308 
FOHEST AND STREAM. 
In the Old Dominion. 
£J "And, harkl I hear the pheasant's muffled drumming, 
. _ The Bob White whistles in the early morn; 
^ A drowsy bee mid purple asters humming 
The far, faint tenor ol the hunter's horn. 
' "And now from yonder beech trunk sheer and sterile, 
The rat-tat of the yellow-hammer's bill; j j 
^_ The sharp staccato barking of the squirrel, . j 
I; A dropping nut, and all again is still !" 
Red October is here — the old year's pride, the sports- 
man's joy I Decked in scarlet, and gold he comes over the 
fields like a crowned prince with a great following of 
huntsmen in his train. 
Who does not long to follow him beyond the city walls 
into the crisp woodlands, where the brown pheasant makes 
the echoes, to the dark dell where the woodcock rises 
on sudden wing, and ov«r the fields where the soft thun- 
der of the rising covey quickens the pulses of the oldest 
huntsman ? 
But enough, I started out to report the outlook for 
'sportsmen in the game fields of eastern Virginia. It is, as 
everywhere this season, unusually fine, owmg to the dry 
susnmer just past. The coveys of quail are unusually 
large, and but for the forest fires that have undouiatedly 
destroyed many young coveys, it seems probable that there 
would be more than the land could support. When this 
happens, they invariably m:grate to new feeding grounds. 
However, so long as the hawk and owl, arch enemies of 
the quail, are allowed to "increase and multiply" with no 
premium set upon their crafty scalps to hunt in season and 
out, night and day, 365 days and nights to the sportsman's 
fifteen or twenty days in season, so long will all his legis- 
lation for the protection of game of this class be of no 
avail, and far better turn loose all the pot-hunters in 
America in the fields than suffer these skilled hunts- 
men to prey upon the coveys from the time of in- 
cubation till the covey is destroyed. Why not divert 
the efforts of pot-hunters to the enemies of the birds by 
oflFering a premium on their scalps? This was done long 
ago in the Old Dominion. Why not now and everywhere ? 
All small game is abimdant this season — gray squirrels, 
hares, oppossums and coons. Deer are killed in about the 
usual numbers, but the flocks of wild tvtrkeys are said to 
be the largest ever seen here, thanks to the drought at 
breeding time, which to all but the sportsman was indeed 
an "ill wind." L. P. Blow. 
LUMBERTON Va, 
: Retribution, ^ 
This is the forest suburban; the tnin-muring pines and the hem- 
locks^ 
Bearing the scars of the axe, and gray with the smudge of the 
camp-fire, 
Stand in silence, disconsolate, as one whom all hcipe has aban- 
doned; 
Dreaming of epochs primeval, ajnd shuddering when in the distance 
Sounds the loud crack of the rifle, and the turbulent yelp of the 
sportsman. 
Sighing in helpless submission at the throb of the hatchet descend- 
itig. 
Down through the glades of the forest, the" Fool Killer stalks on 
his mission ; 
Responding with kindly grace to the boughs of the monarchs -above 
him; 
Friendly was he with the trees, and all manner of Nature's crea- 
tions; 
Listened he now to their woes, as the branches with fingers caresij- 
ing, 
Whispered the story of shame, which told of tht loss of their 
comrades. 
Telling in sorrowing tones the tale of the Rape of the Forest, 
Up rose the Fool Killer then, and sighing in calm resignation, 
Strode through the aisles of the Ipresi straight tO the camp of the 
hunters; , 
Five of the Sportsmen there were, and clad in the raiments of 
Sportdom, 
9} 
Laden with wampum gttid guns, sombreros and leggings and bug- 
juice; 
Beautiful picture it was, as the Fool Kiiler gazed on the tableau; 
Sighed as he pondered the reason, the Which, and the Why, and 
the Wherefore. 
Forth from its soleleather casket the rifle is drawn, and its owner. 
Proud with the pride of possession, passes it round for inspecfion; 
Points to its carving fantastic, and showing the tricks of the safety, 
Testing the hammers with care, admiring the sheen of the barrels, 
When— bang! and four of the Sportsmen are crying in extenuation, 
The v;ai! of the Imbecile ever: "I didn't, know it was loaded." 
Just as the sun is descending, in the flickering haze of the twilight 
Perched on a log sits a man; indeed it is one of the Sportsmen, 
Watching and waiting to kill; and clad in his garments of canvas. 
Furnished a mark for his friend. "lie thought 'twas a deer in a 
thicket," 
Bang! and the sorrowing Sportsmen, reduced to a triplet in num- 
bers. 
Were "Awfully sorry it happened," and the Fool Killer smiled in 
his slumber. 
