72 
1 
THE OXLT JOURNAL PUBLISHED IN THE UNITED STATES 
Devoted Exclusively to 
SHOOTING, FISHING. N.ATURAL HISTORY. FISH CULTTRE, 
AND THE PROTECTION OF FISH AND GAME. 
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THE ROD AND THE GUN. 
West Meriden, Conn. 
We earnestly request all our contributors to adopt the plan in 
regard to the use of scientific names which some of them have 
already adopted, viz; to PRINT all such names legibly in the manu- 
script. as tins will prevent error by giving the compositor plain copy 
to follow. Above all things we say. do not venture upon the use 
of scientific names at all unless certain of their accuracy. 
SATIRD.!! HAY 1, 1875. 
CONTENTS or THIS NUMBER. 
Page. Page 
Notice of a Very Rare Hawk 65 Small Shot 71 
The Migratory Quail 65 In Cover 72 
Snow Covered Mountains of Sportemen Trespassers 72 
South Daghestan 66 The National SporUimen's 
Birds that Breed by Millions 66 Association 72 
Preservation of Wooacock.. 67 Stall-fed vs Wild Trout 72 
The Ride 68-69 Coming State Convention.. . 73 
Pigeon Matches 69 To Sportsmen 73 
Sportsman’s Library Table. . 70 Western Items 73 
Birds Nests T 70 English setters 74 
The Antelopes of the Plains. 71 Letters from Sportsmen... . 75 
Queries and Answers 71 
The Index and title-page to Vol. Y are ready. Those 
subscribers who desire them will please notify us. 
SPORTS.IIEA TRESPASSERS. 
We are in receipt from a correspondent of the follow- 
ing clipping from a Western exchange : 
Eighty one farmers of Winnebago county, Wis., 
have united in a proclamation with which they are 
placarding ths country round, warning hunters to keep 
off their premises. They complain that their live stock 
and farm fences and buildings have been shot and tram 
pled down until they can no longer bear it, and offer a 
reward of ?'25 for the conviction of each of the outlaws 
in some of the most heinous depredations. The entire 
farming community in that section mean business, and 
hunters will be scarce for^j/while. 
All right! It seems to Vs. however, that the writer 
of the foregoing has piled on the fanner's grievances a 
little too heavily. We can very well believe that in the 
neighborhood of large towns, reckless hunters and 
tramps (we will not even call them pot hunters, for 
they pot so little) break into a man's enclosures, charge 
over his standing crops, let down his fences, kill his 
poultry, open bis gates, and raise Cain generally. We 
have been right there and know how it is ourself. AVe 
do not suppose that an}’ sportsman from the Atlantic 
to the Pacific will stand up in defence of such lawless 
depredation. Such fellows ought to be sent forthwith 
to the county jail to break stones, and be brought to a 
sense of their own duties and other men’s rights. Every 
true sportsmen will lend his aid and example to dis- 
courage and put down such bold disregard of law and 
reason. 
We presume that no sportsman will controvert the 
legal right of a farmer, owner or tenant, to warn all 
trespassers off his land The only question is how far 
it is expedient to enforce that right. We find it difficult 
to realize that eighty-four Wisconsin farmers, living in 
the country far away from towns, have suffered the in- 
juries and inconveniences above indicated, but if they 
are really victimized by mauraders and trespassers, we 
think them justified in taking any steps for self-protec- 
tion. Game pr#servation attaches to itself the idea of 
abating trespass. It is as much for the benefit of the 
farmers as the sportsmen. In Great Britain, where it 
is popularly supposed that the arrogant aristocrat rides 
roughshod over the tiodden down people, the tenant 
farmer is invariably compensated for damage sus- 
tained from a neighboring landowner’s game, or from 
the trespass on his late turnips by fox'hunters; in fact, 
■while the increase of game is favored and its extirpation 
prevented, the farmers’ and tenants’ equities are no 
less strictly protected than the privileges of the land- 
lord. An Englishman’s house is his castie, and his land 
is guarded with equal jealousy against all intruders, 
rich or poor. Wc are very sure ti.at no sportsman 
would insist on shooting over land after being warned 
off. Few farmers care to warn oft those who only come 
for fair sport; on the contrary, the visitor is more fre- 
quently welcomed for a change of society, and as we 
know by experience a pamphlet or newspaper is almost 
always acceptable, while civility and good manners 
are rarely met with churlishness. 
