POTEST AKt) STREAM. 
10 B 
sportsman and Farmer. 
•Editor Forest and Stream: 
Your timely and excellent editorial in last issue, relative 
i>.o the relations existing between sportsman and farmer, 
Nvill be read with a deal of int»resc and approved by all 
vhinking, fair play sportsmen. 
Every intelligent sportsman is fully cognizant of the 
land holder's rights in the premises, and all this prattle 
about the enactment of laws to define the shooters' rights 
on lands of somebody else is "rot" of the first order. 
I am very much of the opinion that all fair minded and 
reasonable devotees of the gun are perfectly willing to 
CGHtribute a mite toward the payment of the taxes on the 
lands over which the)' ask the privilege of shooting. On 
this matter of shooting privileges I can speak somewhat 
from experience, as 1 at one time had the misfortune to 
be part owner of a large farm — nearly a square mile of 
land — over which everylsody — thanks to my foolish good 
nature — was privileged to shoot. I use the word shoot in 
ihis instance, for there was plenty of game and good 
shooting on the premises. 
While the greater portion of the people who hunted on 
the farm were men who wouldn't tear down one's fences 
nor kill his cattle, at the same time there was also a fair 
sprinkling of that class of shooters Avith whom one would 
not care to be "found dead," nor meet after dark if one 
had money enough on his person to make robbery respect- 
able. 
The point I wish to make is jiist this: The farmer 
owns, cares for and pays taxes on the lands over which wc 
ask the privilege of shooting ; in nine cases out of ten he 
has no acquaintance with, nor interest in, the shooter; the 
game we seek has a value; has been reared on his lands; 
in some instances has waxed fat on grain raised by the 
sweat of the land owner's brow ; and while it may not. as 
a fact, be his property, except when killed and reduced to 
possession, at the same time (he privilege of shooting 
over his land has a value and we should be willing to pay 
for it. Knowing, as Ave do, what a scarce and hard-earned 
comraodit3' monej' is to the average tiller of the soil, is it 
not meet and proper that we Avho .shoot for pleasure or 
for pelf, should contribute our mite toward the payment 
of the taxes on the lands over Avliich we shoot? A rea.son- 
-^ble charge for shooting privileges Avould probably driA'C 
,xDff the market shooter and give the sportsman — Avbo is 
generally Avilling to pay about eighteen times the market 
Tvalue of game, in transportation and other expenses, for 
^.the privilege of taking it — a chance. There need be no 
^misunderstanding betAveen sportsman and farmer, pro- 
vided each is disposed to be fair and reasonable, and it 
is perfectly apparent to me — I claim to be somewhat of a 
{sportsman, and at present OAvn no shooting grounds — that 
we Avho shoot should pay, or at least offer to pay, for 
shooting privileges. 
It strikes me that any fair-minded shooter should be 
quite as willing to gi\'e compensation for the privilege of 
shooting over a farmer's land as the average traveler is 
to pay for his entertainment at an inn. No one, except he 
happened to be a tramp, Avould ask for meat or drink at an 
^nn unless he expected to pay for it, and why should he 
ask for, or take Avithout the asking, a shooting privilege on 
0. stranger's premises except he offered to make com- 
pensation therefore? 
It is a mighty easy matter for the farmer and the 
Sportsman to get together; let the sportsman contribute 
a bit toward the rearing and protection of that product 
of the farm that he takes, or seeks to take — the average 
farmer gets very little of the game groAvn on his lands — 
and we shall hear no more of trespass suits or other ttn- 
pleasantries, and the "shoot" of the market-shooter will 
perhaps be heard less frequently. 
Generally speaking, the price of game as a commodity 
of sport is someAvhat steep, but you Avill probably find that 
tlie cost of shooting privileges Avill be one of the smaller 
Items of the aggregate, and the sooner we make up our 
minds to "settle" the better for all concerned. 
M. SCHENCK. 
Troy, N. Y., Feb. 2. 
Danbury, Conn., Feb. 3. — Editor Forest and Stream: 
We have a hunting license and a dog license. Now comes 
the gun license, and in course of time we will haA'e an 
emperor and everything Avill be royal down to the gate 
opener of the royal game preserve. 
The farmers are going to combine, and will charge 
tAVo dollars per day to shoot a half-dozen little quail ; 
and the poor cuss that cannot afford to lose one day's 
work and tAvo dollars on top of it, is left out in the cold. 
But the man Avith the $200 gim will be in the SAvim, and 
the I am-better-tlian-you-dom in the person of hunters 
with big bank accounts Avill have full swing. This Avill 
lead to game protection Avith a vengeance, but for Avhom? 
