448 
The Song of the Grouse. 
I'm an old cock grouse, and I'm lusty and strong: 
My ruffs are glossy and black and long; 
I'm nimble-footed and keen of sight, 
And swift of wing as an arrow's flight. 
I'm the bird of the mountains and brush-grown bills, 
And the darksome glens with their tinkling rills; 
And I wake the woods with my whirring hum, 
When the snow drifts deep and the streams are dumb 
I love the time of the shining haze, 
That dims the hills in the autumn days, 
When the wildfowl pass on tireless wing, 
When the air is sharp with a bracing sting. 
When the frosted leaves whirl gaily past, 
And the ground is thick with the fallen mast. 
1 love the time when the old year fades, 
For it's then I'm king of the woodland glades. 
If men must hunt, let them have their fun. 
'Tis little I reck of the crack of the gun; 
For the pattering shot it's little I care, 
Or the crouching setter that stuffs the air. 
Though the gun be sure and sight be keen. 
There's naught I fear with a tree between. 
I slyly run and I swiftly fly, 
Or I spring with a whir when they've passed me by. 
There's danger, in it? Oh, yes, that's true — 
I've lost a toe and a feather or two; 
And once and again have I felt the sting , 
Of the scattering shot, with their spiteful "ping." 
But it's all in life that is worth the name; 
And if at the last you must die — die game. 
Or else be an owl, and mope and whine, 
And doze in the dark of a gloomy pine. 
Then here's to the grouse — the mountain king, 
So keen and lusty and swift of wing — 
The Northland's spirit strong and free — 
The flitting ghost of the hemlock tree, 
As long as the seasons shall come and go, 
As long as the brooks of the mountains flow, 
May the heart of the sportsman be thrilled and stirred 
By the whirring hurst of the brave old bird. 
J. R. B. 
Notes from New Brunswick. 
It grieves me to note in the secular press that John 
Perry, of Megantic, who officiated as my guide in that 
region two years ago, was recently shot and severely 
wounded in the Maine woods by a gentleman of an im- 
aginative turn of thought who took him for a deer. 
John is one of the most careful, cool-headed men in the 
woods I ever had the pleasure of meeting, but this did 
not avail to save him from being shot down. The 
bullet passed through his right hand and into his side. 
The papers also report that the body of Richard Rob- 
inson, a young man who formerly lived in St. John, 
was found dead at Dennysville, Maine, with a bullet 
hole in the back. He was undoubtedly shot by some 
reckless deer hunter. Whoever did the shooting exam- 
ined the body and then walked away and gave no in- 
formation. There is only one way to stop this .murder- 
ing, and that is to make the killing or wounding of peo- 
ple in the hunting woods a criminal offense, punishable 
with a liberal term of imprisonment. 
It is a pleasure to turn from the contemplation of 
such things to the luminous countenance of our friend 
Charles Phair, of Presque Isle, who has just returned 
from a goose and brant expedition at Tabusintac on 
the North Shore. Mr. Phair was accompanied by his 
newly Wedded wife on this trip, and claims that he never 
had so good a time before. He says big game hunting 
is not to be placed in the same class with the fun 
of persuading a big goose to come down and smite the 
water. It was his first experience. There were, lie 
thinks, some millions of geese and brant tarrying at 
Tabusintac on their way southward, and the shooting 
was superb. Charles brought down sixty-five geese and 
brant, and is positive that he missed a few. Harry 
Chestnut, of this city, also gathered in a large nest of 
feathers at Tabusintac recently. His haul consisted of 
fifty-five geese and brant, and about the same number 
of partridges and woodcock. 
Deer have been coming in rapidly this week. Charlie 
Gallop shot two on Friday near the Gornish Brook, and 
on the same day Charlie Grier, of Maryland, brought in 
two fine bucks. On the following day two deer were 
shot by Joel D. Scott, one by Percy Camber and one 
by T. W. Elliott. A fine caribou was brought in from 
the Keswick to-day by Charles Hoyt. The head, which 
has twenty-eight points, will pass through the skillful 
hands of S. L. Crosby, of Bangor. 
The newspapers mention that a deer, which had es- 
caped the dogs by running, and then swimming the St. 
