Oct. 30, 1909.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
697 
California Ducks and Quail. 
San Francisco, Cal., Oct. 20. — Editor Forest 
and Stream: Although the duck season has 
been on for almost three weeks, there are many 
sportsmen who have not attempted to hunt, 
owing to the unsatisfactory conditions that are 
prevailing at the present time. Satisfactory 
bags have been scarce, especially in the case 
of unattached hunters, and even in the best of 
the preserves the sport is not what it should 
be. There are but few northern birds here as 
yet, and but few birds are to be seen on the 
bay. On the opening day a light rain fell, and 
there have been several showers since that time, 
badly scattering the birds that are here. The 
best hunting of the season has been done so 
far in the Suisun marshes, though in San 
Mateo county good shooting has been secured 
at a few points. 
There have been nearly 100,000 hunting licenses 
taken out in this state since the commencement 
of the hunting season, and the impression pre¬ 
vails that there will be considerable shooting 
done when the birds arrive in full force. From 
the strings of ducks that have been brought 
back from the field it would seem that mallards 
and widgeon are the most plentiful at the 
present time. The latter are splendid eating 
now, but the rain has started the grass to 
grow, and in a short time the flesh of these 
birds will be almost worthless. 
The members of the Empire Gun Club, whose 
preserve is located near Elkhorn, have been 
enjoying good sport and many of them secured 
good bags on the opening day. The members 
of the Field and Tide, Gustine, and the New¬ 
man and Los Banos Clubs were out in full force 
on opening day, but only a few limit bags were se¬ 
cured. The sport at the Montezuma Club has 
been very good in comparison with that enjoyed 
by many other clubs and some of the members 
have been making sensational kills. George 
Elery of this club recently secured the limit on 
ducks one day and then moved to another sec¬ 
tion of the preserve and secured the limit bag 
of snipe. For the next two weeks the birds 
on the preserves will be given a rest, as but 
few sportsmen will be in the field, owing to the 
Portola celebration in San Francisco. The mar¬ 
ket-hunters will be busier than ever, however, 
as there will be a big demand for game. 
Quail shooting has been much better rela¬ 
tively than has been duck shooting. There was 
but little sport to be had on the opening day, 
on account of the rain, but on the following 
days the sport has been excellent. Last season 
there were plenty of birds, but they kept to the 
wooded districts, where it was almost impos¬ 
sible to dislodge them, and but few hunters 
succeeded in securing limit bags. This season 
they are plentiful again, but appear to be keep¬ 
ing more to the open districts and much better 
■sport is anticipated. In Marin county there 
Promises to be some excellent sport, and the 
same news is being received from other quail 
iistricts, especially those of the southern part 
if the State. In Tulare qounty and other 
avored sections of the San Joaquin valley birds 
;re even more plentiful than usual, notwith- 
tanding the fact that that country is settling 
P very fast, and small farms are now the rule, 
lunters, however, do not have the expansive 
elds they formerly did to hunt over, and most 
of the shooting is being done by the owners of 
the land. 
The North Shore Gun Club, of which T. 
Harney, V. Cooney, J. J. Butler and M. V. 
McGovern are the leading spirits, have leased 
4,000 acres of land in Marin county for preserve 
purposes and expect to have some fine shooting 
during the season. The tract borders on To- 
males Bay, where ducks abound, and on the 
balance of the land some excellent quail shoot¬ 
ing has already been enjoyed this season. Later 
on there will be some fine brant shooting, this 
immediate district being a famous hunting- 
ground for these waterfowl. A. P. B. 
Vermont Canada Lynx. 
Bennington, Vt., Oct. 19. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: While I was in Rutland to-day we had 
quite a discussion on the American wildcat and 
Canada lynx. One of the proprietors of the 
Bardwell House, Thomas J. Lalor, is an enthu¬ 
siastic sportsman and has decorated his hostelry 
with many trophies of the chase, among which 
are five deer heads, a beautiful specimen of bald 
eagle and a true American wildcat, all taken in 
Rutland county. 
While I was at the Bardwell Hotel the stage 
driver from Pittsfield, Vt., brought in the car¬ 
cass of an immense lynx which had been trapped 
and shot on the Green Mountains of Pittsfield 
by Gideon Hutt, of that place. Many who saw 
it pronounced the carca'ss that of a bobcat or 
bay lynx, but after I had examined it carefully 
I disagreed with them and concluded it was the 
true Canada lynx, as this species is found in 
Vermont. I also believe this is a record speci¬ 
men of that class of “varmints.” 
