Forest and Stream 
A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 
Copyright, 1908 by Foeest and Strkam Publishing Co. 
NEW YORK, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 24, 1903. 
Terms, I 
4 A Year. 10 Cts. a Copy. 
Six Months, |2. 
( VOL. LXI.— No. IT 
I No. 846 Broadway, New Y okk 
The Forest and Stream is the recognized medium of entertain- 
ment, instruct' m and information between American sportsmen. 
The editors invite communications on the subjects to which its 
cages are devoted. Anonymous communications will not be re 
garded. While it is intended to give wide latitude in discussion 
')t current topics, the editors are not responsible for the views of 
:onespondents. 
Subscriptions may begin at any time. Terms: For single 
copies, $4 per year, $2 for six months. For club rates and full 
particulars respecting subscriptions, see prospectus on page iii. 
SOME ENGLISH WAYS. 
It is not yet three centuries since the practice of shooi- 
ing birds on the wing was first taken up, the birds being 
found by a setting dog as in earlier days, when the same 
dog found the birds for the netter. The flintlock gun 
was invented in Spain about 1630, and the detonating 
tube, followed by the copper cap, came in the early days 
of the last century, about 1818. In 1836 was invented 
the LeFaucheux cartridge, to be used in the breechloader, 
and this gun, variously modified and improved, is in use 
to-day. 
For nearb^ 250 3'ears the shotgun shooter traveled the 
fields, following his dogs, content to kill his birds as 
they got up before him, and in America that is the prac- 
tice to-day. But things are very different in England. 
There, as we are told by gun makers, and as we may read 
in books and periodicals, this form of shooting has be- 
come too slow. The gunner now cares chiefly to let off 
a.s many cartridges as he can in a given time. Hence 
has arisen a practice of having battues of pheasants^ the 
birds being driven from their coverts b}^ a long line of 
beaters, in such a Avay that they will Ry over the line 
of shooters. In the same way the grouse moors are 
driven, the birds being herded toward the line of shooters 
who lie concealed in pits or stone towers along the crest 
of some hill over which the game is expected to fly. All 
this we have heard of with' more or less frequency of 
late years, and to the American gunner it all seems more 
or less strange, but within a few years the practice of 
driving has been extended to partridges, which are 
frightened from their homes among the roots or in the 
stubble and driven toward or over the line of gunners, or 
a line of shooters march forward, putting up the birds 
before them, and shooting at them as they fly. The use 
of dogs — except retrievers — is being given up. 
In England many people now speak with some con- 
tempt of men who are content to potter about, following 
the dogs, with the prospect of getting a few shots. The 
average English shooter is not content with this. He 
must have his place in line with two or three guns, which 
he stands ready to fire as quickly as possible, and then to 
pass back to his loader, who stands behind him, taking 
the empty gun, loading it, and instantly passing it back to 
the shooter. 
This is the refinement of game preserving— of raising 
birds merely for the purpose of killing them — and is not 
likely to have a place in the system of American sport 
for a long time. For at the present day no conditions of 
American life favor it. 
That pheasants are reared artificially in England is an 
old story to all. The bird is an exotic, living in a climate 
and under conditions quite unlike those of its native land. 
What is not so well known is that grouse and partridges 
'as well are reared more or less by hand, or, if not quite 
this, nature is assisted to a point where really not much 
is left for her to do. The rearing of grouse by hand 
has only been undertaken lately, but the artificial produc- 
tion of partridges is quite an old story. 
All land which is not grown up with forest or under- 
brush is, or may become, suitable for partridges, and 
the desirability of having large numbers of birds to shoot 
makes it seem to British proprietors a matter of great im- 
portance to hatch artificially all the eggs that can be had. 
In Britain, however, such eggs are private property which 
aiay be stolen b}- poachers, and therefore cannot be pur- 
chased there Avithout the danger of buying stolen goods. 
This difliculty is o\'ercome by importing the eggs of Hun- 
garian partridges. These eggs arc placed imder small 
hen.s, preferably bantams, and hatched usuaUy in from 
. N\ onty-one to twentj^-four days. The question of feeding 
i5 one which has called for great care, thought, and ex- 
periment, but now seems to be prett>' well understood. 
