Nov, 23, 1907.] 
mothered, I pawed my way out, to be greeted with 
oud yells of laughter by Joe, who had already 
lextricated himself, and Harry, who, tired of 
kramping alone, had come up in time to see 
ime perform what he termed some very grace- 
‘(ul gymnastics, he even having the nerve to 
Ibeg of me to do it over. 
| About four o’clock Harry, Joe and I stopped 
‘to rest in the bottom of a little coulée, sitting 
‘down on the side of a road that led out into 
the bottoms. We had not seen either of the 
other two since lunch, though we had heard 
'Billy’s rifle once or twice. 
| While we sat there lamenting the lack of 
‘wolves and game in general, we heard the 
‘peculiar “bang” of George’s goose-gun, then 
in a minute came the crack of Billy’s rifle. We 
‘all started to our feet as a swift patter came 
‘down the road. Large bodies move slowly, and 
‘Harry had hardly got on his feet, when three 
‘grayish wolves sprang past Joe and I and 
dashed plump into him, rolling him over and 
over in the snow. Before they reached the 
‘mouth of the coulée Joe and I fired and had the 
satisfaction of seeing one turn end-over-end 
‘and drop. 
George and 
ing a wolf. George 

| 
Billy soon came up, each bring- 
had first seen the wolves 
‘crossing the coulée further up; his shot turned 
Wthem down the road, where, as they passed 
‘Billy, he dropped one. Joe and I divided honors 
on the third, for we had both shot at and hit 
\the same wolf. 
' That night as we steamed back to the city 
\with our three wolf skins, every one was per- 
‘fectly satisfied with the day’s fun except Harry, 
‘who had not pulled trigger once, for which we 
/chorused, “Let us be duly thankful!” 
J. L&£orric. 

| Rhode Island Notes. 
|} Provence, R. I., Nov. 9.—Editor Forest and 
Stream: The laws of compensation appear to 
‘be well illustrated in the game situation here; 
ruffed grouse are scarce and wild, quail not 
‘over plentiful, but woodcock, which are not 
‘much thought of, as they are mostly gone when 
the season opens here, are about two weeks 
late and furnish good sport for the hunters. 
| Wallace Fenner, Charles Stone, Geo. D. 
‘Dixon and William Hobson had good success 
lin the swamp east of Pippin Orchard in Cran- 
ston last week, securing eleven woodcock, 
three quail and three grouse. Stone and Fen 
ner separated from the rest of the party and 
ran across a pair of deer antlers, with seven 
prongs apiece, which had evidently lain in the 
|swamp grass since last February. This was 
an unusual find, and Mr. Stone was well 
pleased, as it is the first pair reported to have 
ibeen found in the State. 
| Chas. E. Harrison, of Pawtucket, and W. H. 
Chase, of Leominster, Mass., have returned 
from a trip to that Mecca of sportsmen, New- 
foundland, where they had a most successful 
hunt, one of Mr. Harrison’s deer heads having 
forty points. 
John 
eagle while 
Aldrich, of Providence, shot an 
cunning for partridge in the vicin- 
ity of East Greenwich last Friday afternoon. 
The bird weighed nine and a half pounds, and 
had a spread of six feet four inches from tip 
to tip, and will make a handsome mount. 
Many sportsmen are returning from the 
Maine woods, Adirondacks, etc., and all report 
good luck. Lieut. H. C. Miller, one of the 
sracks of the Providence Revolver Club, spent 
two weeks in the York State wilds and se- 
cured the full quota of deer. The story also 
somes from Maine that a Southbridge, Mass., 
man holds the record for time in making a 
<il! and landing the game in Boston. Alfred 
Allard left his camp at Moxie Lake at 7 
y’clock Wednesday morning, started a deer, 
Jropped him on the first shot, made a hurried 
-eturn to camp, packed up and caught his train, 
anding in Boston that night, 260 miles from 
he place of killing, and his buck, a handsome 
specimen, is said to be the first landed warm 
n Boston from the Moxie country. 
Coons are plentiful, Earl S. Pierce, of Clay- 
ville, having secured fifteen in his recent ex- 

FOREST AND STREAM. 
815 


cursions nearby, the largest weighing twenty- 
one pounds. Capt. Joseph P. Reilly, another 
of the Revolver Club’s crack men, also secured 
four in a recent night hunt, and killed all with 
his .38 caliber six-shooter. Ee 

Currituck Duck Shooting. 
Currituck, N. .C., Nev. 9—Editor Forest and 
Stream: On the opening day for duck shoot- 
ing at Currituek I was up before daylight, and 
with lunch, guns and large launch and skiff for 
decoys all ready. I went to my landing, and 
found my man down with malaria. So I got 
into a skiff with a small engine, and ran down 
to the court house, about four miles from me, 
and at 10 o’clock started out in a friend’s 
cabin launch to look at the shooting, 
Never in my life have I seen so many ruddy 
ducks or so tame; men in open boats, without 
hiding in any way, were getting some shoot- 
ing; ducks were everywhere. Two batteries 
that a gasoline launch was waiting on, had 
eighty ruddy at 12 o’clock; another battery 
had fifty-five at the same time. Yesterday-I 
was talking to a professional gunner, and he 
told me that he killed fifty on the first day. 
Practically no big ducks were killed, and I 
do not think many have been shot this season. 
The fact is that a large tract of the best shoot- 
ing ground, locally called the lump, is cov- 
ered with 
bush blinds and batteries, and as 

