
—At Merrick Bay. near Smithsville, Long Island, is an 
excellent plave for shooting the great-head duck, as the 
food in this bay is the great attraction for the wild fowl. 
It consists of the small mussel and the still smaller scollop. 
What has caused this molusk to degenerate in size we can- 
not conceive. At the same time it is fat, plump and juicy, 
and abounds immense numbers. Most wild fowl require 
very little extent of water as long as they have grass hum- 
mocks to walk about and feed in. No more fresh water is 
necessary than is suflicient to wash and drink in, which 
they generally obtain from the little streams which empty 
into the many bays surrounding our coast. The brant 
seems to eat scarcely anything but sedge grass, snails and 
worms, though preferring the inland snail and worm to 
that of the seashore. He is a far more graceful bird on 
land than the black duck, for quick and active as the lat- 
ter is in the water, his great flat feet, placed far behind, are 
of little service to him in walking. Wild fowl, like human 
beings, will always congregate in numbers where they can 
procure the food best suited to their habits and tastes. 
Study nature, and you will find that it rarely ever leads 
astray. There are no mallards down at Merrick Bay, a few 
geese, and fair brant shooting, but the great-head duck is 
by far the most numerous. Jim Baldwin, the gunner, is an 
excellent wild fowl ‘‘caller,” his imitation of ‘thonk, honk” 
and ‘‘R-rui, r-rut” of the brant being simply natural. The 
charges are moderate, boats, stools, and every appliance 
fora good day’s spori, $4,00. 
—A grand rifle and pistol tournament will take place in 
the gallery of I. S. Conlin, 930 Broadway, commencing on 
January 12, 1874, and ending February 21. The particu- 
lars as to rules governing shooting and competitors will ap- 
pear in our next issue. 
—The members of the Long Island Gun Club met to- 
gether at Dexter s, Long Island, on Saturday last to partici- 
pate in a sezies of handicap pigeon matches. The shooting 
of Ira Paine at 25 yards, killing 9 out of 10, was excellent, 
as two of the birds were killed at at least 40 yards. The 
birds were of the usual kind. ! 
Handicap sweepstakes at 10 yards, 14 ounces of shot, 80 
yard’s boundary; Long Island rules. 
Ira A. Paine, 25 yards—1,'1, 1, 1, 0, 1, 1, 1, 1—Shot at 
9, killed 8. 
Mr. Hatch, 19 yards—1, 1, 1, 1, 0, 1, 1, 0, 0O—Shot at 
9, killed 6. : 
Mr. Deforrest, 21 yards—1, 1, 1, 0, 1, 0, 1, 1, 0—Shot 
at 9, kiled 6. 
Messrs. Hatch and Deforrest then shot off their tie to de- 
cide who should pay for the birds, miss to pay. Mr. De- 
forrest, 1, 1, 1; Mr: Hatch, 1, 1, .0: 
Handicap match at 10 birds, same conditions. 
Mr. Deforrest, at 21 yards—1, 1, 0, 1, 0, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1— 
Shot at 10, killed 8. : 
Mr. Hatch, 19 yards—0, 0, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 0—Shot at 
9, killed 6. 
Handicap match at 10 birds, same conditions. 
Tra A. Paine, 25 yards—i, 1, 0, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1—Shot 
at 9, killod 8. 
Mr. Deforrest, 21 yards—l, 1, i, 0, 1, 0, 0O—Shot at 7, 
killed 4. 
Match at five birds, 21 yards rise, 1} ounces shot, 80 yards 
boundary, Long Island rules. 
Mr. Hatch—1, 1, 1, 1—Shot at 4 birds, killed all. 
Mr. Post—1, 0, 1, 1, 0—Shot at 5 birds, killed 3. 
Handicap sweepstakes at five birds, 14 ounces of shot, 80 
yards boundary; Paine to use both barrels, otherwise Long 
Island rules. F 
Mr. Hatch, 21 yards—1, 1, 1, 0, 1—Shot at 5, killed 4. 
Mr. Deforrest, 25 yards—i, 1, 0, 0, 1—Shot at 5 killed 3. 
Mr. Post, 21 yards—0, 0, 1, 1—Shot at 4, killed 2. 
Tra A. Paine, 30 yards—0, 0, 0, 0—Shot at 4 birds. 
Referees—Messrs. Staples and Miller. 
Ira Paine shot with a 10-bore Dougall. 
