EPT. l6, 1905.] 
FOREST AND STREAM 
281 
idle all night and half the day to fight fire as long as 
!?an endure to undo such a blunder, 
tov/ever, Maine has adopted a plan of raising money 
license instead of a direct tax for the preservation 
'he game, when if she had made every game warden 
■ire warden too, with certain territory to be re- 
aisible for and in which to look after fires, as well 
game law violators, with heavy penalities for those 
) were careless about fires, several of the disastrous 
is of the present season, and of last year, might have 
n avoided by discovery in season, and the responsi- 
jty promptly fixed. Weeksboro on the Bangor & 
)Ostook is reported to have suffered the same fate 
did Sherman a year or two ago, while vast timber 
perties have been rendered valueless by the fire fiend, 
ring the last twO' days a steady downpour has re- 
ed in checking the fires, and at this writing it is 
eved to have quenched all the fires in the woods. 
there may be still dry times ahead, and there are 
jr seasons coming, so that the sportsman who camps 
daine should have his eyes open tO' see that no fires 
chargeable to his door. If Maine is so generous in 
ard to permitting sportsmen to travel over her 
berlands and enjoy them, without a cent of revenue 
ctly therefor, they certainly ought to be sportsmen 
ugh to refrain from damaging her standing timber, 
of the State’s principal sources of revenue, and on 
ch several of her chief industries rely for material. 
Herbert W. Rowe. 
A Rainy Day Hunt. 
.AWOKE at 3 o’clock and heard the patter of rain, 
lought there would be no hunting that day, so I 
vied back to bed without awakening Tom. Two 
rs later I awoke again, and when I went to the 
dow I saw that there were signs of clearing. I 
Tom, and we were soon dressed and sat down to 
lunch. While on our way to get the team which 
to take us to our hunting grounds for the day, the 
suddenly descended again in drenching form. _We 
eluded it would stop till we reached our destination, 
so we set out on our way. A drive of seven miles 
light us to the desired place, and we put the team 
ly in a hurry. It was drizzling somewhat, but of 
rse we did not mind that. What is it that a true 
'tsnian will not brave? 
he territory over which we expected to hunt lay 
r high wooded hills and deep valley. Since the night 
ire was wet it would be quite natural that rabbits 
t mostly under cover. So' we made our way to a 
11 woods, full of low brush. We looked carefully 
ind every tree and stump and rock. Tom came to a 
p cf dead brush, and said: “Here is where we get 
first rabbit.” He put his foot on top, gave a good 
ke, and sure enough out came a rabbit. Tom let 
un about twenty yards, when he shot it. A few 
utes afterward I was looking around a big stump 
ecting a rabbit to sit backed up against it, and was 
lit on the point of leaving it, when lo, and behold ! 
ibbit jumped out of the top of the stump, which was 
lewhat decayed, and made a nice hiding place. Be- 
that I never would have thought of looking at 
li a place for a rabbit, but since then I have kept 
eyes peeled for hollow tops of -stumps, and have 
tid a half dozen hiding there. If that_ bunny had 
t sitting I would have passed it unnoticed. As it 
, I fired two shots at it in quick succession, and it 
rabbit No. i for my pocket. 
/e searched out that woods without finding any more 
le. To our right was another woods, and between 
; and the one where we were was a narrow field, 
ered with a luxuriant growth of weeds. As I 
ibed on the fence to enter the field the top rail 
ke, and I took a tumble. I landed almost on top of a 
ait. If it had kept sitting, I could have reached it with 
hand. It made a quick turn through the fence into 
woods, and Tom emptied both barrels at it. The 
bit had a leg broken by one of the shots, so Tom 
up and killed it with another shot. But we found 
hat field of weeds what we did not expect — a covey 
luail. There must have been about fifteen of them; 
I after Tom and I had each fired two shots at them, 
|-e were just four of them less. If we had gotten 
Ihing else that day we would have felt satisfied with 
Ise four birds. They were so big and plump, and 
E what a potpie they made. I can taste it yet. In 
|., we would have been content if we had to return 
|)ty-handed. You know this going gunning is not 
I n the game you get. The anticipation is often more 
HI the reality, but how can any man be disappointed 
I r having a pleasant day in the fields. 
