Aug. 26, iqii ] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
353 
The Kind witl\ the Kill 
Here, men, is your lucky strike. Robin Hood is the sporting ammunition 
will change your field of disappointment into a “happy hunting ground.” 
sure enough” game getting you can’t shoot a powder that’s too quick,— 
you can’t buy any that will shoot so quick and kill so far as a 
Robin Hood. 
Ml! 
AMMUNITION 
/" Not Made 
vBy a Trust 
is loaded in our own factories, with our own smokeless powders. 
This is an exclusive Robin Hood feature, for no other ammuni¬ 
tion manufacturers make the smokeless powders which they load. 
Put Robin Hood Ammunition to the test. You’ll see the 
difference in results afield—high muzzle velocity, perfect pattern 
and no “kick.” 
Buy Robin Hood shot shells and metallic cartridges from 
your regular dealer, or if he does not handle them write us. 
Send for our catalogue. It is full of ammunition pointers. 
ROBIN HOOD AMMUNITION COMPANY 
O Street, Swanton, Vt. 
.500 to the 10-bore Paradox is the thing then, and the 
latter the best of all. Personally, I have a .577, shooting 
lOOgrs. of cordite, which l got for bison and tsine, and 
which will stop anything. A single decent shot will 
always knock a bison out of time with it, and it does 
me for tiger also: but the man of ordinary weight (I 
weigh 16 stone) will find a .470 a really safe rifle. It is 
a very good axiom that for dangerous game always use 
(he heaviest rifle you can handle with comfort. To return 
tc the hills. I started using this year a .280 rifle. I have 
not had sufficient opportunities to use it yet, and really 
give a thoroughly reliable opinion on it; but I have had 
about thirty shots at game with it, and the result has 
amazed me. The effect is unbelievable. Animals hit 
anywhere in the body collapse at once, even if a bad 
shot is made. And I have twice killed two beasts with 
the same shot, not by the bullet going through both, but 
by a small portion of the bullet going' through the first. 
Usually there will be either a large tearing wound at the 
point of exit, or else several holes where fragments of 
the bullets have gone out. It has, in fact, the effect of 
bursting a shrapnel in an animal. 
So struck was I with the power of this rifle that, on 
being asked by a friend of mine going on leave to Ladakh 
and Baltistan this year as to rifles, I advised him to take 
a pair of ,280s. He tells me that his shikari, a very 
well-known and skillful man, said: “Sahib, I have been 
making my living by doing shikari to sahibs for over 
twenty-five years, and I have never seen a rifle like 
this.” Everything my friend fired at collapsed where it 
stood. I personally intend giving the .280 a trial at tiger 
this year, as I believe it may possibly solve the problem 
of an all-round rifle, as I hope that the bullet may show 
the same explosive effect even against soft-skinned ani¬ 
mals. Rut if it does not, there is still no good all-round 
rifle. And 90 per cent, of the accidents which happen 
in this country to sportsmen come from the attempt to 
use a rifle as such. A good rifle for the hills is thought 
to be good enough for tiger, and the result is death or 
the loss of a limb. — The Field. 
Arms and Ammunition Chat. 
At the Southern New England Schuetzen Bund tour¬ 
nament, held Aug. 14 and 15, at Springfield, Mass., 
Stevens rifles and Stevens telescopes made practically a 
clean sweep. They secured more prizes than all other 
makes combined. This is the latest Stevens rifle and 
Stevens telescope victory. 
At Camp Perry, Capt. G. H. Emerson, of Ohio, won 
the \\ imbledon cup match, with a score of 98 for 20 
shots at 1000yds. Sergt. \Y. S. Hall, of Georgia, won the 
rapid-fire match with a record score of 50. U. S. Navy 
team won the enlisted men’s team match with 552. Col¬ 
orado team second with 550, and Indiana third with 545. 
Capt. Allen, U. S. Infantry, won the Hale match with 
a possible and 11 bullseyes over. The adjutant-general’s 
cup match went to Capt. G. H. Emerson, 98, with 
Capt. Benedict second, 97. The Governor’s match fell to 
Lieut. L. C. C'ark, of Kansas. Winchester rifle car¬ 
tridges were used by all these entrants. 
J. S. Day made the longest run of any amateur or 
professional at the Western handicap tournament, Omaha, 
Neb., Aug. 8 to 10. On the third day of the tournament 
he broke the 16vd. program straight, 100 targets. Then 
in the Western Handicap, shooting from 21yds., he 
broke 36 before missing. These, added to the 10 carried 
over from Aug. 9, made a straight run of 146 targets, 
36 of which were broken from 21yds. At Xenia, O., 
Aug. 17, H. E. Smith, of Columbus, won high amateur 
average, and Wm. Webster second, scoring 139 and 137 
respectively. At Laurel, Miss, Aug. 15 and 16, II. D. 
Freeman tied for high general average, 291 out of 300; 
also won special event from 22yds. with a score of 49 
out of 50. Geo. W. Lewis won high general average at 
Malvern, Kansas., on Aug. 10, scoring 81 out of 85. 
At Warren, Minnesota, Aug. 10, II. H. Chesterman, 
of Crookston, scored 139 out of 150, winning the 
high amateur average. Mr. Chesterman was second am¬ 
ateur at the Crookston tournament. Aug. 8 and 9. At 
Knoxville, .Term., Aug. 5, C. A. Young, shooting with 
the Knoxville Gun Club, gave an exhibition of trap¬ 
shooting such as has not been seen for a long time in 
that section. He ground 100 targets into dust, breaking 
the entire program. At Evansville, Ind., Aug. 14 and 
15, Woolfolk Henderson, breaking 293 out of 300 with 
I eters 1911 Target .shells, won second general average. 