— for a privileged class, and European rules and condi- 
tions are taken as a pattern. Among the farming com- 
munities over the big pond, the hunting right is . sold at 
auction, and is thus to be had only at such extravagant 
prices that only the very Avell-to-do can afford to enjoy 
the sport ; and if a man is born Avith the hunting fever, he 
either nnist become a poacher, or else hunt fleas. The 
correspondent AA'ho in your last issue advocated gun license 
ought to cross the pond and unjoy the system himself for 
five years, and if he then still has the same thing to ad- 
vise, I would agree Avith him. The laAvless element, Avhich 
only exists to a certain extent is in a A'ery small per- 
centage (at least in country tOAvns), aiid could and should 
be educated by sending them good sporting journals, as, 
for instance. Forest and Stream. 
Here in tOA\'n the gun club is collecting money from 
shooters, to be used for the propagation of quail ; and 
this is the second year of the noble Avork. although there 
is quite a little stock left over from last year; and it 
would be a beautiful thing to behold, if the farmers 
would refuse to kt them shoot on their grounds, after 
having furnished the quail. But of what use is it to 
incite the farmer more and more against the hunter? 
Thej' know enough to protect themselves. 
Two years ago I was invited by a member of the Red- 
<1\ng Game and Fish ProtectiA-e 5 iety to go shooting. 
While huiltihg on my host's fafm, we incidentally strolled 
on to a neighbor's ground and fired a few shots at an 
old tin can, for quail we could not find that day. Sud- 
denly ah irate looking man in double-quick step ap- 
proached and tequested us to leave his grounds imme- 
diately, as he never allowed anybody (not even a brother 
club member) to hunt on his farm. 
Let the farmers alone. They need nobody's advice 
ta that matter. C. F. B. 
Falmetco Bob— A Resident of 
Florida. 
The common quail (Oityx Virginia) has always been 
popular Avith sportsmen for its excellent game qualities, 
and with students of nature for its many interesting 
cbiaracteristics ; therefore, any slight deviations, even 
such as seem to be apparent in the Florida variety, from 
the accepted type of this bird, Avhether in habits or in 
plumage, may be read of Avith pleasure by a few of those 
persons Avho discover a certain degree of amusement in 
acquiring knoAvledge concerning the wild life of forest 
and field. 
The most indifferent observer Avill be struck, on his 
first sight of the Florida quail, by its lack of size; its 
weight never exceeding 5 ounces, being less than three- 
fourths that of its congenors elsewhere. He Avill notice, 
too, on close inspection, a very perceptible divergence in 
color points, such as a jet black, less perfect white and 
less clearly defined maxillary stripes on the head, a darker 
and more heavily marked back, and a greater pre- 
dominance of color in under parts, all of these peculiarities 
conibining to make the local bird less beautiful when ex- 
amined and less discernible in flight. 
Plumage development, which seems to be affected here 
by the Avarm climate, besides exhibiting less tinted surface 
in proportion to under color, is not so abundant as it is 
elsewhere in the country, and the soft structure of the 
Aving primaries gives to the birds of this section a flight 
that is almost devoid of the startling whir with which 
I have ahvaj's been accustomed to hear single specimens 
flush, and of the alarming roar Avith which I have been 
greeted elsewhere when AAdiole coveys arose from the 
ground. 
Beside the noiseless locomotion, perhaps the inability of 
the Florida quail to attain considerable speed may be 
attributed Avith reason to a comparative softness in the 
Aveb of flight feathers. But this peculiarity of Aving 
structure does not prevent frightened birds from accom- 
plishing distances that are indeed marvelous; and in- 
efficient Aving action, being offset by undiscernible plumage 
to plumage colors, does not cause the shooting here to be 
appreciably less diflicult than it is elsewhere. Because 
of their less audible rise, too, many birds escape without 
attracting the attention of gunners until well beyond 
range. 
The manetivers employed by the quail in this State to 
elude its excessiA'ely numerous enemies differ from any 
tactics I haA'e ever Avitnessed before in my hunting ex- 
perience ; and by no means the least disconcerting to a 
person of nerA^ous temper atnent is the practice with 
flushed coveys of distributing themselves among the 
highest pine tops Avhere they can be discovered subse- 
quently only by the most diligent search, and must either 
be shot at as if so many feathered knots or allowed to 
remain unharmed. And another very common method of 
escape is for coveys to dodge into the deep holes excavated 
by the large land terrapins, roomy dens that may con- 
ceal on occasion a skunk, or a rattler, or some other 
formidable occupant, and therefore are to be avoided by 
the hunter who still has left Avithin his cranium a scintilla 
of precaution. Actions such as these could be circum- 
vented only through the assistance of a tree dog or of a 
rat terrier. 
