414 
[Sept, io, 1910. 
rest. Twenty-five birds had been boated thus far 
and about half as many missed or lost, judging 
from the number of shells remaining in the box. 
From all directions over the meadows sounded 
the popping of guns, indicating that others were 
taking advantage of the high water to the detri¬ 
ment of the rail. 
But there was one creek half a mile to 
the southward, from which no shots were 
heard, and thither the boat was directed just as 
the tide began to turn. We knew that there 
was good ground there, and a couple of hours 
yet remained before the water would be too low 
for successful pushing. 
As we slipped quietly around the bends in the 
narrow stream toward the new grounds, Billy 
shoved heavier shells into the gun, hoping for 
a chance at ducks. And it was well that he did 
so, for ere half the distance had been covered a 
wavering blitrr appeared on the horizon and 
quickly resolved itself into several small dots. 
“Mark right, Billy; teal!” and almost before the 
boat could be shoved into the grass, they were 
upon us, driving along a few feet above the 
water in a compact hissing bunch that moved al¬ 
most as a single bird. A sudden swerve showed 
their blue wing-coverts as Billy swung the little 
sixteen ten feet ahead of the leaders, and three 
birds dropped in response to the quick double 
shot. The rest kept on as if nothing had hap¬ 
pened, but it was in vain that we waited a few 
minutes on the chance of their return. 
The second creek was much like the first in 
character, but the rail were not so plentiful, and 
we had hard work to get ten more before the 
falling water ended the shooting for the day. 
Just as we were turning back Billy killed one 
in a rather unusual way. He was thrashing 
around with the pole in a mass of tang’ed smart- 
weed trying to start a bird, which apparently did 
not want to be started, and somehow or other 
managed to hit it with the end of the pole, kill¬ 
ing it. 
Then back to the boat house to watch the other 
shooters come in, some with good bags and some 
with poor, according to their ability, but all with 
tales of remarkable hits or unaccountable misses. 
That day’s sport proved to be the last good 
one of the season, for the storm was followed 
by much colder weather, and in the sharp, clear 
nights with the nip of the frost in the air the 
rail took wing for the South. Once, the follow¬ 
ing week, we struck a small flight which yielded 
a dozen birds, and then the marshes settled down 
to wait for the time when colder weather would 
bring on the mallards and blacks. 
Robbert S. Lemmon. 
Quail—Alligators. 
Raleigh, N. C., Aug. 27.— Editor Forest dud 
Stream: A few days ago, walking along a deep 
ditch beside a long disused road, in soft sand 
and with noiseless step, I came to a sort of screen 
of grapevine, peeped through and saw a very at¬ 
tractive spectacle. There was a partridge and 
more than a dozen little ones, something like a 
third grown. The mother was crouched in the 
warm sand, with one wing spread and with her 
bill was preening her feathers, while two little 
birds crept under the stiffened wing as if it were 
an umbrella. Some of the little fellows were 
dusting themselves, scratching away with their 
feet and wriggling in the sand, as happy as a lot 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
of English sparrows in a dusty street. One bird 
on tiptoe was chasing an insect and had the luck 
to get it, while another on the fringe of the 
shrubbery was eating some seeds. The mother 
looked very proud indeed, and I thought it a very 
happy family. 
I made no sound myself, but heard a little 
rustle in the bushes. How quickly the scene 
changed. But a few feet back of the mother 
there lay part of a broken white oak limb, 
covered with lichen. The quail uttered a sharp 
note or two, turned her head, stood alert, and the 
birds, with two exceptions, ran to the sides of the 
fallen branch and crouched there, looking pre¬ 
cisely like the limb and its lichens. There was 
not another motion, and the mother and two of 
the birds which nestled under her were as still as 
if they had been frozen. When 1 took my eyes 
off that limb for an instant and then looked 
again, it was hard to tell the birds from the wood. 
Nothing more happened, and in a minute the 
mother gave quite a different note and the little 
quail came out again and resumed their sports. 
A passenger train on the Wilmington and New 
Bern division of the Atlantic Coast Line Rail¬ 
way recently killed a black bear weighing over 
200 pounds. The train was going at good speed 
when the bear stepped upon the track, coming 
from a swamp. The swamp makes a border on 
either side of the track like a wall of foliage, 
which is green the year round. The bear seemed 
to have been pursued, was struck by the pilot and 
so thrown that his forefeet were cut off. He was 
killed by the train crew and his body carried to 
New Bern, where it was eaten. In that part of 
the country bears are very numerous. 
