27 
% 
1875 . 
Guido-Setter Closed 
Memphis, Tenu., March 31. 
Editor Rod AND Gun: 
Yonr amazed if not instructed readers must conclude from our 
fondness for the last word, that “Setter'' and “(Juido" had at 
least one womawemong their ancestors; while those who are po- 
etically inclined may recall the scene at Astolat — “Gawain, ^yho 
bade a thousand farewells to me," etc. If I have fought “ Setter's” 
typographical errors, I have but demolished bis windmills as I found 
them; and his statements that he can furnish propositions but can 
not warrant me to understand them so far honors me as to be al- 
most a literal quotation from the pen of '* Guido ” about that same 
“ heathery, feathery Setter. '' When you need another good idea, 
my gallant foeman, it will give me pleasure to help yon wing your 
dart. The whole aniir us of ” Setter's ” animosity is that he is 
” werry, werry mad,” and as he has left to my decision the merits 
of his and ” Boone's” philippics, I shall decide against him if he 
does not learn “Flow gently, sweet Afton,” aud that elassic epic 
beginning — 
” Their little hands were never made 
To tear each other’s eyes.” 
“Setter "gained his information about my two hundred dropper 
pups, he says, from a correspondent here — who; by the way, is a 
jolly joker, for he was this day offered $100 to show one tithe of 
his statements true, and he appealed to my record of the marriages, 
births aud deaths in my canine family, and on my reaching for the 
same his handsome face (no joke intended) colored like a rose of 
Plantagenet. “Setter” Is satisfied be has won a victory because 
some parties who think as be does have written him so. Here’s 
richness! some parties who think as i do have said the same of my 
arm of the service! And if “Setter” has not cut me and “cut 
stick '* too, I will make him a challenge to his liking, name^, at the 
Tenn. field trials in October, I will run “Guy” against either of 
his blue imports for the ribbon, on the following points: First, 
speed; second, staunchness; third, ilinge; fourth, style. Now 
“ Setter,” smooth your feather; if you have been struck hard in 
lender places, remember you also are a straight hitter, but if you 
prefer to be wrapped in the cool dignity of aloofness, your loss may 
he even as great as mine; and to show you my revenge 1 shall then 
send you a brace of droppers— C. O. D. Guido. 
What is a Pot Hunter ? 
Mobile, March 27. 
KdiTor Rod and Gun: 
Whai is a pot-hunter? A question certainiy more easily asked 
than answered Believing that all true sportsmen are interested in 
the elevation of field sports, I should be pleased to see the above 
subject taken up by abler hands than mine. Take for instance the 
young gentlemen of much idle time and more money, who have nev- 
er owned nor bred a dog in their lives, but occasionally borrow and 
go out, and shoot any and everything, murdering birds on the ground, 
or any way so they are bagged. If told no sportsman would be 
guilty o/'such practices they are very indignant, and go on to explain 
that they are “ gentlemen ” who go out for a little *' fnn,” that what 
few birds they massacre on the ground makes no difference. Are 
such men “ pot-liunters? ” Who has not shot with the man whosi 
greed of game or desire for a large hag has led liim to forget that he 
was a gentleman and caused him to be guilty of discourtesies 
which he would in calmer moments be heartily mshamed of. Are 
such men pot-hunters? An old shot goes out with one of limited 
experience: snubs “Mr. Inexperience” unmercifully: sneers at his 
poor efforts: takes all the advantages he can, aud works as hard to 
beat him entirely " out of his boots” as though great credit was to 
be gained. Is such a man a sportsman? Another goes out in the 
guise of charity: murders a covey ol birds at a shot, and tells us a 
thin little romance about ‘•hospitals,” doctors, etc.,. as though 
they “ growed no chickens there,” or that his chaiity could only 
“see” quail. I.s such a man a pot-hunter ? Lastly: the man who 
bawls out: curses and flogs his dogs unmercifully because he happens 
to lose a shot at a bird. Is he a pot-hunter or sportsman? Let us 
then all remember that we are gentlemen and sportsmen, and con- 
duct ourselves in a manner that we may never regret. Let us 
not forget that a polite, kind, and courteous bearing is the distinct- 
ive characteristic of a gentleman, whether in the field or elsewhere. 
Virginia. 
Dog 
Plymouth, March 26. 
