618 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Oct. i 7, 1908. 
A Narrow Escape. 
■ Norman, Okla., Oct. 8.— Editor Forest and 
Stream: In September, 1891, after Oklahoma 
was opened to settlement, I was living on a 
claim, as a new farm is called in a new country. 
My brother-in-law came out from the East to 
visit us and to see if we needed any help. 
Being out of meat, I took him to hunt wild 
turkeys which were plentiful in the Indian coun¬ 
try about twenty miles east of Norman. 1 he 
drouth that fall had dried up the streams in 
most places. Late in the afternoon of the sec¬ 
ond day we went into camp, and after making 
the team fast, set out to prospect for game. 
Our camp was on the banks of a creek with 
only a few water holes left. I started up the 
creek walking in the dry bed, looking for turkey 
signs. Many tracks and feathers were found 
and we had been separated only a few minutes 
when I heard a shot. Going back and down 
the stream I found that my brother-in-law had 
come on to a bunch of half grown turkeys 
scratching in the sand and leaves, and firing 
into the bunch he killed three, using a rifle and 
firing only one shot. The next day more turkeys 
were killed, but never again did we get more 
than one turkey at one shot. 
The following month, wanting more turkeys, 
I returned to this same place. The second day 
was almost gone when we saw a drove of tur¬ 
keys running through the brush, but we could 
not get a shot at them. Deciding to follow them 
and shoot them on the roost, we sat down on 
a log to wait until sunset. No human habita¬ 
tions were near except those of half civilized 
Indians who lived in tepees along the creek. 
Darkness was approaching and the owls began 
to hoot, and somehow the chills began to creep 
over me. Stooping low and crawling on our 
hands and knees through and along a cow path 
that led through dense thickets woven together 
with green briers, I heard the swish of turkey 
wings not far away. They were flying up in 
the trees to roost. Lying flat on the ground I 
pushed my gun before me, cocked and ready for 
action. I saw the leaves moving just in front 
of me and supposed it was a turkey that was 
taking a dust bath before going to roost. I saw 
its head, as I supposed, in the dry leaves, and 
aimed at it and crawled nearer ready to shoot, 
but for some unexplained reason did not fire. 
In a moment I saw the eyes and top of the head 
of an Indian who was aiming at my head. The 
Indian saw me and I saw him at the same time, 
and both rose up, glad that it was no worse. 
The excitement caused the turkeys to fly away. 
I was glad that I did not shoot an Indian and 
still more glad that an Indian did not shoot me. 
J. L. Edwards. 
Hungarian Partridges. 
W. B. Mershon, of Saginaw, Mich., whose 
experiments in planting Hungarian partridges 
have several times been described, has this 
fall received some interesting and encouraging 
information with regard to their condition. 
It is generally believed by those who have 
been watching the progress of the effort to 
stock parts of Michigan with this bird that 
they are increasing. An observer, writing 
from Bayport says that he has seen a number 
of broods this year and believes that there 
are many in the region. 
W. C. Cornwell, of Saginaw, says the birds 
seem to be doing well in the vicinity of his 
Clare county farm. He saw a covey of about 
twenty-five several days ago, and one of his 
neighbors saw fifty together. Mr. Cornwell 
says further that he is afraid the regular par¬ 
tridge shooting around that locality this fall 
will be poor, as the fires simply swept the 
country, burning out swamps and other places 
where those birds have usually found food. 
Many of such birds have also been burned. 
Mr. Mershon says that since the Hungarian 
partridge has been liberated in Michigan, Con¬ 
necticut, California and other States have 
started the plan, and he has had numerous in¬ 
quiries about it. He believes further that if 
they can be protected this year and not shot 
in another year, the country will be well 
stocked. Being a field dwelling bird, they are 
not so much exposed to danger from forest 
fires as our ordinary partridge and quail. 
Shooting in Newfoundland. 
St. John’s, N. F., Oct. 1.— Editor Forest and 
Stream: The partridge season opens to-day. 
From some sportsmen who left early in the 
week I gleaned that partridges were likely to be 
scarce, though it is expected that they would 
be more plentiful than last year, as the weather 
has been so favorable for their propagation. 
The spring and early summer of last year were 
very wet and disagreeable, and sportsmen held 
that the inclemency of the weather had a bad 
effect on the breeding birds, and killed off 
many promising broods. The birds had not to 
endure cold weather this spring, so that it is 
anticipated that they will be more plentiful. 
