8 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
tjAN. 6, 1900. 
Qtiail ; thtey haven't been hunted much, and where there 
are any, it seems to be a pretty good covey. I have shot 
just thirteen quail this fall, and twelve out of the thirteen 
were males. I never saw such a percentage of male birds 
before, and I don't think their extinction will be out of 
place. I find where there are so many male birds, they 
fight like game cocks in mating seasons, and worry the 
hen birds and interfere with nesting. A taxidermist friend 
of mine says he had a male bird brought in for hini to 
mount, shot by a farmer in June, and that the bird's head 
was all covered with bites, and the feathers were cut off 
by fighting. 
Ruffed grouse has been fairly plentiful, except on snared 
land. There has been one conviction. Another old snarer 
claims he can clear $6 a day at the business. The law is 
so arranged that the wardens have to camp and hide in 
the woods for the sake of catching a man removmg a 
bird. This old snarer, when he finds a bird in his trap, 
will not take it out at once, but make a hunt first for a 
spy, and was once successful in finding a warden. The 
law is wrong; it leaves too many loopholes for the vio- 
lator. The law should prohibit the "farmers" from snaring 
on his land; should make it a "snared bird in possession," 
and if a man is suspected, search his house, same as they 
would for liquor, and if they found any birds, to turn 
them over to an expert to report whether they had been 
choked to death or shot. Or a better way, to stop the 
sale of game altogether. » 
There are a few Mongolian pheasants around here, but 
it won't take long to kill them off after they commence; 
they will match an old hen in getting up and flying. They 
leave a good scent, but are swift runners. 
Fur brings an unusually high price, and some of the 
old trappers are out. Mr. Geo. Curtis, of Topsfield, has 
caught twenty-five mink and two otters. One of the 
otters got away with "a piece of jewelry on his foot," as 
the old man says. 
I saw several large flocks of, geese going south on 
Dec. 24, and I suppose they were headed for Currituck 
Sound. John W. Babbitt- 
Boston, Dec. 25. — C. C. Mitchel, of Boston, has re- 
cently returned from Bald Mountain Camps, above Bing- 
ham. Me., with a handsome buck deer, of 175 pounds 
weight. Dr. Heber Bishop has also been up there moose 
hunting, but the moose tracked kept out of range. Two 
buck deer were secured by the partj^, how"ever, which in- 
cluded W. S. Hinman, C. C. Williams and Dr. John Stet- 
son. . 
Curiosities continue to be announced for the Boston 
Sportsmen's Show, the latest being a wliite crow, secured 
by Game Warden Nickols, who is to have charge of the 
Maine exhibit. He alreadj' announces in his collection 
for the show four moose, one caribou, two bears, six 
foxes, twelve coons, a cage of crows, in which the white 
one will be seen, a cage of owls, four mink, cages of 
woodchucks, muskrats and wildcats, all taken in the 
Maine forests. A tree with roo live gray squirrels will be 
another feature of the show, and another tree with a 
number of live coons. The live animals are to be shown 
in an inclosure made to resemble an outdoor park as 
much as possible, and the great size of the Mechanics' 
Building will be available in this direction, 
iMifcla. [I Special. 
General Turner's Moose. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
I have yours of the 27th worded as follows: 
"Dear Mr. Hastings: You will observe that Consul- 
General Turner responds to your little dig, which he 
appears to have taken in capital good part. The inci- 
dent should add to the gaiety of nations, even if your 
well meant eiJorts shall not reform the propensity of 
General Turner to stretch his moose and the truth." 
Now I am pleased that Consul-General Turner received 
my dig good naturedty. It is characteristic of Charlie 
Turner. It is also characteristic of him to be Ught- 
hearted in perilous times. That he could spare the time 
to write during the pending prospective Fenian raid is 
marvelous. Such qualities do good generals have. 
In your issue of Dec. 30 the Consul asks what I was 
doing in Waterbury while waiting three years on my 
way to New York. . Well, like most people in the brass 
city, I was busy exploiting its wares. In fact, I owned 
a Jewelry store, and Mr. Turner, true to tradition and 
home training, is in another branch of the brass business 
in trying to jam an 1800-pound moose down a sports- 
man's throat. 
