May 4, 1907-] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
695 
two Runs sounded as one, and our opportunity 
was the same, but I believe I killed the bird, for 
the reason that my friend had just made two 
such excellent shots it was his turn to miss a 
little. The country was fairly open, and I had 
a good opportunity to note Bob’s methods. To 
say the least they were remarkable. Paying not 
the least attention to the whistling, shouting and 
threatening of my irate companion, he ran the 
first bird until lost to sight, then circling at full 
speed put up another and did the same, and so 
on until he had covered all the ground for a 
wide circle from where the covey first flushed, 
and scattered the birds for a mile or more. 
Such speed, and such utter disregard for ob¬ 
stacles, as he showed, I had never before seen. 
Briars, thickets, brush heaps, fences, ditches, 
nothing stopped him. He would dash through 
the former with the noise of a railway train going 
through a tunnel, and sail over the latter like 
a big, brown bird. 
Talk of speed and endurance, he was the in¬ 
carnation of both. When he could find no more 
birds he came back to us, somewhat heated, hut 
apparently little fatigued, and took the licking 
my companion had prepared for him, as a matter 
of course. “It will do no good, but I feel in 
duty bound to do it,” was his comment. 
The going was hard, and we soon tired of 
wading about in the mud, so turned toward 
home. The little dog was wet, muddy and ap¬ 
parently disgusted with the whole affair, but 
Bob was having the time of his life. He splashed 
through puddles, gamboled on mudflats, and 
crashed through briar thickets and brush. Half 
way home he stumbled on one of the scattered 
birds, steadied down on scent and looked as 
though he was going to stand it. Roaded a few 
steps up to a big pile of brush, and in spite of 
our joint commands and entreaties, fired himself 
into the very midst of it, causing an upheaval 
equal to a miniature volcano, and a moment later 
backed out carrying a bedraggled, unhurt quail 
in his mouth which he delivered to my disgusted 
friend with an air of pride and satisfaction that 
was amusing. A little later he jumped a big 
brown rabbit and went after it in full cry, leav¬ 
ing a wake through the bushes like a runaway 
two-horse team with a road wagon. 
“Come on, come on quick,” urged my friend. 
“Let’s get home before he comes back, or I 
may kill him. I will go to the store and get a 
trace chain and six inch staple to fasten him 
up with in the morning.” 
It was growing cooler, and a beautiful red 
glow was in the west when we got back home. 
“Yon will have a great day to-morrow, gentle¬ 
men,” said the Doctor, as we separated for the 
night, and we did. Lewis Hopkins. 
Adirondack Measures Condemned. 
At the last meeting of the Association for the 
Protection of the Adirondacks, held in the 
American Museum of Natural History, New 
York city, S. R. Stoddard, of Glens Falls, spoke 
as follows: 
“The hills are sick with the sins of the lum¬ 
berman—and we are advised that storage reser¬ 
voirs will correct the evil. They would cure 
leprosy by covering the raw spots with becom¬ 
ing plasters. They would kill typhoid by strain¬ 
ing the contaminated water through a rag. They 
would stamp out malaria by extending the bor¬ 
ders of the affected parts. In applying their 
remedy they ask the privilege of making other 
sores and permission to dig out other bits of 
healthy flesh in the construction of dams there¬ 
for. Who favors the movement? The lumber¬ 
man, the pulp-wood man, the paper-making man, 
the dynamo man—enthusiastically. 
“Who is official spokesman of the combine? 
The Forestry, Water Storage, and Manufactur¬ 
ing Association. 
“What does the Forestry, Water Storage, and 
Manufacturing Association manufacture? News. 
“Where may the Forestry, Water Storage and 
Manufacturing Association be found? At 30 
Broad street, New York city, where it has been 
kindly provided with desk room by the Interna¬ 
tional Paper Company. 
“Who pays the bills? The Lord knows who!” 
Hints for the Snipe Shooter. 
Bay Shore, N. Y., April 27. —Editor Forest 
and Stream: With the coming of summer the 
thoughts of the devotee of the double barrel turn 
naturally to> that enjoyable sport, snipe shooting, 
and in the hope that a few points from my own 
experience will not be amiss, I will endeavor 
to show how the man who possesses a bit of 
mechanical ingenuity may, at trifling expense and 
but little labor, make himself an oufit that will 
enable him to enjoy the maximum of comfort 
and be at the same time more successful in fill¬ 
ing the bag. 
First I assume that^your shooting is done 
mainly on the meadows, in some shallow pond 
hole that the yellow-leg frequents in search of 
his daily diet of minnows or other dainty food; 
or, perhaps, later in the fall, when those meadows 
have been mown and a heavy rain or two have 
Dimensions: "6 feet long; 1 foot deep at foot; 3 inches deep 
at head; 4 feet 6 inches on bottom; 20 inches wide. 
flooded them, you stick out your decoys in the 
line of the snipe's flight and gather your quota 
then. 
