Digitized by tine Internet Arcliive
in 2007 witli funding from
IVIicrosoft Corporation
littp://www.arcliive.org/details/fieldcovertrapsliOObogaiala
GAC
■CHAMPION! W1NC o,jQ--' nf- AM h: RICA
y(-^z^ xL; ^..^.c-.^^^ ^ ur^%-/^t^,^^^
Field, Coyer, and Trap Shooting.
ADAM H. ^OGARDUS,
Champwn Wirig S/wt of America,
EMBRACINO
HINTS FOB SKILIiED MARKSMEN ; INSTRUCTIONS FOR YOUNG
SPORTSMEN ; HAUNTS AND HABITS OF GAME BIRDS ;
PLIGHT AND RESORTS OF WATER FOWL, ;
BREEDING AND BREAKING OP DOGS.
EDITED BY CHARLES J. FOSTER.
New York :
J. B. FORD & COMPANY.
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1874, by
J. B. FORD & CO.,
In the OflBce of the Librarian of Congress, Washington, D. C.
fl^on, Joijn m. ?l|acfeett.
Recorder of N&w York,
A GENTLEMAN RESTOWNED ALIKE FOR PROFI-
CIEN"CY IIS" FIELD SPORTS, AND FOR
LEARNIIJfG, WISDOM, AND
IMPARTIALITY ON
THE BENCH,
TBI 8 BOOK
IS RESPECTPUtLY DEDICATED
THE AUTHOR AND THE EDITOR.
OOISTTEI^TS
CHAPTER I.
Qenebal Intboductoby Bemabes.
Great Increase of Field Shooting— Delights of the Sport — Expe-
rience in the Field — Beginning in Albany County, New York, at
Ruffed Grouse and Woodcock— Removal to Sangamon River, Illi-
nois— Great Abundance of Game— Numerous Deer — Removal to
Elkhart, Logan County— Vast Numbers of Pinnated (Jrouse —
Gillott's Grove— Osage Orange Hedges and Quail— Pinnated
Grouse shot too early — Diminution of Breeding Places — Migration
of the Grouse late In Fall — Ducks and Geese in Com-Fields
—Nesting Places of Grouse and of Quail— Evil of Prairie-
Burning late in Spring— Snipe, Golden Plover, and Upland Plover
—The American Hare or Rabbit— Hawks after Game— The Win-
nebago Swamp Breeding-place of Ducks and Crane— Wolves in
the Swamp— A Wolf-Hunt in Gillott's Grove — Eagles and Foxes,
etc., 13-34
CHAPTER II,
Guns and Theib Peopeb Chabges.
Skill and Ingenuity of Gunmakers— Improvements and Inventions
of Late Years — Vast Advantage from the Breech-Loader — Safest
and best of Guns — Proved by Experience — Close Hard Shooting —
Convenience — Safety and Rapidity of Loading— Certainty in Wet
Weather — Comparative Cost of Breech-Loaders — Metallic Car-
tridge-Cases—Size of Guns— Advantage of Weight— The Suitable
Stock— Proper Filling of Cartridges— Trials of Guns — Breech-
Loader vs. Muzzle-Loader— Loading of i artridges— Quantity of
Powder— Sizes of Shot for Different Game— Dead-Shot Powder—
Tatham's Shot -Disadvantage of very Large Shot, . . 35-54
CONTENTS,
CHAPTER ni.
Pinnated Grodsb Shooting.
Abondance in the Prairie States— Of SeiTiee to the Farmer-
Grouse Polygamous— Booing of the Cooks in Spring— Nesting-
time and Nests — Rapid Growth of the Young Birds — Supposed
Hybrids— Grouse Shooting in August too Early — The Easiest
there is — The Com-Fields the only Protection — Grouse found at
Morning in Stubbles— In Clear Weather no Shooting in the
Middle of the Day— On Damp, Cloudy Days Grouse in Stubbles
all Day — On Clear Days Shoot again towards Evening — Grouse
in Pasture-Land— Shooting in McLean County — Beware of Shoot-
ing too Quick— Mr. Sullivant's Great Farm— Water for Men and
Dogs must be Carried, ..,,.... 55-71
CHAPTER IV.
Late Pinnated Grouse Shooting,
The Middle of the Day the best Time — Good Shooting in Com after
the Frosts — Wheat Sowed in Com-Fields— No Shooting on Cloudy
Days — November Shooting Best — Grouse in Sod Com— A Day in
Champagne County — Grouse wiU not Lie on Damp, Cloudy Daygf
— Indian Summer a Good Time — The Prairies in Spring — On
Bright Mornings in Winter — Scene near Chatsworth, Iroquois
County, on a December Morning— Necessity of Silence in Late
Grouse Shooting— A Trip to Christian County, . . . 72-88
CHAPTER V.
Quail Shooting m the West.
Abundance of QuaU in the Western States — Increase in the Prairief
States — Osage Orange Hedges a Great Cause— Afford Nestings
Places, Protect from Hawks, and Shelter in Severe Weather —
Nesting Places and Nests— The Quail Hawk— Beginning cf the
Shooting— Best Shooting after the Frosts in November and De-
eember— Up at Early Morning— Fine, Clear Days Best— Lie well
when Scattered — Pack late in Fall— Run in Damp and Wet
Weather — Netting now Unlawful— Quail Shooting on Salt Creek,
Sangamon River— Quail not DiflBcult to Shoot — Missed through
Haste — Shooting on Shoal Creek, Missouri — Quail in Hedges —
Quail in the South, 89-lOfr
CONTENTS,
CHAPTER VI.
Ruffed Gbousb Shootino.
Distribution and Habits of the Birds— Found in Wild, Lonely
Places— Favorite Food of Ruffed Grouse — Beauty and Pride of
the Bird — The Drumming of the Male— Deceptiveness of the
Sound— Macdonald's Drummer-Boy — Much Drumming Before
Rain— Nest of the Ruffed Grouse— The Young on the Cass River,
Michigan— Wolves at the Camp on the Cass— The Chippewa
Indians— Wildness of Ruffed Grouse— The First I ever Shot-
Ruffed Grouse hard to Shoot Flying— Goes for Densest Part of
the Thicket— May be Shot over Setters, .... 107-120
CHAPTER Vn.
Shootino the Woodoook.
Arrival in Spring— The Breeding Season— Nest of the Woodcock—
A Woodcock in Confinement — ^Voracity in Feeding — Young FuU
Grown in July — Solitary Birds after Separation of Brood — Noc-
turnal in Habit — Supposed Second Migration — Laboring Flight in
Summer — Difficult to shoot — Density of Foliage — Snap Shooting-
Swift and Twisting Flight in Autumn — Bottoms and Islands of
the Mississippi River — Woodcock on the Illinois River — Scarcer
in general in the West than in the Atlantic States — Fall Wood-
cock Shooting, 121-132
CHAPTER VIII.
The Snepk and Snipb Shootino.
Breeds North of Virginia, but only sparsely in the United States —
Arrives at Columbus, Kentucky, early in March — Never appears
before the Frost out of Ground — Nearly a Month Later in Illinois
than in Kentucky— The Spring Shooting Best— Snipe Wild at
First Arrival— Get Fat and Lazy— Snipe Shooting on the Sanga-
mon—Snipe very Abundant in the West— Should be Beat for
Down- Wind— No Need for Dog on Good Snipe Ground — Difficult
to Shoot in Com-Fields— Shooting on the Bottoms— Easy to Kill
when Fat — A Proposed Match — In Snipe Shooting much Walking
Required— Snipe Shooting along Sloughs and Swales— Hovering of
Snipe— The Fall Snipe Shooting, 138-148
b ■ CONTENTS.
CHAPTEB IX.
OoLDEN Plover, Cublkw, Gray Plover.
Arrival of Golden Plover and Curlew— First Seen on Burnt Prairies
—Plover like Bare Earth and Pastures— Golden Plover and Cur-
lew in Flocks Together— They Follow the Plough— Lying Down
for Plover— Plover Shooting from a Buggy— The Method of It-
How to Shoot Plover on Foot— Plover Circle Bound the Wounded
— An Afternoon's Shooting near Elkhart^Plover Shooting in
Christian County— Golden Plover Scattered— Past Flyers and
Good Practice — The Upland or Gray Plover— Last of Spring
Migrants — Breeds in IlUnois, Iowa, etc. — Ready to Pair when It
Arrives — Should not be Shot in the Spring — Nest of the Upland
Plover — DifBcult to Shoot in Autumn — Horse and Buggy Needed
—Flight of Upland Plover— Sand Snipe and Grass Snipe, . 149-167
CHAPTER X.
Wild Ducks and Western Duck Shooting.
The Prime Western Ducks — Beauty of the Wood Duck— Its Rapid
Flight — The Mallard — Its Excellence and Beauty — Comparison
with Canvas-Back — Mallards' Nests — The Flappers — Ducks begin
to Arrive by Middle of February— Habits of Mallards and Pintails
—Their Vast Numbers— Remain Pour or Five Weeks— Coming of
Ducks in the Fall— Vast Numbers— When Cold Sets In— Heard
in the Air all Night— Duck Shooting in the Com-Fields— Color of
Clothes Important— Ducks Wary and Far-Sighted— Method of
Shooting, 16&-182
CHAPTER XI.
DuoKS AND Western Duck Shooting.
Cold Work in Hard Weather— The Illinois River— The Western
Com-Pields— Shooting in Them in Fall— Osage Orange Hedges-
Flight of Ducks in Wet, Windy Weather— In Clear Weather-
Ducks in Flight seem Nearer than They Are— Shooting at Prairie
Ponds and Sloughs— Live Decoys Best— Dead Duck Decoys bet-
ter than Wooden— Method of Setting Dead Mallards as Decoys-
Duck Shooting in the Winnebago Swamp— Duck Shooting in Ford
County— Mr. M. Sullivant's Great Farm— Duck Shooting on the
Sangamon— Shooting from the Timber— Ninety-flve Mallards with
No. 9 Shot — Water Fowl Seek Timber in Hard, Windy
Weather, 18»-197
CONTENTS. 7
CHAPTER XII.
WHiD Geese, Cbakes, akd Swaks.
The Canada Goose and Brant Goose— Mexican Geese— Hutchinson's
Goose— The White-Fronted Goose — The Snow Goose — Migration
of Wild Geese— Flight o( Wild Geese— Habits of the Geese— First
of the Spring Migrants — Geese on Pasture-Lands — The Best
Shooting Places — Means of Concealment— Shooting on the Pas-
tures from a Buggy — Long Shots at Geese — The Fall Geese — In
Wheat-Fields and Shocked Com — The Roosting Places — Times
■when Geese Resort to Timber — A Flock on the Ice — Getting into
the River — The Ague, and a Remedy — Shooting Brant and Mexican
Geese — Great Packs of Mexican Geese— The Cranes of the West
—The Sand-Hill Crane— Its High Flight in Spring— Feeding on
Com in Fall— The Large White Crane — Wounded Cranes Fight
Hard— Flesh of Cranes when Hung— Pelicans and Swans on the
Mississippi, 198-222
CHAPTER XIII.
Wild Turkey and Deeb SBOOTiNa.
Elxcellence and Beauty of the Wild Turkey — Its Haunts and Habits
—Methods of Shooting Turkeys— The Wild Turkey's Nest— Track-
ing Turkeys in Snow— Shooting In Thick Snow-Storms — Shooting at
Crossing Places— Tracking Turkeys on the Sangamon — Lost in
the Timber— A Walk Home of Thirteen Miles— The Great Gobbler
of the Sangamon— Turkey Shooting on Shoal Creek— The Cold
Nights in Camp — Eleven Turkeys to One Gun in Half a Day —
After a Wounded Deer — Camping Out without a Tent — A Heavy
Thunder-storm on Delavan Prairie— Deer Shooting in the West —
Haunts and Habits — My First Deer— Deer Shooting on Horse-
back 223-250
CHAPTER XIV.
The Art of SnooTiNa on the Wmo.
The Art EasUy Acquired— Boys Should begin to Shoot Early — No
Danger of Accidents — Loading Guns— Large Shot and Too Much
Shot Mischievous— Guns for Boys — Handling the Gun — Loading
the Gun— Light Loads at First — Shooting at a Target — No Shoot-
ing at Sitting Birds — Shooting Larks and Blackbirds — How to
Aim— Shooting at Toung Grouse— The Causes of Missing— How to
Aim at Crossing Birds— Long Shots— The Shot Towers at New
York— The Cartridge Company of Bridgeport, , , 261-275
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XV.
Spobtinq Dogs— Bbeediko and BREASiKa.
Setters and Pointers — Advantages and Drawbacks of Each— The
Sharpness of Prairie Grass — Cockle-Burrs in Setters' Coats— Set-
ters Retrieve "Well in Water— Cross-Bred Dogs — How to Breed
Them— Their Stoutness in the Field — No Timid Dogs Among
Them — History of Fanny, Daughter of a Pointer Dog and Setter
Bitch— An English Pointer not to be Called Off— He Points at
Grouse all Night — Best Age for Breaking Dogs — Method of Break-
ing—The Setter, Jack— Dick, Son of a Pointer Dog and Setter
Bitch — ^Miles Johnson as a Breaker, 276-399
CHAPTER XVI.
PlQKON SHOOTINa.
lily Beginning at Pigeons — Match against Staunton — ^Against A.
Kleinman — Championship of Illinois — Match to Shoot from Buggy
— Match at Five Hundred — Match to Kill One Hundred Consecu-
tively— Match against Mr. King— Match against Doxie — Sweep-
stakes at Chicago— Match against J. Kleinman — Match with Ira
Paine — Championship and Other Matches — Matches with A.
Kleinman — Match against Four Marksmen — Advice to Members
of Shooting Club — Suggestion for New Rule— H and T Traps —
Scores of Championship Matches — Scores of Exhibition and Other
Matches— Conditions and Rules of Champion Badges and Medals
— Eulea of Pigeon Shooting, 300-343
PREFACE BY THE EDITOR.
In the following work, Captain Bogardus has
placed before his readers all the knowledge of the
haunts and habits of game-birds, and of the art
of shooting on the wing, which twenty-five years'
almost constant pursuit has enabled him to attain.
It is conveyed plainly and briefly, but fully and
without the slightest reserve or qualification. It
was deemed that this full communication of all
he knew on these subjects was due to his readers,
when he resolved to appear before the public as
the author of a book. Few men have had an ex-
perience as varied and as large ; none, I verily
believe, have attained as much knowledge of game,
or as much skill with the gun.
Of late years, at many places where his skill
was displayed, he was often urged to embody
what he knew of game and of the art of shooting
in a book, in order that sportsmen whose other
avocations prevented them from paying very great
and prolonged attention to those subjects, might
reap the benefit of his experience. With a view
10 PREFACE BY THE EDITOR.
to comply with these requests, he came to New
York, and proposed to me thal^ 1 should assist
him in the necessary composition of the work.
Perceiving the vast fund of practical knowledge
he had amassed, and knowing that the book
would form a most valuable contribution to sport-
ing literature, I gladly acceded to his proposal,
and the result of our combined and conscientious
labors is now before the public.
I believe this is the first work of the kind
that was ever undertaken by a thoroughly prac-
tical man, and strictly confined to the knowledge
and information derived from his own observa-
tion. It would have been very easy to make
the book twice as large as it is, by' copying,
with or without credit, as is the custom, long
extracts and descriptions from the standard authors
of natural history in this country, but to what
useful end 1 These matters have been copied by
one author after another about a dozen times
already, and readers have been so provoked by
the everlasting repetition of Latin names for
familiar birds, that many must have been on
the point of pitching the pedantic copy-books
into the fire. In this work another method has
been followed altogether. Here are the observa-
PREFACE BY THE EDITOR. 11
tions and accumulated knowledge of a man who
has been practically engaged in the pursuit of
game in a thoroughly sportsmanlike manner for
twenty-five years.
For much the greater part of that period,
Captain Bogardus has maintained and brought up
his respectable and interesting family, almost solely
by his gun. From that fact, I concluded that
his was the knowledge and experience which
would be valuable and instructive to sportsmen,
young and old, and interesting to the general
public. The former do not want to listen to
people who know no more than they know them-
selves. The latter do not want to peruse the
work of a man on any subject if he never rises
above mediocrity, while they gladly welcome the
book of one who has proved himself a master
of his art. J^ecause Captain Bogardus had been
able to live for many years solely by his gun,
he was of all men best qualified to enlighten
old sportsmen, and instruct the young in regard
to the habits and haunts of game and the art of
shooting.
It has often been said that pinnated grouse
could not be killed by the gun in the months of
November and December, because they were so
12 PREFACE BY THE EDITOR.
wild, and this alleged fact was made the excuse
for the trapping and netting by which the markets
of the great cities are mainly supplied with that
bird in those months. Hardly one out of twenty
then offered for sale has been shot. But Captain
Bogardus proves that this is either pure inven-
tion of the netters and trappers, or due to the
imagination of those whose skill with the gun
being small, and whose knowledge of the habits
of the game being scanty, have failed to kill
any at such times themselves. He tells us how
he killed them with the gun, and how you can
kill them if you follow his instructions.
It will be seen by this work that Captain Bo-
gardus has been a sportsman of the most resolute
and persistent character. No difficulty deterred
him, no fatigue subdued him, no misfortune dis-
heartened him, when he was out with his dogs
and his gun. He has also been a man of the
closest observation and of much reflection.
Hence his philosophy on the habits of birds of
pursuit by the sportsman, and in regard to the
art and principles of shooting, will be found
especially valuable and interesting.
CHARLES J. FOSTER.
Field, Cover, and Trap Shooting.
CHAPTER I.
GENERAL INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.
Within a comparatively recent period the num-
bers of those who follow the delightful and healthful
sports of the field have increased almost beyond
calculation in this comitry, and they are still ra-
pidly augmenting. Among all those sports there
is none so easy of attainment, and certainly none
so invigorating, useful, and enjoyable, as the pur-
suit of game-birds, waterfowl, etc., over dogs, or, at
flight time, in the neighborhood of the haunts of
the latter. The vast extent and variety of our
territory — woodland interspersed among prairie, pas-
ture, and cultivated farms — the great abundance of
game to be met with by those who know when
and where to seek for it, and the many kinds to
be found in these favorite haunts at the proper
seasons, afford such excellent and varied shooting as
may hardly be experienced if sought for anywhere
14 FIELD SHOOTING.
else. The art of shooting swift-flying birds on the
wing is of comparatively recent origin in this
country. Years ago but few people followed it,
and they had mostly acquired their skill in Europe
before they came here. The quickness and art
necessary for even moderate success were almost
comparatively unknown in the regions where such
game most abounded, and they were in a great
measure deemed w^orthless, of no more practical
use than the curious tricks of a juggler. This was
not unnatural. The backwoodsmen, and those set-
tlers who had made lodgments in the immense
prairies of the Western States, could kill a buck
with the rifle, or knock over a fat turkey with the
same arm ; and those who had old-fashioned smooth-
bores seldom shot with anything less than buck-
shot, or the largest sizes of other shot. Hence
they looked with a sort of lazy curiosity akin to
contempt upon the doings of the men who, with
good guns and small shot, killed " little birds," as
quail, plover, woodcock, snipe, etc., were denomi-
nated. The use of the setter and pointer wfs
practically unknown. The game was considered
to be a trifling matter, not worth the powder and
shot expended upon it. The latter were somewhat
dear, and money was very scarce. The hunters
GENERAL INTKODUCTORY REMARKS. 15
and Indians called the shot-gun by the derisive term
" squaw gun," and wondered that grown men should
delight in its use. All that is now greatly changed.
Thousands every year enjoy sport of the highest
order, and fill their bags in the most artistic man-
ner, in many parts of the country where shooting
on the wing was formerly unknown. Shooting of
this sort once enjoyed is never willingly relinquished
altogether. Those who are able to afford the cost
and spare the time from their avocations in the
great cities impatiently count the days which must
intervene before the time comes for them to jump
aboard the train with their guns and their sporting
paraphernalia, bound to the shooting-grounds — the
places where game is to be found in abundance.
Arrived in these sections, and meeting with old
friends, the harassed and weak grow vigorous again,
and the strong become stronger. The consciousness
of skill, the confidence begotten of success, give such
a spring to the mind and nerves, and inflame the
ardor of pursuit to such a degree, that the fatigues
of the excursion are scarcely perceived, and its
privations, if such they may be called, arc laughed
at and merrily endured till speedily forgotten. The
habits of the various kinds of game are a subject
of great interest and observation. The fine and
16 FIELD SHOOTING.
eager instinct of the dogs, their great sagacity, en-
durance, and patience, are remarked with pride and
admiration. The features of the varied landscapes
— hill and vale, woodland and riverside, vast prairies
with groves and fringes of timber on the branches
of winding and meandering streams, broad fields of
land, now in pasture, now covered with brown
stubble, now waved over by the green flags of the
corn, tall, strong, and a place of refuge for quail,
grouse, etc. — afford constant pleasure to the sports-
man. And after the labors and sports of the day
are done, the camp-fire beneath the trees, on the
banks of a stream or the margin of a little lake, is
a place of calm recreation and repose. You may
hear the call of the night-birds, and the low, sup-
pressed noises of the nocturnal animals afoot after
their prey, but neither the hoot of the owl nor the
howl of the wolf will drive slumber from the
pillow of brush upon which you rest. The night
brings enjoyment almost as pleasant as that which
was the recompense of the exertions of the day.
Having followed shooting for twenty -five years,
mostly all through the differeiit seasons, and some-
times camped out as much as three months at a
time, never sleeping in a house during that period,
I believe I have a sound and extensive practical
GKNERAL INTRODUCTaRY REMARKS. 17
knowledge of the matters upon which this book
is to treat. I am no scientific naturalist, and what
I know has not been derived from books. I camiot
give the Latin names of birds of game, waterfowl,
snipe, woodcock, etc., and if I could you would not
care about them, because the constant repetition
of them makes no impression at all upon the
sportsman. To him the quail is simply a quail,
the pinnated grouse (commonly called prairie
chicken) is a grouse, and no Latin is required
to make him understand what you mean by a
snipe or a woodcock. I cannot set down the sci-
entific names by which naturalists distinguish the
birds of which I shall treat, but I know their
haunts and habits, and I can tell you when and
where to seek them, and how to kill them in a
sportsmanlike and satisfactory manner.
I was born in Albany County, New York, and
began to shoot at fifteen years of age. I was then
a tall, strong lad, and have since grown into a
large, powerful, sinewy, and muscular man. I
have always enjoyed fine health, had great strength
and endurance, and been capable of much exertion
and exposure. When I began to shoot, there was
a good deal of game in AUiany County, and it
chiefly consisted of ruffed grouse and wbodcock.
18 FIELD SHOOTING.
which are difficult birds for young beginners. I
received no instructions from anybody, but I pos-
sessed a quick, true eye, and steady nerve, and
had, as I believe, the natural gifts which enable a
man to become in time, with proper opportunity,
a first-rate field shot. It was a long time after
that before I ever shot at a pigeon from a trap,
and I confess that I had for many years a strong
prejudice against that sort of shooting. There
were no quail, snipe, or ducks about Albany
County at that time, and it was not until I re-
moved to the West that I became familiar with
them and with the pinnated grouse. Seventeen
years ago I moved to Illinois, and settled on the
Sangamon River, near Petersburg. It was more
a broken, swampy country, with much cover, than
a prairie land like that to the northwards in the
State. Game of all sorts was in vast abundance.
There were vast numbers of quail ; the pinnated
grouse were rather numerous, though nothing like
as much so as upon some of the great prairies ;
ducks and geese camie in immense flocks every
spring and fall, and deer and turkeys abounded.
It was, too, and is to this day, one of the best
places for snipe that 1 know of. It was a para-
dise for a sportsman J and as for the snipe and
GENERAL INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 19
quail, there was hardly a man there who could
kill them except myself. Lots of men used to
go out to see me shoot. There was one, a great
hunter of deer and turkeys, with whom I became
very intimate. At first he laughed at me when
he saw me loading with No. 8 shot. " That wunt
kill nothin', stranger," said he. " What little I
do at quail I do with No, 1 shot, and for
prairie chicken I always use BBs. You can't stop
'em with anything lighter."
But he changed his opinion when he found by
experience that I could kill ten to his one, and then
it was the old story of the fox and grapes. " Darn
the little creatures, I say ! " he exclaimed ; " I
got no use for 'em anyhow ! " At that time I
used to stint myself in quail-shooting time to
twenty-five brace a day. When I had got them, I
gave over for the day. Often when I was shoot-
ing quail in the oak barrens two or three deer
have got up close to me. I shot some turkeys ;
but my bag was mostly made up of quail and
pinnated grouse in the fall, and of snipe in the
spring. There were snipe in the fall too, but not
so many. Ducks and geese were plentiful in the
fall and spring, but I did not go after them much
at that time. I had no wagon and team, and a
20 FIELD SHOOTING.
bunch of ducks and geese is very heavy to carry.
The country about the Sangamon was wild and
very sparsely settled. Even now it has no large
population, and remains a great resort for ducks
and geese, a fine place for snipe, and the quail
still abound. There was a fine variety of ducks.
The bag would include mallards, bluebills, pin--
tails, green-winged teal and blue-winged teal, with
some wood-ducks. I consider the mallard the best
duck we have in the West, and I doubt very much
whether there is any better anywhere else. A
great deal is said about the canvas-back, and
with justice; but I do not think them any better
eating than mallards are in the fall of the year,
when they come on large and fat and glorious in
plumage from the wild rice-fields of the north-
west, away in the .British territories.
After staying on the Sangamon about two years
I moved to Elkhart, in Logan County, where I
have lived ever since. It is in the heart of the
State of Illinois, a hundred and sixty-six miles
south of Chicago, eighteen miles northwest of
Springfield, and one hundred and fifteen miles from
St. Louis. It was then a grand place for game,
and is very good now late in the fall, when the
pinnated grouse pack and partially migrate. Fif-
GENERAL INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 21
teen years ago the prairies there were but sparsely
settled, and not one acre in a thousand had been
broken up. The grouse were in immense num-
bers ; the quail, though, were not as plentiful as
on the Sangamon in the brushy land of the oak
barrens. There was, however, and is now, a grove
of timber six hundred acres in extent, not far from
the town. It is one of the finest in the State, and
in it and on its borders there were many quail.
This grove was then owned and still belongs to
Mr. John D. Gillot. He has a great stock-farm,
his pasture-land running for seven miles at a
stretch. Being a man of great enterprise, as well
as large means, he planted hedges all over this
estate. They have now grown up, and, affording
harbor and nesting-places for the quail, the latter
are now more plentiful in that neighborhood than
they were when I first went to live there. At
that time very few in those parts used the double-
barrelled gun, and shot over dogs. I was about
the only one who followed shooting systematically
and thoroughly. But though the quail in that
neighborhood are now very abundant, they are
hard to kill. The corn grows very tall, and as
soon as a bevy is flushed away thoy go for the
corn-fields. Once in them, with the stalks stand-
22 FIELD-SHOOTING.
ing thick and high above your head, you can
only kill birds by snap shots such as you make
at woodcock in thick cover. You can find them
on the stubbles and in the pastures at the right
time of day, but when you have fired your two
barrels at them they are off" to the corn. The pin.
nated grouse lie in the corn and on the borders
of it a good deal too. There was no trouble in
killing a great number when 1 first went there.
I have known sixty young ones to be killed in a
morning in one field, not more than a quarter of
a mile from Elkhart. For my part, I am very
much opposed to such doings. The commence-
ment of the shooting season ought to be fixed by
law a month later. When the shooting begins,
the birds are very young, though of good size,
and do not fly either fast or far; the weather is
hot, and 1 am satisfied that above half of those
which are killed are spoiled and never used. At
the present time the grouse are much more scarce
about Elkhart, especially young grouse. The chief
reason is the want of good nesting-places. Except
in Mr. Gillot's extensive pastures, there are no
good nesting-places left of any account. This is
what causes the great diminution of the numbers
of pinnated grouse. They are so prolific, and
GENERAL INTRODUCTOliY HEM ARKS, 23
their food is so abundant, that they could stand
shooting in and out of season, and even the trap-
ping and netting Avhich are so extensively carried on
in many parts ; but Avhen the prairie is all or
nearly all broken up, )io good breeding-places
remain, and young grouse are not to be found.
Ilius it hixs been in a great measure about Elk-
hart. Late in the fall, Avheu they pack and come
in from the distant prairies M'here they breed,
the birds seem to be as plentiful or nearly as
jilentiful as they Avere before. About the last of
October and in November you may see as many
as five hundred in a pack. They are then strong
and wild. Some people maintain that the pin-
nated grouse do not migrate from one place to
another. I am certain that with us they do.
There are now ten times as many about Elkhart
in November as there arc in September, therefore
the bulk of them are not bred there. Moreover,
I have been at Keokuk in Iowa late in the foil,
and have seen the grouse coming from the interior
of that State in large numl)ers, and flying across
the Mississippi River into Illinois. They are
never known to do so at any other season, and if
that is not migration I do not know what it can
be. The river there is so wide that the llijiht
24 FIELD SHOOTING,
across is a long one for a grouse, and I think
nothing but the migratory instinct would induce
the grouse to make it, unless it were pressing
danger. Now they fiiee the danger in order to
make their migration, for the people shoot at
them as they fly over the town to cross the
river, and some are killed. "I think they no doubt
cross the Mississippi at many other points to
make the east bank, and no one ever sees them
return to Iowa. Ducks and geese are not so
plentiful about Elkhart as they are on the San-
gamon. Still their numbers are very large at times.
They come out in the evening to feed in the corn-
fields, and at such times 1 have often killed twenty
couple, which is a pretty good bag for one gun.
Snipe are now scarce in the neighborhood of Elk-
hart. Cultivation and the draining of swamp-
lands have converted the places which were the
iavorite resorts for snipe into the best wheat and
corn land in the State. The change of condition
in the land is the chief cause of the dimmution of
game of various sorts in particular places. It has
more to do Avith it than all other causes. Al-
though, the pinnated grouse are trapped and netted
by thousands, as • well as shot in a sportsmanlike
manner, it would not of itself reduce their num-
CENERAL INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 25
bers so as to be greatly perceptible. Immense
numbers are sent East which are taken in nets
and traps. Some are killed by coming in contact
with the telegraph wires in their flight. But all
these causes would be inadequate to reduce the
stock much if the breeding birds had the nesting-
places which they formerly used. The grouse
used to breed in the prairies, commonly along the
edges of the sloughs. In many parts the prairies
are nearly all broken up and brought under cul-
tivation. Many now make their nests in the
fields of the farmer, and these nests are nearly all
broken up and destroyed by the ploughing in the
spring. Quail, whose nests are made in hedges
and corners of fences and under bunches of bram-
bles, escape, and we see them increase in numbers
in the very places where the grouse diminish. A
great source of destruction to the nests of the
grouse might be easily prevented. In most places
there are patches of prairie left for pasture, and
in these the birds build. Many farmers follow
a practice of burning these patches over late in
the spring, under a notion that it improves the
pasturage by causing the young grass to spring
up fine and succulent as soon as the weather gets
warm. When these patches of prairie are burned
26 FIELD SHOOTING.
over, there are commonly many nests in each,
sometimes scores of them, and they are half-full
of eggs. This cuts up the supply of grouse root
and branch, and reduces the numbers to a serious
extent every year. It is a great mistake on the
part of the farmers, for the grouse, by consump-
tion of grasshoppers and other destructive insects,
is one of the agriculturist's best friends, and the
grass would be just as good if the patches of
prairie were burned over late in the fall, when
there would be no nests destroyed. It is to be
hoped that this plan will be adopted for the fu-
ture ; and I think it will be, for the possession of
guns and sporting-dogs, and the love of shooting,
are spreading among the farmers of the West, and
these, after all, will be in time the most efficient
preservers of the game. The men, such as my-
self, who go every fall to shoot in the great un-
broken prairies which still exist in Ford County,
Champagne County, and about there, burn the
grass themselves late in the fall, and thus leave
nothing to be burned the following spring in nest-
ing-time. By this means the stock of grouse is
fully kept up, and it is from thence the great
packs migrate towards the last of October and in
November. Upon this subject I consider myself
GENERAL INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 27
competent to speak. I have had much experience,
and have conferred with many practical men
"svhose experience is nearly or quite as great as
my own. What I have stated I know to be true.
No doubt, when the hen-birds have lost their first
nests by the plough, or by the much more destruc-
tive burning of the prairie patches late in spring,
they make other nests ; but these also are often
destroyed ; and if they are not, the broods are
small and late, and quite unable to take care of
themselves when the shooting season begins.
The best spring shooting in Illinois is snipe ;
and in many parts, such as that on the Sangamon
River, the birds are found in abundance. I know
of no better ground for them anywhere. After
the snipe come the golden plover, sometimes in
very large flocks. This beautiful and delicious
little bird stays with us some three or four weeks,
and the sport they alTord is excellent. They
are commonly shot from horseback, or by means
of a wheeled vehicle, as is said to be the prac-
tice in the Eastern States. You must be a
good sportsman to fill your bag with them, and
there is no better practice for a good shot than at
them. After remaining with us about a month the
golden plover go farther north to breed. The up
28 riKLD SHOOTING.
land or gray plover stays with us and breeds in
Illinois. They flock to some extent, but not in
such large numbers as the golden plover do. I
have often seen as many as four hundred or five
hundred of the latter together, and they sometimes
fly so close in the pack that a great many can
be cut down with two barrels when you can get
within fair distance. After they have scattered and
run before they fly, the practice at the single
birds is as good as anything for the education
of a marksman. The upland plover are more
open in their flight, as well as in smaller flocks.
They ought not to be shot at all in the spring
with us, for they do not arrive from the South
until about corn-planting time, and then they are
ready to pair and make their nests. September
is the proper month to shoot them. They are
then very fat and delicious for the table. They
frequent the great pasture I mentioned belong-
ing to Mr. Gillot. When Miles Johnson of New
Jersey was in Illinois shooting with me over that
ground, he said he had never seen such plover
as those before — that is, for size and fatness — and
that each of them would fetch half a dollar in
Boston market.
Eight or ten years ago the American hare,
GENERAL INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 29
commonly called the rabbit, used to abound
about Elkhart. I and another man, by beating
the hedges, one on each side, after the first snow,
when there was about four inches on the ground,
once killed a hundred and sixty in a day. They
decreased at one time, but recently they have
been getting numerous again, and there is now a
good head of them. The abundance of game in
any given year depends very much upon the
breeding season, for there are commonly old ones
left to raise a good stock. If the spring is warm
and moderately dry, the broods of quail and
grouse are large, and the young birds grow up
strong, so as to be able to fly fast and go a
good distance when the shooting season begins.
When the spring is cold and wet, many broods
are lost through the nests being drowned out.
The broods which arc hatched out are small, and
the young birds have a hard time of it until
summer begins. The last spring was a very
favorable one in the West, and grouse and quail
are numerous and strong. Farmers who had seen
many nests of grouse told me that in most in-
stances every egg had been hatched out, and ir^
June I saw myself as many as twelve young
grouse in a gang. All the old ones that I ob-
30 FIELD SHOOTING.
served had large numbers of young birds, and the
latter were large and strong. The Western coun-
try abounds with hawks, and these persecute the
quail, grouse, and duck very much. I have seen
a bevy of quail in such desperate terror when
pursued by a hawk that they dashed against a
house and many were killed. I kill all the hawks
I can, and often let a grouse go unshot at in
order to bring down a hawk. There is one bird
of that order which makes great ravages among
the ducks. It just kills for the sake of killing,
for it strikes down one after the other. It is a
small, long-winged hawk, very muscular and strong,
and uncommonly rapid in flight. I have seen
this hawk when pursuing ducks strike one down
and let it lie, going on after the others, and
continuing to harass and kill until the prey could
reach water. This hawk does not consume a
fourth of the grouse and duck it kills. It is not
large enough to carry away a good-sized duck,
and I doubt whether it could fly away with a
grouse for any distance. Eighty miles from Elk-
hart there is the Winnebago Swamp, a large and
wild track of water, moss, and cover. Ducks,
such as mallard, teal, and widgeon, breed there
in large numbers. I have often flushed them
GENERAL INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 31
from their nests when I have been snipe-shoot-
ing thereabout. A few geese breed there also,
but perhaps these are only those which, owing to
being wounded or to some accident, have been
unable to join the great flocks in their spring
flight towards the North. From what I am told
by men who have been explorers and hunters in
the service of the Hudson's Bay Company, no
matter how far north Indians or white men may
penetrate, it is found that the geese go farther in
the summer, and bring back their broods in the
fall. In this Winnebago Swamp I have occasion,
ally found the nest of the sand-hill crane, and
'^sometimes that of the blue crane. The crane builds
its nest on the top of a muskrat house, just as
the geese do in that section. It lays two eggs,
much larger than those of a goose, especially in
length, and one of the cranes commonly keeps
watch by the nest. The nests of the ducks are
built on tussocks of grass. The Winnebago Swamp
used to harbor many wolves, and there are a con-
siderable number there yet. Three years ago, in
company with a hunter named ITenry Conderman,
I found the den of a she- wolf in tlie swam}), and
we took her litter of six whelps. Afterwards we
trapped th' old one. We got thirty-five dollars
83 FIELD SHOOTING.
from the county, as it pays a bounty of five dol-
lars a head. The gray prairie wolf is . very de-
structive of young pigs, lambs, geese, etc., and
wolves are more numerous in Illinois now than
most people suppose. Last spring Mr. Gillot
took a litter of five whelps in his grove near
Elkhart. He has a grand wolf-hunt every sum-
mer. The men who have hounds in the neigh-
borhood meet, and a small pack is got together,
with which we hunt the grove, and there is nearly
always fine sport. Mr. Gillot's daughters have
fine saddle-horses and are good riders. With
some other ladies they see the chase from the
hills, and there is a grand time. Last summer we
ran three down in the pastures and killed them.
Another also took to the open, and was killed
after the hunt was over in one of the pastures
by Mr. L. B. Dean. Thus there were four ac-
counted for, all of one litter and about half-
grown. But the old wolves got away, as they
usually do, for our hounds are not able to run
on to an old wolf. They go very fast, keep up
their lope for a long time, know the ground well,
and are very cunning as well as fierce M'hen
cornered or brought to bay. Gray foxes arc
numerous with us. Eagles arc commonly to be
GENERAL INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 33
found along the creeks, and they are sometimes
very bold. Last winter one made a sudden
pounce and grabbed a grouse I had just shot. I
gave him the No. 6 shot from the other barrel,
and as he was near I expected to see him fall,
but he got away with the charge without the
grouse.
From that which has been stated in this intro-
ductory chapter, it will be apparent that there is
no trouble in finding places where good shooting
may be had. Even where there are no pinnated
grouse, the sportsman may find plenty of work for
his dogs and his gun. It is not to be expected
that, in parts very thickly settled and populated,
there will be the abundance and variety of game
which might once be found. Many snipe-groundsi
are now drained, and some are even thickly built
over. The brakes and thickets which onco held
the woodcock have largely been cut up and
cleared away. Quail, however, are more nume-
rous in many States than they ever were before.
The shooting at them is excellent in most of the
counties of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky,
Iowa, Missouri, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. North-
ern Indiana and Michigan are also famous for.
snipe and duck, as Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, and
34 FIELD SHOOTING.
Minnesota are. Perhaps the best general shooting
is to be had in Northeastern Missoiu'i, for there,
besides grouse, quail, waterfowl, etc., the sports-
man may come upon wild turkeys and deer, and
the same is true of some parts of Iowa. Of the
best places for game in the Eastern States I am
not so well acquainted, and I shall, therefore, say
but little about them. This book is mainly to
relate the results of my own experience, not to
gather up and adopt what others may know.
CHAPTER II.
GUNS AND THEIR PROPER CHARGES.
I coutD never see any use to the shooter in a
long theoretical or practical description of the
principles and details of guns as they are made.
All such knowledge is necessary to the gunmaker,
but of no practical use at all to the shooter, for
which reason I shall say next to nothing about it.
It is no more essential to the marksman or young
sportsman that he should understand the mecha-
nism and mode of manufacturing guns, than it is
that he should determine whether the Chinese or
Roger Bacon first invented gunpowder before he
shall fire a shot off. Sportsmen may safely leave
such matters to the guimiakers, who are nearly
everywhere a very ingenious, painstaking, trust-
worthy class of men. There is no handicraft in
which more care is displayed or more ambition
felt to excel. The improvements and ingenious
devices which have so rapidly followed one an-
other of late years, all proceeding from members of
35
36 FIBLD SHOOTING.
the art and mystery of gunmaking, establish this
beyond doubt. There arc plenty of men among
us who can remember when nothing was in use
but the old flint-lock gun. They have not forgot-
ten the misfires which often occurred, when the
sportsman was left staring after the bird, which
flew away rejoicing, and impartially distributing
his curses between the flint, the lock, and the
priming. The percussion-lock with its detonating
cap was an immense improvement, and, no doubt,
suggested the use in the household of the friction'
matches which have quite superseded the old-
fashioned tinder-box with its piece of flint and
steel. Then came the breech-loader, an invention
of enormous value, and so much improved upon
since its first discovery and application that upon
this principle, with various details of construction
for opening, shutting, and securing the piece at the
breech, the most convenient, the safest, and the
best guns in the world are now made. A few
years ago many good sportsmen would have dis-
puted this statement, and there are some who will
do so now. It is, however, founded upon large
experience and many trials of the breech-loader in
my own hands, against the most vaunted muzzle-
loaders in those of olher good marksmen and
eUNS AND THEIR PROPER CHARGES. 37
sportsmen. I was for some time after breech-load-
ing guns came out of a contrary opinion, but
results convinced me of my error. Results always
convince reasonable men — that is to say, a great
preponderance of results. When such a man has
held a cherished opinion upon what seems to be
sufficient grounds, he does not abandon it all at
once because something happens which seems to
tell against it. He tries the matter again and
again, and when, after a large number of trials,
there is a great preponderance of results against
his preconceived opinion, he changes it. Now the
fool never changes his. No matter what happens,
the obstinate blockhead will not admit of change
in consequence of discovery. His motto is, " What
I says I stands to ! "
I first began to shoot with an old musket — flint-
lock, of course, and probably one of those specimens
of " Brown Bess " which had been used in wars
against the French and Indians before the Revolu-
tion. I was then a boy, and soon found out that for
the game about Albany County, New York, " Brown
Bess " would not do. As soon as by hard work
and careful saving I had got together twenty-five
dollars (twenty -five dollars was rather hard to get
in those days) I bought a muzzle-loader. It was a
38 FIELD SHOOTING.
cheap gun, and I do not recommend cheap guns;
but when a man cannot afford an expensive one,
a cheap gun is a good deal better than none, or
than an old " Brown Bess " musket. For some
years after I v/ent to Illinois as well as before, I
never shot with any but common guns. I killed
plenty of game, and could always sell a gun when
it was pretty well worn out for as much as I had
paid for it. Men looking at the size of the bunch
of grouse or ducks I brought in, or at the twenty
brace of quail to which I stinted myself in the
oak barrens on the Sangamon, thought it was the
gun which accounted for the success, and were ready
to buy it. Afterwards I got a Greener gun, one of
the best muzzle-loaders that I have ever seen. I
paid one hundred and twenty -five dollars for it,
and it had but one fault. It weighed seven pounds
and a half, which is too light for my estimate of
excellence. It kicked when pretty heavily charged,
and kept my finger and cheek sore. But it was a
close-shooting, hard-hitting gun, and when the
breech-loaders came out I would not have swapped
it for a hundred of them. I thought they would
not put their shot regular and close, and that they
would lack penetration. 1 have since completely
changed that opinion. I was then ready to shoot
GUN3 AND THEIR PROPER CHARGES. 39
with the Greener gun against any man with a breech-
loader, and would have laid all the money I could
raise that I beat him in the field and at the traps.
I might possibly have done so, for I have never
yet met a man who could beat me in field-shooting,
but the breech-loading gun would not have been
the cause of my opponent's defeat. My opinion of
breech-loaders now is, that they excel muzzle-load-
ers in three or four particulars of the very greatest
importance. Of course I speak of good guns. In
the first place, they put the shot closer and dis-
tribute them more evenly than muzzle-loaders do.
Some sportsmen will say " No ! " I should my-
self have said No once, and so would several other
noted marksmen I can name who were afterwards
convinced by me against their wills, and liow use
no guns but breech-loaders. A breech-loader will
also shoot as hard as a muzzle-loader, provided you
use a little more powder. My breech-loading guns
have shot harder than any muzzle-loading gun I
ever tested them against, but I used a dram more
powder, and of fine quality at that. I think I was
the first man who ever stepped up to shoot a
championship match at pigeons with a breoch-h jad-
ing gun. It was against Ira Paine, on Long Island.
I was defeated in the match, but it was not the
40 FIELD SHOOTING.
fault of the gun. I liked that so well that 1 agreed
to shoot at one hundred birds every day for a
week against Paine ; each day's match to be inde-
pendent of the others — a hundred birds each for five
hundred dollars. We shot the first of the six, but
as I killed eighty to Paine's sixty-two he paid
forfeit on the other matches. Since then I have
used breech-loaders altogether, whether for match-
shooting or in the field. Besides the superiority
of their shooting, the quickness of the shots when
you come upon birds in the field which lie well
is a very material advantage. The greater ease
with which the ammunition is carried is another;
and the cleanliness and complete absence of danger
in loading is a further great point. Many accidents
formerly occurred in the loading of muzzle-loaders.
And I must say this for the gunmakers, even
when cheap muzzle-loaders were in use, not one
accident in a hundred, in my experience, was ow-
ing to defects in the barrels of the guns. Of the
few which burst, nine out of ten were either im-
properly loaded or the charge had partly shifted
before the trigger was pulled. The fact is now
and always was, that the vast majority of acci-
dents with guns are not caused by bad guns, but
by bad handling of guns which are good enough
OUNS AND THEIR PROPER CHARGES. 41
for anybody's use. Another great thing in favor
of the breech-loader is its certainty in wet and
damp weather ; there are no misfires on that ac-
count. The first cost of a breech-loader is some-
what larger than that of a muzzle-loader of equal
goodness and finish. Formerly the cost of ammu-
nition made it dearer to use, but the employment
of metallic cartridge-cases has changed that. They
can be used over and over again, and I have used
some above a hundred times. Thus the expense of
ammunition has been largely reduced. There has,
too, been a great reduction of late in the price of
good, strong, exact-shooting breech-loading guns,
and they will, no doubt, soon supersede muzzle-
loaders altogether. Many of the superb, highly-
finished and fitted guns are sold, but if a man can.
not afford to go to the highest price, he can find
good serviceable weapons for less money. Still,
as a good gun will last a man the greater part
of a lifetime, it is well to buy the best you
can really aiford when you are about the business.
