410 
FOREST AND STREAM 
A WEEKLY JOURNAL, 
Devoted to Field axd Aquatic Sports, Practical Natural History, 
Fish Culture, the Protection or Game, Preservation or Forests, 
atd the Inculcation in Men and Women or a healthy interest 
d> Out door Recreation and Study : 
PUBLISHED BY 
forest and §trean\ publishing ^ompagn, 
IT CHATHAM STREET, (CITY HALL SQUARE) NEW YORK, 
[Post Omcs Box 2832.] 
Term*, Five Dollar* a Year, Strictly In Advance. 
A discount of twenty percent, allowed for five copies and npwards. 
Aditrltalng Hate*. 
In regular advertising columns, nonpareil type, 12 lines to the Inch, 25 
cents per line. Advertisements on ontsidc paire,40cents per line. Reading 
notices, 50 cents per line. Advertisements in doable cofnmn 25 per cent, 
extra. Where advertisements are Inserted over 1 month, a discount of 
10 per cent, will be made; over three months, 20 per cent; over six 
Booths, 30 per cent. 
i o Correspondents. 
All communications whatever, whether relating to business or literary 
Correspondence, must be addressed to Tub Forest and Stream Pub- 
lishino Cokpant. Personal or private letters of course excepted. 
All communications intended for publication must be accompanied with 
real name, as a guaranty of good faith. Names will not be published if 
objection be mBde. No anonymous contributions will he regarded. 
Articles relating to any topic within the scope of this paper are solicited. 
We cannot promise to return rejected manuscripts. 
Secre'anes of Clubs and Associations are urged to favor us with brief 
notes of their movements and transactions, as it Is the aim of this paper 
to become a medium of useful and reliable information between gentle- 
men sportsmen from one end of the country to the other ; and they will 
find our columns a desirable medium for advertising announcements. 
The Publishers of Forest and Stream aim to merit and secure the 
patronage and countenance of that portion of the community whose re- 
fined intelligence enables them to properly appreciate and enjoy all that 
Is beautiful in Nature. It will pander to no depraved tastes, nor pervert 
Ihe legitimate sports of land and water to those base uses which always 
tend to make them unpopular with the virtuous and good. No advertise- 
ment or bo sine*! notice of an immoral character will be received on any 
terms ; and nothing will be admitted to any department of the paper that 
may not be read with propriety in the home circle. 
We cannot be responsible for the dereliction of the mall service, if 
money remitted to ns is lost. 
Advertisements should be sent in by Saturday of each week. If possible. 
CHARLES II ALLOCK, Editor. 
WILLIAM C. HARRIS, Business Manager 
CALENDAR OF EVENTS FOR THE COM- 
ING WEEK. 
Tbursday, August 5lh.— Trotting. Buffalo, Poughkeepsie, N. Y.; 
Chagrin Falls. Ohio New York Yacht Club cruise; rendezvous at Glen 
Cove Base Ball, Hartford vs. Poiladelphla, Philadelphia vs. Chicago, 
at Philadelphia; Quickstep vs. Keystone, at Wilmington; Shlbe vs. Ex- 
celsior. at Philadelphia 
Fbjdat. August 6th —Racing, Saratoga. Trotting, Buffalo and 
Poughkeepsie, N . Y . ; Chagrin Falls, Ohio. Base Ball, Athletic vs. Chi- 
cago, at Philadelphia; Hanford vs. Atlantic, at Brooklyn; Aloskas vs. 
Cataracts, at Melrose. 
Satubdat, Aogust 7th.— Creedmoor, Conlest for the Crouch Bnllseye 
Badge; Seventh Regiment shoot for the ‘•shells." Base Ball. Hartford 
vs. Mutual, at Brooklyn; Athletic vs. St. Louis, at Philadelphia; Quick- 
step vs. Chicago, at Wilmington; Staten Island vs, Jamaica, at Ja- 
maica. L. I. 
Mondat, August 9lh.— Creedmoor, Seventh Regiment contest for the 
"sheila." 
