Aug. 25, 1906.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
295 
MR. W. C. WITHERBEE’s PRIZE MOOSE HEAD. 
loader, the. leaky old skiff with the broken oars 
and the patched sail? For the snipe shooter, 
the lover of quiet and solitude, it looks as if 
our Long Island marshes are forever doomed, 
and he who craves rest and recreation must seek 
elsewhere. John FI. Hendrickson. 
Partridge Shooting in Germany. 
In Germany, partridge shooting begins, accord¬ 
ing to the district, on Aug. 18 or Aug. 24, as 
soon as the harvest has been carried. It is a 
great pity that it is allowed to open so soon in 
this country. Many people who carry guns now¬ 
adays fire at anything that gets up in front of 
them, and the consequence is that you see baskets 
full of undergrown birds that ought to have been 
left alone for at least a fortnight. This year 
birds were in general bigger and stronger on the 
wing, even so early as the 24th; but in the Mark 
of Brandenburg the beginning of last week, the 
birds were scarcely larger than good-sized star¬ 
lings. The prospects for partridge shooting this 
year were exceptionally good in Germany. Here 
the summer was dry, and the weather during 
the hatching season was all that could be de¬ 
sired. During the last fortnight of August— 
that is to say, since the opening of the season— 
we have had mostly boisterous, cool and rainy 
days, with the exception of two or three, which 
were extremely sultry. The size of the bags 
sent up to market may have suffered in conse¬ 
quence, and, according to the old economic 
theory of supply and demand, the price has been 
affected. Only a few years ago, when we used 
to have hot weather at the end of August, I 
have known the market so overstocked that 
young partridges were almost given away, only 
3d. apiece! This year young birds cost 4s. a 
brace for the first few days, old ones 2s. 6d.; 
and now, after a fortnight, the young ones are 
not to be had under from 2s. 9d. to 3s. 6d. a 
brace, old ones is. iod. to 2s. 
There was a time, some twenty-five or thirty 
years ago, when certain leading personages, like 
Count Solms, took a great interest in the pointer, 
notably the English breed, and after him a few 
dog lovers paid a great deal of attention to the 
improvement of the German pointer. The same 
interest is unfortunately no longer shown in the 
English pointer, as may be seen from the atten¬ 
dance and results at field trials in the spring; 
but, on the other hand, the 'capacities of the Ger¬ 
man pointer have greatly improved of late years. 
No country in the world is so adapted for par¬ 
tridge shooting over a good dog that takes a 
wide field as Germany. There are no hedges 
to disturb the view, so that under ordinary con¬ 
ditions it is possible to mark one’s birds, and the 
dog has free scope for his work. As most of 
the land is in the hands of peasant farmers, the 
shooting of an entire commune is let as a whole. 
As a consequence, a shooting tenant will have 
a complex of land of from 1,200 acres upwards 
over which he can roam. Formerly, as late as 
twelve and fifteen years ago, it was possible 
almost everywhere to rent a good shooting for 
a moderate sum. Now, alas! these good old 
sporting days belong to the history of bygone 
times. The moneyed men—be they bankers, 
butchers, pastry cooks, or innkeepers—as soon as 
they have amassed fortunes, hire a shooting, and 
are ready to pay a big sum for the “pleasure of 
sport.” Hence, anything in the neighborhood of 
a large town fetches a price far in advance of 
its real value; but the tenant does not mind. He 
gets his exercise, and invites his friends, and 
the peasant farmers pocket the money with a con¬ 
tented grin ! 