As to my final landing in Jersey and the mosquito 
paradise, I can say that I was helpless in the matter, in- 
asmuch as one must earn a living, and one can pick up 
more scents in a 420-yard trolley ride in Jersey City than 
in Ottawa. But I do get out of New Jersey once in a 
while when the hunters are off the runways. There are 
some in New Jersey who will not leave until their terms 
expire, and Mr. Turiier will no doubt do likewise by 
Ottawa. 
Mr. Turner's insinuation that the only game in Jersey 
is mosquitoes and that the only shooting is craps is base 
and baseless. New Jersey is one of the best States in 
the Union for still-hunting, and only last summer a party 
of revenue officers made a large capture not a mile away 
from my home. It beats the Dutch what big things come 
to men once in the Government employ. 
General Turner's reference to Jersey lightning is in- 
sulting. I have been here several years, and it has never 
.struck twice in the same place. He jibes at Jersey City. 
Well, a great many people go through it, notably the 
politicians, and the citizens had rather they go through 
than stop. Here you can get your name in the paper 
quickly if you make a complaint or a complaint is made 
against you. 
^ Tell Mr. Turner that the writer passed three years in 
Canada something over twent3'--five years ago, and has 
tramped over a goodly portion of the district around 
Ottawa with a Sharp's carbine on his shoulder. Tell 
him to build an ice palace if he wishes to see it and his 
revenue melt away. Tell him to practice on snowshoes if 
he wishes to become expert in long paces. Ask him to 
not put much confidence in the red man. Others have 
done it and lost good jobs. I will not pit my knowledge 
of anatomy against Mr. Turner's; he has done much 
more cutting up in his short life than I ever hope to 
accomplish. In my ignorance I presumed that the heart 
of so large a moose must be distant from the shoulders, 
but it now occurs to me that a big heart goes with big 
shoulders and the size brings them together. Any way 
a bullet cannot go through the shoulder and heart at the 
same time; it must touch one or the other first, and I 
think Charlie so touched the heart to begin with That is 
the way— touch the heart, then touch the shoulder, and 
then the purse. 
Tell Charlie Turner I will acept his invitation to visit 
Ottawa next fall and enoy his well-known hospitality, 
and want him to guide me to the haunts of the Colossus. 
He need not give me a Waterbury watch. Say to him 
that our mutual friend genial George Hart, who divides 
his tune between listening to the tick of a watch and the 
click of a reel, has already done so. 
I hope Mr. Turner will keep his promise and send 
you a mounted photograph of the i.8oo-pound moose. 
If so he will probably continue his habits of enlarge- 
ment, so kindly suggest to him the used of bromide 
paper. After all, General Turner may have shot an 
1 800-pound moose a quarter of a mile away. Either the 
moose was shot or the hunters were half shot. 
Whether he shot the moose or not, the good people 
of the brass city, priding themselves in the glory of an 
illustrious son — illustrious in the field and on the forum 
— should erect on the green some fitting monument in 
commemoration of his deeds. Let it be an arch. Let 
It be of high brass and royal copper and fashioned 
moosehke. Place it with stumpy tail menacing the peo- 
ple's bank and the brazen and uplifted head pointing 
toward the Brandy Hill Brass Mines, and in years to 
come the little children pla3'ing around the eruginous 
legs will look up to the jagged hole where the bullet 
came out and read on the metallic mortuary memorial: 
'Erected to the Memory of Consul-General Turner. 
"He Done His Level Best, and More Too." 
_ To use the language of Mr. Turner's colleagues, I con- 
sider the "incident closed." W. W Hastings 
CHICAGO AND THE WEST 
"Westero Quail. 
Chicago, 111., Dec. 23.— As they say on the Board of 
Irade, the quail market closed very strong, with marked 
bullish tendencies. Last Wednesday ended the season 
in Illinois, and from nearly all quarters it seems that, vvhile 
the birds naturally showed decrease from the numbers of 
the first days of the season, there remains to be carried 
over into the next year the strongest stock of quail per^ 
haps ever known in this country. Beyond one little storm 
we have had faultless weather, and even the cold snap of 
last week, while it unsettled the birds for a few days, was 
hardly noticeable in the lower part of this State. At this 
writing the weather is mild as though it were late October. 
This state of affairs prevails over Illinois, Indiana and 
lower Michigan. It is to be hoped the weather prophets 
are right in their predictions of a mild winter, and if so 
we shall have fine shooting in this section next year. In- 
diana still has a few days to run on the quail season, 
which ends Jan. i, eleven days later than the Illinois 
law. 
