616 
secured the passage of a law which permitted them to 
shoot birds a month ahead of the regular open season. 
The poor Patersonians had to put up with this display 
of favoritism to capitalistic greed, and the only thing 
done was to double the importation of raisins to Alla- 
muchy. 
“But now ^ a new element has entered into this strug- 
gle between the rich and the poor. The pheasants up 
there are either imported or bred. No matter how they 
get there, they are fond of something to eat. So a bird- 
trainer has got his work in and as soon as the birds ar- 
rive or are hatched and big enough to fly he feeds them, 
always first sounding a whistle with a peculiar note. This 
whistle may be heard for a distance of over a mile, and 
no sooner does it sound than every pesky pheasant starts 
for home and grub. In this way the birds are trained to 
keep off the property of the poor men from Paterson. 
Then the bloated bondholders begin their shooting in 
the early part of October, and by the time the law per- 
mits the common mortals to shoot, all the birds have 
either been shot or cooped up for the winter. Pheasants 
have been so scarce up Allamuchy way this year that 
some of the poor men from Paterson have been actually 
compelled to pay $3 and $4 apiece for birds in order to 
make something like a decent showing on their return 
to their families and friends.” 
Hunters of France. 
Paris, Nov. 10. — President Loubet is a mighty hunter, 
yet he was recently unable to invite Alfonso to a deer 
hunt on his own state forest grounds of Rambouillet — 
a duchess stopped him. It is a curious story, and has 
to do w'ith what remains to-day the most typical as well 
as the most aristocratic of French sports. 
It is the "chasse a courre,” in which the stag is not 
shot, but just “run” with horses, hounds and horns 
for half a day or more until he drops. The young King 
of Spain, knowing that in France to-day there flourish 
some 380 highly-equipped hunts of this character, and 
having vague ideas about the French state forests, 
hinted that the ancient “sport of kings” would be ac- 
ceptable in his sight, as well as suitable to his age, 
tastes and traditions. 
Yet it could not be done, the republic possessing 
neither the equipment nor the present use of its own 
game forests. Compiegne and Fontainebleau are leased 
outright; Marly, the only one reserved completely to 
the president, is almost devoid of big game; while 
Rambouillet, beside the president’s own favorite hunting 
chateau of that name, is in this strange situation. 
Suppose the president had invited young Alfonso to 
shoot rabbits with him in the fields of Rambouillet. 
They might have heard approaching the melancholy 
notes of the horn and the musical baying of the hounds. 
Then there would have dashed past them a hunt gay in 
red and blue, with gold and silver braid — a vision of 
the old regime. And had Alfonso asked “What, on 
your presidential grounds?” M. Loubet would have 
been constrained to answer: “Yes, the right to chase 
deer is leased to the duchess.” 
It is the Dowager Duchess d’Uzes, and her rights go 
back to the time of Louis Philippe. After the revolu- 
tion of 1848 the crown forests — of which Louis Philippe 
acknowledged himself only the life tenant — returned to 
the state and were put up in “Adjudication” as a meas- 
ure of republican simplicity. 
The first lessees of the crown forests considered 
themselves_ lucky, for prices in those unsettled days were 
low.^ Their joy was short-lived, however, for after 
Louis Napoleon’s coup d’etat in 1851 there seemed 
nothing left but to kill as much as possible before the 
inevitable confiscations should fall upon them. As a 
fact those who had not been courtiers enough to “cede” 
their right to the emperor were despoiled in the calmest 
manner, and the lessees of Rambouillet, among whom 
were the Due d’Uzes, the Due de Luynes, the Due de 
Noailles, made one great final hunt on March 15, 1852, 
which remains celebrated in the annals of Frenh venery. 
The confiscation profited Napoleon III. but little. 
After the proclamation, of the empire, the Prince de 
Wagram, on account of his aptitudes, was named grand 
veneur of France, but he was shortly after replaced by 
Marshal Magnan, who knew little of the subject, while 
the emperor soon lost all interest. It thus came to 
pass that in 1868 the Due de Luynes and the Due 
d’Uzes were hunting again at Rambouillet, firmly es- 
tablished in the new leases. On the death of the Due 
de Luynes, killed at Patay in 1870, the duchess, his 
widow, no longer cared to keep up her end of the pack. 
The Due d’Uzes took it over, and when the Duchess 
d’Uzes became a widow, in her turn, she continued to 
maintain it alone, her passion for the chase, like that 
of the late Empress of Austria, never failing — even in 
these days of automobilism, when she holds the first 
“watman’s” certificate issued to a woman by the French 
authorities. 
