March 21, 1903.I 
FOREST AND STREAM 
227 
and winged one on tlie rise, and that they were all 
scattered along the bushes on the banks of the creek. 
All of his sins were at once forgiven and he assumed 
the proportions of a "Prince Bountiful." 
Gilbert chose tbe left bank of the creek, Cook the 
right, so I was left to be the "ham in the sandwich," 
taking the middle of the creek on the ice, which was 
good walking, being covered with snow. 
Within 20 yards Gyp pointed on Gilbert's side, while 
at the same time Duke went down in front of me, 
along the edge of the ice. Gyp. had about ten birds 
which Gilbert flushed, getting a double, Cook and I no 
shot. I then flushed for Duke, raising a single, which 
I stopped; Cook no shot. About 50 yards further 
Gyp went down again, Duke backing, the birds, about 
six or seven, coming up through a thick clump of 
bushes, Cook and Gilbert each getting a single; my.self 
a double. The birds were then well scattered along the 
creek bank, which we followed up, getting some five or 
six more, making about fifteen in all, the last shot of 
the day being one of the finest I had ever seen. Pass- 
ing from the clump of small trees which lined the bank 
of the creek, on our way back to the team, Duke came 
to a point at the edge of the sorghum patch, which 
at that point was about 60 yards from the bank of the 
creek, about half the distance being clear (stubble), the 
remainder of the distance was covered thickly with 
small saplings. Cook and I decided to give Gilbert 
the shot, I went behind Duke to flush, while Cook 
dropped a little to the left, Gilbert announcing he was 
ready. The bird, upon rising, went straight for the 
creek bank, Gilbert missing both barrels, before the 
bird reached the timber. I was busy complimenting 
Duke on the grand manner in which he had closed the 
season, and looked up just in time to see Cook take 
a snap shot almost through the timber and fully 60 
yards distant (he shoots a 12 bore, 30-Inch barrel), 
and to my surprise saw the game go heels over head, 
Cook . and Gilbert both maintaining it was another 
miss. I sent Duke for the bird and saw him pick it up 
on the ice about the middle of the stream, the momen- 
tum having carried the bird fully 15 yards before reach- 
ing the ground. It was found to have three or four 
shot through his head. 
Within 20 minutes we were in the trap facing that 
18-mile drive home, each one declaring it was at least 
10 degrees warmer than it. had been an hour before. 
That little spurt of shooting had changed the entire 
mood of each of us, and we would then have been will- 
ing to have divided our last farthing with any one 
who might have asked, while not more than an hour 
before either would have been inclined to have shot 
any living being asking for a kindness, and all because 
we had been able to pit our skill against the "Little 
Brown Beauty" and win. 
That hunt has become a landmark in the lives of each 
of us, and up to the present time whenever two of that 
party meet, the afternoon of the last day of the season 
of 1902 is sure to be gone over again. 
In conclusion I wish to say for the benefit of some 
one who may read this and is interested in the pursuit 
of that most uncertain of all birds, that we have in this 
part of the State some very fine cover, very hard hunt- 
ing, but we protect the birds from the bad weather and 
wholesale slaughter of the pothunter, and that we have 
sufficient birds left over to insure good shooting next 
year, unless we have another very wet spring during 
the hatching season. 
In the shaping of our future game laws, an earnest 
ef?ort should be made to gag the hog hunter and the 
small boy on the farm with the figure 4 trap. 
W. E. Ogden. 
Legislation at Albany. 
Albany, March 14. — Game legislation has made con- 
siderable progress in Senate and Assembly during the 
week just ended. The most important development of the 
week's session was the action of the Senate committee 
in reporting out Senator E. R. Brown's bill to forbid 
spring shooting and its subsequent defeat by the Senate 
by a tie vote of 23-23, when it came up for final passage 
on Thursday. It is understood that an effort will be made 
later to resurrect the measure and pass it, although Sena- 
tor Bailey, of Long Island, its chief opponent in the 
Legislature, is sanguine that not enough votes can be 
obtained to save the bill. 
Progress of fish and game bills during the week may 
be noted as follows : 
The Assembly passed Assemblyman Whitney's bill. Int. 
No. 376, P. N. 947, relative to special close season for 
trout. 
The Assembly passed Bedell's bill, Int. No. 427, P. No. 
