FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Sept. 5, 1908. 
376 
Game Prospects. 
Milford, Conn., Aug. 25 . — Editor Forest and 
Stream: What are the prospects for shooting 
and the increase of game? In this section they 
are improving over last year and the year be¬ 
fore. On my different outings with rifle and 
kodak since June 1 to the present time I have 
seen more quail than in the last two years. 
Hardly a walk do I take that I do not hear their 
call. 
A friend visiting took a stroll last week and 
when half a mile from town saw two old quail 
and a large bevy of young. They went across 
the road then flew toward the woods. On one of 
my strolls, while getting over a stone wall, I was 
more scared than the three partridges which I 
almost landed on. Mr. Bristol, while picking 
blackberries, flushed three partridges, one old, 
two young, and so the reports come in from dif¬ 
ferent sources. 
Have seen quite a number of doves. I have 
not shot any in the last ten years. At that time 
it was fair sport, and once in a while we got a 
wild pigeon. 
Deer seem to be the real thing now. If they 
keep coming until 1911 we will have good shoot- 
There is hardly a farmer but has them on 
his place; in the apple orchards or running with 
the cattle in the pastures. A person anxious to 
see a wild deer had been looking for them at 
different times, and a few mornings ago, when 
on his way to the shore, walking on the trolley 
track this side Fort Trumbull Beach, and not 
looking for deer, he saw one standing on the 
track looking at him. It stood only a minute and 
then ran down the bank and across the meadows 
to the river, which it swam to the Gulf shore. 
Reports from the rifle this week; Five wood¬ 
chucks, 1 crow. Not very good eating, but they 
keep eye and rifle in good condition. F. S. D. 
Elmira, N. Y., Aug. 27. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: The situation as to ruffed grouse I 
find to be anything but promising. I have heard 
of but very few broods of young birds; in one 
of these there were but two birds, and in an¬ 
other one six. It certainly looks as though the 
disease, or whatever cause it may have been that 
took off our birds last year, had further reduced 
the number of old birds, as there does not seem 
to be the number of old birds that we would 
reasonably expect to find. 
On a trip covering six hours and in which we 
beat very thoroughly all manner of cover, mv- 
self and companion did not flush one single 
grouse. Over this same cover two years ago we 
would have flushed from thirty to fifty birds. 
We worked the locality very carefully and when 
we failed to find birds in likely summer cover 
we looked elsewhere for them. We covered this 
section so very closely that we feel confident 
that no brood of birds was overlooked through 
their lying close. 
I think this year would have seen a closed 
season on grouse throughout New York State 
had it not been that the sportsmen were anxious 
to see a gun license law passed and put in 
operation, and it was thought this could better be 
accomplished with an open season on grouse. I 
realize very thoroughly the importance of the 
gun license law, but I hope we have made no 
error in judgment in giving our attention too 
much to that and allowing our grouse to be 
further diminished in number by shooters again 
this fall. 
If the situation is the same throughout the 
East as we find it locally, it is certainly a year 
in which the hunters can show their sportsmanly 
and unselfish qualities, and while the law does 
not protect the grouse, he can be as moderate as 
possible and look ahead to a better year coming. 
L. C. Andrews. 
Whitefield, N. H., Aug. 25.— Editor Forest 
and Stream: The ruffed grouse were very scarce 
here in 1907. I was in the woods nearly every 
day during the year and saw very few birds, 
and they were all old ones. I kept watch of 
three or four that wintered near here, and they 
pulled through till spring; and as one nest was 
found this summer and a flock of young ones 
was recently seen in that vicinity, they arc 
making a good showing. 
I made a trip through eastern Maine and 
southern New Brunswick last May and heard 
grouse drumming all through that section. As 
we had a good season for hatching, I shall look 
for more birds this season than last. 
It seems to be a great mystery to many why 
grouse are so scarce, but to me the mystery is 
that there are any left, with the chances so 
against them. Just think what they have to con¬ 
tend against: hawks, owls, hunters, foxes, crows, 
crusts and wet breeding seasons. To be sure, 
crusts and wet seasons do not come every year, 
but the others never let up. 