Editor Rod and Gun: 
Your paper is O. K., and everything is lovely: “ Dog Whip ” and 
the rest of the dog men are getting the thing down to a fine point. 
The readers of your journal in this section are jubilant over the tun 
for this season: we will learn how to choose a gooddog: I think I 
have learned the difference between tweedle-dee and tsveedlc-dum, 
and I say *• Bully for this dog rebellion!” I don’t care how long it 
lasts: but I want one of your papers every week sure I have got 
some good dogs, and if any of my country sporting friends want any 
information in regard to mongrels, I will give it,aBd no charges: 
hut would rather hear from some one else. My doge are good on 
the hunt, and for one that can’t shoot any better than your humble 
servant I must say that I relish the sport: but Mr. Editor, do not 
for my sake discourage this dog argument, for I think it is for the 
best, and I say to “Dog Whip” and “ Field,” “Bully for yonl” 
Fritz. 
Don’t Go- 
Richmond, March 25. 
Editor Rod and Gun; 
Some time since a communication appeared in The American 
Sportsman in regard to the blunders of a certain so-called sporting 
journal. Here is another instance and one that is wiiolly indxcusa- 
ble. In his answers to correspondents seeking information he 
blandly tells one tliat there is no close sca.son on qnail in Virginia, 
but that there is on deer and turkey. This is pure nonsense. The 
close season b_sing from 15th Jun. to 1.5th of October, a fact any one 
can easily verify by looking at the law . It is to be hoped the party 
seeking iiiforination(?) did not “hie away” to Virg'nia on a quail 
slaughtering expedition in February or 5Iarch. Does auy man want 
any better evidence than such instances, to prove that he should 
support the sporting paper i. e. Tub Rod and the Gun? 
Virginia. 
Coming Season 
Long Prairie* Minn., March 21. 
Editor Rod and Gun: * 
As a matter of fact* there is an absolute dearth of sporting news 
and incidents at this season of the year, more especially in this 
northern latitude, our shooting season not opening until some three 
or four weeks after yours at the east, but we are making prepara- 
tions for the spring campaign on the ducks and snipe. 
I am constantly seeing something in regard to the destruction of 
game, or rather loss of the same by the severe cold weather of this 
winter. So far as I can learn by inquiry and personahobservation, 
the prospects for game were naver better than at present in this lo- 
cality. I have yet to hear of the first game bird perishing of the cold 
in this country during ihe past winter. As for deer, the stringent 
game law of lust winter has operated to great advantage in their pro- 
tection, and if the snow goes oil without a crust, (which leayes 
them open to the tender mercies of the wolves and Indians) I look 
for an improvement on the last season. For the past six years the 
value of the game killed and sold in this county (Todd) has ex- 
ceeded the value of the wheat crop for the same period, and if pur- 
sued only by the residents of the county at the proper season would 
not very sensibly diminish the nihnber of deer; but from all parts of 
the State and from other States come scores of hunters (not sports- 
men) every full to shoot for the markets, and in this manner hun- 
dreds of deer are taken from the county every year, and as a matter 
of course there is not at present over one-fourth as many deer in 
this locality as five years since; and in fact, it is so though in a less 
degree, with other game. I know of one man purchasing fifteen 
hundred ruffed grouse in one day in this place last fall ; all 
killed^wiihin a radius of five miles of this place; and I venture to, 
say that ninety-nine out of every hundred were shot while sitting 
on the ground or in trees. Still I don't so much object to this as 
the sale of the birds was a direct benefit to the actual residents of 
the place, though the miserable sum received (five cents each) hardly 
paid for the ammunition expended in obtaining them. Pinnated 
grouse also promise fair for next season, very few of them being 
shot here last fall; a covey of them have been regular visitors at my 
place for the last three months, and being undisturbed come uronnd 
the house almost as common chickens would ; and right here I want 
to take exception to one remark of ” T. Umbellus '' in his article on 
a “Uniform Sporting Nomenclature ” in your issue of February 27, 
and that is that the Pinnated Grouse (Tetrao Cupido) is known in 
the west and northwest as pheasant or partridge; I never heard the 
name pheasant or partridge applied to the bird in question, while I 
have often heard them applied to the Ruffed Grouse (Tetrao Umbel- 
lup), and 1 certainly claim to be a western man, and tolerably well 
versed in western nomenclature. J, 
Season for Woodcock- 
Boston, March 26. 
