294 
is their inability to find gravel. A quail must 
have gravel and he cannot live without it. Do¬ 
mestic fowls are the same way in this respect. 
It is harder for the quail to find gravel than it 
is to find food in the winter, as it does not take 
a great deal of snow to cover up all traces of 
gravel, while the plants that have the seeds will 
stick up through the snow even when it is quite 
deep. On several occasions quail have been 
found dead in the winter with their crops full 
of seeds while there was no gravel in them, in¬ 
dicating that the lack of this had killed them. 
Partridges do not require gravel as the quail 
do, and for that reason they are a ^hardier bird 
in the winter time. Many Hungarian partridges 
have been liberated within the past year in Con¬ 
necticut and these are sometimes mistaken for 
quail and ordinary partridges. The California 
quail are different from the others in being a 
slate-blue color, and they have a little bunch 
of feathers on the back of the head. 
It is reported that many farmers are being 
bothered by deer in their gardens. A law went 
into effect in June which allows the farmers to 
shoot deer with a shotgun when they are ac¬ 
tually damaging their gardens. As a result of 
this thirty-five deer have already been killed in 
Franklin county alone. Several have been shot 
in Granville, Montgomery and other towns in 
Hampden county. The deer are unusually 
numerous this year, and if they keep up this 
way it is estimated that as many as 200 will be 
killed in this part of the State alone during the 
year. The law was passed in the interest of the 
farmers who were suffering from the depreda¬ 
tions of the deer. It is severely criticised by 
some because of the fact that it makes it too 
easy for any one to shoot a deer who wishes to 
make the excuse that the deer was eating his 
garden. It is claimed that anyone could plant 
a small garden and then keep it for the single 
purpose of shooting the deer that came to eat 
it up. As yet the game wardens have had no 
trouble with this kind of poachers. 
Connecticut Rail Shooting Prospects. 
Essex, Conn., Aug. 9 .—Editor Forest arid 
Stream: The season is not yet far enough ad¬ 
vanced to predict with certainty just what the 
shooting for rail will be like this fall in this 
locality. However, there is an abundant growth 
of wild rice, and if a good crop of this means 
likewise a good number of birds, then certainly 
the shooting will be quite up to the average of 
the past two years. 
I have questioned a number of those who have 
been working on the meadows of late making 
hay, and all have reported seeing a good num¬ 
ber of rail, though mostly of the Virginia 
variety. Yet our Carolina or shore rail is so 
sly and elusive a bird that on the meadows they 
are seldom seen. 
There were a great many birds left over last 
fall, the shortening of the open season being, 
I think, the reason for this, and with a good 
breeding season, as this has been, without ex¬ 
ceptionally high tides to drown the young birds 
or other unfavorable conditions, it is safe 
enough to assume that those who come here 
this fall to shoot rail will not be disappointed. 
Of course, the best shooting will obtain when 
the flight birds arrive, but this will undoubtedly 
be before Sept. 12, when the season opens. 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
Usually the birds arrive here on or very near 
Sept. 1, yet on one occasion I knew them to 
be as late as Sept. 9 in reaching us. 
Where do the birds come from and when do 
they make their flight? I have never yet seen 
anyone who could answer this question defi¬ 
nitely, yet come they surely do and everything 
points to their flight occurring at night. A 
marsh may be almost untenanted by them one 
day and be fairly alive with them the next. I 
know of two cases last fall where rail were 
picked up in a roadway on the same morning, 
evidently having flown against wires that were 
strung overhead. Both were found in an almost 
exact westerly direction from the nearest marsh, 
one about a half mile away and the other fully 
three miles beyond that. 
It is a pleasure to state that the bill allow¬ 
ing the taking of ducks in spring, which was 
introduced in the Connecticut Legislature this 
year, will not become law. The committee on 
matters relating to fish and game rendered an 
unfavorable report on the bill, and when it came 
up for action in the House a representative 
from one of our shore towns, one of the strong¬ 
est advocates of this bill, evidently having seen 
that the fight was useless, moved that the re¬ 
port be accepted. 
It is gratifying to note that other States are 
coming into line with those that have already 
abolished spring shooting. According to my 
ideas we shall never have game of any kind in 
this country in its old-time abundance. The only 
thing we can possibly do is to amply protect 
that which we have, and the reasonable way to 
do this, it seems to me, is for all States to 
make and enforce sane, sensible laws limiting 
the open season to the shortest degree at all 
consistent. Geo. W. Comstock. 
