March 23, igoi.] 
FOKEST AND STREAM. 
231 
Wail-Eyed Perch? 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
In some of the very pleasant cliats which you and I 
have had in the past few years, you have, as I recollect, 
expressed a very strong wish that we should have a cor- 
rect nomenclature of our fishes, but your hopes have never 
been realized, and I fear that they never will be so long 
as everybody who may be in a little brief authority under- 
takes in his ignorance to classify our fishes, and yet it has 
been done and is being done to a lamentable extent. 
I refer particularly to the pike {Esox lucius), known to 
pur ancestors over a hundred years . ago and known to 
us. 
I will refer to only two authorities. In 1770 R. Brooks, 
M. D., published a book in which he refers to this fish as 
being then known by the name of "pike," "luce" or 
"pickerel," and Sir William Jardine in his book No. 3 on 
fishes, published in 1854, referring to the Esox lucius, 
simply calls it the common "pike," that is the generic 
name, and whatever distinctions are sought to be made 
a pike is a pike and nothing but a pike. 
Last summer I received a circular from a noted fishing 
resort in the upper part of the State, sa3'ing that there 
was fine fishing for bass and pike; and when I reached 
there I found that there were very few pike {Esox 
lucius), and that the term pike meant wall-eyed pike, 
which had to be fished for in water about 100 feet deep. 
To me it made no difference, as I fished or\\y for bass, but 
many others were sadly misled, as they hoped to catch tlie 
common pike. 
If you will turn to the reports of the Fish Commis- 
sioners of this State, you will find that a large numbei' of 
"pike-perch" have been, or will be, distributed in this 
State. 
Why this name should have been applied to this fish 
can be ea,sily understood, for although according to the 
United States authorities the wall-eyed pike is a pure 
perch, yet the resemblance to the pike family is so great 
that ignorant persons may have regarded it as belonging 
to that family, but why our Fish Commissioners should 
adopt the name of pike-perch is past comprehension. 
In Lake Champlain this fish is called a pike, in the 
St. Lawrence and in Canada a wall-eyed pike, on the 
Ohio River a jack salmon, and by our Fish Commis- 
sioners a pike-perch, a name by which it- has never been 
known in many parts of this State or Canada. It would 
not be a misnomer to call this fish a wall-eyed perch. 
J. S. V. C, 
PouGHKEEPSiE. N. Y., March 8, 
The Sale of Fish in Close Season. 
Canandaigua, N. Y., March i6. — Our Fish and Game 
Protector showed me to-day three fish that he had pur- 
chased in this village. They were exposed for sale at a 
meat market. If I am not very much mistaken they were 
small-mouth bass. They did not look to me precisely like 
our small-mouths, but I have never been a close observer, 
and as they were not in first class condition and as I have 
never seen bass from other' waters, I dislike to be too 
positive. 
However, I feel safe in saying that thej' were black 
bass. They were between ten and eleven inches long and 
were evidently full of spawn. 
The protector said that a large number of the fish were 
on sale and that the dealer told him that they were sent 
to him from Baltimore, Md., which statement we have ho 
good reason to doubt. 
But whether they came from Maryland or whether they 
came from the waters of this State, it seems to me to be 
the logical and inevitable result of the decision of our 
Court of Appeals in the case of the People vs. Buffalo 
Fish Co., in which the majority of a divided Court con- 
strues the word "possessed" as referring only to fish taken 
from the waters of this State. 
If large numbers of these bass, full of spawn, are sent 
from Baltimore into a village of this size, the numbers 
that are being sent into- larger villages and cities can only 
be guessed at. And what protection are our game fish to 
derive from laws that malve our State a dumping gromid 
for similar fish of another State, whether they be taken by 
fair means or foul, and regardless of the approach of their 
spawning season? 
And what have the anglers of Baltimore and vicinity to 
say about this wholesale sacrifice of this fine fish? 
Or is it possible that these fish have been taken in near- 
by waters of this State and that the aforesaid decision is 
now bearing its fruit in this no less logical and inevitable 
way? Who can sa}^? 
