136 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Feb. 18, 190s 
Some Deer Hunters of Maine. 
Hardly the usual number of deer have been kiiled in 
this section the past season. Plenty have been seen but 
somehbw the most of them had a great knack of keep- 
ing out of harm's way. The hunters of our own town 
have been particularly unlucky, so far as I can learn, but 
two deer being shot hereabouts by fellow-residents. 
Erskine L Watson and Almon Linscott were the for- 
tunate parties, though the "fortunate" admits of a liberal 
qualification in the case of Mr. Linscott, as he failed to 
find his deer until the meat was unfit for use, despite the 
fact that it fell dead within a few yards of the spot where 
it was shot. Mr. Watson's prize was a magnificent buck. 
He had the head mounted, while the meat was generously 
distributed among his friends. 
Mr. Watson is a present-day sportsman of the best 
type. The most of his time is taken up with his business, 
but by improving the early morning hours and occasional 
dull days, together with an annual outing, he manages to 
gratify in part an ardent propensity for sport with the 
rod and gun. He is a good shot and expert angler, and 
rarely in his expeditions do the woods and streams fail 
to yield tribute to his skill. Yet he never kills more than 
he needs. 
Mr. George W. Adams is another of our most_ per- 
sistent deer hunters, and being a gentleman of leisure, 
he has ample time to devote to the sport. Haying l^t 
a leg in a railroad accident, which renders walking ditfi- 
cult, he adopts the somewhat novel method of hunting 
with a team. Behind a pure-bred, mettlesome stallion 
he drives day after day over miles of rough wood and 
logging roads that would be thought impassable for any- 
thing but a truck horse by the average individual. Every 
haunt of the game is known and visited by him. Some- 
times he takes a companion along to hold the horse when 
he gets a shot, or to enable him to make short detours 
on loot; but occasions are not wanting when he has 
dropped his deer from the wagon, though a sharp strug- 
gle with his spirited steed invariably follows such act. 
Mr Adams was one of the first to bag a deer after their 
influx into this section, and since that time has rarely 
failed to secure his quota up to the present season, when 
he was unable to score. . in 
Wm Clark, living nine miles further up the valley 
'(Ossipee), is reported to have recently secured two 
bucks in a morning. He was gone from the house less 
than two hours to get the first, which he had hardly 
landed at his home, when a second buck appeared but a 
short distance from the house, and this he also^ shot. 
Clinton Rowe, of Baldwin, was similarly lucky, finding a 
bio- buck awaiting him almost in his dooryard when he 
arose one morning. I hear, too, of kills being made m 
Parsonfield, Hiram, Denmark, Fryeburg, and m fact 
nearly all surrounding towns. • • , t.t <-t. 
Two parties from this town have visited the JNorth 
W^oods. One, composed of J. T. Irish, Dr. S. G. Sawyer 
and Frank Stearns, brought home two deer; the other- 
Fred Bowie and Bion Bradley— captured a deer and a 
moose, the latter falling to Bowie's gun. Both parties 
saw plenty of game, but encountered the prevailing diffi- 
cult conditions for trailing, which are urged as account- 
able for the shortage in the record of shipments of deer 
in comparison with last year. It is probable, however, 
that the previous unusually severe winter depleted the 
deer considerably. W. H. Hatch, a registered guide of 
twelve years' experience in the country north of Moose- 
head informs me that the number of carcasses he found 
in the woods as the result of death from hunger and cold 
was far in excess of that of any previous year. 
Whether deer are increasing or decreasing m the State 
is a mooted question. We trust that every effort will be 
made to speedily determine the truth of the matter and 
proper steps taken to long continue the sport alike to 
native and visiting sportsmen. J. L. Woodbury. 
Cornish, Me. 
Prosecutions in Illinois. 
State Game Commissioner J. A. Wheeler sends us a 
gratifying satement of the work of his department m 
enforcing the game laws, and punishing violators. Ihe 
record shows great activity on the part of Commis- 
sioner Wheeler and the executive force under hK di- 
rection Since the present act became effective, July 
I, 1003, there had been, up to Dec. 17, last, 321 prose- 
cutions of alleged violation of the game laws of 
Illinois Of this number of cases, 84 per cent, resulted 
in convictions, which have had a salutary effect upon 
persons who have sought to hunt out of season or with- 
out a license, or to otherwise ignore the statutes. 
About $3,000 in fines has been collected on these con- 
victions. , f. 
