404 
FOREST AND STREAM. «i 
j[Nov. 24, 1906. 
Proprietors of shooting resorts will find it profitable to advertise 
them in Fob.est and Stream. 
Talks to Boys. — ^IL 
I DO not think that a boy of twelve is too young to have 
a gun. Perhaps he is too young to go shooting regu- 
larly, but a boy of that age may well enough have a gun 
given him, and learn how to handle it and take care of 
it, even if for some months afterward he does not take 
it out into the field and actually shoot it off. A boy who 
is twelve years old ought by that time to have some 
feeling of responsibility. He ought to realize that he is 
only one person of many in the family or community in 
which he lives, and that the people in that family or 
that community cannot get along comfortably unless each 
member considers in some degree the comfort and the 
wishes of the other members as well as his own comfort 
and his own wishes. 
We all know that the government under which itll 
civilized people live is founded on this principle of con- 
sideration for others. The laws which govern us are 
framed for the purpose of giving to every citizen all the 
liberty that he can have, consistent with the rights and 
comfort of other people, but where the comfort of one 
man interferes with the comfort of many others, the law 
provides that he shall not have the liberty to do the 
thing which is agreeable to him but is harmful to his 
fellow citizens. This rule prevails in all communities, 
civilized and savage, and people who now know much 
about the Indians tell us that even they had laws and 
rules of this kind, and that they had officers who were 
like policemen and constables, and who saw that these 
rules and laws were obeyed. Any one who was much 
about Indian camps in the old times when they governed 
themselves, remembers that in each camp there was what 
were called soldier bands — young men who kept order 
in camp, and carried out the rules laid down by the 
chiefs and the counselors for the general good. If wild 
savages knew enough to live in this way and to carry 
on a government which considered first the good of the 
majority, how much more should we who boast of our 
high civilization endeavor to live up to this principle.^ 
A person who is selfish and is thinking all the time 
about what he wants to do, and not at all about what other 
people would like, will make everybody about him more 
or less uncomfortable, and after a "time these other people 
will not care very much whether he has what he wants or 
does what he wishes to do. A boy who is of that tem- 
perament ought not to be given a gun so early as one 
who is more considerate of others. 
In these days of machine-made firearms, it is an easy 
matter to purchase a gun light enough to be carried for 
several hours at a time without overtaxing your strength. 
Such an arm should certainly not weigh over 6 pounds, 
but 5 or 5^ pounds would be better. 
A few years ago there was quite a rage for guns of 
very small caliber, 16 or even 20 gauge, but the arm 
most commonly carried by gunners in this country is the 
12 gauge. There are distinct advantages in the smaller 
gauges, especially for light guns, and among these is the 
fact that the ammunition is smaller and lighter, and so 
more easily carried, while, if the 16 or 20 gauge gun is 
held properly, it is just as effective as a larger bore. 
I think if I were choosing a gun for my nephew, it 
would probably be a 16 gauge gun, and I should hope that 
this would be useful to him for four, five or six years, 
until he had pretty nearly attained his growth and was 
able to carry a gun weighing 7 or 71/2 pounds. 
Many of the modern guns, as you know, are made 
without hammers, and the breaking down of such a gun 
to remove the empty cartridge cases, or to load the gun, 
cocks both barrels, which cannot be uncocked again ex- 
cept by pulling the triggers. The old-fashioned hammer 
guns, of course, could be uncocked by putting the thumb 
on the hammer, pulling the trigger and letting the hammer 
fall gently until it caught at half-cock. These hammer- 
less guns, however, are provided with what is called a 
safety catch, which locks the triggers so that the ham- 
mers cannot fall. This is a little piece of metal just 
back of the breech, which slides backward and forward, 
and which when pushed backward as far as it will go 
exposes a metal plate on which is often engraved the 
word "Safe." When you can see that word the firing pins 
cannot fall, and the gun is safe. The gunner carries his 
gun with the safety catch pushed back, so that by no 
possibility can the gun be discharged. Before that can be 
done the safety catch must be pushed forward so as to 
cover up the word "Safe/' and the trigger must be 
pulled. The person who is carrying the gun can tell at 
a glance whether his arm can be discharged or not. A 
man who uses such a gun trains himself after a little so 
that when he throws the gun to his shoulder he frees the 
safety catch covering up the word "Safe," and then either 
barrel or both can be discharged. In some guns the safety 
catch is placed in the side of the lock, but it is always 
where it can be instantly felt or seen, so that the shooter 
knows whether the firing pins are locked or free. 
