268 

FOREST AND STREAM. 


Shot Gun and Rifle. 
GAME IN SEASON FOR DECEMBER. 


Caribou, Tarandus Rangifer.) 
Red Deer, Oaricus Virginianus.) 
Squirrels, Red Black and Gray.) 
Quail, Ortye Virginians.) 
Pinnated Grouse, Cupidoria Cupido.) 
All kinds of Wild Fowl. 
wae: A 
| Under the head of “Game, and Fish m Season”’ we can only specify m 
general tarms the several varieties, because the larvs of States vary so much. 
that were we to attempt to particularize we could do no less than publish 
those entire sections that relate to the kinds of gume in question. This 
would require a great amount of our space. In designating game we are 
quided by the lavws of nature, upon which all legislation is founded, and 
our readers would do well to provide themselves with the laws of their re- 
spective States for constant reference. Otherwise, our attempts to assist theme 
will only create confusion. | 
+ pa 
—At Shokan, Ulster County, a party of three went out 
shooting forces in what is called the Park Swamp, accom- 
panied by Mr. Sheppard and his hounds, killing 3 dog foxes 
and 2 vixens in three days. 
—Three guns and two dogs, at Deekertown, New Jersey, 
on the Midland Railroad, last week, counted out a bag of 
25 pheasants, 3 quail, 2 woodcock, and 21 rabbits. 
—At Montauk Point, L. I., three well known wild fowl 
shots, shot besides black duck and geese, seven mud geese, 
We think this must be the goose known by the name of 
Hutchin’s goose. 
—At Toronto on Thanksgiving Day, in the pigeon shoot- 
ing match for the Foresters’ challenge tea service, between 
James Glen, Jr., of Toronto, and Gilbert, of St. Thomas, 
the latter won, killing eighteen out of twenty-one birds, to 
Glen fifteen. 
—At Miller’s Island near Baltimore, there were over 
1,200 canvas back ducks shot last weck, principally by 
cunners for tie market. Sportsmen have but fair shooting, 
all the best points and grounds being leased. The Swamp 
Angels, used by the gunners, are generally of four to six 
bore and load ad iihitum. 
—At Turkey Point on the Eastern Shore near the mouth 
of the Susquehanna, there are two points about, 100 yards a 
part and excellent ground to get to before the birds come. 
Mr. Benton and a friend from Baltimore, killed on Friday 
and Saturday last 82 red heads, 7 black ducks and 24 canvas 
Moose, Alces Maichis.) 
Elk or Wapiti, Cervus Canadensis.) 
Rabbits. common Brown and Grey.) 
Wild Turkey, Meleagris gallopavo.) 
Ruffed Grouse, Bonasa wmbelius,} 
backs. 
—At Watson Hollow, last week, C. S. Rockwell and 
party, a well known bear hunter, killed 2 wild cats and shot 
at a panther, wounding him, but could not follow him up 
on account of snow drift. The party went out next morn- 
ing on home-made snow-shoes, but failed to find the track. 
Snow 18 inches on the level. Very few beech-nuts this 
year, so that the bears have moved into the Neversink 
Mountains. * 
—Judge C. E. P., of Prooklyn, returned last week from 
a shooting excursion in the southern part of Ohio, where 
he and three other gentlemen, with two setters, bagged 48 
dozen quail and 13 grouse in the course of nine days’ bush- 
beating. This is pretty good work. The Judge will stand 
a pretty close cross-examination as to the exact locality in 
Ohio where this was done, but we doubt if he can be in- 
duced to commit himself. Gunning in Ohio is apt to be 
dangerous bus%ness unless the sportsman is aquainted with 
” 
“the mar who owns the place. 
—Gunnery is not taught, it appears, in Dartmouth Col- 
Jere, Several students of that venerable institution being 
out shooting lately, found a coon in a tree. They shot at 
the animal 24 times without hitting him, while he sneered 
at their clumsiness from his perch. At last, coming down, 
having lost all patience at being killed so clumsily, he went 
for those literary young men. Longthe battleraged. The 
stock of a $250 gun was shivered. Coonie died at last, for 
the odds against him were fearful. He was one of the 
heaviest characters of his class, and weighed 30 pounds and 
six ounces over. 
We take this trom the Zvridune. Whether the word 
“class” in the last sentence refers to coons, or to the under- 
graduates of Dartmouth, we are not prepared to say. 
PIGEON SHOOTING. 
—A large party of gentlemen met on November 29th at 
Port Morris to witness a pigeon match between the two 
crack amateurs, Mr. Ernest Staples and Mr. Louis Living- 
ston, of Columbia county, New York, at 20 single birds, 
Tra Paine’s best, for $400, 14 shot, 21 yards rise, 80 yards 
boundary. 
THE SCORE. 
tt ee rt Ve Fen ea Reg fy 1 et gt TO 
0, 1, 1, 1—Total, 20. Killed, 17; missed, 3. 
AALVENGSTON——0 al 0 Oy seliypell gt Ope en align diam Laity 
0, 0, 0—Total, 18. Killed, 9; missed, 9. 
Staples won the choice and went to the front first. 
Livingston, having no chance, gave up the match when 
Staples had shot at 20 birds. 
—The simultaneous rifle match between Captain Davis’ 
Highland Company, Dundee, Scotland, and No. 2 Com- 
pany, 13th Battlion, Hamilton, Ont., twelve men on each 
side, which took place in October, has, according to scores 
just received, resulted ina victory for the Highlanders by 
two points. This company has the reputation of never 
having been beaten in any match, and is one of the best in 
Scotland. The firing took place at ranges of 200, 500, and 
600 yards, five shots at each range. The total score made 
by the Highlanders was 511, while that of the Hamilton 
Volunteers was 509. The highest score made by any indi- 
vidual member was by Private Thomas Mitchell, of Ham- 
ilton, who made 50 points, three more than the highest 
score made by anyone in the Highland Company. ‘The 
lowest score made was 35, recorded for one of the High- 
landers. At the 200 yardsrange Hamilton scored five more 
SraPLEs—O, 1, 1, 