Tuesday, Angoet 10th.— Racing, Saratoga. Trotting, Rochester, N 
Y.; Keene. N. H , Brattleboro, Vt. Regatta, Spring Lake, Mich. 
Qnebee Rifle Meeting, Quebec. 
Wednesday. August 11th — Trotting, Rochester, N. Y . ; Keene N. 
H ; Brattleboro, Vt.; Boston. Masillon, and Delphos, Ohio. Regatta, 
Graiid H aven and 8prlng Lake, Mich . 
END OF OUR FOURTH VOLUME. 
T HE present issue of Forest and Stream completes 
its fourth volume, and concludes ihe second year 
of its existence. As we look back over the long period of 
financial depression which has prevailed since the very day 
of its birth, we may be pardoned if we indulge in a little 
self congratulation. That the paper, in this unpropitious 
period should grow steadily to a self-sustaining position, as 
it has done, is gratifying in a business point of view, while 
it evinces the popular appreciation with which it is regarded 
by the intelligent and liberal friends of the specialties to 
which it U devoted. The area of its circulation has steadily 
extended until it is read in every quarter of our owu 
country, and embraces among its warmest supporters the 
cultivated sportsmen of other lands. 
Chief among the evidences of popular favor extended 
to our enterprise, is the amazing variety of interesting and 
valuable correspondence which has enriched its columns 
and therefore contributed to its success. Leading scholars 
and scientists, as well as sportsmen handy with the pen, 
have found our columns a congenial medium for the inter- 
change el Tiflff* wad eiperienoei, while many army officers 
on the frontier have availed themselves of the opportunity 
therein afforded to while away their leisure hours in re- 
counting their adventures and unfoldiug the results of their 
extended travels. We find that papers like ours, iuspiredby 
ardent enthusiasm for the elevutiou of rational pastimes, 
nerved with the freshness of out-door life, strike the 
chords of a wide popular appreciation, and are the most ef- 
fective agencies to mould public opinion. Our constituents 
will heartily share the gratification we ourselves feel at the 
results of our mutual labors. 
Apace with our pace, we observe everywhere multiply- 
ing evidences of organized effort to protect our game and 
fish, to encourage a practical knowledge of natural history, 
as well as to acquire skill in shooting, rowing, aud other 
healthful recreations, no where of so much practical ad 
vautage as among our overworked countrymen. To the 
development and elevation of this taste our best energies 
will ever be devoted. With sincere acknowledgments to 
our friends for the invaluable aid they have extended us, 
and a full appreciation of the substantial support which 
has encouraged our efforts, we enter with renewed energy 
aud confidence upon the work before us. We commence 
next week our Fifth Volume. 
FORBIDDEN FOOD. 
U NDER the above captiou we find a letter addressed to 
the editor of the New York Times, in which the 
writer states that at any of the hotels at Saratoga “chicken 
partridges” may be had for the asking, and pertinently 
adds, that, as the laws of the Slate forbid the killing of 
these birds at this season of the year, "if I may eat these 
birds at Saratoga, why may I not be allowed to eat them at 
T '~’ ‘ttVs or at Sutherland’s, in New York? Why is it 
d right to eat them in one part of the Slate and 
nher.” The writer of this letter, who signs him- 
self “A Lover of Partridges," is evidently so fond of them 
that lie is envious of those who can eat them out of scasou 
with impunity. lie also asks if the society for the 
Protection of Game, of which Mr. Royal Phelps is Presi- 
dent, is aware of what is going on at Saratoga. “A 
Lover of Partridges” must have a wonderful impression of 
the far-reaching powers of the New York Society for the 
Protection of Fish and Game, and au equal ignorance as to 
the prosecutions it has instituted against offenders. As 
for the foul insinuation that Mr. Phelps is fond of chicken 
partridge witli his Congress water, we ignore it with the 
contempt it deserves. It cau scarcely be expected that a 
society with its headquarters in New York city can be cog- 
nizant of all the infractions of the game laws which may 
occur iu distant portions of the Slate, and we would ask 
“A Lover of Partridges" why he did not layhis information 
before the society nearest to Saratoga for prosecution. 
