I 
Dec. 4, 1909.] 
FOREST AND STREAM 
899 
Game Birds in Minnesota. 
Minneapolis, Minn., Nov. 26. —Editor Forest 
and Stream: I here were not so many par¬ 
tridges in the woods this year as formerly. 
Several winters ago the supply of partridges 
was cut short by the very severe cold that swept 
the State. In- one night sleet fell and froze 
over the snow and thus hemmed in many thou¬ 
sands of the unlucky birds that had taken refuge 
underneath. W hen the spring came those that 
remained made a poor showing, and they have 
not recovered from it. 
That winter was a hard one on all kinds of 
animals. The deer especially suffered from dep¬ 
redations by the wolves; in fact, there was a 
decrease among all kinds of wild life. 
Despite the splendid reports that have been 
brought in by hunters from different parts of 
the State, duck hunting was not really as good 
as was claimed. True, in some parts the game 
was -thicker than at others, but as a whole the 
hunting was less . satisfactory than last year. 
Those counties that are in the track of the flight 
were the centers of hunting activity and they 
produced the best reports. There is of course 
duck hunting to a certain extent all over the 
State, but this is largely confined to small flocks 
that fly high and offer no chance at getting in 
effective shots. A few such trips and the hunter 
is in most cases discouraged. The warm 
weather of the last few days has sent the last 
of the ducks and the geese down from the 
north and now they may be heard overhead at 
any time, but they fly very high. Last year at 
' about this time the geese took a sudden notion 
in their southern flight to settle down on the 
city, and even in the business center they awak¬ 
ened the people with their honking. By day¬ 
light they spread wings and made for warmer 
climes. During this visit there were many men 
who routed out their shotguns and killed a good 
number of geese. One man told me he shot 
four of them with a repeating shotgun. The 
geese, he said, were flying low and hurrying 
into the house he took down the gun, loaded 
it and stepped out. He could just dimly see 
them as they came, but he blazed away at them 
and downed four. 
Within the limits of the city recently while 
sauntering through the woods I started up a 
bevy of quail. There were some twelve in the 
bunch and did not seem to be startled, for they 
are still on that hillside. They are the same 
ones that have been there for the last two years 
I am quite certain. Some have been shot no 
doubt, but others have taken their places. My 
window overlooks the heavy woods near the 
Ihnits and in the late summer or the early fall 
the call of the quail drifts in at the twilight 
hour. Often the birds come near to the house 
and on one occasion one of them perched on 
a stunted tree across the road. Twice he sent 
up his call and then spread wings and flew away. 
I later found the nest in a meadow nearby and 
had the good fortune to procure a photograph. 
Probably it was one of the birds that I saw on 
the hillside. 
It was my good fortune to interview an old- 
timer who lived in this State when the game 
was as thick as fleas on the back of a long¬ 
haired dog, as brother Newkirk says. That was 
in 1856. Mr. Smith has told me many stories 
of his remarkable life. Principal among these 
were about the prairie chickens, which were so 
numerous in this State at that time. Accord¬ 
ing to his account they were not very injurious 
to the crops. At times they were so thick that 
the fields seemed to move not unlike an immense 
flock of sheep. When in need of meat he would 
go down to the fields with his old rifle, and 
walking to the fence would select one in the 
oncoming array and pull the trigger. The birds 
would not fly, but simply drifted back and in¬ 
variably moved on again, eating as they went. 
Then if he wanted another the same perform¬ 
ance would be repeated with like results. 
In the same year the deer were unusually 
numerous in Minnesota. A man was allowed to 
kill as many deer and other animals as he 
wished and deer were killed off in such num¬ 
bers that they never increased to any extent 
after that. Some killed as many as one hun¬ 
dred in that one winter, and of the animal only 
the skin was taken and the meat left to the 
wolves. The same methods as those used in 
killing the buffalo were common. 
A St. Paul man killed two tame deer yester¬ 
day near the State fish hatchery. Bright and 
early he set out on his extraordinary hunt. He 
had heard that deer abounded in a strip of 
woods between the State fish hatchery and the 
village of Highwood. He had hardly reached 
this hunting ground before two fine specimens, 
a doe and a fawn, confronted him. With two 
shots he laid them low and then dragged them 
to the home of a friend near Highwood. Sam 
F. Fullerton, superintendent of the hatchery, 
immediately began an investigation, and before 
the day was over he found the carcasses at the 
place. These he confiscated and sent to the fish 
hatchery. The valiant hunter thought the mat¬ 
ter was ended, but to-day he had to answer to 
a suit for fifty dollars. The deer that were shot 
were of a herd of eight which graze between 
the fish hatchery and Highwood. They are the 
property of the State. The officials thought every¬ 
body in the neighborhood knew they were tame. 
