Nov. 19, 1910.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
817 
Hunting in the West. 
San Francisco, Cal., Nov. 12.— Editor Forest 
and Stream: There have been no rains in the 
bay section since the opening of the duck season, 
and the result is that the birds are keeping close 
around the preserves where there is plenty of 
water and an abundance of food. Members of 
the various clubs have no difficulty in securing 
limit bags, but those who depend on hunting on 
the outside have not fared so well. The imme¬ 
diate effect of a good rain would be to scatter 
the birds, and then both the valley sportsmen 
and those who hunt along the marshes would 
enjoy good sport. The extremely dry season 
last year has resulted in the drying up of streams 
that usually have plenty of water in them at this 
time of the year, and the result is that the 
ducks are concentrated in the places where water 
can be found. 
In the vicinity of Los Banos the club mem¬ 
bers are securing very fine sport, but further 
north at Newman and Gustine the effects of the 
prolonged dry spell are being seriously felt. Food 
there is very scarce, and the birds secured are 
in very poor condition. Plenty of birds are com¬ 
ing down from the North and some canvasbacks 
are being killed, but these are to be found in a 
few places only. The mallard ducks that are 
being killed are almost invariably in poor shape 
and some hunters are not attempting to kill this 
variety. 
The reason for the poor condition of these 
birds is largely that immense areas of tule lands 
have been reclaimed during the past year, and 
the favorite feeding places of the ducks have been 
destroyed. Added to this the dry year has trans¬ 
formed miles of tule lands into parched areas, 
and the available feeding places have been great¬ 
ly curtailed. The teal ducks seem to be better 
hustlers for food than the mallard and are in 
much better shape.' The birds that are coming 
down from the North are very fine and fat, and 
there is no difficulty in distinguishing these from 
th^ home-bred birds. A heavy rain that would 
furnish ample watering places and which would 
start grass growing would be very welcome to 
sportsmen in general. 
On the Suisun marshes very satisfactory re¬ 
sults are being secured and tl>is district, which 
for several seasons has not been regarded as 
being a good one, has come to its own again. 
Several clubs are established there, and the mem¬ 
bership of these has increased to such an extent 
that it has been necessary to have mid-week 
shooting. 
Around Dixon the dry spell is being seriously 
felt, but some good bags of snipe have been shot 
of late. In the vicinity of Rio Vista there is 
some fair duck shooting, and the white geese 
are now coming in in large numbers. These will 
occupy the attention of hunters in that section, 
for the geese are in better condition than the 
ducks that are being secured. 
While quail are scarce in most sections of the 
country, there are a few places where limit bags 
can be easily secured. In the Gazos Creek sec¬ 
tion toward Santa Cruz there are numbers of 
these birds, and in addition cottontails are plen¬ 
tiful. The only drawback is that this section 
is rather difficult to reach. 
Three local sportsmen, Jack Gilpin, Sam 
Lamme and FI. Richardson, recently made an 
automobile trip to Huff’s Springs, and each se¬ 
cured a fine buck. Shotguns were also taken 
along and limit bags of quail secured. 
The Russ party, composed of a number of the 
members of the Olympic Club, has returned from 
its trip to Southern Oregon where great success 
was met in deer hunting. All the venison de¬ 
sired was secured, and in addition five bears and 
a mountain lion were killed. 
Quail shooting did not open in Marin county 
until the middle of October, and it would have 
been better had this been a closed season, for 
the birds are very scarce there. A few hunters 
well acquainted with the ground have secured 
limit strings, but the great majority have been 
compelled to be content with a very few. It is 
stated that the Eastern quail liberated in certain 
sections of Marin county have increased to a 
marked extent and are becoming quite numer¬ 
ous. These birds are under the protection of 
the law, but a number have been killed by parties 
who did not know just what they were. 
From Southern Oregon comes the information 
that active steps are being taken by sportsmen 
there to have the Oregon game laws changed to 
conform with those of California. The duck 
and deer seasons there open a couple of weeks 
later than in the counties in California border¬ 
ing on the line. It is asserted that hunters take 
out California licenses and then hunt in Oregon 
before the season opens. The dividing line is 
difficult to locate, and when caught in the act 
the excuse is made that the hunter believed him¬ 
self to be in California. 
