466 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
If they are worth that much, then the citizens of the 
State, forced to dispose of some of their gold mine to 
sustain life, have parted with their birthright very 
cheaply. 
But it is in the suggestion of the railroad official above 
referred to that one finds the real significance of the cost 
to Maine at large of the sum deposited with the State 
officially. If the State sold 1,765 licenses, as has been re- 
ported, then fully that number stayed away, and at a 
moderate estimate of average expense of $75 each for an 
ouling in the woods, Mame has squeezed her own citi- 
zens out of $T32,37S of business that she might realize 
in license money the comparatively small sum of $26,650. 
From one point of view the law has been a success, in 
that it has created a large revenue for the carr3'ing on of 
the commission's work, but at what a cost. 
Already there is quite a sentiment on the part of the 
guides and camp proprietors to urge the repeal of the 
law before another season, but they are powerless, since 
the law is on the books for two years at the least, and 
they must endure another season of perhaps more de- 
pression even than this before they can offer a protest. 
Perhaps by that lime they will have a better idea of what 
lawmakers will do if left entirely to themselves, while 
those whose interests are at stake sit calmly at home 
and allow others to deprive them of their daily bread. 
As a money raiser the law's a howling success — this year. 
As a right or just move, those who suffer from its work- 
ings can scarceli^ regard it as fair or equitable. 
Heruert W. Rowe, 
How to Cook a Duck. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
Contributors who are discussing the matter of the right 
way to cook a duck seem to miss the essential point, and 
that point lies at the south end of the bird. The tail 
of all waterfowl contains two large oil glands that are. 
used by the bird for keeping its feathers in condition to 
repel water. The oil in these glands contains organic 
sulphur compounds in sufficient degree to make a dis- 
agreeable flavor and odor. Cut the tail from every water- 
fowl, and as soon as convenient after the bird is Icilled — 
before it is cooked, at any rate — as the sulphur flavor 
quickly permeates the whole dead bird, I have had the 
toughest old white wing coots served at the Club in New 
York many a time, and the boys asked me to please give 
up my professional work and go shooting again next 
day. Ducks with delicate flavor, and particularly brant 
and other geese are ruined in the cooking if the tail is 
not removed. 
Personally my taste for duck is best satisfied when the 
birds are cooked in one of four ways : 
(1) Roasted for about fifteen minutes over a very hot 
fire, and served rare with jelly and salad. 
(2) Roasted for about forty minutes in the baker in 
front of the campfire, and basted dviring the last twenty 
minutes of the time constantly and unceasingly with a 
spoon tied to the end of a long stick. 
(3) Cut into pieces and stewed for an hour in water 
that has previously been boiled for an hour with pieces 
of salt pork. The pork fat fills the water in a mechan- 
ical mi.\turc so fully, that the volatile flavors of the bird 
are not abstracted by the water and thrown off as volatile 
products by the steam. This trick is also the one that 
gives the secret of successful boiling of fish. Birds and 
fish are served with the gravy which results from the 
boiling down of the water. 
(4) Dig a hole in the ground deep enough for burying 
the kettle. Make a log house of hard wood two feet 
high around the hole. Build a fire in the middle .so that 
the sticks will burn evenly and all drop into the hole at 
about the same time, in the form of hot coals. Shovel 
out the coals. Put the kettle into the hole, and in the 
kettle have the duck cut into pieces, seasoned, covered 
with \\ater enough to cover duck and a good big piece 
of salt pork. Put the cover on the kettle, shovel the 
coals back around and over the kettle, cover with a few 
inches of dirt, and leave the outfit undisturbed during the 
whole night, unless the remembrance of a similar feast 
makes you get up in the night and dig it out. 
Robert T. Morris, 
New York, Nov. 26. 
St. Augustine, Fla. — Editor Forest and Stream: I'm 
not going to ask whether "you know the blackened 
forest" where the fire has done its horrid work, but I 
simply want to stick in a word or two about the fire that 
is used in cooking ducks. Your correspondent F. W. B. 
undoubtedly knows what's what, but it's an utter waste 
of time to fight against fashion. 
