Nov. 15, T902J 
FOREST AND ^ STREAM. 
887 
Michigan Brush and Marsh, 
Hartford, Mich., Nov. S— Editor Forest and Stream: 
The quail season opened here with a fair showing of 
birds, but a great many are undersized. Your corre- 
spondent got eight the first day. But few birds have been 
killed. There are few trained dogs m this vicinity. I 
wish to tell you of my experience in killing a ruffed 
grouse the other day ; it was marvelous. Grouse are very 
scarce in this locality, therefore when we get one_ we 
consider it a prize. While I was out shooting quail a 
startled grouse flew almost through my hair; not having 
time to shoot until it had passed me, I turned, but could 
not shoot until it was out of range. Soon after I shot I 
heard another gun, which shot from the same direction I 
saw the bird fly. and followed my shot so closely I Imew 
it was meant for the same bird. Going over the crest of 
the hill where I had heard the gun, I found it was a latly 
huntress, Mrs. Nina Moore, of Ha-rtford. She said she 
Iiad shot at the grouse and missed it. She said it flew 
so close to her she could have clubbed it with her gun 
and might have killed it that way. She pointed out to 
me where the bird had gone down in the brush,_ some 
forty rods distant, and I started, determined, if possible, to 
flush the grouse. Not having my dog with me, I knew 
it was a matter of chance, as when they have flown so far 
the birds will lie very close. When I arrived as near as 
I coitld calculate to the place where the bird lit. I found 
the brush very thick and plenty of logs, but grasping my 
gim with a firm hand, T started into the brush, hoping to 
flush the bird, and if flushed, to shoot, hit or miss. As 
good luck would have it, I had not taken five steps into the 
brush, before whirr went the grouse from almost under 
my feet. A shot rang out instantly, and that grouse lay 
fluttering in the grass without any head. That is what I 
call first-class luck. I do not remember ever kilhng a 
bird, of which the thug of the fall gave me more pleasure 
than did the fall of that grouse. And I instantly thought 
of the controversy going on in Forest and Stream as to 
what constitutes sport. I know that the writers are 
friendly, and I think each one believes what he advocates, 
but I have killed many a wild turkey and many a deer 
that dressed 250 pounds, and I know that the pleasure of 
killing that grouse was as great as it would have been had 
it been a 200-pound deer. So I thought of the poets 
comments on the "Difference in Opinion" ; 
"Do not tnock your neighbor's weakness when his random whims 
yon see. 
For perhaps he something like it every day beholds in thee. 
Every mortal has his hobby. It may foolish seem to you. 
But remember, bright or simple, you have got your hobby, too." 
So, with these friendly writers for the Forest and 
Stream, both are right, and I love to read the discussion. 
It may interest the readers of your paper to know what 
the duck shooting is in some parts of Michigan. Harry 
Sotile, of Syracuse. N. Y., is the Nestor of the Monroe 
Shooting Club; he is seventy-three years old, and every 
season finds him on hand ready for the huntmg season 
to open. Yesterdav he was feeling particularly frisky, and 
he started out to break the single-gun record, and he did 
it Avithout turning a hair. When he returned to the club 
house after his day's shooting, he carried with him ninety- 
eight ducks, eighty-two of which were canvasbacks. 
Ducks were never known to be so plentiful on the club s 
preserves as they are this season, but the pot-hunter had 
better keep at a "safe distance, as the marsh is guarded at 
all points. More than 300 ducks have been killed by the 
members of the cltib this week. This report is just one 
week late. , < , 
'Coon are very plentful. Ernest Tyler caught a coon 
on the Paw Paw River the night before last which weighed 
twentv-eight pounds. Sullivan Cook. 
Woodcock and Wood Duck. 
