504 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Marcu 31, 1906. . 

my gun thrown itself into him, it’s sure enough, 
all the same, that poor Bobino’s going to have 
steaks to eat all the winter through,* and that he 
ain’t going to invite any one to eat ’em with him 
who can’t return the compliment—savin’, of 
course, M. Inspector,’ added Bobino, raising his 
cap, “who'll always do his humble servant very 
proud whenever he’s good enough to taste Mother 
Bobine’s cooking.” 
(This was what Niquet called his wife, because 
in his opinion Bobine was naturally the feminine 
of Bobino,) 
“Thanks, Niquet, many thanks,’ said M. De- 
violaine, “there’s no refusing you.” 
“S’help me! Bobino,”’ said one of the guards, 
by name Frangois, ‘‘as ’tisn’t often we bring off a - 
coup like this here, I must, with M. Deviolaine’s 
leave, confer a decoration on you.” 
“Decorate away, old chap, decorate away,” re- 
plied Bobino. “There’s many a one been deco- 
rated in t’other one’s time who didn’t deserve it 
as much as I.” i 
(Bobino was unjust; in “t’other one’s time” 
they were not too lavish of decorations. But pas- 
sion blinded Bobino, who, after having been a 
Terrorist in 1793, was a red-hot Royalist in 1815.) 
And Bobino continued to puff away with the 
most comical imperturbability; while Frangois, 
drawing a knife from his pocket, approached the 
posterior part of the boar, and, taking its tail, 
with one cut severed it from the body. To the 
mighty amazement of every one, the boar, while 
still remaining motionless, gave vent to a low 
growl. 
“Whoa, my pet, what’s the matter?” said Bo- 
bino, while Francois was fastening the animal’s 
tail in the buttonhole of his conqueror; “so we 
don’t like losing this bit o’ string, eh?” 
The boar grunted a second time, and kicked 
out with one leg. 
“Steady,” says Bobino, “steady there. So 
we've got the nightmare, have we? Ah, but Bo- 
bino isn’t easy to dislodge when he’s fixed him- 
self anywhere.” 
Barely had he finished this speech when he was 
sent rolling ten yards, his nose in the dust and 
his pipe smashed between his teeth. 
We all started up, asking one another whether 
there was an earthquake. Not at all. The boar, 
who, as it seems, was only stunned by the shot, 
had risen up again, revived by the bleeding which 
Frangois had given him; and after having, in the 
way we have seen, got rid of the burden which 
weighted him, was standing upright, though stag- 
gering on his four paws as if he were drunk. 
“Hah, ‘pon my soul,” said M. Deviolaine, “let 
him be; it would be curious if that fellow were 
to recover!” 
“No, no, don’t let him go,” cried out Choron, 
looking round for his gun, which he had laid 
down on a bank while tying up his dog; “fire on 
him, I say, fire on him. I know these fellows, 
and they have a tough life. Fire on him, begad! 
and two shots rather than one, or he’ll escape us.” 
But it was already too late. The dogs, seeing 
the boar get up, had rushed upon him, some 
fastening on his ears, others on his legs, and all 
together making for his skin, they covered him so 
completely as not to leave a spot on his body the 
size of a crown-piece where a bullet might be 
lodged. Meanwhile the boar, very gradually, was 
gaining the ditch, dragging the pack with him; 
then he entered the thicket and finally disap- 
peared, pursued by Bobino, who had picked him- 
self up, furious, and determined at all costs to 
have satisfaction for the affront he had received. 
“Hi! catch him,” called out Choron, “catch 
him, Bobino, catch him by the tail !” 
We were all convulsed with laughter. We 
heard two shots fired, and a moment afterward 
we saw Bobino reappearing, crestfallen; his two 
shots had missed the boar, and the animal had 
got off again, followed by all the dogs, whose 
barking was rapidly dying away in the distance. 
For all the rest of that day we hunted him; he 
took us five leagues from there to the Hivors 
copse, and we heard no more of him, although 
Choron informed all the foresters of Villers-Cot- 
terets who had not been present at the occur- 
rence, as well as all those of the neighboring for- 

*The boar, in such cases, becomes the property of the 
man who killed it.—Transl. 
ests, that if by chance any of them killed a tail- 
less boar, and was anxious to have the beast com- 
plete, he would find that tail in the buttonhole 
of Bobino. 
The hunt, most certainly, was more amusing 
than if it had been successful; but it had by no 
means fulfilled the intentions of the Inspector, 
who had received instructions to destroy the 
boars, not to dock their tails. 