A serviceable breech-loader can now be got for a
hundred dollars ; but where you have means pay
more money for a better finished, and perhaps
truer and more durable, article. 1 shoot with
a gun of ten gauge, thirty-two inches in the bar-
42 FIELD SHOOTING.
rels, and ten pounds weight. This is a gun for
all sorts of uses. It will stop anything that flies
or runs on this side of the Rocky Mountains,
if properly charged and aimed. Many may think
ten pounds too heavy to . carry, but the advan-
tage of a good solid gun m delivery of fire is
very great. 1 do not like light guns, neither
muzzle-loaders nor breech-loaders. The breech-
loader I am now using was a three-hundred-dollar
gun, and, considering the prices they were selling
at when I bought it, was worth the money. It
has done a great deal of work — much hard work
— and done it well. I have shot with it twelve
times in matches against time, undertaking to
kill fifty birds in eight minutes, and have won
the money every time. I have also killed with
it fifty-three out of fifty-four birds in four min-
utes and forty-five seconds. This was at Jcrsey-
ville, Illinois, twenty yards from the trap and
two birds in the trap. II. B. Slayton was
present. At New Orleans 1 killed one hundred
and eleven out of one hundred and eighteen in
seventeen minutes and thirty seconds, and picked
up my own birds. I have shot many other
matches with this gun, besides using it in a A'ast
amount of field-shooting every sprmg, fiill, and
GUNS AND THEIR PROPER CHARGES. 43
winter. All this work it has stood well. It has
never been to a gunsmith-shop to be repaired,
and is as tight at the breech and as perfect in
the opening and clasping action as ever it was.
These facts prove conclusively that there is no-
thing wrong in the principle of a breech-loader,
and that, if such a gun is properly constructed,
it will stand as much wear and tear as a muz-
zle-loader. I am, however, of the opinion that
shooting the time-matches has somewhat impaired
the fine shooting qualities of this gun by mak-
ing the barrels so hot. I fancy it does not now
throw its shot so close or distribute it so evenly
as it did before the barrels were heated in these
matches. They got so hot that the resin broiled
out of the soldered joints along the rib, and in
one instance burned my hand through a buckskin
glove. To shoot well, a man must have his gun
so stocked as to fit him. Some require a longer
stock than others. Some like stocks which
are nearly straight, while others can shoot with
a gun the stock of which is crooked. It depends
mostly on the build of the man, A long-armed
man docs not want a gun with a short stock.
A man with a moderately long neck cannot use
a gun which is straight in the stock with ease
44 FIELD SHOOTING.
or pleasure. 1 choose a stock of moderate length,
and one that is rather crooked — one with a drop
of about three inches. This sort of a gun comes
even up to the shoulder with most men, and you
do not have to crook the neck much in taking
aim with it. Some people pretend that there is
no need to look along the rib at the bird in
order to shoot well. They shoot well, and they
say they do not do so. I believe they are mis-
taken. Taking aim does not mean dwelling on
the aim and pottering about in an uncertain way
with the gun at the shoulder. Even in snipe-
shooting there is a distinct aim taken, though,
when a good-fitting gun is brought up to the
shoulder, the aim is almost instantaneous, and the
discharge follows on the next instant. At pigeons
some men do shoot without sighting the bird ;
but they know just where the bird must fly
from, and they have the trick of covering the trap
by raising the breech and lowering the muzzle as
if done by a gauge, and then they blaze away.
Such men often kill the bird before it gets on the
wing, and this proves that practically they shoot
at the trap and just beyond it, rather than at the
bird. This sort of thing is impracticable in the
field, and there, if not everywhere else, the man
GUNS AND THEIR PROPER CHARGES. 45
who sights his bird along the rib of his gun, in
shooting straight forward, makes the best bag.
There are, of course, some situations in which you
must practise snap-shooting to get any shooting at
all. At woodcock in cover, or at grouse and quail
in corn, you can have but a glimpse of the bird
you shoot at, and you must aim just where intui-
tion, as it may be called, tells you the bird will
be. In cases where the bird can be plainly seen
it should be distinctly aimed at. It is not a ques-
tion of quickness. In the time-matches where I
must necessarily shoot very quick, and in those
matches where I stand between two traps forty
yards apart, which are pulled at the same fime, I
sight my bird before I pull the trigger. If I did
not, I could never accomplish the feats which have
become easy to me.
There arc still many men prejudiced against
breech-loading guns, and some who have given
them a trial remain so. But in most of these
latter eases the men have either got hold of a poor
gun, or do not know how to load a good one. If the
cartridge is not properly filled, wadded, and turned
down, the shooting will be inferior, no matter
how good the gun may be or how skilful the
shooter. Last April I saw a match shot at Frank-
46 FIELD SHOOTING.
fort, Kentucky, in which one man used a breech-
loader and the other a muzzle-loader. As soon as
they began to shoot I saw that the breech-loader,
although it was in the hands of the best man of
the two, would be beaten. And why? Because
his cartridges were not properly filled. The wads
on the powder, instead of lying flat and snug, were
often partly edgewise. It was the same with the
wads on the shot, besides which the cartridges
were not well turned down over the wads. The
shooter who had lost the match blamed his gun,
which was a light one, and sent for one of ten
pounds weight, like mme. But if he is as careless
in loadmg his cartridges for the heavy gun as he
was Avhen he had the light one, the shooting will
not be any better I could have told hmi how to
win, but it was not my business to interfere in
the matter. The shot in the cartridges should
have been taken out, the wads sent home true,
and the ends of the cases turned down close after
the shot was replaced and evenly wadded.
The first time 1 visited New York and other
Eastern States for the purpose of pigeon-shooting
I spent some days with Miles Johnson, of Yard-
ville, Mercer County, New Jersey. He is a
fiMnous ])igoon-shooter and an excellent field sports-
GUNS AND THEIR PROPER CHARGES. 47
mail. Few men, if any, know better how, when,
and where to make a good bag of woodcock,
snipe, or quail. Now, Miles had a number of
crack muzzle-loaders, expressly for shooting-matches,
and he was confident no breech-loader could equal
them in pattern and penetration. I remarked that
I had a good gun, and would shoot against him
and his best muzzle-loader at a target. Miles
declared with some heat and vociferation that
" he'd be — " if I could beat him in shooting at a
target at all, let alone using a' breech-loader
against the most famous of his muzzle-loaders.
However, taking paper for targets and our guns,
we repaired to an old barn near Yardville, and
shot at them. Mr. Nathan Dorsey was present. I
beat Miles very easily, and with an ounce of shot
put more pellets in the target from the breech-
loader than he did with an ounce and a half from
his muzzle-loader. Miles hardly knew what to
make of it, but, perceiving that the penetration of
my shot was also good, ho finally acknowledged
that a good breech-loader would beat any other
sort of gun in shooting, and he now shoots with
one himself And thus it will be found in almost
every case. When a man has strong precon-
ceived opinions, it is of very little use to argue
48 FIELD SHOOTING.
with him. The cfTectual thing is to show him
that he is in error by actual demonstration of the
facts in his j^rcsence. Nothing but actual experi-
ence would have convinced me at one time that a
breech-loader would shoot as well as, or better than,
a first-rate muzzle-loader. Now 1 know the fact.
I convinced Abraham Kleinman, of Calumet, Illi-
nois, in the same practical manner He is, in my
opinion, the best duck-shooter in the country, and
one of the best at pigeons from the trap. His
brothers, John and Henry, are also good shots'.
They had used muzzle-loaders all their lives, and
could not be persuaded that breech loaders were
good until Abraham found that I could beat him
and use one. He then got one himself, and John
and Henry soon followed his example. Nearly
all the good shots in Illinois now prefer the
breech-loading gun. Some held out against it for
a long time on the ground that it was new — as if
every good thing which is old had not been new
itself one time. Not very long ago the percussion-
lock was new. Again, some people have a pre-
judice as to breech loaders, believing them to be
defective in the very points wherein they excel.
On the seventh and eighth of last April I shot at
Frankfort, Kentucky, for sweepstakes. All the
GUNS AND THEIR PROPER CHARGES. 49
subscribers except myself had muzzle-loading guns.
It was a wet, damp day, and my opponents
had got it into their heads that the breech-
loader would often . miss fire in such weather.
They therefore insisted upon a change in their
rules so as to provide that when the gun missed
fire it should be a lost bird, no matter how well
the gun might have been loaded. I must admit
that I chuckled inwardly as I agreed to this
change. I knew the weather might aflfect their
caps, but that it could not impair mine in the
cartridges. We shot the first day; the muzzle-
loaders missed fire several times, while my breech-
loader never missed fire at all. The upshot of it
was that for the second day's shooting they de-
manded the repeal of the new rule, so that they
could have another bird after a misfire, if the
gun was properly loaded and capped. I could, of
course, have resisted this demand eflTectually ; for
when in such a case action has begun, there can
be no change in rules or conditions without the
unanimous consent of all concerned as principals.
But I agreed to the change, and won both stakes.
A good breech-loader will shoot as Avell in wet
weather as in fair weather, and there will be no
misfires on account of damp. But if there is a
50 FiEU) mioofwa.
defect in the action of the plunger*, ao that it does
not strike square on the cap, there will be mis-
fires in any weather, "Diis is a point which needs
particular attention in the choice of a gun. As I
said before, I shoot with a gun of ten pounds weight
now, and prefer it much to those of seven and a
half pounds, with which I used to shoot formerly.
But some think a gun of ten pounds too heavy to
carry through a long day Mid use in all sorts of
ground. For many a lighter gun would be better
for woodcock-shooting, and for grouse and quail
in tall com. But. I would not recommend any
one to get a gun of less weight than seven and a
half pounds for general shooting and good service.
If in choosing a gun you are in doubt concerning
the weight which will suit you, give the gun
the benefit of it, and take one a pound
heavier than you have had before, if it weighed
seven and a half pounds or less. A man soon
gets used to the extra pound in the weight of his
gun, and carries and uses it as easily as he did the
lighter one, w^hile the shooting of it will be much
nicer and more pleasant, and the bag of game
will be larger. The question is one of conve-
nience, hardly of strength ; for any man fit to
go into tlie field at all can carry and use a guu
GUNS AND ffifilfi PftOfiS* CHARGES. 51
of eight pounds weight. It is true that until ffien
have worked themselves into some condition they
will get tired in tramping over the prairies and
fields and through the coverts carrying such a
gun, but so they would if they carried nothing
but a cane.
In loading ft gun of ten gauge for gtouse I put
into my cartridges four and a half or five drams
of powder atxd an ounce of No. 9 shot, in the
early part of the season. Later on I use No. 8
shot, and still later No. 7. In November and
December, for the shooting of grouse and duck,
1 charge with No; 6. Some use larger shot for
ducks, but a charge of No. 6 from a good gun,
well held, will stop a duck as far off as seventy
yards sometimes. With a strong charge of pow-
der and shot of moderate size there is greater
penetration, and a better chance of hitting besides.
When 1 go out expressly for brant and geese, 1
load my cartridges with No. 2; but when out for
general shooting, I have killed many brant and
some geese with No. 6. For quail-shooting I use
No. 8 or No. 9; for plover, No. 8; for snipe.
No. 10. For wild turkeys I once preferred shoot-
ing with a rifle, but I now Use the breech-loading
shot-gun with No. ? shot in the cartridges.
52 FIELD SHOOTING.
With such a gun and ammunition I have killed
as many as eleven in one forenoon. For field-
shooting and match-shooting I have hitherto used
what is called Dead Shot powder, and have found it
very good. I have, however, since given a thorough
test to the Orange Powder made by the Laflin
and Rand Powder Company, I found the Orange
Ducking and Orange Lightning Powder the best
for giving penetration that I have used, and as
good for making pattern as any. I shot it from
my own gun, and can conscientiously and strongly
recommend it. They make lower grades of pow-
der nearly as good, but the sportsman had
better buy the sorts mentioned. In champion
matches I use paper cases for the cartridges, and
put in five drams of powder, with two pink-edged
wads over it. They must be forced down square
and level upon the powder with a rammer, but
not rammed too hard. An ounce and a half of
No. 9 shot is then put in, evenly placed, and a
thin wad, or the half of a split pink-edged wad,
is pressed down firmly and evenly upon the shot.
The cartridge is then to be turned down smoothly
and closely on the upper wad. In matches and
in field-shooting I always have used the shot made
by Tatham & Brother, of New York, when it was
GUNS AND THEIR PROPER CHARGES. 53
possible to get it. When I shot the championship
match against Abraham Kleinman, of Calumet, at
Chicago, there was none of Tatham's shot of the
right number in the city. Being determined to
shoot with no other, if I could help it, I tele-
graphed to Detroit for a bag, and it was sent on
by express in time for the shooting. I killed all
my hundred birds, and only seven fell out of
bounds. I decidedly prefer No. 9 shot to any
other number at the trap. For field-shoot-
ing 1 employ metallic cartridge-cases ; they shoot
well and are cheap, as they can be used many
times over. The paper ones shoot a little the
best, but a bird or two in field-shooting is a mere
nothing, and metal cases do well enough. I load
tiiem with five drams of powder and 07ie pink-
eclgod M^ad square down upon it, and the same
as to the shot. I einploy wads two sizes larger
than the bore of the gun. Thus, for a ten-gauge
gun, No. 8 wads. This is necessary to keep them
firm, so that the charge may not start in one
barrel when the other is fired. Even with the .
A
largo, tight wads in the cartridges it is best to
fire the barrels as nearly alternately as may be.
It will not do to shoot one barrel four or five
times with the charcre in the other all the while. .
54 PIBtD SHOOTINGF.
I believe there is nothing more needful to be
said concerning guns, ammunition, and loading.
It will have been seen that I believe in the
necessity of large charges of good, strong powder
more than in the efficacy of very large shot. The
smaller shot, as I believe, are driven at higher
velocities, and have greater penetration, than larger
ones. Besides, the number of pellets to the
weight of the charge is a very material thing.
The more there are, the more will, in all pro-
bability, be put into the bird shot at. But, as
a matter of course, in following this principle a
man is not to run into extremes and use very
small shot for large game. On the other hand,
he is not to be too ready, when the birds are
not brought to bag, to lay it to the fault of
small-sized shot. No shot is big enongh to stop
a bird without hitting him ; and before changing
the size of the shot or finding fault with the
gun, it will be better to endeavor to mend and
improve the aim.
CHAPTER III.
PINNATED-GROUSE SHOOTINO.
The pinnated grouse, commonly called prairie,
chicken where it is most abundant in the West, is
a handsome bird, weighing from two pounds to
two and a half pounds, sometimes nearly three
when it has reached mature size. It is a delicious
bird on the table, either when split and broiled
while young, the flesh being then white, or roasted
when of full size. It formerly prevailed in New
Jersey, Pennsylvania, Long Island, and Kentucky,
in parts where there were open heaths; but it is
not now found until the valley of the Mississippi
i.3 reached. There are none in Ohio, but few in
Indiana and Michigan; but it is plentiful in Illi-
nois, Iowa, Minnesota, Kansas, Nebraska, and parts
of Missouri and Wisconsin. The pinnated grouse
is a bird of the grassy plains and great prairies,
and does not frequent the woodland, save on frosty
mornings, when it may be seen perched on trees
near the edges of the groves. At such times, too,
it will be seen perched on fences and corn-shocks.
65
56 FIELD SHOOTING.
On such mornings, when the weather is still as
well as chilly, the grouse may be heard cackling
and chattering in the timber-land for a consider-
able distance inwards, but on other occasions
they never resort to the groves. This bird is
certainly of much service to the agriculturist, as
it consumes many grasshoppers and other de-
structive insects, while the little wheat, corn, and
oats it eats does not amount to anything by
comparison. Indeed, its food, before the wheat-
land is in stubble, is probably wholly composed
of insects and the buds of heather and other
plants to be found in the prairies and in the
spacious pastures of the West. Before the great
prairies of Illinois and other Western States were
broken up by the plough of the settler, the
grouse were more numerous than they are now,
and they could not have fed on grain, because
there were no fields of grain within hundreds of
miles of them. It is the same now in those parts
where the prairies are still extensive, and on the
great pastures where droves of bullocks, hundreds
strong in number, are fatted for the Eastern mar-
kets. It is my firm belief, from observations
made for many years about the time of the
breeding season, that the pinnated grouse is poly-
PINNATED-GROUSE SHOOTING. 57
gamous, like our domestic cOcks and hens. I have
never seen them paired off as quail are. Early
in the spring the cocks are together in gangs.
They get on hilly places, swell out their necks,
and make a booming noise, which can be heard at
a considerable distance. At this time, too, they
fight with each other like game-cocks. The hens
at the same season are to be found in gangs, but
not on the same ground as the cocks. While
the latter congregate on the hills the hens remain
on the prairie, and go into the corn-fields to feed.
A great deal of corn remains standing all the
winter in the West, and is not shucked until it is
time to plough and plant again. The grouse
mostly roost in the long grass of rich bottom-
lands. About the last of April and beginning of
May the hens make their nests. I have found
one on the tenth of May containing as many as
eight eggs. The nest is made on the gi'ound, and
formed of a little grass, and is a good deal like
that of a domestic hen when she makes one in
the fields. When the hen-grouse can conveniently
got to the prairie, they build in that grass. Wheu
thoy cannot, they builJ in the fields, and often
in patches of weeds. In the bottoms, which are
generally wet at that season, the nests are niade.
58 FIELD SHOOTING.
oti tussocks of thick gfass which rise above the
surface. When the weather happens to be wet
about the last of May, many nests in the bottom-
lands are overflowed, and the young which may
have been hatched mostly perish by cold, starva-
tioiij or drowning. The hens which have had
their nests destroyed by floods, by prairie-burn-
ihgj of by the plough, commonly build again, but
their broods are late, and usually of small num-
ber. The hen lays from twelve to eighteen eggs,
white in color, and about the size of those of a
bantam hen. The hen sets twenty-one days, the
same as barn-door fowl. The young run as sooti
as hatched; and if a man or a dog should go near
where they are, they will hide and skulk under
the grass, even on the first day, while the old
hen will try to lead the intruder away. They
feed on insects for the most part, the old hens
catching them at first for the young chicks. The
latter, however, soon learn to catch them for
themselves. As they grow larger, they feed a
good deal on herbage. The young increase in size
very rapidly. They are not hatched until early
in June, at the earliest ; and on the fourth of July,
in a favorable season, I have seen broods which
were half grown. The breeding-time varies ac-
PINNATED-GROUSE SHOOTING. 59
cording to the season and the situation, hut every
year there are some broods fearly, some late, and
some very late, the latter being brought off by
hens which have lost their first nests. By the
fifteenth of August some of the broods are about
full grown ; but they are then tame, and, having
grown so rapidly, are weak on the wing, and soon
tire. I believe hybrids have been produced by
the hen-grouse and the bantam cock. Last spring,
at Omaha, Nebraska, I saw in the possession of
Mr. George A. Hoagland, President of the Shoot-
ing Club, a bird of the preceding year, which had
been shot out of a covey of seven or eight. This
bird was believed to be a hybrid. There was
another of the same brood in the town, and both
were well stuffed and set up. All the brood were
alike as to markings and appearance. Their size
was that of a grouse two-thirds grown. In shape
they were more like the bantam or barn-door
fowl than the grouse. The ground color of their
plumage was a dingy white, but they were spangled
all over with feathers colored and barred like
those of grouse. That they were hatched by a
hen-grouse is unquestionable, for she was often
seen with them. She made her nest close to a
house, and it was biilioved that a domestic cock
60 FIELD SHOOTING.
was the father of her young ones. Albinos of the
grouse species are sometimes seen, but those
above referred to were not at all like Albinos.
There is a very beautiful specimen of the Albino
at the Grand Central Hotel at Omaha, and the
supposed hybrids did not resemble it in the least.
1 was informed that this brood of spangled grouse
or hybrids were exceptionally wild. But for all
that most of them were shot, though but two pre-
served. These birds are still to be seen at Omaha,
and it might be well for a scientific naturalist to
examine them.
The game-law of Illinois allows the shooting
of grouse to commence on the fifteenth of Au-
gust, and in some States it is suffered to begin
as early as the first of that month. Both these
dates are too early. The first of September would
be quite soon enough, and most sportsmen would
prefer that date. As the law now stands, nearly
all begin to shoot early ; for as some will do so, it
cannot be expected that many others will refrain.
On the fifteenth of August some broods of grouse
are full grown, but the great majority are not,
and many broods are not more than half grown,
while some are so small as to be almost unable
to fly. These are the broods of birds whose first
PINNATED-GROUSE SHOOTING. 61
nests were broken up in the spring. I never
shoot at these half-callow young, but there are
plenty of people who do. The early -grouse shooting
is very good practice for young beginners with
the gun, as they lie until you are near them, and
fly slowly. But it would be just about as good
if the shooting was deferred fifteen days later by
law, as the birds would still lie close and fly
slowly. The early shooting makes the birds wild
before they would otherwise become so, and it
brings many to the bag half grown that would,
under other circumstances, be bagged full grown.
In the early part of the season grouse-shooting in
the West is the easiest there is. The birds lie
well to the dogs, their flight is slow, and they
can usually be marked down near at hand.
There is, however, one thing which aflbrds pro-
tection to the grouse, and presents considerable
difiieulty to the shooter. There arc commonly
corn-fields at no great distance, and if they fly
into the corn when flushed in the stubbles or the
prairie, it is very difficult to kill them. It is,
on the whole, better to It-t them go as not at-
tainable. Men cannot shoot well in tall corn;
dogs can do but little i}i it, even the best of
dogs, at that season, and young ones are utterly
^ FIELD SHOOTING;
useless, as they can neither see yoU nor you then\
and no instructions can be given to them. The
early season is the time for young beginners, aa
the broods are then numerous and easily found.
If the shooting was not allowed before September,
it would answer the purpose of teaching the no-
vices quite as well ; for though the birds would
be somewhat stronger on the wing, they would lie
just as close, and would be larger. After the
broods have been shot at two or three weeks,
they are thinned out considerably, and have be-
come much wilder. They are then of fine size^
the weather has become cooler, and the birds can
be kept. At least half of the young grouse killed
in the month of August become spoiled and are
never used. Some may doubt this, but I state
what I know to be facts. In August the weather
is very often close and sultry ; for though there
is commonly some air on the wide prairies, the
breezes do not then prevail.
At the beginning of the shooting season the
grouse will be found at early morning in the stub-
bles. They have gone out of their roosting-places
to feed in the stubbles of the wheat and oat fields,
which have then been pretty well overgrown with
rag-weed, and afford thick cover. Where flax is
PINNATED-GROtrSE SHOOTING. (rJ
cultivated, you may look for them in the flax
stubbles, as they are some of their most favorite
resorts. Another good place to beat, whenever
you see one, is a bean-patch. The navy bean is
a good deal cultivated in Illinois and Iowa, and
the grouse resort to the patches. About nine or
ten o'clock, when the sun has got high and the
morning hot, the grouse leave the stubbles and
bean-patches, and walk into the long prairie-grass
or into the corn. On such daySj in clear weather,
at that season of the year, it is best to give over
shooting about ten o'clock, and lie by until late in
the afternoon, when you may pursue your sporfc
again with prospects of success, and fill up your
bag. To continue after the grouse in the middle
of the day is me«ely to distress your dogs and to
fatigue yourself for nothing. There is no scent,
and the grouse will not lie in the open prairie.
But on damp, cloudy days the case is altogether
different. The birds then remain in the stubbles
all day, unless flushed and driven into the corn ;
the dogs can work and scent better ; and under
these overcast skies are the best and most glo-
rious days of the grouse-shooter in the early part
of the season. Later in the full and at the be-
giiming of winter the habit of the grouse is
64. FIELD SnOOTING.
different, as will be specially uoticed further on.
A cloudy day, cool air, the dogs feeling and
working well, plenty of grouse in the stubbles,
and the sportsman out of the glaring sunshine and
able to shoot deliberately and well, make great
enjoyment and a good bag. On the clear days,,
when the grouse have left the stubbles for the
prairie-grass and corn, instead of shooting all the
time until you are tired, as you will be before
night, until you have been seasoned and got into
hard condition of muscle and wind, lay off in some
house, or your camp, or in your wagon in the
shade, if you can find it, until about four or half-
past four o'clock in the afternoon. Then it will
be time to begin to beat the stubbles again. The
grouse will have come, or will be coming, on to
them again from the resorts in which they spent the
hot hours of the day ; and you and your dogs, being
refreshed and rested, will be in good fettle for the
sport. The sun will get low, and finally go down
over the distant swells of land to the westward ;
the dew will begin, insensibly to you, to fall ; the
dogs will find the birds easily, they will lie well,
and you may shoot as long as you can see in the
twilight.
In some parts of Illinois, Iowa, and other
PINNATKD-GROUSB SHOOTING. 65
Western States there are very extensive ranges
of pasture-land, on which great herds of cattle,
many from Texas, are fattened. These lands have
not been broken up by the plough at any time,
but, being regularly depastured, have lost much
of the prairie character. They remain, however,
good resorts for grouse, and the shooting over
them is some of the best to be had. The grouse
bred on them probably never see a stubble-field, at
least until after late in the fall of their first year.
Their habits are the same as those of the birds
which are found near the arable corn, wheat,
and oat lands. In the morning they will be
found on the ridges and knolls where the grass
is short. In the heat of the day they retire into
the long grass which abounds in low, moist
places. In the evening they return to the knolls
and ridges again. These pastures are sometimes
of the extent of two thousand acres or more,
and the shooting on them is second to none in
those States. Yet they are comparatively little
shot over, especially in the early part of the
season. As a rule, it is believed the grouse are
more abundant where the land is varied and
stubbles, pieces of prairie, corn-fields, and patches
of beans arc found in the immediate neighborhood
66 fttLv fiHOonyo,
of each other. For this reason most of the
sportsmen, especially those of the towns near at
hand, or fron> the more distant cities, who shoot
mostly in the early part of the season, go to
them, and do not attempt the wide pastures. But
give me the sport on the latter, and let me be-
gin about the middle of September, when most
of the grouse bred on them are full-grown,
strong birds, coming down with a thump seem-
ingly hard enough to make a hole in the ground
when killed clean and well. The grouse in these
places commonly lie first-rate to the dog, and
get up by twos and threes, so that a good shot
has a chance to bring to bag many of the
covey, and thotee he cannot shoot at the first rise
may be easily marked down. In 1872 Miles
Johnson of New Jersey was shooting with me in
McLean County, Illinois. We camped near Bell-
flower, and had a man for camp-keeper while
Miles and I shot. We were out ten days, and
in that time bagged six hundred grouse, shooting
only mornings and evenings. As I have said be-
fore, and wish to impress particularly upon my
readers for their information and advantage, it is
of no use to try for grouse in the middle of the
day, when the weather is clear, in the early part
PINNATED-GROUSK SHOOTING, 67
of the fall. The best day Miles Johnson and I
had that time was in one of the great pastures
1 have alluded to above. It contained from
five to ten thousand acres. We went into it
early in. the morning, and came out about eleven
o'clock in the forenoon with eighty full-grown
grouse. That was a capital morning's sport, no
doubt, but I have often had as good.
While we were at the camp near Bellflower we
were visited by Johnson's friend, Mr, Eldridge
of New Jersey. With him came Dr. Goodbreak of
Clinton, Illinois. The doctor is an army surgeon
and an ardent and excellent sportsman. They shot
with us two days, using muzzle-loaders ; but when
Dr. Goodbreak had seen the execution I did with
my breech-loader, sometimes getting two or three
nice shots while one was loading, and often killing
a long way off, he was satisfied as to which was
the best style of gun, and sent an order for a
breech-loader to cost three hundred and fifty dollars.
After being there ten days Miles Johnson left for
home. I remained at the camp, and in a while
A. Leslie and H. Robinson of Elkhart came up
and shot with me. It was then getting late in
the fall, and we had excellent success. The grouse
were wild and very fast on the wing. They wei-e
C8 FIELD SHOOTING.
strong, and it took good shooting and hard hit-
ting to bring them to the bag, I killed from ten
brace to twenty brace a day, and averaged about
fifteen brace. My companions together did not
secure as many. In shooting grouse on the pas-
tures, and indeed anywhere, you should beware
of shooting too soon. M»any more birds are
missed at short than at long shots, in my opin-
ion. The sudden, loud whirr made by the rising
of the grouse when it gets up startles young
sportsmen, and some nervous, excitable old ones
too. The shot is hastily delivered, while the
bird is so near that the charge has not distance
enough to diverge and spread in, and the game
is often missed. If the shooter had waited for
steady sight of the bird along the rib, which is
not to be a slow, potterijig aim, it would have been
often brought down. In McLean County, Ford
County, and the others of the tier on that line,
there is as good grouse-shooting as any I know of
anywhere in Illinois. They are in the section of
country lying southwest of Chicago, and a line
drawn from that city to St. Louis in Missouri
would pass through them. As good places as
any to get off the railroad at are Bellfiower in
McLean County, and Gibson in Ford County.
PINNATED-GROUSE SHOOTING. 69
Twelve miles from Gibson is the great farm of
Mr. Michael Sullivant, formerly of Columbus,
Ohio. He has a tract of land containing forty-
five thousand acres. It is a splendid place to
shoot, and real sportsmen are made welcome by
the owner. I was there last spring after brant
and ducks, and made heavy bags. I saw at that
time large numbers of grouse — a powerful breed-
ing-stock.
In shooting over the great pastures I have men-
tioned particular care must be taken not to go
near the herds of cattle. They are pretty wild,
and the coming near them of dogs makes them
excited. In the first place, the farmers do not
like to have dogs taken near their cattle, and
every good sportsman should carefully avoid do-
ing anything which may annoy the owners of the
land on which he may be. I can always got
along pleasantly Avith the owners of the land, and
so may any one else who Avill use them Avell and
refrain from damage. In the second place, if
shooting parties go near the great herds of cat-
tl(^ with their dogs, the ])ulloeks will come for
Ihc hitter at a run in a l)ig drove, the fright-
ened dogs will run to their masters, and befoi-e
the men cau get out of th»> way of the furioin
70 FIELD SHOOTING.
rush they may be knocked down, trampled over
by scores of hoofs, and very likely killed. Wheu
shooting in these vast pastures, I take care to
give the herds a wide berth, and keep well away
from them. Even then they will sometimes begin
to move towards the dogs, in which case I pui
the setters or pointers, as the case may be, into
the buggy as soon as possible, and drive off out
of the sight of the herd. In shooting grouse in
Illinois, Iowa, and the other prairie States, the
sportsman should take water in his buggy or
wagon for himself and his dogs. The prairies
arc very spacious, the water-courses wide apart,
the droughts sometimes long and severe. If hd
thinks to find water in natural places for him-
self and his dogs, which need it oftcner and
more than he, they will be very thirsty before
he reaches any. If he comes to a house at such
times, he will find that water is the most scarce
and precious thing about the place. The well is
all but dry. The farmer's horses are on short
allowance. His milch cows are stinted, and stand
lowing round the empty trough at the well half
the night long. The people sometimes, in very
dry seasons, have to haul water from a distance,
as their own wells become dry, and their cattle
PINNATED-GROUSE SHOOTING. 71
and horses must be provided for. In this state
of affairs it cannot be expected that the people
will furnish half a bucket of water for a stranger
or two and the dogs. Therefore when you
start out from house or camp, take in your
buggy or wagon a five-gallon jug of water as a
thing of prime necessity.
CHAPTER IV.
LATE PINNATED-aROUSE SHOOTINGf.
In the preceding chapter I have described the
places and times to seek the pinnated grouse in
the earlier part of the shooting season, and pointed
out the methods of hunting for them by means of
which satisfactory success is most likely to be ob-
tained. We now come to the latter part of the
season, the months of October and November,
with that of December ; for the resolute and hardy
sportsmen who care nothing for cold and wet
may sometimes prefer a bag of winter grouse to
one of duck or brant. In the month of October
the prairies have become brown, and later on the
corn will have been wilted by the early frosts,
if it has not been already. Some of the best
shooting of the year, to my mind the very best,
is now before the sportsman ; but it needs work,
and young beginners will not find the grouse so
easy to kill as they were in August and Septem-
ber. In the early part of the season the best
shooting hours were early and late in the day.
72
LATE PINNATED-GROUSE SHOOTING. 73
Now it is the reverse ; the middle of the day is
the proper time. When I first came to Illinois,
the grouse in October and later were mostly
found in the prairie-grass. There has now been a
change in their habits, and they seem to like best
to lie in corn. I suppose the reason was that as
prairies were much broken up, and the quantity
of land in corn rapidly increased, the grouse found
out that the lying in the corn was excellent, and
the habit was soon formed. In the corn there is
a great plenty of various kinds of food. The
ground is mellow and affords excellent dusting
places. In the West wheat is often sowed while
the corn is still standing, being put in with a
cultivator-plough. These wheat-fields in the corn
are favorite places with the grouse, and 1 have
many a time killed eighteen or twenty in one
such field. Also, when wheat is sowed out upon
the prairie, grouse will go to those fields at early
morning. When the sun gets high, they will go
into the prairie-grass, round the edges of the
young wheat, and lie there all the middle of the
day. Then there is nice shooting. At four or
five o'clock, towards evening, the birds will go
out upon the young wheat-fields again. This is in
clear weather. On cloudy days the grouse stay
74 FIELD SHOOTING.
on the wheat, the bare places of the prairie,
and on ploughed land all day, and it is of no use
to go after them. You may just as well stay in
your tent or house as go after grouse, for you
cannot get near them. If there are quail in the
neighborhood, you may have sport with them.
In only one way can grouse be shot late in the
fall in cloudy, overcast weather, and it is hardly
worth while to employ that. You may drive up
in a buggy, as we do in plover-shooting, and so
get near enough, but it is more trouble than the
game you will kill is worth, and I never do
it. I may say here that those who go out shoot-
ing in the prairie States need to have a wagon or
buggy with them. It may be done without, but
the work is very severe. The prairies are very
wide, and it is a good way from one favorable
point to another. When I first went to Illinois,
seventeen years ago, I used to start out in the
morning, on foot, and shoot all day. I used no
dog at all then, and had but a poor, light gun,
which did but little execution, though I shot
middling well. When I had got about seven
or eight grouse, I used to hide them and mark
the place, to be taken up on my way back.
With this gun I speak of and common pow-
LATE PINNATED-GROUSE SHOOTING. 75
der I have often shot away a pound of the
latter to get twenty-five or thirty birds. I fol-
lowed, in those days, the example of other
people, and used shot several sizes larger than
was necessary or proper. At that date we used
No. 1 or No. 2 in October and November, and I
believe I was one of the first to discover that with
No. 6, from a good gun, with a strong charge of
powder, the biggest cock-grouse that ever flew
could be brought to the bag. At the end of my
day's shooting at that period I used to have to
carry twenty-five or thirty grouse as well as the
gun for four or five miles, sometimes further.
This was no small matter.
The October shooting of grouse, good as that
is, may be excelled, according to my notions, by
that in November. They generally lie in the
corn among the tumble-weed, so called from its
growing up and rolling over so as to form snug
cover ; and they are especially fond of lying in
the sod-corn, which is that grown upon the land
the first crop after the prairie is broken up. This
sod-corn does not grow up tall, as the corn on
older-tilled land does. In November the blades
of the corn are hanging down, wilted by the
frost. The stalks are shrunk. The dogs can
76 FIELD SHOOTING.
work in it, and you can see to shoot in it. But
it takes good shooting to make good bags. The
birds are now at full growth and strength. They
have in all probability flown the gauntlet of
many guns, and the weaker ones have been
thinned out of the packs. But on clear days
they lie well to the dogs, and, being swift and
strong on the wing, when they rise the sport
afforded is capital. One of the best days I ever
had was in November, near Farmer City, Cham-
pagne County, Illinois. I was accompanied by
Mr. Nathan Doxie, of Geneseo, a keen sports-
man and good shot. At that time he shot with
a muzzle-loader, while I used a breech-loader. It
M'as a clear, bright day, warm for the time of
year. We beat the sod-corn, «of which there
was a great deal in the neighborhood, and, when
the birds flew out into the adjoining prairie, we
could mark them down. Our bag was a very
heavy one. I killed fifty-seven grouse and Mr.
Doxie knocked over eighteen, making seventy-
five fine fat birds in all. Mr. Doxie said it was
the first time he had ever been beaten in the
field. There was another person shooting near
us all day, but he did next to nothing, killing
but five grouse, as I remember. I have shot
LATE PINNATED-GEOUSE SHOOTING. 77
with many meu in the month of November, and
good shots too, but never one that I did not
beat.
Three times in the course of my experience in
field-shooting I have killed ten grouse with two
barrels. Once in Menard County, near Salt Creek,
late in November, I came upon a plank fence
in a light snow-storm. It happened that there
was a grapevine growing thickly over part of
the fence, and, getting this between me and the
birds, I secured a pretty close shot. They were
scattered along the fence for a distance of about
ten yards. With the first barrel 1 killed nine,
and with the other one. Another time I got a
shot at a lot near a fence, and killed ten with
two barrels. And once in Logan County I got
within shot of about twenty birds which were
in short grass, and killed ten with both barrels.
Such shots as these arc very seldom to be got.
A man may shoot half a lifetime and never
meet with one. I have often, in the early part
of the season, killed a grouse with each barrel
out of a pack which rose near me, and then
slipped in another cartridge, and killed a third.
But this is only to be done when they are lazy
and fly slowly, and it cannot be done then unless
78 FIELD SHOOTING.
the shooter is very quick. Some men say that
I am slow because I will not shoot until I have
sighted the birdj but I think these sort of field-
shots and my time-matches at pigeons are suffi-
cient to prove the contrary. I believe I am as
quick as anybody I ever met, but I will not fire
at random, and I advise the reader never to do
so. Late in the fall, when grouse get up a little
wild, and fly swiftly, it takes good shooting and
hard hitting to kill them. Sometimes in No-
vember, on a clear day and rather warm, they
lie close, and get up one after the other after
the first of the pack have gone. There are
always some lying scattered from the body of
the pack, and as one falls down, fluttering its
wings, another will rise, sometimes two. On such
occasions the immense superiority of the breech-
loader over the old sort of gun becomes mani-
fest. I have been at such a time shooting with
a man who used a muzzle-loader, and have
actually stood in my tracks and shot six grouse
while he was loading his gun. The grouse will
sometimes lie so close on a clear day in Novem-
ber that they will remain hidden until you are
within ten yards of them, and then get up with
a tremendous whirr of wings. It is things of
LATE PINNATED-GROUSE SHOOTING. 79
this sort that sportsmen will be glad to know
and what 1 state is drawn from experience solely
At the same season of the year, if the weather is
cloudy and damp, the birds are so wild that
you cannot get near them ; and to try is to lose
your time and labor for nothing. The Indian
Summer is a good time for shooting grouse, and
very pleasant for the sportsman. The sun has
not the scorching power which you feci in August
and the early part of September ; but it is warm,
the air soft and still, and not very hazy — rather
like thin, white smoke scattered from a great
distance. The birds feel comfortable in the
dead grass of the prairie or among the sod-corn.
They are fat and lazy, and hate to get up until
compelled to do so. Any clear, warm day late
in October or in November is just as good as
an Indian Summer day. At this season it is
useless to go out before the dew is off the grass;
whereas in the earlier part of the shooting the
more you get into the thick of it at early morn-
ing, the better for you. The prairies are hand-
some in the fall of the year, but not so beautiful
as in the spring, when the grass is about six
inches high and full of wild flowers. The wea-
ther is fine, the air pleasant and fragrant. The
80 FIELD SHOOTING.
cock-grouse which have flowii out of the bottoms
at early day arc hoard booing on the knolls and
ridges. Hawks of various kinds, large and small,
are wheeling about overhead, and far away, high
up in the distance, you may see the great eagle cir-
cling and sailing round about with motionless wings.
But of all the sights I have seen on the prairies,
the finest, the most striking and glorious, have
been on bright, frosty mornings in December, or
later on in the winter sometimes. On such a
morning, while the frost still hangs on the grass,
the prairie looks like a wide sea covered with
sprays of diamonds. The most beautiful sight I
ever saw in my life was on a prairie at Oliver's
Grove, near Chatsworth, Iroquois County, Illinois.
We Avent in the night to Chatsworth, where there
was no house then, intending to hunt turkeys at
Oliver's Grove at early morning. As there was
no house at Chatsworth Station, we stayed in the
car till daylight. It was a bright, clear morning
in December, and the sun, just risen, lit up all
the prairie with its horizontal, glancing rays.
Every blade of grass on the prairie, every tree in
distant grove, glistened and spai-kled like diamonds
in strong light. Away in the distance, five hun-
dred yards out upon the prairie, there stood two
LATE . PINNATED-GROUSE SHOOTING. 81
deer, motionless and beautiful, we might almost
have thought lifeless, they looked so strange in
that wonderful scene ; only we could see the breath
streaming from their nostrils into the cold, frosty
air. For dazzling radiance and strange beauty, I
never before saw such a prospect, and may per-
haps never see quite the like again. After a while
the deer walked leisurely off into the long grass
and brush near the slough to lie down in cover.
The game we came for were not to be found, and
when we discovered this we turned to leave. I
said to my partner, "We have been disappointed
in our hunt, but in coming on it we got a glori-
ous and beautiful sight — one not to be forgotten
as long as we may live."
He was a very practical sort of man, and
replied, " 1 had a good deal sooner have got a
dozen fat turkeys."
On our way back to Onarga across country
we had to walk fourteen miles. There were many
buckwheat-stubble patches along the prairie in our
way, and wc took them on our road to walk up
the grouse. We did not diverge to the right or
left to follow those which went away, but, keeping,
right ahead, got about twenty brace by the time
we reached Onarga. Although there were no
SZ FIELD SHOOTING.
turkeys about Oliver's Grove just then, it was a
good place for them, and from what I saw there
must have been lots of deer in the neighborhood.
In regard to grouse-shooting late in the fall of
the year, there is one thing which should be par-
ticularly observed. It is the necessity of silence.
There should be very little or no talk indulged
in between those who are on the beat. In the
earlier part of the season it does not much matter
what talk there is, though I am one of those who
can stand a good deal of silence, when hunting,
at any time; but late in the fall talking makes
the grouse get up out of distance. They will rise
at the sound of the human voice at that season of
the year sooner than they will at the crack of the
gun. If two men go along talking and gabbling,
as I have seen and heard them do, the grouse
will nearly all rise out of shot, while they would
have lain long enough to have afforded many fair
shots if silence had been preserved. In order not
to be obliged to talk and call to my dogs at such
times, I have them l:)rokon to hunt to the whistle
and the motion of the hand. I have had some
dogs that would hunt all day and never make it
necessary to speak to them. I have been out with
men who would talk in spite of remonstrances
LATE PINNATED-GROUSE SHOOTING. 83
against it. Either they did not believe it would
scare up the birds, or it was not in their power
to keep silent for half an hour at a time. There
are, indeed, some people who never seem to be
silent except when asleep, and very likely not
then if dreams come bver them. On these talk-
ing occasions late in the fall I have always noticed
that we got very few grouse. Sometimes when
I have believed a pack of grouse to be all up, I
have , spoken a word or two to one of the dogs,
when two or three more birds have risen right
away. Another thing to be noted is this : when
you are shooting grouse late in the fall, and the
dog brings in a wounded one which flutters his
wings, all the others within hearing will get up.
That sound sets them on the wing as a man's
voice does, when they lie close at the loud report
of the gun. I am not able to explain why this is,
but so it is. There are many facts in nature in
regard to the habits of game which the sportsman
must accept, though he cannot arrive at the
reason of them.
At one time in Illinois there was a difference
as to the period at which grouse-shooting should
cease. It was left to the counties. In Logan
County and some others it was fixed for the first
84 FIELD SHOOTING.
of January. In other counties where the grouse
abounded to the degree that the farmers thought
they consumed too much of the crop, there was
no close-time in January, February, and March.
I do not think grouse ever do any appreciable
damage to the crops. What grain they eat would
be otherwise wasted. They may, however, do
some little harm by consuming seed-wheat just
after the sowing. They bite off and eat the blades
of young wheat, but that often does more good
than harm, and farmers sometimes turn calves
into young wheat-fields to feed it off. The biting
off done by grouse in the earlier stages has a
tendency to make it stool well, I think. It is cer-
tain that the pinnated grouse does the farmer good
by consuming grasshoppers and other insects which
are troublesome and destructive. The law of Illi-
nois in regard to shooting grouse is now uniform
all over the State. The shooting ceases on the
fifteenth day of January. Thus the shooting lasts
five months. I am in favor of lopping off fifteen
days at the commencement, making it September
1 instead of August 15, and another fifteen
days at the end, making it cease on the first
of January. It would then last four months. But
the duration of the shooting-time is not of so
LATE PINNATED-GROUSE SHOOTING. 85
much importance as many people think. More
are taken by trapping late in the season. To see
the huge loads of grouse sent by railway to Chicago
and on for the Eastern market, one would be at first
inclined to suppose that the species must soon be
extirpated ; but this is an error. With good breed-
ing-places and a fine spring the number of grouse
produced is incalculable. No amount of fair
shooting makes much impression on game in a
good game country. In places where the game is
sparse, as it appears to me to be in the Atlantic
and Eastern States, save water-fowl on the sea-board,
many guns may shoot so close that the proper
head for a breeding-stock will not be left. It
is altogether different with us. I went once to
Christian County, Illinois, and shot round about the
little town of Assumption from February 1 to
May 20, the latter part of the time being on
snipe. The game of all sorts was amazingly
abundant. There was a great plenty of grouse and
quail, and the number of ducks and geese was
almost past belief. It is a varied sort of coun-
try with a good deal of low, wet ground, much
prairie and much corn-land, and a great deal of
hazel-brush alon"; the creeks and on the cdffcs of
the groves of timber. It is a splendid country for
86 FIELD SHOOTING.
game. I killed six thousand head of all sorts while
there — the most part, of course, being duck, snipe,
and golden plover. The grouse were extremely
abundant in the spring about there. At early
morning the cock-grouse could be heard booming all
over, like the constant lowing of an immense herd
of cattle distributed in a great pasture. It is hardly
necessary to say that the booming of the grouse is
not like the lowing of bullocks; what 1 mean is
that the booming on every side pervaded the space
all around. Christian County is about thirty miles
southeast of Springfield, and is on the Illinois Cen-
tral Railroad. At this time I hold the best place
for sport of all sorts in the field to be in the
tier of counties which includes Ford, Piatt, McLean,
and Champagne Counties, as well as Christian
County. Late in the fall, however, good grouse-
shooting is to be met with all over the State, un-
less it be down southwest in Egypt, where there
is but little prairie-land. As I have stated, great
numbers of grouse are bred in the wide prai-
ries which are still unbroken, and late in the
fall these grouse pack and distribute themselves
over the other parts of the State in vast numbers,
feeding in corn-fields and wheat, oat, and buckwheat
stubbles. Whei'e I live the grouse are nearly as
LATE PINNATED-GROUSE SHOOTING. 87
abundant in the latter part of the fall now as they
were seventeen years ago. Perhaps I might say
quite as abundant ; but there is not anything
like as many young grouse to be found in that
neighborhood in August and September as there
used to be. As long as the breeding-places re-
main it is safe to conclude that there will never
be a scarcity of grouse in Illinois and the other
prairie States. But though they are nearly as
numerous, they are more difficult to kill than for-
merly. The young birds find the great corn-fields
a place of safe refuge ; and when the packs come in
fi"om the great prairies late in the fall, they are
wild and swift. To get good sport the observa-
tions I have made as to weather, the best hours
of the day at the different seasons, and so on,
should be carefully heeded. The burning of pieces
of prairie late in the spring should be avoided, and
it can easily be done. Let the grass be burnt the
preceding fall, or, which is perhaps still more desira-
ble, early in the spring. In the latter case the grass
would have sprung up in places high enough to
hold the nests before the hen-birds wanted to form
them, besides which there are always many places
untouched by the fire, and these spots would be
chosen by the grouse to make their nests in. By
88 FIELD SHOOTINQ.
leaving the grass unburnt through the winter the
birds would be afforded a protection in that season
against their enemies — ^the various sorts of hawks,
which are very numerous in the prairie States,
The great source of mischief is the burning of the
grass after the nests are made. I hope the farm-
ers will follow my suggestions on this point. They
are commonly ready to oblige sportsmen, and the
latter should avoid anything which may cause an-
noyance while in pursuit of game.
