning, this is the law, Partridge — Oct. 1. 1901, for all 
of Nova Scotia. 
Moose hunting is legal after the ist day of October. 
On that date there will be hundreds of men out after 
moose with the callers in the backwoods of Nova 
Scotia. There are certain celebrated hunters and call- 
ers who have their own districts, and while all the woods 
of Nova Scotia are as free as the ocean, it is understood 
among the fraternity of hunters, that they stick to their 
own special territory. Notwithstanding this, one caller 
will often call up another instead of a moose. In 
October, when the clear moon is in the west, and just 
before daylight, the mist hanging low r all over the bog, 
the call is answered, and then silence, The faintest 
breeze has to be reckoned with, the best judgment used 
as to shifting ground; listen! he is coming. The second 
call and no mistake about the bull this time.' It is a 
rush, and "expedite order," as the war department would 
say. A crash through brush and timber, and he comes 
nearer with only your ears as witnesses, and then, just 
when you expect to see him, with rifle already at your 
shoulder, something goes wrong. The uncertain morn- 
ing breeze has given the moose the scent of the hunters. 
Frightened by the click of a trigger or the snap of a 
twig, and after all the noise he made coming up, the 
moose vanishes. Listen ever so closely, strain your 
sight ever so much, it is no use. He goes away so 
silently, the fading mist before the rising sun could 
not disappear more quickly, Back to camp and break- 
fast; better luck next time. 
Two parties once called one another up so that four 
people came together with mutual explanations and dis- 
appointment, and while these four stood talking in 
whispers at the edge of the bog the vapor lifted in front 
of them for a minute or two, and there, coming across 
in front, was as glorious a moose as ever trimmed a 
tree. The moose came on, walking slowly; so near 
every tip of his horns could be counted, and passed 
them; he disappeared, while these four mighty hunters 
stood as four statues, their guns as silent as themselves, 
until each with eyes unable to see the moose turned to 
gaze upon his companion, an idiotic interrogation point 
in each pupil. Jim told me how it was that they came 
home without meat, and when I asked how it was he did 
not fire, he said: "By the great horn spoon that bangs 
in the west, I never knew I had a gun in my hands, and 
if it ever happens again, may I be heartily shot myself." 
For woodcock and duck shooting, try head of St. 
Mary's Bay, from Weymouth east, North Range and 
Digby Neck in Digby county, north and south along 
Annapolis River, in Annapolis county. For cock and 
snipe, Weymouth, Clementsvale, Round Hill, Tupper- 
ville, Belle Isle, Lawrencetown and Middleton, also 
along St. Mary's Bay. Moose districts, heads of the 
Jordan, Roosway and Clyde rivers; Tusket and Sissiboo 
rivers. The district south of Bear River and east of 
that. At Milford and south of Milford, at Kempt and 
Maitland, from these places guides and callers can be 
had, and canoes to the proper moose ground, West 
and East Dalhousie and the lands lying to the south and 
east. 
The best route to reach the hunting grounds of 
western Nova Scotia is to take the Dominion Atlantic 
Railway S. S. Line from Boston. Information may be 
had by writing to Mr. J. F. Masters; the New England 
superintendent, at 228 Washington street, Boston. 
F. C. Whitman. 
Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia, Aug. 26. 
Ducks on the Ottawa Club Grounds 
Cleveland, O.. Sept. 24. — Editor Forest and Stream: 
As I wrote you about Sept. 10 that the indications were 
that the shooting on our Ottawa Club grounds was going 
to be good this fall, I thought you would like to hear 
about it. Two of our members were up shooting week 
before last, and one of them, Charlie Ranney, gave me 
this account of their shooting. They had told the keeper 
of the club house to call them at 3 o'clock on Tuesday 
morning, as they wished to go down in the lower marshes 
to shoot, and by the time they would get their breakfast 
and get down there and get blinded it would be about 
5:30 A. M., and the ducks would be flying. Well, the 
keeper for some reason or other did not call Ranney 
until 5 o'clock, and he dressed and went down to 
Reynolds' room and called him, and told him it was 5 
o'clock, and asked him if he was going out, and Reynolds 
said if it was so late as that he guessed he would not 
get up, so Ranney got his breakfast, and with his punter 
started off to the lower marsh, and this is his account 
of the shoot: "T went in through channel No. 1, and I 
put up hundreds of ducks, but I thought that the head 
of channel No. 2 would be a better place, so I went over 
to channel No. 2 and located right in the middle of^a 
mud flat. Pulling the boat up on a muskrat cabin, we 
covered both ends of the boat with the flag from the 
cabin. We didn't get into the blind until about 7:30 
A. M., but as there hadn't been any one into the lower 
marshes to scare the ducks up, it did not make any 
difference. As we scared the ducks up and were making 
our blind, they flew around us and did not seem to 
want to leave their feeding grounds. It seemed as though 
I had located right on the hub of a wheel, and all the 
ducks that came into the marshes flew right down the 
^spokes to my blind. I had splendid shooting, and by 
noon I had forty ducks, mostly blue-winged teal. 
"Along in the* afternoon Reynolds came down and 
passed up Big Pond and located back of Dean Island, in 
Mound Spring. He did not seem to get much shooting 
and finally pulled up, and coming over my way, hailed 
me: 'Say! Ranney, every duck in the marsh seems to 
want to come to your blind; how soon are you going 
to pull up? I'd like to get some of that shooting 
myself.' As I then had fifty-three ducks, I told him I 
guessed I had all the ducks I wanted, and so I pulled 
out and he took my blind and got some shooting, al- 
though the flight was about over. 
"On Thursday, the second day following, Reynolds 
got sixty-five ducks in channel No. 1. On Saturday 
Scofield came down in the afternoon and he got seven- 
teen ducks up to 4 o'clock, and pulled out for the upper 
club house for supper. On Tuesday, Wednesday and 
Thursday of last week Scofield got ninety-nine ducks, 
and he told me that they were mostly green-winged 
teal; this duck generally comes down to our marshes 
the last thing in the fall, about the time the black duck 
or black mallard, as we call it, puts in his appearance. 
Scofield told me that on last Saturday most of the 
green-winged teal had disappeared, and the supposition 
was that they had gone back north, as the weather was 
so warm here. From this you can see that the indica- 
tions of good duck shooting are proving true." 
Frank B. Many. 
The Forest and Stream is put to pr&ss each week on Tuesday. 
Correspondence intended for publication should reach us at the 
latest by Monday, and as much earlier as practicable. 