The Rural New Yorker gives excellent advice to far- 
mers on this head : 
The game of the fields and woods is a spontaneous 
growth of nature : legally, it is the property of the far- 
mer — equitably, it belongs to mankind, to whomsoever 
can bring it down. The farmer has done nothing to 
give him a title to it. God gave it to man. The farmer 
certainly has a title to his real estate, and aright to pre- 
vent trespass, even a right to say who shall and who 
shall not cross his domain. This right is and ought to 
be exercised as a country becomes settled and cultivated, 
and more or less rigidly according to circumstances. 
Farmers must take care and discriminate. The wisest 
plan is to allow real sportsmen to shoot game in season 
if they ask the privilege of going over the farm or inlo 
the woods; but to exclude and punish those who do not 
ask permission; for it is a true saying, “That whatever 
is worth taking is worth asking for.” The same is true 
in regard to fishing. Instead of the usual warning, 
“All trespassing is forbidden under penalty of the law,” 
it would be much better to set up a notice like the fol- 
lowing: “Hunting and fishing without permission will 
be prosecuted to the extent of the law.” 
If the resolution of the eighty-four farmers be an ex- 
pression of Granger feeling, the country against the 
town, we are sorry for it. We honestly think it a mis- 
take. The proper puisuit of game does not and need 
not interfere with the farmer. It may rather increase 
his own enjoyments. The local shooting or fishing 
club may help out a good many leisure hours. The vis- 
its from friendly sportsmen may enlarge his ideas and 
inform him what is going on in the great outside world, 
and in the State Sportsmen’s Association he may find 
ground where all parlies interested in game and friendly 
to the rod or gun may meet for exchange of kind senti- 
ments and mutual good understanding. 
THE XATI0.\AL SPORTS.HE.X’S ASSO- 
CIATIO.V. 
We judge from the letters of some sportsmen that 
lome misapprehension is abroad as to the purposes for 
which the National Sportsmen’s Association is organ- 
ized. It ia objected that the National can “do” nothing 
of a legislative character, it can originate but it cannot 
complete any measure for the pieservation of game or 
the consolidation of sporting interests. Of course 
not. It can he only deliberative and advisory. 
The National stands to the whole body of sportsmen 
much as a political convention stands to the whole body 
of citizens. For instance, if a draft for a general game 
law, has been submitted to the public, which is more or 
less acceptable, that draft and others will in regular 
course of business be submitted to the law committee 
of the National, and that committee will report a draft 
revised and approved to the whole house. The dratt 
having been then approved w ill be urged for acceptance 
on the several States of the Union as a model law ap- 
proved by all sportsmen. Each Slate Association will 
press its adoption on its own SDite. 
There is no pretence whatever for supposing that 
Congress has power to make a general law. It can only 
deal with the public lands and Indian reservations. The 
extent to which Congress may interfere even with the 
pollution of navigable streams is an arguable question, 
which, however, it is hardly needful to discuss, seeing 
that in all probability the state legislatures could be in- 
duced by proper representations to concur in a uniform 
law. 
We take it that in June the various measures requisite 
to harmonious action of all sportsmen will he submit- 
ted for action by the several committees to w bora the 
work has been assigned. 
Fred. Mather has just returned from the Au Sable 
river, Mich., bringing with him about feOOO grayling 
spawn and 40 yearlings, measuring about five inches in 
length. He reports the fish less plentiful than last 
year, but could have taken 100,000 spawn in the next 
three days had not business engagements required his 
presence home on the 15th inst. The spawn are in good 
condition, and the embryo plainly visible ten days old. 
Stall Fed YS. Wild Trout. 