CHAPTER V.
QUAIL-SHOOTING IN THE WEST.
The beautiful little game-bird of which I am
now about to write is well known in almost all
parts of the country. It is a welcome visitor
about the homesteads of the farmer in the win-
ter season, and makes pleasant the fields and
brakes in spring and summer. Quail are now
very abundant in the Western States, much more
so, I believe, than in those of the Atlantic sea-
board, although they are found in considerable
numbers in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania,
Maryland, and Virginia. They are much more nu-
merous now in Illinois and the other prairio
States than they were formerly. I think the cul-
tivation of the land and the growth of Osage
orange hedges have brought about the increase.
The hedges furnish excellent nesting-places, and
are also of great use to the quail as places of
refuge and security when pursued by hawks. The
latter are very hard on quail. Quail like the
neighborhood of cultivated land, and where they
90 FIELD SHOOTING.
are not much shot at they will get so tame as
to come right up to the house and barn. They
used to have a very hard time of it in Illinois
in severe winters. There was no protection from
hawks, by which they were constantly harried and
destroyed ; and there being next to no cover, they
used to be frozen to death in bevies. When the
snow melted, the skeletons and feathers would be
found in groups of eight or ten. The hedges
now afford very great protection in severe wea-
ther, and preserve the lives of thousands which
would otherwise certainly perish of cold and
starvation in their absence. They break the force
of the wind, and furnish snug-lying places for the
birds in hard weather. In soft snow quail com-
monly manage to do very well in the open.
When pursued by hawks at such times, they dart
under the snow, and lie safely hid from their
voracious enemies. I have seen them do this
hundreds of times, and have rejoiced at their
escape from the talons of the swift and perse-
vering foe. In two or three instances I have
walked up and caught the quail which had thus
dashed into the yielding snow by hand. The
quail is a very interesting bird about breeding-
time, and the soft, whistling note of the cock is
QUAIL-SHOOTING IN THE WEST. 91
one of the pleasantest things that strike the ear in
the fields in spring-time. They pair with us about
the first of May. I have seen them together in
bevies as late as, or later than, the middle of April.
They build their nests along the hedges and near
old fences overgrown with brush and brambles.
They resort but little to the groves of timber
for breeding purposes, avoiding them, I think, on
account of egg-sucking vermin, such as skunks and
crows. Crows are bold, cunning, and persistent
robbers of the nests of other birds. Minks catch
the old hens on the nest, and raccoons do the
same. But the most destructive and inveterate
enemy the quail has is the little hawk, called
with us the quail-hawk. This little bird of prey
is but a trifle larger than a quail himself, but it
is very fierce and strong, swift on the wing, and
darts upon its prey with electric speed. The nest
of the quail is round, nicely constructed of small
twigs, and lined with dead grass. I have seen
statements to the effect that they are covered
over on the top. I have found hundreds of them,
and never saw one that was. The hen lays from
twelve to fifteen eggs, but two hens sometimes
lay in one nest, and 1 have seen one in which
there were no less than thirty eggs. The hen-
92 FIELD SHOOTING.
quail does not seem to be very particular at time^
about having a nest of her own. I have known
them to lay in the nests of pinnated grouse, and in
those of barn-door fowl which had made their nests
in hedges or bunches in weeds in fence-corners. It is
always easy to learn when quail are breeding in the
neighborhood, for at such times as the hen is laying
or sitting the cock perches on a fence, a stump,
or an old corn.stock, and whistles for joy. The
note seems to express great satisfaction and de-
light. The young quail are no sooner hatched
than they are active and ready to follow their
mother. The latter is very watchful, attentive,
and devoted, ready to risk her own life to afford
a chance of safety to her offspring. If a man or a
dog approaches the whereabouts of her young brood,
the mother simulates lameness, and flutters about
as if in a crippled condition, to lead the intruder
another way. The early broods come off about
the middle of June, when, the spring being for-
ward, the birds have paired early. I saw young
quail and young grouse this year myself in the
middle of June. It is my impi-cssion that when
the season is early and other circumstances favor-
able, the hen-quail raises two broods. I have
often seen early broods under the care of the
QUAIL-SHOOTING IN THE WEST. 93
cock, and I think the hen was then sitting again.
Furthermore, later in the year bevies of quail
will be found in which there are manifestly birds
of two sizes besides the old ones. These bevies
must be made up of young quail of different ages.
I am not certain as to the hen bringing forth a
second brood while the first is under the care of
the cock, but I state the facts I have seen for
what they are worth. There is nothing improba-
ble, to my mind, in the raising of two broods a
year. The hen-quail is very prolific of eggs ;
food is abundant and stimulating at the breed-
ing season ; the weather is commonly steadily
fine when the first brood is brought off, and the
cock-bird is abundantly able to take care of it.
In the State of Illinois quail-shooting begins on
the first of October. I think the law ought to
be changed so that it should not commence
before the fifteenth of October. On the first of
October some birds are full grown, but it is
otherwise with the great majority of the young
birds. Quail are a little slower in growth than
pinnated grouse, and it is not before the fif-
teenth of October that most of the bii'ds are
large, strong, and swift of wing. In Ohio, Indi-
ana, Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and other
94 FIELD SHOOTING.
wheat-growing States, there Is very fine quail-
shooting sooner in the season than there is in
Illinois. With us the best shooting cannot be
enjoyed until late in the fall. Before that time
the immense corn-fields enable the quail to get
the best of the sportsman. As soon as a bevy
is flushed away it goes for the corn, which is
thick, broad in the blade, and very high. 1
stand six feet in height, and I have seen stalks
of Illinois corn so tall that I could but just reach
the lowest ears upon them. There is no making
headway and filling the bag in such fields as
these ; and the moment the quail are flushed on
the wheat and oat stubbles away they go for
the corn. You may give them up as soon as
they reach this tall, thick, and dense cover. If
you make an attempt at them in it, they will
not rise above the tops, so that you cannot see
to shoot ; besides which, the thickest spread of
the broad blades is just about as high as your
head, and above it. It is not until good, sharp
frosts have well wilted the blades and caused them
to hang down lifeless along the stalk that there
is a good chance at the quail in such places.
As long as the leaves wave crisp in the autumn
wind the quail may defy the shooter. Therefore
QUAIL-SHOOTING IN TUK WEST. 95
the best of the shooting is in November and De-
cember. You must be up by dawn of day, and
scatter the hoar frost or the sparkling dew as you
go to your chosen grounds. In a country where
there are many stubbles, many corn-fields, and
much hazel-brush the quail delight, and there,
on such a morning, as soon as the sun has risen
over the swells of the prairies to the eastward,
they will be found in abundance. They roost
along the margins of sloughs in long grass, in
stubbles where the rag-weed is thick and strong, in
patches of brush, and along hedge-rows. Where
there are corn-fields along the margin of sloughs, the
quail are fond of roosting in the edges of the
corn. As soon as the sun touches the frost on the
corn and grass and the weeds of* the overgrown
stubbles, the quail begin to run from their roost-
ing-places. At the early hours, when they are
first on the move, is the best time for the dogs
to find them, as the scent is then very good. When
they are really plentiful, they may be easily found
in any weather, but most easily on a fine, clear day,
early in the crisp, cool air of the bright, frosty
morning. When a bevy is flushed in such weather
as tills, they scatter at once, and when they pitch
down they lie there hid under the first bunch of
96 FIELD SHOOTING.
grass or weed or any other bit of cover they can
find for the purpose of concealment. With good
dogs you can then take them one after the other.
When a bevy has been flushed, and the birds have
scattered about and pitched down in this way, I
have often killed from six to ten before picking
any up. I was once shooting in Mason County,
Illinois, late in the fall, and flushed a very large
bevy of quail from a wheat-stubble. They scat-
tered and flew over into a piece of prairie-grass,,
where they pitched down. I knew they would lie
very close, and so they did. They got up one
and two at a time, and out of the bevy I accounted
there and then for seven brace and a half. Quail
pack late in the fall, and in Mason County at that
time there wer^ bevies of thirty or forty in num-
ber. In damp or wet weather quail act in a dif-
ferent manner when flushed and scattered. At
such times, instead of lying where they pitch
down, they run a long distance. And then when
the dog has winded them, and is about to point,
or has pointed, they start and run on again. Under
such circumstances it is difficult to make a good
bag. It was mainly in such weather that the net-
ting of quail was carried on. This bad practice is
now unlawful. I saw great numbers caught with
QUAIL-SHOOTING IN THE WEST. 97
nets in Missouri. Whole bevies were taken at
one fell swoop, the quail being driven into the
wings of the net by men on horseback. It is a
very good thing that this destructive practice has
been prohibited by law, and is now wholly done
away with. As long as it was lawful the farmers
on whose land it was practised did not like to
interfere ; but now they do interfere, and netting
in Illinois and Missouri has practically ceased and
come to an end. When it was lawful, two nettei's
were harder on the quail than about two hundred
shooters, although at that time some of the latter
Avho were apt to miss a bird on the wing would
fire at bevies of quail on the ground. This is
not a practice to be followed. I have taken two
or three raking shots at grouse sitting on fences
in my time, but the opportunity was so rare
and the temptation so great that it was just then
irresistible.
The best quail-shooting I ever had was in the
Sangamon River country, about where Salt Creek
falls into it. There is upon Salt Creek and the
Sangamon a great deal of bottom-land with much
hazel-brush and considerable timber. There are
also plenty of corn-fields. The shooting there is
much varied. There are vast numbers of quail, a
98 FIELD SHOOTING.
great many grouse, and at the right times snipe
and duck are to be Ibund in amazing numbers.
When I used to go out in that neighborhood for
the purpose of shooting, quail especially, I used to
get from twenty to thirty brace a day for many
days in succession. Varied shooting, however, is
more satisfactory sport to me, and 1 used to make
very heavy bags of grouse, quail, and some duck
— mallards and teal. It is a great place for mal-
lards; some of them stop all summer and breed
there, and some stop all winter, for there are
parts of the river which hardly ever freeze over.
Quail are more abundant about there now than
they were at the time I speak of, and there are
quite as many grouse; but they are both more
difficult to kill than they used to be in the earlier
part of the season. The corn-fields have increased
so that they are now many and vast, and this
serves as a defence for the birds. There are more
quail in that country this year than there ever
were before. There are now, however, plenty of
quail all over Illinois, Iowa, and Missouri. In the
southwest of Illinois, the region called Egypt,
there is a great deal of brush interspersed with
prairie, farm-lands, and groves of timber, and there
quail may be found in great abundance. But
QUAIL-SHOOTING IN THE WEST. 99
grouse are not as plentiful there as in the interior
counties of the State.
Some people think the quail a hard bird to
shoot, but it is not. It flies swift but straight,
and is commonly missed by reason of the shooter
being too much in a hurry where it is not brought
to bag. Because the flight of the bird when
flushed is rapid, men think it necessary to shoot
very quick, and pull the trigger without sighting
the mark truly. This is an error to which three out
of four misses are owing. Let the bird be well
sighted along the rib before the trigger is pulled,
and, no matter how fast he goes, the shot will
overtake and stop him. Quail will not carry ofT
a great many shot. There is no necessity ibr
hurry in shooting, and this will be made manifest
to sportsmen if they will sometimes step the
ground from where they fired to the dead bird.
They will find that in nine cases out of ten it
was not as far off" as they believed it to be when
they fired at it. Many of those thought to be
as much as forty yards off" when the trigger was
pulled will be found dead at thirty yards, and
some at five-and-twenty. This shows that there
is commonly plenty of time to get well on the
bird before shooting, instead of blazing away on tho
100 FIELD SHOOTING.
instant at random. I have shot thousands on thou-
sands myself, and know that my misses were com-
monly caused by being in too much of a hurry to
fire. When I have missed with the first and killed
with the second barrel, I have considered it a
plain proof that I ought to have let another
second elapse before firing the first barrel; for
if a bird, flying in the open straight away, or
quartering, is well sighted with a good gun pro-
perly charged, it is next kin to a miracle for it
to escape. After good experience I resolved to
take more time in quail-shooting, and I * have
found the practice answer. I can now kill nearly
every quail I shoot at within fair distance. Quail
generally lie close to the dog when they will lie
at all well, and do not get up until the shooter is
near them. The experience of sportsmen will
confirm this, and it will show that there is no
reason whatever for shooting in a hurried man-
ner, but very strong reasons for guarding against
it. By taking time you not only get the bird
well sighted, but the extra distance it has gone
gives the shot so much more chance to spread,
and thus increases the chance to kill.
A few years ago, after the close of the war, 1
went, in the middle of January, on a shooting
QUAIL-SHOOTING IN THE WEST. 101
excursion to Lynn County, Missouri. I hunted on
Shoal Creek, in the neighborhood of Cameron, a
place about fifty miles east of St. Joseph, on
the Missouri River. It was a good place for
game. There were quail, pinnated grouse, some
ruffed grouse, turkeys and deer in large numbers.
I killed many turkeys and a few deer ; but of
these I shall give some account further on, under
the proper heads. The country is wild and
broken, with much brush and timber, and abounds
in gullies, deep hollows, and steep ravines. The
bevies, when flushed, would frequently fly for
the thickets and gullies, and then it was difficult
shooting. Sometimes, however, they would scat-
ter and drop in the grass of the pieces of prairie,
and then I had beautiful sport, killing from
twenty to thirty brace a day. The pinnated
grouse were not numerous about there, but the
ruffed grouse were in fair numbers for them.
Iowa is a good State for quail. There are more
groves of timber and more brush there than in
Illinois, but the latter is much the best State for
pinnated grouse, and the growing up of the Osage
orange hedges has supplied in many parts the
want of brush, and thus increased the head of
quail. When flushed in the open, the birds very
102 FIELD SHOOTING.
often go for the hedges, and then a great deal
may be done with a gun on each side of the
hedge while the dogs are beating it. One man
cannot do much with the quail when they take
this refuge. Some of these hedges are eight or
ten feet high; others have been so trimmed as
to be four feet through and thick of growth.
With a man on each side of the hedge there is
very pretty shooting. If you are out without a
companion, and the quail take to the hedges, you
may trust one side to an old, well-trained dog,
and take the other yourself. Always send the
dog to the lee side. If you have a companion,
and he leaves to you the choice of sides, as most
men will do, not knowing that it makes any differ-
ence, always take the windward side. By so doing
you will get three or four shots to your com
panion's one when the wind is blowing athwart, ct
nearly athwart, the hedge. The reason is very
simple, though seldom thought of. The dog to lee-
ward winds the quail in the hedge, and, as a mat-
ter of course, puts them out on the windward side ;
while the scent is blown away from the dog on
your side. I have been out with men who did
not understand this, and they would say, " Cap-
tain, what the d — 1 makes almost all the quail fly
QUAIL-SHOOTING IN THE WEST. 103
out on your side of the hedge?" Half the suc-
cess of sporting, outside of being a good shot,
depends upon the knowledge of such things as
this. There is another matter to be mentioned
here. The best dogs in the world are sometimes
unable to find and put up all the birds in a
bevy of quail. I have often been out with men
who had first-rate dogs, and have, to their
amazement, given them absolute and irrefragable
proof of this fact. They have been not a little
annoyed at first when they saw me put up quail
which their dogs had been unable to find after
the bevy was gone. But it was no fault of the
dogs, nor were they unable to detect the quail
because the latter withheld their scent, as some
have argued they have power to do. I do not
believe they possess any such power. It is not
a question of no scent, but of too much. The bevy
have been lying there and rumiing all over the
ground, so that it is covered and tainted with
scent to such a degree that the noses of the dogs
become full of it, and that is why they cannot
find and put up one or two birds which lie close
in their hiding-places and decline to move. I
will now relate a notable instance of this sort of
thing which occurred last fall. It was near Selma,
104 FIELD SHOOTING.
Alabama, in the neighborhood of which city 1 was
shooting with a gentleman named Ellis and Mr.
Jacobs, a gunsmith. On the day in question Mr,
Jacobs did not take the field, and Mr. Ellis and
I were alone. He had a brace of splendid set-
ters, a black and a red. For one of the dogs
he had paid two hundred and fifty dollars, and
he would not have taken five hundred for the
brace. They had fine noses and were splendid
workers. In the course of our sport we found a
bevy of quail in old grass at the edge of a bit
of prairie which had once been ploughed np, and
was now an old garden all overgrown with weeds
and briers. The quail ran in the grass, but
finally got up together. Mr. Ellis killed two and
I killed two. A few went away, and were marked
down at some distance. Mr. Ellis believed they
were all gone. The dogs beat the ground tho-
roughly, and could find no more. I said that 1
believed there might be more, upon which Mr.
Ellis made his dogs try it again, and then con-
fidently pronounced that there could not be an-
other quail there. I said, " I still think there may
be quail here and I will show you how to make
them rise if there are any." With that I imitated
the kind of whistling noise made by the old quail
QUAIL-SHOOTING IN THE WEST. 105
when she has young ones. Up got one, and Mr. Ellis
killed it ; away went another, and I stopped it. Mr.
Ellis was greatly astonished, and did not know what
to make of it. I explained the matter, telling him
that if the dogs had been taken off to another part
of the field, and kept there long enough for the
old scent to have exhaled from the ground and
passed away, they would have found the two
quail readily enough when brought back to the
place. The ground was so saturated with scent
that the dogs could no't distinguish that of the
remaining birds, and could not put them up with-
out stumbling right on them. I have often seen
the same thing happen with a close-lying lot of
pinnated grouse in long prairie-grass. 1 do not
believe in the theory advanced by some that quail
or any other game-bird can withhold their scent so
as to prevent a good dog from winding them when
he comes near. I had fair sport in the South last
fall, principally at quail, round the cotton-fields,
but there seemed to be a scarcity of game. There
was not one quail to a hundred which would have
been found in good situations in Illinois. I was in
Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee,
and nowhere was game in what we should call fair
(ilcnty in the West. At Paris, Tennessee, they
106 FIELD SHOOTING.
held the erroneous opinion that a pigeon-shooter
could not be a good field shot. They said they
had a man who could beat any pigeon-shooter in
the field. I told them to send for him, as I was
willing to shoot against him for a hundred dollars,
fifty shots each, to be taken alternately. They would
not make the match. In Mississippi I shot with
Mr. Galbraith. The birds were scarce and wild.
There were more about Selma than any other place
I was at. So far as my experience went, the shoot-
ing was nothing to that which niay be had in Ohio,
Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Iowa, Wisconsin, Min-
nesota, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, etc. There
were as fine a lot of gentlemen in the South as I
have ever met, and they were good shots and keen
sportsmen.
CHAPTER VI.
RUFFED-GROUSE SHOOTIKG.
Hitherto we have been concerned with the sport
to be had in pursuit of game-birds, pinnated grouse,
and quail, which are found in the neighborhood of
cultivated farms, and, as regards the latter, often
in the immediate vicinity of the habitations of man.
We now come to one whose favorite haunts are
wild, solitary places not frequently intruded upon,
and almost always lying remote from thickly-
settled sections of country. The ruffed grouse is a
very handsome bird, and in situations where it is
seldom shot at it seems to take a sort of pride in
exhibiting its. beauty in a stately and graceful
manner. It weighs about a pound and a half; is
plump on the breast; and its flesh, white, juicy,
and delicate, is delicious eating. It is usually half
spoiled in city restaurants by splitting and broiling.
It ought to be roasted and served with bread-sauce.
The ruffed grouse is extensively distributed from
east to west, but is nowhere found in any great
107
108 FIELD SHOOTING.
abundance. Its habits are not nearly so gregarious as
those of the pinnated grouse, and no such multitudes
are to be found anywhere of ruffed grouse as may
often be met with of the former species in the
great prairie States. The ruffed grouse is but
seldom found in coveys, though sometimes a brood
of full-grown birds are found still together in
some lonely nook among the woodlands, or in a
solitary, sheltered spot in severe winter weather.
It is generally found singly or in pairs, and
loves sylvan solitudes, steep hillsides, wooded
dells, and the neighborhood of gullies and ravines.
The rougher and more broken the country, the
better the ruffed grouse like it, provided it is
well timbered with the trees and well covered
with the shrubs upon whose buds the birds
mainly feed. It is, however, often met with in
the deep, heavily-timbered bottom-lands of the
northwest part of Michigan. The buds of birch,
beech, and laurel (so-called) are the favorite food
of this bird in winter and spring. In summer
it no doubt feeds largely on berries and insects.
I do not think it ever visits the stubble-lands
to pick up wheat and buckwheat, though there
are some such bits of stubble in the very heart
of the woods in which it is constantly but thinly
RUFFED-GROUSE SHOOTING. 108
found. In the New England States it is met
with, and is sparsely distributed in New York
and New Jersey. In some of the wild, half-
mountainous tracts of New Jersey, where the
undergrowth consists largely of laurel, it is, more
abundant. It is also frequently met with in
West Virginia. In Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Illi-
nois, Missouri, and Iowa the ruffed grouse is
also found ; but so far as my knowledge and
experience go, it is most abundant of .all in
some parts of Wisconsin and the northwest part
of the lower peninsula of Michigan. It is said
tTiat the buds of the laurel and some of the
berries upon which the ruffed grouse feed have
a tendency to make the flesh poisonous. I can-
not confirm the theory, though I have eaten many
a grouse whose crop was full of the buds in
question when drawn. In general appearance it
has some resemblance to the pinnated grouse, but
is a smaller bird, with a long, square tail, very
full feathered, which it carries over the fallen
leaves and mossy sward among the timber with
a conscious pride and a swelling, strutting gait
in places where it is little disturbed. It is, in
fact, a beautiful ornament to the romantic soli-
tudes and deep, heavy woods which it inhabits.
110 FIELD SHOOTING.
In places where it is seldom shot at, the bird,
at the approach of man, instead of taking wing,
often spreads its tail, ruffles up the feathers of
the neck, and struts off with the proud air of
the true cock of the woods. In the spring of the
year, at the approach of breeding-time, and at
other seasons just before stormy, rainy weather,
the male bird drums at dawn of day. It may
sometimes, too, be heard performing this singu-
lar feat in the night, and on a sultry afternoon
when a thunder-storm is brewing. The drumming
is usually made on an old log, and each male
bird seems to have his favorite place for the
joyous performance. He begins by lowering his
wings as he walks to and fro on the log, then
making some hard strokes at intervals, and finally
so increasing the swiftness of the movement that
the sound is like the rapid roll of a snare-drum
muffled by a position in the depths of the woods.
The sound is very deceptive as to the place of
the bird. He may be comparatively near, while
his drumming really seems like muttered thunder
a long way off. On the other hand, the hearer
sometimes supposes the hidden drummer to be
close at hand when he is at a very considerable
distance. In wild situations, near lonely preci-
RUFFED-GROUSE SHOOTING. Ill
pices, the beating of the ruffed grouse upon his
log may remind one of Macdonald's phantom
drummer, whose story was beautifully and forcibly
told in verse by General William H. Lytle,
who fell, covered with glory and renown, at
Chickamauga :
" And still belated peasants tell
How, near that Alpine height,
They hear a drum roll loud and clear
On many a storm-vexed night.
This story of the olden time
With sad eyes they repeat,
And whisper by whose ghostly hands
The spirit-drum is beat."
I have often seen the tops of old logs divested
of their mosses and worn smooth by the constant
drumming of the cock ruffed grouse, and have
stood within thirty yards and seen the bird per-
form the operation. Just before rain the grouse
drum frequently, and the repetition of this sound
from various quarters in the daytime is a pretty
certain indication of the near approach of wet
weather. The female builds in the Western
States about the first of May. The nest is
formed of leaves and dead grass, and is built in
112 FIELD SHOOTING.
a secluded place at the root of a tree or stump,
or by the side of an old, mossy log over-
grown with blackberry briers. The hen lays
frctoi twelve to fifteen eggs, and when first
hatched the chicks are the most beautiful, cunning,
and alert little things that can be seen any-
where. TKe editor of this work had an excellent
opportunity for observing them and their watchful,
devoted mothers on one well-remembered occa-
sion. Nearly thirty years ago he was upon an
exploring expedition in the northwest part of the
lower peninsula of Michigan. The country was
then very thinly settled about there. A few
men had with much labor hewn out little clear-
ings in the heavy-timbered woods in places on the
banks of rivers, but the great industry was log-
ging in the pine-woods, splitting shingles, and
fishing during the spring freshets, when the low-
lands and wet prairies were literally covered
with pickerel. The ridges were thickly timbered
with beech and maple where not covered with
pine, and the bottom-lands were clothed with
gigantic oak, black-walnut, basswood, hickory,
and butternut trees. It was a country watered
by a network of rivers, which united to form
the Saginaw, soon after which junction the latter fell
RtTFFBD-GROUSK SHOOTING. 113
into the bay of the same name in Lake Huron.
We started in canoes, well provided with provi-
sions, arms, and ammunition, and paddled for the
mouth of the Cass. It was in June, and the
young flappers (wild ducks) were swarming in
the rivers. Above the bend of the Cass we
made our first camp. The region was then very
wild. Deer abounded, and the wolves howled
hideously around the camp at night. We treed
two or three wild- cats, and shot them with
rifles. We had no shot-guns. A bai^d of Chip-
pewa Indians were encamped near us. The men
of the tribe lived by hunting and fishing with the
spear. The women and girls made money by
gathering cranberries in the marshes when the
wild fruit was ripe. These Indians assured us
that a few elk were still left in the great woods
which here surrounded our party, and they said
that in the fall there were lots of bears. It was
just the hatching-time of the ruffed grouse,
which we found numerous in the bottoms among
the heavy timber. They had seldom been mo-
lested, and were not very shy, but rather bold
and feai'less. One day we cut down a butternut-
tree, wanting it to make a temporary bridge
across a creek, and, having lopped the top, went
114 FIELD SHOOTING. •
to our tent to dinner. On our return we came
upon a hen-grouse with a brood of young newly
hatched. Uttering a cry, she scuffled and fluttered
atout at our feet with the most motherly cour-
age and devotion, behaving as if she were wounded,
in order to draw us off". But we had seen her
young ones run under the leaves of the fallen
butternut-tree, and caught two or three of them.
They were beautiful downy little things, and
watched us intently with their bright eyes. The
mother, stimulated by alarm, remained near us
while we held her young after the others had
scuffled off", and we had the pleasure of placing
the little things on the ground again, and seeing
them hide in the cover. We walked away to a
distance, and soon heard the mother calling her
brood of little ones to the shelter of her protec-
tion. The young are very quick and cunning at
concealment. As soon as they hear the mother's
warning cry they dart into cover, and, if there is
no other at hand, they will seize a leaf with bill
and feet, and turn over so that it may conceal
them. While the party remained above the bend
of the Cass river there came up a tremendous
thunder-storm, followed by a cold wind from Lake
Huron. Previous to the storm the cock ruffed
EUFFKD-GR0U8E SHOOTING. 115
grouse could be heard drumming in all directions.
It is a flat, alluvial country, much of the bottom-
land being overflowed early in spring, as all the
wet prairies thereabouts are ; but, nevertheless,
these bottoms abounded with grouse in the breed-
ing-season.
The ruflfed grouse can seldom be relied upon to
fill the game-bag alone ; for the most part it is
sparsely and thinly distributed over the regions it
inhabits, though in some secluded spots where
they have not been disturbed a good number may
sometimes be killed in the fall before the broods
have dispersed. It is as wild in disposition as
any bird that flies. The young of the pinnated
grouse may be brought up in confinement, but I
do not think those of the ruflfed grouse can be
reared in the same way. I began to shoot ruflfed
grouse, when still a boy, in the neighborhood of
Burnville, Albany County, New York, in company
with a man named Paul Hochstosser. He was a
hunter by calling, and a good one, well versed in
the woodcraft of the region, and the best shot
with the double-barrelled gun then in those parts.
The first bird I ever killed was a ruffed grouse
perched in a hemlock-tree. He was on an arm
close to the trunk of the tree, bolt upright, with
116 FIELD SHOOTING.
his neck stretched up. This is their habit when
they take to trees, and they are not easily distin-
guished from knots. I knew their habits, and
had good eyes. That day I had played truant
from school, and, taking my father's old firelock, I
went out to hunt. The greater part of the day
was gone before 1 got one of the birds I saw in a
proper sitting position. However, there he was at
last, and as I was too small to hold the musket
out and take aim from the shoulder alones, I
steadied it against the bole of another tree. Bang
she went, and down came the grouse, but only
winged. There was snow on the ground, and, boy-
like, I dropped the old musket into it, and went
for the wounded grouse. The ground was a steep
hillside, the bird fluttered down it, and I went
after, tumbling and rolling for as much as a hun-
dred yards. But I secured it at last, and thinking
it was glory enough for one day, as the saying is,
I recovered the old musket and returned home.
The truancy was condoned because of the bird.
After that I hunted every time I could get a
chance to do so. 1 soon got hold of a single-bar-
relled gun with a percussion-lock, and by perse-
verance for some time learned to shoot on the
wing. Paul was a great woodcock-shooter, and
KUFFED-GROUSK SHOOTING. 117
"W'c sometimes shot in company. In going after
ruffed grouse in those days we used to take a
small spaniel dog, which would flush them out of
the brush, and cause them to take to the trees.
They are not easy to distinguish, as 1 said before,
when on the tree, from their sitting upright close
to the trunk, their plumage being somewhat the
color of the bark. This habit must be remicm-
bered by the sportsman when he believes the bird
is treed, but is unable to make him out. When
several have taken to the same tree, shoot the one
which sits lowest first, and the others will not
take wing. If the upper one is shot, its' fall starts
the others off. More ruffed grouse are shot sit-
ting than flying. It is a very hard bird to shoot
on the wing — hard to hit and hard to kill. Other
birds, when flushed in woodland, fly for the openings
in the trees ; the ruffed grouse, on the contrary,
plunges right into the densest part of the thicket.
The man Avho commonly kills the ruffed grouse ho
shoots at on the wing is fit to hold his own at any
sort of shooting on the wing. The bird com-
monly rises in difficult ground with a whirr like
the sudden roar of a waterfall, and goes away
at electric pace for the thickest part of the brake.
The birds were scarce in Albany County, New
118 I'lELU SllOOTlNU.
York. The most I ever killed in a. day there
was six. In Cook County, Illinois, I have killed
fifteen in a day. In Missouri, on Shoal Creek,
when I was hunting turkeys, I found ruffed grouse
in fair numbers, considering the nature and habits
of the bird, and killed forty or fifty in the
three weeks I stayed there. Of all the places
I know, the ruffed grouse are most plentiful in
the timber-lands of Wisconsin and Minnesota and
the upper part of Michigan. But it is a bird of
very secluded habits, and when settlements have
become thick and much of the timber has been
cleared off, it disappears. A well-watered timber
country, with plenty of thick underbrush among rifts
and gullies, is the place to look for it as a com-
mon rule, though they are also found in the great
woods of heavy-timbered bottom-land. In looking
for ruffed grouse especially I use No. 8 shot, and,
if I found them while turkey-shooting, I changed the
cartridge. I do not use spaniels now, but shoot
ruffed grouse over setters. They will lie pretty well
to the dogs sometimes, and where not shot at will
sometimes strut off in front of him in plain sight.
When shot at much and wild, the ruffed grouse must
be pt)inted by the dog from a considerable distance.
it will not let him get close, and as soon as the
K0FFED-GROUSE SHOOTING. 119
setter moves a step forward the grouse springs
up and goes away like a bullet for the thickest
part of the cover. I have seen stories in print of
ruffed grouse taking to water, of its being caught
and let go, and then caught again. I do not be-
lieve one word of such things. The man who
invented them can know but little of the nature
and habits of this very wild bird. In the deep
snows of winter the ruffed grouse roost under the
snow. They dart at it Avith great speed, and
make a sort of l>urrow beneath the surface. At
other times they roost on the ground. When out
coon-hunting at night, I have often put them up
from their roosts on the ground. It has beeu
maintained that they sometimes roost in trees ;
and as they certainly take to trees readily enough
when flushed by a barking dog, and feed on the
buds of trees, it seems reasonable to believe that
they may sometimes roost in them. On the other
hand, many men of experience declare that they
never roost in trees. I have often seen them in
trees very early in the morning, but it was out at
the ends of the branches, feeding on the young
buds. ^ I will not positively affirm that the ruffed
grouse never roosts in trees, but 1 think it never
does so when it cail help it. In very severe weather.
120 FIELD SHOOTIK0.
when tho crust upon the snow is too strong to l>e
pierced, the bird may seek shelter under the
thick boughs of pines, and close to the trunk on
the leeward side. It can stand a great deal of
cold, and, unlike some other birds, can always
find its food — the buds and tender twigs of trees
and shrubs — in the hardest weather. The sports-
man who goes into the places the ruffed grouse
frequents will see some of the most picturesque
scenes and romantic landscapes that the country
affords. Hills and ravii:^s, secluded woodland
dells, the foliage rich and ripe Avith the deep
tints of autumn, will meet his eye, while the
music of mountain-brooks and the roar of
waterMls will fill his ears.
CHAPTER VII.
SHOOTING THE WOODCOCK.
In the estimation of sportsmen in this country,
as well as in Europe, the woodcock is regarded
as one of the very highest game-birds. To
make a good bag of woodcock is a feat to be
proud of. The bird is generally scarce, even on
the best ground, and in its most favorite haunts
it is difficult to find and kill, and is one of the
richest morsels on the table that the woods and
fields supply. The woodcock of America slightly
differs from that of Europe in size and markings,
but the variations are of no moment to the sports-
man. Upon this continent the woodcock winters
in the Southern States, and in regions still further
south, and comes north in spring, remaining till
the ground freezes late in the fall. The bird
breeds in Canada and Nova Scotia, as well as in
northern and middle States of the Union, East
and West ; and it sometimes rears two broods
in a season. This is not, however, commonly
the case, but it is certain that when the old
121
122 FIELD SHOOTING.
birds have lost their nests or their young
through floods in the breeding-time, they rear a
late brood. The woodcock arrives north in
March, and generally builds in -April. Much
depends, however, upon the earliness or lateness of
the spring, which sometimes varies nearly a
month. Its nest has been found in March in
very early situations, but it is believed that in
such cases they were those of old birds which
had passed a mild winter in some chosen,
sheltered spot, and never gone south at all. It
is reasonable that after having made its migra-
tion from the far south to the latitude of New
York, Illinois, Michigan, and Canada, the birds
would require some weeks for restoration before
laying their eggs. The nest is made on the
ground, in a piece of woods or brushy swamp,
and is composed of grass and leaves. The hen
lays four, sometimes five eggs, and the young
run as soon as hatched ; the little ones are
active and rather cunning at hiding, though not
to such an extent as the chicks of the ruffed
grouse. The woodcock displays the same care
and manifests as much devotion to her young as
the ruffed grouse, and employs the same expe-
dient of simulating lameness to draw off an in-
SHOOTING THE WOODCOCK. 123
truder from their neighborhood. The hen-wood-
cock is a tame bird when sitting, and will not
leave her nest for any light reason. When I
was a boy, they used to build in a swamp on
my father's farm in Albany County, New York,
where I have more than once crawled up and
caught the old bird in my hand, and released
her after looking at her eggs. This would not
induce her to forsake her nest, and in this she
differs from some other wild birds. Wild ducks
are not easily driven from their nests, and, after
being disturbed once or twice, will still return
again. The English pheasant, if once flushed
directly off her eggs, always forsakes them. I
never saw more than five eggs in a woodcock's
nest, and usually there are but four. It has
been stated that a woodcock's nest, with eight
full-fledged young ones, was found on the banks
of Loch Lomond, in Scotland. I believe these
were the young of some other bird, if eight
were found, for the story is almost absurd on
its face. Young woodcocks, full-fledged, are
never found in a nest. The young, when first
hatched, might be, but they are then covered
with dowle, and not with feathers. The wood-
cock has been kept in confinement, and proved
124 FIELD SHOOTING.
itself to be a A^oracious feeder. It was no
small trouble to keep it supplied with worms.
It bored in to the earth given to it, and was always
ready for food. The digestion of the woodcock
is very rapid. This accounts for the fact that
birds which arrive poor speedily get condition in
good ground.
For the procurement of its food, for which it
bores in soft, moist ground, fat, loamy soils, and
rich vegetable mould, it has a long, slender
bill, very sensitive, and a long, prehensile tongue
with barbs on the end. The young grow rapidly
where the lying is good and the food plentiful.
In favorable seasons they have attained their
growth by the fourth of July, when the shoot-
ing commences. But in some places, in some
years, they are not above two-thirds grown at
that date. I saw woodcock at Boston this year
in the middle of July not two-thirds grown, and
it M^as a pity they had been ^hot. After the
broods have once dispersed, the woodcock is a
solitary bird. It is true that a number of them
may sometimes be found in the same swale,
" cripple," or piece of woodland, but that is
because the lying of the place suits them, and
the boring is good, worms and the larvoe of insects
SHOOTING THE WOODCOCK. 125
being abundant in the soil. The woodcock does
not frequent sandy, thirsty soils, nor gravelly
ground, nor sour, wet meadows. It wants warmth
and richness, as well as plenty of moisture. The
bird is nocturnal in its habits, and its great eye,
placed far backwards and upwards in its large
head, enables it to see- by night and in the gloom
t)f the thick coverts in which it lies by day. It
never flies by day, unless disturbed, and seldom
feeds in the daytime, unless it be on rare occa-
sions in the thick shade of some moist and closely
overgrown spot in its cover. Late in the evening,
when it is nearly dark, the woodcock leave the
cover, and betake themselves to wet, rich places
to bore for their food. It used to be a popular
notion that woodcock and snipe ate nothing, and
lived merely by what was called suction ; whereas
they arc both voracious feeders and like the
richest quality of food — namely, the plump worms
and insects to be found in fat soils. After indus-
triously spending the night in finding food to
satisfy his enormous* appetite, the woodcock re-
turns just before dawn of day to the thick brake
or close overgrown " cripple," in which he lies
while the daylight lasts. Where there is good
lying and good feeding ground, woodcock may be
126 FIELD SHOOTING.
found in the season, and in spots where ono
bird has been shot it is common for another to
take its place in a day or two. Where such
birds come from, and why they did not come
before the place was tenantlcss, is not known.
Although in some sort methodical in its ways
and habits, the woodcock often seems to be
erratic in its comings and goings to and from
certain localities. Some days the birds will be
found plentiful, for them, in certain ground. On
another day, without any obvious reason for their
absence, not one can be puf up in the same
piece. The weather or some other cause un-
known has induced them to make a local change,
and this has sometimes been magnified, I think,
into a second migration or a permanent removal
to the uplands and bluffs. I do not believe that
there is any second migration northwards of the
woodcock after breeding-time ; nor do I believe
that the birds go to the uplands and bluffs, and
stay there until the beginning of October. It
is not true that no woodcock* are to be found in
their usual haunts in September. I have found
and shot them myself in that month in fair num-
bers. It is true that there are not as many
as there were in July, and for the very
SHOOTING THE WOODCOCK. 127
good reason that vast numbers have been shot,
while those which are left have become more
wild and wary. Another reason for the seeming
absence of birds, except here and there, is simply
this : with us, grouse-shooting in the latter part of
August and September is so much easier, and
affords so much greater chance of success, that
very few go after woodcock in those months, and
the birds have it all to themselves in woody
swales, tangled thickets, and the islands over-
grown with the willow and the alder, until October
brings down the great division of birds bred to
the northward of the United States.
Early in the season and during the hot weather
the woodcock is a lazy bird, and seems to labor
in its flight. It is not, however, easy to kill on
that account, for when it rises, often very close
to you, it goes up among the thick foliage, right
on end, as it were, to the top of the cover, and
then, after flying horizontally for about twenty
yards, it suddenly flops down again. When it
do* this after being shot at, men often think
they have killed it, while in truth not a feather
has beeii touched. The thickness of the covert in
full leaf prevents the shooter from having any-
thing but a glimpse of the bird, and he must
128 FIELD SHOOTING.
make a snap-shot at where intuition tells him the
woodcock ought to be. Besides this difficulty, the
upward flight is calculated to distract the aim,
even when the bird is not absolutely concealed
by the density of the foliage. Commonly it is
flip-flap of the wing, and the woodcock has gone
away, often not scon by the sportsman at all.
In some places it is practicable to send the dog
in to beat the thicket while you remain on the
edge to shoot as the cock fly. Where the brush
is short this may be done, and, if there are many
birds, the sport will be good. Three years ago
I had some nice shooting by following this me-
thod on Rock River, Illinois. When the cover is
large, and the timber and saplings are twenty feet
high, the above-mentioned plan will not work.
You must go m then with the dogs, and take
your chance of snap-shots. Later in the year the
woodcock is sometimes found in more open pieces
of timber — that is, in places where the under-
brush is not so very thick. But it is still a
pretty hard bird to shoot, for now it flies like
a bullet, and zigzags and twists about among
the close-standing stems, going for an opening
through which to make a straight flight. The
woodcock flushed in cover always goes for an
SHOOTING THE WOODCOCK. 129
Opening; the ruffed grouse never does, but sets
sail for the closest and densest part. Now, when
the woodcock is going swift and twisting among
the stems of the saplings, he is very easy to miss,
and sportsmen who make good bags of cock in
the prime of the fall season have a right to be
proud of their exploits. This sort of shooting is
much more pleasant than that to be followed in
the tangled " cripples " of New Jersey, all over-
grown with cat-briers and thick brush, with no
good footing where you are, and no possibility
of knowing where you will be next. In Albany
County, New York, we used to use cocking-spanicls
when woodcock-shooting. I have had none of that
l)reed in the West, and now employ setters.
They arc bolder and better iu forcing their way
in rough places than pointers. The thin skins of
the latter get all cut and torn, and their feet
give out. But the best dogs I have ever had for.
general sport, take one sort of shooting with an-
other, have been cross-bred between the setter
and the pointer. For work these beat any pure-
bred dog I ever owned, and, I may add, ever
saw. But concerning this 1 shall treat further on.
A great many woodcock may be found about
Lockport, Illinois, forty miles southwest of Chi-_
130 FIELD SH0OTINO.
cago, but the brush is so thick in the swamps in
summer and early fall that the shooting is diffi-
cult. There are a few on the Sangamon, but
only a few. On the bottoms and islands of the
upper Mississippi River, right down to St. Louis,
many woodcock may be found. The bottoms
and islands are rich alluvial mould, and the wood-
cock finds himself well placed in them for cover,
for food and breeding-places. The brush com-
monly grows down to the water's edge, and old
logs lie among the bushes. The woodcock also
frequents the thickets on the edges of the bayous
and sloughs, and, when the bottoms have been
overflowed, the birds use them as soon as the
water has receded. During the floods they shift
their places, and lie further from the rivers,
but in the same sort of ground as before. In
New York they were sometimes found in wet
corn-fields adjacent to cover, but I do not think
they ever are in the West. On the Illinois River,
about Pekin, Peoria, and Havana, there is fair
woodcock-shooting ; but the bird is scarce every-
where in the West, compared with other sorts
of game. Indeed, the woodcock is not only rela-
tively scarce in the West, but, as 1 thirk, abso-
lutely scarcer than in the Atlantic States. There
SHOOTING THE WOODCOCK. 131
is not lu the prairie States so much of the sort
of ground the woodcock likes as there is further
cast, I do, indeed, know of plenty of ground in
Central Illinois which one would think just suit-
able for woodcock, Lut, owing to some reason
which I have never been able to discover, the
birds are not found there. A stray one or two
may be picked up occasionally, but they are
never there in any number. I suppose it to be
owing to some peculiarity in the soil. These
neighborhoods have much of the right kind of
food, ano snipe abound near them ; but for some
reason the woodcock does not like them. About
the middle of October there is a great increase
in the number of woodcock in the bottoms
and islands of the Mississippi and Illinois rivers.
Flights of those bred further north then arrive,
and they stay until driven away by sharp frosts.
When they first arrive from the North, the leaves
are still thick, but the white frosts, which are
quite insufficient to freeze the ground and drive
the woodcock south, wilt the leaves, and then
the shooting is pleasant and good. Generally
speaking, the woodcock remain well along through
November, and some seasons they have not all
gone by the 1st of December. They like the
132 FIELD SHOOTING.
neighborhood of little streams which trickle through
brush and among timber. The most ^ ever killed
in a day was fifteen couple. I have heard men
boast of having killed fifty couple in a day ; but
if they did it, the birds must have been vastly
more abimdant than I ever saw them anywhere.
The woodcock is easily killed when you can get
an open shot; but that is rather seldom, except
at the last of the season and m such small patches
of short brush as 1 mentioned above. A wood-
cock, when winged, does not run off as quail do.
The birds have tw sorts of flight In one it
goes laboring and slow, just over the tops of the
branches, to which height it has risen almost per-
pendicularly, and then it soon flops down again.
Its other mode of flight is swiftly away among
the stems of the trees, darting here and there
until it has found its opening, along which it goes
like a bullet. I was told in the South that it is
very plentiful along the edges of the bayous in
the winter there. The negroes go out by night
in boats with torches, and, paddling along, the
woodcock on the muddy margin are knocked down
M ith sticks. I heard of this, but never saw it, and
merely tell the tale as it was told to me.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE SNIPE AND SNIPE-SHOOTING.