The 
than the Scotchmen, and at 500 yards eight more. 
Canadians have no reason to feel ashamed of their score.— 
Toronto Globe. 
—Our frequent correspondent, Isaac McClellan, who has 
been shooting recently in Northeastern Virginia, on the 
peninsula between the Chesapeake and Atlantic, made his 
headquarters at the little hamlet of Hastville, which he 
speaks well of as affording good accommodation for sports- 
men. Among other experiences with the numerous 
varieties of wild fowl, he mentions the swan, which he 
claims is by long odds the noblest fowl to be found on the 
coast of North Carolina and the Chesapeake. ‘‘It is some- 
thing like sport,” he says, ‘‘to dropabird weighing some 
eighteen pounds, with a six feet extent of pinions. These 
great fowl, especially the cygnets, are esteemed very deliciuos 
for the table, and far superior to the goose. They collect 
there in great numbers, and we have seen a line of them 
extending for more than the space of a mile, and looking 
like a long reef of breakers, or a ridge of snow-drift. They 
are hard to kill, and require to be hit with very coarse shot, 
mould or T shot, before they yield up life. But once drop 
them in the water and they are easily got, as they do not 
dive, but reach their food with their long necks in shallow 
water. 
The swans, early in September, leave the shores of the 
Polar Sea and resort to lakes and rivers in and about Hud- 
son’s Bay, where they remain until October. They then 
collect in flocks of fifteen or twenty, and mounting high in 
air, in a wedge shape, depart with loud screams for a more 
genial southern climate. They fly with great rapidity, at 
the estimated rate of one hundred miles in the hour, which 
is about double that of the goose. They do not, like the 
geese, follow the line of sea coast, but fly far inland, usually 
reaching their feeding-grounds at night; and the first signal 
of their arrival is given the next morning by a universal 
clamor. They seem to be greeting each other with their 
musical notes after their completed journey. When settled 
on their feeding grounds, they do not forsake them, unless 
driven away by very severe weather. 
In the Chesapeake the wild swan collect in large flocks of 
hundreds feeding over extensive flats on the duck-grass, 
worms, insects and shell-fish. They are found from the 
mouth of the Chesapeake to the capes of Virginia, but do 
not pass southward of Hatteras inlet. We have seen a few 
flocks of them in the bays of Jersey, but have never met 
with them in the waters of Long Island. They feed with 
the geese, but do not fly with them. When crippled and 
caught they are easily tamed, and we have had them, at the 
south, in our door-yards stalking majestically among the 
tame wild-geese and other domestic fowl.” 
Mauaea, Gloucester Co., New Jersey, Nov. 
Eprror or Forest AND STREAM :— 
Mr. Miller, our secretary, forwarded me your letter of 
the 7th, making inquiries as to our Game Protective Society. 
I forward a copy of Acts of incorpor?tion, constitution 
and by-laws, which will fully explain its object. Our 
society is yet in its infancy, having been organized only 
abont six months. We have now about 224 non-resident 
members. Of course, our non-resident membership will 
largely exceed the resident members, since the residents of 
other States cannot shoot in the counties coming within 
the provision of our Act unless they connect themselves 
with our association. The funds received can be used for 
no other purpose than restocking. : 
At a meeting of the Directors, held in the city of Camdem, 
Saturday, November 22d, the President was authorized to 
purchase 1,000 pairs of live quail, to be put out in March 
next, in the counties of Camden, Gloucester, Atlantic, 
Cumberland, and Cape May. 
Game, (quail and deer), are quite plenty in this section. 
Deer in Atlantic, and quail in all the lower counties, with 
quite a number of partridges. Over 150 deer have been 
killed in Atlantic County since November ist within a 
radius of twenty miles from this place. Season for deer 
hunting closes December 1st. The writer killed a fine 
buck in Atlantic county on Saturday last, twelve miles 
east from these works. A friend, J. E. Sharp, of Philadel- 
phia, and myself, were out yesterday, (Thanksgiving Day), 
and bagged forty-six quail and two partridges, not open 
field shooting, but all—except a few covey shots—made in 
the scrub oak and second growth timber. In haste, 
Yours, W.B. RosenBAum, 
‘President West Jersey Game Protective Society.” 
**—An ‘‘Old Hand” sends us the following sketch from 
Dallas County, lowa:— 
The prairie hen or pinnated grouse is lawful game in 
most ot the States between the middle of August and the 
first of January, but the season closes in reality about the 
first of November, on account of the birds getting so wild 
that but few care tohuntthem. But for the sportsman who 
does not mind working for his game and who delights in 
trying his own skill and the excellence of his gun on a full- 
grown bird at long range, there are occasionally days on 
which the sport is splendid. You get up some morning 
and find it clear and frosty, but you know it will be warm 
and still for three hours during the middle of the day; so 
by sun up or a little later you are on some knoll on the edge 
of the prairie watching; you see grouse flying everywhere 
from one alone to perhaps a thousand together; they alight 
in the cornfields mostly, though some come down on the 
prairie again. Look! yonder come a dozen; they will fly 
right over you; no, they swerve fifty yards to one side and 
pass you like bullets, single out your bird, hold your feet 
in front, and when he is barely opposite, cut loose. Fol- 
lowing the crack of the gun you hear a sharp whack as the 
shot strike and you haye tumbled an old cock into the grass. 
2th, 78. 