T,o6s, relative to close season for certain quadrupeds and 
birds in Orange county. 
The Senate committee reported favorably the following 
bills : 
Assemblyman McNair's, Int. No. 549, P, No. 620, rela- 
tive to the close season for squirrels. It was later ad- 
vanced to committee of the whole. 
Assemblyman Doughty's Int. No. 266, P. No. 782, legal- 
izing certain shell-fish leases. 
Assemblyman Denison's, Int. No. 371, P. No.' 728, rela- 
tive to close season for wild deer. 
Assemblyman Bridgman's, Int. No. 479, P. No. 526, 
relative to spearing fish in Otsego and Orleans counties' 
creeks. 
Assemblyman Doughty's, Int. No. 613, P. No. 693, rela- 
tive to the taking of pheasants; advanced to committee of 
the whole. 
Assemblyman Fowler's, Int. No. 1x6, P. No. 545, for 
the protection of fish in Chautauqua Lake; advanced to 
committee of the whole. 
Senator Armstrong's, Int. No. 305, P. No. 346, relative 
to close season for grouse in counties of Ulster, Sullivan 
and Greene. 
Senator AUds', Int. No. 507, P. No. 633, relative to wild 
birds. 
Senator Brackett's, Int. No. 4S7, P. No. 604, relative to 
fishing in Saratoga Lake and Lake Lonely; advanced to 
committee of the whole. 
Senator Bailey's, Int. No. 498, P. No. 615, relative to 
possession of trowt on Long 
Senator Townsend's, Int. No. 379. P- No. 4S0, relative 
to deer. 
Senator Goodsell's, Int. No. 261, P. No. 282, relative 
to fishing through the ice with tip-upS m Orange and 
Rockland counties. 
Senator Armstrong's, Int. No. 310, P. No. 351, relative 
to spearing fish in Seneca Lake; advanced to committee 
cf the whole. 
Senator Armstrong's, Int. No. 305, P. No. 346, relative 
to close season for grouse in the counties of Ulster, Sulli - 
van and Greene. 
Senator Armstrong's, Int. No. 307, P. No. 348, relative 
to the sale of venison. 
Senator Armstrong's, Int. No. 309, P. No. 350, defining 
the powers of game protectors in various counties; ad- 
vanced to committee of the whole. 
Senator Armstrong's, Int. No. 186, P. No. 190, relative 
to the destruction of illegal devices. 
The Senate has advanced to third reading Senator 
Armstrong's bill, Int. No. 303, P. No. 344, relative to close 
season' for quail. 
The Assembly has passed the following bills : 
Assemblyman Bedell's, Int. No, 462, P. No. 505, relative 
to fishing through the ice with tip-ups in Orange and 
Rockland counties. 
Assemblyman Bedell's, Int. No. 428, P. No. 453, relative 
to close season for trout in Orange county. 
Assemblyman Nichols' Int. No. 693, P. No. 812, relative 
to close season for grouse in counties of Ulster, Sullivan 
and Greene. 
.A.ssemblyman C. W. Smith's, Int. No. 886, P. No. 1104, 
relating to wild birds. 
Assemblyman Moran's, Int. No. 470, P. No. 517, rela- 
tive, to fishing for non-game fish in Cayuga Lake and 
tributary streams. 
A Wet Day's Ducking. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
Day dawned dull and gray, with rain falling in sheets, 
flooding the asphalt pavements until the gutters ran 
curb-full. Long before break of day I had been awak- 
ened by the drone of the downpour on the roof of the 
next block, several stories beneath the window of my 
room, perched like an aerie in the top of a tall build- 
ing. It was a blowing rain, driving with a good south- 
easter that promised more to come, and so I mentally 
shelved the duck shoot that I had planned for that day, 
and over a leisurely breakfast and the morning papers 
looked forward to a lazy Sabbath in loafing about the 
club. As often as the howling wind would tempt me to 
change my resolution, so often would the sight of the 
pelting rain hold me back. 
However, about noon the wind shifted to the south- 
west, and though it continued to blow a gale, the 
clouds began to break, the rain to cease and bits of blue 
sky appear. Then thoughts of the flying fowl, and 
mental pictures of a certain stretch of water, -with 
banks of ducks riding off the windward shore, made me 
glance repeatedly at my watch. The next train for the 
marsh left at i :40. An hour later would see me in a 
duck boat. 
