Oct. 28, 1911.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
645 
getting close when he would do something, so 
I said to the gun bearer: “Look here, now I 
am going to let him have a couple of shots in 
front. Then you hand me the other gun and 
I shall be able to hit him in the side, but you 
only fire if he charges down.” 
I waited till the elephant put his trunk up and 
then I let him have two shots. At the same 
moment a big report at my side showed that the 
gun bearer had lost his nerve and pulled off the 
rifle. No time was to be wasted, and off I 
pelted as hard as I could go, loading the gun 
at the same time. The mule driven by the syce 
overtook me, so I was able to spring on it and 
continue the chase, coming close up to the ele¬ 
phant just as it was going down a bit of an in¬ 
cline. As I jumped off the mule, the tusker 
swung round, as if to ask, “What is this?” Then 
he gave a sudden roar and came for me. I let 
both barrels go, but after recovering from the 
momentary shock, I saw that the brute was not 
in front of me. Very uneasily I started to run 
in a diagonal direction, and then suddenly spot¬ 
ted the elephant coming to meet me on that 
course, so I changed my direction again and fol- 
D URING August and September a number 
of reports were received indicating that 
there had been a good breeding season and 
a considerable increase in the number of ruffed 
grouse in several counties in this section, par¬ 
ticularly in Sullivan. This has been a good year 
for mast, and the general opinion seems to be 
that the birds are now on the ridges and in the 
big woods, feeding upon it. One thing is certain, 
that grouse are hard to locate, and when found 
are usually singletons (lone birds). Here and 
there a good day’s sport has been enjoyed, but 
in the main results have been disappointing to 
those who had seen large broods during the sum¬ 
mer. As for myself I have not seen an old-time 
big brood of grouse since the “tick” or epidemic 
year of 1907, when many young birds died from 
some cause never fully explained. 
Ruffed grouse had been very abundant in 1906 
and there was a good stock of old birds in 
March, 1907, but it is well known that when 
disease does attack game birds, animals or fish, 
it is apt to sweep through them like a brush 
fire. It is quite possible that shooting will im¬ 
prove after the leaves are off, and they are fall¬ 
ing very rapidly now. The next rain with a little 
wind will dispose of most of them, opening up 
long vistas in the woodlands. 
The foliage has not been as brilliantly tinted 
and beautiful as usual. The long continued 
drouth followed by much wet weather in Sep¬ 
tember was no doubt responsible for this. I 
have heard of some sport being had with wood¬ 
cock, but have seen none in what is usually fair 
ground at this season. The earth seems very 
hard in spite of the rains, and there is little good 
boring or feeding ground. Woodcock must have 
been flying on the last moon. 
lowed my piebald mule. I must have run pretty 
fast, for I caught up with the mule, jumped up 
on its back, and found that the elephant was now 
almost on the two of us. Luckily the mule gave 
a kick out, and thinking that this was the psy¬ 
chological moment, I dived off his back into a 
bush. The mule made another kick and broke 
loose from the syce, and the elephant thundered 
past within a few yards of me. He ran on an¬ 
other five yards, and then turned round and 
looked for me. It was a very tense and iong 
time that he searched round—so it seemed to me 
—but I expect it was only a few seconds. I 
could see the blood pouring from his head, and 
luckily for me it upset his sense of smell, other¬ 
wise I should have known all about it. He soon 
crashed to the ground, and I had the satisfaction 
of securing tusks weighing 147 and 137 pounds, 
respectively. 
I learned afterward that this same e’ephant 
had killed several natives who had attempted to 
hunt it, and was credited with a most vicious 
character. I have since wondered whether the 
friendly chief wished to see me disposed of in 
a similar manner. 
I note that Lewistown, Pa., is reporting an 
epidemic among the “pheasants” in the Seven 
Mountains district in that State, and that Laurel 
Run Lodge, of the Anglers’ and Hunters’ Asso¬ 
ciation, is investigating with a view to prevent¬ 
ing the spread of the disease. (How is it pos¬ 
sible to do this?) The birds were said to be 
unusually plentiful, as is usually the case previous 
to an epidemic. Ruffed grouse are commonly 
known as pheasants in Pennsylvania, and to the 
South. 
The first settlers named the birds found near 
their new homes after those familiar to them in 
the old country, and this has led to a good deal 
of confusion in nomenclature of game birds. 
