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AMERICAN GAME 
 
 IN ITS SEASONS 
 
 BY 
 
 HENKY' WILLIAM glEEBERT, 
 
 A.TITHOE OF "fBANK FOEESTKB's FIELD SPORTS," " FISH A.ND FISHING," "WARWICK 
 WOOULASDS," "my SUOOTINQ BOX," " THE DEEE-8TALKBKS," ETC, ETC. 
 
 ILLUSTRATED FKOM NATUEE, 
 
 AND ON WOOD, BY THE AUTHOR. 
 
 NEW YOEK : 
 
 CHARLES SCRIBNER, 145 NASSAU STREET. 
 
 1853. 
 
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1853, by 
 C II A E L E S S C K 1 B N E E, 
 In tbe Clerk's Office of the District Court of the I'nited States for the Southern Dis- 
 trict of New York. 
 
 Sterentyped and Printed by 
 a W. BENEDICT, 
 
 201 William Street, N. Y. 
 
SHfl 
 
 OF PHILADELPHIA^ 
 
 IN TOKEN OF KEGARD AND ESTEEM, 
 
 THIS LITTLE VOLUME 
 
 IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED, 
 
 BY HIB 
 FELLOW-COUNTRYMAN, FELLOW-SPORTSMAN, AND FRIEND, 
 
 HENRY WM. HERBERT. 
 Thb Ckdabs, Jamtary 10, 1868L 
 
 ivi8^6812 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 FAOINQ PAGE 
 
 FRONTISPIECE, - - - - - 1 
 
 THE MOOSE, . . _ - - 45 
 
 WILD GOOSE, - - - - - 68 
 
 MALLARD AND WIDGEON, _ _ _ ^ 
 
 SNIPE, ------ go 
 
 BASS, ------ 119 
 
 AMERICAN TKOUT, - - " - 129 
 
 J3RANT, - - - - - . - 141 
 
 BAY SNIPE, ----- 16T 
 
 SALMON, ------ 169 
 
 WOODCOCK, - -• - - - 18T 
 BUMMER DUCK, - - - " " ' • 203 
 
VI LIST OF ILLUSTEATIONS. 
 
 WAcaa PAOB 
 221 
 
 COMMON DEER, - - - - _ 
 
 BLUE-WINGED TEAL, - - - _ 
 
 QUAIL, " - - - - _ 
 
 BITTERN,- - - 
 
 RUFFED GROUSE, ----- ^^ 
 
 YELLOW PERCH, - - - - - ^qq 
 
 CANVAS-BACK, - - - - . 
 
 WINTER DUCK, 
 
 266 
 
 883 
 
ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 This volume, which is now for the first time submitted 
 to the public in a connected form, is composed for the 
 most part of papers which have appeared from time to 
 time in the pages of Graham's excellent magazine, under 
 the running title of " Tlie Game of the Month." It does 
 not profess to contain complete accounts of every species 
 of game, found or pursued within the wide limits of the 
 United States of America — ^that must be looked for in 
 works of wider scope and larger pretensions, whether by 
 the author or others.* 
 
 All that it aims at doing is to set some of the princi- 
 pal and most highly esteemed varieties before the gene- 
 ral reader, in a light and attractive style, with some 
 
 * I may here mention, " Hawker on Shooting," American Edition, by 
 William T. Porter ; « Frank Forester's Field Sports," and " Fish and 
 Fishing," by Henry William Herbert ; and " Hints to Sportsmen," by 
 E. I. Lewis ; all of which works have found favor with the public, and 
 are admitted standards. 
 
VI 11 ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 account of their specific distinctions and characteristics 
 in a zoological point of view ; of their habits, haunts, 
 and migrations ; and of their season in different parts 
 of the vast demesnes owned by the American people ; 
 not what is esteemed the most sportsmanlike and scien- 
 tific mode of pursuing, killing, and when killed, cooking 
 them for the table. 
 
 The leading idea of the plan was to adopt for each 
 month in the year the finest, and most generally, favor- 
 ite species of game, with reference principally, as regards 
 season^ to the ISTorthern, Midland, and J^orthwestern 
 portions of the United States and Canada, though the 
 animals described are common more or less to all sections 
 of the country. 
 
 The somewhat rambling and irregular plan of the 
 series renders any apology for this or that species of 
 game wholly unnecessary, since, in the first j)lace, it 
 never was intended to constitute a perfect natural history 
 of all the game, birds, beasts, and fishes of America, 
 but merely a series of sketchy papers ; and in the 
 second, because the series is yet in progress, and when- 
 ever it may appear desirable, or be called for by public 
 favor, another volume or volumes may be from time to 
 time presented. 
 
ADVERTISEMENT. IX 
 
 The illustrations are all designed and drawn on wood 
 from nature, hj the author, with two exceptions, " the 
 Bittern," and " the Yellow Perch," which were copied 
 from correct representations, owing to the impossibility 
 of procuring specimens at the moment when they were 
 required. It is believed that they will be found correct 
 as zoological representations ; while the beautiful and 
 elaborate work of Messrs. Brightly and Devereux's 
 gravers cannot fail to obtain the admiration it merits. 
 
 I have only to acknowledge my obligations to the 
 officers of the Lyceum of Natural History, in Philadel- 
 phia, and to Mr. Bell, the celebrated Taxidermist in New 
 York, for the facilities they have kindly afforded me in 
 obtaining specimens for this and former works ; and to 
 submit my little work to the consideration of my friends 
 of "the sporting world, and the larger circle of the read- 
 ing public. 
 
 Heney Wm. Herbert. 
 
 January 10, 1853. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 GAME IN rrs SEASONS. 
 
 JANUARY. 
 
 The Cariboo or American Reindeer. Cervas Tarandm. - 17 
 
 FEBRUARY. 
 The Moose Deer. Cervus Alces. ------ 45 
 
 Thh Wild Goose. Anas Canadensis. ----- 58 
 
 MARCH. 
 The Mallard and Widgeon. Anas Boschas. Anas Americana. 71 
 
 APRIL. 
 The American Snipe. Scolopax Wilsonii. - . - - 89 
 Striped Bass. Labrax Lineatus. - . ^- - * • 119 
 
 MAY. 
 The American Trout. Salmo Fontinalis. - - - - 129 
 
 The Brent Goose. Anas Bernida, ----- 141 
 
XU CONTENTS. 
 
 JUNE. 
 
 Bay Snipe. Hudsonian Godwit. Limosa Hudsonicn. The Ked- 
 
 BREASTED Snipe. Scolopax Noveboracensis. - 157 
 
 The Salmon. Salmo Solar. ----._ 169 
 
 JULY. 
 The Woodcock. Scolopax Minor, sive Microptera Americana. 187 
 
 AUGUST. 
 
 The Summer Duck. Anas Sponsa sive Dendroriessa, - - 203 
 
 The Common Deer. Cervus Virginianus. - - - - 221 
 
 SEPTEMBER. 
 
 The Blue-Winged Teal. The Green-Winged Teal. Anas 
 
 Dicors. Anas Carolinensis. 237 
 
 OCTOBER. 
 The Quail. Ortyx Virginianus. 253 
 
 The Bitterk. Ardea Lentiginosa. 266 
 
 NOVEMBER. 
 The Buffed Grouse. Tetrao Umhellus. - - - - 285 
 
 The Yellow Perch. Percafavescens.- - • - - 300 
 
coi^TENTS. xiii 
 
 DECEMBER, 
 
 The Canvas-Back. Anas Valisneria. - - - - . 3X9 
 
 The Winter Duck. Fuiigula Bimaculata - - - - 332 
 
JANUAEY. 
 
 CJt Carikfl. 
 
 THE AMEEICAN EEINDEEE, 
 
 CertyM Tarandma, 
 ARCTIC REGIONS— NEWFOUNDLAND TO NEW YORK. 
 
THE CAEIBOO. 
 
 AMERICAN REINDEER. — CcTvios Taraudus, 
 
 Habitat ; from Newfoundland, througli all tlie British 
 provinces and possessions so far north as the artic seas, 
 to the northern part of the State of ]^ew York. The 
 Cariboo is not found south of the St. Lawrence, farther 
 west that the Black river, nor on the great lakes west- 
 ward of the Ottawa. 
 
 It is said that there exists several varieties of this 
 splendid stag in the extreme northern regions, though 
 they have not been defined even by the recent bold and 
 scientific explorers of those inhospitable climes. 
 
 I have, however, recently satisfied myself that there 
 are, if not in Canada, at least in ^Newfoundland, two dis- 
 tinct varieties of Cariboo, one vastly superior in size to 
 the other, and characteristically separated from the 
 smaller, by the form and structure of its horns. Of this 
 I am satisfied, by^ the examination of a pair of antlers, 
 lately exported from that curious and interesting island, 
 by my friend. Dr. Hugh Caldwell, which differs entirely 
 from those in my own possession, which furnished the 
 models for my frontispiece, and from many specimens 
 
18 AMERICAN GAME. 
 
 in the office of the " Spirit of the Times," all brought 
 from the same island, by the late Mr. Henry Palmer, of 
 IsTew Brunswick. 
 
 The general characteristics of this huge deer, inferior 
 only in size to the Moose deer, Cervus Alus, of the same 
 regions, and to the Wapiti, Hound Horn, or American 
 Elk, Cervus Canadensis^ of the far west, differing and dis- 
 tinguishing it from all other animals of the same species, 
 are first : The peculiar structure" of its horns, combining 
 the properties of the palmated and furcated structures. 
 Second, The length and looseness of its pelage, and the 
 shortness of its tail, which rather resembles the scut of a 
 hare, than the long flag of a deer; and thirdly, Tlie ex- 
 treme cleft of its hoofs and feet, extending up the pas- 
 terns, nearly to^the fetlock joint. A structure to which 
 this animal owes its great facility in traversing the 
 treacherous snow drifts, is the unparalleled spread of its 
 hoofs and pasterns, the whole length of which rests on the 
 surface over which it bounds, when in full action, up to 
 the fetlock, supporting it where small-footed animals of 
 inferior size and weight would sink up to the belly at 
 every stride, and where man himself labors even with 
 the* mechanical aid of snow-shoes. 
 
 In speaking of the color of the Eeindeer below, as the 
 most grizzly and lightest colored of its tribe, I am not cer- 
 tain that I have not fallen into the error of assigning the 
 characteristic coloring of one, the JS^ewfoundland variety, 
 and possibly the winter coloring of that, as general 
 
THE CARIBOO. . 19 
 
 among the race. Mr. Wallop speaks of their " dark- 
 brown hides," and some Canadian sportsmen have ob- 
 jected to my description ; still I prefer lettin'g what 1 
 have written stand, since I wrote from actual inspection 
 of ^Newfoundland Cariboo skins ; and until I have seen 
 others of darker hue, must hold in absence of other proof 
 what I have seen to be true. 
 
 If the Cariboo of the other British provinces, and the 
 INorth-eastern States of America, differ in color from 
 those of IsTewfoundland, my too general statement may 
 perhaps tend to elicit further information, by which the 
 numbers and distinctions of the several varieties may be 
 definitively attained. 
 
 It is not a little extraordinary, that this magnificent 
 and noble species, which exists in considerable numbers 
 within two hundred miles of the spot where I sit writing, 
 in the Adirondack Highlands — I mean of New York — 
 which abounds in the north-eastern part of Maine, 
 swarms in Kew Brunswick and E^ewfoundland, and in- 
 deed everywhere North of the St. Lawrence and Ottawa, 
 to the extremest Arctic Regions yet penetrated by the 
 foot of man, should be yet less known to American 
 writers — even on the topic of Natural History — than 
 most animals of Central Asia, or the inhospitable wilds of 
 Southern Africa. It is not even determined — so little care 
 has been taken in examining or identifying specimens 
 — ^whether it is one and the same, or a different species- 
 from the Reindeer of the Europe- Asiatic continent ; nor 
 
20 . AMERICAN GAME. 
 
 have any of its peculiarities been noted down, sucli as 
 the common indications of its stature, antlers, pelage, 
 and color, much less its anatomical and osseous structure, 
 so as to permit of any accurate comparison being drawn, 
 or decision arrived at. 
 
 In proof of the loose way in which these self-styled 
 descriptions of rare animals are drawm, in books of 
 solemn pretension and supposed authority, I shall pro- 
 ceed to quote the following from the Encyclopaedia 
 Americana — a work of which I can only say, that it is 
 equally profuse of needless information on subjects trite 
 to every Sophomore, and sparing of facts, such as require 
 research and are required by men of ordinary reading, 
 who will search its pages vainly for what on occasion 
 they may need to ask it. 
 
 " Beindeer^^ — says the authority. " Tliese animals in- 
 habit the Arctic Islands of Spitzbergen, and the northern 
 extremity of the Old Continent, never having extended, 
 according to Cuvier, to the southward of the Baltic. 
 They have been long domesticated, and their appearance 
 and habits are well described by naturalists. The Amer- 
 ican Reindeer, or Cariboo, are much less generally 
 known ; they have, however, so strong a resemblance to 
 the Lapland deer, that they have always been considered 
 to be the same species, though the fact has never been 
 completely established. The American Indians have 
 never profited by the docility of this animal, to aid them 
 in transporting their families and property, though they 
 
THE OAEIBOO. ' 21 
 
 annually destroy great numbers for their flesh and hides. 
 There appear to be several varieties of this useful quad- 
 ruped peculiar to the high northern regions of the Amer- 
 ican Continent, which are ably described by Dr. Richard- 
 son, one of the companions of Captain Franklin, in his 
 ai'duous attempt to reach the Il^Torth Pole by land. The 
 closeness of the hair of the Cariboo, and the lightness of 
 its skin, when dressed, render it the most appropriate 
 article for winter clothing in the high latitudes. The 
 hoofs of the Eeindeer are very large, and spread greatly, 
 and thus enable it to cross the yielding snows without 
 sinking." 
 
 And this — without one word of its height, weight, 
 color, or habitat — is tlie only information which the 
 Editor of the American Encyclopaedia thinks proper to 
 give his readers — except a brief description of Dr. Bich- 
 ardson, about whom he seems to know a little, if he 
 knew nothing about Cariboo — concerning an animal, 
 which is killed almost annually within fifty miles of 
 Albany, sold annually in Montreal, and in N'ew Bruns- 
 wick and !Nova Scotia almost as common an article as 
 venison, or Moose-meat during winter in the markets. 
 
 Would not any one suppose, on reading the above, 
 that he was dealing with the description of an animal, 
 which roamed only wastes untrodden by the foot of the 
 white man, save the adventurous explorers of the Arctic 
 Circles, and concerning which no information can be 
 gained by the ordinary naturalists of this country? 
 
22 AMEBICAU GAME. 
 
 Cuvier and Eichardson, and Audubon's stupendous 
 work are not attainable by general readers, or even 
 ordinary writers of cities ; to those of the country they 
 are nitterly inaccessible — but to Encyclopaedists, and to 
 men who sit down to reproduce great works on E'atural 
 History, who choose to consult them, they are perfectly 
 and easily open ; and there is no shadow of excuse for 
 those who profess to teach others, yet refuse to learn 
 themselves. 
 
 Had the writer of the above worthless trash thought fit 
 to compare Dr. Richardson's description of the Cariboo, 
 which it seems he had read — and which, like all that 
 singularly able natm'alist's descriptions, is doubtless as 
 minute as correct — with Cuvier's description of the 
 Reindeer, he might have pronounced as easily as he 
 could whether two and two makes four or Rye, whether 
 the American and Europe- Asiatic deer are identical or 
 different. Godman, in his " Quadrupeds of North 
 America," though a little more definite than Dr. Leiber, 
 is scarce less bold and brief. Dr. Dekay, whose la- 
 mented life has recently been brought to an untimely 
 close, though he suspected it to be a denizen of 
 New York, was not fully assured of the fact, and there- 
 fore has not, I think, described it in his Fauna of that 
 State. 
 
 I have myself, unfortunately, no immediate access to 
 either Richardson or Cuvier ; nor even to any well estab- 
 lished work on the Animals of Northern Europe. But 
 
THE CAKIBOO. 23 
 
 I have seen a large herd, in my youth, of the Lapland 
 Reindeer, which, with their Esquimaux attendants, were 
 exhibited many years ago in London ; previous to a 
 futile attempt at naturalizing them in the Highlands 
 and Western Isles of Scotland; and have a fair general 
 remembrance of the animal. I possess antlers of the 
 Cariboo, which hang in my hall, and which are accu- 
 rately portrayed in the wood-cut; I have handled 
 twenty times the hides of this great deer ; and I have 
 daily opportunities — in the office of my friend, W. T. 
 Porter, of the Spirit of the Times — to examine the pre- 
 served heads and legs of even finer specimens than my 
 own. I have also letters, private, and writings pub- 
 lished, of a New Brunswicker, who has killed the Cari- 
 boo fifty times, and had opportunities of seeing the 
 European Eeindeer, at the Zoological Gardens in London, 
 long since myself. I can, therefore, form a very fair con- 
 jecture at the identity or non-identity of the species. At 
 least, I can give some particulars of structure, stature, and 
 pelage of the American Cariboo, which will enable oth- 
 ers to judge, who are better posted up than I, in the pecu- 
 liarities of the Lapland Reindeer. And first — I will pre- 
 mise that although I have never seen the Cariboo in 
 life, or in his native woods — ^which I trust to do before 
 tlie snows of the next March shall have melted — ^the 
 wood-cut illustration of this number is so closely made 
 up from measurements of the various parts, heads, ant- 
 lers, legs and hides of the animal, that I believe it to be 
 
24 AMERICAIT GAME. 
 
 as nearly correct as any likeness can be, whicli is not 
 taken from an especial individual of tlie race. 
 
 In the first place — as to tlie stature of the Cariboo, I 
 was long ago struck by the statements of the JSTew 
 Brunswick writer, " Meadows," alias Mr. Barton "Wal- 
 lop, alluded to above, which may be found in Porter's 
 edition of Hawker's Field Sports, p. 326-333— "The 
 Cariboo of this country are very like the Keindeer, only 
 a little larger" — and again — " As this is the first time 
 you have seen a Cariboo trail, you will observe it is 
 much like that of an ox^ save that the cleft is much 
 more open, and the pastern of the animal being very 
 long and flexible, comes down the whole length on the 
 snow, and gives the animal additional support." 
 
 Arguing on this statement, in my "Field Sports," 
 knowing Meadows to have seen both animals, that they 
 must be distinct, I pointed out that no one could dream 
 of comparing a Lapland Reindeer's track to that of an 
 ox, any more than to that of an elephant ; and observed 
 farther, that the Laj^land Reindeer is not. a larger, but, 
 to my recollection, a smaller animal than the common 
 American Bed-deer, Cervus Virginianus of l^aturalists. 
 This coming casually under Mr. "Wallop's eye, he wrote 
 to me, in full confirmation of my opinion, that he had 
 recently seen Lapland Reindeer in the Regent's Park 
 Zoological Gardens, and wished to amend his former 
 dictum^ by saying, that the Cariboo is at least one-third 
 taller than the Lapland deer, and otherwise larger, and 
 
THE CAEIBOO. 25 
 
 in otlier respects very diiFerent. Also tliat the Lapland 
 animal is not taller than the British stag, or the Ameri- 
 can Common Deer, or, if at all, very slightly so. 
 
 ISTow, to come to my own observation, verified by 
 measurement. Tlie Cariboo antlers in my own possess- 
 ion, not an nn usually large pair, measure as follows : 
 
 Extreme v/idth from tip to tip, one foot four and a 
 half inches. Length of curvature of antlers, from root 
 to tip, two feet three and a half inclies. Direct height, 
 twenty-three inches. Breadth of the palmated brow 
 antlers, eight inches. Length of do., eleven inclies. 
 Breadth of upper palm, eight inches. Lengtli of do., 
 twelve inches. Girth at tlie root of antler, five and a 
 half inches.. At insertion of upper prong, four inches. 
 Kumber of prongs at the tips, unequal — three and two. 
 At the upper palms, three. On the lower palms, seven 
 processes, including the principal point. 
 
 Compare with this, the measurements of the antlers 
 of a very fine specimen of the common American deer, 
 Cervus Yirgiiiiamts. 
 
 Extreme Avidth from tip to tip, eleven inches. Length 
 of curvature along the back of antlers from root to tip, 
 two feet and half an inch. Direct height, fifteen inches. 
 
 Observe, however, that the greater curvature in the 
 horns of the American deer, while it causes a larger 
 comparative measurement, leaves a vast excess in height 
 and show to the Cariboo. 
 
 In the Cariboo, moreover— see cut — ^the structure of 
 
'26 AMERICAN GAME. 
 
 the horns is directly the reverse of that of any other 
 palmated-liorned animal I ever remember to have seen ; 
 as the Moose, the Englisli Fallow-deer, and to the best 
 of my recollection the Europe- Asiatic Reindeer. In 
 both the former of these animals, the broad palms form 
 the extreme upper tips ; while the lower spurs and brow 
 antlers are round prongs ; and, to the best of my mem- 
 ory, the Reindeer has no very conspicuous palms at all. 
 
 In our common deer, again, contrary to any other 
 deer I have ever seen — except a very noble nondescript 
 specimen recently sent from Calcutta to the Spirit of 
 the Times — the main branch of the antlers curves for- 
 ward over the brow, offering the main defenses, the true 
 brow antlers being mere erect prongs ; while all .the 
 tines are posterior to the main branch. 
 
 In the American Elk, and in the British Stag, or Red- 
 deer, and in all other round-horned deer I ever saw, the 
 main antlers rise erectly, with a slight backward curve, 
 the brow antler and all the other tines springing from 
 it anteriorly, and forming the true weapons for the ani- 
 mal's defense. 
 
 The Cariboo, therefore, presents a curious combination 
 of the round-horned and palmated-horned deer, in the 
 first instance ; and of the usual, and American, round- 
 horn structure, in the second. First, it has the round, 
 pointed tips and sharp, round prongs of the round-horned 
 deer above, with the flat, leaf-like blades of the pal- 
 mated-horned deer below. And, secondly, it has the 
 
THE CAEIBOO. 27 
 
 forward curve at the tips and backward prongs, above, 
 of the American round-horn, with the terrible brow 
 antlers and forward tines of the usual structure below. 
 
 Lastly, it differs from all in this — that its brow antlers, 
 instead of dividing with an outward curve over and 
 without each eye, close with a straight inward inclina- 
 tion, until the tips almost meet, nearly in the centre of 
 a brow. 
 
 Once more, as to size, there are the leg, with hoof, 
 pastern and cannon-bone of an ordinary sized Cariboo ; 
 and the leg, with hoof, pastern and cannon-bone of an 
 extraordinarily large-sized American deer, and as such 
 selected, hanging side by side in Mr. Porter's office. 
 The limb of the Cariboo is considerably more than one- 
 third superior in size to that of the common deer, and is 
 fully equal to that of a yearling heifer of the very larg- 
 est stature, and from its peculiar structure, being cleft 
 nearly the full length of the pastern to the fetlock-joint, 
 would evidently leave a much larger track. 
 
 I have seen and ridden aged thorough-bred horses of 
 fourteen and a half hands — four feet ten inches high — ■ 
 whose limbs were in all respects inferior to that of this 
 superb specimen of the deer tribe ; and right confident 
 am I, from observation of several of their heads, their 
 hides and hoofs, that from fourteen and a half to fifteen 
 hands will be found to be the average height of the 
 Cariboo. If the Lapland Reindeer ever exceeds thirteen 
 it will be surprising to me. While on this topic, how- 
 
28 AMERICA^." GASIE. 
 
 ever, I will beg the first Canadian or ISTova Scotian 
 hunter whose eye this may meet, to furnish me with the 
 full statements of height, weight and measurement of 
 a'ny Cariboo he may be so fortunate as to kill, or to have 
 killed, during the present winter. Readers of Graham 
 will find in the February number of the year 1852, a 
 correct and spirited reprjesentation of the antlers of the 
 English Red-deer ; and, if they will look forward to the 
 months of February and August of this volume, they 
 will find those of the Moose and American Deer, de- 
 signed by myself from the life, wJlich^will far more 
 easily convey the comparison which I desire to draw, 
 than written words. 
 
 As regards the nature of the pelage, or fur, for it is 
 almost such, of the Cariboo, so far from its being, as the 
 wiseacre of the Encyclopaedia states, remarkable for 
 closeness and compactness, it is by -all odds the loosest 
 and longest haired of any deer I ever saw ; being, par- 
 ticularly about the head and neck, so shaggy as to ap- 
 pear almost maned. 
 
 In color, it is tlie most grizzly of deer, and though 
 comparatively dark brown on the back, the hide is gen- 
 erally speaking, light, almost dun-colored, and on tlie 
 head and neck fulvous, or tawny gray, largely mixed 
 with white hairs. 
 
 Tlie flesh is said to be delicious ; and the leather made 
 by the Indians from its skin, by their peculiar process, 
 is of unsurpassed excellence for leggins, moccasons or 
 
THE CAKIBOO. 29 
 
 the like ; especially for the moccason to be used under 
 snoAv-slioes. 
 
 As to its liabits, wliile tlie Lapland or Siberian Eein- 
 deer is tbe tamest and most docile of its genus, tlie 
 American Cariboo is tbe fiercest, fleetest, wildest, shy- 
 est and most untameable. So much so, 'that they are 
 rarely pursued by white hunters, or shot by them, ex- 
 cept through casual good fortune ; Indians alone having 
 the patience and instinctive craft, which enables them 
 to crawl on them unseen, unsmelt — for the nose of the 
 Cariboo can detect the smallest taint upon the air of 
 any tiling human at least two miles up wind of him — and 
 unsuspected. If he takes alarm and start off on the run 
 no one dreams of pursuing. As well pursue the wind, 
 of which no man knoweth whence it cometh or whither 
 it goeth. Snow-shoes against him alone avail little, for 
 propped up on the broad, natural snow-shoes of his long, 
 elastic pasterns and wide cleft clacking hoofs, he shoots 
 over the crust of the deepest drifts, unbroken ; in which 
 the lordly moose would soon flounder, shoulder deep, if 
 hard pressed, and the graceful deer would fall despair- 
 ing, and bleat in vain for mercy — but he, the ship of the 
 winter wilderness, outspeeds the wind among his native 
 pines and .tamaracks — even as the desert ship, the dron> 
 edary, outtrots the red simoon on the terrible Zahara — 
 and once started, may be seen no more by human eyes, 
 nor run down by fleetest feet of man, no, not if they 
 pursue him from their nightly-casual camps, unwearied, 
 
50 AMERICAN GAME. 
 
 following his trail by tlie day, by the week, by the 
 month, till a fresh snow eiiaces his tracks, and leaves the 
 hunter at th^ last, as he was at the first of the chase ; 
 less only the fatigue, the disappointment and the folly. 
 Therefore, by woodsmen, whether white or red skinned, 
 he is followed only on those rare occasions when snows of 
 unusual depth are crusted over to the very point at 
 which they will not quite support this fleet and power- 
 ful stag. Then the toil is too great even for his vast 
 endurance, and he can be run down by the speed of men, 
 inured to the sport, and to the hardships of the wilder- 
 ness, but by them only. Indians by hundreds in the 
 provinces, and many loggers and hunters in the Eastern 
 States, can take and keep his trail in suitable weather — 
 the best time is the latter end of February or the begin- 
 ning of March ; the best weather is when a light, fresh 
 snow of some three or four inches has fallen on the top 
 of deep drifts and a solid crust ; the fresh snow giving 
 the means of following the trail ; the firm crust yielding 
 a support to the broad snow-shoes and enabling the 
 stalkers to trail with silence and celerity combined. 
 Then, they crawl onward, breathless and voiceless, up 
 wind always, following the foot prints of the wandering, 
 pasturing, wantoning deer ; judging by signs, unmistak- 
 able to the veteran hunter, undistinguishable to the 
 novice, of the distance or proximity of their game, until 
 they steal upon the herd unsuspected, and either finish 
 the day with a sure shot and a triumphant whoop ; or 
 
THE CAEIBOO. 31 
 
 discover that the game has taken alarm and started on 
 the jump, and so give it np in despair. 
 
 One man perhaps in a thousand can still-hnnt, or 
 stalk, Cariboo in the summer season. He, when he has 
 discovered a herd feeding up wind, at a leisure pace 
 and clearly unalarmed, stations a comrad in close am- 
 bush, well down wind and to leeward of thfeir upward 
 track, and then himself, after closely observing their 
 mood, motions and line of course, strikes off in a, wide 
 circle well to leeward, until he has got a mile or two 
 ahead of the herd, when very slowly and guardedly, ob- 
 serving the profoundest silence, he cuts across their 
 direction, and gives them his wind, as it is technically 
 termed, dead ahead. This is the crisis of the affair ; if 
 he give the wind too strongly, or too rashly, if he make 
 the slightest noise or motion, they scatter in an instant, 
 and away. If he give it slightly, gradually, and casu- 
 ally as it wxre, not fancying themselves pursued, but 
 merely approached, they merely turn away from the re- 
 mote danger, and instead of flying, feed away from it, 
 working their way down wind to the deadly ambush , of 
 which their keenest scent cannot, under such circum- 
 stances, inform them. If he succeed in this inch by 
 inch he crawls after them, never pressing them, or draw- 
 ing in upon them, but preserving the same distance still, 
 still giving them the same wind as at the first, so that he 
 creates no panic or confusion, until at length, when close 
 upon the hidden peril, his sudden whoop sends them 
 
32 AMfiEICAN GAME. 
 
 headlong clown tire deceitful breeze upon tlie treaclier- 
 ous rifle. 
 
 Of all wood-craft, none is so difficult, none requires so 
 rare a combination as tliis, of quickness of siglit, wariness 
 of tread, very instinct of tlie craft, and perfection of 
 judgment. When resorted to, and performed to the ad- 
 miration even of woodmen, it docs not succeed once in a 
 hundred times — therefore not by one man in a thousand 
 is it ever resorted to at all, and by him, rather in the 
 wantonness of woqd-craft, and by way of boastful experi- 
 ment, than with any hope, much less expectation of suc- 
 cess. 
 
 For once, in my illustration, the trick has been played, 
 and the game wins — tlie whoop is pealing on the wind 
 beyond the dark, sheltering pines and hemlocks — the 
 herd is scattered to the four winds of heaven — ^but the 
 monarch of the wilderness, the prime bull of the herd, 
 bears down in his headlong terror full on the ambushed 
 rifle. 
 
 Lo ! with how brave a bound he clears that prostrate 
 log. But the keen eye of the woodman is upon him; 
 another moment, and it shall glare along the (deadly 
 rifle ; the sharp, short crack shall awake the echoes of 
 the forest, and ere they shall have subsided into silence, 
 the pride of the woods shall have gasped out his last 
 sigh on the gory green-sward. 
 
 But this you will say is fancy — scarcely fact. Be it 
 so. What follows shall be fact, not fancy. For I shall 
 
THE CAKIBOO. 38 
 
 beg leave to quote a few pages from Porter's Hawker by 
 that " Meadows," whom I have already mentioned — since 
 his is the best description of this noble sport extant ; 
 since to reproduce it, giving his thoughts in my own 
 altered words were worse than plagiary ; and since, if it 
 meet his eye, he will be rather pleased than hurt that I 
 have winged his words into a wider field, and to a larger 
 audience than he at first addressed them. 
 
 I will premise only, that " Howard," who figures as the 
 hero, is a I^ew Brunswicker, in New Brunswick ; " Mea- 
 dows," the narrator, an English tyro visiting his friend in 
 the province ; Sabatisie, a Micmac Indian, henchman and 
 guide of Meadows ; and Billy, last not least, Howard's 
 pet bull-terrier. Scene, daybreak ! they have issued 
 from the camp close to the hunting-ground where the 
 Cariboo are supposed to " won" — as Chaucer would have 
 written it — when lo ! quoth Meadows-^- 
 
 " After a hearty meal, every thing being ready, we 
 mounted our snow-shoes and marched. The first golden 
 rays were just struggling through the gray East, and 
 dispersing the thick mist which hung over our camp, as 
 I strode forth on my first Cariboo hunt, my heart leaping 
 in anxious anticipation, and my nerves strung by the 
 healthy atmosphere. We proceeded in silence, and had 
 ample time to. observe the lonely grandeur of the sur- 
 rounding forest ; the death-like stillness enlivened only 
 by the cheerful chirp of the active ground-squirrel, or 
 the loud boring of that most beautiful of woodpeckers, 
 
34: AMERICAN GAME. 
 
 tlie Hid. We ci'ossed Cariboo tracks at every step, but 
 still tlie Indian proceeded, his quick eye glancing at 
 every trail. After about an hour's walk, we found our- 
 selves ascending a steep mountain. Here the Indian 
 came to a halt : in a low tone he told us that we were 
 now near the Cariboo ground, this being the warm side 
 of the hill, and good feeding ground ; cautioning us to be 
 quiet, w^e again advanced^ but had not gone far before 
 we came to a trail that the Indian said was only made 
 last night. Sabatisie chose the outside track of the herd, 
 to take the wind — which, having followed about three 
 miles, brought us to where the Cariboo had rested during 
 the night. Tom placed his hand on the damp snow, and 
 remarked that the Cariboo had not been up much before 
 ns, and could not be far off. 
 
 " Kiiles were now examined, and fresh caps put on— 
 Billy secured by a cord to Howard's belt. The tracks 
 from the resting-place of the Cariboo branched off in 
 every direction ; and the Indian leaving us, took a east 
 round, some distance, and having ascertained the direc- 
 tion the herd had taken, he returned, and we cautiously- 
 followed him. I now perceived that at the bottom of 
 the tracks the snow was a deep blue, and quite soft ; we 
 were therefore quite near the game. Sabatisie halted 
 and took off his snow-shoes that he might proceed with 
 less noise. Howard beckoned me to him, and in a low 
 whisper said — ' Do exactly as you see me do — follow 
 
THE CARIBOO. 35 
 
 close upon my track, and do not for your life make tlie 
 sliglitest noise — we are close on tliem !' 
 
 " Sabatisie and Howard now slung tlieir snow-slioes 
 on their backs : to prevent the crackling of the crust, 
 tlie Indian with his fingers broke the snow before him, 
 and placing his foot in the hole he made, quietly ad- 
 vanced — Howard putting his in the track the Indian had 
 left, I mine in Howard's. By this means we proceeded 
 without the slightest noise ; and as our movements were 
 simultaneous, we should to a person in front appear as 
 one body. Our situation was anything but agreeable, 
 uj) to the waist in snow. The trail became every mo- 
 ment more fresh, and the eagle eye of our sagacious 
 guide pried far into the depths of the forest in front. 
 Suddenly he cast himself at full length on the snow, and 
 remained so long in that position that I innocently thrust 
 my head out of the line to see what was the matter ; but 
 the Indian glared at me with anger and contempt, and 
 Howard's sign recalled my senses. In front, the wood 
 being quite open, Sabatisie had seen the Cariboo, and 
 now made for a large pine to shelter his approach. His 
 movements, as he dragged himself along on his belly in 
 the snow, were snake-like ; and we followed, endeavoring 
 as far as possible to imitate his very interesting contor- 
 tions. At last I caught sight of the game. They were 
 a large herd of 18 or 20 — some rubbing the bark from 
 the branches — others performing their morning toilet, 
 licking their dark-brown, glossy jackets, and combing 
 
36 AJSIEKICAN GA3IE. 
 
 
 
 tliem with tlieir noble antlers. All appeared uncon- 
 scious of tlie approach of tlieir mo^t deadly foes, save 
 one noble bull, tlie leader of the herd. He seemed sus- 
 picions — with head erect, eyes dartiDgin every direction, 
 ears wagging to and fro, and nostril expanded, he snuffed 
 the breeze. Upon this splendid creature the Indian kept 
 his eye, never venturing to move, save when the head 
 of the Cariboo was turned away. Inch by inch we ap- 
 proached the tree. Oh ! the agony of suspense I suf- 
 fered in those few minutes ! 
 
 "At length we reached our shelter. ISTo time was" 
 lost. Howard signed to me to single out a Cariboo, 
 while he took the noble leader, which was about 100 
 yards distant — the Indian reserving his fire. We sta- 
 tioned ourselves each side of the tree, and our rifles 
 exploded almost at the same moinent. Springing up to 
 see the effect of my shot, I was pulled down by the 
 Indian; what was my astonishment to see the bull 
 Howard had fired at, stamping the snow and gazing 
 around, with fire and rage in his eye, in search of his 
 hidden enemy. As I looked at his formidable antlers, 
 his majestic height, and great strength — a thought of 
 our helpless situation crossed my mind. The Indian 
 now rested his gun quietly on the tree, and took a long, 
 steady aim — the cap alone exploded with a sharp crack ! 
 Quick as lightning the bull discovered our ambush, and 
 with a loud snort made directly for us. Defence or re- 
 ti-eat against such a foe, in our situation, up to the" waist 
 
THE OAEIBOO. 37 
 
 in snow, was almost impossible. In another bound tlie 
 antlers of the enraged beast wonld have been in my 
 side, when our gallant^ little dog dashed forward and 
 seized the bull by the muzzle. Sabatisie and Howard 
 were busily employed putting on their snow-shoes ; and 
 I endeavored to do the same, but with little success. 
 The dog had lucidly checked the beast, but he was no 
 match for the enormous strength and wonderful activity 
 of his adversary. Tossing his head, the Cariboo beat 
 the poor little fellow on the' snow and against the tree, 
 till I thought every bone was broken. Finding this of 
 no avail, the bull reared, and with his fore-legs dealt 
 such a shower of quick and powerful blows, that I ex- 
 pected to see the dog drop every minute. While the 
 Cariboo was in this position, the Indian approached him 
 behind and endeavored to hamstring him. But the eye 
 of the bull was too quick ; wheeling like lightning, he 
 made a rush at Sabatisie which must have been serious, 
 but was avoided by his falling flat on his face, the Ca- 
 riboo passing over him and wounding his back. Mean- 
 while Howard had loaded, but his rifle having become 
 wet, he could not discharge it. The violent exertions of 
 the Cariboo had by this time broke the hold of the dog, 
 and the furious beast now turned to the prostrate Indian 
 — ^but before he could reach his prey, the dog was again 
 at his head, checking, but not stopping his mad career. 
 Sabatisie on his knee received the shock, and at the 
 moment grasping the bull by the antlers, brought him 
 
38 AMERICAN GA:ME. 
 
 down ; wlien Howard sprung forward and plunged his 
 knife to the hilt in the breast of the Cariboo. With a 
 last mighty eifort, the noble creature dashed the Indian 
 in the air, and the next moment his own strong limbs 
 were quivering in death. 
 
 " From the commencement of this burst, I confess, I 
 was a little agitated — so much so, that I had not coolness 
 sufficient to tie on my snow-shoes, or load my rifle ; but 
 let not any blame me until they themselves have had 
 the pleasure of being placed in the same delicate situa- 
 tion, up to the waist in snow, and one of those emperors 
 of the deer tribe dancing round in mad fury, threatening 
 instant annihilation. On examination, we found How- 
 ard's ball had taken effect just behind the shoulder, and 
 would have caused death in a §hort time. 
 
 " ' Hillo ! old boy, are you hurt V said Tom Howard, 
 seeing the Indian still on his back. 
 
 " ' Cariboo sartain hery sti^ong^ grunted the poor 
 fellow. His back was much lacerated. 'Brother cut 
 some giuii, and soon be well,' said Sabatisie. 
 
 " Howard gathered some balsam formed by the sap 
 running from the bark of the fir-tree, and spreading it 
 on a piece of his handkerchief, formed a strong adhesive 
 plaster — staunching the blood, he placed it on the 
 wound. 
 
 " ' And now, Meadows, what has become of your 
 game — think he is hit V 
 
 " * Yes, by Jove, I'll bet my rifle to a pop-gun he is— 
 
THE CAEIBOO. 39 
 
 for see, Billy has settled down on his track, and is in 
 chase. 
 
 " ' On with your snow-shoes, and away ! — ^the track 
 with the blood will be plain as a van wagon — if you 
 come up with the Cariboo, do not fire unless you are 
 sure to kill. I must stop and see if the Indian is much 
 hurt, and swab out my rifle — ^but I will soon overtake 
 you — away now !' 
 
 " So urged, I started off, and found large drops of 
 blood on the track the prime little dog had taken. As I 
 proceeded, I saw the strides of the Cariboo were shorter, 
 and he had been down several times. As I pressed on, 
 in great hopes of overtaking the game before Howard 
 came up, I observed the Cariboo had made for the valley, 
 and after a sharp walk of an hour, I came to the stream, 
 which was open. Here I lost the track, but saw the 
 marks of the dog down the stream — these I followed, 
 and soon heard the baying of the dog. As I proceeded, 
 the river was every moment more rapid. After a sharp 
 turn the stream was compressed between two huge cliffs, 
 and rushed down a water-gap, forming a cascade of nearly 
 one hundred feet. To the very verge of the fall the 
 river was open ; but over the fall itself there was a thin 
 coating of transparent ice, which clung to the perpen- 
 dicular cliffs on each side of the narrow gap, forming a 
 gauze-like veil. The towering cliffs around were covered 
 with a frosting of ice ; and from the stunted pines which 
 clung to the barren rock, hung myriads of fantastic 
 
^ AMERIOAl^ GAME. 
 
 icicles. At the foot of tlie fall, the blue water riislied 
 out, dashing the white foam many feet in the air; and 
 through the thick woods which overhung the cascade, 
 the sun cast his rays upon the gorgeous prospect, making 
 every object throw forth a thousand brilliant shades, 
 and the gjittering ice which encircled the fall was so 
 transparent, that the blue water could be seen beneath 
 dashing furiously down, as if enraged at restraint. E^ot 
 ten feet from the verge of the fall, on a rock in the 
 centre of the river, stood the wounded Cariboo. The 
 water around him was fearfully rapid — one false step 
 w^ould carry him under the ice, and down the fall. On 
 the bank stood the dog : my first care was to, secure him, 
 as he appeared ready every instant to make a spring 
 that must have been fatal. The Cariboo had chosen a 
 most admirable place of retreat ; nothing living could, 
 approach him with safety. On each side the perpen- 
 dicular cliffs towered many feet over his head — before 
 him the roaring torrent, and behind the ice-bound cata- 
 ract. After feastilig my eyes on this wild and romantic 
 scene, I approached as near the fall as the rugged cliff 
 would permit. The Cariboo saw me, and with glaring 
 eye-balls he shook his branching antlers in impotent 
 rage, presenting to my rifle his broad front, as in defi- 
 ance. I am not ashamed to say I was hapj)y when I 
 glanced at the rapid water and rugged cliff' between me 
 and my devoted j)rey ; for I have no doubt, had it been 
 in his power he would have soon shortened the distance 
 
THE CAEIBOO. 41 
 
 Detween us — and after wliat I liad so lately witnessed, I 
 Lad no very great desire (seeing I was not as yet a perfect 
 harlequin on snow-shoes,) to play the same game over 
 again with my friend on the rock. To pnt an end to his 
 wishes and my fears, I presented. My ball took effect 
 directly in his brain, and he" quietly dropped into the 
 stream, leaving me master of the field. The next mo- 
 ment I could see, through the transparent ice, his glossy 
 hide gliding down the cascade." 
 
 Amiable reader, thus it was that " Meadows" slew his 
 first Cariboo ; and thus, pray for me, that I may kill 
 mine, or ere a year be flown. If I do, believe me, I will 
 try to tell you how I did it, as well — ^better I may not 
 tell you — as Meadows. And so, until next month, fare 
 you well ! 
 
II. 
 
 FEBSUARY. 
 
 Cerou& Alces. 
 
 NORTHERN WILDERNESS, BEYOND THE OTTAWA; NEW- 
 FOUNDLAND TO NEW YORK. 
 
 Anas Canadensis. 
 
 NORTH AMERICA, ARCTIC REGIONS, MOUTHS OF THE 
 MISSISSIPPI. 
 
^^^'J- / 
 
THE MOOSE DEER. 
 
 Cervus Alces, 
 
 This gigantic deer, the largest of all -the deer tribe, and 
 wliicli is distinguished from all others not only by the 
 magnificence of its dimensions, but by the fact that it is 
 the only one of the genus which is uncouth in its form, 
 ungraceful in its attitudes, and awkward and ungainly 
 in its action and gait, is identical in every respect with 
 the Elk of Europe, no distinction being discernible on 
 the closest examination. _It must, however, on no' ac- 
 count be confounded with the great Wapiti Beer, or 
 American Elk, Cervus Canandensis^ as it is in every 
 respect different and distinct. The Moose-deer, which 
 derives its name in the vernacular from its appellation 
 in the Algonquin tongue, musu, is entirely a ISTorthem, 
 and more especially a JSTorth-Eastern animal, being most 
 abundant in the British Provinces of ]^ova Scotia and 
 'New Brunswick, in Maine, the northern part of jSTew 
 Hampshire, and the Adirondack Highlands of the state 
 of New York, beyond which to the westward it is never 
 found south of the St. Lawrence, nor I think is there any 
 reason to believe that its range has ever extended far to 
 
46 AMERICAN GAME. 
 
 the west of this limit or southward to the Atlantic coast. 
 In Lower Canada, on both sides of the St. Lawrence 
 below Quebec, and on the north side so far as to Mon- 
 treal, it is exceedingly abundant, but to the westward of 
 that city it is rarely if ever found south of the great 
 Ottawa river. A single Moose was killed during the 
 summer of 1849 by an Ojibwa Indian on the Severn 
 river, which debouches into the north side of the great 
 Georgian Bay of Lake Huron, the skull of which I saw 
 myself, and it was asserted by the Indians generally, 
 that none of the race had been killed within the last 
 fifty years, at nearly which distance of time it was a 
 traditional belief that one had been killed, a straggler, 
 in the same vicinity. To the northward of this they 
 roam as far toward the pole as the forest region extends, 
 the Moose being, as we shall see when we come to speak 
 of his structm-e and habits, as much adapted to the 
 forest, as is the American Elk, or "Wapiti, Cervus Cana- 
 densis^ to the j)rairie. 
 
 The original limits of these two great deer would seem 
 to have been originally almost identical as to their 
 frontiers, the one beginning exactly where the other 
 ceases to exist, and the one being as remarkably a 
 western as the other is an eastern animal. The Elk was 
 found originally from the western regions of Pennsyl- 
 vania, if not throughout all the inland portions of that 
 state, through all the intermediate states, a little way 
 back from the sea-board, of Virginia, Kentucky, and 
 
THE MOOSE DEER. 47 
 
 Tennessee, in all of which it has now ceased to exist, to 
 the great prairie states of the west and the foot of the 
 Kocky Mountains, in many of which it is still found 
 frequently, although it cannot be said to abound until 
 you pass the Mississippi and even go beyond the cross 
 timbers. Why this deer ever received the title of 
 Cerviis Canadensis^ it is difficult to state, as I find no 
 indication of its ever having existed in Canada, but I 
 fancy it has arisen from a mistaken application of the 
 French teiin Orignal, or Elk, to this animal, which is 
 beyond doubt really applicable to the Moose, that 
 animal being, in fact, as I have observed, the Elk of 
 Europe, and having the flat palmated horns of that 
 species, whereas the Wapiti has the round branching 
 antlers of the red deer of Europe, Cermis Elaplms^ to 
 which animal it bears a very strong analogy, and except 
 in its vast superiority of size, closely resembles. 
 
 The Moose is the largest of all the deer tribe, an old 
 bull standing full eighteen hands high at the shoulder, 
 or six feet common measure, while the cows do not fall 
 short of fourteen or fifteen. The fore- legs of this deer 
 are very disproportionately long as compared to the 
 hind legs, and the shoulder stands so much higher than 
 the rump, that at a casual glance you would suppose the 
 animal to be standing up hill. His neck is so short and 
 cumbrous that he cannot graze on the ground without 
 much difficulty, straddling his fore-legs very wide apart, 
 axid even then gathering his food from a plain surface 
 
48 AI^IEKICAX GA^klE. 
 
 witli great difficulty and even pain ; he is not, however, 
 a grazing animal by nature, though he may resort to it 
 at times, from whim or for the lack of other means of 
 subsistence, but essentially a browser, for which mode of 
 feeding he is particularly adapted, being in a lesser 
 degree of the same structure with the cameleopard, 
 although the latter is loftier and far more exaggerated 
 in the height of his foreparts, owing to the immense 
 altitude of the trees — a species of mimosa^ — 'which afford 
 his favorite nourishment. Further than this, the huge, 
 flexible, prehensile upper lip of the Moose, which he 
 uses nearly as an elephant does his trunk, is of great 
 service to him in collecting the leaves and tender twigs 
 of the birch and alder, which, with the tips of some of 
 the evergreens, are his choice dainties. In the summer 
 season, when the woods are alive with Pharaoh's plague 
 of flies and musquitoes, which seem to devote themselves 
 with particular assiduity to the tormenting this great 
 giant of the wilderness, he delights to resort to marshy 
 pools and lakelets, where he wades out till his head is 
 barely above the surface, and lies there wallowing 
 deliciously all day long in the pure cold waters, safe 
 from his winged persecutors, and browses in security on 
 the floating leaves and buds of the water-lilies and on 
 tlie aquatic grasses which he crops as he swims or wades 
 about at his pleasure. 
 
 The horns, for antlers they cannot correctly be called, 
 of the male are an enormous and apparently useless 
 
THE MOOSE DEEE. 4:9 
 
 apparatus, for tlie bull Moose lights principally with liis 
 huge, cleeply-cloven hoofs, which he handles with great 
 dexterity, and with which he can inflict very heavy 
 bjows. They often weigh from fifty-six to sixty pounds 
 the pair, and present a flat palmated surface, intersected 
 upwardly by irregular ribs or ridges, each terminating 
 in a short snag or rounded point, one of which is added 
 every year until they attain their- full stature. The 
 weight of these is enormous, and accordingly when the 
 animal runs, which he does at a heavy, awkward, 
 shambling trot, he thrusts his nose high into the air, 
 with his short, sturdy neck pointed upward, so that the 
 horns are rested in some degree upon the back, partly it 
 may be supposed for the purpose of support, and partly 
 to avoid entanglement among the branches and thick-set 
 stems of the cedar-swamps which they most frequent. 
 These horns they shed annually in the spring of the 
 year, and annually renew, the surface being covered 
 with a soft velvet-like fungus, while tliey are young and 
 tender, and gaining hardness and consistency till in the 
 rutting season, which occurs in the latter summer and early 
 autumn, they are perfect in size and formidable as wea- 
 pons of offence. At this period the bulls may be heard 
 roaring and bellowing throughout the mountain gorges of 
 the ranges which they frequent, in the evening espe- 
 cially, and in the early gray of dawn, and when they hear 
 the lowing of the cows they come crashing through the 
 forests with fierce and amorous heat ; and if two rival 
 3 
 
50 AMERICAN GAME. 
 
 sultans meet in the presence of a single sultana, woe to 
 the weaker, for he must needs go to the wall after a 
 desperate conflict, fought out, as if by the knights of 
 old, in the presence of the queen of love if not of beauty, 
 whose caresses are to be the reward of the victor. 
 