\ 
You have, of course, marked down as many of the birds as 
possible; let them feed an hour and then drive them up. 
They will rise very wild and the only object in flushing 
them is to see them down where they will take their noon- 
day siesta. Now you may go to the house—or more likely 
to your wagon—rest and get through with your lunch so as 
to be in the field by twelve o’clock, sharp. You go direct 
to where you marked some birds down in the morning. .At 
about fifty yards ahead up spring the birds with a terrible 
clucking and rushing of wings. Quick! no time for parley 
now! cover and cut loose as quickly as you can! There 
you have winged one and hurt another one that will fly out 
of sight and die. 
If you use a muzzle-loader you will get no more shots 
there, but you can load a breech-loader before the few that 
still stick, will rise. When you get these up let the dog 
hunt the ground for a hundred yards all around where they 
rose, and he will probably get you a half dozen shots at a 
thirty yards rise; and if your gun is good and you are any 
sort of a shot, you will get every one. Now go for that 
pack of five hundred you saw down on yonder hill-side a 
mile away. You get half way there when your dog, which 
is a hundred yards in advance, flushed one. Serves you 
right for not keeping him in; they won’t lay to dogs now. 
Dash lays down and waits till youcome up. You goa 
little further, when up gets one right under your feet. 
Hold on! you'll miss entirely or cut him to shreds if you 
don’t give him at least twenty yards. At the crack of your 
gun there is a cloud of feathers and the bird has disappear- 
ed; but there goes another crossing you forty yards ahead, 
aim two feet ahead and you will bring him. The grass 
seems to be literally alive with them, and they get up 
faster than you can take them till you have bagged seven 
or eight. You go on till you get within three or four hun- 
dred yards of ‘‘ that big pack” when they go off in a body 
and don’t give you a shot. It is now nearly two o’clock 
and the birds are getting hungry again. However, if you 
are not too tired you can find some more scattered ones 
that will add a few to your bag; but after three o’clock it 
is useless to pursue them; besides you have now bagged 
ten or twelve brace and ought to be satisfied. If you are 
not, your attention will be attracted to a few flocks of mal- 
lards that are flying over an adjacent cornfield. Repairing 
thence you build a blind by lacing two corn hills together 
and cutting stalksand leaning against them. Hurry, for the 
ducks are coming fast. A thousand have already alighted, 
and as many more are already hovering over them. Now 
you sre ready. Wait till they droop their wings to alight. 
Now! There you’ve brought down, four with one barrel, 
and one with the other. Now retrieve and wait for another 
shot. You don’t wait long; and so the sport goes on till 
after sundown, and you have bagged fifteen, and frighten- 
ed nearly all the rest away. Honk! Honk! remove your 
cartridges and put in a couple charged with four drachms 
of powder and one and a half oz. of ones or 00 shot. Lie 
close now, they have been alarmed and are looking for you. 
They pass sixty yards to the left; aim at the leader’s head 
and let him have it. There! a lucky shot has broken his 
neck. The rest hurdle together affrighted and you put 
your left right in. You hear the charge strike but no bird 
falls; look sharp! others are coming down. He falls in a 
slough a quarter of a mile off, but you are sure Dash can 
find him, and sure enouzh he does after trailing a long 
ways. You now go to the wagon tired out and hungry as 
one ever needs to get. You count your bag and find 19 
grouse, 15 ducks and 2 geese, the latter weighing 12 and 16 
lbs. respectively. 
In conclusion, I will say that this is no imaginary sketch, 
but is a faithful account of one day’s shooting, and is not 
the best day’s work that has been done here either, though 
it is among the best. In conclusion, J will say that for this 
late shooting one should use a 10 or 12 guage not shorter 
than 23 inches. Use 384 drachms powder and 14 oz. of No. 
6 shot. Use two pink edge wads on top of powder; or 
what is better, one wad of new harness leather next to 
powder, and pink edge wad on that, as the felt wad will 
blow to pieces if used with a heavy charge. 


