240 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Sept. 26, 1903. 
are directly overhead or else have passed a little way 
to the right or left. 
"The Royal Family." 
The ducks of the upper Chesapeake are the canvas- 
back (or, as we at Carroll's Island call them, the 
"royal family"), the redhead, baldpates or widgeons, 
blackheads (both creek and bay), black mallards, 
green-head mallards, coots (or, as they are called in 
the North, ruddy ducks), teal (both blue and green 
winged), dippers, summer ducks and crowbills. These 
are all fit for the table. Then we have the morganza. 
fisherman, golden eye, whiffler, hell-diver, tarpot and 
loon. Thc>e latter we call trash ducks, and are not 
shot at by nn old sportsman. In addition, we have 
the wild gonsc and the swan. 
Horse racing may be called the sport of kings (prob- 
ably because it rcciuircs almost the revenue of a king 
to indulge in it), but the writer is sure that many New 
York and Maryland gentlemen will agree with him 
that duck shooting, with the life, good company and 
good fellowship of n Chesapeake Bay club house, offers 
in many respects attractions which would not be re- 
garded willi iiulilTerencc by the right sort of a king. 
New Hampshire Game. 
Birds are very scarce here this season. Usually during 
the summer T see many young grouse while driving and 
when trout fi.-?hing. The past sununcr I saw hni one 
young bird; On the opening day I went out. The 
weather was loo hot for any comfort. I started two or 
three old grouse very wild and far apart. Twice I found 
an old bird and one young one together. I got three 
shots, killing two birds, and then gave up. A neighbor, 
"who knows the covers well, has been working over a 
great donl of ground during the last three days. So far 
he has killed one woodcock. As he expressed it, "There 
ain't no palridues." 
Deer arc doing well here. .A few days since five were 
seen quite near my ho'<Re. 'i'hese deer are protected at 
all times. 'I'hcre has been a cinnge in our deer law as 
to those parts of the Slate wli-:re. ihcre is an ooen "eason. 
The season now opens witli October and closes with 
November. 'I'lic non-resident must take out a license. 
When our neighbor Maine pas.sed the hunting license law, 
New Ilainiishire felt hound to follow. Those who 
favored the New Hampshire license argued that if Maine 
did and New Hampshire did not, too many hunters who 
had gone to Maine would come to New Hampshire, and 
too many of our deer would be killed. During the last 
few years 3 Inve met some of our non-resident deer 
hunters on the hunting grounds and on the trains on their 
way home. Very few had killed anything. INlany of 
them came for an inexpensive outing, putting up at a 
farm house, and spending their days cruising about in the 
woods and in watching apple trees near the woods. They 
were \ery sure to see quite fresh deer sign; sometimes 
they saw a deer, and once in a while got a shot. Now 
such a trip of two weeks, with Boston as a starting point, 
could be made under former conditions for • not over 
twenty dollars, and 1 think for something less. I think 
unr visitors, as a class, paid many limes over the market 
value of what they killed. 
I see by a recent issue of For.'^st and Stream that the 
]\laine guides are considering the raising of their wages 
as guides. Perhaps they think that under present condi- 
tions there may be a falling off in the number of their 
customers, and the onlj' way to even things up will be to 
make those who come pay for those who do not. 
Maine passed the non-resident hunting license as a 
means of more revnue. New Hampshire passed it be- 
cause Maine did. (This is the only clear reason I have 
heard of.) Whether or not it will prove a success re- 
mains to be seen. C. M. Stark. 
DuKBARTON, N. H., Sept. 18. 
A S ptember Tide. 
A WoMAN^ a Man, and a Shover stepped successively 
into the boat, which was then pushed off from the shore. 
The Shover took the oars and with short, quick strokes 
rowed of? up the placid river, floating on the rising tide. 
The day was warm and bright, just enough breeze was 
coming down the river to wrinkle its surface and blur 
the reflections of the tall trees that overhung the banks. 
It was an ideal day for rail shooting, and the only thing 
needed to make it absolutely successful was the birds. 
"Where arc you going to take us to-day, Shover,." said 
the Man. 
"I wish I knew," replied the Shover. "Two boats have 
already gone up the river, and a naphtha launch towing 
another one and four more are coming from down below; 
betides that there are two boys in the creek, and a boat 
already shoving on the island. There's going to be more 
boats than there is ground to shove over, and I don't be- 
lieve that there are any birds anyhow." 
"Have you seen no newcomers yet?" asked the Man. 