All these shooters used Peters factory loaded shells. 
CAUCASIAN GAME BIRDS. 
As the available accounts of the habits of 
Caucasian game birds seem rather meagre, says 
A. Buxton in the Field, I venture to offer a few 
notes about two of the species which I have 
had a chance of watching on the higher parts 
of the Caucasus. On the southern slopes of 
the eastern half of that range I have spent a 
month, from Sept. 10 to Oct. 10, in the home 
of the snow partridge (Tctraogallus caucasicus), 
and the Georgian blackgame (Tetrao mlokosie- 
wiczi). In this region the main water shed is 
about 11.000 feet high, and the ridges running 
south from it drop quickly to the plain, clothed 
everywhere below about 9.000 feet in dense 
forest, and covered about that level with long 
grass, except quite close to the tops. Here the 
xegetation is shorter and the ground more 
rocky. The ridges running north from the 
water shed are much more barren, and con¬ 
siderably higher than the main crest in many 
places. My time was spent on the south side. 
overlooking the Georgian Plain. There the 
sides of the valleys and corries on the main 
ridge are all steep, and usually precipitous, for 
a few hundred feet below the actual crest. It 
is on these crags that the giant snow partridge 
lives, and, where I was, thrives, in consider¬ 
able numbers. I shall not easily forget my 
first view of one of-these grand birds. I heard 
him first, chortling to himself above me, and 
picked him up with my telescope as he climbed 
actively up a steep well of rock 150 yards away 
at a pace which seemed extraordinary for a bird 
nearly as large as a capercaillie. As he climbed 
he kept flirting his tail like a moorhen to show 
the beautiful white bunch of feathers below it. 
They are shy birds, and get up, as a rule, well 
out of gun shot, unless they are found near a 
much used path and have become used to the 
passersby. Their flight resembles that of our 
ptarmigan more than any other bird I know. 
Rising from the edge of a short precipice, they 
shoot straight down hill for one or two hundred 
yards, whirl round to one side or the other, 
then keep the same elevation for some distance, 
well clear of the side of the hill, and finally 
turn up and in toward the rocks again, to 
alight at about the same height as they started 
from. As they rise they give a whistle very 
like the alarm cry of a curlew, followed by 
shorter, quicker shrieks, which usually continue 
throughout the flight, and end in a pleasant sort 
of gurgle as they put up their wings to light. 
Their grey plumage matches admirably with the 
rocks, and they are hard to see when on the 
ground. In flight the white on the upper and 
lower surfaces of the wing and on their under 
tail coverts make them very conspicuous and 
showy. Though usually found in pairs, coveys 
up to six are not uncommon. 
At sunrise and sunset the old cocks, who, 
by the way, carry spurs, are very noisy, and 
throughout the day at intervals are fond of 
uttering a sort of musical gurgle to each other, 
which is far beyond my powers of imitation. 
On a misty day, if the sun struggles through 
to them, they have a habit of immediately tak¬ 
ing a short flight—I suppose to dry their 
feathers and cheer their spirits. It certainly 
seems to have the latter effect, judging by the 
noise they make over it. I had heard of their 
friendship with the tur (Capra cylindricornis). 
Female tur were living on the same ground as 
the partridges, and the birds might be said to 
have given the alarm to the tur, or to anything 
else in the valley, a great many times, when I 
disturbed them; but my experience was that 
the tur were far too stupid to take any notice 
of it. I cannot compete with a snow’ partridge 
in the art of whistling, but I tried the effect of 
it on several lots of tur. It seemed to interest 
rather than frighten them, as a rule, and one 
band of rams, wakened at last from heavy slum¬ 
ber by my highest notes, lost their heads so 
far as to all gallop up to within twenty yards of 
me. This incident occurred on ground where 
they are continually hunted by the natives, but 
they had the excuse of being puzzled by the 
echo and the sound of a small waterfall. I 
formed the impression, at any rate, that it takes 
more than the scream of a snow partridge to 
really frighten a tur. 
As a sporting bird, the snow partridge is al¬ 
together excellent, good to look at, hard to get, 
and very good to eat. On the few occasions on 
which I had time to hunt it I found it difficult 
to get near and difficult to hit. As far as my 
shooting goes, I might make the last remark 
about any bird. The bird’s size, however, did 
make me feel considerably surprised at my first 
misses. I soon learnt to be surprised at my 
hits. The main difficulty in the shooting is 
that the bird always rises with a screech when 
you are clinging with one hand to a rock 
wondering where on earth to put your feet and 
•what to do with your gun. Then it gets up its 
pace so quickly, and dips in such a strange 
curve from the hill, that, though it looks too 
big to miss, its defiant scream is too often all 
that comes back to you as your charge of shot 
rattles on the rocks at a safe distance behind 
its tail. I never had the chance to try the ex¬ 
periment, but I have no doubt that driving 
these birds would be magnificent sport. It 
would require very accurate local knowledge of 
their flight in order to place the guns at those 
points where they clinch into the hill instead 
of keeping out in the valley. Once these spots 
have been discovered and the wind taken into 
account, with three or four beaters and two 
guns, splendid and difficult shooting could be 
got with both the snow partridges and the 
Caucasian blackgame. 1 know what ptarmigan 
driving on the Grampians is like, and the kind- 
dred sport in the Caucasus would be better 
still. 
Unluckily, it is difficult to secure unspoilt 
specimens, as the steep, rough ground and 
weight of the bird ensures a long and heavy 
fall and the loss of many feathers. I examined 
the crops of one or two of the partridges, and 
found they contained grass, small red berries, 
dandelion flowers, and many different seeds. 