Not that we believe the result would amount to anything. 
Saratoga hotel keepers can afford to pay fines as long as 
they have guests who are willing to pay for “forbidden 
food.” It certainly ought to be somebody’s business to 
enquire into this matter and find out where the chicken 
partridges come from. In spite of the efforts of all true 
sportsmen these infractions of the game laws are becom- 
ing loo frequent. A correspondent writes us from Mon- 
mouth county, New Jersey, that there are parties there 
who boast of having killed from fifty to seventy-five wood- 
cock before the fourth of July; that one person confesses 
to have killed four early in the Spring while shooting 
snipe, and after mentioning several others, names one 
prominent official of this city who was shooting there in 
June. 
It is impossible to expect private individuals to take up 
such cases. It is for this object that spoilsmen's clubs arc 
organized, that the onus of prosecution may be removed 
from the shoulders of one person to those of the many. 
Yet it is the duty of every person to whom a knowledge of 
these unlawful acts shall come, to obtain the evidence and 
presem the case to the nearest magistrate or Game Pro- 
tective Society for prosecution. We have always heard 
that Jersey justice was swift; although if there is any truth 
in the report published this week in a daily paper, to the 
effect that a gentleman who had seized the nets left on the 
border of his lake by poachers, was arrested for theft, we 
shall doubt the accuracy of its aim. 
As for the Saratoga "chicken partridges," they may not 
all be purtridges. We remember some years since at a 
hotel celebrated for its woodcock Buppers, not a thousand 
miles from Richfield Springs, that a certain proportion of the 
woodcock had most unaccountably lost their heads. There 
was occasionally a strong flavor of squab, and the large 
number of pigeons kept by tire proprietor confirmed the sus- 
picion. Perhaps the partridges were owls. 
HYBRID WILD DUCKS. 
A FRIEND writes us that some weeks since ho was in- 
aa formed by an enthusiastic and experienced sports- 
man that hybrids between different species of wild ducks 
are dow more numerous than they were formerly, and asks 
us if we can confirm this observation by our own experi- 
ence, or by that of our friends and correspondents. He 
also adds, aud very truthfully, that this is a most impor- 
tant f»r t in Natural History, and we sliull be glad to huve 
any lig.lo upon it that may be iu the power of our readers 
to bestow. 
Hybridism with our native ducks is not common ex- 
cept with the Amu bosc/uu (mallard), which lius “been 
known to breed with the introduced muacovy and uatlvo 
blMk duck, FigI. Baird allowed us a hybrid duck at ike 
Smithsonian, where the anatomy aud plumage of the 
lhifla acuta predominated. With that exception wo know 
of no authentic testimony where hybridism has occurred 
with other species of our native ducas. We do not think 
water fowl produce hybrids any more now than thov h UVo 
done before; but sportsmen are studying up game birds 
more carefully, and of late several cases of hybridism 
among ducks have been brought to public notice through 
their researches. Sportsmen cannot he too careful in 
identifying their birds. A well known naturalist informs 
us that he bus had several old squaw, or long-tailed ducks 
sent to him in the Summer plumage, which were supposed 
to be hybrids or new species, by the parties who killed 
them, simply because they had only seen them with the 
white neck and bnck iu Whiter dress. Ducks, like Joseph, 
have coats of many colors, and if the sportsman does not 
observe them wlieu breeding in a northern clime, ho will 
meet them as strangers when found wounded in our bays 
and lukes in Summer plumage, and unable to go North to 
breed with their species. 
WIMBLEDON. 