'1 he field yielded nothing more, so we went into the 
i;)ds. The tall oaks and chestnut trees suggested 
^jirrels. We had gone scarcely ten rods when we 
Mrd the barking, and saw a grey making a leap from 
jj: tree to another. Tom and I fired at the same time, 
the squirrel fell. We could not make out which 
ijis hit it or whether we both did. We finally agreed 
1: Tom would take it, and the next one we would 
yj, we would kill together, and I should take it. 
shower came up, and we took refuge under an 
( hanging ledge of rocks. We ate our lunch, and 
yed it highly as the hard morning tramp had 
tted our appetites. Corncob pipes had to do serv- 
and we sat there in the dry, smoking and joking, 
exchanging yarns, for we had not seen each other 
1 year. About forty yards from our rendezvous was 
w clump of bushes, and several times we thought 
saw something move there. We concluded to in- 
;igate. Half way toward the bush we passed a low 
np, and away went a rabbit directly toward the 
h, and as he bounded into it, it scared up a pheasant, 
last thing we expected to see in the locality. I had 
wn a good bead on the rabbit, and when Tom saw 
he pulled up on the bird. I downed the object of 
aim. on the second shot, and Tom was lucky — no, 
lucky, but skilled — enough to get his pheasant on 
first shot. To say that we were simply elated, would 
putting it very mildly; we v/ere simply overjoyed, 
h an occurrence had not taken place before in our 
ting lives. I believe I would have given ipany dol- 
lars for a picture that would have taken in the whole 
scene of action. 
The shower seemed to turn in a heavy, steady rain, 
and we concluded to start for home. On the way 
back to our team, we went along a steep hillside, at 
the foot of which was a narrow but swift creek. A 
rabbit bounded away in front of us and made straight 
down the hill. Tom was the nearer and he sent two 
barrels after it. Four or five feet from the bank of 
the stream the rabbit took a jump into the air, turned 
a somersault, and landed in the water. He was killed, 
and the current quickly took it away from reach froni 
shore. There was nothing left to do but to wade in 
after it. It was not too pleasant a thing to do, for the 
water was cold at that season. But I went in up to 
my arms and got it out. The extra clothes we had 
taken along for emergency cases came in handy. 
On our way home and often since then Tom and I 
have congratulated ourselves on our luck on that rainy 
day. Frequently we had been out on the pleasantest 
of days and did not get one-third as much game. The 
rain had not been enough to dampen our ardor, and the 
game we got amply repaid us for all the discomfort 
we had to endure. Killdeer. 
Minnesota Moose Protection. 
Nilwood, 111., Sept. 8 . — Editor Forest and Stream: 
Maine is not the only State that will have to make a 
study of the moose problem, and do it before long. I 
do not know the situation in Maine, but do know some- 
thing about what is going on in the nearer State of 
Minnesota, where the great game still abounds to quite 
an extent, although the moose are quite scarce where 
they were plentiful less than ten years ago. The scarcity 
was not caused by the killing of bulls, but on the con- 
trary, by killing of any old moose that showed its 
head at any old time or place. I know of instances 
where section house keepers who fed from ten to fifteen 
men all summer did not buy $10 worth of fresh pork or 
beef during the summer months; at the same time they 
served fresh meat at each meal. I can also name 
several men who do nothing but be around near the 
lakes and streams and kill moose and deer, take them 
to town in packsacks and sell or trade for groceries 
and whiskey. This kind of business is carried on every 
day in the year, and right under the noses of the deputy 
game wardens, who either do not know or do not care, 
and who are afraid to go into the woods and locate 
these destroyers of game. This state of affairs will 
continue to exist so long as a deputy warden’s position 
is secured by political preferment. 
Just so long as an applicant for such a position must 
show what he can do for the administration, just so 
long will things be as they are. 
When it becomes necessary for an applicant for such 
a position to prove to the appointing officers that he 
has qualifications both as to ability to discharge the 
duties of the office and honesty of purpose to do> it, 
regardless of who the offending party is, then we may 
look for an enforcement of the law that will amount to 
something, and the moose will be seen in places that 
have long since ceased to be his haunts. 