Judge O'Brien's opinion, vigorous and admirable 
though it be in many respects, and for anything I can say 
in all respects,, has been, I believe, a blow to fish and 
game protection here and elsewhere from which it can 
never recover until the Legislature has passed a law 
making the word "possessed," or Avhatever word is made 
use of, refer to fish and game of certain kinds the world 
over and until it has been decided once for all that such 
a law does not in any way interfere with interstate com- 
merce. F. A. C. 
Pike and Pickerel, 
Paterson, N. J., March 12. — Editor Forest and Stfeam: 
Will you kindly decide the following question: 
What is the difference between a pickerel and a pike? 
A claims that one is overshot and the other is undershot. 
B claims that they are one and the same fish. B. S. 
[The claim made by A is wrong. Both fish are under- 
shot. The claim made by B is wrong. The two fish are 
distinct. 
An unfailing method of determining whether a fish is 
a pike or a pickerel is found in the scales on the gill 
covers of the fish. The gill covers, of course, lie im- 
mediately behind the head and over the gills of the fish. 
In the pike, small scales are found on these gill covers 
reaching about half-way down the uppermost and deepest 
of them. In the pickerel, the whole of this uppermost 
and deep gill cover and the whole of the narrow one 
next below it is covered with scales. If you remember 
this distinction you will never go wrong on the fish. 
The pike sometimes grows to weigh about fifty pounds, 
and often weigh? 7, 10. 12 or more. A pickerel is much 
smaller, averaging perhaps from Ij^ to 2j4 pounds, and 
one of 5 pounds is a large fish. If you refer to the first 
annual report of the Commissioners of Fisheries, Game 
and Forest of the State of New York, for the year end- 
ing Sept. 30, 1895, you will find on page 121 an article 
by A. N. Cheney, with figures, showing tlie differences 
in the gill covers of mascalonge, pike and pickerel. See 
also our next week's issue.] 
MmmL 
Training the Hunting Dog, 
By B. Waters, Author of "Fetch and Carry: A Treatise 
on Retrieving." 
XIV.— Dropping to Shot and Wing. 
DR0PPi>fG to shot or wing are terms which denote that, 
at the rise of the bird or birds or the report of the gun. 
the dog drops instantly to the ground. It is much more 
ornamental than useful, and besides has some distinct 
disadvantages. There are many sportsmen who set an 
exaggerated value on what may be lernied the embellish- 
ments of training; such as quartering, dropping to shot 
and wing, toho, etc., and who profess to take more pleas- 
ure from the manner in which the dog performs than 
m the material results of his efforts. The main purpose 
of the dog's service, however, is one of utility; the em- 
bellishments, though desirable, hold a secondary place. 
Living pictures, wliile not unpleasant to look upon, are 
not the main purpose of a man with a gun. If, therefore, 
the dog is a good and ixseful servant, and yet possessed 
of little style, he is far superior to a stylish nonentity. 
While it is a matter of constant recurrence that the 
shooter finds it necessary to order the dog to lie down 
on certain occasions in the hunting field or at home, so as 
to prevent his interference, to stop his prowling, or to 
make him cease hunting, yet it is not desirable that he 
be made to drop in a machine-like manner when there 
is no real occasion for if. The contention that it puts a 
more artistic finish to the dog's work and is a deterrent 
to breaking shot and chasing and breaking in is a matter 
of pure fancy. It comes under the head of a trick per- 
formance, much as if the dog were to turn a summer- 
sault at the report of the gun, and is almost as irrelevant. 
There is nothing in the rise of the bird or the report 
of the gun that can be usefully supplemented by the drop 
of the dog, nor is the act of special importance as a pre- 
ventive of shot breaking, breaking in or chasing. If the 
dog is unsteady, he does not drop to wing in practice, 
whatever he may do in theory. 
The enforcement of steadiness to shot and wind is one 
of the easiest parts of the dog's training to compass, and 
it is infinitely much easier to teach than it is to teach 
the dog to drop to shot or wing. 
The disadvantages encountered in teaching it and after 
it is taught, are that, some punishment being necessary 
in its enforcement, there is danger that the dog un- 
wittingly may be taught to blink or to be gunshy, or 
both. 
