Dec. 12, 1903.] 
f'OREST AND STREAM. 
467 
eral other parties have shot from one to seven since 
the first of the month. One man told me he had shot 
twenty-four since Nov. i, and he said: "1 feel ashamed 
to tell it." He need not be ashamed of it; if he had 
been so disposed he could have got twice that number. 
Woodcock have been so plenty here this fall that men 
who used to own good dogs ten and fifteen years ago 
are now thinking about getting another dog. I have 
seen several gentlemen from Middlesex county, New 
Jersey, who hunt; and they all say woodcock have been 
plentiful there. 
The fall flight has been large, and the prediction of 
the man in the smoker became a fact. I have shot 
none. I have pointed my walking stick toward a dozen 
or so that I have flushed in my Sunday rambles. I 
could not help it; the old cane would come to my 
shoulder instinctively. *** 
la Nebraska. 
Notwithstanding the fact that all the conditions for 
capital sport on the marshes this fall could not have 
been improved upon, the shooting has not been up 
to the standard, save in isolated instances, of the aver- 
age season. The fact is, the issue of the birds from 
the north, up to within a few days, has been far short 
of that of ordinary seasons, and the usual raornmg and 
evening flight has been confined largely to local birds, 
and which, as anomalous as it may seem, have been 
more abundant than they have for years. Especially 
was the crop of bluewing teal an enormous one, and all 
through September and October it was these birds 
that generally furnished the best sport. But like the 
upland plover, the bluewing is a delicate little fellow, 
and it requires but a few white frosts to cause him to 
raise his azure sails and hie himself of? to the sunny 
Southland. But they are all gone now. and the green- 
wing has taken his place, along with the larger mem- 
bers of the wild fowl family. The greenwing is a hardy 
little campaigner, and he will linger here with the cau- 
tious old mallard until well into January. While I re- 
peat, with the exception of the past few days when the 
iBieht has been a big one, the birds have come down 
from the north only in meager numbers, the shooting 
has been more than tolerably interesting on most all 
of the favored grounds, and many bags of goodly size 
have been reported. That the average gunner takes 
his autumnal outing too prematurely to insure the best 
results on the most desirable birds, has only again been 
exemplified by the fact that most have already used 
up their vacation time and are compelled to stand idly 
bv and see the main issue of the winged hosts from the 
hj'porborean world pass over unmolested. 
But as I ha\'e many times said before, it is not alone 
the killing that renders these trips afield so charming 
and enjoyable. While a fair amount of shooting en- 
hances them immensely, beautiful weather is the prin- 
cipal desideratum after all. Cold winds, sleet and snow 
are poor concomitants to camp life. It is the hazy at- 
mosphere, the golden sunshine and soothing winds 
the outer craves in the fulfillment of his joys in the 
field and on the marsh. 
The long continued stretch of delightful weather with 
Vvliich we were favored here all through October, and 
i-p to within the last two or three days, has been un- 
questionably the cause of the backwardness of the birds 
ill coming down from the Polar lands this fall. At last, 
however, a decisive change has broken in on the charm- 
ing placidity of old Boreas, and the sportsman who can- 
not get away is electrified with the sights he so longed 
for earlier in the season. All through the first two 
(il)en months the birds were evidently content to linger 
and revel within the still salubrious climes of their sum- 
mer home in the north, and it was only adventurous 
and straggling fiocks and bands that were induced to 
start upon their southern pilgrimage. But now that 
the first burst of winter, with its boisterous breezes, 
cold rains and snow flurries is upon us, the winged 
hordes are all on the move and rushing over and by us 
iu countless thousands. The present flight is a very 
volinninous one, which the paucity of visitors during 
October made most probable, but it will only be the 
luckiest of gunners, he of the superabundance of time, 
who will profit by it, for the birds will linger here but 
■a brief time; in fact the bulk of them are rushing on- 
ward without as much as deigning us more than a pass- 
ing glance. From the rim of the Arctic circle to the 
sunny shores of the big gulf, the conditions this year, 
so far as feed and water, have been unsurpassed, and 
the birds have not had, nor will have, any pressing oc- 
casion to linger or dally upon any of the intermediate 
grounds. The same favors that would be acc-nrded 
them here will greet them at the end of their journey 
in the fair lands of the South. 
As wiih the ducks, so it has been with the jacksnipe. 