 Of this propensity foresters take advantage in the sea- 
 son, by imitating the call of the cow Moose, which is 
 easily done by blowing a peculiar note through a com- 
 mon cows-horn, the end of which is partially immersed 
 in water, or on a trumpet made of birch or alder bark 
 for this very purpose by the Indians, who are gi;eat 
 adepts at its use, and rarely fail to extract a reply from 
 the bulls, and ultimately to lure him up within a fevv^ 
 feet of the circle of hemlock- or cedar-boughs among 
 which they await his coming full of amorous fury and 
 proud defiance, with the ready gun, which soon levels 
 his branched honors in the dust. 
 
 It not unfrequently happens that two bull Moose will 
 be attracted by the same call, will bellow their responses 
 to it through the echoing ravines and gorges, and will 
 finally tear down through the rent and crashing under- 
 wood, and meeting with a roar of defiance do battle at 
 outrance in the presence of the ambushed enemy, who 
 watches for his advantage at every instant of the fray, 
 and rarely fails to bring down both of the competitors 
 for an imaginary fair one, by a cowardly and ignoble 
 triumph. And a magnificent spectacle it must be to 
 witness, alone and unassisted in the depths of the pri- 
 
THE MOOSE DEER. 61 
 
 meval forest, in the gray and silvery moonlight, or in tlie 
 pnrple dawn of autumnal morning, the fierce and noisy 
 jousting of two of these great forest champions. 
 
 Tliere is another mode of pursuing these great deer 
 during the summer season, when they wade into the 
 deep waters to eschew the myriads of flies, which is 
 spoken of with rapture by those who have enjoyed it — 
 that is, to make the wilderness your home, your hemlock- 
 bed and bark-roofed camp your dwelling-place, and with 
 canoe, and rod, and rifle, stealthily to paddle along the 
 winding water-courses, keeping as much as possible 
 within the shadows of the shore, and under the protec- 
 tion of the overhanging branches, when you can often 
 •^al up within easy gun-shot and bring them down with 
 one well-directed bullet. The liberty, the independence, 
 the rapturous excitement of this sort of life is entirely 
 indescribable ; the delight with which you sleep in the 
 free, fresh, odoriferous air of the forest, with your soft, 
 elastic hemlock-bed — sure preventive of all rheumatic 
 pains — ^beneath you, and the blue vault, with all its 
 diamond stars ajbove you; the zest with which you 
 enjoy the meal of fresh trout from the river, or sweet 
 digestible wild meat from the woods, the fruits of your 
 own prowess ; the health, the strength, the energy of 
 mind and body which you earn by your rugged toil, and 
 rude though savory food ; the perfeOt sense of hardihood 
 and self-reliance, which you derive from thus owing 
 every thing that ministers to your enjoyment, to your 
 
52 AMEKICAN GAME. 
 
 own skill and manhood ; then, with the splendor of the 
 American autumn weather, and the gorgeous woodland 
 scenes which you must penetrate, these alone would pay 
 you for your toils ; cares there are none in the woods, 
 nor anxieties, nor ailings, nor sorrows — for these, with 
 the ringing of door-bells at unseasonable hours, and the 
 advent of matutinal duns, not to bo satisfied save with 
 the uttermost farthing, these are the growth of cities, 
 and the tormentors of the civilized and cockney gentle- 
 man, unknown to the forest, and set at easy defiance by 
 its hardy, happy inhabitant. Oh ! give to others who 
 will it, the luxuries of city life, the costly banquets, the 
 rich wines, the fascinations of women, the maddening 
 excitement of play, the " venerem, et plumas, et coenam 
 Sardanapali," but give me my hemlock shanty for my 
 palace, my hemlock-bed for my couch of down, my rifle 
 for my mistress, and my trusty Indian for my comrade 
 and my guide ; and, winter or summer, scorching sun or 
 deep-piled snow, the wilderness, give me the wilderness. 
 " The life in the woods for me." 
 
 When winter sets in cold and stern, then it is not the 
 Moose's paradise — ^rather it is his anti-paradise, and the 
 winter of his discontent made glorious summer to his 
 adversaries, who then hug hope to run him down by 
 their strength of wind and limb, and to conquer him by 
 open force and no unmanly fraud or base deceptions. 
 
 "Well aware that he cannot travel safely or feed easily 
 and plentifully, when his goings to and fro are converted 
 
THE MOOSE DEEK. SB 
 
 inful flounderings tlirougli deej) snow-drifts, or yet 
 j^^ainful plungings and breakings through the sur- 
 crusted with glassy ice, when the trees on which to 
 ...jwse are few and far between, no sooner do the first 
 snows begin to fall than the Moose resort to one of two 
 plans, each equally ingenious and equally adapted to the 
 nature of the ground for which they are intended. If a 
 bull intends wintering by himself, as sometimes occurs, 
 wherefore we know not ; he seeks out some hill, and 
 crosses and recrosses it a hundred times from summit to 
 base, and from base to summit, and then girdles it with 
 a hundred of parallels, intersecting the perpendiculars, 
 all of slowly made and deeply trodden foot-paths, 
 trampled down and beaten again, after each fresh suc- 
 ceeding snow-fall, till the whole snowy hill is cut up and 
 checkered into a net-work of firm, hard-trotted paths, 
 along which he can travel at whatever pace he lists, 
 whether lazily lounge along to browse on the succulent 
 shoots, or pounding away at his hard swinging trot, with 
 his wide-spread hoofs crackling at every track, in lull 
 flight from his pursuers, at a rate of eight or nine miles 
 an hour, with the advantage still of feeding as he goes, 
 snatching a juicy morsel from every favorite bush as he 
 dashes along. 
 
 When the Moose adopts this mode of wintering, unless 
 the party of hunters is suificiently strong to post a num- 
 ber of persons on different stands along the Moose-paths 
 to intercept him as he tracks their labyrinthine ways, it 
 
54 AMERICAIJ GAME. 
 
 avails little or nothing to attempt him ; for having many- 
 miles of hard-trodden j)aths on which to run, while his 
 pursuers cannot follow them on account of their narrow- 
 ness, but must blunder along their sides on snow-shoes, 
 with little or no chance of tracking him, since the paths 
 are so hard as to receive no impress from his hoofs, he 
 will keep on running, a half-mile or so ahead of pursu- 
 ers, without hurrying himself beyond his need till he shall 
 worry out the strongest hunter, and so escape shot-free. 
 
 The more usual method, however, for them to winter, 
 is by yarding, as _it is termed, or collecting into small 
 bands or droves of greater or smaller numbers, but con- 
 sisting in general of one old bull, two or three 
 younger males, three or four cows, and the calves of 
 several years accompanying their dams — for it is not 
 usual for the young to quit the cows until they are two 
 or three years old — and then forming yards, or large 
 spaces, well and regularly trampled down so as to be 
 sunk between walls of snow several feet in height, con- 
 taining within their area trees and shrubs enough to 
 afford ample pasture for the herd during the whole con- 
 tinuance of the cold weather, and from these they never 
 stir until the return of soft spring-time and the melting 
 of the snows. 
 
 It may be well here to state, that, in the oj)inion 
 of many of the best naturalists and foresters of 
 this country, the two habits, alluded to above, as path- 
 making and yarding, are in ti'utli accidental matters, and 
 
TDE MOOSE DEER. 65 
 
 the fortuitous result of circumstances, rather than any 
 peculiarities of instinct or sagacity in the animals to 
 which they are ascribed. 
 
 These persons contend that the net-work of paths, after 
 the manner described above, intersecting and checkering 
 whole mountain-sides, are naturally produced by the rov- 
 ing perambulations of the great deer ; and are not made 
 by him, with any design of future facilities in obtaining 
 forage, but simply in the course of present search for it. 
 
 Farther, they declare that the yards are not formed, or 
 even used, as a temporary winter habitation, from which 
 tlie animals do not wander during the continuance of 
 cold weather ; but attribute their occurrence merely to 
 the unavoidable stamping to and of a family, or a small 
 herd,' of these noble cervines, over the snowy surface of 
 some spot which has casually attracted them by the 
 abundance of succulent food offered by its underwood ; 
 and that they quit such places, from time to time, in 
 their ordinary rambles; and entirely, for another and 
 better place, so soon as its supplies are exhausted. This, 
 I regard, the truer and more philosophic view. 
 
 These yards are carefully hunted out by the Canadian 
 Indians, and the tidings are brought into the garrison 
 towns, and received with a perfect burst of enthusiasm 
 by the officers of her majesty's regiments quartered there, 
 and having little to relieve the monotony of winter, ex- 
 cept curling or tandem-driving, unless wlien a chance of 
 a Moose-hunt raises a gay alarum. 
 
56 AMEEICAN GAME. 
 
 Kifles are liimted up, and bullets run, snow-slioes are 
 btitrkled on, and the green-liorns excite great sport for 
 tlie old stagers, by kicking tlieir owji sliins, and tumbling 
 on their own noses at every second stride. Blankets, and 
 baskets of provision, not forgetting the ammunition, the 
 sj^irit-flasks, the tobacco-pipes, and the tea-kettle, are 
 packed upon the tobogins, or Indian sledges, made of 
 l^glit wood, to be drawn by the red-hunters through the 
 open forests, and then away for the wild, broad, bound- 
 less snow-clad wilderness — the hard tramp by day, the 
 blazing camp-fire, the leafy bed, the fragrant pipe, and 
 the flowing bowl at nig'at, and the sleep as sound and as 
 warm beside the roaring i)yi'e, with an untented heaven 
 above, and a temj)erature 40 degrees below you, as 
 though it were taken in a silken chamber, pillowed on 
 down and canopied with velvet. 
 
 And now the yard is reached, and one, or perhaps two 
 deliberate and murderous shots are fired, and then away 
 through the treacherous snow-drifts, away over the de- 
 ceitful ice-crusts flounder the huge beasts at their speed 
 in mortal terror. Away, hard on their traces, flying on 
 fleet snow-shoes, follow the impetuous and shouting 
 hunters. 
 
 Sometimes for days that headlong chase endures, the 
 
 weary beasts and worn-out men, lying up or encamping, 
 
 perhaps not a quarter of a mile asunder, when light fails 
 
 them and they can run no longer, and with the break of 
 
 . dawn renewing the wild career for life or death, for de- 
 
THE MOOSE DEEK. 5Y 
 
 feat or ignominious gloiy. Tliat is no sport for boys or 
 striplings, but hard work for strong, stout-hearted men. 
 But the science and the pluck of man prevails in the 
 end ; one by one the beasts are overhauled, the heaviest 
 first and the weakest, a rifle-shot, and a shrill ''who- 
 whoop" announces the fall of the forest king — a slash 
 of the keen knife steeps the snow with his life-blood, and 
 away, away, over the crackling crust, with the keen win- 
 ter's wind warming itself against your face, and your 
 heart thrilling with a rapture unknown to the laggard 
 loungers of city sidewalks, unsuspected by the sordid 
 and selfish voluptuary. 
 
 Such, friends, is the winter Moose-hunt of the Cana- 
 dian -wilderness. Try it, friends, once, and my life on it, 
 each succeeding winter will find you rifle in hand, and 
 snow-shoe on foot, in the interminable forest northward 
 of Quebec, stretching thence on unbroken to the Arctic 
 seas — for verily it is the king of American field-sports. 
 
THE CANADA GOOSE. 
 
 Anobs Canadensis, 
 
 This is the bird known universally throughout this 
 continent, as the Wild-Goose, and jet, although that is 
 not in truth his correct apellation, we do not in this 
 instance very particularly demur to it ; since it is by 
 very far the most important of all tlie species of this 
 genus, which visit our shored. The term Wild-Goose is 
 properly applied to the Gray Lag' Goose of Europe, which 
 is beyond any doubt the stock whence is derived the 
 common domestic goose of our barn-yards, and which 
 precisely resembles the tame bird, with the exception 
 that the ganders do not become white among the wild 
 fowl ; on this, however, no distinction of origin can be 
 supported; for it is well understood that one of the con- 
 sequences of domestication, is that in the process of gen- 
 erations it converts animals, which are unicolored in their 
 natural state, to piebalds, dapples, and various new 
 colors, in their artificial condition. 
 
 The true name of this bird is the Canada Goose ; a 
 title which was fijiven to it under the impression that it^ 
 
THE CANADA GOOSE. 59 
 
 breeding-grounds lay in that country, and in tlie vicinity 
 of the Great Lakes. Since the period, however, when 
 those provinces have become more thickly settled, more 
 observation has been bestowed on the haunts, habits, and 
 migrations of birds ; and it is now well ascertained that, 
 although a few stragglers may breed in various seques- 
 tered spots both in the States and in the Canadas, all the 
 main hordes proceed still northward beyond the utmost 
 habitations of man, beyond the limits of the Ai'ctic Cir- 
 cle, perhaps beyond the Pole itself, there to nestle and 
 rear the young in the untrodden solitudes, where no 
 breath of humanity has ever polluted the pure air, amid 
 the brief but delicious summer of the polar regions, 
 where they rejoice — to quote the eloquent words of Mr. 
 Giraud, in his birds of Long Island — where they rejoice 
 in " the absence of that great destroyer, rain, while the 
 splendors of a perpetual dry May render such regions 
 the most suitable to their purpose." 
 
 The Canada Goose, though rare, is not unknown in 
 Northern Europe, or even in England, where it is very 
 frequently domesticated as an ornament on artificial 
 lakes, within the bounds of parks and pleasure-grounds. 
 In unusually severe winters, it is sometimes killed on the 
 sea-coasts and on the inland lakes of Scotland, and 
 the north-eastern parts of England, though not in such 
 numbers as to constitute it an object of regular pursuit. 
 Kor is its flesh there considered a luxury, whether that 
 from change of climate and diet, it really becomes rank 
 
60 AMERICAIT GAME. 
 
 and unpalatable/ or that whim and fashion in this case 
 rule the roast. 
 
 Certain it is that, here, it is one of our best sea-shore 
 wild fowl, mejudice the very best; for its flesh is succu- 
 lent and juicj, never rank or fishy, not even sedgy, and, 
 when hung long enough in frosty weather, as tender as 
 the tenderest, even in the old ganders, which many per- 
 sons consider an abomination. 
 
 The breeding-grounds of the Canada Goose, have never 
 as yet been, and probably never will be ascertained oth- 
 erwise than negatively, as they lie, doubtless, beyond the 
 reach of man's all-daring footstep, there being no point 
 however northerly, to which the bold discoverers of the 
 highest latitudes have penetrated, at which the Goose 
 has not been observed still wending his way northward, 
 ever northward. '' They were seen by Hearne," says 
 Wilson, in his American Ornithology, " within the Arc- 
 tic Circle, and were then pursuing their way still farther 
 north. Captain Phipps speaks of seeing Wild Geese 
 feeding at the water's edge on the dreary coast of Spitz- 
 bergen, in lat. 80° 27'. It is highly probable that they ex- 
 tend their migrations to the Pole itself, amid the silent 
 desolations of unknown countries, shut out since the crea- 
 tion to the prying eye of man by everlasting and insu- 
 perable barriers of ice." 
 
 Throughout the United States and the British provinces 
 from the Straits of Belli sle and the Gut of Canso east- 
 ward, to the Osage river westward ; the biennial migra- 
 
THE CANADA GOOSE. 61 
 
 tions of tlie Canada Goose are well known to all ob- 
 servant inhabitants ; and at the close of autumn and the 
 opening of the spring, their vast phalanxes are seen 
 wending southward and northward, with the regularity 
 of the seasons themselves, cleaving the snow-laden and 
 misty air with the circular sweep of their heavy pinions, 
 and opposing to the currents of the atmosphere the 
 arrowy point of their wedge-like formations, while the 
 hoarse "honk" of the leading gander, answered again 
 from the rear of the battalia, calls the attention of us 
 groveling earthlings to their immeasurable march, 
 steadily sweeping onwards thousands of yards above our 
 pigmy heads. 
 
 Of their spring flight, as they return from the mouths 
 of the Mississippi, from the great unfrozen lakes and 
 bayous of the southwest to their far northern homes, 
 thus eloquently sung their own appropriate poet laureat, 
 the well-beloved and long-lamented sportsman bai;fl, 
 known wheresoever the staunch dog is followed, and the 
 true trigger drawn, as J. Cypress, Jr. 
 
 " They come, they tear the yielding air with pennon fierce and strong ; 
 
 On clouds they leap from deep to deep, the vaulted skies along ; 
 
 Heaven's light horse, in a column of attack upon the pole. 
 
 Was ever seen on ocean green, or under the blue sky, 
 
 Such disciplined battalia as the cohort in your eye ? 
 
 Around her ancient axis let old Terra proudly roll, 
 
 But the rushing flight that's in your sight, is that shall wake your soul. 
 
02 AMERICAN GAME. 
 
 " Hawnk ! honk ! and for'ard to the nor'ard, is the trumpet tone, 
 
 What Goose can lag, or feather flag, or break the goodly cone 
 
 Hawnk ! onward to the cool blue lakes where lie our safe love-bowers ; 
 
 No stop, no drop of ocean brine, near stool or hassock hoary, 
 
 Our traveling watchword is * our mate,s, our goslings and our glory /' 
 
 Symsonia and Labrador for us are crowned with flowers. 
 
 And not a breast on wave shall rest, untilr that heaven is ours. 
 
 Hawnk ! Hawnk ! E — e Hawnk !" 
 
 And this, "but witL. the smallest tincture of poetical 
 extravagance and license, is a fair and correct picture of 
 their vernal northward march ; for although they do in 
 truth pay us of the midland seaboards a short visit so 
 soon as our sea bays are clear of ice, and do occasionally 
 " stop," and at great peril to themselves, " drop by stool 
 or hassock hoary," still their spring sojourn with us is 
 of short duration. Early in April they collect them- 
 selves in vast flocks, soar skyward, and breaking into 
 wedge-shaped phalanxes, headed by the strongest gan- 
 ders, which are hourly relieved by their comrades, so 
 that each of the males in his turn takes his share of 
 arduous toil of breasting foremost the resistance of the 
 atmosphere, and opening the path for his followers. 
 
 Little stint they of force, little stay make they, unless 
 for necessary food and rest by Aight, or when bewildered 
 by dense fogs and unable therefore to steer northward, 
 more truly than the needle to the pole, until they reach 
 the northern shores of Lake Huron and the waters of 
 the Great Georgian Bay, where they remain for some 
 time. lon2:er or shorter, according to the state of the 
 
THE CANADA GOOSE. 63 
 
 season, and the gradual disapj)earance of the ice, afford- 
 ing, meantime, sport and subsistence to the Indians, who 
 paddle stealthily upon them in their birch canoes, or 
 shoot them from bough-houses constructed on points 
 whiclj command their favorite feeding grounds in the 
 rice lakes and flats around the mouths of the ^N^orthern, 
 the Wye, the Severn, and their neighboring affluents. 
 
 Thence, so soon as the ice disap]3ears, they are up and 
 away, and are no more seen by the eyes of man, except 
 as they sweep across the marshy plains about the dis- 
 persed and distant forts of the fur companies, until in 
 October, they recommence their earlier voyagings, now 
 journeying southward with recruited strength and aug- 
 mented numbers, for now each noisy gander and his 
 mate are accompanied by two full-grown and full-feath- 
 ered goslings, and tarrying scarcely for a moment on 
 the great lakes, or in the inland waters, until they reach 
 their favorite autumnal haunts in the great south bay of 
 Long Island, and all along the inlets and lagoons of the 
 Jersey shore, Squam Beach, and Barnegat, and the two 
 Egg Harbors, where they disport themselves, and revel 
 in the sheltered waters, and grow fat on the broad, ten- 
 der leaves of the sea-cabbage, a common marine plant 
 which grows about the stones and shells on the sea- 
 beaches, and on the roots of the sedges, which they are 
 constantly seen in the act of tearing up, and occasionally 
 make excursions to the inlets on the beach for sand and 
 gravel, until these inland bays are frozen over solidly 
 
64 AMERICAN GAME. 
 
 with continuous ice, forbidding them' to obtain their food, 
 and compelling them yet once again to take wing and 
 fly more southward yet, to where no frost nor north-east 
 tempest cometh. 
 
 During this visit it is that they afford the mo^ sport 
 to the gunner, and that they are harassed, especially 
 about Long Island, by every poacher's device and arti- 
 fice which can be devised to slay them, fairly or unfairly, 
 by man, wholly without consideration, and reckless that 
 the slaughter on their very feeding grounds is fast ban- 
 ishing them from regions where, with all their watchful 
 sentries out and on the alert, they are decimated hourly 
 by volleys from unseen and unsuspected foes. 
 
 The worst, most murderous, and least sportsmauly of 
 all these artifices is " the hattery^^^ an engine long but 
 vainly proscribed and prohibited by the New York Leg- 
 islatures, but still in use in all the Long Island waters, 
 though the shrewder, if not more honest or less poaching 
 Jerseymen, tolerate it not in their lagoons and inlets, 
 which still swarm with the fowl daily" seen less and 
 less in the Long Island bays. 
 
 " The battery," says a good wi'iter in the Spirit of the 
 Times, " is formed of a deal box, about seven feet long, 
 three wide, and two deep ; from the rim of this a plat- 
 form of board runs off at right angles, about six feet on 
 every side, and the interior is caulked to render it water 
 .tight. This is moored on some shoal where the birds 
 are observed to be in the habit of resorting, and bal- 
 
THE CANADA GOOSE. 65 
 
 lasted with stones until the platform merely floats upon 
 the sm-face of the water ; this flat surface is then lightly 
 covered with sedge, so that at a very short distance 
 nothing hut a small quantity of apparently floating weed 
 is discernible." 
 
 Into this destructive machine, having arranged his 
 carved and painted wooden decoys, or " stools," around 
 it, the gunner descends with his guns, and lying flat on 
 his back, awaits, from before the first glimmer of dawn, 
 the arrival of the Geese on their feeding grounds, which 
 he butchers by scores or even hundreds, while they are 
 floating here and there feeding unsuspiciously. When 
 it is considered that on every shoal on which fowl can 
 feed throughout the Long Island waters, two or three of 
 these murderous contrivances are anchored, so that the 
 fowl can never feed in quiet — and at no other period 
 are fowl so jealous of disturbance as while feeding — ■ 
 and that they are, moreover, constantly harassed at the 
 same delicate period by being shot at from sailing-boats, 
 running down among them before the wind, before they 
 are aware, it is no wonder that they should rise high 
 into the air, and deserting these inhospitable purlieus, 
 seek safer places, where, if they be shot at fiercely, and 
 compelled to run the gauntlet of innumerable fires, as 
 they fly to and fro from beach to feeding-ground, and 
 from feeding-ground to beach, they are at least allowed 
 to feed in peace and without molestation. 
 
 The mode practiced in the Jersey waters is this, and 
 
6Q AMERICAN GAME. 
 
 it is not liable to the objections brought against the for- 
 mer mode, while it affords sport sufficient to glut the 
 greediest sportsman, who shoots for sport, not for pot or 
 market. 
 
 JS^iches are cut in the mud-banks, or points, across 
 which the fowl fly from the beach to the feeding-grounds, 
 and vice versa ; into these niches the Egg Harbor skiffs, 
 which the gunners use, are backed up, and in these, 
 their decks plentifully strewed with sedges, clad him- 
 self in dingy sedge-colored raiment, the fowler lies, with 
 his heavy guns expectant His decoys are moored in 
 the water around him, aud as they bob up and down 
 with the bobbing of the tide, they closely resemble a 
 real flock of fowl riding at anchor in the shallows. 
 
 Here, so soon as the saffron tints of morning begin to 
 steal upon the gray of the eastern sky, the hoarse honk ! 
 of the -gander reaches the latent gunner's ear — ^liis quick 
 eye glances to the windward, and faint and far on the 
 bright dawning back-ground he discerns, dimly pen 
 oiled, the form of the anxiously desired wedge. 
 
 " Aw-unk ! aw-unk !" he sets up aloud the well-sim- 
 ulated cry, crouching down closer in his sedge-covered 
 egg-shell, and cocks his two ponderous single-barrelled 
 duck guns. " Aw-unk ! aw-unk !" the leading gander 
 answers — " Aw-unk ! E-e — awnk !" 
 
 Near by they come and nearer ; now he can mark the 
 circular sweep of their vast oary pinions, and now they 
 spy the stools, and now they stoop toward them — then 
 
THE CANADA GOOSE. 07 
 
 pause and hover, half suspicious — they are alarmed, they 
 seem about to turn. Oh ! most exciting instant. 
 
 "Aw-imk! aw-unk!" E-e — awnk!" That admirable 
 mimicry has now succeeded. They are decided — they 
 wheel — stoop — ^now — ^now — ^he can see their very eyes. 
 Up goes the heavy gun, and the loud roar, that harbin- 
 gers- the flight of Rye oz. of BB, is as the knell to the 
 leading gander, and three that fly the next behind him. 
 Up starts the ambushed enemy, seizes his second piece, 
 sights it almost by instinct, and the flash and the roar 
 are simultaneous — and, " By Heaven ! it snows Geese !" 
 as I once heard old Jesse shout at Barnegat, on a day 
 when, with a trusty comrade, w^e slew us twenty Geese, 
 and well on to a hundred Black Duck, Scaup, and Brent 
 Geese. If this be not sport enough for sportsmen, why, 
 then, turn poacher, most ungentle reader, and earn the 
 malediction of all who love a fair field and fair play for 
 all things, whether they be fish, flesh, or fowl. 
 
 Here is a brief description of our bird. Look to the 
 wood-cut at the head of this paper, and see if you dis- 
 cern his " very form and body," if not his " age and pres- 
 sure." Length of bill, from the corner of the mouth to 
 the end, two inches and three-sixteenths; length of 
 tarsi, two inches seven-eighths ; length from point of bill 
 to end o:^tail, about forty inches ; wing, eighteen inches. 
 Head and greater portion of neck, black; cheeks and 
 throat, white. Adult, with the head, greater part of 
 neck, primaries, rump and tail, black ; back and wings. 
 
68 AMEBIC AN GAME. 
 
 brown, margined with paler brown ; lower part of neck, 
 breast, and belly, whitish-gray ; flanks, darker gray ; 
 cheeks and throat, upper and under tail-coverts, white ; 
 the plumage of the female rather duller. 
 
 Such, reader, is our Canada Goose, or American Wild 
 Goose, a game, bold bird in air and on water, a grand 
 bird on the board. Mine may it be, in both capa(5ities, 
 to meet him soon -and often, but especially at sunrise, 
 from the lee of some sheltered hassock to be greeted 
 with his resonant " Aw-unk ! E-e — aw-unk !" 
 
III. 
 
 MAHCH. 
 
 Cljt Ulallail' 
 
 Anas Bosch as. 
 EUROPE; ASIA; CANADA; UNITED STATED. 
 
 Anas Americana. 
 HUDSON'S BAY; CANADA; ATLANTIC COASTS. 
 
"E 
 . s 
 
 -g ft 
 
 '^ o 
 
 <! 
 
THE MALLARD. 
 
 Anas ^oschas. 
 
 THE AMEEICAIST WIDGEON. 
 
 Anas Americana, 
 
 Both these beautiful clucks, perhaps, with the excep- 
 tion of the lovely Summer Duck, or "Wood Duck, Anas 
 Sponsa, the most beautiful of all the tribe, are along the 
 seaboard of the ^Noi-thern States somewhat rare of 
 occurrence, being for the most part fresh-water species, 
 and when driven by stress of weather, and the freezing 
 over of the inland lakes and rivers which they frequent, 
 repairing to the estuaries and land-locked lagoons of the 
 Southern coasts and rivers, as well as to the tepid pools 
 and warm sources of Florida, the Carolinas, Georgia, 
 Alabama and Louisiana, in all of which states they 
 swarm during the summer months. 
 
 On many of the inland streams and pools of E"ew 
 York, ]^ew Jersey, Pennsylvania and the Far "West in 
 general, including all the bays, shallows and tributaries 
 of the Great Lakes, as well as all the lovely smaller 
 lakes of New York, especially where the wild-rice, or 
 
72 AMERICAN GAME. 
 
 wild oat, zizania aquatica, is plentiful, tliey are found in 
 Yeiy great numbers, especially in the spring and sum- 
 mer time, nor are they mifrequently killed on the snipe- 
 grounds of IN^ew Jersey, around Chatham, Pine-brook, 
 and the Parcippany meadows on the beautiful Passaic, 
 and on the yet more extensive grounds on the Seneca 
 and Cayuga outlets, in the vicinity of Montezuma 
 Salina, and the salt regions of New York. 
 
 In the shallows of the lake and river St. Clair, above 
 Detroit, on the Hiviere aiix Canards^ and the marshes of 
 Chatham in Canada East, all^along the shores of Lake 
 Erie on the Canadian side, especially about Long Point, 
 and in the Grand Piver, they literally swarm ; while in 
 all the rivers, and shallow rice-lakes on the northern 
 shores of Lake Huron, which are the breeding-places of 
 their countless tribes, they are found, from the breaking 
 np of the ice to the shutting up of the bays and coves in 
 which they feed, in numbers absolutely numberless. 
 
 The Mallard is generally believed to be the parent 
 and progenitor of the domestic duck, which, although 
 far superior in beauty of plumage and grace of form and 
 deportment, it very closely resembles ; yet when or 
 where it was domesticated, is a question entirely dark 
 and never to be settled. It is certain that the domestic 
 duck was unknown to the Greeks and Romans, so late 
 as to the Christian era, although the paintings in the 
 Egyptian tombs demonstrate beyond a peradventure 
 that it was familiar to that wonderful people from a very 
 
THE MALLAED. 73 
 
 remote period ; and it is also known to liave been among 
 the Chinese, who rear and cnltivate them to a very great 
 extent. Indeed, it is, I think, in the highest degree 
 probable that the duck, in its domestic state, is an 
 importation into Europe from the East, where, as I 
 believe in every quarter of the globe, the Mallard is a 
 common and indigenous native of the fresh waters. 
 
 The Mallard, or Wild Drake, commonly known in the 
 Eastern States as the Green-head, westward as the Gray 
 Duck, and in Alabama as the English Duck, weighs 
 from thirty-six to forty ounces, and measured twenty- 
 three inches in length, by thirty-five in breadth. 
 
 The bill is of a yellowish-green color, not very flat, 
 about an inch broad, and two and a half long from the 
 comers of the mouth to the tip of the nail ; the head and 
 upper half of the neck are of a deep, glossy, changeable 
 green, terminated in the middle of the neck by a white 
 collar, with which it is nearly encircled ; the lower parts 
 of the neck, breast and shoulders are of a deep, vinous 
 chestnut ; the covering scapular feathers are of a kind of 
 silvery white, those underneath rufous^ and both are 
 prettily crossed with small, waved threads of brown. 
 "Wing coverts ash, quills brown, and between these 
 intervenes the specuhMn, or beauty-spot, common in the 
 duck tribe, which crosses the wing in a transverse, 
 oblique direction. It is of a rich, glossy purple, with 
 violet or green reflections, and bordered by a double 
 streak of sooty black and pure white. Tlie belly is of a 
 
74: AMERICAN GAME. 
 
 V 
 
 pale gray, delicately crossed and pencilled with number- 
 less narrow, waved, dusky lines, wliicli on the sides and 
 long feathers that cover the thighs are more strongly 
 and distinctly marked. The upper and under tail 
 coverts, lower part of the back and rump, are black, the 
 latter glossed with green ; the four middle tail feathers 
 are also black, with purple reflections-, and, like those of 
 the domestic duck, are stiffly curled upward. The rest 
 are sharp-pointed, and fade off to the exterior edges 
 from brown to dull white. Iris of the eye bright 
 yellow, feet, legs and webs reddish orange, claws 
 black. 
 
 The female, and young male until after the first moult, 
 are very different in plumage from the adult drake, par- 
 taking none of its beauties, with the exception of the 
 spot on the wings. All the other parts are plain brown, 
 marked with black, the centre of every feather being 
 dark and fading to the edges. She makes her nest, lays 
 her eggs — from ten to sixteen in number, of a greenish 
 white — generally in the most sequestered mosses or bogs, 
 far from the haunts of man, and hidden from his sight 
 among reeds and rushes. To her young, helpless, un- 
 fledged family, and they are nearly three months before 
 they can fly, she is a fond, attentive and watchful parent, 
 carrying or leading them from one pool to another, as 
 her fears or inclinations direct her, and she is known to 
 use the same wily stratagems, in order to mislead the 
 sportsman and his dog, as those resorted to by the ruffed 
 
THE MALLAED. 76 
 
 grouse, the quail and tlie woodcock, feigning lameness, 
 and fluttering as if helplessly wounded, along the surface 
 of the water until she has lured the enemy afar from her 
 skulking and terrified progeny. 
 
 The Mallard is rarely or never shot to decoys, or stools 
 as they are termed, since these are but little used except 
 on the coast, where this duck is, as I have previously 
 observed, of rare occurrence, although it is occasionally 
 found in company with the Dusky Duck, anas 6bscv/ra^ 
 better known to gunners as the Black Duck. 
 
 It is stated, however, by Dr. Lewis, in his clever work 
 entitled " Hints to Sportsmen," that, " like most of wild 
 fowl, the Mallard breeds in the far north, and makes its 
 appearance in the autumn, among the first of our ducks. 
 It is common throughout all our rivers and fresh- water 
 lakes, but is seldom met with on the sea-coast. As the 
 winter progresses, large numbers continue south, and 
 take up their abode among the rice-fields of the Carolinas, 
 where tliey become very fat and particularly palatable ; 
 their flesh at all times when the weather is not severe is 
 good, as they feed on vegetable, matter in preference to 
 any other kind of food, and only partake of flesh when 
 they cannot obtain anything else. 
 
 "Mallards are easily brought within gunshot by 
 means of decoys used in the way already described 
 under the head of Canvass Backs. They are numerous 
 at times on the Delaware, and numbers are killed by 
 shooters hiding themselves in boats and in the reeds 
 
76 A^IEEICAN GA^IE. 
 
 within range of their stool ducks, which are set out on 
 the edge of the reeds. They are fond of the seeds of the 
 wild oats that flourish so profusely on the flats of the 
 Delaware, and their flesh soon becomes delicate and 
 juicy." 
 
 Of this statement I doubt not the correctness, altliough 
 what I have written above is founded on my personal 
 observation, having shot wild fowl in the United States 
 only on the Long Island and l^ew Jersey shores, or the 
 inland rivers of the Atlantic coasts, and on the great 
 lakes, where decoy ducks cannot readily be procured. 
 
 In England and on the continent of Europe Mallards 
 are netted in great numbers in decoy ponds fabricated 
 for that purpose, a full account of which, with plans, 
 will be found in Beurich's British Birds, vol. ii. ; but as 
 this method is not adopted in the United States, it is 
 needless further to allude to it. 
 
 " Like the Dusky Duck," says Mr. Griraud, in his very 
 clever and agreeable manual on the birds of Long Island, 
 " when pursued by the sportsman, it becomes shy, and 
 feeds at night, dozing away the day out of gun-shot from 
 the shore. 
 
 "Early in the month of July, 1837, while himting 
 over the meadows.for smaller game, I came upon a pair 
 of Mallard Ducks, moving slowly down the celebrated 
 ' Brick-house creek.' The thought occurred to me that 
 they were a pair of tame ducks that had become tired 
 of the monotony of domestic life, 'and determined on^ 
 
THE MALLABD. T7 
 
 pushing tlieir fortunes in tlie broad bay. As I advanced 
 they took wing, which undeceived me, and I brought 
 them down. They proved to be an adult male and 
 female. From this circumstance I was led to suppose 
 that they had bred in the neighborhood. I made a dili- 
 gent search, and offered a sufficient bounty to induce 
 others to search with me — but neither nest nor young 
 could be found. Probably when migrating, they were 
 shot at and so badly wounded as to be unable to perform 
 their fatiguing journey, perhaps miles apart, and per^ 
 chance only found companions in each other a short 
 time before I shot them." 
 
 When the young birds are about three-fourths grown, 
 and not as yet fully fledged or able to fly strongly, at 
 which age they are termed Jlccppers, they afford excellent 
 sport over water-spaniels, when they are abundant in 
 large reed beds along the brink of ponds and rivers. 
 "When full grown, moreover, when they frequent parts 
 of the country where the streams are narrow and wind- 
 ing, great sport can be had with them at times, by 
 walking about twenty yards wide of the brink and as 
 many in advance of an attendant, who should follow all 
 the windings of the water and flush the birds, which 
 springing wide of him will so be brought within easy 
 range of the gun. 
 
 The Mallard is wonderfully quick-sighted and sharp 
 of hearing, so that it is exceedingly difficult to stalk him 
 from the shore, especially by a person coming down 
 
Y8 AMERICAN GAME. 
 
 wind upon liim, so much so that the acuteness of his 
 senses has given rise to a general idea that he can detect 
 danger to, windward by means of his olfactory nerves. 
 This is, however, disproved by the observations of that 
 excellent sportsman and pleasant writer, John Colqu- 
 houn of Luss, as recorded in that capital work, " The 
 Moor and the Loch," who declares decidedly, that al- 
 though ducks on the feed constantly detect an enemy 
 crawling down upon them from the windward, will con- 
 stantly, when he is lying in wait, silent and still, and 
 properly concealed, sail down upon him perfectly unsus- 
 picious, even when a strong wind is blowing over him 
 full in their nostrils. 
 
 For duck shooting, whether it be practiced in this 
 fashion, by stalking them from the shore while feeding 
 in lakelets or rivers, by following the windings of open 
 and rapid streams in severe weather, or in paddling or 
 pushing on them in gunning-skiffs, as is practiced on the 
 Delaware, a peculiar gun is necessary for the perfection 
 of the sport. To my taste, it should be a double-barrel 
 from 33 to 36 inches in length, at the outside, about 10 
 guage, and ten pounds weight. The strength and weight 
 of the metal should be principally at the breech, which 
 will answer the double purpose of causing it to balance 
 well and of counteracting the call. Such a gun will 
 carry from two to three ounces of JSTo. 4 shot, than which 
 I would never use a larger size for duck, and with that 
 load and an equal measure of very coarse powder — 
 
THE MALLARD. T9 
 
 Hawker's ducking-powder, manufactured by Curtis and 
 Harvey, is tlie best in tlie world, and can be procured 
 of Mr. Brougb, in Fulton Street, ITew York — will do its 
 work satisfactorily and cleanly at sixty yards, or witli 
 Eley's green^ wire cartridges, wbicli will permit tlie use 
 of shot one size smaller, at thirty yards farther. The 
 utility of these admirable projectiles can hardly be over- 
 rated ; next to the copper-cap, of which Starkey's water- 
 proof, central-fire, is the best form, I regard them as the 
 greatest of modem inventions in the art of gunnery. 
 
 Such a gun as I describe can be furnished of first-rate 
 quality by Mr. John Krider of Philadelphia, Mr. John, 
 or Patrick Mullin of ISTew York, or Mr. Henry T. Cooper 
 of the same city, ranging in price, according to finish, 
 from one hundred to one hundred and fifty dollars, of 
 domestic manufacture ; and I would strongly recommend 
 sportsmen, requiring such an implement, to apply to one 
 of these excellent and conscientious makers, rather than 
 even to import a London gun, much more than to pur- 
 chase at a hazard the miserable and dangerous Birming- 
 ham trash, manufactured of three-penny skelp or sham- 
 damn-iron, got up in handsome velvet-lined mahogany 
 cases, and tricked out with varnish and gimcrackery ex- 
 pressly for the American market, such as are offered for 
 sale at every hardware shop in the country. 
 
 The selling of such goods ought to be made by law a 
 high misdemeanor, and a fatal accident occurring by 
 
80 AMEEICAK GAlVrE. 
 
 their explosion should entail on the head of the vender 
 the penalty of wilful murder. 
 
 The Mallard is found frequently associating in large 
 plumps with the Pintail, or Sprigtail, another elegant 
 ii-esh water variety, the Dusky-Duck on fresh waters, the 
 Greenwinged Teal in winter to the southward, and with 
 the Widgeon on the western waters. 
 
 On the big and little pieces — two large moist savannas 
 on the Passaic river in ISTew Jersey, formerly famous for 
 their snipe and cock grounds, but now ruined by the 
 ruthless devastations of pot-hunters and poachers — I have 
 shot Mallard, Pintail, and Black Duck, over dead points 
 from setters, out of brakes, in which they were probably 
 preparing to breed, during early snipe-shooting; but 
 nowhere have I ever beheld them in such myriads as in 
 the small rice-lakes on the Severn, the Wye, and the 
 cold water rivers debouching into the northern part of 
 Lake Huron, known as the Great Georgian Bay, and on 
 the reed-flats and shallows of Lake St. Clair, in the 
 vicinity of Alganac, and the mouths of the Thames and 
 Chevail Ecartc rivers. 
 
 I am satisfied that by using well-made decoys, or 
 stools, and two canoes, one concealed among the rice 
 and reeds, and the other paddling to and fro, to puf up 
 the teams of wild fowl and keep them constantly on the 
 move, such sport might be had as can be obtained in no 
 other section of this country, perhaps of the world ; and 
 that the pleasure would well repay the sportsman for a 
 
THE AMEEICAl^ WIDGEON. . 81 
 
 trip far more difficult and tedious than the facilities af- 
 forded by the Erie Railroad and the noble steamers on 
 the lakes now render a visit to those glorious sporting- 
 grounds. 
 
 The American Widgeon, the bird which is represented 
 as falling headforemost with collapsed wings, shot per- 
 fectly dead without a struggle, in the accompanying 
 woodcut, while the Mallard goes off safely, quacking at 
 the top of his voice in strange terror, though nearly allied 
 to the European species, is yet perfectly distinct, and 
 peculiar to this continent. 
 
 It is thus accurately described by Mr. Giraud, although 
 but an unfrequent visitor of the Long Island bays and 
 shores : 
 
 "Bill short, the color light grayish blue; speculum 
 green, banded with black. Under wing coverts white. 
 Adult male with the coral space, sides of the head, under 
 the eye, upper part of the neck and throat brownish 
 white, spotted with black. A broad band of white, com- 
 mencing at the base of the upper mandible, passing over 
 the crown." It is this mark which has procured the bird 
 its general provincial appellation of " Baldpate." "^ Be- 
 hind the eye a broad band of bright green, extending 
 backward on the hind neck about three inches ; the 
 feathers on the nape rather long ; lower neck and sides 
 of the breast, with a portion of the upper part of the 
 breast reddish brown. Rest of the lower parts white, 
 excepting a patch of black at the base of the tail. Under 
 4^ 
 
82 AMEKICAJ^ GAME. 
 
 tail covert the same color. Flanks brown, barred with 
 dusky ; lower part of the hind neck and fore part of the 
 back undulated with brownish and light bix)wnish red, 
 hind part undulated with grayish w^hite; primaries 
 brown ; outer webs of the inner secondaries black, mar- 
 gined with white — inner w^ebs grayish brown ; secondary 
 coverts white, tipped with black; speculum brilliant 
 green, formed by the middle secondaries. Length 
 twenty-one inches, wing ten and a half. Female smaller, 
 plumage duller, without the green markings." 
 
 Tlie Widgeon breeds in the extreme north, beyond the 
 reach of the foot of civilized man, in the boundless mosses 
 and morasses, prodigal of food and shelter, of Labrador, 
 and Boothia Felix, and the fur coui^tries, where it spends 
 the brief but ardent summer in the cares of nidification, 
 and the reproduction of its species. 
 
 During the spring and autumn, it is widely distributed 
 throughout the Union, from the fresh lakes of the north- 
 west to the shores of the ocean, but it is most abundant, 
 as well as most delicious where the wild rice, Zlzcmia 
 ^annicula effusa^ the wild celery, Balisneria Araericana^ 
 and the eel-grass, Zostera Marina^ grow most luxuriously. 
 On these it fares luxuriously, and becomes exceedingly 
 fat, and most delicate and succulent eating, being almost 
 entirely a vegetable feeder, and as such, devoid of any 
 fishy or sedgy flavor. 
 
 Li the spring and autumn it is not unfrequently shot 
 in considerable numbers, from skiffs, on the mud banks 
 
THE AMERICAN WEDOEON. 83 
 
 of the Delaware, in company with Bhie- winged Teal; 
 and in winter it congregates in vast flocks, together with 
 Scaups, better known as Bluebills, or Broadbills, Bed- 
 heads, and Canvasbacks, to which last it is a source of 
 constant annoyance, since being a far less expert diver 
 than the Canvasback, it watches that bird until it rises 
 with the highly-prized root, and flies off with the stolen 
 booty in triumph. 
 
 The Widgeon, like the Canvasback, can at times be 
 toled, as it is termed, or lured within gunshot of sports- 
 men, concealed behind artificial screens of reeds, built 
 along the shore, or behind natural coverings, such as 
 brakes of cripple or reed-beds, by the gambols of dogs 
 taught to play and sport backward and forward along 
 the shore, for the purpose of attracting the curious and 
 fascinated wild fowl within easy shooting distance. And 
 strange to say, so powerful is the attraction that the 
 same flock of ducks has been known to be decoyed into 
 gunshot thrice within the space of a single hour, above 
 forty birds being killed at the three discharges. Scaups, 
 or Blackheads, as they are called on the Chesapeake, 
 tole, it is said, more readily than any other species, and 
 next to these the Canvasbacks and Eedheads ; the Bald- 
 pates being the most cautious and wary of them all, and 
 rarely suffering themselves to be decoyed, except when 
 in company with the Canvasbacks, along with which 
 they swim shoreward carelessly, though without appear- 
 ing to notice the dog. 
 
86 AMERICAN GAME. 
 
 wlien sleeping in close columns on the surface of the 
 water. This method is, however, mnch reprobated bj 
 sportsmen, and that very justly, as tending beyond any 
 other method to cause the fowl to desert their feeding 
 grounds. 
 
 In conclusion, we earnestly recommend both these 
 beautiful birds to our sporting readers, both as objects 
 of pleasurable pursuit and subjects of first rate feeds. 
 A visit at this season to Seneca Lake, the Montezuma 
 Meadows, or that region, could not fail to yield rare 
 sport. 
 
IV. 
 APRIL. 
 
 I^Ije l-iueritan Snip. 
 
 Scolopax Wilsonli. 
 
 THE EN^GLISH SKIPE. 
 
 BRITISH PROVINCES; UNITED STATES; ARCTIC REGIONS 
 TO MEXICO. 
 
 C|e %\u^t\ ^\m 
 
 Labrax Lineatus. 
 
 THE EOCK FISH. 
 
 BAY OF FUNDY TO THE CAPES OF THE CHESAPEAKE. 
 
Ii H 
 
 OJ 
 
 '. CU 
 
 a 
 
 ". i-< 
 
 03 
 
 1] ^ 
 
 1— 1 
 1-3 
 
 
 o 
 
 a "^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 i "^ 
 
 » 
 
 N '^' 
 
 « 
 
 m O 
 
 s 
 
 n '-' 
 
 H 
 
 i PS 
 
 
 f w 
 
 
THE AMERICAN SNIPE. 
 
 Scolojpax WiUoniL 
 
 THE ENGLISH SNIPE. 
 
 It is a singular thing, and one wliicli elucidates the 
 great research necessary, and. the extreme difficulties en- 
 countered, in the attempt to establish facts of natural 
 history with regard to birds of passage, that this beauti- 
 ful little bird, the general favorite of the sportsman and 
 the epicure, well known to all classes of men, and a vis- 
 itant, in some one of its closely allied varieties, of every 
 known nation, is still a mystery, as regards some of its 
 habits, and continues to baffle the inquiries of the most 
 learned and inquisitive ornithologists. 
 
 Its habits, the nature of its food, and therefore the ne- 
 cessities of its existence, render it an inhabitant of tem- 
 perate climates, ai^d of regions in which the moist and 
 loamy soil, from which it derives its sustenance of small 
 worms, insects, and the like, is not frozen during the pe- 
 riod of its visitations so hard as to preclude its boring 
 with its delicate and sensitive bill for its semi-aquatJc 
 prey of worms and larvae. 
 
90 AMERICAN GA]yiE. 
 
 . Stiil, as extreme cold prevents it from obtaining sub- 
 sistence, extreme heat would appear to be still less con- 
 genial to its tastes or temj)erament ; for, whereas it lingers 
 in the north until autumnal frosts seal up the marshes 
 and the soft stream margins against its probing bill, it 
 flies from its winter quarters in the rice-fields of Carolina, 
 and Georgia, and the farther morasses of Texas and I^ew 
 Mexico, the instant that opening spring admits of its 
 return to the fresh meadows and pure rivulets of the 
 north-east. 
 
 The winter quarters of this bird, then, are fairly ascer- 
 tained, ranging from Carolina southward until almost the 
 northern limits of the Tropics ; thence, so soon as the 
 blue-bird begins to pipe in the apple-ti^ee, the shad to 
 appear in the rivers, the willow-buds to tuni yellow, and 
 the frogs to croak and chirrup, with us to the northward, 
 the snipe is seen everywhere, hurrying, according to the 
 progress of the season, singly, in whisps often or twelve, 
 or in huge flights, ever, ever, northwardly. In *l\Iary- 
 land, in Delaware, in southern Pennsylvania and IsTew 
 Jersey, he is wont to appear from the 1st to the 20th of 
 March ; in ISTew York and ^N^ew Jersey northward, from 
 the 15tli of March to the 20th of April, remaining for a 
 longer or shorter period' according to the steadiness of 
 the weather, the state of the ground as regards wet or 
 drought, and the geniality of the season. In mild, soft, 
 temperate, moist seasons, with a prevalence of westerly 
 weather, he will linger with us into the lap of June ; and 
 
THE AilEKTCAN SNIPE. 91 
 
 in sncli seasons, more or less, lie woos' liis mate, nidifi- 
 cates and rears his yonng among ns, from tlie Raritaii 
 and the Passaic northward and eastward to the Great 
 Lakes, and throughout Michigan, Wisconsin, probably, 
 and Canada West, up far into the Arctic Circles. 
 
 Still, those which breed with us in the United States, 
 and even in the Canadas, are but as dro23S of water to an 
 ocean, to those which rush on the untiring pinions moved 
 by amatory instinct to the far breeding grounds of Lab- 
 rador, Symsonia, and Boothia Felix, whither it is s^lJ)' 
 posed thej resort to rear their young in hyperborean soli- 
 tude, thence to reissue, in the summer and the earlier 
 autumn, and re-populate our midland meadows. 
 
