348 
[Nov. 3, 1900. 
CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 
Crippled Ducks, 
Chicago, III., Oct. 27. — Mr. A. G. Holmes, of Green 
Bay, Wis., is good enough to send doAvn a word i-egard- 
ing the game situation in his section, and to give us the 
benefit of his observations regarding the actions of 
crippled ducks. What he says as to' the duck sticking up 
only a little part or its bill above water when trying to 
hide tallies with what has no doubt been observed by 
many others. I have sometimes seen a redhead which 
had gone under water in a place where detection seemed 
impossible, lie with its body entirely submerged, and just 
the head out of water, lying flat and perfectly motionless. 
At such times it is only the bright, beady eye of the duck 
which attracts attention, the instinct of the bird invari- 
ably leading it to pick out its own color tone, perfectly 
m the cover it selects. It will push in among brush or 
weeds, and stick its head out into a bit of grass, weeds 
or brush tips, which are as near as can be the same 
color as its own head. A favorite trick of the redhead, 
which is a famous diver, when it is crippled and falls in 
running water, is to come up under the overhanging 
willows or brush of other sort which perhaps lines, the 
shore. In such cases it will always flatten its head down 
close on, the water, and have it hidden by some little, 
trivial bit of overhanging branch or leaf, so that the 
Jiunter hardly ever discovers it except by accident. Mr. 
Holmes is lucky in having been able to watch these birds 
in their action under water, regarding which he goes on 
to say: 
"In this week's issue of the Forest and Stream there 
is a mention regarding crippled ducks. I have noticed 
and captured crippled ducks here on our hay veiy often, 
and have watched for birds to come up but never 
showed up. I have found them very frequently witli 
just the bill out. and especially in this true of our red- 
heads and bluebills when crippled. I have followed 
them out on the bars where the water was clear, and I 
could watch them and what tricks they did, and the 
maneuvers they would go through are certainly sur- 
prising. I have crippled redheads, and in following 
them up , poling along in the water from three to iivc 
feet deep, have seen them turn under water at the shadow 
of the canoe approaching, and travel at least 60 yards 
without coming up, and then only the least bit of their 
bill out, and float in the water for at least ten minutes, 
never showing up any more than that. I have also-taken 
them out of weeds with just the bill out, that a person 
could hardly see. 
"Our ducks are here by the thousands, and a good 
many nice bags have been brought in. The snipe are 
now coming in fairly well, and I expect by the latter part 
of the week they will be here in great numbers. 
"Geese are also flying south fairly well. Squirrels and 
coons are here in good numbers this fall," 
No FUght. 
It cannot be said that we have had any flight of ducks 
near hgre this fall. The weather has remained simply 
superb all this week, and from all appearances intends to 
remain so, the fall being' one of the mildest ever recorded 
here. The birds, from what Mr. Holmes says, may be 
seen to be still some hundreds of miles north of here, his 
point. Green Bay, being perhaps a couple of hundred 
miles above Chicago. Horicon marsh is beginning to 
get a good many birds, and they are entirely contented 
to stay up there so long as they have good feed and 
water in abundance, as they have this year. They will 
not be apt to pass this latitude until quite late in No- 
vember, when it begins to freeze pretty sharply where 
they now are. Nothing of consequence develops lower 
down along the natural flyways which cross this country, 
not even along the Mississippi, the Illinois and the other 
big waterways which adjoin us, Regarding conditions 
at his part of the Mississippi bottom regions, Mr. E. K. 
Stedman writes, under date of Oct. 24, from Mt. Carroll: 
"Dear Sir:— Conditions have changed very little since 
last week. The water in the Mississippi attained its 
highest mark the latter part of last week, and is now 
steadily receding. Wild fowl were numerous the 21st 
and 22d, but are now scarce— the river men tell me they 
are flying north again yesterday and to-day. I heard of 
one Savannah hunter who killed 50 ducks Sunday— using 
a scull boat. 
_ "Most of the low land farms were overflowed in this 
vicinity — so if the ducks do come, and weather conditions 
encourage them to visit, we should liave excellent sport 
So much water places the sportsman at a disadvantage 
inasmuch as it gives a greater teriitorv to feed ovef 
than when confined to less limited feeding- grounds. 