This well-known and excellent little bird of
passage is to be found all over the country, in
suitable ground, at the times of the spring and
fall migrations. It winters about the wet rice-
fields of the Southern States, and comes north in
the spring, going to its breeding-grounds, which are
mainly in higher latitudes than the United States,
It is true that a few remain all summer in the
Eastern States, and also in those to the westward,
and rear broods of young; but by far the larger
number continue towards the north, pausing about
a month in the middle latitudes. It does not
breed south of Virginia. In Kentucky, Indiana,
and Michigan some snipe are bred in the sedges
of the wet prairies and about the edges of the
wild rice-swamps. In Illinois a few nests are
made about the Calumet, and some in the great
Winnebago Swamp, which is part pool, and
a great deal of high grass marsh. About Co-
lumbus, Kentucky, the first flights of spring snipe
133
134 FIELD SHOOTING.
arrive on the river-bottoms by the first of March
in an early spring, but much depends upon the
forwardness of the " season and the state of the
"weather. The snipe need not be looked for until
the frost is quite out of the ground, no matter
how genial and pleasant the days may be. The
reason seems to be plain. As long as there is
frost in the ground the worms and larvae of in-
sects upon which snipe feed are underneath the
frozen strata, and cannot be found in the soft mud
of the surface. In Illinois and Northern Indiana the
frost holds in the ground much longer than in South-
ern Kentucky. It penetrates a good deal deeper,
and the spring is more backward than in the last-
named region. Hence the snipe do not come to
the Calumet, the Winnebago Swamp, the Sanga-
mon, and the other favorite haunts which it fre-
quents in Illinois, until nearly a month after they
have appeared at Columbus. When they first
arrive, the birds are thin and wild, and do not
lie well. In a short tijne, however, they get very
fat and become lazy. I find that in New Jersey
the fall snipe-shooting is the best, and that the
birds tarry so short a time in the spring that
sometimes there is scarcely any spring snipe-shoot-
ing at all. Now, with us the reverse of this is
THE SNIPE AND SNIPE-SHOOTING. 135
the case. The snipe stay much longer in the
spring in the Western States than they do in the
fall, and they distribute themselves more over the
face of the country. In the autumn migration
they keep more to the lines of the great rivers,
and stay but a short time. One reason, no doubt,
is that in the spring there is much more wet
ground, such as suits the snipe. In the fall many
places in which the birds lie thick in April are
quite dry, and no longer suitable as feeding-
places. The snipe likes wet places even more
than the woodcock. His favorite resorts are wet
bogs, plashy places in grassy meadows, the rich,
moist ground of river-bottoms, and the margins
of grassy sloughs and bayous —
" By the rushy, fringed bank,
Where grow the willow and the ozier dank ! "
The best snipe-shooting with us is in the spring
of the year, though very good sport may be had
in the fall. In the spring I have sometimes
killed from twenty-five to fifty couple a day for
many days together. When the birds first come,
they are poor and wild, and the shooting is difficult ;
but a little time spent upon the rich bottom-land,
which swarms with worms and other food, puts them
136 FIELD SHOOTIKG.
in flesh. They are able to indulge their sharp and
almost insatiable appetite, and soon grow fat. I
shot snipe several spring seasons in company with
K. M. Patchen, of Atlanta, Logan County, Illinois.
Our favorite ground was the Salt Creek bottoms
on the Sangamon, and I doubt whether there is
any better ground in the world. We have killed
as many as three hundred and forty in a day,
and our bag was seldom as small as seventy-five
couple at the right time. The ground we shot
over was the grassy, sedgy bottoms along Salt
Creek, near where it falls into Sangamon Eiver,
and across the latter stream along the bottoms
in Mason County. The shooting there begins
about the first of April. In many places the bot-
toms at that time of the year have been recently
overflowed, and a scum of mud and slop is
left, in which the snipe seem to delight. Snipe
are vastly more abundant in the West, in the
proper snipe-ground, than they are in the East,
I find that in New Jersey and Pennsylvania
snipe-shooters think they have had an average fair
day's sport if they have killed about eight
couple. Now, we should not think we had been
shooting at all if we killed no more than that
number.
THE SNIPE AND SNIPE-SHOOTING. 137
A great many people go up-wind when after
snipe, believing that it gives a much better chance
to the dogs. I always go down-wind, and use no
dog at all, except for retrieving purposes. There
is no need to use a dog to find snipe on good
snipe-ground at the proper times and seasons.
The bird always rises against the wind, and flies
up-wind or across it, making zigzags when he
first gets under way. Now, if you are to wind-
ward of the bird when it rises, it is nearly cer-
tain to give you a side shot. As I remarked
before, when they first come from the south in the
spring, the snipe are wild. Their numbers are very
large, but the ground- is nearly bare, the grass
having but just started. Four or five will get
up together, and sometimes as many as twenty,
all uttering the shrill squeak which they make on
taking wing. The rich bottoms, low, marshy
ground around sloughs, and wet corn-fields, are
good places to look for snipe. As they eat the
plump worms and other rich food which they find
in abundance in the loamy soils and black, vege-
table deposits, the snipe become fat, and then
they lie close and well. I never found any diffi-
culty in shooting them then. Later on in the
season still they got very fat, and will hardly rise
138 FIELD SHOOTING.
at all, save when put up by a noise like that of
their own squeak. That is the only way to make
them rise, and their flight is lazy and slow.
Those which remain after the first of May are
then so fat that they can hardly fly at all, and
when they are picked at this time they look like
a lump of fat bacon. When not over-fat, snipe
fly swift. They hang on the wind for an instant,
and then dart away zigzag up-wind or across the
wind. I have several times killed two with one
barrel, and on one occasion I killed three. It was
in Logan County, as I was walking along the
bank of a little slough. The three snipe got up
in line, the nearest within twenty yards, and they
all three fell to the right barrel. When they first
come in the spring, it is difficult to shoot snipe in
the corn-fields. They dodge about among the
stalks, and rarely rise over the tops of them. A
man who kills three out of four in the corn-fields
at that time is a good shot. In shooting over
the bottom-land it is best for two guns to be in
company, and to walk down-wind some thirty or
forty yards apart. Nearly all the birds may then
be got. The shooters will be nearly certain to kill
all the birds that rise between them, if they are
good shots. In shooting at snipe it is a great
THE SNIPE AND SNIPE-SHOOTING. 139
error to shoot too quick. The snipe, at first
getting on the wing, twists and wires in and out
in his flight. If shot at then, it may be killed,
but is more likely to be missed. By waiting
until it has gone a rod or two you may get a
much easier shot. The flight of the bird is then
straight, and, though it presents but a small mark,
there is no real difficulty in hitting it. Side
shots are the best of all for a good shot. Be-
ginners are somewhat apt to shoot behind the
bird. The right time to pull the trigger is just
as the snipe begins the direct flight. It is not
a hard bird to kill on the bottoms, even while
somewhat Avild, if you can shoot well and go
the right way about your beat, which is down-
wind. Afterwards, when they have got fat, it is
as easy to kill as any bird I know of. In
talking with General Strong, who is a good
sportsman and fine shot, and other gentlemen of
Chicago, about snipe-shooting, I found it was their
impression that it was a hard bird to shoot.
Now, I knew well that, taken in the right way,
at the right time, it was a very easy bird to
kill ; and I offered to back myself to shoot and
bag a hundred snipe in a hundred consecutive
shots. If 1 missed one shut out of the one hun-
140 FIELD SHOOTHTO.
dred, I was to be the loser. I was willing to put
up the money, and to take General Strong him-
self as referee to see that I did it. They, how-
ever, declined to make the wager. If it had been,
accepted, 1 should have chosen the Salt Creek and
Sangamon bottoms for the ground, and taken the
last week in April for the period. The birds are
then fat and lazy, and I am confident that 1 could
have done the feat. I should not, as a matter
of course, have bound myself to do it within a
certain time, because it is not possible to say
when you can fuid birds thick on the ground.
The snipe is somewhat erratic in his habits, and
change of weather causes them to change their
ground. If I had found snipe on that ground as
thick as I have sometimes done, I believe I
should have killed the one hundred, without a
miss, in one day. I should not have taken any
but fair chances, and I should not have let fair
shots go unimproved. In order to perform a feat
of this kind a man must have several essential
qualifications. He must be a dead-shot. He
must have the best of nerve, and never be
flurried in the least. With such a man, and a
gun of ten bore, charged with five drams of
powder and an ounce and a quarter of No. 12
THE SNIPE AND SNIPK-SHOOTINa. 141
shot, the snipe rising near at hand will have
but a very small chance of getting away. But
as one miss will lose the wager,' it is abso
lutely necessary that the shooter should know
when he is holding his gun so that it is virtu
ally certain he will kill. If 1 had got the
match, 1 should have used no dog to shoot over,
but should have walked the bottoms, going down
wind, and should have chirped the snipe up with
their own cry. I have often killed thirty with
out a miss, when shooting for no wager, and
taking every bird that rose within fair distance,
as they got up anywhere. These things may seem
strange to many sportsmen, especially those who
are mostly conversant with places where game
Is scarce and, being much disturbed and shot at,
quite wild. But different localities and very
diiTerent circumstances must be allowed for. I
state nothing which is not true, and nothing but
what I can support by good testimony — that of
men who know the ground, and are acquainted
with many of the anecdotes and feats I relate.
In general snipe-shooting a man who kills two
out of four is accounted a good shot, and this
is generally done by beating up-Avind. Now, if
such a man will try my plan and beat down
143 FIELD SHOOTING.
wind, having no dog save one to retrieve dead
birds, he will find he can do much better. He
will kill a great many more of the birds he
shoots at. I have been snipe-shooting with men
who called themselves good shots, and 1 have
seen them miss full half of the birds they
shot at. They almost always fired too quick, while
the snipe was making his darts here and there before
going off straight As a general rule, you must be
willing and able to do a great deal of walking
when snipe-shooting, if you would make a large
bag. When I first shot snipe on Salt Creek
bottoms, it was with a muzzle-loader, and I had
no horse and buggy. With a horse and buggy
to go to the ground and carry the bidk of the
ammunition all day, and with a breech-loader, 1
could have killed three or four hundred snipe a
day 1 could do so now if I could walk all day,
as I could then , but since I was shot in the
thigh my endurance in walking, especially on wet,
slippery ground, is not as great as it formerly
was. I could once walk from dawn of day till
dark, only stopping to eat and drink, and could
tire the best man I ever had in company in a
long day's tramp after game It was upon that
and upon knowledge and judgment, lui-gely do-
THE SNIPE AND SNIPE-SHOOTING. 143
rived from experience, as to tiie likeliest places
to find game, and how it would behave when
found, that I relied in challenging any man in
the world in field-shooting in the West, I counted
upon these things as much as 1 did upon my
ability as a marksman. My challenge stood three
years, and had publicity through the sporting news-
papers. There was plenty of talk about taking
it up, but no one ever did so. I hear from time
to time about some man who is said by some
other man to be the best general field-shot in t\^
Western country. This best general field-shot '!&
commonly some man who was never heard of
before by me or by anybody else outside of his
own small neighborhood. I believe 1 know as
many of the real dead-shots of the West as any
man in that section, and yet some one is mentioned
as the best of all, of whom 1 never heard before.
These foolish opinions and hollow reputations are
commonly held and manufactured by those who
have taken up the absurd notion that a man who
is a good trap-shooter at pigeons cannot be a good
field-shot. Now, the reverse of this is commonly
the case. The best shots I have known at pigeons
liave ]>eeu good shots in the field, but many men
who do well enough in the field fiiil at pigeons.
144 FIELD SHOOTING.
In snipe-shooting In the West along sloughrf
or wet swales, in the prairie or corn-fields, thcro
should be two gims in company, one on each side
of the slough or swale. Your companion will com-
monly be willing that you shall take cither side
you choose, as few men know that it makes any
difference. But it makes a very material differ-
ence when the wind is blowing across, or nearly
across, the slough, and if you take the windward
side you will have the most shots. 1 have always
done so, and have often killed two or three snipe
to one killed by my companion. The reason i.i
simply this . the snipe fly up-windy and those which
rise on the leeward side of the slough cross it to
windward, while none of those which get up on
the latter side fly to leeward.
When the snipe first come on in the spring,
it is often primarily discovered by a certain habit
they have of hovering in the air of nights, and
making a kind of humming noise with their wings,
as they fall from a height. I have often been out
duck-shooting at night at that season of the year,
and, hearing this noise in the air, have become aware
that the snipe had arrived from the south. Before
they leave for the north to breed they often do
the same thing by day, and it is only when in the
THE SNIPE AND SNIPE-SHOOTING. 145
mood for this that snipe are on the wing by day,
except when put up. When hovering, the snipe
poise themselves in the air at a considerable height,
And, suddenly dropping or darting away, make
this noise with their wings ; then they make another
hover, and then another dart. When in this humor,
the snipe will not lie to dogs nor to be walked up
within shot, and no sport is to be had. They
usually do it on still, cloudy days. I have seen
statements to the effect that at such times snipe
will alight on fences, stumps, and the topmost
boughs of trees. I can only say, touching these
statements, that my experience is all the other
way. I have been many years in a part of the
country where the snipe are found in amazing
abundance every spring and fall ; I have seen them
hovering hundreds of times, when hundreds of
them were at it in the air ; but I never saw one
alight on a tree or a fence or on anything but
the ground. I have, I think, been a close observer
of the habits of such game-birds as frequented
Illinois. My living depended on it, in some de-
gree. This thing, however, I never saw a snipe
do, and I foel quite certain that snipe in Illinois
never do it. I do not say that the authors of the
statements in question have made wilful misrepre-
146 FIELD SHOOTING,
sentations, but I do say that they may have been
mistaken, and that the birds which alighted on
trees while the snipe were hovering and bleating
were not snipe. It is the easiest thing in the world
to see snipe hovering in the spring in places where
they abound. Take a day in April when the sun
is not bright and there is a hazy atmosphere.
On such a day the snipe are at it nearly all day
long. There will be first one and then another
going through with this performance, and you
may sometimes hear three or four at it at once,
though not very close together. I haA^e never
met a man who had seen, or pretended to have
seen, a snipe alight on a tree or fence at this or
any other time.
Snipe begin to arrive with us in the fall, about
the middle of October, but they do not come
down from the north in large numbers so early
as that date. At the last of October they are
commonly plentiful, but are not found in the places
where they were so abundant in the spring. In
the fall there are not one-fourth as many in the
bottoms of Salt Creek and the Sangamon as there
are in April. Neither are they so well distribut-
ed over the country along the sloughs. In go-
ing south they keep more to the lines of the big
THE SNIPE AND SNIPE-SHOOTING. 147
rivers, and perhaps many of them keep more to
the eastward in their southern migration than they
do in coming north. I am inclined to think that
this last must be the case, for the birds are not
anything like as numerous in the fall, when the
broods come, as they were in the spring, when
the snipe went north to breed. The best fall
snipe-shooting with us is along the bottoms of
the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers, and about the
marshes of the great Winnebago Swamp. Here
the sportsman may have good shooting until late
in the fall — I may say, in some seasons, until the
beginning of winter, for the snipe do not leave
altogether until the ground is frozen. When that
happens, they go southwards. In Illinois there is
some marshy ground which the snipe do not like.
Most of the land in that State, being rich loam
or vegetable alluvial, suits them well ; but in some
places there is sand or gravel as well as much
moisture, and neither of these does the snipe seem
to like. I suppose the favorite food in these
soils is scarce, and in all probability the birds do
not like to bore in gritty ground. A few may
be found scattered in wet places on such soils,
but at the same time they lie in thousands along
the loamy bottoms and in the marshes. In these
148 FIEliD SHOOTING.
latter the soil is usually vegetable mould, the rich,
black deposit commonly called swamp-muck. In
this the snipe delights above all. Snipe afford a
vast amount of sport, but the sport itself de-
mands for its proper pursuit very considerable
endurance and hardihood. The snipe-shooter must
expect to be wet and to be fatigued, but he may
also count upon making a good bag. It is one
of the most delicious birds that flies, certainly
second to none but the upland-plover and one or
two sorts of duck. Many think it second to none
whatever, and I doubt if it is when in prime order
and properly cooked and served. In places where
snipe are not plentiful it is no doubt advisable
to use a dog to beat the meadows and marshes,
and point them ; but such is not the case where
I have been accustomed to shoot.
CHAPTER IX.
GOLDEN PLOVER, CURLEW, GRAY PLOVER.
In the West we have in the spring and fall
great numbers of the golden plover — a beautiful
bird, testing the skill and patience of the sports-
man, and one that is very delicate and rich eating
on the table. It is stated, in some books I have
looked into, that the golden plover is essentially
a shore bird. This is ^a great error, if the same
species is meant, for it visits Illinois and Iowa,
and I doubt not the country further west, in
prodigious numbers. It is called the golden
plover from being speckled with yellow on the
back of the head and neck. Its principal colors
are not at all like gold ; and when the birds are
seen in flocks on the grass-lands they love to
frequent, the golden spots cannot be distinguished.
It is a handsome bird, graceful in shape, and
quite plump. The golden plover is not quite as
large as a quail, but almost, when fat. The male
is dark in color, with white spots on the breast,
and narrow white streaks on the cheeks. The
149
150 riELD SHOOTUTa.
female is gray, and a little smaller than the male.
This bird winters in the south, principally upon
the great grassy ranges of Texas and Northern
Mexico. It arrives in the prairie States about
ten days after the snipe, commonly about the
tenth of April; but much depends on the
forwardness or backwardness of the spring.
With us there is a variation of some three
weeks between a very forward spring and one
that is very late. The golden plover forms one
of the most numerous bodies of the great mi-
gratory hordes which come north at the end of
the winter. They come in flocks, some of the
latter, on their arrival, being as many as three
or four hundred in number. At their first
coming they are to be found on the burnt prairies,
and soon after they will be seen in ploughed
fields and on bare pastures. They also frequent
young wheat which is then fairly stai'ted, and in
those spots where the plant has been drowned
out or killed by the frost these birds are sure
to be found. They like the bare earth and the
close-eaten pastures, especially those in certain-
localities. From high knolls, where the grass
has been eaten off short, they can sometimes be
hardly driven away. In sheep pastures the plover
GOLDEN PLOVER, CURLEW, GRAY PLOVER. 151
are usually found at the proper season ; for the
sheep is a close feeder, and likes to range on
knolls and hills. Along with the golden plover,
and apparently intimately associated with them
and forming part of the flocks, comes the cur-
lew, another handsome and delicious bird. It is
a little larger than the golden plover, stouter in
build, and gray in color. In size and shape the
curlew resembles a well-grown woodcock, but with
longer wings and a thinner head. It has a bill
about two inches long, curved in shape, and is not
so high on the leg as its companion, the golden
plover. They may be easily distinguished from
each other when the flock is on the ground, and
also when in flight. The curlew affords as good
sport to the shooter as the plover, and the epi-
cure, who really knows how good it is, esteems it
as a dish dainty and delicate as the golden plover
itself, though, perhaps, not quite so delicious as
the gray or upland plover, of which I shall treat
further on. In the curlew there is no apparent
difference between the male and female. In some
flocks it will be found to be nearly as numerous as
the plover, while in others the latter are in a large
majority. When in the spring ploughing the rich
soil of our prairie States is turned up, a vast
152 FIELD 8H00TINO.
number of fat worms are thrown to the surface.
To pick up and feed upon -these, the golden
plover and curlew will be seen following the
ploughman along the furrow. Sometimes they fly
a little ahead of the plough and team, some-
times abreast of them, and all the time some are
wheeling and curling round and dropping in the
furrow which has just been made. At such times
these birds occasionally become so bold and
tame that they come quite close to the horses,
and I have known some to be knocked down and
killed by the driving-boys with their whips. As
a matter of course, this is rather uncommon ; but
their boldness and tameness, when ploughing is
going on, is in strong contrast to their timidity
and wariness on other occasions. They seem to
be sagacious enough to know that where the men
and teams are ploughing there can be no shooting,
and they take advantage of that fact.
The best places for shooting golden plover and
curlew in the earlier part of their stay with us
are the burnt ground of the prairies, where the
grass is beginning to quicken, and those close-
eaten and bare spots in the pastures of which I
have made mention. It will be best, when going
for these birds, to take a dog to bring in wounded
GOLDEN PLOVER, CURLEW, GRAY PLOVER. 153
ones. At their first arrival the flocks of plover
and curlew are rather wild and difficult to get
at. In their sojourn on, and long flights from,
the plains of Texas across Arkansas, and along
the Mississippi River to Illinois, Missouri, Iowa,
and Kansas, they have not been accustomed to
the neighborhood of men, and at first they are
shy. But if not shot at and frequently disturbed,
they soon get tame, and may be approached.
But some knowledge of their habits and some
craft are always reqviisite in order to get good
chances at these shifty and cunning birds. On
some days the flocks will be much ou the wing,
flying from one field to another, and all going in
one direction, as wild pigeons do. At such times
the shooter may take a stand in the line of flight,
and get fair shooting all day as the flocks go over.
It is not necessary to hide altogether ; in fact, ii^
these localities — the burnt prairies and great pas-
tures— there is seldom the means to do so; but
it is often desirable to lie down. Hero again
it must be observed that it is of no, use to lie
down in clothes strongly in contrast as to color
with the ground or grass. The golden plover
and curlew are low-flying birds, and, when lying
down in about the line of flight, the shooter may
154 FIELD SHOOTING.
sometimes get a side shot at a large, close flock,
and kill eight or ten with his two barrels. Some-
times the birds skim on not above four or five
feet from the ground. At other times they fly
pretty high, but within fair shot; and when one
barrel of the gun is discharged, the whole flock
will come swooping down towards the earth, as
if the shot had killed them all. In that case it
is very difficult to put in the second barrel with
good effect. When they fly low and present side
shots is the most favorable time to pepper them.
At the shooting on the pastures where the
birds have made their temporary home it will
sometimes be found that the golden plover and
curlew are not flying in flocks in one direction
in such a manner that you can select a place in
the line of flight. It is then best to go with a
horse and buggy. The horse should be a steady
one, so as to stand fire, and should also be capable
of going at a good rate, as speed is one of
the elements of success in driving for plover.
The birds will be seen flying about in various
directions over the wide pasture, and settled in
bunches on it. When put on the wing at such
times, they always settle in a cluster nearly close
together, and put up their head as though taking
GOLDEN PLOVER, CUKLEW, GUAY PLOVER. 155
a survey of* the ground. When they do this at
a proper distance, the horse must be put to a
swift trot in such a direction as you would take
if going past the plover on your own sharp
business. Judge the ground and estimate the
distance, so that when you are abreast of the
flock it will be within shot. The birds, in such
a case, will not rise until the horse stops, and
sometimes, if the shooter is quick and prompt,
he may get a crack at them with one barrel just
as they are upon the point of leaving the ground,
and before they are actually on the wing. Whea
a shot can be got while they are thus huddled
together, many may be killed. There is no scruple
about shooting at these birds in this manner among
sportsmen, but few have the art and promptness
to manage it. The horse must be fast. He
must trot up at a swift pace. You must judge
the distance nicely, for you cannot swerve
out of the line and in upon the birds with-
out causing them to take wing. Finally, the horse
must be one that will obey a light touch of the
rein, and stop rather suddenly without a jerk.
When shooting plover on foot at such times as
they are acting after the habit described above,
the sportsman must follow the same plan in
156 FIELD SIIOOTINa.
principle. Instead of driving up, as if going hy,
he must run fast, as if intending to pass, and
must not incline his course in towards the flock.
These birds seem to act as if they reasoned and
arrived at certain conclusions. These conclusions
would he correct enough if the craft of the man
were not exerted to deceive them hy false appear-
ances. When the shooter is abreast of the flock,
he must come to a stop, and, making a quarter-
whirl, fire quickly. He must be quick, for the
moment he stops in his forward course up gets
the flock. I never knew a man who would not
thus circumvent and shoot among a flock of golden
plover and curlew in this manner, if he had the
skill to achieve an opportunity to do so. I have
heard men say they never killed any plover except
on the wing. I can readily believe it ; and will
add, very few in any way. All I can say is that
I should not like to be the plover when these
parties had a chance to put in a barrel under such
circumstances as those above described. The
horse and buggy is the easiest way to go to work,
and that itself is somewhat difiicult. The man
who undertakes to run up must be swift of foot,
good in the wind, and so steady of nerve that he
will not be flustered and his hand will not shake
GOLDEN PLOVER, CURLEW, GRAY PLOVER. 157
when he stops suddenly and whirls to shoot. When,
by a shot at the flock on the wing, two or three
of the plover or curlew are crippled, the others
will circle round them, and often offer chances
for capital shots. The breech-loading gun is in-
valuable in such circumstances as these. On one
such occasion I remember having killed forty-two
golden plover and curlew, all shot on the wing,
before I picked up one of them. Many a time I
have killed as many as fourteen or fifteen without
lifting a bird, there being opportunities to load
and fire again and again while the plover swept
and circled over the dead and wovmded of their
own flock. Sometimes the flocks of golden plover
and curlew are so numerous in a neighborhood, so
large in extent, and fly in such a way, that a great
number may be killed in a short time. I remem-
ber one such time well. It is now twelve years
ago, and at that period there was a great deal of
unbroken prairie in the neighborhood of Elkhart.
I smarted out aft;er dinner from that place, and
drove two miles into the prairie. It had just been
burned over, and large flocks of plover a*id curlew
were coming in one after the other. That after-
noon I killed two hundred and sixty-four plover
and curlew, and crot back to Elkhart at sundown.
158 FIELD SHOOTING.
I got a few sitting shots on that occasion, but the
vast majority of the birds were killed on the
wing, while circling round their wounded com-
panions. This was done with a muzzle-loader.
With a good breech-loader and plenty of cart-
ridges I believe I could have killed five hundred
birds that afternoon. Much of the prairie about
there, which was then unbroken, has been broken
up, and is now wheat, corn, and oat land. The
golden plover and curlew are not as numerous in
that neighborhood now as they were then. Still,
there are plenty of them in the right season of the
year. Of late years I have generally killed from
fifty to two hundred plover and curlew a day
v.hcn out after them especially. This means
golden plover, as I never shoot the gray or grass
plover in the spring, for a reason 1 shall presently
advance. My bag has seldom been less than fifty,
and not often as high as two hundred, and I have
commonly shot right along during the season, pre-
ferring to do so rather than to go after snipe
to the Sangamon and Salt Creek bottoms. The
golden plpver and curlew are highly esteemed by
the high-livers of the cities. There is a constant
demand for them at Chicago, and good prices are
obtained when they first come in.
GOLDEN PLOVER, CUKLEW, GRAY PLOVER. 159
Golden plover and curlew may be found almost
anywhere in the prairie States in April. As I
stated briefly in the chapters on pinnated grouse,
I once went on a three months' shooting-excursioii
to Christian County, Illinois, starting about the
first of February. My shooting companion was
a hunter named Joe Phillips, and we had for
camp-keeper a lively, jovial fellow named Beu
Powell. The latter has acted as camp-keeper for
me many years. We pitched our tent about
a couple of miles from the town of Assumption,
and the report was soon spread in that primitive
Western village that we were a band of gipsies.
One evening a bevy of brown, blushing girls ar-
rived at the camp and demanded information as
to where the gipsy women were. They wanted
to have their fortunes told, and could hardly be
persuaded that we were simply hunters and of
the same race of people as themselves. After-
wards some of the men of the village came, and,
in conversation with Powell during the absence
of Phillips and myself, boasted of a great shot
they had among them. The people of the region
were almost all agriculturists and herdsmen, and
as for shooting game on the wing, they hardly
knew what it was. The man, who had settled
160 FIELD SHOOTING.
among them from a distance, professed himself a
great pigeon-shot. Powell listened to the wonders
this man could perform, and then enquired whether
they would like to back him to shoot pigeons against
one of the field-shooters of our party. They said
they would, and the preliminaries of a match
were arranged, in which Powell was to put up
our team of ponies and wagon against a hundred
dollars cash on the other side. But the match
was not confirmed; for while the discussion was
still going on Phillips and I returned to camp
from our hunt, and this broke it off". One of the
Assumption men had seen me before somewhere,
and had heard my shooting well spoken of. He
caused his townsmen to draw back. I have no
idea that the man they spoke of was much of a
shot. He very likely could not kill sixty birds
in a hundred at eighteen yards rise.
During the time we shot in Christian County
Phillips and 1 kept separate accounts of the game
we killed. In the three months I killed with my
own gun over six thousand head of game-birds.
They included pinnated grouse, brant, geese, ducks,
cranes, golden plover and curlew, snipe, and a few
sand-snipe. The largest number were golden plo-
ver and curlew, and the next on the list was snipe.
GOLDEN PLOVKR, CURLEW, GRAY PLOVER. 161
On that occasion, in one afternoon, I killed sev-
enty-nine, ducks, brant, and Canada geese; and
Phillips made a good bag the same day. It
sometimes falls out so that waterfowl or other
birds of pursuit are so numerous and act in such
a way that a very large number may be killed.
These occasions do not happen, however, very
often.
After the golden plover and curlew have re-
mained with us some time in the spring, they are
no longer seen in large flocks, but are found
scattered and distributed over the country in
small companies numbering from three or four to
twelve. Early in the morning these companies
are found on the bare pastures. By eight or
nine in the morning they will have gone to the
arable land, and are following the plough in the
furrow. After they have partially dispersed in
this manner they fly very fast, and then they are
exceedingly good practice for the skilful shooter.
The man who can make nearly certain of his
single plover, flying swift, as they do, after the
large flocks have broken up and scattered, is a
good man at any kind of shooting. I prefer it
to any other kind of practice. Before shooting
against Abraham Kleinman for the championship
1G2 FIELD SHOOTING.
badge of the United States, at one hundred
pigeons each, I took two weeks' practice at plo-
ver. They were then scattered, and 1 shot at none
but single birds. The practice was of much ser-
vice, as the plover flew very swift and did not
present a large mark. From what I could do
with them in the field I was satisfied I should
win the match, and it so turned out. I killed
the whole of the hundred pigeons in the match ;
ninety-three of them were scored to me, and the
other seven fell dead out of bounds. From the
time the great flocks of plover scatter, which is
sometimes as early as the twentieth of April,
practice at single, fast-flying birds, such as I have
mentioned, may be had until they go north to
their breeding-grounds in the higher latitudes.
We now come to the upland or highland,
grass, gray, or whistling plover, which, according
to scientific naturalists, is no plover at all, strictly
epeaking, but a bird of similar habits and ap-
pearance, called Bartram's tatler. As it is known
among sportsmen as a plover only, I shall call
it one. This bird is a little larger than the
golden plover, and a little longer in the leg; it
is also more upright and has a longer neck than
the other. Its color is gray. It is a very
GOLDEN PLOVER, CURLEW, GRAY PLOVER. 103
handsome bird, and neither the woods, the fields,
nor the waters of the American continent supply
a more delicious repast than is afforded by a
dish of these rich and delicate birds. They
winter upon the great plains of Mexico and
Texas, upon both banks of the Rio Grande, and
are in large numbers, though not so numerous
as the golden plover and curlew. The upland
plover is the last of the spring migrants from the
south, and when it is seen with us we may
safely predict that there will be no more cold
weather. Its arrival in the prairie States is
generally ten days later than that of the first
of the united flocks of golden plover and cur-
lew. While it lingers longer in the south than
they, there is a corresponding difference in the
limits of its visits to the north. They go on
to higher latitudes to breed, after having stayed
about a month with us. The upland plover
breeds with us, though many, no doubt, go far
north of Illinois to do so. Indeed, it is found
in the summer in Minnesota, and Manitoba, in the
British Territory. The upland plover makes a soft,
whistling noise when put up, reminding one of Burns's
" Full-toned plover gray,
Wild whistliug o'er the hill."
164; FIELD SHOOTING.
It is a dodging, cunning bird, but, when it
first arrives in the latter part of April, it is
very tame and very easily shot. I never shoot it
at that season, and no one ought to do so; for
the birds are ready to pair as soon as they
reach their breeding-grounds on our prairies. It
builds in the grass of the prairie pastures, on
the ground, its nest being made of dead grass, and
commonly under a tussock. The eggs are a pale,
bluish green, freckled with brown, and I do not
think the hen usually lays more than three. I
have a sort of remembrance that I have seen nests
with four eggs in them, but I made no notes of
them at the time, and am not quite certain. The
young birds grow fast, and get fat on abun-
dance of grasshoppers and other insects which
swarm in the hot months with us. About the
first of September the upland plover, young and
old, are fine, plump birds, and are far more diffi-
cult to shoot than the breeding-birds were when
they reached the Western States in the spring.
In the fall they are wild and wary, full of craft
and cunning, and hardly to be approached by a
man on foot, especially if he has a gun.
Almost the only way to get near enough to them
to shoot is by means of a horse and buggy.
GOLDEN PLOVER, CURLEW, GRAY PLOVER. 105
They are to be found in scattered groups, we
may say thin flocks, on pastures and meadows
that have been mowed. The upland plover in its
flight takes much more open order than the
golden plover and cvcrlew, though still keeping a
sort of companionship, and it does not settle in
clusters, as is the habit of those birds. They
run, scattering about over the pastures and mea-
dows, catching grasshoppers and such like insects,
and, when put up, they fly off swift, in open or-
der, well spread out. The sportsman who is
after them with the horse and buggy must pursue
the same tactics as those mentioned in reference to
shooting golden plover and curlew in the spring.
The horse must go fast, and the man must shoot
the moment he stops. I never try to step to
the ground, but shoot from the buggy. It is
best to have a companion when after these wild
and vrarj birds. While one men lies down in a
selected spot, the other drives round to the far
side of the birds, and gets his shot if he can.
Whether he does or not, the plover will be apt
to fly over the man lying down. This is tho
only system which promises any success for men
who are after upland plover on foot in the fall
of the year. It is of no use chasing after them
166 FIELD SHOOTING.
over the meadows and pastures, in hopes to get
near enough for a shot.
Sand-snipe and grass snipe (so-called in the
West) are not snipe, but some sorts of tatlers
or sand-pipers. They resemble the plover, but
are smaller, being only about the size of a true
snipe. The sand-snipe has a whitish breast ; the
grass-snipe is a gray bird. They come about the
same time as golden plover and curlew, and in
pretty large flocks. In dry seasons these flocks
appear to unite, two or three making but one,
and then they are in very large numbers together.
They are nice, plump birds, as good to eat as
plover, and easy to get at. However, good as they
are, few people shoot them, and it is easy enough
to get within range of a flock of them. They
frequent marshy ground, such as the true snipe
likes. Unlike the latter, however, they fly in
flocks, and settle down, clustered together, on the
muddy edges of sloughs and little water-holes,
which they see while crossing the prairie on the
wing. Once, when I was out shooting golden plo-
ver and curlew, 1 saw a great flock of these
smaller birds in a marshy spot near a little pond.
1 thought they were plover, but as I neared them
the flock rose, and then 1 saw it was a vast col-
GOLDEN PLOVER, CUKLEW, GKAY PLOVER. 167
lection of sand-snipe. It was a dry season, and,
as is then their wont, they had gathered into great
flocks. They flew around, and finally settled again.
I do not usually trouble myself with this bird,
for nobody seems to care about it, although it is
as good eating as the snipe itself, for all the long
bill of the latter ; but as I had come down to
them, 1 concluded to take a crack at the flock.
It was certainly as much as five hundred in num-
ber. So I let fly with one barrel charged with
No. 10, and,, making a raking shot over the gromid,
killed fifty-four. If game were scarce with us, as
it is in some parts, sand-snipe and grass-snipe
would be held in esteem.
CHAPTEE X.
WILD DUCKS AND WESTERN DUCK-SHOOTING.
The best of the ducks which are found in the
Western States are Canvas-backs, Redheads, Mal-
lards, Pintails, Blue-beils, Blue and Green winged
Teal, Widgeon, and Black Ducks. There are also
Wood-ducks, which, though most beautiful in plu-
mage, are not very fine on the table. " Some are,
however, shot for the sake of their feathers, which
are exported to England, where the brilliant hues
of part of their plumage are used in the manu-
facture of artificial flies for salmon and trout fish-
ing. And besides the species mentioned above,
there are two or three ducks of other sorts, which,
being scarce and comparatively worthless, are of
no account to the sportsman, aaid need not be
further alluded to in this work. The wood-duck
breeds in Illinois and the other Western States
along the rrvers ami creeks, and always in or on
the edge of timber. It is rather numerous along^
the Sangamon and the shores of Salt Creek. They
make their nests in hollows of trees, and are the
16»
WILD DUCKS AND WESTERN DUCK-SHOOTING. 169
only kind of ducks which, to my knowledge, ever
alight in trees. It is very beautiful, having gor-
geous plumage, with a topknot on the head. The
female hatches from eight to twelve young in a
brood, and carries them off one by one to the
water. The wood-duck is short, small, and stout,
weighing about a pound and a half, and is not
much prized for the table. It is very swift in
flight, and can go through timber like a wild pigeon
or a ruffed grouse.
Of the ducks to be found with us, the most
numerous, and perhaps the best, is the mallard.
I consider it quite equal to the canvas-back in
juiciness and flavor, and also to the redhead or
pochard. Jt is true that so much has been writ-
ten and said about the unrivalled excellence of the
canvas-back that it may seem heretical to main-
tain that the mallard is as good. Such, however,
is my own conviction; and though some say that
the canvas-backs of the West have not the pecu-
liar flavor of those procured on the sea-coast in
shallow waters, others, whose experience of them
in both localities is large, say this is an error,
arising from prejudice and imagination. The edi-
tor of this work states some facts which r^o to
fortify juc in my opinion. He says that when
170 FIELD SHOOTING.
Senator Pugh was in Washington, representing the
State of Ohio, this question of the superiority of
the canvas-backs of the East over those which
had fed and got fat on the wild rice and wild
celery of the West was mooted at a supper in
which canvas-backs were the chief dish. All those
practically unacquainted with the Western ducks
laughed at the notion that they could compare in
excellence with those of Maryland. Mr. Pugh was
rather deaf, as he always has been, but he seems
to have heard the observations in question, though
he did not contradict them then. He wrote,
however, to a friend of his, then collector at San-
dusky, on the shallow bay of that name in Lake
Erie, a noted resort for Western wild fowl, re-
questing him to send to Washington a few couple
of fat canvas-backs. In due time they arrived,
and the gentlemen of the party who had met
before were invited by the senator to supper.
He had procured some fine canvas-backs from
Baltimore, and he took good care his guests
should know it. But before the ducks were cooked
those from Ohio were substituted for those of
the Patapsco. They were served up, eaten with
great relish, and the usual pagans of praise, and
not a man at the ta])le except Senator Pugh
WILD DUCKS AND WESTERN DUCK-SHOOTING. ]71
knew that they had feasted on Western ducks
until told so the next day. Even then they were
hardly convinced. Another matter in this connec-
tion is that the very able and w-ell-informed
author, Dr. Sharpless, of Philadelphia, stated that
he could never distinguish much difTerence in
flavor between canvas-backs and redheads, and
that many of the latter were sold as canvas-backs
and eaten as such by those who professed to know
all about the divine flavor. The editor of this
work has often received canvas-back ducks from
Mr. Saliagnac, of Philadelphia, who rents shootings
on the coast. The canvas-backs sent to him by
that gentleman were in truth very excellent, but
neither he nor any one else who partook of them
thought them superior to some mallards which had
been killed in a wheat-stubble in Iowa, and were
sent on as a present by Mr. James Bruce, of
Keokuk, now of St. Louis, Missouri. Moreover,
Mr. Saliagnac himself, great sportsman and en-
thusiastic admirer of canvas-backs as he is, told
the editor that his breed of tame ducks, the
large, white upland M'uscovy, were just about as
fine eating as canvas-backs when fattened and killed
at the right time, and cooked in the same way.
Of course all this will be hooted at by those
172 KIKLD SHOOTING.
who have made the "wonderful, exquisite, unparal-
leled excellence of the canvas-back a matter of
superstition. It is indeed as excellent as any
duck, and for luscious richness the ducks at least
equal any other description of bird. The canvas-
back is a great deal better in proportion to the
praises heaped upon it than the brook-trout is ;
for vrhatever sport they may give to the angler,
the "speckled beauties" are nothing like as good
to eat as many other fish not thought much of.
Fashion, however, goes a great way in these mat-
ters, and few are as candid as the Irishman, who,
having gone some distance in a sedan-chair with-
out a seat, replied, in answer to the question
how he liked it :
" Faith, but for the name of the thing I might
as well have walked ! "
The mallards winter in the south for the most
part, though a few remain on the Sangamon all
the cold season, unless the weather is very in-
tense and the frost so long continued and rigid
as to freeze up all the springy pools of that
river. When they come north in the spring, a
few remain with us and make their nests in the
Winnebago Swamp and the bottoms of the San-
gamon River and Salt Creek. But the vast ma-
WILD DUCKS AND WESTERN DUCK-SHOOTING. 173
jority, after remaining with us some time, go
still further north to breed and rear their young.
Their northern limit is in a very high latitude.
The mallard is the most beautiful of all ducks,
except the wood-duck, and naturalists are agreed
that the common breeds of domesticated ducks
have sprung from the former. It crosses readily
enough with tame ducks, to my knowledge, and
the produce of the cross are prolific, though wild
and apt to go away with the wild mallards in
the fall. The mallards with us make their
nests about the middle of April in an average
season. When out snipe-shooting about the 1st
of May, I have found mallards' nests already
containing seven or eight eggs. The nests are
built near the water in some secluded marsh or
lonely swamp, on tussocks of grass near the edges
of sloughs, and in wet river-bottoms. And some-
times I have found the nest of the mallard on the
margin of a pond in the prairie or the pasture
fields. The nest is nicely made of dry grass
and sedge, and by the time the female is ready
to sit it is lined with soft, loose feathers, just
as the nest of the tame duck is. The eggs are
from twelve to sixteen in number, in color of
a greenish blue cast, and very much like those
174 FIELD SHOOTING.
of the tame ducks which lay greenish blue eggs.
The eggs of some sorts of tame ducks are a
shining white, as if glazed. The broods of young
mallards, the flappers, are first seen about the
10th of June. There are commonly from eight to
twelve in a brood. The little things are active
and cunning from the first. If they are pursued,
they dart swiftly under water, and, swimming
beneath to the bank, just put their bills above
the surface and lie quiet. When they are some-
what bigger, they go out upon the margins of
the streams and ponds, and hide in the grass.
About the middle of October the young mal-
lards are full grown and well feathered so as to
be able to fly fast and far. The drake is a
little larger than the duck, and a large one will
weigh nearly three pounds. Widgeon and the
two kinds of teal also breed with us to some
extent, but their nests are seldom found. In the
Winnebago Swamp there are a few nests of the
broadbill or spoonbill. The pintail does not breed
with us, and 1 believe not on this side of the
arctic regions.
If the winter is broken, the ducks begin to
arrive from the south by the middle of Feb-
ruary, and in an early spring they are found in
WILD DUCKS AND WESTERN DUCK-SIIOOTING. 175
thousands by the 1st of March. When they first
come to the prairie States in the spring, they
are in poor condition, but after feeding about tho
corn-fields a short time they become plump and
fat. Ducks, wild and tame alike, are great feed-
ers, and will be found eating in the evening
long after other birds have gone to roost. The
mallards and pintails fly from their roosting-
places on the water to the fields at early morn-
ing, and on wet, cloudy days remain in the
corn-fields all day. They are so numerous that
the fields appear at such times to have ducks
scattered all over them. On clear days they do
not remain in the fields on the feed all day,
but return to their haunts on the water about
nine or ten o'clock. In the afternoon they fly
to the corn-fields again about three or four o'clock,
when they first come from the south ; but after
being with us some time their evening flight to
the fields is not made till sundown, and some-
times not till it is nearly dark. The mallards are
then paired off, but not so the pintails. When
not in the corn-fields, both kinds are about rivers
and ponds.
The blue-winged teal and the green-winged,
with the widgeon, use more about sloughs and
176 FIELD SHOOTING,
streams. They do not come into the corn-fields
much, and are shot along rivers and creeks.
I have, however, seen these small ducks flying to
the corn-fields when it was nearly dark. At times,
when ponds in corn-fields are enlarged by rains,
and the low places in the fields are overflowed,
many teal resort to them. From such places, at
break of day, I have often put up hundreds of
teal and hundreds of other kinds of ducks. A
great many teal and. small ducks, such as blue-
bills, are shot on the Calumet River, and Abe
Kleinman gets his full share of them. Mallards,
canvas-backs, and red-heads are sometimes shot
there too, but the smaller ducks are those which
commonly prevail. The spring ducks remain with
us from four to five weeks, but after the great
multitudes have gone north some straggling
parties still remain. Mallards pair by the middle
of March, and the teal next. The other kinds
of ducks are later, and 1 do not think they have
paired up to the time of their leaving our lati-
tudes for the higher ones in which they breed
in most cases.
About the last of September the ducks begin
to arrive from their breeding-grounds in the far
north. Some are seen before that time, but they
WILD DUCKS AND WESTERN DUCK-SHOOTING. 1T7
are those which have stopped with us to breed,
and the broods they have produced. There is no
great abundance from the arrivals until pretty
sharp frosts have set in, which is generally about
the middle of October, but some seasons not till
later. Still the main body seems to hold off,
and it is not until cold weather has set in
fairly that the ducks come in vast numbers. Then
they may be heard all night flying to the south-
ward in large flocks, and a great many alight
and tarry by the way. Sometimes the whole
country appears to swarm with them. In places
on the prairies and the great pastures where
corn in the ear is dumped down by wagon-
loads to feed bullocks, I have seen acres
thickly covered with Canada geese, brant geese,
mallards, and pintails. As a rule, shooting is not
allowed in such places, because it scares the
cattle ; but the owners and herdsmen have somcr
times shifted their droves to another place, in
order to give me a chance to shoot the wild
fowl congregated thereabouts. Then I have had
grand spots.
The fall ducks remain until the country is
mostly frozen up ; and in an open fall they ares
with us in large numbers until nearly Christmas.
178 FIELD SHOOTING.
Some mallards stay on the Sangamon all the
winter, unless the season happens to be particu-
larly severe and the cold very steady and in-
tense. When the fall ducks arrive, they are in
fine condition, having fed on the wild rice of
the nprth, and the young mallards are delicious
eating at that time. I know of nothing better,
and of hardly anything else as good.
Duck-shooting is often rough, wet work.
About the rivers and sloughs it is necessary to
be more or less in the water, unless the shooter
has a boat ; besides which, the ducks secured are
necessarily wet and draggled. Shooting ducks in
the corn-fields, as they come to feed, is differ-
ent. The shooter can usually manage to keep
tolerably dry, and the ducks shot -fall on the
ground instead of in the water. But even then
it requires considerable fortitude and much skill
and patience. People who want to sit by the
fire on cold, wet days, when the wind blows
strong and keen, are not cut out for duck-
shooters. When I go out for duck-shooting on
their feeding-grounds, I first ascertain by observa-
tion the fields they are flying to and from, and
the places they cross the bounds at. Ducks are
like sheep in some respects. Where one flock flies
WILD DUCKS AND WESTERN DUCK-SHOOTING. 179
the others follow, keeping the same general route,
unless they see something to make them swerve
from it. 1 then select the best spot I can find to
lie down in — that is, the one most screened from ob-
servation and beneath the line of flight. A rub-
ber blanlcet being spread, down I go on my back, in
clothes the color of the grass or ground I lie on.
