Dec. ii, 1909 ] 
FOREST AND STREAM 
937 
Ptarmigan in Newfoundland. 
St. John’s, N. F., Nov. 22 .—Editor Forest 
and Stream: Judging by the display in the 
grocers’ windows, partridges have not been so 
plentiful in the local market for some years 
past. Many pity dealers get them in barrels 
from the various outports where they are shot 
and shipped for commercial purposes. In this 
way large quantities have found their way to 
the local markets this fall. Besides these our 
local nimrods, who go for sport pure and sim¬ 
ple, have killed many birds as already noted in 
Forest and Stream. Still the price keeps up, 
and they are quoted at ninety cents per brace, 
which is higher than usual. Since my last notes 
I clipped the following from different local 
papers, which report the goings and comings 
of our sportsmen as matters of interesting news. 
I reproduce them for the entertainment of 
American grouse hunters. F. Healy, twelve par¬ 
tridges on Blackhead grounds; 200 rabbits were 
also shot there. Messrs. Clarke and Godden, 15 
birds; Messrs. Chalker and LeDrew, 36; Messrs. 
Simms and LeMessurier, 23; I. Burt, 60; W. C. 
Job and Dr. Rendell, 60; G. Harvey and Private 
Secretary Fitzherbert, 160 birds. This is only 
a partial list, but it shows that the sport was not 
too bad. 
Below is part of Dr. Grenfell’s letter of a 
late date, referring to the great reindeer ex¬ 
periment : 
“Our reindeer, now numbering nearly 600, are 
justifying us jn taking on more apprentice 
herders, and accordingly I carried up two more 
northerners to be trained in that capacity. The 
deer have all just been ear-marked. A squad 
of eighteen, part of a herd we have been tend¬ 
ing for the Anglo-Newfoundland Development 
Company, have been away all summer. The 
herders have just learned, however, that they 
are returning now toward the camp. The only 
danger seems to be they might move south with 
the wild caribou. As yet no news has come 
from the party who are in the country getting 
wild stock for the herd, only that the mosqui¬ 
toes twice drove all hands to the beach, and 
that the horse flies drove one of the tame pack 
deer mad, so that he broke his halter and fled. 
Nor has he since been heard from.” 
The caribou hunters are doing fairly well. 
The great southern migration has not yet been 
reported, though one local paper quoted the 
train hands as having said that one day over 
700 deer were seen in the neighborhood of Deer 
Lake. The Western Star reported that the 
Callahan brothers, of Corner Brook, bagged 
sixteen caribou a week ago in the vicinity of 
Birchy Lake. I do not exactly know the law 
on this question, but it does not look right. I 
was under the impression that this kind of 
slaughter had been done away with, but no 
doubt the game commission will look into the 
matter and have the law amended if needed. 
W. T. Petrie, of Bay of Islands, and George 
Nicholls, of Upper Humber, and several other 
guides, have had parties of American sportsmen 
all the fall and are still out with others. Here 
>s an interesting clipping about a young Ameri¬ 
can couple who hunted au pair in LTpper Hum¬ 
ber county: 
. “Mr. and Mrs. Peters, of Union Hill, New 
Jersey, have been deer shooting in Sandy Lake 
country and secured four heads of good size. 
They were delighted with the trip and Mrs. 
Peters will write an article on Newfoundland 
for Forest and Stream. This is their second 
trip to Newfoundland, as they came here last 
year on their honeymoon .and they were so well 
pleased that they are coming again next sum¬ 
mer for both fishing and shooting. Their head¬ 
quarters were at Stephenville and have made a 
prolonged stay. Mrs. Peters’ article will be 
awaited with much interest.” 
Last week was hard on the hunters. A north¬ 
east blizzard with snow raged for two days. 
Any of them that were camped must have got 
a great drilling and endured untold miseries. 
Those who were near any of the boarding 
houses along the line fared all right. 
The snow has completely disappeared again, 
and it is wet and muggy. We have had very 
sultry weather all the fall, but the weather 
prophet's foretell from the superabundance of 
dog berries this season that we are going to 
have a very severe winter. Let us hope that 
they will prove to be wrong for once in their 
lives. W. J. Carroll. 
New York State League. 
Elmira, N. Y., Nov. 30 .—Editor Forest and 
Stream: The annual meeting of the New York 
State Fish, Game and Forest League will be held 
in the Assembly Hall, University Block, Syra¬ 
cuse, on Dec. 9 and 10. 
The sportsmen of the State have been in the 
past rather lukewarm in their attention to pro¬ 
tection, but they are to-day realizing more than 
ever that there is a necessity for united action. 
