I 
A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 
Copyright, 1904, by Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 
TbMs, |4 a YeAL It) Cfs. A Copy, i '~pT_T T) At ~W SEPTEMBER SO, 1908 • "I No. 340 Broadway, New "V obk. 
Six Months, 12. . f , ^ — t v j. w , j ^ ' 
^The Forest and Stream is the recognized medium of entertain- 
ment, instruction and information between American sportsmen. 
Thte Editors invite communications on the subjects to which its 
pages dre devoted. Arion^hiolis cdtflrMiirlieations will not be re- 
garded. While it is intended to give Wide latittide ih diSciis§idft 
of current topics, the editors are not responsible for the vfeWs of 
correspondents. 
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. 
RUFFED GROUSE. 
In many of the States it is now lawful to shoot ruifed 
grouse, and the “roar of their quick-beating pinions” and 
the sound of the breechloader are heard in the land. Al- 
though a large amount of tramping will be done, and a 
large quantity of ammunition expended, there will be ttd 
Serious diminution of . their numbers until after the frosts 
have denuded the thickets of their foliage and the wan- 
dering propensities of the birds have become satiated and 
they settle down to quiet life in their chosen retreats. 
Until this season shall arrive there will be not much of 
genuine sport in their pursuit, although occasionally, 
under favorable circumstances, there will be exceptions to 
the rule, when the ardent sportsman will be given a fore- 
taste of the sport that Can only be enjoyed to the full in 
it.s proper season. 
A very large proportion of the grouse hunting in Sep- 
tember and October is done by the tyro, who manages 
somehow to bag or drive away most of the birds that ate 
to be found in the easy places, and just as the proper Sea- 
son commences he becomes disheartened at the apparent 
scarcity of birds and retires from the field, not more than 
half satisfied with his success as a sportsman, and thor- 
oughly convinced that, so far as the pleasure of groUSC 
hunting is concerned, a vast deal more than the truth has 
been told. His lack of success, and the disappointment 
which naturally follows, are owing mainly to a lack of 
knowledge of the habits and peculiarities of these shy 
birds, and to the fact that his experience with them has 
been just at the time when their habits and peculiarities 
Could be observed to the least advantage. The weary 
tramping in the sweltering heat, as well as the many dis- 
comforts attending the exploration of the tangled thickets 
at this season of the year, also play no unimportant part 
in producing this result. 
When the novice, lamenting the scarcity of the birds, 
and inveighing against their wildness, closes his cam- 
paign, the veteran girds up his loins, and, with joyful 
anticipations of glorious sport, seeks the well known 
haunts of his dearly beloved favorites, and with consum- 
mate skill and tireless patience forces from the innermost 
recesses of stately forest and tangled copse their brightest 
treasures, and wins them for his own. The preternatural 
wisdom — miscalled wildness— -displayed by these crafty 
birds, affords a relish and gives a zest to their pursuit, 
and is to him a source of ever increasing pleasure and 
admiration. Not by him are the dead bodies of the vic- 
tims of his skill alone taken into account while summing 
up the results of the day ; far nobler thoughts light up 
the eye and inspire the smile that chases the wrinkles 
from his brow as in slippered ease he fondly strokes the 
head of the loved companion of his sports, while he re- 
views the incidents of the day. Again he basks in the 
bright sunshine of the pleasant glades and strolls among 
the dark shadows of the grand old woods; again, with 
“feasting eyes and swelling heart” he treads amid the 
majestic charms of the everlasting hills; again, with 
buoyant step and quickening pulse, he follows the wily 
ipatriarch to his most secret retreat; and as the incidents 
lof the day thus pass in review before him, there come 
■priceless memories of other days of rarest sport to join 
his newest treasures, thus crowning his restful hour with 
a halo of delightful recollections that he would not ex- 
change for a kingdom. The poet who wrote of — 
“Drear November’s chilling blasts.” 
we venture to say was not a grouse hunter, for it is 
during that much maligned month that the adept in the 
sport finds the most enjoyment in ruffed grouse shooting. 
