432 
FOREST AND STREAM 
[Dec. 6, igo2. 
day started ten bevies, and a great many shooters have 
gone out there and had no difficulty in making the 
daily limit of 25 birds. We confidently expected to do 
as much ourselves. The truth is, perhaps, that we 
were in there a little late in the game. On our first 
day's drive, without any local guide and not knowing 
the country in the least, we only put up a few bevies. 
The first of these we got up in the first hundred yards 
of our hunting. They rose high and strong and 
seemed to light on a patch of brush a short distance 
ahead. Yet. try as we might, we found only one strag- 
gler, and could not stop him. It seemed impossible 
that they could have gone across the railroad track 
to a distant grove which we saw, yet such proved to 
be the case. The birds undoubtedly started to run as 
soon as they struck the ground and kept going. We 
put up one or two in the grass as soon as vjq struck 
the railroad track, and after hunting around for about 
an hour where they ought to have been, got a wild 
flush on the leaves of about half the bevy. Thes^j got 
up wild and scattered every way, flying like liullets, 
and we could do nothing with them at all after that, 
picking up only two or three birds after all our skirm- 
ishing^ We were willing to mark- up our apprecia- 
tion of the sporting qualities of Bob White several de- 
grees before noon of that first day. 
We drove on through the country, a clean, prosper- 
ous, tidy country, with the mail boxes of the rural de- 
livery staring us in the face at every farm gate, but 
not getting much encouragement in the quail industry 
until just about lunch time. 
"Now, here's a place," said Mr. FuUerton, pointing 
to a grassy opening in the middle of an old deadening, 
"where I am at home. I've been here several times 
and never failed to get up a good bunch of birds. 
We'll do some business here." 
Sure enough we did. The dogs, being a little eager, 
flushed a tremendous bevy of birds too far ahead of 
us to get a shot on the rise. These birds, however, 
came directlv to us and we marked them down .:lose 
and hard in "the grass. To make the story short, we 
knocked down 17 out of this bevy alone, and, although 
we lost four in the pick-up, thought that we had done 
pretty good work. This bevy had probably never been 
shot at before. 
We worked on across the country and at last Mr. 
Fullerton and Mr. Water ous left me for a trip to a 
distant cornfield, I waiting near a country graveyard 
on the somewhat distant chance that our driver, whom 
we had left a couple of miles away, would be able to 
keep his appointment and meet us at the church near 
the graveyard. I did not think the others would find 
any birds on their trip, and so begged off, but much re- 
gretted it later. It was a trifle cold and I found it 
poor fun walking up and down and reading epitaphs 
on tombstones. It was still more discomforting when 
my friends returned, just at dark, carrying five of the 
biggest quail I have ever seen. They said they needed 
help on these birds, which they had found at the edge 
of the wood about a mile away. 
It was now dark and the distance into town was 
about seven miles. As our driver had evidently lost 
trs^ we started, with what grace we could summon, to 
hoof it into town. We negotiated about three miles 
of mud and darkness and then concluded to charter a 
farm team. Hardly had we gotten the latter hooked 
Up before our own' lost driver came prowling along in 
the dark. Him we reviled copiously, but presently 
forgot everything in the warmth and comfort of the 
little hotel at Norwood. 
On the next day we concluded to make the same 
rounds. Our first day had netted us 19 birds, and on 
this second day the best we could do was 20. We 
worked over the same country and located all of our 
yesterdav's bevies and some more beside. All the 
widely scattered bevies of the day before were found 
assembled, and at the same places where we first found 
them. I must say that we all of us shot very mdiffer- 
ently. I used to think that I could shoot quail a little 
bit sometimes, but lost all manner of conceit of my- 
self on this particular occasion. Some badly loaded 
shells brought on a shooting headache and I blinked 
my shots aplenty. Yet, even when one is at his best, 
he will find that these Minnesota quail ask his best 
skill. 1 don't think I ever saw the day when I could 
kill half of them, day in and day oiit. They are the 
largest quail I have ever seen, unless it be those'of the 
Province of Ontario. The dogs could do very httle 
with them when once they struck the leaves, where 
they seemed to run and disappear as though mdeed 
they left no scent behind them. We passed a delight- 
ful day, however, and closed it at dark on a scattered 
bevy, which would have given us eight or ten birds m 
all likelihood had we struck them a half hour sooner. 