One of the local papers says: “The steamer 
Swan, which arrived at Conception Harbor from 
Labrador, brought up four live young foxes, 
said to be black foxes, which were caught below 
Cape Chidley.” 
There are several American sportsmen along 
the line. The weather has been so very fine and 
dry, the caribou have not yet started south. 
Reports that have come in show that the shoot¬ 
ing is not bad, but no doubt it will be better 
later. W. J. Carroll. 
New England Forest, Fish and 
Game Association. 
Boston, Mass., Oct. 7.— Editor Forest and 
Stream: The New England Forest, Fish and 
Game Association will hold its third exhibition 
at the Mechanics’ Building, Boston, from Dec. 
24, 1908, to Jan. 5, 1909, inclusive. 
This exhibition will be similar in character 
to those given in 1906 and 1907, except that it 
will be on a larger scale with additional features, 
including the indoor rifle shooting tournament 
under the auspices of the National Rifle Asso¬ 
ciation of America, an athletic carnival and a 
fly- and bait-casting tournament. There will 
be given each afternoon and evening an entirely 
new series of moving pictures of fishing, hunt¬ 
ing and other outdoor scenes. These pictures 
are the sole property of the association and are 
not available for any other public exhibition. 
Briefly stated, this will be a forest, fish and 
game exhibition and a sportsmen’s show com¬ 
bined. Richard E. Follett, 
Vice-Pres. and Gen’l Mgr. 
From Minnesota. 
Waterville, Minn., Oct. 1. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: At this writing we are having the first 
blustery weather of the fall, and it has brought 
down plenty of snipe and a few ducks. Shoot¬ 
ing is getting better as the season advances. 
Some green-wing teal, mallards, bluebills, 
widgeons and jacksnipe are being bagged by 
the shooters. Along the waterways this fall 
there will be better shooting, from the fact that 
there has been but little moisture in the sloughs 
and swamps all summer. Rice in a few of the 
best sloughs is thicker and better for feed than 
it was last fall. Yesterday I saw perhaps a 
couple of dozen mallards feeding the middle of 
a good rice slough, while toward night a num¬ 
ber of teal and widgeons dropped into it, too. 
There is getting to be a lot of sportsmen up 
this way who know that to kill a mess is better 
than to bag a dozen, and though we have a few 
game hogs here who are pretty busy getting the 
birds in and out of season, they are frowned 
on heartily by the law abiders. 
Mudhens, rails and divers are aplenty for the 
fellow who can go them. They infest rice 
sloughs as well as the ducks. 
I have often thought that every sportsman in 
a town or county should be interested in the 
formation of a sportsmen’s club, the club to be 
the means of having the laws observed. We 
have had some violations of the law here in 
the spring, but the shooters who have been 
caught at it are given the go-by, by the re¬ 
specters of fairness to fellow-men and the game. 
Not only this, but the club could be the means 
of restocking covers and planting rice and seeds 
that would make the game get through the 
winters better. The chicken is scarcely seen 
here now, for it has been the means of too 
many dinners while they were plenty. They 
would thrive here if planted again, and by the 
medium of county option could be protected 
from the gun till there were enough of them to 
make it worth shooting during a short open 
season. 
Quail are not too plentiful. We have a hard 
time to find a few to work the puppies on. And 
then after getting them located, we wake up to 
the fact that some sou of a farmer has potted 
them, while we refrained from using them for 
targets. In my opinion, which has been formed 
after years of outdoor work among game of all 
kinds, the farmer’s boy with his little single 
gun has caused the destruction, along with the 
man who “always got the limit,” of a great 
many species of game that should now inhabit 
covers that once were full. 
We are having a lot of good cottontail shoot¬ 
ing after the beagles. It is fine sport. John 
rabbits, brothers to the jacks of the Kansas 
plains, have not shown up in numbers, but be¬ 
fore a month passes, they will seem thicker, 
which is another way of saying that the sum¬ 
mer cover for them is disappearing. 
I would like to hear from some of the 
Nebraska sportsmen who had a hand in the 
planting of Hungarian pheasants the past 
spring. We are thinking of trying them here to 
replace the quail. Perhaps there are some 
other sections further north than the State 
mentioned, which have given them a trial. 
Have they done well in Illinois? 
Amos Burhans. 
