Kov. 24, 1900.J 
•FOREST • AND STREAM. 
40^ 
cellent that it cannot be distinguished from that of its 
larger and more famous companion. 
The widgeon is regarded as one of the shyest of our 
ducks. Of it Dr. D. G. Elliot, in his admirable book 
on the "Wild Fowl of North America," says: "The 
widgeon is one of the wariest of our ducks, suspicious 
of everything, and not only is unwilling to approach 
any spot or object of which it is afraid,, but by keeping 
up a continuous whistling alarms all the other ducks 
m the vicinity and consequently renders itself very dis- 
agreeable and at times a considerable nuisance to the 
sportsman. However, its flesh is so tender and palat- 
able and it is such a pretty and gamy bird that one is 
inclined to forgive many of its apparent shortcomings. 
The usual note of this duck is a low, soft whistle, very 
melodious in quality, and when on the wing the members 
oE a flock keep continually talking to each other in 
Lhis sweet tone as they speed along. They fly very rap- 
idly and usually high in the air in a long, outstretched 
line, all abreast, except perhaps the two ends are a little 
behind the center bird, who may be considered the 
leader. When only moving from place to place in the 
marsh, and but a short distance above the ground, they 
proceed usually without any order or regularity, remind- 
ing one sometimes of a flock of pigeons. The pinions 
CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 
AMERICAN WIDGEON. 
are moved with much quickness and the long primaries 
give a sharp-pointed shape to the wing that causes the 
birds to be easily recognized. Flocks composed of a 
number of widgeons and sprig-tails are often seen, and 
the combination is a very unfavorable one to a sportsman 
who may be hoping for a quiet shot at close range. 
"As the birds approach the decoys some widgeons will 
whistle and edge out to one side, as much as to say, 'It 
may be all right, but I don't like the looks of it,' and he 
will be followed by another suspicious member. Then 
the pintails become uneasy and begin to climb and look 
down into the blind, and the patient watcher sees the 
locks too often sheer off to one side and pass by. But 
should there be some birds present, as often happens, 
which are heedless of all warnings or suspicious titter- 
ings, and keep steadily on with the evident intention to 
settle among their supposed brethren, then, as they 
gather together preparatory to alight and the sportsman 
rises in his ambush, suddenly the air is filled with dart- 
ing, climbing birds, who shoot off in every direction, 
)ut generally upward as if the flock was blown asunder, 
and all disappear with a celerity that is astonishing, and, 
to a nervous sportsman, with results that are mortifying." 
Notwithstanding this watchfulness, widgeons often 
come very nicely to decoys, and a passing flock, espe- 
cially if it be small, may frequently be turned from its 
course by a low, soft whistle and will swing into the de- 
coys and drop in a series of beautiful curves until they 
are almost over them. Then, however, the gunner must 
Waste no time in selecting his bird and holding properly 
on it, for the widgeon is able to get out of danger with 
considerable speed. 
This species is extremely common in California, where 
it is eagerly sought after. In the Mississippi Valley 
region it is not so abundant nor so greatly esteemed, for 
there the mallard, on account of its greater size, is 
preferred. 
The breeding grounds of the widgeons include the 
whole of British America and Alaska, but its summer 
home is rather in the western portion of North America 
,ind away from the sea cOast. The eggs are creamy 
white in color. 
Among the names given, by Mr. Gurdon Trumbull, 
n his excellent work so frequently referred to, are green- 
leaded widgeon, bald-head, southern widgeon, Cali- 
ornta widgeon, white-belly and poacher. Other names 
ire bald-face, bald-crown, wheat duck and smoking duck. 
Weights of Some Jersey Quail for ^'Didymus. 
Toms River^ N. J., Nov. ig. — Two largest of Satur- 
day's bag, 7 ounces each_; two smallest. 5^/2 and SVi 
Jltnces, respectively. ' Heaviest two birds I ever shot and 
kVeighed tipped 8 ounces each, and believe there are more 
f that weight here. 
The Octotef Woodcfaft. 
The October number of the Game Laws in Brief and Woodcraft 
Magazine contains the game and fish laws of the United States 
ind Canada. The Woodcraft part has this capital list of con- 
.ents : 
RAN'THER HILL'S PA'TRIDGE. By Rowland E. Robinson. 