On the third day the best we could do was 18 birds, 
but we did not find so many bevies as we did on the 
day previous. We located three bevies each, for the 
third day, at its regular stamping ground, showing the 
regularity of habit of this bird. Our shooting on this 
last day was even more disgraceful than it had been 
- the day before. I felt that I simply had dishonored 
myself, and even Mr. Fullerton, who is a very steady 
and reliable shot, indeed, at times, laid himself open to 
rebuke at the hands of Mr. Waterous and myself, who 
were depending on him for a bag. Our dogs put up 
a pretty strong game. Two of them were the property 
of Mr. Waterous, a fine old setter, Spot, and a hardy, 
stub-and-twist pointer, by the name of Sport, both 
very practical meat dogs and perfectly in hand, facts 
which add so much to the sport of quail shooting, as 
everyone knows. We had also a beautiful little pointer 
bitch by the name of Flo, the praperty of the local 
banker, Mr. Bradley, a friend of my companions. This 
latter was reputed to be one of the best chicken dogs 
in the State and certainly was a god one also on quail. 
We found that three days' steady work was about all 
that either men or dogs cared for. Sometimes we 
thought the dogs looked at us a bit reproachfully when 
we failed to stop our birds, but once in a while when a 
quail got up ^vild on the leaves it was our turn to look 
leproachfully at the dogs. The fact of the matter is 
these northern quail represent the survival of the fit- 
test Mx»4er bard conditions. They are strong mon^h 
to stand these severe Minnesota winters, shrewd 
enough to take care of themselves even on this thin 
covered country, and strong of wing enough to tax the 
best kind of shooting .skill. I have shot quail pretty 
much all over the West and South, but I have never 
seen so hard a quail game put up as they give a fellow 
out in Minnesota. We only bagged 57 quail in our 
three days, it being remembered, of course, that part 
of the time was taken up in driving out of town and 
prospecting around the country. A well-posted local 
shooter could probably have done much better, and I 
presume under ordinary circumstances our same party 
could have made double the bag out of the chances we 
had. In good truth, I had chances to kill my limit on 
two of the days in question, and at tliat need not have 
used any greater skill than is common in good, fair 
quail shooting in the Southern country. I Avould like 
to see a lot of these Southern quail shooters go out 
and get against some of Sam Fullerton's trained birds. 
Methinks they would come back minus a little conceit 
and a few birds. Anyhow, that was the way I did. 
There are very few ruffed grouse in that part of the 
country. We only put up two, not getting a shot at 
either." As for the quail, they there all right, from the 
line of St. Paul all the way south through the State 
wherever there is farming country,' and it seems to me 
these birds are there to stay. The winters of Minne- 
sota are by no means so severe as they formerly were, 
and ever at its worst, the Minnesota winter is not so 
dangerous as that of Canada or our Middle Western 
States. The snow, when it comes, is cold and dry, and 
there is not much rain or sleet to form the fatal crust, 
which is the worst destroyer of the quail. The food 
of the birds is abundant, in spite of the bare look of 
the country, and in spite of the fact that the stubble 
fields are plowed up early for the sowing of winter 
wheat. The woods are very open, but there are occa- 
sional thickets, or fallen treetops, or ricks of straw or 
hay, so that in some fashion the hardy little fellows get 
all the shelter they need. We forgot to weigh any of 
our quail, but we killed some giants, with strong, thick 
legs, dense plumage, brilliantly colored, and altogether 
the handsomest quail I think I ever shot and the 
sportiest as well. I must congratulate Mr. Fullerton 
on his so fully making good everything he has said 
about the quail in Minnesota. Had we only made 
good with the shooting I might have had quite a story 
t-b tell. 
Minnesota as a Game Slate, 
I have been growing better and better acquainted 
with Minnesota for the last few years, and I must say 
that the more I know of it the more respect I have for 
it as a game State. I question whether there is in the 
country a more desirable place of residence for a 
sportsman than one of the Twin Cities of the State of 
Minnesota. One can in two hours' ride or less have 
grand shooting. Norwood is only fifty miles from St. 
