Dec. 7, 1907.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
897 

_ 
| 
| whatever it is that protects them has these beau- 
tiful birds in his careful keeping. We can 
readily believe that in the future, as in the past, 
| these wise and wary ones will rise to the oc- 
: : : az 
casion and will long survive to adorn our forests 
and make glad the hearts of coming generations 
of sportsmen. 

| There is one device that is occasionally re- 
sorted to by these birds that is the same to-day 
as in the olden time, for the reason, I presume, 
that it is so uniformily successful that there is 
no reason for abandoning it. This trick is done 
by doubling on its trail; for the trail your dog 
is so persistently following leads straight on, and 
while one is meditatively calculating the chances 
in front, the bird has swung around the circle. 
One fondly expects to see it rise from an in 
viting looking spot just ahead. Suddenly, with 
a thundrous racket, it bursts into the air just 
behind the pursuer. 
and then kick the dog; for this appears to be the 
Shoot! of course you shoot, 
orthodox wind up of such a failure and is about 
the only satisfaction you can get out of the affair 
unless, like me, you have become so accustomed 
to the maneuver that you just give a_ short 
whistle of surprise and upon the whole rather 
enjoy the performance. One is not more than 
half sorry that the brave bird was successful in 
the bold artistic strategy that well deserved the 
victory so fairly won. 
It is not always thus, however, for I have had 
a large experience in this line and have so 
schooled my nerves, that when this dodge is 
sprung on me, it often that the old 
gun jumps to the proper position, the trigger is 
pulled at the proper and the wily 
trickster doubles up in air, there is a pride and 
joy in my heart that, I am free to confess, is 
somewhat more satisfactory than is the afore- 
chances 
time, as 
said enjoyment when the honors count on the 
other side. 
Partridges often seek to escape the hunter 
by taking shelter in the branches of trees. I 
have read columns of choice rhetoric and argu- 
the 
found, 
of shooting them 
first routed 
from their perch and given a chance for their 
life. 1 deeply regret that I have never had op- 
portunity to take note of the behavior of one 
practice 
thev 
ment against 
when thus unless are 
of these exponents of fair play, when under fire, 
and of course cannot say whether the feeling 
that prompts the rhetoric is born of an inherent 
love for the beauty of the principles involved in 
the question as expounded by them and is so 
well grounded that it would stand the test of 
actual contact with that most alluring tempta- 
tion that so forcibly appeals to the grosser feel- 
ings of our nature when the eager eye catches 
a glimpse of that living picture, immovable as 
a statue, perched within fair gunshot on yonder 
branch. For the sake of all that is pure and 
good in the make-up of poor, weak mortality, I 
most sincerely hope and trust that the culmina- 
tion of such an episode will bring added strength 
to the heaven-born feeling, as well as added days 
for our beautiful friend in the treetop. 
[TO BE CONTINUED. ] 

An Outing in Virginia. 
Mr. R. M. HotttncsHeEAD, of Riverton, N. J., 
and Mr. R. M. Bagley, of Philadelphia, with 
their wives, have just returned from gunning 
at Bagley Farm, Bagley’s Mills, County of Lun- 
enburg. 
Mr. Bagley’s father is the owner of Bagley 
Farm, a large game preserve containing many 
acres of fine game lands. The ladies are said 
to be excellent shots, and judging from their 
well filled game bags they had good success. 
They acknowledge having killed 150 quail, a 25- 
pound wild turkey, a few woodcock, rabbits and 
squirrels. 
Horses were used while gunning which 
caused some amusing incidents. Mrs. Hollings- 
head declared that riding in the regulation style 
over the hills and gullies was too much for her 
equilibrium. She therefore rode astride, which 
astonished and perhaps shocked the good people 
of Bagley’s Mills. 
The most serious mishap was when Mrs. Bag- 
ley fell into the creek. She had fired at a wild 
turkey without giving due notice to the horse 
she was riding, and as the turkey fell almost on 
her the horse became frightened and plunged 
headlong into the creek. 
The party went ‘possum hunting one night 
with an old ’possum hunter in charge. In less 
than half an hour after they were in the dense 
forests four fine "possums had been caught and 
all agreed that ‘possums seemed to be the pre- 
vailing game in Virginia. It developed later that 
Mr. Bagley, Sr., had played a joke on the party 
by having the old hunter set free in the woods 
the ‘possums which had previously been caught. 
A lot of walking was thus saved. Mr. Hollings- 
head and Mr. Bagley say the estate on which 
they shot abounds in all kinds of good game, 
and that the season promises to be very good. 
They regret that Mr. Hollingshead did not get 
the big buck he shot at, and that their limited 
visit did not allow him another chance. 
A New Phase of the Deer Question. 
Minerva, N. Y., Nov. 28.—Editor Forest and 
Stream: It seems curious that the price of 
liberty should be eternal vigilance, but such is 
still the fact. In this part of the Adirondacks 
we are up against a new phase of the deer ques- 
tion—one concerning which we feel the need of 
informing the public. As you know, our season 
last year and this, too, was full four weeks 
shorter than for a number of years previous. 
This had several bad effects. It was not so in- 
tended, but it did the mischief just the same. 
First, the season being so much shorter, the 
woods were constantly full of men, and the men 
who were in there got in one another’s way, and 
consequently these two seasons men heard rifle 
bullets sing as they never did before. In it there 
was danger for the man, while the deer, being 
liable to meet a hunter or hunters at any and 
every turn, hid in all sorts of inaccessible places 
to remain till the shooting stopped, and the hunt- 
ing season closed. Then at once the report went 
out that the deer were decreasing in numbers 
despite the fact that they were more plenty in 
this region than at any time before in thirty 
years, but it gave us a bad name. The argu- 
ment was made use of by some of the pro- 
hounders for all it was worth, but not by all of 
them, for many of them knew the real truth 
about the matter. By the way, I myself saw be- 
tween snow off and season open, thirty-two deer 
in fields and woods, the most I have seen in a 
single summer since 1897. I did not count any 
I saw near ponds. 
While we had a ten weeks’ hunting season the 
hunters all said “There is plenty of time yet to 
hunt,” and as a result hunters did not often get 
in each other’s way. Last year and this it was 
different. Men went to the hunting grounds 
of this and other sections in droves, and “hav- 
ing great wrath because they knew they had but 
4 short time.’ It reminded one of the Long 
Island deer hunts, the men were so eager and 
keen to slay. That more gunshot accidents did 
not happen was largely due to the fact that many 
wore some kind of green clothing, which could 
not be mistaken, instead of some fool shade of 
deer color. Owing to this few such accidents 
happened. 
There is another effect of the shortened sea- 
son which may hurt our hunting most seriously. 
It is the number of “ne’er-do-wells” from neigh- 
boring counties who come in here, camp in our 
deer forests all summer, do pretty much as they 
like, are not at all above violating the game laws 
or any other laws, for that matter, and stay 
there till, at the end of the deer season, they 