 In the neighborhood of Amherstberg, Canada West, 
 they appear very early ; often in February of mild sea- 
 sons, always in March ; and there may breed, and remain 
 until banished by severe cold. I shot one there myself 
 last autumn, the last bird of the season, very late in 'No- 
 vember, I believe on the 28th or 29th ; and with the 
 plover, the Hudsonian godwit, and the Esquimaux 
 curlew, they were seen there this spring in the first days 
 of March. 
 
 Around Quebec, I have shot English snipe on the up- 
 lands, in fallow fields and rushy pastures — for the grass 
 in the morasses does not begin to shoot in those far north- 
 em latitudes, so as to afford them shelter, until much 
 later in the year — in the end of April and the beginning 
 of May ; but they arrive there only by small scattered 
 
92 AMEE1CAI7 GAME. 
 
 wliisps, or single birds, tarry a few short days, and flifc 
 onward to their unknown destination. 
 
 This, then, is their mystery — that in no known land 
 are they perennial ; in no ascertained region — so far as I 
 can learn — are they positively known to breed in the 
 vast concourses which must breed somewhere, in order 
 to supply the prodigious flights which issue yearly from 
 the northern regions of three continents, Europe, 
 America, and Asia, to fill the warmer countries, and to 
 be slaughtered literally by myriads, season after season, 
 without undergoing much if any visible diminution of 
 numbers. 
 
 Ever, in all places, in all countries, in all continents, 
 which they visit in spring, they are seen pressing north- 
 ward still, from March until May ; no one being able to 
 say here ends their tide of emigration, this is their chosen 
 resting-place. 
 
 Their breeding season is from the middle of May to 
 the beginning of July ; on the 4th of which month I 
 have shot young birds, with the pin-feathers undeveloped, 
 as large as the parents — these birds having been hatched 
 on the ground whereon I killed them. Indeed, it is my 
 opinion, that all birds which tarry in our latitudes be- 
 yond the 10th of May, either do breed with us, or would 
 do so but for the persecution of the pot-hunter — all 
 w^hich intend to steer farther north having departed ere 
 that time. 
 
 About the 15th of July the returning hordes, young 
 
THE AMEEICAN SNIPE. 93 
 
 birds and old together, full grown and in jfine condition, 
 begin to reappear in the marshes of Quebec and its vicin- 
 ity, which may be said to be the extremest northern point 
 from which we have continuous and authentic annual 
 information of their appearance. At that time the 
 slaughter of the snipe on the marshes of Chateau Richer, 
 and of the islands farther down the St. Lawrence, is pro- 
 digious. There they linger until the ffosts become so 
 severe as to drive them from their feeding-grounds, 
 which generally takes place early in September, from 
 which time, throughout that month, all October, and a 
 portion — more or less according to the season — of JSTo- 
 vember, and even December, every likely swamp, mo- 
 rass, and feeding-ground of Canada West, of the western, 
 midland, and eastern states, from which they are not 
 persecuted and banished by the incessant banging of 
 pot-hunters and idle village boys, swarms with them, in 
 quantities sufficient to aiford sport to hundreds, and a 
 delicacy to thousands of our inhabitants, if they were 
 protected from useless and unmeaning persecution, by 
 which alone they are prevented from being as numerous 
 among us as at any former period. 
 
 For I am well assured, that — unlike the woodcock, 
 which, breeding in our midst, and dwelling with us for 
 months at a time, is annually slaughtered w^hile breeding, 
 hatching, or immature, and is thus in rapid progress 
 towards extirpation — the snipe, when unmolested in its 
 breeding-grounds, is not diminished in its numerical pro- 
 
94 AMERICAN GAME. 
 
 duction, but is rendered scarcer in thickly settled dis- 
 tricts, nigh to large towns, by incessant harrassing, which 
 drives it "to remoter and securer feeding-grounds. 
 
 I do not mean by fliis, however, to assert that the abo- 
 lition of spring snipe-shooting would not be an advan- 
 tage — on the contrary, I am convinced that it would ; 
 although well assured that no such measure can be hoped 
 at the hands of our legislators ; for, as the snipe ordina- 
 rily lays four eggs, the destruction of each one of the 
 breeders on their way northward, of course diminishes 
 the stock of the coming season by five birds. , 
 
 So much for the times and places of the snipe's migra- 
 tions. Of his appearance or characteristics — ^so well is 
 he known — it is almost useless to speak ; it may, how- 
 ever, be well to observe that although commonly termed 
 the English Snipe, our bird is a thorough tiative Ameri- 
 can, differing from the bird of Europe in being about 
 one inch smaller every way, and in having two more 
 feathers, sixteen instead of fourteen, in the tail. In 
 other minute, but ^i\\\ permanent, and therefore charac- 
 teristic distinctions, it differs from the Asiatic and An- 
 tarctic snipes ; although in their rapid, zigzag flight and 
 shrill squeak when flushed ; in their irregular soaring 
 through the air in gloomy weather ; in their perpendic- 
 ular towering and plumb descent, their drumming with 
 the wing-feathers, and bleating with the voice, during 
 the breeding-season, all the species or varieties so closely 
 resemble each other, that they are far more easily con- 
 
THE AMERICAN SNIPE. 95 
 
 founded than distinguished by the unscientific sportS' 
 man. 
 
 The American bird has, however, two or three habits, 
 during early spring-shooting, which I have never ob- 
 served in the European species, nor seen noticed in any 
 work of natural history ; the first of these is frequenting 
 underwood and bushy covert abounding in springs and 
 intersected by cattle-tracks, and occasionally even high 
 woods, during wild, stormy, and dark weather, especially 
 when snow-squalls are driving ; and this is a habit of the 
 bird meriting the attention of the sportsman, as in such 
 weather, when he finds no birds on the open and unshel- 
 tered marshes, he will do well to beat the neighboring 
 underwoods, if any, and if not, the nearest swampy 
 woodlands ; by doing which he will oftentimes fill his 
 bag when he despairs of any sport. Tlie second habit is 
 that of alighting, not unfrequently, on rail-fences, or 
 stumps, and even on high trees, which I think I can 
 safely assert that the European bird never does ; and the 
 third is the utterance, when in the act of skimming over 
 the meadows, after soaring, bleating, and drumming for 
 an hour at a stretch in mid air, of " a sharp reiterated 
 chatter, consisting of a quick, jarring repetition of the 
 syllables, heh-helc-lceh-lceh-lcelc^ many times in succession, 
 with a rising and falling inflection, like that of a hen 
 which has just laid an eggy^^ 
 
 There is no Jack Snipe in America, though many per- 
 
 * " Frank Forrester's Field Sports of North America," vol. i. p. 161. 
 
96 AMEEICAN GAME. 
 
 sons ignorantly and obstinately assert the reverse ; the 
 true Jack Snipe being a northern bird of Europe and 
 Asia, visiting the milder climates during the hard 
 weather. It is an exact counterpart of the English Snipe, 
 only about one-half smaller ; it never utters any cry on 
 rising, and rarely flies above one hundred yards, often 
 dropping within fifty feet of the muzzle of a gun just 
 discharged at it, although unwounded. The bird which 
 is here confounded with it, is the Pectoeal Sai^dpiper, a 
 bird about one-third smaller than the snipe, of a lighter 
 brown, with a short, arched bill, and a feeble quavering 
 whistle. It is found indiscriminately on the sea-shore, 
 and in upland marshes ; I have shot it from Lake Huron 
 to the Penobscot, and the Capes of the Delaware ; it lies 
 well before dogs, which will point it, and is a good bird 
 on the table. It is known in Long Island as the " Mea- 
 dow Snipe," and the " Short Neck" in 'New Jersey, and 
 thence westward, as the " Fat Bird," or " Jack Snipe," 
 indiscriminately. It is not a snipe at all, but a Sand- 
 piper, Tringa Pectoralis. 
 
 - The only other true snipe ascertained to exist in Ame- 
 rica, is the Ped-Bkeasted Snipe, Scolc/pax Novebora- 
 censis^ better known as the " Dowitcheb," an unmeaning 
 name, adopted and persevered in by the Baymen, or as 
 the " Quail Snipe." At Egg Harbor the gunners call it 
 the " Brown-back." It is found only on the salt marshes, 
 and ig never hunted with dogs, but shot from ambush 
 over decoys. 
 
THE AMEEIOAJSr SNIPE. 97 
 
 It appears, then, tliat the coming and stay of the com- 
 mon snipe in om^ districts, in spring, is very uncertain 
 and dependent on the state and steadiness of the weather. 
 Some seasons, they will stay for weeks on the moist, 
 muddy flats among the young and succulent herbage, 
 growing fat and lazy, lying well to the dog, and afford- 
 ing great sport. Sometimes they will merely alight, feed, 
 rest, and resume their flight, never giving the sportsman. 
 a chance even of knowing that they have been, and are 
 gone, except by their chalkings and borings where they 
 have fed. Again, at other seasons, they will lie singly, 
 or in scattered whisps on the uplands, in fallow fields, 
 even among stunted brushwood, lurking perdu all day, 
 and resorting to the marshes by night, leaving the traces 
 of their presence in multitudes, to perplex the sportsman, 
 who, perhaps, beats the ground for them, day after day, 
 only to find that they were, but are not. 
 
 This variance in the habit of the snipe it is, which 
 makes him so hard a bird to kill ; for, although he is per- 
 plexing from his rapid and twisting flight to a novice, I 
 consider him, to a cool old hand, as easy a bird to kill as 
 any that flies. The snipe invariably rises against or 
 across wind, and in doing so hangs for an instant on the 
 air before he can gather his way ; that instant is the time 
 in which to shoot him, and that trick of rising against 
 wind is his bane with the accomplished shot and sports- 
 man, for by beating down the wind^ keeping his brace of 
 dogs quartering the ground before him, across the windy 
 5 
 
98 .AJdERICAlJ GAME. 
 
 SO that they will still have the air in their noses, he com- 
 pels the bird to rise before him; and cross to the right on 
 the left hand, affording him a clear and close shot, instead 
 of whistling straight away np wind, dead ahead of him, 
 exposing the smallest surface to his aim, and frequently 
 getting off without a shot, as it will constantly do, if the 
 shooter beats uj^ wind, even with the best and steadiest 
 dogs in the world. The knack of shooting snipe, as some 
 people who can't do it choose to call it, is no other than 
 the knack of shooting quick, shooting straight, and shoot- 
 ing well ahead of cross shots — this done with a gun tliat 
 will throw its charge close at forty to fifty yards, with 
 1\ oz. of No. 8 shot, equal measures of shot and of 
 Brough's diamond-grain powder, will fetch three snipe 
 out of every ^\Q, which is great work, in spite of what 
 the cockneys say, who pick their shots, never firing at a 
 hard bird, or one over twenty paces away, and then boast 
 of killing twenty shots in succession. Yerbu7rh sajy. 
 
 The great difference of the grounds to be beaten in dif- 
 ferent weathers ; the difficulty in determining which 
 ground to assign to which day ; the immense extent of 
 country to be traversed, if birds are scarce or wild, or if 
 there are many varieties of soil, covert, and feeding in 
 one range, and the sportsman fail in his two or three first 
 beats in finding game, and therefore have to persevere 
 till he do find them, these, and the hardness of the walk- 
 ing in rotten quagmires and deep morasses, affording no 
 sure foot-hold, and often knee-deep in water, these it is 
 
THE 4MEKICAN SNIPE. 99 
 
 which make successful snipe-shooting one of the greatest 
 feats in the art, and the crack snij^e-fincler and snipe- 
 killer — for the two are one, or rather the second depends 
 mainly on the first — one of the first, if not the first artist 
 in the line. 
 
 It is from this necessity of beating, oftentimes, very 
 extensive tracts of land before finding birds, and there- 
 fore beating very rapidlyjf you would find birds betimes, 
 that I so greatly prefer and recommend the use of very 
 fast, very highly-bred, and very far-ranging setters, to 
 that of any pointer in the world, for snipe-shooting in the 
 open — apart from their great superiority over the pointer 
 in hardihood, endurance of cold, powers of retrieving, 
 beauty and good-nature. 
 
 Of course, speaking of dogs, whether setter, pointer, 
 dropper, or cocking-sj)aniel, it is understood that we 
 speak of dogs of equal qualities of nose, staunclmess to 
 the point, and steadiness at coming to the charge the 
 instant a shot is fired. 'No dog which does not do ajl 
 these things habitually, and of course, is worth the 
 rope that should hang him ; and no man is worthy tlie 
 name of a shot or a sportsman, who cannot, and does not, 
 keep his dogs, whether setters, pointers, or cockers, un- 
 der such command that he can turn them to tlie right or 
 left, bring them to heel, stop them, or down charge them, 
 at two hundred yards distance if it be needful. 
 
 If these things, then, be equal, as they can be made 
 equal, though I admit a setter to be more difficultly kept 
 
100 AAIEKIOAN GAME. 
 
 in discipline tlian a pointer — the fastest setter you can 
 get, is the best dog for snipe-«hooting ; his superiority, in 
 other points, infinitely counterbalancing the greater 
 trouble it requires to break and control him. I am well 
 aware that it has been said, and that by authorities, that 
 the best dog over which to shoot snipe, is an old, slow, 
 broken-down, staunch pointer, who crawls along at a 
 foot's pace, and never misses, overruns, or flushes a bird. 
 
 And so, in two cases, he is ; but in one case, no dog is 
 just as good as he is, and in the other the argument is 
 one of incapacity to use what is best, and therefore is no 
 argument. 
 
 If birds are so thick on the grounds, and so tame that 
 you can fill your bag in walking over one or two acres at 
 a foot's pace, a very slow pointer is better than fa^t set- 
 ters — but no dog at all, your walking up the birds your- 
 self, which you can do just as quickly as the dog can, is 
 better than the slow pointer. Indeed, on very small 
 grounds, very thickly stocked, it is by far the most kill- 
 ing way to use no dog, but to walk up the birds. 
 
 If a man is so weak and infirm of purpose, or so igno- 
 rant of the first principles of his art, as to be unable to 
 control his setters, he must, I suppose, use a slow pointer ; 
 but it cannot matter what dog such a man uses, he 
 never can be a sportsman. 
 
 If there be a hundred birds lying, and lying well on 
 one acre of feeding-ground, the birds can be killed with- 
 
THE AMERICAN SNIPE. 101 
 
 out a dog, or with a slow dog, as you will ; any man who 
 can pull a trigger must fill his bag. 
 
 If there be a hundred birds scattered, wild, over five 
 hundred acres of ground, where are you with your slow 
 dog, or your no dog ? Just no where. While you are 
 painfully picking up your three or four birds with your 
 slow pointer, your true sportsman, and slashing walker, 
 with his racing up-head and down-stem setters, will have 
 found fifty, and bagged twenty-five or thirty. 
 
 There are ten days in a season when birds are wild 
 and sparse, for one when they are congregated and lie 
 hard ; and the argument comes to this, that when birds 
 can be killed with ease, even without a dog at all, a slow 
 pointer is the best ; when they are difficult to find, and 
 hard to kill, even by a crack shot, the slow pointer is no 
 where, and of no use, while the racing setters will fill 
 the bag to a certainty. 
 
 For my own part, I can say to a certainty, that I have 
 had more sport, and killed more birds, by many, many 
 times, when birds have been widely scattered, and diffi- 
 cult to find, and when I have walked half or a quarter of 
 a mile between every shot fired, than I ever have when 
 birds have lain close, and jumped up at every pace under 
 my feet; and for a simple reason, that the places in 
 which birds so rise and lie, are rare and of small extent, 
 and the days on which they do so few and far apart. 
 
 Therefore I %2ij^ friend — for all true sportsmen I hold 
 friends — choose well thy day, when the air is soft and 
 
102 AiyiEEICAN GAME. 
 
 genial, tlie wind south-westerly, tlie meadows green with 
 •succulent and tender grasses, and moist with the deposit 
 of subsiding wafers • — select thy grounds carefully; in 
 such a time as I have named, the wide and open marsh 
 meadows ; but if the wind be from the eastward, cold, 
 squally and snow laden, then try the bushy, briery brakes, 
 where cattle poach the soil, and the marsh waters creep, 
 or the verge of the meadows, under the lea of the maple 
 swamp, or at the worst the very grounds where you would 
 beat for woodcock in July — begin from the farthest wind- 
 ward point of thy beat, casting thy brace of setters off 
 from thy heel, to the right and- left, and so often as they 
 have diverged one hundred yards, turning them with a 
 whistle and a wave T)f the hand, so that they shall cross 
 continually before thy face, down wind of thee, at some 
 thirty paces distant ; and so persevere — if birds be plenty 
 and lie well, walking not to exceed two miles the hour ; 
 if they be rare and wild, four miles, or by 'r lady ! ^yq, if 
 thou mayest compass it. If one dog stand, while the 
 other's back is turned, whistle, that he shall turn his head, 
 then hold thy hand aloft, with one quiet " toJio P^ but uq 
 shouting ; if he be broke, he shall stand like a carved 
 stone. Then walk up to the point leisurely, be sure that 
 thou go down wind, making a circuit if needs be, with thy 
 gun at half-cock, the ball of thy thumb on the hammer, 
 and the nail of thy fore-finger inside the guard, but not 
 upon the trigger. When the bird rises, cock your gun, 
 and down him ! If thy dogs do their devoir, they shall 
 
THE AMEEICAN SNIPE. 103 
 
 drop to the charge unbidden ; if they do not, raise thy 
 hand with an im})erious gesture, and cry coolly and 
 calmly, " Down charge ! " but however ill they behave, 
 nay, even if they run in and eat thy bird, move not till 
 thy gun is loaded ; then calmly walk up to them, drag 
 them, pitilessly scourging them all the way, to the place 
 where they should have charged, and rate them in the 
 best of thy dog-language. I say " scourging them piti- 
 lessly,^^ because that is in truth the merciful course ; for 
 so one or two whippings will suffice, instead of constant 
 small chastisements and irritation, which spoil a dog's 
 temper and break his spirit, without conquering his ob- 
 stinacy, or gaining the ascendancy over him. 
 
 If, on the contrary, they charge as decent dogs should 
 and do charge, so soon as thy gun be loaded, lift them, 
 with a " Hold up, good lads !" and cast them gently on- 
 ward, checking them with a " Steady, dogs ! " if they 
 show disposition to be rash, until they point the dead 
 bird, if killed, or draw on him, if running. Then, with a 
 " Toho ! Steady ! " walk to their point ; pick up the bird 
 under their noses, praising them the while, or bid them 
 " Fetch ! " according to the circumstances of the case ; 
 but if they retrieve the bird without pointing him, or 
 even after pointing him, until told to "fetch," let chas- 
 tisement not hide her head. 
 
 This, rest assured, friend, is the way to do it. 
 
 For the rest, whether thou wear fen-boots, or shoes and 
 trowsers, or, as I use, by deliberate preference, arch- 
 
104 AMEEICAN GA3IE. 
 
 boots, corduroy shorts, and leggins, suit thine own fancy ; 
 but let thy shooting-jacket be roomy on the chest and 
 shoulders, and well suj^plied with ample pockets. Let 
 thy gun be — for my choice — of 31 inches, 12 or 14 guage, 
 '7| to 8 pounds. Let thy powder be Brough's diamond 
 grain, or John Hall's glass^-on no account any other — 
 thou mayest get it of Henry T. Cooper, in Broadway, 
 "New York — thy shot, ISTo. 8 — thy caps Starkey's central 
 fire, or Moore & Gray's, or "Westley Kichards' — by no 
 means M^ench, or "Walker's, the first of which ^, while 
 the latter are, I think, corrosive. Forget not to have in 
 thy pocket a dog- whip, a stout " knife, a yard or two of 
 strong cord, a pocket-flask, replenished, as thou wilt, with 
 old Otard, or as I recommend thee, Ferintosh or Glenli- 
 vat whiskey — stick in the seam of thy waistcoat a strong 
 darning-needle, headed with sealing-wax, it is the only true 
 and responsible gim-picker ; and so, good sport to thee, 
 and health and temper to enjoy it ! — as good sport, gentle 
 reader, as I trust myself to enjoy this coming week of 
 April, the rain-gods and the river-gods permitting, and 
 the nymphs remembering us, as their long time adorer, 
 in their kind orisons. 
 
 The American Snipe, established by Wilson as a dis- 
 tinct species, is eleven inches long, bill inclusive, and sev- 
 enteen from tip to tip. Bill fluted, two and a half inches 
 long, the upper mandible the longest, terminating in a 
 highly sensitive nob, brown, tipped with black. The 
 crown of the head black, bisected lengthwise and bor- 
 
THE AMERICAN SNIPE. 105 
 
 dered by three yellowish-wliite streaks. Above tlie eye 
 a dusky-brown line ; neck and upper breast, j^ale dusky 
 brown, speckled witli black and white ; chin dirty white. 
 Back black, bordered with two white lines. Scapulars 
 velvety black, richly marbled with ferruginous, and 
 broadly edged exteriorly with white. Wings dusky, 
 all the feathers tipped with white, quills brown, exterior 
 quills edged with white. Upper tail coverts, ferruginous, 
 tipped with whitish and spotted with black. Tail black, 
 ended with a chestnut bar, tipped with white. Belly pure 
 white ; flanks white with dusky bars. Thighs, vent, and 
 under-tail coverts white. Legs and feet pale green. 
 
 It is worthy of remark that the American Snipe, 
 though neither webbed nor semipalmated, swims freely, 
 a fact which is, I believe, mentioned by no naturalist. 
 
 On the first occasion which made me acquainted with 
 this fact, I was standing on the verge of a narrow brook, 
 of some six or eight feet over, in the act of loading both 
 barrels of my gun, which I had just discharged, when 
 a snipe flushed by another of my party, flew over my 
 head, and pitched on an open spot of muddy soil, within 
 six feet of me, evidently not observing me, as I stood 
 motionless. I watched its actions and movements, for 
 a few seconds, as it pruned its ruffled feathers, walked 
 daintily about, picked up a worm or two, and finally, to 
 my great surprise, took to the water, swam cleverly 
 across the brook and ensconced itself in a tuft of rushes, 
 whence I shortly afterward dislodged and shot it. 
 5* 
 
106 A^IEEICAN GAME. 
 
 On the second occasion, I was sliooting on tlie Cliat- 
 ^ham meadows, in company with Mr. ISTichoUs, late of 
 II. M. 82d Keg't. The birds were wild, the day windy, 
 and the ground too wet for birds to lie well. At last we 
 marked three down together in a small meadow, bor- 
 dered by a very broad fen ditch of eighteen or twenty 
 feet, and half that dei3th with clean cut banks, nearly 
 perpendicular. There was nearly no covert on the 
 meadow. 
 
 Our setters drew up carefully — stood perfectly dead 
 when we saw them drop, looked wildly about for a mo- 
 ment, much puzzled at seeing nothing rise, then drew^ 
 on slowly and foot by foot, to the edge of the broad 
 dyke, where they again stood steadily. When we 
 reached the bank, the three birds rose, out of shot, in 
 the bare marsh beyond. In all they had run about three 
 hundred yards, besides swimming the brook. Previous 
 to seeing that, I should have fancied the birds had 
 taken wing, and beaten no further than to the water- 
 course. !N"ow I should certainly cross it, and try, before 
 abandoning the game, whether the dogs could not make 
 them out on the farther bank. 
 
 To this, I annex an account of a veritable day's sport, 
 which occurred precisely as it is here set down, to the 
 smallest incident, to the author, while shooting over a 
 superb brace of setters, purchased of that well known 
 sportsman, " Dinks" of Amherstburgh, in company with 
 a crack shot and boon companion, now departed. 
 
SNIPE-SHOOTING. 107 
 
 The scene was Short's Landing, in the State of Dela- 
 ware, and on the noble river of the same name. The 
 place " Eobinson's tavern" — the time daybreak, on as 
 wild an April morning as ever woke in mingled hail- 
 squalls and sunshine. 
 
 Spring Snipe-Shooting. 
 
 " If you- please, sir, it's taime to get oop," said a cheer- 
 ful voice, with a most marvelous north-country burr, at 
 the best bed-room door of a small way-side tavern, in 
 the little State of Delaware, not many miles distant 
 from the noble river whence it derives its name. 
 
 "The deuce it is !" replied the lodger, in fine manly 
 ringing tones, although the speaker was but just awak- 
 ened. " I did not think that I had been in bed ten min-' 
 utes. What time is it, Timothy, and how does the day 
 look?" 
 
 " T' clock's run doon ; and it beant day," replied 
 Harry Archer's famous body servant, who was in one of 
 his literal moods, that morning, busying himself, as he 
 spoke, in stropping his master's razors by the apology 
 for a light afforded by the home-made dip. 
 
 " Confound you, man, when will it be day then, and 
 how does the morning frame f* answered his master, 
 
 * To " frame," in Yorkshire, signifies " to promise," "■ to give token 
 of becoming," as "the puppy /rawes to be a good one." *'The day 
 frameR to be fine." 
 
108 AMERICAN GAME. 
 
 liimself adopting tlie Yorkshire phraseology, half in fun, 
 half in irritation, to meet his henchman's compre- 
 hension. 
 
 " T' sun'll be oop iv half an hoor, and t'morn frames 
 vary badly." 
 
 " What — is it wet ? are we going to have a- rainy day ?" 
 
 " !Nay ! it's not that weet ; nor it beant going to ra-ain, 
 ay reckon. But it blaws raight doon, and t' sky's as 
 red as blude amaist i' t' east. It'H tak' walking the day, 
 and shuting too, if think'st to mak' a bag." 
 
 "Easterly wind, Tim?" 
 
 " E"orwest," answered the varlet. " Noo, then, t' 
 razors is ready and t' hot wather ; and t' breakfast, 
 sooch as 't is, it'll ready i' faive minutes. T' other gen- 
 tleman, he's been doon i' t' kitchen, boiling t' eggs hard 
 mair nor a quarter of an hoor." 
 
 " Hurrah ! then, away with you ; and tell him I'll be 
 with him before they are hard." 
 
 Nor was the boast an empty one, or unfulfilled, for 
 scarcely ten minutes had elapsed, before the rickety 
 staircase clattered beneath the ponderous hob-nailed 
 half-boots of the sportsman, and while his companion 
 was still superintending the preparation of the eggs 
 which were to furnish their luncheon, Harry entered 
 the breakfast room in full fig, corduroy breeches, leather 
 leggins, broad-skirted, many-pocketed shooting coat, 
 and wide-leaved felt hat. 
 
 " The top of the morning to you, Charley ;" said he, 
 
SNIPE-SHOOTING. 109 
 
 as he came in, addressing tlie Baltimorean, wlio was 
 booted to tlie liip, ready for action. 
 
 " The bottom of the night, rather ;" replied Charley 
 laughing. " It's an awful state of society, when a fel- 
 low's dragged out of bed by an insane Yorkshireman, 
 two hours before day-break, and made to get into his 
 boots, whether or no." 
 
 " It must have been something of a job to get into 
 yours, I should think ; but I'll tell you what, if we get 
 the birds into a bit of tussocky bog, where we shall find 
 them, if we find them anywhere to-day, you'll get out of 
 them, I fancy, a plaguy deal quicker than you got in ; 
 for they'll stick fast as sure as mud's mud — and the mud 
 there, or clay, rather, is better than any boot-jack." 
 
 " The Lord's will be do'ne — " answered the other ; 
 " at all events, I shall keep dry ten minutes longer than 
 you." 
 
 "True, O king! Now, Timothy, take half that loaf of 
 rye bread, cut it into chunks, and give the dogs their 
 breakfast." 
 
 " Which dogs are you going to take to-day, Harry ?" 
 
 " ' Dinks' and ' Bob' — ^the orange and white, and the 
 black and white Eussian." 
 
 " Dinks is the greatest beauty and Bob the greatest 
 brute I ever set my eyes upon." 
 
 " If you don't change your tune before night, you may 
 eat me. Any one can see that Dinks is by far the hand- 
 
110 AMEEICAN GAME. 
 
 somer, but Bob is the very best dog I ever pulled a trig- 
 ger over in my life. That's all." 
 
 " But I thought you said they had never seen snipe.'' 
 
 " I said they had never been hunted upon snipe, or 
 allowed to point them. English-broke setters, are very 
 apt to be whipped off snipe, for it's a horrid bore in 
 moor-shooting, to toil half a mile or better up hill to a 
 steady point, and then instead of a pack of grouse, to 
 flush what Colquhoun calls a ' twiddling snipe.' These 
 dogs were broke in England, and re-broke in Canada 
 West." 
 
 " And are there no snipe there ?" 
 
 " So many, and they lie so hard, that dogs are useless. 
 On the regular snipe grounds, they walk them up." 
 
 " And how do you expect these dogs to point snipe 
 now?" 
 
 " I do not expect them to point snipe at first ; but as 
 soon as they find we are shooting them, they'll point 
 them fast enough, I promise you." 
 
 "You think so?" 
 
 " No. I know so. I would bet a hundred to ^yq, if 
 I were a betting man, that before night they point, and 
 back, and find dead too, on snipe as steadily as ever you 
 saw dogs." 
 
 " May be so ; but it's new to me. Do you mean to 
 say that good dogs will stand anything ?" 
 
 " I mean to say that good dogs can be broke to stand 
 on anything, or — ^nothing." 
 
SNlPE-SHOOTma. Ill 
 
 " On anything ! on any game you mean." 
 
 " I mean, precisely, what I say — on anything. And 
 that is the reason why I checked you for shooting a 
 meadow-lark over them the other day, and why I am so 
 particular as to the ' who' I take out with me. If small 
 birds are killed indiscriminately with game, over dogs, 
 before many days you wdll have as dead points at larks 
 and brown thrushes, as at quail and ruiFed grouse. If a 
 man shoots pigeons, larks, and black-birds, or even 
 reed-birds, for that matter, over my setters, he may do 
 so once, but he will have no second chance, I promise 
 you." 
 
 " I expect to see these dogs of yours paragons. They 
 ought to be such, by all the trouble you take with them. 
 I know no one who insists so much on doing every thing 
 ship shape." 
 
 " They are good dogs. The best broke dogs, to my 
 mind, that I have seen in this country ; but this is no 
 fair opportunity to judge them. Their forte is high fast 
 ranging for quail ; and they are going to be tried to-day, 
 in ground, and upon game, such as they never have 
 seen. But come ; you seem to have finished that abomi- 
 nable coffee, so we had better get under way at once. 
 It is a wild, bad morning, and the birds will scarcely 
 lie ; and if we want to make anything like a bag, we 
 shall have to fag hard for it." 
 
 Thereupon, without further words, the two friends 
 took up their guns and got under way ; Timothy follow- 
 
112 AMERICAN GAME. 
 
 ing, game-bag on shoulder and cndgel in hand, the two 
 setters, just released from the chain, gambolling about 
 in the highest sj)irits and most admirable condition, as 
 was evinced by the moist coolness of their jet-black 
 noses, and the silky gloss of their deeply feathered 
 coats. 
 
 " There is a piece of wild meadow here, Charley," 
 said Archer, pointing across a pair of bars to the right, 
 " which, before the banks were broke, and the tide got in, 
 used to be the first in the country for spring shooting. 
 There are a good many birds in it now, I dare say, for it 
 has got plenty of covert, and they will seek covert in 
 such a wind as this." 
 
 " Let us try it, then, if you say so." 
 
 " It is most infernal walking, but it wont do to stick 
 at trifles. So here goes," and suiting the action to the 
 word, he strode across the fence, and at the first step 
 was mid-leg deep in a soft rust-colored sludge, half 
 semi-liquid mud and half semi-decomposed vegetable 
 matter. A few floundering strides through this Sirbo- 
 nian bog, brought them to drier, if not sounder ground, 
 w^hich was, in truth, even harder walking than before, 
 as the soil was here so tenacious that it was difiicult to 
 draw the leg out of the mire, into which it sunk ankle 
 deep. In places, this was covered by high reeds, stand- 
 ing wide apart, with splashes of shallow water covering 
 the surface, and here the bottom was harder ; in others, 
 a rank, short, rushy grass, which had probably been 
 
SNIPE-SHOOTING. 113 
 
 burnt over, some two years before, grew thick and mat- 
 ted on the loose rotten soil, through which, every few 
 yards asunder, soaked little rills of nearly stagnant 
 water, indicated more by the blackness and ooziness of 
 their muddy channels, than by any visible stream or 
 current. 
 
 The setters looked at one another wistfully, and then 
 at their master, as if they wondered what the deuce they 
 were expected to do in such ground as that, and when 
 at length in obedience to his " hold up, good lads !" and 
 tlie wafture of his hand to the right and left, they broke 
 off, and began to quarter their ground steadily and 
 beautifully, crossing each other in regular diagonal 
 lines ; they did not beat at their usual dashing gallop, 
 heads up and stel'ns down, as they would have done, 
 had they been beating for quail, but felt their way, as it 
 were, gingerly and fearfully, keeping at a trot, though 
 they whipped their flanks all the time with their 
 feathery stems, and often putting down their noses, as 
 if to. seek for some strange trail or scent. 
 
 " Upon my life ! Harry," said his friend, "if it were 
 not impossible, I should believe that those dogs know as 
 well as we do, that they are after some game to which 
 they are unaccustomed to day." ^ 
 
 " Know it ! of course they know it ! Why, if we had 
 been upon stubbles, they would have ranged the whole 
 of this piece, before this time. Ha! Bob — toho!" he 
 exclaimed, as a snipe sprung directly under the black 
 
114 AMEEICAK GAME. 
 
 dog's nose, wlio went on witliont taking the least notice 
 either to stand or to chase — "Toho!" and at the word, 
 the stannch brutes both came to a stand, irresolute of 
 course, and uncertain, as a stand always must be, when 
 dogs do not know what they are upon, but still, without 
 a forward motion, after the word met their ears. But, 
 even as he shouted, Harry pitched up his gun to his eye, 
 literally drawing the trigger as it rose, so that it was 
 discharged the instant the butt struck his shoulder — for 
 the bird had sprung wild, at least twenty yards off, in 
 the first instance, and the wind blowing very fresh, in 
 cold squalls, had gone away, as if 'the devil drove,' di- 
 rectly in the teeth of the north-wester, zigzaging it with 
 all his wings, and reiterating his sharp squeak, as if in 
 triumph. But there was a quick eye, and nimble finger 
 behind, and a gun, that if held straight, was wont to tell 
 a tale ; and when he had got some fi ve-and-forty yards 
 away, the strength of the charge struck him full, and 
 sent him, doubled up like a rag, some six yards further 
 forward. At the report, as is very often the case, in 
 snipe shooting, a second bird, which would have skulked 
 and allowed them to pass him, jumped up within three 
 feet of Archer's toe, and wheeling half round him to 
 get the wind, was cut down, completely riddled, before 
 he had flown ten paces. At the second shot, the mead- 
 ow seemed literally alive with birds, some thirty or 
 forty rising one by one, between the young men and the 
 dogs, most of them in front of the Baltimorean, and 
 
SNIPE-SHOOTING. 116 
 
 going away, scaipe^ scaipe^ scaipe^ scaipe^ as who should 
 say, " deuce take the hindmost," to the north-westward, 
 ever as they flew and squeaked, calling up fresh legions 
 over the wide flat, until there must have been above a 
 hundred snipe in the air at once. 
 
 At these, Charley did his work well, keeling a brace 
 over, very neatly, one of which fell within a yard of 
 Bob's nose, who had gone down to charge without being 
 bidden, the moment the report of the first shot followed 
 the flash. The steady dog snuffed a little, and wagged 
 his tail, but did not stir, though to increase the tempta- 
 tion, the snipe, which was only wing-tipped, after turn- 
 ing some twenty consecutive somersaults under his nose, 
 made several ineffectual efforts to rise, springing four or 
 ^YQ feet into the air, and screaming " scaipe^^ a qui mieux. 
 
 " "Wonderfully steady, indeed !" said Charley, in pro- 
 found admiration — wonderfully steady. But that was a 
 slashing shot of yours, that first one, Harry." 
 
 " Yes ! it was some^ as Bill Porter would say. I 
 wanted to kill that chap for the dog's sake, and would 
 not have missed him for a trifle. I had no idea there 
 were such a lot of them lying all around us. I never 
 saw so many birds on the ground in my life ; if it were 
 a still, warm day, we should have rare sport. As it is, 
 we will make out a bag. All this has turned out capi- 
 tally. I would not be surprised, if you will give me five 
 minutes to work the dogs after my own fashion, to see 
 them stand the next bird, after we have retrieved these." 
 
116 AMEEICAN GAME. 
 
 " Take your own time — I am ready. At all events, I 
 will say now that I never saw better-broke, or steadier 
 dogs." 
 
 " ]^ow then, bold up, good lads," cried Harry, waving 
 Ms band to tbe dogs with a low wbistle, and walking up 
 to tbem, be encouraged tbem, and cbeered tbem, as be 
 made tbem find eacb one of tbe four dead birds, and 
 wben found, let tbem scent and snuffle tbem as mucb as 
 tbey cbose, and even mouth them gently. After that, he 
 laid them at a short distance before their noses, and cry- 
 ing " tobo !" made tbem stand and back, several times in 
 succession. After this, be pocketed tbe birds, apologiz- 
 ing to his friend, as be came up, for having kept him 
 waiting. 
 
 " E"o need for an apology, Harry," said be ; " on the 
 contrary, I am much obliged, for, like tbe dogs, I too 
 have been taking my lesson." 
 
 " Well, forward, bold up lads !" and away they went 
 again, tbe dogs gathering courage as tbey drew, and 
 beating more boldly and carrying more liead, as tbey 
 ranged forward, but still working mucb slower, and 
 more warily than tbey would have done on quail. For 
 a while tbey found nothing, for all tbe birds bad scat- 
 tered far and near, at the first distm-bance of tbe feeding 
 ground. After a while, however, at tbe edge of some 
 tall flags in good springy feeding ground, Bob, who was 
 a little to tbe right, in front of Charley, dropped from 
 his canter into a slow trot, straightened his neck and 
 
f 
 
 SNIPE-SHOOTIKG. 117 
 
 stern, and drew on in a straight line. "Look out, there 
 IS a bird there !" 
 
 Scaipe I scaijpe 1 close tinder the dog's nose he started, 
 and as he started, but not till then. Bob stood stiff. The 
 bird fell to Charley's shot, was recovered, bagged, 
 and on they went, rejoicing. Five shots and no bird 
 missed. 
 
 The next rise was to Archer. Two snap shots, right 
 and left, birds which rose wide of the dogs. The first, 
 fell clean killed — ^the second, just grazed by the shot, 
 skated off, and pitched three hundred yards off. The 
 dead bird, Dinks pointed dead, in fine style, Bob back- 
 ing him. And twenty minutes after, the order was re- 
 versed. Bob finding the hurt bird, beautifully, and Dinks 
 backing eighty j^ards off. That bird took another shot, 
 but he came to bag. After that, all day long, the green 
 dogs worked like old hands, on their new game ; before 
 afternoon, they were racing heads up and sterns down, 
 in their old fashion, and yet neither of them flushed 
 another bird all that day. Despite wind and weather, 
 the friends filled a heavy bag, and as they sipped their 
 peach brandy, by the fireside in the evening, Charley 
 said, laughing :■ — " Well, Harry Archer, coute quHl coitte^ 
 1 will never doubt again, that^ well-broke dogs can be 
 made to point anything, or — nothing !" 
 " And, is Bob a brute, now ?" 
 " Dinks is the beauty, but Bob is the best ; and that is 
 
i 
 
 118 AMEBIC AN GAME. 
 
 not saying a little, for, on the whole, they are the very- 
 best brace I have ever seen together." 
 
 "I thought that you would say so — and you have 
 had—" 
 
 " A right good lesson on dog-breaking, so good night." 
 
- - THE STRIPED BASS. 
 
 Ldbrax Lineat/us. 
 
 THE KOCK FISH OF TIFE DELAWARE AISTD SOTJTHWAED. 
 
 This noble and sporting fish, which is peculiar to the 
 continent of North America, was first, I believe, distin- 
 guished and defined by the late learned Dr. Mitchell, 
 of l!Tew York, though included by him in the division 
 Perea^ in lieu of Lahrax^ to which it has since been 
 more correctly attributed. 
 
 Dr. Smith, in his " Fishes of Massachusetts," has 
 severely censured Dr. Mitchell for his distinguishing this 
 fish, and attaching to it his own name — ^pronouncing it to 
 " be a common table fish, known from time immemorial 
 all over Europe." Dr. Smith, however, not Dr. Mitchell, 
 is the person in error ; as the Striped Bass, Z(Z^<^a? Line- 
 atus^ is a purely American fish, entirely distinct from the 
 common European Bass, Ldbrax Lwpus^ which very 
 rarely leaves the salt water, preferring to spawn in the 
 sea baysp rather than to run up fresh streams or rivers, 
 
120 AMEEICAN GAME. 
 
 thougli it is said to have been taken in tlie Tiber, between 
 the two bridges, by the ancient Eomans.* 
 
 There is said to be a variety of this fish found in the 
 St. Lawrence, which is described as wanting the regular 
 distinctive lines of the Striped Bass, and is said to assume 
 a more spotty coloring ; the spots, however, running in 
 regular lines, 'G.ve above and five below the lateral line, 
 and somewhat resembling ancient church music, whence 
 it has been named by Lieutenant Colonel Smith, who has 
 done much for Canadian Icthyology, Lahrax Notatus. 
 The Striped Bass does not, it appears, run up the St. 
 Lawrence so far as Quebec ; at. least it is so stated by Dr. 
 Richardson, in his great work on ^Northern Zoology ; but 
 is commonly found, acccording to my friend, Mr. Pesley, 
 the accomplished fisherman and historian of those wa- 
 ters, in all the rivers of I^ew Brunswick, which debouche 
 into the Gulf, where they afford fine sport with the large 
 scarlet Ibis fly, used for salmon-trout, with the smelt 
 as a trolling-bait, and with the clam, or a piece of lob- 
 ster — ^the latter a bait which I liave never known ^ to be 
 used in our waters, though from its similarity to crab, 
 which is in great request here at some seasons, its excel- 
 lence need not be doubted. 
 
 '^ Histoire dcs Poissons, cited by Richardson, Fauna Borcali Ameri- 
 cana. I should, however, entertain some doubt, if the identity of the 
 fish depends merely on the identity of the classic name, Lupus, with the 
 modern name — since the Latin Lupus is equally rendered Pike, which 
 is found in those waters. 
 
THE STKIPED BASS. 121 
 
 So far southward as the waters of the Chesapeake Bay, 
 they are found in abundance and of large size ; and the 
 Falls of the Potomac is a much frequented spot for tak- 
 ing them. It is stated in "The American Angler's 
 Guide," that thej are found also in the rivers and bays 
 of Florida. Such may be the case, though I have not 
 heard them named as southern fish, even so far as 
 Charleston Bay, to which Tautog have been recently intro- 
 duced, by friends of mine from that region of the United 
 States, while I have the sanction of that distinguished Ic- 
 thyologist, the late Mr. Dunbar, of ]!Tew Orleans, for believ- . 
 ing that few, if any, of our northern s]3ecies are common to 
 the southern waters, it being his decided opinion that the 
 Sheeps-head of the Gulf is a distinct fish from that of the 
 Atlantic coasts. 
 
 The Striped Bass is taken of all sizes, from a few 
 ounces, up to seventy or eighty pounds, which may be set 
 down as his maximum weight. He is of the order Aca^i- 
 ih(ypterygi% or thorny-finned fishes, having one or more 
 hard bony spines in advance of each of the soft-rayed fins. 
 Its gill-rays are seven in number ; its dorsal fins consist 
 first of eight spines, second of one spine, thirteen soft 
 rays ; the pectorals of sixteen soft rays ; the ventrals of 
 one spine, five soft rays ; the anal of three spines, twelve 
 soft rays ; and the caudal of seventeen rays ; the opercu- 
 lum serrated, suboperculum has two spines, partly con- 
 cealed by the membranes, no scales on the opercula. 
 
 The lateral line of the fish is nearly straight. It is 
 
122 AMERICAN GAME. 
 
 covered witli large scales of a metallic or nacrous histre, 
 varying from reddish brown, with coerular and greenish 
 reflections on the back, to the brightest silver on the 
 belly. It has eight, or sometimes nine longitudinal lines, 
 the fourth of which corresponds with the lateral line, 
 the first four running through the whole length of the 
 fish, the others becoming fainter and gradually dying 
 away, as they extend towards the tail. He is a severe fish 
 of prey and very voracious, and is accordingly equipped 
 with a very powerful system of teeth, and his tongue is 
 rough, like a file, with innumerable rows of small thorn- 
 like teeth. Of all species, which may properly be called 
 sea-fish, the Striped Bass is, perhaps, that which most 
 afifects fresh waters, for at an early season in the spring, 
 so soon as, or almost before they are clear of ice, he 
 begins to run up the rivers in pursuit of the smelt, to 
 which he is a cruel enemy and persecutor, and of the shad, 
 which he follows assiduously to their spawning places, 
 making sad havoc with the roe of the latter. 
 
 Either of these, therefore — ^the smelt or spearling, or 
 any very white and glistening fish, or even a piece of 
 polished pearl or tin as a trolling bait, or in squidding 
 with a hand-line — and the shad roe, potted and salted so 
 as to preserve it, and attached to the hook with a needle- 
 full of yellow silk, as a bottom bait, in rapid scours over 
 gravelly ground, will be found exceedingly fatal baits. 
 It is worthy of remark, however, that excej^t in the 
 spring season, and in rivers up which shad and smelt 
 
THE STEIPED BASS. 123 
 
 are known to run, or on serf beaches, and in sea bays, it 
 will be worse than useless to use either, especially the 
 latter. 
 
 In surfs, striped Bass will take the artificial squid, 
 mistaking it for the Spearling, Athernia Menidia, the 
 Sand-lance, or other small fry on which they feed ; and 
 in tide ways, such as Hell-gate and the numerous pas- 
 sages in that vicinity, they are frequently taken in great 
 numbers, and of very large size, with that hideous ma- 
 rine reptile, the living squid. 
 
 In the early spring, and in general water, shrimp are 
 probably the most killing bait, shad roe excepted, for 
 rivers frequented by that fish. When crabs begin to 
 shed they may be used indiscriminately with shrimp ; 
 the latter to be fished with from one to three feet from 
 the bottom, with a float and light sliding sinker. In the 
 early autumn, crab on the bottom is preferred by many 
 anglers ; and in some water the soft clam is very success- 
 ful ; but in swift streams, where the water is fresh, no 
 bait, to my fancy, equals any bright, glittering fish, 
 spearling, minnow, killy-fish, what you will, at the end 
 of a hundred yards of clever trolling-line, with a bottom 
 of good, round single gut, two swivels, a l!^o. 1 Limerick 
 through the tail, and a small perch hook through the 
 lip, and a skilful hand to keep him glancing through 'the 
 ripples, life-like, till a ten-pounder strikes him with an 
 arrowy rush, and whistles away some seventy yards of 
 line oif your ringing click-reel, before you know what 
 
124 AMEKICAI^ GAME. 
 
 you're about — for lie is a deuce of a run-away, is your 
 ten-pound Bass, when the barbed hook is in his jaws. 
 
 He has not so much resource as the Salmon, does not 
 often throw himself off the surface water, or strive to fall 
 on the tightened line and break it ; neither have I seen 
 him run in often, if ever, upon the angler, or sulk at the 
 bottom. But I think his first rush, if anything, is stronger, 
 and I am sure it is longer, than that of an equal salmon. 
 He will fight hard, for his time ; but his time, providing 
 you keep a taught hand on him, make him work for 
 every inch of line, and mind not to let him smash you, 
 either against rocks on the bottom, or against piles or 
 stumps, the neighborhood of which he loves, and around 
 which he is sure to twist you if you let him, will not 
 be so long by twenty minutes, as a ten-pounder Salmon 
 on a fly, well played, with good tackle — without it you 
 have not a chance — and twelve minutes should have him 
 dead-beat, and half-drowned, with the gaff in his glitter- 
 ing sides. 
 
 Fly-fishing is not certain for Bass ; when they are in 
 the humor to take, however, they give fine sport ; and in 
 a fine spring morning, with a dark rufile on the water, it 
 is worth the while trying. A salmon rod will be re- 
 quired for this sport, with a reel, of course ; a single-gut 
 bottom, and any large, gaudy lake-fly ; but none is, I 
 think, so killing as that made by the Conroys, especially 
 for the Black Bass of the lakes, Gristes Nigricans^ an 
 entirely different fish, peculiar to the St. Lawrence 
 
THE STRIPED BASS. 125 
 
 basin, but equally killing for this his congener. It has 
 four large wings, two of the Scarlet Ibis, and two of the 
 Silver Pheasant, with a scarlet chenil body. On the St. 
 Lawrence it is sure death. 
 
 Of squidding at night with hand-lines as thick as your 
 little finger, and a live squid of a pound's weight at the 
 end of it, I speak not ; for, although in the Harlem 
 River, in littl6 Hell-gate, and about Hog Island, the fifty 
 and sixty pounders are taken in that fashion, it is much 
 harder work than fine sport ; and, as is the case, I think, 
 with most game fish, the largest neither give the most 
 sport to the fisherman on the hook, nor to the epicure on 
 the board. The gamest fish for the one, and the most 
 delicate for the other, is the fellow that runs from seven, 
 or, by'r lady, five to ten pounds weight, and he will 
 work you on the line, or please you on the platter. 
 
 Of that size, boil him, and serve him with anchovy or 
 shrimp sauce and the squeeze of a lemon ; or roast him, 
 stufied with bread-crumbs, suet, sweet herbs, lemon peel, 
 and oysters, and basted with anchovy-butter, and if you 
 don't say he's good, you may take my best rod and line. 
 
 If he's a little fellow, score his sides, pepper and butter 
 liim, and boil him — or, if you've a lot of them, with a 
 bunch or two of silver Passaic eels, pork, onions, pota- 
 toes, oysters, &c., cut them in chunks, and make a 
 chowder of them, with the oysters on top, and don't 
 forget to throw in a pint of dry champagne when it boils 
 up, or to think of Frank Forester, after the first plateful. 
 
 After the striped Bass has had his own fun with the 
 
126 AMERICAN GAME. 
 
 smelt and shad-roe, in tlie spring, lie disappears from 
 among us for a time, having -run up nearly to the head- 
 waters of his breeding streams, where he may deposit 
 his ova in the clear, cold aerated waters, running limpid 
 over yellow sands and bright pebbles, which are the best 
 suited to the reproduction of his species. 
 
 Soon after he has performed this duty, he returns, far 
 less reduced, I know not wherefore, by the act of spawn- 
 ing, than other anadromous fishes ; and, thereafter, 
 during the hot months of midsummer, and the earlier 
 part of autumn, he is to be found in the estuaries, and 
 the silver-flashing surges of our outer beaches, where he 
 is taken in great abundance by the amphibious popula- 
 tion of those regions, with the squid and hand line. 
 