The punishment, being directly associated with the 
report of the gun and the rise of the bird, at a juncture 
when the mind of tlie dog is intensely concentrated on 
the birds and his every desire centered in their capture, 
is by him lilcely to be interpreted erroneously. He may 
consider that he has won the disapproval of his master, 
and has been punished for meddling with the birds at 
all. 
If at the report of the gun he is punished for failing to 
lie down, he is quite likely to consider the report as a 
signal for punishment for some cause of which he is 
entirely ignorant, or for no cause at all. 
In cold rainy weather, when the ground is muddy oi' 
saturated with cold water, or when there is ice and snow, 
no sportsman who has a right heart would care to force 
his dcg to lie down merely to gratify a fancy. 
In briers and thorns it is often painful for the dog 
to drop. 
Sometimes, if the dog flushes in cover, or at a dis- 
tance from the shooter, where he is out of sight, he will 
lie a long time in the dropped position waiting for the 
order to go on. 
Not infrequently it happens that the dog, after a time 
of rigid schooling to dropping to wing, anticipates the 
rise of the bird from every noise which he happens to 
hear, or from the act of the shooter in walking up to 
flush, and therefore drops before the bird takes wing. 
By degrees he becomes more deferential, dropping safely 
before the bird rises at all, and in time dropping to 
wing in anticipation degenerates into dropping on point, 
a most, undesirable manner of pointing. 
Dropping to point adds greatly to the difficulties of 
the shooter in reference to the dog, for the latter must 
then be watched unceasingly. If he happens to drop when 
the shooter does not see him, a long search to find him 
may thereby be entailed, and indeed he may not be found 
on point at all, it being necessary to whistle or call him 
from if. A little cover suffices to conceal a dog when 
he is lying down. 
When dropped to shot, it is impossible for a dog, lying 
down, to mark the flight of live birds or the whereabouts 
of dead birds with the precision that he can do so when 
standing up. The marking of birds is an accomplish- 
ment which all dogs do not possess, it is true, but never- 
theless it is a most useful accomplishment, and much to 
be desired. 
The manner of teaching the dog to drop to shot and 
wing must be governed much by his disposition. If he 
is exceedingly timid, intelligent care should be exercised. 
In any event, he should be taught to drop promptly and 
cheerfully to order, apart from an}"- considerations of 
dropping to wing or shot. The yard training in this 
respect should be specially thorough when the trainer 
contemplates making it a part of the work on game. 
Dropping to shot should be made a part of the yard 
training. It is taught in precisely the same manner that 
the oral command and signal are taught. In teaching 
the dog to drop to command, with the aid of the whip. 
the trainer should observe the greatest care to hit the 
clog in the same place each time, as on the shoulder. 
When he feels his shoulder thus hit, he will drop in- 
stantly, after he is schooled properly. Indeed, after a 
time he will drop when his shoulder is merely touched. 
It in its way is recognized as an imperative command, for' 
the threat of the whip closely supplements it. 
Heavy charges of powder arc unnecessary in the les- 
sons. An old pistol^ using percussion caps is quite suffi- 
cient. The trainer, with a checkcord five or six feet long, 
leads the dog about, snaps a cap at a favorable juncture, 
taps the dog on the shoulder as aforementiond, and en- 
forces obedience to the report in the same manner as if 
it were an oral order. This is repeated, lesson after 
lesson, till the dog will drop promptly to the report. The 
lesson should be given kindly and pleasantly. It can be 
conducted without filling the do,g with terroi", and the 
consequent desire to escape or fear of the gun. Common 
sense on the part of the teacher is essential to determine 
how the lessons should be conducted. Under no cir- 
cumstances .should the trainer attempt this part of the 
dog's education, if he shows the least degree of gun shy- 
ness, nor is it wise to attempt enforcing it in the field, if 
he has any faults which require punishment to correct 
them. 
Dropping to wing should be kept in abeyance till the 
latter part of the dog's field education; in the early part 
l:here are complications enough without importing any 
unnecessary extra ones. 