"Not yet ; at least, none to amount to anything. There 
may be a few dropping in, but the nights are not cold 
enough yet to bring them along. Still, last night was the 
coolest we have had yet, and there was a moon. May be 
you'll find a few birds. I'm going up now to Meadow 
Creek. That's one of the best spots for newcomers, and 
if any dropped in last night we'll see them there." 
"No you won't," said the Man. "There goes a boat 
now into the mouth of Meadow Creek. It's no use for 
us to go there." 
The Shover took a long look and shook his head as he 
said: "So 'tain't. Let's go over to Middle Deestrict." 
A very few moments brought them close to the shore, and 
a second or two later the boat's sharp prow was bend- 
ing aside the grass blades with a rustling sound. The 
Shover and the Man changed places, and then from the 
bow the Woman aaked, "What shall I do?" 
"Stay where you are," said the Man, and reaching for- 
ward he rested tlie double barrel gun on the thwart, 
opened the box_ of cartridges and placed it on the bow, 
and then, handing the gun to the woman, said to her, 
"Now here's your gun." 
It her fir?? Vssoa True, there was is tradition 
that once long ago she had shot a gray squirrel sitting on 
a limb, and a partridge walking across the road, but she 
had never shot at anything flying, and just now did not 
appear greatly to wish to. She asked many questions, of 
Avhich "What shall I do?" "How shall 1 do it?" and 
"What is this for?" were typical; but one by one the 
differeiit operations were slowly performed, and at last 
the gun was loaded and held at half cock in the left 
hand, the muzzle pointing well up and to the left, while 
the right hand grasped the grip, and the right index was 
extended along the trigger guard. 
"Now," said the Man, "we are going to push the boat 
through this grass, and you must keep a sharp lookout in 
front of the bow and on both sides, and if a rail jumps 
up must try to kill it. If it flies straight away from you, 
aim at the bird and then raise your sight very slightly 
and pull the trigger. If it flies across you, put the gun 
to your shoulder, follow the bird, and when you have 
sight on it move the muzzle a foot in front of it and pull 
the trigger. Stand with one of your feet in front of and 
one behind the forward thwart and press either the calf 
of your left leg or the shin of the right against the 
thwart. Rest your weight chiefly on your left foot, and 
when the boat moves, balance yourself by moving your 
body on your thigh and knee joints, and not by shifting 
your feet about. Now keep a sharp lookout, and keep 
your wits about you. There is plenty of time for every- 
thing, and it is not worth while to get excited." Then, 
turning to the Shover, he nodded and said, "Ready." 
. The boat began its slow and steady motion through the 
grass as the skillful Shover propelled it by means of his 
long and deftly wielded pole. On either side the boat 
the g.ass rustled and creaked as it was pushed away. 
There was the ripple of the water, the drip from the pole 
as it was dragged forward to be put on the bottom again. 
the curious chuckling noise of the little marsh wrens, 
which were seen now and then darting among the grass 
or across the boat's path, the cluck of the blackbird, the 
mellow tinkle of the reed bird's note, and constantly the 
faint patter of the falling seeds, where the wild rice fell 
into the boat as the stalks were pushed apart. As the 
boat entered a little opening where no grass grew, a 
young marsh wren, just from the nest, gave a mighty 
hop from one stalk toward another, and, losing his foot- 
hold, splashed down into the water. This did not trouble 
him much ; with head and tail thrown back, he looked 
saucily at the advancing boat, and then by rapid wing 
beats propelled himself over a yard or two of open water, 
and reaching a grass stalk clambered up on it, and shook 
himself unconcernedly. 
Suddenly the Man said, "There's a rail in front and to 
the left, running in that grass. Don't you see him?" and 
a second or two later, the bird flew a dozen feet, but 
before a shot could be fired, alighted and stood on a 
patch of floating grass. 
"Shoot him on the ground," said the Man ; and as he 
spoke the shot rang out and the poor little bird fell over. 
After it had been recovered, the boat moved on again, 
and had gone only a short distance when another rail 
sprang from the grass, and after a ten-foot flight alighted 
on the meadow in plain sight. This likewise was killed 
and boated. 
Again the boat moved on, and for fifty or sixty yards 
nothing happened. Then suddenly a fine big rail hopped 
up twenty yards ahead of the boat, swung off to the 
right, and was dropped with the first barrel as neatly 
as could have been done by the oldest gunner. For a 
moment the Afan was stupefied with astonishment, for the 
shot appeared to have been made so easily and so natur- 
ally that it hardly seemed as if it could be accident. 
Warm congratulations were now exchanged. 
