j Aif. 20, 
ANt) STREAM. 
45 
the privilege and duty of sportsmen to further that end. 
In Maine they have solved the matter to a certain extent 
by deferring the open season for moose until Oct. 15, 
when the period of calling is half over. I would make the 
season close imtil it is entirely past. To the lover, of the 
woods and of the wild life, caribou and deer hunting is 
attraction enough, added to first rate fishing and the sat- 
isfaction of the forest, to repay the sportsman during Sep- 
tember and October. If his ambition leads him to desire 
the supreme trophy of the North Woods, let him be 
forced to take a little extra pains and face a bit of winter- 
"ish weather, in November, and most of all, let him feel, 
when he has got his moose, that he has not altogether 
achieved it by the exercise of another's skill, but in part 
by his own. Either extend the close season until Nov. i 
or make moose calling illegal at all times. 
Already the number of men who are going to New 
Brunswick in the autumn for game is very considerable 
and is steadily increasing; inevitably the region in which 
tnoose abound, by the increase of population and grad- 
ually encroaching agriculture, must become more re- 
stricted- If the moose are to survive well into the twenti- 
eth century, care must be taken now to insure that end. 
Every motive exists for protecting them — self interest, 
our interest in the game itself — and here we are in the 
presence of a finely endowed creature, powerful, fleet, 
keen of scent and hearing, silent, and skilled to avoid man 
and to preserve his own life. Give him a chance to sur- 
vive, and do not, when he is trying, to the best of his 
capacity, to aid us and our descendants by perpetuating 
Glimpses at Canvasbacks. 
From far and near, all over the land, come reports this 
season of an unusual abundance of wildfowl. East, north, 
west and south, the ducks seem to be more numerous 
than usual, and of course the mild weather of the 
autumn and early winter caused them to pursue their 
migrations southward with unusual deliberation. 
Why the ducks should be abundant this year by com- 
parison with the last two or three, I do not know. It 
is true that in a few localities the pernicious practice 
of spring shooting has been put an end to by statute, 
but it hardly seems as if tliis were enough to bring about 
the apparent result. On the other hand, it may very well 
be that the increased number of the fowl in the autumn 
and early winter of 1899 is only apparent, and not real, 
and is due to the unprecedented drought of the past 
few months, which has had the eft'ect of concentrating 
the birds where there is water, while a large extent of 
territory in which little ponds, swamps and sloughs 
commonly attract ducks, being witliout water this season 
has no birds at all. 
I have recently had an opportunity of being brought 
into what I may call close association with the greatest 
of all the wildfowl, the superb canvasback duck, and 
w"ithin the last ten days have seen more of these birds 
and at closer quarters than during any season for many 
years. The locality was Currituck Sound, and the sights 
that I saw were witnessed by several others, old gun- 
west, there was no moment at which clouds of flying fowl 
could not be seen in the field of sight, and yet, notwith-r 
standing the numbers of birds seen on the wing, the air. 
holes seemed to be packed with fowl, and great bunches of 
geese and swan stood and walked about on the ice. 
Away to the north were three large air holes, two of 
which were white with canvasbacks, while in the third 
one, geese were the prominent fowl, although many can- 
vasbacks were constantly leaving and coming to it. Olf 
to the southeast, at the south mouth of the Little Nar- 
rows, was quite an extent of open water occupied by a 
liorde of geese, two large bunches of bluepeters and 
seme thousands of common ducks. In the Little Nar-. 
rows, a deep but narrow channel flowing close by the 
house, were great numbers of ducks feeding, and in- 
deed on that Sunday one might have sat on the boat 
house dock and killed from thirty to fifty birds as they 
traded up and down the Narrows, 
In the afternoon three or four of us walked down to 
Sheep Island Point, not ten minutes' distance from the 
house, where there was an air hole. In this at the 
moment of our arrivel swam fifty or sixty ducks — hooded 
mergansers, ruddies, mallards, whistlers, butterballs and 
perhaps a dozen canvasbacks. Three or four hundred 
yards to the north was another small air hole, perhaps 
four or five acres in extent, which was crowded with 
canvasbacks. We sat down in the fringe of sedge per- 
haps 60 or 70 yards from the nearest air hole, which' 
had a length of perhaps 150 feet and a breadth of 100. 
The live birds in this air hole would make good decoys. 
THE CANVASBACK. 