We owned a very black cow while at Auburndale, and 
toAvard spring I often found it necessary to hunt in- 
credible distances into the surroundmg forest that 1 
might discover our Avandering property. Accepted ortho • 
doxy has it, I believe, that Flis Satanic Majesty, like my 
erratic charge, besides being of a jet-like hue, possesses 
long horns and a cloven hoof, and has a tail that is 
nothing, if not a fly brush. Our coav. too, closely re- 
sembled one of those dark-clothed performers of leger- 
demain Avho astound the intellect by exhibiting beautiful 
floAvers and birds and various other surprises from un- 
promising localities; and AAdiile Avith a free tongue I 
loudly called doAvn Avithering anathemas on the de- 
bauched fancy of faithless Suke, my Avidened eyes were 
ever on the elert to behold the marvels of nature dis- 
closed" by her Avanderings, and very many excellent op- 
portunities Avere afforded me to obserA^e the habits of 
quail during their breeding season. 
It is very delightful to recall for my contemplation 
those little adventures into a Avonderland through which 
the cloven track of our Avandering possessions meandered 
ever ouAvard, passing in its course by many sequestered 
bits of half-tropical scenery jubilant Avith bird song, and 
through many bright glades of the pine forest Avhere occa- 
sional quail, startled by my approach, raced off with 
grotesque dignity in the direction of rustling palmetto 
covers or adopted Aving propulsion that was extended to 
very distant points as a more feasible method of escape; 
the employment of cock birds when thus interrupted, 
often being gory contests in grass bound lists for the 
affections of onlooking females — conflicts that Avere 
caused, mayhap, by a passion as praiscAvorthy as any that 
CA'cr induced the acceptance of mortal combat by knight of 
old to win the favor of lady. 
Judging from my OAAm observation, I should say that 
mating occurs here Avlth quail about the latter part of 
Februar}', or during the closing days of the local hunt- 
ing season; for even at that early date, AAdiile out Avith my 
gun, I have detected between many individuals of the 
flushed cove3;s a preference for each other's society not 
unlike partialities exhibited betAveen human beings after a 
long sojourn at the seashore or elscAvhere in Avhich there 
has been a pleasurable commingling of the sexes — a form 
of passion that has ahvays been considered worthy of 
great laudation ; and I will avoAV for it that even my 
toughened conscience, near the expiration of the hunt- 
ing season, protested with success against shooting the 
affectionate pairs disturbed by my setter in those haunts 
among the palmetto beds. 
I had good reason afterAvard to congrat^i«e myself, I 
thought, because of the merciful course * nad adopted 
in regard to these first m.atings, for more ipairs of quail 
Avere thereby induced to spend their bi^cumg season 
within our immediate neighborhood whet* throughout 
the spring months they enlivened the adjaccat lorest Avith 
musical calls that Avere especially beautiful va caim after- 
noons, when oblique sun rays glinted through pine foliage 
and gave to Avoody vistas a golden charm; the notes of 
Bob White often being at such times the only sounds 
except the constant punt-punt of my foot in the sand and 
the occasional snapping Of twigs in my path as I followed 
Sukey homeward, and to nie acciistonled to iAearing quail- 
song only in the open, it possessed under the existing 
conditions a novel melody. 
There Avere days to be remembered on which our cow 
Avas securely confined to the limits of our dooryard, where 
she might subsist on Bermuda grass, while I voyaged in a 
canoe about the shores of the lake near town, hearing, as I 
progressed or loitered, not only the chorus of the many 
singing mockingbirds and the chanting of noisy shrikes 
from the orange groves, but also the mellow unambitious 
notes of Bob White as he sent them forth from retired 
nooks to charm the atmosphere of the spring afternoon, 
his simple refrain on more than one occasion having 
scarcely ceased Avhen the A^oice of chuck- will' s-widow 
and the shining of stars heralded the presence of night; 
It was during the season of most vociferous song, or 
near the end of March, that I discovered among the 
scattered palmettoes far out in the forest my first quail's 
nest, a roofed-over affair slightly larger than the nest 
of a meadoAv lark. Vividly do I recall the occasion, for 
while driving the coav through a small settlement two 
mdes distant from our home, I had been made to accept 
from an over kind resident, an enormous bouquet un- 
approachable for colors, a present that conscience for- 
bade me to lose, and with this gorgeous emblem of spring- 
time held aloft proudly and defiantly, I marched along, 
impressed by the solemnity of the Sabbath morning, and 
had passed by the very portals of the Auburndale church 
m full viCAv of the assembled congregation to deposit my 
unwelcome trophy at last Avithin the refreshing depths 
of the horse-bucket beneath our pump, where it had a 
better chance to survive than it would have had concealed 
. m the palmettoes out by the nest of the quail. 