There are other things that cause the disappearance 
of the moose from districts where they were plentiful. 
For instance, disease will get among them and scatter 
them in a dying condition all over the country. One fall 
I went, as usual, to a part of St. Louis county to do 
my hunting. I found plenty of deer, but not a sign of 
moose, where they had been quite plentiful the year 
before. I was greatly puzzled over this for a few 
days, when I met an Indian, who had been an acquaint- 
ance for several years. I asked him his opinion as to 
the moose having left the neighborhood. He told me 
they had been sick all summer, and that he had seen 
several dead ones; among them a sick one that he found 
unable to get up. He killed it and cut it open to see if 
it had been wounded, but found that it had what he 
called “big sores on its lungs.” He also said he had 
examined no less than seven he had found dead, and that 
they were all affected the same way. I at once came 
to the conclusion that the disease was tuberculosis, and 
that what moose had not died had gone away from the 
place where the sickness prevailed. The next season 
they were back, but were not and never have been so 
plentiful. 
Another thing that makes them scarce is the destruc- 
tion of their winter food by fire or its dying off. I have 
seen several acres in a bunch where they had eaten the 
tops of a red-barked willowish appearing bush, down 
to a height of about four feet. Each year the new 
growth is eaten down and when this browse is destroyed 
they find some other place to spend their winters-; and 
any moose seen in the territory is a transient, and if 
followed the tracks will show that he has kept right 
on his way in almost a direct line, to some other place 
of abode. After their natural feed has again grown they 
gradually work back, but hardly ever are so numerous. 
I think there is no way to regulate the killing so that 
the destruction can be kept down to what it should be ; 
as there will always be infringements which will keep 
the killing at a maximum rather than a minimum; and 
when killing is permitted the cow suffers with the bull. 
I have no doubt that there are numbers of cows killed 
each season and left in the woods, or turned over to 
some honiestead or logging camp. 
How would it do to have a closed season of five years, 
then allow killing twenty days each fall, after rutting 
season is over, for two or three years, then close again 
for five years? This would give the moose a chance 
to get ahead of the hunters and also have a tendency to 
keep them in parts of the country from which they are 
slowly being driven. Let sportsmen who know about 
the subject express themselves, and out of several sug- 
gestions a form of a law may be patched up that will be 
acceptable to the legislators of the State concerned. 
Let it be understood that game wardens and a game 
and fish commission are not the whole thing, and while 
they may work hard to see the laws enforced, they some- 
times get the black end of the stick. Some justice 
courts are pretty poor places to prosecute offenders of 
the game laws, and jury trials are often a farce, as 
I have seen to my own satisfaction, or rather dissatis- 
faction. Also, there are many cases where some one 
high in authority fails to back up the local warden, es- 
pecially when they get their hooks in the hair of 
people who have pulls, and don’t want to be disturbed in 
th^ir pursuit of game, peace and happiness. It would 
not be hard to find a case of a local game warden who 
prosecuted, or tried to, a large lumber company for 
having a camp full of moose meat which they were 
dishing up to their men every day. The prosecution 
went about as far as the lumber company wanted it to 
and was not heard of again. 
Another case was of a local warden who was doing 
fine work and making violation of the game law almost 
certain to get the offender into trouble. This man was 
paid a salary by the State. Just when he was doing the 
best of work, he received a notice that he was taken off 
the pay roll and in future would be paid a per cent, of 
the fines collected. When it is known that a great many 
of these fines are paid by the offender spending a 
certain number of days in the county jail, it will also 
be known that a warden paid on this basis don’t get 
much for his services. 
Let us, who like a few days’ sport each faff, agitate 
the question until -something is done that will make 
it possible for other generations to have the sam« 
pleasure. J. P. B. 
Two Days on the Marshes.— L 
Aug. 10 had come around, that memorable date which 
usually marks the arrival of the vanguard of the great 
flight of plover and other shore birds from the Far 
North. I had arrived with my friend on the afternoon 
of the 9 th at a little semi-public house which was located 
a short distance from one of the most extensive ranges 
of marsh lands in Massachusetts, and after supper we 
made a short tour of inspection of the marshes to select 
a place for our stand. There was a sort of road or cause- 
way traversing the great waste over which we made our 
way, and about a mile from the house we found what 
my friend pronounced to be an ideal spot for a decoy 
blind. 