 Later in the autumn, he again rushes up the rivers, 
 partly in pursuit of his prey, and partly, it is supposed, 
 from dislike to the tumultuous seas, produced by the 
 winter storms ; since it cannot be, as was once imagined, 
 in avoidance of cold that he winters in fresh water, for 
 it is ascertained that salt water maintains the highest 
 temperature. In the rivers, however, it is, or rather in 
 the lagoons and shallow bays at their moutli, that he 
 passes the cold season, lying in a half torpid state on tlie 
 mud at the bottom ; nor even here is he safe, at least in 
 northern regions, for Mr. jPerley states that he is easily 
 distinguished in the shallow waters, through the clear, 
 newly-formed ice, which is speedily cut through, and 
 friend Zabrax -B.shed wp in scoop-nets by the Micmacsaaid 
 Milicetes, no sliglit addition to their frugal winter fare. 
 
V. 
 
 MAY. 
 
 Sul'mo Foniinulhi. 
 NORTH AMERICA; LABRADOR TO THE PACIFIC. 
 
 C|e §reitt §m%t. 
 
 Anas Bernida. 
 
THE BEOOK TEOUT. 
 
 Sahno Fonthialis, 
 
 This merry month of May is the month of all others 
 dear prescriptively to the trout-fisher. In England, it has 
 been for centuries admitted the sweetest and the fairest 
 month of spring ; the month " where sweets compacted 
 lie, the union of the earth and sky." Poets have sung 
 it, and traditions hallowed it ; and, from the old day, 
 when the hoary druids culled with their golden hooks 
 the sacred mistletoe, and the young maidens were astir 
 before tiie morning star, to gather maydew in the 
 flowery meadows, even to this hard, real, unideal nine- 
 teenth century, the month of May has a character of its 
 own, not with young lovers only, but with the world in 
 general, diflerent from that of any other of the twelve 
 changeful cycles, and differently hailed of men. 
 
 In England, as I have said, it is the aweetest^ with us 
 
 in America it is the first'^ I had almost said the only 
 
 month of spring. For, in our western hemisphere, the 
 
 winter hangs so heavily, and lingers so late into the 
 
 6* 
 
130 AMERICAN GAME. 
 
 lap of summer, that in good truth, in some years, we 
 have no spring at all ; and in the most favorable seasons, 
 the fierce and cutting north-easters of March, with their 
 whirling snow-drifts, their pelting hail-stones, and their 
 incessant scud of inky storm-clouds, render it the most 
 hateful month of all the twelve, and to invalids the most 
 terrible and fatal. April succeeds ; and if one genial 
 day, with a soft breeze from the southward or south- 
 westward, and a glimpse or two of watery sunshine, call 
 the willow-buds to bursting, and a few, the earliest, 
 meadow-blooms to blowing ; waken the whistle of the 
 blue-bird among the apple-boughs, and the chirrup of 
 the frog from the morasses, the next is sure to follow, 
 loaded with sheeted mists sullenly sailing westward 
 before a soul-searching and ice-cold gale from Labrador 
 or Greenland, and the promise of the year is not only 
 deferred, but, it may well be, nipped outright, for that 
 the earth has reposed rash faith in the fair but false- 
 seeming visage of the skies. 
 
 But, with May, if there be any vernal weather coming.^ 
 we have it present. The fury of the east wind, if not 
 quelled, is broken ; and we shall have green leaves 
 rustling into breezy life, and warblers busy in the 
 orchards, brown thrushes vocal in the woodlands, 
 swallows skimming the pools and twittering in the 
 eaves ; and last, not least, trout flashing through the 
 glassy ripples, as they spring fast and frequent to clutch 
 
THE BROOK TEOUT. 131 
 
 the insect food wliicli come forth now so plenteously to 
 sport their little day in the warm sunshine. 
 
 Along the Atlantic coast, indeed, on Long Island, and 
 to the eastward, where, in fact, alone on the Atlantic 
 coast of the United States trout prevail, fishing is per- 
 mitted by law, and practised by sportsmen, long before 
 this, the true month of the fly-fisher. In March it com- 
 mences on the Island, where formerly was the finest 
 trout-fishing perhaps in all the country ; but where the 
 streams are now whipped so severely, that, in spite of 
 stringent regulations lately resorted to — too lately — in 
 the vain hope of preserving them, the run of fish are 
 declining in size year after year, and a good day's sport 
 is fast getting to be a thing little to be expected, scarce 
 even to be hoped for. In March, the trout will rarely 
 look at the fly, and they are caught at this season for the 
 most part with the float and red, or brandling worm ; on 
 bright, warm days, however, they will at times take the 
 artificial fly, and it is remarkable that very early in the 
 season they will rise at a bright, gaudy fly, like nothing 
 in nature, which a month or two later they would prob- 
 ably reject with contempt. Two or three years ago, the 
 most killing early fly was a scarlet Ibis wing, scarlet silk 
 and gold twist body ; but subsequently it has failed so 
 generally, as to have fallen into some sort of disrepute. 
 Tlie flies especially recommended for this month, imita- 
 tions of the natural insects, are the red fly, blue dun, 
 red spinner, great dark dun, cow-dung fly, March brown, 
 
132 AMERICAN GAME. 
 
 or dun drake, and great red spinner ; and any of these 
 are well-proved and snccessful flies in England ; but in 
 this country the fact is, that even in the warmest regions 
 in which the American brook-trout is found, the natural 
 fly of any kind is scarcely on the water at all at this 
 season ; and that one is just as likely as the other. 
 April brings' the golden dun midge, the sand fly, the 
 Btone fly, the grannom, or green tail, the yellow dun, the 
 iron-blue dun, the jenny-spinner, and the hawthorn fly. 
 The third, fourth, and flfth of which will be found very 
 tempting during the whole period of spring flshing ; as 
 will also, or perhaps 1 should say, more so, the yellow 
 May dun, the black gnat, the downhill fly, the Turkey 
 brown, little dark spinner, yellow Sally, fern fly, or 
 soldier, alder fly, and green and gray drake, which may 
 be regarded as particularly, according to the doctrin- 
 aires^ the flies of the month. I confess that I am not 
 myself a believer in the use of particular flies, for par- 
 ticular months or seasons, except as regards particular 
 waters ; and, in fact, such an application is utterly 
 impossible in a country of the extent of the trout-flshing 
 region of North America ; where the months and the 
 very seasons difi'er by twenties and forties of degrees. 
 The trout-fishing region of iSTorth America may be said, 
 generally, to extend from IS'ova Scotia and Lower 
 Canada, eastward to the feeders of Lake Superior on the 
 west, and from the extreme northern seas to the Atlantic 
 coasts, eastward of the Hudson. Westward of that 
 
THE BKOOK TROUT. 133 
 
 river, they are scarcely found soiitli of the Alleghany 
 ridges, nor in the Western States south of the Great 
 Lakes, or west of Michigan, until we reach the Pacific 
 watershed.* I^ow, as this district extends over not less 
 than thirty-five degrees of longitude from east to west, 
 by fifteen of latitude from north to south, it must be 
 obvious that no general rules can be adopted which shall 
 be applicable to the whole of that vast tract. In the 
 British provinces, and Lower Canada, the rivers are not 
 clear of thick ice until the end of April or early in 
 May ; and in the western country, on Lakes Huron and 
 Superior, the season, if any thing, is later. On Long 
 Island, in May, trout-fishing is nearly at an end ; on the 
 Callicoon, the Beaverkill, and the various tributaries of 
 the upper Delaware and Susquehanna, it is then begin- 
 ning, and is shortly after in its perfection. On the 
 superb lakes and streams of Hamilton county, 'New 
 York, and of the ]S"orth Eastern States, June is the 
 month ^^r excellence ; and probably, for those who can 
 endure the pest of the black fly and black midge, there 
 is no such fishing in the world, for extent of water, quan- 
 tity, and size of fish, and loveliness of scenery, as the 
 former locality can afibrd to those who are bold enough 
 
 * In the Western and Southern States several different fish, in nowise 
 connected with the trout, nor belonging to the same family salmo, are 
 known as trout. The fish so called from South Carolina, southward, is 
 a variety of the Squeteague or wheat fish, Otolithus Carolinensis — that 
 misnamed trout in the West is a species of fresh water bass, or corvina. 
 
134 AMERICAN GAME. 
 
 to defy the plague of flies, and rough it. At the Sault 
 St. Marie, the outlet of Lake Superior into Lake Huron, 
 where the St. Marie, a river above a mile wide, rushes in 
 a sheet of glancing and foaming rapids, doAvn a descent 
 of some twenty-four feet in about a mile, literally alive 
 with the most magnificent brook-trout, by far the largest, 
 in the general run, of any taken in America, the season 
 does not begin until very late, and the fishing is not con- 
 * sidered to be in its prime until September. The fish 
 here are of the finest quality, for size, beauty of color- 
 ing, and excellence of flesh. From two to three pound 
 may be considered, I think, as about the average run of 
 fish, but ^ve and six pounders are by no means rarities ; 
 and it is on record that one fish a little exceeding ten 
 pounds, and many exceeding nine, were brought into 
 the American fort by the Indians, a premium having 
 been ofi'ered for a ten-pounder. These, I wish it to be 
 particularly observed, are not lake trout of any variety 
 — several species of which are found in the same waters 
 — ^but the genuine red-spotted brook-trout, with pink 
 sides and silver belly, and tricolored fins, white, black, 
 and red, when in high season. It diflers in nothing, 
 except size and brilliancy of tints, both the result of 
 feeding and quality of water, from the famous Long 
 Island trout of Snedecor's and Carman's, or from the 
 small fry, scarcely bigger than minnows, which swarm 
 in every rocky basin of every mountain brooklet from 
 
THE BKOOK TROUT. 135 
 
 Maine, New Hampshire, and Yermont, to upland Penn- 
 sylvania. 
 
 The fishing at the Sault St. Marie is difiicult, because 
 it is practiced from that, to one unaccustomed to its use, 
 most ticklish of all vessels, a birch-bark canoe, poled by 
 an Indian up the foaming rapids, or guided down them, 
 and held steady from time to time in the most favorable 
 spots. Where, however, the angler is so well accustomed 
 to his conveyance as to be able to balance his body 
 without bracing it, and move his arms without danger 
 of upsetting the canoe, the sport is admirable, the scene 
 enchanting, and the fun vastly enhanced by the touch 
 of romance and possibility of danger, which, however, 
 with a good Indian at the pole or paddle, amounts to no 
 more at most than a possibility. The best rod to use in 
 this powerful and tumultuous torrent is a tolerably stiff 
 fourteen foot fly-rod ; the water is so much broken, that 
 tackle may be used which, from its coarseness, would be 
 quite out of the question in fine and clear waters ; and 
 the most killing flies are large and moderately gaudy 
 lake flies. Such as are used on the Irish lakes I prefer 
 to the very fancy-colored flies which are often used on 
 the Hamilton county waters, and the very best assort- 
 ment of these I have ever seen, were tied by my friend 
 " Dinks," of Canada West, who has proved them mur- 
 derous in that locale. ' 
 
 It must, of course, be evident, that in a paper limited 
 in length such as this, it is utterly impossible to go at 
 
136 AMERICAN GAME. 
 
 length into a subject so intricate and so full of details, 
 as the habits and nature of trout, their haunts, habita- 
 tions, and all the various devices for taking them which 
 have been invented by the ingenuity of man. 
 
 Of fresh water fish, they have been in all ages consid- 
 ered the best on the board ; and, as fish of game, none 
 excej^t others of their own family, such as the salmon, 
 the salmon-trout, the grayling, and one variety of the 
 lake-trout, are worthy of comparison to them; bold, 
 active, and fierce in pursuit of their prey, voracious in 
 their appetites, so cunning and quick-sighted that they 
 can be deceived only by the finest of tackle, and the 
 most exquisite imitations of the flies on which they feed 
 by preference ; so vigorous, determined and savage in 
 their resistance to the hook after being struck, that they 
 can be mastered only by a rare combination of science 
 and skill, of delicacy and firmness, of perseverance and 
 resources ; the capture of the brook-trout with the arti- 
 ficial fly and single gut, or single horse-hair, which must 
 be had recourse to where the streams are fine and the 
 fish shy, is the very ne jplus ultra^ and has ever been so 
 indisputably admitted, of the anglers' art. Tlie imple- 
 ments are a light twelve-foot rod, very pliable and 
 springy, and bending on a strain, in an even curve from 
 the second joint to the tip — I prefer a solid butt, which 
 gives more power in leverage and resistance against a 
 strong run-away fish, and the spare tips can be carried 
 in the handle of the landing-net, or gaft' — a good clich 
 
THE BEOOK TROUT. 1B7 
 
 reel, bj no means a multiplier, thirty lines of good hair, 
 or hair and silk line, with a casting line of the best gut, 
 about four and a half or five feet in length, and two or 
 three casts of flies, twisted round your hat, each having 
 a different fly for the dropper, to be changed, accordingly 
 as you find fish in the humor to rise. 
 
 My own favorites are the marlow buzz, better known 
 as the coch-a-bonddlue ; silver-horns, black and silver 
 twist hackle, the green and gray drakes, the yellow 
 Sally, the downhill fly, woodcock wing, and red hackle, 
 the grannon, or green tail, the blue and yellow dun flies, 
 and almost any of the spinners. I am also rather par- 
 tial to the buzz-dressed, unwinged hackle flies of almost 
 any color, with red, green, black or yellow bodies, which 
 may be varied with gold or silver twist. Any of these 
 I can recommend by experience as killing flies ; I should 
 not omit the small black midge, which on some waters, 
 and in some states of weather, is a most killing lure to 
 wary fish, being very small, and requiring delicate tackle. 
 "Where waters are much fished, and trout so much per- 
 secuted as to be very shy of rising, sport may sometimes 
 be had by fishing at twilight with a large white miller, 
 white hen's wing, white chevil body and black head, 
 and as the largest and laziest, and, of course, fattest fish 
 rarely pursue their prey in the day time, but are on the 
 feed all night, if any sport is to be had at all in this 
 manner, it is nearly certain to be good sport. 
 
 Large trout may be killed thus in the upper Delaware, 
 
138 AMERICAN GAME. 
 
 along tlie line of the Erie railroad, where the country 
 people will tell you that there are tio trout in the river, 
 though the small creeks are full of them. Tlie truth is 
 the fish in the river are very much fewer in number, but 
 as much superior in size and weight. They who, like 
 me, prefer to kill a one, two or three-pounder to ten 
 dozen fingerlings of four or five ounces each, are advised 
 to try the miller by dusk or by moonlight, and if there 
 be a big fellow about, h,e is pretty sure to be tempted. 
 
 Tlie trout does not, when feeding, travel or swim in 
 shoals ; he lies in wait in his own peculiar haunt, and 
 thence strikes at whatever he sees passing that tempts 
 his appetite. This haunt is generally in the neighbor- 
 hood of a stone or root, near the head or tail of a rapid, 
 in an eddy or swirl of the current, or in the broken wa- 
 ter caused by the division of a current above the head 
 of an island or shoal, and its reunion below it. Here 
 they lie with the head up stream, perfectly motionless, 
 not even wagging a tail or twinkling a fin, until their 
 object is in view, and then darting upon it with speed 
 that mocks the eye. They are insensible to sound, but 
 so quick of sight, and so wary that the mere shadow of 
 the rod projected across the water will prevent their 
 taking a fly, however hungry they may be, and how- 
 ever skillfully the lure may be presented. 
 
 It is better to fish down stream, away from the sun, 
 and across the wind, if possible ; but the three contin- 
 gencies are not always compatible. "When a trout is 
 
THE BROOK TEOIJT. 139 
 
 rising often, endeavor to drop your fly directly in the 
 centre of the circle where he bells np, and if it alights 
 lightly and gently on the water, he will pretty certainly 
 take it. If he takes it just as it strikes the water, or 
 just as it is leaving it, when you are withdrawing it for 
 another cast — ^that is, when your line is perfectly straight 
 and tight, he will hook himself; otherwise it is neces- 
 sary to strike him, which is done by a very slight inde- 
 scribable inward turn of the wrist ; when he is struck, 
 the great secret of playing and killing him is to make 
 him fight his hardest for every inch of line you give him, 
 never to give him one which he does not take, and to 
 miss no opportunity, when his run is over for the mo- 
 ment, and he is weakened, to reel in as fast as you may 
 without overstraining ; always endeavor to carry him 
 down stream, as the gills are so closed by the action of 
 the water, and his breathing is impeded. If he is mak- 
 ing for a stone or piles whereon your tackle would prob- 
 ably be broken, or down a fall, so that you must turn or 
 lose him, advance your butt, inclining your rod quite 
 backward over the right shoulder, so as to make him 
 take the full strain and leverage of the whole length of 
 your rod ; when he is dead beat, draw him warily and 
 gently into the shoal water, or to your boat side, slip 
 your landing-net under, or your gaff into him, and he 
 is yours. 
 
 If he be above two pounds weight, stun him with a 
 blow on the head, crossing by a series of cuts parallel to 
 
140 AMERICAN GAME. 
 
 the gills, at about two Indies apart from Kead to tail, 
 cool him for ten minutes in a very cold spring, or on ice, 
 boil liim in screeching hot salt and water, and eat him 
 with no condiment but salt and the squeeze of a lemon. 
 If he be under a pound, there is nothing for it but to 
 fry him, but remember to use neither butter nor lard, 
 which are abominations to the gnostic, but the best oil 
 of Aix, and see that the oil is seething and the pan crack- 
 ling hot before you put them in. Garnish with fried 
 parsley on a very hot dish ; and in whichever way you 
 cook them, eat them — whenever you can get them, that 
 is to say, between March and September — ^in the north- 
 west you may substitute for the last November ; on the 
 third of which month, last season, I discoursed sundry 
 in prime condition, at mine host Brown's, on the Sault 
 St. Marie ; and the taste is scarce out of my mouth yet. 
 I have tasted nothing like them since, or expect to do so 
 until next September, when, the wind and weather-gods 
 permitting, I hope to wet a line there, in the Fly-fisher's 
 *true Paradise. And may you have, whoever you be, 
 gentle reader, and wheresoever you throw the long line 
 and neat fly, such sport as I anticipate. . 
 
i, 
 
 iM,.r,. 
 
 ■I *', 
 
 m/m 
 
 J 
 
 Wi 
 
 '^^^^. 
 
 ,.«li:-' ■ 
 
 dJ 
 
 1' )■■! ' 
 
 .', i' 
 
 &A 
 
THE BEENT GOOSE. 
 
 THE BKANT. — Anas Bemicha, 
 
 This beautiful and delicious wild-fowl, like several of 
 its congenors wliicli breed within the limits of the Arctic 
 Circle, is common to both continents of Europe and 
 America, and is witli us in the northern Atlantic states 
 perhaps the most numerous, and certainly the most 
 esteemed, whether as an object of sport or an article of 
 food, of the varieties of this family, which are common 
 upon our coasts. .To the Canada Goose, or Wild-Goose, 
 as it is more usually termed. Anas Canadensis^ it is uni- 
 versally, and not undeservedly, preferred ; although, in 
 my opinion, the former is itself entitled to a far higher 
 place than is generally assigned to it among the water- 
 fowl of America. The Snow-Goose, Anas Hyperloreus^ 
 and the White-Fronted Goose, Anas Albifrons^ are so 
 rare that opportunities seldom occur of testing their com- 
 parative excellence. In England I once tasted the latter 
 fowl, and found it scarcely distinguishable from the Grey 
 Lag, or common Wild-Goose of Europe, Anas Anser^ 
 
142 A^IEKICAN GAME. 
 
 which in my opinion is inferior both to the Canada and the 
 Brent Goose ; and though I have heard the Snow-Goose 
 highly lauded for its delicacy and juiciness, I believe we 
 shall do no injustice to any in declaring the ^rsmU facile 
 et nidlo discrimine jprincejps. 
 
 It is worthy of remark that the habits of this bird are 
 greatly different in England and in this country, inasmuch 
 as there they are stated " to spend the winter months in 
 the rivers, lakes and marshes in the interior parts, feed- 
 ing materially upon the roots and also the blades of the 
 long, coarse grasses, and plants which grow in the wa- 
 ter." Here they are entirely marine birds, frequenting 
 the outer estuaries of the large rivers, the land-locked 
 lagoons or sea bays, which lie between our outer beaches 
 and the shores proper of the continent, for so many de- 
 grees of latitude along our Atlantic seaboard, and never, 
 so far as I know or have heard, entering our rivers proper, 
 or being killed in any fresh inland waters. So 
 strongly is this peculiarity marked in the Brent Goose, 
 that when they leave their feeding-grounds to the 
 northward, comj)elled by stress of climate in winter, for 
 lower latitudes, and again when they take their depart- 
 ure for the Arctic regions, impelled 
 
 creandse * 
 Prolis amore, gravique cupidine nidificandi, 
 
 * By the affection for the young which they are about to rear, and 
 the urgent desire of nidification. — Lucretius on Brent Geese. 
 
THE BRENT GOOSE. 143 
 
 "tliey collect," says Wilson, "in one lar^e body, and 
 making an extensive spiral course, some miles in diame- 
 ter, rise to a great height in the air, and then steer for 
 tlie sea, over which they uniformly travel ; often making 
 "wide circuits to avoid passing- over a projecting point of 
 land. In these aerial routes, they have been often met 
 with many leagues from shore, travelling the whole night. 
 Their line of march very much resembles that of the 
 Canada Goose, with this exception, that frequently three 
 or four are crowded together in front, as if striving for 
 precedency." 
 
 To such a length is this terror of the land passage car- 
 ried by the Brent Goose, that no doubt can be, I think, 
 reasonably entertained that, in order to avoid it, they 
 make the whole of their vast migration, to and fro, from 
 their breeding-places hither, and vice versa^ in direct con- 
 tradiction to the custom of their congenors, the Canada 
 Geese, which travel from point to point, in direct lines, 
 directed by an instinct certain as the compass, and travel- 
 ling the boundless wildernesses and vast inland waters 
 of the northern territories, and the cultivated regions 
 which intervene between those and their winter haunts 
 on the seashores of the Atlantic, with unrivaled speed 
 and unerring sagacity. A pretty certain proof of this is 
 to be found in the fact, that on the northern shores of 
 Lakes Huron and Superior, and in the small rice lakes 
 adjoining them, although abounding in their favorite 
 food, the eel-grass, and frequented in myriads of millions 
 
144 AMEEICAN GA]ME. 
 
 by the Canada Goose, on the breaking np of the ice in 
 spring, and again at the setting in of winter, the Brent 
 Goose is unknown both to the Indians and to the white 
 settlers ; nor are they known about the yet more north- 
 erly forts of the Hudson's Bay Company — short of the 
 Bay itself, where they abound — who regard the Canada 
 Goose as one of the principal, if not the chief article of 
 their subsist^ce. 
 
 The breeding place of the Brent Goose is very far to 
 the north, though not so far as that of the "Wild-Goose, 
 which is supposed, not without reason, to rear its young 
 and pass the brief days of summer of the- Arctic Circle 
 in the regions of the Pole itself, while the Brent has been 
 found on its nests in Labrador, to the northward of Hud- 
 son's Bay and in Boothia Felix. Here, fearless of the 
 ambushed gun, and the murderous battery, it revels dur- 
 ing a few short months. in those to it delightful solitudes, 
 occupied with the charms of love, and the cares of rear- 
 ing its young. It does not, however, tarry long in its 
 northern asylum, as it is usually looked for in the Long 
 Island waters, and at Barnegat, Egg Harbor, and other 
 shooting stations on the Jersey coast, early in October, 
 and has been seen so early as the 20th of September. Its 
 stay in these places is uncertain, depending very much on 
 the nature of the season, often remaining, if it be open 
 weather, during nearly the whole of the winter, while 
 on the contrary, if the bays are frozen early, it at once 
 towers aloft and takes its way southward. It seems, how- 
 
THE BRENT GOOSE. 145 
 
 ever, to come southward continually by successive partial 
 migrations, until the freezing of the feeding-grounds 
 compel it to march southwardly. 
 
 The food of the Brant is principally the eel-grass, Zo^^- 
 tera Marina, wherever that favorite dainty of all the 
 aquatic tribes is to be found in plenty, and a broad-leaved, 
 bright green marine plant, called by the country people 
 sea-cabbage, which adheres to the stones on most of our 
 beaches. After these it never dives — although it is 
 remarkable that when wing-tipped it is the most dexter- 
 ous of the family, often going a hundred yards or upward 
 under water, and being therefore regarded as almost 
 impossible to kill, if not shot dead outright. At low wa- 
 ter it wades about incessantly, tearing up its favorite 
 vegetables by the roots, but neglecting to eat them until 
 they are floated away with the rising tide, when it does 
 not take wing, as most wild-fowl, but floats away idly in 
 long lines with its companions, in pursuit of its now 
 floating dainty, and fares sumptuously on the proceeds 
 of its previous industry. They are not unpugnacious 
 birds, being often seen fighting among themselves, and 
 beating the ducks away from their feeding-grounds ; their 
 cry is a hoarse, gabbling, honking soimd, very different, 
 however, from the honk of the Wild-Goose, and by far 
 more difficult to imitate, and is said closely to resemble,^ 
 when several hundreds are screaming together, the cho- 
 rus of a pack of hounds in full cry. 
 
 On their return from the south, with renovated powers, 
 7 
 
146 AMERICAN GAME. 
 
 in full, lusty health, rejuvenated, and exulting in the ap- 
 proach of their summer love-making, they are in their 
 full perfection of plumage, and their utmost excellence 
 for the table. There is no Long Islander, and few Jer- 
 seymen, who are not fully awake to the preeminent merits 
 of a May Brant — for it is about the fifteenth of that 
 genial month, when they for the first time reappear 
 among us, the youth of the past year now in full adult 
 plumage, and not to be distinguished from the adults. 
 Tliey tarry, however, at this period but for a few days, 
 ere they are again up and off to the northward ; still so 
 eager are their pursuers at this season, that short as is 
 their stay the havoc made among them is yet not incon- 
 siderable. 
 
 At this season the Brant weighs about four pounds, 
 and measures two feet in lengtli from bill to tail, and 
 three feet six from tip to tip of the extended wings. Tlie 
 bill is black, rather high at the base, the nostril medial. 
 The head, and the whole length of the neck, with the 
 exception of a white oblong patch on either side of the 
 throat, rich velvety black ; front part of the breast cine- 
 rious brown, each feather broadly margined with grayish 
 white. The upper parts blackish brown, each featlier 
 margined with lighter brown ; sides gray, margined with 
 white ; abdomen and vent pure white ; quills and pri- 
 mary coverts dark blackish gray. Rump and middle 
 tail feathers black, rest of the tail grayish white. Irides 
 hazel ; legs dusky. The female is smaller than the male, 
 
THE BBENT GOOSE. 147 
 
 but not to be distinguished from it by any mark of the 
 plumage ; the young birds have the wing quill feathers 
 broadly tipped with white, w^hile in the old birds they 
 are purely black. 
 
 There is a variety of this line goose, pretty well known 
 on Long Island, the true name of which is Hutchins' 
 Goose, or Hutchins' Brant ; it is somewhat smaller, and 
 in lieu of the lateral white throat patches, has a white 
 gorget a good deal similar to that of the Canada Goose. 
 
 We now come to the modes of killing this delicious 
 bird, of which there are four ; three of them, Tne judioe^ 
 utterly unallowable, cockney and pot-hunter like, and the 
 fourth unhappily the least profitable to the gunner, 
 although the Brent Goose has one habit which may be 
 used to some advantage in this the only legitimate mode. 
 
 That mode is the scooping out a niche from the muddy 
 side of some island, or point of hassock, kussick, or thatch, 
 as it is called in the bays, and therein mooring a skifi", or 
 Egg Harbor boat, with its decks heaped with trash and 
 sea-weeds, the gunner lying on his back therein, with his 
 two heavy guns prepared for a passing flock, and hi?, 
 decoys scattered over the calm waters in front of him, 
 when i/ a flock chance to pass, and, observing the 
 anchored deceits, wheel down to them, he is secure at 
 once of sport, and of after excitement in pursuing and 
 picking up the cripples. 
 
 The disadvantages to this method are the following: 
 First, the Brant is on our waters a lazy, inactive bird, 
 
148 AMEEICAN GAME. 
 
 averse to rising on tlie wing, and rarely doing so unless 
 alarmed by a passing boat or the firing of a gun ; and 
 this tendency is increased in consequence of its feeding 
 afloat at high water, without taking the wing at all, 
 while the other varieties of wild-fowl, as point after point 
 is successively submerged, are compelled to take wing, 
 and cross the points of hassock, or run the gauntlet of 
 the islands in going to or returning from his favorite feed- 
 ing place. 
 
 Second, the known aversion of this bird to pass over 
 or near points or islands, which is no less manifest in its 
 transits up and down the bay, than in its longer voyages, 
 for it may be said that it never when on the wing ap- 
 proaches the gunner's ambush, or notices his decoys, 
 however temptingly they may ride and dip at anchor, 
 when near the land, unless they be jammed down by the 
 wind upon a leeward point, one of which is always se- 
 lected by the best gunners who have watched the direc- 
 tion of their morning transit, and who know how they 
 must return. This difficulty is but partially compensated 
 by the habit of the Brant of occasionally swimming in 
 among the stools, and so affording an easy and sure shot. 
 There is another fact, however, which, as I said above, 
 may be made directly subservient to this sport, and thus 
 it is — Brent Geese, while feeding, as they drift about at 
 high water, may be herded like so many sheep, and 
 caused to swim in any direction desired, and may be so 
 driven down upon the decoys, for which they are almost 
 
THE BRENT GOOSE. 149 
 
 sure to make, by rowing round and after them slowly, 
 taking especial pains not to press their motions or crowd 
 upon them so as to compel them to take wing, when of 
 course, all would be over. The confederate of the gun- 
 ner should therefore be wary and watchful, as well as 
 skillful with the oar, and whenever he observes the fowl 
 he is driving, hurrying and getting anxious, and pressing 
 into one compact body, he must lie on his paddles en- 
 tirely, until he sees his game resume their feeding or 
 play, when he may again take the initiative. This, 
 well done, is sure to produce good sport, time, tide, 
 weather and good luck agreeing, without which, neither 
 in Love, War, or Brant Shooting can success be looked 
 for. 
 
 Let me commend this method to my friend, the true 
 and honorable sportsman, who would rather return home 
 at night weary and cold, and with an empty bag or boat, 
 than come loaded to his gunwale with booty obtained by 
 any indirections, such as those which I shall be forced 
 to name hereafter, though with maledictions on the 
 inventors, and disgustful contempt for the practicers of 
 them, as methods of Brant-murdering. 
 
 Let me remind the sportsman that this kind of shoot- 
 ing is practiced in very cold weather, in a motionless and 
 cramped attitude, and depriving him of the chance of 
 warming his limbs with exercise. He must, therefore, be 
 well and warmly clad, or he shall not be able to shoot 
 
160 AMERICAN GAME. 
 
 tolerably, mucli less to enjoy himself or win renown, let 
 the flocl^s fly as full and frequent as they will. 
 
 The following dress I have found the best — ^those may 
 sneer who will, but I think, and they will find, when 
 their fortieth year brings crippling rheumatism, that it is 
 wisdom at all times to be as comfortable as one may, and 
 that it is no mark of manhood, but rather of very con- 
 temptible folly, to lie cold and shivering, for the want of 
 a few precautions which may be easily taken, and will 
 make you as much at your ease as may be, in a Dela- 
 ware skijff or Egg-Harbor pig-box. 
 
 First, over your ordinary under-clothes wear a stout 
 pair of Canada-gray cloth trousers ; over these a pair of 
 long worsted stockings, and over these again long pliable 
 Canadian boots. A red flannel shirt, and above that a 
 guernsey, with what waistcoat and shooting-jacket you 
 will, and over all an oil-skin coat, as near as may be of 
 the drab color of the sedge and hassock ; on your head a 
 woolen night-cap, and above it a gray tow hat ; and — 
 though your rig may terrify into convulsions a young 
 New Yorker^ with ends to his white choker longer than 
 the yard-arms of a first-rate — take my word for it, it will 
 not scare Brant, Goose, or Eed-Head from your stools, 
 and it will keep you, with the aid of a modicum of 
 cogniac, Jamaica, or Ferintosh, as your taste may incline, 
 cozy and good-natured, while your friend, who is too 
 manly to take counsel, is as cold and as cross as whatever 
 is most frigid and most fiendish. 
 
THE BKENT GOOSE. 161 
 
 I recommend — for reasons wlij, too long here to set 
 forward, — see my Field Sports, vol. 11., p. 119 — the use of 
 two single guns of 16 lbs. weight, 42 inch barrels and 5 
 guage, in preference to any double-barrel guns on earth 
 for thii^ shooting. They should be made without ribs, 
 pipes or ramrods — a loose loading-rod, which is a clean- 
 ing-rod also, lying in the boat when in use, being adopted 
 as a substitute. Tliis should be made with a joint at ex- 
 actly the length of the gun-barrel, so that it can be car- 
 ried within it when travelling ; the upper joint about 6 
 inches in length, screwing into the other, and fitted with 
 a knot at the top, like a pistol-charger, may be carried in 
 the pocket when in locomotion. Such a gun will carry 
 4 oz. of BB, or twenty-five buck-shot, without j ar or recoil ; 
 use equal measures of shot and Curtis and Harvey's duck- 
 ing powder, to be procured of Brough, Fulton-street, 
 New York — and coarse felt pimched wadding, and you 
 will do your work at eighty, ay, by 'r lady ! or one hun- 
 dred yards, and you will not repent you of following my 
 counsel. 
 
 The murderous modes, which I have so strongly repro- 
 bated, and to which I shall devote but a few words, are, 
 first, the anchoring batteries, as they are called, shallow 
 coffin-like boxes, supported by wide horizontal brims 
 lying level on the surface of the water, covered with 
 sand and shells, and exactly resembling a bit of bare shoal, 
 upon the shallows whereon the fowl feed. Decoys are 
 placed around, and an attendant waits in a skiif to secure 
 
152 AMERICAIT GAME. 
 
 the cripples and drive up fresh flocks, while the gunner 
 lies perdu literally under water, until he starts up to do 
 bloody execution. 
 
 The evil of this method, (of the other two, which I 
 shall barely name, as they are far less practiced, one, I 
 believe, only at one point,) is, that fowl, when constantly 
 harassed and disturbed on their favorite grounds, while 
 in the act of feeding, will rise high into the air 
 and desert the places in which they are so wantonly 
 tormented forever; whereas they may be peppered at 
 day by day for years, and decimated as they fly to and 
 fro without connecting the idea of the persecution with 
 the feeding grounds, and without increasing in shyness or 
 decreasing in numbers. 
 
 The second unsportsmanly and slaughterous plan is 
 running down upon them before the wind under sail, 
 while on their feeding grounds, which is easily done, as 
 the fowl appear wholly unable to distinguish the rate of 
 a sail-boat, and let it run closely in upon them before 
 they will take wing. The havoc thus made is prodigious ; 
 the consequences as above, the permanent and entire de- 
 sertion of the spots where such brutalities are practiced. 
 The last is akin to these. It is a necessity to the Brant 
 to sand and dust themselves occasionally, and probably 
 to obtain small gravel-stones to aid their digestion, and 
 they have regular sanding places, as they are termed, to 
 which they punctually and constantly resort. This habit 
 observed, the pot-hunter digs his hole in the sand-hill, 
 
THE BEENT GOOSE. 153 
 
 watches his time, and counts his slaughter bj flocks, at 
 shots. Like the owner of the • goose with the golden 
 eggs, he will find too late that he has killed his people as 
 l!^ero wished to do, at a single blow. Legislation has 
 been tried, against all these three cowardly iniquities, 
 and of course tried in vain. It rests to see what incul- 
 cating a spirit of sportsmanship, may do ; but I am little 
 sanguine, seeing that true sportsmanship, like the game 
 it fain would, but cannot, protect, decreases year by 
 year — many of those who boast themselves sportsmen, 
 and here an I would I could name names, doing deeds 
 the foullest pot-hunter would shrink from, and holding 
 themselves as high as ever in their own esteem, though 
 lower than the lowest in the judgment of the judicious. 
 
 Be this, however, as it may be, the only hope is in the 
 efforts of the honorable sportsman, and so let him hope- 
 ful ever of the best, hold the helm steady, steer on 
 through squall or hurricane, and never — whatever be- 
 tide — never give up the ship ! 
 
 7* 
 
VL 
 
 JUNE. 
 
 C^e Ecir-ktasteir Snip* 
 
 Scolopax Noveloracensis. 
 
 KOBm SNIPE, QUAIL SNIPE, DOAYITCITEE. 
 THE HUDSONIAN GODWIT. 
 
 Zimosa Hudaonica. 
 
 KIKG-TAILED MAELIK 
 
 NORTH AMERICA; LABRADOR TO THE GULF. 
 
 Sahno Salar. 
 LABRADOR; BRITISH PROVINCES; STATE OF MAINE. 
 

 
THE SNIPE. 
 
 THE HUDsoNiAN GODwiT. — Limosob Hfudsonica, 
 
 VulgO. RING-TAILED MABLIN. 
 
 THE BED-BREASTED SNIPE. — Scolopax Wovebovacensis, 
 
 VulgO. ROBIN-BREAST, QUAIL SNIPE, DOWITCHER. 
 
 Under the general, and very incorrect appellation of 
 Bay Snipe, and sometimes of Plover, the sea-shore gun- 
 ners, and city fowlers who accompany them for pleasure, 
 are wont to include many totally distinct and different 
 families of waders, each containing several varieties, and 
 all, though in some sort connected, entirely dissimilar in 
 characteristics, plumage, cry and flight, as well as in 
 some peculiarities of habit. 
 
 Of these families, the most remarkable are the Curlew, 
 numenius; the Godwit, limosa ; the Sandpiper, tringa / 
 the Tattler, totanus ; the Plover, charadrius / the Snipe, 
 scolopax ; the Turnstone, st/rejpsilas ; the Sanderling, cor 
 Udris ; the Avoset, recv/rvvrosta ; and the Stilt, himantch 
 pus ; all of which at some period of the year are visiters 
 or temporary inhabitants of some portion of the Atlantic 
 
158 AMERICAN GAME. 
 
 shores of North America, from the Bay of Boston to the 
 Balize. 
 
 In the tepid waters of Florida, the great bay of Mobile, 
 the sea lakes of Borgne and Pontchartrain, and all along 
 the mnddy shoals and alluvial flats of the lower Missis- 
 sippi, these aquatic races dwell in myriads during the 
 winter months, when the ice is thick even in the sea 
 bays of the Delaware and Chesapeake, and when all the 
 gushing streams and vocal rivulets of the l^orthern and 
 Middle States, are bound in frozen silence. In the 
 spring, according to the temperature of the season, from 
 the middle of April until the end of May, these migra- 
 tory tribes begin to visit us of the northern shores, from 
 the Capes of the Chesapeake, along all the river estua • 
 ries, sea bars, lagoons, and land-locked bays, as they are 
 incorrectly termed, of Maryland and Delaware, the Jer- 
 sey shores and the Long Island waters, so far as to 
 Boston Bay, beyond which the iron-bound and rugged 
 nature of the coast deters them from adventuring, in the 
 great flights with which they infest our more succulent 
 alluvial shores and sea marshes. 
 
 With the end of May, with the exception only of a few 
 loitering stragglers, wounded, perhaps, or wing-worn, 
 which linger after the departure of their brethren, they 
 have all departed, steering their way, unseen, at immense 
 altitudes, through the trackless air, across the mighty 
 contin^t, across the vast lakes of the north, across the 
 unreclaimed and almost unknown hunting-grounds of 
 
THE SNIPE. 150. 
 
 the red man, to those remote and nearly inaccessible 
 morasses of the Arctic Regions whither the foot of man 
 has rarely penetrated, and where the silence of ages is 
 interrupted only by the roll of the ocean surf, the thun- 
 derous crash of some falling iceberg, and the continuous 
 clangor of tlie myriads and millions of aquatic fowl, 
 which pass the period of reproduction in those lone and 
 gloomy, but to them secure and delightful asylums. 
 Early in the autumn, or, to speak more correctly, in the 
 latter days of summer, the Bay birds begin to return in 
 hordes innumerable, recruited by the young of the sea- 
 son, which, not having as yet indued the full plumage 
 of their respective tribes, are often mistaken by sports- 
 men and gunners, unacquainted with the distinctions of 
 natural history, for new species. During the autumn, 
 they are much more settled and less restless in their 
 habits than during the spring visit, when they are im- 
 pelled northward by the irresistible cestomm, which at 
 that period stimulates all the migratory birds, even those 
 reared in confinement and caged from the nest, to get 
 under way and travel, whither their wondrous instinct 
 orders them, in order to the reproduction of their kind 
 in the localities most genial and secure. 
 
 Throughout the months of August and September, 
 they literally swarm on all our sand-bars, salt meadows, 
 and wild sea-marshes, feeding on the beaches and about 
 the shallow pools left by the retiring tide, on the marine 
 animalculse, worms, aquatic insects, small crabs, minute 
 
160 AMERICAN GAISIE. 
 
 shell-fisli, and fry ; after this time, commencing from the 
 beginning of October, they move southward for winter 
 quarters, although some species tarry later than others, 
 and some loitering individuals of all the species linger 
 behind imtil they have assumed their winter garniture, 
 when they are again liable to be mistaken for unknown 
 varieties. 
 
 Of these misnamed Bay Snipe, the following are the 
 species of each family most prized by the sportsman and 
 the epicure, all of which are eagerly pursued by the 
 gunner, finding a ready sale at all times, although, 7ne 
 judice. their flesh is, for the most part, so oily, rank and 
 sedgy, that they are rather nauseous than delicate or 
 palatable. Much, however, depends on the state of 
 their condition, the nature of the food on which they 
 have fattened, and localities in which they feed ; and 
 to some persons the very flavor of which I complain 
 as rank, sedgy and fishy, appears to take the guise of an 
 agreeable haut gout. 
 
 Tlie Red-breasted Sandpiper, Tringa Icelandica^ 
 known on the Long Island waters, among the small 
 islets of which it is very abundant, as the " Robin 
 Snipe," by which name it is generally called, owing to 
 the resemblance of its lower plumage to that of the Red- 
 breasted Thrush, or Robin, Turdios rrhigratorms^ of this 
 continent. In autumn this bird assumes a dusky gray 
 upper, and white under plumage, and is then termed 
 the " White Robin Snipe." In point of flesh it is one of 
 
THE SNIPE. 161 
 
 the best of the Shore-birds. It is easily called down to 
 the decoys by a well simulated whistle, and is conse- 
 quently killed in great numbers. 
 
 Tlie Ked-backed Sandpiper, Tringa Alpina, generally 
 known as the " Black-breasted Plover." It is a restless, 
 active and nimble bird, flies in dense bodies, whirling at 
 a given signal ; and at such times a single shot will fre- 
 quently bring down many birds. In October it is usually 
 very fat, and is considered excellent eating. In its 
 autumnal plumage it is generally known to fowlers as 
 the "Winter Snipe." 
 
 The Pectoral Sandpiper, Tringa pectm^alis. This is a 
 much smaller, but really delicious species, particularly 
 when killed on the upland meadow's, which it frequents 
 late in the spring and early in the summer, and on which 
 I have killed it lying well to the dog, which will point 
 it, while spring snipe-shooting. On Long Island it is 
 known as the " Meadow Snipe," or " Short ISTeck ;" on 
 the Jersey shores, about Egg Harbor, where it sometimes 
 lingers until the early part of ISTovember, it is called the 
 " Fat Bird," a title which it well merits ; and in Penn- 
 sylvania, where it occurs frequently, is often termed the 
 " Jack Snipe." It is these blunders in nomenclature, 
 and multiplication of local misnomers, which render all 
 distinctions of sportsmanship so almost incomprehensible 
 to the inhabitants of distant districts, and so perplexing 
 to the youthful naturalist. During the autumn of 1849 
 I killed the Pectoral Sandpiper in great numbers, to- 
 
162 AMERICAN GAME. 
 
 gether with the American Golden Plover, Charadrkcs 
 Marmoratus^ and the Black-bellied Plover, Charadrius 
 Helveticus^ on the marshes of the A%ix Canards river, 
 near Amherstberg, in Canada West, in the month of 
 September, and a month later at Montgomery's Pool, 
 between lakes Sincoe and Hm-on. 
 
 Of the Tattlers, three only are in repnte as shore-birds, 
 the best of the species, the Bartramian Tattler, Totanus 
 JBart/ramius^ better known as the " Upland Plover," 
 which is, in fact, with scarcely an exception, the most 
 delicious of all our game-birds, being a purely upland 
 and inland variety, and as such never, or but extremely 
 seldom, shot on the coast. 
 
 These three are, ' ' 
 
 The Yellow-shanks Tattler, Totanus Flavipes^ vulgo, 
 " the lesser yellow legs" — a bird, in my opinion, of very 
 indifferent qualifications for the table, but easily decoyed, 
 and readily answering the fowler's whistle, and there- 
 fore affording considerable sport. 
 
 The Telltale Tattler, Totanus Yociferus^ vulgo, " great- 
 er yellow legs," a less numerous species than the former, 
 and more suspicious. Its flesh, when it feeds on the 
 spawn of tlie king-crab, or " Horse-shoe," is all but un- 
 eatable, but later in the season it is in better condition, 
 and is esteemed good eating. A few are said to breed in 
 New Jersey. In the neighborhood of Philadelphia, where 
 these birds are shot in great numbers on the mud-flats 
 of the Delaware from skiffs, with carefully concealed 
 
THE SNIPE. 16S 
 
 gunners, stealthily paddled down upon them till within 
 close shooting distances, these birds are termed "Plo- 
 vers," and the pursuit of them plover-shooting ; of course 
 wrongfully. 
 
 The last of this family is the Semipalmated Tattler, 
 Totanus Semipalmatics, universally known as the " Wil- 
 let," from its harsh and shrill cry, constantly repeated 
 during the breeding season, the last note of which is 
 thought to bear some resemblance to that sound. It is a 
 swift, rapid and easy flyer, and though rather shy when 
 in exposed situations, can be allured to the deco^^s. 
 When in good order the flesh of the Willet is very pal- 
 atable, although not so greatly esteemed as its eggs, 
 which really are delicious. 
 
 Next to these come the Godwits, two in number, 
 known by the unmeaning title of Marlin. 
 
 The great Marbled Godwit, Limosa Fedoa, the " Mar- 
 lin." This bird, though not very abundant, is a regular 
 visitant of the seashores and bays in the spring and au- 
 tumn. It is very watchful, and will pennit of no near 
 approach, unless some of its fellows are killed or wound- 
 ed, when it will hover over the cripple, with loud, shrill 
 cries, affording an easy opportunity of getting several 
 bairels in succession into the flock. 
 
 And the Hudsonian Godwit, Limosa Hudsonica, or 
 the " King-tailed Marlin," is a still rarer and smaller 
 variety than the last, of very similar habits and of equal 
 excellence in flesh. It is far more common in the Mid- 
 
164: AMERICAN GAME. 
 
 die States than in the Eastern districts, and is abundant 
 in the wild and barren lands far to the northward. I 
 have seen it shot, likewise, on the swamps of the Aui% 
 Canards, to which I have already referred. This is the 
 larger of the three birds, lying uppermost, in the group, 
 at the head of this article ; it was sketched from a fine 
 specimen shot on the Delaware in the month of May. 
 It is thus described by Giraud in his excellent work on 
 the Birds of Long Island : 
 
 " Bill, blackish brown, at base of lower mandible yel- 
 low ; upper parts light-brown, marked with dull-brown, 
 and a few small, white spots ; neck all round brownish- 
 gi-ay ; lower parts white, largely marked with ferrugi- 
 nous ; basal part of tail-feathers and a band crossing the 
 rump, white. Adult with the bill slender, blackish- 
 brown toward the tip, lighter at the base, particularly at 
 the base of the lower mandible ; a line of brownish- white 
 from the bill • to the eye ; lower eyelid white. Throat 
 white, spotted with rust color ; head and neck brownish- 
 gray ; lower parts white, marked with large spots of 
 ferruginous ; under tail-coverts barred with brownish- 
 black and ferruginous ; tail brownish-black cast, a white 
 band at the base ; a band over the rump ; tips of primary 
 coverts and basis of quills white; upper tail-coverts 
 brownish-black, their basis white ; upper parts grayish- 
 brown, scapulars marked with darker spots ; feet bluish. 
 Length fifteen inches and a half, wing eight and a half. 
 
 Among the various families of birds, which are all 
 
THE SNIPE. 165 
 
 known, as I have stated, by the general title of Bay 
 Snipe, there is but one Snipe proper, and that is one of 
 the most numerous, and perhaps the most excellent of 
 the tribes. 
 
 The Red-breasted Snipe, Seolopax JSfoveboracensis — ■ 
 the ^ " Dowitcher," the " Quail Snipe," the " Brown 
 Back." 
 
 A brace of these excellent and beautiful birds are 
 depicted as thrown carelessly on the ground, under the 
 neck of the Ring-tailed Marlin in the preceding sketch. 
 
 This bird has the bill of the true snipe, Scolopax Ame- 
 ricanus, excepting only that the knob at the tip of the 
 upper mandible of the bill is less distinctly marked. The 
 spring plumage of this bird, in which it is depicted 
 above, is on the upper parts brownish-black, variegated 
 with clove-brown, and light reddish-brown, the .second- 
 aries and wing-coverts tipped and edged with white. 
 Lower parts bright orange colored ferruginous, spotted 
 with dusky, arrow-headed spots. The abdomen paler; 
 The tail-feathers and upper-tail coverts alternately bar- 
 red with black and white ; the legs and feet dull yellow- 
 ish green. 
 
 " At the close of April," says Mr. Giraud, " the Red- 
 breasted Snipe arrive on the coasts of Long Island. In- 
 vited by a bountiful supply of food, at the reflux of the 
 tide, it resorts to the mud-flats and shoals to partake of 
 the rich supply of shell-fish and insects which nature in 
 her plenitude has provided for it. As the tide advances, 
 
166 AMEKICA2T GAME. 
 
 it retires to tlie bog meadows, where it is seen probing 
 the soft ground for worms. In the spring it remains 
 with us but a short time. Soon after recruiting it obeys 
 the unerring call of nature, and steers for the north, 
 where it passes the season of reproduction. About the 
 middle of July it returns with its young, and continues 
 its visit during September, and if the season be open, 
 lingers about its favorite feeding grounds until the last 
 of the month." 
 