Hushed is the Voice of the wave, as it kisses the cheek of the 
boulder, 
Telling the story of him who fished for the leaping ouanansche; 
Rocking the slight canoe and laughing in reckless abandon, 
Shouting aloud with glee as his boatmates strove to dissaud.e him. 
Fifliing now for him are the iwo disconsolate Sportsmen. 
And the Fool Killer smiled in his dreams, as he rested awhile from 
his labors. 
Stepping ashore from hig boat, and dragging his rifle behind him, 
Tangled the hammer and oarlock. But the tale is as old as the 
mountains: •■ ' 
Ont Sportsman alone is left; and the Foiol Killer stirred from his 
slumber, 
Knowing full well that the fool is immuine from his personal folly, 
Grimly whetted his axe, and-hark to the chant of the Forest! 
.''Slowly grind the mills ol ihe pads, but exceedingly fine is the 
Ol^V^t." Db. F. j. TOMPEtWS. 
L.A>l$TKCBtm«5K, N. Y. 
American Wildfowl and How to 
Take Them.— VL 
BY GEORGE BIRD GRINNELL. 
\Cvnii?tued from page 806.] 
Barnacle Goose. 
Branta leucopsis (Bechst.). 
Another species of this group is the barnacle godse 
{Branta leucopsis), which is entitled to mention here 
only to complete the list of our wildfowl. It is a strag- 
gler from Europe, where it is very common. No doubt 
it regularly occurs in Greenland. A specimen has been 
taken near Rupert House, at the southern end of Hud- 
son Bay, and others in Nova Scotia, on Long Island and 
BARNACLE GOOSE, 
in Suiffituck Sound, in North CaroHiia. It is iiot i bird 
likely to be met with by the sportsmeH, ahd j'et if met 
with it should at once be I'ejjOrt'e'd, since every instance 
of its capture is of intsfest. It is a small bird, only a 
little larger that! a brant, and may be known by its 
having almost the whole head white. The lores — that 
is to say, the space between the eye and the bill — the back 
of head, neck and breast, are black; the wings and back 
are gray, the feathers being tipped by a black bar and 
margined with white. The under parts are pale gta^ish j 
BRANT. 
the bill, feet and legs black. The young have the white 
cheek patches dotted with black, and the feathers of the 
back tipped with reddish-brown. 
It seems noteworthy that the few specimens of this 
bird taken in America differ from specimens from Europe 
in being somewhat paler. 
The barnacle goose breeds in great numbers in Siberia 
and Spitzbergen, and it is found in winter very abun- 
dantly on the west coast of Great Britain and the north 
I >!/ Il/j/j'i I /'I'll I 
BLACK BE_\NT. 
coast of Ireland, In some' places in England the barnacle 
goose has been to some extent domesticated, and ' has 
bred m captivity. 
Brant. 
Branta bcrnicla (Linn.). 
Two species of brant, known as the branf or brant 
?oose (Brauta bernicla), and the black brant (B»-anta 
nigricans) , occupy respectively the Atlantic and Pacific 
coasts of America. Both are salt water birds, and as a 
rule, no^ venture inland. They are found almost ex- 
clusively on tide waters, although stragglers have' oc- 
casionally been taken in the Mississippi Valley. The 
ordinary brant of the Atlantic coast is common to the 
Old and the New World. Both these species are small 
geese, but little larger thiih RosS' fdose, -^hifehj M 
already stated, is about the size df a mallard duck. The 
common brant has the head, neck, breast and fore back 
black, with narrow touches of white on either side of the 
tieek, jtist below the Hejid. The upper parts are brownish- 
gmy, mirch as in the Canada goose, but e§eh feather js 
narrowly margined with grayish. The under parts Sfe 
grayish-white, fading into pure white on the belly, the 
upper and under tail coverts being also white. The middle 
of the rump and the quill feathers of the wing are blackish. 
The tail is black, as are the bill, legs and feet. The young 
is not noticeably different, except that the white touches on 
thi^neck are likely to be abseMt, iind white bars cross the 
wing, fotmed by the white tips of the secondary feathers, 
I'he black brant, or Pacific brant, Branta nigricans 
(Lawr.)) is similar to ,its eastern relative,, but instead 
of having the faiht white heck loilches. it has a broad 
white collar about its neck, which, however, dofis flcit quit€ 
meet behind. The general color of this bird is much 
darker than that of its eastern relative. The upper parts, 
wings and under parts are dark browti, in sharp coflirast 
t,o the white belly and upper and under tail coverts. The 
length is about 25 inches, and ihe wing I2y2 inches. 