In lower Illinois, more especially along the Okaw bot- 
toms and at points adjacent to Pana, Ramsay, etc., the 
quail crop this year has been remarkably good. I heard 
of three guns which last Sunday bagged 117 quail, though 
I did not learn the names of the parties. My friends, Mr. 
W. A. Powell and Major George W. LaRue, have been 
shooting in Christian county with very good success. It 
has been a safe proposition to risk almost any of this 
country 150 miles south of Chicago. 
Mr. Oswald von Lengerke, of this city; goeg quail 
hunting at the close of every week, and he made his 
last trip to South Bend, Ind., in company with Mr. J. H. 
Loshbaugh, a very well known South Bend shooter,- who 
goes_ under the name of Smoke. Mr. Loshbaugh said 
to him that he and a friend last week on one day killed 
forty-one quail, and previous to that in two days killed 
109 quail. Mr. Loshbaugh and Mr. Von Lengerke hunted 
one day at North Liberty, and one at Lakeville, Ind., and 
in two days they killed sixty-three quail and one partridge, 
a very good bag indeed for this late day in the season. 
Toffceys. 
I was at St. Louis this week, and while there my 
friend Mr. Geo. Rawlings told me that it would be no 
trouble to get a wild turkey in Missouri. He says that 
the best place he knows of is Arlington. If you go to 
Arlington get Perry Andrus, who is chief guide on the 
Gasconade, and he will take you to turkeys without any 
trouble. Several parties who have been in there have re- 
cently come back with two or three turkeys apiece. 
Contrary to the usual apprehension, there are still 
wild turkeys in Illinois, although not protected by a closed 
season of a term of years. I have heard of St. Louis 
parties who have been hunting in the Okaw country of 
Illinois, and who have killed wild turkeys this fall. They 
tell me that it is very much of a feat to get a turkey in 
that region, as they are extraordinarily wild. 
How the "Wisconsin Law "Works. 
It will be many days yet before the non-resident license 
law will become unanimously popular measures in the 
West, but that day will be hastened the more as these 
laws_ are extended in their workings to all hunters alike, 
the just as well as the unjust. I append as interesting 
reading and of very practical sort the following com- 
munication from that old-time sportsman, Mr. H. B. 
Jewell, of Wabasha, Minn. Mr. Jewell is in the position 
of a great many of us who like to be classed in the 
ranks of the game protectionists. I paid my little $10 last 
September for two days' chicken shooting in Wisconsin, 
but I hunted in a country where I am confident there were 
two or three_ dozen non-resident guns who did not pay a 
cent for a license, unless it might be $1 for a resident 
license. I presume it will be some time before the non- 
resident act will work perfectly in all parts of the ouutry. 
Mr. Jewell says : 
"The enforcernent of the non-resident license law, of 
Wisconsin in that part of Buffalo county bordering, on 
the Mississippi River has during the past fall proved to 
fee almost p V '^'i failure as well as in some othtr locali- 
ties_, but I speak of this "neck of the woods" in particular, 
as it is my old stamping ground and I have had a good 
chance to see the working of a law that it is practically im- 
possible to enforce. It would take fifty game wardens 
and they would not be able to sleep nights if they kept 
the Minnesota shooters out of some the best duck passes 
on the northern Mississippi when the season is favorable, 
as it was last fall. As you are aware, I live on the Min- 
nesota bank of the Mississippi opposite said duck coun- 
try, and after hunting there every consecutive year for 
about thirty-five years did not feel like being kept out for 
the comparatively paltry sum of $10, as it would hurt my 
feelings more than that much, and as I have always been 
m favor of the enforcement of laws pertaining to game 
and the protection thereof I promptly sent my money 
on to Madison and obtained my license. Well, I have 
got "value received," although under some difficulties, 
for I made about 27 trips over there this fall and got 
game nearly every time and hunted with a clear con- 
science, while others were sneaking around fearing arrest, 
which never came. During the whole fall I was not 
asked to show my license, and only one other license was 
obtained here, while I know nearly thirty hunters who 
hunted over there without a license and' had the laugh on 
the fellows who, as they said, foolishly paid out money 
for hunting privileges. The Wisconsin authorities take 
your money if- you are willing to pay it, and others 
who don't pay may hunt ad libitum, as a rule. Now I 
want to put myself on record as being in favor of this 
non-resident law or any other game law for the protec- 
tion of game if the States making them will make a deter- 
mined effort^ to enforce the same; but it is human nature 
to get "riled" when you see others having the same priv- 
ileges for nothing that you have paid for. and this applies 
more particularly to the privilege of shooting game than 
anything that I know of." 