Ottawa, Canada. — Editor Forest and Stream: _ Sports- 
men worthy of the name are lamenting the vanishing of 
the woodcock and the wood duck, not only in the United 
States, but in Canada. The woodcock is to be found in 
eastern Manitoba, along both sides of the Great Lakes 
and the St. Lawrence, and in the Ottawa Valley— m fact 
all the way up the St. Lawrence River to the Gaspe 
Peninsula. In Rensselaer county (New York State), a 
law has been passed rendering the shooting of woodcocK 
illegal before 1903, and if this creditable example were 
to be generally followed throughout the region in- 
habited by the woodcock, there could be no question as 
to the result. Such action on the part of the Northern 
States would have the co-operation of Ontario, which 
has a law empowering it to act with two or more of the 
States lying to the south of that Province (one of such 
States being either New York, Pennsylvania or Michi- 
gan) in prohibiting for a period all hunting, shooting and 
sale of any migratory bird that appears to be m danger of 
extinction. In fact. New York has recently taken steps 
looking to the establishment of such co-operation as the 
Ontario Legislature have suggested on this- point. Unless 
sportsmen and others especially interested will take this 
matter in hand and secure proper legislation for the bet- 
ter protection of the woodcock, future generations will 
have cause to grieve over the loss of one of the finest 
game birds that ever graced a covert. _ 
The wood duck is found from Nova Scotia, New 
Brunswick and Ontario, westward to British Columbia, 
and southward through the United States to its southern 
border and Cuba. It is rather uncommon in the eastern 
Canadian Provinces, but in parts of Manitoba and British 
Cohmibia it is abundant. In the Saskatchewan region 
it has been found as far north as latitude 54. and on the 
west shore of Hudson Bay as high as latitude 60, but it :s 
rare north of the fiftieth parallel. Happily, to their credit 
he it stated, the three Canadian Provinces of Manitoba, 
Ontario and New Brunswick, and seven States of the 
Union (New Hampshire, Vermont. Michigan, Wiscon- 
sin, Minnesota. Utah and California), by closing the sea- 
son before Feb. i, have aboHshed the spring shooting of 
wood duck within their borders. It is regrettable that 
sueli States as Iowa, the Dakotas, Montana, Wyoming 
and Colorado, which contain large breeding grounds, 
sliould be among the number that extend the open season 
to April Or later.' Birds arc more easily and more com- 
pletely destroyed on the breeding grounds than on areas 
which they mereiy jpji_ qtver during migration ; for when 
the breeding season arrives and the nesting site is chosen, 
birds become less shy and more inclined to remain in the 
neighborhood, so that gunners (the term _ "sportsman" 
cannot be used in this connection), while in search for 
late migrants, have little difficulty in killing all the wood 
ducks that are to be found. Sportsmen willing to deny 
themselves a little present .sport for the sake of future 
gain to themselves and posterity should spare no efforts 
to save and restore this beautiful bird. If spring shoot- 
ing were abolished the wood duck would gradually return 
to its old haunts, and by degrees re-establish itself, to the 
joy of all sportsmen and the satisfaction of all lovers of 
nature. 
-1^ 
W. H. Coard. 
CHICAGO AND THE WEST. 
Northern Flight is Down. 
Chicago, III., Nov. 8. — The northern flight of big ducks 
is at last down along this parallel of latitude, and if we 
are to have shooting tliis fall it will be within the coming 
week. Indeed, we have already had shooting, good shoot- 
ing, and lots of it. for the last week. The reports from 
the Kankakee country near Water Valley. Shelby, etc., say 
that the sport there early in the present week was as 
good as has been known there for twenty years. This 
flurry of shooting came in unexpectedly and very quickly, 
and was no doubt attributable to the change of the weather 
from fair to rainy and stormy. The last two days were 
bright, and it is hardly to be supposed that the duck' 
shooters who went out the middle of the week have had 
any very heavy shooting. Those who went down Sun- 
day and Monday last were the lucky ones. Eddie Bing- 
ham and Frank Bissell were down to Water Valley on a 
sort of loafing trip and didn't get out until after 11 o'clock, 
but between them picked up over fifty ducks._ Tom Mc- 
Coy, of Rensselaer, Ind.. with his pusher, killed ninety- 
.£iix birds one dav, most of them big ducks, this latter be- 
ing the heaviest fall bag of ducks of which I have heard in 
many years in this region. It is sometimes, though rare- 
ly, equalled by the spring shooters on the first north-bound 
flight, when the birds are thin and very hungry. Other 
shooters from Indiana and from this State who were in 
along the Kankakee the first three days of the week, are 
stated to have had excellent sport. Upon the contrary, 
the Tolleston marsh, located further to the north, jitst 
across the Indiana line, did not furnish so heavy shooting 
as the Kankakee country below it. For some reason or 
other the Tolleston birds seemed to move out and drop 
down further toward the south. This well-stocked and 
well-fed marsh, however, is by no means abandoned, and 
nearlv all of the duck shooting club members are now pres- 
ent upon the grotmds. Mr. C. S. Dennis and one or two 
friends left yesterday and a great many others are going 
down to-dav. Mr. Hempstead Washburne is another one 
of the Chicago membership to try the Tolleston marsh at 
this time. 