Croix River at St. Stephen last Wednesday, and also 
escaped the school boys on the other side, was finally 
killed on Lincoln street, in Calais. This has a tendency 
to make the man who sits on the fence feel sorry for the 
deer and sorry for Calais. Deer are frequently seen 
within the city limits of Fredericton; but no one would 
think of molesting them. I might add that it is the 
almost universal custom with local shooters here to 
shoot the bucks and let the does go free. 
At Centreville, Carleton county, a deer was caught 
on the ice of the main river last winter. While de- 
prived of her liberty she dropped two kids, a buck 
and a doe. Both of these have been kept ever since by 
R. W. Balloch, and are now in the best of condition. 
What is claimed to be a record caribou for this 
Province has just been shot by Mr. Charles F. Reardon, 
of Boston, who hunted with Arthur Pringle as his 
guide for about ten days on the Nor'west Miramichi. 
Mr. Reardon's trophy is remarkably massive, contains 
thirty-nine points, and the brow prongs have a depth of 
13m. This gives me a mild attack of grief, for 1 am 
the possessor of a caribou with thirty-eight points, which 
I had come to regard as a record head. There is no 
doubt that woodland caribou occasionally have over 
forty points, though these, being shed as a rule before 
good snow tracking, are seldom taken. Billy Chestnut 
has a ''combination" caribou in his camp at Pine Bluff 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
with forty-two points, the antlers having been picked 
up separately on the snow in the Nor'west district. 
Mr. W. M. Kidder, of New York, who went into the 
Deadwater country with Henry Braithwaite the first of 
this month, came out to-day. He brought a nice bull 
caribou and had several chances for moose, but did not 
shoot, as the heads were small. Henry's next party is 
James Turnbull, of Halifax His assistant, Tom Pringle, 
will take in next week Gen. Hutton, commander of the 
Canadian militia, and several of his staff. Braithwaite 
utterly, condemns the small caliber rifles, and says they 
are responsible for a great many animals being wounded 
and lost in the Miramichi country this year. 
C. B. Dykeman and G. A. Pollock, of Acton Settle- 
ment, had a lively scrimmage with a huge bear one night 
last week. The bear came one evening and lugged off 
a bee-hive. The next night these gentlmen laid for him 
with rifles. The bear appeared again and was shot, but 
traveled 200yds. before he succumbed. The chase with 
a -lantern was exciting. Upon being examined it was 
found that one bullet had passed fair through his heart. 
The bear was brought in town to-day, and measured 
exactly 7ft. from tip to tip. 
At McAdam Junction on Saturday D. Stuart and S. 
Tracey brought in an unusually fine buck deer. Mr. 
Tracey was recently fortunate enough to shoot a bear 
weighing 40olbs. Frank H. Risteen. 
Fkedericton, Nov. 24-. 
On Maine Snow. 
Bemis, Me., Nov. 25. — Well, I arn in the deer country. 
We hunted yesterday on the ridges between this point 
and Rangeley. Four inches of crashing, crusted snow 
prevented us from seeing more of the big game than an 
aggravating glimpse, and to hear them crashing through 
the trees. But this morning we are in luck. Four inches 
of light snow fell last night. The crust is buried and 
the tracking will be all that can be asked for. It is now 
5:30 A. M., and breakfast is ready. We shall be off as 
soon as it is daylight. A deer's track means that we are 
near him. 
Tracks we found not a mile from the camp. The 
track I undertook led me un the mountain a short dis- 
tance. The deer saw me first through the snow-covered 
thickets, and jumped. Making long leaps he went a 
quarter of a mile, then turned square about and watched 
for me. Of course he saw me first, and leaped again. 
Three times he went through the same tactics. I was 
disgusted and turned about. A mile and a half up 
the mountain I had the fun of tramping back by compass 
to the tote road with no deer. 
Prof. J. F. Moody got his deer within half an hour, and 
but a short distance from the tote road. Mr. Lambert 
" did not get a shot, though tramping all day in 3 or 4111. 
of light snow, over 4in. of crusted snow that breaks at 
about every step. 