Editor Rod and Gun: 
I notice in your last number but one, a call for sportsmen to give 
their views upon the close time for shooting various game through 
out the country. As a veteran of forty years standing, permit me 
to give my views in a few brief lines upon the preservation of one 
of our most beautiful game birds, now almost exterminated, the 
woodcock. Thirty years ago and for a long period afterwards, the 
game laws of this state permitted the killing of woodcock from July 
Itl^until January 1st. At that time, and for a long time afterward. 
I could jump into a buggy, after bank hours, and drive ten miles out 
from this city to the Blue Hills in Milton, and pick up half a dozen 
to eight or ten woodcock in an afternoon and follow it off and on for 
the whole season. There w'ere no professional pot hunters then, 
but the inauguration of railroads about that lime inaugurated them, 
aud subsequently they began to poach upon my treasured premises, 
and my sport in that locality was gone. The laws as they then stood 
facilitMtod extermination, and which has become almost an accom- 
plished fact. In our State, furnishing much of the most practicable 
breeding ground for woodcock in the country, I will venture to say, 
that there is not, in their breeding season, now, one w'oodcock where 
twenty-five years ago there were two dozen. This grows out of an 
indiscriminate slaughter without any regard to the preservation of 
birds for breediug and recuperation. My purpose is to speak of the 
proper time for killing these beautiful game birds. As our laws 
have stood, there were three periods for killing woodcock — in July 
when they are in their broods— in the latter half of August aud early 
part of September, when they arc moulting, and after about 20th 
September, where they are over their moulting, well scattered, 
fit to shoot and worthy the efforts of a true sportsman to bag them. 
To kill them in July, when the old bird and young— all in near prox- 
imity, in some quiet cover, where they were bred aud where, to get 
one you can easily get the whole brood, is a mean slaughter. From 
about the 15th of August to about the loth of September, they moult 
and no sportsman with the true instincts of a professional w'ould de- 
sire to kill them at that time, as they are only a poor, sickly, help- 
less creature, worthy of the protection of a Bergh er any other phi- 
lanthropist. 
I have killed woodcock off and on for forty years, and have watch- 
ed their habits carefully and think I am not mistaken when I say 
that from the 15th day of August to about the 15th day of Septem- 
ber is their inoiliing season. Of course some may begin a little 
earlier and some hold on a little later, but substantially this covers 
the moulting season. I have many a time “drawn ahead,” upon u 
woodcock as late as the 20th of September, and seen his “feathers 
fly,” as Ail sportsmen know they will when moulting. After the 
20th of September the birds are generally well over moulting, in fine 
feather, well scattered, plump, strong and cajiable of taking care of 
themselves, and fit to try the stamina of a true sportsman, and from 
that time up to their migration is tlie only inie period to kill them 
I have gone into these remarks as I see by the reports that our 
legislature are about to revise our game laws and that one of our 
very efficient and worthy sportsman's clubs have recommended to 
the committee of our legislature to fix the killing of woodcock at 
a period a'* early as 1st of September. Thc-e gentlemen may be 
assured that if my expfrienen is worth anything, the moulting sea- 
e')u is not over before 15th of September, and half the birds killed in 
this State as early as Ist of September, will be found shaky and 
killed nnst-asonably. 
Among the late changes of our game laws, was to extend the 
close time for killing these birds from July 1st to August 15tb» 
where they now stand. The extension of time was in consequence 
of the rapid diminution and proj^pj-ctive extermination of ihcsd beau- 
tiful game birds, but to suit some impatient waiters for early sport 
the time was loollshly fixed for the beginning season at the time of 
all others when they should not be killed. Were we to fix our kill- 
ing period at 15th of September, as I sec they propose to do in your 
State, enough birds, in spite of the persistence of the cursed pot 
hunters, would escape for a fair complement of breeders for the en- 
suing season, and it would reasonably be expected that a renew’al of 
our good old days of cock shooting would come round again. We 
all know that England, closely populated as she is, is full of game, 
notwithstanding the immense amount annually killed. This is 
brought about by a judicious system of leaving just enough breed- 
ers each season to keep the stock good, and so they have an abund- 
ance of all kinds of game the whole country through. We have 
just as good natural advantages and it istOibe hoped through the 
inauguration of Game clubs as now' going on throughout the coun- 
try, we shall soon be as well off as old England, that princely coun- 
try for spoil 
I notice that the club at Hartford, in your State, are senonsly dis- 
cussing this special point for the close time on partridge (ruffed 
grouse) and woodcock ; and an old veteran who has done ser'ice 
in the eastern part of your State for a third of a century, and who 
thinks he knows that I5th of September is the righi time, I hope 
that they will stick to it and fix that period ir. their game laws as the 
true time, aud that all other dabs in New England will follow suit. 