—The three best points for fowl shooting on the New 
Jersey coast are at Brigantine, Barnegat and Long Beach, 
and capital sport can be had in November and December, 
March and April, as geese and brant are passing sonthward 
in the fall and migrating northward to their breeding 
grounds in the early spring, the numerous bays and inlets 
affording good resting places and feeding grounds in which 
they tarry during their vernal and autumnal journeys. 
On the state of the wind depends toa great extent the 
success of thesportsman. As the bayman says, ‘“‘any wind 
_but from the northwest, and any tide but low water in the 
early morning.” In addition to geese and brant, the fowler 
can have the canvas back, red neck, black and broad bill 
duck as game, and while stooling for larger fowl, will have 
ducks of all descriptions visit his decoys. 
To enjoy good shooting at Long Beach one needs but to 
write to the proprietor of the Carlton House at Fuckerton, 
to engage his bay-man, and there is scarcely a choice be- 
tween Sam Shrods and Hays Jones, alias ‘‘Dad,” although 
Sam Smith and Joe Shrods are as frequently employed by 
the fowler, each having his favorite. 
A word of advice to the sportsmen wishing to try the 
November or December shooting at Little Egg Harbor. 
Take plenty of wraps wherewith to keep warm, and do not 
forget thick woolen stockings and rubber boots reaching 
well up the thigh. 
In our next issue we shall publish a letter from a cor- 
respondent giving some shooting experiences at Little Egg 
Harbor. 
—The Exeter, Canada, Zimes is informed by Mr. Charles 
Morris that he dug out on his farm afew days ago, a moose 
horn of wonderful dimensions; at the base or root it meas- 
ured two feet in circumference, and was over three feet in 
length, a couple of feet haying been broken off, 

FOREST AND STREAM: - 
—The Association for the Protection of Game met on 
Monday evening last, Royal Phelps, Esq., presiding. Mr. 
Phelps reported that nine suits were pending for violations 
of the game laws, and announced that the Southside Club 
was giving its most hearty codperation, having caused the 
arrest of several trout poachers, and that the appointment 
of game constables was already doing a great deal of good. 
Mr. Phelps dwelt on the fact that other States were uniting 
in the general work of preserving game, and cited the Mis- 
souri Sportsmen’s Club and Game Law Association as hav- 
ing just been organized with the same view. The particu- 
lar case of a certain person of Randolph, Cattaraugus Co., 
N. Y., who had offered to Mr. Thomas, a well known res- 
taurant keeper in New York, trout at $1,50 during the close 
season, and Mr. Thomas’ letter declining the offer, was read, 
Mr. Thomas’ letter informing the person who was attempt- 
ing to infringe on the game laws that there was a penalty 
of $25 for each trout sold or had in possession between the 
15th day of September and the 15th day of March. The 
following important resolution, proposed by Mr. White- 
head, was passed: 
Resolwed, That the society learns with regret that the open 
season for taking trout in the State of Maine was extended 
by the last Legislature of that State from October 1 to Oc- 
tober 15; that in our opinion such change is injurious to the 
fisheries of that State, as it leaves trout exposed during two 
weeks of their spawning season, and we respectfully call 
the attention of the fishermen and legislators of that State 
to this subject. 
We sincerely trust the authorities of the State of Maine 
will see how suicidal it is to their interests to give the trout 
in their State no time for breeding, and that the measures 
in regard to trout, advocated by the Forrest anp SrREAM 
in this particular case, will have a most careful considera- 
tion. 
—What country school boy does not remember those 
glorious winter days when he ‘‘played hookey” and went 
rabbit hunting in the soft feathery snow! When there was 
a fall sufficiently deep for tracking, it was hard to resist the 
temptation to follow a trail that crossed the path. And if 
we did play truant occasionally, where was the blame? 
Didn’t we gain more in health and general knowledge of 
the woods and of natural history than we would have 
gained from our books in the confined air of the little red 
school house? We knew it and felt it, and we were therefore 
loth to be adjudged guilty in these matters, albeit we did 
. entice our fellows to run away with us; and we enjoyed the 
sport, too, with such zest that this fact of itself should be 
accepted as prima facie evidence that we were innocent of 
crime. Naughty children can’t be happy you know. In- 
deed we. felt the excitement the more keenly be 
cause of the necessity to use stealth in getting our dogs 
and guns out; and generally we went home with well filled 
game bags, which, by the way, was seldom the case when 
we went by permission. This is another strong point for 
the defence. Nevertheless, our yells and hunahs were 
often hushed in the height of the chase if we happened to 
see any one who would be likely to tell the ‘tgovernor,” 
for whenever he found out where we had been our hunt 
was very apt to be supplemented by a whaling voyage in 
the evening. 