The deputies of the California State Fish and 
Game Commission have been very active of late, 
and a number of arrests and convictions have 
been made. “John Doe” was arrested near New¬ 
man recently for shooting at night and for hunt¬ 
ing without a license and was fined $50. John 
A. Haugh used a horse to stalk geese, and for 
this was fined $50 by a Colusa judge. F. W. 
Larkin, of Oakland, was found with more than 
the legal number of ducks in his possession and 
was relieved of $25 for the offense. Henry 
Beach, of Corcoran, was arrested for a similar 
offense and was fined $25. Sam Grandi, of Red¬ 
ding, was found hunting without a license and 
was fined $25. McKenna and Koppock, of 
Colusa, were each fined $50 for killing more 
than the limit of ducks. They were market 
hunters and had killed seventy-nine ducks with 
two shots of a large-bore duck-slaughtering gun. 
A. P. B. 
Game Bird Problems. 
Packerville, Conn., Nov. 10.— Editor Forest 
and Stream: Two-thirds of the 1910 shooting 
season has gone, and the sportsmen of this sec¬ 
tion of Connecticut are grievously disappointed. 
Partridges (ruffed grouse) are the favorite game 
here, some sportsmen scarcely noticing quail or 
other game, except woodcock, and during the 
summer very favorable reports were had of 
numerous broods of young birds, but since the 
opening of the season almost none but old birds 
are found, and these are said to be fully 50 per 
cent, below the number left at the end of last 
season. For some time after the beginning of 
the open season the scarcity of young birds was 
quite a mystery, and it is not fully solved for 
many at this writing, but I believe the young 
birds were killed off by some insect parasite. 
Some have thought snaring was the cause of 
the scarcity, but old as well as young birds would 
have suffered had this been the case. I have 
had several talks wjth a man who is one of the 
greatest partridge hunters of this end of the 
State, and he says nine-tenths of the birds he 
bags this year are old cocks, and that fully 
three-fourths of the birds flushed are heard only, 
not seen. He also informs me that he finds 
what he calls ticks on nearly every bird bagged, 
but from his description they may be lice. He 
finds these insects crawling on his shooting coat 
and in his hair. I shall have a look at them 
later. 
We have had four successive summer and fall 
drouths, with winter and spring snows and rains 
below normal, and springs, brooks and wells 
have gone dry that never had done so before. 
Is it not probable these are the conditions favor¬ 
able for the increase of the parasites of the 
ruffed grouse, and that the young birds would 
suffer to a greater extent than the old ones, and 
that the hens, owing to their incubating duties 
and mothering their young, would suffer more 
than the cocks? Or does the male grouse do his 
share of incubating and fathering? The cock 
quail is said to sit on the eggs while the hen 
hunts her daily food, and I have seen it stated 
that he also mothers the young while the hen 
incubates the second brood. Who can tell us 
the truth on these questions? 
Quail are more plentiful than for years, and 
apparently will continue to increase until a severe 
winter with deep snows, or disease or parasites, 
exterminate them. Apparently the insects that 
kill the young grouse do not trouble the quail; 
possibly because ’the latter stay more in the 
open, and this would seem to indicate woodticks 
as the guilty parasites. I hope to determine the 
matter before the end of this season. 
Since sitting down to write this letter I saw 
from my window a bevy of ten quail walk across 
my lawn. I did not think until too late to notice 
how many were males and how many hens. 
Woodcock were more plentiful than last year 
in this locality, and some fair bags were made. 
These were nearly all flight birds. 
Squirrels were far fewer than last season, 
while nuts and acorns were more abundant, but 
I hear that in other localities not far distant the 
bushytails were more plentiful than a year ago. 
Deer are growing more numerous yearly. I 
see their fresh tracks daily, and the sleek, well- 
fed deer themselves frequently. The sportsman 
quoted above says he could bag more deer than 
partridges if permitted to do so, but the law 
forbids their killing until next June, and the 
lawmakers will be in session before that date. 
Ducks are seen flying overhead in small 
bunches, but I have heard of none being bagged. 
I heard of a small flock of woodducks being 
seen in a brook near here not long since. 
E. P. Robinson. 
Captain Bloom Returns. 
Captain J. E. Bloom, U. S. Army, known to 
many of our readers as the original introducer 
of the clay pigeon, is now on duty at Pier 12, 
East River, New York city. Captain Bloom re¬ 
entered the service, at the outbreak of the 
Spanish-American War in 1898, since which time 
he has been on duty in Cuba and the Philippines 
and various American cities. This is his first 
return to New York. 