A Herorne.—A girl of fourteen, daughter of John Nich- 
ols, of the town of Albion, has proved herself made of the 
heroic stuff. Going into the woods afew days since with 
a five-year-old brother nutting, they became lost, and were 
compelled to remain all night without shelter. To protect 
her little brother, she stripped off her outer garments, and, 
soothing him to quiet and sleep in her arms, sat through 
the long hours while her own limbs were freezing. When 
found the next forenoon she was unable to stand on her 
feet, but the physician hopes to be able to preserve her life 
and limbs, a hope which will be heartily re-echoed wher- 
ever the story is known. 

<> Of 
—Late advices from China say that another of those anti- 
foreign placards against foreigners has been posted on the 
walls of Wu-chang, setting forth how the foreign devils en- 
tice children to their schools and they are never seen any 
more alive or otherwise. There is an absurd story about 
the children being taken to the upper flats of the foreigners’ 
houses, and there being deprived of life, and afterwards of 
brains and eyes to make up some sort of barbarian medi- 
cine. 

—<8> 6 
—‘The melancholy days are come” when defunct pork- 
ers, with ‘‘the ends of their nose and the tips of their toes 
turned up to the roots of the daises” (where they will never 
more root hog nor die) are carried through the streets, cob 
in mouth, to be tucked away with buckwheat cakes. : 
* a 
—Bunches of autumn leaves are said to be very beauti- 
ful evening decorations, if a lighted candle be set behind 
them. Ifthe flame of the candle be allowed to touch one 
of them the brilliancy of the display is greatly increased. 
} 
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