F IFTEEN years ago, when the Indian mutiny and a 
war iu China had taken all, or nearly all, of Great 
Britain’s available forces out of the country, and wlieu old 
ladies aud timid gentlemen scarcely slept for fear that Nap. 
the Third would choose such a propitious moment to 
avenge W aterloo and make a descent upon the shores of 
perfidious Albion, the Volunteer fever broke out wiMi un- 
exampled futy. Not only did Mr. Punch seize with avid- 
ity the excellent aud almost inexhaustible fund of subjects 
offered for his inimitable pencil, but the Government wise- 
ly fostered the movemeut by all the resources within its 
power, thereby building up a bulwark for home defence, 
the importance of which can scarcely be overestimated. 
For, contrary to the usual result in movements of such 
sudden aud rapid gcrmiuution, this lias outlived the mush- 
room period aud settled down as a healthy plant of hardy 
growth. Fifteeu years siuce Her Majesty, tlio Queen of 
that Dominiou, pulled the silken string attached to the 
trigger of a Whitworth gun, and fired the first shot at^tlie 
Wimbledon targets. Last week four thousand men, all 
belonging to the Volunteer force, were encamped on the 
plain, competing for the many and valuable prizes offered 
to them. Iu this we probably have the secret of the great 
success of the movement. For year after year the spirit of 
emulation has been fostered and rivalry encouraged; 
county has been arrayed against county, Ireland pitted 
against Scollaud, and England against both, until the an- 
nual matches are looked forward to with the greatest ea- 
gerness, and every effort strained to nchieve a victory. 
That this same condition of affairs could obtain in this 
country is beyond a doubt. Our average militiaman is the 
equal, if not the superior, to the English in physique, intel- 
ligence and drill; his inferiority, if it exist at oil, is iu 
a sKillful, practical knowledge of the use of his weapon. 
The Stale of New York— thanks to Creedmoor, the Nation- 
al Rifle Association, the Amateur Rifle Club, the American 
Rifle Association, and kindred organizations— has taken 
a lead in this matter which promises shortly to put its 
National Guard on a footing, as far as rifle practice is con- 
cerned, not inferior to that of any military organization, 
regular or volunteer, in the world. Still, more eucourage 
ment is wanted to arouse the men to a greater interest, and 
this should come from both the general government and 
State authorities. The enthusiasm excited by the victory 
of the American team in Ireland is still warm all over the 
country, and now would be the time to strike not oniy iu this 
State but in every Stale in the Union; and if oue measure is to 
be free from the wretched incubus of political jobbery, let 
it be this. 
It may not be generally known that an American 
rifleman visited England a century ago, but under rather 
different conditions than those who are now being so 
thoroughly lionized. The Boston Traveller publishes an 
extract from Mr. Frothinghum’s “History of the Siege of 
Boston,” wherein is described a company of Southern rifle- 
men who had marched from four to seven hundred miles 
to join the besieging army. 
“They were remarkably stalwart men, dressed in white 
frocks, or rifle shirts, and round hats, and were skillful 
marksmen. At a review a company of them, while on a 
nick advance, fired their balls into objects of seven inches 
inmeter, at a distance of 250 yards. They were stationed 
on the lines and became terrible to the British. The ac- 
counts of their prowess were circulated over England. One 
of them, takeu prisoner, was carried there, Hnd the papers 
describe him minutely as a remarkable curiosity." 
Their uniform was a hunting shirt, double cuped over 
the shoulders, made of browu Holland, or Osnuburghs, 
with the motto, “Liberty or Death," in cupital letters on 
the breast. 
But to return to Wimbledon; Never since the range 
was opened lias the eamp been visited by such a deluge of 
rain as on the present occasion. The Volunteers appealed 
to the commandant, and were allowed to go to the firing 
point bare legged. The Scotchmen were iu their element, 
as they were ready for swimming at auy time, and perhaps 
this accounts for the unusual number of prizes taken by them 
this year. This prize list of the British National Rifle As 
sociation would almost puzzle a Philadelphia luwyer until 
he had mastered Us mysteries. The most important open 
match is that tor the Queen’s Prize. This is divided into 
two stages, the total aggregate value of the prizes in the 
first being £1,608, exclusive of medals and budges. Only 
the first sixty la thy first stage are allowed to compete lu 