However, if either is the case, you, as well as 
myself, have at times improvised a blind from 
many and varied articles. An old water-soaked 
box as a seat with a few bushes stuck around 
it may have been used, or maybe you were more 
fortunate and escaped the labor of cutting the 
bushes by finding some tall grass in which to 
hide, but at any rate you were more or less un¬ 
comfortable and were it not for the shooting 
would have forsaken your position at an early 
hour. It is strange when you think of it, what 
one will endure for the sake of getting the op¬ 
portunity to make a double or so as the deluded 
snipe settles over his decoys. I wonder how 
long you or I would sit on a wet board with 
our feet in a puddle of dirty water and the sun 
beating down on our backs until we could almost 
feel the flesh raising in blisters if we did not 
have a gun with us. The self-tortured fanatic 
of the east does not endure any more exquisite 
pains than does the enthusiastic sportsman, and 
while it is religion with one it is a portion of 
the day’s work with the other, for discomforts 
are bound to arise, but must be endured for the 
sake of success. 
But, while we are not drawing-room hunters, 
nor wish a complete set of toilet articles and a 
wardrobe when we do go out after game, it is 
but natural to desire as pleasant an outing as 
possible, and personal comfort is the first requi¬ 
site. Snipe shooting on the meadows, as I said 
before, is likely to be a damp and muddy diver¬ 
sion with the improvised blind, hence I recom¬ 
mend each one to take his blind with him, as 
I do, and whether it be by the pond or in the 
short grass, you always have a comfortable and 
an excellent hiding place. 
To build this blind, which is nothing more or 
less than a coffin-shaped water-tight box, go to 
the nearest lumber yard and purchase one board 
of white pine or cedar free of knots and worm 
holes, 14 feet long, 12 inches wide and half an 
inch thick. This board will make the sides and 
one end of the box, while for the bottom get 
about 20 feet of the same material, but have this 
only six inches wide. First cut from your wide 
board two lengths each 6 feet. Use the square 
every time you saw the boards. Measure off 4 
feet 6 inches on the side of one of these 6-foot 
boards starting from B in the accompanying 
drawing. On the end E-D measure off 3 inches 
from corner E. From that point saw off corner 
to A. Cut the other 6 foot length to correspond, 
and the sides of your gunning box are completed. 
Now, from the remaining piece of the 12-inch 
board cut off a section 20 inches long. Nail 
ends of sides to this, forming the foot of the 
box. For the head it is better to have a board 
at least one inch thick. Cut that to measure 
3 x 20 inches. After this is nailed in at E your 
box will be 20 inches wide, 5 feet 10^2 inches 
long and 12 inches deep, inside measurements. 
For the bottom use the 6-inch boards, putting 
them across, not lenghtwise of the box. Be sure 
to use galvanized nails, about four-penny, for 
all nailing. 
As you will have to tow the box about when 
you are out gunning it will be necessary to bore 
two half-inch holes in the head of the box and 
shoving the ends of a short piece of rope through 
them, fastening the rope by simply tying a knot 
in each end. It is a good plan to put a light 
batten, about one inch wide by a quarter of an 
inch thick, all around the box at the top, leav¬ 
ing about a half inch between it and the box. 
This can be done by cutting short pieces two or 
three inches long and fastening them between 
the box and batten at intervals of eight or ten 
inches. In this space you can stick grass or little 
bushes, entirely covering the box. 
Painted a brown or dead grass color, with the 
added screen of grass around the sides, one can 
pull this box right to the edge of the pond and 
lie in it, completely hidden. 
Having built the blind, it now becomes neces¬ 
sary, perhaps, to replenish our decoys. So many 
are either lost, stolen, or borrowed each year 
that one must either buy or build at the begin¬ 
ning of each season to- complete his rig. It is 
no doubt easier to buy than to' build them, but 
if the sportsman’s pocketbook is not plethoric, 
perhaps he would rather spend his time than his 
money and if so the following suggestions may 
be a help. If you are particular and wish round¬ 
bodied decoys, it means a lot of work but as 
there is nothing gained but a trifle better look¬ 
ing imitation by making these I am going to 
tell you how to make a decoy that answers every 
purpose and does not entail any unnecessary work. 
Cut out of cardboard a design similar to the 
accompanying drawing, making it. if for yellow- 
legs, about 8 inches long from C to D and 3 
inches from E to B with the head and neck pro¬ 
portionately large. Do not bother with the bill. 
An eight-penny nail with the head cut off answers 
the purpose admirably. Then trace, on a board 
of soft white pine, an inch thick, using the card¬ 
board as a pattern, as many decoys as you wish 
to manufacture. These can be cut out with a 
compass or keyhole saw and the corners rounded 
with a knife and finished with sandpaper. When 
ready to paint, first give the decoy two coats of 
white, and when that is dry shade the upper por¬ 
tions with a very dark brown or black. It is 
not necessary to absolutely imitate the plumage 
of the birds you wish to shoot; the general effect 
of white breast and dark back is all that is neces¬ 
sary. To complete the decoy bore a hole at B 
with a quarter inch bit and whittle out a stick 
12 inches long to fit in it. 
Now you have a complete outfit for snipe 
shooting, so put your decoys in the box and fasten 
that behind the sailboat and lay your course for 
the meadows where the long-legged and long¬ 
billed birds are awaiting your coming. 
Frederick Arthur. 
