138 
ready to make oath that he had fired his gun 
but twice at the five deer. 
As might be expected, they proved to be an 
old doe and her two fawns and two yearlings, 
supposed to be the fawns of the year before, 
that were still following the doe. In the early 
days it was not rare or uncommon to find one 
yearling and sometimes two following the 
mother doe irrespective of the later family of 
fawns; but in later times such families were gen- 
erally broken up and scattered by hounding and 
hunting. Had those five been a miscellaneous 
lot of old deer they would not have kept to- 
gether ten minutes after being started the sec- 
ond time. 
The Snipe Hunting Trick. 
WHEN I came to this State three years ago, 
being fond of sport and having been born with 
a rod and gun in my hand, and accustomed to 
handle both on all legitimate occasions where- 
ever sport was to be had, I lost no time in 
making inquiry as to where I could find some 
shooting. I was then in Sacramento. Having 
been directed to the tules, about forty miles 
from the city, but in what direction I do not 
choose to say at present, and, being accompanied 
by a friend, I took up quarters at a hotel in the 
neighborhood and proceeded to prospect. A 
goodly number of hangers on were there, hood- 
lums, ranchers, etc., who, finding out that we 
were strangers in quest of sport, volunteered 
a prodigious amount of information as to the 
rendezvous of myriads of geese, ducks, etc. 
(this was in December). Perhaps we looked 
a little verdant; at all events, our new friends 
took it for granted that we were, and soon 
ventured to try some “tricks upon travelers,” 
like Shandy of old. A fellow who claimed to 
be a professional hunter inquired if we ever 
hunted snipe. Giving my companion a wink, I 
replied in the negative, whereupon it was de- 
clared on all sides that the best snipe ground 
in the State was to be found within six miles. 
We expressed a wish to take a hand in, and the 
“boys” told us to be ready about dark the next 
evening. 
The night came and so did the “boys,” and 
my friend and self went off with them. As we 
were informed no guns were needed, and one 
of the boys,’carrying a lantern and a net we 
knew something was up, and lay low. After 
traveling about six miles we came to a slough, 
across which we rowed in a flat-bottomed boat, 
and went on through tules and mud a mile or 
two further. Here on an open grassy spot a 
halt was called and our companions, four in 
number, told us to squat down and hold the net, 
while they proceeded to beat the ground for the 
birds, which we were informed would be at- 
tracted and bewildered by the light and would 
fall an easy prey to the net. We promised 
obedience and expressed at the same time much 
curiosity to see how the affair would culminate. 
As soon as our friends disappeared, Tom and 
ourself held a brief and hurried consultation, the 
result of which was that the lantern was fastened 
to a pole and we made “tall time” for the boat. 
Sculling ourselves across the slough we lay low 
again for developments. Soon we heard our 
friends coming, although it was too dark to see 
ten paces. They were laughing and chuckling 
in high glee at the trick played upon the 
“greenies.” The absence of the boat caused 
them a good deal of conjecture, as the lantern 
being up they supposed we were still holding the 
net. Being too far off to hear clearly or see 
their movements, but knowing well that they 
would have a good eight miles to go around ere 
they got on the home trail, we left, and before 
10 o'clock were snug in bed. 
_ When we came down to breakfast next morn- 
ing, the landlord expressed his intention to do 
the treating while we remained, and the bar- 
room habitués treated us with marked respect, 
but no further advice was volunteered. 
About a week after, just before leaving, we 
learned that the fellows got back about 3 A. M., 
wet, dirty and full of profanity at being out- 
witted. LEONIDAS. 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
Game in Vermont. 
SHELDON, Vt., Jan. 16—Editor Forest and 
Stream: All we lovers of fish and game protec- 
tion here in Vermont are congratulating our- 
selves that State Fish and Game Commissioner 
H. G. Thomas has during the past year made 
some of our poaching pot-hunters feel, where it 
hurts, the truth of the old adage that verily “the 
way of transgressors is hard.” During the past 
year the fines and costs collected in this State 
against this class of persons have amounted to 
over $1,500, and a number of cases are pending, 
some of them important, where the decisions are 
sure to go in favor of the State. 
We hardly think that during the year there 
have been more violations against the fish and 
game laws than in the past years. The increase 
of convictions comes from the fact that Commis- 
sioner Thomas has succeeded in instilling into 
his assistants some of his own personal energy 
and enthusiasm, and we may reasonably look 
for still greater improvement in this line during 
the present year, for Mr. Thomas is weeding out 
from his wardens all dead wood, and is, if pos- 
sible, determined to have none but active game 
protectors to fill those offices. He has, we un- 
derstand, only reappointed four of the old county 
wardens—Chase, of Bennington; Newton, of 
Windsor; Stevens, of Lamoille, and Leach, of 
Franklin county. One of the Commissioner’s 
laws has, we believe, saved several human lives. 
That is the one making it illegal to shoot a deer 
with horns less than three inches long. This 
causes many hunters to wait until they can see 
the deer’s horns before they shoot; if it happens 
to be a human being, instead of a deer, they 
know it. 
The lumbermen report deer numerous back in 
the larger woods in the mountains, the continual 
fusilade during the open season down in the lake 
towns without doubt caused the survivors to take 
to the mountains for safety. 
While civilization is clearing up and encroach- 
ing on the breeding grounds and covers of our 
game, thousands of new guns are coming into 
the State and going into the hands of young fel- 
lows, who want to kill something. This means 
that to save our game we must have shorter open 
seasons and more stringént laws regulating the 
number that may be killed. STANSTEAD. 