The sport on these royal little sprites of the bogs has, 
up to within the past week, commensurately disap- 
pointing. Not that as many of them have not found 
their way into the capacious pockets of the canvas 
shooting wammuses as should justly find lodgment 
there under any circumstances, the unusually attractive 
conditions everywhere existing led the always ambitious 
sportsman to believe that he was going to have the 
grandest shooting that has been his lot for many a 
long year. Last spring there were more of these 
precious little gallinagoes killed in this section of the 
country than has been known here in more than a 
quarter of a century, and the natural exnectation was 
that the birds would come again this fall in the same 
•glorious plentitude. But identically the same causes 
that deterred the ducks kept the snipe back, until now, 
■on the nocturnal frost ridden winds, along with the 
■geese and the quackers they are hurrying over and 
by us to lands that are always smiling. Of course 
there was jack shooting here, and good shooting, at 
that, all through the mellifluous October weather, but 
by all former signs and tokens the best snipe time has 
passed, and what shooting that remains will be poor 
indeed. 
And the geese. They were also equally tardy. Up 
to within the past two days but few bunches of Can- 
adas have been seen cleaving their aerial way south- 
ward, and the cackle of the speckle front and white 
g-oose \vgg an infrequent sovmd in the grand chorus of 
October days. Just now, every morning, long lines 
and wedge-shaped flocks streak the steely skies with 
most exhilarating frequency, and the sonorous auh-unk, 
auh-unk, unk-unk-unk mingles with every blast of cold 
wind and drowns all other sounds in the sportsman's 
ears. Sport on the Canadas out along the sprawling 
Platte should now be excellent for six weeks to come. 
While the chicken shooting was all that a reasonable 
gunner should have expected, it was not quite so easy 
for him to kill a wagon load as he anticipated, and it 
is to the present wise law regulating the slaughter of 
this bird you can turn for an explanation of this mys- 
tery. Oct. I is plenty early enough, as I have fre- 
quently, and I hope forcibly, stated in these colurnns, 
to open the season on this long since doomed bird, 
and had it not been for the extensive onslaught 
by conscienceless shooters in his ranks during the 
latter days of August and through September, the 
legitimate October gunner would have been revvarded 
with plethoric bags without much exertion. As it was 
the bulk of the birds were killed oflf in many sections 
before they were hardly strong enough to clear the 
long prairie grass, and this, too, despite the vigilance 
and activity of our wardens. While they have done 
much good work, it is but a drop in the bucket coin- 
pared with what they will be enabled to accomplish in 
another year. They have the recalcitrant districts 
pretty well in hand now, know what to expect and will 
undoubtedly supply the necessary remedy. While 
Chief Game Warden Carter dif5ers with me as to the 
advisability of prohibiting chicken shooting before Oct. 
I, I think the present season's results will go a long 
ways toward convincing him of the soundness of the 
wisdom of the men who drafted the bill and the legis- 
lators who made it a law. The great number of big, 
strong birds that have been able to thwart the eflforts 
at their annihilation by the unnumbcred_ hunters who 
have swarmed our fields this fall, and which have been 
left over for another season, should convince him that 
an earlier open season means total and speedy exter- 
mination. With the lawless gunners once under con- 
trol, the continuation of the chicken in fairly good 
numbers for years to come is assured, and as this con- 
trol is something Warden Carter will in a little more 
time securely compass, the outlook is really encourag- 
ing. With the stoppage of the sale of birds in the open 
market, and even a moderately due observance of the 
law as it stands, means much to future generations of 
sportsmen. 
All true lovers of the gun, after the beneficent fruits 
of the law have been appreciated, will be content to 
await the coming of October, when chicken hunting 
and chicken shooting will be unhampered by legal re- 
straint. And, by the way, there is a vast difference be- 
tween chicken hunting and chicken shooting, as many 
an ardent adventurer has discovered long ere this. In 
August or early September there is no sport in either. 
It is too laborious and too oppressive to trudga 
through dried stubble, sere grass and flowing corn. 
