Sept, ii, 1909.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
415 
Game Prospects in North Dakota. 
1 Galesburg, N. D., Sept. 1.— Editor Forest and 
1 Stream: After an extra hot and wet summer 
the weather begins to look a little like fall. 
The whole land is ablaze with the yellow of 
golden rod and ripened grain. The distant groves 
of cottonwood and box elder show through a 
haze, while the leaves of the trees in town shine 
in the bright sunshine as if newly varnished as 
they flutter in the pleasant southeast breeze. 
The “civilization weeds’’ in vacant places about 
town stand eight feet high, making fine retreats 
for the town boys when they play injun. Small 
flocks of blackbirds fly across the villages, and 
in the country one now and then comes across 
immense droves of them. They make a very 
good potpie and are also good broiled. They 
are not protected by law, but one can only shoot 
them along the highways, because the North 
Dakota game laws, which are like unto the laws 
of Draco in severity, forbid the carrying of a 
gun off the road in the open season. 
Although I have inquired diligently I have 
been unable to find out if game is going to be 
plenty or not this season. Few of the country 
people have seen any prairie chicken or ducks. 
The fact is, vegetation this year is so rank and 
dense, birds are very hard to see and still harder 
to flush. The various sloughs are well filled 
with water and no doubt are harboring plenty 
of ducks which have been here all summer, but 
it will be impossible to hunt them until after 
one or two frosts, for the mosquitoes would 
not permit, as they are fierce this year. 
The game laws are very well observed about 
here, and as it is off the main line of travel and 
little hunted usually, I reckon we will be able 
to bag a few of the brown beauties when Sept. 
7 comes along. 
I had one memorable feast last season with 
my old hunting chum, Jim Knox. I got a few 
prairie chickens and on the way home gathered 
a lot of fresh mushrooms and a dozen or so 
of green corn. My family was away, but Jim¬ 
mie is a regular chef and I am a good cookee; 
so we set to and made a big spread of fried 
chicken and mushrooms with green corn and 
other trimmings, and we tucked away a lot of 
it. I only wish, the other old boys of Forest 
and Stream had been there to help. 
J. P. Whittemore. 
Chicken Prospects. 
Minneapolis, Minn., Sept. 1 .—Editor Forest 
and Stream: Chicken hunting in North Dakota 
is due to be good this year, according to reports 
received from the various sections of that State. 
The young ones have come out of the meadow 
land and are now feeding on the higher places 
where the rains will not harm them. The late 
snows and general cold weather of the spring 
just past destroyed the early eggs, but fortu¬ 
nately the hens have hatched out a new crop 
during July, and when the season opens on 
Sept. 7 the sport in this line will be up to its 
usual standard. 
The season used to open Sept. 1 for Min¬ 
nesota, but owing to circumstances advanced 
last fall the law was changed. Sept. 1 is too 
early, the ducks are not then flying in any great 
numbers and in most cases the feathers on the 
birds are not grown out. The early part of 
September last year was so hot that most of the 
birds shot spoiled ere the hunters reached home. 
The new law is a good one. 
Hunters are now getting their licenses and 
the sporting goods stores are having a good 
trade. Enthusiastic hunters are constantly be¬ 
sieging the office of the deputy county auditor 
to get their licenses. No. 1 went as usual to 
Capt. John Vander Horck, a veteran sportsman 
of this city. Edgar Perera, the Italian vice 
consul, asked for No. 13 and got it. Nobody 
would have it. Henry Hanke drew No. 23 and 
William Haslett drew license No. 44. 
Robert Page Lincoln. 
Game Outlook Promising. 
New Orleans, La., Sept. 1.— Editor Forest 
and Stream: The various game wardens con¬ 
nected with the game commission report an un- 
PEPPERED. 
From Le Chasseur Fran^ais. 
usual number of quail, doves and wild turkey 
in Louisiana this year. It is also stated that 
deer and ducks will be plentiful this fall and 
the season will be one of the best in the history 
of the State. The hunting season does not 
begin until Oct. 1; that is, for the main game 
of the State. F. G. G. 