This is an essential point. It is useless to expect
the ducks to continue their flight over an object
in dark clothes lying upon faded grass, or over a
man in light clothes lying upon black ground. My
shooting suit is corduroy, with a cap of the same ;
and as it is about the color of the grass, corn-
stalks, and weeds Aate in the fall, it answers very
well. If the shooter has no corduroy clothes, let
him wear a linen duster over his dark clothes.
The latter may do very well for a patch of black
ground in a corn-field, or a dark ground at a
orossing-place ; but usually corduroy can be made
to suit anywhere by a little care in selection,
because dead grass and weeds nearly everywhere
prevail. A man in dark clothes by a pond in
the prairie would not get a duck in a day, no
matter how numerous they might be in the
neighboihood. Uucks are wary birds and very
fer-si'ihied. But some men seem to believe that
180 FIELD SHOOTING.
the ducks are as foolish and as thoughtless as
themselves. They post themselves in places
where the color of their clothes is in strong
contrast with everything else around ; and when
the ducks sheer off wide as soon as they see
them, the shooters in question blaze away out of
distance, and never touch a feather. I have been
out with men under circumstances in which they
said that the ducks all came to me as if they
knew me. The simple cause of it was that I
lay down in a suit of corduroy, and they were
stretched out in clothes black enough for a
funeral. If a man going to shoot ducks on the
prairie, by the ponds and sloughs, has no corduroy
clothes and no duster, let him go to the grocery-
store and get a coffee-sack or two to make a
smock. That material is just the right color.
In regard to corn-fields, it must be noted that
the ducks appear to frequent those most in v/hich
the stalks are broken down. In these no blind
can be made. If one is made, the ducks will not
come near it. The shooter must be down on his
back, his feet towards the quarter from which the
ducks are coming, and wait until they get ov«r
him. In a field where the corn-stalks are still
standing a thin blind may be made of them, but
WILD DUCKS AND WESTERN DUCK-SHOOTING. 181
more ducks, other things being equal, will be
killed in the broken-down corn without a blind
than in the other with one. When the shooter sees
the ducks coming, he must not mOve himself, nor
must he move his gun, which young beginners
always have a strong inclination to do. If the
man moves, the ducks approaching in the air see
his movement. If the gun is moved, they catch
the glance of the light upon it in time to sheer
off and balk the idle discharge of the too im-
patient shooter. When the ducks are seen com-
ing, the man on the ground should lie quite still
until they are over him, or almost over him. He
should then rise quickly to a sitting posture, at
which they will check their forward flight, and
tower up into the air. That is the right time to
shoot — I may say the only time, in this descrip-
tion of the sport, in which there is a real good
chance of killing. He who is trying for ducks
in this way must not expect to be able to get on
his feet to shoot. If he tries to do so, he will
kill no ducks. He who cannot rise to a sitting
posture from his back and shoot that way must
wait for the ducks on his hands and knees, and
shoot kneeling. It does not much matter which
of these modes is adopted — although lying on the
182 FIELD SHOOTING.
back is the best of the two — but it is essential
that the shooter should make no move until the
ducks are nearly over him. It is also abso-
lutely necessary that his clothes should be of the
color of the ground he lies on, for otherwise the
ducks never will be over him. 1 have killed many
thousands, and consider these to be the great
points upon which the sport depends. When
there is snow on the ground, the overdress of the
shooter should be white, or nearly white, and a
white handkerchief should be tied over his cap.
At times when there is snow on the ground the
ducks resort largely to the corn-fields, and the
sport in them at such times is usually very good,
provided the shooters carry it on in the right
way.
CHAPTER XL
DUCKS AND WE8TEKN DUCK-SHOOTING.
In the spring of the year, after the ducks hare
come from their wintering-places, there is often
some very cold weather, and, though all but the
running streams are frozen over, the wild fowl
never go back again, if they can possibly avoid it.
Their instinct is very strong against turning to
the southward at that season of the year. At
such times, and at any other times, when the ice
is thick, a good blind may be built of it near the
open water, and much sport may be had. The
shooter must of course expect to be cold, and he
will be very cold while waiting for ducks in hard
weather, especially when he waits a long time in
vain. But the coming in of the ducks in good
flights raises the spirits, stimulates the circulation
of the blood, and revives the warmth of the body.
I have sometimes got so cold that I could hardly
charge my muzzle-loading gun; but good sport
soon changed that. The shooting along the Illi-
183
184 FIELD SHOOTING.
nois River is very good indeed, and there are more
canvas-backs and red-heads there than there are
about the Sangamon or in the neighborhood of
Elkhart; but my favorite among ducks, whether
for sport or the table, is the plump, heavy, beauti-
ful mallard.
As ■ I remarked before in alluding to the color
of the duck-shooter's clothes, ducks know a good
deal more than some of the men who go after
them. You may see some of the latter select
for their shooting-place a corn-field in which the
stalks are all broken down, and there they go
to work and build a standing blind of the stalks.
" In vain is the net of the fowler spread in
sight of the bird." The ducks have probably
flown over that field dozens of times, and notic-
ing this blind — a thing there new and strange —
they sheer ofi" from it instead of flying on to
go over it or near it, and the man inside of it
gets no shots within killing distance. When I
see that a man has built a blind in such a
place, I just take advantage of his ignorance and
folly by going and lying down some hundred
and fifty or two hundred yards on one side of
it. All the ducks that sheer off" from it on that'
side I get a shot at. In this way I have oft«n
DUCKS AND WESTERN DUCK-SHOOTING. 185
killed twenty or thirty, while the man in the
blind never got a duck. Sometimes the man in
the blind seeing this would make shots out of
all distance, more for the purpose of scaring the
ducks from me than with any hope of bringing
them down himself. When that has been the
case, I have left him to his own devices, and
gone to another part of the field altogether. It is
necessary to remark for the information of Eastern
readers that the corn-fields of Illinois are commonly
very large, and not like the small enclosures of
the Atlantic States. The former sometimes con-
tain as much as a thousand acres without any
intervening fence. Production on this great scale
tends to keep game plentiful in two or three
ways. The farm-houses are far apart, which is
one thing. As long as the corn-stalks are stand-
ing green these fields afford capital cover for
pinnated grouse and quail, as remarked hereto-
fore. Another thing is that they aflTord abundance
of food for grouse, quail, turkeys, geese, ducks,
etc. Some parts of the summer the birds get a
plentiful supply of insects in the com. In the
fall of the year and winter, and in the following
spring, the grouse, geese, and ducks feed largely
on the corn itself, there being always some scat-
186 FIELD SHOOTING.
tered about, even in the fields from which the
ears have been hauled off'.
Duck-shooting in the corn-fields in the fall is
fine, pleasant sport. At that season many of
the stalks are still standing, and plenty of places
may be found to hide. Besides, the ducks are
not then very wild, and the majority of them
are young birds which, not having been shot at
a great deal, are not as wary as the old stagers,
who remember the shooting on their passage
north in the spring. An excellent place at this
time of the year is on the windward side of
an Osage orange hedge, near where they cross
on their way to feed. When the wind is blow-
ing against them, ducks fly low. With the wind
nearly dead ahead of them, the shooter on the
windward side of the hedge will get plenty of
shots at low-flying ducks as they come over, and
need not take the trouble to lie down in the
corn at those times. Rainy, misty, windy wea-
ther is the best of weather for this method. On
such days the ducks are flying low and going
into and out of the corn-fields all day. In clear
weather they fly' higher, but still low in their
evening flights, coming out to feed. Sometimes
the flocks will be seen high in the air, as it
DUCKS AND WESTERN DUCK-SHOOTING. 187
setting out on a long migratory flight; but com-
ing over a corn-field, they will sail around, shut
their wings, and come sloping to the ground.
Ducks generally sweep round in a circle before
settling down. A pond or little slough in a
corn-field is a capital place to lie for ducks.
The shooter must lie down on the bank, as in
other places. I have killed from three to four
dozen ducks in an evening's shooting in a corn-
field, and that often.
One thing I have noticed which will bo of great
importance to beginners in duck-shooting. It is that
they always seem to be nearer than they really are
when in flight. Allowance must be made by the
shooter for this deceptiveness of appearance as to
distance. When 1 have killed a duck, I have often
been surprised to find how far it fell from me.
One that seemed to be but thirty yards off would
turn out to be forty-five. It was not the momen-
tum of flight after being hit that could account for
this, as such ducks had commonly stopped in their
forward progress, and were towering up when shot
at. Ducks also seem to be lower than they
really arc when seen in flight, and this is especi-
ally the case in some sorts of weathc^r. In some
states of the atmosphere they will seem to be
188 FIELD SHOOTING.
much nearer than at other times when the dis*-
tance is actually the same. In nine eases out of
ten, when a man shoots at ducks flying over him,
they are higher in the air than he believes them
to be. 1 have often seen men fire at ducks
which were so high and so far off that the
flock would not change its direction at the re-
port, and just kept on, seemingly looking down
contemptuously on the foolish shooter. In the
spring of the year and late in fall, when the
ducks are heavily feathered, a side shot is best
for penetration, as it may take effect under the
wing. When shooting from a blind, it is best to
let the ducks pass a little before firing. When
the shooter is lying on the ground, the turn
made by the ducks as they tower up gives better
chance of penetration ; but the grand secret of
penetration is a hard-hitting gun of good weight
and calibre, and plenty of powder.
In the prairies there are many ponds and
sloughs, and the waters are generally well up in
them when the prime of the time for shooting
ducks comes in the spring and fall. At such
places it is advisable to use decoys, and with
these well set out a man may shoot on and off
all day when the ducks are flying about. Wooden
DOCKS AND WESTERN DUCK-SHOOTING. 189
decoys, painted to represent ducks, are used by
many people, but I prefer something different,
more natural than the joiner and painter can turn
out. I have killed hundreds of dozens of ducks
shooting over decoys, and the best I ever used
were tame ducks ot the color of the mallard.
Three of these, a drake and two ducks, I used
to fit with a piece of leather on the leg, and a
string five or six yards long for each. I then
staked them out in shallow water, so that they
could not come nearer than four or five feet of
the bank, and lay down. They were, in my
opinion, much better than any dead decoy, whe-
ther duck or wood. After being used as decoys
for some time these ducks seemed to under-
stand what was required of them, and to enter
into the business with interest. They would swim
about and play, and I had one pair that would
call to the wild mallards when they saw them
goin^ over.
The next best thing to these tame live decoys
for the waters of which I am writing is the
dead mallard itself. As soon as I got a couple,
when not employing the tame ducks, I put them
out, and sometimes I have had as many as fif-
teen dead ducks out as decoys together. Sue-
190 FIELD SHOOTING.
cess greatly depends upon the way in which Ihey
are set out"; though set out in the most artful
and natural manner, they are not as effectual as
tame ducks of the mallard color, because these
last swim about, and the ducks flying above see
them in motion. I have sometimes killed as
many as seventy or eighty ducks in a day's
shooting with decoys of dead ducks. My method
of setting them out was as follows : Having
killed the duck and got him on the bank, take
a stick, or, on the prairie where there are no
sticks, a reed, or the stalk of a strong weed,
w^hich is there big and stiff*. Shai'pen one end to
a point, which insert under the skin of the duck's
breast and along up the neck, just beneath the
skin, into the head. Do this so that the head
holds a natural position to the body, and the
neck is not awry. Then wade out and plant the
other end of the stick in the mud over which
there is a foot of water or a little more. The
body of the duck must then rest on the water,
as that of a live duck does, and, after having
smoothed the feathers nicely, the shooter returns
to his lying-down place on the bank. It is best
to keep on setting these dead decoys until you
have seven or eight out ; and if you largely in-
DUCKS AND WESTERN DUCK-SHOOTING. 191
urease the number, it will be simply all the bet-
ter. I make no blind by the pond or slough, but
lie on the grass, unless there is brush or a
growth of willow to hide in. Neither do I ever
M'ait for the ducks to settle, but shoot while they
are still on the wing. One day at Skunk's Island,
in the great Winnebago Swamp, I killed a hun-
dred and thirty ducks over dead-duck decoys set
out after the plan I have described, and in that
day's shooting I never hid at all. I sat on a
muskrat-house all the time, sometimes, however,
lying down. It made no difference whether I lay
or sat, for the ducks were flying thick, and in the
humor to " come and be killed," as the old song
has it, which says :
" Old Mother Bond got up in a rage,
Her pockets full of onions, her lap full of sage ;
And she went to the pond, did old Mother Bond,
Crying, ' Dill, dill, dill ! dill, dill, dill !
Come and be killed !
The guests are all met, their bellies must be flUed.' "
On the occasion to which I have alluded I was
out of ammunition before night. It was late in
the fall, when large flocks fly, and two or three
ducks may sometimes be killed by one barrel.
192 FIELD SHOOTING.
The place called the Inlet, at the east end of tho
swamp, some miles from Skunk's Island, is famouy
ground foi' ducks. The Winnebago Swamp is
very extensive. What is called the Outlet runs
into Green River, all along which stream there
is very good duck-shooting. In the big pastures,
which are sometimes four or five miles long and
one or two miles wide, there are often ponds at
which the bullocks being fatted for market drink.
At these ponds great shooting over decoys is often
to be had. On Mr. Sullivant's great farm in Ford
County there are many ponds and many extensive
corn-fields, and 1 found last spring that the shoot-
ing of geese, ducks, and crane there was very good
— so good that I mentally resolved to go there
again next season. In two days' shooting, morn-
ings and evenings, not over decoys, but as the
wild fowl came to and went out of the corn-fields,
I killed sixty-five mallards and pintails, mostly
mallards, five brant geese, twenty sand-hill crane,
and three large white crane. Yet I was told that
the ducks and brant had mostly all gone north
before 1 was there, and that they had been much
more abundant than they were in the two days
1 shot. Mr. Sullivant's foreman saw my ducks
and cranes at the station, and made his remarks
DUCKS AND WESTERN DUCK-SHOOTING. 193
to this effect : " They said that as you were a
pigeon-shooter, you would not be successful in the
field. I have, however, seen no such lot as that
at any time this season, and yet the ducks are
now scarce to what they have been."
This farm of Mr. Michael Sullivant's is the
largest in Illinois, I think, and I am convinced
that it is one of the best neighborhoods in the
State for game. From what I saw, pinnated grouse
abound, there are lots of quail, and in the mi-
gratory seasons great flocks cf ducks, geese, brant,
and cranes. The estate was purchased by Mr.
Sullivant some years ago, when it was mostly un-
broken prairie. It is eight miles square, contains
about forty-four thousand acres, and twenty-six
thousand acres of it have already been brought
under cultivation. Twenty thousand acres of it
were in corn last year, and I dare say more will
be this year, while three thousand acres were in
smaller grain, and three thousand in meadow-grass.
Mr. Sullivant, the owner and farmer of this ex-
tensive and fertile tract, was formerly the largest
landowner in Franklin County, Ohio, and very
likely is so still. His father was one of the first
settlers near Columbus, the capital of Ohio; in
fact, he lived just west of the Scioto River, ojv
194 * FIELD SHOQTIITO.
posite where the State House now stands, before
there was a house in Columbus at all ; and his
younger sons, Joseph and William, still reside in
that city. The Illinois proprietor is the eldest
son of the old pioneer. The family is famous for
culture, enterprise, and the uncommon personal
beauty of its members. They are a tall, power-
ful, handsome race ; and probably in all the vast
regions of the West not a tribe excels this family,
in all its branches, in stature, symmetry, strength,
and beauty. Upon this Illinois farm there are
three hundred miles of Osage orange hedges, which
are yet young. Let the sportsmen remember what
has been said of the hedges as affording nesting-
places for game-birds, protection against hawks,
and facilities for shooters, and they may conceive
what these three hundred miles of hedges will do
when they have grown tall and thick. Now to
come back to the ducks.
On the' large streams, such as the Mississippi
and Illinois rivers, it is commonly necessary for
the duck-shooter to use a boat, and it is hardly
practicable to use any but decoys of wood, painted
to represent the sort of ducks expected. Upon
these rivers I have killed canvas-backs, red-heads,
mallards, and some few black or dusky ducks.
DUCKS AND WESTERN DUCK-SHOOTING. 195
I have not been out much on these large rivers,
however, but have shot more in the corn-fields,
on the sloughs and ponds about the prairies, in
and about the Great Winnebago Swamp, and on
the Sangamon and Salt Creek. Sometimes when
a man is out after other sorts of shooting, espe-
cially snipe, he will find that the ducks are in
such numbers, and flying in such a way, that
he may abandon his intended pursuit, and turn
his attention to them. His shot will be smaller
on such occasions than he would have chosen
for ducks ; but with plenty of powder to drive
them at high velocities, he will get penetration,
and bring the wild fowl down. Once upon Salt
Creek, near where it falls into the Sangamon, I
was out after snipe, and noticed that the mallards
were flying in such a way as to afford a fine
chance. 1 had nothing but No. 9 shot, but de-
termined to try what could be done. This was
in 1868. The edge of the creek was well timbered,
and, choosing my post, I seated myself on a log
among the trees and brush. There was a light
snow on the bottoms some three inches deep,
and the snipe had to get near the margins of
the streams to feed. I could have killed a good
hag of them, but the ducks offered a chance
196 FIELD SHOOTING.
much too tempting to be neglected. I could not
forego the opportunity, and sitting upon that log,
and shooting as they flew until all my ammuni-
tion was expended, I killed and secured ninety-
five mallards. Some few, which fell on the other
side of the creek, I did not get. With plenty
of cartridges and a breech-loader I believe 1
could have killed two hundred ducks. They
were all mallards. The date was April 7.
Most of the mallards flew in pairs, and their
route was towards the north. I have no doubt
they were beginning their migratory flight from
our neighborhood to the high latitudes.
In hard, severe weather, when the wind is
strong and keen- cutting, it is to be noted that
ducks and other water-fowl are apt to seek the
protection of the timber. At such times they will
be found in creeks whose banks are well wooded,
and about ponds m the timber. In these places
the shooter need not go to the trouble of build-
ing a blind. There are in such situations so
many old logs, stumps, etc., that if he sits down
in clothes of the proper color, the ducks will
not make him out in time to change the di-
rection of their course in flight. Thus on the
great day at Skunk's Island, in the Winnebago
DUCKS AND WESTERN DUCK-SHOOTING. 197
Swamp, and on that of Salt Creek, I had no
blind, and did not hide myself in any particular
manner. In the first case I sat on a muskrat
house all the time ; in the second I was seated
on an old log while all the shooting was done.
It is, however, necessary that the shooter should
keep still ; for the ducks will see any movement
a long way off, and they know that stumps of
trees and the like do not move. In cold
weather, when the ducks seek the timber for
shelter, they fly very fast ; he who can kill
three out of every four shots he makes is a
good marksman, and will have all the ducks he
will want to carry far on his back.
CHAPTER XII
WILD GEESE, CRANES, ANU- flWANri
Among the wild geese to be Qr~.^A in the spring
and fall in the States of tho. great Mississippi
Valley, there are at least two varieties which are
common in the same seasons ui the seaboard of
the Atlantic States. These i«e the Canada goose,
the common wild goose, known almost every-
where, and the brant gooMS, But besides these,
we have in the Western Spates vast numbers of
small geese of other varieti<,s, which we commonly
call Mexican geese. As raany as three of these
differ in their plumage, i,nd, though found in the
same flocks apparently, are no doubt the following :
Hutchinson's Goose, the V%^hite-Fronted Goose, and
the Snow Goose. As R*&ntioned above, they are
only known by Western sportsmen as Mexican
geese. We have, then, five or six varieties of
wild geese in Illinois, I^wa, etc. Of these the
Canada goose is the laigest and finest, and it
used to be much the most numerous. It is a
WILD GEESE, CRANES, AND SWANS, 199
handsome bird, weighing when fat from ten to
fourteen pounds. It winters in the south, and on
its passage towards the north does not stay with
us a great while, though a few remain all the
summer, and I have seen the nest of this goose
in the Winnebago Swamp. Their great breeding-
grounds are far to the north of any of the habi-
tations of white men, or even of Indians. They
have been seen above the latitude of eighty north,
and were even then flying on towards the pole.
In those solitary regions, during the brief arctio
summer, the several kinds of wild geese rear their
young in vast numbers, and, when in the fall they
set out upon their southerly migration, they fly in
innumerable flocks. They usually fly high, and,
though their flight seems to be labored, it is very
swift for so heavy a bird. In foggy weather their
flight is low, and they appear to be confused, as
if uncertain of the proper route. They intermix
freely with tame geese, and the cross is much
esteemed for its size and excellence on the table.
Canada geese are rather easily domesticated, but
even then the instinct of migration northward in
spring is so strong that they get uneasy. Some-
times when not pinioned they rise into the air
and join flocks going over, and sometimes they
200 FIELD 8HO0TINO.
wander off and are shot as wild geese. A cross
of the Canada goose no doubt improves the do-
mestic goose in beauty and flavor, if not in size,
and it is easy to procure it by means of wound-
ed ganders, pinioned and turned down with the
tame geese.
The Canada goose is not so abundant in Illinois
in the migratory seasons as it used to be. When
I first settled in that State, there were vast flocks
of these geese all over the country in the spring
and late in the fall. In the daytime they were
mostly in the sloughs and bottoms, and there they
roosted at night, but they came out mornings and
evenings to feed. They are very fond of corn, and
consume large quantities of it. The reason why
they are now less abundant in Illinois is the thicker
settlement of the country. The main column
of the Canada geese now take a more westerly
route towards the south, crossing Minnesota, Kan-
sas, Nebraska, Iowa, and the country up the Mis-
souri Eiver. But there are a great many in Illi-
aois still at the right times of the year. The
Canada goose comes earliest of all the great
tribes which migrate from the south in the spring,
and, considering that most of them have to fly
over a space covering more than fifty degrees of
WILD GEESE, CRAKES, AND SWANS. 201
latitude before they reach their breeding-places,
it may be supposed they cannot stop very long
with us in their vernal flights. As to the few
which remain all the winter on the Sangamon
River and in other wild places where there may
be open water, they are too insignificant to count
for much. The Canada geese come in their great
flocks in February, with the first freshet or open
weather, and remain till the middle of March, as
a rule, while a few linger along until April comes.
They come before any of the ducks, and they go
on north before them. The Wiimebago Swamp is
a great resort for the wild geese. Formerly they
used to breed there in considerable numbers, but
of late years their nests in that quarter have been
few. They may, however, still be found by those
who penetrate into the marshy recess they choose.
for their breeding-places.
When the wild geese arrive in the spring, they
are commonly lean, but, after having fed on corn
for a little space, they gain flesh and become in
good order. A favorite resort of theirs in the
spring is the great pasture-lands. Upon these
thousands of bullocks havie been fed all winter on
corn in the ear. Bullocks are wastcfid feeders, and
much corn lies shelled around. This the gcesQ
202 FIELD SHOOTING.
pick up and fatten upon. In such places the flocks
alight in the middle of the wide pastures, and are
very hard to get at. Oftentimes the first notice
we have of the arrival of the wild geese is their
hoarse call in the air, as they fly by night. When
great flocks of the various kinds of wild geese are
coming north in spring, or going south at the near
approach of winter, they may be heard calling to
and answering each other nearly all night long.
The Sangamon used to be a capital place for wild
geese, and there is still good shooting there.
The best situation for the shooter is behind a
hedge or in a bunch of weeds at a fence near their
crossing-places as they go to feed. It is best when
they are flying to windward. The wild geese have
regular crossing-places, and these may be easily
ascertained by watching the flights of the flocks.
The shooter must go to his station very early in
the morning, before they begin to fly. They fly
very early, especially if the w^eather is warm and
2)leasant. In cold, windy weather they are later.
Commonly they are on the wing about break of
day, and I have seen them flying when it was still
so near dark that I could hardly tell whether a
flock was Canada geese, brant geese, or the so-
called Mexican geese. When the wild geese come
WILD GEESE, CRANES, AND SWANS. 203
over their crossing-places well in the air, the
shooter must find some means of concealment. If
there is no hedge under which to crouch do\\Ti, he
must lie on the dead grass or in the weeds,
with clothes of the proper color to deceive the
geese and elude the watchful eyes of their leaders.
The weeds are often three feet high and thick, and
in these cover for the shooter may be found. He
must keep quite still until the geese, windward
bound, are right over him. If he does not do so,
his movement will be seen, he will hear the cry
which gave notice to the sleeping Romans of the
stealthy footsteps of the Gauls, and he will find,
whether he shoots or not, that the geese have saved
the Capital. On windy mornings wild geese fly
very low, often not more than fifteen or twenty
feet from the ground. In calm, clear weather they
are much higher. Nothing can be done at the
hedges and fences in such weather, and the shooter
must then go to the corn-fields where they feed.
A field in which the corn is cut up and shocked
affords a promising chance. The shooter may build
a little house of corn-stalks like a shock, in the
row of shocks, and get inside of it. Some men
get behind a corn-shock, but the plan is not a
good one. In circling round the field one of the
204 FIELD SHOOTING.
geese sees him, and the others keep away, sheer
off wide. The little blind made like a shock of
corn is best, but it must be made ready in the
daytime, or in the night season before the geese
have begun to fly. In wet, misty weather the
wild geese remain about the corn-fields all day,
and then from a blind properly made the very
best shooting may be had. I have killed eleven
Canada geese before breakfast in one of Mr.
Gillott's corn-fields, not more than a mile and a
half from Elkhart. I went out to the field on
horseback, and tethered my horse to a fence.
In windy weather the best shooting is at the
crossing-places, and the shooter must choose his
place and method according to the weather. On
the large pastures the best plan is to use a horse
and buggy. The wild geese may be seen sitting
in the pastures and in the prairie when they are
a long way off. The shooter must drive briskly
on, as if he was going past them, on the wind-
ward side, gradually drawing nearer, but never
heading directly towards them. If he does the
latter, the flock will fly, although he may be as
much as two hundred yards from them. When
the shooter is opposite the geese, he pulls up the
horse v/ith one hand, drops the reins, and raises
WILD GEESE, CRANES, AND SWANS. 205
his gun. The geese start to fly, but they cannot
rise down-wind, and, getting up against it, as they
must do, they come towards the gun. Then is
the time to fire ; but beware of miscalculating the
distance. Geese look very large on the prairie. I
have seen men shoot at geese, believing them to
be within killing distance, when they were certainly
not less than two hundred yards away. I have
also seen them fired at in flight when they were
so high in the air that they passed without no-
ticing the shot. Yet a goose may be killed at
a great distance with large shot if it happens to
be hit in a vital part.
I once killed one at a hundred and nineteen yards
with a BB cartridge. The ground was measured,
as I knew it was a very long shot. It was a chance
shot. I had driven on the flock two or three times,
and had been unable to get within distance. I drove
for them again, and, seeing that they were just
going to fly, I pulled up and let go one barrel
just as they rose. Of late years I have killed as
many by driving for them with a smart horse as in
any other way. "When shooting in this method,
I once killed five geese with the two barrels, and
have ofl;en killed from ten to fifteen a day from the
buggy. The greatest number I ever killed in a day
206 FIELD SHOOTING.
was twenty-three. That was in a corn-field where the
corn was in shock, and I shot from such a blind as
I have described above. It was near Elkhart, arid
on one of those wet, misty days in the spring on
which the Canada geese are flying about and feed-
ing all day. I generally use No. 1 shot for geese.
It is quite large enough with plenty of powder to
drive it home. In shooting geese from a blind
the shooter must keep quite still until they are
near enough. When he has killed, he must pick
up the goose and return to his blind.
When young wheat is among the corn-shocks,
the small grain having been sown the previous fall,
it is a favorite resort for wild geese. A live de-
coy— a wild goose that was winged, and which has
been saved for the purpose — may be staked out in
the field, and the geese will come down to it. In
the fields of early spring wheat, where there are no
corn-shocks, there are sometimes many geese. They
eat off the green plants, and the farmers, thinking
them an intolerable nuisance, used to put up scare-
crows, as people do in some parts to keep away
swamp blackbirds and crows from young springing
corn. In such a wheat-field the shooter may dig
a hole, and, smoothing over the ground, get into
it and wait for the geese. If it is too wet for that.
WILD GEESE, CRANES, AND SWANS, 207
he may sink a large barrel or small hogshead, and
from that get very nice shooting. From a barrel
placed in a marsh known to be a good resort for
geese, much shooting may be had all the spring
season, but it must be planted there before the
wild geese have come from the south. It is better
than boat-shooting, and perhaps better than any
other plan, taking the spring season all through.
When a hole is dug in a wheat-field to which the
wild geese have taken, it should be made soon
after their arrival ; and when they get used to it,
much nice shooting may be had there.
But the best shooting at Canada geese, and the
best geese for the table, are in the fall of the year,
when the young geese come on from the far
northern regions in which they have been bred.
Their arrival is not looked for until we have had
some stiff frost, and that is usually about the first
of November. The corn is then just being cut
up, and the fall wheat is well out of the ground.
At first the wild geese go upon the young wheat,
and they eat it off close sometimes. When the
corn has been shocked and left on the fields, they
go into that. The various kinds of wild geese,
ducks, and cranes consume a great deal of corn.
In some wet places I have known them to eat a
208 FIELD SHOOTING.
third of the crop. Later on in the winter the
wild geese do not go into the standing corn, as
wild ducks do. The former are equally wary and
more shy, and they will not go into places where
there seems to be afforded a chance to crawl on
them. In regard to their roosting-places wild
geese are cunning and secretive. They mostly
choose for their sleeping-places large, wet marshes
and the margins of ponds in big bottoms, where
there is open water. When there is ice in the
marshes and on the ponds, they roost on that.
These roosting-places are generally far away from
the settlements, and in places that are almost in-
accessible. A few flocks still roost near the ponds
in the Salt Creek and Sangamon bottoms. These
bottoms are more than a mile wide in some places,
and the bottoms of the Illinois and Mississippi
Rivers are wider still. Crane Lake in Mason
County, a wild, marshy place, is a favorite roost-
ing-place for wild geese.
When a roosting-place has been found, capital
success may be looked for. It can seldom be
found except by watching the flights of wild geese
nights and mornings, having a good knowledge
of the country, and using proper judgment. The
shooter goes to it at sundown, and, lying down in
WILD GEESE, CRANES, AND SWANS. 209
the grass with clothes of the proper hue, waits for
geese. They come in late in the evening, and
keep coming, flock after flock, imtil nine or ten at
night, and sometimes until eleven. On Mr. Sulli-
vant's tract, in Ford County, before they are
much shot at, the wild geese roost about the
ponds in the prairie ; but when they have been
disturbed there a few times, they go further off"
to wild places in the extensive swamps. Wild
geese do not frequent timber-land, except when
the weather is very cold and blustering, or
when there is a fall of snow. At those times
they go into the timber along creeks and rivers,
and may be found there.
Some years ago I and three others found out
that there was a small roosting-place on the
Sangamon River just below the mouth of Salt
Creek. There came a sudden frost and intense
cold weather, with some snow. We knew that at
such a time the river would be frozen over near
the place the geese frequented, and that they
would roost on the ice. At break of day we got
up, and drove in a sleigh three miles to where
we knew the. wild geese would be found. In
such weather they do not fly before nine or ten
o'clock in the morning. The river was low, and
210 FIELD SHOOTING.
before we got to the bank we could hear the
flock of geese, on the ice below, chattering in the
cold. There was heavy timber on both banks,
and we crept up in it on our side until we
were within about forty yards of the pack of geese
on the ice below. As we raised ourselves up, the
wild fowl started to fly, and we put in the dis-
charge from our eight barrels as they were
rising, and killed ten. Our guns were muzzle-
loaders. If they had been breech-loaders, we
could have charged and shot again, as the geese
seemed bewildered for a little while, and did not
fly straight away. Now began my bad luck.
The wild geese, as a matter of course, fell
on the ice. It was what is called slush
ice, which is none of the strongest, but weak
and treacherous even when thick. My companions
were afraid to go out for the dead geese, and I
had to go, though the heaviest man of the party.
It is my habit, when out shooting, hardly ever
to let my gun be out of my hands, and it was
now lucky that in going on the ice for these
geese I carried it with me. I had brought some
of the geese to the bank, and gone out for the
balance. The furthest two I got, and was just
stooping to pick up the last when in I went.
WILD GEESE, CRANES, AND SWANS. 211
I had gone in a sort of air-hole, which, being
covered with broken ice and snow, I had not
perceived. The river was twenty feet deep, and I
came near being drowned. However, by means
of the gun in one hand and the three geese in
the other, I got such a spread on the ice that
I did not go clean under. Two of my com-
panions were so scared by the suddenness of the
occurrence and the danger of the situation that
they could do nothing. The other got an old
ten-foot rail, and, shoving it to me, enabled me
to struggle to the bank, gun, geese, and all. The
cold was so intense that my clothes were all frozen
stiff the minute after i was out of the water. It
was three miles to a house and a stove, and
before we got there I was like a solid six-foot
chunk of ice. I then got on dry clothes, wrap-
ped myself in a blanket, took a seat by the fire,
and drank half a pint of strong whiskey, neat.
I was soon all right again ; but when the blood
began to circulate in the numbed parts, the pain
was intense for the time. I did not even take cold
from that ducking.
Being much in the water, however, in the West-
ern country, entails something wui-se than a cold,
if not worse than rheumatism. I mean the ague.
212 FIELD SHOOTING.
When I first went to Illinois, I shot many geese;
and if one fell in a pond or slough, I waded in
waist-deep to bring it out. The old settlers
used to tell me that it was a bad practice; but
I had never been sick in my life to any degree
of importance, and had no fears. But after being
there a year, out in all sorts of weather, and
often in and out of the water two or three times
a day, I caught the ague, and had it eleven
months. It was not the mild ague, such as pre-
vails to some extent on the Atlantic coast of
the Northern States, but the powerful Western
ague, which shakes a man so that his bones al-
most rattle as well as his teeth. In the course
of the eleven months it was broken up several
times, but always came back again. Now, there
are a great many infallible remedies for the ague.
I took about a score of them, but didn't get well.
At last, however, I got hold of the real thing. It
cured me, and much experience of it since for
sixteen years has convinced me that it is the
best thing in the world to cure the complaint.
It is not a patent medicine. The editor of this
book, to whom I am relating my experience, and
who had experience of the shakes himself in
Michigan from July to Christmas, says he wishes
WILD GEESE, CRANES, AND SWANS. 213
it was, as we could get five hundred dollars, in
that case, for this notice of it. It is simply
lemon-juice and Holland gin. Squeeze the juice
of five or six lemons into a quart of gin, and
take a good dram of it three times a day. It is
not only pleasant, but effectual, and it will cure
as well as prevent the ague. At the same time
avoid getting wet as much as possible, especially
in the ponds and sloughs.
Shooting brant geese is much the same in
method as shooting Canada geese. They are
about half the size of the latter, and very good eat-
ing. There is this difference in their habits : the
brant do not go so much into fields where the
corn is shocked, but use more where it is not
cut up, but the stalks are much broken down.
In the early spring a man may see acres of such
corn-fields covered with brant. To shoot thorn
there he must lie down as I have directed for duck-
shooting in the like places. With the brant, at
least in close proximity, will be found what we
call Mexican geese. They are about the same
size as the brant, and though there are at least
four kinds, to judge by the plumage and mark-
ings, they are in flocks all mixed up together.
Sometimes there will be half a dozen brant in a
214 FIELD SHOOTING.
flock of these mixed Mexicans. The latter are
more numerous now than either Canada geese or
brant. They have increased in number of late
years, not only relatively, but absolutely. Just
before they go off northwards in the spring the
mixed flocks of these geese pack together on the
prairies and on rather elevated spots imtil there
are three or four thousand in a body. They leave
in these great packs. When they have gathered,
and are preparing to set out on their long flight
they may be seen to rise and circle round so as
to cast a shadow on the ground like a cloud.
These geese fly by night. They always seem to
arrive in the night, and they leave by night.
They utter a different cry from Canada geese and
from brant, and are much more noisy than either.
When, in their flight through the air, they go over,
or nearly over, the lights of a town or village,
they make a great row. On the table they are
plump and nice, as good as brant, but to my
thinking not as good as the Canada goose. That
is the king of the wild geese ; more juicy than
any other, as well as twice the size. The great
mixed flocks of Mexican geese present a mottled
appearance when clearly seen. Some are pale
blue in color, some grizzly gray, some have white
WILD GEESE, CRANES, AND SWANS. 215
heads and necks, some are all white except the
ends of the wings, which in them are black,
if any naturalist of New York, Boston, or Phila-
delphia would like to have a specimen of each of
these geese, 1 can send them.
There are two kinds of cranes plentiful in Illi-
nois in the spring and fall of the year. The most
abundant is the sand-hill crane, a well-known
bird. With a body as large as that of a goose,
he stands upon long legs, so that he is four and
a half or five feet high. They winter in the south,
and go to high northern latitudes to breed. A
few nests are made in the Winnebago Swamp, but
only a few. They do not resort about water much,
although they choose their roosting-place near it.
In the spring they are first seen very high in the
air, circling round and uttering loud cries, so high up
as hardly to be perceived. In my opinion, they
fly higher than any other bird, not even excepting
eagles and vultures. When the cry of the crane
is heard coming out of the sky, as it were, people
know that winter is quite over, and that warm
weather is going to come in shortly. When seen
sitting on the prairie in flocks, they look like
sheep at a distance.
They arrive with us according to the season,
21ft FIELD SHOOTING.
usually aliout the tenth of March, and stay a month.
Like the wild geese and ducks, cranes frequent tho
corn-fields for the purpose of feeding. The fevr
nests made in Illinois contain but two eggs, and
one of the old birds is always on the watch near
them. They return in the fall about the same time
as the wild geese, but do not then fly so high as
in the . spring ; perhaps it is because many of them,
are young birds. In the fall they are first seen
out on the prairie, and a very unwelcome sight it
is to the farmer; for they are very hard on his crop
of corn, much of which is then cut up and shocked
in the fields. Boys are employed to keep them
away. I have often seen large pieces of corn-land
in shock when all the ears on the outside had been
shelled and eaten, not a kernel left. They stay-
as long as the wild geese, which is until real hard
weather sets in. Cranes are easy birds to shoot
when you can get a fair shot at them, but they are
wary and shy, keeping a good lookout all the
time. It is of no use to lie down in corn for them.
They can see further and better than any other
bird 1 know. The immense height at which they
fly in the spring has convinced me of this. To
shoot them, when they have been shot at and made
shy and wary, one of two methods must be fol-
WILD GEESE, CRANES, AND SWANS. 217
lowed. By watching their flights to and from
corn-fields their crossing-places may be found.
At one of these the shooter must post himself
under an Osage orange hedge on the windward
side. Then he must wait for a lot to come over.
In windy weather and going to windward they
fly low and slow, and are very easily hit. But
it takes hard hitting to kill them, as they are
thickly feathered. When going for cranes, I use
No. 1 or No. 2 shot in my cartridges with strong
charge of powder. Some think heavier shot neces-
sary, but I know they are not. At Mr. Sullivant's
farm in Ford County, last spring, I shot twenty
sand-hill cranes and three of the larsre white
variety. I had no larger shot than No. 6, having
gone without expectation of getting any shooting
except at ducks, mallards, and pintails.
There were, however, large numbers of cranes,
and I found out that they roosted near ponds in
the neighboring prairie. I knew then that I could
get close shots when they came at dusk. Loading
my cartridges for that shooting with six drams
of powder and an ounce of shot, and taking post
near the edge of the pond, which was from one
to two acres in extent, I waited for their coming.
The first cveninj!: I killed seven sand-hill cranes
218 i'lELD SHOOTING.
and the three large white ones, and the next night
thirteen of the sand-hills. The large white crane
is bigger than the sand-hill, and sometimes attains
the enormous weight of thirty pounds ; that is,
he yreighs as much as two good turkeys. It is
pure white, except the ends of the wings, which
are black. The largest of the three I killed was a
magnificent specimen. He measured seven feet eight
inches across the wings, stood five feet ten inches
high, and weighed thirty pounds. I gave it to
Mr. Gillott, of the great farm near Elkhart, and he
had a description of it published in the Lincoln,
Logan County, paper, headed, " Captain Bogardus's
Mammoth Crane."
It is hard to get within shot of the white crane.
They are seldom killed, except near the ponds,
when they come to roost at night. It has a very
keen as well as far sight, and nothing but the fact
that it is almost dark when they come to the
roosting-place enables the shooter to get a chance
at them. A crane of either kind winged will
make a desperate fight, and is a dangerous custo-
mer for the unwary to deal with. If man or dog
comes within striking distance, the crane aims at
the eye with his sharp-pointed bill, some six inches
long. The bird will drive his bill into a dog as
WILD GEESE, CRANES, AND SWANS. 219
if it were a dagger. I have had a dog that had
never seen crane before go in to catch one that
was winged, but he came out again after getting
one stroke. The white crane is not nearly as
numerous as the sand-hill. Its habits are the
same, but there are only from eight to twelve
in a flock. I never saw a nest of this crane,
and believe it never builds in Illinois.
Both the cranes are fine eating. The meat is
dark, and the breast, when well hung and properly
cooked, is as fine as the best venison. At one
time 1 thought they were good for nothing, but
a circumstance happened which changed my opinion
altogether. I was out shooting pinnated grouse
late in the fall with a companion, and we camped,
or rather took shelter, slept, and cooked in a herds-
man's hut which had been deserted. The cattle
had been driven away, and the hut was tenant-
less. It was on the Delavan prairie. I killed a
sand-hill crane, and hung it on the fence by the
hut. It remained there eight or nine days and
as many frosty nights. We had good sport,
plenty to eat, and forgot all about the crane.
But on the evening of one day, on which we had
sent all our game away in the afternoon, it was
found that by an oversight we had reserved none
220 FIELD SHOOTINQ.
for our suppers and breakfasts. I then remembered
the crane, and going to the fence I picked the
breast, and cut it off in slices or steaks. These
we fried in butter. There was a prairie road or
track running by the hut. It was commonly but
little used, but on this occasion, while the steaks
were being cooked, a man and a woman came by
in a buggy. As she caught the rich flavor from
the hot pan, the woman said, "Those men must
have something very good to eat." She was right.
When we came to our crane-steaks, we both
thought we had never eaten anything so good in
our lives. It is true that the frosty air of the
prairie late in the fall sharpens the appetite, and
true that we were hungry, and hunters at that;
but it is also true that the steaks were delicious
eating. The meat was rich and juicy, and it had
been frozen and thawed a sufficient number of
times to make it very tender. Since then, if a
crane was within shot, I have never let him get
away, if I could help it. The flesh of the white
crane is quite as good as that of the sand-hill
kind.
Cranes need to be hung for a long time be-
fore being cooked, and almost all game is the
better for being hung, if the weather is cool or
WILD GEESE, CRANES, AND SWANS. 221
cold. Perhaps snipe and woodcock may be excep-
tions. You can hardly hang pinnated grouse too long
when they keep sweet. I have eaten them a month
after they were killed in the winter, and none
could be finer. Quail are all the better for
being hung. So are Canada geese and other wild
geese, together with mallard ducks and wild tur-
keys. Of course young grouse shot in August
or the warm days of September cannot be hung,
and they are very good eating when cooked fresh,
but not better than winter grouse hung a long
time, stuffed, roasted, and eaten with bread-sauce,
made gravy, and hot, mealy potatoes.
A few pelicans are shot along the upper part
' of the Mississippi River. Occasionally a small
flight of swans come over Central Illinois, and
sometimes they alight in the Winnebago Swamp
or the Sangamon bottoms ; but these occurrences
are rare. My brother once killed three late in
the fall on the Sangamon bottom. They were
going south, and alighted at a pond where he
was lying for geese at roosting-time. At a place
in the Winnebago Swamp called Swan Lake they
sometimes alight on their passage. I have never
killed one. Going down the Mississippi last win-
ter, I saw, from the steamboat, many swans in
222 / FIELD SHOOTING.
the bayous and on the sand-islands. At New
Orleans I was told by Mr. Charleville, the gun-
smith, that there was a fine place for shooting all
sorts of wild fowl below the city, called The
Dump. I saw plenty of mallards, there called
French ducks, in the market.
CHAPTER Xlll.
WILD TURKEY AND DEER SHOOMNG.
Of all the feathered game that runs and flies,
the wild turkey of America is the noblest and
most beautiful of which I ever heard. In one
sense the ostrich of the Arabian desert or the
emu of the Australian plains might be deemed
an exception. They, however, do not fly ; and
though their size, plumage, and fleetness invest
them with a sort of grandeur, and their feathers
are valuable as ornaments for the head-dresses of
ladies, they are neither so beautiful nor so useful
and excellent as food as the wild turkey. In-
deed, the flesh of the latter is hardly surpassed by
anything in succulence, richness of flavor, and nutri-
ment, and it is vastly superior to that of any tame
turkey that ever was fed and roasted or boiled.
It is well known that the tame turkey is de-
scended from the wild ti;rkey of America. Before
the discovery of this continent the bird was un-
known in Europe, and had never been seen in
Turkey in Asia. It may be easily domesticated,
224 FIELD SHOOTING.
and a (BW)8^ of the wild gobbler with tame hen-
turkeys always improves the flock in size and
excellence.
At one time the wild turkey was plentiful all
over this country, from Texas to Canada, and
from the eastern seaboard to the peaks of the
Rocky Mountains, in such localities as furnished
it with its favorite sorts of food and afforded
the cover in which it delights. Now, however, it
is hardly to be met with to the eastward of West
Virginia, and it cannot be said to be still abun-
dant in Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois,
etc. In those States wild turkeys were once very
plentiful, and a considerable number are still to be
found in a few localities in each. In Iowa, Mis-
souri, etc., there are more wild turkeys now than
in the States first mentioned. One would suppose
there must still be a few in the western parts of
New York and Pennsylvania, but I am not certain
that there are.
Thd wild turkey is a bird of the forest rather
than of the prairies or the plains. It makes its
haunts in timber-land, large pieces of woods, and
-groves, and betakes itself to thick brush and the
neighborhood of impassable swamps to breed. It
comes out, however, at night or at earliest dawn,
WILD TURKEY AND DEER SHOOTING. 225
and feeds in the corn and wheat fields in the fall,
and many broods are sometimes seen together in a
pack a hundred strong, led by old gobblers. In
the beech and maple woods it feeds upon beech-
nuts with great relish, and, indeed, its principal
food in winter is the berries of the bushes and
the " mast " of various trees. The wild turkey,
though so gregarious, is shy and a wary, fast-
running bird, hardly ever taking to the wing if
it can avoid doing so. When closely pursued by
a dog or impeded by deep snow, it is com-
pelled to flight.
It is found in Illinois in the timber and thick
brush to be met with on the banks of rivers and
creeks. The wild turkeys used to be very numer-
ous in and about the bottoms of the Sangamon
River. I have killed a great many there myself,
one of which was a famous gobbler of twenty-
seven pounds weight and magnificent plumage.