Grouse, ruffed grouse, ruffled grouse, partridge, 
pheasant, etc. (Quail, partridge, Virginia par¬ 
tridge, bobwhite, etc.) Ortyx is Greek for quail, 
but the habits of our quail are much the same as 
those of the English partridge. 
Nowadays the old sportsman is satisfied with 
diminutive bags. Content to take long tramps 
over hill and valley, through dense covers and 
boggy swales for the excitement of an occas¬ 
ional shot at his favorite game birds, he has 
probabiy given away or disposed of the greater 
portion of his old battery of beautiful weapons, 
retaining only those old pieces for which he 
cherishes a sentiment, recalling as they do won¬ 
derful days of great sport in the past. My 
favorite at present is an old Higham, a light 12- 
gauge. The top-snap lever now works with a 
rubber band and the stock is secured with many 
windings of surgeons’ tape (a bully thing to 
have in the house; mends any thing — cuts, 
wounds, blisters and may be put to many uses. 
It will save much of the real suffering caused 
by long tramps in heavy brogans, iil fitting boots 
or w’ading gear). This old gun shoots as well 
as ever it did; in fact, any gun will kill well 
enough if you point it correctly; that’s the rub. 
If you do not practice a little at clay birds you 
may find that your eye and hand do not act to¬ 
gether with that quick precision that is so neces¬ 
sary when grouse are wild and shots are few 
and far between. 
Too great anxiety to kill will probably lead to 
the hasty discharge of both barrels without 
proper aim. I had my first shots at prairie 
chickens when about seventeen years of age. It 
was a right and left on the edge of tall corn in 
the open prairie, and an old Chicago market 
hunter was directly behind me as both barrels 
were discharged. “Why, young man,” he said, 
“you didn’t pint that gun within three feet of 
them chickens.” Five birds are missed by shoot¬ 
ing too quick'y for one that escapes by reason 
of too much deliberation. The difference be¬ 
tween a good field shot and a bad one is possibly 
one second. It is a very short space of time, 
but it marks the difference between a real aim 
and a random shot. In the old days when game 
birds were very plentiful it was easy to get 
shooting and practice in the field, but now it is 
advisable to join a gun club and get one’s hand 
in at the traps. In the same way a man may 
become a good caster, dexterous with the rod, 
by joining an angling club, when opportunities 
for fly-fishing for trout come to him but once 
or twice during the open season. 
Fifty years ago fine mixed shooting was to 
be found within a short distance of New York 
city, and a good many birds are bagged every 
season unto this day. The famous drowned 
lands of Orange county are mostly drained by 
this time, but there are good covers here and 
there untouched; in fact, the nearby counties 
held great areas of country perfectly suited by 
nature for the well being of many of our up¬ 
land game birds. Ruffed grouse, woodcock, 
quail, and in a few localities English or Wilson’s 
snipe, were found in large numbers. Ducks of 
several species were often seen on the ponds 
and slow flowing streams in spring and fall. 
In autumn shooting the long swales watered by 
little brooks and bubbling springs afforded ideal 
covers for grouse, woodcock and quail. The 
soil was often rich and just right for boring, 
and the grain fields, particularly buckwheat, ad¬ 
jacent afforded good feeding ground for quail. 
They were fine big quail, I can tell you; none- 
of the little birds had been introduced in those 
days. 
In a pedestrain trip through the Flighlands 
of the Hudson for the purpose of taking photo¬ 
graphs of that region, I saw a great many 
grouse, also traps to catch them in, mostly snares 
in long fences of leaves and brush. But the best 
ruffed grouse shooting I ever saw was in the 
oak woods of Ohio.. It was a fine rolling coun¬ 
try and very easy to work, not so many of those 
dense covers full of creepers and thorns to rasp 
and stick into your flesh. Of course, there were 
quail, plenty of them, and a few woodcock in 
October. 
Twenty years ago good sport was to be had 
nearly everywhere in the South Atlantic States, 
but there are portions of those States which 
should always hold game birds in considerable 
numbers. Market hunting was the chief cause 
of the deterioration of Southern shooting any¬ 
where near good markets. Native whites found 
Ruffed Grouse and a Few Notes 
on Shooting 
By THEODORE GORDON 
