THE DE PEYSTER BADGE. 
A vast amount of useful offort might be encouraged, 
if old army officers would cast a thought to the future, 
and by the presentation of appropriate trophies call 
out the energies of the present rank and file on military 
matters. The waste and loss of time, money, and life 
consequent upon bad markmanship is known to every 
one who has had the control and management of bodies 
of soldiers, and the motto ‘‘ In lime of peace prepare 
for war” applies to this part of the regime of warlike 
operations more strongly than improvement in the make 
and handling of small arms. There are hundreds of 
retired army officers w’ho might each build for himself 
an Louorable memorial, and afford an opportunity for 
much sport and imperceptible improvements, by offering 
sueh emblems as shall call out the efforts of the men 
now in the service, and make them something in sub- 
stance as well as in name, to be feared and respected as 
every army corps should be. 
Such an encouraging token as we have indicated is 
that presented by Major General J. Watts DePeyster to 
the American Rifle Association to be competed for on 
its grounds in Westchester county, in shoulder shooting 
with military rifles. The conditions are very simple, 
the distances are 290 yards or 300 when the ranges will 
permit it; seven shots: to be won three times before 
passing into absolute ownership, and may the best man 
win, were all the conditions laid down. ' The first com- 
petition for the badge took piade on Washington’s 
birthday last, at the temporarj' range at !Mt. Vernon. 
Ijieut. Chas. F. Robbins of the 7th Reg’t N. G. S. N. Y. 
being the successful shot, with a score of 23 in a possi- 
ble 35, on the new Wimbledon system of marking. 
By the accompanying cut of the badge the artistic 
merit of the work may be seen. The design is from 
the brain of Captain Walcutt of the 27lh Reg’t N. G. S. 
N. T., a sculptor known by his works in various parts 
of the country, especially the statue of Commodore 
Perry at Cleveland, Ohio. The drawing shows the 
trophy full size. It is composed entirely of gold,* the 
drawing in the centre being engraved on ihe flat surface. 
The surrounding ornaments are varied, the two figures 
on the flanks standing out in full relief. The descrip- 
tion of the badge by' the designej will convey the clear- 
est idea of its emblematical significance; he says: 
The badge depends by a broad Mazarin blue ribbon 
from a broad cross bar of gold, presenting a profile 
likeness of the donor and a designation of his rank. 
The badge itself is not a mere flat medal, but is thrown 
up prominently; all the ornaments are in alto-releivo, 
excepting the centre disc. Within this circle, an inch 
and a quarter in diameter, is engraved the chariot of 
the Sun, behind whose fiery steeds stands Apollo, the 
merksman of the gods — Ekaergos — the far-shooting — 
discharging one of his fatal shafts, which, as in the 
ca.se of the childred of Niobe, never failed to transfix the 
heart of the victim, the object of his skill. From this 
animated centre group stream divergent rays of light 
which constitute a setting or frame on which are dis- 
played on either side the sun-god, branches of laurel 
and of ivy. These, intertwined, constituted the coro- 
nals which rewarded the marksman who won the prizes 
in archery in the ancient games of Greece and Rome, 
in front of the ivy and the laurel, to the right and left, 
stand figures in silver, about an inch and a half high. 
The one to the right represents a sharpshooter of the 
good old colonial times, in the traditional buckskin cos- 
tume worn by the celebrated Revolutionary General 
Morgan, grasping his unerring rifle. The one to the 
left is an Indian brave with bow and arrows. Both 
stand upon a fasces, indicating the American Republic; 
the centre of this again is a bundle of the missile wea- 
pons of all ages — the javelin, the arrow, representing 
the arms of precision of receni times, which also appear. 
J. H. Batty, our good friend and esteemed corres- 
pondent writes us from Bath, L. I., "The weather has 
been anything but promising here for the arrival of our 
spring birds. I saw and heard a Pine-creeping War- 
bler singing merrily about a week ago, and two days af- 
ter, there was a fall of snow four inches deep. What 
became of the venturesome little Dendraca, I am unable 
to state, but he probably fully appreciated the first few’ 
lines about the ‘‘First bird of spring attempted to sing,” 
etc. The shad have just commenced to run into our 
bay (Gravesend) in small lots. About a week ago the 
ice came down from the North River and raised sad 
havoc among the fishermen’s nets. Gunners in South 
Oyster Bay are killing a good many ducks and geese, 
particularly broad-bills and black ducks. Now the 
trout law is off there are more fine fish exhibited in our 
markets, both alive and dead. I am very busy’. Send 
me a file of Sportsman. When I arrived at St. Paul 1 
found a stock of papers awaiting my’ arrival, to which 
I looked for amusement during my long ride home, had 
not a sporting brakeman on a Pullman sleeper stole 
them from me when I was napping. I was obliged to 
excuse the villain for the sake of his good taste.” 
