AvuG. 3, 1907.| 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
179 

may be that the dogs will there be given the 
gift of speech, and many things now suspected 
be established as true. If so, the old man will 
have a good many apologies to make to and 
pardons to ask from every one of those dogs. 
And the dogs—huh! They will say: “Don't 
mention it, Mr. Kennedy; we forgot all about 
it long ago.” I know dogs, if I do slip up every 
now and then on men. . 
This almost makes me think I am an old- 
timer. I came into the Forest AND STREAM 
family back in the seventies, along with the Rod 
.and Gun. GEORGE KENNEDY. 
A Visit to West Canada Lakes. 
Y., July 20—E£ditor Forest 
and Stream: Two quail have been heard and 
one seen at this ‘place. At least one of them has 
been here a month. We have lived here twenty 
years and we have never before heard one. 
With a couple of others I have just returned 
from a walk to the West Canada Lakes. We saw 
seventeen deer. Five of them were seen at once 
in a, small lake. Although we were in plain 
sight, they paid no particular attention to us. 
We waiched various deer an hour at a stretch. 
All that we saw came into the lakes and beaver 
meadows at the western or shady side. Each 
deer fed and worked its way along the shore. 
It would wade in the water, stretch its neck for 
a drink or a bit of food, then walk along a few 
steps, reach for a mouthful of the shore shrub- 
bery, and often go into the brush. Then it would 
come out again and take a few steps along tne 
shore. A couple of deer, in order to get around 
a large stone and treetop at the edge of the lake, 
went into the woods to do so. If I had been 
wading along the same shore I would have swum 
out around. One deer only did any swimming 
whatever. This one swam out a way and came 
back the same as a dog will when he swims after 
a stick. : 
Most of the deer were evidently annoyed by 
what woodsmen call deer flies, the kind that have 
light spots on the back and perch on one’s neck 
and make. him jump, but there are several kinds 
of these deer flies.’ Anyway, the deer flopped 
and jerked and twitched their ears and tails, and 
one actttally ran from the woods into the water 
forty, rods from where we were in plain sight. 
We turned the camera in that direction. but be- 
fore we were fully ready it casually walked out. 
flopping its ears and throwing up its tail. In 
a drenching rain one deer blinked at us while 
we walked along the trail three rods away. 
When it ran away the sportsman with us thought 
it did not go fast, and he did not see any use 
of its jumping so high in the air and-going as 
straight as a split rail fence. 
Nortuwoop, N. 
One night the sportsman rigged up a lantern 
‘on a’chair, put a dishpan behind it and under 
the chair he fixed his camera. Then he placed 
the outfit on the bow of a boat and placed sonie 
flash powder on a board and held a match 1 
readiness, while he was paddled around the lake 
At one place there was a sudden commotion and 
a repeated whoof-sis-s-s and sométhing plunged 
through the brush, but nothing was seen. 
At the Canada Lakes we saw some sportsmen 
and “French Louis.’’ Louis lives in that region 
all the time, no matter if he does not see any- 
one for weeks at a stretch. He said the beaver. 
which the State had placed in the Adirondacks 
near Moose River, were doing fine. Last year 
they brilt a dam and this sprine they built an- 
other on the same stillwater of the brook. The 
sportsmen said they had seen two bear, many 
deer and an elk’s track. 
The woods are in good shape and many peo- 
ple are evidently enjoying them. Fishing is not 
especially good, but the deer are so plentiful and 
in such good condition that this fall will prob- 
ably be a record breaker, both in the number of 
sportsmen and number of deer shot. 
When we got ready to come home we walked 
from the West Canada Lakes to Northwood, 
about fortv miles. We did it in sixteen hours, 
counting three hours for cooking and _ eating 
grub. ° EtpripcGE A. SPEARS. 
New Publications. 
“Tue Book or CAMPING AND Woopcraft,” by 
Horace Kephart, is a manual which in all re- 
spects, even to its shape, should be a part of the 
outfit of every sportsman tourist, let his trail 
lead wlfere it may. Because so much space has 
been devoted to outfits, the intending purchaser 
need not infer that its author, like some writers, 
favors a one-ton outfit for two men, for he does 
not. Rather, he points out the good and bad 
features of articles: that are likely to be most 
popular, so that purchasers may make their selec- 
tions with intelligence. In view of the great 
quantities of manufactured goods put on the 
market and intended for campers’ uses, Mr. Kep- 
hart’s recommendations are timely and mainly 
of value, although it cannot be denied that in 
some details his opinions do not coincide with 
those of other woodsmen. This, however, is 
natural. A thing that is ideal in one part of 
this vast country is of little value in another, 
and yet the reason will be learned only through 
hard experience. For example, a beginner may 

QUICKSAND. 
Picture by Samuel W. Lippincott. 
UPPER MISSOURI 
a rubber coat of poncho will serve 
along the seacoast and in the sandy 
believe that 
him as well 
Southwest as it will elsewhere. Experience 
only will convince him of its worthlessness in 
these regions. The author goes through the list 
of articles needed, describes how to use them, 
dwells on camps and woods life, shooting, caring 
for game, camp cookery, traveling, living off the 
country, etc. Throughout, his knowledge of 
woodcraft makes the book a valuable one. Pub- 
lished by The Outing Publishing Co., New York. 