The noble Dowager of Uzes, of Crussol, of Bour- 
sault, of Bonnelles and other places, called “The First 
Huntress of France,” made no move to help the presi- 
dent out of his difficulty, nor could she, indeed, given 
the political situation. The president retains the right 
to shoot rabbits and partridges at Rambouillet, but 
should he wish to chase the deer, the duchess ’ninst 
invite him from, her nearby chateau of Bonnelles. 
vShe does not invite him. often. In return, perhaps, 
he has forbidden the militar3? uniform to appear at the 
meets of ’the duchess — a thing all’ the more annoying 
to her., as the burden of it falls, not on the great lady, 
but on the aristocratic, but not always well-to-do 3”Oung 
officers of the neighboring garrison, thereby forced to 
go tq the considerable; -expense of keeping up slightly 
modified eighteenth century hunt costumes.- 
It is, perhaps, the m.ost aristocratic hunt ip France, 
yet President Loubet, as it dashes past him, can reflect 
that if its middle-class , blood and m.oney of even recent 
times were taken from if', the purely aristocratic residue 
would be very m.uch less brilliant and numerous. 
It is the sam.e with the dogs. The French revolution, 
which dispersed and financially crippled 90 many aris- 
tocratic families, also "dispersed the aristocratic packs 
of deer -hounds whoke ance^tr/ often went back in 
an unbroken line much’ further then that of their masters 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
— to St. Louis and old Charlemagne himself. In some 
cases the race was preserved pure through a small pack 
or _ pair of dogs. Such was the famous race of 
Saintonge, which in 1789 was on the point of disappear- 
ing. If it exists to-day it is thanks to a Dr. Clemot 
of Saintes, to whom the Marquis de' la Porteaux- 
Lotips intrusted two males and a female. On the re- 
turn of the marquis from the emigration Dr. Clemot 
gave him back the increased family, who became the 
ancestors of all the pure Saintonge and Saintonge- 
batards of to-day, and they are notoriously delicate. 
Thus it happened that when the restoration came 
scarcely a single great family could reassemble a pack 
of pure descendants of the famous old races whose 
cjualities resulted from more than one thousand years 
of selection. To individual dogs of pure race were 
therefore “misallied” English sires and dams, mostly 
foxhounds. They called the progeny “batards,” but in 
spite of the name, the new blood did no harm, because 
toward 1840 the invigorated races began showing them- 
selves so much superior to the all-pure blood products 
that they now compose the vast majority of all the 
packs, of France. 
The Uzes dogs are technically Vendeau batards, but 
if we trace their ancient blood line we find it springing 
from two historic animals who, in their time, came to 
court as “outsiders” — like the three brothers d’Albert 
when they came up to the court of Louis XIII. with 
one new suit among the three of them, and were re- 
proached with being of “little birth.” That did not 
prevent the founder of the family of d’Albert de Luynes 
winning the young king’s favor by his skill in training 
butcher birds to kill sparrows, and so becoming grand 
falconer and duke and constable of France. 
It happened thus — in the time of Louis XI — that a 
poor Vendeau gentleman presented to that monarch 
a white dog marked with dark orange. The animal’s 
name was Greffier, and he is supposed to have been 
a white bloodhound, called in England to-day a Talbot 
dog, with a dash of mastiff. Greffier was mated to a 
female of his color and marking, no less celebrated in 
her day, being Baude, the favorite dog of Anne of 
France, daughter of Louis XI. Baude seems to have 
been a braque, or English poacher’s dog, having a 
resemblance to our pointer. 
From this union descended “the white dogs of the 
king,” a race that enjoyed two centuries of royal 
favor. Then, being supplanted by the Norman race, 
they remained chiefly in favor in the Vendeau district, 
and the pure Vendeau race is nothing but their con- 
tinuation. M. Baudry d’Asson, the present day patron 
of the pure Vendeau stock, hunts with them, but not a 
member of the Uzes hunt would be willing to trade 
packs. 
Why? Because in the “batards” of the Uzes the deli- 
cacy and crankiness of the pure old race have been cor- 
rected by new blood. An American in Paris. 
The Greatest Duck Shooting Place on Earth. 