Long Island Duck Shooting. 
East Hampton, N. Y., March 19—Editor 
Forest and Stream: In your issue of March 17 
we noticed an article from the pen of Mr. 
Brown, making assertions which are a fair 
sample of the assertions and arguments made 
by the supporters of one of the most unjust and 
ridiculous measures ever advocated and passed 
by any body of men claiming knowledge of 
necessary restrictions for the protection of the 
bird family. 
We will admit that it is high time, and has 
been for many years, to place some restrictions 
upon the killing of some varieties of waterfowl, 
“not all by any means.” I personally advocated 
such measures before the Brown duck bill was 
ever heard of or passed; but for such discrimina- 
tion—entirely one-sided—I have but very little 
sympathy, however strong my desire for game 
protection. 
I am no spring chicken in the shooting busi- 
ness. I never was a market hunter, but have 
shot for the last forty years in the same manner 
that most native Long Islanders in this section 
have, purely for the pleasures of the outing. 
The birds killed, ninety-nine time in a hundred. 
were either used on our own table, or given to 
my friends. I presume that every bird gotten 
has cost me, directly or indirectly, at least $1, if 
not more. It is not to be supposed that all 
shooters the entire length of Long Island have 
done this—it is their privilege to do as they 
wish—but I will guarantee that nine out of ten 
have, where they have been uninfluenced by 
promises of reward by parties desiring to secure 
their services as guides. 
It would seem that about all the arguments 
presented in opposition to the bill referred to 
up to the present time, had been made by hotel 
keepers and persons who catered to the business 
of the city sportsman, of which there are few, 
which is somewhat unfortunate, as it would seem 
that nothing but the money side had been taken 
into consideration. These people have made the 
most noise. 
There is another class whom I have yet 
to hear from in public print, and those are the 
ones who outnumber two to one the above 
mentioned who wish to occasionally take a few 
days off from their regular business, whatever 
it be, as the time and opportunity may offer, to 
go on the bays, ponds, marshes and streams, and 
I speak for these people, who are law-abiding, 
straightforward, intelligent, well-to-do; the best 
people of old Suffolk, and as fair minded as any 
on God’s footstool, property owners and tax- 
payers, who know the difference between right 
and wrong, are ready to support any measure 
fair and just, and to condemn the unfair and 
unjust. These are the ones who feel the injustice 
heaped upon them and who have been prac- 
tically silent. 
The first question by Mr. Brown is, ‘Why this 
opposition of Suffolk?” He answers, by saying, 
“Solely the profit from visiting sportsmen and 
from the sale of birds.” This. is as far from 
the facts as you could very well get. The cor- 
rect answer would be—because it is unjust, in- 
asmuch as it prevents them from doing what 
other men have the privilege of doing, almost 
without interruption, from Texas to Maine. 
That is, shooting from October or November 
of one year until March or April of the next 
year. I will wager that if the same law pre- 
vailed the entire length of the Atlantic coast, or 
even extended from Delaware to Rhode Island, 
you would not have the least fault found from 
any Suffolk county man. But to plan restric- 
tions upon about fifty miles of Long Island sea- 
coast and to have birds killed nearly the whole 
length of the remaining coast line, is a little too 
much for flesh and blood to stand. 
Question Second, Section 1.—He says, “It is 
prodigal waste to kill fowl as the nesting season 
approaches, or to prolong an open season above 
two months.” Is that so? I would like to know 
if it is any more a prodigal waste to kill a bird in 
the spring than it is in the fall. A bird dead is 
wiped out of existence. Its loss for future pur- 
poses is the same, whether killed one time or 
another, the only difference in one case it is a 
few months nearer its nesting than the other; 
the loss is the same. 
Second Statement—Great South Bay is one of 
the three natural game refuges of wildfowl in 
winter on the Atlantic coast, the other two being 
Chesapeake and Currituck, S. C. What is the 
matter with the bays from Jersey to Cape 
Charles. See the Jersey bays, Delaware waters, 
Chincoteague, Wachapreague, Gardiner’s Bay, 
Montauk Point—every one of them just as good 
a refuge for many kinds of birds. In fact, the 
Atlantic Ocean, from my observation, has been 
about the best place of refuge in the day time 
on the southern coast. 
Third Statement—The extension of anti-spring 
shooting laws is notable throughout North 
America. But it don’t cover the southern coast, 
or even New Jersey or Connecticut, and, I am 
told, is not respected in Virginia. The Connec- 
ticut season was lengthened two weeks. 
Fourth Statement—Local breeding of a num- 
ber of varieties of duck has noticeably increased 
since spring shooting ceased. Connecticut and 
New Jersey could not be fairly asked to take this 
step unless New York did. For these to sit 
idly by while birds are now being slaughtered 
in the spring in Great South Bay, would be a 
trifle more than could be expected of human 
beings. Yet human beings on Long Island 
can sit sadly by and see birds slaughtered in 
New Jersey and Connecticut and whistle. And if 
Mr. Brown can mention one single instance of 
any kind of a duck, except black mallard or 
possibly a woodduck, that has visited on Long 
Island, or that soon will nest here, except in 
captivity, we would like to know it. There are 
a few places where they nest. Gardiner’s 
Island is one, some few at Montauk, a few 
around our own wood ponds. But even on 
Gardiner’s Island, the spot ideal, and unmo- 
lested for years to any extent, nothing of any 
amount, except black mallard. 
As to the slaughter in South Bay, it is safe 
to say many a single club on Currituck and 
Black Bay kill more birds in their winter and 
spring shoots than are killed the entire length 
of Long Island in a year. Fifteen thousand 
birds were killed by one club three years ago, 
up to Jan. 1; 700 birds killed by one yachting 
party from Philadelphia in Pamlico Sound this 
fall in a few days’ shooting; 180 red-heads killed 
in one night was reported; 70 more in five 
shots from a pump gun at night; 242 red-heads 
in two days’ shooting—and one of those days 
was Sunday—were killed within fifty miles of 
my house, not by Long Islanders, but by some 
of the gentlemen who are so very anxious for 
game protection. 
The kind of law which protects two old 
coots or shelldrakes from being killed by the 
pot-hunting Long Islander, that 242 red-heads 
may be killed by some favorite son of nobody! 
Oh! the bosh; the rot; the hypocrisy; the greed 
and unfairness and imposition which is forced 
upon the people in the name of reform or game 
protection. I have lived to see privileges 
worth millions (not in money, but in health and 
pleasure-giving returns, which should have been 
kept for public uses for future generations) 
absorbed by persons with no appreciation of 
the beauties or resources. 
As I have said, something should be done, let 
it be done with judgment, and by people who 
are somewhat familiar with the habits of water- 
fowl; make some distinction between fresh and 
salt-water fowl. Coots, whistlers, shelldrakes, 
oldwives, geese, brant, and broadbill need no 
protection on Long Island, except as to the 
methods of their being taken, not as to the 
open or close season. They can take care of 
themselves. Red-head, widgeon, black duck, 