Even if you or 5'our dog is so fortunate as to locate 
a covey of soft, flabby, pin-feathered, slow flying chick- 
lings, there is no skill required to exterminate the 
whole flock in this season, and the slaughter is at- 
tended with neither enthusiasm or excitement._ 
It is true to a preponderance of tastes, a chicken or 
a grouse is at its best for table purposes when half or 
two-thirds grown, but this is argument in extenuation 
of this unlawful killing, and a full grown bird at all 
limes is sufficiently toothsome to answer all gastrono- 
mic requirements. 
hi October, all panoplied with hammerless and shells, 
the sportsman will find the very acme of healthful 
sport in the chicken fields. Side by side with pointer 
or .setter ranging in front, these comrades of the hunt 
will tramp the fields, the sandhills and draws and in 
the lazy atmosphere of golden days find such enjoy- 
ment as is undreamed of by the midsummer marauder 
and buccaneer. Besides the actual pleasure to the 
hunter from the fact that he is engaged in an honest 
recreation, there is ai still greater delight to be de- 
rived from the surrounding charms of waning sunny 
days. Shut up, perhaps, in store, shop or office all 
through the hot period, the sights and sounds and 
odors of the droning country will seem altogether new 
to them. Such an outing, with the birds fairly plenti- 
ful and strong enough of wing to test their keenest 
sight and steadiest of ner^'es, is a revelation of an- 
other existence, yet each enchanted faculty brings back 
to them memories of other days just like these, of 
other comradery, of other scenes, but none more 
beautiful or more beloved. 
Tn such a hunter the morning and evening piccolo 
of the meadowlark, as he perches proudly on his cream- 
colored pillars on fence post or sunflower stalk, never 
sounded half so plaintive, half so sweet. The ruddy- 
breasted robin, too, hops nimbly and fearlessly along 
the dank bank of creek or swale, or darts across the 
yellowing hay field, emitting from his yellow beak a 
sharp, petulent staccato, that to the hunter is also a 
lilt of melody, which he alone seems to appreciate and 
understand. The modest flowers of early fall, the 
moose hoof, the adder's tongue, wind flower, Indian 
plume, aster and lobelia open their tender faces, seem- 
ingly to greet him. their old time friends. 
And more and more. He faintly catches the caw- 
caw-caw of the sable crow, streaming low over the 
fields in funereal train on slow flapping wings; the 
mystic, far-sounding chick-a-dee-dee-dee of the vag- 
rant solitaire, the low, gutteral yak-yak-yak-yak of the 
little lavender sapsuc.ker as he laboriously hitches him- 
self up and down the white-barked cottonwood. and 
the never ceasing twitter of the marshalliup' black- 
birds. From off over the low sandhills, from the river 
and marshy expanse, now and then comes the honk 
of the early goose or the startled quack of the mother 
mallard who has nested and raised her family in the 
bordering morass, while from afar above falls the shrill 
cry of the Cooner's hawk, soaring sublimely or poised 
on moveless wing, intent upon some unwary rabbit or 
crouching quail. Then, again, the broad prairie, with 
its endless undulations of yellowing grass, as silent, 
mayhap, as the tomb, brings with it to his senses a 
gratifving intoxication. 
But after a while comes the somber day when the 
birds lock their merry throats, the pointecl blossoms 
clooe their eyes, and over the limitless landscape, 
gray and bleak and still, through the barren hills and 
leafless groves, across the coldly lapsing lake and 
dreamy marsh, and into the shadowy valley, comes 
marching — noiselessly, imperceptioly — but sure and cer- 
tain, the advance guard of a host — frigid, white_ and 
deathlike— soon to hold full sway and make itself 
everywhere heard and felt. 
But look! There is old Spot on a dead point, just 
at the edge of that bedraggled stubble, yonder. 
Now for a double! Sandy Griswold. 
Omaha, Neb. 
Canvasbacks at $20 Per Pair* 
St. Paxil, Minn. — ^A friend of mine last winter gave 
me quite a dissertation on market-hunting at Heron Lake 
in Minnesota. He had been up there during the fall, 
and found he was "up against it." The market-hunters 
saw that the gentleman sportsmen got plenty of expe- 
rience — if they got no ducks. In his case a market-hun- 
ter took a stand not far from my friend's decoys and 
effectually spoiled his shooting, turning the ducks every 
time. 
All this was bad enough, but when the market-rnan 
sent a load of No. 6 around my friend's head it was high 
time to take notice. My friend had carried with him a 
Winchester rifle to try on geese and mallards flying high. 
Taking up his rifle he sighted the water line of the 
market-man's skiff and proceeded to make a sieve of it 
as the market-hunter pulled for the shore. 