L. S. 
Various- 
Galveston, March 25. 
Editor Rod and Gun: 
For the past two months we have had on Galveston Island the 
finest snipe shooting it has ever been my good fortune to enjoy. I 
have hunted them in the marshes between New Orli ans and Mo- 
bile— a splendid snipe section— but hive never before seen them as 
thick as here. They are now leaving us, and in ten days more we 
wiU “stack guns” and await Ihe coming of papa botte which arrive 
in quantity in June. Quail, Wilson snipe, curlew, marlin, papa 
botte, robin, dove, meadow lark, geese, brant, sand hill crane, and 
of ducks, canvas back, blue and green winged teal, sprig tail, 
biack heads, widgeon are ail among the feathery tribe which visit this 
Island. Indeed we have no lack of sport in the shooting line. 
I want to add my tribute to those of your correspondents who 
have lieen writing aliout the Maynard Rifle. I have five or six 
kinds of rifles, and am familiar with nearly, if not quite, all manu- 
factflredin the United States, and with some European. I know of 
no gnn that will give a sport- man more uniform satisfaction; I have 
found none that will shoot closer, nor with equal weight of powder 
and lead, penetrate further; there is no fouling, no matter after how 
many shots, no working loose and when the gun is locked it is as solid 
as an unbroken piece of steel. As an evidence of the rapidity with 
which this gnn can be fired; some time since 1 was standing on the 
bench and raw two seagulls flying towards me, with my Maynard I 
killed one, reloaded, and cut feathers from the other. In his work 
on rifles, Cleveland says this gun did more than any other to allay 
the prejudice against iHeech-loadcrs. We are making an effort to 
get up a rifle club here this summer, and with a good prospect of 
success. Maynard rifles will be used. 
I have a pet doe, and her appetite is eccentric enough to be 
worthy of mention She will drink brandy, eat snuff, cigarrettes, 
coal (by tlie hour) newspapers, clothing, wheat bread, rice, sugar, 
cakes, and yesterday I gave her a handful of Ayer’s pills which she 
ate as she whould corn, and they had no more effect. J. S.M. 
It Will Do- 
Manchester, N. H., April 3. 
Editor Rod and Gun: 
I opened my paper last evening with a shiver, but npon seeing the 
cut upon it, I fairly trembled with pleasure, and will say that “ it w ill 
do ’’ without onions. Another feature of our paper is this: No one 
is troubled about the nuisance in aW other papers— the '■ Great Scan- 
dal for which please accept the thanks of one of your admirers. 
“ Sunset.” 
A Reminiscence. 
THE DON. 
I played the truant, on a euramer's day. 
To steal from books, and school away, 
And with my pole of alder-wcod 
Beside the babbling; brookside stood. 
And cast, beneath the hanging vine. 
My bent pin hook, and home made line. 
And watched its bait in the snowy froth. 
Like russet wing of shattered moth, 
Sink a moment in the flowing ^tream. 
And dance a space in the sun's warm beam, 
And whirl a bit in the bright cascade 
By moss grown rocks aud driftwood made; 
Aud when the spotted trout was caught, 
No gem from distant Ophir brought. 
Or gold from mine land, or pearls trom sea, 
Were half so dear as the sport to me; 
And through the long, bright, afternoon, 
On which the night came much too soon, 
I fished the stream vvitb rustic art, 
From source, to where its waters part, 
Until upon the wood's brown floor. 
Lay gasping troutlets, a goodly store. 
Ah me! 'twas two score years ago, 
And now upon the stream I throw, 
Willi feathery lancewood. a silken line, 
No rod of alder, or cast of twine, 
And full' y flies of every hue, 
No rustic worm would ever do, 
Aud with the skill that years have brought, 
And with the aids which art has sought, 
1 flud my catch is lighten still. 
Than the truant boy's by the old brown mill. 