They are now scarce, difficult to find, and hard to
kill. Following turkeys on their tracks in snow,
which has been my usual method of hunting them,
is hard work. In the great woods of the forest
countries tlie favorite method is to find the flock,
scatter it all around by means of a dog, and
then in ambush imitate the call of the turkeys
226 FIELD SHOOTING.
until they come near enough to be shot Avith a
rifle.
There used to be many turkeys in the tim-
ber at Lake Fort, some seven or eight miles
from Elkhart, and a few may be found there yet.
In the woodlands of North Missouri the wild
turkey is still rather abundant, and it will be
found wherever there is timber and brush all
through Missouri, Kansas, Arkansas, the Indian
Territory, and down through Texas. Wild turkeys
are also found in . Louisiana, Alabama, Georgia,
and Florida. They do best in warm weather,
though they are furnished with a full coat of
feathers, and can stand the cold of our northwest-
ern States and Canada.
I have often found the wild turkey's nest. It
is made in the timber, among thick brush, and
very often by the side of an old log. When
the hen wild turkey leaves her nest, she covers
it up with leaves, just as the tame hen- turkey
will do when she has made a nest under a
hedge or in the brambles near a fence. Some
years ago, when wild turkeys abounded more
than they do now, great numbers of their eggs
were taken from their nests and hatched under
hens. The young ones thus obtained were very
WILD TURKEY AND DEER SHOOTING. 227
much like young tame turkeys in their habits
until late in the fail. Then, from roosting in
trees and rambling about, they often left the tame
turkeys, and went off with the wild ones. In
secluded places the wild turkeys often mingle
with tame flocks. The gobblers are not pugna-
cious with each other, though they will fight with
game-cocks, and sometimes, by superior weight
and strength, worry out and kill the best.
Formerly I used to shoot turkeys in the old
method of calling them up, after having scat-
tered them, to an ambush, and using a small-
bore rifle or a shot-gun loaded with buckshot
or with BB cartridge. That plan answers best
when the turkeys are young. Latterly I have
waited for turkey-shooting until the winter weather
had well set in, and gone only when there was
snow on the ground. Tho method is to find the
tracks of a flock in the snow, and follow them
up. Turkeys in snow, with a man following in
their track, soon begin to tire a little, if the
snow is damp and no crust on the top of it.
After some time the hunter, who must be a good
walker and capable of standing much fatigue,
will see where one of the turkeys has diverged
from the route of the flock. Following the track
228 FIELD BIIOOTINO.
of the single turkey, it will be found that after
having gone a little way, commonly not more
than two hundred yards, and often less, it has
squatted under thick brush or in the top of a
fallen tree. As he draws near, it will start to run
or to fly, and it must then be shot. In this sport
I use No. 1 shot, which is quite big enough. A
turkey going to fly is compelled to run eight
or ten feet in order to get headway before
rising from the ground, and T have often shot
them in the head before they could take wing.
After having killed his turkey, the hunter must
take up the track of the flock again, and go on
after it until he sees that another has diverged.
As I remarked before, it is much the best to
follow this sport when the snow is damp, for
the turkeys then tire the sooner, and are more
inclined to hide and squat. No dog is to be
used. He would be worse than useless.
Another good time for turkey- shooting is when
it is snowing hard. That, of course, is no good
time for tracking; but while the snow is felling
fast, the wild turkeys sit around in thick brush
or in the thick top of a fallen tree. They are
then easily approached ; but the hunter must
know the country well, and be familiar with
WILD TURKEY AND DEER SHOOTING. 229
the places where the flocks habitually resort. If
the hunter does not know the country well, and
is after turkeys in a thick snow-storm, instead
of finding them, he will be likely enough to get
lost himself.
When a flock of wild turkeys is being followed
by tracking, they often take wing; and there, of
course, their tracks end. But they generally fly
straight ahead, and the hunter may usually hit
their new tracks after they have alighted and
gone on again on foot. Although they fly straight,
they do not travel straight when on foot, but
sometimes wind in and out very much. Com-
monly their tracks will be found again within
three or four hundred yards of where they took
wing. The hunter will see where they made the
quick run before rising. By that he may judge
very nearly the direction of their flight, and fol-
low it.
When there are creeks and ravines which tur-
keys must cross on the wing, they almost always
go over at the same places. In such a case as a
creek running across a narrow belt of timber, or
a ravine intersecting it, advantage may be taken
of this habit of the turkeys. There must be two
hunters. One must post himself at the crossing
230 FIELD SHOOTING.
under cover, and the other go three or four miles
up, and drive the wood down to it. If there are
any turkeys in the upper part of the timber, the
man at the crossing will be certain to have a
good shot or two.
When I first lived in Illinois, I used to hunt
turkeys a good deal on the Sangamon, in the
right kind of weather, generally preferring soft
snow or a fast-falling snow-storm. I generally
killed some turkeys — some days only two, on
others three, four, five, and six, and a few times
as many as seven. One day I was tracking
turkeys in only about three inches of snow.
They did not tire, but travelled fast, and some-
times took flight, so that following them was a
weary business. I had been after them nearly
all day, and was nearly " tuckered out." I had
often been in sight of them, but never near
enough for a shot. But as evening drew on
apace, and roosting-time approached, the turkeys
began to call. They had travelled all day, and
were glad to halt where they were. By wait-
ing and stalking between calls I shot four.
They weighed from twelve to eighteen pounds
each, and I had to carry them and my gun
three miles to get to a house. It was a very
WILD TURKEY AND DEER SHOOTING. 231
hard day's work, and nothing but downright
perseverance enabled me to get any turkeys at
all on that occasion. When the going is good,
a flock of turkeys will beat a man by endurance.
They are great ramblers in the daytime, but
nearly always come back to the same roosting-
place at night.
On another occasion I was out after turkeys
on the Sangamon on a thick, snowy day — just
the sort of day for a man to get lost in tim-
ber and a wild, broken country. I. then lived
seven miles from Petersburg, and in following
the turkeys round bluffs and across barrens on
the edge of the timber I was several times in
sight of that place. Still the tracks went on
winding about until they led to a place where
there seemed to be some every way. There
were others besides myself hunting turkeys in
that timber, and we sometimes took the tracks
ahead of each other. It was then snowing
rather fast, and of course the tracks were all
fresh. The flock I was on tired in the after-
noon, and I killed two about four o'clock. I
then found I was lost. It was still snowing,
and night was coming on. The first thing to
be done was to keep on as fast as I could in
232 FIELD SHOOTING.
one direction, so as to get out of the timber.
The turkeys I had killed were very large ones
— twenty pounds each. However, I trudged along
through the snow, and at last got clear of the
woods, and found out where I was. It was not,
however, as I had expected, between Petersburg
and where I lived, but at Indian Point, from
which I had a walk of thirteen miles home. I
do not think I ever was more tired than I was
that night when I reached home. Travelling in
snow is not easy walking, and tracking turkeys
in it is emphatically hard work.
I went out one day to hunt wild turkeys near
the mouth of Salt Creek in seven or eight inches
of wet snow, the weather being mild and the frost
giving, so that the snow packed. I came upon
the tracks of a flock of turkeys, and, after fol-
lowing them for some time, I killed two. Tak-
ing up the main trail again, I noticed the track
of one very large turkey, a real great gobbler. I
had heard other men speak of having been on the
track of a very large turkey about there, but none
of them had ever been able to come up with
him, though they had killed others out of the
flock he led. I now determined to do my best to
get him, and resolved not to go off" after stragglers,
"WILD TURKEY AND DEER SHOOTING. 233
unless he left the route of the flock himself. 1
followed the track, winding through brush, and
sometimes went across very rough ground — over
which the turkeys flew — for as much as ten miles ;
but in the timber of the bottom I was imable
to come up to the gobbler. The other turkeys
in the flock appeared to have straggled off", and
the old, wily gobbler, often hunted and very fast,
and strong as well as large, was alone. At last
he left the bottoms, and the trail led up into
bluffs and ravines where the brush was very
thick and the snow in places quite deep. I think
many men would have given it up then, for the
ground was extremely difficult to enter into after
the ten-mile tramp from where I had struck the .
trail first, but I determined to persevere. In fact,
I had now strong hopes of getting the turkey,
being convinced that he would not have entered
this ground if he had not been tired. After go-
ing some distance among the bluffs and thickets
of the ravines, the gobbler squatted under an old
tree-top. He would be dead beat and want rest
sorely before ho would do that, I knew ; still, I
looked for him to appear at any moment from
somo such jilacc, and kept my gun ready, both
locks cocked. lie would set wind ajjain while J
234 FIELD SHOOTING.
was coming up on his track, and be ready for a
quick bolt. As 1 advanced on the trail, I heaid
a movement among the top brush of a fallen
tree, and out went the turkey. He was probably
sixty yards away from me when I saw him so
as to shoot, but I took a long shot, and hit him
hard with the right barrel, following it with the
left instanter to make sure work. I think the
first barrel would have been enough, but I was
very anxious to get him ; and as I knew that if
he was only winged he would run UEtil he
dropped dead, I gave him the second barrel. He
was the most splendid specimen of the wild tur-
key I ever saw, and I have seen a great many.
He weighed twenty-seven pounds, was quite fat,
and the beard — the tuft of hair which hangs from
the breast — was eight inches long. The beauty
of his plumage on the neck, wings, and breast
is indescribable. It glittered with a score of hues
of metallic lustre — gold, green, purple, brown, etc. —
and these tints cast rays like those which flash
from the feathers of the humming-bird.
It was in the belt of timber in which this
gobbler was found that I then lived. On two
occasions there I shot at a turkey on the wing
with a rifle, when out after deer, and killed.
WILD TURKEY AND DEER SHOOTING. 235
When turkeys are too wild to be shot with
a shot-gun, it is of little use to track them at
all. Resort must then be had to the method of
calling them up, and here the rifle may be used.
Except for very long shots, however, the shot-
gun is as good as the rifle, even when the tur-
keys are called up within distance of the shooter,
and in one important matter better — there are
two barrels to one, and a miss may be mended
with the second.
The best day of turkey -shooting I ever had was in
Missouri, on Shoal Creek, not a great distance from
the town of St. Jo, on the Missouri River. I went
to that quarter on a regular shooting expedition,
prepared to stay some time. John D. Lindsay,
an old hunter, went first in order to look about
the neighborhood around St. Jo, and ascertain
what the prospects were. He wrote to me that
there were plenty of wild turkeys, deer, and other
game in the region round about Cameron, Lynn
County, and desired me to join him. I lost no
time in doing so, and was accompanied by Colonel
Roberts, who wanted to camp out. We took my
tent. Arriving at Cameron in the morning, I hired
a team. We took the tent and other things out
to a suitable spot about three or four miles from
236 FIELD SHOOTING.
the town, and there prepared to camp. We pitch-
ed our tent on a creek bottom, near enough to
the bank to make it handy to get water, and at
the foot of a hill covered with scrub-oak. In
selecting a place for a camp in cold w^eather
the main things to look after are shelter
from the northwest winds and close prox-
imity to wood and water. I had no camp-stove
then, and it was necessary to keep up a big
fire near the mouth of the tent all night, so that
plenty of wood Avas required. The country for
miles around was successive hills and hollows,
with scrub-timber in places and much brush,
called barrens. Having pitched the tent and
plied our axes for wood, Lindsay and 1 left
Colonel Roberts to put things to rights, took our
guns, and went to look about a little. In less than
half an hour 1 killed two turkeys. This was a good
beginning.
We returned to the tent, where Colonel Roberts
speedily distinguished himself as a capital cook.
Having picked and cleaned a turkey, he desired
me to put up two short stakes with forks at the
upper ends pretty close to the fire, while Lind-
say was required to furnish a thin, straight stick.
With this last the colonel spitted the turkey, and
WILD TURKEY AND DEER SHOOTING. 237
the ends of the spit being laid in the crutches of
the uprights, the bird could be turned slowly
before the fire with little trouble. A pan placed
beneath caught the gravy and dripping, and with
this the turkey was basted from time to time.
It was a most excellent roast, and a wild turkey
cooked in this way before a big, quick fire
beats one that is baked in an oven all hollow.
We feasted well that evening, but in the night
we rather suffered, as I shall relate.
We had to rely on a large fire in front of
the tent for warmth, as I had then no tent-stove.
Of late years I have always been provided with a
small, cheap stove and pipe, which could be put
up inside. The tent being then closed all round,
and a small fire kept up in the stove with hard
wood, it is as warm inside as in a house. Such
a plan is much better for convenience and com-
fort than my old system. The fire in front of
the tent has to be eight or ten feet off, for fear
that the canvas may take fire if it is nearer,
and on a cold night it does not do much good.
In Missouri at that time the nights were very
cold. Wc had to lie Avith our heads under the
blankets to keep our ears from being frozen. In
the morning our boots were as stiff as if they had
238 FIELD SHOOTING.
been made of iron instead of leather. We hunted
every day with more or less success.
In a few days there came a fresh fall of snow,
some seven or eight inches, and Lindsay and I
went out prepared to take advantage of it. We
breakfasted at break of day, and set out for Shoal
Creek, which was three miles distant. It quit
snowing as soon as it got to be daylight, so that
when we reached the banks of the creek the
tracks, if any were found, would be fresh. About
eight o'clock in the morning we came upon the
trail of a large flock of turkeys. They had begun
to move about as soon as it left off snowing, and
there must have been from thirty-five to forty,
perhaps more than forty, in the flock. After fol-
lowing the track for a while I got sight of the
flock, crept up within distance, and killed two,
one with each barrel. The turkeys thereupon
scattered and flew, and some passing near Lind-
say, he killed one on the wing. Neither of us
shot with a rifle. Those turkeys had not been
shot at much, and they were nothing like as wild
as those of Illinois. It was the best turkey-shoot-
ing I ever saw. We followed up the main body,
and every now and then I would go after a strag-
gler who had left it, and shoot him as he left
"WILD TURKET AND DSER SHOOTING. 239
his squatting-place. At noon 1 had killed eleven
turkeys and Lindsay three, I got the most shots,
as I went after the stragglers, while he kept on
the track of the flock. The turkeys weighed from
ten to eighteen pounds each. They were not quite
so fat as our Illinois turkeys commonly are, hut
their flavor was delicious, and their flesh very ten-
der and juicy — just what that of a wild turkey in
perfection is.
We placed our turkeys safe hung in a tree,
and, going to a house, got dinner, arranging
with the man that he should take us and our
game to our camp in the evening with his wagon
and team. Deer were plentiful thereabout. In
the afternoon I shot at a big buck with turkey-
shot, and hit him hard. He bled freely as he
ran, and we followed on his trail. That pre-
vented us from getting any more turkeys that
day. We kept on the buck's track for a long
distance, hoping to get another shot at him.
We could not do so, however, and the trail
finally led to a place where there had been such
a number of deer that day that their tracks
were all mixed up. We saw three going over
the brow of a hill, but they were far out of
shot. So we concluded to give up further exer-
240 FIELD SHOOTINGF,
tions, and, returning to the house, we found the
man and his team ready. On our road to camp
we took up our turkeys, and ended a busy day
with a capital supper by the blazing fire. It
was the best day's turkey -shooting I ever had,
and we could have got more of them if we had
not been led off on a fruitless chase after the
deer. With breech-loading guns and buckshot
cartridges in the left barrels for deer, we could
have got several fat ones, as well as the tur-
keys.
In the three weeks we were in camp at
Shoal Creek we shot between fifty and sixty
turkeys, not going for them especially, except on
favorable days, when fresh snow had fallen.
Our sport in this neighborhood was good in
every respect, but in one regard we had great
discomfort. The weather was hard, and we
were very cold at night. Young sportsmen Avill
sometimes read descriptions in which the writers
say that they slept out all night without a tent,
the thermometer below zero, and that wrapped
in their blankets, with their feet to the fire,
they were very comfortable. In my opinion
this is all humbug. 1 have been out many a
night, but it was in moderately warm weather.
WILD TURKEY AND DEER SHOOTING. 241
The thing to be most apprehensive about then
is a thunder-storm.
I was once caught in one in the middle of
the night, early in the fall, on the Delavan
Prairie, which is in Logan County, sixteen miles
from Elkhart, The unbroken prairie Avas then
eight or ten miles in extent. In fact, there was
no cultivated land on it, except near the strips
of timber by which it was bounded. I went
out in a buggy, and alone, to shoot pinnated
grouse in the evening, and though I meant to
stay on the prairie all night, and shoot again
in the morning, I took no tent. A blanket to
lay on the ground under the buggy, and another
to cover jnc, were deemed sufficient.
I shot until dark over two good dogs, and
liud fine sport. I then drove to a part of the
prairie whore men had been cutting grass for
fodder, and left it in cocks, and pulled up there
for the night. I tied the horse to the wheel, gave
him a feed of corn in the bottom of the buggy,
watered him, and tossed him down a lot of the
new-made prairie-hay. The scent of it pervaded
the air of the space all around, and was very
sweet and grateful. I got my own cold supper,
and, lying down \mder the buggy with the dogs
242 FIELD SHOOTING.
near me, 1 soon fell asleep. It was a still night,
no air stirring even on the open prairie where I
was when I went to rest. But about one o'clock
there arose a strong wind, the forerunner of a
mighty storm.
Awakened by the change in the weather, I got
up, and, looking to windward, saw an immense
black cloud looriiing high up towards the zenith,
and coming on at a rapid rate towards the prairie.
Knowing very well what it meant, and seeing the
forked lightning already darting down from it,
while the rumble of the distant thunder overbore
the rushing of the wind, I piled up a lot of hay
around the buggy to windward, and got under it
again. 1 had not been there many minutes when
the storm burst with fearful fury, seemingly right
over my head. Then came lightning, thunder, and
torrents of rain altogether, as it were. The light-
ning was so vivid and so rapid that the horse
got scared and trembled, the dogs cowered and
crept closer to me, and I was much alarmed. The
lightning ran round the tires of the wheels, so
that the wagon seemed to be shod with fire. It
lit up the prairie at every flash, and the flashes
were almost continuous, so that I could see
white houses five or six miles off as plain, or
WILD TURKEY AND DEER SHOOTING. 243
plainer, than I could by day. The thunder-claps
were so heavy that it appeared as if they would
split my head open. For more than an hour
the storm kept on. Then it abated almost as
suddenly as it came, and I soon went to sleep
again. This was the heaviest thunder-storm I ever
experienced. 1 was more in fear during that hour
than 1 ever was before, or than I have been since.
What with the horse and the dogs and myself
altogether in a group, the bright tires of the wheels,
and the steel locks and barrels of my gun, the
danger must have been great. But, blessed be
God, it was averted !
In the morning the dogs rose refreshed, as I did
myself. They worked well. The scent lay thick
on the wet ground, and I never shot better. 1
killed forty-three grouse before the sun got very
high in the forenoon, and returned home with a
large bag of very fine birds.
When men camp out with a tent without a
stove, and they keep a large fire in front of the
tent, as they will be sure to do in cold weather,
there is considerable danger that their canvas
may take fire. I have had three tents burned up.
A change of wind during the night may blow
glowing embers right up to the canvas, and set
244 FIELD SHOOTIKG.
fire to it, if no one is awake to look after it. And
twice my tent caught fire in the daytime, when
we thought there was no danger, and went off
hunting with no one left at camp. Therefore I
say to every one who means to camp out on
sporting excursions, get a nice little stove. The
cost is small, the comfort large, and, except through
gross carelessness, there can be no danger what-
ever.
To give a description of the common deer of
this country would be mere folly and imperti-
nence. It is often supposed that it likes best to
range in the vast forests, but I believe that to be
a mistake. Deer are most fond of a country in
which there are belts of timber-land and brush
interspersed with prairies and savannas. Much
of that part of Illinois where I lived at first is
somewhat of that character. When I first went
to the State, deer were o^cceedingly plentiful. I
have myself seen as many as thirty in a herd, and
men who had lived a long time in that part of
Illinois, when I went to reside there, told me they
had seen herds which could not have contained
less than seventy-five. In the cold weather the
deer went to the timber for shelter. In the warm
weather they did not go much to the woodland
WILD TURKEr AND DEER SHOOTING. 245
to pass the heat of the day, as oue might have
well supposed they would, but they spent some
hours before and after noonday lying in the long
grass of the prairie near sloughs, where it grows
particularly rank and tall.
Deer have much decreased in number in that
part of Illinois of late years, though they may
still be met with occasionally, and shot by a man
Asho knows how to go about it. In the earlier
times of my residence in the State they used to
feed upon the young wheat, where fall wheat had
been sowed out upon the prairie. At about sun-
rise • they might be seen feeding in these fields,
and looking like so many calves. When it was
broad daylight, they retired to the long grass near
the sloughs, or to thick brush in the woodland,
or to patches of high weeds, and there they would
lie until evening. There arc some deer in Ford
County yet. Three or fcnir were killed there
last winter — two of them on Mr. Sullivan t's form.
Another was chased right through the town of
Gibson, and killed below it. At Oliver's Grove,
ill Iroquois County, there used to be large numbers
of deer, and some may be found there yet. la
the southern jjart of Illinois, down toward and
in the district called Egypt, deer are found in
246 FIELD SHOOTING
fair numbers. But the best place near Illinois in
which to hunt them is the northern part of Mis-
souri. Deer are numerous in parts of Kansas,
and about Omaha, Nebraslca, there are many to
be found.
This last-named city is a good point for sport-
ing tourists ; various descriptions of game abound,
and the shooting club includes many excellent
sportsmen and gentlemen among its members.
The best place in the city to obtain information
as to localities and to meet sportsmen is the store
of Mr. D. C. Sutphen, gunmaker and dealer.
And a very good place to stop at, as I found by
personal experience, is the Grand Central Hotel.
Wild turkeys, deer, pinnated grouse, wild geese,
ducks, etc., may be shot in the vicinity of Omaha.
The first deer I ever killed was in Woodford
County, Illinois. I was out with an old hunter,
who set me to follow the track of the herd,
and took post himself at a nmway, where he
thought he should be sure to get a good shot.
But it did not so fall out. I followed a herd of
five or six for about three miles, and on coming
to the top of a hill I saw a deer in the val-
ley below, standing on the edge of the slope,
with its side to me. He was about two hun-
WILD TURKEY AND DEER SHOOTING. 247
dred yards off, but I determined to have a
crack at him, and, throwing my rifle up, 1 took
aim just behind the lower part of the shoulder.
Mine was an old-fashioned, long, hunting-rifle,
with steel barrel, carrying a ball forty to the
pound. At the shot the deer made a buck-jump
full ten feet into the air, and bounded away. I
thought 1 had missed him, but my partner, on
coming to the spot where he had stood, and looking
narrowly around, thought not, and determined to
follow his tracks. The fact was, as he told me
soon afterwards, that he saw a tinge of blood
upon the snow on the other side of the place
where the deer had stood when I shot at him,
and concluded that the ball had gone through
him. He soon found that the deer straddled in
his tracks and spread his hoofs, and then he
knew he was badly wounded. The buck was
found dead two hundred yards from where he
was when 1 shot at him. The ball had gone
clean through him, and also through his heart,
after which he ran two hundred yards. I did
not hunt deer much at that time, but I was
soon a good shot with the rifle, and have killed
a running deer with it.
I afterwards became acquainted with a man
248 FIELD 8H00TINO.
named Wilcox, who was the greatest deer-hunter
in Illinois. He had a system of his own, and a
very successful system it certainly was, as he
managed it. He hunted on horseback, and his
weapon was a heavy double-barrelled shot-gun,
with strong charges of powder and buckshot.
Late in the fall, when the sloughs were low and
held but little water, he used to ride down the
middle of them. When a deer got up from
among the long grass on either side, Wilcox
fired from the back of the horse, and knocked the
buck or doe over. I soon found that was the best
way, and adopted it myself, but I never had as
much success at it as Wilcox did. The trouble
was that 1 could neither get a really steady horse
under fire nor shoot very well on horseback at
that time. The horse Wilcox used in his hunts
had been accustomed to it so long that he knew
just what was wanted, and when the reins were
dropped he stood like a rock until the gun
went off.
When deer are lying down, it is much easier to
approach their lair, so as to get a shot on their
rising, on horseback than on foot. It is now obso-
lete in our part of Illinois, as there are no deer
to shoot ; but I should think it might be followed
WILD TURKEY AND DEER SHOOTING. 249
to advantage in Alabama, Louisiana, Texas, and
Arkansas, where there are still plenty. It should
also be tried in Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, etc.
Even in barrens and timber-land it would be
better to hunt deer in this way than to still
hunt for them on foot, if the ground is prac-
ticable for a horse. In some rugged places a
horse cannot go ; and in wet marshes, morasses,
and shaking bogs a horse with a man on his
back would sink in and be unable to struggle
out. In Missouri deer are generally driven with
hounds, and shot at crossing-places and runways.
There are also many killed by still hunting.
To have any chance of success in deer-hunt-
ing, it is necessary that the sportsman should
know the lay of the country and the places in
which they are likely to be found. A stranger
to the neighborhood had better get an old hunter,
to go out with him for a few days. A know-
ledge of their habits in the different localities is
required, and it would take a long time to learp
these if they were not imparted by some one
who knows them. The deer are now Avild and
shy in most places. They have a keen nose, and
can scent a man to windward before he can see
them, which makes it requisite tQ huot up-wind.
250 FIELD SHOOTING.
\
Some deer are shot at salt-licks, to which they
resort at night, and 1 believe the practice of fire-
hunting is sometimes followed in the south. It
is not pursued in the West.
CHAPTER XIV.
THE ART OF SHOOTING ON THE WING.
The practical art of shooting birds on the wing,
valuable accomplishment as it is, delightful in
itself, and highly conducive to health and strength
by leading to vigorous exercise in the fields, is
readily acquired. Any one who is well enough to
walk abroad and carry a gun may attain fair pro-
ficiency in it; for those whose nervous tempera-
ment prevents this are few indeed, and need not
be taken into account. Some men, indeed, have
a natural gift, by means of which,, with the great
practice such gift and its corresponding inclination
are sure to induce, they become dead shots, the
masters of the art of shooting. Still, there are
very few who may not become good shots if they
follow proper methods and practice much in pur-
suance of wise instructions. To begin at an early
age is a good thing. Many boys can shoot as
well as men, allowing for the smaller practice and
shorter experience they have had. The parents
of some youths are disinclined to let them have
251
252 FIELD SHOOTING.
guns for fear of accidents, but there is no ground
for apprehension on this point. The handling of
the gun prevents accidents with guns, instead of
causing them. In those cases we hear of in which
thoughtless persons shoot their friends accidentally,
it will be found in nineteen cases out of twenty
that the gun was not in the hands of a boy or
young man who shoots in the field, but in those
of one who only knows a gun by sight, and is
wholly unacquainted with the proper management
of it. It is a million to one that a boy who shoots,
or is learning to shoot, will never shoot one of his
sisters or friends. Such things are only done by
those who have nothing to do with firearms in
their proper places. The latter have an idea that
they will kill, but they hardly know how. On
the other hand, the shooter sees execution done by
his gun on birds, and, knowing that there is death
in the barrel, never fools about with it, letting the
muzzle cover people. Therefore I say that wher-
ever there is convenience for it parents should
let their sons learn to shoot, and they need not
be afraid to do so because their boys are com-
paratively young. There is no more danger of a
gun, to himself or other persons, in the hands of
a boy of fourteen years of age, than there is of
THE ART OF SHOdTING ON THE WING. 253
one in the hands of a young man of twenty who
is equally new to the practice of shooting. The
"boys must begin some time, if they are to shoot
at all, and to put it off reminds one of the mother
who declared that her son must not go into the
water until he had learned to swim.
I now purpose to give such brief instructions
to beginners in shooting and young sportsmen,
together with hints which may be taken advan-
tage of by marksmen of experience, as I believe
will be useful. Two of the things essential to
success in the field are the loading of the gun
for the different varieties of game, and its hand-
ling when game is found and takes wing. It is
a common error to use shot of a size larger than
necessary, and very often there is too much of it.
A timid man is afraid to put in plenty of pow-
der, of which there can hardly be too much as
long as the gun will burn it, and he increases
the charge of shot under the strange delusion
that he thus compensates for the deficiency of
the explosive part of the charge. A gun badly
loaded is like a bad watch — it deceives and mor-
tifies its owner.
The choice of guns has been already alluded
to, and, I repeat, beware of choosing one that is
251: FIELD SHOOTING.
very light. In a, gun of more weight the capa-
city of shooting strong charges with ease and
comfort, and of killing more game, altogether out-
weighs the carrying of an extra pound or pound
and a half. Boys, it is true, must have light
guns, and there are very nice, safe, good-shoot-
ing guns made for boys. In choosing one for your
son or nephew, however, do not choose a light
gun of those made for boys. It is not to be a
sort of handsome toy-gun, but a serviceable arti-
cle, such as will inspire the boy with the confi-
dence which begets success and leads to skill, by
hitting and killing whenever it is held right. The
light single-barrelled guns made for boys do not
amount to much. It will be better, in buying a
gun for a youth who has not had one before, to
pay more money and purchase a breech-loader, sin-
gle-barrel if he is young and not strong, but a
double-barrel if he is fifteen years old and fairly
robust. Generally the height of the youth is not
to be taken into account in this matter. Many
boys who are not tall for their age have more
strength and endurance than those who are. A
breech-loader is much more easily loaded and a
great deal safer than a muzzle-loader, as regards
accidents, in the hands of either man or boy.
THE ART OF SHOOTING ON THE WING. 255
The gun being provided, the youth to whom it
belongs is to handle it, and practise the handling
of it, just as if it was loaded, until he brings it up
to his shoulder clean and well, and feels as well
able to manage it nicely and quickly as he is
to handle his bat at base-ball or cricket. In this
practice with the gun he is to be careful that he
never lets the muzzle look towards a person. It
is to be a cardinal principle that the gun in his
hands, whether charged or not, shall never point
towards man or boy, woman or girl, in the field,
or the house, or anywhere else. When the youth
handles the gun well unloaded, the next thing
is to load. Young sportsmen in embryo must
begin with light charges. For a breech-loader he
may use the metal cases for his cartridges, or
the paper cases if he does not want to use the
case more than once. The gun-maker will show
him how to load them, and until he can do it
properly himself he had better get it done by a
friend who understands it. He will learn to do
it very easily.
At first the cartridges for the youth or young
man must be loaded lightly ; for if they are
not, and his gun should kick, he may become
afraid of it, shut both his eyes when he pulls
256 FIELD 8H00TINO.
trigger, hold it unsteadily, and fall into such
habits as may prevent him from ever becoming
a good shot. He will already have learned to
stand upright, with his left foot in advance, and
his right a little back- to brace the body when
he brings his gun up as if to deliver fire.
With cartridges loaded with three or three and
a half drachms of powder and an ounce of shot.
No. 8 or No. 9, the youth is to go into a field,
yard, or any safe place, and put up a target of
paper a foot square against a building, a wall,
a tree, or a board. He may then retire twenty
yards, load his gun, take aim right along the rib
of a double-barrel, along the top of the barrel
and sight if single, and as soon as he has taken
aim pull the trigger. I think a boy will usually
get a quicker and better sight with a double-
barrel gun than with a single-barrel. In taking
aim the youth will naturally shut his left eye,
and this, is proper. I have heard men say that
it is best to shoot without shutting one eye.
For my part 1 cannot see it. One eye is cer-
tainly quite as good as two when it is taking
aim along the' gun at the object, and I believe a
good deal better. In snap-shooting both eyes are
often open when the fire is delivered, but even in
THE ART OP SHOOTING ON THE WING- 257
that most good shots instinctively shut the left
eye at the instant of firing.
The youth must load again after his shot, and
then go up to the target to see how many shot
he put into it, change the paper, and try again.
The main points are to get good, quick aim,
and then fire on the instant, with the gun firmly
held and well braced against the shoulder. But
the gun is not to be fired in a hurried, hap-ha-
zard sort of way without a sight being obtained
at all. When the object is once sighted, the
shooter is to fire, and not delay the discharge
under the notion that he can do better. The first
sight is the best. With practice and the con-
sumption of a little powder and shot the youth
will soon become familiar with the shooting of
his gun, and learn to bring it up, take aim, and
fire without any pause between those operations.
He will then find that he can hit the target
every time with the centre of the charge; and as
this is the way to kill, he is now to begin at
birds. Boys have a hankering after shooting at
sitting birds. This is not to be indulged iu. The
target is better practice than sitting birds, because
if the youthful shooter goes after the latter he
will ramble about half a day without getting as
258 FIELD SHOOTING.
many shots in distance as he can make at the
target in a quarter of an hour. Therefore, when
the young shooter begins at birds, it is to be
at birds on the wing — slow-flying birds, such as
meadow-larks, swamp blackbirds, and the like.
The young shooter will be able to get within
twenty yards of larks. When the bird gets up,
bring the gun to the shoulder, take quick aim,
and fire. There is to bo no dwelling on the aim,
which is to be point blank at a bird going
straight away from the gun, just as the sight
was plump on the target. By going into the
meadows and fields where swamp blackbirds fly
up and down, the young sportsman may stand
and shoot at them as they go by. These will
be cross-shots — or side shots, as I call them, be-
cause the side of the bird is presented to the gun.
One bird must always be selected for the shot,
when there is a flock, or several birds are fly-
ing near together; and as the course of the bird
is across the line of fire, allowance must be made
for that fact. The aim must be a little ahead
of the flying bird. At short distances and at
slow-flying birds a little is enough, but there
should be some allowance made. For these birds
at short distances No. 10 shot will be large
THE ART OF SHOOTING ON THE WING. 259
enough. When longer shots are in order for the
improving shooter, No. 8 may be used ; and as he
will now have acquired confidence in himself and
his gun, more powder may be employed. After
a while he will learn the quantity of powder
with which his gun shoots best with ease and
comfort to himself in delivering fire.
At first the youAg shooter at birds on the wing
may expect misses, perhaps a good many of them,
but he need not be disheartened. When he
misses, let him consider and hit upon the pro-
bable cause of the miss. It may be that he shot
too high or too low, or behind the bird — which
is very likely if it was a cross-shot — or he may
have shot in a hurried, flustered way without
taking aim. To whatever cause he thinks the
miss may have been owing, let him resolve to
guard against it another time. I wish to impress
upon the young shooter that missing within easy
distance is not a matter of chance. Under such
circumstances there is always a cause why the
miss was not a hit, and it is desirable that he
who has made it should find out the cause and
be prepared to prevent it. If he does this, he
will steadily improve in his shooting, and may
probably become in time a " crack shot," which
200 FIELD SHOOTING.
signifies one of the best. Going on missing time
after time, without stopping to consider why the
bird was missed, will not do.
When a bird is going straight away from the
gun, the miss of the beginner is commonly ow-
ing to under-shooting. His line of fire, straight
ahead, is apt to be correct, but he often shoots
too low. Let him remember that a bird getting
up near him and flying away is almost always
rising for some distance. If the young shooter
gets sight of the bird, he is certain not to shoot
too high, and he may shoot too low; therefore
keep the gun up, and if you see a feather of
the bird in sighting along the ridge, crack away.
You will be nearly certain to bring it down.
Misses at birds which present side shots, and fly
across the line of fire, are usxially owing to shoot-
ing behind the bird. The young shooter, as
1 observed before, must allow for the forward
motion of the bird he aims at ; and if at short
distances, at larks and swamp blackbirds, he
shoots ten or twelve inches ahead of the bird,
he will be sure to hit it, provided the gun had
the right elevation.
When the young shooter, after having missed
two or three side shots, thinks it was owing to
THE ART OF SHOOTING ON THE WING. 261
his shooting behind his birds, he -must deter-
mine to hold ahead of the next that crosses.
It is two to one that he will bring that one
down, although he is but a beginner. The ne-
cessity of aiming ahead of crossing birds is often
not thoroughly understood even by adult sports-
men whose practice has been large ; and the dis-
tance at which it ' is proper to hold at a
fast-flying bird crossing a long shot off* is
almost universally under-estimated. The gun at
the shoulder must move with the bird until aim
is taken the proper distance ahead of it. Then
■shoot instantly. The young shooter must practise
all he can, neglecting no opportunity. When by
proper instructions he has been taught what he
is to do and how he is to do it, practice is
the thing through which he will improve and
perhaps become a first-rate shot. When he has
been well entered at larks, swamp blackbirds,
swallows and the like, ho will be fit to go out
with a companion, an old sportsman who knows
how to manage dogs ; if convenient, after game-
birds.
Pinnated grouse, the young ones at the early
part of the season, afford the very best practice
for the beginners who have had some shooting
262 FIELD SHOOTING.
at larks and blackbirds. If the commencement
of the shooting season is changed by law from
the fifteenth of August to the first of September,
as I hope it will be, the young birds will still
be sufficiently easy for the youthful sportsman.
As it is now, they might be a little difficult on
and after the first of September ; for having been
shot at almost incessantly for 'the last sixteen days
in August, they have become rather wild, and
the feeble ones have all been killed. I am sa-
tisfied that if the grouse season opened on the
first of September, I could take a youth who
had practised at larks and blackbirds, as above
described, and had never seen a live grouse in
his life, and so instruct him in the field by
precept and example that his shooting should
improve right along, so that late in October
and November, he should often succeed in stop-
ping grouse, when, according to some who call
themselves sportsmen, they are so wild and diffi-
cult that they can't be killed with the gun at all.
But as the young sportsmen of the East have
no chance at the grouse of Illinois, Iowa, etc.,
and quail and snipe are too difficult to afibrd
fair practice for beginners, I should recommend
the youthful gunners to try their hands at the
THE ART OF SHOOTING ON THE WING. 263
migratory thrushes, called robins. These birds flock
together in the fall before they go south, and fly
up and down rows of trees in fields, or along
fences, from tree to tree, in lanes, and about by-
roads. They will afford good practice. The be-
ginner need not be deterred from shooting at
them by the name " robin," because these
birds are no more robins than woodcocks are.
All three have red breasts, and so has the
bullfinch. The young shooter, as a matter of
course, will not shoot at these handsome birds
when they are alx>ut gentlemen's lawns, where
they ornament the smooth-shorn turf and embel-
lish the shrubbery. The time for action at
them is when they flock preparatory to migration,
when they will be found in such places as have
been mentioned. The young sportsman may often
be able to get shots at these birds sitting, but
he should not take them. His main object is to
learn to shoot well at birds on the wing, and
to this end three so killed are of more account
than three dozen shot sitting on tree- tops and
on the boughs of scrub pines and cedars.
A boy who can bring down one-third of the
larks and blackbirds he shoots at, and can stop a
swallow once out of three or four times when
264 FIELD SHOOTING,
they are flying low and darting a little, as they
generally do before rain, is sufficiently advanced
to go into the field after game. Once there,
the same principles apply to him as ought to
govern older marksmen, but do not always do so.
During the first part of my residence in Illinois,
although I was a good shot, as twenty brace of
quail may serve to prove, I was nothing like as
good as I have since become. Years of experience,
shooting many mmrths i:i each year, and nearly
every day except Sundays^ with much thought,
over the principles, of shooting as an art, have en-
abled me to arrive at as much certainty as men
attain to. It may seem like boasting, but never-
theless I declare my conviction that I can shoofi
game-birds on the? wing, in the field, as well as
any man who lives or ever did live. 1 have had
a challenge out for three years, oflTering to shoot
against any ntan In the world, Western field-
shooting, aaid another offering to shoot against any
man in the world at pigeons. The challenge for
field-shooting has now been withdrawn, in con-
sequence of the accident which befell me in 1872,
when I was shot clean through the right thigh
by my own gun when the muzzle touched me.
It occurred in the way I shall now relate.
THE ART OF SHOOTING ON THE WING. 265
I was engaged in shooting pinnated grouse in
December, in the neighborhood of Elkhart.
On the ninth of that month, when starting at
break of day, I drove to Mr. Gillott's pastures in
my buggy, and got there before it was quite
light. I opened the gate, went into the pas-
ture, and, getting into the buggy again, prepared
for shooting. The birds at that time were quite
wild, and it was necessary to shoot them from
the buggy. My gun lay upon my knees, both
barrels cocked. As I was stooping over to draw
the blanket upon my knees, the right fore- wheel
of the buggy fell into a deep rut. The gun
canted, and before I could catch it the butt hit
the hind wheel, and the right barrel went off,
making a hole through my thigh. The gun
was loaded with five drams of powder and an
ounce of No. 6 shot. It was a terrible wound,
but happily most of the shot missed the thigh-
bone. Some, however, hit it, but did not break
it. They are in my thigh now. I drove homo,
was laid up four months, and am now well again.
But the wound has had the following effect : I
cannot walk as long as I used to do before I re-
ceived it. It is also very painful at times, so
much so that I almost fear it is going to break
266 FIELD SHOOTING.
out again. Now, under this altered state of
things, it would hardly do for me to shoot against
any man in the world, and see who could kill
the most game in a week, say ; but I will even
now shoot against any man in the world, for a
reasonable number of hours on a reasonable num-
ber of days, and take shot about, as game
offers, one man to follow the shot of the other.
I shall now relate the methods 1 have finally
adopted. To young sportsmen what I shall ad-
vance will certainly be instructive and useful, and
1 think many old ones may gather things from it
which will be of service to them. One-half the
shots made at birds in the field are at birds which
fly across the shooter, presenting side shots, or go
quartering off from him, so that their course forms
an obtuse angle with the line of fire. Most of
the misses which occur in shooting at such birds
are owing to the failure of the shooter to hold
forward enough so that the centre of the charge
will be upon the bird when the shot reaches him.
The centre of the flight of shot should reach the
line of his flight just where he will be when the
line of the shot intersects his line of flight, not
where he was when the aim was made. The fur-
ther the bird is from the shooter, the faster he is
THE ART OF. SHOOTING ON THE WING. 267
going, and the nearer his line of flight is at fight
angles with the line of the gun, the more the
shooter must hold ahead of him to kill. I have
had this very thoroughly impressed upon me since
I have been a pigeon-shooter. When a man is
in the field killing plenty of birds, and game is
abundant, he does not pause to consider how it
was he missed this bird or that. He pushes on
to where his dogs have made another point. But
when a man misses once or twice in ten birds
from the traps, and there are five hundred or a
thousand dollars depending upon his gun, he is
apt to cogitate over the reasons of these things.
1 had already noticed that in field-shooting more
of the birds got away crippled from side shots
than from other kinds. The reason, I concluded,
was simply this : the gun was not held quite for-
ward enough, and, instead of being in the line of
the centre of the charge, the bird was merely struck
by one or two of the shot on the outer edge of
the flight. If he was flying to the left, nothing but
the outer shot on the left side would hit him ; and
if to the right, nothing but the straggling outside
shot on the right. I began to hold more forward
at crossing birds, and then I found that instead
of being hit and getting away crippled, the birds
268 FIELD SHOOTINQ.
covered by the centre of the flying charge, or
thereabout, were cut down dead.
In pigeon-shooting 1 soon made this principle a
matter of nice calculation. Many may think that
at only twenty-one yards from the trap there is
no need for the practical application of this prin-
ciple; but 1 know there is. At easy, slow- flying
birds, going right or left from the trap, I hold
three or four inches ahead of the bird. It is well
known by those who attend the great pigeon-
shooting tournaments and matches that 1 generally
kill all such birds, while some other men, who are
very good shots, often miss them. The reason, is
plain to my mind : they shoot a little behind the
bird. At a fast-flying crossing bird I hold from
eight to ten inches ahead ; at a quartering bird
from three to four inches. At a bird which goes
straight away close to the ground I hold right on,
well covered, because he is rapidly advancing. At
one going straight away and rising I shoot high,
because he is rising, and if you hold right on to
him you are apt to under-shoot ; and though you
may wound him, he will be likely to get out of
bounds. At an incoming bird I shoot right at
the head, and I rarely fail to kill. Incoming birds
are often missed from under-shootinff. The hard-
THE ART OF SHOOTINO ON THE WING. 269
est of all birds are those which go straight away
from the trap in the line of the shooter, at a very
swift rate, and close to the ground. Such birds
get hard hit, but they often get out of bounds.
They present a very small mark ; their wings
are closed, perhaps, when the shot reaches where
they are, the charge scatters, and their heads
are covered by their bodies for the most part.
In field-shooting it is very necessary to apply
the foregoing principles, because the bird shot at
will often be forty yards off, and perhaps more.
At a pinnated grouse going straight away the
shooter should aim right on. When a side shot
is presented, and the bird is going at a middling
rate, thirty yards off', aim from ten to twelve
inches ahead of it. Quartering shots must be
judged of according to distance and rate of flight ;
taking my pigeon-shooting experience as a standard
and guide, and remembering that late in the fall,
when grouse rise far off' and fly fast, the shooter
must hold further ahead of crossing and quartering
birds.
Some think that the barrels of a double-bar-
relled gun shoot a little in — that is, the right
barrel shoots a little to the left, and the left
barrel a little to the right. If some guns do this,
270 FIELD SHOOTING.
they ought not to perform so. Good guns do not,
I would not have a gun which shot in. It is wrong
in principle, ^
At a quail flying fast across at twenty yards
hold twelve inches ahead of the bird. Some-
times in quail-shooting a bevy put up by an-
other sportsman near at hand will come by a
shooter, crossing at immense speed thirty or forty
yards off, perhaps more, hi such a case hold
three feet ahead of the bird you shoot at, 1
have often done so, and killed him. At ruffed
grouse and woodcock in cover, and at pinnated
grouse and quail in corn, snap-shots must be
made. The sportsman must shoot at the glimpse
of the bird, and, if he sees that it is crossing, a
little in advance of it. A little will do in most
cases, because the birds are hardly seen far off
in thick cover or in corn. For snap-shooting of
this sort a good-fitting gun is an absolute neces-
sity, so that when it is tossed up it will come
slap to the shoulder.
In duck-shooting, at the morning flights, when
they are overhead and from thirty to forty yards
in the air, hold from fifteen inches to two feet
ahead of the bird you aim at, according to the
rapidity at which it is moving. Great judgment
THE ART OF SHOOTING ON THE WING. 271
is to be exercised, and much practice is neces-
sary to attain it. There is always a certain space
of time between the aim and the arrival of the
shot at the mark ; and if the mark is moving
across the muzzle of the gun, allowance must be
made for it. Birds overhead are always crossing
the muzzle of the gun, unless they see the shooter
and tower up. After the taking of the aim,
though ever so little after, the trigger has to be
pulled, the hammer has to fall, the powder has
to be ignited, and the shot to be propelled to
the object shot at. Now, I often noticed that
in shooting at the leading duck of a flock pass-
ing overhead which did not see me, and tower,
I missed the one I shot at, and killed another
one two feet behind the one which led the van
and was aimed at. This made me resolv^e to hold
more forward than I had been doing. Pintails
"and teal fly faster than mallards, and a little more
allowance in taking aim will be good, I have seen
a pintail killed which was three feet behind the
duck shot at, and this more than once.
Wild geese and crane are slow flyers, and at
these all that is necessary is to aim at the head, be-
hind which there is the large body. But in shoot-
ing at wild geese and crane with large shot, and
272 FIELD SHOOTING.
making a long shot, the shooter had better hold a
little forward of the head of the bird. In windy
weather the shot deflects somewhat from the
straight course, and flies off" a little to leeward. Al-
lowance must be made for this, especially by those
who use light charges of powder.