CN THE FOREST. 
CHE OLD CANOE. 
THE RESCUE OF MR. HUNDLEY. 
KELLUP'S ANNUAL. By Jefferson Scribb. 
OEACON THROPE'S PIGEONS. 
\NY LETTERS FOR ME? By H. P. Ufford. 
'EHOSSEE ISLAND. Bv Olive F. Gunby. 
FLORIDA INDIAN DEER HUNTERS. 
\T CLOSE QUARTERS: The Hen. S., the Plover and the Bull; 
A Nova Scotia Bear; The Panther's Scream; A Time with a 
Florida Alligator; The Owl's Swoop; The Dog Climbed. 
THE DOG AND THE TURKEY. By John Tames Audubon. 
SENATOR VEST'S SUNDAY PIGEON SItOOT. ■ 
WSTRALIAN ROUGH-RIDERS. By R. Boldrewood. 
Change in Western Shooting Situation. 
Chicago, 111., Nov. 17. — The current week has witnessed 
a great change in the shooting situation for this part of 
the country. The phenomenally mild fall has all at once 
become winter, and winter of no uncertain sort. In the 
upper peninsula of Michigan snow has fallen to a depth of 
2 feet. The same storm has been central along this longi- 
tude as far south as lower Illinois. On Tuesday we had 
heavy snow in the lake region, and the fall amounted to 
I or 2 inches as far south at Mattoon, 111. At Effingham, 
111., there was a sudden drop in the temperature and a 
very high wind on Tuesday, but no snow to amount to 
anything. There is no doubt whatever that the rough 
weather has set in for the season. It is good shooting 
weather, and healthier and heartier than the softer days 
of the mild October that has just past. The change in 
the weather has produced greater activity in the operations 
of our shooters, both of the marsh and the uplands. The 
duck shooters are looking for their last chances at the 
flight, and the quail shooters will welcome the cold, which 
will cut down the unusually heavy growth of vegetation 
that has thus far afforded a rather too abundant cover 
for the birds. 
The duck flight, such as it is, is as far south as the 
Meredosia Flats of the Illinois River. Mr. J. Grafton 
Parker and his son, J. Grafton Parker, Jr., report that 
they are having good shooting at the above locality this 
week. The birds should be in at Hennepin, and to some 
extent at Swan I-ake. In the main, however, the earlier 
predictiori of a light flight and a sudden one seems about 
to be verified. I cannot learn of any considerable shoot- 
ing in the Kankakee country. The ducks have acted in a 
most singular manner this fall. There was a heavy flight 
in over central and lower Wisconsin, and large numbers 
of birds were reported from Green Bay, on tlie west side 
of Lake Michigan, and also, singular to relate, from 
Charlevoix, on the east side of Lake Michigan. These 
birds have adopted a few fashions of their own. Where 
they have gone no one can tell exactly. 
Western Quail. 
Without question this is one of the greatest quail years 
we have ever had in this part of the country. It is only 
a question of dogs. Any one who has a really good bird 
dog can go out into inner Illinois, 100 miles south of 
here, and get a decent bag of birds any time from now 
throughout the next two weeks. A good many have been 
out and have brought back nice bunches of birds. Vic 
Cunyngham and Charlie Antoine are absent now on a 
week's shoot at Rochester, Ind. They are in one of the 
good quail countries, and will have a story when they 
come in. 
Billy Mussey is away on a little quail shoot at Milford, 
111., with one of Col. C. E. Felton's blue-blooded setters. 
He ought to have some fun, and perhaps get a few birds. 
Mr. R. B. Clark and his friend, Mr. Trotter, are back 
from a point they do not care to mention, with six or 
seven dozen birds. 
The mernbers of the Calumet Heights Club, located in 
the sand hills just below Chicago, are having good sport 
this fall,_ and to a most unexpected extent. It is no un- 
usual thing for them to put up half a dozen to a dozen 
bevies of quail in a day in those sand hills which, until 
recently, have been quite devoid of any game. Several 
bags of fifteen to twenty birds have been made on quail, 
and one day there were, six rufifed grouse brought in. 