Mr. W. L. Wells and his friend, Mr. Robert Stites, of 
this city, have been trying all week to determine upon 
some shooting country where they might be fairly well 
assured of some ducks. They made it up to go to the 
Upper Meredosia marsh on the Mississippi River, below 
Clinton. la., but vesterday morning Mr. Wells got a report 
from Mr. Jenks, of Clinton, to the effect that the weather 
had come off fair and that no ducks were in along the 
river. This unsettled them very much, and they deter- 
mined to go to Fox Lake, 111., starting to-morrow night, 
there having come' report that considerable numbers of 
birds were working in that country, with the likelihood 
that greater numbers would come in any day. Now came 
up the reports of these heavy Indiana bags, and a half- 
hour ago I saw Mr. Stites and Mr. Wells chasing down 
the street getting ready to go to Thayer, on the Kankakee 
River, for their trip, which will be of two or three days' 
duration. 
Mr. Eddie Pope, of this city, has been passing four days 
at New Boston, on the Mississippi River, but no reports 
have come up from him in regard to his success. It 
is believed that he got there just ahead of the heavy 
shooting, and that the fair weather probably killed his 
sport. 
Mr. Henry Ehlers, an old-time member of the Diana 
Club, of the Kankakee country, started for the club ground 
in a big hurrv yesterday. It is believed that good shoot- 
ing will be had there within the next few days. 
Meantime, a cold wave which reached twenty below 
zero at Medicine Hat, in the Northwest, is reported to 
be making its way eastward. This wall assuredly send all 
the birds down out of the northern country, and, granted 
any fairly cloudy and rough weather here in the next few 
days, should assure the wildfowders their best opportunity 
of'sport in the current season. 
Charges Refuted fcy Actions. 
The unfounded attack of a Chicago paper upon the State 
game warden and deputies of the State of Minnesota re- 
ceived the best sort of refutation during this week. War- 
den FuUerton and his hustling assistants began a cam- 
paign against the hotels and cafes of the cities of St. Paul 
and Minneapolis. They raided the Niccolet Hotel, of 
Minneapolis; Cromby's Restaurant, and Barge's Restau- 
rant, as. well as Carling's Restaurant, in St. Paul, bring- 
ing suits in each of the instances above mentioned and 
taking out warrants for the arrest of the proprietors of the 
different places. It is not of record that the State game 
warden of Minnesota asked the advice or consent of the 
paper in question in thus carrying out his customary 
warfare against illegal game sellers, but the fact that 
he has gone after the very people who were reported to 
be his friends and allies in crime, would seem to be full 
answ-er to the malicious misstatements. 
Lost la the Rockies. 
On last Tuesday. Nov. 4, Supt. E. F. Egan, of the Great 
Northern Railroad, who was with a private car party of 
hunters at Belton, Mont., disappeared from his friends, 
and at this writing has not been discovered. The other 
members of the party are at the car waiting for his re- 
turn. No word has been received from him as to his 
whereabout, and considerable alarm has been felt by his 
friends. President James J. Hill, of the Great Northern 
Railroad, has directed that 100 men be sent out to hunt 
for Mr. Egan, and Mr. Egan's brother has gone on from 
Chicago to join in the search. 
The Qoafl Season Opens. 
Chicago, 111., Nov. i. — The quail season for Illinois 
opens to-day, but it is not attracting very much atten- 
tion, for the reason that our quail shooters are obliged 
to go almost as far for good shooting as the duck hunters, 
and they prefer to wait until they can make a good and 
probably successful hunt of it. It is still too early for 
the best of the sport, for in this phenomenally mild fall 
w-e have had no frosts as yet, and the vegetation is un- 
usually high on account of the heavy rains of the sum- 
mer. It is mild and bright, better chicken weather as 
we commonly find it than quail weather. Perhaps any day 
may bring a change, with more of the orthodox fall 
Isng to it, and then we shall see the hunters going out in 
greater numbers. Messrs. F. F. Atherton and R. A. 
Turrtle started to-day for Savannah, 111., west of here, in 
what is known to be good quail country, and a few 
shooters start south this afternoon, but nothing much is 
doing yet. 
It is the belief of the experts that there will be a good 
crop of quail south of the wet belt in this State; that is 
to say, as far south as St. Louis. Below that line there 
is likelihood of abundance of birds. The Illinois Central 
Railway people say they have birds all along the line 
below the Kankakee River. Some men to-day left for 
Farina, on that line, and expect to find birds from what 
stories they have heard. Thence south to Cairo there 
should be shooting. 