AN ENGLISH COAST PUNT GUNNER. 
‘ 
soon as it is daylight the shooting com- 
mences. The redheads and canvasbacks leave 
the sound by thousands and fly out to sea, and 
do not return until night. The number of pro- 
fessional gunners is so large that ducks have 
no place to rest in during the day. - 
It is a fact too plain to admit contradiction 
that we shall shortly have but little shooting 
here, and I only see three ways it can be im- 
proved. We must (1) limit the bag, or (2) 
put a license on batteries—as at Havre de 
Grace—or (3) forbid the sale of ducks. It 
would be a good thing if the rest days were 
increased, and shooting permitted only three 
days a week instead of four; that would give 
the ducks a little rest. ; 
I have been a duck shooter all my life, and 
know of wiat I speak. When a boy I lived 
on a tidal harbor, with thousands of acres of 
the very best ducking grounds, but the swivel 
guns drove all the ducks out of the harbor. 
They went to sea every morning and returned 
at night, except in very rough weather, and 
theh the punt guns got some good shooting, 
and on the bar between the harbor and the 
sea we used to get some fair flight shooting. 
I am now speaking of twenty-five years ago. 
I was back at the old place a few yeais since 
and there was hardly any shooting. This is 
now what is taking place here. I mean that 
the ducks cannot rest, and are obliged to go 
to sea in the day, and they can only be killed 
by firelighting. In certain parts of the sound 
that is done night after night. It is a fact 
that where ducks are shot at night with a punt 
eun or firelight, they will not decoy the next 
day. I have proved this time and again. 

Hardly any ducks have come to my side of 
the sound, except black ducks and mallard, 
and as yet the weather is too fine to drive 
them into the marshes. I have put out corn 
twice, in one of my ponds, but only killed a 
few summer ducks. 
Yesterday I saw some swan for the first 
time. There are a few geese; I shot two on 
Thursday. 
Deer and bear are very plentiful; a neighbor 
of mine trapped two bears last month. Quail 
are reported to have done well, and the coveys 
are said to be large, but shooting in this coun- 
try does not commence until Dec. I. 
If any sportsman cares for information as 
to shooting around here the editor has my 
address. 4-Bore. 

Experience with Hungarian Partridges. 
Sactinaw, Mich., Nov. 9.—Editor Forest and 
Stream: A year ago I ordered fifty pairs of 
Hungarian partridges from an importer at 
Yardley, Pa. Late in December these arrived 
in good condition. With the exception of one 
crate of eighteen birds, they were kept in con- 
finement until early in the spring. f 
Eighteen of them were sent to Bayport, 
where Mr. W. H. Wallace put out a coop in a 
wood lot, built around it a cornstalk shelter 
of some size, and then a cornstalk runway to 
a brush heap that was in the wooded lot not 
far away. One evening the coop was opened, 
a zood supply of food scattered in the corn- 
stalk inclosure, and the birds were left alone. 
They stayed around there all winter and made 
this their home. One was shot by a prowling 
Italian, but with that exception, the birds came 
into the spring hardy and strong. They soon 
disappeared, and evidently had mated, for late 
in the summer they began appearing again 
here and there with broods of little ones. The 
young were strong birds, wild as hawks, and 
seemed to fly when as small as ruffed grouse 
or even smaller. They seemed at home in 
the sugar beet fields and turnip patches. Along 
an old ditch a patch of buckwheat was left 
uncut. This was several hundred feet in length 
and about twenty feet wide., Mr. Wallace says 
that now in walking through it one is sure to 
put up several coveys of these birds. One 
covey in particular of over twenty birds he has 
noticed several times, and he is certain that in 
all there are over one hundred young ones as 
the result of this planting. 
In three other localities, broods of from 
sixteen to twenty young birds are reported, 
with prospects of more that have not been 
seen or could not be found. Whenever the 
birds were taken care of according to my di- 
rections they have succeeded. The losses which 
did occur in several instances came from care- 
lessness. 
My instructions for taking care of these 
birds were to make a pen of suitable size, so 
that they should have ample room; to set out 
an evergreen tree or two within the pen; to 
stand evergreens or cornstalks around so as 
to shade it to some extent, and to put e¢ver- 
greens or cornstalks over the top or roof, so 
the birds could not dash their heads against 
anything hard in the enclosure in flying up on 
account of a sudden scare. A closed pen, or 
shelter box, or house, was of course attached 
to this runway or enclosure. 
The reports have been that the birds so 
taken care of fared splendidly, and soon lost 
their shyness. 
They seem to be fond of vegetables, apples, 
lettuce, cabbage and small grain, and require 
plenty of water for drinking. 
I give my experience at this time, thinking 
others may want to try the experiment. These 
seem to be great game birds for our locality 
and I believe are going to do well, but of 
course we cannot tell until they have passed 
through their first winter after breeding. 
W. B. MersHon. 

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