But men as wellas boys relish the pastime ot rabbit 
shooting, and the above train of thought was started by a 
letter from an occasional correspondent, which we append 
herewith: f 
CENTREVILLE, Inp., Dec., 1873. 
Epiror Forrest anp STREAM:— 
Last week snow deep enough for tracking fell, and with 
dogs and guns we went hunting. We kept the dogs in the 
rear when we followed a track, and let the rabbit start up 
and get about four rods off, when we fired, and had the 
pleasure of seing it turna somersault in the air. We sel- 
dom missed a shot, and when we did, the dogs gave chase_ 
and usually picked it up. But I have seen some old rab- 
bits that gave a dog all he wanted to do to catch it, and 
sometimes more than he could do, for in spite of all our 
dogs one would occasionally get away from us, as they are 
good at dodging and turning, and confuse a dog, but in an 
open field a rabbit will seldom get away. in one brier 
patch of no more than three acres, we started up fifteen 
and shot ten of them, the others getting into a hole in the 
bank. We bagged ten’ apiece for each gun in less than 
~half a day. At this season of the year, and before the deep 
snows of the winter have: fallen, the rabbits are fat and in 
good order, and I have killed them in corn fields so fat that 
they were not good eating. I consider a rabbit pie the 
perfection of good things. I have hunted along an osage 
hedge, one man, with gun and dog on each side, and in 
one mile of hedge I have killed forty rabbits. Unless there 
be a man on either side of the hedge, but little game will 
be ixilled, as they dart through, and neither man nor dog 
can follow. In patches of blackberry and elder bushes, in 
high grass or along brooks and drains, and in corn fields, 
rabbits abound, and afford fine sport, but in the neighbor- 
hood of hay stacks, bridges and blind drains, it is not 
worth while to hunt them, as they take refuge in these 
places, and it will not pay to dislodge them. ALM... 
—The Toronto Gun Club enjoyed its first annual dinner 
last week. A goodly company was present. In reply toa 
toast, Mr. Bell, the president, alluded to the success of the 
past year, and said that he would be gladto see the Wim- 
bledon regulations adopted entirely at ranges throughout 
the country. This club was organized in 1868. 
—Duck shooting is nearly over on the Potomac. On 
last week a party of gentlemen consisting of Col. Lewis, 
Thos. Chapman, Capt. Chapman, Courtland Smith and 
Alex. Hunter, met with fine sport at Craney Island, twenty 
‘ficient to determine the value of the missile. 
283 
miles below Alexandria on the Potomac, shooting ducks 
by decoys. The best day’s shooting was done by Colonel 
Lewis and Thomas Chapman, they killing fifty-four ducks, 
sing!e shots, on the wing. All the professional duckers 
have left the river, fearing to be caught in the freeze which 
is daily expected. Most of the ducks killed‘on the Poto- 
mac are the ‘‘shuffler.’” The canvas back and red head 
are most rare this season. 
—Our brief mention in No, 16 of this paper, page 251, of 
an admirable, simple, and apparently effective explosive 
bullet, has elicited the following letter from its distinguish- 
ed inventor. We are gratified with the testimony afforded 
by the actual experimental data given, which we think suf- 
Still we are 
sufficiently interested in the invention to wish for all addi- 
tional light we can obtain: 
New York, December 5, 1873. 
Eprror Forrsr anp STREAM:— 
On page 251 of your most interesting journal is a descrip- 
tion of the best, most accurate, and cheapest explosive bul- 
let known, with an account of its usual effect on game, 
This combination of a rim-fire, metallic cartridge with a 
hollow bullet, was invented independently by General M. 
C. Meigs, U, 8. A., and by myself. 
As Lhad slight priority, it was patented by me in 1872. 
Simple as it is, its adoption was the result of much thought 
and many experiments with more dangerous explosives, in- 
cluding nitro-glycerine, from 1869 to the present time. The 
progress of invention is uniformly from complex to sim- 
ple, not the reverse, and as soon as a discovery has been 
worked out, all wonder that no one thought of it before. 