Some years ago the club planted some quail in these hills, 
but they have never appeared in any considerable numbers 
until this fall. It seems that the quail have been doing 
exceptionally well everywhere this year. The shooting in 
these southern sand hills is very hard, the birds dis- 
appearing when they are once flushed, so there is every 
likelihood that a good stand of birds will be established 
in that country, now that a stock has been produced. 
Wild Turkeys in Illinois. 
I suppose it will be news to most folk to hear that there 
are any wild turkeys in the State of Illinois. Yet it is 
true that there were this week brought to the city three 
fine specimens of IlUnois wild turkey. They were killed 
in Alexander county, not far from Cairo, by the special 
car party of Mr. J. C. Windsor, last week mentioned as 
starting for a shooting trip in the South. 
The above party was made up by Mr. Windsor, man- 
ager of the Danville District Coal Company, who had 
with him the following friends: Messrs. L. D. Doty, of 
the Illinois Steel Company ; H. R. Lloyd, of the Milwau- 
kee & St. Paul R. R. ; N. S. Birkland and T. A. Hag- 
gerty,. all of Chicago; Stacy H. Van Valkenberg, of Dan- 
ville; W. H. Bonner, of Clinton, Ind. The car left 
on the C. & E. I. R. R. on Tuesday, Nov, 6, and the 
first stop was made at Kinmundy, 111., where a bag of 
seventy-eight quail was made. This is an ideal quail country, 
and the birds are very abundant, though the cover is pretty 
rough and the shooting none too easy. From Kinmundy 
the car was dropped down to Tamm. 120 miles south, 
where the party was met by Mr. David Saxton, formerly 
of the British army, but now superintendent of the 
3,600-acre farm of Mr. Tamm, of St. Louis. Mr. Saxton 
entertained the party royally at this point, and the quail 
shooting was found to be superb. On the next day, Thurs- 
day, the car was dropped down a short distnacc below 
Tarnm, to a point where there is any amount of quail, 
squirrels, etc., to say nothing of a horseshoe lake where 
later in the fall mallards are very abundant. The party 
started in to shoot quail here, but were told by the local 
guide. Mr. R. Y. Shook, that they could get some wild 
turkeys if they cared to hunt for them. They agreed to do 
this, and finally located the range of the birds in a 
tract of virgin forest of about 3,000 acres in extent. They 
not only learned that the turkeys were there, but put 
them up on different occasions, at one time flushing a 
flock of fifteen of these great birds. They also saw a 
roost, but did not stop to take advantage of this discovery. 
Such birds as thev got were knocked down on the wing 
after being flushed. There were six birds knocked down, 
but three of them were crippled and managed to get awav. 
The party brought back three fine ones, and naturally felt 
somewhat elated. Mr. T. A. Haggerty, who gives me 
these facts, says that Alexander county is a grand shoot- 
ing region. Their hunt was made only three miles from 
the Mississippi River, and on the sand bars of that stream 
it is no unusual thing to find large numbers of wild 
geese. The party will make another trip in about three 
weeks to the same country, I see no reason in the world 
why I should not cheerfully promise to go along. 
Jasper County Club, 
Mr. C. S. Dennis opened the season on Nov. 10 on 
the grounds of the Jasper County Club, near Wheatland, 
Ind. He shot with Charlie Seidler, the club keeper, and 
the two killed forty-two birds in two days. Mr. Dennis 
reports abundance of birds on the preserve. Mr. W. L. 
Wells and Mr. J. V. Clark will accompany Mr. Dennis 
to the club next Tuesday. 
Indian Summer in Tennessee. 
Mr. Sam B. Dow is kind enough to write some interest- 
ing notes regarding Forest and Stream topics in his 
locality, dating his letter from Knoxville, Tenn. Beauti- 
ful indeed must be his part of this big and beautiful 
America in these Indian summer days. I wonder if all 
good Tennesseans of to-day know the once fatal sig- 
nificance of the term Indian summer? To-day it is the 
chosen time of the sportsman's year, but once it was the 
dread of every settler on the streams of Kentucky and 
Tennessee. The dim haze allowed the Indians to make 
their incursions secretly and with safety, and many a 
family found its end in death and desolation at that 
treacherous time, which now we hail as the pleasantest 
season of the year. But Mr. Dow must speak of Ten- 
nessee matters as they are to-day. 