 The specimens from which the above sketch is taken, 
 were procured on the Delaware so late as the latter part 
 of May ; but it must be remembered that this spring, 
 1850, was unusually late and backward. 
 
 This snipe associates in large flocks, is very easily 
 whistled, flies in dense and compact bodies over the de- 
 coys, and is so gentle that, after half the flock has been 
 cut down by the volleys of the lurking gunner, the re- 
 mainder will frequently alight, and walk about demurely 
 among their dead companions and the illusive decoys, 
 until the pieces are reloaded, and the survivors deci- 
 mated by a fresh discharge. 
 
 Even when feeding on the open mud-flats, the Ked- 
 breasted Snipe is so tanie as to allow itself to be ap- 
 proached by the sportsman, with little or no address, run- 
 ning about and feeding perfectly unsuspicious, until its 
 enemy has come within short range, when it springs 
 with its tremulous cry only to be riddled with the shot 
 of the close discharge. 
 
THE SNIPE. 167 
 
 The other of these birds worthy of the most attention 
 are, 
 
 Tlie Sanderling, Calidris Arenaria, which, though 
 very small, is fat and excellent. 
 
 The Black-bellied Plover, Charadrius Selveticus, 
 " Bull-headed," or " Beetle-headed Plover," a shy bird, 
 but frequently whistled within gunshot. On the coast 
 it is apt to be fishy, but when shot inland, and on upland 
 pastures, of superior quality. 
 
 The American Golden Plover, Charadrius Marmora- 
 tus, "the Frost bird;" a very beautiful species and of 
 rare excellence when killed on the upland, where it is 
 found more frequently and more abundantly than on the 
 shore. 
 
 Tlie Long-billed Curlew, numenius Longirostris, 
 "Sickle-bill," a large, coarse-flavored bird, easily de- 
 coyed. 
 
 The Hudsonian Curlew, numenius Hudsonicus^ " Short- 
 billed Curlew,^' or " Jack Curlew." Similar to the lat- 
 ter in all respects, although smaller in size. 
 
 And last, the Esquimaux Curlew, numenius Boreahs^ 
 " the Futes," the " Doe Bird." This bird feeds princi- 
 pally on the uplands, in company with the golden 
 plovers, and on the same food, mdelicit^ grasshoppers, 
 insects, seeds, worms, and berries. Its flesh is delicate 
 and high flavored. It breeds far to the north and win- 
 ters far to the south of the United States, residing with 
 lis from early in August until late in November. 
 
/ 
 
 168 AMEEICAN GAME. 
 
 "With this bird, although there are numerous other 
 smaller species, the list of these tribes may be held 
 complete. 
 
 From the commencement of the present month until 
 late in the autumn, anywhere along the coasts and bays 
 of the iJ^orthern and Middle States a bag may readily be 
 filled to overflowing with these varieties by the aid of 
 good decoys and skillful whistling, or of a skiff paddled 
 by a cunning fowler ; a gun of 8 to 10 pounds weight, of 
 12 guage, with two oz. of No. 5 shot, and an equal 
 measure of powder, will do the work. But when the 
 work is done, comparatively the game is worthless, and 
 the sport, as compared with upland shooting, scarcely 
 worth the having. 
 
THE SALMON. 
 
 Salmo Solar. 
 
 This glorious fellow, who is admitted on all hands to 
 be the very king of fishes, as regards personal beauty, 
 strength, agility, and speed, as regards excellence upon 
 the table, and as regards the sport he gives to the vigor- 
 ous and skillful angler, is in this month in his prime of 
 health, vigor, and perfection, in all those waters of the 
 United States and British Provinces, wherein he still 
 exists. Within the limits of the former, on the Eastern 
 or Atlantic side of the continent, those waters are 
 confined to a few of the noble and limpid rivers in the 
 State of Maine from the Kennebec, eastward, and to one 
 or two large streams of E'orthern l^ew York emptying 
 into the St. Lawrence. Li the British Provinces of IS'ew 
 Brunswick and Canada East, all the waters, whether 
 emptying into the Bay of Fundy or the Gulf of St. 
 Lawrence, are literally alive with this noble predatory 
 fish, to such an extent that an accomplished fly-fisher, 
 temporarily resident in the first-named province, " offer- 
 ed in 1850 to back himself, for any reasonable amount 
 8 
 
.170 AMERICAN GAME. 
 
 of bet, to kill with liis own hand, three hundred salmon 
 in that river" — the E'episiguit discharging its waters 
 into Bathurst Harbor — " during the month of July next 
 ensuing." I quote from a letter of my friend Mr. Perley, 
 the able and enterprising author of the " Sea and River 
 Fisheries of JS^ew Brunswick," who adds, on his own 
 account, " and with any reasonable luck as to weather, 
 would readily win his bet. He took last season, before 
 breakfast one day seventeen salmon ; and I have heard 
 of thirty being taken in a day by indifferent fishers." 
 
 Think of this, ye ambitious spirits, who casting deftly 
 the long line and the winged deceit, pride yourselves on 
 basketing your dozen or two of half-pound trout at 
 ISnedecor's or Carman's on the south side ! Think of 
 this — thirty salmon in a day with the fly, and that by 
 indifferent fishers ! Of a truth, the Xepisiguit, the Ris- 
 tigouche, and the Miramichi, must be the paradise ter- 
 restrial, or aquatic rather, of the fly-fisher ; nor is it so 
 hard a region of attainment, for from Boston the good 
 steamer Admiral plies weekly to the city of St. John, 
 and thence, on application to the good sportsman whose 
 name I have recorded above, the pilgrim in pursuit of 
 piscatorial glory, shall be right easily, and with a good 
 will, forwarded upon his way. 
 
 But to return from this brief though not impertinent 
 digression, although the salmon is so well known to all 
 the dwellers of cities on the Atlantic coast as to require 
 no description, yet for the benefit of inland sportsmen, 
 
THE 8AJJM.ON. lYl 
 
 and those especially, who, residing on the Susquehanna 
 and the southern rivers generally, fancy that they possess 
 the salmon, in the glass-eye, or pike-perch, I shall 
 proceed to insert a brief description of this beautiful 
 glory of the rivers of all northern latitudes, alike on the 
 Atlantic and Pacific oceans, and on the northern seas of 
 Europe. 
 
 The salmon, fresh run from the sea, on his first 
 entrance into the estuaries of the fresh rivers, up which 
 he runs to deposit his spawn — of which more anon — is 
 perhaps the most perfect in shape of all animals, and the 
 most exquisite model of marine architecture in existence. 
 
 The proportions of one in perfect condition, and a 
 large fish, are thus given by Sir Humphrey Davy, him- 
 self an eminent and eager fly-fisEer, as well as a great 
 naturalist and philosopher — the length 38 J inches — the 
 circumference 21 inches, and the weight 22 lbs. 
 
 The head is small and sharpened, the body thence 
 increasing gradually to about two-fifths of its length, at 
 which point its girth is the greatest, with lines as shapely 
 and a curvature as evenly and gracefully swelling as 
 those of the entrance of the fieetest ship , that ever 
 walked the waters. Thence aftward, like the run of the 
 same vessel, it tapers far more rapidly and sharply, the 
 narrowest point being af four-fifths of its whole length, 
 beyond which its broad, flat, deeply forked tail, the 
 rudder at once and propeller of this wonderful animated 
 machine, expands to a width all but equal to that of the 
 
172 AMERICAN GAME. 
 
 broadest portion of the body. The consequence of this 
 exquisitely beautiful conformation is a combination of 
 vigor, swiftness, and power of resistance to the element 
 in which it exists equal to that of any known animal. 
 Tlie dart of the salmon in pursuit of its prey, or its 
 arrowy rush, on feeling the sting of the barbed hook, is 
 comparable to nothing but the velocity of the swallow 
 in the air. He runs up any rapids, it matters not how 
 swift, or steep, or strong, of the mightiest rivers, with 
 scarce an effort ; he leaps all obstacles, whether of mill- 
 dams or natural water-falls, not exceeding thirteen feet 
 in perpendicular height, as easily as a trained hunter 
 tops a quickset hedge ; and, whiat is perhaps the most 
 astonishing proof of his wonderful muscular strength, 
 he can retain his station, head on in the teeth of a cur- 
 rent, against which the strongest swimmer would not 
 presume to struggle, motionless for many minutes 
 together, at the end of which a slight and scarcely per- 
 ceptible sweep of the powerful tail gives him, without 
 sending him forward, the power of retaining his position, 
 as before, for a similar interval of time. 
 
 When fresh from the sea, the upper part of his head, 
 and all his body above the lateral line, are of a deep 
 cerulean blue, almost black along the ridge, and mellow- 
 ing downward into lustrous, pearly azure on the sides, 
 tjie lower parts and belly glitter like burnished silver, 
 and the whole fish appears, when newly taken from the 
 water, to be cased in such silver and enameled mail, as 
 
THE SALMON. 173 
 
 we read of as worn by the tragic heroines of Tasso's or 
 Ariosto's poetry. 
 
 A few irregular black spots scattered along the back 
 and upper regions of his sides seem to set off by the 
 contrast the brilliancy of his general coloring. 
 
 The structural peculiarities of the salmon, by which 
 he is distinguished from all other families, are his sharp, 
 strong, hooked teeth, and the number and formation of 
 his fins. These latter are in number seven, exclusive of 
 the tail — two dorsals, on the ridge of the back, the 
 posterior of the two being a mere fatty appendage ; two 
 pectorals, immediately behind the gills ; two ventrals on 
 the sides of the belly about midway the length of the 
 fish ; and one anal, midway between the ventrals and 
 the under origin of the tail. The peculiarity in their 
 formation is that they are all supported by soft-branched 
 rays^ as they are called, in opposition to the sharp and 
 thorny spines, which are found more or less numerous in 
 the dorsals, ventrals, and anals of many other families 
 of fish — as the perch, the bass, and others, one of which 
 is the fish known as the Ohio or Susquehanna salmon, 
 but correctly named the pike-perch, or yellow sandre. 
 
 By the number and quality of his fins, therefore, the 
 salmon family may be readily distinguished from all 
 others ; no other family having the hinder fatty dorsal 
 fin. 
 
 By the number of rays in the several fins, the true 
 salmon, or sea salmon, may be known from the others 
 
m 
 
 AMEEICAN GAME. 
 
 of his familj, as the sahnon-trout, or sea-trout, the 
 spotted, or brook-trout, the several varieties of lake-trout 
 peculiar to the great inland waters of this country, and 
 the many other more distantly connected species which 
 it is unnecessary here to enumerate, though it may be 
 well to state that the White fish of the lakes, the Otsego 
 bass, the smelt, and the capelinn, are all of this family. 
 
 These fin rays in the true salmon are as follows : in 
 the first dorsal, 15 — second dorsal, — pectorals, each. 
 14 — ventrals, each, 10 — anal, 13 — caudal fin, or tail, 21. 
 
 I have been more particular in dwelling on these par- 
 ticulars, because I am well aware that there are many 
 good sportsmen throughout the country in the habit of 
 miscalling many fishes, from ignorance of the true dis 
 tinctive marks, who will gladly receive information 
 which, as a general rule, can only be obtained from 
 costly scientific works, out of the reach of the mass of 
 men, and entirely unattainable in remote inland districts. 
 A little attention to these distinctions would soon put an 
 end to all the confusion now arising from the application 
 of the same names to entirely difierent fishes in different 
 sections of the country ; even as a little attention to the 
 habits and seasons of the finny, no less than of the 
 feathery and fur-clad tribes, would tend at least to pre- 
 vent their indiscriminate and cruel destruction at seasons 
 when they are busy in the work of reproduction, and 
 when, as it would seem by a special dispensation of 
 Providence, they are unfit for the food of man. 
 
THE SALMON. 175 
 
 The salmon, properly speaking, is neither a salt-water 
 nor a fresh-water fish ; a change from one to the other, 
 at different seasons of the year, being in his natural 
 state necessary to his existence, and in any state to his 
 greatest perfection. The salt water and the food which 
 they therein obtain, the spawn, namely, and eggs of 
 crabs, and other crustaceous fishes, are necessary to him 
 for the recruiting and reinvigorating his system after the 
 exhaastion consequent on spawning ; and to these he is 
 supposed to owe his great and rapid growth, the deep 
 ruddy color, and the exquisite flavor of his flesh. 
 
 The fresh water of clear, cold spring-fed rivers is 
 necessary to him for the reproduction of his species, as 
 it is now a proved and recognized fact, that the spawn, 
 or^ggs, of the salmon cannot be hatched or brought to 
 life except in the highly aerated waters of clear, quick- 
 running, shallow, fresh streams. 
 
 If the upper parts of all tlie rivers in the world could 
 be closed against the salmon, as in most of our own 
 rivers they are by dams and weirs, the salmon would 
 cease to exist at all, as they have ceased to exist in those 
 rivers whence they are now excluded, but wherein they 
 once abounded, as the Delaware, the Hudson, and the 
 Connecticut, and thousands of others, even to the outlets 
 of the small lakes of central New York, where they 
 were once common. 
 
 In July the salmon begin freely to enter the estuaries 
 of the breeding rivers, and after remaining for some 
 
176 AMERICAN GAME. 
 
 weeks about the point where the tide turns, and salt and 
 fresh water alternates, as if to acclimate themselves to 
 the -change of temperature, proceed up to the very head- 
 waters of the streams they frequent, and there, in the 
 gravelly bottoms of the shallow rivulets, deposit their 
 eggs, to be matured and ripened by the effects of the air 
 and sunshine. Thence they descend to the sea again, to 
 recover health and vigor for the ensuing season, but on 
 their descent they would not be recognized for the same 
 fish which ascended in the previous autumn, as they are 
 now lean, flat-sided, big-headed — owing to the diminu- 
 tion of the body — dingy-colored, aiid utterly unfit for 
 food. A male salmon, which from his length, should 
 have weighed 11 lbs., in condition, being killed in this 
 state, was found to weigh 4J lbs. Yet in this miserable 
 and useless state, as well as on the very spawning beds, 
 when in the actual performance of their natural and 
 paternal duties, this noble fish is ruthlessly and wantonly 
 massacred to the gradual annihilation of the species, 
 and to the extinction not only of an admirable and 
 athletic sport, but of a considerable source of national 
 wealth, and a valuable branch of domestic and foreign 
 trade. 
 
 Now it is by no means necessary, either to abstain 
 from taking salmon, in almost unlimited quantities at 
 the proper season, that is to say, while they are running 
 up the rivers in summer and early autumn, provided 
 only that the whole channel is not obstructed by stake- 
 
THE SALMON. 1Y7 
 
 nets, or to abolish mill-dams in toto, in order to prevent 
 the destruction, and even insm*e the abundance of this 
 ^loble fish in the waters whence it is so rapidly disap- 
 pearing. Only abstain from killing it on the spawning- 
 beds, when it is in the act of reproducing its kind, or 
 when it is returning to the sea, weary and weak, and 
 unfit for food — only compel, by strictly enforced law, 
 every mill-dam owner to attach to his weir or dam, an 
 apron, or sloping descent, of an angle not exceeding 45°, 
 twelve feet in width, over which the water shall flow in 
 a volume of one foot depth, and the fish will speedily 
 be found in as great abundance as ever, in all those 
 waters from which he has not as yet wholly disappeared- 
 Even in those where he is now extinct I believe that he 
 could be reproduced by the importation of small fry, 
 and if reproduced, of course, preserved to any extent by 
 the enforcement of proper laws. "While on this subject, 
 I would state, that greatly to the credit of the supervi- 
 sors of that county, an act has been passed containing 
 all the provisions above mentioned, with regard to the 
 Salmon Kiver, in Oswego county, I believe, in the State 
 of New York ; and I trust that the example thus set 
 will be followed, with reference to the Oswego itself, 
 and the Seneca, Cayuga, and Skaneateles outlets, in 
 which case salmon would be once more taken in the 
 heart of the Empire State, and instead of depending oii 
 Maine and Kew Brunswick for her supplies of salmon, 
 New York would ere long be enabled to supply her 
 8* 
 
178 AMERICAN GAME. 
 
 sister cities on the seaboard with this high-priced and 
 favorite dainty. It is singular that in the United States, 
 where so much attention is given to every other forai of 
 industry, every other source of national wealth, so little 
 has been paid to that very valuable resource, the sea and 
 river fisheries. 
 
 But now to turn from the fish to the fishing. This 
 sport is attainable on all salmon rivers above tide-water, 
 or at about the meeting of the fresh and salt, by the 
 sportsman, dm'ing the whole of the month of July and 
 of August, and on some waters in the earlier part of Sep- 
 tember. There are but two ways of taking the salmon 
 with the hook 'usually practiced by sporting fishermen, 
 and one of these even rarely as compared with the other 
 — the best, most scientific, most orthodox, and most suc- 
 cessful, is casting with the artificial fly ; the second, 
 which will often kill good fish, when the water is too 
 foul, after heavy rains or freshets, to allow their rising to 
 the fiy, and at the meeting of the salt and fresh, is spin- 
 ning or trolling with the minnow, the young trout in its 
 parr state, the smelt, or the sand launce, occasionally in 
 deep, still pools, the salmon will take a hook heavily 
 shotted, and baited with two large dew-worms ; and 
 always and infallibly it will greedily seize one baited 
 w^ith its own roe potted and preserved with salt. 
 
 The former of these methods is, however, slow, uncer- 
 tain, tedious, and inferior both as to sport and success to 
 any of the rest. The latter is so deadly and unerring 
 
THE SALMON. 1^9 
 
 that it is regarded, by all true brothers of the rod and 
 reel, in the same light as shooting birds on the ground 
 would be bj a genuine shot, as a pot-hunting, if not 
 poaching device, unworthy of the sportsman. 
 
 I do not of course speak of kistering or spearing 
 salmon, as that is an iniquity which can only be per- 
 formed when the fish are spawning, practiced therefore 
 neither by the true sportsman, nor the fair trader, but 
 only by the greedy, wanton, destructive, cruel brute, 
 who slaughters neither for legitimate sport nor for profit, 
 but merely for the wanton love of slaughtering. "Nor do 
 I speak of net fisheries, whether stake-net or seine, for 
 these are the methods of capturing salmon for gain, not 
 for sport or pleasure. 
 
 It is a singular thing that very little is known of the 
 true food of the salmon ; for so rapid is their digestion, 
 that when taken their stomachs are always found empty, 
 with the exception of a small quantity of yellowish fluid ; 
 but it would seem quite certain that while in fresh water 
 it must consist principally, if not entirely, of small fish, 
 for the natural water flies, which are the favorite food of 
 trout and of themselves also when in their infancy, before 
 they have visited salt water, they do not condescend to 
 notice on their return to the rivers. 
 
 For what they mistake the large gaudy artificial sal- 
 mon flies, at which they rise so greedily on their first 
 advent into fresh water, it is impossible to conjecture ; 
 since there is nothing under heaven to which they bear 
 
180 AMERICAN GAME. 
 
 even a distant resemblance. Sir Humphry Davy conjec- 
 tures tliat tliey may be actuated by a vague local recol- 
 lection, on returning, as they always do, to the identical 
 rivers in which they were bred, from the sea, where 
 they have been feeding on a totally different prey, of 
 the water-flies which in their childhood they were used 
 to take on the surface, and therefore looking to the sur- 
 face for their food, strike at the first thing they see bear- 
 ing a remote resemblance to a winged insect. 
 
 The implements necessary to the salmon fly-fisher are 
 a powerful two-handed rod, of sixteen to eighteen feet in 
 length, composed of ash, hickory and lance wood, or 
 spliced bamboo, with a solid butt fitted with a spike — 
 whereby to fix it in the ground erect while changing 
 ^ your flies or the like — a large click reel, on no account 
 a multiplier, a hundred yards of hair line, a casting line 
 of the stoutest, roundest and most even salmon gut, and 
 a book of salmon-flies — the numbers, colors and varieties 
 of which are endless. 
 
 As good as any, to my mind, is the peacock upper 
 and blue-jay under wings,' gay silk body, red hackle 
 legs, and bird of Paradise tail ; but the truth is, that 
 almost anything large and gaudy will take salmon, if 
 deftly and skillfully dropped at the exact time, and in 
 the exact place. If they will not take one they will 
 another, and the which is which must be discovered by 
 experiment. 
 
 The brighter and stiller the water, the smaller and 
 
THE SALMON. 181 
 
 more grave colored should be tlie fly, as a general rule. 
 Where tlie river is foul, or the current much broken, 
 foamy and rapid, the fly can hardly be too large, or too 
 gaily colored. 
 
 For the rest, no writing can teach a man how to throw 
 a fly, how to strike a fish when he has risen^ or how to 
 kill when he has struck him ; practice, patience, perse- 
 verance, and coolness are the great requisites, and the 
 best way of learning is to accompany a good fly-fisher 
 to the brook-side, to observe and study his motions, and 
 by example more than by oral instruction to acquire his 
 method, and by degrees approach his skill. 
 
 I suppose hardly any one would attempt to use the 
 double-handed rod, or attempt salmon, who had not first 
 learned to throw a cast of flies from the light rod, and 
 succeeded in hooking a trout. I will therefore merely 
 observe, for the benefit of the trout fisher who makes 
 his first essay on salmon, that it is not advisable, as in 
 trout fishing, to keep the fly dancing as it were and hov- 
 ering on the surface, but to let it sink a little way, pull 
 it back with a slight jerk not quite out of water, and 
 then let it sink again, and so on until your cast is finish- 
 ed, and you lift your fly for another. Again, when a 
 salmon has risen at your fly, you need not strike near so 
 quickly, and you must strike much more strongly and 
 sharply than at a trout. Colquhoun, in his capital book, 
 " The Moor and the Loch," recommends that the sal- 
 mon be allowed to turn before striking him, and I 
 
182 AMERICAN GAME. 
 
 tliink the advice sound and good. When he is struck 
 you must make him fight for every inch of line you give 
 him, holding him very hard, but of course giving rather 
 than letting him break you, until he becomes exhausted ; 
 if he plunges to the bottom and sulks, you must arouse 
 him by stirring the water with a pole or pelting him 
 with pebbles, for your " only chance of killing him de- 
 pends," to borrow the words of Davy's Salmonia, " on 
 his being kept constantly in action, so that he may ex- 
 haust himself by exercise." 
 
 When he is wearied out, when he turns up his broad, 
 bright side exhausted on the surface, let your assistant 
 pass the sharp, hooked gaff carefully under him, and 
 strike it home by one cool, steady, upward jerk, and he 
 is yours. Myself, I prefer to gaff in the solid muscular 
 tail, behind the ventral cavity, as affording the best hold ; 
 but many good sportsmen prefer to strike in the shoulder, 
 as giving more command of the fish — so that he i« 
 gaffed, however, it matters not much where, for he is 
 pretty certainly ashore a moment afterward. I may 
 as well here mention that while on a visit in Troy 
 recently, I was shown a new spring or click gaff, which 
 must unquestionably supersede the old hook. It is 
 easy of management, unerring, and can be handled with 
 success by the most awkward country lad, and every 
 sportsman knows how often he is annoyed by the clum- 
 siness of an assistant who merely grazes a beaten fish, 
 and goads him into fresh fury, perhaps causing his event- 
 
THE SALMON. 183 
 
 ual loss, and eliciting naughty words from the not tlien 
 gentle fisherman. 
 
 And now, kind reader mine, I have told yon whither 
 to pass in pnrsuit of yonr sport ; I have told you, so far 
 as tell I can, how to rise, how to strike, how to kill, how 
 to land your fish. 
 
 l^ow I will tell you how to cook him — eat him, 1 doubt 
 not, you can without my teaching. 
 
 As soon as he is out of water stun him with a heavy 
 blow on the l:^ead ; then with a sharp knife crimp him, 
 that is, gash him to the bone on both sides with a num- 
 ber of parallel trans vere cuts, parallel to the line of the 
 gills, at about two inches asunder ; hold him up by the 
 tail and let him bleed ; cool him for ten minutes in the 
 coldest spring or running water you can find at hand ; 
 carry him to the pot in which your salt and water — - 
 nearly strong enough to bear an egg — must be boiling 
 like mad ; in with him, and let him boil quantum sitff. 
 Then serve him up, with no sauce save a few spoonsful 
 of the water in which he was cooked, and if you please, 
 the squeeze of a lemon, or, better yet, a lime — but, " an 
 you love me, Hal," eschew the lobster sauce, and tlie 
 rich condiments, as Reading, "Worcestershire or Soy, for 
 he is rich enough without, and they will but kill his 
 natural fiavor, and undo his delicacy. 
 
 And so adieu, and good luck to you ! Take my ad- 
 vice, and when night cometh you may boast that you 
 have fished well, and dined supremely. 
 
184 A]SIEKICA2«^ GAME. 
 
 I may here add, for the information of whom it may 
 concern, that my friend. Captain Peel, better known as 
 Dinks, a famous sportsman and salmon fisher, has hired 
 the exclusive fishing of one of the finest salmon riverain 
 Canada "West, on which a good fisherman may bag from 
 six to twenty well-fed fish per diem. The river affords 
 admirable fishing for six or seven rod, is carefully pre- 
 served by Captain Peel, who keeps a regular game- 
 keeper on it ; and is easily accessible from Quebec. 
 
 Captain Peel makes up a party to go thither and fish 
 annually, furnishing all appliances and means to boot, 
 lodging, after forest fashion, in . comfortable shanties ; 
 board of tlie best that can be obtained, including excellent 
 port, sherry, and bottled ale ; boats, men, everything in 
 short, rods only excepted, that is requisite to the genu- 
 ine sportsman, at the very small price of $120 per month. 
 
 The scenery of the Lower St. Lawi-ence is magnificent, 
 the climate delicious, the fishing the finest in the world. 
 The expense is ridiculously cheap as compared with the 
 inducements offered, nor can I imagine a more delightful 
 or cheaper mode of passing a couple of summer months 
 than any sportsman can obtain by addressing Captain 
 Peel, Amherstburg, Canada West. 
 
VII. 
 JTTLY. 
 
 Scolopax Minor. 
 
 THE BLIND SI^TIPE ; MUD SISTIPE, &o. 
 
 DURING THE SUMMER— CANADA TO VIRGINIA. 
 DURING THE WINTER— SOUTHERN STATES TO MEXICO 
 
THE AMERICAN WOODCOCK. 
 
 Scolojpax Minor, 
 
 TuE American Woodcock, Scolopax minor^ or, as it 
 has been subdistinguished by some naturalists, from the 
 peculiar form of its short, rounded wing, the fourth 
 and fifth quills of which are the longest, Microjptera 
 Americana^ is, as the latter title indicates, exclusively 
 confined to this hemisphere and continent. It is much 
 smaller than its European namesake, being very rarely 
 killed exceeding eight or nine ounces in weight, and 
 sixteen inches in extent from tip to tip of the expanded 
 wings ; whereas the European cock averages full twelve 
 ounces, being often found up to fifteen, and measures 
 twenty-five or twenty-six inches. 
 
 In general appearance and color they bear a consider- 
 able afiinity each to the other ; the upper plumage of 
 both being beautifully variegated, like the finest tortoise- 
 shell, with wavy black lines on a rich brown ground, 
 mottled in places with bright fawn color and ash-gray , 
 but the breast and belly of the American bird are of a 
 deep fulvous yellow, darkest on upper part and fading to 
 
188 AMERICAK GAME. 
 
 a yellowish white at the vent, while its European 
 congener has all the lower parts of a dull cream color, 
 barred with faint dusky waved lines, like the breast 
 feathers of, some of the falcons. 
 
 It has generally been believed that the large cock 
 of the Eastern continent is never found in America ; and 
 all analogy would go to strengthen that belief, for neither 
 of the birds range on their respective continents very far 
 to the northward, whereas it is those species only which 
 extend into the Arctic regions, and by no means all of 
 them, that are common to the two hemispheres. Some 
 circumstances have, however, come recently to my know- 
 ledge which lead me to doubt whether the large woodcock 
 of the Eastern hemisphere does not occasionally find its 
 way to this continent, although it is difiicult to conceive 
 how it should do so, since it must necessarily wing' its 
 way across the whole width of the Atlantic, from the 
 shores of Ireland or the Azores, which are, so far as is 
 ascertained, its extreme western limit. 
 
 A very good English sportsman resident in Philadel- 
 phia, who is perfectly familiar with both the species and 
 their distinctions, assures me that during the past winter 
 a friend brought for his inspection an undoubted English 
 woodcock, which he had purchased in the market ; it 
 weighed twelve ounces, measured twenty-five inches 
 from wing to wing, and had the cream-colored barred 
 breast which I have described. The keeper of the stall 
 at which this bird was purchased did not know where it 
 
THE AMEEICAN WOODCOCK. 189 
 
 had been killed, but aveiTed that several birds had pre- 
 viously been in his possession, precisely similar to this 
 in every respect. It is not a little remarkable that the 
 same gentleman who saw this bird, and unhesitatingly 
 pronounced it an European cock, was informed by a 
 sporting friend that he had seen in* Susquehanna county 
 a cock, which he was satisfied must have measured 
 twenty-five inches in extent, but which he unfortunately 
 missed. There is likewise, at this time, in the city a 
 skull and bill of a woodcock of very unusual dimensions, 
 of which I am promised a sight, and which, from the 
 description, I am well nigh convii^ped is of the European 
 species. 
 
 It is possible that these birds may have been brought 
 over and kept in confinement, and Bubsequently escaped, 
 and so become naturalized in America; and yet it is 
 difficult to conceive that persons should have taken the 
 trouble of preserving so stupid and uninteresting a bird 
 as the woodcock in a cage, unless for the purpose of 
 transporting them from one country to another in order 
 to the introduction of new species. 
 
 This might be done very easily with regard to some 
 species, and with undoubted success ; and it has greatly 
 surprised me that it has never been attempted with 
 regard to our American woodcock, which might unques- 
 tionably be naturalized in England with the greatest 
 facility; where it would, I have no doubt, multiply 
 extraordinarily, and become one of the most numerous 
 
190 AMERICAN GAME. 
 
 and valuable species of game, as tlie mildness of tlie 
 winters in ordinary seasons would permit the bird to 
 remain perennially in the island, without resorting to 
 migration in order to obtain food. 
 
 The woodcock and snipe can both be very readily 
 domesticated, and can easily be induced to feed on bread 
 and milk reduced to the consistency of pulp, of which 
 they ultimately become extremely fond. This is done at 
 first by throwing a few small red worms into the bread 
 and milk, for which the birds bore and bill, as if it 
 were in their natural muddy soil. 
 
 In all countries in which any species of the woodcock 
 is found, it is a bird essenti-ally of moderate climates, 
 abhorring and shunning all extremes of temperature, 
 whether of heat or of cold. 
 
 With us, it winters in the Southern States from Yir- 
 ginia, in parts of which, I believe, it is found at all sea- 
 sons of the year, through the Carolinas, Georgia and 
 Florida to Louisiana and Mississippi, in the almost 
 impenetrable cane-brakes and deep morasses of which it 
 finds a secure retreat and abundance of its favorite food, 
 during the inclement season, which binds up every 
 stream and boggy swamp of the Middle and JSTew 
 England States in icy fetters. 
 
 So soon, however, as the first indications of spring 
 commence, in those regions of almost tropical heat, the 
 woodcock wings its way with the unerring certainty of 
 instinct which guides him back, as surely as the magnet 
 
THE AMEEICAN WOODCOCK. 191 
 
 points to the pole, to the very wood and the very brake 
 of the wood in which he was hatched, and commences 
 the duties of nidification. 
 
 I am inclined to believe that the woodcock are already 
 paired when they come on to the northward ; if not, 
 they do so without the slightest delay, for they unques- 
 tionably begin to lay within a week or two after their 
 arrival, sometimes even before the snow has melted from 
 the upland. Sometimes they have been known to lay so 
 early as February, but March and the beginning of 
 April are their more general season. Their nest is very 
 inartificially made of dry leaves and stalks of grass. 
 The female lays from four to -^ve eggs, about an inch 
 and a half long, by an inch in diameter, of a dull clay 
 color, marked with a few blotches of dark brown inter- 
 spersed with splashes of faint purple. It is a little 
 doubtful whether the woodcock does or does not rear a 
 second brood of young, unless the first hatching is 
 destroyed, as is very frequently the case, by spring 
 floods, which are very fatal to them. In this case, they 
 do unquestionably .breed a second time, for I have 
 myself found the young birds, skulking about like young 
 mice in the long grass, unable to fly, and covered with 
 short blackish down, the most uncouth and comical look- 
 ing little wretches imaginable, during early July shoot- 
 ing ; but it is on the whole my opinion that, at least on 
 early seasons, they generally raise two broods ; and this, 
 
193 AMEKICAIJ GAME. 
 
 among others, is one cause of mj very strong desire to 
 Bee summer woodcock shooting entirely abolished. 
 
 Unless this is done, I am convinced beyond doubt, 
 that before twenty years have elapsed the woodcock will 
 be as rare an animal as a wolf between the great lakes 
 and the Atlantic sea-board, so ruthlessly are they perse- 
 cuted and hunted down by pot-hunters and poachers, for 
 the benefit of restaurateurs and of the lazy, greedy 
 cockneys who support them. There is, however, I fear, 
 little hope of any legislative enactment toward this 
 highly desirable end ; for too many even of those who 
 call themselves, and who ought to be, true sportsmen, 
 are selfish and obstinate on this point, and the name of 
 the pot-hunters is veritably legion. Moreover, it is to be 
 doubted whether, even if such a statute were added to 
 our game-laws, it could be enforced ; so vehemently 
 opposed do all the rural classes, who ought to be the 
 best friends of the game, show themselves on all occa- 
 sions to any attempt toward preserving them, partly 
 jfrom a mistaken idea that game-laws are of feudal 
 origin and of aristocratic tendency ; and so averse are 
 they to enforce the penalties of the law on ofi'enders, 
 from a servile apprehension of giving offense to their 
 neighbors. 
 
 At present, in almost all the States of which the wood- 
 cock is a summer visitant, either by law or by prescrip- 
 tion, July is the month appropriated to the commence- 
 ment of their slaughter ; in New York the first is the 
 
THE AMEEICAN WOODCOCK. 193 
 
 day, in 'New Jersey tlie fiftli, and in all the Middle 
 States, with the single exception of Delaware, where it 
 is deferred until August, some day of the same month is 
 fixed as the termination of close time. Even in Dela- 
 ware the exception is rendered nugatory, by a provision 
 permitting every person to shoot on his own grounds, 
 whether in or out of season, in consequence of which 
 the birds are all killed off early in June. 
 
 It may now be set down almost as a rule, that in all 
 the Atlantic seaboard counties, and, indeed, every where 
 in the vicinity of the large cities and great thorough- 
 fares, the whole of the summer hatching is killed off 
 before the end of July, with the exception of a few 
 scattered stragglers, which have escaped pursuit in some 
 impenetrable brake or oozy quagmire which defies the 
 foot of the sportsman ; that few survive to moult, and 
 that the diminished numbers, which we now find on our 
 autumn shooting-grounds, are supplied exclusively by 
 the northern and Canadian broods, which keep success- 
 ively flying before the advancing cold of winter, and 
 sojourning among us for a longer or a shorter period, ere 
 they wing their way to the rice-fields of the Savannah, 
 or the cane-brakes of the Mississippi. 
 
 If my method could be generally adopted, of letting 
 the fifteenth day of September, after the moulting season 
 is passed, and when the birds are beginning again to 
 congregate on their favorite feeding-grounds, be the 
 commencement of every sort of upland shooting, with- 
 9 
 
1-94 AMERICAN GAME. 
 
 out any exception, the sport would be enormous ; the 
 birds at that season are in full vigor, in complete plu- 
 mage, in the perfection of condition for the table, and 
 are so strong on the wing, so active and so swift, that no 
 one could for a moment imagine them to be the same 
 with the miserable, puny, half-fledged younglings, which 
 any bungling boy can butcher as he pleases, with the 
 most miserable apparatus, and without almost as well as 
 with a dog, during the dog-days of July. 
 
 Tlie weatlier is, moreover, cool and pleasant, and in 
 every way well-suited to the sport at this season ; dogs 
 have a chance to do their work handsomely and well, 
 and the sportsman can do his work, too, as he ought to 
 do it, like a man, walking at his proper rate, unmolested 
 by mosquitoes, and without feeling the salt perspiration 
 streaming into his eyes, until he can hardly brook the 
 pain. 
 
 But no such hope existing as that state legislatures, 
 dependent, not on rational but on brute opinion, should 
 condescend to hear or listen to common sense, on 
 matters such as game laws, are we, or are we not, to 
 abandon our plan, to sacrifice our knowledge and 
 enlightened views on this subject to obstinate ignorance ; 
 or shall we not take the better part, and decide, accord- 
 ing to Minerva's lesson in Tennyson's magnificent 
 -/Enone, 
 
 . . . For that right is right to follow right 
 Where wisdom is the scorn of consequence. 
 
THE AMEKICAN WOODCOCK. 195 
 
 We shall resist and persist ; at least I shall — ^I, Frank 
 Forester, who never in my life have killed a bird out of 
 season intentionally, and who never will — who am com- 
 pelled by sham sportsmen, cockney and pot-gunners to 
 shoot woodcock in July ; who have been invited, times 
 out and over again, to shoot cock on men^s own ground^ 
 and therefore within the letter of the law, in ITew Jersey, 
 Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland, before the 
 season ; who have ever refused to take the advantages, 
 which every one takes over me ; and who still intend to 
 persist, though not to hope, that there may be sense 
 enough, if not integrity, among the legislatures of the 
 free states, to prevent the destruction of all game within 
 their several jurisdictions. 
 
 As the thing stands — and by the thing I mean the law 
 — woodcock are to be shot on or about the first day of 
 July ; and if, dear reader, you try to shoot any where 
 within fifty miles of New York, or twenty-five of Phila- 
 delphia, much later than the tenth of June, I am inclined 
 to think that you will find wonderfully little sport ; 
 before the season, do not fire a shot, if you will take my 
 advice ; if poachers will violate the law, and the law will 
 not enforce itself against poachers, abstain from becom- 
 ing a poacher yourself, and do not shoot before the 
 season fairly commences. 
 
 At tliis period of the year woodcock are almost inva- 
 riably found in the lowlands ; sometimes, as,. for instance, 
 at Salem, in New Jersey, and many other similar locali- 
 
196 AMEEICAN GAME. 
 
 ties along the low and level shores of the Delaware, in 
 the wide, open meadows, >vhere there is not a bush or 
 brake to be seen for miles ; but more generally in low, 
 swampy woods, particularly in maple woods, which have 
 an undergrowth of alder ; along the margin of- oozy 
 streamlets, creeping through moist meadows, among 
 willow thickets ; and in wet pastures trampled by cattle, 
 and set here and there with little brakes, which afford 
 them shade and shelter during the heat of the day. 
 
 Of the latter description is the ground, once so famous 
 for its summer cock-shooting, known as " the drowned 
 lands," in Orange County, ISTew York, extending for 
 miles and miles along the margins of the Wallkill and 
 its tributaries, the Black Creek, the Quaker Creek, and 
 the beautiful Wawayanda. Many a day of glorious 
 sport have I had on those sweet level meadows, enjoyed 
 with friends long since dispersed and scattered, some 
 dead,, untimely, some in far distant lands, some false- 
 and some forgetful, and thou, true-hearted, honest, merry- 
 brave, Tom Draw ; thou whilom king of hosts and 
 emperor of sportsmen, thou, saddest fate of all, smitten, 
 or ere thy prime was passed away, by the most fearful 
 visitation that awaits mankind — the awful doom of 
 blindness ! never again shall I draw trigger on those 
 once .loved levels — the railroad now thunders and 
 whistles close beside them, and every man and boy and 
 fool, now sports his fowling-piece ; and not a woodcock 
 on the meadows but, after running the gauntlet of a 
 
THE AlvrEEICAN WOODCOCK. " 19Y 
 
 hundred sliots, a liiindred volleys, is consigned to the 
 care of some conductor, by him to be delivered to Del- 
 monico or Florence, for the benefit of fat, greasy 
 merchant-princes ; and if it were not so, if birds, 
 swarmed as of yore in every reedy slank, by every alder- 
 brake, in every willow tuft, the ground is haimted by 
 too many recollections, rife with too many thick-suc- 
 ceeding memories to render it a fitting place, to me at 
 least, for pleasurable or gay pursuits. 
 
 But, as I have said before, summer cock-shooting on 
 the Drowned Lands of Orange County is among the 
 things that have been — one of the stars that have set, 
 never to be relumed, in the nineteenth century ; and the 
 glory of " the Warwick Woodlands" has departed. 
 
 In Connecticut, in some parts, there is very good 
 summer cock-shooting yet ; and also in many places in 
 the neighborhood of Philadelphia, in the rich alluvial 
 levels around the Delaware, the Schuylkill, and their 
 tributary rivers ; but the sportsman, who really thirsts for 
 fine shooting — shooting such as it does the heart good to 
 hear of — ^must mount the iron-horse, whose breath is the 
 hissing steam, and away, fleeter even than the wings of 
 the morning, for Michigan and Illinois and Indiana, for 
 the willow-brakes of Alganac, and the rice-marshes ot 
 Lake St. Clair ; and there he may shoot cock till his 
 gun-barrels are red-hot, and his heart is satiate of bird- 
 slaughter. 
 
 It is usual at this season to shoot cock over pointers or 
 
198 AMERICAN GAME. 
 
 setters, according to individual preference of tliis or that 
 race of dogs ; for myself, of the two, I prefer the setter, 
 as in cock-shooting there is always abundance of water 
 to be had, and this rough-coated, high-strung dog can 
 face brakes and penetrate coverts, which play the 
 mischief with the smooth satiny skin of the high blooded 
 pointer. 
 
 In truth, however, neither of these, but the short- 
 legged, bony, red and white cocking-spaniel, is the true 
 dog over which to shoot summer woodcock ; and no one, 
 I will answer for it, who has ever hunted a good cry of 
 these, will ever again resort either to setter or pointer 
 for this, to them, inappropriate service. 
 
 The true place for these dogs is the open plain, the 
 golden stubble, the wide-stretching prairie, the highland 
 moor, where they can find full scope for their heady 
 courage, their wonderful fleetness, their unwearied 
 industry, and display their miracles of staunchness, 
 steadiness, and nose. 
 
 In order to hunt these dogs on cock, you must unteach 
 them some of their noblest faculties, you must tame 
 down their spirits, shackle their fiery speed, reduce 
 them, in fact, to- the functions of the spaniel, which is 
 much what it would be to train a battle charger to bear 
 a pack-saddle, or manage an Eclipse into a lady's 
 ambling palfrey. 
 
 The cocking-spaniel, on the contrary, is here in his 
 very vocation. Ever industrious, ever busy, never rang- 
 
THE AMERICAN WOODCOCK. 199 
 
 ing above twenty paces from his master, bustling round 
 every stump, prying into every fern-bush, worming his 
 long, stout body, propped on its short, bony legs, into 
 the densest and most matted cover, no cock can escape 
 him. 
 
 See ! one of them has struck a trail ; how he flourishes 
 his stump of a tail. Now he snuffs the tainted ground ; 
 what a rapture fills his dark, expressive eye. ISTow he is 
 certain ; he pauses for a moment, looks back to see if 
 his master is at hand ; " Yaff ! yaff !" the brakes ring 
 with his merry clamor, his comrade rushes to his aid 
 like lightning, yet pauses ever, obedient to the whistle, 
 nor presses the game too rashly, so that it rise out of 
 distance. Up steps the master, with his thumb upon the 
 dexter hammer, and his fore-finger on the trigger-guard. 
 ITow they are close upon the quarry; "yaff! yaff! 
 yaff !" Flip fiap ! up springs the cock, with a shrill 
 whistle, on a soaring wing. Flip flap ! again — there are 
 a couple. Deliberately prompt, up goes the fatal tube — 
 even as the butt presses the shoulder, trigger is drawn 
 after trigger. Bang 1 bang ! the eye of faith and the 
 finger of instinct have done their work, duly, truly. 
 The thud of one bird, as he strikes the moist soil, tells 
 that he has fallen ; the long stream of feathers floating 
 in the still air through yonder open glade, announces 
 the fate of the second ; and, before the butt of the gun, 
 dropped to load, has touched the ground, without a word 
 or question, down charged at the report, the busy little 
 
200 AMEEICAN GAME. 
 
 babblers are couched silent in tlie soft, succulent young 
 grass. Loaded once more, " Hie ! fetch !'' and what a 
 race of emulation — 'mouthing their birds gehtly, yet 
 rapturously, to inhale best the delicate aroma, not biting 
 them, each cocker has brought in his bird, and they and 
 you, gentle reader, if you be the happy sportsman who 
 possesses such a brace of beauties, are rewarded ade- 
 quately and enough. 
 
 For the rest, a short, wide-bored, double-barrel, an 
 ounce of 'No. 8 shot, and an equal measure of Brough's 
 diamond-grain, will do the business of friend nhicrqptera, 
 as effectually, at this season, as a huge, long, old-fashion- 
 ed nine-pounder, with its two ounce charge ; and it will 
 give you this advantage, that it shall weigh less by three 
 pounds, and enable you to dispense with a superfluous 
 weight of shot, which on a hot July day, especially if 
 you be at all inclined to what our friend Willis calls 
 jpinguititde, will of a necessity produce much exudation, 
 and some lassitude. 
 
VIII. 
 AUGUST. 
 
 Cljt Mm)! ^ttdi; ax 3nmmtx §ul, 
 
 Anas^ sivQ Dendronessa Sponaa, 
 THE UNITED STATES ; CANADA TO MEXICO. 
 
 ^merirait ^wr. 
 
 Cervus Virginianvs. 
 AMERICAN CONTINENT— NEW BRUNSWICK TO MEXICO. 
 
THE SUMMER DUCK, OR WOOD DUCK. 
 
 Anas Sponsa. 
 
 This lovely species of the most beautiful of the whole 
 Duck tribe, is peculiar to the continent and isles of 
 America, being familiarly known through almost every 
 portion of the United States, and according to Wilson, 
 common in Mexico and the West India Islands. In 
 Florida it is very abundant, as it is, more or less, on all 
 the fresh waters so far north as the interior of the State 
 of New York ; in the colder regions, to the north-east- 
 ward, though not unknown, it is of less frequent occur- 
 rence than in more genial climates. 
 
 Its more correct title, " Summer Duck," is referable 
 to the fact, that it is not, like most of the Anatides and 
 FuUgulcB^ fresh water and sea ducks, more or less a bird 
 of passage, retiring to the fastnesses of the extreme north, 
 for the purposes of nidification, and rearing its young ; 
 but, wherever it abounds, is a permanent citizen of the 
 land, raising its family in the very place where itself was 
 born, and. not generally, if undisturbed, moving very far 
 
204: AMEKICAlf GAME. 
 
 from its native liaimts. I think, however, that in the 
 United States it is perhaps better known under its other 
 appellation of Wood Duck ; and I am not prepared to 
 say, although the former is the specific name adopted by 
 all naturalists, that the latter is not the better, as the 
 more distinctive title, and applying to a more remarka- 
 ble peculiarity of the bird. For it, alone, so far as I 
 know, of the Duck family, is in the habit of perching 
 and roosting on the upper branches of tall trees, near 
 water-courses, and of making its nest in the holes and 
 hollows of old trunks, overhanging sequestered streams . 
 or woodland pools, often at a great height above the sur- 
 face of the water. 
 
 The Summer Duck is the most gayly attired of the 
 whole family ; it has, moreover, a fcu'm of very unusual 
 elegance, as compared with other 'ducks ; and a facility 
 of flight, and a command of itself on the wing, most un- 
 like to the ponderous, angular flapping of the rest of its 
 tribe, wheeling with a rapidity and power of pinion, ap- 
 proaching in some degree to that of the swallow, in and 
 out among the branches of the gnarled and tortuous pin- 
 oaks, whose shelter it especially affects. " 
 
 From two very fine specimens, male and female, now 
 before me, I take the following description ; 
 
 Drake, in full summer plumage. Length from tip of 
 bill to tip of tail, 21 inches. Length of wing, 9 inches. 
 Bill, 1 1-5 inch. Tarsus, IJ. Middle toe, 2 inches. Body 
 long, delicately shaped, rounded. Head small, finely 
 
TffiE SUMMER DUCK. 205 
 
 crested ; neck rather long and slender. Eye large, with 
 golden-yellow irides. Legs and feet orange-yellow, webs 
 dusky, claws black. Plumage soft, compressed, blended. 
 Bill orange-red at the base, yellow on the sides, with a 
 black spot above the nostrils, extending nearly to the 
 tip ; nail recurved, black. 
 
 The colors are most vivid. The crown of the head, 
 cheeks, side of the upper neck and crest changeable, va- 
 rying in different lights, from bottle-green, through all 
 hues of dark blue, bright azure, purple, with ruby and 
 amethyst reflections, to jet black. From the upper cor- 
 ner of the upper mandible a narrow snow-white streak 
 above the ey-e runs back, expanding somewhat, into the 
 upper crest. A broader streak of the same extends 
 backward below the eye, and forms several bright streaks 
 in the lower part of the crest. Chin and fore throat 
 snow-white, with a sort of double gorget, the upper ex- 
 tending upward a little posterior to the eye, and nearly 
 reaching it, the lower almost encircling the neck at its 
 narrowest part. The lower neck and upper breast are 
 of the richest vinous red, interspersed in front with small 
 arrow-headed spots of pure white. Lower breast white, 
 spotted with paler vinous red ; belly pure white. Scap- 
 ulars, and lower hind neck, reddish brown, with green 
 reflections. Back, tail-coverts and tail black, splendidly 
 glossed with metallic lustre of rich blue-green and pur- 
 ple. Wing-coverts and primaries brown, glossed with 
 blue and green, outer webs of the primaries silvery 
 
206 ^ AMERICAN GAME. 
 
 white ; secondaries glossy blue-black. A broad crescent- 
 shaped band of pure white, in front of the wings, at the 
 edge of the red breast-feathers, and behind this a 
 broader margin of jet black. The sides of the body 
 rich greenish yellow, most delicately penciled with nar- 
 row close waved lines of gray. On the flanks six dis- 
 tinct semi-lunated bands of white, anteriorly bordered 
 with broad black origins, and tipped with black. The 
 vent tawny white, the rump and under tail-coverts dark 
 reddish purj^le. 
 
 The duck is smaller and duller in her general coloring, 
 but still bears sufficient resemblance to the splendid 
 drake to cause her at once to be recognized, by any 
 moderately observant eye, as his mate. 
 