At the age of .about six weeks the broods with their 
n)others are removed in theiT coops to the fields, and the 
coops opened after dark, so that in the morning the 
birds have a chance to avail themselves of their freedom. 
When about two months old, the partridges gather into 
coveys and thereafter are wild. 
On some estates imported Hungarian birds are kept in 
captivity in large pens from which small pens open. 
After the birds have paired, they seek the seclusion of 
the small pen and nest and hatch there in captivity. 
It is interesting to see the strides which the artificial 
rearing of birds has made in England, and this success 
should oft'er encouragement to the few men in this coun- 
try who are endeavoring to domesticate the ruffed grouse 
and Bob White. Patience, room for experiment, and 
abundant time are certain ultimately to result in the arti- 
ficial rearing of game birds on this side of the water as 
w ell as it has been done in England, 
THE SIDE HUNT DEVASTATION. 
An exchange of recent date recounts that some 
shooters have made arrangements to hold in western 
Massachusetts one of the old-fashioned slaughtering con- 
lests, euphemistically called a club hunt, or a side hunt. 
It is a kind of game hunt, or, rather, animal slaughter, 
which involves a clean sweep of undomesticated life in 
woods and fields in so far as the participants can compass 
it. The greatest quantity possible of every kind is the 
desideratum. 
The sentiment of the public, and especially of the large 
class of the public composed of sportsmen, has always 
been emphatically opposed to side hunts because of their 
unscrupulous purposes of wholesale slaughter, violating 
all the accepted principles of sportsmanship and the 
rights of others. In latter years the side hunt has fallen 
into the disuse and obloquy which it deserves. 
Some years ago, in certain sections of the United 
States, side hunts were of frequent occurrence. They 
had a certain A-ogue with clubs whose members had 
strong competitive and destructive instincts. A dinner 
to the winners was the penalty incurred by the losing- 
side, thus there was an incentive to kill for the sake of 
the dinner on the one hand, as well as for the pleasure 
of personal and team victory on the other hand. 
By way of illustrating the sweeping destructivencss 
of animal life consequent to the side hunt, the following 
list of animals and their values is presented. It is taken 
from Forest and Stream, and is dated October 15, 1886, 
at Gardner, Mass.: "White rabbits, 100 points; cOveys, 
50 points; gray squirrels, 100 points; red squirrels, 50 
points; chipping squirrels, 25 points; crows, 100 points; 
partridges, 100 points; blue jays, 50 points; red-headed 
woodpeckers, 50 points ; partridge woodpeckers, 50 points ; 
blackbirds, 25 points; robins, 20 points; skunks, 10 
points." There were fourteen men on a side, and they 
scored a total of 14,315 points. In Forest and Stream 
of November 4, 1886, is an account of a side hunt which 
took place at Lowell, Mass., for a dinner. One side 
scored 30,250 points, the other 16,685 points. Thus the 
aggregate of wanton destruction must have been great. 
It will be noted that the list includes almost every undo- 
mesticated animal which was present in that section at 
that season. In the list all consideration of availability 
as food is abandoned. All considerations, too, of sports- 
manship are utterly ignored. The purpose was to kill 
all that could be killed, and kill more than the opposition. 
The bird or beast scored regardless of the manner in 
which it was brought to bag. Game birds, song birds, and 
vermin were alike sought because their bodies had a 
numerical artificial value for mere purposes of addition. 
The old plea in justification, Avhile it had a certain 
.speciousness on its face, failed utterly in justification on 
the slightest analysis. 
It was said that a side hunt, fifty or a hundred killers 
participating, was only the equivalent of the same num- 
ber of men shooting separately on different daj's, and 
that the total of the side hunt appears inordinately 
great merely because it is a total. .Also, it was held 
that it was quite as legitimate to shoot animals in a 
c.unpetitive way as it was to shoot pigeons at the trap 
m a competitive way, the -principle being the same, it 
was contended, in either instance. 
