FANCIERS’ JOURNAL AND POULTRY EXCHANGE 
583 
I T E [W s. 
In order to make our “Item ” column as interesting as possible, we 
would be obliged to our readers for contributions of original matter, how- 
ever short — yes, let it be condensed and to the point, in a variety of 
style— facts and fancies interesting to fanciers. 
At Painesville, Ohio, several murderous sportsmen 
have been fined for killing ducks out of season. The law 
rays that ducks shall not be killed in that State between the 
1st of March and the 1st of September. 
jgggT A New England paper advises its readers, 
If your neighbor’s hens are troublesome 
And steal across the way, 
Don’t let your angry passions rise, 
But fix a place for them to lay. 
The Galveston ( Texas') News says : “ The prairies are 
now a scene of beauty, surpassing even the imagination which 
drew the picture of the valley of Abyssinia. Millions of 
flowers deck their green surfaces like beautifully variegated 
carpets. If there is anything more lovely than a Texas 
prairie in the month of April we should like to know it.” 
A suburban minister was greatly exasperated, lately, 
by a cow which had made havoc in his garden, and which 
had defied the efforts of the boy who had been sent to turn 
her out. “Just wait till I get this coat of divinity off, and 
I’ll drive you, you old cuss ! ” said he ; and before the words 
were out of his mouth the coat was thrown upon the floor, 
and he “ went for ” the cow most effectually. 
Wild elk, wild buck, doe, or fawn, are safe in Mich- 
igan, except in October, November, and December. Then 
they must be scarce if they would escape the deadly rifles 
of the sportsmen. Wild turkey from the 1st of September 
to January 1st. Pinnated grouse, ruffled grouse, or any 
wood duck, teal, or mallard, are to be had, by the lucky 
man of a good dog and gun, from September 1st to Jan- 
uary 1st. 
An athletic specimen of a man from the Emerald 
Isle called in the counting-room of a merchant, and took 
off his hat, to make one of his politest bows. 
“The top of the morning to ye, Misther S., I’ve been 
told ye’re in want o’ help.” 
“I’ve but little to do,” replied Mr. S., with mercantile 
gravity. 
“ I’m the boy for ye’s. It’s but little I care about doing — 
shure it’s the money I’m afther.” 
To the first robin of spring : 
A robin 
Was bobbin, 
Yesterday morning up in a tree, 
The cold hail 
Froze his tail, 
And a very sick robin was he. 
Last night 
Up tight 
This venturesome robin was friz. 
To-day 
Thrown away 
Was the robin who knew not his biz. 
j'jgg" An interesting pigeon match came off at De Kalb, 
111., on Friday last, in which nearly all the sportsmen of 
the town took a hand, several of them making scores which 
would put even a Chicago man on his mettle. We regret 
that we are unable to give the summary. 
Hunting in Africa. — A passion for hunting seems 
to be an innate propensity in the human breast, and is de- 
veloped at a very early age, when cats, dogs, and mice are 
made the ignoble game of infant sportsmen, before the natu- 
ral propensities are subject to moral restraint and discipline. 
The greatest ambition of the boy is to possess a gun, and 
very amiable old gentlemen may be seen toiling miles under 
a September sun in the hope of getting a shot at a pack of 
quails or a covey of partridges. But game nowadays is 
fast disappearing; the moose are diminishing in numbers, 
the herds of deer are being yearly decimated, and, even in 
the far west, buffalo are not so plenty as they used to be. 
But if the sportsman wishes to enjoy real sport, when the 
game is vast in size and imposing in numbers, when the 
chase possesses the grand element of danger, which alone 
gives it dignity and sublimity, he must imitate the example 
of Captain ft. Gordon Cumming. This gentleman, after 
having exhausted the excitement of hunting in his native 
highlands, after having stalked and shot the red deer till he 
was weary of the sport, procured a commission in a regiment 
ordered to Canada. Here he distinguished himself as a 
Nimrod, and soon exhausted the excitement of the country, 
as he had done the Highlands of Scotland. 
Having heard much of the sport in South Africa, he ex- 
changed into the Cape Rifles, thinking that he could easily 
reconcile his military duties at the Cape of Good Hope with 
his sporting propensities. The latter, however, soon absorbed 
his whole soul, and so, having sold his commission, he de- 
voted the proceeds to fitting out an expedition into the in- 
terior of South Africa. He bought an immense wagon, 
drawn by a great number of oxen, a stud of at least twenty 
horses, dogs innumerable, shooting equipments of all kinds, 
and cords of powder and shot, and with men for drivers, 
after-drivers, bush-beaters, etc., departed for a five years’ 
campaign against the wild beasts. 
During this period he obtained specimens of every animal 
to be found in that region — .elephants, rhinoceroses, antelopes, 
gnus, giraffes, bless-backs, springboks, liartebeets, bluebusts, 
crocodiles, lions, tigers, and serpents. A daring rider, an 
infallible shot, and brave as steel, his success was commen- 
surate with his energy. He very coolly speaks of “ bagging ’ > 
three or four elephants of a morning. The hunting of these 
monsters requires great tact, nerve, and skill; if they get 
your wind, they are off at a pace which defies pursuit ; if 
they are cornered, they charge furiously, and it is needless 
to say that a toss from the tusks ot an elephant would be 
equivalent to the loss of number one’s mess. The lion, on 
the contrary, the king of beasts, is on the whole, a great 
thief and coward ; but the lionesses are far braver than their 
lords, and not at all amiable if they perceive their cubs in 
danger. 
If any of our sporting friends are ambitious of better 
sport than dropping woodcock or wild duck, we advise them 
to embark for the Cape of Good Hope, and try their for- 
tunes in South Africa. We can assure them, that if they 
devote time and money to go, and go far enough into the 
country, they may easily bag a brace or two of elephants in 
the course of a day’s tramp. 