As to distance, there is this to be observed : al-
though wild geese and ducks are almost always
further off" than they are supposed to be, they will
be killed easily enough with a good gun and a
proper charge, provided the gun is held right. I
have often killed ducks and brant geese which
were sixty yards off", and a few which were not
less than a hundred. But there is no certainty of
killing birds at more than forty yards, owing to
the spread of the shot as it flies in diverging lines
from the muzzle of the gun; and twice as many
are killed at twenty-five yards and under as there
are at over that distance, I have heard men boast
of killing all the pinnated grouse they shot at
within a hundred yards, and I immediately con-
cluded that this might be true if they never shot
grouse at any distance. It is like the story of the
man who declared that his horse could run less
than a mile a minute, whereupon an Irish jockey
exclaimed : " That's a d — d lie ! "
THE ART OF SHOOTING ON THE WING. 273
I did once kill a pinnated grouse at ninety-
five yards, but it was by a chance shot. I and
Miles Johnson, of New Jersey, were shooting in
McLean County with No. 7 shot. A pack of
grouse got up together, of which he killed two
and I killed two. One of the others circled
round a long way off, and 1 slipped in another
cartridge. The bird presented a long side shot,
flying fast. 1 held as much as six feet ahead
of him, and let fly. One of the shot happened
to hit him in the head, and down he came with
a heavy thud. Johnson stepped the ground from
where 1 fired, and made it ninety-five yards to
the dead grouse. It must have been as far off
whon the single shot killed it, for it fell perpen-
dicularly, there being next to no wind. It was
all a matter of chance. I had no expectation of
killing the bird when 1 fired, and might shoot
fifty times under the like circumstances without
killing once.
1 have recently visited the shot-tower of Tatham
Brothers, and that of Thos. Otis Le Roy & Co.
Tiie shot made at these towers is excellent. The
latter is made according to the American stand-
iii-d adopted by the New York Sportsman's As-
sociation, which is as follows:
274 FIELD SHOOTING.
Scale. Number of Pellets
Diameter in Inches. Number. to an ounce.
iV-o TT . . . . 33
-i*,fo T 38
-i»t?,- BBB .... 44
-h% BE ... . 49
Vife B 58
■f,fe 1 69
Tfftr .....3 83
iVir 3 98
ftJV 4 131
T^fo- 5 149
iihs 6 309
-.^0% 7 378
-rh 8 375
T^ 9 560
riv 10 833
T§7 11 ..... . 983
rh 13 1,778 •
In reference to cartridge-cases, which I have had
occasion to mention often, I shall here quote
from the circular of the Union Metallic Cartiidge
Company, Bridgeport, Conn., for the information
of sportsmen :
"Special attention is called to the Sturtevant
Patent Movable Anvil. By the use of these
anvils in metallic shells certainty of fire is se-
cured, and the exploded caps are easily pushed
THE ART OF SHOOTING ON THE WING. 275
off without the necessity of any special instru-
ment. The rod which is used for pressing down
the wads in loading the shells will also answer
for pushing off the exploded caps. These shells
are intended to use the breech-loading shell-caps
of our own make, or the English caps, such as
used in Eley's paper shells, but in case of ne-
cessity the ordinary ' G. D.' caps may be used.
These shells are made to fit the standard gauges
used by the principal gun-makers of England,
are sure to fit the chambers of the guns, and
will stand reloading a great many times.
"The Sturtevant patent shells can be purchased
of or ordered from any dealer in ammunition.
Also metallic shells for shot-guns having the
Berdan patent anvils, Nos. 1 and 2, and both
metallic and paper shells with the Hobbs and
Orcutt patent primers, which have the anvils
secured in the caps."
CHAPTER XV.
SPORTING DOGS BREEDING AND BREAKING.
In my time I have bred and broken many
dogs for the sports of the field, and always with
a view to simple utility in the field. I think I
have had some of the best dogs that a man ever
shot over, and my system of breaking has always
answered my purpose well ; but I do not pretend
to be a dog-breaker in regard to the particulars
which many sportsmen hold to be necessary, but
which 1 do not regard as essential in the light
of my own experience. Therefore what I am
about to say on this point is more for those
who keep a dog or two of their own than for
adepts in breaking dogs, or gentlemen who can.
afford to pay high prices in order to secure the
results of high education in their pointers and
setters. 1 propose to state on this subject what I
know, and to mention some few facts in regard
to dogs which I have bred, broken, and shot
over which may serve to point the matter.
For the prairie country, where, as 1 believe, the
Sfr6
SPORTIITG DOGS — BREEDING AKD BREAKING. 277
best shooting within a thousand miles of the Atlantic
seaboard is to be had, the setter is probably to
be preferred. There are, however, several weighty
matters which tell in favor of the pointer. The
latter stands heat better than the setter, and
there are many hot days in September, and even
in October. Some think the pointer stands thirst
better than the setter, but the truth is that both
want water every hour and a half or two hours.
The defects of the pointer for the prairie arc
his thin skin and tender feet. In the fall of the
year the prairie-grass has a beard which cuts
into skin or leather. Shoot in a pair of new
boots, and the toes will be cut through in about
ten days or a fortnight, or in less time, if you
go into the dry grass much while the leather is
still wet. Consequently, as the skin of the pointer
is not protected by a thick coat of wiry hair,
like that of the best and hardiest setters, it is
cut on the legs, flanks, sides, and the inside of
the thighs. The feet are also cut and lamed.
On the other hand, the long, thick coat of the
setter gets full of cocKle-burrs in those old fields
in which game is often found, and they cause
him a vast amount of trouble and annoyance.
About one-fourth of the time in such fields the
278 FIELD SHOOTING.
setter is trying to free himself from the burrs,
and at night, if they are not carefully picked
out of his coat by his master, he gets no rest,
and is nearly useless the next day. Sportsmen
who shoot over setters should always take care
that they are freed from burrs in the evening.
If they do not, their dogs will be miserable all
night, and not fit for use in the morning, when
the prime of the sport is to be had. I have
had capital setters, and I must say that I have
had and seen pointers in the field which were
equally good, subject to the drawbacks I have
mentioned above in regard to each.
Good dogs of both kinds have fine scenting
powers, and the setters, so far as my experience
goes, are as much under control as pointers when
worked by men who know their business. Set-
ters take to retrieving in water much better than
pointers, and on the whole, as I remarked before,
the setter is the best dog for our part of the
country. When the skin of the pointer is cut
by the prairie-grass and rough weeds, and the
tops of his toes are raw, he comes out in the
morning so stiff and sore that he is hardly able
to hobble along at first. The dog's ambition car-
ries him on, however, and he gets more limber
SPORTING DOGS BREEDING AND BREAKING. 279
after a while. But even then the flies settle on
the sores and annoy him very much.
When Miles Johnson came out to Illinois to
shoot "with me, he had four as nice pointers as I
ever saw, while I had one cross-bred dog between
the pointer and the setter which he said did not
look to be worth ten dollars. But the pointers,
though used by turns, soon got sore, and, in order
to make frequent changes, he had to take them
out when they were hardly fit to go. My cross-
bred dog, on the contrary, was at work every day
and never tired, so that Miles said many gentlemen
in the East, if they saw his style of hunting, his
staunchness, and the game and bottom he dis-
played, would give five hundred dollars for him.
I have bred and used cross-bred dogs for years,
and for the Western country, all sorts of work
in the field or cover, long days and many days in
succession, I hold them to be the best of dogs.
I like to put a pointer-dog, well bred and good
in the field, to a setter-bitch of the same excel-
lent qualities, or a setter-dog to a pointer-bitch ; it
mak^s no difference, that I could ever see, which side
the pointer-blood was, though some have a theory
that it does. Nor does it matter what the colors
of the parents are. From a black setter-dog and
280 FIELD SIIOOTINO.
a white pointer-bitch I bred a litter of livor-
colored pups which became first-rate dogs.
.Some of the cross-bred dogs take after the
setter, and some after the pointer, in shape
and coat, in the same litter. On the whole,
I prefer those which follow the pointer. They
have a short but thick coat and a tough skin,
while the hair is not long enough to catch
hold of the cockle-burrs. Both kinds are hearty,
strong dogs, with good constitutions and capable
of great endurance. As a rule, they are inclined
to be headstrong and are difficult to break, but
when they are broken and have learned their
business they make first-rate dogs and hardly
ever tire.
Those cross-bred dogs which take after the
pointer look like pointers, and many men think
they are pointers ; bat they have much better feet,
and their legs and bodies are covered and well pro-
tected by thick but short hair. I have foimd
them good, tough dogs, capable of standing more
hard work than either pointers or setters, as a
rule. Those which take after the setter have more
power than setters, and great bone and substance.
Their hair is not as long as the setter's, but it
is thicker. Both kinds are as good for water
SPORTING DOGS BREEDING AND BREAKING. 281
and cold weather as need be. They have had
plenty of both in my service, and I know the
fact.
Another thing is that a timid dog is ' a rare
exception among these cross-bred dogs. A timid
dog gives immense trouble to breakers, and is,
,to my thinking, little better than a nuisance. A
ipan must have great patience and forbearance
to make much of timid dogs. If he corrects
their faults, they are cowed at once, and slink
behind his heels. The cross-bred dog, bold, high-
headed, and eager, will run riot at first, but
they can be educated and made to understand
and perform their duties. They will stand punish-
ment, and, in fact, cannot be broken without it ;
but when they are once well broken, they never
forget what they have been taught to do or what to
refrain from doing. As before remarked, I prefer
those which follow the pointer in shape and coat,
but I have had some which took after the setter,
and were as nearly perfect as dogs could be. I
think the best dog I ever had was one of these ;
at any rate she was esteemed by me as worth
her weight in gold.
Fanny was the produce of a pure-bred lemon
and white setter-bitch, and a pure-bred liver-
282 FIELD SHOOTING.
colored pointer-dog. She took after her mother
in shape and coat, but was larger and stronger,
and was liver and white in color. She was of
good size and strong. Her coat was thick
and not as long as her mother's, and she had
but a little feather on the legs. She had splen-
did scenting powers, was easily broken, was good
for every sort of shooting, and the best retriever
I ever saw. In retrieving pinnated grouse or
quail, if she came upon the scent of other birds
while bringing in the game, she would point and
stand staunch with the dead one in her mouth,
or even with a winged one that was fluttering.
It is thought by some that a dog ought not to
do this. I know that very few will do it with
the winged bird, but I like it.
Fanny would work from daybreak until dark,
and willingly. I shot over her seven seasons, and
never knew her to " refuse " but twice, and on one
of these occasions it was my fault, not hers.
I killed thousands of birds over her, and broke
many young dogs in her company. As a re-
triever of water-fowl I never saw her equal.
She would cheerfully go in and bring ducks out
of the water when ice froze in her hair as soon
as she landed. It was in such weather that I
SPORTING DOGS BREEDING AND BREAKING. 283
fell into a great error, and caused her to refuse
her work one time.
One very cold day I was shooting ducks on
Salt Creek, and creeping up got a shot at a flock
of mallards sitting on the water. It was a very
large flock. One barrel was fired while they were
on the water, the other as they rose. Eight were
killed and five others winged. Fanny retrieved
the dead ones, while the wounded swam to the
other side of the creek and hid on the bank. She
went to the other side, but the ice had now formed
in her coat, and, being very cold, she sat down. I
called her over to me and corrected her, after which
she crossed and recrossed three times, and brought
three more. She then wanted to give it up, and I
had half a mind to let her do so ; but there were
two more ducks wounded, and if not brought they
would die of slow starvation, so 1 required her to
fetch them, which she did. It was a very hard
task in such cold weather, and 1 was sorry to
punish her ; but it shows what this sort of dog can
do when an emergency requires much strength and
I'ndurance. She was a very sagacious and affec-
tionate bitch, and a great favorite in the house at
home.
It is not good for a dog to be long in the water
284 FIELD SHOOTING.
in very cold weather. Fetching out one or two
ducks does no harm, and good ones like it ; but to
be long in the "water at such times is very try-
ing. I never afterwards suffered Fanny to do
more in that line than she could perform without
injury.
Sometimes when going pinnated-grouse shoot-
ing, and passing along in my wagon early in the
morning, I would have a chance to shoot one.
On these occasions she would jump out, retrieve
it, and jump back into the wagon with the bird
in her mouth. If I drove for grouse in ploughed
land or in grass-fields that had been mowed,
with Fanny in the back of the wagon, she
would, on seeing the birds, point from the wagon,
and maintain her point all the while as I drove
on to get within shot. One time, when going out
for grouse to the Delavan Prairie, Fanny, went
into a corn-field at the edge of the timber, and
I, paying no attention, drove on. Finding that
she Avas not following, I pulled up, after having
gone a considerable distance, and whistled for her.
She stayed a long time, but came at last, bring-
ing with her a wild turkey three parts grown.
1 had recently had her out when turkey-shoot-
ing, and she was the best dog 1 ever saw to
SPORTING DOGS BREEDING AND BREAKING. 285
point a wild turkey. I have no doubt she stood
at that turkey a long time, and only went in to
catch it herself when called off. She could soon
understand what I was after. If rabbit-shooting,
she would stand and retrieve them, and, if not,
she would not notice them.
Once, shooting pinnated grouse when they were
wild, I found there was a flock on a fence two or
three hundred yards off. I had a muzzle-loader,
and hanging my shot-belt and powder-flask on the
fence, I crawled up so as to be within shot when
the grouse flew. I killed one, and winged another
with the second barrel. In retrieving the wounded
one Fanny winded a bevy of quail, and stood hard
with the winged grouse fluttering in her mouth.
The quail were twenty yards off from her in some
corn, but nevertheless she stood hard and fast with
the grouse fluttering in her mouth, while I went back
two hundred yards for the powder and shot, loaded,
and returned. I then took the grouse from her,
whereupon she flushed the quail, and I killed a
brace. This was one of the greatest things I have
ever known a dog to do. The grouse was alive
and fluttering; with a dead bird in her mouth the
performance would not have been so very remarka-
ble.
280 FIELD SHOOTING.
Fanny khew no fancy tricks, and would not
fetch and carry out of the field. I have never
taught my dogs out of the field. In the field no
dog ever beat her. Her quick perception and
sense were extraordinary. She seemed to imder-
stand what was wanted. If ducks in a pond were
to be crawled up to, she would lie down as I
started, and stay there imtil she heard the crack
of the gun. If I laid anything down and told her
to watch it, she always remained until I returned.
If I had stayed away all day, or two days for that
nuxtter, she would not have left her post.
I have known dogs that could not be called
off a point; but they were those which had been
broken not to flush their game, leaving that to
the shooter. An English gentleman came to Elk-
hart from St. Louis, with whom I went shooting
nearly every day during his visit. He had a pair
of splendid pointers, as fine as I ever saw — large,
strong dogs with long heads. One of them was
black, the other red. When the black dog would
get on a point in corn, he would not leave it
until either his master or some other man flushed
the birds. The consequence was that we often
had to go in and find him, and I have fre-
quently been half an hour in searching for him.
SPORTING DOGS BREEDING AND BREAKING. 287
That style of breaking may suit England well
enough — no doubt it does ; but in the prairie States
it does not answer the purpose. The red dog was
not so obstinately staunch. After standing his
birds a good while he would flush them himself,
and then come in sight of us. One day I was
prevented from shooting, and the gentleman came
back at night without the black dog. He had
lost him at dusk in a piece of prairie where the
grass was tall. I saw the gentleman that night,
and told him my opinion was that his pointer
was in that piece of prairie, standing birds. At
break of day the sportsman went out to the
place, and there he found the dog, not standing
up on his point — he was too tired for that — but
sitting on his haunches. The grouse still lay to
him, and the gentleman flushed it and shot it.
This was his report to me. 1 saw him come in
the previous night without the black dog, I saw
him bring him home in the next forenoon, and 1
have no reason to doubt his veracity.
My famous Fanny died at work, as I may say.
I was out with her one afternoon when there
was good shooting, and finding that she did
not want to continue at work, I put her into my
wagon, and drove home. She did not appear to
288 FIELD SHOOTINO.
be in pain ; but as she had been in apparent good
health in the morning, and had hunted with alacrity
all the forenoon, 1 did not know what to make of
it. She seenmed to lose her strength, and yet I
eould not see any signs of her having been bitten
by a poisonous snake or the like. In fact, I did
not believe that she was seriously ill, and, having
made up her bed nicely, 1 concluded she would be
better in the morning. Bot that night she died, at
nine o'clock. Fifteen minutes before her death she
got up on her legs and looked at me very ear-
nestly, as though she wanted to make me under-
stand something. She then lay down again, and
in fifteen minutes died easily. I had never left
her after I brought her home, and her death was
the cause of much grief in the family. It was al-
most as if we had lost one of the children. I do
not know what her ailment was, but believe that
she had an internal abscess, the bursting of which
caused her death.
The best age to begin the breaking of a dog is
about a year, in my judgment. At eight or nine
months old it is well enough to take a puppy
out to the field in a wagon, and let it work a
little with an old dog. Care must be taken that
young ones do not work much in the hot sun,
SPORTING DOGS BREEDING AND BREAKING. 289
for if they do there is an end to all reasonable
hopes of their usefulness. They are spoiled for
ever. What they are taught about a house or a
yard is merely mechanical, in my opinion, and of
very little service afterwards in the field. The
field, where there are birds, is the place to break
dogs, and puppies are too playful and too soft for
the real breaking. At about a year old the dog
is of an age to understand what is wanted of him
in a short time, and also fit to endure the correc-
tion which will be required to make him avoid
faults. It is better to begin with the young one
in company with an old, staunch dog, as young
dogs are imitative.
Some come to a point the first time they get ,
on birds, but some do not, although their power
of scenting may be very good. Some, when the
old one points, run in, flush the birds, and then
chase them. Many men think this grievous, but
I invariably look upon it as a sign that the dog
will make a good one, if properly handled and
treated. Eagerness in the young dog indicates
that the hunting instinct is strong, and then it only
remains necessary to develop and govern it hi
the proper way. Some young dogs point larks
and other little birds, and some men abhor this,
290 FIELD SHOOTING.
but I like it. It indicates a good nose and the
instinct to stand at point when the dog finds, and
these are two of the main qualities upon which
the future excellence of the youngster will depend.
The best dogs I have ever had would point little
birds around our house when puppies. The in-
stinct of a young, unbroken dog does not instruct
him as to what is game and what is not. They
learn that in breaking and in after-use.
When a young dog runs m eagerly, there is no
need to be harsh with him at first. It will be
very easy to break him of that, and to make him
comprehend that he is not to repeat it. My plan
is to get young dogs eager after game, and then
instruct them as to the method by which it is to
be pursued and killed. Therefore I let them run
in and chase a few times. The worst dogs to
break are timid ones, which do not take much
notice of birds, and are easily cowed. With these
the utmost care and patience are required. With
eager dogs after a little while I endeavor to make
them understand that they are not to run in when
the old dog points, but to back him. If they run
in, then I whip them a little. If they persist in
doing so after that correction, I take another
method. Severe whipping does not answer the
SPORTING DOGS BREEDING AND BREAKING. 291
purpose for which it is intended. After being
whipped once, the dog runs off when he finds he
is likely to be whipped again. By the time he
is caught and whipped again he has forgotten all
about the original fault. Now, there is an effec-
tual way to punish a fault at almost the moment
of its commission, and thus to cure him of it
without half the punishment of severe whipping.
I load one barrel with very small shot. No. 10.
When the dog has had one or two warnings, and
rushes in again as the old dog stands at point, I
call " steady " in a loud, authoritative tone of
voice. Then if he keeps on, flushes the birds,
and chases them, I just give him some of the
No. 10 on the quarters. Pie will be at a good
distance off, and the small shot will sting him
sharply through his hair, but will not penetrate
his tough skin. The dog knows in a moment what
this is for. One lesson is generally enough, and
the second is always effectual. A man might
almost flay the hide off of some bold, headstrong
dog with whips without breaking the dog to
good purpose. My method obviates the necessity
for a great deal of punishment with the whip, and
is not really severe. A dog, however, should
never be shot at with larger shot than No. 10,
292 FIELD SHOOTING.
and never when ho ij not at the very least forty
yards from the gun.
If a timid dog runs in and chases birds after
they are flushed, let him do so for days without
whipping him or shooting at him. The thing
for him is encouragement to pursue game in any
manner at first ; and if he is whipped, he slinks
behind his master's heels. Therefore his con-
fidence must bo increased and his instinct to
hunt somewhat developed before he is taken in
hand for his faults. On the other hand, the
bold, headstrong dog, not easily cowed, may be
quickly brought to terms. I do not teach my
dogs to drop to shot, or down-charge, but I
educate them to stand where they are when the
gun is fired until told to go on. I can see no
use in their dropping. The man remains stand-
ing, why not the dog? And besides, in hot
weather, where the grass is long and the weeds
tall and thick, it is injurious to the dog to lie
doAVTi, because he gets less air than he does on
his legs. I think dropping to shot and down-
charging better dispensed with in these days of
breech-loaders; still, I do not mean to set up as
an authority on dog-breaking — I simply give the
results of my own experience and observations.
SPORTING DOGS BREEDING AND BREAKING. 293
One of the best dogs I ever owned was a red
setter, named Jack, a large, strong, upheaded
dog. I bred him myself, and sold him when a
pup to a butcher. With plenty to eat and no-
thing to do he grew up big, and was always
fat. The butcher had him until he was two
years old, and thought a good deal of him,
though he never used him in the field or any-
where else, except as a watch-dog and to follow
his meat-wagon. The butcher died when Jack
was two years old, and I bought him of the
widow. He was entirely unbroken when I took
him out with a steady old dog. The latter got
a point, and thereupon Jack ran in, flushed the
birds, and chased them. After he had gone
forty or fifty yards I hallooed at him, but he
did not notice it. I knew what he would do,
as his parents were both high-headed, bold-rang-
ing dogs, and he was given to riotous frolicking
and full of pluck. I had loaded both barrels of
my gun expressly for his benefit, and now shot
at him. The distance was rather long, but he
M^as well stung. Nevertheless, he did not mind
it, and kept on. Thereupon I let him have the
other barrel, upon which he came back. At the
next point at pinnated grouse in prairie-grass
294 FIELD SHOOTING.
Jack ran in again. I hallooed, but he kept on,
and again I shot at him ; then he came back.
Once again he started to run in, but upon my
hallooing " Steady ! " he halted, and backed the
point of the old dog. This was the first point
he ever made in his life, and he hardly knew
whether it was right or not. I went up and
petted him, upon which he give indications that
he understood what he was wanted to do. From
that out he backed the old dog well. He was a
little eager afterwards, but upon the whole 1
consider him to have been the easiest-broken
dog that I ever handled.
He took to retrieving, and was a rare good one
at it; in duck-shooting, one of the best I ever
had. In retrieving ducks he went at a gallop,
swam as fast as he could, and brought in the
dead at his best pace. There was no loafing
about or slow walking with the duck in his
mouth in his way of doing the work. A slow
retriever for ducks is not good. While he is
fooling about a flock or two of ducks, seeing
him, sheer oflf, and the shooter loses chances
which he might improve. When retrieving grouse
or quail, Jack would point live birds with a
dead cue in his • mouth. He was very eager to
SPORTING DOGS BREEDING AND BREAKING. 295
have the gun kill, and at length appeared to
think that I must have killed something every
time 1 fired a shot. This uncommon eagerness
and resolution of his gave rise to a ludicrous
incident.
I was going with another man to shoot grouse
late in the fall, and we had Jack and two other
dogs in the wagon. A flock of brant were upon
the prairie, and though they rose far off, we fired,
but did not kill. Jack jumped out, and seemed
to think it impossible that there was nothing killed
or wounded. About that part of the prairie there
were some poor, lean sheep suflfering from foot-rot.
Upon one of the smallest of these little sheep
Jack seized, and began hauling it towards the wagon.
I thought my partner would almost die of laugh-
ing. I made Jack leave the sheep and come into
the wagon again.
I afterwards sold this dog to Benjamin
McQueston, a gentleman who then lived at Spring-
field, Illinois, but who now lives somewhere in
Kansas, where he still has Jack. I ought not to
have parted with the dog, but Mr. McQueston
was very anxious to get him, and paid a good
price, for our part of the country. The Avay of
it was this : Four of us, including the gentleman
296 FIELD SHOOTING.
mentioned, had been out shooting, and were re-
turning along the road with a wagon and team.
Jack had performed a good day's work, but was
still full of spirit and vigor, anxious to hunt.
As we drove along, he jumped on a rail-fence to
leap down into the field on the other side, and
right there he winded a bevy of quail. With
his fore-feet on the top rail and his hind ones
on the second Jack came to a dead point, and
made as pretty a one as was possible in the
position. Thereupon Mr. McQueston resolved to
have him, if I could be prevailed upon to sell.
There is not a dog in the country 1 would prefer
to Jack to breed from.
The best dog I have now is Dick, eight
years old and cross-bred, being the produce of a
setter-bitch and a pointer-dog. His color is red,
and he takes after the setter, but has thicker
and shorter hair. , He is a capital worker, and
an excellent dog for finding game. I did not
breed him myself, but I broke him, he being two
years old when I got him. He had been used
in the field a little, but was worse than if he had
never been out at all. I found him a high-headed,
eager, headstrong dog, such as I always think
will make a good one. I brought him into the
SPORTING DOGS BREEDING AND BREAKING. 297
proper way of working by stinging him with
shot once or twice when he was going on wrong.
He is now an excellent dog. I do not teach my
dogs to retrieve, but let them take it up of their
own accord from seeing my old dogs do it.
About half learn to retrieve in that way. They
could all be taught to do so easily enough.
The most thorough dog-breaker I know is Miles
Johnson, of Yardville, New Jersey. He has a
capital place to keep dogs, and is a perfect master of
the art of breaking them, retrieving, and everything
else which may be thought desirable. I recently
saw at his place a liver and white setter which
he has broken to do almost anything. This is the
most perfectly-educated sporting dog I ever saw ;
and if gentlemen want their dogs educated in this
way, Johnson is the man to do it.
My method is very serviceable, and includes
all that I deem essential, but many would want
more to be done with them. There is one thing
sportsmen should always persevere in, and that
is, making the dog perform what he undertakes
to make him do. 1 never let a dog evade doing
what 1 have set out to make lilm do. Your dog^
mu.;t 1)3 made to understand clearly that you are
the master, and that your will h to rule their in-
298 FIELD SHOOTINa.
clinations. When Fanny was young and a pretty
good dog, retrieving grouse very nicely, on one
hot morning she refused to find and bring in a
grouse I had shot. She ran for the corn, where-
upon I fired over her and stung her with two or
three straggling shot. She kept on, however, and
bolted for home, some four miles distant. I knew
that would never do, and, jumping into my buggy,
I drove off and got there before she did. When
she came jogging on, she seemed astounded at see-
ing me there. I gave her a few cuts with the
whip, and took her back to the place where she
had misbehaved, upon which she found the dead
bird, and brought it in. If I had passed that over,
she would have gone off again on some day when
she was more inclined for rest than work. When
a dog runs off instead of doing what he is required
to do, bring him back to the same place, no mat-
ter at what trouble, and compel him to perform it.
If young sportsmen neglect this, and go on their
way rather than lose a little time, their dogs will
find it out, and do pretty much as they like. It is
this which causes many dogs which have really
been well broken to turn out to be rascals in
their owners' hands.
Cross-bred dogs are seldom good beyond the
SPORTING DOGS BREEDING AND BREAKING. 299
first cross, though some bred from mine and the
Scotch sheep-dog have turned out very well. But
the sheep-dog has a fine nose and amazing sagacity,
with a grand capacity to receive education and
retain its fruits.
The first dogs I shot over were cocking-spaniels,
and I do not believe they had any breaking at all.
I recently visited the neighborhood in which 1
learned to shoot on the wing, and the fine farm
of Mr. Jeremiah Rundell, at Stockport, on the
Hudson River, over which I used to shoot. With
him and his family I ate some splendid apples,
the produce of an orchard whose trees I helped
to plant eighteen years ago.
CHAPTER XVI.
PIGKON-SHOOTINO.
[ BEGAN to shoot pigeons in 1868, when I had
b<en a field-shot for more than eighteen years. 1
had often been invited to go and witness contests
of the kind, but cared nothing for them, and up
to 1868 had never seen a pigeon-trap. The first
public pigeon-shooting into which I entered was
a series of sweepstakes at St. Louis. I had some
success ; so much, in foct, that R. M. Patchen,
who was with me, forthwith made a match, in
which I was to shoot against Gough Stanton of
Detroit for $200 a side. Expenses were to be
paid to whomever travelled to the other, and he
came to Elkhart. The match was fifty birds each.
He brought with him a plunge trap, the first I
had ever seen of that character. However, I con-
sented to the use of it, and won by killing forty-
six to his forty. I was then just about as good
a shot at pigeons as I am now, except that I was
anxious about the money, and sometimes missed
owing to that.
800
The Champion MedaL
PIGEON-SHOOTING. 801
I next shot against Abraham Kleinman. John
Thomson, a stockman of Elkhart, made the match
on my part. It was for $200 a side, fifty birds
each from a spring-trap. There was a dispute
about the quantity of shot to be used, he con-
tending that it was to be limited to an ounce.
We made a sort of compromise, by which I was
to pull my own trap, while he was allowed a
man to pull for him. The match was trap and
handle for each other. He had an old trapper
named Farnsworth to do this on his part, while
my man, as afterwards appeared, did not know
an old bird from a young one. Before we began
I offered to bet that I killed forty-six out of
fifty. This wager was eagerly accepted by
Farnsworth, who wanted to bet a larger sum
on the point. Kleinman killed forty-nine and
I killed forty-six. I told Kleinman that I
could and would beat him before long, and went
home to practise in the field. I challenged him
for the championship of Illinois, and we shot
for 1200 a side, at fifty single birds and twenty-
five pairs of double birds each — the single
birds ground-trap, the doubles plunge-traps. Of
the single birds 1 killed forty-three to Klein-
man's forty-two. At the doubles we killed forty-
302 TRAP SHOOTING.
three each. It was at Chioago in 1868. Soon
after I shot with another man two or three
times, and won ; but I shall not mention his
name in this book, for sufficient reasons.
The next match I took up with Abraham
Kleinman was rather singular in character. It
was at single and double birds. I was to shoot
from a buggy at twenty-one yards, the horse
to be on a trot or run when the trap was
pulled. Kleinman shot from the ground at twenty-
five yards. I won it. I afterwards shot two
other matches on these conditions, one with King
at Springfield, and one with Henry Conderman
at Decatur. Of these I lost one, and won the
other. My shooting fi-om a buggy at plover,
grouse, and geese had made me very quick and
effective.
In the spring of 1869 R. M. Patchen made
a match, in which I was backed to kill five hun-
dred pigeons in six hundred and forty-five min-
utes, with one gun, at Chicago. 1 was to load
my own gun, and the stakes were $1,000 a side.
There were heavy outside bets that I could not
do it. I won the match, however, in eight hours
forty-eight minutes, and thus had one hour fifty-seven
minutes to spare. In the third hundred pigeons
PIGEON-SHOOTING. 303
1 killed seventy-five in consecutive shots. In the
last one hundred and five birds I scored one
hundred ; and in the seventh hour killed ninety-
five. I shot with a muzzle-loader. It was twenty-
one yards rise and fifty bounds. Before this
match came off" I had, in practice, killed five
hundred birds in five hours and seven minutes;
but then I used two guns, and had a man
to clean them, though I loaded them myself.
I missed thirty-four out of the whole number
shot at.
I was next matched to kill a hundred consecu-
tive birds at Chicago in July, 1869; 81,000 to
$100 that I could not do it, and three matches to
be shot if I failed in the first and second. In
the first I had killed thirty when the lock of
my gun broke, and being obliged to borrow one
which was a poor article, I lost. On the 21st of
the month I tried it again, and won. At De-
troit in the same season I undertook to kill
forty birds in forty minutes, to load my own
gun, and gather my own birds. I killed fifty-
three in twenty minutes forty seconds, and won.
In the foil of 1869 I shot a match for $1,000
a side against King at Chicago. It was fifty
single birds and fifty pairs of double birds, mak-
304 TRAP 8H00TINO.
ing one hundred and fifty each, plunge-traps,
twenty-one yards rise. I killed all my single
birds. Mr. King killed forty-one of his. I killed
eighty -five of my double birds, Mr. King seventy-
five of his.
I shot and won a great many matches which
I need not mention here. In 1870, Mr. Nathan
Doxie challenged any man in Illinois to go to
his place and shoot against him for $100 at
twenty-five birds. 1 went there and killed twen-
ty-two to his twenty-one. At the Chicago tourna-
ment I killed ten straight at twenty-one yards,
as did several others. Under the conditions we
went back to twenty-six yards to shoot the ties
off" at five birds each. Mr. G. K. Fayette, of
Toledo, Ohio, and I tied four times more at this
distance, killing all our birds. I then killed five
more, making twenty-five consecutive birds at
twenty-six yards. Mr. Fayette killed four of his
last five, but missed the fifth, so I won. Later
on I shot against Mr. J. J. Kleinman, of Chicago,
at five traps, fifty birds, mine at twenty-eight
yards rise, his at twenty -five. I won, and in the
course of the match killed thirty-three consecu-
tive birds.
At Detroit, in the fall of 1870, I shot my
PIGEON-SHOOTING. 305
first match with Ira Paine, of New York, for
$500 a side. It was a hundred birds each, twen-
ty-one yards rise, eighty bounds, half from ground-
traps, half from plunge-traps. We shot from the
ground-traps first. When we had each shot at
seventy birds, I was seven ahead, and night was
coming on, so Paine gave it up. At that time
he held the champion badge, and exhibited it to us
at Detroit, whereupon Doxie told him to make
much of it, for that I would go to New York to
shoot for it and bring it away. 1 soon after
challenged for it, and on the twenty-fifth of
January, 1871, we shot for it at the house and
grounds formerly kept by Hiram Woodruff, on
Long Island. Paine killed eighty-eight birds to
my eighty-five, and retained the badge. I used a
breech-loader in that match. We then agreed to
shoot at one hundred birds each, ground-traps,
for six consecutive days, the stake each day $500,
and either party refusing to go on to the end
of the sixth match to forfeit $100. On the first
day I killed eighty to Paine's sixty-two, and then
he paid forfeit rather than go on ; but he backed
John Taylor against me at fifteen single birds
and ten pairs of double birds, twenty-one yards
rise, one ounce of shot. I killed fourteen of the
306 TRAP SHOOTING.
single birds; Mr, Taylor killed nine. 1 shot at
eight pairs of double birds, and killed twelve-
he at nine pairs, and killed ten, and then gave
up.
On that same visit to New York 1 was backed
to kill forty-five out of fifty, with leave to place
the trap as 1 pleased. The arrangement of the
trap was objected to by Mr. Robinson's umpire,
because it was so contrived that it would open
towards the shooter first. The referee decided
that the trap could not be so placed, and I
turned the trap and missed six out of ten,
and lost. Thereupon Mr. De Forrest offered to
bet $250 that 1 could not kill forty-five out of
fifty, and fix the trap my own way. It was not
a bad bet on his part, for the difference in the
mode of fixing the ground-trap is not a great
advantage to the shooter, and Mr. Robinson had
brought clipping-birds for me to shoot at. How-
ever, I scored forty -six, and won.
At Lincoln, Illinois, I shot against Abraham
Kleinman at one hundred birds each, one ounce
of shot, and each of us killed eighty-eight. We
had not birds there to shoot the tie off", so we
adjourned to meet at Chicago, where he killed
ninety-one and I killed ninety, losing by one bird.
PIGEON-SHOOTING. 307
With Ira Paine I have shot ten matches and won
eight.
One other match I shall mention here because
of its novelty. At Chicago I shot against four
of the best marksmen in Illinois. The gentlemen
opposed to me were Abraham Kleinman, Abner
Price, D, T. Elston, and Benjamin Burton. They
were selected to shoot in company at fifty birds
each, all they scored to form an aggregate, while
I was to shoot at two hundred birds. I won the
match by killing one hundred and seventy-eight
birds, while the four who contested it with me
shot exceedingly well themselves by scoring one
hundred and seventy-six.
It is proper that I should give here a few
hints to the members of new shooting-clubs, and
to some of those who belong to older institu-
tions, in order that they may not be placed
under disadvantages when they enter upon con-
tests of a public nature. Since I began to shoot
pigeons I have travelled a great deal, shot a
great deal, and observed the performances of
all sorts of men. The one great thing for new
clubs to observe is this : that in their shooting
at home, whether for practice or in contests
with each other, they should follow the rules
308 TRAP SHOOTING.
of pigeon-shooting, and not go on under loose,
lax methods. It is essential that the rule as to
holding the gun should be habitually complied
with — that is, the butt must be kept below the
elbow of the shooter until the bird is on the
wing. It is just as easy to conform to this
rule as not, provided it is done habitually and
constantly, and it will save a great deal of
trouble when public matches or sweepstakes are
engaged in. If it is not regarded at home in their
own clubs, the shooters will be certain to have birds
decided lost which they have killed, when shoot-
ing elsewhere, by reason of breach of this rule.
When several men are shooting at home, that
is the place to learn to shoot according to the
rules. If they are disregarded, the club and its
chosen marksmen will pay the penalty of their
neglect another day, when there will be a smart
to it.
Therefore I say it is better for members of
these clubs to pay for a few birds at home, by
enforcement of the rules, than to be beaten
elsewhere through having dead birds challenged
for improper holding of the gun. I have acted
as referee many times, and have seen numbers
of birds killed in such a manner that if an
PIGEON-SHOOTING. 309
appeal had been made, I should have been com-
pelled to decide against the shooters for having
brought up the gun to the shoulder too soon.
It is better to get used to holding the gun
well down. When the habit is formed, a man
can shoot as well that way as the other, and then
ha will not be bothered and confused by being
challenged under the rule in a strange place.
Conform to the rules at home, and it will be
easy to observe them abroad. Shooters need not
suppose that they will not be enforced in other
places because they have been accustomed to
disregard them at home.
When I first commenced pigeon-shooting, I
lost a match in consequence of having two birds
decided against me for holding the gun above
the elbow before the pigeons flew. Since then
I have always been careful to hold the gun
well down, in practice as well as in matches
and sweepstakes. Another thing to be noted is
this : in club-shooting, where eight or ten of the
members contend, the birds should be assorted —
Jhe old ones put into one basket and the young
ones into another ; and then they should be ap-
portioned to the shooters equally.* When the
old ones and the young are all mixed up, there
310 TRAP SHOOTTNO.
is an element of chance brought in. One man may
happen to get nearly all fast, driving birds, and
another all slow, easy ones. Now, that is nofc
the way to find out the best shooters. The
more the element of chance is admitted, the less
likely skill with the gun is to win. A fast^
driving bird is killed, but gets out of bounds,
A slow one is not hit half as well, but drops
inside, and is scored. But the man who lost
his bird really made the best shot.
If I had to make rules to govern pigeon-
shooting, I should establish a new principle by
sweeping away an old but mischievous rule. I
would adopt the Prairie Club rules of twenty-one
yards rise for siitglo birds, and eighteen for double
birds ; but I would da away the boundary limifc
altogether. If the shooter recovered his bird
within three minutes, he should count it, slibject,
of course, to the rules as to mode of recovery.
When a man makes a splendid shot at a fast,'
driving bird, and it falls dead just out of bounds, it
is decided against him by the arbitrary nature of
the rule mcrcjy, and not by the principles of rea-
son and sense. I have no individual interest to
promote by suggesting this change. I find my-
self excluded from about nine out of every ten
PIGEON-SHOOTING. 311
public contests by reason of my alleged superi-
ority, and really see but little or nothing left for
me to do save defend the championship.
Therefore what I advance is prompted solely
by considerations for the sport, for the benefit of
the clubs, and for the advancement and reward
of real skill. There is no other way of absolutely
determining which man is the best shot on the
day of the contest. I have often killed birds
which fell just out of bounds, riddled through and
through with shot, and 1 have seen other men do
the same. Birds hit like this, with seven or
eight shot in each, were lost by a few feet, some-
times by a few inches, and I contend that this
tape-line rule is against sense, and productive of
mischief. I have seen hundreds of birds lost under
the operation of it which were as well hit as any
birds could be, so far as the skill of the marks-
man can go. On the other hand, 1 have seen
easy, slow-going birds, just hit with one or two
pellets in the wing, recovered amongst much clap-
ping of hands and shouting by those who thought
they were applauding marksmanship.
Eecently the Buffalo gentlemen, in shooting for
the Dean Richmond Cup, had their chance jeopard-
ed at one time through three of Mr. Newoll's
312 TRAP SHOOTING.
birds, fast, driving ones, falling out of bounds,
though hit clean and well. And in my opinion
he made as good shots at them as at any that
he scored, if not better. Every pigeon-shootei* of
large experience knows that matches are some-
times lost by the man who shoots best, because
of his hard luck in having birds fall dead just
out of bounds. Now, there ought to be as little
chance for luck in contests of this nature as
may be possible to contrive.
I have many times killed every bird I shot at, but
some fell out of bounds. Now, if shooting is the
thing to be tested, I had as much right to these,
which were killed by the gun, as to those which
fell inside. At Omaha, last June, I shot at fifty
birds, twenty singles and fifteen pairs of doubles.
1 killed all the single birds, but lost one by rea-
son of its falling a little out of bounds. I scored
all the double birds, thus making forty-nine out
of fifty, and if it had not been for the senseless,
arbitrary rule in question, 1 should have scored
all the fifty.
The fair way to shoot pigeons, whether in clubs,
m^ches, or sweepstakes, is from II and T traps, no
matter whether ground, plunge, or spring traps.
In matches, the birds being in the traps, and the
PIGEON-SHOOTING. Sl0
shooter ready, the referee tosses up a coin. If
it comes head, the shooter takes the H trap and
his opponent the other. If it comes tail, the
effect is the reverse. In club-shooting and in
sweepstakes as many wads are numbered as there
are shooters. The referee places these in his
pocket, and after shaking them up pulls one out.
The man whose number on the list corresponds
to the number on the wad takes the bird in the
trap. That wad is then transferred to the other
pocket. After the shot another wad is drawn, and
so on until all have shot, when the wads will all
be in one pocket, and the same thing is to be
done imtil the shooting is at an end. By this
means all trickery and favoritism in selecting
birds for certain of the shooters is made impossible.
I shall now append the scores of the nine
championship matches by which the possession of
the badge has been determined. The rules under
which it was held and shot for will be given here-
after. It was required to be held for two years
against all comers before it became the property
of the holder. I have held it over three years
now, having put it up again last spring, when John
J. Kleinman shot against me for it at Joliet,
Illinois.
314 TRAP SHOOTING.
It was first shot for at Mark Rock, Rhode
Island, at thirty -five birds each ; entries : Miles L.
Johnson of New Jersey, Edward Tinker of Rhode
Island, Perry Aldridge of Rhode Island, Ira A.
Paine of New York, J. R. Brown of Buffalo, and
John Taylor of New Jersey. It came off" April 7,
1870, and was won by Johnson, the score being as
follows :
Johnson— 1 1011111110111111111011111
11111111 1—32.
TAYI.OR— 0 1100111111101111110111111
11111111 1—30.
Tinker— 1 1 111011101111111011010111
11111111 1—30.
Paine— 1 11110011011011110110111111
0 111111 1—28.
Brown — 1 1101111111110111111000110
0 1111011 1—27.
Aldridge— 1 111101110101001111111111
110111011 0—27.
Paine challenged Johnson, the holder of the
badge, and they shot at one hundred birds at
Fleetwood Park, New York, September 28, 1870.
Paine won as follows :
Paine— 1 11111111011111110110001111
111111110111111011111111110111111
0.1 1111111101111101111101111111101
101011 1—85.
PIGEON-SHOOTING. 315
JOHHSON — 1 101001111111100100001111
1111110100011101101111111 lllllllO
000111111111111101111110111111111
11111011 0-77.
Tinker challenged Paine, and they shot at Fleet-
wood Park, October 29, 1870. Paine won as fol-
lows :
Paine— 1 11111101111111111111100111
111111111111111111111111100111110
110110111111101101111011101110111
111101 1—86.
Tinker— 1 1011111101111110001101111
110101010110111111111101111111111
111110011011101111111111011111111
1101111 0—81.
A. H. Bogardus of Illinois challenged Paine,
and they shot at Hiram Woodruff's old place on
Long Island, January 25, 1871, when Paine won
as follows :
Paine— 1 11111111011111011111111111
111111111111111111111011001111111
111001101011111111111111011011101
1 1 1 1 1 1 1—88.
Bogardus— 1 111111110011111111111101
111010110111110101110111111111111
lllOllOlllllllOllllllllOlllOlllll
11111011 1—85.
316 TRAP SHOOTING.
Bogardus challenged Paine, and they shot at
Fleetwood Park, May 23, 1871, when Bogardus
won as follows (besides, he killed seven which
fell out of bounds) :
Bogardus— 1 lllllllOllllllllOlllIlll
111111111111011111101111011101111
101111110110011111111111111010111
10111111 1—87.
Paine— 1 11011111111111111111111110
101101111111111110100110111011011
0 10111111111111101111111111111011
111111 1—86.
Paine challenged Bogardus, and they shot at
Dexter Park, Chicago, July 29, 1871. Bogardus
won as follows :
Bogabdus— 1 111111110111111111101111
111111111111111110111111111111011
111101101111111111101111111111111
11101110 1—91.
Paine— 1 11111111101111111111111011
111111111101110101101110111111111
111111111111100111111111111111101
1110111—89.
Abraham Kleininan of Illinois challenged Bo-
gardus, and they shot at Dexter Park, Chicago,
April 6, 1872, when Bogardus won as follows:
PIGEON-SHOOTING. 317
BOGAEDUS— 1 111101111111111011111111
111101111111111111101111111111011
111111111111101111111111111111111
11111110 1—93.
Klbinmajs — 1 11111111111011111111110
111111111111111111111111101111111
111110111110111111011101111111110
111011011 0—89.
[These are the official aggregates of the match,
but not of the details, which could not be ob-
tained.]
Abraham Kleinman challenged Bogardus again,
and they shot at Dexter Park, Chicago, in Sep-
tember, 1872, when Bogardus won as follows :
BOGAKDUS— 1 101101111111111011110101
111101101111111101101011111111001
111111111111111111111111111010111
1110 1111 1—85.
Kleinman — 1 11111110110111101111011
111001111111110110111111111111111
110111110011111101111111111111110
111101011 0—84.
Tinker of Rhode Island challenged Bogardus,
imd they shot May 15, 1873, at Dexter Park,
Chicago, where Bogardus won as follows :
318 TRAP SHOOTING.
BOGAKDTJS— 1 110111011110111111111111
111111111111111111111111101111101
111110010111111011111110111101111
01111111 0—87.
