APRIL 21, 1906.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 


Picture First, Shot Second. 
NEWARK VALLEY, N. Y.—Jan.'1 found myself 
and friend K. en route for the home of the quail 
in North Carolina. With us were our dogs— 
Sport, a fine English setter, and Spencer, a large 
English pointer. It was quite a long trip from 
central New York, through Pennsylvania via 
Philadelphia, and Cape Charles, across Chesa- 
peake Bay to Norfolk, and then via the Atlantic 
Coast Line to our destination in southeastern 
North Carolina. Our dogs being unused to such 
trips were very tired after two days and three 
nights on the road. 
We landed in the wilderness, sparsely inhabited 
with. blacks and a very few whites; a country 
very level, quite swampy, and with here and there 
a clearing of a corn or cotton field; apparently 
an ideal place for quail and woodcock. A portion 
of the pine timber had been cut off, old tram 
roads and parts of old sawmills were frequently 
seen. Our first introduction to native ways and 
customs was their supper. They served us col- 
lard (sow’s belly boiled), hoe cakes and some- 
_ thing they called coffee. As the bill of fare did 
not particularly attract us, the prospects were we 
would not be very expensive boarders. After 
supper we offered some of the food to the dogs 
and they both refused it with a look of injury on 
their honest faces; surely the food was not “fit 
for a dog to eat.” 
We built a fire of pine in the old-fashioned fire- 
place in our room, and as we had a very good 
bed, we obtained a good night’s rest. For break- 
fast we had served fresh fried eggs, boiled rice, 
hoe cakes and biscuit, and we made out a com- 
fortable meal, after which we started out for the 
day’s shooting. As neither dog had seen quail 
we were curious as to how they would act. The 
first clearing we found was an old meadow, the 
dense weeds making a thick tangle, completely 
covering a deep ditch which carried off the water 
.from the low lands, and Spencer was much sur- 
prised while circling ahead, to drop into a stream 
of water clear out of sight. He soon climbed 
out and looked very much disgusted as he shook 
himself, As our dogs are broken to hunt in the 
brush, both would make for the cover and hunt 

SPENCER'S FIRST COVEY OF QUAIL. 
the edges as they do in the North, not thinking 
that our game was in the meadows and clearings. 
When Spencer accidenally ran into a covey of 
quail and they got up like a swarm of bumble- 
bees, his surprise was great, and the look on his 
face plainly said, “What in the world are they?” 
After marking them down in a piece of brush, 
we followed them, and both dogs got down to 
business and found the single birds very nicely. 
In the course of the day’s hunt we came to a 
river which it was necessary to cross. There was 
nothing but a foot bridge—a single board six 
inches wide on top of fence posts about five feet 
above the water. The day being quite cold for 
North Carolina we did not care to have the dogs 
swim, so with K. and Sport ahead, I next, with 
“Spencer following, we proceeded single file; soon 



| GANTE BAG .AND GUN 
a splash and souse and Spencer had fallen in, then 
he had to swim fifteen rods across. We hunted 
a meadow owned by an old colored man who 
said, “Der is a flock of dem partridges down in 
corner of dat patch,’ and we found them, both 
dogs making fine points. I succeeded in getting 
a picture of Spencer on his second covey. 
My desire first was to get a good picture and 
second a quail. Laying my gun down I got the 
camera out of my pocket, walking up to within 
twenty feet of the dog pointing, focused it, made 