My old-time shooting friend. Warren Powel, down in 
Christian county, suggests that we get after the birds 
before very long, and wants to scare up some sort of 
shoot for a day or so next week, and then make a trip 
further south toward the Ohio River later in the month. 
Chicago shooters ought not to overlook the attractions 
of Minnesota this fall, as a quail State. Any shooter 
who took out his license for chickens last summer might 
do much w^orse than use it again on quail. Minnesota 
would have the additional charm of a good chance to 
get some fine ruffed grouse shooting, to say nothing of 
k duck shoot in the bargain. The prairies of the North- 
west in the fall can not be beaten for keen sporting flavor. 
Warm weather is nice, but the Southern shooters always- 
like a taste of the air of the frosty Northwest when they 
get the chance. The truth is, how^ever, we all want what 
we haven't got. As for sport, to my own mind, quail 
shooting is about the best of all, in the days when the 
leaves are red and brown, and the stubbles are gray, and 
the cornfields a thousand shades of yellow and gold, and 
the persimmon hangs high hut ready to let go. 
Deer. 
Now also is the deer season with us. a season with 
the warmth of autumn in it, and no touch of snow for 
tracking, which means many disconsolate days for the 
still-hunters. The railroads are making their customary 
campaigns in Ohio and Indiana, and will carry the usual 
train loads of deer hunters up into the woods — more than 
tiiey will carry back again. The custom of wearing highly 
colored clothing while engaged in deer hunting is com- 
ing into more and more general use. The proper deer 
stalker" now is a bright red cap, with coat to match, 
either bright red or blue. Even so there will be plenty 
of men mistaken for deer find shot by their friends. 
There was never any very great excitement over the deer 
season here in Chicago, for some reason, the greatest 
numbers of the Wisconsin and Michigan shooters coming 
from other points than Chicago. Mr. Byron Veatch, with 
a few friends, is preparing for a deer huntmg trip in the 
Fifield country of Wisconsin, and he says they have re- 
ports which state deer are very abundant indeed at present 
in that section. They expect to have no trouble m getting 
their limit. 
Ducks. 
A few ducks are in on the better knowm marshes about 
this city, but the weather is at this writing too warm and 
clear to offer anv soecial sport at them. A few of our 
shooters go up to Fox Lake to-day, more for the sake 
of getting out of doors than with any expectation of 
sport There are a few birds in there, and among these 
a little flight of jacksnipe, not enough to afford much 
excitement. The main item in a Fox Lake bag these 
days is the mudhen, and indeed this bird furnishes more 
than three-fifths of the number of shots fired by a duck 
shooter in this part of the world to-day. Ten years 
ago one would have been laughed to scorn for taking 
one of these fowl home with him, but now it seems the 
case that many shooters, no matter how shame-faced they 
may be about it, rather figure on this bird to offer a 
bit of shooting, and a great many mudhens are now taken 
home, whereas formerly they were not shot or were left 
to rot where thev fell. I regret to say that there are 
some shooters so brutal as to kill mudhens and leave them 
Iving where they are shot. I have heard of one party who 
killed over a hundred mudhens in this way, making r;o 
use whatever of them. This is not right. It would not be 
ri"-ht even if the bird was quite unfit to eat. borne ot 
my friends sav that it can be eaten and is not wholly un- 
palatable. Eat it, and like it or don't shoot it . 
I hear that one of the Muercke boys of Nippersmk 
killed 187 mudhens a week or so ago, but understand that 
he used them at his hotel taWe The battue on mudhens 
is now part of the snort offered on the Fox Lake Chain. 
A big raft of the birds is located and driven into a bay, 
a-^d then the boats close in cn them, and get the shooting 
as the birds rise and fly back toward the open water 
behind the fleet of boats. Sportsmen tell me that 01 a 
morning the bombarding of the mudhens is as heavy as 
the firing used to be in the days of actual duck shooting. 
The newlv come duck shooter is apt to be deceived by it, 
and to think that a duck flight is really in. The latter is 
not apt to happen on Fox Lake in these degenerate days. 
Got Foo'ish. ^ 
To-day I got foolish. I was passing a window of a 
di-partment store, and saw some old w^eapons, all of pat- 
terns once used and approved in the Army of the United 
States, I could never resist such things, I added to rny 
collection nf what a Certa n Person calls 'junk a couple 
bayonets at 15 cents each, a fine, officer ? sword &t one 