The offenses for which the largest number of persons 
were arrested was shooting without a license; of these 
I2Q were prosecuted, the penalty being a fine ot 5^,25- 
Among the other offenders, 52 were close season 
shooters, 37 killed song birds, 12 hunted with ferrets 
and 10 were guilty of illicit sale or shipment The 
record of the seizures of game show the following 
confiscat^ion^ seized 34 Quail in candy pails, marked 
from S N. C, Whittington, Illinois, to Otto Shu- 
macker," St. Louis, Mo. Shipper not yet arrested. 
Nov 26 1904, seized 28 quail m candy pails,_ marked 
from S N. C, Whittington, Illinois, and consigned to 
Missouri P. & G. Co., 405 Franklin Avenue, St. Louis. 
Evidently same shipper as above. , , , . 
Nov 29, 1904, seized 59 Quail, marked buttei, and 
shioped from West Frankfort, 111.; shipper B. Keeley, 
to P. M. Kieley & Co., St. Louis, Mo. This shipper 
has left the State. 1 1 r 
Dec 12 1904, seized 36 quail m egg case, marked from 
T T "Plumlee, to P. M. Kieley, St. Louis, billed as 
eggs* This man is under bond of $500 to the county 
'^^Nov 23, 1904, seized 3 squirrels, from H. L. Gersten- 
schleger, Pinckneyville, III, to H. Breneke, St. Louis, 
Mo Shipped as dressed poultry. Defendant prose- 
cuted and fined $7S and costs. 
Nov. 30, 1904, seized 2 squirrels from George Rahn. 
Redbud, 111., to Charleg F. Brann, Pittsburg, Pa. Pe- 
fcndstit' fined $|D ,'" ' ' 
Dec. 15, 1904, seized 68 quail from Peckham, shipper 
No. 7, Irvin, 111., to P. M. Kieley & Co., St. Louis. 
Shipper arrested and under bond. 
Dec. 15, 1904, seized 240 quail in telescopes in the 
hands of Harlan Ray and John Hudson, of Benton, 
III., while trying to get them through to St. Louis as 
baggage. Violators arrested and fined $200 and costs. 
Dec. 16, 1904, seized 161 quail in candy pails; shipped 
by William Tyler, Texico, III, to McLean & Alcorn, 
St. Louis, Mo. Shipper arrested, now under bond of 
$500 for trial in January. 
Nov. 29, 1904, seized one pail and one box containing 
87 quail; shipped by No. 135, Jefferson county, 111., to 
McLean & Alcorn, St. Louis, marked butter. Shipper 
same as above case, under bond for separate, offense. _ 
Nov. 26, 1904, seized 124 quail, in three candy pails, 
marked and billed as butter; shipped by Samuel Daubs, 
Franklin county, to McLean & Alcorn, St. Louis, Mo. 
Violator now under bond of $500 to the county court. 
The Cunning of a Buck. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
1 can personally vouch for the following: 
In the early part of November last I was stopping at 
Guide Clements' camp, on the Fourth Debsconeag Lake, 
northern Maine, twenty-five miles from Norcross, the 
nearest railroad station, and four miles from the nearest 
inhabited camp. 
It was the first good snowstorm of the season, the fall 
being about five inches. My guide and I started out at 
8 A. M. with the intention of killing a buck. We canoed 
across the fourth lake, and had not gone far into the 
woods before we struck the track of what appeared to be 
a good sized buck. The trail was made during the night. 
We followed it up the Forrest Hill and down to the lake, 
then back again on the mountain side, occasionally meet- 
ing with evidence of his pawing and bucking at small 
trees. We did not permit ourselves to be thrown off 
by the tracks of other deer which occasionally crossed 
his. We could see where he had gone under fallen trees 
which interfered with his progress; some of these were 
so low to the ground that it seemed incredible that a 
fair sized buck could go under them without showing 
some evidence in the snow that he had crawled. But he 
did not; he simply bent under these fallen trees, the 
tracks on either side being perfect, and showing no evi- 
dence of his having jumped them. It seemed to me, 
with little experience in hunting deer, that he must needs 
be a small deer, but my guide insisted, however, that he 
was a good sized one, judging alone from his tracks. _ 
We followed him for over four hours, covering a dis- 
tance of over seven miles, and during most of this time 
he was going on a walk or an easy trot over the roughest 
kind of woodland, rocks and moss-covered boulders. 