Either plea abounds with fallacy. A man, shooting 
alone, would not systematically kill every living, un- 
protected creature which he could bring within range. 
There is pot the incentive to kill everything when a 
man is shooting alone, each animal then having its 
own itatural value, that there is when each anima;l has 
an artificial valuation, as fixed by the side hunts. Few 
men shooting alone, arc wanton destroyers of life. 
No greater exemplar of a bloodthirsty destroyer could 
be imagined than that of a man shooting alone after 
the manner of slaughter in a side hunt. Nor is there 
any analogy between the side hunt and shooting at the 
traps. The trapped pigeon is the personal property 
of the shooter, and after being killed is serviceable for 
food. The wild game, birds and animals belong to the 
people of the State, and at best the ownership of pos- 
session is qualified. To devastate or to partially devas- 
tate a large section of the people's property, is a moral 
wrong even if the letter of the law may not have fore- 
seen the possibility of the destruction and guarded 
against it. The trend of all modern legislation is to 
restrict what the individual may take to liinits of mod- 
eration; and it would be absurd to assume that the 
people would restrict the individual, and ignore a mass 
of individuals killing as a horde. 
Team hunts seem to have had their origin in a 
beneficial custom which obtained in pioneer days, when 
the power of a county sallied forth to kill the bears, 
wolves, wild cats, etc., which were a menace to the 
whole community. The choosing of sides and the 
competition thereby engendered, stimulated each man 
to kill as much as he could of the common enemy. 
The side hunt, in a game killing contest, is a perversion 
of this once beneficent custom. The sportsmen of 
every community should discountenance uncompromis- 
ingly the side hunt whenever such perversion of sport 
and sportsmanship is attempted. 
THE BERTILLON SYSTEM IN MAINE. 
The Bertillon system of anthropometric measurements 
for identification of criminals is now in almost universal 
use by police authorities throughout the civilized world. 
When a criminal is arrested and taken to headquarters, 
he is measured in much detail as to height, length and 
width of head, length of ear, of forearm, of middle finger,, 
of little finger, and of foot; and all these details, together 
with others of sex, age, color of hair and eyes, beard and 
complexion, and contours of profile — forehead, nose, lips, 
chin and ear — are carefully recorded. In addition a care- 
ful record is made of any particular marks, such as pig- 
mentary moles, scars or cuts, boils or wounds and tattoo- 
ing. All these supply infallible data for subsequent iden- 
tification, if at any time the same subject is rounded 
up by the police. 
The Maine authorities have adopted the Bertillon sys- 
tem of identification of criminals for the identification 
of non-resident sportsmen who visit that State for hunt- 
ing. That is to say, they have adopted the Bertillon 
system in part. That they have not adopted it wholly is 
due probably to a feeling that a non-resident sportsman is 
not wholly and altogether a criminal, whose complete 
anthropometric record should be on file for the good of 
society. 
The non-resident sportsman who desires a Maine hunt- 
ing license must first procure a prepared blank, which 
must "state the name, age, residence, business, post-office 
address, color of hair and eyes, and height of the appli- 
cant, and whether he can or cannot write his own name." 
The lengths of nose, of head, ear, and other parts of the 
body, togetlier with any particular marks such as a mole 
six centimeters to the left of the vertebral column and 
fifteen centimeters below the seventh vertebra, will 
doubtless all come in good time, as the exigencies of the 
system shall require. This will be more or less incon- 
Acnient for the applicant, but the Augusta authorities 
may be trusted to make it as easy as they can for the 
non-resident Avho Avants to get into Maine; and to this 
end, it is reasonable to assume, they will arrange with the 
police authorities of the large cities to do the Bertillon 
measuring, in consideration of a small fee (to be paid by 
the applicant). Then Avhen a .sportsman living, let us 
say in Boston, shall hear the Red Gods calling, he will 
straightAvay repair to police headquarters, divest himself 
of his clothing and have his physical dimensions ascer- 
tained and recorded, and his moles and other marks 
mapped and duly set doAvn. Arrived in Augusta he will 
present himself at the Bertillon anthropometric identifica- 
tiort bureau, run in connection Avith the Fish and Game 
