G 56 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Oct. 23, 1909. 
a challenge cup for the best beagle and is for 
bench show qualities only. The Hermes Plate 
is for the best pack of two couples, started in 
Class F. 
The secretary, Charles R. Stevenson, 106 
Market street, Camden, N. J., writes us as 
follows: 
“Many sportsmen unfamiliar with field trials 
are under the impression that no person has a 
right to enter a dog at a field trial unless he 
is a member of the club holding the trials. Such 
is not the case with the field trials held under 
the direction of the National Beagle Club of 
America. The trials are opened to the world 
and any person may make entries. 
“The motto of the National Beagle Club has 
always been, ‘May the best dog win,’ no matter 
who the owner may be, man or woman, club 
member or stranger; in fact, strangers making 
entries are shown every courtesy and considera¬ 
tion and nothing is left undone whereby a 
stranger may be made to feel at home and feel 
like returning to the trials in the future. 
“To those who have not attended the beagle 
trials the secretary, upon application, will be 
only too glad to furnish all information relat¬ 
ing to the twentieth annual trials which will be 
held at Shadwell, Va., commencing Nov. 5, 1909, 
such as premium list, time table or schedule of 
trains to Shadwell, rates of board, railroad 
fare, etc. 
“All shipments of dogs from all parts of the 
United States by way of Adams Express Com¬ 
pany to Shadwell will again be under the per¬ 
sonal direction of Herbert Temple, the special 
agent of the Adams Express Company which 
insures the prompt delivery of all dogs shipped.” 
Teal for the President. 
New Orleans, La., Oct. 11 .—Editor Forest and 
Stream: The sportsmen of Louisiana and other 
residents here are delighted that one of the 
chief dishes at the luncheon to be given Presi¬ 
dent Taft during his visit here to the Water¬ 
ways Convention, will be blue-winged teal duck. 
This luncheon will be given at the Jackson Bar¬ 
racks on Sunday afternoon, Oct. 31, on the occa¬ 
sion of Mr. Taft’s ride over the French section 
of the city and to Chalmette battlefield, the 
monument and various other places of interest. 
It is claimed by many here that there is no bet¬ 
ter wild game meat than that of the blue-winged 
teal and it is freely predicted, since the Presi¬ 
dent of the United States will partake of it, 
that this duck will be more in demand in the 
markets in New Orleans than ever before. 
The game season has opened very well and 
large numbers of birds are finding their way 
into the markets. Commissioner Miller, who has 
just returned from an extended speaking trip 
in the northern parishes, reports the largest 
supply of wild turkeys, deer, quail, doves and 
other game in the history of that section, espe¬ 
cially in Morehouse, West Carroll, Richland and 
Madison parishes. The streams abound also in 
fish and he anticipates the best hunting season 
Louisiana has ever known. Wild geese and 
ducks are quite plentiful in the gulf and lake 
parishes, and squirrels, rabbits and wild geese 
are also in great abundance. 
The season for shooting doves, snipe and 
sandpiper opened Sept. 1, and for geese, 
brant, sea and river ducks, rails, coots, galli- 
nules and tattlers on Oct. 1. The reports of 
game wardens from various portions of the 
State are to the effect that game is more 
plentiful this season than for the past six or 
seven. A large number of ducks and wild 
geese are coming into the market in New 
Orleans, and the prospects are good for a 
most excellent fall and winter hunting. The 
total number of hunting licenses issued for the 
parish of Orleans in September (New Orleans 
is located in Orleans parish) was 737, an in¬ 
crease of about one hundred over last year at 
the same time. The cost of a hunting license 
to a resident of Louisiana is $1, and to a non¬ 
resident, $25. It is probable these prices will 
remain, as the commission deems it inex¬ 
pedient to recommend to the Legislature any 
reduction in the cost to nonresidents. It is 
expected that the number of licenses issued 
this fall and winter will exceed those of last 
year by several hundred, notwithstanding the 
opposition to the commission in several places. 
The Caddo Parish Fish and Game Associa¬ 
tion, of Shreveport, has adopted a resolution 
condemning the commission as incompetent, 
and saying that the members are out of sym¬ 
pathy with the plan of conserving the birds, 
fish and animals of this State. The resolutions 
also bitterly attack the commission for turn¬ 
ing over to the general funds of the State 
treasury $25,000, which it had accumulated last 
season over and above its expenses. The 
Caddo Association declares that this money 
should be used by the commission in protect¬ 
ing the game and fish, and not otherwise, and 
calls upon the Legislature to repeal the act 
creating a game commission for Louisiana. 