There were evidences of his having lain down only twice 
during his journey. 
At noon we sat on a log and ate our simple lunch, 
quietly chatting. Lunch through, we started out again. 
The trail took us up a fair sized hill about half a mile, 
and this brought us to a small opening in the woods, 
and here we saw our prize, but he did not see us, and 
. instead of being alone, he was with a fine doe. As we 
had an abundant supply of venison at camp, and only 
wanted the buck, we waited a second for him to_ emerge 
from among a clump of trees that partially hid him from 
view, and, the moment he came in sight I let him have 
one shot from my rifle, but instead of seeing him lie 
down, he disappeared. We again took up the trail, this 
time of blood, and every time he stepped you could see 
blood spattered on the snow, showing the wound was 
rather high. 
After going about seventy-five rods, he lay down; but 
hearing us before we could locate him, he went on; you 
could see the pool of blood where he had rested. We 
followed him another fifty or sixty rods, when he again 
lay down, and we saw more marks showing a consider- 
able loss of blood, but still not as much as before. Scent- 
ing us before we could get a glimpse of him, he again 
went on; but we could see the blood marks get 
fainter and fainter, and finally disappear. We followed 
him by his tracks, now through a ravine down to the 
Third Debsconeag Lake, a distance of about a mile, and 
here all trace of him stopped. 
We went up and down the lake a short distance to 
see if we could find his track; finding none, we went 
out on a large tree which had fallen into the lake and 
looked up and down and across the lake, and to our sur- 
prise we 'saw an object moving in the water near the 
opposite shore. We saw this object come out of the 
• water, and could see it was our buck. My guide then 
shot at him twice, and he apparently fell down near the 
water's edge. We subsequently found out that neither 
shot took effect, owing to a miscalculation of distance. 
My guide went to get his canoe at the head of the lake, 
about a mile away, while I remained to keep a weather 
eye on the spot where the deer fell. Upon reaching the 
spot with his canoe about an hour after, the guide saw 
the buck lying near the edge of the lake. 
He hallooed to me, "He's a dandy! I will bring him 
over in the canoe." He proved to be a fine specimen; 
four prongs on each side, with remarkably heavy, thick 
horns, weighing about 170 pounds. The deer's long swim 
in the icy water with his mortal wound not only ex- 
hausted him, but made him stiff, and he lay there as if 
dead. My guide approached him cautiously, and stuck 
him with his knife a couple of times in the neck over the 
artery, and twisted the blade to make sure work of him. 
After waiting a couple of minutes he started to drag him 
to the canoe, which was only a few steps away to bring 
him over to me. I could just see him in the dim light 
on the other side of the lake lean down to get a hold on 
his horns, and then saw him tug away in the act of drag- 
. ging him toward the canoe, when all of a sudden the 
buck was on his feet. Immediately he lowered his head 
and charged my guide! He needed just this help to over- 
come his stiffness and get on his feet. There was a 
small spruce near the water's edge, and the guide, realiz- 
ing his danger, by a dexterous move put the tree between 
himself and the deer. The buck charged and hit the 
tree, and the man grabbed his horns, one in each hand, 
and' held him as if in a vise; but the buck, to free him- 
f?lff iWH&g l^is body to one side, pressing the guide's 
wrist against the tree and forcing him to let go his hold 
with that hand, but he held on to the other horn foi 
dear life. With this side move and sudden release, th< 
buck slipped on a rock into the lake, and by this time h« 
was so exhausted that he could not pull himself up or 
his feet, and the guide at an opportune moment plungec 
his knife into his neck again. My guide now left th< 
game and came over after me. When we reached th( 
other shore, the buck, hearing us, raised his head as 
gathering strength to get away, but he was too wea 
and after a few gasps died. 
We found the shot had entered from behind rathei 
high, breaking no bones, but plowed through the vitals 
causing a severe internal hemorrhage. We dressed am 
hung him up for the night and returned to camp afte: 
our eventful day's sport. J. Newton Williams. 
New York, Jan 20. 
Foxes and Game Birds. 
OssiNiNG, N. Y., Feb. 6. — Editor Forest and Stream 
Anent the question, "Do Foxes Destroy Game Birds? i 
I recently saw some very interesting evidence of a fo:; 
having caught a partridge near Boston Corners 
Dutchess county. The tracks in the snow indicate' 
that a fox had been following a rabbit's track in a 
easterly direction, along the edge of a swamp over 
grown with tamerack, alders, etc. A partridge, flyin, 
in a westerly direction, had lit in the snow almost di 
rectly opposite the fox, taken a few steps and stoo^ 
facing the open. The fox had turned at right angle 
to its previous course, and a few feathers on the snov 
told the rest of the story. On the two, preceding day 
we flushed a partridge within a few hundred yards c 
the spot where the tragedy occurred. 
