430 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[June 2, 1899. 
tents thereof examined by said constable. All birds, ani- 
mals, or fish, or nets, or fishing appliance, or apparatus, 
seized by any constable or warden, shall be disposed of in 
such manner as may be directed by the court before whom 
the oiTense is tried, and such constable or warden shall 
not be liable for damages on account of any such search, 
examination or seizure, or the destruction of any nets or 
fishing apparatus of any kind in accordance with the pro- 
visions of this act. 
Section 4. _ Any constable or warden, upon the arrest 
and prosecution of any offender to conviction under the 
provisions of this act, shall, in addition to the fees to 
which he may be entitled under existing laws, be paid 
for his services the sum of ten dollars on a warrant drawn 
by the county commissioners on the county treasurer, one- 
half of which shall be paid out of the treasury of the 
respective coiinty. and the remaining half of "said re- 
ward shall be paid by the State Treasurer into the treasury 
of said county, out of moneys not otherwise appropriated, 
upon warrant from the Auditor-General, but no sitch 
warrant shall be drawn until the respective county com- 
missioners shall have first furnished, under oath, "to the 
Auditor-General, a written itemized statement of such ex- 
pense, and until the same is approved by the Auditor-Gen- 
eral : Provided, That no county shall be liable to pay for 
this purpose in any one year an amount exceeding five 
hundred dollars. 
Section 5. Each of said constables or wardens shall, 
for the purpose of this act, have concurrent jurisdiction 
throughout his own proper county; and they shall in the 
first week in each term of the court of quarter sessions 
of their respective counties make special returns to said 
court, under oath, of all violations occurring in their re- 
spective townships, or which may come or be brought to 
their notice, of any of the provisions of any law now in 
force, or that may hereafter be enacted, for the protection 
of forests and timber lands, game and fish ; and it shall 
be the duty of the judge of said court to see that such 
returns are faithfully made, and any constable or warden 
wilfully neglecting or refusing to make such returns, or 
to prosecute any offense under said laws of which he shall 
have personal knowledge, or of which he shall have no- 
tice m writing by any citizen, giving the name of the 
offender together with the names of the witnesses, shall 
be guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof 
be sentenced to pay a fine of fifty dollars, or to undergo 
an imprisonment in the county jail of two months, both or 
either, at the discretion of the court. 
Section 6. All sections, provisos, acts or parts of acts 
inconsistent with this act, or any section of it, are hereby 
repealed. 
Approved— The 22d day of March, A. D. 1899. 
Some Gun Notions. 
Some gun barrels oxidize much more readily than 
others, even when the price of the barrels indicates the 
same grade of workmanship. I have a pair of barrels 
which cost £50 in England. The left barrel with the 
same care has spotted far more than the right, and both 
much more than the other pair, which have been shot 
ten times more frequently. My past experience has 
taught me that thorough cleaning, wrapping up closely 
and laying away was the best protection I could' give. 
For small game such as grouse, plover and even ducks 
when shot over decoys or flushed in creeks, a gun not 
larger than 14 is the proper size ; and in my opinion the 
day is not far distant when the small bores will displace 
the heavier and larger guns. A man of ordinary physical 
vigor is unable without great personal discomfort to 
tramp all day with even Bibs, of gun to carry in addition 
to his shells, his lunch and his game. A 14 or i6-bore 
weighing from 6 to 6Hlbs. is a far more agreeable burden. 
These guns are effective if handled properly, and really 
afford more genuine sport because success with them 
indicates a higher degree of skill. The best shot within 
my knowledge uses a i6-bore, and slightly closed choke at 
that. I prefer a cylinder gun. and the best record I ever 
tiade was with a 14-bore cylinder weighing 61bs. 
Some people suggest that the American demand for 
crooked stocks is wrong. I do not agree with them. 
Much, of course, depends on habit. But I have tried all 
drops from 2^2 to 3^ at the butt, and at last have found 
that 2iVa at the butt and 2 at the comb fit me much better 
than any other crook. There is also a contention for 
long stocks. In this respect I again differ. I know I 
can handle a gun with drop far better than I can one 
with 145^. It niust be recollected that except at the 
trap and in warm weather the sportsmen wears thick 
clothes, and a large number of persons would find that 
if their guns were so long as 14^4 they would often find 
trouble in making it clear the arm. I have tried it and 1 
know whereof I speak. In the winter few men need a 
longer stock than I4in., who could easily in the summer 
or early fall handle one I4>2in. The advantage of a short 
stock is that when the necessity comes a pad can be put 
on the butt of the gun to make it fit the arms of the 
shooter. 
Let no man who believes in the use of much iron in a 
gun barrel upbraid me for my preference for light and 
small bore guns. For certain game a heavy gun is very 
desirable, but for snipe, woodcock and Bob White 6Hlbs. 
weight is far better. To my mind the use of a lo-bore 
on birds is as ridiculous as Wolcot described the style 
of Dr. Johnson to be — 
I own I like not Johnson's turgid style. 