Were the pursuit of this magnificent bird restricted to 
that month, a far greater amount of sport would be 
realized by the new beginner as well as by the adept, and 
soon, with the protection thus afforded, many a former 
jinnnt of the grouse that now i? desolate would teem with 
countless hunibers of this, “the best game bird ill the 
worl_d.” 
There are ' so many varying eifC'umstances constantly 
arising when one is in pursuit of the ruffed grouse, that 
it ismext to impossible to give to the beginner much! ad- 
vice that will be of practical benefit to him. A few hints, 
however, may prove of service. Birds that have been 
frequently disturbed by the huHtet become shy and wary 
and are very prone to take flight as soofl as they discover 
the least sign of danger. There is nothing that will 
startle them more quickly than the sound of the h’urriafl 
voice ; and one of the first lessons then is to learn to keep 
absolute silence, so far as the voice is concerned, when in 
their vicinity. Upon the other hand, the noise of ap- 
proaching footsteps frequently does not seem to alarm 
them, provided the hunter keeps moving and does not 
undertake stealthily to creep upon them when they are 
lying to the dog, 
We have always found that we could get to closer 
quarters when in pursuit of these wary birds by advanc- 
ing boldly with even stride, and without the slightest 
halt, not directly toward their supposed hiding places, but 
in a , direction that would lead them to imagine that we 
were to pass them by ; and always taking care to go be- 
tween them add the direction in Which they would nat- 
urally endeavor to escape,- It is also of vital importance 
that you at once follow up your birds and keep them 
moving,- until, finding that they Cannot evade your pur- 
suit,: they Crouch and seek, to escape by allowing you to 
pass by. You will find that a light gun and ordinary 
charges will prove more satisfactory than a heavy weapon 
and loads that cause unpleasant recoil. A tested charge 
111 a i2-bofe gun is of 3 drs. of good powder, Fi oz. of 
No. To shot for the first barrel, and a scant ounce, of No. 
8 for the other. 
To bring down the hurtling grouse in his arrowy flight 
at’ three-fourths of all fair shots is an achievement of 
which anyone may well be proud ; but far greater skill 
may you boast when you can “with eye of faith and 
finger of instinct” “cut loose” at every one that rises 
within shooting distance and score one-half. Words and 
sentences, no matter how well chosen and smoothly 
turned, would be powerless to give you this proficiency, 
nor is there any written formula by which you can learn 
;.o tell at a glance just where to place yourself while your 
companion flushes the bird. It is only by close and in- 
tellig'ent observation, and long practice, that you may 
know the how, the where and the when to work the dif- 
ferent coverts upon different days, and the different times 
of the day ; and it is alone by great perseverance and 
long experience, coupled with natural tact and love for 
the sport, that you can hope to be initiated into the mys- 
teries, which are revealed only to masters of the craft. 
We have carefully and persistently studied the habits 
of these royal birds for nearly forty years, and with ex- 
treme sorrow have noted their gradual decrease. We 
have several times within this period observed that, fol- 
lowing a season when they had been unusually plenty, we 
have found their haunts comparatively deserted, and that 
they would then gradually increase until in a few years 
they would again be plenty, and perhaps remain so for a 
year dr two, and then again unaccountably disappear. 
When we first noticed this, we -were loath to believe that 
our ' beautiful friends had winged their last flight, but, 
with vague ideas of a migration to more favored retreats, 
where, perhaps, an ample supply of their favorite food 
could be found, we trustingly awaited their return. But 
as the seasons rolled by and we failed to find more than 
the natural increase of the birds which had remained, and 
learned that in widely separated districts in every direc- 
tion the same lamentable state of affairs existed, we were 
sorrowingly forced to admit that our conclusions were 
wrong, and it has been with increasing sorrow that we 
have seen each recurring period of scarcity more disas- 
trous than the preceding, and each season of comparative 
abundance less plentiful than before, and we greatly fear 
that the time is not far distant when these noble birds 
will become extinct. 
That the pursuit of them with dog and gun, in proper 
season, would ever exterminate them, we cannot believe. 