think they have to go home, and the mischief 
some of them do is great. They keep the deer 
stirred up so that the tourist and his guide have 
only second chance. The game protector has 
his hardest work with these men, many of whom 
are practiced poachers and game sharps of the 
most undesirable kind. Largely coming from the 
tough element they are some of them a danger- 
ous kind, only to be coped with by men just as 
brave as they are desperate. Sometimes they 
cut logs on public lands and build themselves 
log shanties and live there a large part of the 
year. And the shortened open season leaves 
them whole weeks more when some of them feel 
secure from being disturbed by any one. Back 
into the depths of the forests for miles they go, 
and when the resident is working on his farm these 
men are living off the wild game many of them. 
The hotel men view this with alarm, for it 
helps spoil their tourist business. This, with 
the taking off the two first weeks of November 
from the hunting season hurts their business and 
throws the advantages all into the hands of what 
I may for once call the “Robin Hood” element 
to the injury of the tourist interests. 
The most of the deer were killed here in 
November. Granted. And they have increased 
to their present number under a ten weeks’ sea- 
son, Sept. 1 to Noy. 15, inclusive. The question 
is, shall we, by unwise legislation, favor the poacher 
element at the expense of those who guide and 
board tourists, or shall we adopt some regula- 
tions which favor the tourist and his friends, and 
see that those regulations are obeyed? 
One remedy proposed is to secure an abundant 
and more active force of game protectors. This 
would be well, if it could be done. Another is 
to organize the resident law-abiding element into 
a sportsmen’s association, and let those fellows 
know that it is done for the purpose of protect- 
ing our deer forests from the all-summer poacher 
by standing in with the authorities aiding them 
when necessary, and educating the public up to 
a healthy sentiment on the subject of game pro- 
tection to freeze out the “sooners” and by every 
reasonable means to see that our deer supply 
does not again get short. 
“Our bread and butter,” said a prominent hotel 
man the other day, “is here and much of it lays 
in maintaining our deer and trout supply, and 
enlarging each to its highest carrying point.” 
Ropney WEST. 


Notes on Old Rifles. 
Mr. Hervey L. ALLEN, of Prince’s Bay, S. I. 
through whose kindness the Boone and Crockett 
Club received the little muzzle-loading squirrel 
rifle, made about 1846, has sent us the following 
interesting note on the manufacture of firearms 
in the earlier half of the last century: 
“In 1848 Samuel Colt moved to Hartford, 
Conn., and prior to 1852 occupied two different 
shops. In 1852-55 the present armory was built. 
“Tt is not unusual to get hold of an old rifle 
that was built by some of the old shops with 
no manufacturer’s mark on it. When I was a 
boy I used to shoot a rifle that was one of twelve 
Maynards, that were supposed to be the ideal 
of perfection. The barrel maker, lock maker, 
stock maker and so on just went in together 
and got out their different parts as time would 
allow, and as each helped the other there were 
twelve rifles that came out as perfect as human 
skill could make them, and the manufacturers 
did not lose one penny, and never knew but that 
the name was engraved on the guns. The rifle 
I used was captured by J. C. Deacon. He and 
old man Horsford and my father were old shoot- 
ing companions, and Horsford, the naturalist, 
and Deacon, the taxidermist and mechanic, 
thought it was about the proper thing to leave 
the rifle at our farm so that we might shoot 
woodchucks with it, as we lived in the lower 
part of Northampton. It was not much out of 
the way for Horsford and Deacon to come from 
Chicopee and Springfield to enjoy the shooting 
on our side of Mt. Tom.” 
This was B. Horsford, a great observer of 
natural life. He will be especially well remem- 
bered by ForEST AND STREAM readers of a gen- 
eration ago as the author of an account of the 
wild hog of Hamden. 