That gives an inch the importance of a mile, 
r Sets wheels on wheels in motion, such a clatter, 
^ To raise one poor nipperkin of water. 
' Uplifts the club of Hercules — for what? 
' " To crush a butterfly or to brain a gnat. 
Pee Dee. 
The Home of the Partridge. 
In the year 1670 Daniel Denton, of Hempstead, Long 
Island, described the fauna of the island in the following 
language : "For wild beasts there is deer, bear, wolves, 
foxes, raccoons, otters, musquashes and skunks. Wild 
fowl, there is great store of, as turkeys, heath-hens, quail, 
partridges, pigeons, cranes, geese of several sorts, brants, 
wigeons, teal and divers others." 
Unfortunately for local sportsmen, the members of the 
gunning clubs and the pot-hunters of modern times, have 
nearly completed the work of destruction begun by the 
earlj- settlers with flint locks and their snares and traps. 
The bears, wolves, raccoons, wild turkeys and heath-hens 
are extinct, and the deer and partridge are exceedingly 
scarce. Of the upland birds the partridge is certainly the 
gamiest bird left. They may still be found wherever 
there are timber lots of considerable size, bordering on 
the cultivated fields. 
A favorite haunt of the partridge is in the vicinity of 
-the clearly defined line running through the island, which 
divides the hardwood trees, the oaks, hickories and chest- 
nuts on the north, from the pitch pines and shrub oaks on 
the south. The latter extend over a plain through the 
center of the island. Through these shrub oaks and 
pines are old wood roads, which are only used when pine 
or the hardwoods are large enough to cut off for timber 
or firewood. These wood roads are not used to any ex- 
tent oftener than once in twenty or thirty years, but they 
make a clearly defined trail, and are much easier to get 
.through than the adjacent shrub oaks woodland. The 
quail is domestic, and usually keeps pretty clear to the 
farmhouses and cultivated fields to the north of the pine 
are especially interesting. The roadbeds in the fall are 
often brilliant with the golden rods and asters, while the 
young pitch pines have a healthy and invigorating fra- 
grance. A person may travel for days through these old 
roads — ^not fifty miles from New York City, and within 
sound of the church bells of large towns, and never meet 
a living soul, unless it happens to be during the deer 
hunting or wood chopping season. 
An occasional pitch pine stands solitary and alone like 
a grim sentinel keeping watch over the plains. The large 
trees have escaped both the forest fires which sweep over 
the plains every few years, and the woodman's axe. They 
are a striking feature of the landscape, and furnish an 
excellent landmark for travelers over the plains. 
QUAHAUG. 
Spring Shooting in Michigan. 
Bingham, Mich. — At present I am in camp on Carp 
Lake, Leelanan county, Mich. I presume my cook out- 
fit stands ver3' near where Kingfisher used to depart for 
Mrs. Nolan's. I have been on this lake each spring since 
1886 — not for sporting purposes, however. Never have 
I known the shooting that is going on now. The Michi- 
gan spring shooting law is working all right. Guns in 
the morning and guns by moonlight in the evening. If 
the poor sawbills are able to lay an egg without getting 
it shot at, they will be lucky. The loons are fewer and 
more discreet. 
Since I have known this lake, sawbills and loons have 
nested here and reared their young in safety till now. 
I have always taken it as among my pleasantest experi- 
ences, to meet a mother sheldrake and her brood taking a 
THE HOME OF THE GROUSE. 
The Forest and Stream is put to press each week on Tuesday. 
Correspondence intended for publication should reach us at the 
latest by Monday and »,i rnncb earlier as practicable. 
lands; but the partridge, especially during the latter part 
of the open season, is often found in the pine groves and 
shrub oaks, bordering on these wood roads. In gunning 
in the shrub oaks one is often surprised to see a partridge 
flushed by his dog alight on the lower limb of a pine 
or oak and complacently watch the dog. A shot under 
such circumstances may be excused when the difficulty 
of getting at birds in the provoking tough shrub oaks is. 
considered. In pines and shrub oaks a bird in hand is 
worth at least a dozen in the bush. 
To the lover of nature who travels Avith a camera rather 
than Avith a gun, these Avood roads and the tall pines, with 
their rugged and blackened trunks and straggling limbs. 
sun bath on a fine morning. They made no advances 
towards intimacy, of course, but I never have failed to 
keenly enjoy meeting them. There Avas an old abandoned 
scoAv'at one time floating in the loAver lake, filled Avith 
A\rater, decks too, and Avith just the right slant to the 
deck, Avhich Avas awash on one side, for young sheldrakes. 
This scoAv grounded not 50ft. from my tent. Almost any 
bright morning my AA'ife and I Avould look out and find 
one or another of the broods there "taking the sun" — 
not quite as a sailor does — but just as effectively. I think 
Ave once counted over tAA-enty in one brood. I believe they 
Avould have made our acquaintance in due time, but th" 
wind came off short and carried the scoav aAvay. "Our" 
