Oct. 23, 1909 ] 
00 
by tipping up, as they cannot dive until wounded. 
What an awakening to the unknown power they 
have held so long in abeyance occurs once a 
pellet of shot imbeds itself in their fat bodies; 
then they dive as readily as bluebills. 
For the first few months their flesh is most 
excellent eating; then, as they have to take what¬ 
ever food offers, the flesh loses that rich taste, 
the skin that butter color and this, the best of 
all the wildfowl for the table, joins the great 
mass of poor fleshed birds of the salt water. 
These brant are exclusive, never joining the 
flocks of ducks. They are exposed, by their in¬ 
ability to dive, to all the birds of prey that need 
them, but it is not often we come across a 
plucked and riven body that tells that the marsh 
hawk, goshawk and duck hawk have been at 
work, or else it had first killed the brant and 
then surrendered it to that greatest of all rob¬ 
bers, the bald-headed eagle. 
These brant follow the edges of the tide rips 
and eat of the newly torn-up floating vegetable 
matter. They sleep or rest at night on the sur¬ 
face of the inlets in compact noisy bodies, quiet¬ 
ing down to only a whimpering “car-up” at 
times; then, when a couple of hair seals rise, 
floundering and fighting and barking near them, 
the running chorus rises in all its clear notes 
and tells that the flock is awake again and 
watchful. I have never known a seal to take 
a brant, although the Indians say they have seen 
the seals seize them. There is no reason why 
they should not, as a seal can come as quietly 
as a great bubble of water right beside your 
:anoe, and it is his great splash as he goes that 
:ells you one of these big fish-eating amphibians 
was within arm’s length of you. 
To show you something of how we hunt the 
fauna with camera and gun I will tell you of 
low I killed the brant you see hanging on the 
ihotographic cloth. It was late in January and 
we were just packing up to leave the harbor 
if Sooke. I wanted another set of pictures of 
he brant to complete my work, so while Fritz 
lacked sundry cases I launched the canoe and 
;ef off down the inlet. The tide was running 
leavily and bunches of brant sat all along the 
ips eating, but I was going with the sea and 
igainst the wind and did not get near enough 
or good pictures. Finally there was only one 
fiance left. A flock of about two dozen brant 
at in a bay ahead. I paddled as rapidly as 
tossible right into the big open mouth of the 
•ay. The brant leaped and essayed to pass over. 
seized the big camera and pictured them, drop¬ 
ped it and caught up the gun and killed the bird 
had pictured a second before among the pass- 
ng flock. Bonnycastle Dale. 
Death of Dr. Pearson. 
St. John’s N. F., Oct. 5. — Editor Forest and 
tream: Yesterday morning the Deputy Minister 
f Justice had a message from Spruce Brook, in- 
orming him of the sudden death of a tourist 
taying there. Dr. Pearson, of Philadelphia, 
rrived on the West Coast some time ago on a 
ealth trip and put up at the Log Cabin. He 
ppeared to be benefitting by the change of 
limate until a few days ago, when a sudden 
hange took place. Death, however, was unex- 
ec ted. w. J. Carroll. 
With the Pinnated Grouse. 
Omaha, Neb., Oct. 16.— Editor Forest and 
Stream: Chicken shooting is at its height just 
now and good bags predominate over slim ones. 
G. L. Glover came in from Rock county last 
evening with the limit, all killed the evening be¬ 
fore. He said, however, that the birds were 
showing indications of “packing” and that the 
shooting would be hard, because after they have 
bunched—after October—the birds will not lie 
well to dog. I differ from Mr. Glover. Some 
of the easiest and best grouse shooting I ever 
BRANT FLYING. 
had has been late in November after the birds 
had finished packing and gone to the cornfields. 
At this period a dog is not needed unless it is 
to run down a wing-tipped bird, and for this 
reason the sport loses much of its charm for 
many gunners. With a majority the dog in the 
field is more than half the fun. The birds are 
then as wild as hawks and however cautious a 
hunter may be in walking on to them in a corn¬ 
field, where alone they are found, they never 
fail to jump at the longest and hardest kind 
of range. 
This to me enhances the sport indescribably. 
I would rather cut down one full grown, strong¬ 
winged cackling old bird at seventy yards as 
it goes whirring over the tattered cornstalks 
than a dozen which the dog stands in the high 
prairie grass and holds until you are almost on 
top of them. Then when the bird laboriously 
flip-flaps up out of the tangle it would be no 
great exploit to flatten him out with a paddle. 
Grand, indeed, it is to see a fine dog range 
the broad yellowing expanse, head well up, 
nostrils dilated for the first whiff of game- 
tainted air, the final catch, the cautious trail¬ 
ing with belly in the grass, the sudden stop and 
freezing to the point. 
Again it is grand to take a five mile tramp 
through a tattered cornfield in which you know 
somewhere there are a thousand birds herd¬ 
ing, some of which you know you are going to 
get before they can all get away to the hazy 
hills in the distance. 
General Manager Mohler, of the Union 
Pacific, is entertaining a party of New York 
railroad men on his private car on a side track 
near the measureless chicken fields on the 
Niobrara and the ducking marshes of Red Deer 
Lake. A card from Mr. Mohler informs me 
that they are having excellent shooting. 
Charlie Marley with Mrs. Marley left for 
Long’s ranch this morning for a few days with 
the grouse. While Mr. Marley is a fairly good 
shot, his wife is an expert on these birds, and 
with her new ejecting sixteen-bore gun she re¬ 
fuses to take a back seat to any of her male 
rivals in this nec.k of the woods—the woods of 
famous shots. 
A day or two ago Earl Mantel, living eight 
miles west of the city on the Big Papio, caught 
a big timber wolf in a deadfall. Remarkable 
as this may seem, Mantel used a live pullet for 
a lure staked under the clumsy and rude fall 
he had fashioned out of a decayed cottonwood 
log. He thought the wolf was so aged that it 
had lost its cunning. 
I leave to-morrow for a three weeks’ lounge 
in the sandhills at Swan Lake, the guest of 
my old shooting and exploring friends, Tom 
McCawley and Sims Elwood. Chickens are 
plentiful there and wildfowl to be had for the 
taking. There are also a couple of trout streams 
accessible, a fine pack of coyote hounds at El- 
wood’s, speedy, reliable horses, and so you can 
well imagine that I am in for a good time. 
Sandy Griswold. 
National Beagle Club Trials. 
The National Beagle Club of America has 
issued the premium list of its twentieth annual 
field trials and third show of beagles, to be held 
at Shadwell, Va., beginning Nov. 5. Entries 
close Oct. 23. The judges, Messrs. Ernest 
Lester Jones, Culpeper, Va., and James P. Van 
Dyke, Sunburv, Pa. Entries in all classes, ex¬ 
cept pack stakes, close on Oct. 23; entry fees, 
$4 forfeit, $6 additional to start. The pack 
stakes will start the competition. Class E is 
the open pack stakes for two couples, dogs and 
bitches, fifteen inches and under. Class F is 
a pack stake for two couples, thirteen inches 
and under. Class G is for four couples, dogs 
and bitches, fifteen inches and under. The 
Derby is Class C, for dogs and bitches fifteen 
inches and under, whelped on or after Jan. 1, 
1908. Classes A and B are for dogs, and AA 
and BB are for bitches, height limitations being 
a condition. The National challenge cup is for 
packs of two couples and must be won three 
times before becoming the property of a con¬ 
testant. The Somerset challenge cup is for 
packs of four couples. The memorial cup is 