There are some old-fashioned people who are still afraid 
of hammerless guns; they cannot see the hammers, and 
forgetting to look at the safety catch, they are uncertain 
whether the gun is cocked or at half-cock. They are 
afraid of an accidental discharge, and they do not like 
what they call these new-fangled weapons. Now, long 
ago all guns were discharged by a spark created by 
knocking a flint against a piece of iron. The sparks from 
the flint flew down and touched off some powder which 
lay in what was called the pan, and this conveyed the fire 
to the load in the breech of the gun. Such guns were 
called flintlocks. When percussion caps were first in- 
vented and guns were changed over from flint to percus- 
sion. locks, and later when the breechloader was, invented 
and came into general use, both these improvements were 
regarded by a very large number of shooters with the same 
feelings of suspicion. A great many old fogies would not 
give up their flintlocks and use percussion caps. It took 
quite a little time for the spark from the flint to ignite 
the powder and for the fire to travel down through the 
touch-hole to the powder charge, and these old fogies 
were used to waiting for all this to happen. When per- 
cussion caps were invented they were afraid of them, and 
said that they made the gun go off too quickly and spoiled 
their shooting, while, when the breechloader became popu- 
lar, there were a great many men who declared that the 
breechloader did not shoot nearly as hard as the muzzle- 
loader, and not only would not bring down game at great 
distances, but wotmded many birds at close range which 
went off to die and were never recovered. All this, of 
course, has long since been forgotten, but at the time 
these subjects were of great interest to men who shot. I 
think you will be perfectly safe if you choose a hammer- 
less gun, and are properly instructed in the way to handle 
it before you carry loaded cartridges out into the field to 
shoot. 
Your father or your uncle, or whoever chooses your 
gun for you, will no doubt see that it fits you, for you 
must know that it is quite as necessary to have your gun 
fit you as to have your shoes or your coat or any article 
of your clothing comfortable and well fitting. No two 
boys are built just exactly alike, and every boy ought to 
have his gun fitted to him. The stock must neither be 
too long nor too short, too straight nor too crooked. A 
boy with a long neck will require a gun with a crooked 
and a long stock, while a boy with a short neck and short 
arms may find a straight and rather short stock best for 
his use. You may have to try half a dozen guns before 
you find one that suits you. The test is this: Throw the 
gun up to your shoulder, bend your head and neck for- 
ward until your cheek almost touches the stock, and then 
look along the rib between the barrels and try to see the 
round knob of the sight over the breech of the gun. If 
just over the breech you can see that round knob 
naturally and without any effort of lifting up or putting 
down your head, the gun fits you, or nearly so. But if you 
can only see the breech and cannot see the knob at all, 
the stock is probably too crooked for you or perhaps too 
long. With such a stock you will be sure always to 
shoot under your birds. In trying to catch the sight you 
should not see any part of the rib between the barrels, 
merely the round knob of the sight over the breech. 
It riiay very well be that when you stand squarely and 
throw your gun up to your shoulder, looking along the 
barrel straight to the front, your face will come down 
very naturally and you will be able to see the sight with- 
out any eft'ort and just as you should. This is satis- 
factory as far as it goes, and you may believe that the 
gun fits you in this position. But this is not enough. 
Having found a gun that comes up just: right as you look 
to the front, turn your body to the left as you bring the 
gun to your shoulder, and point the barrels upward and 
to the left at an angle of forty-five degrees, and see if 
you catch the sight naturally in that position. Try sight- 
ing the gun looking in various directions, to right, left, 
upward in front and straight in front, and try to secure an 
arm that fits you in all these different positions. It may be 
that you cannot find one that is quite to your liking, but 
you may find one which suits you in two or three of 
these positions, and if you get such a gun you will have 
to make a little eft'ort to adapt yourself to it in the 
positions where it does not seeni to come up just as you 
feel it should. Select the gun. other things being equal, 
which comes nearest to suiting you, and if it comes up 
right in most positions you had better take that. 