Raleigh, N. C., Dec. 14. — A letter from Bird and Game 
Warden John B. Upchurch, who is on duty this season 
on Currituck Sound, the greatest duck shooting place on 
earth, says that he thinks everything has been gotten into 
good shape. Fie has been there now forty days, and says 
the night shooting, known as “fire lighting,” in Currituck 
Sound is a thing of the past. There is a little shooting 
between sunset and dark, which the law seems to allow, 
as it says that no one in Currituck Sound shall leave his 
landing before sunrise for the purpose of hunting or shall 
continue to hunt or fish after dark. He has only heard 
two guns fired after dark this season, and he says he 
thinks the people are becoming more reconciled to- the 
law. Regarding game, he says there are great quantities 
of swan and wild geese, and that he has seen more than 
200,000 of these in the past fortnight, together with at 
least a million coots and a great many canvas and red- • 
head ducks. 
Samuel A. Cooper, who is the game warden on Knott’s 
Island, says there are more canvasbacks and red-heads 
than in any other season past, but that they are very wild 
and stay out in the surf on the seaside most of the day, 
and only come into the sounds to feed at night, this being 
very probably because of the warm weather which has 
prevailed. When the weather gets colder they will be 
plentiful in the Sound and not so- wild. 
Warden Upchurch has visited the club houses on Cur- 
rituck Sound and says he finds the clubmen extremely 
well pleased with the work of the game wardens who 
are under the Audubon Society. The clubs are as fol- 
lows: Narrows Island, Palmer Island, Monkey Island, 
Swan Island, Deal’s Island, Morse’s Island and the Cur- 
rituck Shooting Club, all owned by non-residents and em- 
ploying at lea.st 150 men as marsh guards and guide.s, 
etc., all employes being natives of that county and re- 
ceiving $50 a month on an average, this bringing in quite 
a revenue to the. people. The clubmen say they hear no 
more night shooting this season. 
Quantities of bass and rock fish are being taken in 
tho^e waters, which bring the fishermen an average of nine 
cents a pound. Warden Upchurch finds that last season’s 
shipments of fish in those waters brought in about 
$100,000,’ and the shipments of duck, geese, swan, etc., 
about $150,000. Good fishermen, two in a boat, make 
$10 to $12 a day with a small net. He says there are 
from 300' 40 500 gunners on Currituck vSound every good 
sljootingjdsiy at an average cost of about $5 to every good 
shootin^Ar-an He rei-narked that thi.s wii! shevY that 
'vardenT p that section hare heavy YY'ork in looking after 
so many speople daily, they having to see that the gun- 
ners leave at night. Very few of the fishermen or gun- . 
ners are stubborn or make any trouble about the rule asi 
to nighUwork, and most of them like the new law and- 
expres#fhemselves as glad that it is being thoroughly 
enforced. The news of the good protection of game in 
those waters will interest fishermen all over the coun- 
'O'- Fred. a. Olds. 
All the m.oiintains in Srvitzerland have suddenly been: 
rpduced in hgight by about ten feet. In 1820 the tip of 
a certain, rock in the Lake of Geneva was calculated to 
be 376.86 rnetres above ocean level, and on this basis all 
the summits in the country were calculated. Recently, 
the discovery was niade that an error had been made in 
%ing''the heighl that rock^ and that it is 3.26 metres 
lower .than it -was ntarked'. 
[Dec 23, 1905. 
Towering Birds. 
Why is it that a mallard, a grouse, a quail, and, for 
the matter of that perhaps any bird when wounded in 
- the head during flight will frequently tower or mount 
uf)ward at an acute angle, oftentimes to die in midair and 
drop dead to the earth like a plummet or setting its 
wings, come to earth at a long, sloping angle? 
I remember a curious case of this kind in connection 
with a sharp-tail grouse. We were walking through 
prairie grass well above our knees when a long distance 
ahead upon a knoll on the prairie we espied, a sharp-tail 
grouse, an old cock bird, standing erect in a sort of oasis 
of short, veL-^ety grass not more than a couple of yards 
in diameter. 
We walked quietly along taking care not to stamp our 
feet upon the ground any more than necessary. The bird 
seemingly was engrossed with something, for with its 
back to us it paid no attention to us whatsoever until we 
had advanced within about eighty yards of it. Turning 
its head it sized us up and then began to show symptoms 
of restlessness, first standing on one leg and then upon 
the other. The -early afternoon sun was shining brightly 
and the beautiful bird with* neck and head erect and 
body distended upon its restless feet made an attractive 
and unique picture. 
The wary bird evidently thought we were close enough 
\vhen, with a spring and a coo coo, he darted up in the 
air. My friend slightly in advance of me took the shot. 