]\riddle District is not a long piece of grass, and by 
this time the boat had reached its northern end, and 
turned to come down again. After it had turned, and 
while it wis in a thick piece of high grass, a rail sprang 
up, was seen for a moment, and theii dropped down in 
some low gras,s. At this time, another boat was seen 
shoving into the lower end of the piece and coming to- 
ward them. The man in the bow was watching carefully 
for birds, but seemed to have eyes for nothing else, until 
the two boats were sixty or seventy yards apart. 
Then he shouted, and then shouted again, and finally a 
third time; evidently anxious to let the approaching boat 
know of his existence and whereabouts, though of course 
he had been seen from the snomept h>s boat entered th«s 
grass. Perhaps he was wise to insist on being answered, 
for some people are so careless and unobserving that 
they do not see things' directly in front of their noses. 
After the boat had passed this shooter, and- as it ap- 
proached the place where the rail had alighted, all were 
on the lookout for the bird, and finally, when it sprang 
up twenty yards away, the Woman, after a little fumbling, 
said, "He's too far off." "No, he's not," roared the Man, 
"shoot, shoot;" but by that time the bird was too far off, 
and besides that had dropped in the grass. A second 
time this same thing happened, the Woman imagining 
that the bird was too far off, while the Man abused her 
roundly for not shooting, as she should have done. The 
third time, as they approached the place where the rail 
had alighted, a dark bird sprang from the grass, and 
though the Man said "Don't shoot," the Woman killed it 
neatly, thus exposing herself to the danger of arrest by 
the authorities, for the fowl that she had killed was not 
a rail but a blackbird. 
"Load your right barrel quickly," said the Man, and 
the Woman no doubt tried to do so, but before it was 
done, the rail sprang up, the shot was fired and missed, 
and i!ic rail flew off over the meadows, never to be seen 
again. 
And now came a period of waiting. The creek almost 
always yields a bird or two, yet less than an hour before 
this it had been shoved over by two boys. Still, it was 
thought that possibly a bird might have wandered out 
into the grass, so up the creek they shoved. It was a 
fruitless excursion, for nothing was seen save a. little • 
green heron, which took to wing while they v.'ere yet 
afar off, and hastily flapped its way toward the woods on 
the shore, and a pair of sharp-shinned hawks that had 
come down to the river to secure a dinner of blackbird 
or reedbird and were chasing these nimble flyers about 
over a patch of corn grass into which they continually 
dived to escape their enemies. 
Of the other boats none were apparently doing much 
better than this one. Notwithstanding all the guns on 
the river, a report was heard only occasionally, and sbrrte 
of these, it was suspected, were, at blackbirds or reed-' 
birds rather than at rail. The creek having been ascended 
on one side, the boat came down on the other, and as it 
was now just the top of high water, the Shover pushed 
into the little bunch of cattails growing at the mouth of 
the creek, following a road beaten down througli the 
thick rushes by the passage of an earlier boat. H^at^dly 
had the boat entered the "cats" when two rails sprang Up ,i 
before it. One swinging a little to the right was shot at * 
and ingloriously missed, while the other to the' left' was 
not seen at all. \ . '* 
The gun being reloSded, the boat moved on a little, 'rfiid 
the bird that had been shot at, getting up again and en- ' 
deavoring to seek the asylum of the thicker cattails, was 
neatly caught when three feet above the reeds and' \ 
turned over. 
The cattails were thick aiid neither the Man %or the 
Shover thought it possible to find this bird. Nevertheless /j 
the Shover threw his block, and then pushing the boat ' 
to shore the Man stepped overboard and wading around- f 
into the cattails about where the bird fell, began his ' 
search for it. At first it was not seen, but that was not ' 
surprising, and the Man was carefully turning over the 
beaten down and floating stuff, to see whether the bird 
had not fallen through it, when happening to raise his - 
eyes to the right, he saw the rail hanging by the neck, 
caught in falling where a blade of the cattail forked off 
from the main stem. The position for a rail was an odd 
one, though more than once the Mafi had seen the same 1 
thing happen in woodcock shooting in thick cover; his'^ 
attention on two occasions having been called to the bird" ' 
by the rearing up on his hind legs of the dog, which by ' 
eye or nose had discovered the bird's odd situation: - I 
The Man cut off the cattail and carried the bird out to ■ 
the boat without touching it, having fir.st, hoM^ever, re- 
covered the block, which- had fallen a little Shbrt. ^ 
Backing out from here, the other rail was started once 
more, but — painful as it is to relate it — was missed, ^ 
This ended the day's work, for not another bird was ■, 
started. Old Man. • ' 
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always be addressed to the Forest and Stream Publishing Co., ' 
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