Do not be discouraged or mortified if you cannot easily 
find a gun that fits you. It is better that you and your 
father or uncle and the salesman should take some time 
over the matter than that you should get a gun that 
you can use only with effort. With a gun which fits 
you it will be easy for you to learn to shoot. It may 
be very hard for you to learn with one that does not 
fit you. The friend who goes with you to choose the 
gun knows this as well as I do, I think, and he will prob- 
ably not be satisfied until a properly fitting gun has 
been found for you. 
Of course some one may say to you that the matter 
of having your gun fit you is not important, that it is 
important that a gun should fit a grown up man, yet, as a 
boy is constantly growing and changing in height and 
perhaps in length of arm and in other proportions, it is 
not so essential that the gun should fit him. People who 
say that are wrong.' If a boy begins to shoot with a 
gun that suits him, little by little, as he grows, he will 
unconsciously adapt himself to the gun, and will find 
that he can continue to shoot easily and effectively with it 
even after he has grown np. Do not be satisfied until 
you get hold of one that suits you. 
To-day the matter of choosing a gun is quite different 
frorn what it was thirty years ago. Nowadays guns 
are made almost altogether by mach{ner3r, and broadly 
it may be said that all guns by well-known makers are 
good, and that the statements of the salesman with re- 
gard to them may be accepted. Still, as a gun not quite 
up to the standard may occasionally get into the stock, it 
will be well for you to look closely at the fittings of the 
one you select, and to see that the iron and the wood 
everywhere come close together, so that there are no 
open joints through which water might leak. Notice 
carefully, too, that the lever works smoothly, and see to 
it especially that the two triggers have an equal pull. It is 
very disconcerting as well as dangerous to have the 
triggers pull off with different pressures. 
Each man who shoots has his own notion about how 
heavy the pull of his trigger should be. Many gunners of 
great experience recommend rather a hard pull of 6 
pounds — that is to say, a pull so hard that a string tied 
to the trigger and supporting a 6-pound weight will just 
free the hammer. It is not good for a boy, when he be- 
gins to use a gun, to have the triggers with a very light 
pull. At the same time you can readily learn to become 
accustomed to any light pull, but do not fail to see that the 
two triggers pull with the same pressure. 
The old-fashioned large square gun cases shaped some- 
what like long, low trunks and with room enough in 
them for a lot of tools and some cartridges, are not much 
used nowadaws. Instead, the more light and compact 
hand cases made of sole leather and with two com- 
partments — one for the barrels and the other for the 
stock — are more convenient and more generally used. It 
will be well, if practicable, for you to have one of these. 
You will also need a jointed cleaning rod, for which, per- 
haps, there is a pocket in the gun case ; but for your own 
use at home, I advise you to get a straight, slender strip 
of seasoned hickory wood, 5 or 6 inches longer than the 
barrels, and to have it dressed Ao^n to a size whicH 
will easily enter the barrel,, say half an inch in diameter. 
At one end the last 4 inches of this stick may be left 
larger than the diameter of the barrels, so as to form a 
handle that is easily grasped. Have the last inch and a 
half of the other end dressed down on both sides to a 
thickness of one-quarter of an inch and have a hole 
three-quarters of an inch long by one-quarter of an inch 
wide cut through the flat part of this end. Through this 
hole you can pass the rags which you will use in cleaning 
your gun. Besides these things you will need an oil 
can, which should be small and need not hold more than 
half an ounce of oil. 
When you get your gun home see that it is kept in a 
place free from dampness. It is well not to keep it on the 
ground floor, and perhaps there is no better place for 
it than your bedroom. If you are anything of a me- 
chanic you might make for yourself a pair of wooden 
hooks on which to hang the gun in its case, and also a 
box with a hinged lid, in which to keep your gun things. • 
This you might make large enough to hold a couple of 
hundred cartridges, but if you do this you must have a 
smaller inner box with a hook and staple for your gun 
rags, your oil can, the swabs and the wire brush, which 
screw on the jointed cleaning rod that you will need for 
cleaning the gun. A number of firms make very com- 
plete outfits of gun implements, and perhaps it will be 
simpler for you to buy one of these outfits, which are 
not very expensive, and then you will feel quite sure 
that you have everything that you need to keep the gun 
in good condition. 
