754 
FOREST AND STREAM 
Dec. 14, 1912 
rolled with a flatiron on a flat hearthstone. The 
shot were rather uneven in size and shape, but 
we killed with them. The large grain cannon 
powder we also crushed fine, though unevenly 
so. With paper as wadding we were equipped 
for the fields. Now in those days even this out¬ 
fit was very hard to obtain, so we could not 
afford to waste it. Doves were our specialty 
and we could not afford to miss or even to shoot 
at a single dove. From two to four at a shot 
was about our killing. 
Then as to guns: My first I got from a 
soldier, giving a pocket knife for it. It was an 
Austrian rifle about 56-gauge and weighed ten 
or twelve pounds. However, I borrowed a 
single-barrel before that. 
Once a lady friend of the family gave me 
six rounds of shot and powder and six caps 
and asked me to shoot her some doves. I took 
her .22. We could not then do any wing-shoot¬ 
ing with what we had; that came later. Too ex¬ 
pensive. But my first bird was with bow and 
arrow. The bow was made of tough white 
hickory and arrows of cane or reed, the end 
near string of bow split and feathers neatly 
trimmed and put in split. The top or head of 
arrow was armed with a small spike or bit of nail. 
My next step was the cross bow. The barrel 
covered and strong cord for bow running 
through the covered barrel. I used slugs made 
of a bit of cane with nail or piece of one in 
one end, often the head end of a nail alone. 
With this crossbow I killed birds. 
So from earliest boyhood, from bow to cross¬ 
bow, then any kind of a gun I could get, and 
such ammunition as I have described above. 
Now it is smokeless powder and hammerless gun 
and a 16-gauge at that, but the game is not 
so plentiful. Ernest L. Ewbank. 
The wings are very short, which causes the 
bird to fly with difficulty, and it is only to 
escape immediate danger that it takes to the 
wing at all. Its plumage is of a reddish brown 
or chestnut color, and incidentally the feathers 
of its wing are constantly used in tying trout 
and salmon flies. 
The table qualities of the land rail are some¬ 
what inferior, but the bird is frequently eaten, 
notwithstanding. 
the water rail ( Rallus aquatints). 
This European bird is in most respects—- 
size, shape, mode of locomotion and retiring dis¬ 
position—an exact duplication of the land rail. 
I here are, however, two important points of dif¬ 
ference. The water rail is always to be found 
along the weedy banks of rivers, streams and 
drains, where it always loves to secrete itself; 
more especially should there happen to be a 
rustic bridge made of branches of trees under 
which to hide. They lie so closely that the 
fowler often gets startled when the rail unex¬ 
pectedly springs forth just as the search has been 
given up as fruitless. 
The plumage of the water rail is of the same 
formation as that of the land rail, but the color 
is entirely different. That of the latter being a 
kind of slate color on the sides, with a tinge of 
red and an olive-green color on the back and 
head, while the bill and legs are of a greenish 
yellow. The rail, so far as is known, is not 
migratory, although like his congener the corn 
crake, his habits are obscure and often puzzling. 
But being a fairly good table bird and a favorite 
with many people, the fowler is always glad to 
secure a brace of water rail. If it does noth¬ 
ing else it adds the charm of variety to his game 
bag. 
Connecticut Game Conditions. 
Danbury, Conn., Nov. 25.— Editor Forest 
Stream: Have just read with interest the re¬ 
port of F. W. Hewes, Commissioner of Fish and 
Game of Connecticut. His view of the situation 
hits the nail squarely on the head—that no man 
with dog and gun can utterly exterminate that 
noble game bird, the ruffed grouse, even if he 
were paid to do it. Grouse is fairly plentiful 
hereabout; that is, a good stock is left over for 
next breeding season, and I hope that sneak, the 
snarer, leaves them alone. Although the sickly 
warm weather we have had since the 8th of 
October, the opening season, made the hunting 
of grouse more than usually a task even for 
the most robust and hearty hunter, a good many 
fair bags were made. 
The birds did not come down the swales 
at all, and one had to find and kill them mostly 
on the steep hillsides among the scrub oaks in 
cedar and hemlock lots where a good snapshot 
only could bring one of these sly and shy birds 
to bag; still there were days where they lay well 
to dogs, especially in the morning at the foot of 
a hillside where they enjoyed the warm sunshine 
and were reluctant to fly. On one such day I 
bagged five birds—the legal limit—by about 11 
o’clock. On other days three, two, even only 
one bird could be brought to bag even after the 
hardest kind of a tramp, but real blank days 
were very few. I for one would be in favor of 
a fourteen days’ longer open season, with a re¬ 
duction of the bag limit from five birds to three, 
which number ought to be enough for any man 
that goes out for sport and not for meat. I 
could give you a description of the workings of 
my dogs, but this would sound too much like 
a cheap advertisement; at least, for me. 