_ It is taught at first by ordering the dog to drop every 
lime that a bird is flushed within his sight or hearing, 
whether he pointed it or not. The trainer endeavors also 
to take advantage of every opportunity which presents 
itself in the furtherance of his purpose, such as, for in- 
stance, walking up beside the dog when he is on point, 
flushing the bird then, and at the same time giving him 
a cut cn the shoulder w:ith the whip, as when teaching 
him to drop in the yard lessons. The trainer, however, 
should avoid the extreme of making himself too much 
of a factor in the rise of the bird, else the dog will drop 
when he is approached, in anticipation, of being forced 
to drop a moment or two later. By many impressive 
repetitions of the act in conjunction with the rise of the 
bird,_ the dog in time comes to recognize the first sound 
of wings as an order to drop. 
Patience and careful progres should be observed in 
giving these lessons. If there is too much hurry or 
violence, it is quite an' easy matter to injure the dog's 
work in other respect. 
When a dog is over fatigued it is not wise to enforce 
dropping to shot or wing too strictly. He may find it 
such a comfortable position that it is to his liking. When 
greatly fatigued, dogs, when standing on point for a long 
while, learn to drop on their intitiative, and from this as 
a beginning they may learn to drop on their points 
habitually. Once acquired, there is no way of remedying 
the fault. 
100 Sportsmen's Tinas. 
Some of the Queer Discoveries Made by Those Who Are 
Looking for Game or Fish. 
48 
A press dispatch from Shamokin, Pa., dated March 8, 
jgoi, reports that hunters while returning home to Tre- 
verton were jwssing Line Mountain when they saw a 
half-naked man run into a cave. They tried to get him 
out, but he would not leave his lair. The men pursued 
their journey and notified a lot of farmers, who visited 
the cave this morning and built a fire at the entrance to 
smoke the stranger out. In a short time the man crawled 
from the entrance. He was half naked. His face was 
covered with a thick bunch of hair, making him look 
n;ore like a beast than a human being. He is insane. 
The Overseers of Washington Township took him in 
charge and will send him to the DanvHle asylum. There 
was nothing in the rave to indicate who he is. It is 
thought that in crossing the mountains he lost his way 
and grew insane from cold and hunger. 
49 
An old salt of N ew Bedford says that once when he 
was one of the crew of the revenue cutter Dobbin, 
stationed at Castine, Me., the Hon. Hannibal Hamlin, 
widi a party of friends, was taken on a cod fishing trip 
ofi- Mount Desert. The venerable Senator was inexperi- 
enced in hauling the fish on board, and they invariably 
jerked the hook out of their mouths before he could get 
ihem over the side of the vessel. He complained to the 
captain, who ordered the old salt to get a file of the 
carpenter and put a better point on the hook. As the 
sailor was returning aft, a large cod, which had just been 
landed, opened wide its jaws, and the sailor stuck the file 
in his mouth to see him bite. The cod closed his jaws 
on the man's hand, who let go, and the file slipped into 
the fish's stomach. Half an hour afterward the steward, 
in cleaning the fish, brought to light the old file. His 
exclamation of surprise sent Mr. Hamlin to his side, who 
called his friends and all the officers to see what had 
been discovered. ''That old file must have been there for 
years," he said. "Plow much will you take for it?" he 
inquired of the steward. Being assured that he was wel- 
come ot it, he gave the steward a dollar for the curiosity. 
50 
While John Cronan and Joseph Flynn, of Belleville, 
N. J., were hunting for 'possums in Crane's woods at 
Forest Hill, they tracked one of the animals to a hollow 
tree trunk._ They set to work to make the opening larger, 
and in doing so pulled out a quantity of silverware. It 
mcluded a solid silver, cake plate, a long-handled soup 
ladle and ten teaspoons, all of which were wrapped in a 
brown paper and rewrapped in a newspaper dated last 
November. They took the articles to their homes and 
notified the authorities. The hollow trunk lay near the 
Morris Canal. 
-> 5J 
About an ounce of pure gold was found in the crop 
of a quail killed near San Diego, Cal. It was in small 
piece.s, mixed in with a lot of sand and gravel. 