Expensive Quail Shooting. 
(Gay 
Welch: 
One of the Santa Cruz County 
says of Game Warden Walter R. 
papers 
“Game Warden Welch arrested W. H. Carter. 
and Frank McLaughlin, of Mountain View, for 
shooting quail. The game warden was up the 
coast and caught them in the act. They were 
brought to Santa Cruz recently and Justice Crag- 
hill fined them each $25. They paid the fines, but 
had to pawn their rig to raise the money.” 
Game Killed in Forest Fires. 
In the vicinity of Eastport, Long Island, Jast 
. week, fire started in the woods, which were very 
dry in the absence of recent rains; and by Sun- 
day hundreds of acres had been burned over and 
the forest trees destroyed or badly damaged. On 
the preserve of the Eastport Rod and Gun Club 
a great many quail and rabbits were found dead 
he rain storm of Monday had put out the 
after 
fire. 
( 
Economical Rearing of Wild Ducks. 
Many a keen sportsman whose means will not 
admit of his renting an expensive shooting may 
with a little extra trouble and outlay succeed 
in adding just the touch of variety to the bag 
which is so fascinating in a day’s sport. It is 
surprising that so few shooting men rear wild 
ducks, says W..C. Oates in the London Field. 
The reason is possibly due to the belief that they 
are expensive birds to rear, have enormous appe- 
tites, and that keepers prefer to have pheasants, 
the rearing of which they thoroughly under- 
stand, to embarking en the unknown, with the 
possibility of failure. 1 propose to show how 
economically and satisfactorily these birds ‘may 
be reared, provided that an intelligent man is 
employed, who does not mind a little extra 
trouble. 
[I will assume that a sportsman has taken a 
partridge beat of from 800 to 1,000 acres, and 
that he has one or two fair-sized ponds on the 
shooting.- If there are no coverts the pheasants 
are a negligible quantity, and for reasons of 
policy hares and rabbits need not be encouraged. 
A keeper is employed, but it is felt that, with 
the exception of killing vermin, his office is 
rather a sinecure between October, when the 
partridges are driven, and the. nesting season of 
the following year. The ponds, however, which 
we will suppose are not inconveniently far from 
the keeper’s cottage, offer a suggestion, and, the 
man being keen, his employer decides on trying 
wild ducks. 
As both master and man wish to gain a thor- 
ough insight into the habits of these birds dur- 
ing the. breeding season it is decided to purchase 
birds, and to breed from them, in preference to 
buying eggs. The birds have arrived, and it is 
decided to cut one wing before liberating them 
in their home. I prefer this method to pinion- 
ing, because birds, if unpinioned, will afford sport 
the following year, their flight feathers having 
erown again, after the termination of the breed- 
ing season. 
Corn, of the kind which the ducks have 
accustomed to eat, has, of course, been put down 
beforehand, and false and other methods 
of sheltering the birds in bad weather have been 
attended to. The birds I will assume have been 
liberated in late autumn or early winter, and the 
month of February will find them paired and on 
the lookout for nesting places. 
Their food at this time is all important, as 
on it depends the number of eggs which the 
owner is to get from his birds; consequently it 
is very necessary at this time to feed them regu 
larly and liberally, and yet to avoid producing 
iat state of fat, which is inimical to the pro 
duction of a large and regular supply of eggs. 
The first point is to remember to put down plenty 
of crushed oyster shells, old mortar, etc., and 
the risk of the birds laying eggs with weak shells 
will then be minimized. Now as to the food it- 
elf. It will be found that maize alone is too 
fattening, and I have known birds die because 
they were so fat that they were incapable of 
laying their eges. The best thing to give them 
is a mixture of wheat, barley, dari, and a little 
round maize, and if this is steeped well before- 
hand it will naturally go further than if given 
in a dry state: in the steeped condition it is, of 
course, more digestible. Bone meal has. I know, 
been 

cover 

Dr 

been strongly advocated for early laying, and. 
without wishing to detract from the merits of 
this excellent food, I have always found that 
ducks do even better on a good supply of worms 
or slugs. The work of procuring a sufficient 
number is, of course, difficult, but it is worth the 
trouble, and I have obtained extraordinary 
sults in layine with birds which have been given 
. liberal supply of ordinary earth worms, the 
bigger the better 
As an instance of what may be done in this 
respect I will vive the result I obtained from two 
pure bred wild ducks. mated with a wild drake. 
The birds were confined inside a wire inclosure 
about twelve yards square, and all of them had 
one wing cut. They had a small tank in the 
middle of the run, which was kept nearlv full 
of water, with steps made of bricks to enable the 
ducks to get out of the water easily. I per- 
sonally fed them twice a day with steeped corn, 
(Continued on page 108.) 
1B 