Paul. At Wabash also good quail shooting is re- 
ported, and there are many other nearby points. The 
prairie chicken shooting in Minnesota this fall, as I 
have had occasion before to testify, is as good as is 
to be found anywhere. The glory of the Minnesota 
duck marshes is coming t© be all that it ever was. 
Wild geese, that is to say, honkers, and not white 
geese, are to be had in some of the northern counties. 
Ruffed grouse shooting is excellent in different sec- 
tions. The sharp-tailed grouse shares with the prairie 
chicken large areas of the State. There is good trout 
fishing, the best fly-fishing for bass in the world, per- 
haps the best muscallunge fishing in America, and fish- 
ing for wall-ej'ed pike and big-mouthed bass, such as 
is not to be equaled in any part of the world. These 
statements seem broad, but they are made advisedly. 
The deer supply is such as to allow one easily to get 
his limit. There are a few elk, probably between 30 
and 50 head, still to be found in a remote portion of 
the State. Of moose, the best posted men tell me 
there are thousands. In regard to this latter I am 
very curious, but am satisfied that there are very many 
moose to be had in the State of Minnesota provided 
one knows where and how to go. The same can be 
said of caribou. I don't think there are as many cari- 
bou as in New Brunswick, and, of course, not so many 
as in Nova Scotia, but one stands a very good chance 
of getting a caribou in a winter hunt in Minnesota. In 
jack snipe and the different plovers Minnesota can 
make as good a showing as any of our Western States, 
The game supply of this State is better than it was 
ten or fifteen years ago. As I have so often stated, I 
believe this fact to be full proof of the efficacy of the 
Minnesota game laws and the rigorous honesty of their 
enforcement. Here in Chicago we are in*the middle 
of a devastated, desolate, sportless region. It is pleas- 
ant once in a while to get out into a corner of the 
world where one can still get a little touch of the old 
outdoor American life. 
"Wild Boars in the OHeat. 
I see no reason why Japan, the Philippines, the island 
of Formosa and adjacent territory should not properly 
be included in the sphere of influence of Chicago and 
the West. These places are all west of Chicago, and one 
goes through Chicago to get there. At least, Mr. J. O. 
Averill, of New York, a tea merchant, with interests in 
Tapan, always goes through Chicago in his trip to Japan. 
He is this week just back from his season's work in 
Japan, and paid a pleasant visit as he passed through 
going home to New York. Mr. Averill says he visited 
Formosa not long ago and went out into the back coun- 
try, quite beyond the zone of Japanese military author- 
ity.' None of the savages of the interior were encoun- 
tered, however, and everybody brought his head back 
home with him,, which is far more dignified, as well as 
more comfortable, than having it brought in by another 
fellow on the end of a sharp stick. These "furtive folk 
and wild" have still the pleasant custom of head hunt- 
ing, and one tribe last year took between 500 and 600 
heads. They don't mean any harm by it, and are really 
a simple and charming folk to live with. It is necessary 
for a man to take a head before he can vote or get mar- 
ried, and this law of the land renders the population at 
fiijies S trifl? I?^styp and m mplP^^ d^atb he^mt^tly 
ensues, as a consequence of the otherwise merely per- 
functory operation of head-taking. The custom has 
much to recommend it, politically and socially. It must 
be grateful and comforting, when two gentlemen are pay- 
ing addresses to the same damsel, for one to feel free to 
cut off the other's head. At least, it might seem so be- 
fore the marriage. 
But I was about to speak of sport in Formosa. Mr. 
Averill says that they had '*fish there with much the 
habits of our trout, though in appearance it more resem- 
bles the grayling. Wild boars there are in abundance, 
and big ones. He saw one boar hunt in which several 
natives engaged, and in which they got their boar, though 
hardly according to Hoyle. The animal crossed a bit of 
open on a hillside, whereupon a native with an ancient 
musket took a shot at him and crippled him. As it rolled 
down the hill, another native, armed with a long, sharp 
sword, fell upon it. Yet others laid hold presently upon 
its legs, and ere long the hoar was finished. Mr. Averill 
says it was an exciting little hunt, even with the old mus- 
ket in it. 
E. Hough. 
Hartford Building, Chicago, 111. 