 Her bill is blackish brown, the irides of her eyes hazel 
 brown, her feet dull dusky green. Crown of her head 
 and hind neck dusky, faintly glossed with green, and 
 with the rudiments of a crest ; cheeks dusky brown. A 
 white circle round the eye and longitudinal spot behind 
 it. Chin and throat dingy white. Shoulders, back, 
 scapulars, ,wing-coverts, rumi) and tail brown, more or 
 less glossed with green, pui'ple and dark crimson. Pri- 
 maries black, with reflections of deep cerulean blue and 
 violet; outer webs silvery white. Secondaries violet- 
 blue and deep green, w:ith black edges and a broad white 
 margin, forming the speculum or beauty spot. Ui3per 
 fore neck, breast, sides and flanks deep chestnut-brown, 
 spotted in irregular lines with oval marks of faint tawny 
 
THE SUMMER DUCK. 207 
 
 yellow; belly, vent and under tail-coverts white, flanks 
 and thighs dull brown. 
 
 The young males of the first season are scarcely dis- 
 tinguishable from the ducks. 
 
 The Summer Duck breeds, in Kew York and IN'ew 
 Jersey, according to the season, from early in April until 
 late in May ; in July the young birds are not much infe- 
 rior in size to the parents, though not yet very strong on 
 the wing. I well remember on one occasion, during the 
 second week of that month, in the year 1836, while out 
 woodcock shooting near Warwick, in Orange county, 
 ISTew York, with a steady brace of setters, how some 
 mowers who were at work on the banks of the beautiful 
 Wawayanda, hailed me, and, pointing to a patch of per- 
 haps two acres of coarse, rushy grass, told me that six 
 ducks had just gone down there. I called my dogs to 
 heel, and walked very gingerly through the meadow, 
 with finger on the trigger, expecting the birds to rise 
 very wild ; but to my great surprise reached the end of 
 the grass, on the rivulet's njargin, without moving any 
 thing. 
 
 The nien still persisted that the birds were there ; and 
 so they were, sure enough ; for on bidding my setters 
 hold up, I soon got six dead points in the grass, and not 
 without some trouble kicked up the birds, so hard did 
 they lay. It was a calm, bright summer's day, not a 
 duck rose above ten feet from me, and I bagged them all. 
 They proved to be the old duck and five young birds of 
 
208 MIERIOAIT GAME. 
 
 that season, but in size the latter were quite equal to the 
 mother bird. 
 
 I consider the Summer Duck at all times rather a less 
 shy bird than its congeners, though it may that it is ow- 
 ing to the woody covert which, unlike others of its tribe, 
 it delights to frequent ; and which perhaps acts in some 
 degree as a screen to its pursuer ; but except on one 
 other occasion I never saw any thing like the tameness 
 of that brood. 
 
 The other instance occurred nearly in the same place, 
 and in the same month, I think, of the ensuing year. I 
 was again out' summer cock shooting, and was crossing a 
 small, sluggish brook, of some twelve or fourteen feet 
 over, with my gun under my arm, on a pile of old rails, 
 which had been thrown into the channel by the hay^ 
 makers, to make an extemporaneous bridge for the hay 
 teams ; when on a sudden, to my very great wonder- 
 ment, and I must admit to my very considerable fluster- 
 ation likewise, almost to the point of tumbling me into 
 the mud, out got a couple of Wood Ducks from the rails, 
 literally under my feet, with a prodigious bustle of wings 
 and quacking. If I had not so nearly tumbled into the 
 stream, ten to one I should have shot too quickly and 
 missed them both; but the little effort to recover my 
 footing gave me time to get cool again, and I bagged 
 them both. One was again the old duck, the other a 
 young drake of that season. 
 
 In the spring, the old duck selects her place in some 
 
THE STJMMER DUCK. 209 
 
 snug, nnsuspicious looking hole in some old tree near 
 the water edge, where, if unmolested, she will breed 
 many years in succession, carrying down her young 
 when ready to fly, in her bill, and placing them in the 
 water. The drake is very attentive to the female while 
 she is laying, and yet more so while she is engaged in 
 the duties of incubation ; constantly wheeling about on 
 the wing among the branches, near the nest on which 
 she is sitting, and greeting her with a little undertoned 
 murmur of affection, or perching on a bough of the same 
 tree, as if to keep watch over her. 
 
 The following account of their habits is so true, and 
 the anecdote illustrating them so pretty and pleasing, 
 that I cannot refrain from quoting it, for the benefit of 
 those of my readers who may not be so fortunate as to 
 have cultivated a familiar friendship with the pages of 
 that eloquent pioneer of the natural history of the woods 
 and wilds and waters of America, the Scottish Wilson, 
 who has done more for that science than any dead or liv- 
 ing man, with the sole exception of his immortal suc- 
 cessor, the great and good Audubon ; and whose works 
 will stand side by side with his, so long as truthfulness 
 of details, correctness of classification, eloquence of 
 style, and a pure taste and love for rural sounds and 
 sights shall command a willing audience. Speaking of 
 this bird he says — 
 
 "It is familiarly known in every quarter of the United 
 States, from Florida to Lake Ontario, in the neighbor- 
 
210 AMERICAN GAME. 
 
 hood of wliicli latter place I have myself met with it in 
 October. It rarely visits the sea-shore, or salt marshes, 
 its favorite haunts being the solitary, deep, and mnddy 
 creeks, ponds and mill-dams of the interior, making its 
 nest frequently in old hollow trees that overhang the 
 water. 
 
 " The Summer Duck is equally well known in Mexico 
 and many of the West India Islands. During the whole 
 of our winters they are occasionally seen in the states 
 south of the Potomac. On the lOtli of January I met 
 with two on a creek near Petersburgh, in Virginia. In 
 the more northern districts, however, they are migratory. 
 In Pennsylvania the female usually begins to lay late in 
 April, or early in May. Instances have been known 
 where the nest was constructed of a few sticks laid in a 
 fork of the branches ; usually, however, the inside of a 
 hollow tree is selected for this purpose. On the 18th of 
 May I visited a tree containing the nest of a Summer 
 Duck, on the banks of the Tuckahoe Kiver, 'New Jersey. 
 It was an old, grotesque white-oak, whose top had been 
 torn off by a storm. It stood on the declivity of the 
 bank, about twenty yards from the water. In this hol- 
 low and broken top, and about six feet down, on the soft, 
 decayed wood, lay thirteen eggs, snugly covered with 
 down, doubtless taken from the breast of the bird. 
 These eggs were of an exact oval shape, less than those 
 of a hen, the surface exceedingly fine grained, and of 
 the highest polish, and slightly yellowish, greatly resem- 
 
THE SUMMER DUCK. 211 
 
 bling old polished ivorj. The egg measured two inches 
 and an eighth by one inch and a half. On breaking one 
 of them, the young bird was found to be nearly hatched, 
 but dead, as neither of the parents had been observed 
 about the tree during the three or four days preceding, 
 and were conjectured to have been shot. 
 
 " This tree had been occupied, probably, by the same 
 pair, for four successive years, in breeding time ; the 
 person who gave me the information, and whose house 
 was within twenty or thirty yards of the tree, said that 
 he had seen the female, the spring preceding, carry down 
 thirteen young, one by one, in less than ten minutes. 
 She caught them in her bill by the wing or back of the 
 neck, and landed them safely at the foot of the tree, 
 whence she afterward led them to the water. Under 
 this same tree, at the time I visited it, a large sloop lay 
 on the stocks, nearly finished ; the deck was not more 
 than twelve feet distant from the nest, yet notwithstand- 
 ing the presence and noise of the workmen, the ducks 
 would not abandon their old breeding place, but contin- 
 ued to pass out and in, as if no person had been near. 
 The male usually perched on an adjoining limb, and 
 kept watch while the female was laying, and also often 
 while she was sitting. A tame goose had chosen a hol- 
 low space at the root of the same tree, to lay and hatch 
 her young in. 
 
 "The Summer Duck seldom flies in flocks of more 
 than three or four individjials together, and most com- 
 
212 AMERICAN GAME. 
 
 monly in pairs, or singly. The common note of the 
 drake h peet^ peet i but when, standing sentinel, he sees 
 danger, he makes a noise not unlike the crowing of a 
 young cock, oe eek ! oe eek ! Their food consists princi- 
 pally of acorns, seeds of the wild oats, and insects." 
 
 Mr. Wilson states, as his opinion, that the flesh of this 
 lovely little duck is inferior in excellence to that of the 
 blue-winged teal. But therein I can by no means coin- 
 cide with him, as I consider it, in the Atlantic states, 
 inferior to no duck except the canvas-back, which is 2A- 
 mitted facile jprinceps of all the duck tribe. The Sum- 
 mer Duck is in these districts probably the most grami- 
 nivorous and granivorous of the family, not affecting fish, 
 tadpoles, frogs or field-mice, all of which are swallowed 
 with great alacrity and rejoicing by the mallards, pin- 
 tails, and other haunters of fresh water streams and 
 lakes. 
 
 On the great lakes of the west and north, where all 
 the duck tribe feed to fattening on the wild rice and wild 
 celery, zizania aqioatica and lalisneria Americana^ no 
 one species is better than another, all being admirable ; 
 but in the course of an autumn spent on the northern 
 shores of Lake Huron and the rivers debouching into it, 
 and thence north-westward to Lake Superior, I do not 
 remember seeing any specimens of this beautiful bird, 
 though I feel sure that it cannot but exist in those waters, 
 which are in all respects so congenial to its habits. 
 
 Another peculiarity of this species, which I have 
 
THE SUMMER DUCK. 213 
 
 repeatedly noticed, when it has not been disturbed by 
 any sudden noise or the pursuit of dogs, is thus neatly 
 touched upon by Mr. J. P. Giraud, Jr., the enthusiastic 
 and accomplished ornithologist of Long Island, whose 
 unpretending little volume should be the text book of 
 every sportsman in the land who has a taste for any 
 thing beyond mere wanton slaughter. 
 
 " Often when following those beautiful and rapid 
 streams that greatly embellish our country, in pursuit of 
 the angler's beau ideal of sport, have I met with this 
 gayly-attired duck. As if proud of its unrivalled beauty, 
 it w^ould slowly rise and perform a circuit in the air, 
 seemingly to give the admiring beholder an opportunity 
 of witnessing the gem of its tribe." 
 
 The Summer Duck is very easily domesticated, if the 
 eggs be taken from the nest and hatched under a hen, 
 and the young birds become perfectly tame, coming up 
 to the house or the barn-yard to be fed, with even more 
 regularity than the common domestic duck ; nay, even 
 the old birds, if taken by the net and wing-tipped, will 
 soon become gentle and lose their natural shyness. 
 
 In the summej- of 1843 I had the pleasure of seeing a 
 large flock of these lovely wild fowl perfectly gentle, 
 answering the call of their owner by their peculiar mur- 
 mur of pleasure, and coming, as fast as they could swim 
 or run, to be fed by his hand. 
 
 This was at the beautiful place of the Hon. Mahlon 
 Dickinson, formerly a member of General Jackson's cabi- 
 
214 A3iIEE.ICAN GAME. 
 
 net, not far from Morristown, in ISTew Jersey, wliicli is sin- 
 gularly adapted for the rearing and domesticating these 
 ferm natwa^ since it has, immediately adjoining the trim 
 and regular gardens, a long and large tract of beautiful 
 ■wild shrubbery, full of rare evergreens, and interspersed 
 with bright, cool springs and streamlets feeding many 
 ponds and reservoirs, where they can feed, and sport, and 
 breed, as undisturbed as in the actual wilderness ; while 
 the adjacent country being all tame and highly culti- 
 vated, they have no inducement to stray from their 
 abode. 
 
 Beside Summer Ducks, Mr. Dickinson had at the 
 period of my visit. Dusky Ducks, better known as Black 
 Ducks, Green-winged Teal, Golden-eyes, and, I think, 
 Widgeon; but the Summer Ducks were by far the 
 tamest, as the Dusky Ducks were the wildest of the com- 
 pany. I should long ago have attempted to naturalize 
 them on my own place, but that a large river, the ^ 
 Passaic, washing the lower end of my lawn and garden, 
 from which it would not be possible to exclude them, I ' 
 have felt that it is useless to attempt it, the rather that 
 there is a large patch of wild-rice immediately adjoining 
 me, which would tempt them to the water, whence they 
 would drift away with the current or the tide, and be lost 
 or shot in no time. 
 
 Tlie best time for shooting and for eating these fowl is 
 late in October, when the acorns and beech-mast, of both 
 of whicli they are inordinately fond, lie thick and ripe 
 
THE STIMNrER DUCK. 216 
 
 Oil the woodland banks of the streams and pools they 
 love to frequent. And this reminds me of a little sketch, 
 illustrative of their habits, taken down almost verbatiin, 
 from the lips of a right good fellow, and at that time a 
 right good sportsman also ; though now, alas ! the un- 
 timely loss of the inestimable blessing of eyesight has 
 robbed him, among other sources of enjoyment, of that 
 favorite and innocent pastime — the forest chase : 
 
 "Are there many "Wood Ducks about this season, 
 Tom?" asked Eorester, affecting to be perfectly care- 
 less and indifferent to all that had passed. " Did you 
 kill these yourself?" 
 
 " There was a sight on them a piece back, but they're 
 gittin' scase — pretty scase now, I tell you. Yes, I shot 
 these down by Aunt Sally's big spring-hole a Friday. 
 I'd been a lookin' round, you see, to find where the quail 
 kept afore you came up here — for I'd a been expectin' 
 you a week and better — and I'd got in quite late, toward 
 sundown, with an outsidin' bevy, down by the cedar 
 swamp, and druv them off into the big bog meadows, 
 below Sugarloaf, and I'd killed quite a bunch on them 
 — sixteen, I reckon, Archer; and there wasn't but 
 eighteen when I lit on em' — and it was gittin' pretty 
 well dark when I came to the big spring, and little Dash 
 was worn dead out, and I was tired, and hot, and thun- 
 derin' thirsty, so I sets down aside the outlet where the 
 spring water comes in good and cool, and I was mixkin' 
 up a nice, long drink in the big glass we hid last sum- 
 
216 AMERICAN GAME. 
 
 mer down in the mnd-hole, with some great cider sper- 
 rits — when what slioiild I hear all at once bnt whistle, 
 whistlin' over head, the wings of a whole drove on 'em, 
 so up I bnckled the old gun ; but they'd plumped down 
 into the crick fifteen rod off or better, down by the big 
 pin oak, and there they sot, seven ducks and two big 
 purple-headed drakes — ^beauties, I tell you. Well, boys, 
 I upped gun and tuck sight stret away, but just as I was 
 drawin', I kind o' thought I'd got two little charges of 
 number eight, and that to shoot at ducks at fifteen rod 
 was n't nauthen. Well, then, I fell a thinkin', and then 
 I sairched my pockets, and arter a piece found two green 
 cartridges of number three, as Archer gave me in the 
 spring, so I drawed out the small shot, and inned with 
 these, and put fresh caps on to be sarten. But jest when 
 I'd got ready, the ducks had floated down with the 
 stream, and dropped behind the pint — so I downed on 
 my knees, and crawled, and Dash alongside on me, for 
 all the world as if the darned dog knowed; well, I 
 crawled quite a piece, till I'd got under a bit of alder 
 bush, and then I seen them — all in a lump like, except 
 two — six ducks and a big drake— feedin', and stickin' 
 down their heads into the weeds, and flutterin' up their 
 hinder eends, and chatterin' and jokin' — I could have 
 covered them all with a handkercher, exceptin' two, as I 
 said afore, one duck and the little drake, and they was 
 off a rod or better from the rest, at the two different 
 sides of the stream — the big bunch warn't over ten rods 
 
THE SUMMER DUCK. 217 
 
 off me, nor so far ; so I tuck siglit riglit at the big 
 drake's neck. The water was quite clear and stiU, and 
 seemed to have caught all the little light as was left by 
 the sun, for the skies had got pretty dark, I tell you ; 
 and I could see his head quite clear agin the water — 
 well, I draw'd trigger, and the hull charge rij^ped into 
 'em — and there was a scrabblin' and a squatterin' in the 
 water now, I tell you — ^but not one on 'em riz — ^not the* 
 fust one of the hull bunch; but up jumped both the 
 others, and I draw'd on the drake — ^more by the whistlin' 
 ot his wings, than that I seen him — but I drawed stret, 
 Archer, any ways ; and arter I'd pulled half a moment I 
 hard him plump down into 'the crick witt a splash, and 
 the water sparkled up like a fountain where he fell. So 
 then I did n't wait to load, but ran along the bank as 
 liard as I could strick it, and when I'd got down to the 
 spot, I teU you, little Dash had got two on 'em out afore 
 I came, and was in with a third. Well, sich a cuttin' 
 and a splashin' as there was you nivir did see, none on 
 you — I guess, for sartin — leastwise I nivir did. I'd 
 killed, you see, the drake and two ducks, dead at the 
 first fire, but three was only wounded, wing-tipped, and 
 leg-broken, and I can't tell you what all. It was all of 
 nine o'clock at night, and dark as all out doors, afore 
 I gathered them three ducks, but . I did gather 'em ; 
 Lord, boys, why I'd stayed till mornin', but I'd a got 
 them, sarten. Well, the drake I killed flyin' I could n't 
 find him that night, no how, for the stream swept him 
 10 
 
218 AMEBIC AN GAME. 
 
 down, and I hadn't got no guide to go by, so I let him 
 go then, but I was up next mornin' bright and airly, 
 and started up the stream clean from the bridge here. 
 Tip through Garry's back-side, and my bog-hole, and so 
 on along the meadows to Aunt Sally's run — and looked 
 in every willow bush that dammed the waters back, 
 like, and every bunch of weeds and brier-brake, all the 
 way, and sure enough I found him, he'd been killed 
 dead, and floated down the crick, and then the stream 
 had washed him up into a heap of broken sticks and 
 briers, and when the waters fell, for there had been a 
 little freshet, they left him tliere breast uppermost — and 
 I was glad to find him — ^for I think. Archer, as that shot 
 was the nicest, prettiest, etarnal, darndest, long, good 
 shot, I iver did make, anyhow ; and it was so dark I 
 could n't see him." 
 
 Many of his friends and mine will recognize the char- 
 acter, to whom I allude, as he figures largely in the 
 pages of " Tlie "Warwick Woodlands," from which the 
 above extract is taken, of " My Shooting-box," and the 
 other sporting scenes of Frank Forester, wherein nothing 
 good or generous or kind is related of Tom Draw, that 
 does not fall far short of the reality. 
 
 Before closing this article, I will correct an error into 
 which I perceive I have inadvertently fallen in the first 
 page of it, wherein I said that this duck, alone of the 
 family, has the habit of perching, roosting, and nesting 
 on trees. 
 
THE SUMMEE DUCK. 219 
 
 I should have said alone of the American family ; for 
 ^ I find a note by Mr. Brewer, the last editor of Wilson, 
 annexed to his article on our bird, which I prefer to 
 subjoin instead of merely making a verbal alteration, 
 since I doubt not many others are in the same error, who 
 will be glad to be corrected in detail. It appears, as 
 will be seen below, that, although there are no European 
 tree-ducks, nor any other American, there is a family of 
 Asiatic and African congeners of our Summer Duck, for 
 which an especial name has been proposed, though not 
 as yet generally adopted. I might add that the present 
 Latin name of our bird, anas sponsa, signifies, being 
 interpreted, the hride ducic, from the rare elegance of its 
 form and beauty of its plumage — a pretty name for a 
 pretty creature. 
 
 "Tli^se lovely ducks may be said to represent an 
 incessorial form among the anaiidcB ; they build and 
 perch on trees, and spend as much time on land as upon 
 the waters ; Dr. Richardson has given this group, con- 
 taining few Inembers, the title of dendronessa from their 
 arboreal habits. Our present species is the only one 
 belonging to America, where it ranges rather to the 
 south than north ; the others, I believe, are all confined 
 to India. They are remarkable for the beauty and 
 splendor of their plumage, its glossy, silky texture, and 
 for the singular form of the scapulars, which, instead of 
 an extreme development in length, receive it in the con- 
 trary proportion of breadth ; and instead of lying flat, in 
 
220 AMEEICAN GAME. 
 
 some stand perpendicular to the back. They are all 
 adorned with an ample crest, pendulous, and running 
 down the back of the neck. They are easily domesti- 
 cated, but I do not know that they have been yet of 
 much utility in this state, being more kept on account 
 of their beauty, and few have been introduced except to 
 our menageries ; with a little trouble at first, they might 
 form a much more common ornament about our artificial 
 pieces of water. It is the only form of a Tree Duck 
 common to this continent ; in other countries there are, 
 however, two or three others of very great importance 
 in the natural system, whose structure and habits have 
 yet been almost entirely overlooked or lost sight of. 
 These seem to range principally over India, and more 
 sparingly in Africa ; and the Summer Duck is the soli- 
 tary instance, the United States the nearly extreme 
 limit, of its own peculiarities in this division of the 
 world." 
 
 With this note I close this paper, expressing only the 
 hope that the bird will become more largely domestica- 
 ted ; as no more beautiful adornment can be conceived 
 to the parks and shrubberies of gentlemen, such more 
 especially as possess the advantages of small inland 
 rivulets, or pieces of ornamental water, whether natural 
 or artificial. 
 
THE AMEEICAN DEER. 
 
 - Cervus Yirginianus. 
 
 This beautiful and noble animal, formerly so abundant 
 in every part of the United States, from the Great Lakes 
 to the ocean, and from the eastern boundaries of Maine 
 to the southern limit of their vast empire, is peculiar to 
 the continent of America, and differs entirely from each 
 of the three European species, with two of which it has 
 been at times confounded, and even more markedly 
 from all the African and Asiatic varieties. 
 
 The deer of Europe, and of Great Britain in particular, 
 fi'om which country we have derived most of our sport- 
 ing propensities and traditions, and I might add all our 
 sporting nomenclature, consist of three very distinct 
 species. Tliese are, first, the Red Deer, which is now 
 found only in the Highlands of Scotland, with the 
 exception of a few in Somerset and Devon, and the 
 extreme western wilds of Ireland. The male of these is 
 known as the Stag or Hart, and the female as the Hind. 
 This is a magnificent and imposing creature, handsomer 
 
222 AMERICAN GAME. 
 
 even and more stately than our deer, with branched 
 antlers exactly similar to those of our great western Elk, 
 though of inferior size. 
 
 Second, the Fallow Deer, the species usually kept in a 
 semi-domesticated state in the parifs of the nobility and 
 gentry, both as an ornament to the scenery, and as an 
 article of luxury for the table. This is a beautiful and 
 graceful creature, far less stately than the Hed Deer, or 
 the denizen of our forests, but slightly and symmetrically 
 moulded, and the very heau ideal of grace and airy 
 motion. It has flattened or palmated horns, about mid- 
 way in form between those of the Moose and Cariboo, or 
 American Reindeer, though, of course, proportionally 
 smaller. In color, the Fallow Deer differs materially 
 from all the other species, and is itself by no means 
 uniform, some individuals being almost black, and others 
 nearly white ; the majority are, however, beautifully 
 dappled, and some pied, with tints of brown fawn color 
 and yellowish white. 
 
 The Fallow Deer is not believed to be indigenous to 
 Great Britain, nor indeed to Europe, being, I imagine, 
 of oriental origin ; nor is it found any where in a state 
 of nature or at large ; being confined exclusively in 
 parks or chases of more or less extensive range, often 
 including large tracts of forest land ; and it has been 
 observed that the wilder the character of the park, and 
 the more broken and forest-like the nature of the soil, 
 especially when it produces heather or fern in abun- 
 
THE AMKRICAN DEEK. 223 
 
 dance, tlie wilder and more gamy is tlie flavor of tlie 
 venison. 
 
 The third variety is the Eoe, a native of all the wilder 
 and more broken forest regions of Great Britain, both 
 north and south, though they are few in number as 
 compared with either of the other species. They are 
 much smaller than the Ked or Fallow Deer, of a uniform 
 reddish-brown color, and are distinguished by small erect 
 horns, with a single prong in front. Of the two last 
 species the male is known as the buck, the female as the 
 doe. 
 
 The American Deer in size, color, the branched for- 
 mation of its antlers, and the character of its flesh, most 
 nearly resembles the Red Deer of Europe, but is clearly 
 distinguished from that animal by some peculiarities in 
 its structure and by the shape of its horns. In the 
 European Red Deer, the direction of the main stem of 
 the antlers is directly backward, all the branches or 
 prongs springing from the anterior side and pointing 
 forward, the lowest on each side, or brow antler, which 
 is the principal defense of the animal agains.t his natural 
 enemies, the wolf and dog, bending forward and down- 
 ward on the outer side of the brow and eye. 
 
 In the American Deer, the main stem at first inclines 
 backward for about half its length, but then turns for- 
 ward with a bold curve, and terminates in a sharp 
 deflected point, all the prongs, which are sometimes 
 themselves bifid, and even trifid, arising from the poste- 
 
•224: AMERICAN GAME. 
 
 rior side, and arising from it in a forward and upward 
 direction. The only exception to this is tlie brow antler, 
 a short erect spike, which arises from the inner and 
 anterior surface of the principal stem. 
 
 In color the American Deer is generally of a reddish- 
 brown, or fulvous tint, darker above, and pure white on 
 the chin, throat, belly, and inside of the fore-legs, the 
 upper parts being more or less diversified with cinereous 
 gray, or bluish hairs. These' become more numerous 
 during the summer, and in the autumn, and during the 
 winter the whole animal assumes a grayer tint. Tlie 
 ears are margined with dark brown, and are white 
 within, the upper side of the tail is of the same color 
 with the upper parts in general, and is white below. 
 The hoofs are jet black. 
 
 The female is smaller than the male, and hornless, biit 
 otherwise resembles him exactly ; the fawns are beauti- 
 fally spotted with irregiilar wliite spots on a fulvous or 
 tawny ground. The male is generally known as the 
 buck, and the female as the doe ; though, for my own 
 part, I consider from their greater analogy to the Euro- 
 pean Ked Deer than to any other variety, that Hart and 
 Hind would be the more correct and sportsmanlike 
 nomenclature. This is, however, at best but a subordi- 
 nate matter, and need not be insisted on, especially until 
 the graver and nfore important errors in sporting nomen- 
 clature, among the birds and fishes especially, have been 
 corrected. 
 
THE AMEEICAN DEEE. 225 
 
 The deer lias usually but one, never more than two 
 fawns at a birtli. In the southern parts of the State of 
 New York these are for the most part dropped in May 
 and June, but further north, somew^hat earlier in the 
 year. During the rutting season the males are bold and 
 extremely pugnacious among themselves, although not 
 like the Ked Deer capable of attacking men without 
 provocation. The cry of the deer when alarmed is a 
 quick, tremulous whistling sound, accompanied by a 
 stamp of the foot ; when mortally wounded they will at 
 times utter a faint bleat like that of a young calf. 
 
 In its habits the American Deer is, for the most part, 
 except in the vast prairies of the "West, a woodland 
 haunter, as, according to Catallus, was the deer of Greece 
 and Asia Minor, which, in his comprehensive and 
 picturesque compound he describes as sylvicultrix, tlie 
 haunter of the woodlands, and in this respect it diifers 
 from the Ked Deer of Great Britain, which prefers the 
 difficult and craggy mountain-tops, or the far-extended 
 downs covered with waving heather to the dark pine 
 woods of the Scottish Highlands, or the beautiful oak 
 coppices of Devonshire. 
 
 By law the killing of the American Deer has gene- 
 rally been restricted in most States to the months between 
 August and December, both inclusive, but so rapid is 
 the progress of annihilation going on with Ihese beauti- 
 ful animals that in some counties of 'New York the only 
 taonths during which it is lawful to take them, are Sep- 
 10* 
 
226 AMERICAIT GAME. 
 
 tember, October, and l^ovember. All legislation, how- 
 ever, on the subject of game preservation would seem to 
 be hopeless, so long as the whole tone and spirit of the 
 popular mind of the masses is regularj set against their 
 enforcement. Nothing, indeed, is more singular or more 
 to be lamented than the strange perversion of intellect 
 which seems to have come over the whole body of the 
 wliite settlers of North America, whether of Canada, 
 New Brunswick, the Atlantic States, or the far West, 
 leading them to wage incessant and merciless war on 
 every wild animal, whether of fur, fin, or feather, 
 slaughtering them at all times, and in all places, in 
 season and out of season ; when their flesh is nutritive 
 and delicious, when it is utterly unfit for the food of 
 man ; when their peltries or feathers are commercially 
 valuable, when they are worthless; slaughtering them 
 wantonly and recklessly for the mere love of slaughter, 
 and often leaving their carcases to decay in the depths 
 of the forest, until they are becoming all but extinct, as 
 in a few years they unquestionably will, unless sounder 
 views shall hereafter prevail. The willful waste and 
 wanton annihilation of the buffalo in the "West ; the 
 knocking on the head of the deer, in New York and 
 Pennsylvania, with clubs, by snow-shoe mounted ruffians, 
 during the deep snows of winter, when their flesh and 
 hides are alike valueless— and that literally by tens of 
 thousands ; and the sweeping the spawning beds of the 
 salmon with the seine, and persecuting the spent and 
 
THE iUIERIC'AN DEER. 227 
 
 worthless fish with spear and torch, till they have disap- 
 peared from their most favorite rivers in the British 
 Provinces, are all forms of this same wanton, wicked, I 
 had well nigh said fiendish spirit, which is really a char- 
 acteristic, as I have observed, of the white settler of 
 every part of America. 
 
 It is an absurdity to say that the spread of civilization 
 and culture has destroyed the game, for it is a well- 
 known fact that game of all sorts increases in the very 
 same ratio in which cultivation increases, if left unmo- 
 lested in their seasons of reproduction, nesting, spawn- 
 ing, or tending their helpless young, so long as a sufii- 
 ciency of woodland is left to afford them shelter. 
 
 In Scotland, the Red Deer, which are strictly pre- 
 served, so far as the prohibition to kill them out of 
 season goes, but neither fed, tended, nor herded, are and 
 have been for years rapidly on the increase ; and it 
 would probably be within the mark to say that there are 
 at this instant fifty times as many Red Deer in the small 
 space to the northward of the Highland line, than in all 
 the States between Maine and the Delaware. In the 
 eastern and northern parts of Maine, they are still plen- 
 tiful despite the sedulous efforts of the lumber-men to 
 annihilate the race, and the occasional devastation of the 
 wolves. In the northern parts of Vermont, Massachu- 
 setts, and Connecticut, a few are still to be found, though 
 they are but as individuals compared to the vast herds 
 which were wont to roam those green glades and wild 
 
228 AMEKICAN GA^IE. 
 
 mountain pastures. With tlie exception of a few on 
 Long Island, in tlie northern counties, and about the still 
 wild banks of the Delaware, in 'New York, they are 
 already extinct. In New Jersey, with a small wretched 
 remnant of the once as abundant heath-hen, prairie-fowl, 
 or pinnated grouse, a few straggling deer may still be 
 found in that remote and little traversed region called 
 from its prevailing growth, the pines, lying along the 
 Atlantic coast. Elsewhere they exist not. To the west- 
 ward of Pennsylvania, and through tlie South, even so 
 far as Texas and New Mexico, through the West to the 
 Kocky Mountains, and northward through both the 
 Canadas, they are still abundant, and will continue so, it 
 may be expected, for some years to come — in the 
 Canadas and the Southern States especially, where the 
 laws for their preservation are rigidly enforced, and 
 where the greater number of educated men and gentry 
 settled throughout the rural districts, have produced 
 some effect on the mind of the masses a^ regards the 
 wholesale and useless extinction of game out of season. 
 
 The modes of pursuing and taking this fine animal, 
 whether for pleasure or profit, are almost innumerable, 
 but of these almost all partake of the poaching or pot- 
 hunting system too much to obtain from me more than a 
 mere passing notice. 
 
 The first and most generally practiced of these is what 
 is variously called driving, or stand-hunting, in which 
 the shooters are placed on the circuit of a certain tract 
 
THE AMERICAN DEER. 22Sj 
 
 of woodlands, each one at the debouchure of a deer-path, 
 upon some lake, streamlet, or road which it may chance 
 to intersect, while the interior of the circuit is beat by 
 drivers and hounds, wliich force the deer from the tract 
 by one or other of the paths ; and than this, although it 
 has, I know, its passionate votaries, I can conceive no 
 duller, more poacher-like, or less exciting sport — if sport 
 it must be called. 
 
 The standing shivering, or sweltering for hours, as it 
 may chance to be in August or in December, at a run- 
 way, perhaps not once hearing the hounds even at a 
 distance from morn till dewy eve ; perhaps catching for 
 a moment the volume of their cadenced cry, only to 
 hear it die away in the distance until the crack of a 
 remote rifle tells you that the deed is done, and that not 
 unto you is the doing of it; perhaps, if you have the 
 very best luck of it, hearing the cry come nigher, nigher, 
 swelling momently on the ear, hearing the bushes 
 shaken, and the dry sticks crackling under a rapid foot, 
 and then to complete the whole, seeing a great, timid, 
 trembling, helpless beast driven up to within ten feet of 
 the muzzle of your shot-gun or rifle, which, after whist- 
 ling or bleating at him to compel him to stop short in 
 his tracks and stand motionless as a mark for your buck- 
 shot practice, you incontinently butcher in cold blood. 
 
 Yet a more scurvy mode than this, of deerjiunting, is 
 practiced by night, under the name of fire-hunting, in 
 two difi^erent ways, either by floating and paddling in 
 
230 AMERICA2J GAME. 
 
 canoes along the margin of streams and brooks to which 
 the deer come down to feed, having a light elevated in 
 the bows upon a plank which partially conceals the 
 person of the shooter — or by walking stealthily through 
 the woods with a fire-pan supported by a staff, and filled 
 with blazing light wood knots, carried before you by an 
 assistant, close in whose, wake you crawl along, with 
 ready gun, prepared for secret murder. Seeing the 
 mysterious lights through the glimmering twilight of the 
 woods, the timid deer stands at gaze half curious, half 
 fascinated, until the strong reflected light falling on the 
 balls of his distended eyes, makes them glare out like 
 balls of fire, and enables his dastardly associate to point 
 the deadly tube directly at the centre of his broad fair 
 brow between them, and so to slay him unsuspecting. 
 
 Worse yet, indeed worst of all, where all are bad and 
 base, is the practice borrowed from the Indian, who 
 killing not for sport but for necessity, not to gratify the 
 hunter's gallant zeal, but to supply his wigwam with 
 food for its inmates, at all times killed from ambush, 
 and never discharging an arrow but when he was sure of 
 killing — is the practice, I say, of lying in ambush by 
 some salt-lick, or spring to which the deer comes down 
 to drink, and, well concealed to the leeward of his path, 
 to shoot him down without difficulty, as without excite- 
 ment. 
 
 The more legitimate modes — the only modes to which 
 1 think the true sportsman will resort — are deer-stalking, 
 
THE AMERICAN DEEE. 231 
 
 or as it is called still-lmnting, in tlie nortli — hunting the 
 Hart manfully and gallantly with fleet horses, and a cry 
 of well-matched and tuneful fox-hounds, with the blythe 
 view halloa, and the cheery blast of the key-bugle, with 
 the chivalric sportsmen of the sunny south — and last, 
 not least, coursing him with a leash of fleet greyhounds, 
 or, better yet, a leash of the tall, wire-haired, rough- 
 coated deer-hounds of the Scottish Highlands, over the 
 wild and verdant prairies of the West. « 
 
 Tlie first of these methods is the only one, which the 
 rough, craggy, and mountainous character of the forest- 
 land frequented by deer in the Northern States, which 
 horses cannot for the most part traverse at all, certainly 
 nx)t at speed, -will allow the hunter to adopt ; and if it 
 lack the maddening excitement of galloping over bush, 
 bank, and scaur, taking bold leaps, and striding irresist- 
 ible over ravine or gully, over fallen tree or rough rail- 
 fence, with the fierce music of the hounds stirring your 
 brain almost to madness, it requires at least so many 
 qualities of skill and science, such quickness of eyesight, 
 such instinctive calculation of causes and effects, such 
 Indian-like power of following the faintest trail, of 
 detecting by the displacement of a yellow leaf, by the 
 disordered foliage of a broken bush, or the broken bark 
 on a frayed sapling, whither and when, and at what pace 
 the object of pursuit has passed that way, that by the 
 consciousness of, and confidence in your own self-power, 
 self-energy, and" self-sufiiciency to all emergencies, that 
 
232 AMERICAN GAME. 
 
 it must be considered as a sport, and as one of a high, 
 and noble order. To these advantages again are to be 
 added the wild and glorious haunts of nature into which 
 it leads our vagrant footsteps — the springs, fitted to be 
 the baths of brighter njmphs than any of those who 
 trod immortal. Dryads or Oreads of Delia's train, by 
 which we eat our frugal meal, and with which we qualify 
 our temperate cups — the high and liberal mountain-tops, 
 visited *by a clearer and more lustrous sunshine, fanned 
 by a purer and more exhilarating air, than any known to 
 the sleek citizen, to which we climb, led by the fierce 
 excitement of pursuit ; and then the ruddy watch-fire 
 silently blazing in the depths of the mysterious wilder- 
 ness before the bark-roofed shanty, before the hemlock 
 bed, which shelter and console us after the long tramp 
 and the hurried chase — the awakening to the cries of the 
 early birds, in the fresh gray of the awakening dawn, 
 the delicious bath in the clear basin of the mountain- 
 torrent, the woodman's morning meal of trout or venison, 
 cooked by the glowing embers, and eaten with no better 
 condiments than appetite and exercise and health may 
 furnish — all these — all these are the delights which add 
 so inspiriting a charm to the ItTorth Country still-hunt, 
 and half tempt the dwellers of pent cities to abandon 
 the culture, the luxury, the companionship, and the civ- 
 ilization of gentlemen, for the more congenial toils and 
 more inspiriting delights of the woodman's life. 
 
THE AMERICAN DEEB. 233 
 
 That is an aspiration which all men, who have tasted 
 of the freshness, the originality, the primitive elastic 
 vigor of the woodland life, untrammeled by no formulae, 
 fettered by no false and absurd conventionalities, a life 
 emphatically of men, desire to taste again — yearn after 
 it, how eagerly, when debarred from it by the hateful 
 necessities of business — and, when they return to it, 
 after years of desuetude, greet it as old men would greet 
 renewed manhood, or exiles restored home. This is the 
 feeling which is so instinct of life, and sunshine, and 
 breezy freshness in the writings of the earlier and more 
 original of England's poets — which prompted one great 
 Boman to cry mournfully, " rus, rus, qiiando ego te 
 aspiciam,^^ and another to admit half apologetically, as 
 if it were in some sort a reproach, " Flumina amem et 
 eylvas mutosque inglorius amnes f^ and in all breasts a 
 something of this hunter's spirit, under one form or 
 other will burst perennial, until we go whither the weary 
 are at rest, and the wicked cease from troubling. And 
 a good spirit it is, in moderation, and good to be 
 indulged — and so up with the forest chaunt. 
 
 So it is — yet let us sing 
 Honor to the old bowstring I 
 Honor to the bugle horn ! 
 Honor to the woods unshorn ! 
 Honor to the Lincoln green ! 
 Honor to the woodman keen ! 
 
234 AMERICAN GAME. 
 
 and health, and joj, and success still increasing to the 
 bold, the fair, the gallant hunter, as all ill-fortunes and 
 most foul reverses to the disloyal pot-hunter, the low and 
 sordid poacher of whatever land he be I 
 
IX. 
 SEPTEMBER. 
 
 €\t §xm\Mhx^t)! Ctal. 
 
 Anas Cardinensis. 
 
 Anas Discora. 
 CANADA ; BRITISH PROVINCES ; UNITED STATES. 
 
^^xiV^ .. 
 
THE GREEN-WINGED TEAL. 
 
 Anas Carolinensis. 
 
 THE BLUE-WINGED TEAL. 
 
 Anas Discors, 
 
 In this present month, the sport of duck-shooting on 
 the inland streams, rivers, and lakelets, may be held to 
 commence in earnest, as contrasted to the pursuit of the 
 same tribes on the outer bays, estuaries, and surf-banks. 
 About the end of September, and thenceforth through 
 this and the next ensuing month, according to the varia- 
 tions of the seasons, and the longer or shorter endurance 
 of that delicious time, the most delicions and most gor- 
 geous of the whole American year, known throughout 
 this continent as Indian Summer, the Mallard, and the 
 two beautiful species which we have placed at the head 
 of this article, begin to make their appearance on the 
 little lakes of the interior, and in the various streams 
 and rivers which fall into them, and thence downward to 
 the Atlantic seaboard. 
 
 In the vast northern solitudes of the great lakes of the 
 northwest, in all the streams of Upper Canada, even to 
 
238 AMERICAN GAME. 
 
 the feeders of Lake Superior, and throughout the western 
 country so far south as Texas, and northward to the 
 Columbia and the fur countries, the Blue- Winged Teal 
 breeds, literally by myriads. Throughout the great 
 lakes, it is abundant in the early autumn, becoming 
 excessively fat on the seed of the wild rice, with which 
 the shallows of all these waters are overgrown, and being 
 deservedly esteemed as one of the best, if not the very 
 best, of the duck tribe. But it is the first of its race to 
 remove from the wild, limpid waters, and wood-embo- 
 somed rivers of the great west, to the seaboard tide- waters, 
 taking the inland water-courses on their route, rarely 
 visiting the actual sea-shores, and proceeding on the 
 occurrence of the first frosts, for they are singularly sus- 
 ceptible of cold, to the Southern States, where they swarm, 
 especially in the inundated rice-fields of Georgia and 
 South Carolina, during the winter months.. 
 
 The Green-Winged Teal, which is the nearest con- 
 gener, and frequently the associate of the Blue-Wing, 
 -has a far less extensive range, so far as regards its breed- 
 ing-grounds, in as much as it never, so far as has been 
 satisfactorily shown, has nidificated or produced its 
 young south of the great lakes, nor even there in great 
 numbers, its favorite haunts for the purposes of repro- 
 duction, being the extreme northern swamps and wooded 
 morasses, almost up to the verge of the arctic circles. 
 It does not come down on its southward migration, at 
 nearly so early a period of the autumn as its congener, 
 
THE GEEEN-WINGED TEAL. 239 
 
 being less susceptible of cold, and tarrying on the Great 
 Lakes till the frosts set in with sufficient severity to pre- 
 vent its frequenting its favorite haunts with pleasure, or 
 obtaining its food with facility. It is rarely or never 
 seen in the Middle States during the summer, but is 
 tolerably abundant during the autumn on all the marshy 
 lakes and pools, and along the shores of all the reedy 
 rivers from the Great Lakes downward to the sea-board, 
 though, like the last named species, it is purely a fresh- 
 water duck, never frequenting the sea-shores or salt-bays, 
 finding no food thereon with which to gratify its delicate 
 and fastidious palate, which, eschewing fish, the larvse 
 of insects, and the lesser crustaccB^ relishes only the 
 seeds of the various water plants and grasses, the tender 
 leaves of sbme vegetables, and more especially the grain 
 of the wild rice, Zizania panicula effusa^ which is its 
 favorite article of subsistence, and one to which may be 
 ascribed the excellence of every bird of air or water 
 which feeds on it, from the Rice-Bird and the Rail, to 
 the Teal, the Canvass-Back, and even the large Thick- 
 Billed FuUgula^ closely allied to the Scoter, the Yelvet 
 Duck, and other uneatable sea-fowl of Lake Huron, 
 which are scarcely, if at all, inferior to the Red-Heads 
 of Chesapeake Bay, the Gunpowder, or the Potomac. 
 On the Susquehanna and the Delaware, both these 
 beautiful little ducks were in past years excessively 
 abundant, so that a good gunner, paddling one of the 
 sharp, swift skiffs peculiar to those waters, was certain 
 
240 AMERICAN GAME. 
 
 of tilling his boat witli these delicious ducks within a few 
 hours' shooting. Both of these species are rather tame 
 than otherwise, the blue-winged bird more particularly 
 which has a habit, on tlie lower waters of the Delaware 
 especially, of congregating on the mud in vast flocks, 
 sunning themselves in the serene and golden light of a 
 September noon, so careless and easy of approach, that 
 the gunner is frequently enabled to paddle his skiff 
 within a few yards of them, and to rake them with close 
 discharges of his heavy batteries. At times, when the 
 tide is out, and the birds are assembled on the flats out 
 of gunshot from the water's edge, the thorough-going 
 sportsman, reckless of wet feet or muddy breeches, will 
 run his skiff ashore, several hundred yards above or 
 below the flock, and getting cautiously overboard, will 
 push it before him over the smooth, slippery mud-flats, 
 keeping himself carefully concealed under its stern until 
 within gunshot, which he can sometimes reduce to so 
 little as fifteen or twenty yards, by this murderous and 
 stealthy method. The Green- Winged Teal is much less 
 apt to congregate, especially on shore, than the other, 
 and consequently affords less sport to the boat-shooter, 
 keeping for the most part afloat in little companies, or 
 trips, as they are technically called, very much on the 
 alert, and springing rapidly on the wing when disturbed. 
 They, and the Blue- Wings also, fly very rapidly, dodging 
 occasionally on the wing, not unlike to a wild, sharp- 
 flying Woodcock, and when they alight, darting down- 
 
THE GJJEEN-WINGED TEAL. 241 
 
 ward with a short, sudden twist among the reeds or 
 rushy covert, exactly after the fashion of the same bird. 
 
 The commoner and, in our opinion — where these birds 
 are abundant either along the courses of winding drains 
 or streamlets, or in large reedy marshes, with wet soil 
 and occasional pools or splashes — far the more exciting 
 way of killing them is to go carefully and warily on foot, 
 with a good medium-sizfed double-gun, say of eight to ten 
 pounds weight, and a thoroughly well broke and steady 
 spaniel, to retrieve and occasionally to flush the birds, 
 which will sometimes, though rarely, lie very hard. A 
 good sportsman will frequently, thus late in the autumn, 
 when the mornings are sharp and biting, and the noons - 
 warm and hazy, but before the ice makes, pick up, on 
 favorable ground, his eight or nine couple in a day's 
 walking, with a chance of picking up at the same time a 
 few Snipe, Golden Plovers, Curlew, or Godwit; and this, 
 in our mind, is equal to slaughtering a boat load by 
 sneaking up in ambush to within twenty yards of a great 
 company, whistling to make them lift their heads and 
 ruffle up their loosened plumage, so as to give easy 
 entrance to the shot, and then pouring into them at half 
 point-blank range, a half pound of heavy shot. 
 
 "In the southern States they are commonly taken," 
 says Wilson, in " vast numbers, in traps placed on the 
 small dry eminences that here and there rise above the 
 water of the inundated rice-fields.' These places are 
 strewed with "rice, and by the common contrivance 
 1.1 
 
242 AMEEICAN GAME. * 
 
 called a figure four, they are cauglit alive in hollow 
 traps." This we, of course, merely mention as illus- 
 trative of the habits of the bird ; for, of course, no sports- 
 man would dream of resorting to so worse than poacher- 
 like proceeding. The mode described by the eloquent 
 pioneer of American natural history, is probably prac- 
 tised, for the most pail;, by the negroes for the supply 
 of their masters' table, and furnishing their own pockets 
 with a little extra change, and is not used by the plant- 
 ers as a means of sport or amusement. It must be 
 remembered, also, that Wilson, than whom there is no 
 writer more to be relied on in matters which -^e relates 
 ^f his own knowledge, and as occurring in his own days, 
 must often be taken cuTTb grano sails, as to the numbers 
 of birds slain in this way or that within a certain time — 
 things which he records, probably, on hearsay, and on 
 which — we are sorry to say it — even good sportsmen, 
 men who on any other subject would scorn to deviate 
 one hair's breadth from the truth, will not hesitate to 
 draw a bow as long and as strong as Munchausen's. 
 Again, he writes of times when sporting was but little 
 pursued, otherwise than as a method of procuring supe- 
 rior food for the kible, or for the purpose of destroying 
 noxious vermin and beasts of prey ; • when the rules of 
 sportsmanship were little understood and as little re- 
 garded ; and, lastly, when game abounded to a degree 
 literally inconceivable in our day — although we have 
 ourselves seen, with sorrow, the diminution, amounting 
 
 .3^ 
 
THE GEEEN- WINGED TEAL. 243 
 
 in many regions around our large cities almost to ex- 
 tinction, of all birds and beasts— nay, but even fish of 
 chase, within the last twenty years. We must be care- 
 ful therefore not to charge exaggeration on a writer who 
 beyond a doubt, faithfully recorded that which he him- 
 self saw and enjoyed in his day; which we might see 
 likewise and enjoy in our generation, and our children 
 and grand-children after us, if it were not for the greedy, 
 stupid, selfish, and brutal pot-hunting propensities of our 
 population, alike rural of the country and mechanical ol 
 the cities, which seems resolutely and of set purpose 
 bent on the utter annihilation of every species of game, 
 whether of fur, fin, or feather, which is yet found within 
 our boundaries. 
 
 In my opinion, the common error of all American 
 fowlers and duck shooters, lies, in the first place, in the 
 overloading the gun altogether, causing it to recoil so 
 much as to be exceedingly disagreeable and even pain- 
 ful and in the same degree diminishing the eflfect of the 
 discharge ; for it must never be forgotten that when a 
 gun recoils, whatever force is expended on the retro- 
 gressive motion of the breech, that same force is to be 
 deducted from the propulsion of the charge. In the 
 second place, he erroneously loads with extremely large 
 and heavy shot, the result of which is, in two respects, 
 inferior to that of a lighter and higher number. First, 
 as there will be three or four pellets of No. 4 for every 
 one pellet of A or B in a charge, and, consequently, as 
 
24-i AMERICAN GAME. 
 
 tlie load is tlierebj so mucli tlie more regularly distrib- 
 uted, and so much the more likely to strike the object, 
 and that in several places more, in the ratio of three or 
 four to one, than could be effected by A's or B's. 
 Second, as the flesh will constantly close over the wound 
 made by a small shot, so as to cause the bleeding to go 
 on internally to the engorgement of the tissues and suf- 
 focation by hemorrhage ; whereas the wound made by 
 the large grain will relieve itself by copious bleeding, 
 and the bird so injured will oftentimes recover, after 
 having: fallen even to the surface of the water, or lain 
 
 to ,5^ 
 
 flapping, as it were, in the death-struggle on the blood- 
 stained sand or grassy hassocks. This fact has been well 
 noticed, and several examples adduced to prove its 
 tnith, by Mr. Giraud, in his exceedingly clear and 
 correct, though to our taste, far too brief volume on the 
 " Birds of Long Island." 
 