In Alaska, when the geese are arriving in great flock 
in the spring, foxes may be seen skulking in the brus 
close to their feeding grounds and, no doubt, levy 
toll on the newly arrived birds. Edward F. Ball. 
Winchester, N. H., Jan. 13. — Editor Forest an 
Stream: I have noticed in your paper a number of arti 
cles in regard to scarcity of game birds, and in almos 
every case the fox has been blamed for it. I would lik 
to ask my brother hunters a few questions. 
Who is there that will dispute my statement ths 
twenty-five years ago there were at least fifteen pai. 
tridges where there is now one? And also at that tim| 
were not the foxes corresjpondingly as thick or there| 
abouts ? 
We will all admit that the game birds have been dd 
creasing very fast in the past fifteen or twenty-five year| 
and those that have watched the decrease will say thf 
the foxes have very much decreased also; I am very sui" 
old hunters of the fox will agree with me. We will a 
admit that the fox catches some game birds. He ha;| 
always done that; he caught them fifty years ago an'i 
does now. But who can say truthfully that the scarcit 
belongs to him? With the modern gun. and the late; 
improved methods of trapping, the fox has had to d«; 
crease with the other game. Back twenty-five years ag 
how many schoolboys were there that could shoot on th 
wing? How is it to-da:y? The average man with moder 
guns and improvements is killing game at a big advan' 
age over his brother of twenty-five years ago. 
Who is blamed for what disease, wood-ticks, sever, 
winters and cats have done? By many it is the fox. 
One of the greatest enemies that game birds have t 
contend with is the house cat. How many farmers, 
well as village people, have from two to ten cats? Tl 
woods are full of them. Instead of hunting aroun 
buildings, you will find them around the orchards ar 
woods. These cats break up whole bunches of gan 
birds, and there is no end to the slaughter of young son 
birds that can be justly laid to them. 
If brother sportsmen of Massachusetts instead of pu 
ting a bounty on the fox, as I see they are talking .( 
doing, will put it on cats, or pass a law that each c 
should be taxed at the same rate as the dog, we coul 
get rid of some of these roving cats that destroy eac 
season hundreds of thousands of birds of all kinds. ; 
I am positive the partridge in the past few years h: 
been a great sufferer of disease and wood-ticks, as we 
as from these other enemies. The severe winters of tl" 
Northern States, the worst of all enemies, play have 
with the quail. 
I claim, as before stated, that the fox does catch son 
birds ; but he has gone, to a certain extent, the same Wc 
all game has. The most able and intelligent of all gan 
animals, the fox is king of all, and the best sport ar 
most genuine hunting come from the fox chase. 
Brother sportsmen, give the fox all the blame that 
due, but do not blame him for what the above mentions 
enemies to birds are responsible. I claim the fox is m 
to blame for the scarcity of our game birds. You cj 
blame him for the loss of the song birds just as well. 
will all admit that the song birds have decreased vei 
much in the past few years. L. R. Nelson. 
Afizona Legislation. 
Phcenix, Arizona, Feb. 3. — Editor Forest and Strean 
The Territorial Legislature, which meets _ biennially, 
now in session and the officers of the Arizona Sport 
men's Association and the Arizona Fish and Game Cor 
missioners have prepared an entirely new game la^ 
which has been introduced and will undoubtedly paf 
There are not m.any important changes from the la 
already in force. The bill, if passed, will prohibit t] 
killing of antelope until March i, 191 1; it changes tl, 
male deer and turkey season to the month of Novemb 
(at present September 15 to November i) ; changes t; 
trout season from June i to August i (now June I 
September i) ; in addition to present limits places a liti 
on doves of fifty in one day, and on fish not exceedii 
twenty pounds or forty fish. The new law also provid 
a non-resident license of $10 per year on male deer 
turkey. Sale of all game prohibited. 
It is also quite likely a bill will be_ introduced providir 
for an active game and fish commissioner under sala 
and expenses. Arizona has a large quantity and varie 
of game and realizes fully the necessity of taking ste 
to protect it, - - . . . g 