In my early days there lived in Baltimore a man named 
Guy — the same who was proprietor of a famous 
restaurant. That was in the good old days when canvas- 
backs and terrapins made the time a record breaker in 
the line of luxurious living, and his fame rested solely 
on the universall}' accepted perfection of his canvas- 
backs, of which I had personal knowledge. Now, a can- 
vasback and a sheldrake are altogether different things, 
and when we talk about cooking ducks we must consider 
the distinction. Mr, Guy had the business figured down 
to a nicety — the stove or oven must be kept at exactly 
the right temperature, and the duck must remain in pre- 
cisely so many minutes to a dot, though I forget how 
many ; but the}'' were quickly cooked, the fat outside be- 
ing in the "crackling" condition of Lamb's roast pig, and 
ju.st rare enough to be a little red about the bone; and 
lucky is the man who has run against anything more 
delicious. In my opinion nothing in the line of luxuries 
could compare with it except a perfectly managed terra- 
pin stew ; but the fashionable "smart set" could not allow 
themselves to be led forever by a vulgar restaurant man, 
so one idiot set the fashion of serving them half cooked; 
then another of the same stripe carried it further, till at 
last warmed duck became the fashionable thing instead 
of roast. I dined with one of them, and was promised 
a canvasback dinner, but one kind of raw duck meat 
being the same as another to me, and neither being 
palatable, I had to sit and see them smack their lips over 
the bloody stuff instead of really enjoying the delicious 
fat "cracklings" that would have set a genuine epicure 
like Lamb quite crazy; but they were not permitted by 
ias)lion to eat it otherwise. When they offered to help 
me I wanted to say, "Is thy servant a dog that he should 
do this thing?" 
_ Now, when we come to sheldrakes, broadbills, hell- 
divers, and others of that ilk, the programme changes. 
Guy would not interfere with the incomparable flavor of 
a canvasback by bacon or basting, but in the case of the 
other tribes the case is different. In New York one day 
I wanted some wild ducks for a dinner party, and went 
to the market and asked a dealer if he had any good 
wild ducks. He said he had, and showed me some broad- 
bills. I told him I was too old a sportsman to be fooled 
with ducks that were fattened on salt water snails, lie 
assured me that they were from the northern lakes, and 
were equal to anj-thing short of a Chesapeake Bay can- 
vasback. I took his word for it and found that he was 
right — that it depended on their food. It is difficult to 
get rid of the fishy flavor of a duck without interfering 
with the natural flavor. I have often had sheldrakes 
parboiled about five minutes, and then stuffed and 
roasted, and found them very satisfactory in lieu of 
something better. Didymus. 
Grouse and Woodcock. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
In your editorial columns on November 28, you alluded 
to the scarcity of grouse in Michigan, Ohio, New Eng- 
land, and Canada, and you expressed the opinion "that 
neither the gun of the sportsman, the cunning depreda- 
tions of the fo.x, nor, in fact, the attacks of birds or 
beasts of prey, have had any appreciable effect in dimin- 
ishing the numbers of this splendid game bird." 
The writer knows, nothing of Michigan nor Ohio, nor 
is he sufficiently well acquainted with any of the New 
England States, except Massachusetts and Maine, to 
speak with any confidence. But of these States and New 
Brunswick an acquaintance of sixty years enables him to 
form a very decided opinion, and that opinion is that in 
these places "the gun of the sportsman" and the still 
more deadly gun of the pot-hunter are alone answerable 
tor the scarcity' that has, for the last twenty years, been 
growing more and more evident. 
Favorable and unfavorable breeding seasons will gen- 
erall}' balance each other; and birds and beasts of prey 
are diminishing in numbers quite as fast as the grouse ; 
but nothing" can make up the drain on any stock that is 
subject to indiscriminate slaughter. Before the export 
of grouse was made illegal in this Province, it was a 
good business for the agents of New York and Boston 
caterers to travel through all the rural districts of New 
Brunswick, e\fcn to the smallest settlement, and arrange 
for the purchase of all the birds storekeepers could pro- 
cure. In many places they would leave cheap guns with 
young nimrods, to be paid for in grouse at 10 cents per 
brace. There was always a ready sale and ready cash for 
all the birds that were offered ; but each successive season 
saw the supply diminish. From the first of September to 
end of December, a constant hunt was maintained for 
many miles around the villages and settlements, until in 
some localities the partridge was as scarce as the dodo. 