 For my own use I invariably adopt for all the smaller 
 species of duck — as the two varieties;, of Teal, the 
 Summer Duck, the Golden Eye, and the Buffel-headed 
 Duck, Anates, Carolinensis, Discors, /Sponsa, and JF\di- 
 gulcEj Clangula, and Albeola — the same shot which is 
 generally used for the various birds known on our shores 
 and rivers as bay-snipe, viz : No. 4 or 5 — the latter best 
 for the Plovers, the former for duck, whether in large or 
 small guns. In this relation I may observe that, on one 
 occasion — the only one, by the way, on which I ever 
 saw a green-winged teal in the summer season — ^I killed 
 
THE GEEEN-WINGED TEAL. 245 
 
 a coiq^le of these beautiful birds, right and left, while 
 woodcock shooting, in Orange County, New York, with 
 ISTo. 8 shot. They sprang quite unexpectedly from behind 
 a wdllow bush, on tlie Wawayanda creek, and I dropped 
 them both quite dead^ somewhat to my own astonish- 
 ment, and to the utter astounding of Fat Tom, who 
 witnessed it, into the middle of the stream, respectively 
 at twenty and twenty-five yards distance. Until I recov- 
 ered them I supposed that they were young wood ducks, 
 but on examination they proved to be young green- 
 winged teal, of that season, in their immature j)lumage. 
 This must have been in the last week of July or the first 
 of August — it was many years since, and as at that time 
 I kept no shooting diary, 1 unfortunately am unable to 
 verify the exact date. The birds must, I conclude, have 
 been bred in that vicinity, by what means I cannot con- 
 jecture, unless that the parent birds might have been 
 wounded in the spring, and disabled from completing 
 their northern migration, and that this, as is sometimes 
 the case with the minor birds of passage, might have 
 superinduced their breeding in that, for them, far south- 
 ern region. In corroboration of this I may add that, in 
 the spring of 1846, a couple of these birds haunted a 
 small reedy island in front of my house, on the Passaic, 
 to so late a day in summer — the 29th, if I do not err, of 
 May — that I sedulously avoided disturbing them, in the 
 hope that they w^ould breed there. This I yet think 
 would have been the case but for the constant disturb- 
 
246 AMERICAN GAME. 
 
 ance of that lovely river throughout the summer by 
 gangs of ruffianly loafers, with whom the neighboring 
 town of Newark abounds beyond any other town of its 
 size in the known world, boating upon its silvery surface 
 day and night, and rendering day and night equally 
 hideous with their howls and blasphemies. 
 
 Before proceeding to the description of these birds it 
 is well to observe that it will be found the better way, 
 in approaching them, as indeed all wild fowl, to work, 
 if possible, up wind to them ; not that wild fowl have 
 the power, as some pretend, of scenting the odor of the 
 human enemy on the tainted gale, as is undoubtedly the 
 case with deer and many other quadrupeds, but that 
 their hearing is exceedingly acute, and that their heads 
 are pricked up to listen, at the occurrence of the least 
 unusual sound, and at the next moment — Tiey^ presto 1 — 
 they are off. 
 
 The little cat at the head of this paper, for the spirited 
 and faithful execution of which the author and artist 
 must be permitted to return his acknowledgments to his 
 friend, Mr. Brightly, represents a favorite feeding-ground 
 of the various tribes of water fowl, as is indicated by 
 the large gaggle of geese passing over, from right to 
 left, and the trip of ^reen- wings alighting to the call of 
 a clamorous drake in the background. On a rocky spur 
 of the shore, in the right foreground, is a male Green- 
 Winged Teal, in the act of springing, with his legs 
 already gathered under him ; and, still nearer to the front 
 
THE GREEN-WINGED TEAL. 247 
 
 of the picture, on the right, a Blue- Winged Drake, 
 swimming on the limpid water, soliciting his congener, 
 with reverted neck, and the harsh gabble — whence his 
 name — to take wing and greet the new-comers — ^it being 
 the object of the draftsman to give an idea not merely 
 of the markings and form of these two most beautiful 
 and graceful of the duck tribe, but of their motions, the 
 character of their flights, and the nature of their feeding- 
 grounds and habitations. 
 
 The head of the Green- Winged Teal is of moderate 
 size and compressed ; the bill nearly as long as the head, 
 deeper than broad at the base, depressed at the tip ; 
 neck slender, of moderate length; body full and 
 depressed ; wings rather small, feet short and rather far 
 back. 
 
 The plumage is short and blended ; that of the hinder 
 head and neck elongated into a soft filamentous droop- 
 ing crest. The bill is black ; iris hazel ; feet light blue ; 
 head and upper part of neck bright chestnut brown ; a 
 broad band of shining rich bottle-green, narrowing from 
 the eye backward and downward to the nape, margined 
 below with black, anterior to which is a white line ; 
 chin dusky brown. Upper parts and flanks white, 
 beautifully and closely undulated with narrow lines of 
 deep gray. Anterior to the wings is a broad transverse 
 lunated white bar — this alone distinguishing the Ameri- 
 can from the Ewroj^ean hi/rd. The wing coverts, scapu- 
 lars and quills gray. The speculum bright green above, 
 
248 AMEEICAH GAME. 
 
 bliie-black below, margined posteriorly with pure white. 
 Tail brownish gray, margined with paler brown. Lower 
 part of the neck undulated, like the back. Breast pale 
 rufous, spotted and banded with black ; white below. 
 Abdomen white, barred with gTay. A black patch 
 under the tail ; the lateral tail coverts tawny, the larger 
 black, white-tipped and margined. Length of male 
 bird, 14|.24. Female, 13|.22i. 
 
 The description and drawing of this bird are taken, by 
 kind permission, which the writer gratefully acknowl- 
 edges, from a fine specimen in the Academy of Natural 
 Science of this city. 
 
 The Blue-Winged Teal is rather larger than the abovej 
 the male measuring 16.31J, the female 15.24. 
 
 Tlie shape and proportions of this bird closely resem- 
 ble those of the latter, but in plumage it widely differs 
 from it. The bill is blueish black ; iris dark hazel ; feet 
 dull yellow, webs dusky ; upper part of the head black, 
 a semilunar patch of pure white, margined with black 
 anterior to the eye ; the rest of the head and upper neck 
 deep pui-plish gray, with changeable ruddy reflections. 
 The lower hind neck, back, alula, and upper parts gene- 
 rally, rich chocolate brown, every feather margined with 
 paler tints, from reddish buff to pale reddish gi'ay, with 
 black central markings, changing to metallic green in 
 the centres. Upper wing coverts rich ultra-marine blue, 
 with a metallic lustre ; the lower parts pale reddish 
 orange, shaded on the breast with purplish red, and 
 
THE BLUE-WINGED TEAL. 249 
 
 tliickly spotted with roundish or elliptical black spots ; 
 axillary feathers, lower wing coverts, and a patch on the 
 side of the rump, pure white ; lower tail coverts brown- 
 ish black. 
 
 These, with the exception of the Buffel-Headed Duck, 
 are the two smallest ; with the exception of the Summer 
 Duck, the two loveliest ; with the exception of the Can- 
 vas-Back the two best of the duck tribe. Well met be 
 they, whether on the board or in the field — shot be they 
 with 'No. 4 — eaten roast, underdone, with cayenne and a 
 squeeze of a lemon, lubricated with red wine, quantum 
 suff. 
 
X. 
 OCTOBER. 
 
 Ortyx Virginianue. 
 
 THE AMEKICAN PAETEIDGE. 
 
 CANADA WEST; MASSACHUSETTS TO MEXICO. 
 
 %\t §itttm 
 
 Ardea Lentiginosa. 
 
 THE QUAWK. THE DUIS^KADOO. 
 
 CANADA; BRITISH PROVINCES; UNITED STATES* 
 
THE AMERICAN QUAIL, OR VIRGINIA 
 PARTRIDGE. 
 
 Ori/yx Virginiamcs. Perdix Yirginianus. 
 
 November is upon us — hearty, brown, healthful Novem- 
 ber, harbinger of his best joys to the ardent sportsman, 
 and best beloved to him of all the months of the great 
 annual cycle ; November, with its clear, bracing, west- 
 ern breezes ; its sun, less burning, but how far more 
 beautiful than that of fierce July, as tempered now and 
 softened by the rich, golden haze of Indian summer, 
 quenching his torrent rays in its mellow, liquid lustre, 
 and robing the distant hills with wreaths of purple light, 
 half mist, half shrouded sunshine ; November, with its 
 wheat and buckwheat stubbles, golden or bloody red ; 
 with its sere maize leaves rustling in the breeze, whence 
 the quail pipes incessant ; with its gay woodlands flaunt- 
 ing in their many-colored garb of glory ; with its waters 
 more clearly calm, more brilliantly transparent than 
 those of any other season ; November, when the farmer's 
 toils have rendered their reward, and his reaped harvests 
 glut his teeming garners, sa that he too, like the pent 
 
254: ' AMERICAN GAME. 
 
 denizen of swarming cities, may take his leisure with 
 his gun " in the wide vale, or by the deep wood-side," 
 and enjoy the rapture of those sylvan sports which he 
 may not participate in sweltering July, in which they 
 are alas! permitted by ill-considered legislation, in 
 every other state, save thine, konest and honorable 
 Massachusetts.* 
 
 In truth there is no period of the whole year so well 
 adapted, both by the seasonable climate, and the state 
 of the country, shorn of its crops, and not now to be 
 injured by the sportsman's steady stride, or the gallop 
 of his high-bred setters, both by the abundance of game 
 in the cleared stubbles and the sere woodlands, and by 
 the aptitude of i the brisk, bracing weather, for the 
 endurance of fatigue, and the enjoyment of manful 
 exercise, as this our favorite November. 
 
 In this month, the beautiful Kuffed Grouse, that 
 mountain-loving and man-shunning hermit, steals down 
 from his wild haunts among the giant rhododendrons, 
 
 * A law was passed, during t£e spring' of the present year, in that 
 respectable and truly conservative State, by which the murder of un- 
 fledged July Woodcock, by cockney gunners, was prohibited ; and the 
 close time judiciously prolonged until September. The debate was 
 remarkable for two things, the original genius with which the Hon. 
 Member for Westboro' persisted that Snipe are Woodcock, and Wood- 
 cock Snipe, all naturalists to the contrary notwithstanding ; and the 
 pertinent reply to the complaint of a city member, that to abolish July 
 shooting would rob the city sportsman of his sport — viz., that in that 
 case it would give it to the farmer. Marry, say we, amen, so be it I 
 
THE AMERICAN QUAIL. 255 
 
 and evergreen rock-calmias, to nearer woodskirts, and 
 cedar-brakes margining the red buckwheat stubbles, to 
 be found there by the staunch dogs, and brought to bag 
 by the quick death-shot, " at morn and dewy eve," with- 
 out the toil and torture, often most vain and vapid, of' 
 scaling miles on miles of moimtain-ledges, struggling 
 through thickets of impenetrable verdure among the 
 close-set stems of hemlock, pine, or juniper, only to hear 
 the startled rush of an unseen pinion, and to pause, 
 breathless, panting, and outdone, to curse, while you 
 gather breath for a renewed effort, the bird which haunts 
 such covert, and the covert which gives shelter to such 
 birds. 
 
 In this month, if no untimely frost, or envious snow 
 flurry come, premature, to chase him to the sunny 
 swamps of Carolina and the rice-fields of Georgia, the 
 plump, white-fronted, pink-legged autumn "Woodcock, 
 flaps up from the alder-brake with his shrill whistle, and 
 soars away, away, on a swift and powerful wing above 
 the russet tree-tops, to be arrested only by the instinctive 
 eye and rapid finger of the genuine sportsman ; and no 
 longer as in faint July to be bullied and bungled to 
 death by every German city pot-hunter, or every potter- 
 ing rustic school-boy, equipped and primed for murder, 
 on his Saturday's half holyday. 
 
 In this month, the brown-jacketed American hare, 
 which our folk will persist in- calling Rabhit — though it 
 neither lives in warrens, nor burrows habitually under 
 
256 AMERICAN GAME. 
 
 ground, and tliongli it breeds not eYery month in the 
 year, which are the true distinctive characteristics of the 
 Rabbit — is in his prime of conditions, the leverets of the 
 season, plump and well-grown ; and the old bucks and 
 does, recruited after the breeding^eason, in high health 
 and strength, and now legitimate food for gunj)owder, 
 legitimate quarry for the chase of the merry beagles. 
 
 In this month especially, the Quail, the best-loved and 
 choicest object of the true sportsman's ambition ; the 
 bird which alone affords more brilliant and exciting 
 sport than all the rest beside ; the bravest on the wing, 
 and the best on the board ; the swiftest and strongest 
 flyer of any feathered game ; the most baffling to find, 
 the most troublesome to follow up, and when followed 
 up and found, the most difficult to kill in style ; the 
 beautiful American Quail is in his highest force and 
 feather ; and in this month, according to the laws of all 
 the States, even the most rigorous and stringent in pres- 
 ervation, killable legitimately under statute. 
 
 In ISTew York, generally, the close-time for the Quail 
 ends with October, and he may not be slain until the 
 first day of ]S"ovember ; in New Jersey, ortygicide com- 
 mences on the 25th of October, in Massachusetts and 
 Connecticut on some day between the 15th of the past 
 and the first of the present month; in Pennsylvania, 
 Delaware and Maryland, where they are something 
 more forward, as breeding earlier in the season than in 
 the Eastern States, on the first of October ; and in 
 
THE AMEBIC AN QUAIL. 257 
 
 Canada "West, where tliey are exceeding]/ abundant, on 
 the first of September ; which is, for many reasons, 
 entirely too early, as hereafter I shall endeavor to 
 demonstrate. 
 
 In my own opinion, the first of November, and even 
 the middle of October, are too late for the termination 
 of the Quail's close-time, inasmuch as five-sevenths of 
 the broods in ordinarily forward seasons are full-groAvn 
 and strong on the wing, as well as all the crops off the 
 ground, by the first of October ; and although the late, 
 second, or third broods may be undersized, they are still 
 Avell able to take care of themselves in case the j)arent 
 birds are killed ; whereas, on account of their immature 
 size, they are safe from the legitimate shot; arid, on 
 account of their imsaleability in market to the restau- 
 rant, from the poaching pot-shot also. 
 
 I should, therefore, myself, be strongly inclined to 
 advocate the adoption of one common day, and that day 
 the first of October, for the close-time of all our upland 
 game ; the English Snipe alone excepted. Touching the 
 reasons for postponing the day of Woodcock-shooting, a 
 notice will be found in our July number, and an extend- 
 ed discussion in my Field Sports, vol. I. pp. 169 to 200. 
 Of the Quail, in regard to this point, I have said enough 
 here, unless this ; that, in my opinion, there is far more 
 need to protect them from the trap during the wintry 
 snows, than from the gu^ in the early autumn ; the 
 latter cannot possibly at any time exterminate the race ; 
 
253 AMEKICA2J GAME. 
 
 the former not onlj easily may^ but actually does all but 
 anniliilate the breed, whenever the snow falls and lies 
 deep during any weeks of December, during the whole 
 of which month the pursuit and sale of this charming 
 little bird is legal. 
 
 Could I have my way, the close-time for Quail should 
 end on the last day of September; and the shooting 
 season end on the twenty-fourth day of December; 
 before which date snow now rarely lies continuously in 
 New Jersey, Southern JSTew York, or Pennsylvania. 
 Why I would anticipate the termination of the close- 
 time, in reference to the Euffled Grouse, I. shall state at 
 length, when I come to treat of that noble bird, in our 
 December issue ; to which month I have attributed it, 
 because it is then that it is^ though in my oj^inion, it 
 ought not to he^ most frequently seen on our tables. 
 While on the topic of preservation, I will mention a fact, 
 which certainly is not widely, much less generally 
 known, among farmers ; namely, that this merry and 
 domestic little bird is one of his best friends and assist- 
 ants in the cultivation of his lands. During nine or ten 
 months of the year he subsists entirely on the seeds of 
 many of the most troublesome and noxious weeds and 
 grasses, which infest the fields, more especially those of 
 the ragwort, the dock, and the briar. It is believed, I 
 might almost say ascertained, that he never plucks any 
 kind of grain, even his own loved buckwheat when ripe, 
 from the stalk, but only gleans the fallen seeds from the 
 
THE AMERICAN QUAIL. 259 
 
 Btubbles after harvest, so tliat while he in nothing dete- 
 riorates the harvest to be ingathered, he tends in the 
 highest degree to the preservation of clean and unweeded 
 fields and farms ; indeed, when it is taken into consider- 
 ation that each individual Quail consumes daily nearly 
 two gills of weed-seed, it will be at once evident that a 
 few bevies of these little birds, carefully and assiduously 
 preserved on a farm, will do more towards keeping it 
 free of weeds, than the daily annual labor of a dozen 
 farm servants. This preservation will not be counter- 
 acted or injured by a moderate and judicious use of the 
 gun in the autumnal months ; for the bevies need thin- 
 ning, especially of the cock-birds, which invariably out- 
 number the hens, and which, if unable to pair, from a 
 want of mates, form into little squads or companies of 
 males, which remain barren, and become the deadly 
 enemies of the young cocks of the following year, beat- 
 ing them off and dispersing them ; though, strange to 
 "say, they will themselves never mate again, nor do aught 
 after remaining unpaired during one season, to propagate 
 their species. The use of the trap, on the contrary, 
 destroying whole bevies at a swoop, where the gun, even 
 in th'e most skillful hands, rarely much more than deci- 
 mates them, may, in -a single winter's day, if many traps 
 be set, destroy the whole stocking of a large farm for 
 years, if not forever. I have myself invariably remark- 
 ed, since my attention was first called to the fact, that 
 those farms which are best stocked with Quail, are inva- 
 
2u0 A:>IEIiICA]S^ GAME. 
 
 riably tlie cleanest of weeds ; and a riglit good sports- 
 man, and good friend of mine, working on the same base 
 ^er contra^ says that, in driving Iiis shooting-cart and 
 dogs through a country, he has never found it worth his 
 while to stop and beat a district'lTull of weedy and dirty 
 farms, as such never contain Quail. 
 
 If this may lead our farmers to consider that every live 
 Quail does far more good on the farm, than the shilling 
 earned by his capture in the omnivorous trap ; and 
 therefore to prohibit their sons and farm-boys from exter- 
 minating them at their utmost need, when food is scarce, 
 and shelter hard to find, my words will not have been 
 altogether wasted, nor my object unattained. 
 
 Were I a farmer, I would hang it over my kitchen 
 fire-place, inscribed in goodly capitals — " Spare the 
 Quail ! If you would have clean fields and goodly crops, 
 spare the Quail ! So shall you spare your labor." 
 
 And now, in a few words, we will on to their nomen- 
 clature, their distinctive marks, their regions of inhabit- 
 ation, seasons, haunts and habits ; and last, not least, 
 how, when, and where lawfully, honorably, sportsmanly, 
 and gnostically, you may and shall kill them. 
 
 I will not, however, here pause long to discuss the 
 point, whether they ought to be termed Quail or Par- 
 tridge. • Scientifically and practically they are neither, 
 but a connecting link between tlie two svhgenera. True 
 Partridge, nor true Quail, yqvj jperdix, nor very GoUtrniXy 
 exists at all anywhere in America. Our bird, an inter- 
 
THE AMERICAN QtTAIL. 261 
 
 mediate bird between the two, named by the naturalists 
 Ortyx^ wbicli is the Greek term for true Quail, is peculiar 
 to America, of which l)ut one species, that before us, is 
 found in the United States, except on tlie Pacific coast 
 and in California, where there are many other beautiful 
 varieties. Our bird is known everywhere East, and 
 everywhere Northwest of Pennsylvania, and in Canada, 
 as the Quail — everywhere South as the Partridge. In 
 size, plumage, flight, habits, and cry, it more closely 
 resembles the European Quail ; in some structural points, 
 especially the shape aud solidity of the bill, the Euro- 
 pean Partridge. On the whole, I deem it properly 
 termed American Quail ; but whether of the two it shall 
 be called, matters little, as no other bird on this conti- 
 nent can clash with it, so long as we avoid the ridicule 
 of calling one bird by two diiferent terms, on the oppo- 
 site sides of one river — the Delaware. The stupid blun- . 
 der of calling the Puffled Grouse, Pheasant, and Part- 
 ridge, in the South and East, is a totally different kind 
 of misnomer ; as that bird bears no resemblance, how- 
 ever distant, to either of the two species, and has a very 
 good English name of his own, videlicet, " Puffed or 
 Tippeted Grouse," by which alone he is known to men 
 of brains or of sportsmanship. With regard to our 
 Quail, it is different, as he has no distinctive English 
 name of his own ; but is, even by naturalists, indiscrim- 
 inately known as Quail and Partridge. The former is 
 certainly the truer appellation, as he approximates more 
 
262 AMERICAN GAME. 
 
 closely to that siib-genus. We wish mucli that this 
 question could be settled ; which we fear, now, that it 
 never can be, from the want of any sporting authori1/y^ 
 in the country, to pass judgment. The " Spirit of the 
 Times," though still as well supported and as racy as 
 ever, has, I regret to say, ceased to be an authority, and 
 has become a mere arena wherein for every scribbler to 
 discuss and support his own undigested and crude 
 notions without consideration or examination ; and 
 wherein those who know the least, invariably fancying 
 themselves to know the most, vituperate with all the 
 spite of partisan personality, every person who having 
 learned more by reading, examination of authorities, 
 and experience than they, ventures to express an opin- 
 ion differing from their old-time prejudices, and the 
 established misnomers of provincial or sectional vulgar- 
 ism. 
 
 But to resume, the American Quail, or " Partridge of 
 the South," is too well known throughout the whole of 
 America, from the waters of the Kennebec on the East, 
 and the Great Lakes on the IS'orth — ^beyond which latter 
 except on the South-western peninsula of Canada West, 
 lying between Lakes Erie, St. Clair, and Huron, they are 
 scarcely to be found — is too well known, almost to the 
 extreme South, to need description. Their beauty, their 
 familiar cry, their domestic habits during the winter, 
 when they become half-civilized, feeding in the barn- 
 yards, and often roosting under the cattle-sheds with the 
 
THE AMERICAN QUAIL. 263 
 
 poultry, render tliem familiar to all men, women, boys 
 and' fools throughout the regions which they inhabit. 
 It is stated by ornithologists, that they abound from 
 Nova Scotia and the northern parts of Canada to Florida 
 and the Great Osage villages ; but this is incorrect, as 
 they rarely are seen eastward of Massachusetts ; never in 
 Nova Scotia, or Canada East ; and range so far as Texas 
 and the edges of the great American salt desert. The 
 adult male bird differs from the hen in having its chaps 
 and a remarkable gorget on the throat and lower neck, 
 pure white, bordered with jetty black ; which parts in 
 the young male and the adult female, are bright reddish- 
 yellow ; the upper parts of both are beautifully dashed 
 and freckled with chestnut and mahogany-brown, black, 
 yellow, gray, and pure white ; the under parts pure 
 white, longitudinally dashed with brownish red, and 
 transversely streaked with black arrow-headed marks. 
 The colors of the male are all brighter, and more defi- 
 nite, than in the female. 
 
 Everywhere eastward of the Delaware the Quail is 
 resident, never rambling far from the haunts in which 
 he is bred. Everywhere to the westward he is in the 
 later autumn migratory, moving constantly on foot, and 
 never flying except when flushed or compelled to cross 
 streams and water-courses, from the west eastward ; the 
 farther west, the "more marked is this peculiarity. 
 
 The Quail pairs early in March ; begins to lay early 
 in May, in a nest made on the surface of the ground, 
 
264: AMERICAN GAME. 
 
 usually at tlie bottom of a tussock or tuft of grass, lier 
 eggs being pure wliite, and from ten to tbirtj-two in 
 number, tbougb about fourteen is probably the average 
 of the bevies. The period of incubation is about four 
 weeks, the young birds run^the instant they clip the 
 shell, and fly readily before they have been hatched a 
 fortnight. So soon as the. first brood is well on the wing, 
 the cock takes charge of it, and the hen proceeds to lay 
 and hatch a second, the male bird and first brood 
 remaining in the close vicinity, and the parents, I doubt 
 not, attending the labor of incubation and attending the 
 young. This I have long suspected ; but I saw so many 
 proofs of it, in company of my friend and fellow sports- 
 man, "Dinks," while shooting together near Fort Maiden, 
 in Canada West — where we found, in many instances, 
 two distinct bevies of different sizes with a single pair 
 of old birds, when shooting early in September of last 
 year — that we were equally convinced of the truth of 
 the fact, and of the unfitness of the season. 
 
 In October, with the exception of a very few late 
 broods, they are fit for the gun ; and then, while the 
 stubbles are long, and the weeds and grasses rank, they 
 lie tlie best and are the least wild on the wing. The 
 early mornings and late afternoons are the fittest times 
 for finding them, when they are on the run, and feeding 
 in the edges of wheat and rye stubbles, or buckwheat 
 patches bordering on woodlands. In the middle of the 
 day they either lie up in little brakes and bog-meadows, 
 
THE AMEKICAN QTJAIL. 265 
 
 or bask on sandy banks, and craggy bill-sides, wben 
 tbey are collected into little buddies, and are tben diffi- 
 cult to find. As soon as flusbed, tbey pitcb into tbe 
 tbickest neigbboring covert, wbetber bog-meadow, briar- 
 patcb, cedar-brake, ravine, or rougli corn-stubble, tbey 
 can find, tbeir fligbt being wild, rapid, and impetuous, 
 but rarely very long, or well sustained. As tbey 
 unquestionably possess tbe mysterious power, wbetber 
 voluntary or involuntary, of holding in tbeir scent, for a 
 sbort time after aligbting, and are difficultly found again 
 till tbey bave run, I recommend it, as by far tbe better 
 way, to mark tbem down well, and beat for anotber 
 bevy, until you bear tbem calling to eacb otber ; tben 
 lose no time in fiusbing tbem again, wben tbey are sure 
 to disperse, and you to bave sport witb tbem. 
 
 Myself, I prefer setters for tbeir pursuit, as more dash- 
 ing, more enduring, and abler to face briars — otbers 
 prefer pointers, as steadier on less work, and better able 
 to fag witbout water. Either, well broke, are good — ill 
 broke, or unbroke, worthless. Still give me setters — 
 Russian or Irish specially ! Quail fly very fast, and 
 strong, especially in covert, and require the whole charge 
 to kill tbem dead and clean. At cross shots, shoot well 
 ahead ; at rising shots, well above ; and at straight-away 
 shots, a trifle below your birds ; and an oz. J of ISTo. 
 8 early, and of E"o. Y, late, will fetch them in good 
 tetyle. And so good sport to you, kind reader ; for this, 
 if I err not, is doomed to be a crack Quail season. 
 12 
 
THE BITTERN. AMERICAN BITTERN. 
 
 Ardea Minor sive Lentiginos. 
 
 THE INDIAN HEN. THE QUAWK. 
 THE DUNKADOO. 
 
 This, tliougli a very common and extremely "beautiful 
 Lird, with an exceedingly extensive geographic range, 
 is the object of a very general and perfectly inexplicable 
 prejudice and dislike, common, it would seem, to all 
 classes. The gunner never spares it, although it is per- 
 fectly inoffensive; and although the absurd prejudice, 
 to which I have alluded, causes him to cast it aside, 
 when killed, as uneatable carrion, its flesh is in 
 reality very delicate and juicy, and still held in high 
 repute in Europe ; while here one is regarded very mjich 
 in the light of a cannibal, as I have myself experienced, 
 for venturing to eat it. The farmer and the boatman 
 stigmatize it by a filthy and indecent name. The cook 
 turns up her nose at it, and throws it to the cat ; for the 
 dog, wiser than his master, declines it — not as unfit to 
 eat, but as game^ and therefore meat for his masters. 
 
THE BITTERN. AMERICAN BITTERN. Ardea Minor sive Lenti^ir 
 
/ 
 
THE BITTEEN. 267 
 
 iNow the Bittern would not probably be mucli ag- 
 grieved at being voted carrion, provided liis imputed 
 csirrion-dom, as Willis would probably designate the 
 condition, procured him immunity from the gun. 
 
 But to be shot first and thrown away afterward, 
 would seem to be the very excess of that condition 
 described by the common phrase of adding injury to 
 insult. 
 
 Under this state of mingled persecution and degrada- 
 tion, it must be the Bittern's best consolation that, in the 
 days of old, when the wine of Auxerre, now the com- 
 mon drink of republican Yankeedom, which annually 
 consumes of it, or in lieu of it, more than grows of it 
 annually in all France, was voted~by common consent 
 the drink of kings — ^he, with his congener and com- 
 patriot the Ileronschaw, was carved by knightly hands, 
 upon the noble deas under the royal canopy, for gentle 
 dames and peerless damoiselles ; nay, was held in such 
 repute, that it was the wont of prowest chevaliers,, when 
 devoting themselves to feats of emprise most perilous, 
 to swear " before God, the bittern, and the ladies !" an 
 honor to which no quadruped, and- but two plumy 
 bipeds, other than himself, the heron and the peacock, 
 were admitted. 
 
 Those were the days, before gunpowder, " grave of 
 chivalry," was taught to Doctor Faustus by the Devil, 
 who did himself no good by the indoctrination, but 
 exactly the reverse, since war is thereby rendered less 
 
268 AMERICAN GAME. 
 
 bloodj, and much, more uncruel — the days when no 
 booming duck-gun keeled him over with certain and 
 inglorious death, as he flapped up with his broad vans 
 beating the cool autumnal air, and his long, greenish- 
 yellow legs pendulous behind hirh, from out of the dark 
 sheltering water-flags by the side of the brimful river, or 
 the dark woodland tarn ; but when the cheery yelp of a 
 cry of feathery-legged spaniels aroused him from his 
 arundinaceous, which is intei-preted by moderns reedy, 
 lair ; when the triumphant whoop of the jovial falconers 
 saluted his uprising; and when he was done to death 
 right chivalrously, with honorable law permitted to him, 
 as to the royal stag, before the long-winged ^Norway 
 falcons, noblest of all the fowls of air, were unhooded 
 and cast off to give him gallant chase. 
 
 If, when struck down from his pride of place by the 
 crook-beaked blood-hound of the air, his legs were mer- 
 cilessly broken, and his long bill thrust into the ground, 
 that the falcon might dispatch him without fear of con- 
 sequences, and at leisure, it was doubtless a source of 
 pride to him, as to the tortured Indian at the stake, to 
 be so tormented, since the amount of the torture was 
 commensurate with the renown of the tortured ; besides 
 — for which the Bittern was, of course, truly grateful — 
 it was his high and extraordinary prerogative to have 
 his legs broken as aforesaid, and his long bill thrust into 
 the ground, by the fair hand of the loveliest lady present 
 — ^thrice blessed Bittern of the days of old. 
 
THE BITTERN. 269 
 
 A very different fate, in sootli, from being riddled 
 with a charge of double Bs from a rusty flint-lock Queen 
 Anne's musket, poised by the horny paws of John 
 Verity, and then ignobly cast to fester in the sun, 
 among the up-piled eel-skins, fish-heads, king-crabs, and 
 the like, with which, in lieu of garden-patch of well- 
 trained rose-bush, the south-side Long Islander orna- 
 ^•••ents his front-door yard, rejoicing in the effluvia of the 
 
 ' '. decomposed piscine exuvice, which he regards as 
 " considerable hullsome," beyond Sabsean odors, Syrian 
 nard, or frankincense from Araby the blest ! 
 
 Being eaten is being eaten after all ; whether it be by 
 a ISTew Zealand war-chief, a IS'ew York alderman, a 
 peerless lady, or a muck-worm ; and I suppose it feels 
 much the same, after one is once well dead ; but, if I 
 had my choice, I would most prefer to be eaten by the 
 damoiselle of high degree, and most dislike to be bat- 
 tened on by the alderman, as beirg more ravenous and 
 less appreciative than either Zealander or muck-worm. 
 
 The Bittern, however, be it said in sober earnest, 
 although like many other delicious dishes prized by the 
 wiser ancients, but now fallen into disuse, if not into 
 disrepute — to wit, the heronschaw, the j)eacock, the 
 curlew, and the swan — all first-rate dainties to the wise 
 — is a viand not easily to be beaten, especially if he be 
 sagely cooked in a well-baked, rich-crusted pastry, with 
 a tender and fat rump-steak in the bottom of the dish, a 
 beef's kidney scored to make gravy, a handful of cloves, 
 
270 AMERICAN GAME. * 
 
 salt and black pepper quantamsuff.^ a dozen hard-boiled 
 eggs, and a pint of scalding-hot port wine ponr^d in just 
 before you serve up. 
 
 What you say is perfectly true, my dear madam, 
 cooked in that manner an old India rubber shoe is good ; 
 not only would be, but is. But you'd better believe it, 
 a Bittern is a great deal better. K you don't believe 
 me, try the Bittern, and then if you prefer it, adhere to 
 the shoe. 
 
 But now to quit his edible qualifications and turn to 
 his personal appearance, habits of life, and location, and 
 other characteristics, we will say of him, in the words of 
 Wilson, that eloquent pioneer in the natural history of 
 America, that the American Bittern, whom it pleases 
 the Count de Buffon to designate as Le Butor de la Baye 
 de Hudson, " is another nocturnal species, common to 
 all our sea and river marshes, though nowhere nume- 
 rous. It rests all day among the reeds and rushes, and, 
 unless disturbed, flies and feeds only during the night. 
 In some places it is called the Indian Hen ; on the sea- 
 coast of E^ew Jersey it is known by the name of durika- 
 doo, Si word probably imitative of its common note. 
 They are also found in the interior, having myself killed 
 one at the inlet of the Seneca Lake, in October. It 
 utters at times, a hollow, guttural note among the reeds, 
 but has nothing of that loud, booming sound for which 
 the European Bittern is so remarkable. This circum- 
 stance, with its great inferiority of size, and difference of 
 
THE BITTEKN. 271 
 
 marking, sufficiently prove them to be two distinct 
 species, although hitherto, the present has been classed 
 as a mere variety of the European Bittern.^ These birds, 
 we are informed, visit Severn river at Hudson's Bay, 
 about the beginning of June; make tlieir nests in 
 swamps, laying four cinereous green eggs among the 
 long grass. The young are said to be, at first, black. 
 
 " These birds, when disturbed, rise with a hollow Icwa^ 
 and are then easily shot down as they fly heavily. Like 
 other night birds, their sight is most acute during the 
 evening twilight; but their hearing is, at all times, 
 exquisite. 
 
 " The American Bittern is twenty-seven inches long, 
 and three feet four inches in extent ; from the point of 
 the bill to the extremity of the toes, it measures three 
 feet ; the bill is four inches long ; the upper mandible 
 black ; the lower greenish-yellow ; lares and eyelids, yel- 
 low ; irides, bright yellow ; upper part of the head, flat, and 
 remarkably depressed; the plumage there is of a deep 
 .blackish brown, long behind and on the neck, the general 
 color of which is a yellowish brown, shaded with darker ; 
 this long plumage of the neck the bird can throw forward 
 at will, when irritated, so as to give him a more formi- 
 dable appearance ; throat, whitish, streaked with deep 
 brown : from the posterior and lower part of the auricu- 
 lars, a broad patch of deep black passes diagonally across 
 "the neck, a distinguished characteristic of this species ; 
 the back is deep brown, barred, and mottled with innu- 
 
272 A^rERICAN GAME. ' 
 
 merable specks and streaks of brownisli yellow ; quills, 
 black, with a leaden gloss, and tipped with yellowish 
 brown ; legs and feet, yellow, tinged with pale green ; 
 middle claw, pectinated ; belly, light yellowish brown, 
 streaked with darker ; vent,'*plain ; thighs, sprinkled on 
 the outside with grains of dark brown ; male and female 
 nearly alike, the latter somewhat less. According to 
 Eewick, the tail of the European Bittern contains only ten 
 feathers ; the American species has, invariably, twelve. 
 The intestines measured five feet six inches in length, 
 and were very little thicker than a common knitting- 
 needle ; the stomach is usually filled with fish or frogs.* 
 
 " This bird, when fat, is considered by many to be 
 excellent eating." 
 
 It is on the strength of Mr. Wilson's statement as 
 above that I have given among the vulgar appellations 
 of this beautiful bird that oi Duiikadoo ', though I must 
 admit that I never heard him called a Dunkadoo^ either 
 on the sea-coast of ]S"ew Jersey or any where else ; and 
 further must put it on record, that if the sea-coasters of 
 l!^ew Jersey did coin the said melodious word as imita- 
 tive of its common note^ they proved much worse imita- 
 tors than I have found tliem in whistling bay snipe, 
 hawnking Canada geese, or yelping Brant. They might 
 just as well have called him a Cockatoo, while they were 
 about it. 
 
 * I have taken an entire water-rail from the stomach of the Eurcpeaii 
 Bittern.— Ed. 
 
THE BITTEEN. 273 
 
 The other name, Quawh, by which it is generally 
 known both on the sea-coast of New Jersey, and every 
 where else where the vernacular of America prevails, is 
 precisely imitative of the harsh clanging cry witli which 
 he rises from the reeds in which he lurks during the day 
 time, and which he utters 'while disporting himself in 
 queer clumsy gyralions in mid air, over the twilight 
 marshes in the dusk of summer evenings; and how near- 
 ly QuawTc approaches to Dunkadoo^ tliat one of my 
 readers who is the least appreciative of the comparative 
 value of sweet sounds, can judge as well as I can. 
 
 In England the Bittern, who there is possessed of a 
 voice between the sounds of a bassoon and a kettle-drum, 
 with which he makes a most extraordinary booming 
 noise, which can be heard for milies, if not for leagues, 
 over the midnight marshes, a noise the most melancholy 
 and unearthly that ever shot superstitious horror into 
 the bosom of the belated wayfarer, who is unconscious 
 of its cause, has also been designated by the country 
 people from his cry, " the bog-bumper," and the " blut- 
 tery bump" — but as our bird — the United States^/*, I 
 mean, or Alleghanian, as the l^ew York Historical So- 
 ciety Associates would designate their countrymen — 
 Bittern never either booms, blutters or bumps, but only 
 quawks ; a quawk only he must be content to remain, 
 whether with the sea-coasters of New Jersey, the south- 
 eiders of Long Island, or my friends, the Ojibwas of 
 Lake Huron. 
 
 12* 
 
276 AMEKICAN GAME. 
 
 the marslies, and tliei*e lays its eggs and rears its black 
 downy young ; but several years ago, while residing at 
 Eangor, in Maine, while on a visit to a neighboring 
 heronry, situated on an island covered with a dense 
 forest of tall pines and hemlocks, I observed a pair of 
 Bitterns flying to and fro, from the tree-tops to the river 
 and back, with fish in their bills, among the herons 
 which were similarly engaged in the same interesting 
 occupation of feeding their young. One of these, the 
 male bird, I shot, for the purpose of settling the fact, 
 and we afterward harried the nest, and obtained two 
 full-grown young birds, almost ready to fly. 
 
 Hence, I presume, that, like • many other varieties of 
 birds, the Bittern adapts his habits, even of nidification, 
 to the purposes of the case, and that where no trees are 
 to be found, in which he can breed, he makes the best he 
 can of it, and builds on the ground ; but it is my opinion 
 that his more usual and preferred situation for his nest is 
 in high trees, as is the case with his congeners, the Green 
 Bittern, the blue heron, the beautiful white egret, the 
 night heron, which may be all found breeding together 
 in hundreds among the red cedars on the sea beach of 
 Cape May. The nest, which I found in Maine, was 
 built of sticks, precisely similar to that of the herons. 
 
 The Bittern is a more nocturnal bird than the heron, 
 and is never seen, like him, standing motionless as a gray 
 stone, with his long slender neck recurved, his javelin- 
 
THE BITTERN. 277 
 
 like bill poised for the stroke, and his keen eye piercing 
 the transparent water in search of the passing fry. 
 
 All day he rambles about among the tall grass and 
 reeds of the marshes, sometimes pouncing on an unfor- 
 tunate frog, a garter-snake, or a mouse, for, like the blue 
 heron, he is a clever and indefatigable mouser; but 
 when the evening comes, he bestirs himself, spreads his 
 broad vans, rises in air, summoning up his comrades by 
 his hoarse clang, and wings his way over tlie dim 
 morasses, to the banks of some neighboring rivulet or 
 pool, where he watches, erect sentinel, for the passing 
 fish, shiners, small eels, or any of the lesser tribes of the 
 cyprinidse, and whom he detects, woe betide ; for the 
 stroke of his sharp-pointed bill, dealt with Parthian 
 velocity and certitude by the long arrowy neck, is sure 
 death to the unfortunate. 
 
 Mr. Giraud, in his excellent book on the birds of Long 
 Island, thus speaks of the American Bittern, and that so 
 truthfully and agreeably withal, that I make no apology 
 for quoting his words at length. 
 
 " This species is said to have been the favorite bird of 
 the Indians, and at this day is known to many persons 
 by the name of " Indian Hen," or " Pullet," though 
 more familiarly by the appellation of " Look-up," so 
 called from its habit, when standing on the marshes of 
 elevating its head, which position, though probably 
 adopted as a precautionary measure, frequently leads to 
 its destruction. The gunners seem to have a strong 
 
274 AMERICAN GAME. 
 
 In another respect I cannot precisely agree witli the 
 acute and observing naturalist quoted above, as to its 
 ungregarious nature, since on more occasions than one 
 I have seen these birds together in such numbers, and 
 under such circumstances of association, as would cer- 
 tainly justify the application "to them of the vford Jloch 
 
 One of these occasions I remember well, as it occurred 
 while snipe-shootiug on the fine marshes about the 
 riviere aux Canards in Canada West, when several 
 times I saw as many as five or six flush together from 
 out of the high reeds, as if in coveys ; and this was late 
 in September, so that they could not well have been 
 young broods still under the parental care. 
 
 At another time I ^aw them in yet greater numbers 
 and acting together, as it appeared, in a sort of concert. 
 I was walking, I cannot now recollect why, or to what 
 end, along the marshes on the bank of the Hackensack 
 river, between the railroad bridge and that very singular 
 knoll named Snakehill, which rises abruptly out of the 
 meadows like an island out of the ocean. It was late in 
 the summer evening, the sun had gone quite down, and 
 a thick gray mist covered the broad and gloomy river. 
 On a sudden, I was almost startled by a loud quawk 
 close above my head ; and, on looking up, observed a 
 large Bittern wheeling round and round, now soaring 
 up a hundred feet or more, and then suddenly diving, or 
 to speak more accurately, /bZZ^Tz^, plump down, with his 
 legs and wings all relaxed and abroad, precisely as if he 
 
THE BITTERN. 275 
 
 had been shot dead, uttering at the moment of each 
 dive" a loud quawk. While I was still engaged in 
 watching his manoeuvres, he was answered, and a 
 second Bittern came floating through the darksome air, 
 and joined his companion. Another and another fol- 
 lowed, and within ten or twelve minutes, there must 
 have been from fifteen to twenty of these large birds all 
 gamboling and disporting themselves together, circling 
 round one another in their gyratory flight, and making 
 the night any thing, certainly, but melodious by their 
 clamors. What was the meaning of those strange noc- 
 turnal movements I cannot so much as guess ; it was not 
 early enough in the spring to be connected in any way 
 with the amatory propensities of the birds, or I should 
 have certainly set it down, like the peculiar flight, the 
 unusual chatter, and the drumming, performed with 
 the quill-feathers, of the American. Snipe — Scolojyax 
 Wilsonii — commonly known as the English snipe, dur- 
 ing the breeding season, as a preliminary to incubation, 
 nidification, and the reproduction of the species — in a 
 word, as a sort of bird courtship. The season of the 
 year put a stopper on that interpretation, and I can con- 
 ceive none other than that the QuawTcs were indulging 
 themselves in an innocent game of romps, preparatory 
 to the more serious and solemn enjoyment of a flsh and 
 frog supper. 
 
 The Bittern, it appears, on the Severn river, emptying 
 into Hudson's Bay, makes its nest in the long grass of 
 
278 AMERICAN GAME. 
 
 prejudice against this unoffending bird, and whenever 
 opportunity offers, seldom allow it to escape. It does 
 not move about much by day, though it is not strictly 
 nocturnal, but is sometimes, seen flying low over the 
 meadow, in pursuit of short-tailed or meadow-mice, 
 which I have taken whole from its stomach. It also 
 feeds on fish, frogs, lizards, etc. ; and late in the season, 
 its flesh is in high esteem — ^but it cannot be procured in 
 any number except when the marshes are overflowed by 
 unusually high tides, when it is hunted much after the 
 manner the gunners adopt when in pursuit of rail. On 
 ordinary occasions, it is difficult to flush ; the instant 
 it becomes aware that it has attracted the attention of 
 the fowler, it lowers its head and runs quickly through 
 the grass, and when. again seen, is usually in a different 
 direction from that taken by its pursuer, whose move- 
 ments it closely watches ; and when thus pursued, 
 seldom exposes more than the head, leading the gunner 
 over the marsh without giving him an opportunity to 
 accomplish his purpose. 
 
 "When wounded, it makes a vigorous resistance, 
 erects the feathers on the head and neck, extends its 
 wings, opens its bill, and assumes a fierce expression — 
 will attack the dog, and even its master, and when 
 defending itself, directs its acute bill at its assailant's 
 eye. It does not usually associate with other herons, 
 nor does it seem fond of the society of its own species. 
 
THE BITTERN. ' 279 
 
 Singly or in pairs it is distributed over tte marshes, but 
 with us it is not abundant." 
 
 The geographical range of this bird is, as I have 
 before stated, very extensive, extending from the shores 
 of Hudson's Bay, in the extreme north, so far south at 
 least as to the Cape of Florida, and probably yet farther 
 down the coasts of the Mexican gulfs. 
 
 Tliat fanciful blockhead, the Count de Buffon — for ho 
 was a most almighty blockhead when he set himself 
 drawing on his imagination for facts — with his usual 
 eloquent absurdity, describes the species as " exhibiting 
 the picture of wretchedness, anxiety and indigence ; 
 condemned to struggle perpetually with misery and 
 want ; sickened with the restless cravings of a famished 
 appetite ;" a description so ridiculously untrue, that were 
 it possible for these birds to comprehend it, it would 
 excite the risibility of the whole tribe. 
 
 If the count had seen the Quawks, as I did, at their 
 high jinks, by the Hackensack, he would have scarce 
 written such folly ; and had he been a little more of a 
 true philosopher, and thorough naturalist, he would have 
 comprehended that whatsoever being the Universal 
 Creator hath created unto any end — to that end he 
 adapted him, not in his physical structure only, but in 
 his instincts, his appetites, his tastes, his pleasures and 
 his pains ; and that to the patient Bittern, motionless on 
 his mud-bank, that watch is as charming, as is the swift 
 pursuit of the small bird to the falcon, of the rabbit to 
 
280 AMERICAN GAME. 
 
 the fox, of the hare to the greyhound, of all the animals 
 devoured to all the devourers ; and that his frog diet is 
 as dear to Ardea Lentiginosa, as his flower dew to the 
 humming-bird, or his canvas^acks, in the tea-room, to 
 an alderman of Manhattan. 
 
 As for the Bittern starving, eat a fat one in a pie, and 
 you'll be a better judge of that probability, than any 
 Buffon ever bred in France ; and as for all the rest — it 
 is just French humbug. 
 
 At another opportunity, I may speak of others of this 
 interesting tribe. Sportsmen rarely go out especially to 
 hunt them, except in boats, as described by Mr. Giraud, 
 but in snipe and duck-shooting in the marshes they are 
 constantly flushed and shot. 
 
 Pointers and setters will both stand them steadily, and 
 cocking spaniels chase them with ardor. Their flight is 
 slow and heavy, and their tardy movements and large 
 size render them an easy mark even to a novice. They 
 are not a hardy bird, as to the bearing ofi" shot ; for the 
 loose texture of their feathers is more than ordinarily 
 penetrable, and a light charge of Xo. 8, will usually 
 bring them down with certainty. 
 
 When wing-tipped they fight fiercely, striking with 
 their long beaks at the eyes of the assailant, whether 
 dog or man, and laying aside resistance only with their 
 lives. 
 
 Early in the autumn is the best time both for shooting 
 him and eating him, and for the latter purpose he is 
 
THE BITTERN. 281 
 
 better than for the former ; but for the noble art of fal- 
 conry, the mystery of rivers, he is the best of all. 
 Avium facile princeps / easily the Topsawyer of the 
 "Birds of flight, unless it be his cousin german heronshaw, 
 whom the princely Dane knew from a hawk, when tho 
 wind was nor-nor-west. 
 
XL 
 NOVEMBER. 
 
 %\t 'gnU irause. 
 
 Uetrao UnibeUvs. 
 
 THE PHEASANT ; THE PAETEIDGE. 
 
 LABRADOR; BRITISH POSSESSIONS; UNITED STATES. 
 
 Perca Flavesdua. 
 CONTINENT OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
THE RUFFED GROUSE. 
 
 Tetrao Umbellus. 
 
 The beautiful bird winch is depicted above, is that 
 known as the Partridge, in New Jersey, and all the 
 States east and north of the Delaware, and as the Pheas- 
 ant everywhere to the westward of that fine stream ; and 
 by these provincial vulgarisms it is like to be known 
 and designated, until sportsmen will take the trouble of 
 acg^uiring a little knowledge of their own trade, and will 
 cease to regard naturalists as mere theorizing bookmen, 
 and scientific names and distinctions as supererogatory 
 humbug. The distinction between the Grouse and other 
 birds of the gallinaceous order, is that the former are 
 invariably, the latter never^ feathered below the knee. 
 Tliis distinction never fails, and is very easily noted ; 
 although, in difierent species of the genus, the extent of 
 the feathering difiers. In the Ruffed Grouse the soft 
 fleecy feathering of the leg is sparse, and descends only 
 to the middle of the shank. In the Pinnated Grouse, 
 Prairie Hen of the West, and Grouse of Pennsylvania, 
 ITew Jersey, and Rhode Island, the legs are feathered 
 
286 ' AMERICAN GAME. 
 
 tlie wliole way down the- shank, to the insertion of the 
 toes ; and^the same is the case of the Canada Grouse, or 
 Spruce Partridge of Ihe remote Eastern States. In all 
 those species of Grouse, which are known as Ptarmigan, 
 dwellers of the extreme north, or in the northern tem- 
 perature of iced mountain-tops, the feathering continues 
 the whole length of the toes quite to the insertion of the 
 claws — ^this I merely mention ^^(^t' jparenthese^ as there is 
 but one of the Ptarmigans likely to fall within reach of 
 the sportsman ; namely, the "Willow Grouse, or Eed- 
 ;Necked Partridge of the extreme parts of Maine, and 
 the Easternmost British provinces, and thence so far as 
 to the Arctic Circle. 
 
 These distinctions are easily borne in mind, and will 
 be found" all-sufficient to the discriminating woodsman, 
 who desires to be able to call things by their right names, 
 and to give a reason for doing so. 
 