We have seen too many of their successful tricks, and 
witnessed too many of their triumphant escapes from the 
best of dogs anij the best of guns to believe anything of 
the kind. There are also in nearly all localities fre- 
quented by them,, many places where, owing to the inac- 
cessible nature of their chosen retreats, they are prac- 
tically secure from the most daring hunter, and in most 
sections the^e places will always preserve a stock amply 
sufficient to furnish the next season’s supply, to say noth- 
ing of the many survivors who craftily escape the hun-, 
ter’s wiles, even upon the most favoring grounds. With 
snaring the case is entirely different ; and the man who 
thoroughly understands their habits, in a short time will , 
entirely exterminate them from any locality. 
We may talk as we will of the numerous natural ene- 
mies of our game and of the “advance of civilization,’- , 
but there is one condition which in itself is all sufficient 
to account for the dearth of shooting opportunity. That ‘ 
one thing is the multiplication by a hundredfold of the 
shotgun. Let the country-bred sportsman, of forty or 
even thirty years, consider his own home village and the; 
conditions obtaining there when he was old eiibugh to. 
shoot, in comparison with those which exist to-day. In 
those times there were other -sportsmen like himself, hut 
in the community 'at large they were the exceptions. For . 
the few guns then in action the game supply amply suH 
ficed. To-day, were there even a corresponding stock of 
birds, it could not begin to go around, where the guns are 
so many. If one returns to-day to the home of 
his youth he finds many of the old Covers no longer 
possible harbors of game ; in place of the few gunners 
of those early years he finds a regiment of sports- 
men, everyone of them intent on getting his own 
personal share of game — that is to say, such a share as 
he thinks he ought to have; and he finds in consequence 
that the actual supply of birds is pathetically small, and 
the satisfaction of shooting for the most part of ,a 
strictly reminiscent character. - . 
Now let the individual who knows only reflect 
that these are the conditions prevailing as to.‘his own 
home, and he and we need not look further for an ex- 
planation of the difficulties most of us find in discover- 
ing where to go for our autumn shooting. The whole 
situation as to shooting in the United States to-day, 
outside of preserves, may be summed up in three words 
— too many shotguns. And as the manufacture and 
sale .and use of new thousands of guns go merrily on, 
the unfortunate prevailing conditions are year by year 
growing more aggravating. It is bound to be more and 
more difficult for the gunner who is not a rnember of^a 
game preserving club, or an owner or . renter of a 
game land, to find anything to shoot. Too many guns-. 
Much interest is felt as to the forthcoming appoint- 
ment of a chief game and fish protector for the State of 
New York, to fill the place so long and so efficiently held 
by Major J. Warren Pond, whose resignation has been 
announced to take effect on Oct. i. Among those whose 
names have been mentioned for the office is Mr. John 
B. Burnham, of Essex. Mr. Burnham has long been 
known to the readers of this journal as an entertaining 
and well informed writer on wilderness life and as a con- 
sistent and persistent advocate of game protection. He 
is a practical sportsman and an experienced woodsman. 
He has .genuine interest in the game and its preserva- 
tion, and w.ere he to undertake the duties of the . office 
that interest would he the dominating influence of his 
official service. Mr. Burnham’s selection for the place of 
Chief Protector would he taken as a step in line with 
Commissioner Whipple’s declared purpose of admiriister- 
ing the affairs of the department with a single view to 
the protection of the game and the fish and the forest 
without , fear and without favor. 
BE 
In a volume soon to be issued by the Forest and 
Stream Publishing Company, under the title, “My Sixty 
Years on the Plains,” Wm. T. Hamilton, popularly 
known as “Uncle Bill” Hamilton, has written the Story 
of his life as trapper, trader, Indian fighter, scout, and 
pathfinder. It is a record of heroic days and heroic 
- deeds; and Mr. Hamilton tells the story with engaging 
modesty and simplicity. No more graphic delineatio-n 
has ever been given of the wild life of that period be- 
yond the frontier. The chapters are full of action and 
color, Charles M. Russell, the “Cowboy Artist,’h ba« 
contributed six spirited drawings to illustrate the book. 