In Maine the same causes led to the same results some 
years before New Brunswick was invaded. When ex- 
portation was prohibited our local markets offered ready 
demand, and it was found that the destruction was but 
little abated. 
We have now a law prohibiting killing for .three years, 
which may, to some extent, check the rapid extinction of 
the bird; but with the yearly increasing numbers of hun- 
ters and their guides traversing our woods in all direc- 
tions, added to the logging camps wherever trees grow, 
this law "is more honored in the breach than in the ob- 
servance." I see nothing for it but a continued and in- 
creasing scarcity, until ruffed grouse are as scarce in 
Maine and New Brunswick as wild pigeons. 
The Old Angler. 
[The article from which our correspondent quotes was 
meant to deal wholly with the difference between last 
year and this year. Of course the gun of the sportsman 
lias had much to do with the diminution of grouse during 
the past twenty years. All will agree to this.] 
Earre, Vt. — Editor Forest and Stream: I had just 
fim'sbed a letter to a friend in regard to the woodcock 
of 1903, when I turned to Forest and Stream and 
read the editorial, requesting a report on the birds. 
The friend referred to spent two days with me in Sep- 
tember, 1902, and during that time we bagged thirty- 
three birds, twenty woodcock and thirteen grouse. In 
the letter just sealed I had written: "It would have 
been no trick at all for us to have shot twenty wood- 
cock each day during the last week of last September." 
1 spend many hours with this royal bird during his 
stay North, and from close observation of eight years 
in this vicinity I find it breeds in goodly numbers. 
It was easy work this autumn, with good dog, to 
shoot the bag limit of five birds in a few hours. 
I endeavor to keep in touch with its haunts; btit 
each year I locate new breeding grounds. In my old 
home- near the Connecticut valley, the woodcock sel- 
dom ever bred twenty years ago, now one may find 
each summer many broods. I am unable to report the 
number of flight birds this season from my own hunt- 
ing ground, but from others have had favorable reports. 
■ The game bird which needs speedy protection is the 
ruffed grouse. B. A. E. 
Whitinsville, Mass., Nov. 28 — Editor Forest and 
Stream: 1 have found more woodcock this fall than 
last, though not to a very great extent, and they seemed 
to be more diffused. This past season I shot woodcock 
on ground where I failed to find any a year ago, and 
a small cover that gave me an even dozen last year was 
good for only one-third as many this fall. 
We do not get many woodcock in this section at the 
best. Five birds to a gun for a day's hunt is a large 
bag with us. We are more likely to get two or three 
mixed in with quail and partridge. 
Partridges have been scarce. I think there were three 
or four of these birds a year ago where I find one this 
fall. 
To my mind the poor breeding season accounts for it. * 
We had many successive days of wet weather in June, 
and the young birds were either chilled or could not get 
enough proper food to carry them through. It seems to 
me that the supply of partridges depends more on the 
successful rearing of the broods than anything else- 
This_ has been brought to my attention especially by the 
conditions in Maine this year, where partridges have been 
unusually plentiful in the sections bordering on the back- 
woods. Reliable people told me that the birds were more 
abundant than has been known for more than ten years, 
and my own observations tend to confirm this statemeilt. 
A year ago the partridges were particularly scarce in thi.'i 
same section of country, and 1 heard many complaints of 
parties that were unable to find birds to shoot. Now the 
fact that 1903 was bountiful and comes directly after the 
particularly poor season of 1902, can only be satisfactorily 
accounted for by assuming that 1903 was a good season 
for the rearing of the young birds. 
Quail with us have been more numerous than last fall, 
and a good many are left over. A good winter should 
give us many of these birds another year. C. A. T. 
Center Conway, N. FL, Dec. 1— Editor Forest and 
Stream: The scarcity of grouse or partridge this season 
does not admit of doubt. For the past four or five 
years I have shot over this territory every season, getting 
during each season from sixty to eighty birds. This was 
shooting simply for sport, and not for slaughter. If I 
had been disposed I could easily have doubled or trebled 
these bags. 
