244 
FOREST AND STREAM 
WILD PIGEONS. 
Hendersonville, N. C., August 4, 1914 - 
Editor Forest and Stream : 
I read in last week’s issue of Forest and 
Stream with much interest, Mr. Wm. C. Mars- 
den’s article “What has become of the wild 
pigeon?” This is another explanation of the dis¬ 
appearance of this most interesting bird. But it 
is very evident all were not destroyed in 1868, 
because I have seen flocks of them in the early 
seventies and later. 
I shot my last wild pigeon about the year 1884 
or 1885, quite near this town. 
There were but half a dozen of the birds pass¬ 
ing over at quite long range, and this bird car¬ 
ried shot fully three hundred yards before it fell 
quite dead. 
None of us dreamed, even at that date, that 
the days of this beautiful bird were numbered, 
else I certainly would not have shot this one. 
So it seems quite likely there was more than one 
cause of their entire loss or extinction. 
ERNEST L. EWBANK. 
WM. MARSDEN ON PIGEONS. 
New Haven, Conn., Aug. 5, 1914. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
I note in your issue of August 1st a statement 
from Wm. C. Marsden in regard to wild pigeons, 
which does not at all account for the total de¬ 
struction of these birds. I was born on October 
2nd, 1857, came to New Haven in May, 1872, 
from Newtown, Conn. Returned to Newtown in 
September of that year; found pigeons as plen¬ 
tiful as they had been for several years. In 1873 
and 1874 I was in New Haven during the sum¬ 
mer, returning in September. In the fall of 1873 
or 1874, I am not sure which, I searched the 
woods for pigeons, went all through the woods 
where I had always found them, and found 
none. On my way home I passed through a 
cut-off piece of wood and one solitary pigeon 
flew from the ground, which I shot. This was 
a very large cock bird and it was the last one of 
its kind I ever shot. The fall following I was 
sitting on a log in a piece of large timber when 
a flock of 15 or 20 came from behind me, passed 
over my 'head and disappeared with incredible 
quickness. These were the last wild pigeons I 
ever saw. This was, I am sure, five or six years 
after date (1868) of Mr. Marsden’s experience. 
New Haven seems to be a congestion point for 
this bird in its fall flight south; the shore lines 
probably causes this. In their last flights south 
in 1873 or 1874, their numbers had not decreased 
from the years before, for say 5 years, enough 
to be noticed. An old pigeon shooter says that 
in their last flight south one of our sound steam¬ 
ers could not have carried all of them. I can 
never believe that the shooters and trappers de¬ 
stroyed this bird. 
FRANK A. SHERMAN. 
CONCENTRATE ON ADVERTISING. 
If there is one golden season in which you 
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that it is not only consistent, regular and well 
displayed, but also comprehensive in details—that 
season is the summer. It is the season when 
most of our readers have a vacation and a 
breathing spell and can devote time and thought 
to things they have wanted to do and purchase 
all winter and spring. 
A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF JAPANESE ARCHERY 
Mr. Mikami is a graduate of a Japanese Uni¬ 
versity, and was at one time tennis champion 
of his country. He is now in business in Chicago. 
The accompanying pictures were taken to illus¬ 
trate his making an archery shot; showing the 
different stages, from nocking the arrow until 
its release. 
The following article, which he kindly prepar¬ 
ed, is practically as he wrote it. 
EDWARD B. WESTON. 
“One pleasant fall day I took a walk with my 
friends and happened to cross by the Archery 
ground in Washington Park, in Chicago. 
I found several gentlemen were playing ar¬ 
chery with toy-like bow and arrow, as I felt at 
that time. The president of the Chicago Archery 
Club asked me whether I can play archery or 
not, as it seemed to him I wanted to play. I 
hesitated to play because I have not played ar¬ 
chery for about three years, and it was the first 
time I touched the American bow and arrows. 
I was not a good player in Japan, and have not 
kept knowledge on archery. But my curiosity 
overcame my hesitation of playing. I played 
Mr. Mikami in Action. 
several times. Of course, I played in Japanese 
way. We put arrow on the right side of the 
bow, instead of the left side, and hold the arrow 
by the thumb and first finger, not between the 
first and the second fingers. The archers had 
much interesting in Japanese archery and talked 
about the tactics of archery. 
The nice, green velvet lawn and 70 deg. weather 
welcomed our archery friends in Washington 
Park, and we got another chance to chat about 
archery. They eagerly asked me to bring the 
Japanese archery stuffs with me. Fortunately I 
had a pretty nice archery set in Chicago and 
brought them down to the park. Many inquisi¬ 
tive American archery friends looked at my long 
bamboo bow and arrows, which were so strange 
to them. As you will see, Japanese bow and 
arrows and style of shooting are so different 
from Americans. 
Frankly, I say I am not expert in Japanese 
archery at all, and seems to me it is not inter¬ 
esting to tell you the detail tactics of Japanese 
archery. I am going to tell you the general as¬ 
pects of archery in Japan in the present times. 
Bows: 
Length: 
There are two kinds of bows, one is long, out¬ 
door 'bow, and the other short, indoor or “Han- 
kyn.” The length of long bow is about seven and 
a half feet, and the short one is about the same 
length of American bow. These bows are made 
by two pieces of bamboo and one piece of wood. 
The wooden piece is placed in middle of the 
bamboo pieces and glued there together tightly. 
Some bows are taped by strong vegetable fibers 
or Japanese very nicely. They are very strong 
and last two or three generations regularly. We 
don’t measure the bow the same way the Ameri¬ 
can does, as so many pounds bow. But we meas¬ 
ure the thickness of the handle of the bow, and 
can tell the strength of the bow. 
Arrows: 
For the regular bow, the arrows are longer 
than American arrows, but there is no standard 
length of arrows. Some people like long ones 
and others don’t. But as a rule, the length of 
arrow is longer than 34 inches. 
Arrows are made by a special kind of small 
bamboo trees which are straightened by special 
ways, and keep in stockroom with special care 
until they are in use. 
Distance : 
Targets: 
As a whole, we can classify the distance of 
shooting into two; long, more than 60 yards, and 
the short distance, about thirty yards. We use 
smaller and lighter arrows for long distance than 
for short distance. The ordinary long distance 
target is about five feet diameter, and we score 
one point every time we hit any part of the tar¬ 
get. We don’t count like Americans do, as 1, 3, 
5, 7, 9 points according to the rings of the tar¬ 
get. The usual long distances are 80 yards, 100 
yards and 120 yards, but sometimes nearly 200 
yards. 
Short distance is More Common. 
In cities, or towns, the short distance shoot- 