The Aveather from the middle of April to the end of 
June was so exceedingly hot that I quite agreed with an 
acquaintance Avho expressed a belief in the possibility of 
frying eggs upon any piece of iron exposed to the rays 
of the midday sun, therefore I restricted the time of my 
adventures abroad to the late afternoon and the early 
evening; and Av»en a season of heaAry rain-precipitation 
accompanied by frightful electric displays folIoAved the 
period of great heat, I confined myself even more closely 
to our domicile. Hence I obtained only an imperfect 
knowledge of Avhat transpired in the forest up to the latter 
part of August ; and even from that time to the beginning 
of the hunting season in October, I made only a few ex- 
cursions to the realms of Bob White. Upon mv first trip, 
however, to secure game through the aid of dog and 
gun. I Avas surprised to find so many coveys of mere 
fledglinr#3, and attributed this very perceptible immaturity 
to the long hatching season Avherebv quail in the South 
are enabled to replenish their numbers after the depletion 
caused by Avinter slaughter. 
As there Avas a noticeable fall in temperature, synchron- 
ous with the advent of the shooting season, I sallied forth 
frequently Avith a red Irish setter to hunt the nearest 
lake shores and the other promising localities for game, 
and I discovered in these quests that the quail were more 
plentiful near civilization than they Avere far out in the 
VAalderness— a fact due, no doubt, to the check imposed 
upon foxes and other marauders by the presence of man— 
and that most of the quail seemed to prefer the palmetto 
covers immediately around the lakes or near the other 
Avater. 
The beauty of the lake region about Auburndale is of 
a subdued character in which there are no extensive dis- 
tances and no great heights to behold. The country is 
marked Avith innumerable very round and very blue lakes 
circled by orange groves and pine woods. The roads are 
soft and sandy AA^ays, along Avhich the wheels of moving 
Avagons ploAv almost inaudible melodies. The forests lull 
Avith a charming hush, and the waves Avash shore lines 
Avith a languorous music. The resinous atmosphere is 
ambrosia. Under such conditions human nature is tempted 
to lapse into lassitude in which there Avould exist no 
recollection of the past, no ambition for the future, but 
*^ i/i.^- '^'^^"^ consciousness of a present filled with a 
selfish joy. an extreme of laziness that Avould deem effort 
great unwisdom. 
Shooting at quail and vigorous Avalking, noAvever 
aroused susceptibility to an emotional state, in which the 
senses Avere keenly alive to every impression. The features 
ot that strange hunting ground impressed me with their 
noA^elty. That Avading through breast-high palmetto beds 
m which brushed leaves made a sound not unlike the 
wash of disturbed Avater, and dropping winged birds on 
paim-hke foliage as they arose from unsuspected places 
in covers surrounded by neat lakes and open forest might 
have been shooting m a large conservatory or park in 
which spraying fountains and marble statutes and even 
umlormed policemen Avould not have been inappropriate 
additions to the outlook. 
The success of my shooting trips varied greatly. There 
were long days on which birds Avere difficult to find and 
short days on Avhich the barrels of mv gun became un- 
pleasantly Avarm to the touch from continuous firing when 
1 increased rapidly my burden of game, as I diminished 
my stock ot ammunition. There were also memorable 
occasions on which tedious Avalking ended in an exciting 
finish I recall a very pleasant afternoon on Avhich the 
sun had nearly settled in the tree tops across the lake 
Avhen I at last discovered a coA^ey; and hoAV I then accom- 
plished fifteen wmg kills, each a separate transaction 
rather an unusual achie\-eiiient for me; and marched home 
ni the night Avith the metal of my gun imparting a crrate- 
tul Avarmth to my fingers. 
High honors were never Avon by me for shooting 'well ■ 
but the ocrformances of Doctor in the AA^oods with a gun 
showed bun to be an able practitioner. ,?nd his shots rarelv 
failed to succeed in their purpose, his skill seeming at 
tunes to be an occult science by which he might destroy 
flying birds by merely glancing at them over an upheld 