The Planting of Prairie Chickens. 
Mr. Clifford Morris writes me as below in regard to 
the proposition of putting out some live prairie chickens 
in Indiana, and I offer his letter in full in the hope that 
others may answer him perhaps to better effect than I 
am able to do at this writing: 
"Easton, Ind.,, Dec. 17. — Can yon give nje the address 
of any one from, whom I can procure live prairie chick- 
ens? On my return here I find the quail almost entirely 
killed off; they suppose by the blizzard of last February. 
I have been out three times, but have not seen a single 
bird, and that on ground where in old times I could 
count on at least ten coveys. I spoke to our two game 
wardens about trying the experiment of turning out 
chickens, and I have orders for several dozen birds. A 
number of the large land owners have become interested, 
and if I can pr.ocure the birds they will have a first rate 
chance. 
"I don't see any advertised in Forest Anix Stream, 
but I have written to one or two parties, but got very lit- 
tle satisfaction; they were men with whom I used to 
gun and not dealers. 
"What would be the proper time have them shipped, 
and would there be any difficulty in having them sent out 
of the State for my purpose? 
"T don't see why they would not do extremely well 
here. The climate is mild, there is plenty of grain and 
grass and .more or less wood land on each farm. Their 
worst enemy would probably be the negroes, but we don't 
allow them to shoot on our farms if we know it. I hardly 
think the birds would wander, as this county is cut up in 
every^ direction by broad water courses, so birds planted 
on a 'neck' would likely remain there. 
"Now if you can give me the information I desire I 
shall be greatly obliged and I will let you know the re- 
sult of the experiment. 
"Of course I should like to get the birds ftbm a point 
as far East as possible to save freight charges." 
Old-Time Tracks fn Well-Known Places, 
I GO on reading about the early history of the West, and 
to me it has a more thrilling interest than any fiction in 
the world. It is so curious to think of Marquette and 
Joliet, of La Salle and Tonti, and Hennepin, coming down 
across our well-known sporting regions such as Lake 
Winnebago, the Wisconsin- River, the Illinois, the Kanka- 
kee, the St. Joe, and even our own Chicago River (which 
is now being deepened and widened so that the big canoes 
may go clear through from the Great Lakes to the mouth 
of that great and mysterious river which so long baffied 
the early adventurers). There are all sorts of things to 
be learned when you go into the history of those days. 
Thus I find that the modern name of the Kankakee River 
is a corruption of the old Indian word "The-an-ki-ki." 
We have a prominent kennel club out West called the 
Mascoutah Kennel Club. I take it that this is a corrup- 
tion of the name of a tribe of Indians which met La 
Salle, the Mascoutens. Down at Alton they have a gun 
club called the "Piasa" Gun Club. This is no doubt taken 
from the legend of the Pi-a-sau Rock, a great cliff over- 
hanging the Mississippi, on which the first explorers 
saw colossal pictures of the demon bird called by the 
Indians the Pi-a-sau. They said that this bird would 
devour the boats of the explorers if they went down the 
river. The name of "Hennepin" exists to-day right on the 
edge of one of our best remaining duck countries, and the 
Hennepin Duck Club is a far-off' namesake of the old 
Catholic father. It is Marquette who describes the 
Illinois River, one of our most famous sporting streams, in 
the following words: "Nowhere did we see such 
grounds, meadows, woods, stags, - buffaloes, deer, wild- 
cats, bustards, swans_, ducks, paroquets and even beavers 
as on the Illinois River." (I do not understand "bus- 
tards." It is a term often used by these early writers, 
and I take it must mean either wild geese or wild cranes. 
The paroquets remained along the Illinois River until the 
present generation.) AH over our Northern sporting 
grounds we see the footprints of these early and plucky ■ 
explorers. Clear down to the mouth of the Mississippi 
River, La Salle finally went, this time by ship from 
Spain. He missed the mouth of the river, and got over 
into Texas. He built a fort on what is now Matagorda 
"Bay, one of the best ducking grounds in Texas. = Then he 
spent two seasons trying to find the Mississippi River, 
and finally was killed in a canebrake by one of his own 
men. Further up the Mississippi River we hear more 
and more of Hennepin, and of that other bold explorer, dc - 