A Minnesota warden is p'anning to start a 
game preserve in South Dakota if he succeeds 
in landing successfully in the Cheyenne draw¬ 
ing in that State. Some of the land in the 
reservation is not particularly well adapted to 
agriculture, and if he can get a chance at some 
of this land he is prepared to make use of it 
at once. It will be necessary for him to make 
application for a federal license to domesticate 
wild game, but he looks forward to no difficulty 
on that score, as the Government has hereto¬ 
fore been disposed to encourage almost any plan 
for the propagation of game animals of the 
country. His idea is to begin with deer, but 
if he can obtain sufficient land he will devote 
some of it to the breeding of buffalo and ante¬ 
lope. ’ Robert Page Lincoln. 
Limit Bags. 
Kinsale, Va., Nov. 22 .—Editor Forest and 
Stream: Every man who handles a gun should 
read the paragraphs in the third column of the 
editorial page in Forest and Stream of Oct. 
30. Every man and boy should have a copy. It 
ought to be issued in pamphlet form and thou¬ 
sands sent to gun dealers to be given free to 
all customers. “Limit Bags” is the caption of this 
article. Gun clubs should have pamphlets for 
distribution and be glad to get them and pay 
for them. Dick Swiveller. 
The ’Possum Season. 
Raleigh, N. C., Nov. 27. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: Until the past day or two the season 
has been so dry and warm that there has been 
little quail hunting. During October and Novem¬ 
ber the rainfall was but a trifle. Weeds are t 
rank, owing to lack of rain and frost. A great 
many of the farmers are clever shots and have 
bird dogs. These dogs, so useful in the hunt¬ 
ing season, are quite the reverse during other 
seasons, and are responsible for many a lost 
nest and dead birds, for they spend a great deal 
of time hunting in the fields and covers. 
There has been presented to the State museum 
a net of the kind formerly used in catching 
quail. The owner of this net said he had used 
it for twenty years and had caught as many as 
twenty-four birds at one time in it. He stoutly 
contends that he would rather have people use 
nets on his land than go over it with dogs and 
guns, his argument being that the hunter with 
the net being on horseback cannot find many 
birds, while the keen-nosed dogs, going every¬ 
where, are sure to discover them. 
The deer shooting continues to be excellent, 
notably in the counties along the sounds. Sports¬ 
men from the North are expected in larger num¬ 
bers than usual, and as the weather has been so 
warm there is hope that the season for ducks 
will be good, a great many people having an 
idea that a warm autumn means a cold winter. 
For the State museum a collection of ducks 
is now being made, and some good specimens 
have been killed during the past week and also 
some geese. 
Several Northern sportsmen have asked how 
the inland waterway is coming on. At the cut 
near Beaufort another submerged forest has 
been encountered by the dredges and also more 
remains of mastodons. Some of the latter have 
been secured for the State museum and arrived 
this week. The dredges find the sunken forest 
a hard proposition, and sometimes in making an 
advance of ten yards the immense revolving 
cutter-heads have to be lifted and cleaned of 
wood two or three times. The wood is per¬ 
fectly preserved and the great sticks. lie in a 
wild tangle. Until this cutting began no one 
suspected their presence. There are remains of 
mastodons in the museum which came from four 
or five counties. Judging from those that have 
been found near Beaufort it seems there must 
be more in that region, which is so largely 
alluvial. 
There is a rage for ’possum hunting. There 
are twenty ’possum hunters in Raleigh alone 
and some of these go out three nights in the 
week. One of them caught fifteen the first week 
after the season opened. It is said the ’possum 
and the kangaroo are the two animals which 
have not changed since Noah took them into the 
ark. When I told an old darkey of this he said : 
“Boss, I sho’ is glad er dat. Ef Noe hadn’ 
let the ’possum inside de yark us niggers sholy 
would er had er hard time. Fur I min’s the 
time when I lived one whole winter on nuthin’ 
much ’ceptin’ ’possum, cornbread and sweet 
’taters. Boss,” he continued, “I’m er gwine ter 
tell you sumpin’ else ’bout de ’possum. You 
kin keep right on eatin’ him and he won’t make 
you sick, and de grease uv him is one uv de 
bes’ intments dey is. I tell you it sholy will cure 
er mis’ry in de chis’.” Fred. A. Olds. 