In vain I tried to induce some one of my club friends 
to accompany me, in vain I argued as to the certainty 
of a good shoot. They simply pointed to the square 
bit of blue bunting, straining at the staff over the 
weather office across the street, snapping flat as a 
shingle in the teeth of the stiffening breeze — that meant 
continued rain they said, and — ^well, there were occa- 
sions when a crackling fire and spicy applejack were 
better than ducks and a probable wetting. 
But I pinned my faith on the bit of blue that flecked 
the gray heavens here and there, and was soon speed- 
ing coastward. 
No keeper was at the station to meet me, he little 
dreaming that any of the fellows would be down, so a 
half mile tramp to the cabin, across the rain-sodden 
fields followed, but the sight of wedges of ducks trad- 
ing back and forth lent energy to my steps. 
I found the keeper and some farmer folk sitting 
about the great open fireplace, in which logs of 
eucalypti blazed and crackled, and the former was loud 
in his protestations of the uselessness of going out 
upon the lake in the wind, which by this time had in- 
creased to a small hurricane, sweeping over the mesa 
and marshes with a force that made the willows hum 
and the tall tules lie flat over the water. 
"Why, Bob, you'll get nary a duck from the blinds. 
The birds is all in thet wilier swamp. They's millyuns 
uv 'em, but they can't be druv out with a cannon in 
this storm," said the keeper, a hearty old Maine ex- 
gume. with an equal disregard of His Majesty's Eng- 
lish and my high-flown hopes. Nevertheless, I donned 
canvas togs and boots, and then enveloping myself in 
a green "slicker" and an old "sou'wester," and gener- 
ously dabbing the metal parts of a Parker twelve with 
gunoleum, I launched a light MuUins duck boat and 
started on a half mile row to the nearest blind. 
There was a good sea running, for the wind had the 
sweep of the length of the lake, but as in going out I 
had the wind astern I got along famously, the little 
craft bobbing up serenely on the top of each miniature 
billow, and not shipping a cupful of water. It was not 
easy to set the decoys, but I managed to drop, over- 
board a couple of dozen or so in fair shape, where 
they bobbed about and tugged at their anchors in 
such an alarming way that I fear they did more harm 
than good. 
Unfortunately, the blind that I had selected was in 
a bunch of tules on the lee shore, and what birds came 
in circled over the other side and banked in the 
smoother water. I could see a great raft of them in 
the lee of a tule island, and after firing some half dozen 
shots I finally put several bands in motion, a few scat- 
tered birds from which offered me long, hard shots. 
After I had killed two successive teal, only to see 
them blown twenty yards to drop into dense tules back 
of me, never to be retrieved, I concluded to take only 
shots in front of me, where the birds would fall in 
open water,, 
The clouds were gathering again, and from across 
the lake I could hear the incessant chattering whistle 
of thp widgeon. Finally s pair of these birds swung 
by me at a good fifty-five yards. I did not allow 
sufficiently for the drift of the shot in the wind, and 
missed cleanly with the first barrel, but stopped a bald- 
headed, white-winged old drake with the second. _ I 
could only see him as a wave would lift him on its 
crest, and as the bird was fast drifting away I put out 
to get him. It was the toss of a coin whether I'd get 
the duck or a ducking, but I landed him finally, plump 
and heavy, and in the rather sporty garb of full plum- 
age. 
I concluded that I would have better chances in a 
makeshift blind on the windward shore, and after a 
hard pull at the oars I reached it, but the birds simply 
drifted further on down the shore, and I got practically 
no shooting. 
To the windward it was growing blacker than ink, and 
in a few moments the storm broke over me — rain, hail 
and rain, great bucketsful, while I sat there in a clunip 
of cockleburrs with the water pouring from the brim 
of my sou'wester. The wind was blowing so that I 
could see the spray dashing high in air across on the 
lee shore. Finally the heavy clouds passed on, and the 
sky overhead was blue once more. But to the leeward 
the inky blackness rolled. Then suddenly, as if painted 
by the mighty sweep of some celestial brush, sprang 
into vivid contrast with the dun background of drifting 
clouds the perfect arc of a most perfect rainbow. The 
colors of the chromatic scale stood forth in a double 
band, so clearly and with such enagaging vividness 
that it seemed a tangible thing, rather than a phantom 
built of rain mist and sunlight, and I imagined that 
there might be a pot of gold where that blazing arc 
touched the earth — ^for its either end sank into the 
rugged Sierras, where lodes of white quartz, full- 
veined with red gold, lie hidden, did we but know where 
to look for them. 