This was but one of the many disagreeable episodes of 
a day's hunting on Heron Lake while the market-men 
held sway. But all things come to an end. Mr. Iniller- 
ton, the State Game Warden, got wind of the matter and 
arrests and seizure of guns followed. 
I had counted on a hunt with Mr. Fullerton this fall, 
hut he had his hands full at Heron Lake. There was 
something doing up there. Two wagonloads of canvas- 
backs and redheads had been seized and the men who 
were behind the game, the receivers of the goods, caught, 
as the immaculate Devery would say, "with the goods on 
them." In all there were a round 2,000 birds. The 
men "higher up" — the Chicago commission men — hired 
a lawyer. There were all kinds of charges made reflect- 
ing upon the integrity of Mr. Fullerton, making it appear 
that any and all transgresions of the law were upon his 
shoulders, and that the local commission men were as 
spotless as the driven snow. But the worst and severest 
charge made against Fullerton was that he_ had appro- 
priated the ducks to his own private use — in fact, had 
eaten up the 2,000 ducks. If this charge were true, one 
might have ima.eined pin feathers cropping out on Ful- 
lerton from head to foot. 
But, nothing daunted, Fullerton went ahead, and word 
comes down from the north that a verdict has been ren- 
dered at $10 per bird, or $24,980, for there were just 
2,498 birds found in their possession with intent to sell. 
But the verdict was modified to $20,000, because that was 
all that was asked for in the pleadings. It is not for .i 
moment supposed that the Supreme Court will reverse 
the verdict. 
Mr. Fullerton is enthusiastic, naturally, over the out- 
come. The gang has boasted immunity from danger. 
They were well organized and snapped their fingers at 
the law. 
I saw another friend yesterday who had recently been 
to Heron Lake, and he tells me that the market-hunters 
have turned toward legal and proper pursuits, guiding 
for a living. The majesty of the law has been vindicated. 
A few thousand Fullertons scattered methodically from 
Maine to California would mean much for the game 
preservation of the country. Charles Cristadoro. 
A California Day. 
San FtiANCisco, Cal. — Beginning near Monterey in 
central California and running eastward is a_ relatively 
arid strip of territory; the rainfall, which is confined 
almost exclusively to the winter months, averaging about 
nine or ten inches. From the first of August until No- 
vember water is exceedin.gly scarce, in consequence of 
which all wild birds and animals concentrate in the neigh- 
borhood of the infrequent water holes and springs. 
I killed my first deer in this region nearly forty years 
ago. At that time this game was very abundant,_ and 
the hunter was liable at anj-^ time to run across a grizrlv. 
Now, however, the bear is only a memory, and deer are 
scarce. Small game, such as quail, cottontails, and hare, 
are yet abundant. 
I have recentl}' returned from a deer hunt in this belt, 
whither I went in company with H., my companion of 
many hunting trips. 
Breakfasting very early one morning on this last trip, 
I suggested to H. that I would go up the canon and 
secrete myself near a water hole with the hope that a 
buck might call to get a drink before lying down for the 
day. H. decided to go in the opposite direct inn after 
cottontails, as the quail season was not yet open. 
I got to the water hole at daybreak and found a com- 
fortable hiding place on a high bank about thirty yards 
from the water hole. The latter was of about the dimen- , 
sions of an ordinary hand wash basin, and was situated 
at the roots of a clump of willows near the center of a 
dry water-way. 
I had sat probably ten minutes, when out of a brier 
thicket near by there hopped a dainty little cottontail, who 
made direct for the water. Before beginning to drink he 
sat up and looked quickly around. He then applied his 
muzzle to the water, and, to my astonishment, kept it 
there more than a full minute, taking deep draught.^. 
Having finished, he hopped back into the thicket. After 
a short period of waiting, I heard in the chapparal behind 
me the soft Coo, coo of a quail piloting his flork. 
Presently he emerged from the undergrowth about fifteen 
feet away, and immediately discovered me. He cock<'d 
his eye at me and uttered a warning Cheep, cheep. I srit 
perfectly still. He moved a few feet away and took an- 
other look at me. A number of others now joined hir;i, 
and all carefully surveyed the intruder. Curiosity satis- 
fied, the whole bevy descended the bank to the sprin.g, 
leaving 3 picket on a nearby limb. Meanwhile two other 
ijfYi^s were approaching the drinking place ixcva differeu^ 