Some fox hunters will not like to hear their 
pets so maligned, but anyone who is in the woods 
any in winter sees too many tragedies written 
in the snow to permit them to doubt that the fox 
is responsible for many lives. 
fl hat black robber and murderer the crow— 
and his numbers are increasing at an alarming 
rate—gets in double work, on the eggs and on 
young birds. I think the crows and the wet 
season accounted for the great scarcity of grouse 
in 1907. 
If we wish to retain the grouse they must have 
more protection in the future than they have had 
in the past, and if each State will have a close 
season of two years, and the gunners devote their 
time during that period to shooting foxes and 
crows, it would mean more birds in the future. 
W. H. Y. 
Morgantown, W. Va., Aug. 27.—Editor 
Forest and Stream: From every source comes 
the same cheering news that the few ruffed 
grouse which were left in the woods last fall 
have had an unusually good breeding season, and 
the chances for a good crop the coming season 
are encouraging. One man found as many as 
fifteen half-grown young in one brood, and from 
all parts of this (Monongalia) and Preston 
counties they appear to have increased several 
fold. 
The best posted quail hunters declare 'there 
have not been so many quail as at present for 
ten years past. Emerson Carney. 
“Shapshack,” Olcott Beach, Aug. 27.—Editor 
Forest and Stream: My experience with the 
ruffed grouse for the past twenty odd years has 
been in Jefferson county, New York. I have not 
seen a grouse in Niagara county during that 
time, although there are a few to be found in the 
Fonawanda swamps. On account of my going to 
Norway last year I did not get to Jefferson 
county until late in the shooting season, and was 
there only a few weeks. During my stay I did 
some tramping with a gun in familiar grouse 
quarters, and did not see a bird where years be¬ 
fore I had always found them. 
For several years a friend in Lockport has 
accompanied me to Jefferson county. Last year 
he was there three weeks in October and did not 
get a grouse, but reported seeing two. I expect 
to go to Theresa, Jefferson county, after the 
middle of September for my usual hunting trip. 
I am going to wait until after my seventy-fifth 
birthday (September 8) just to see how it will 
seem to hunt after one is three-quarters of a cen¬ 
tury old. I imagine it will not seem very differ¬ 
ent from a quarter of a century less. I am rid¬ 
ing my bicycle every day. It was the one thing 
that I missed while in Norway last year, as the 
government roads are fine and no autos allowed. 
But I am drifting away from the ruffed grouse 
question- J. L. Davison. 
East Whately, Mass., Aug. 2 7.—Editor 
Forest and Stream: While reading to-day the 
Aug. 15 issue of Forest and Stream I note you 
ask your readers about game birds in their 
respective places. 
It has been my good luck to notice several 
nice broods of partridges this summer. About 
one month ago I found in a small piece of woods 
five broods of young partridges about half- 
grown, and while picking blackberries last week 
I put up two broods of young birds of seven 
and eight each, also three old birds. Several 
have reported young birds very plentiful about 
half-grown, and it looks very bright for our fall 
shooting. Last year it was the same here as 
elsewhere. There were no birds to speak of, 
and it does not seem to me that there were 
enough birds left last year to hatch as many 
birds as we find this year. C. L. C. 
Rockland, Me., Aug. 20.— Editor Forest and 
Stream: I have made inquiries from persons 
most likely to know, and they report partridges 
and woodcock more plenty than last year. I 
have spent the last two winters in New York, 
leaving here the second week in October, so I 
missed the best shooting. 
No one here calls the bird you inquire about 
grouse. We down-Easters call them partridges. 
James Wight. 
South Middlesex County, Mass., Aug. 25.— 
Editor Forest and Stream: Reports seem to in¬ 
dicate that grouse have bred fairly well. Have 
heard of several broods of from six to ten birds, 
but they seem to be in spots, many good covers 
being bare of birds, owing to lack of feeding 
stock. Have heard from other parts of New 
England, and all say there are more birds than 
last year, but not so many as in 1906. 
Last year the young birds that I was watch- 
ing disappeared about the middle of August and 
I am convinced that many young grouse died 
during that month. August, 1907, was extremely 
dry this year there has been plenty of rain so 
far, June and July being hot and dry. 
Altogether it looks now as though there would 
be a fair crop of game, some sections perhaps 
up to the average. 
The northern flight of woodcock was reported 
as good last spring. R. l E. 