Now, I have read all the authorities available 
on the bay lynx and the Canada lynx and I find 
they disagree as to the markings and as to just 
how one species may be distinguished from the 
other, but in Vermont I find two distinct species 
and they are easily distinguished. At Rutland 
I had the advantage of having at hand specimens 
of both and the points of difference could be 
easily pointed out. 
Mr. Lalor and I carefully weighed, marked 
and measured the Canada lynx killed by Mr. 
Hutt, in Pittsfield, and I obtained the following 
measurements and markings: The specimen was 
a male. It weighed about thirty-two pounds 
when first killed, although slightly less than this 
when we placed it on the scales to-day, as it had 
been dead three days and there was some loss 
or shrinkage. It. measured thirty-six inches from 
tip to tip; tail was four inches long; height at 
shoulder, twenty inches; height at hips, twenty- 
two inches; distance between ears, seven and a 
half inches; length of head from tip of nose to 
top of forehead, seven inches; girth, twenty-one 
and a half inches. Although I do not claim this 
is a record size Canada lynx, it is certainly the 
largest specimen captured in Vermont in many 
a day. The markings were as follows: Silver- 
gray and reddish or chestnut brown on the back, 
with dark blotches on sides, growing paler to¬ 
ward the belly. The under body was white with 
plain black spots. The ears were beautifully 
penciled with black, coarse hair. The tail was 
tipped with black and the feet were large and 
well furred. The claws were heavy, long and 
sharp. The ruffs on the sides of neck were 
full reddish brown and tipped with black. The 
wildcat or bay lynx as found in this section is 
altogether different both in size and marking. 
It is a dull slate gray on the back and sides, 
growing paler underneath. It has dark, broken 
lines running longitudinally along the back and 
sides; the tail is ringed and not tipped with 
black. The ears are smaller than those of the 
Canada lynx and little or no black markings 
show on them. Its feet are not so large in pro¬ 
portion to the size of legs, and the pads or soles 
are bare with no fur over them. 
1 notice the authorities all say few Canada 
lynx are found in New England. If they will 
visit this State they will change their minds, 
as these various species are quite numerous in 
Southern Vermont. The supply is much greater 
than the demand and the animals are attacking 
our young deer in every direction. Last session 
our Legislature put a bounty of $2 on bobcats, 
but I am afraid this is not a sufficiently large 
sum to induce hunters and trappers to exter¬ 
minate them. All these animals are sure to come 
into a good deer country. Only last fall Nor¬ 
man L. Mattison, of Glastenbury, in this county, 
saw a large timber wolf chasing a deer. This 
summer panthers, Canada lynxes and bobcats 
seem to have appeared on the scene in goodly 
numbers. It behooves the sportsmen of this 
State to make a strong effort at once to rid 
our mountains of these pests before they obtain 
a foothold. What says Manly Hardy as to the 
bobcat and Canada lynx as found in Maine? 
Harry Chase. 
Minnesota Wildfowl. 
Minneapolis, Minn., Oct. 20. — Editor Forest 
and Stream: The robins are going South. Every 
day they and other birds are flying toward the 
warm Southland. The Northern woods are be¬ 
ing rapidly deserted by the birds, and in the 
woods about Minneapolis the only robins that 
will be left are those bold enough to brave the 
snow each'winter. 
These are red-letter days in the calendar of 
Minnesota duck hunters. The sudden change 
this week from Indian summer to bleak winter 
has sent the big mallards, pintails, canvasbacks 
and redheads southward in great numbers, and 
sportsmen have been bringing in bags of birds, 
some reaching the limit of fifty. Good duck 
grounds north of here are furnishing fine sport, 
while the sloughs in the northwestern counties 
have been yielding their share. The next two 
or three weeks, unless the cold continues, will 
see excellent sport all over Minnesota. 
A person who went hunting outside of the 
city limits recently bagged bigger game than 
he expected. He was under shelter between two 
lakes waiting for ducks with hundreds of them 
flying overhead, when a huge bird, the largest 
that he had seen, flew toward him. He shot 
and winged it, but it showed fight and started 
toward him on foot. A third shot was neces¬ 
sary to kill it. When he investigated he found if 
to be a gray eagle measuring six feet from 
tip to tip. The final shell that he emptied was 
loaded with No. 2 shot, which he took along in 
case a stray goose would appear. The eagle 
is believed to have followed the ducks into the 
marshes from the Northern Rockies. No one 
has seen an eagle near Richfield for many years, 
and it is doubted that it nested there. The 
ducks scattered at its approach. 
Robert Page Lincoln. • 