Ihe brant has the fepvitatioh of heing the bird that goes 
furthest hortb to breed, and untii rc'-efifls' its flest wds 
unknown. Captain Fielden found the hrit tlest'aitd eggS 
in latitude 82 degrees 33 minutes i-jorth, and subseqllenth' 
many others in the same neighborhood. These riests were 
on the beach, near the water; . . In Qreeiihad Dr. Walket; 
who found this sBfet^iteS Heflf Oodkhaab, as ^^-fell fis hi the 
mouth of Beilot's Straits, lound nests bliilt iti tile cliffs 
vvhich formed the sides of the strait. On the European 
side of the water the bird has been found breeding in 
great numbers at Spitzbergen, where the ground -yiras 
found to be covered with its nests. 
During its migrations tlie brant appears on the New 
ilfigl&nd coftst ill Octobejf of November, and is found" from 
thfefe .soUlli aloHg tlie Atlantic as fet as^SdUth Garolifla. 
Its faV'Oritc wintering ground seems to be the c6ast,s yf 
Virginia and North and South Carolina, where it remaiiis 
in great flocks all winter, unless driven further south- 
ward by extremely severe weather. It is a gentle, unsus- 
picious bird and is readily decoyed. On the Massachusetts 
coast it is killed chiefly in spring on the sand bars, to 
which it resorts for the purpose of sanding. In its more 
southern haunts it is commonly shot from a battery or a 
bush blind: 
Bi-aht do iiot dive fdi" tlleif fotid, but feed in the .same 
way as do geese, swans and other shoal vt*at(i't tvi'dfowh 
by stretching the long neck down to the bottc^nl afld 
pulling up the grass that grows the're. It is thus evi- 
dent that they can only feed at certain stages of the 
tide. 
Brant are not uncommon in captivity, and are u<=ed 
in New England as decoys on the sand bars. The flocks 
of migrating birds rtltely eome up to the land or to points 
of marsh where there is My opppfttittity fof concealment, 
and thus few* are shot ffoln the shore, ejSCtipt q« the bars. 
The range of the black brant has already been g veift. 
Two or three specimens have been taken on the Atlantic 
coast, but these were merely stragglers. On the Pacific 
coast in winter_it is found on salt water bays and estu- 
aries, Irom the Stra-ts bf FUqa soUth to San Diego. They 
make their appearance itt Octobef, and leave again in 
April. I 
Black brant appear to be very little shot, notwith- 
standing their great numbers. On their northward trif- 
gration they usually proceed in small flocks of from 
twenty to fifty, but at times collect in such immense tium- 
bers that great quantities of them are killed. This is 
especially true if the birds have to wait near the edge of 
the ice for the northern waters, which they are seeking, to 
become open. _ ' \ 
The brack brant bi^eeds Hear the Afctic Ocean. Mr. 
Macfarlane found their iiestS ofi little islands in fresh 
water ponds or in rivers, and saw many others on the 
shores or on islands in Franklin Bay. The number of 
eggs in a nest was usually five. 
In its migration this species follows the Alaskan coast, 
over the Bering Sea, passing outside of St. Michael's 
Island, proceeding to Stewart's Island and thence north- 
ward across the open sea to Golofin Sound. They are 
found in Norton Sound by the middle of May, and breed 
in this neighborhood in great numbers. 
"Where Arc the Game Constafcl 
East Rockaway, Long Island, N. Y., Oct. 15. — The 
meadows and woods were overrun with pot-hunters yes- 
terday, They violated the law, both by killing robins, 
larks and rabbits, but also in gunning on Sunday. No 
effort was made to stop them, Friday night a net wa.^ 
hauled in the mill pond above Charles Davison's mill, and 
two large striped bass were caught. They weighed 29 and' 
32 pounds. It is said that four bass have been seen in the 
pond, and that a fish trap has been set to catch the other 
two. The game constables do nothing to prevent the 
illegal gunning or fishing. To whom 'should we appeal? 
QuAHAue. 
A snake came near breaking up the prayer meef ng in 
the Fleniington Baptist Church last night. While the 
meeting was in progress' a woman suddenly discovered 
the snake wriggling down the aisle. Others saw it, about 
the same time, and there came near being a panic. The 
cooler heads averted this, however, and one of the male 
members asked the leader to discontinue the services until 
he had killed the reptile. It was soon dispatched and the 
meeting was resumed. It was just an innocent little 
garter snake, a foot long, but some of the la'dies were 
willing to aver that it was a TO-foot rattler, with eighty- 
seven rattles and a button. — Philadelphia Record. .' 
Take Inventory of the good things In this Issue of 
Forest and Stream. Recall what a fund was given 
last week. Count on wliat is to cdme next week 
Was there ever to ail the world a abiind^i 