There is one enemy to a good gun that is always on the 
watch and ready to do it harm. This is moisture, and 
this enemy has two allies which live in boys. Those 
allies ,{ire» carelessness and laziness. After using his 
gun, a boy may come home with every intention of clean- 
ing it at once, and just as he reaches the house he rnay 
see some friend who wants him to go off and do some- 
thing that seems particularly attractive. He is likely to 
rush upstairs put down his gun and run off to join his 
companion, thinking that when he comes back he will 
clean the gun, then when he returns he foi'gets about it, 
perhaps for two or three days, and when he goes to clean 
his gim iie finds that inside the barrel are some spots of 
rust that he cannot get out, and that perhaps have pitted 
the barrel so that it will never again be quite as bright 
as it was. This is the first victory gained by moisture, ' 
with the help of its friend carelessness. 
A boy who owned a good horse and did not remember 
to feed it and clean it would be thought a no-account- 
boy, and in the same way a boy who owns a good gun and 
is too careless or too lazy to take good care of it is rather 
a no-account-boy. W. G. De Geoot. 
American Wildfowl and How to 
Take Them.— XL 
BV GEORGE BIRD GRINNELL. 
{Continued from page 885.] 
American Widgeon, Bald-Pate. 
Anas Americana (Gmel.). 
The male bald-pate has the forehead and crown of the 
head white, margined on either side from the eyes to 
the back of the head by a broad band of metallic green, 
the two bands meeting behind and sometimes running 
a little way down the neck. The head in front of the 
eyes and the sides and upper neck are white, thickly 
dotted with black. The throat is nearly white; the lower 
neck, fore-breast, back and sides lavender or purplish- 
gray, sometimes quite rich. The feathers of the sides 
are cross-barred with fine lines of black; the back is 
finely waved with lines of paler, changing to distinct 
lines of blackish and white on the lower back; the upper 
and under tail-coverts glossy black; the tail brownish- 
gray; the wing-coverts broadly white, some of them 
tipped with black, so as to make a black bar across the 
wing. The speculum is green and black; the lower 
breast and belly white, which extends up on the sides of 
the rump. The bill is light bluish, with a black tip, and 
the feet are somewhat darker, with still darker webs. 
This is the color of the most highly plumaged males, 
and from this there are all gradations down to the much 
duller female, which entirely lacks the green head-patch, 
the large white wing-patch, and in which the speculum 
is very much duller, being merely blackish, with a white 
border in front. The general aspect of the female is 
streaked and speckled with blackish brown and whitish, 
becoming darker on the breast and sides of body. The 
upper parts are grayish and the under parts nearly white, 
the under tail-coverts being barred with black and white. 
Young males usually have the breast purplish-gray, the 
speculum brilliant, and traces of white wing-coverts. 
The bald-pate or widgeon is widely distributed through- 
out America and is found in winter as far south as 
Mexico and even Central America. It is an occasional 
straggler to Europe, but is found there only by accident. , 
At the present day it is merely a winter visitor to the.. 
United States, except in certain portions of the West, 
where a few widgeons may still breed on the high central 
plateau or on the flanks of the Rocky Mountains. It is 
not commonly found in New England, yet Mr. Board- 
man has reported it as found near Calais, Me., and it 
occurs occasionally on Long Island. Further to the 
south, however, in Chesapeake Bay and on the coast 
of North and South Carolina, it is a common bird in ' 
winter, occurring in great flocks and eagerly soughtj 
after for its flesh, which is very highly esteemed. 
The widgeons reach the United States usually in the 
month, of October, and great numbers of them winter 
in the Southern States. On the Atlantic coast they are 
constantly foimd associated with other species of fresh- 
water ducks, as well as with the canvasbacks and the 
red-heads. It is said that they especially seek the com- 
pany of the canvasbacks when these are feeding, and 
that they rob them of the grasses and celery which 
they bring up from great depths which the widgeons 
could never reach. At all events it is certain that they 
associate with the canvasbacks, and no doubt they feed 
largely on the leaves of the plants of which the canvas- 
backs eat the roots. Certain it is that at these tinies 
and in these places the flesh of the widgeon, is so ex- 