The voting power of the State League lies en¬ 
tirely with the delegates from the regularly or¬ 
ganized sportsmen’s clubs and associations, and 
this year’s meeting promises to show a marked 
improvement in such delegates present. The 
league also numbers among its membership a 
strong force of individual members whose in¬ 
fluence can always be counted on to work in a 
good cause. 
• Those interested in this year’s meeting are 
making a strenuous effort to furnish an interest¬ 
ing programme for the delegates who attend, 
and all subjects of deepest interest to the sports¬ 
men of the State will be presented by men best 
qualified to handle the subjects. The progress 
of reforesting will be interestingly told by Com¬ 
missioner J. S. Whipple. 
At this date a full list of the speakers can¬ 
not be given, but among other addresses given 
will be the report from Mr. Rogers who has 
charge of the State Game Farm, and who will 
be prepared to answer any questions relative to 
the progress made, and the interest shown in his 
work by the sportsmen will surely impress him 
with, the fact that he is holding a position of 
great value to the sportsmen of the State. 
Kelly Evans, Fish and Game Commissioner of 
Ontario; Oliver Adams, Vice-President of the 
Ontario Forest, Fish and Game Protective Asso¬ 
ciation, and John B. Burnham, Chief Game Pro¬ 
tector of New York State, will be present. 
All sportsmen’s clubs or organizations are 
urgently requested to get in. line with the State 
League and work in unison for the betterment of 
all conditions. Application blanks can be fur¬ 
nished by any officer of the State organization 
and any information desired will be gladly given 
any prospective members. 
L. C. Andrews, Sec’y. 
Ways of Grouse Snarers. 
New York, Nov. 27. —Editor Forest and 
Stream: I have read a great deal about the 
scarcity of ruffed grouse in this State, and have 
been very much interested in some of the 
articles, theories advanced, etc. To my mind 
the one great evil that game wardens have had 
to contend with for some years is the cruel and 
devastating habit of snaring. Epidemics, birds 
of prey, foxes, etc., never began to do the evil 
that snaring can do. 
An expert wire setter can do a lot more dam¬ 
age with one pound of brass or copper wire in 
one season than twenty good wing shots, with 
two well-broken dogs apiece, could do in two 
seasons, and hunt every day. The wire, if set 
by an expert, can be so placed that it will eaten 
every bird that drifts into a given piece of cover. 
A partridge is an aristocrat, first, last and 
always, and likes good, fresh, clean ruffling 
beds, and also good bare spots to walk on. A 
peculiar trait of the bird is that it will not 
jump over anything that it can stoop and walk 
under. The snarer is armed with this knowl¬ 
edge, as a rule, and acts accordingly. 
In the early season before birds break and 
drift, our wire setter cruises around in the 
woods locating; that is, marking down broods 
and setting wire where he finds birds, or evi¬ 
dence, such as droppings, ruffling beds, etc. 
He selects a little mound in some thicket of 
second growth and cleans the leaves away, 
working them off, so that he has exposed bare 
earth up one side and down the other. Next 
he cuts a small sapling about half an inch to 
an inch thick and about four feet long, and 
sharpens both ends of it, bends it nearly end 
to end and forces the sharp ends into the 
ground at the top of the mound, and across the 
path he has cleared away. This gives him a 
crude wicket from eight to ten inches high, the 
ends having been forced far enough into the 
ground to hold a bir-d that is fighting for its 
life, for its struggles are strong at the start. 
A little fence is built of fine twigs extending 
from each side of the wicket like wings for 
a foot or two. This prevents the bird from 
walking around the snare. The wire loop is 
then hung on the top of the bow, and the loop, 
which is a running noose, is spread out and 
slightly bent at the bottom to make it stay 
open. Twigs are stuck into the ground to fill 
in the space between the noose and the ground, 
and if the snare is properly set, no self-respect¬ 
ing, inquisitive partridge can resist the tempta¬ 
tion to scratch and pick along the fresh earth. 
When the bird reaches the top it stoops to 
go under the inoffensive looking limb. As the 
bird advances the wire tightens on its neck; 
the bird sensing danger, tries to either go 
ahead or back out, but the wire tightens jusr 
the same, and unless there is a kink in the 
wire, it’s all up with the bird, and no mistake. 
Two thousand wires or snares can do a lot 
of damage in five square miles of bird cover, 
and when they are set by regularly organized 
gangs,' who set spring poles and bows on 
ruffling beds, drumming logs—everywhere, in 
fact, where a practiced eye can detect a good 
spot—it’s bad medicine for the fantails. The 
territory covered by a gang of snarers will 
average fifty square miles, and the snares are 
on the job day and night. 