From Audubon's "Birds of America," 
his species, treat him like a criminal for his laudable pur- 
pose and murder him at the very moment of the most 
public-spirited and praiseworthy impulse of his life, but 
honorably declare an armistice until the mating season is 
past, A more treacherous and base act toward a splendid 
beast than to imitate the love song of the female (to our 
ears a little weird, it may be, but doubtless music to the 
moose) in order to lure and slaughter the male, it would 
be difficult to conceive. The only reason that sportsmen 
have ever tolerated the practice is because they have not 
deliberately looked the situation in the face. The matter 
has not been thought out by those responsible for the 
laws, and I think that others will agree with me that this 
little congress of sportsmen to be held in Montreal would 
put all sportsmen and forest lovers under deep obligation 
if they should take measures which would result in the 
change of the laws of New Brunswick so as to extend the 
close season for moose in that province until Nov. i or 
make moose calling illegal at all times and seasons. 
Alden Sampson-, 
HaVbkfurp, P,t,, Jan 6, 
Hotels For Spoi-tsmcn. 
Persons who are conducting hotels or camps in regions 
where there is good shooting or fishing should under- 
stand that the best way to make their places known to 
persons interested in these sports is by advertising in the 
Forest akd Stream. Sportsmen have come to depend 
on the hotels which are advertised in Forest and Stream, 
and registered in its Information Bureau, and the hotel 
keepers who patronize these columns are unanimous in 
declaring that they receive most satisfactory returns for 
the money invested. 
ners, who agree with me that so great a flight of can- 
vasbacks has not been witnessed for many years. 
The first few days of shooting had about it nothing 
very startling except that one-half the bag of ducks con- 
sisted of canvasbacks. The first day was cold, gray and 
lowering, with a keen breeze from the northwest, and 
occasional spatters of rain, changing later to snow, which 
m the afternoon fell heavily. It was an ideal gunning 
day, and the birds came to the decoys in beautiful style, 
so that the first seven or eight canvasbacks were killed 
without a single miss, and for a brief and happy hour 
I was deluded into the behef that at last I had learned 
how to shoot ducks. The rude awakening from this 
cheerful dream came soon afterward, and was thorough. 
I do not imagine that I shall ever again be deceived 
in this way. 
The second day's shooting was not markedly different 
from that of the day before, except so far as the 
weather was less favorable, and so the number of can- 
vasbacks secured was very much less, Saturday was a 
lay day, on which there is no shooting, and when we 
arose we found that the continued cold weather had at 
last had its effect and the Sound was frozen over. There 
were many large air holes, however, crowded with 
birds, but the cold continued. The next morning many 
of these air holes had frozen, others had grown smaller 
and the natural result was that the ducks, geese, swans 
and blue peters which occupied the open water seemed 
crowded together as thickly as possible. Much of the 
day was spent on top of the club house, studying the 
waters with the glass, watching the- movements of the 
birds, marveling at their inconceivable numbers. All 
around the horizon, except on the landward side — that 
is to say, for 270 degrees of the circle — birds were seen 
in countless numbers. Turning the glasses slowly along 
the horizon from northwest to north, east, south and south- 
and we hoped that if the birds began to fly some of them 
would ahght near us. Two of the four men were pro- 
vided with good field glasses. 
been waiting many minutes, when what we 
rni nf^'^f ^t?- \ ^"'^'^'^ °f birds rose 
10m the further air hole, and after swinging about a 
tew times, dropped down in the one close to us These 
were immediately followed by other bunches, and these 
by others; so that often two or three flocks would be 
svvinging about in the air at one time, and all of them 
with our air hole as their objective pofet. They dS 
scended into it by companies of fifties, hundreds and 
two hundreds, and betore long the open water was so 
crowded with the fowl that it seemed as if it could hold 
no more, and as if the birds that came next must neces- 
sarily ahght on the backs of their comradeT 
f.S°" ^ alighted they began to dive for 
food, and probably one-half of them being under water 
at any one moment, room was made for other incom- 
ing birds to occupy. The splashing of the diving birds 
made the water bubble and"^ boil, and ^he play ^of the 
birds as they sometimes chased each other made the 
scene one of the greatest possible animation. Presently 
something occurred to attract their attention, and all 
stre ched their necks up into the air and looked I 
think I have never seen anything in the way of feath- 
ered ammai life more impressive that this forest of thick 
necks, crowned by long shapely heads of rich brown 
After their curiosity was satisfied they began to feed and 
to play. It is impossible to convey to one who has 
not witnessed such a sight its interest and fascination 
Here within gunshot— and when seen through the 
glasses appearing within arm's length-were twelve or 
fifteen hundred of the finest and most desirable duck 
that flies, entirely at home and living for the benefit of 
the observers their ordmary winter lives. 