To-morrow will be just as good deer hunting as to- 
day; since it has snowed about all day, followed by a 
northwest wind that "has shaken all the snow off the 
scrub firs and underbrush, The tracks will be fresh 
again. 
Nov. 26.— The mercury registers only six above zero 
this morning, and Lake Mooselucmaguntic is frozen 
over, or will be as soon as the wind goes down, not to be 
opened till the trouting season is on again, some time 
in May, 1899. The Government fish transportation car 
has been up here, and the fish commissioners have put 
large numbers of nine-months-old salmon into this lake. 
Capt. Barker's natural fish hatching spring has been full 
of parent trout. Captain has kept a man there all the 
fall to prevent poaching. The spring is up a little brook 
a mile and a half from Bemis camps; is 10 or 12ft. in 
circumferance. It is not an uncommon sight to see 
hundreds of noble brook trout there late in October 
and early in November. The gravelly bottom is thor- 
oughly mixed with trout eggs now, spawned naturally, to 
hatch naturally in February. Capt. Barker's idea is that 
this natural hatchery is of much importance to the trout 
supply, and one who sees it at this time of the year will 
be much inclined to agree with him. Special. 
Conditions in Florida. 
Your St. Augustine correspondent has been harsh and 
unfair, I think, in some of his remarks aimed at South- 
erners, especially in the ones concerning Floridians, for 
he must remember- how little we did in the Middle and 
the New England States to protect game till it was nearly 
exterminated, and see that the people here, profiting by 
our experience, are taking earlier measures. The laws 
here are not ideal ones yet, but they are better enforced 
than would seem possible under existing conditions. 
Florida has an area larger than New York and Massa- 
chusetts combined, less population than Boston, a lower 
tax basis than some of our cities; and being unable to 
police her territory thoroughly, depends upon the char- 
acter of her people to a great extent for a proper ob- 
servance of game laws in outlying districts. If these 
facts were generally realized this State would be more 
justly treated. 
One who is in his fifth year of hunting and fishing 
in Florida ought to know how well laws for the preserva- 
tion of game are enforced here, especially in an experience 
covering many parts of the State from gulf to sea, and it 
is with some degree of pleasure, being a sportsman, that 
I can say quail were well looked after everywhere I haA-e 
been, and shipments of game strictly prohibited. A few 
deer may have been shot out of season the year after 
the big freeze, when the orange growers in the woods 
lost everything they had, and probably found hunger 
unpleasant, but no venison was sold in town. It is 
difficult for any of us to say what we would have done 
under such conditions if we had been either the authori- 
ties or the unfortunate people. 
Others may have had a different experience, but in my 
intimate acquaintance with the people of Florida I have 
never seen a gunner who had been raised here shoot a 
harmless bird unfit for food, The destruction of plume- 
bearing birds still goes on in remote parts of the State; 
as the more the authorities try to suppress that kind of 
traffic, the more tempting are the prices offered by for- 
[Dec, 3, 1898, 
eign buyers; but with this exception the killing of birds 
not game is done by non-residents. The man who has 
grown up in the midst of good hunting cannot see the 
reason for useless extermination. 
Local protection is given distinctive birds and small 
animals about some of the resorts. The pelicans roost 
about the pier at St. Petersburg with the other fishermen 
and the ducks there are equally tame. The gray squirrels at 
Clearwater were amusing as they chased and chatted in 
the limbs of a hickory a few feet from our porch, at 
times rowing with the blue jays, with whom they seemed 
to be at constant war, and at other times marching over 
the grass — a sedate procession, in which the leading squir- 
rel buried a nut that was dug up in turn by each of his 
followers; the line reforming itself and reburying the 
nut till none of us could calculate either how many squir 
rels would be disappointed or how many times when the 
season came for harvesting cached food. At Seabreeze, 
on the Atlantic coast, the Florida blue jays will eat from 
the hand when food is scarce. Local birds are said to be 
protected at many of the resorts on the Indian River and 
further south; but this may be a mistake, as I thought 
till I read the remarks of your' correspondent that these 
varieties were cared for on Anastasia Island, near St. 
Augustine. 