But I digress. The thought of the row back to the 
cabin, with the wind dead ahead, made me decide to 
beach the boat in the shelter of some grass and tramp 
back along the shore of the lake. Presently up sprang 
a pair of teal, and with a quick right and left I had the 
pleasure of bagging them both — a male and female' 
cinnamon, the azure wing coverts of the male glinting 
like a bit of the rain-washed sky, against the ruddy 
chestnut of his plump little breast. After all, what a 
pity to kill them. Perhaps this pair, with a premonition 
of approaching spring, were already beginning their 
tender courtship; perhaps — but anyway, they died to- 
gether. 
Before reaching the cabin I crossed a bit of marsh, 
and from the center of a little green islet a jacksnipe 
sprang with his inimitable quavering cry; the wind 
caught his little corkscrewing body and whirled him 
like a dried leaf, but the second charge of sixes that 
I sent after him sent him falling to earth like a phim- 
met. It was an old cock bird, as the exceeding rich- 
ness of the tan and chocolate markings on his penciled 
back proclaimed. As he lay on his breast on a bit of 
a tuft of emerald grass, in which the new-fallen rain 
still glistened, with his head thrown back, his wings 
extended and his barred tail spread in a last quivering 
convulsion of approaching Nirvana, he was a picture 
of one of the most beautiful and gamy of all our game 
birds. 
As I picked him up and stroked his feathers, prepara- 
tory to putting him in my pocket, a meadow lark 
sprang from a hedge of rushes, and turning his bright 
yellow breast, barred with jet, to the stinging wind, he 
shrilly caroled his song. I had almost a guilty feeling 
as I stowed scolopax in my pocket. Had the meadow 
lark seen, and was he singing Jackie's requiem? After 
all, scolopax had been just as free of wing, though not 
as silver-toned in point of voice, as the lark, and that 
only a short moment ago. And now — but he was good, 
and so was the strip of bacon! , 
Robert Erskine Ross,. 
Los Angeles, Cat, February. 
Of Nebraska Game Fields. 
Omaha, March 8. — The decidedly spring-like weather 
we have been having out here for the past two or throe 
days has brought the ducks and geese up from the south 
in large numbers, and it looks as_ if the flight was going 
to be a great one. Many hunting parties are already 
on the grounds, especially up the Missouri and out the 
Platte, for it is to the rivers the birds first resort out here 
in the early spring, as the lakes and sloughs and marshes 
in the sandhills country are yet locked tight in their icy 
tetters. The fact is, the whole prairie country from the 
river to the Wyoming foothills is covered with from one 
to two and a half feet of snow, and all the conditions are 
.vet decidedly wintry. There are many open holes, how- 
CA-er, along both the Platte and the Missouri and they are 
all swarming with birds, principally canvasbacks, red- 
heads and pintails. Geese are also unusually plentiful 
this spring, and several big kills have been made near 
Richmond's camp at Clark's and at Berryman's near 
Central City. Last evening the flight of canvasbacks 
and redheads up the Missouri valley was one of the most 
interesting spectacles seen here for many years, and hun- 
dreds of people were attracted to the bluffs to watch the 
streaming birds. From half past three until nearly dusk 
.the sky was a veritable network of dotted lines, and there 
must have been millions of birds passed up the river. It 
was the biggest flight I have ever witnessed here at this 
season of the year, and I think I keep about as close tab 
on the birds as any man in this western country. 
The trap shooters of Nebraska are much wrought up 
just now over the non-shooting pigeon bill that has been 
introduced in the Legislature, and the fi.ght between them 
and the contingent urging the passage of the bill has been 
a vigorous one. It looked at first as if it would go 
through with a rush, but it has been stood up until now 
the shooters are openly declaring that they have got it 
killed. There is also a fight on over another bill that was 
presented early during the session, a bill amending and 
changing our already excellent game law.s. -This bill has 
both its good and bad features and I regret to say that it 
is very likely to become a law. It fixes the open date for 
deer and antelope having horns from August 15 — fully 
two months too early— to November 15. Both animals 
should be prot^Qted perenqially. There probably is i\q\ 