The recent storm temporarily demoralized 
fishing and hunting on the line of the Louis¬ 
ville & Nashville Road. The bridges, trestles 
and rails of this road were badly injured and 
torn up from New Orleans to Bay St. Louis, 
a distance of about seventy miles, and along 
a most excellent route for both fishermen and 
hunters. The high waters also killed large 
numbers of mammals and destroyed many 
fishing resorts and scores of small club houses 
at Chef Menteur, the Rigolets, Lake Cather¬ 
ine, Waveland, Bay St. Louis and various other 
places. Trains over the L. & N. will be op¬ 
erating again by the 10th or 15th of this 
month, and it is probable the hunters and 
fishermen will go out in large numbers to 
their favorite haunts. The marshes and 
prairies along the railroad are ideal places for 
ducks and geese, as well as fishing resorts. 
The oyster industries were also injured by 
the tornado, the greatest loss being experi¬ 
enced in the destruction of various boats and 
luggers and cottages built for the employes. 
The heavy winds and waves had the effect of 
driving ashore a great many ducks and geese, 
and other water birds; but normal conditions 
are reasserting themselves, and from now on 
the hunters may expect great sport. 
Up to this time only a few hunting licenses 
have been issued to nonresidents and foreign¬ 
ers. The season has just opened, and usually 
the nonresident hunters do not come here until 
late in November or December. It is believed 
that when the abundance of game is known over 
the country, the number of nonresident hunters 
will be larger than last year. The licenses for 
nonresidents are $25 each. F. G. G. 
With the ’Coy Man. 
The decoy pond lies on the marshes no mor 
than three miles from my cottage, but when 
started out to reach it the other evening 1 
through thick darkness and in the face of th 
northwest wind, the three miles seemed to gro\ 
to seven. Across the flat lands the wind i 
wont to howl unheeded, and when the hills hav 
combined to turn and twist it about, standin; 
between its fury and the old wooden houses 0 
our village, it storms the marshes, to rant an. 
roar like a bad actor in a melodrama. Ther 
was no light to guide my footsteps. If th 
tempest had done nothing more, it had managei 
to blow out all the starlight, but happily I knov 
every inch of the road. 
Here is an old barn; the cottage adjoining i 
was a copyhold affair, and, between hungr 
manor-lord and poverty-stricken tenant, ha 
fallen to pieces. Here is the rotting elm trunl 
that shelters a brown owl; now, rising suddenh 
out of enveloping blackness, comes the stilt 
that leads by a sort of bridle-path to the firs 
pipe of the decoy. And as I toil over the rougl 
road, resisting the fierce sidelong assaults 0 
the wind, I console myself by recalling the de 
coy in the summer, when the pipes are em 
bowered in leafy shade and the high poplars or 
the island pond are in full dress costume, wher 
the nightingale sings without ceasing from hi: 
home amid the evergreens, and Roger, the ’coj 
man, sits in his garden mending nets, quite as 
happy as most of the men who have wife, chil¬ 
dren, or neighbors to bear them company. 
The cottage, itself vague, distorted and indis¬ 
tinct, disturbs my recollections. 
Roger comes to the door, holding one of the 
lanterns whose light no wind can extinguish 
congratulates me upon having reached his home 
without a tumble into one of the ditches that 
cross the marsh in all directions, and proceeds 
to find me a comfortable chair by the fire. He 
is sure that the wind is falling, and that* there 
will be a fine night, so I shall accomplish my 
two desires—the first to hear the birds come on 
to the pond from the main at daybreak, the sec¬ 
ond to see him try a new red setter that has 
been trained to the work by a noted ’coy man 
in another county. 
Perhaps because he seldom has a listener 
Roger is in good form to-night, and over pipes, 
and cups—coffee that I brought from London 
with the local grocer’s abomination in my mind 
—he tells me much that must be of interest to 
sportsman and naturalist. To Roger belongs 
the doubtful credit of having shot the last great 
bustard seen in this part of the country. He 
put it up from a ditch very early one morning, 
nearly twenty years ago, after a very great gale 
that may have blown the bird out of its course. 
As he says, truly enough, he did not know what 
he was shooting, and the bird would not have 
been suffered to live, it was too big to pass un¬ 
noticed. He has also secured the Jack Saw 
(? goosander) and the rare drake smew, to¬ 
gether with the little glebe, cormorant, and 
other birds I cannot recognize from his de¬ 
scription. When wild swans may be expected 
he generally finds time to secure one, and he 
has curious stories of the Dane’s crow (? Roys- 
ton) that comes to the marshes at this season 
in search of shell-fish and carrion. There is 
(Continued on page 677.) 