This was a narrow, sandy ridge that had been thrown 
up, probably many years ago, by a high course of tides. 
Its greatest elevation was not more than three or four 
feet above the level of the marsh, and it was covered with 
a rather luxuriant growth of reeds and beach grass. 
Below it on the farther side was the flat and muddy shore 
of a wide creek, and on the other side was a great stretch 
of marshes which seemed to melt into the far distant 
horizon. 
In this vast plain were scattered numberless patches of 
naked sand and hard, dry clay in which shallow pools of 
greater or less extent were to be seen on every hand. The 
banks and borders of these basins were usually muddy, 
but they had, now and then, a covering of fine sand. 
The hours of the night must have flown rapidly, for it 
seemed to me that I had hardly fallen asleep when we 
were aroused by a knock at our door. After eating a 
hearty breakfast we started out, accompanied by our 
host’s man-of-all-work, with shovel on shoulder and our 
heavy ammunition box in his hand. The man was an 
adept in using the shovel, and it did not take him long to 
sink a trench that was amply large enough to accommo- 
date my friend and myself and permit us to be effectually 
screened from view of approaching birds. In each end 
of the trench he piled some sods for seats, and these he 
covered with a cushion of dry seaweed. The ammunition 
box and luncheon basket were placed in the middle of the 
excavation. 
While the pit was being dug my friend and I busied 
ourselves in putting out our decoys, some of which we 
grouped along the muddy flat on the side of the creek, 
and the others, yellowlcgs, plover, etc., were placed within 
, easy gunshot on some of the bare spots on the marsh. So 
expeditiously had the whole work been done, the sun had 
not appeared above the eastern horizon, when we took 
our places in the trench and prepared for the coming of 
the birds, whose calls we could occasionally hear high in 
the heavens above us. 
To the sportsman who is accustomed to shooting over 
his trained pointer or setter, moving constantly from one 
cover to another, traversing now the vistas of the grand 
old forest in pursuit of that noblest of our game birds, 
the ruffed grouse, or anon threading the intricacies of a 
growth of young birches, alders and maples for that other 
princely species, the woodcock, or ranging over the 
stubble fields, brier patches and bush-covered pastures in 
quest of the bird which is one of the great favorites 
among sportsmen everywhere, the Virginia partridge or 
quail, to be concealed in a trench the livelong day await- 
ing the coming of bay birds to his decoys seems dreary 
sport indeed. He obtains his enjoyment largely from the 
rapid changes of environment, by the constant motion 
and by the almost human intelligence of his well trained 
dog; he is continually on the move, and one charming 
scene, one beautiful surrounding follows another in rapid 
succession, and “blind” shooting is, in his estimation, so 
deadly dull he cannot understand how men can be induced 
to follow it. 
But shooting shore birds over decoys is not by any 
means as monotonous as may be believed; in fact, when 
birds are flying in considerable numbers there is a degree 
of excitement in it such as is awakened very rarely in 
cover shooting; and not only that, it requires no little 
knowledge in the gunner of the characteristic notes and 
flight of the different species to achieve success. All the 
bay and marsh birds have notes peculiar to themselves, 
and to arrest them in their course and call them down to 
his decoys is a faculty that is acquired only after consid- 
erable experience. 
A. bunch of Eskimo curlews will not very often stool 
at the imitation of a yellowleg’s whistle ; neither will a 
flock of golden plover change their course on hearing the 
call of another species. The blackbreast or beetlehead 
plover, although not, perhaps, so sociable in habits as the 
other, is usually less fastidious and will come to almost 
any whistle that is uttered. 
But, generally spejaking, the “blind” gunner must be 
able to identify any species he sees, either high in the air 
or hovering above the marshes, and must be so well edu- 
cated in imitating their notes that he can repeat the 
requisite call promptly and with effect. All these things 
being considered, the neopbyte in blind shooting would 