Editor Rod and Gun; 
In your issue of April 17, Mr. Genio C. Scott says in 
article on “ Spring Birds and Fishes,” that “ the recent 
mania for fi^h culture has brought to market many in- 
ferior trout,” and that “ persons should not attempt to 
impose on the public by the sale of trout which are pro- 
pagated and raised in liquid bastiles, being small ponds 
where surface water preponderates.” Now, in such a 
place, no one will ever raise many trout, and, therefore, 
that may be allowed to pass; but not so his assertion 
that fish “from pond-', fattened on mummies and offal 
are not so fine a table I’xury as are chubs and suckers.” 
By “mummies” I understand him to mean minnows, or 
small fish, and I wish > place my assertion on record 
against his, by stating • hat trout so fed are not only as 
good as wild ones, bui a great deal better. Now for the 
proof. The quotations of brook trout at the stand of 
Mr. Eugene Blackford in Fulton market, the very week 
in which Air. Scott writes, are as follows : 
Brook Trout (Canada) per lb 30 cts. 
“ “ Cultivated “ $1 00 
This is a fair test — the market price of a thing is 
always a test of its popularity. No man will give 
70 cents more a pound for inferior fish many times, and 
this is a sample of prices in New York since the open- 
ing of the trout season. A well fed tame trout is usually 
in better condition, and it is well known that different 
food affects the flavor of fish, and liver, or as it is called 
“ofial,” is good, so are small fish or " mummiei ” 
Sir Humphrey Davy, in his Salmonia (Ninth day) 
says, “I think, in this part of the continent, the art of 
carrying and keeping fish is better understood than in 
England. Every inn has a box containing grayling, 
trout, carp, or charr, into which water Irom a spring 
runs; and no one thinks of carrying or seeing dead fish 
for a dinner.* * ♦ ♦ And the fish, when confined in 
wells, are fed with bullocki liver, cut into fine pieces, 
so that they are often in better season in the tank or 
stew than when they were taken.” 
This shows that this is no new idea of mine. The 
sportsman naturally thinks that the fish he has caught 
are the best, especially if eaten in the tvoods and with 
a woods appetite. But with the epicure who orders bis 
trout from the market, or the restaurateur who caters 
for him. It is different; they require the best without 
regard to cost. To -Mr. Scott’s assertion that “ fish cul- 
ture has been overdone,” I will merely say that we have 
only commenced. Fred. Mather. 
IX COVER. 
BT ROYAL. 
"Frank, I’ve brought the dogs in from Alami’s, and 
think of killing some cock tomorrow up at Gaynor’s, 
will you come?” “Which direction?” “South, 
three o’clock train.” “Yery well, lam game.” A 
word as to the dogs; first “ Jolly,” a perfect picture of 
a Clumber, but liver and white instead of the traditional 
orange, showing evidently a stain in his pedigree; 
“ Frolic,” by “ Fun” out of “Aliss Flora,” a new im- 
portation. and a winner at several English shows. 
“ Frolic” is a very high bred Clumber, much lighter in 
build than the general run, and looks Hke a cut down 
setter, color, all white with a dash of orange on head. 
Both dogs of English birlh, bioken in England and re- 
broken here. I had taken a fancy to try the working 
of spaniels in cover, and had taken some pains to 
get a couple. We found ourselves at the train on time, 
and soon got to the jumping off station, whence we 
had to drive some seven miles. It was a cold raw 
evening near the end of October, and we were right 
glad when we pulled up at the farm house we were to 
sleep at. In a few minutes we were comfortably seated 
at such a supper as can only be had in the country, and 
at the very best farmers at that, fresh rolls, delicio’js 
butter, strawberry preserves, etc., etc. After forti- 
fying the inner man, we lit our pipes and commenced 
questioning Jim Nape, the sporting scion of the family 
about the chances of killing cock. He said no one had 
disturbed them this season, and though the weather had 
been much too dry, we were sure to get some birds. 
We turned in early and slept soundly, rising with the 
sun, and taking a very early breakfast. It bad rained 
heavily during the night, and the prospect of wet covers 
was not pleasant, but of course it had to be endured. 
After giving the dogs a large bowl each of bread and 
milk, we started. Our first beat was a small wood 
about half a mile from the house, where the season pre- 