General Meigs was familiar with the history of explosive 
bullets which have been in use for forty years. My own 
efforts were directed to adapt the artillery shell to small 
arms. The fact that we both hit upon the rim-fire car- 
tridge, with its cirenlar anvil, flat base, and certainty of 
fire, would seem to prove its usefolness, as well as the 
sagacity of the editor of the Forest anp STREAM in recom- 
mending its use. ; 
We carried the shells in Colorado, California, and Cen- 
tral America, and finding them a sure thing for ordinary 
game, had them manufactured by the Union Metallic Car- 
tridge Company, at Bridgeport. Lieut. Carpenter, of the 
Hayden exploring expedition, while in the Sierra Madre 
this summer, fired a .50 calibre, seventy grain U. 8. Gov’t 
cartridge at a thousand pound grizzly, in a Remington rifle, 
at one hundred and forty yards range. The 450 grain bul- 
let containing a .22 cal. long pistol cartridge with 7 grains of 
powder, exploded in the brain and tore off the top of the 
skull, killing him instantly. Mr. Grizzly fell and disap - 
peared in the tall grass. The lieutenant cautiously effected 
a change of base to a position within sight of the animal at 
thirty yards range, but ihe bear was already ‘‘coralled” and 
was stone dead. The entire skeleton is to be mounted in 
the museum of the Smithsonian Institution at Washington. 
Sam. H. Mrap, Jr. 
—The Norristown (Pa.) Herald says: ‘Three of our crack 
sportsmen have been, during the last two weeks, on a raid 
among the game of Bucks county, putting up at Quaker- 
town. Their first excursion resulted in bagging 64 rabbits, 
13 pheasants, and: 22 woodcock. The second produced 76 
rabbits and 80 woodcock. The third and last, 163 par- 
tridges, 1 grey squirrel, 1 pheasant, and 33 rabbits. 
—Our corr.spondents continue to report an unusual 
abundance of deer running this season. In New Yorka 
huge carcass hangs at nearly every principal restaurant. A 
250 pound buck, dressed, is nothing uncommon, and we 
have seen does of that weight. The deer of Pennsylvania 
are the largest of the species in the United States. 
—Miles L. Johnson, of Yardville, N.J., and Moses Myers, 
of Belleville, N. J., shot at 50 birds each, at Deerfoot Park, 
December 9th. Tle Rhode Island Badge rules were agreed 
to, to govern the match. 
Miers i melo mle sally ln ite Ol, aloe ier lender amt ead a 
Ofte duel, wD, Galet tic, dc tmte Ole ted) (en Deere tan 
ai Be Se or CO ea a vl Ble 
+ AO aerslove AO BU aI ety al Th. Se Pal aly leah als ale ah ak, ob. 
Ue eK gy CORES Pale Pra Sa Gees Rea WL ear a shee gle cai le ales atl C1) Cp 
rie ee PGR Dee oe een Ee 
Miles Johnson won, killing 42 birds out of 48. 
killed 39 birds out of 48. 
— Match for 10 birds each, between Smith and Sather- 
waite, $25 a side. 
Sinithei has tots Bote t ahd. A: 
Satherwaite—0) 1) 1, 1-1) 4, 1; 1, 1, 1: 
Smith won, killing 10 straight. 
—The following are the wholesale prices of game in 
Fulton Market on Tuesday, the 9th December:—Swans, 
each, $2; wild geese, each, 75 cents; brant, $1.50; canvas 
backs, $1 a pair; red heads and black ducks, 75c. a pair; 
mallards, 75 cents a pair; broad bills, pair, 50 cents; teal, 
pair, 50 cents; widgeon, 50 cents; pinated grouse, pair, 90 
cents; woodcock, pair, $1; English snipe, pair, 50 cents; 
quail, trapped, $1.50 a dozen; wild turkey, 15 cents a 
pound; wild pigeons per dozen, $1.50; wild rabbits, pair, 
40 cents. Game is quite low in consequence of the unusual 
mild weather. Deer legs, 11 cents; saddles, 18 cents; 
haunch, 20 cents; bear, coming in. 
Myers 

—While witnessing a game of base ball out West, a boy 
was struck onthe head, the bawl coming out of his mouth. 
a -e 
—‘‘What is your name, little girl?” ‘Minnie.” ‘Min- 
nie what?” ‘‘Minnie Don’t, that’s what mamma calls me.” 
OS oO L 
—When is charity like a bee ? When it begins to hum, 