"No large bags of snipe or plover have yet been re- 
ported. No geese' that I have heard of. The quail are 
bein.g carefully watched by the farmers, which keeps out 
the 'sooners,' so that when the season does open thev 
will be in superb "condition for the nimrod. 
"All in all, everything is favorable for good wild fowl 
and quail shooting at this point. 
"As Mt. Carroll is ten miles from the river, Savannah 
more fittingly holds as to these tips. 
"Wild fowl shooting and fall bass, rroppie and wall- 
eyed pike fishii^g should be prime bv Nov i, if this state 
of ^yeather (pntinues. If rougher weather sets in, cut the 
nshmg out. 
Quail. 
It will be seen that all reports continue to speak of the 
almost unparalleled abundance of quail. The latter bird 
seewis to have fairly taken the West this fall. All over 
lower Minnesota the quail are verv numerou'^ indeed 
seeming to have become perfectly well estaWished, just 
as they have been for many years in Iowa, and steadily 
on the increase. The average of the northbound move^- 
ment of the bird seems to be noticeable now in the 
Thickening up of its numbers along lines where heretofore 
there were not so many. Thus, as far north as Waupaca 
m Wisconsin, there are now a good many quail where 
a few years ago there would only one or' two be heard 
now and then in the summer time, and no one cared to 
make a regular hunt for them in the shooting season. 
I he rea^m tPf this northward movement i& jiot in any 
climatic change, nor in any push of quail population in 
the country below. It is simply due to the fact that the 
slashed-off pine regions are more and more being de- 
voted to agricultural or semi-agricultural purposes. The 
little backwoods farms are going further and further north 
in Wisconsin and Michigan, and though they are very 
poor and very dubious farms, they raise enough weed 
seeds and millet and buckwheat to feed the quail, and the 
brush heaps offer shelter. Give Bob White half a chance 
and he will take care of himself He has no chance at 
all, according to his habits, in a raw pine country. 
It was this same way in regard to the extension of the 
■prairie chicken range to the westward. It is sometimes 
thought that the prairie chicken was always abundant out 
in Dakota, and what is commonly called the West, but 
such is not the case. This bird followed the wheat fields 
just as the quail is following the millet and buckwheat 
fields. As, soon as the wheat stubbles began to appear 
in' South Dakota, the chickens also began to appear in 
numbers. All creatures, wild or tame, like to make a 
living in the easiest possible way, and they like also to 
move on out from the place where they were born and 
raised, the spread of animal life being quite similar to 
that of human population. In the late hard times the 
railways were much troubled with tramps and workmen 
who were trying to get out of the places where they could 
October on- to their lands to shoot quail, but I did not 
.attempt it. Saw many young quail chi<;ks , that were 
evidently late or second broods. Met farmer boys 
hunting squirrels who had three and four dozen 
quail in their, pouches. Farmers claim that as the 
game feed on their lands, they might as w.ell have the 
products whenever wanted. 
"Bass and salmon — local name for the wall-eyed pike — 
fishing fairly good. I found that a good deal of . illegal 
netting is constantly practiced all along the river, both 
by farmers and market men. Localities will have a big 
net in common; farmers and young fellows meet to- 
gether, seine the river thoroughly, and divide the fish 
among them. Hence, when a rod fisherman goes out for 
pleasure and a few fish, he gets only a few. Looks like 
it would take State wardens posted every few miles along 
the rivers to capture illegal fishers and hunters. The 
difficulty seems to be that the wardens are appointed by 
the farmers themselves, and they won't arrest anybody 
except a few poachers from the towns." 
The Wisconsin Export Law. 
Mr. Douglas Dyrenforth, the Chicago man who lost 
a box of muscallunge last week at the hands of the 
wardens of Wisconsin, has received many offers of sup- 
port from friends in his case against" the Wisconsin 
MRS. LYDIA p. WILLIAMS AND THE TORCH SHE FOUND. 
not get work enough to make a living. It is the same 
way with game birds. They come and go with the food 
supply, and occupy the earth just as their pursuers have 
been doing for so long. 
Poor Game Protection in Iowa. 