Mohawk has received a cable dispatch that "ilac- 
dona” cleaned everything out at Devon and Cornwall 
field trials with “Ranger” and “Ranger’s” progeny. 
DICK SHOOTIAG A CHEVAL. 
BY DR. ELLIOTT COTJES. 
There are ways of killing ducks, and other way’s of 
killing ducks, all more or less agreeable or profitable, 
or both. I have tried many methods of effecting this 
result. I may say I have tried most methods, except- 
ing slaughtering from a floating battery with a small 
cannon. This I am quite willing to leave to those who 
make a business of it. Not that I have not done quite as 
bad as this; for, with ornithology as a cloak to hide my 
sin, I have sometimes shot ducks off their nests, or 
taken them in when they were moulting and could not 
fly, or gathered flappers before their little pinions 
could support them. I have “ stood the blind” 
(literally) on the winter’s day, and cut down my' share 
as they came hurtling like arrows past overhead, and 
have waded many a time to my depth in default of a 
better way. But how many of us have ever gone duck- 
hunting on horseback? It is rare sport — rare indeed, 
for few are the regions where it is practicable. Com- 
mend me to this method, I say; and, brother sports- 
men, let me commend it to you, the very first chance 
you get! I claim to be able to stand my share of cold, 
wet, mud and fatigue, and would throw up my title of 
sportsman if I did not hold myself ready for it, if need 
be ; but when I can get my ducks quickly, surely, safely 
and pleasantly (as doctors in the old times used to say of 
the operation of their physic), I am not too proud to go 
hunting them on horseback. And then, it is such a 
gentlemanly way! 
Figure to yourself a boundless prairie — boundless 
not only to the eye at the moment, but to a week’s 
steady travelling. Let the region be well under the 
North Star, for you know ducks are venturesome, and 
love boreal winds. Let the time be early October, 
when the birds that have bred on our grounds have 
renewed their pinions ; when their young of this year 
are well on wing; when those that pushed yet further 
northward have begun their flight from the pole, driven 
by September’s equinoctial from distant haunts. The 
lark has risen from her dewy bed, and is soaring high 
after the songs of gladness she has sent upward. We 
throw open the tent-flap and inhale the fresh morning 
air, till we tingle with vigor to the finger-tips. We 
will TO breakfast, my friend, and then we will go duck 
shooting on horse-back. 
Duck shooting! Certainly, right out here on the 
prairie — on the prairie that looks as bare and flat as the 
palm of your hand. There are two thousand ducks 
within easy ride — I mean within ten or fifteen miles. 
Didn’t you hear their wings last night? I did, just be- 
fore I went to sleep, and in my dreams, too. Don’t you 
see that ridge away over the prairie? This rolling 
prairie is full of such, and where there’s a ridge there’s 
a hollow hard by. And these hollows lengthen and run 
one way, and they make finally a river, establishing one 
of the great w’ater sheds that will land you at last in 
the Gulf of Mexico. And up here where the streams 
are born, Jthey creep slowly, and falter, now despairing, 
now gaining courage again, till the force of a continual 
stream is acquired. Over there. we will find such a 
.stream, hesitating in doubt whethefit be really a stream 
or a chain of pools; whether it be worth its while to 
try and run, or whether it had not better stay where it 
is. Let it do as it pleases. In any event its banks are 
fringed with reeds, showing down from laden lops the 
seeds that ducks love best; and if it be the order of 
things is in force there, so surely is that water freighted 
with wild fowl. 
Let’s nave up the horses, and at them. You had bet- 
ter put on an army saddle like mine, with plenty of 
straps on the cantle to hang ducks to. IIow’ are you 
loaded? Don’t go into the box after your B. B.’s, in 
front of four or five drachms of powder; keep those 
cartndges for the Sioux. I shall take my Parker, with 
just three drachms aud an ounce of No. G. We will 
just put a lunch in the saddle bags, and now we are off. 
Isn’t this a glorious ride! A hand-gallop over a crisp 
prairie that scarcely leaves a foot print ; easj’ as a rock- 
ing chair, it doesn’t even knock the ashes off the stump 
of my cigarette. Excuse me, but I see you haven’t 
quite got the knack of galloping with your gun over 
your shoulder; and if you put it across 3’our lap, you will 
bruise the check work of the tip-stock against the pom- 
mel. Throw it in the hollow of j'our bridle arm, hold- 
ing the grip in your right hand. That is perfectly 
easy, is it not? And if your horse should step into one 
of those numberless gopher holes, and spill you, j-ou 
may save the gun. I alighted at full length on my side 
the other day, but the cun never touched the ground. 
What is that, did you say? An antelope — the only 
large game hereabouts, excepting buffalo, of course. 
lIow like a statue he stands, clear cut against the sky 
on that knoll ; suspended in the air, as it were, for 