European Grouse for British Columbia. 
Tue British Columbia Fish and Game Club, 
through its secretary, Mr. Musgrave, announces 
the practical completion of arrangements for the 
importation to British Columbia of a number of 
European grouse. These birds, when received, 
are to be distributed equally on Vancouver Isl- 
and and the mainland. 
Among the species to be imported are some 
capercailzie, the largest of grouse, accounts of 
the shooting of which have from time to time 
appeared in Forest AND STREAM. This great 
grouse, which is as large as a turkey, weighing 
from ten to fourteen pounds, formerly inhabited 
the whole of northern Europe but was extermi- 
nated in Britain toward the close of the eigh- 
teenth century. It was formerly abundant in Ire- 
land and its bones have been found in Yorkshire 
and Devonshire, in England, in Denmark and in 
Aquitaine—as far south as Bordeaux—in France. 
About 1838 it was reintroduced at Taymouth 
Park, Perthshire, Scotland, and is reported as 
now plentiful in that neighborhood. Attempts to 
reintroduce it in Ireland have failed. 
This is not the first a'tempt made to acclimatize 
the capercailzie in America. More than a dozen 
years ago through the efforts of Hon. W. W. 
Thomas, then Minister to Norway and Sweden, 
a number of birds were sent over to be set free 
in Maine, and much more recently a still larger 
shipment was imported by the Dominion of Can- 
ada to stock the Algonquin Park. We have not 
heard anything definite from either of these at- 
tempts, and it may be feared that the first one at 
least failed entirely. 
Singular success attended the introduction and 
preservation of the ring-necked pheasant in Van- 
couver Island. The conditions there seemed to 
be precisely what the bird needed, and a long, 
close season resulted in so great an increase that 
[JAN. 27, 1906. 
they have long been an abundant and welcome 
addition to the Vancouver Island sportsmen’s 
list of game birds. It should be a matter of local 
pride with every British Columbia sportsman to 
do everything in his power to protect these for- 
eign grouse which the Fish and Game Club is to 
introduce. It may well be imagined that at first 
these great birds will offer a strong tempation to 
the thoughtless gunner, but he must remember 
that carelessness or selfishness on his part may 
cause the absolute failure of a most interesting 
experiment, which, if successful, will be a great 
boon to the Province. 


A Greenwing Teal Coming Down Wind. 
Tue day among the ducks had been a most 
unsatisfactory one. It had “blowed great guns” 
all day, and the ducks selecting small sheltered 
sloughs on the prairie remained under cover as 
it were. We had practically nothing to show 
in the way of a bag by 4 o’clock, when we de- 
cided to hitch up and drive back to town. We 
were all pretty well chilled through, and a warm 
supper near a warmer fire was a great tempta- 
tion to us. 
The horses hitched, we had all climbed into the 
rig, our guns stowed away in the cases, with the 
exception of one of the party on the front seat. 
Looking to the left far in the distance a 
solitary duck was espied coming down wind 
straight for us. Catching sight of it, the party 
in the front seat hastily threw in a couple of 
shells, pointed his gun well to the left, threw it 
seemingly in a line with the flight of the duck 
forty feet ahead and pulled the trigger, the 
horses, prancing high in the air, the load of shot 
having passed between their heads, as a green- 
wing teal fell stone dead upon the prairie twenty 
feet to our right. I don’t think I ever saw a 
duck fly so rapidly before in my life, and I 
don’t think I ever saw a duck given such an 
allowance. It was an example of instantaneous 
shooting, if I may so call it, such as I have never 
seen the like before. 
It has always been a mystery to me how those 
horses’ heads were not filled full of shot. The 
bird pitched at an angle, because beyond us to 
the right was a slough for which the duck was 
making with all haste. 
It was just another illustration of the rule 
that when through with your shooting, before 
getting into the rig, it is safe and proper to 
stow away your guns. We certainly were very 
close to either a disastrous runaway or a pair 
of maimed and useless horses, had not the 
choke in the gun carried the shot en masse 
harmlessly between the heads of the horses. 
The Deer’s Vision. 
Morcantown, W. Va.—Editor Forest and 
Stream: The quotation in Jan. 13 issue from the 
article of Mr. W. B. Devereaux in “Big Game 
Hunting,” concerning the photographing of big 
game, is instructive and assists in making some 
conclusions regarding deer. From observations 
of many deer I have felt quite certain that when 
they are standing in the bright glare of the sun 
their vision is very defective, but I never gave it 
much thought until reading the notes referred to. 
Now, that I come to recall many instances I 
can distinctly remember how common it has been 
for deer to stop in some shadow, while they 
take a look; and I wonder why I had never 
noticed it. ' 
Taken in connection with the fact of their ap- 
parent inability to see clearly while standing in 
the bright sunlight, it would be reasonable to 
conclude that they instinctively stop in the shade 
that they may be able to see more distinctly, as 
well as being themselves less conspicuous in the 
shade than in the sunlight, which fact their in- 
stinct no doubt teaches them. 
EMERSON CARNEY. 

NASHVILLE, Tenn., Jan. 15.—Though tardy my 
congratulations on the new dress of Forest AND 
STREAM are no less sincere. FOREST AND STREAM 
has long been a source of information and com- 
fort to the sportsmen throughout the entire 
country, and in its new dress it is especially 
pleasing and attractive. Irsy BENNETT. 