The bird did not seem to change its course or alter its 
flight in any w^ay.^ Up, up, up almost in a straight line, 
the bird towered, its wings beating the air and propelling 
it skyward. We watched the towering bird until we 
thought it would go out of sight, when its wings ceased 
to beat and became set, as when alighting upon, the 
ground. 
Dowm, down it came, slowly at first and then more 
rapidly at an angle directly toward us, finally falling stone 
dead at our feet. Picking the bird up and carefully ex- 
amining it w-'e found that a single shot had penetrated its 
head. Presumably the nerves of direction in the brain 
w-ere paralyzed and the bird, yet full of life and vigor, 
beat the air and ascended upward. I have seen a mal- 
lard do this same thing in the tow^ering line, likewise a 
quail. What is the explanation ? ' Charles Cristadoro. 
Ran into a Flock of Geese on the Potomac. 
Cart. Baily Reed, master of the river steamer Harry 
Randall, reports a singular occurrence that happened on 
the trip of his steamer up the river Thursday night. 
Captain Reed says that the attention of the men in the 
pilot house was attracted to a singular noise in the air 
oyer the steamer, like she was passing through a flock of 
big birds. Turning on the searchlight, it was discovered 
that a large flock of wild geese, flying low, had run afoul 
of the steamer, and, blinded by the rays of the search- 
light, Yvere flying wildly about the smokestack. Several 
of the big birds struck the stack, but fell into- the water, 
wdiere they could not be recovered in the darkness. The 
men on the steamer fired on the geese, but failed to bring 
any home, though they claim they shot several. — Wash- 
ington Star, Nov. 25. 
That is What We All Want to Know. 
Port Richmond, N. Y., Dec. 18. — Editor Forest md 
Streams A week or two ago- your columns contained a 
reference to the liberation of hares on a Long Island pre- 
serve. Your item said that when the hunting season 
came there was none of the hares to be found. Why? 
This matter is of interest to a good many sportsmen 
here. Can you or your readers give us any light? 
Sidney Edwards. 
From a Nebraska Epicure. 
The bosom of a mallard duck, stewed down until there 
are no juices going to waste, a baked potato about the 
size of a goose egg, two slices of Boston brown bread 
right out of the oven and spread with butter that has no 
a hletic reputation, a spoonful of raspberry jelly, a cup 
of \oung Hyson of moderate strength, a piece of pump- 
kin pie, man’s size, -and you have a dinner that ought to 
keep you in a .vood humor until curfew rings. — Nebraska 
State Journal. 
From Morristown, N. J., to Minneapolis, Mirn. 
Morristown, N. J., Dec. 13. — Forest and Stream is a 
welcome visitor each week. Wish you a Merry Christ- 
mas and many of them. C. M. Phillips. 
Minneapolis, Minn., Dec. ii . — Editor Forest and 
Streams I received the copy of Hamilton’s “Sixty Years 
on the Plains” some days ago and finished it at one sit- 
ting. I should not have done such a thing, but read a 
chapter at a time, but the book was so fascinating that I 
could not drop it. 
I, inclose my check for $1.50, and would request that 
you send a copy to my nephew -, California, 
and put the inclosed card in. 
I could write many good things about your paper but 
am quite averse to publicity, and do not like to do it for 
that reason ; but will say that I have noticed that a great 
ihany subscribers have talked about reading it for a 
dozen or fifteen years. It seems to me that I have read 
ii ever since 1 quit the “primer.” and I have now passed 
tile half-centurv mark Nothing comes into m}^ house 
tliat 1 look forward to sc eagerlv as the adi'ent of 
Forest and Stream each week, 
I thiilk that “'Old Bill’s” book is the best thing ever 
turned out. ' My cdpv is already done up and ready for 
mailing to a nephew in Illinois, for I do not see how a 
boy can get a better or truer idea of the early West. 
The following account of how punctiliously sport is conducted 
in Germanv is amusing. After the Kaiser had conferred on the 
King of Spain the right to wear the Royal Prussian hunting 
, uniform, the two nionarchs engaged in the shooting of wild pigs 
near Planover. The beaters drove 240 pigs in front of the guns. 
The Kaiser shot 22, the King 29, and the Crown Prince 18, These 
nice gradations in the number of pigs slaughtered is supposed to 
be significant. It is stated quite openly that the Kaiser could 
have shot more, only he wished his Royal guest to come out first. 
As a matter of fact, the King was greatly pleased with himself. 
He told The Kaiser that he thought the scenery around Hanover 
just like Spain. — Shooting Times.' [fin such manner are game 
hogs disposed of ahroad.] 