"We are now in the midst of our east Tennessee Indian 
summer, he says, "and in my experience of traveling 
from coast to coast and from Maine to the Gulf, I am yet 
to experience such days as we have here during the 
period known as Indian summer. Other sections may 
have their Indian summer days, but we are always ready 
to back ours at a 2 to i shot as against any other section 
m the United States. Who would not after having 
spent such a day as this one, where one can go out for 
an afternoon walk or drive, and be so entirely comfort- 
able in a flood of golden sunshine that lights up a 
thousand hills and valleys, and beyond them the great 
Smokies on one side and the Cumberland Mountains on 
the other? A look in any direction will show the green 
second growth of buds creeping out among the count- 
less millions of red, yellow and golden leaves that tell of 
the approaching winter which makes itself felt to us 
rarely ever before Christmas. 
"I have lived here since 1864, with the exception of 
about seven years spent in Texas, South Carolina and 
Horida, three years of which was spent in camping on 
the Florida east coast, and many were the days of fine 
sport I enjoyed while there. 
"I hunt more or less each year as business permits, and 
trom all reports this is to be the banner season for 
quail, there having been no beating rains or hard storms 
during the past breeding season to destroy the little 
chicks. If I could accept all the invitations received it 
would require every day in November to meet them 
One old friend says : 'You have been promising for years 
to come out and shoot with me. I am not going to let 
you off this year. I have fifty coveys of birds on my 
tarm, and I want you to come out and let me prove it ' 
Another said T will guarantee to show you twenty 
coveys a day. What more does a man want? About all 
the farm,s are posted, keeping out the pot-hunters and 
darkies. I Ins, with our law prohibiting trespassing, saves 
thousands of birds that would otherwise be destroyed 
every year, so during the next four months beginning with ' 
iNov. I i anticipate some excellent sport. 
"Two years ago our gun club succeeded in having a 
law passed by the Legislature making it a penalty to net 
or trap birds or ship them out of the State, and now 
since we have the Lacey law passed by the late Congress 
to help us, we hope to make our game laws doublv 
ettective, and I think every sportsman in the land should 
make it his particular business to uphold the very letter 
at that law, and thereby help its effectiveness. 
l^our years ago, with the assistance of our gun club I 
purchased one and a half dozen Mongolian pheasants and 
had them put out on the foothills of the Smoky Moun- 
tains on protected and posted land, and we had a State 
law passed, effective for five years, making it a penalty 
•.t7^^j ^° caught with one of those birds 
either dead or alive, and at the May and September terms 
of the court we have furnished the judge with copies 
ot that law, with the result that he charges the Grand 
Jury to examine all witnesses on same and order the 
stierifts to post copies in public places. Now almost everv 
man, woman and child knows what it means to kill or 
capture one ot these birds. A year or so ago a boy 
caught one and brought it to town. A deputy sheriff saw 
him trying to sell it, and warned him that such action 
would either cost him $25 or a sentence to jail, and that 
the bird must be returned to where it was caught and 
liberated. Ihe deputy went with the boy and saw that it 
was done. From all reports, it seems that these birds 
have done remarkably well and are multiplying rapidly 
and spreading over a considerable territory, many having 
been seen m the big mountains twenty miles from where 
first put out. A gentleman told me of having found a 
nest of forty-one eggs and another of twenty-one eggs, all 
of which hatched, he having afterward seen the young 
chicks._ The chmate is favorable to their increase and 
there is an abundance of food, and this is the nearest 
railroad point. Even were the law out, I do not believe 
they could be exterminated, but to try and establish them 
on a larger scale we are going to petition the Legisla- 
ture to extend the law for five years, with perhaps fifteen 
to twenty days open season in November or December of 
each year of this extension. 
"After coming to this town in 1864, I took a boat and 
went by rail to a point where the road crosses the French 
±s road River and floated about 100 miles to Knoxville 
duck shootmg. I was urged by friends not to make the 
trip, told that I would never get back alive, would be 
swept by the tide over dams, run into fish traps set 
swamped in the rapids and have all" sorts of mi.shaps that 
would probably cost me my life, so my efforts to get a . 
tnend to accomoany me were all in vain. I was laughed 
at by some and termed a fool by others. However I " 
persuaded an old river man to accompany me, and for 