Tinker— 1 1110111111111111111111111
011111100111111110101111111111011
111001111111010100111111111110101
11110 11 1—85.
Bogardus having now held the badge over two
years, it became his property. He put it up
again under the rules which are inserted hereafter.
John J. Kleinman, of Chicago, entered to contend
for it, and Bogardus and he shot at Joliet on
the twentieth of March, when Bogardus won. It
remains with Bogardus, and will be open to chal-
lenge up to twentieth of March, 1876.
The scores of a few of my best matches, other
than for the championship, are given below, and
also some of my time matches :
Bogardus against King at Chicago, Dexter Park,
1869, single birds, fifty each, and fifty pairs of
double birds each, §1,000 a side, twenty-one
yards rise. This was the first match in which
Bogardus shot with a breech-loader. It was one
of the best scores he ever made, all at 21 yards.
PIGEON-SHOOTING. - SIO'
SINGLE BIRDS.
BOGARDtrfr— 1 111111111111111111111111
111111111111111111111111 1—50 out of 50.
King— 1 111111100101111101111100101
1111111010111111111 1—41 out of 50.
DOUBLE BIBDS.
B0GAIIDTJ&— 11 11 11 11 11 10 11 11 11 10 11 10 11 11 10
11 11 11 11 11 10 11 11 11 01 10 11 11 01 11 11 11 11 11 11 11
11 11 10 11 10 10 10 10 10 11 10 11 11 11—80.
King— 10 11 11 11 10 11 11 11 10 11 00 10 11 10 11 10 11
11 11 10 11 10 01 10 11 11 11 11 11 10 11 11 11 00 00 11 11
10 10 11 11 11 10 10 00 10 11 11 10 11—75.
The following is the score of the match against
time, shot at Dexter Park, Chicago, May 15, 1869,
in which I undertook to kill five hundred pigeons
in ten hours and forty-five minutes with one gun,
and load my own gun. I did it in eight hours
and forty-eight minutes, with 1^ of shot, ground
trap.
First Hundred — llllllOlOQOllllOlllH
11 1101011101110100111110011 101 11 I
0 11110000101011101001101111011111
111011111011110100111101111110111
111110101111011 1—136 shot at ; 36 missed.
Second Hundred — 1 0111010110110101111
111110101101111111111111011001011
lOlllllOllOlllOllllOllOlllllllllQ
1111101001010110100011011010111, 10
11111111010110111 0 0--i;« shot at ; 38 missed.
320 trap shooting. •
Third Hundred— 0 11010101011010111010
100111111001111111111111111111111
111111111111111111111111111111111
11111111111111111111011111 1—114 shot
at ; 14 missed.
Fourth Hundred— 1 1111111101111011111
110111111111101110101111111110111
100111011111111111111111111111111
11111011111111111011111111 — 112 shot
at ; 13 missed.
Fifth Hundred— 1 11011111111111111110
111111111111111111111111111111111
111111111111011111111111111111111
1 1111110111111011 1—105 shot at ; 5 missed.
Time— 8h. 48m.
Score of the match to kill one hundred birds
in one hundred successive shots, and load as I
pleased, shot at Dexter Park, Chicago, July 21,
1869 :
111111111111111111111111111111111
111111111111111111111111111111111
1111111111111111111111111111111111
Below will be found the scores of a few exhi-
bition matches shot by me within a year.
At Jersey ville, Illinois, 1873, to kill fifty birds
in eight minutes :
111111111111111111111011111111111
11111111111111111111 1—53 out of 54
Time of shooting — 4m. 45s.
PIGEON-SHOOTINa. 321
Captain A. H. Bogardus, match at Paris, Ky.,
April 14, 1874, to kill fifty pigeons in eight min-
utes :
11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 10 10 10 11 11 11 11 10 11 11 11 11
11 11 11 11 00 11 11 11 00 11 11 11 10 10 — Killed, 58;
misses, 10 ; number shot at, 68 ; time of shooting, 7m.
Match at Stamford, Conn., 1874, to kill thirty-
eight out of fifty birds, two traps forty yards
apart, to be pulled at the same time, and the
shooter to stand between the traps. Ira Paine
trapped the birds:
10 11 10 11 10 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 10
11— Killed 38 out of 42.
Match at Omaha, purse of $150, same condi-
tions as at Stamford ; shot June 19, 1874 :
11 11 11 11 10 11 11 11 10 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 10 11 10
11 10— Killed 39 out of 44.
Score made by me on the same day in a sweep-
stakes :
Single Birds— 1 111111111101111111 1—19
killed, 1 missed.
Double Birds— 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11
11—30 killed.
Aggregate — 49 out of 50,
322 TRAP SHOOTING.
Match at Washington, D. C, July 20, 1874, on
the grounds of the Shooting Club. Colonel Alex-
ander pulled the traps, which were forty yards
apart :
11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 10 11 11 11—29 out of 30.
In this match at Washington I shot with the
Orange powder of Laflin & Rand, New York,
No. 7 Lightning, and found it strong and clean,
and better than any I ever used before. I shot
at one bird full seventy -five yards off, let go by
an outsider, and killed it dead. It is coarse-
grained, burns even, does not recoil much, and
shoots strong.
CHALLENGES FOR FIELD AND TRAP SHOOTING.
The following challenges, made by me, and
published in the sporting papers, were not ao-
cepted :
(From the Chicago Tribune.)
A CHALLENGE.
I hereby challenge any man in America to
shoot a pigeon match, fifty single and fifty double
rises, for from $500 to 15,000 a side, accord-
ing to the rules of the New York Sportsmen's
Association ; 1 to use my breech-loading shot-gun,
PIGEON-SHOOTING. 323
and my opponent to use any breech-loading gun
of any manufacturo he may choose. The match
to be shot iii Chicago. Man and money ready
at my place of business, No. 72 Madison Street,
Chicago. A. H. Bogardus.
Chicago, Sept. 10, 1869.
challenge for field shooting.
To the Editor of the Chicago Tribune :
I hereby challenge any man in America to
shoot prairie-chickens against me, in the field,
during the month of November, to shoot for
one or two weeks, on the same ground, for a
stake of from $100 to $500 a side. The man
who kills the most during the time specified to
take all the game and the stakes.
A. II. Bogardus.
CmcAGO, Sept. 22, 1869.
challenges for field and pigeon shooting.
Editors Tuuf, Field, and Farm :
I notice in vour issue of the 3d inst. an ac-
ceptance of my challenge, which was issued last
October. This is the first I have ever seen of
it, and that time has gone by ; and if Mr.
Murphy wished to shoot with me, he could
8S4 TRAP SHOOTING.
have easily dropped me a few lines, and I
would have hunted with him. But all I can
say now is (to Mr. Murphy or any other man
living), that I will make a match to shoot In
the field for two or four weeks next November;
the kind of game to be prairie-chickens, the
hunting to take place on strange groimd to both
parties, and the stakes from $500 to $2,000 a
side, to himt through the day-time and sleep at
night, and not to take any advantage of the
game ; and also, if the party who accepts this
challenge choose, that every bird has got to be
killed on the wing; and if either party kill
birds sitting, to count three against him.
Now, if Mr. Murphy and his friends think
that I am playing a game at bluff, let them
send a forfeit to the Turf^ Fields and Farm,
and I will cover it. The match to come off
in November next in Illinois, Iowa, Minne-
sota, or Kansas, or any other place where we
can find plenty of chickens. The man who wins
to take the proceeds of all chickens shot by
both parties. Yours very truly,
A. H. BoGARDtrS.
N.B. — 1 hereby challenge any man in the world
PIGEON-SHOOTING. 325
to shoot a match at pigeons, one hundred single
and fifty double rises, for a stake of $1,000 to
$2,000 a side ; the birds to be put into one
basket or box, and trap and handle out of
same lot of birds, or from H and T traps, one or
one and a half ounce shot. Will give or take
expenses. A. H. B.
Elkhabt, III., May 8, 1872.
Mules governing the Badge field hy the Cham-
pion Pigeon-Shooter of America.
We, the undersigned, contestants for the badge
of the championship of America, given by the
Rhode Island Sportsman's Club, do hereby pledge
ourselves and agree to the following rules and
regulations, whenever and wherever said badge is
contested for :
1. The winner of the badge shall give a satisfactory
guarantee to the officers of the Rhode Island Sports-
man's Club for the safety thereof, in the shape of
a responsible surety.
2. The winner shall pledge himself to shoot
any challenger for a sum not less than $500 a
side, within four months of the date of said
challenge, under penalty of forfeiting the badge.
32G TRAP SHOOTING.
3. Any party challenging the holder of this
badge shall make a deposit of 8250 as a forfeit
for a match of $500 a side, in the hands of the
editor of the Spirit of the Times, to be covered
by the challenged party with an equal amount.
The balance of the money, $250 a side, shall
be deposited in the hands of the said editor of
the Spirit of the Times, or some party ap-
pointed by him, three days before the match is
shot ; said match then becoming play or pay.
In case of the holder not complying with the
foregoing conditions, he shall forfeit the badge to
the party challenging.
4. Every contestant for this match shall pledge
himself to contend for the same under the rules
of the Rhode Island Sportsman's Club governing
pigeon-shooting.
5. All matches for this badge shall be at one
hundred single birds each, H and T ground-traps.
6. In all matches in which this badge is con-
tested for, the referee shall be an officer in the
Rhode Island Sportsman's Club, or a party ap-
proved by them.
7. The holder of the badge shall name the
place where the same shall be contested for,
which shall be also satisfactory to the referee.
PIGEON-SHOOTING. 327
8. Each contestant in any match for this badge
shall provide not less than one hundred and ten
birds for the match, and the birds shall be
taken out of one contestant's basket or box till
the same is exhausted, and then the other con-
testant's basket or box shall be used out of till
that is exhausted, and so on alternately through
the match.
9. Having tossed for first shot and trap, the
second party shooting shall take the bird in the
remaining trap, and so on through the match.
10. The party holding this badge for two
years against all contestants, it shall become his
personal property.
Mules of the Rhode Island Sportsman's Club for
Trap Shooting.
1. Traps, Rise and Bounds. — All matches shall
be shot from H and T ground-traps, the choice
of which the referee shall decide by toss.
The boundaries shall be eighty yards for single
birds, and one hundred yards for double birds ;
which, in single-bird shooting, shall be measured
from a point equidistant from, and in a direct
328 . TRAP SHOOTING.
line between the two traps ; in double-bird shoot-
ing, from a point equidistant from, and in direct
line between, the centre traps.
2. Placing the Traps. — In single-bird shooting
the distance between the traps shall be four yards ;
in double-bird shooting, as four traps are used,
the H and T traps shall be set alternately, and
two yards apart.
3. Scoring. — After the party is at the score
and ready to shoot, he shall take the bird or birds,
unless barred by the referee.
The party at the score must not leave it to
shoot, and must hold the butt of his gun below
his elbow until the bird or birds rise ; and in case
of infraction of this provision, the bird or birds
shall be scored as missed.
4. Rising of Birds. — All birds must be on the
wing when shot at; all contingencies of misfire,
non-explosion of cap, gun not cocked, etc., etc., are
at the risk of the party shooting.
5. Recovering Birds. — It shall be optional with
the party shooting to recover his own birds, or
appoint a person for that purpose.
In all cases the birds shall be gathered by
hand, without the use of extraneous means, within
three minutes from the time it alights, or be
PIGEON-SHOOTING. 329
scored a miss. A bird once out of bounds shall
be scored a miss.
6. Loading. — The charge of shot shall not ex-
ceed one ounce and a half. All guns shall be
loaded from the same charger, except in case
of breech-loaders, when the referee may open one
or more cartridges to ascertain if the charge of
shot is correct. Any party infringing this rule
shall lose the match.
7. Ties. — In case of a tie at single birds, the
distance shall be increased five . yards, and shall
be shot off at five birds each. In case of a
second tie, the distance shall be again increased
five yards, and this distance shall be maintained
till the match is deci4ed. The ties in double-bird
shooting shall be shot off at twenty-one yards, with-
out any increase, at five double rises.
8. Judges and Referee. — ^Two judges and a
referee shall be appointed before the shooting
commences. The referee's decision shall be final.
He shall have power to call " No bird," in case
any birds fail to fly, and may allow a contestant
another bird, in case the latter shall have been
balked or interfered with, or may for any reason
satisfactory to the referee be entitled to it.
In case of any unnecessary delay on the part
330 TRAP SHOOTING. /
of either of the contestants, the referee shall or-
der the party so delaying to the score, and, in
case of his failing to comply within five minutes,
said party shall lose the match.
If a bird should fly towards parties within the
bounds, in such a manner that to shoot at it would
endanger any person, another bird will be allowed ;
and if a bird is shot at by any person besides
the party at the score, the referee shall decide
how it shall be scored, or whether a new bird
shall be allowed.
Mules governing the JBadge held by the Champion
Pigeon- Shooter of America.
We, the undersigned, contestants for the Badge
of the Championship of America, given by Cap-
tain A. H. Bogardus, do hereby pledge ourselves
and agree to the following rules and regulations,
whenever and wherever said badge is contested
for:
1. The winner of the badge shall give a satis-
factory guarantee to Captain A. H. Bogardus for
the safety thereof, in the shape of a responsible
surety.
2. The winner shall pledge himself to shoot
PIGEON-SHOOTING. 331
any challenger, for a sum not less than $250 a
side, within two months of the date of said chal-
lenge, under penalty of forfeiting said badge.
3. Any party challenging the holder of this
badge shall make a deposit of $125, as a forfeit
for a match of $250 a side, in the hands of the
editor of the Spirit of the Times, to be covered
by the challenged party with an equal amount.
The balance of the money, $125 a side, shall be
deposited in the hands of the editor of the Spirit
of the Times, or some other party, mutually
agreed upon by both parties, three days before
the match is shot ; the match then becomes play
or pay. In case of the holder not complying
with the foregoing conditions, he shall forfeit the
badge to the party challenging.
4. Every contestant for this badge shall pledge
himself to contend for the same under the rules
of the Prairie Shooting Club of Chicago, with .the
exception that the single birds must be shot from
ground-traps.
5. All matches for this badge shall be at one
hundred pigeons, fifty single and twonty-five double
rises, from H and T traps — the single from
ground-traps and the double from ]>lunge-traps,
C. The holder of this badge shall name tho
332 TRAP SHOOTINU.
place where the same shall be contested for, and
each contestant shall furnish one hundred and ten
pigeons for the match, and the pigeons shall be
taken out of the same basket or box until the
same is exhausted, and so on through the match.
7. Having tossed for first shot and trap, the
second party shooting shall take the bird or birds
in the remaining trap or traps, and so on through
the match.
8, The party holding this badge for two years
against all comers, it shall become his personal
property.
Entries for the badge will be $50, and the
winner of the badge to receive half the money,
and the other half to go to the second best.
The first match to take place the 20th day of
March, 1874.
The National Champion Badge.
Donated by Louis L. Lorillard, Esq., and In-
stituted by the " Spirit of the Times."
The holder of this badge shall leave a re-
sponsible security in the office of "Wilkes's Sjnrit
of the TimeSy for the forthcoming of the same
whenever called for.
PIGEON-SHOOTING. 333
He shall shoot as often as once in three months,
if challenged, for not less than $500 a side
— that is to say, in one week from the time
of the decision of any match the winner
of the badge may be challenged again — and
he shall shoot within three months from the
date of the challenge. He shall have the naming
of the place and time of shooting, subject to the
approval of the editor of the ^Spirit of the
In all eases he shall cover the money of the
challenging party within one month, and name
time and place of shooting, or, in failing to do so,
shall forfeit the badge to the party challenging.
Any party holding the badge for two years, it
shall become his personal property.
Any party challenging for this badge shall de-
posit $250 in the hands of the editor of the
Spirit of the Times as one-half forfeit. All
the money from both parties to be up in said
office one week previous to date of shooting,
when the match becomes play ©r pay. Either
party may compel the other to go to the score
not later than one o'clock p.m.
The mrlches for this badge shall be shot ac-
cording to the English rules, as modified and pub-
834 TRAP SHOOTING.
lished below, at fifty single birds each, each party
to bring not less than seventy birds on the
ground.
Either party may trap and handle Ms quota
of birds, or furnish a substitute.
The party commencing to trap shall continue
until the match is half out, that is to say, until
twenty-fire birds each have been shot at, when
the opposite party shall commence and trap an
equal number. It shall be decided by "toss"
which party commences trapping.
The r^ree, in all cases, unless amicably and
mutually agreed upon, to be appointed by the
editor of the Sfpirit of the Times.
In ease of a tie, the parties shall shoot at
five birds each ; in case of a second, they shall
shoot at five inore, and so on until the match is
decided, the condition covering trappii^ to apply
the same as in the match.
Rules of the National Championship Badge.
Rule 1. The gun must not be carried to the
shoulder until the bird is on the wing.
Rule 2. A misfire shall be at the risk of
the shooter.
PIGEON-SUOOTING. 335
Rule 3. If a person pulls the trap without
notice from the shooter, he has the option to
take the bird or not.
Rule 4. If on the trap being pulled the bird
does not rise, it is at the option of the shooter to
take it or not ; but if not, he must declare it by
saying " No bird."
Rule 5. Each bird must be recovered within
the boundary, eighty yards, within three minutes,
if required by any party interested, or it must
be scored lost. If a bird is challenged to show
shot-mark, it must be handed to the referee for
his decision.
Rule 6. If a bird that has been shot perches
or settles on the top of the fence or on any of
the buildings higher than the fence, it is to be
scored a lost bird.
Rule 7. Or if a bird perches or settles on
the top of a fence, or on any of the buildings
higher than the fence, and then falls dead to the
ground, it is a lost bird.
Rule 8. If a bird once out of the grounds
should return and fall dead within the boundary,
it must be scored a lost bird.
Rule 9. If the shooter advances to the trap
and (trders it to be pulled, and does not shoot
336 TRAP SHOOTING.
at the bird, or his gun is not properly loaded,
or does not go off, the bird is to be scored
lost.
Rule 10. Should a bird that has been shot
be flying away, and a " scout " fires and brings
the bird down within the boundary, the referee
may, if satisfied the bird would not have fallen
by the gun of the shooter, order it to be
scored a 'lost bird; or, if satisfied the bird would
have fallen, may order it to be scored a dead
bird ; or, if in doubt on the subject, he may order
the shooter to shoot at another bird.
Rule 11. A bird shot on the ground. with the
first barrel is " no bird " ; but it may be shot on
the ground with second barrel if it has been
fired at with the first barrel while on the
wing.
Rule 12. The shooter is bound at any time to
gather his bird, or depute some person to do so,
when called on by his opponent; but in so doing
he must not be assisted by any other person, or
use any description of implement. Should the
shooter be any way baffled by his opponent, or
by any of the party shooting, he can claim another
bird, with the sanction of the referee.
Rule 13. Shooting shall be from five traps.
PIGEON-SHOOTING. 337
If more than one trap is pulled, so that more
than one bird is on the wing or at large at the
same time, the shooter has the option of shoot-
ing or not ; if he kills, the bird must be
scored ; but should he miss, it shall be a lost
bird.
Rule 14. The shooter cannot leave the shoot-
ing-mark under any pretence to follow up any
bird that will not rise, but is walking away from
the trap after it is pulled ; and, having once left
the mark after shooting at the bird, cannot re-
turn to shoot at it again under any circumstan-
ces. The amount of shot for each barrel shall
not exceed one ounce and a quarter. Any shooter
found to have a larger quantity in his gun, or
who discharges his gun after his load is challeng-
ed, shall be at once disqualified. The five ground
traps shall be placed five yards apart, under the
direction of the referee, thirty yards rise, and the
use of both barrels is allowed.
Rule 15. Each shooter shall pull the traps
for his opponent, or shall nominate a man to do
so. The puller shall in all cases pull fairly, and
without delay ; and if the referee shall be satisfied
that the trap was not pulled fairly, and without
resort to any kind of baffling device, he shall
338 TRAP SHOOTING.
order the bird to be scored for the shooter,
though not killed within bounds. The trap to be
pulled to be decided by tossing a die by the
referee, or by such other means as shall be just
and satisfactory.
Rule 16. Each shooter shall come to the
score on being called by the referee, and each
may claim an intermission of fifteen minutes once
during the match.
Rule 17. The boundary shall be measured from
the centre of the middle trap.
Hides of the Prairie Shooting Club of Chicago.
[As Amended March 10, 1874]
Rule 1. Traps, Rise and Boundaries. — All
matches shall be shot from H and T plunge or
lever traps, the choice of which the referee shall
decide by toss. The boundaries shall be eighty
yards for single birds, and one hundred yards
for double birds, which shall be measured from a
point equidistant from, and in a direct line be-
tween, the two traps, or, when more than two
traps are used, in a direct line between the centre
traps. The rise for single birds shall be twenty,
one yards, and for double birds eighteen yards.
PIGKON-SIIOOTINa. ' 339
Rule 2. Distance between Traps. — In single-
bird shooting, the distance between the traps shall
be five yards ; in double-bird shooting, when four
traps are used, they shall be two and a half yards
apart.
Rule 3. Judges and Referee. — Two judges and
a referee shall be appointed before the shooting
commences, and the referee's decision shall be
final. lie may allow a contestant another bird
in case the latter shall have been balked or inter-
fered with, if he thinks the party entitled to it.
Rule 4. Birds and Decision. — If a bird shall
fly towards parties within the bounds, in such a
manner that to shoot at it would endanger any
person, another bird shall be allowed ; and, if a
bird is shot at within the bounds by any person
besides the party at the score, the referee shall
decide how it shall be scored, or whether another
bird shall be allowed.
Rule 5. Position at the Score. — After the
shooter has taken his stand at the score, he shall
not level his gun or raise the butt above his elbow
until tha bird is on the wing. Should he infringe
on this rule, the bird or birds shall be scared as
lost, whether killed or not.
Rule G. Release of Birds. — The shooter, when
340 TRAP SIIOOTINff.
ready, to say " pull,"' and the puller to obey such
signal, and pull the trap or traps fairly and
evenly, and release the bird or birds instanter.
If the trap be pulled or the birds released before
the signal is given by the shooter, he shall have
the option of calling " No bird " and refusing to
shoot ; but if he shoots, the bird shall be deemed
a fair one, and scored for or against him, as the
case may be.
Rule 7. Rise and Call of Birds. — All birds
must be on the wing when shot at, or will be
scored as lost birds. If the bird does not rise
immediately after the trap is pulled, the shooter
shall have the option of calling " No bird " ; and
if he shoots at it on its afterward rising, it will
be considered "a lost bird."
Rule 8. Gathering Birds. — It shall be optional
with the party shooting to gather his own birds
or appoint a person to do so for him. In all cases
the bird must be gathered by hand, without any
forcible means, within three minutes from the
time it alights, or be scored as lost. All "birds"
must show shot-marks if challenged. A bird
once out of bounds shall be scored as lost.
Rule 9. Mitres. — Should a gim miss fire
or fail to discharge from any cause, it shall score
piGEON-sirooTiNa. 341
as a lost bird, unless the referee finds, upon ex-
amination, that the gun was properly loaded, and
the misfire unavoidable, in which case he shall
allow another bird.
Rule 10. Birds on the Wing. — In double
shooting, both birds must be on the wing when
the first is shot at. If but one bird flies, and one
barrel is fired or snapped, the birds shall not be
scored, whether killed or missed, but the party
shooting shall have two more birds ; or, if both
birds fly and are killed with one barrel, he must
shoot at two other birds.
Rule 11. 8ize of Gun. — ^The shooter shall not
be allowed to use a gun of larger calibre than
that known as No. 10.
Rule 12. Charge of Shot. — There shall be no
restriction as to size of shot used ,or charge
of powder, but the charge of shot shall be not
to exceed the regular Dixon Measure, No. 1106
or No. 1107, \^ oz. by measure struck off".
Rule 13. Penalty for Overloading. — The Club
shall provide a standard shot measure, and all
guns shall be loaded from the same, except in
case of breech-loaders, when the referee may open
one or more cartridges, to ascertain if the charge
of shot is not above the standard. Any person
342 TRAP SHOOTING.
found infringing on this rule shall be barred from
further participation in the match.
Rule 14. Ties and Distances. — In case of ties
at single birds, the distance shall be increased five
yards. In case of second tie, the distance shall
be increased five yards further, and this distance
shell! be maintained until the match is decided,
and shall be shot off at five single birds. The
ties on double-bird shooting shall be shot off at
twenty-one yards • at five double rises.
Rule 15. Ties. — At a shooting match, all tics
shall be shot off" on the same grounds immediately
after the match, if they can be concluded before
sunset. In case they cannot be concluded by sun-
set, they shall be concluded on the following day,
unless otherwise directed by the judges or referee.
This, however, shall not prevent the ties from
dividing the prizes, if they may all agree to do
so. Should one refuse to divide, then it must
be shot off". Any one of the ties being absent
thirty minutes after the time agreed upon to shoot
them off" shall forfeit his right to contest for the
prize.
Rule 16. Bribing and Penalty. — Any com-
petitor or other person bribing, or attempting to
bribe, the trapper or puller, or attempting to
PIGEON-SHOOTING. 343
obtain an unfair advantage in any manner what-
soever, to be disqualified from shooting or sharing
in the results of the match.
Rule 17. To prevent Accidents. — The shooter,
if he use a breech-loader, shall not put the cart-
ridge in his gun until called to the score. If he
use a muzzle-loader, he shall leave it uncapped
until called.
Rule 18. Challenging and Penalties. — Any
person participating in a match shall have the
privilege of challenging a competitor as to charge
of shot used, and the referee shall make such
challenged party draw his charges and have them
examined ; and, if found to exceed the limit fixed
by rule, he shall forfeit his right to participate
in the match, or share in the same in any way.
If he fires his gun after being challenged, and be-,
fore the charge has been examined by the referee,
he shall suffer the same penalty as for overloading.
Rule 19. Time at Score. — Each participant in
a shooting match shall hold himself in readiness,
and come to the score prepared to shoot when
his name is called by the scorer. If he be longer
than five minutes, it shall be discretionary with
the referee whether to allow him to shoot or not
in the match.
WM. READ & SONS,
13 FANEUIL HALL SQUARE,
BOSTON, ©-s^^^^^^^^s^ MASS.
Mrorters of f^^^^^^^^^^S & Dealers in
Breech and Muzzle-Loading Guns.
"W. C. Scott & Son's, Westley Richard's, Greener's, Webley's, Moore's
and others.
Also, Remin^on's, Whitney's, and other American makes.
Maynard's, Ballard's, Remington's, Steven's, and other Sporting Rifles.
Agents for W. C SCOTT & SON'S BREECH-LOADERS.
Every size of these celebrated Breech-I>oadin(? Guns constantly in stock— 14,
12, 10, 8, and 4 bores— or imported to special order. If desired.
Scott's Illustrated Book on Breech-Loaders, bound in morocco, 25 cts. by mail.
Bussey's Patent Gyro-Pigeon Trap for Shooting
Practice.
Also, Fine Trout and Salmon Rods, Flies, Reels, and every article in FUihina
Tachle. Send for Cibcitlars.
JOSEPH BUTLER & CO.,
179 E. MADISON STREET, CHICAGO,
Winners of tlie Chicago Gun Trial of 1874, at Dexter Park, vmder the allspices of the
Illinois State Sportsmen's Association.
Messrs. BUTLER & CO. respectfully invite the attention of the
Sportsmen to the report of the Gun Trial, from which it will be seen
that jfuns of tlieir own manufacture, and those rebored by them, ex-
celled both in pattern and penetration those of any other maker.
Messrs. BUTLER & CO. make a specialty of reboring ^uns to shoot
properly, and that the enviable reputation they have achieved for this
class of "work is deserved, the following extracts from the above report
clearly prove :
"Throe highest averages for Pattern, Daniel T. Elaton, owner,— 191, 1-6.
Rebored by J. Butler & Co. Manufactured by J. Buti.ib & Co., owners,—
181, 3-C. Manufactured by J. Butleb & Co., owners,- ISO, 4-6."
JBreech-Zoaders of their own manufacture are warranted un-
excelled fry those of any other maker.
Each and every part of the sun is carefully examined by Mr. BTJTLER
before leaving the store. Kepalrincr of all kinds neatly done. We keep in
stock every quality of W. C. Scott & Son's Breech-Louders, winners of the Gun
Trial of 1873, in New York. W. W. Greener's and other celebrated makers kept
In stock. Gun materiul of all kinds, I'owder, Shot, and Caps, Ely's Ammunition
and Metalic Co.'s Shells wmX Cups, Bonhin Shells, and Diaper & Co.'s Shells, itc,
&c. Afull stock of J. B. Mclliirt; .t, C.>."s and Bradford & Anthony's Fishing
Tackle, consistine of Bamho.i Kods, liuss and Trout Rods, Reels, Spoon Bait,
Flies, Silkworm Gut, Platoil I-inen iind Silk Lines, Gut and (iimp fish Hooks,
and everything,' in the line. Sportsmen visiting the West will find every requi-
site for a complete outfit. I'urties from the East can have Shells loaded to
order on short notice, and shipped to any pjirts of the States. A full stock kept
constantly on hand. Ground and Plunge Traps.
TO SP»ORTS]Vd[EN.
c^.
^
p ^%\^^
"z
^ DROP SHOT. ^
Compared with any other, will
he found Cleaner, Heavier,
and more Uniform,
A WEEKLY JOURNAL (OF SIXTEEN PAGES),
DEVOTED TO
FIELD SPOETS,
practical |tatwral |)istorg,
Fish Culture, Protection of Game, Preservation of Forests,
YACHTINCS, BOATING,
AND Alili
OUT-DOOR RECREATION & STUDY.
IT IS THE OFFICIAL, ORGAN OP THE
AMERICAN FISH CULTURISTS' ASSOCIATION.
C]^:e ^axtBt antr Stream
Is the only Journal published in this country that fully supplies tJie
wants and meets the necessities of the
Gentleman Sportsman.
SEND FOn SrJECIMEN COPT. TEBM8, 9S A TJEAB.
Address:
Forest and Stream Publishing Confipany,
17 CHATHAM ST. (City Hall Square), NEW YORK.
125 SOTTTH THIRD ST., PHILADELPHIA.
124 DEAlinOUN ST., CHICAGO.
The Sportman's Oracle & Country
gentleman's newspaper,
A Weekly Review and Chronicle of the
Turf, Field and Aquatic Sports,
AGRICULTURE, ART, SCIENCE,
LITERATURE, CHESS, DRAUGHTS, BILLIARDS, VETERINARY,
SHOO"^ING, FISHING,
Trapping, Athletic Pastimes, yatural JXistoryf
'^usit anir t^c grama.
rpHE TCTRF, FIELD AND FARM, having by far the largest circnla-
-L tion of any paper of its class published In the country, is, -by its
culture and ability, the recognized authority on all the subjects of
which it treats, as its high moral tone and advocacy of healthy, eleva-
ting and manly sports have won for it the approval and active patron-
age of the best and most intelligent people in the land ; and the substan-
tial evidence of its growing popularity is the continual and steady
increase of circulation throughout the "WORLD.
Every Turf Association, Agricultural Society, Horse Owner, Stock
Breeder, Club and Library, should subscribe and have on file, for
reference, a journal representing the vast interests advocated by the
TCTRF, FIELD AND FARM.
TO THOSE WHO ADVERTISE.
The TURF, FIELD AND FARM has an undisputed claim to be one
of the best general advertising mediums in the United States. Its cir-
culation throughout the world has increased three fold during the past
three years without increase of rates, and is still extensively spreading.
The paper is read by tens of thousands every week, while Horsemen,
Sportsmen, Farmers, and the lovers of aquatic and kindred sports pre-
serve and bind their copies.
Specimen copies, with premium lists, catalogue of publications, etc.,
sent upon application.
TURF, FIELD AND FARM ASSOCIATION,
Office : 37 Park How, New Tork,
For Sale by Newsdealers throughout the "VTorid.
BARTON, ALEXANDER, & WALLER,
101 and 103 Duane Street, New Yorkf
IMPORTERS AND DEALERS IN
Breech and Muzzle-Loading Guns
OF ALL THE BEST MAKERS.
EIFLES, PISTOLS, AMMUNITION,
And Sportsmen's Ooods of all Kinds.
FISHING TACKLE
or EVERY VARIETY.
J^ISH HOOKS, RODS, REELS, LINES, ^c.
Artificial Flics and Baits on band, and made to order.
FINEST QUALITY SPLIT BAMBOO FLY RODS
FOR TROUT AND SALMON FISHING.
-A-gents for the
UNITED STATES ARMS CO.'S REVOLVERS.
Alexande^'^s Pocket Cutlery,
JOHN W. COURT & CO.'S FISH HOOKS.
THE
pirit nf l|t Cimts :
THE AMERICAN GENTLEMAN'S NEWSPAPER.
Annual Subscription, $5.00.
PTJBLISHEI3 ^^EEKLY,
IN HANDSOME FOHM.
THIS Journal ia devoted to Field Sports, Accounts of Ex-
ploration and adventure, Exploits on Flood and Field and
in the Jungle and the Forest, the Current History and Philo-
sophy of the Turf, the Science of Breeding and Raising Run-
ning and Trotting Horses, Yachting, including the science of
construction, Hunting, Fishing, Billiards, the Stage, and the
Literature of the day. An especial feature is
THE VETERINARY DEPARTMENT.
One of the most able and successful Veterinary Surgeons of
the age answers questions and gives directions and prescrip-
tions, gratis, for the reUef and cure of Horses, Cattle, Dogs, etc.,
suffering from disease or injury by accident. Hundreds of sub-
scribers declare this department to be worth the WHOiiE
SUBSCRIPTION.
THE SPIRIT OF THE TIMES
Also gives carefully considered answers, judicial in their
nature and thoroughly impartial, to questions in dispute among
gentlemen, and submitted by the parties for authoritative
decision. It also resolves questions of interest where no dis-
pute exists and no money is involved, but where information is
desired. The readers value these columns of The Spirit very
highly.
OUR CORPS OF CORRESPONDENTS
is unrivaled.
GEORGE WILKES,
Editor and Proprietor,
3 Park Sow, y. T.
THE
l^mmau ^prtemaii
CONTAINS ALL THE
LATEST RIFLE NEWS;
FULL SCORES OF SHOOTING
Practical Natural History ;
Fishing and Gunning.
FOR S.A.IL1E BY ^LLi ISTE^WS DEAXiKRS.
Price, 10 Cents.
SCHDEEE. HAETLEY & GEAHAil,
IMPORTERS AND MANUFACTURERS OF
GUNS, RIFLES, PISTOLS
SPORTING ARTICLES,
19 Maiden Lane, 20 & 22 John St., New Ywrk,
BREECH- LOADING GUNS A SPECIALTY.
Fine Guns and Rifles manufactured and imported to order.
Agents for the Union Metallic Cartridge Company.
The Siurtevant Brass Shell for Breech-Loading Shot Guns.
BLACK'S
CARTRIDGE
PATENT
VEST.
This vest affords the best arrangement for carrying cartridges yet
invented. The weight is so evenly distributed that it is scarcely felt.
The heads of the cartridges can be carried down, which is of importance
when the brass shells are used, as in carrying them with the heads up
the weight of the shot often forces the wad forward, when bad shooting
is the result. The vest is made of English fustian, and is a sportsman-
like garment.
Trice, each $7.S0.
In ordering send measurement around the chest, and gauge of gun.
SCHUYLER, HARTLEY & G-RAHAM,
19 nVEaiden Ijane, New "^Torls.
Send for Circular.
Sturtevant's Patent Brass
Shell for Brcecb - Loadinar
Shot Guus.
o
"PARKER"
THE PIONEER GUN
m- still Alieadl! ^^
EVERY FIRST PRIZE FOR TRAP SHOOTING
At the last convention of the
NEW YORK STATE ASSOCIATION
WON WITH "THE PARKER"!
Messrs. Neweui/ and Hambleton, winners of the onlu prize givea
for " making the largest score in the three regular shoots,"
Both Shot The Parker Oun ! !
Two of the three winners of the Grand State Prize,
" The Dean Richmond Cirp,"
UPSHOT THE PARKER, G^UN!!-^
Medals and Diplomas awarded THE PARKER GUN,
When placed on exhibition in
COMPETITION OPEN TO THE WORLD.
MEDAIi AND DIPLOMA
From the Ajaerican Institute— 1863.
SlIiVER MEDAL
Texas State Fair, 1871.
SIIiVER MEDAL
Texas State Pair, 1873.
SILVER MEDAL
Mechanics and Agricultural Fair Association of Louisiana— 1872.
DIPLOMA
From the Vermont State Agricultural Society— 1808.
DIPLOMA
From the New Hampshire State Agricultural Society— 1808.
DIPLOMA
From the New Haven County (Conn.) Agricultural Society— 1867.
DIPLO.MA
From the Sardis (Mass.) Agricultural and Mechanical Society, 1870.
DIPLOMA
EYom the Connecticut Valley Agricultural Association- 1870.
DIPLOMA
Agricultural and Mechanical Association of West Alabama— 1871.
DIPLOMA
Adams County (Miss.) Ag4-icultural and Mechanical Association- 1872.
FIR.ST PREMIUM
At the Delaware County (Iowa) Fair— 1871.
Send fob Reduced Price List, May 1st, 1874.
Prices, $45, S50, $60, $63, $75, $80, $100, $105, $150, $^0,$350.
Bebounding-Locks included.
PARKER BROTHERSTWest Meriden, Conn.
ORANGE
SPORTING POWDER,
MANUFACTURED BT
LAFLIN & RAND POWDER COMPANY,
NE-W YORK.
ORANGE LIGHTNING POWDER.
This is the strong'est and cleanest powder made. Nos. 1 to 7. Packed
only in sealed 1 lb. canisters. The coarser sizes are especially recom-
mended to owners of breech-loading guns, giving great penetration
with very slight recoil. For trap shooting use No. 5 in guns of 12 gauge,
and No, 6 in those of 10 gauge.
ORANGE DUCKING POWDER.
A very strong, clean powder, good for all shooting. Nos. 1 to 5.
EspeciaUy adapted to killing ducks and geese at long range, and less
liable to be affected by dampness than other brands. Packed in 6>i lb.
kegs, in 5 lb. canisters, and 1 lb. canisters.
AUDUBON.
This is a verf quick, clean powder for woodcock and quail shooting.
Nos. 1 to 4. Packed in 12X lb. kegs, 6X Id. kegs, and in 1 lb. canisters.
ORANGE RIFLE POWDER.
This is more generally used for field shooting than any of the other
brands, being less costly than the liigher grades, and giving nearly tho
same results in the field.
No powder maJo of this grade will show such cleanliness as Orange
Rifle. Packed in 25 lb. kegs, 12)4 lb. kegs, 6}i ib. kegs, and in 1 lb. can-
isters. Sizes, F, FF, FFF.
All tho above kinds of powder will give greater penetration aud
leave less residuum in the gun than any other brands known.
The LAFLIN AND RAND POWDER COMPANY are engaged in
the manufacture of Gunpowder for sporting and also for mining pur-
poses on the largest scale, ha\ing their factories at many different
points. Sporting powder is, however, made by them only in the Stato
of New York, taking its name from tho old Orange Mills in Onuige Cf).
Their mills have the most approved methods and perfect appoint-
ments, anJ the product is shipped to their magazines in all parts of tlio
country, and to foreign ports. The reputation of tho Orange Powder,
established many years since, will be carefully guarded.
Bi-anchos of the house are established at St. Louis, Chicago, Du-
buque, Buffalo, and Baltimore, besides agencies in all tho principal
towns and cities.
USE THE
REMINGTONS'
Double- Barreled, Breech -Loading Shot Gun.
WhUtnore's ratenta. August 8, 1871. A.prU 16f
187».
We are now prepared to furnish
our Improved Double-Barred-
ED Breech-Lo ading Shot Gun,
which we reco mmend as the best
ever oflfered the American sports-
man, combining all the most de-
sirable features of the best En-
glish double guns, together with
some valuable Improvements not
found in any other.
In the prod notion of these guns
no expense or trouble has been
spared.
In order to suit the requtre-
monts of our different customers,
we make three styles of gun, dif-
fering o)il)j in the finish and kind
of barrels and stocks, which we
offer at the foil owing prices :
Plain Walnat Stock, De-
carbonized Steel Bar-
rels $45 00
Fancy Stock« Twist
Barrels, . . - . - - 60 00
Extra Finish Stock, Da-
mascus or other Fancy
Twist Barrels, En-
graved Ijock Plate, - - 75 00
In all of these guns only the best
materials and workmanship are
employed.
In order to enable us to offer a
thoroughly well made and relia-
ble gun at the low price of $45, we
have omitted all ornamentation
of either the stock or metal work,
leaving both tip and butt stock
plain.
Leagth of barrel, 28. 30 inches.
Bire, 10, 12 gauge. Weight: 28
Indies, No. 13 gauge, S}^ lbs. ; No.
10 i?auga, 8X lbs. 30 laches, No. 13
gaiga, 8X lbs.; No. 10 gauge,
t^" In fixing upon the model
of our gun, we have chosen what
W3 thiak best adapted to meet the
wants of the public. We cannot
vary, in any particct-ar, from
the dimensions and weight before
mentioned, or in the style of fin-
ish. Send for illustrated Cata-
logue and price-list.
Address
E. REMINGTON & SONS,
281 and 283 Broadway, N. Y,
MANUFACTOHIC :
IL.ION, Uerkiiiier Co.. N. V.
P. O. BOX, S904.
''T HE F I E L D/'
A JOURNAL FOR THE SPORTSMEN OF TO-DAY.
Piablished EVERY SA.XXJRr)A.Y MIORNING-
AT
179 EAST MADl«*ON STREET, CHICAGO.
Terms of Subscription : Payable in advance. Yearly, $4.00 ; half-yearly, $2.00.
Foreign and Canadian Subscription, post free— yearly, IBs. ; half-yearly, 9g.
Single copies, 10 cents.
ri'^HE FIELD is a complete weekly review of the higher branches of
J- sport— Shooting:, Fishing-, Hacins: and Trotting, Yachting and
Rowing, Base Ball, Cricket, Billiards, and General Sporting News,
Music and the Drama.
THE FIELD will be found in keeping with the times on all subjects
pertaining to honorable sport, and will, under no circumstances, admit
to its columns anything tending in an j wise to demoralize or degi-ade
public sentiment.
THE FIELD being the only Sporting Journal published west of New
York, and tlie recognized authority among the sportsmen of the West
and South, among whom it enjoys a large and increasing patronage,
possesses superior advantages as an advertising medium, which will be
appreciated by those desiring to make their business known in the
United States.
Agents for Great Britain.— Messrs. Kirby & Endean, 190 Oxford
Street, London.
NOTICE TO THE TKADE.
News Agents desirous of being supplied with THE FIELD are re-
quested to apply to the publishers, 1T9 East Madison Street, from whom
only it can be obtained.
F. J. A^BBEY & CO.,
manufacturers and importers of
Breech and Muzzle-Loading Guns
RIFLES AND PISTOLS.
Dealers in Fishing Tackle ami General Sporting Goods.
*** Bad Sliootinsr (inns made to shoot well.
SHELLS LOADED TO ORDEK.
43 S. CLARK STREET, CITICAGO, HI.
JOSEPTI TOISTKB,
GUN MANUFACTURER,
45 & 49 Union St., and 1 Marshall St., Boston.
IMPORTER AND DKALER IN
GUNS, RIFLES, REVOLVERS & CUTLERY,
Parker Brccch-LoadiiiSf Sliot-Gim.
Breech-Loading Shot-Gnns of celebrated English makers. Paper
and Metallic Shells for Shot-Guns of all kinds. Metallic Cartridges for
Rifles, Re\ olvers and Pistols. Caps, Wa<1s, Powder. Shot, &c., &c.
Pocket Cutlery, Razors, Scissors, &c. Air-Guna and Cap Bifles for
Saloons and Fairs. Fire Arms Repaired.
SFOKTSMEN'S DET'OT.
JOHN KRIDER,
CORNER SECOND & WALNUT STREETS, PHILADELPHIA,
IMPORTER, MAJfCFACTURER AXD DKALER IN'
GUNS, RIFLES, PISTOLS
AND
FISHINO TACKLE OF ALL. KL^DS.
He Invites all Sportsmen and dealci-s in his line to examine his stock
of Flies and Spliced Bamboo Rods, which are the best in this country.
"We malie Flies of all kinds to order, or rods of any stjle.
Has constantly on hand a full assortment of Rods, Hooks, Lines,
Baits, Reels, Hooks, Salmon Flics, Waterproof Silk Lines, Silk and Hair
Trout Lines, &c. Perch Snoods, China and Grass Lines. Also, a lai^
lot of Cane Reeds, Bamboo and Japan.
MANUFACTURER OF
FINE BREECH & MUZZLE-LOADING GUNS
TO ORDER.
A FtiU Assortment of Spoi'fstnen's Implements
and Fishing Taclde.
■*i>
No. 131 WALNUT STREET, PHILADELPHIA.
PIGEON TRAPS.
"H" and "T"
PLUNGE TBAPS.
Common Traps . . . (per pair) $15.00
Patent Self -Closing: Traps " 25.00
A pair of th^^se Traps sent by freight or ex-
press on receipt of price.
W. F. PARKER,
West Meriden, Conn,
AMERICAN
STANDARD.
Patent Sifted Eagle Brand
OF
CHILLED
DROP SHOT
AS ADOPTED BY THE
NfifM State SprtnierrAwiation.
— _ ,4^ —
THOS. OTIS LE ROY & CO,
PATENT SHOT d- LEAD WORKS,
261 & 263 WATER STREET,
NEW TOKK,
SOLE MANUFACTURERS.
SCHOVERLING & DALY,
84 & 86 CHAMBER STREET, NEW YORK,
MA-NUFACTUKERS OF THE
CHARLES DALY
BREECH -LOADING GUNS.
These Guns are pronounced by every dealer and sports-
man who has handled them to be the finest finished and
closest and strongest shooting Guns in the market. The
barrels are of beautiful pattern and finish, and the locks
and mountings of the best quality.
For sale by all the first-class Gun Dealers at our prices :
Side Snap Action |l(J(i.O() to $110.00
Top Snup Action, Double Bolt 130.00 " 175.00
Pistol Grip Stocks (extra) 10.00 —
Extra Close and Hard Shootinif guai*anteed for 12.00 extra.
Agents for WM. fOWI<:i.T, & SONS.
WM, POWELL & SONS' BREECH-LOADERS
Have acquired, during: the past few years, the first place in th©
estimation of English sportsmen ; as they come into use in this
country, they are coming to be known as the hest gun made
in England.
University of California
SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY
405 Hilgard Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90024-1388
Return this material to the lit>rary
from which it was borrowed.
m9
RECtlVE
ary
I
D
A 000 824 485 7
Live Music Archive
Librivox Free Audio
Metropolitan Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Internet Arcade
Console Living Room
Books to Borrow
Open Library
TV News
Understanding 9/11