It would seem that there is a very poor observance of 
the game laws out in the big and rich State of Iowa, at 
least in a. certain portion of what is naturally a very good 
game region. Iowa was always a peculiar State in re- 
gard to game laws. In the preceding generation much 
of Northwestern Iowa was settled by a foreign element, 
men who did not care to shoot and who kncAV nothing 
and cared nothing about the game that might be in 
their neighborhood. It was nothing to these men if alien 
market shooters came in and killed off their birds, pro- 
vided they did not tramp down the fields or shoot the 
stock. The prairie chickens, over many foreign settle- 
ments, were thus shot off to the point of extinction. 
Then arose the present generation -of population on that 
same soil, the children of the first immigrants. These 
young men have attained the habits of the new land to 
which their parents came, and most of them like to shoot. 
They are more selfish in regard to their game, and about 
all the protection they ask is prohibition for everybody 
but themselves, which is the pure American attitude as 
to game protection anyway. Mr. R. L. Blair, of Des 
Moines. Iowa, covers some of these questions in a letter 
just at hand, and can perhaps shed a little light on the 
perplexing question. Why does not Iowa pass a good 
game law and see it enforced? Perhaps the first half of 
this question is all that we ought to ask. It is almost too 
hiuch to ask or expect that a game law should be en- 
forced. At least Mr. Blair's letter would riot indicate 
much hope of it. He says: 
"Believing from your letters in Forest and Stream 
that you would like outdoor items from the West. I 
would 'report my return from a three weeks' camping, 
boating, fishing and hunting trip up the Des Moines 
River. T found quail plenty, but the farmers had been 
harvesting the crop since Oct. t. although the le?al 
season does not open till November. Manv farmers pay 
no attention to the game laws. There is a law not allow- 
ing hunting on lands without owner's permission. Many 
1arms are posted against trespassers, hence the owners 
or occupants can shoot game out of season, no one see- 
ing them or caring to report them. Prairie chickens 
.were invisible in the thickly settled portions. They 
seemed to be in the cornfields. Farmers with whom I 
P??^m« acquaitifed actually invited me the middle of 
wardens. It Is to be hoped that the matter will not be 
dropped in the lower courts, but that it may really prove 
a test case of the constitutionality of the law. The facts 
as learned at date are that the fish were taken from the 
Wisconsin Central train, at Rugby Jmiction. An official 
of the latter road, Mr. F. J. Effert, whose offices are in 
this city, was one of the party that caught the fish, their 
angling place having been at Tucker Lake, Wis., and 
the fish having been taken legally by rod and line. One 
fish was taken by Mr. Eftert, one by Mr. Dyrenforth, and 
one by Mrs. Dyrenforth. The fish caught by Mr. Dyren- 
forth weighed ig pounds, that taken by his wife 
pounds. All three of the fish were packed in one box, 
which box therefore had more than two fish, and more 
than 20 pounds of fish in it. Yet one of the fish was 
marked with Mrs. Dyrenforth's card, the other two hay- 
ing the name of Mr. Dyrenforth on them, according to 
his report. The warden, August Zinn, perhaps did not 
see the cards, and took in charge the evidence in what 
was a prima facie violation of the law. It is to be seen 
what the outcome will be. The suit is brought in the 
Federal Court, in which the ambtint must exceed' $2,060 
The sum sued for is $5,000. 
The principle involved applies to game birds as well 
as game fishes, in so far as the legality of bringing home 
legally killed game is concerned, and the case is one 
which attracts considerable attention here on that: ac 
count. 
The Saginaw Crowd's Northwestern Trip. 
The Saginaw Crowd, whose special car passed through 
here some weeks ago, as mentioned at the time, has re- 
turned, and apparently did not have a very heavy shoot, 
but as usual a very good time — a time which one of the 
party, Mr. Tom Harvey, is mighty apt to consider the 
luckiest sort of a time. Mr. W. B. Merhson writes as 
below regarding the experiences of the party and of Mr. 
Harvey: 
"We arrived home last Wednesday. We had a pretty 
good time. Tom Harvey, whom you remember you 
described as the sportsman that had something to loan 
to every one, when we were on the Grassmere trip, con- 
cluded he was a regular hoodoo. His first experience 
was falling down in a duck marsh, filling his boots and 
getting wet all over. We then started for home to warm 
him up, and .going up a stiff hill the wagon met with a 
breakdown; the driver had to go to town for repairs, so 
Tom mounted one of the horses to go with him. He 
proved to be a veritable Westerner, and the bronco bucked 
him off and ttireAv him sorne so feet, in less Xmc than it 