This season I have not shot over fifteen birds, and I 
quit shooting them at all in October after I discoverei.i 
there were so few that we barely had enough for 
stock for another year. 
Now, as to the cause of the disaster to the birds. We 
had an unusually early spring, or rather promise of 
spring, so that the grouse disappeared a month in advance 
of the ordinary season. This naturally influenced the 
birds to an earlier mating and nesting. About the time 
the chicks should have hatched we had two quite severe 
freezes, so severe that much of the fruit and some of 
our young apple trees were killed. It was these two 
freezes that, I think, brought death and destruction !o 
the young partridges. T. P. I. 
New York, Dec. 1— Editor Forest and Stream:. In 
your esteemed paper of November 21 you published a 
letter from me in regard to the scarcity of game in Con- 
necticut. Since then I have been hunting in New Jersey 
and have found that birds, particularly partridges, are 
unusually scarce there, and to-day while in conversation 
with a gentleman from Pennsylvania who has hunted 
regularly for years after partridges in the best portions 
of that State, he stated that there are fewer partridges, 
or ruffed grouse, as they call them, this fall than any 
season he has ever known. 
Evidently the excessive rains this past year during 
June destroyed the young; at any r.ate, some cause 
affected unfavorably their nesting. Contrary, however, 
to the reports of the scarcity of game in this part of the 
country, I have been hearing from South Carolina (where 
1 have been in the habit of going each winter) that quail 
are more plentiful than usual, and I judge that this is the 
report rather generally from the Southern States, and 
irust that I may be able to take a ten days' or two weeks' 
hunt in South Carolina during January, as I know several 
extremely good localities. 
Courtland Babcock. 
Worcester, Mass., Dec. 2. — Editor Forest and Stream: 
Under this heading last week, referring to me, our city 
Telegram had you to say, "first vice-president of the 
Massachusetts Fish and Game Commission." What he 
intended to say was one of the vice-presidents of the 
Massachusetts Fish and Game Protective Association. 
What this association wants to know from the sportsmen 
and pleasure shooters of this State is. What shall we do 
to save the partridge? There is no question about it, 
they are way beyond the danger line. We have been 
shooting old birds all this season. All covers within 
twenty-five miles of this city, in which a bird could be 
killed if there, are almost wholly depleted. To say that 
one or two dry seasons will bring them back is sheor 
folly. Where are they to come from? Our neighbor 
States, Connecticut, Vermont and New Hampshire, sent 
cut the same cry before we did. 
How shall we save the partridge? T will venture to 
say that the Forest and Stream will be glad to open 
its columns to you to tell us how to do it. 
A. B. F. Kinney. 
Derry, N. H., Nov. 27.—tditor Forest and Stream: 
In reply to your inquiry as to our woodcock shooting: 
One party here who shot ten in one day on the flight, 
has hunted them every fall for several years, and says 
there were as many this year as ever. In fact, he thinks 
they have held their own for the past three or four 
years. 
Partridges are scarce here, but up toward Chester, 
five miles' distant, on higher ground, they are inore 
plentiful. Was up there to-day and started as many 
as twenty^ birds, many of them in good, safe covers, 
where they can defy the dog and gun. 
John W. Babbitt. 
Prince's Bay, Staten Island ,N. Y., Nov. 27.— Editor 
Forest and Stream: Last spring as I was riding u\) 
through the Connecticut valley on the N. Y., N. H. & 
hi. Railroad, a man came in and asked permission to 
sit with me. He got on at some station below Hart- 
ford, it matters not where. I remarked that it looked 
like good woodcock country through here. He said 
it was; and told me that this spring he had seen more 
woodcock than he had seen before in fifteen years, and 
if the birds did well north this season we would have 
good woodcock shooting this fall. I thought no more 
of it until this fall, when I then remembered the con- 
versation in the smoking car last spring with a gentle- 
man and sportsman of the old school (which I found 
out after). More woodcock have been shot since the 
first day of November on Staten Island than since the 
year 1893. There are not many bird dogs here; and 
the birds that have been shot have been flushed and 
shot by rabbit hunters mostly. Last week one party of 
four hunters shot eight woodcocic in a little bunch of 
sprouts not more than half an acre in extent, and sev- 