Vermont Game. 
SwANTON, Vt., Nov. 27. — Editor Forest and Stream: 
The game crop here in northwestern Vermont, taken 
as a whole, has been this season an abundant one, 
though back on the highlands the cold wet weather 
during the early summer destroyed most of the young 
grouse, but down in the lake towns they have been, 
and are now at the present time unusually plentiful. 
We get here both varieties — the true ruffed grouse 
and the larger Canada gray grouse. The latter bird, 
from its heavy plumage, looks to be much the largest 
bird, though actual weight they are but a few ounces 
the heaviest. We recently killed an old Canada cock 
laird that weighed one pound and twelve ounces — this 
was actual weight; the guessed weight was about three 
pounds. 
We had more woodcock here this season than for 
many past seasons. We can only account for this fact 
that during their migratory flight southward last sea- 
son they in some manner escaped the horde of gunners 
that lay in wait for them. It is not the few that we kill 
here near their breeding grounds that diminishes their 
numbers, but it is the iiumber shot along their 
migratory route and also where they winter in the 
South, where beside the sportsman and market- 
shooter, nearly every colored boy has a cheap single- 
barrel breechloader, which they use on that bird that 
they have learned "is mighty fine eatin'." In the 
localities where the frosts in the early summer did not 
destroy the beechnut crop, gray squirrels are nu- 
merous. 
Deer are on the increase. One morning recently, 
just after the open season closed, two bucks and two 
does were seen in the center of the village of High- 
gate, Vt. They were in the backyard of our late State's 
Attorney Steele, and were evidently paying their re- 
spects to one who has been active in giving them the 
full protection that our laws will give to that kind of 
game. On every occasion possible, State's Attorney 
D. W. Steele has made it extremely "hot" for violators 
of the game laws. 
Thousands of black duck bred this season here m 
our marshes. As the flats are overflowed, they have 
had the best of feeding grounds. So far the flight of 
migratory duck and wild geese has been light. The 
next keen cold frost will bring theni along. During 
the early autumn the muskrats in this vicinity began 
building their houses up high out of and in some cases 
away from the water. This caused us to predict high 
water, and this prediction has come true, for the water 
in the marshes was never, in the memory of the oldest 
inhabitant, so high as it is at the present time. 
Our fox hunters are having fair success, and some 
good pelts have been taken. Our State legislators 
have recently passed a hit of "jackass legislation" in 
placing a bounty of $1.25 on foxes killed during the 
summer months. This is simply another instance where 
the farmers do not know their best friends. The fox 
stands to the farmer's orchard, meadow and pasttire 
lands as the cat does to his granaries; it keeps the nuce 
in check— keeps their numbers down. In western Ver- 
mont the fox saves to our farmers thousands of dol- 
lars where they kill a single dollar's worth of poultry. 
The writer has hunted foxes for fully half a century 
and has yet to see Avhere a fox has killed a turkey, 
goose or chicken, and many and many a time have we 
seen full broods of turkeys raised back in the back 
pastures where foxes were numerous. When they take 
poultry it is after they have caught off all the mice. 
The number of mice, called meadow moles, that a fox 
kills every year, if allowed to live and breed, would 
with their progeny ruin the farmer's crops. The valu- 
able fur of the fox if killed during the winter months 
brings a much-needed revenue of foreign money into 
the State. In face pf these facts, which were given 
them, our Dogberries have put on a bounty for the 
summer months that will encourage every boy in the 
country to kill and exterminate this valuable fur-bear- 
ing animal when its skin is commercially worthless. 
An occasional moose is seen in various parts of the 
State. So far, the number of buck deer reported killed 
here during the open season is 405. One of our hybrid 
lawyer-farmers carried in a bill to the Legislature for 
something like $400 damages done on his farm by deer. 
His claim was promptly turned down, as the character 
of the man was so well known that it helped rather 
than injured the fast-growing sentiment of full pro- 
tection for the deer. Stanstead. 
Game Near Worcester. 
Worcester, Mass., Nov. 24. — On a shooting trip 
the other day we killed 24 birds— 13 grouse and 11 
quail. Pretty good string' for one day's hunt within ^ 
hvf miles of the city. " pEO. H. Buims, 