A farmer near Wilmington, N. C., had a num¬ 
ber of cows and calves; and on one occasion a big 
bull alligator ate a calf. Some time later I was 
with this man and heard the roaring of a bull 
alligator, mingled with the. noise made by an 
angry cow. Taking guns, we ran through the 
sand and scrub to the place and saw the cow, 
with stiffened tail and angry eyes, making fre¬ 
quent rushes toward a low embankment and 
heard her horns strike the alligator, who puffed 
in anger. As we ran up we had time to get a 
couple of shots at him as he made a dash for 
his lair, which was in a sand bank between two 
stumps, quite near being a hole containing water 
about the color of chocolate. Nearby was the 
calf with a broken leg. due to a blow by the tail 
of the alligator. My friend called two or three 
"hands’ - from his farm, who began to dig out the 
’gator. The cow pawed the earth and had to 
be roped and led away, while the calf was carried 
to the barn. One of the darkies who came to 
do the digging brought an old Civil War rifle 
with him, and suddenly we saw him drop his 
mattock, pick up the old gun and fire. He hit 
the mark, too, for the water in the hole was 
whipped into foam by the struggling alligator. 
1 he darkies pulled him out, while the one who 
had fired remarked with a chuckle, “I mos’ 
ginerly gits um when I. goes atter ’em. De mate 
uv dis one be right here under dese stumps or 
twixt um.” The darkies bent to the task, and it 
was not long before they had the alligator partly 
uncovered. We had given him a heavy dose of 
large shot, and a blow on the head with a mattock 
finished him. The negroes cut him open after 
they had skinned him and found he had eaten 
some fish and a crab or two, so that he must 
have been to the creek nearby. We had made 
noise enough, it seemed, to have scared away any 
other ’gators in that vicinity, but in the black 
water of the creek we saw what looked like a 
piece of rough bark. The darky with the rifle 
made a snap shot again with good fortune, for 
what was apparently bark floating there was the 
head of the rustiest alligator in the world, 
wrinkled like an old man. The darky, after he 
had “noosed him out’’ very adroitly* declared 
him to be “de ole he, de daddy uv um all.” The 
darky said that out of some parts of the skin of 
the alligators they were going to make what he 
called “snake-leggins.” 
Mention has been made by me of the interest¬ 
ing work by the United States of digging a canal 
near Beaufort, N. C., connecting Neffse River 
and its fresh water with Core Creek, a salt-water 
estuary. The engineer in charge says the work 
will be completed in November. It was originally 
thought it would be done by the first of August, 
but so numerous were the gigantic trees and 
stumps found under the soil that the delay was 
unavoidable. This canal will be in Use next 
winter and will be very convenient for yachtsmen 
going to Florida, and enable them to dodge the 
bad capes, Henry, Hatteras and Lookout. The 
Secretary of War will in all probability purchase 
the Albemarle and Chesapeake Canal, which the 
Government will take over and improve, so that 
larger vessels can make the trip toll-free. The 
use of the’canal near Beaufort will save from 
seventy-five to a hundred miles of travel, some 
of it through shallow water, where I have seen 
several yachts aground. 
Some interesting territory for fishermen and 
hunters will be opened in the Neuse River sec¬ 
tion, where good sport is to be had, and where 
there are some very striking blendings of salt¬ 
water and fresh-water fish. Persons passing- 
through Albemarle Sound by this route, at a 
point not very far from the southern end of the 
Albemarle and Chesapeake Canal, get a view of 
the Kill Devil Hill, these being the highest sand 
dunes in the United States, some of them looking 
like little mountains as they are thrown into re¬ 
lief by sunshine and clouds. It was between 
these hills and the ocean that those wonderful 
air-men, the brothers Wright, first flew. The 
people in that part of the world will never for¬ 
get the Wrights. They are the ideals of the 
brave lifesavers, lighthouse men and boatmen. 
Fred. A. Olds. 
Rabbits Here and in Australia. 
It is pretty evident that in the States rabbits 
are not yet sufficiently numerous to cause par¬ 
ticular worry. A correspondent of our con¬ 
temporary, Forest and Stream, indignantly de¬ 
mands, in the name of a large number of dis¬ 
gusted hunters, who is responsible for having 
caused the passing of an act allowing the use of 
ferrets in catching rabbits. The law certainly 
fixes the limit at ten rabbits, but this, in the 
opinion of the writer, is far too much, as he 
would prohibit the use of ferrets absolutely, and. 
indeed, fine any person having one of these ani¬ 
mals in his possession. 
These keen rabbit-hunters would be welcomed 
with open arms in Australia, where ferrets, 
weasels, stoats and other enemies of rabbits have 
been literally turned down by the bushel without 
having much, if any, effect on the hordes of 
bunnies.—Shooting Times. 