So much for partridge. But where, oh where 
was the woodcock flight this year ? They must have 
passed us over entirely this year. The few birds 
I bagged were all native bred, and I have not 
heard of any even moderate bags of any of our 
local hunters compared with last year. Quail 
are certainly on the increase. I know of three 
bevies only about six miles out of town that 
hardly were disturbed. There is also a certain 
farmer to the west of the city that has four 
good-sized bevies on the farm. (He let me hunt 
over his place, but did not allow me to take gun 
along.) This will be a rattling good place to 
breed, and the birds will spread over the neigh¬ 
boring farms that are not so rigidly and uncom¬ 
promisingly posted. Anyway, good luck to little 
bobwhite. C. F. Brockel. 
Boys’ Wartime Sport. 
Hendersonville, N. C., Nov. 27.— Editor 
Forest and Stream: In a recent number of 
Forest and Stream, Colonel Olds gave quite an 
interesting description of war times sport. The 
ammunition then used by him as he describes 
was no doubt fine as compared to that used by 
some of “us boys.” Powder, shot and caps got 
to be so scarce that we managed thus: I made 
bows and arrows and exchanged for lead pipe 
and “cannon powder,” and any kind of caps 
from’ G. D. to musket, Ely double waterproof 
being the best because we used them more than 
once by taking off the top of a match head and 
putting it in the used cap. The lead pipe was 
mashed out flat and cut in strips. These strips 
were rolled and then cut in little bits and then 
The European Rail. 
A Sub-family of the Rallidae. 
BY W. J. MURRAY. 
The most plentiful and the best known Euro¬ 
pean rail is the land rail, or corn crake (Crex 
crex), and it is one of the most familiar “har¬ 
bingers of spring” in the temperate portion of 
Western Europe, including the British Isles, 
France, Holland and Belgium. It is, in these 
countries, mainly a summer bird, and its well- 
known note of “crake crake” is first heard in 
the meadows about the beginning of May. This 
is about the time the breeding season commences, 
and when it ends in July the note of “crake 
crake” is heard no more until the next season. 
The land rail is partly migratory and partly 
stay-at-home. Some are known to remain where 
bred during the whole winter in close quarters 
or some place of retirement, in a lethargic or 
semi-hibernating condition where it seems they 
can exist on little or no food for a long time. 
Others go south for the winter. 
The land rail is about the size of a wood¬ 
cock, but is quite a different shape. Its body is 
very slender and supple, and is laterally com¬ 
pressed. Its legs and toes are long and slender 
and of a yellowish red, as also the bill. It can 
run very quickly through long grass, notwith¬ 
standing that it is very unsteady on its legs, and 
makes a poor attempt to walk on a bare field. 
It seems to need the support of long grass in 
order to get along quickly. 
Col. Archibald Gracie. 
Haunted by his memories of the wreck of 
the Titanic and never completely recovered from 
the shock of his experiences in that disaster, 
Col Archibald Gracie, U. S. A., retired, died on 
Dec. 6. Death was immediately due to a com¬ 
plication of diseases, but the members of his 
family and his physicians felt that the real cause 
was the shock he suffered last April when he 
went down with the ship and was rescued later 
after long hours on a half-submerged raft. 
After the Carpathia had brought the Titanic 
survivors to New York, Colonel Gracie did noth¬ 
ing to banish the tragedy from his thoughts. 
On the contrary, he spent the succeeding months 
in correspondence with other survivors, gather¬ 
ing data for his article and subsequent book, 
“The Truth About the Titanic.” In his last 
hours the memories of the disaster did not leave 
him. Rather they crowded thicker, and he was 
heard to say: “We must get them into the 
boats. We must get them all into the boats.” 
Colonel Gracie was born in Mobile, Ala., in 
1858, and made his home in Washington. He 
was the fifth Archibald Gracie in direct descent. 
He was married in 1890 to Constance Elsie 
Schack. Colonel Gracie was a man of remark¬ 
able personality and had a host of friends. His 
death will be mourned by all. 
With very few exceptions, every chief 
game warden in the United States is on our 
subscription list. 
