rs 
-cold storage rooms easy of access. 
JAN. 13, 1906.] 
SY OO 
=~ OA=] 

FOREST AND STREAM. 

GAM BAG 

Prizes for Game Heads. 
THE Forest AND STREAM Offers three prizes of 
$20, $10 and $5 respectively for the best moose 
heads secured in the year 1905 in the hunting 
grounds of the United States and Canada. 
It offers also three prizes of $15, $10 and $5 re- 
spectively for the best white-tail deer heads taken 
in the hunting season of 1905 in the United States 
or Canada. 
The heads will be judged from photographs 
submitted to the Forrest AND STREAM. In esti- 
mating their merits the two qualities of size and 
symmetry will be taken into consideration. With 
the photograph of each head must be sent a mem- 
orandum of the place and the time of its taking 
and the name of the person taking it. The com- 
petition will be open to amateur hunters only; 
and with this single restriction it will be open to 
the world. There are no entrance fees. The 
photographs submitted will be the property of 
Forest AND STREAM. Entries for the competition 
must be made not later than Jan. 15, 1906. 

The Revenge of a Wild Goose. 
I KNEW a son of the old sod once who was 
an inveterate hunter of ducks and geese. The 
day never was stormy, cold or disagreeable 
enough to drive him off a duck pass or out of a 
goose pit. 
It was before the days of restrictive game 
laws, when numbers were unlimited and the 
Many was 
the story the old fellow could tell of the days 
when mallards and geese blackened the wheat 
stubble and made a noise like thunder when they 
took flight. He told of one experience which 
all but proved his Waterloo: 
“Tt was that early in the morning,” said he, 
“that the break of day could be just seen in the 
east. My decoys were out, and I in the pit all 
snug and ready for anything that might come 
along. Honk! honk! honk! came out of the sky, 
and agin’ the light I could see away off a flock 
of geese a-coming. ‘Honk, honk yourself,’ says 
I, and back came honks galore. It wasn’t long 
before they were in plain sight, and a beautiful 
sight they were. I quit honking, for I could 
see they were beginning to squeal like a basket 
of young puppies. They were about fifty yards 
up, and I could see that they were going to fly 
over instead of circling around the decoys. And 
when I thought they were right, I took a shot 
at them, coming toward me.and at once turned 
my back to catch them going from me. I had 
no more than pulled the trigger of my left-hand 
barrel than I received a sledge-hammer blow 
on the back of my neck that sent the gun fly- 
ing out of my hands and dropped me like a 
lump of lead senseless, in the goose pit. I was 
put to sleep and no mistake and knew nothing 
for a number of minutes. When I came to and 
straightened out, I found my gun and a goose 
in the pit with me. Out upon the prairie lay 
another goose as dead as the one in the pit. 
It was evident that on killing the first goose 
dead, hitting it in the neck and head, it came 
down head over heels and gathering momentum 
at every foot multiplied its fifteen pounds enough 
to put me out of business after it hit me in the 
back of the neck. I have often thought if that 
goose had been killed a hundreds yards up it 
might have broken my neck.” ° 
CHARLES CRISTADORO. 



Long Island Duck Shooting. 

“Report Your Luck (or Lack of it) to Forest 
and Stream.” 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
Some time ago I saw an editorial in our 
paper, apropos of the excellent shooting this 
year, the south side of Long Island being men- 
tioned as one of the favored places. As this is 
my own particular stamping ground, and the 
facts about the shooting this year are so at 
variance with the statement referred to, I needs 
must rush into the game lest some of us be - 
deceived and waste time and money trying it. 
The duck shooting on the Great South Bay 
has been absolutely the worst this year since 
the “wet spring of ’76.” Lest some think I am 
a tenderfoot at the duck game, I would men- 
tion that I have the best bayman of them all; 
that he has a complete outfit, decoys, battery, 
etc., and if anybody gets ducks he does. About 
Nov. 7, betrayed by the said editorial, I left 
town on the evening train for Amityville, and 
after a most excellent supper at Capt. J.’s house, 
turned in early. I was called promptly by the 
Captain at 4 A. M. After a row of about two 
miles, we were on our point before daybreak. 
The day was a warm one, with a light southwest 
wind. No birds were flying, and not one shot 
did I get. I saw about twenty broadbills and one 
brant. Six friends of mine have at various 
times since gone down; their total bag is five 
ducks and two geese. Last Tuesday night, 
made desperate by having no ducks in my 
larder—the first time such a thing has occurred 
in Christmas week in years—I went down again, 
spending over two days, and did not fire one 
shot. Weather warm like October, wind light 
southwest. Thursday it was so warm, and with 
no birds flying, we left the blind, and in sheer 
desperation went eel spearing, getting twenty- 
four fine ones in two hours. We saw one large 
bunch of geese, about three hundred, as nearly 
as we could count; but the moment we showed 
ANID GUIN 
within 400 yards, they went up and out to sea, 
where the Captain said they would stay till 
night. Two years ago at the same time of the 
year on this ground I killed, to my own gun, 
thirty-six ducks and a goose. 
On Oct. I, 2 and 3,1 shot at Southampton 
and saw the largest bunch of broadbills it has 
ever been my luck to see together. There were 
probably over a thousand in the bunch; but as 
I was in the middle of Little Peconic and had 
no battery, they were safe from me. 
As near’as I can get them, the facts about 
the shooting on the South Side are as follows: 
During the early part of October there was 
fair shooting at Eastport, Islip, Babylon and 
Amityville; mostly black ducks and teal and 
some redheads, many of the black ducks being 
apparently local birds. Then the warm weather 
set in with persistent west winds, and the fowl, 
especially broadbills, did not come in. Now, 
what is the reason? 
While it is true that ducks have been per- 
sistently “dusted” at night, that there has been 
“firing” of geese, and that even netting was 
done at one place, yet I do not think these and 
the utter indifference of the game wardens (if 
there are any) on the South Side quite account 
for such an utter failure of what is one of the 
greatest natural duck grounds on this coast. 
Personally, I believe it to be due to two con- 
ditions: , First, to the persistent west winds, the 
birds coming down instead of following their 
usual line of flight having been driven off shore 
—we have not had one hard easter this fall; 
second, to the warm weather, which has allowed 
many of the birds to stay north, even as late 
as this. Amid the general gloom there is one 
ray of hope, and that is, that the brant shooting 
in February and March will probably be good, 
and if only they would modifv the Brown duck 
law and permit duck shooting till March 1, those 
of us who are glad to spend money on our 
friends, the baymen, but who won't buy game, 
may at least taste one duck of our own shooting. 
Henry THORP. 

QUAIL SHOOTING AT PINEHURST, N. C. 
Photo by courtesy of Leonard Tufts. ‘ 