In the districts where large landed proprietors 
go in for mangolds or beetroot, the shooting in 
long rows, is wearisome and tedious, although, 
of course, the bags at the end of the day may be 
very heavy, supposing the guns to be good; but 
it is in those communes, where the land is ex¬ 
clusively in the hands of small holders, where 
you get the most sport—real soort if you happen 
to have good dogs with you. To enjoy partridge 
shooting in this country—and that is precisely 
why shooting in Germany is so enjoyable—you 
must be prepared tO' rough it. Your shooting 
may he far from the beaten track, where modern 
ideas abort inns have not penetrated; you may 
I— 
have to put up at a forester’s (a gamekeeper’s), 
who has very primitive, but clean ideas of do¬ 
mestic comfort; or you may be taken in by a 
village schoolmaster, who can be still more 
primeval in this regard, despite his decoration 
for services rendered to the State and the 
Crown; or you turn into a wayside hostelry 
where they seldom house town guests 1 There 
is nothing in any of these temporary resting 
places where the stranger is taken in indicating 
even a faint reflection of luxury in your sur¬ 
roundings, but you may be pretty sure of a wel¬ 
come. of amiable faces, and good-natured words, 
for the people will do their best for you. 
The peasant farmers of the communes, as I 
intimated above, make a little sum out of the 
rent of the shooting. It would be desirable if 
every farmer in every country appreciated, as 
he should do, the common interests of land- 
owner and sportsman in regard to the preserva¬ 
tion of partridges on the land. They are of 
the greatest value for getting rid of snails, etc., 
on the land. I can cite a comparison in “Wild 
und Hund” published by Paul Parey, in Berlin. 
On one of these estates the snails had almost 
completely ruined the young crops one year, so 
that the seed had to be sown again. On the 
other no damage was done at all. In the first 
case the shooting was in the hands of 
“slaughterers,” who had no idea of preserving 
game, and had shot down almost every bird in 
the land; in the second pheasants were reared, 
and the partridges were preserved according to 
the rules of sportsmen. Impartial judges, who 
had experience of these things, were con¬ 
sulted, and declared without any hesitation 
that the good and the evil results both 
came from causes that could be specified. 
The game on the one estate—the partridges and 
pheasants, but mainly the partridges—had pre¬ 
served its owner from the ravages of the plague 
of snails. Owing to the absence of the partridges 
on the ether estate, the'owner was a victim to 
the plague. Thus it can be seen that sport and 
farming should be friends and go^ hand in hand 
with one another. Deer must, of course, be 
fenced in where they do harm to crops, but par¬ 
tridges and such feathered game are infinitely 
more usful to the farmer than to the sportsman. 
1 he game should be reckoned with the crops as 
part of the profits of an estate. 
All sorts of game—most of all red and roe 
deer—are influenced by the weather; but if one 
wishes to come well on to one’s birds during 
the month of September, when one is subjected 
to various kinds of weather, the barometer must 
not be neglected. The partridge consults his 
barometer every day, and if one gets up early 
and takes a stroll to find out from the call of 
the birds where they are likely to lie during the 
day, one will be sure to find the old and ex¬ 
perienced ones on the alert. After the morn¬ 
ing feed in two or three places, when the birds 
independently look for their meal, they are sum¬ 
moned by the old ones, and receive from them 
the order of the day as to where they should lie. 
It is therefore possible, by careful observation, 
to know exactly where birds will be according 
to the weather. Of course, partridge shooting, 
to.be enjoyable, and not burdensome, must only 
be undertaken when the weather is really fine, 
or at best moderately fine.—J. L. Bashford in 
London Field. 
Mr. Witherbee’s Prize Moose Head. 
We illustrate to-day the moose head winning 
third place in the Forest and Stream compe¬ 
tition. It was killed by Mr. Walter C. Witherbee, 
of Port Henry, N. Y., who writes of it: 
My head was killed the 18th or 19th of October 
last year on the Bear Lake Fish and Game Club 
tract in Pontiac county, P. Q., Canada, while 
still-hunting. I inclose measurements: 
Inches. 
Spread in straight line. 61 % 
Length of left antler (inside). 40% 
Length of left antler (outside palmation). 52 
Palmation of left antler.12X37 
Points of left antler. 11 
Circumference of left antler above burr. 10 
Length of right antler (inside)..-. 40^ 
Length of right antler (outside). 52*4 
Palmation of right antler .13X36 
Points right antler . 12 
Circumference right antler above burr. 10 