Big and Small Bore Guns. 
Many among the younger class of shooters 
will be tempted to take a leaf out of the book 
of their Yankee friends, and to put their for¬ 
tunes to the touch on moor and covert with a 
light, small gun of sixteen or twenty bore, says 
the Scottish Field. They institute a comparison 
between the respective weights of the sixteen- 
bore and the old and trusty twelve-bore, to the 
clear detraction of the latter, and they do not 
overlook the fact that a corresponding disparity 
exists in the weights of the ammunitions taken 
by the two guns respectively. They recall that 
the members—a thousand in number—of Ameri¬ 
can duck clubs plump for the small guns, and 
use them to the almost complete exclusion of 
the twelve-bore. Why, they ask, should they 
not go and do likewise? 
No one will deny that weight is an important 
consideration when firearms are being chosen, 
but there are various other points which can¬ 
not wisely be ignored. Bags have to be filled, 
and in order to deal effectively with the game 
the gun must be capable of developing a certain 
amount of velocity and striking energy in its 
load. The necessary pressure demands a certain 
degree of strength in the breech, and this is 
not likely to be secured in a very light gun. 
These facts are patent to all experienced sports¬ 
men, and on this side of the Atlantic the balance 
of popularity in favor of the good old twelve- 
bore does not seem to be in any immediate 
danger of being disturbed. Of the annual out¬ 
put of game guns I venture to affirm that 94 
per cent, are twelve-bores, the 6 per cent, con¬ 
sisting of ten-bores, sixteen-bores, twenty-bores 
and twenty-eight-bores. Among lady gunners 
the substantial twelve-bore is in almost as much 
demand as among the members of the sterner 
sex. 
Found in the Woods. 
Berlin, N. Y., Sept. 3.— Editor Forest and 
Stream: Whoever heard of crows stealing 
young chickens ? That they do, however, Mrs. 
Lorenzo Carr and employes on her farm fully 
believe. In the early summer her young 
chickens were disappearing and it was believed 
that they were taken by hawks, which are plenti¬ 
ful. A careful watch was kept, when some 
crows were seen to fly down among the chickens 
and when they arose they had yellow Rhode 
Island red chicks in their claws. There were 
several eye witnesses who are positive that the 
crows were chicken thieves. 
Mrs. Reuben Moore brought to my house re¬ 
cently a novelty in the way of white huckle¬ 
berries which she said grew wild on the east 
mountains. They were not strictly white, the 
majority being pink and white with a few black 
and pure white berries. 
While riding down a mountain road I saw a 
swallow flying, and when just abreast of me it 
escaped to light on one of the strands of a 
wire fence. To my surprise it fell without a 
flutter to the ground. Of course I alighted and 
picked up the bird, which was dead. Its feathers 
were unruffled, and while I think it killed itself 
by striking the wire, its flight was so slow and 
it apparently touched the wire so lightly that I 
am somewhat in doubt. 
By the side of the brook I found a dead baby 
mink about six inches long from its nose to 
the root of its tail. There was a trace of blood 
on its throat, but no wound that I could see. It 
must have met death at the hands of a wild 
neighbor. Rob Saunderson. 
George Quince, County Warden. 
Jacksonville, Fla., Sept. 1 .—Editor Forest 
and Stream: About a month ago the county 
commissioners appointed George Quince game 
warden of this (Duval) county. I do not think 
they could have made a better selection. I 
have known Mr. Quince for years and have 
hunted and camped with him. He has always 
been a believer in game protection and it is 
safe to predict that the “sooners” will get in 
hot water this year if they try to follow their 
usual practice. Last year they were killing quail 
in September. George A. Irwin. 
All the game laws of the United States and 
Canada, revised to date and now in force, are 
given in the Game Laws in Brief. See adv. 