Southern Minnesota Game Conditions. 
Waterville, Minn., Aug. 7- —Editor Forest and 
Stream: Game is in a fair way to be called an 
excellent crop. Quail have not been greatly 
plentiful in these parts for some years, but last 
year saw a fair crop, and though our heavy 
snows of the past winter caused many to perish, 
owing to their not being able to find food, we 
hear more old and young this fall than for some 
time. It would seem that here in this country 
where there is a deal of cover that would pro¬ 
tect the birds from snow they would be able, to 
get through the winters, but there are foxes 
that hunt the imprisoned birds and devour 
them, and varmints without number, as well as 
hawks and crows to carry off the little birds. 
Chickens are more plentiful than for four 
years. I have reports from shooters from west¬ 
ern parts of the State, and from places south 
and east of here, who say there are many 
chickens this year, as the old birds have not 
been bothered with enough wetness to keep 
them from early and abundant nesting. The 
report comes from most of the country that I 
am acquainted with in Nebraska that the 
chicken crop will be very light. South Dakota 
will have a good many, however. I will have 
more to say of this later, as I shall visit various 
sections in three nearby States. 
Cottontails are in the ascendant. This coun¬ 
try is certainly the home of the rabbit and the 
greatest for beagles. The young rabbits are 
now mighty toothsome, and I have scared out 
a good many in quarters that never contained 
[Aug. 21, 1909. 
many rabbits before. The little cottontail 
affords us many a day’s shooting here during 
the winter, and we think a lot of him. 
Ducks are beginning to show up. I have 
seen some fine young woodducks that were 
bred right here in this country, and yet to show 
you the spirit of the country lads who do the 
most of the shooting here, will say, that I 
told one of them about a small bunch of seven 
young ones not able to fly at the time, and he 
immediately declared he would get down the 
musket and pot them, and he did. There were 
a few ducks bred in this county, as the swales 
and sloughs offered fine grounds this spring. 
Teal and bluebills and mallards and redheads 
are our main shooting ducks when they begin 
to pass this way. 
Snipe shooting will again be good here this 
fall. A good many of the smaller species than 
the Wilson snipe have bred on some of these 
more southern breeding grounds this spring, 
and they, with the Wilson, afford great shoot¬ 
ing when the frosts set in. Anywhere there is 
marsh land—and there is plenty of it in this 
section—there you will find birds that have bred 
here, and later the Wilson, or jack snipe, as 
he is more familiarly termed, will be in 
abundance. I never saw better snipe shooting 
than we have fifteen miles from here in a 
marshy piece of ten thousand acres, through 
which a small stream flows. Many birds breed 
there, but the fact that it contains so much 
good feed is what keeps the birds there when 
they arrive. Amos Burhans. 
Our Cover Picture. 
The moose head from which our cover picture 
was made is being mounted by Fred Sauter, Jr., 
in this city, who says he believes it to be one 
of the finest and largest all-round moose heads 
ever brought from Alaska. The measurements 
follow: 
Largest spread of antlers.72 in. 
Number of points—right horn.18 
Number of points—left horn.18 
Width of right palmation.i6j£ in. 
Width of left palmation.T7J4 in. 
Circumference of burr of horn.13^ in. 
Circumference one inch from burr. 8 >}i in. 
Circumference of base of neck.86^ in. 
Weight of horns and skull before mount¬ 
ing .67 l /t lbs. 
Sportsmen are invited to call at the Sauter 
place in Bleecker street to see this specimen. 
County Laws. 
Hendersonville, N. C., Aug. 14.— Editor 
Forest and Stream: In my last letter, July 31, 
I note an error which kindly correct. I have 
been informed that of 1,000 game laws passed 
in the United States (not North Carolina) 2C 
per cent, of them, or thereabouts, were passed 
in North Carolina, thus showing the amount 0! 
absurd laws we have enacted in one State onh 
out of all the States, and this because we it 
North Carolina—one of only three of the State: 
—can pass these county laws. Think of th< 
great possibilities of lawmaking in North Caro 
lina under this county system where we hav 
ninety-eight counties! I do not know the pro 
portion of game laws to the total passed ij 
North Carolina. Ernest L. Ewbank. 