SPENCER'S SECOND COVEY. 
the exposure, then went back, put the camera in 
my pocket, picked up the gun and advanced to 
the dog, who was frozen fast to the ground, and 
flushed the quail, getting a right and left. We 
hunted the singles and killed five more. As we 
were working out a thick clump of brush out 
came Sport running for dear life with a black 
brute of an animal after him. K. said, “Great 
heavens, it is a bear.” But it was an old black 
sow chasing the dog away: from her family of 
little pigs. This was a frequent occurrence dur- 
ing our hunt. We found the black hogs in all 
sizes all through the wilderness, and after a short 
chase to get the dogs away, they would trot back 
to their families again. When Spencer found his 
third covey of quail he got down to business. 
In every case I tried picture first and shot sec- 
ond, taking plenty of time for the picture, and in 
each case getting from one to three quail on the 
rise. In the third picture K. killed one with each 
barrel and I only one. Sport was soon very much 
at home hunting quail, and as he ranged more 
than Spencer, he made a good covey finder. Both 
dogs did excellent work considering that it was 
their first experience after this kind of birds. 
Occasionally we would work out a swamp for 
woodcock, and here our Northern dogs were 
right at home and we killed a good many. The 
birds were very large and plump. It was excel- 
lent sport. but the traveling was hard, for the 
underbrush was very thick and a tangle of vines 
made it very hard walking. 
Our supper that night consisted of boiled bacon, 
collard, hoe cakes, a broiled rabbit which one of 
us had killed, North Carolina sweet potatoes and 
coffee, and we were hungry enough to eat boiled 
owls. .-The dogs were also ready to eat, and ate 
heartily. 
Our first day’s hunt was repeated many times. 
We found from five to eight coveys of quail a 
day, besides shooting many woodcock and mea- 
dowlarks. The entire change for us of food, 
water (which came from the juniper swamps and 
was very refreshing) and the different mode of 
living began to agree with both K. and myself, 
and we felt much refreshed and invigorated 
Many new and novel experiences made the trip 
interesting. I obtained many pictures of the 
country and the colored people and ways of 
travel. But both K. and I agreed that for genuine 
sport nothing in the way of bird shooting equaled 
hunting partridges in New York State. 
J. D. Jostin. 
Massachusetts Notes. 
Boston, Mass., April 15.—Editor Forest and 
Stream: On Wednesday in the Senate, bill 121, 
conferring more power on the Commissioners and 
their deputies, sometimes called the “right-of- 
search” bill, after a sharp debate, passed its third 
stage by a vote of 19 to 18. The success of the 
bill in the upper branch was in no small degree 
due to the good generalship of the chairman of 
the committee, Senator H. A. Harding, of 
Chatham. Whether it will pass the house or not 
remains to be seen. 
The opponents of the bill in the Senate may 
exert an influence against it with members of the 
lower branch, and another close vote may result 
in that body. 
The anti-sale bills, mentioned in my last letter, 
have passed their several stages in both branches 
and will without doubt soon receive the Gover- 
nor’s signature. Our friends who wish to order 
prairie chicken in Boston hotels should do so 
before long or they may not have the opportu- 
nity. If the quail bill becomes a law our friends 
in the States having a superabundance of that 
species can no longer justly charge Massachu- 
setts markets with offering a premium for the 
killing of their quail, for the number that would 
be sold in the months of November and Decem- 
ber would be small in comparison with what have 
been sold under our present law between Noy. 
1 and May 1. 
Reports received from those who have obtained 
quail from the State Association are generally 
more than satisfactory. One gentleman in Wor- 
cester county writes of the last lot received by 
him, that they “came through in very fine condi- 
tion.” When he put them out after keeping them 
confined a few days, they fed well and seemed 
“strong and lively,” and they have all been seen, 
he says, since, His coveys all seem to be in fine 
order and he expresses the opinion that big re- 
sults will be seen next season from the work done 
this winter. 
The coveys are showing no signs, as yet, of 
breaking up for mating, and while they continue 
to take some food they are consuming less than 
they did earlier. He is still keeping up the sup- 

SPENCER'S THIRD COVEY—‘‘GETTING ON TO HIS JOB,” 
ply ot food, so as to keep the birds where they 
were planted as long as possible. 
I believe if there were a man in every town 
who would carry out a plan like that of the gen- 
tleman alluded to, and give as much attention to 
the care of the birds, the covers might be kept 
well stocked all the time. He has demonstrated 
the possibility of carrying quail through severe 
winters. A more detailed report of the work of 
the Association in sending out quail the past win- 
ter and spring will be forthcoming later on. 
The newly-elected superintendent of the Boston 
schools, in connection with the observance of 
what is called “Humanity Day,” sent out to prin- 
cipals a circular in which he declared that “Any 
effort looking toward an increased appreciation 
of the birds and animals around us is a legiti- 