All of this is a beginning, and shows that public 
opinion is being educated. All of us should hesitate 
before shooting a bird of any kind unfit for food, simply 
because it happens to be in Florida; killing harmless 
creatures for scientific purposes is bad enough, but 
destroying them to satisfy a whim is thoughtless cruelty 
degrading to human nature. If being a hunter prevents 
one from cultivating humaneness toward all live things, 
we ought to give up amusement of that kind and change 
to some such sport as hunting bouquets. I hunt and 
fish for pleasure, and have nothing to say to women that 
wear pieces of dead birds in their hats. They know by 
this time that the plume hunting is done in the breeding 
season, and each set probably means a starved nest of 
young birds. If any human being desires to wear that 
kind of grave-causing ornaments, let those of us who 
value our own lives have a care and say nothing. The 
tails of dead fish might be substituted for her uses; but 
this is only a suggestion. If I wore egret plumes 1 
would be haunted by voices of nestlings starving by 
myriads calling on lost mas and daddies for food, and by 
visions of their dead parents' decayed corpses, and no 
longer white-winged purveyors to broods with open 
mouths. But this is between ourselves. And the hotel 
men push the erection of their large caravansaries further 
into the woods here every year for natural evirons, plant 
royal palms and cocoanuts for additional attractions, then 
tvviggle their thumbs while guests and others destroy all 
the beautiful birds in the neighborhood. Individual 
goodness might save many of the harmless creatures in 
districts too far away to be policed by our refusing to 
shoot except for legitimate purposes. We might forego 
turtle eggs, too, without testing their edible qualities. 
An Amen, 
Docks at Harvey Cedars. 
Harvey Cedars, N. J., Nov. 24. — Harvey Ceda - s, New 
Jersey, is situated on a narrow strip of sand beach near 
the famous Barnegat lighthouse. It has been for years 
a well-known resort for sportsmen in quest of ducks, 
geese and brant. 
The shooting is done in comfortable pumpkin seed 
shaped boats, that are hauled up on points with decoys 
anchored near by. The shooting is mostly on the wing, 
the wildfowl trading back and forth between two hit; 
bays. 
The sportsman only needs to bring gun, ammunition 
and rubber boots; there are plenty of boatmen here to 
supply all the rest. One minute's walk from the hotel 
and you are in your gunning boat. Twenty minutes' 
brisk row and you are on one of the points for the best 
shooting. 
Most of the sportsmen come in from the bay in the 
middle of the day for a hot dinner, as few wildfowl fry 
at that time. 
I have been here several weeks, and have .shut geese, 
brant, canvasbacks, redheads, broad bills, black ducks, 
pintails, golden eyes, dippers and other varieties of wild- 
fowl. 
The shooting has been good and bad, according to 
the flight of birds. But I know of no place within 500 
miles of New York or Philadelphia where you can get 
better. I find the shooting here more comfortable than 
battery shooting — for you can get out and run around 
the meadow when tired of lying on your back. Trains 
arrive every day and leave every other day. That 
this is a genuine sportsman's house is shown by the 
fact that every one is called at 4 o'clock for early break- 
fast, and in time to be snugly stowed away on one of the 
points with decoys a-bobbing on the bay before the first 
peep of daylight, or a goose or duck has even thought 
of flying. 
The Forest and Stream has guided me to many a 
place for sport with rod and gun. and other readers 
may wish to learn where good sport can be had among 
wildfowl within a few hours' ride of Philadelphia or 
New York. Willard Spenser. 
One Way it may Happen. 
Bridgeport, N. J,, correspondence of the Philadel- 
phia Ledger tells of a shooting accident at a club house 
on Raccoon Creek. This morning they went out with 
their guns, and visited the farm. Young Schwerle Was 
standing on the porch, when his companion, Shirley, had 
his attention attracted to a hawk, which was circling 
over the house. He slipped a shell in his gun. and 
was standing with the weapon resting on his arm, with 
his finger on the trigger. Just at this moment a big 
dog, belonging on the farm, jumped playfully on Shirley, 
pulling his arm, elevating the gun and discharging the 
weapon, the charge taking effect in the side and back 
of his friend. The young man was taken to the German 
Hospital, Philadelphia, where the leaden pellets were 
extracted, and at a late hour the physicians stated that 
while the wound was a serious one, he had a chance as 
recovery. 