 The true Pheasant is a native of Asia originally, 
 though it has been naturalized in Europe, since a very 
 early period, and is now abundant in France and Eng- 
 land. JSTo species of this bird, which is distinguished by 
 a pointed tail above half a yard in length, and by its 
 splendidly gorgeous coloring, little inferior in intensity 
 to that of the Peacock, has ever been found, or is 
 believed to exist in any portion of the Western hemis- 
 phere ; although those singular and showy birds, the 
 Cv/ragoas of South America, have some relation to it. 
 
 The same is true of the real Partridge ; although the 
 
THE BUFFED GEOrSE. 287 
 
 Quail of this continent would seem to be its equivalent ; 
 being as it were a connecting link between the European 
 Quail, and the Partridge of Europe. 
 
 The Kuffed Grouse ranges over a very wide portion of 
 the United States and British provinces, from the 51st 
 degree of north latitude to the Atlantic sea-board, 
 although it is much more scarce in the Southern States 
 than in the midland and northern regions. It is remark- 
 able also that it varies exceedingly in color ; those to the 
 northward being comparatively dull and gray, to those 
 of Pennsylvania, Kentucky, and more genial regions. 
 
 The distinctive feature, whence this bird derives his 
 title of Ruffed Grouse, is the tuft or tippet of jet-black 
 feathers, glossed with metallic hues, which are shown 
 more or less distinctly in each of the figures in the 
 wood-cut at the head of this paper, but the most decided- 
 ly in the cock-bird, represented as standing on a fallen 
 log, in the act of drumming, with these ruffs elevated, 
 and his tail erected and expanded after the manner of a 
 Turkey or Peacock, in the season of his amorous phan- 
 tasies. 
 
 This drumming, a sound sufficiently familiar to all 
 ears accustomed to the sights and noises of the forest, is 
 no less than the call of the male bird to his harem of 
 attendant wives ; for the Euffed Grouse, unlike our 
 pretty, constant, and domestic Quail, selects himself no 
 one fond partner, whom to cheer with his loved notes, to 
 comfort and amuse during the breeding season, but 
 
288 AMERICAN GAME. 
 
 rejoices like a veritable grand Signor in a multiplicity of 
 fair sultanas, whom so soon as tliej betake themselves to 
 the cares of maternity, he abandons, like a roue as he is, 
 and passes tlie remainder of the season, until the broods 
 disperse in the autumn, in company with small packs of 
 his own faithless sex, reveling and enjoying himself on 
 the mountain sides, in his loved pines and hemlocks, 
 while his forgotten loves brood patient over the hopes of 
 the. coming season. 
 
 " This drumming," says Wilson, in his eloquent and 
 animated page, " is most common in spring, and is the 
 call of the cock to a favorite female. It is produced in 
 the' following manner : the bird, standing on an old pros- 
 trate log, generally in a retired situation, lowers his 
 wings, erects his expanded tail, contracts his .throat, 
 elevates the two tufts of feathers on the neck, and 
 inflates his whole body something in the manner of a 
 Turkey cock strutting and wheeling about in great state- 
 liness. After a few manoeuvres of this kind, he begins 
 to strike his stiffened wings in short and quick strokes, 
 which become more and more rapid until they run into 
 each other, resembling the rumbling sound of very 
 distant thunder dying away gradually on the ear. After 
 a few minutes' pause, this is again repeated, and in a 
 calm day may be heard nearly a mile off. Tliis is most 
 common in the morning and evening, though^ I have 
 heard them drumming at all hours of the day." 
 
 It is singular, that so exact an authority a.s "Wilson 
 
TnE KurrED geouse. 289 
 
 has proved himself to be, should- fall into the strange 
 error of speaking of this singular p,morous sound as a 
 call to a single female ; and elsewhere of the Pheasant^ 
 as he erroneously calls it, pairing ; when it is notorious 
 to all who have closely observed the habitfe of this bird, 
 that it is polygamous. Such, I believe, will be found 
 the case with all those gallinaceous birds which have an 
 especial summons, or peculiar display of attitudes, airs, 
 and splendors by which to attract the females ; as may 
 be observed of the common Game-cock, the Turkey, the 
 Peacock, and the European Pheasant ; no one of which 
 takes to himself an especial and chosen partner, but 
 disports himself in his wanton seraglio. 
 
 On many occasions, during this particular season, 
 I have stolen up to wdthin a few yards of the log, 
 whereon the Buffed Grouse was so busily employed in 
 summoning his dames and demoiselles around him, that 
 he had no ears or eyes for my approach, which at any 
 other period he would have discovered long before, and 
 whirred away tumultuous on terrified and sounding 
 pinions. I have lain concealed, for an hour at a time, 
 watching with intense gratification the beautifiil and 
 animated gestures of the cock, now strutting and drum- 
 ming on his log, proud as an eastern despot, now 
 descending to caress and dally with his numerous Roxa- 
 lanas, and then reascending to his post of pride, to send 
 his resonant call far through the haunted echoes of the 
 umbrageous pine-woods. On one such chance, I saw no 
 13 ' i 
 
290 AMEBIC AN GAME. 
 
 less than seven lien birds gathered around a single male, 
 all in turn expectant of his looked-for attentions, and all 
 gratified by a share of his notice. If this be not 
 Polygamy, I should like to receive the Grand Turk's 
 opinion on the subject, as I confess myself, if it be any 
 thing less, in a state of absolute benightedness. 
 
 The Kufied Grouse begins her nest very early in May, 
 and lays from eight to fifteen brownish-white, unspotted 
 eggs, nearly the size of those of a pullet. With the 
 exact period of this bird's incubation I am not acquaint- 
 ed ; the young birds run the instant they clip the shell ; 
 obey the cluck of the mother, as chickens that of the 
 hen ; and are tended by her with extreme care and 
 solicitude. In case of her being surprised with her 
 young about her, she resorts to all the artifices practiced 
 by the Quail, and even by the comparatively dull and 
 stolid Woodcock, to draw away the intruder from tlie 
 vicinity, feigning lameness, and incapacity to fly, until 
 she shall have lured away the pursuer far from the 
 hiding-place of her fledglings. Then she shall whirr 
 away on resonant and powerful pinions, up, up above 
 the tops of the tall pines and hemlocks, and thence skate 
 homeward noiseless on balanced wings, where she will 
 find them close ensconced among the sheltering fern 
 tufts, or the matted winter-greens and whortleberry 
 bushes, viewless to the most prying eye, and undiscover- 
 able, save to the nose of the unerring spaniel. But 
 once returned, you shall see them emerge, chirping 
 
THE EUFFED GKOUSE. 291 
 
 feebly at the soft maternal cluck, and hurrying to 
 enshroud them under the shelter of her guardian wing, 
 and nestle, happy younglings, among the downy plumage 
 of her maternal breast. Curses upon the sacrilegious 
 hand that would interrupt that sweet and tender scene 
 by the sharp click of the murderous trigger ; yet there 
 be brutes, in the guise of men, who scruple not to 
 butcher the drumming cock, taken at fatal disadvantage, 
 amid his admiring harem ; scruple not to slaughter the 
 brooding mother above her miserable younglings — but 
 to such we cry avaunt ! to such we deny the name of 
 sportsmen, nay, but of Christians, or of men. Get ye 
 behind us, murderous pot-hunters ! 
 
 The young broods grow rapidly ; and by the time they 
 have reached the size of the Quail, fly well and strongly 
 on the wing. By the middle, or latter end of August, 
 they are three parts grown, and fully feathered, with the 
 exception of the tail, which is not yet complete, and 
 retains a pointed form. The blundering legislation of 
 this country in general, on the subject of the game-laws, 
 has, in this instance, to my ideas, exceeded itself; for 
 during the months of September and October, when the 
 broods are still united under the care of the mother, the 
 birds lying well to the setter, and when flushed scatter- 
 ing themselves singly here and there among low under- 
 growth or bushes, and rarely or never taking to the tree, 
 we are prohibited from shooting this bold, hardy, ramb- 
 ling, and shy bird ; this, at a later season, wild hunter 
 
292 AMERICAN GAME. 
 
 of inaccessible rock-ledges, impenetrable rlioclodendron 
 brakes, and deep sequestered hemlock-swamps ; tliis, tbe 
 most uncomatalDle and self-protecting bird of all the vari- 
 eties of American game ; the only variety, perhaps, 
 which never can by any means, fair or unfair, be exter- 
 minated from among us, so long as the rock-ribbed 
 mountains tower toward the skies, and the forests clothe 
 them with foliage never sere. 
 
 ' At this period they would afford rare sport, as at all 
 other seasons they afford none ; and are, moreover, in far 
 the best condition for the table, as the old birds are apt 
 to be dry, unless hung up for several weeks before being 
 cooked, which can, of course, only be done in winter, 
 when the coldness of the weather prevents their becom- 
 ing tainted, without absolutely freezing them. 
 
 In my opinion, therefore, this the only bird, of Ameri- 
 c-an game, which might well exist apart from almost all 
 protection, is now so protected as to be almost rendered 
 impossible to the gun of the fair sportsman ; while for 
 others, the tamest, the most easily killed, and the most 
 rapidly decreasing of all our winged tribes, as the Wood- 
 cock, for example, the mock protection afforded to them 
 is but another word for the license to slaughter them 
 half-fledged and half-grown, while the second brood is 
 yet in the black-down, and unable to exist without the 
 parent's care. 
 
 I would myself desire to see the legitimate season for 
 Ruffed Grouse-shooting made to commence with the first 
 
THE KUFFED GKOUSE. 293 
 
 day of September, tlie young birds by that time, and in 
 truth much earlier, being quite fit for the gun, and to 
 cease on the fifteenth of December, or at Christmas at 
 the latest, before the snows of winter admit of their 
 being snared and trapped by thousands. 
 
 Toward the middle of October, the old hens drive off 
 the broods, or the young birds now perfectly mature, 
 stray from them of their own accord ; and thenceforth 
 tliey are found sometimes in little companies of two, 
 three, or four, but far more often singly, in wild, difficult 
 upland woods, through which they love to ramble 
 deviously for miles, as they are led in search of their 
 favorite food, or sometimes, as it would seem, by mere 
 whim. On one occasion, many years since, when I was 
 but a young sportsman on this side of the Atlantic, I 
 remember footing a small party of five birds, in a light 
 snow, for above ten miles among the Wawayanda moun- 
 tains, in -Orange County, New York, without getting up 
 to them ; although it was easily seen by their hurried 
 and agitated tracks that for a great part of the distance 
 they were within hearing of me, and were running from 
 my pursuit. I had no dogs with me. Had I been out 
 with setters, the Grouse would have trailed them for 
 miles, and unquestionably risen at last out of shot. 
 With spaniels, or curs, trained to run in upon them, and 
 pursue, yelping loudly, as the mode is in the backwoods, 
 where men do not shoot but gun,, they would have taken 
 to the trees, and would have sat close to the trunk with 
 
294 AMEKICAIT GAME. 
 
 their bodies erect, and tlieir necks elongated, and might 
 have been killed easily, the only difficulty being that of 
 perceiving them, a difficulty far more considerable than 
 would be imagined to an unpracticed eye. To shoot 
 birds sitting, however, whether on trees or on the ground, 
 is not sport for a sportsman ; the only case where it is 
 ever allowable^ is to the woodsman on a tramp through 
 the primitive and boundless forest, where his camp- 
 kettle must be filled by the contents of his bag, and 
 where to throw away a chance is, perhaps, in the end to 
 go supperless to bed. In such a case, while canoeing it 
 last Autumn " with a goodly companye" up the northern 
 rivers that debouch into lake Huron, we shot many, 
 while portaging around cataracts or rapids on the 
 Severn ; and on one occasion a gentleman of the party 
 shot three birds, out of one small pine tree, without any 
 of them moving or appearing alarmed at the gun-shots. 
 This has often been related as a constant and ordinary 
 habit of the bird.; and from that occurrence, I am 
 induced to believe that when the bird is in its natural 
 solitudes, unacquainted with man and his murderous 
 weapons, such may be the case ; in the settlements, 
 however it might have been when they were rare and 
 sparse, this is the habit of the Ruffed Grouse no longer. 
 I have never in my life, save in the instance mentioned, 
 observed anything of the kind ; on the contrary, I have 
 ever found them the wildest, the most wary, and unless, 
 
TUE EUTFED GROUSE. 295 
 
 by some mere chance, the least approachable of all wild 
 birds. 
 
 During the latter autumn, they eschew flat, bushy 
 tracts, and even swamps with heavy thickets, their 
 instinct probably telling them that in such covert they 
 are liable to be taken napping. If, however, one have 
 the fortune to find them in such tracts, he is likely to 
 have sport over setters ; and in no other sort of ground 
 do I deem that possible,- as the law now stands. Once, 
 many years since, sporting in the heavy thorn-brakes 
 around Pine Brook, in New Jersey, I found them with a 
 friend in low underwood, and we had great sport, bag- 
 ging eight brace of Ruffed Grouse over points, in addi- 
 tion to some eighteen or twenty brace of Quail. 
 
 In general, however, they frequent either open groves 
 of tall, thrifty timber, with a carpet of wintergreens, 
 cranberries and whortleberries,, which constitute their 
 favorite food ; or the steep mountain-ledges, under the 
 interlaced branches of tall evergreen trees, among brakes 
 of mountain rhododendron, or, as it is commonly called, 
 though erroneously, laurel. In both these species of 
 ground, all being clear below, the birds can hear and see 
 the sportsman long before he can approach them, and 
 take wing, for the most part, entirely out of gun-shot 
 range. If, however, they are surprised unawares, they 
 have a singular tact of dodging behind the first bush, 
 or massive trunk, and flying oft" in a right line, keep- 
 ing the obstacle directly between the sportsman and 
 
296 AMEIilCAN GAME, 
 
 themselves, so as to frustrate all liis efforts to obtain a 
 sliot ; this I have seen done so often as to satisfy me 
 that it is the result, not of chance, but of a deliberate 
 instinct. 
 
 The Ruffed Grouse rises, at first, when surprised, with 
 a heavy whirring and laborious flutter, and if taken at; 
 that moment within range, is easily shot ; he rises for 
 the most part a little higher than the head of a tall man, 
 and goes away swift and strong nearly in a horizontal 
 line. If struck behind, he will carry away a heavy load 
 of shot, and he has a trick of flying until his breath 
 leaves him in the air, and then falls dead before he 
 strikes the ground. Occasionally he towers up with the 
 wind, and then setting his wings, skates down before it 
 at a prodigious r^ite, without moving a feather ; and if 
 you get a shot at him, gentle reader, under such circum- 
 stances, crossing you at long range, be sure that you 
 shoot two, or, by 'r lady, three feet ahead of him, or you 
 may cut off his extreme tail-feathers, but of a surety kill 
 him you shall not. 
 
 The Euffed Grouse usually flies in a perfectly right 
 line, so that if you flush one without getting a shot, and 
 can preserve his line exactly, you may find him, if he 
 have not treed, which it is ten to one he has ; wherefore 
 I advise you not to follow him. The exception to this 
 right line of flight, is when the ground is broken into 
 ridges with parallel ravines, in which case the bird, on 
 crossing a ridge at right angles, will rarely cross the 
 
THE EUFFED GROUSE. 297 
 
 ravine also, but will dive up or down, as the covert may 
 invite. 
 
 "When birds lie in narrow ravines, filled witli good 
 covert, by throwing the guns forward on the brow of the 
 ridges a hundred yards ahead of the dogs, which must- 
 be left behind with a person to hunt and restrain them, 
 and letting the sportsmen carefully keep that distance in 
 advance, going very -gingerly and silently, sport may be 
 had ; and so I think only — especially over slow, mute, 
 cocking spaniels, for as the birds, after running before 
 the dogs, will be likely to take wing abreast of, or per- 
 haps even behind the unexpected shooter, who has thus 
 stolen a march on them, and as they rarely, if ever, cross 
 the ridges, but fly straight along the gorge, they so 
 afford fair shots. 
 
 For my own part, I do not consider it worth the while, 
 as the law now stands, to go out in pursuit of Eutfed 
 Grouse with dogs, where you expect to find no other 
 species of game ; for, in the first ]3lace, they ramble so 
 widely, that there is no certainty of finding them within 
 ten miles of the spot where you may have seen them 
 daily for a month ; and, secondly, if you do find them, 
 there is no certainty of having sport with them, but 
 rather a probability of reverse. As an adjunct to other 
 kinds of shooting they are excellent, but as sole objects 
 of pursuit, I think, worthless. I have often blundered 
 on them by chance while hunting for other game ; but 
 
298 _ AMEKICAN GAME. 
 
 when I have gone out expressly in pursuit of tliem, I 
 have never had even tolerable sport. 
 
 If the law were altered, and September shooting per- 
 mitted, the case would be altered also ; and in many 
 regions of our country, as the Kaatskill Mountains, and 
 some parts of Columbia and Saratoga counties, in !N"ew 
 York ; the Pocono Mountains, and the Blu« Eidge, gen- 
 erally, in Pennsylvania ; and jnany districts of Maine, 
 Massacliusetts, Connecticut, and Ehode Island, rare sport 
 might be had. For September shooting, No. 8 shot will 
 be found sufficient ; but after that, I^o. 7 ; and very late* 
 in the season, Eley's wire cartridges will be found the 
 most effective. 
 
 This widely extended bird is too well know to require 
 any peculiar description ; and I shall content myself 
 with observing, in aid of my porti-aiture of the Ruffed 
 Grouse, that the upper part of its head and hind neck 
 are reddish-brown, the back rich chestnut, mottled with 
 heart-shaped spots of white, edged with black. The tail 
 is bright reddish-yellow, barred and speckled with 
 black, and bordered by a broad, black belt between two 
 narrow white bands, one at the extremity of the tail. 
 The iris of the eye hazel, bill brown, feet brownish gray. 
 Loral band cream color. Throat and fore-neck, brown- 
 ish-yellow. TTpper ruff-feathers barred with brown. 
 Wings brownish-red, streaked with black. Breast and 
 abdomen cream colored, closely barred above, and late- 
 rally spotted below, with dark chocolate. Length 18 
 
THEKUFFED GKOUSE. 299 
 
 inclies, spread of wings 2 feet. The Hufted Grouse is a 
 capital bird on the table. The breast white meat, back 
 and thighs brown. It should be roasted quickly, eaten 
 with bread sauce and fried crumbs, and washed down 
 with sherry or red wine. 
 
THE PERCH. 
 
 ' The Yellow Perch ; P^rca flavescens. 
 
 This fine fisli, which belongs to the family Percoidce^ 
 of the division AcantJiojpterygii^ or thomy-finned, is the 
 common perch of the waters of the United States; 
 ranging from the extreme east to the extreme west of 
 the continent; from the streams and pools, of !Nova 
 Scotia and ISTew Brunswick, to the feeders of Lake Supe- 
 rior and the northern tributaries of the Canadian lakes. 
 
 To the northward, it is iK)t found in the rivers flowing 
 into the Arctic Ocean or Hudson's Bay, and its southern 
 limit is ill-defined, and can scarcely be ascertained, ex- 
 cept by personal inspection ; since the denizens of the 
 southern waters have been disfigured by appellations, 
 local, provincial, and most unscientifical, so barbarous 
 as to defy the most intelligent inquirer. 
 
 The title of the division Acanthopterygii^ or thorny- 
 firunedy is founded on the |)rinciple that every genus and 
 sub-genus thereof has one or more of the fins supported 
 
THE PLECH. 301 
 
 OD, or preceded by, strong, sharp spines, capable of 
 inflicting a severe wound, and forming a very efficient 
 weapon of defense, so that the boldest and most vora- 
 cious of fishes rarely venture to seize them. All the 
 genera have two dorsal fins — ^the first, or foremost, of 
 which is invariably supported on spines, as opposed to 
 soft branched rays ; while the second, or hindmost, is of 
 soft texture, preceded by one or more hard spines — two 
 pectoral fins, both soft-rayed — one ventral, and one anal, 
 each of which is often preceded by one or more spines 
 — and one caudal, or tail fin, which is the main propell- 
 ing power of the animal. On the number of the hard 
 spines supplementary to tlie soft fins, are founded the 
 different families ; and on the number of spines in the 
 first dorsal, the dental system, and some other parts of 
 the bony structure, the lesser, or individual distinctions. 
 On color, as distinctive of genera, or even varieties, 
 little or no reliance can be placed, unless confirmed by 
 distinct variations in the bony formation ; since in all 
 fishes there is observed to exist a great range of hues, 
 shades, and even positive colors, arising sometimes from 
 mere casual influences operating on individual speci- 
 mens, sometimes from accidents of light or shade affect- 
 ing peculiar situations, and most frequently of all fiom 
 the soil and character of the feeding-grounds, and from 
 the various mineral or earthy substances held in solution 
 by the waters they frequent 
 
 These latter influences frequently modify the same 
 
302 AMERICAN GAME. 
 
 fish in different streams, even of the same region and 
 neighborhood, and flowing over soils apparently identi- 
 cal, to such an extent, that the casual observer not 
 imnaturally believes them to be distinct varieties, if not 
 species, and can be with difficulty convinced, on the im- 
 mutable evidences of structural sameness. 
 
 This fact has led, in a great measure, to the compli- 
 cating and confounding the science of Natural History, 
 by the undue multiplication of names, species, and 
 genera, where no specific differences exist ; rendering 
 the science infinitely difficult to the beginner, and 
 causing the unlearned to undervalue the lore of the na- 
 turalist, and to deny the reality of all scientific distinc- 
 tions whatsoever. 
 
 On differences of structure, such as the situation and 
 texture of the fins, the number of spines or soft rays in 
 each, the form of the gill covers, the character and 
 position of the teeth, perfect reliance may be placed, as 
 indicating unchangeable specific characteristics, by ob- 
 servation of which the educated naturalist will name at 
 a glance the species, genus and sub-genus of any fish, 
 unseen before ; and will unerringly determine his habits, 
 his food, and in some degree his habitation. 
 
 Thus of the Percoid family we distinguish the sub- 
 genera Perca, perch proper, from Gristes and Centrar- 
 chus, to which are referred the types black basse of the 
 lakes, and the little rock basse of the St. Lawrence 
 basin, by the fact that the Percce have one spine to the 
 
THE PEIiCH. 303 
 
 ventrals and two to the anal. Tlie Gristes one to the 
 ventrals and three to the anal. The Centt'orchi one to 
 the Ventrals and six to the anal. 
 
 And in like manner, by the number of spines support- 
 ing the first dorsal, we are enabled to pronounce on the 
 truth or untrutlifulness of the many subdivisions of the 
 perch family, as predicated by the fishermen of various 
 regions, and insisted on by credulous naturalists, such as 
 Dr. Smith, of Massachusetts, whose book is rendered' 
 absolutely valueless by the readiness which he displays 
 in adopting every local legend concerning new varieties, 
 and classifying new species ; until, if we believe him at 
 all, we must believe that every several stream -end pool 
 from Maine to Minnesota has its own distinct variety of 
 perch ; nor of perch only, but of trout, and, more or less, 
 of every finny tenant of the waters. 
 
 The truth appears to have been at length firmly es- 
 tablished, and to be this — that there is but one clearly 
 defined and distinct- perch, perca flavescens^ the yellow 
 perch, found in the United States — that the perca flu- 
 matilis^ common river perch of Europe, does not exist 
 at all in American waters, though it is so closely con- 
 nected with our fish that a" casual observer would pro- 
 nounce them identical — that the supposed subgenera of 
 perca granulata, or rough-headed perch, perca argentea^ 
 silver perch, jperca acuta^ or sharp-nosed perch, and perca 
 gracilis, said to be peculiar to the small lakes of Ska- 
 neateles, in the interior of New York, are not sufficient- 
 
304: AMERICAN GAME. 
 
 \j made out as permanent varieties ; and that tlie 
 variations of color from dark, green and greenish 
 brown, to. bright yellow, silvery, and something nearly 
 approaching to., orange, are merely local, casual^ and 
 individual differences, and not general, permanent, 
 specific distinctions. 
 
 The following luminous description of this game and 
 excellent fish is borrowed from Dr. Eichardson's Tauror 
 horeali-Americana^ or natural history of the Northern 
 Eegions of America, including parts of the United 
 States, and the British Provinces as far north as to the 
 Arctic Ocean. The specimen from which it was com- 
 piled was caught at Penetanguishine, on the great 
 Georgian bay of Lake Huron, but will answer for fish of 
 this genus taken in any part of America which they 
 may chance to frequent ; so small is their variation in 
 any respect but that of color, which appears to vary in 
 obedience to no fixed law of locality or latitude, except 
 that it appears to me that of the fishes taken in estuaries 
 and at the mouths of tidal rivers, the color is deeper and 
 the tints fade from cerulean black along the dorsal out- 
 line to olive green on the flanks, with a silver belly ; 
 while in clear lakes and fresh streams, they change from 
 olive-green on the back to bright golden yellow on the 
 sides and belly. 
 
 THE YELLOW PEKCH. 
 
 ' Color, — General tint of the back greenish-yellow ; of 
 the sides golden-yellow with minute black specs ; and 
 
THE PEiicn. - S05 
 
 of tlie belly wliitisli. IS^ine or ten dark bands descend 
 from the back to the sides, and taper awaj toward tho 
 belly ; tlie alternate ones are shorter, and on tbe tail and 
 shoulders tliey are less distinctly defined ; tlie longest 
 band is opposite to the posterior part of the first dorsal 
 fin, on which there is a large black mark. 
 
 Form. — The body is moderately compressed, its great- 
 est thickness being somewhat more than one half of its 
 depth. Its profile is oblong, tapering more toward the 
 tail, which is nearly cylindrical : its greatest depth is at 
 the ventrals, and rather exceeds one-fourth of the total 
 length, caudal included. 
 
 The head constitutes two-sevenths of the total length, 
 and its height, at the eye, is equal to one-half its length 
 from the tip of the snout to the point of the gill-cover. 
 The forehead is flat, but .appears depressed, owing to the 
 convexity of the nape. The snout is a little convex. 
 The orbits are lateral, distant more than one of their own 
 diameters from the tip of the snout, and more than two 
 diameters from the point of the gill-cover. Tlie jaws are 
 equal. The mouth descends as it runs backward, its 
 posterior angle being under the centre of the orbit. 
 
 Teeth. — The intermaxiliaries, lower-jaw, knob of the 
 vomer, and edge of the palate-bones, are covered with 
 very small, straight or slightly-curved, densely-crowded 
 teeth {en velours.) The vault of the palate, posterior 
 part of the vomer, and the pointed tongue, are smooth. 
 
 GillrGovers, — The preoperculum is narrow ; its upper 
 
306 ' AMERICAN GAME. 
 
 limb rising vertically forms a right-angle with the lower 
 one ; and its edge is armed with small spinous teeth, 
 those (m the lower limb being directed forward. The 
 bony operculum terminates in a narrow sub-spinoas 
 point, beneath which there are three denticulations, with 
 grooves running backward from them. An acute- 
 pointed membranous flap prolonged from the margin of 
 the suboperculum conceals these parts iu the recent fish. 
 The edge of the interoperculum and posterior part of the 
 suboperculum are minutely denticulated. Tlie edges of 
 the humeral bones are slightly grooved and denticulated, 
 the denticulations being more obvious in some individu- 
 als than in others. 
 
 /Scales. — There are sixty scales on the lateral line, and 
 twenty-two in a vertical row between the first dorsal and 
 centre of the belly. The scales are rather small, their 
 bases truncated and furrowed to near the middle (striees 
 en eventail) by six grooves corresponding to eight minute 
 lobes of the margin. A narrow border of the outer 
 rounded edge is very minutely streaked, producing teeth 
 on the margin, visible under a lens. The length and 
 breadth of a scale, taken from the side, are about equal, 
 being two and a half lines. A linear inch measured on 
 the sides or belly, longitudinally, contains twelve scales, 
 the scales on the belly having, however, less vertical 
 breadth. On the back an inch includes seventeen or 
 eighteen. The asperity of the scales is perceptible to 
 the finger, when it is drawn over them from the tail 
 12* 
 
THE PEKCH. SOT 
 
 toward the head. The lateral-line is thrice as near to 
 the back as to the belly, and is slightly arched till it 
 passes the dorsal and anal fins, when it runs straight 
 through the middle of the tail. It is marked on each 
 scale by a tubular elevation, which is divided irregularly 
 by an oblique depression. 
 
 Fins.—Br. 7—7; D. 13—1 | 13; P. 14; Y. 1 | 5; A. 
 2 I 8 ; C. 17 5-5.* 
 
 The first dorsal commences a little posterior to the 
 point of the gill-cover and to the pectorals : its fourth 
 and fifth rays are the highest : the first ray is slender 
 and not half the height of the second ; the last ray is so 
 short as to be detected only by a close examination. 
 The second dorsal commences a quarter of an inch from 
 the first, the space between them being occupied by two 
 or three inter-spinous bones without rays : its first ray is 
 spinous, and is closely applied to the base of the second, 
 which is thrice as long, distinctly articulated, and 
 divided at the tip ; the remaining rays are all divided at 
 their summits, but at their bases the articulations are 
 obsolete. The pectorals originate opposite to the spinous 
 point of the operculum ; they are somewhat longer than 
 the ventrals, which are attached opposite to the second 
 spine of the first dorsal. The anal is rounded : its first 
 
 * Br. represents the rays within the gill-covers, which form the 
 breathing apparatus of the animal— D. the dorsals — P, pectorals — Y. 
 ventrals — A', anal — C. caudal. The notations 1 | 13, 2 | 5, and 2 j 8, 
 5 ^pectively indicate one hard spine, thirteen soft rays, etc. etc. 
 
308 AilEKICAN GAME. 
 
 ray is one-fourtli part shorter tlian the second, Loth beiii^ 
 spinous : the succeeding rays are articulated and branch- 
 ed, the^iive anterior ones being longer than the second 
 spine, the others becoming successively shorter : its 
 termination is opposite to that of the second dorsal. 
 Tlie caudal is distinctly forked, its base is scaly, the 
 scales advancing farther on the outer rays and covering 
 one-third of their length. 
 
 Such is the general description of the fish throughout 
 the country at large, but great allowance must be made 
 for accidental and local variations of color, some speci- 
 mens being light green, backed and barred with black, 
 with silvery bellies, others exactly as portrayed above, 
 others nearly orange, and approaching in some degree to 
 the splendor of the gold-fish. 
 
 As I have observed, no fish is more general than this, 
 in every description of waters throughout his range in 
 the United States. From the largest rivers, so low down 
 their channels that the waters begin to be brackish, to 
 the smallest mountain rivulets ; from the mill-pond, and 
 small, clear mountain tarn, to the vast exjianses of 
 Huron, Michigan and Superior, they are omnipresent 
 and numerous. 
 
 They spawn in March, each female exuding a vast 
 quantity of spawn. So many as 992,000 ova having 
 been taken, as it is stated by Mr. Brown in his "Ameri- 
 can Angler's Guide," though he does not annex his 
 authority, from a single female. 
 
THE PERCII. 309 
 
 They may be taken during every montli of the year 
 with the hook, being bold biters and among the most 
 voracious of all fishes, devouring the spawn and young 
 fry of their own species with savage avidity, and being 
 among the most deadly foes to the trout preserves, owing 
 to the rapacity with which they ransack the spawning 
 beds. 
 
 Tliey are in the main a lively and active fish, roving 
 about in small bands or shoals, sometimes swimming 
 high and near the surface, leaping merrily at the flies 
 and smaller water insects, and sometimes, especially in 
 clear, rapid scours of gravel-bedded rivers, sweeping 
 along the bottom, gathering the small, red brandling 
 worms, of which they are very fond, caddises, and other 
 water reptiles, as well the spawn of such fish as use 
 these localities. 
 
 The larger fish will, however, often select stations, 
 such as the lee of a large stone at the tail of a ripple, 
 especially under the umbrage of trees growing on the 
 bank, or among the piles and timbers of mill-dams or 
 sluice-ways, whence they sally out like the pike or trout 
 on any passing prey with great velocity and accuracy of 
 aim. Still even these are decidedly gregarious, as one is 
 never found singly in a hole, such places being invaria- 
 bly frequented by such a band as it will liberally sup- 
 port, who rarely stray beyond its limits, and prey, for the 
 most part over the same fishing-ground, and in the same 
 course. 
 
^10 AMEEICAN GAME. 
 
 Tliis propensity is taken advantage of by tlie angler, 
 since, when he has once struck upon a well-stocked 
 haunt, while the fish are in the humor to bite, he will be 
 very apt, if patient and skillful, to take the whole shoal 
 without the loss of a single fish. 
 
 The growth of the yellow perch is slow, and appears 
 to be proportioned pretty accurately to the size and 
 character of the waters which he frequents. Li small, 
 swift-running brooks, or little spring-ponds or mill-dams, 
 he rarely exceeds a few inches in length and a few 
 ounces in weight, partaking generally of the green and 
 silvery type of the fish. In estuaries and large rivers, in 
 the pellucid tarns and lakelets, which are dotted so 
 beautifully through all the uplands of the eastern and 
 middle states from Maine to Pennsylvania, in the vast 
 expanses of the great northern lakes of Canada, in the 
 giant rivers of the west, they attain far more rapidly to 
 a great size, three or four pounds being a run by no 
 means unusual, and individuals being not unfrequently 
 taken up to five, six and seven pounds, when they are 
 very firm, fat, and in capital condition for the table. 
 
 They may be caught in all months of the year. Mr. 
 Brown considers that they " may be had in the 
 largest quantities and in the finest condition from May 
 to July ;" but. from my own experience, w^hich has been 
 limited principally to the lakelets of Maine, to Green- 
 wood or Wawayanda lake, in Orange county, ]S"ew York, 
 to Lake Hopatkong, desecrated into Brooklyn pond, in 
 
THE PEECH. 811 
 
 Sussex county, 'New Jersey, and to some of tlie north 
 eastern streams and ponds of Pennsylvania, I should say 
 that late in the autumn — 
 
 When the maple boughs are crimson, 
 
 And the hickory shines like gold, 
 And the noons are sultry hot. 
 
 And the nights are frosty cold ; 
 
 They bite with greater freedom, show more sport, and 
 are better on the table than at any other season of the 
 year. 
 
 The yellow perch is a bold, nay ! a savage biter, and 
 a greedy feeder ; it is even recorded of him that he has 
 been known to strike at his own eye, casually torn out 
 by the point of the hook, which is to me by no means 
 incredible. 
 
 Securely weaponed by the sharp palisade of arrowy 
 spines bristling along his back, and by the stout jagged 
 thorns protruding in advance of his ventral anal fins, 
 when of any considerable size, he fears neither the 
 tremendous rush and shark-like jaws of the savage mas- 
 calonge, nor the terrible agility and dauntless daring of 
 the namaycush and siskawity, those vast lake trouts, but 
 feeds himself, a lesser tyrant of the waters, on whatever 
 crosses his path of havoc. 
 
 A light, stiff, len-foot rod, with a small reel, and 
 twenty-five or thirty yards of line, with a small cork 
 float, and a proper sinker for bottom fishing, is the best 
 
312 AMERICAN GAME. 
 
 implement ; and tlie best baits for this method are the 
 common ground-worm or the little scarlet brandling. 
 Tlie latter particularly in rapid channels and scours. 
 Cheese pastes are also used, and at times successfully, 
 but I do not advocate their use, but the most certainly 
 deadly of all baits is the paste made from the preserved 
 roe of any fish which frequents the waters you are to 
 fish. Trout-roe, in lakes or rivers haunted by that 
 gamest and best of all the inhabitants of the water, kills 
 unerringly. 
 
 In brackish water shrimp beats the world for perch, 
 remembering that you fish near to or upon the bottom. 
 
 Perch, especially when of large size, may be trolled 
 for as pike, with the hind legs of a frog, or with any 
 small fish on a gorge hook. But in my opinion the 
 prettiest of all modes of catching them is to rove for 
 them with the live minnow. 
 
 For this purpose you take a fine, clear, gut leader, 
 with a ISTo. 9 Limerick hook whipped on at the tail, and 
 an inch and a half above it, and back to back to the tail 
 hook, a second one size smaller than the first. The 
 upper should be hooked securely into the lower jaw of a 
 moderate sized minnow, and the lower into his dorsal fin, 
 care being taken not to pierce his back, when he will 
 swim about naturally and gayly for many hours, if not 
 taken by a fish, and if carefully released without lacera- 
 tion, will survive the operation. A small cork, or what 
 is better, quill-float, is necessary to this method, and a 
 
THE TEKCH. 813 
 
 few shot, sufficient to sink the bait to within three 
 inches of the bottom. When a bite is felt, a little time 
 should be given before striking : when struck, the perch 
 is surely taken, for though he pulls hard for a short time 
 he has neither the fierce courage nor the wily craft of 
 the trout, but succumbs after a few brief struggles. A 
 reel is necessary, and the float often dispensed with by 
 veterans in the art. 
 
 The following very graphic extracts, on perch fishing 
 in the waters of the Niagara river and Lake Erie, are 
 from the pen of probably the best piscatorial writer of 
 the United States, long an esteemed correspondent of the 
 BuflPalo Commercial Advertiser, from whose lucubrations 
 I have borrowed largely in my larger works on " Figh 
 and Fishing," and to whom I gladly record my obliga- 
 tion: 
 
 " The Yellow Perch. This beautiful and active fish 
 is almost omnipresent in the fresh waters of the ISTorth- 
 eni States. There are probably two distinct but similar 
 species in our country, blended together under this com- 
 mon name. The perch of ISTew England difiers from 
 ours principally in the shape of the head. In the Sara- 
 toga Lake, Owasco Lake, Cayuga Outlet, the Flats of 
 Lake Huron, and many other localities, the perch is 
 larger than with us, frequently weighing three pounds. 
 Among the perch of our streams and rivers, a half-pound- 
 er is a very portly citizen — though on a few particular 
 bars they are sometimes taken in considerable numbers, 
 14 
 
314 AMEEICAN GAME. 
 
 averaging nearly a pound each. It is almost always to 
 be had, from earliest spring to the commencement of 
 winter ; -and when poor Piscator has had all his lobsters* 
 taken by the sheeps-head, and utterly despairs of bass, 
 he can, at any time, and almost any where, in our river, 
 bait with the minnow and the worm, and retrieve some- 
 what from frowning fortune, by catching a mess of 
 perch. 
 
 " In the spring, as soon as the ice has left the streams, 
 the perch begins running up our creeks to sj^awn. He 
 is then caught in them in great plenty.^ About the 
 middle of May, however, he seems to prefer the 
 IS'iagara's clear current, and almost entirely deserts the 
 Tonawanda, and other amber waters. You then find 
 him in the eddies, on the edge of swift ripples, and often 
 in the swift waters, watching for the minnow. As the 
 water-weeds- increase in height, he ensconces himself 
 among them, and, in mid-summer, comes out to seek his 
 prey only in the morning and towai^d night. .He seems 
 to delight especially in a grassy bottom, and when the 
 black frost has cut down the tall water-weeds, and the 
 more delicate herbage that never attains the surface is 
 withered, he disappears until spring — ^probably secluding 
 himself in the depths of the river. 
 
 "The back fin of the perch is large, and armed with 
 strong spines. He is bold and ravenous. He will not 
 give way to the pike or to the black bass ; and though 
 * By lobsters the writer means the small fresh-water crayfish. 
 
THE PEECH. 815 
 
 he may aDmetimes be eaten by tliem, bis comrades will 
 retaliate upon the young of bis destroyers. 
 
 " Tbe proper bait for the percb is tbe minnow. He 
 will take that at all seasons. Id mid-summer, however, 
 he prefers the worm, at which he generally bites freely. 
 He is often taken with the grub, or with small pieces of 
 fish of any kind. 
 
 *' He is a capital fish at all times for the table. His 
 flesh is hard and savory. He should be fried with salt 
 pork rather than butter, and thoroughly done. He 
 makes good chowder, though inferior for that purpose to 
 the black bass or the yellow pike. 
 
 " A diiference of opinion exists among our most tasteful 
 icthyophagists, as to whether this fish should be scaled 
 or skinned. Let me tell you how to skin him. Take a 
 sharp pointed knife, and rip up the skin along the back, 
 from the posterior extremity of the back fin, on one or 
 both sides of it, along its whole length — then take the 
 fish firmly by the head with the left hand, and with the 
 right take hold of the skin of the back near the head, 
 first on one side arid then on the other, and peal it down 
 over the tail. This being done, all the fins are thereby 
 removed except those of the back and belly, which are 
 easily drawn out by a gentle pulling towards the head. 
 Cut off the head, and you have a skinless, finless lump 
 of pure white fiesh. Some say this is the only way a 
 perch should be prepared for the cook's art — others say 
 it impairs the flavor, and should never be pursued. Aa 
 
316 AMEEICAl^ GAME. 
 
 for me, I saj, ' in medio tutissimus iihis^ — neither of the 
 disputants is infallible. Much, very much of the sweet- 
 ness of-^he perch, and, indeed, almost all fishes, resides 
 in the skin, which should never be parted with except 
 for some special reason ; therefore, as a general thing, I 
 scale my perch. But, in summer, the skin of the perch 
 is apt to acquire a slightly bitter taste, or a smack of the 
 mud — therefore, in summer, I skin my perch." 
 
 Before quitting this subject, I will simply point out 
 that the excellent little pan fish taken in salt water, near 
 the turn of the tide, in most of our large rivers, and 
 usually known as white perch, or silver perch, is not a 
 perch, but the little white, or the little red bass. And 
 herewith, good-night; and good luck to the gentle 
 friends and good fishermen all who read Graham. 
 
XII. 
 DECEMEES. 
 
 Jb'ullgida Beinaculata. 
 
 MASSACHUSETTS SOUTH TO THE CHRSAPEAKE; WEST TO 
 THE MISSISSIPPI. 
 
 Fuligula BituMculata. 
 
 ARCTIC REGIONS TO THE ST. LAWRENCE AND LAKE 
 
 MICHKJAX. 
 
320 AMEEICAls^ GAME. 
 
 as seen and felt upon the board, not jet in liis grander 
 and nobler capacity and character, as game in the free 
 air, or on the liberal waters, let us observe that the cook 
 who sends this glorious fowl red-raw up to the table, to 
 be cut up butcherly and bedeviled in a chafing-dish, 
 with wine and jelly, and I know not what, is worthy of 
 a rope and the nearest lamj)-post — death without benefit 
 of clergy. The man who would so condescend to eat 
 him, his juicy, melting, natural richness disguised by 
 cloying artificial sweetness, deserves incontinently to be 
 elected a I^ew York alderman, and doomed to batten, 
 life-long, at the corporation ^^^-table ; nor can we con- 
 ceive a doom more hideous or intolerable to be endured 
 by^any rational, much more refined or thinking man, 
 than such a condemnation ; whether we regard . the 
 quality of the gross feeders and fowl-livers with whom 
 he would have to consort, or the nature of the ill-cooked 
 ill-assorted, rank and racy viands which he would be 
 compelled to absorb. 
 
 JSTo ! let the kitchen be the kitchen, and its work be 
 done within its own confines. Let the duck, roasted to 
 a turn, redolent of a rapid fire, and brownly, nay, but 
 almost hlaclcly crisp without, be served up on its lordly 
 dish, without one gout of sauce or gravy to dim the 
 splendor of the sheeny porcelain. A vase of celery 
 may accompany him, and, if you will, a salver of halved 
 lemons, but no more. Let him be placed before the 
 right man of the company, one competent to 
 
THE CAXVAS-EACK DUCK. 321 
 
 Carve him as a dish for gods, 
 Not hew him as a carcass for the hounds." 
 
 Then, if he be indeed the very man, it is a pleasure in 
 itself to observe him. Mark how dantilj between his 
 thumb and forefinger only he poises the elaborate and 
 burnished steel ; how dexterously and without effort he 
 slides it through the rich scarlet muscle, glowing like a 
 ripe pomegranate when its skin is severed, through car- 
 tilage and joint unerring — ■ 
 
 " And as he draws his trenchant steel away, 
 Mark how the blood of Caesar follows it," 
 
 till the broad dish, of late so bright and stainless, is filled 
 even to o'erflowing with the rare, crimson gravy, and 
 the whole atmosphere of the dining room is perfumed 
 with the noble fumet. 
 
 And, now to descend from no inappropriate raptures 
 to the world of common sense and the terrestrial limits 
 of Duckdom, be it known, that all this delicacy of flavor, 
 all this rare juciness and melting pinguidit^, are attrib- 
 utable solely to the nicety and gentlemanly habits of 
 your Chesapeake Canvas-Back, in that he feeds, revers- 
 ing the modus operandi of my friends, the knights of the 
 tea-table, wisely, but not too well. Your Canvas -Back 
 of the Chesapeake Bay, but more especially of the Gun- 
 powder river, is the nobleman of that ancient dominion ; 
 
 whereas, all other Canvas-Backs, even of the James, the 
 14^- 
 
322 AMERICAN GAME. 
 
 Potomac, and the Patapsco, shall be at once distinguisli- 
 ed as mere jL>arvemies and merchant princes ; as those 
 from the Hudson, the Sound, or the great South Bay, 
 rank as the mere snobs and vulgarians — ^the very out- 
 casts of Duckdom. 
 
 The wonderful difference which exists between these 
 fowl, when shot on the waters of the Chesapeake and 
 elsewhere, arises solely from the difference of their food. 
 The Canvas-Back ranges across many degrees of this 
 continent, from the Falls of St. Peter's on the Upper 
 Mississippi, whence I possess a pair of fine stuffed speci- 
 mens, sent to me by my friend Mr. Sibley, now M. C. 
 for Minnesota, corresponding in every particular with 
 the same birds from the southern estuaries, so far north 
 as the Long Island Sound, and the great lagoons between 
 its southern side and the outer beaches on which I have 
 frequently killed it. But nowhere is it a superior duck, 
 except on the waters and tributaries of the Chesapeake, 
 where its favorite food, the wild celery, as it is incorrect- 
 ly called, Zostera YaUsneria, or YalisAei'ia Americana, 
 grows in the greatest abundance, and imparts to it that 
 peculiar richness and delicacy, which it bestows on none 
 of its congeners, though all these, too, it wonderfully 
 improves, particularly the Widgeon, or Baldpate, Anas 
 America?ia, regarded as second to it longo intervallo, 
 and the Eed-Headed Duck, or Pochard, Fuligula ferina, 
 which may be regarded as its cousin german. While 
 speaking of the birds in this relation I may mention that 
 
THE CANVAS-BACK DUCK. 323 
 
 tlie Red-Head, thoiigli immeasurably inferior to the 
 Canvas-Back, where both can feed on the valisneria, is 
 as far superior to it when shot on sea-ways where both 
 are compelled to feed on other species of sea-grass and 
 weeds. Indeed, I consider the Duskey Duck, commonly 
 known as the Black-Duck, a better bird on the ]N"orthern 
 Atlantic sea-board than this fowl. 
 
 The vaUsneria of which it is so fond, and to which it 
 owes so much of its excellence, grows only on fresh 
 shoals, in water from seven to nine feet, which are never 
 left bare at the lowest tides. It is a long grass-like 
 plant, with narrow leaves of five or six feet in length or 
 upward, and is said to grow so thickly that a boat can 
 scarcely be pulled through it ; the root is white, and 
 somewhat resembles celery, whence its common name, 
 and on this only do the ducks feed, the Canvas-Back and 
 Scaup-Duck, Fuligula Marila — the Black-Head of the 
 Chesapeake, and Broad-Bill of Long Island — for these 
 three are one — being reported to dive for it, and uproot 
 it, while the less vigorous and active Red-Head and 
 "Widgeon rob the rightful possessors of it when they rise 
 to the surface after their long dive. 
 
 The Red-Head closely resembles the Canvas-Back, and 
 is often palmed off on the unwary as that bird, yet to an 
 experienced eye the distinction is broadly apparent. In 
 the first place the Canvas-Back is very considerably the 
 larger bird, measuring two feet in length by three feet 
 from wing to wing, and weighing, when in condition, 
 
324 AMERICAN GAME. 
 
 full three pounds. The upper parts of the Canvas-Backs 
 are much lighter, and the colors generally clearer and 
 brighter than in the Eed-IIead, which I consider identi- 
 cal with the European Pochard. It is in the heads of 
 the two birds, however, that the difference will be most 
 readily perceived, the bill of the Canvas-Back being 
 above three inches long, purely black, and very high at 
 the base ; whereas that of the Bed-Head is bluish, 
 except at the tip, where it is black, and rarely exceeds 
 two and a quarter inches, besides being much flatter 
 where it joins the head. Perhaps the best distinction, 
 however, is in the eye, for that mark is positive, whereas 
 all tlie others are merely comparative; tlie irides^ or 
 circles around the pupil being, in the Canvas-Back, 
 deep, fiery red ; whereas in the other bird they are of a 
 lurid reddish-yellow or chestnut. 
 
 I have beeii somewhat particular in insisting on these 
 differences, as I find that there prevails much uncertainty 
 regarding them, and as the pointing out these with 
 precision may protect some fair readers, if any deign to 
 cast their eyes over this paper, as well as gentle sports- 
 men, from deception and disappointment. 
 
 Tlie Canvas-Back drake, in full plumage, is a magnifi- 
 cently handsome fowl, and his speed and power of sus- 
 tained flight, as well as extraordinary agility and 
 persistence in diving are in all respects commensurate 
 with his beauty. 
 
 The crown of his head, the space between the bill and 
 
THE CANVAS-BACK DUCK. 325 
 
 tlie eye, and tlie throat, are dusky ; tlie sides of the 
 head, neck all round and the greater part of its length, 
 rich, ruddy chestnut ; the lower neck, breast, and back, 
 deep, sooty black, the rest of the back white, closely 
 undulated with narrow black lines; the wing-coverts 
 gray, speckled with black ; primaries and secondaries 
 light slate color; rump tail-coverts and tail, blackish; 
 lower breast and abdomen, white ; flanks white, finely 
 undulated with gray ; under tail-coverts, grayish-black. 
 
 The female is inferior in size to the male, and general- 
 ly of a dingy, grayish-brown, except the abdomen, 
 w^hich is white, penciled with blackish lines. 
 
 This bird is unknown except on this continent, never 
 being found in Europe ; and of its habits, except during 
 the winter months, which it spends in our sea-bays and 
 estuaries, little or nothing has been ascertained, so that 
 of all its most interesting peculiarities in nidification, 
 incubation, and the rearing of its young, we are almost 
 wholly ignorant. 
 
 That it breeds in the extreme north we are, of course, 
 assured, and that it is not averse to a more than mode- 
 rate degree of cold, since it stays with us even after the 
 ice has made, when it can feed only through air-holes, 
 and is never found far soutk of the capes of the Chesa- 
 peake. It does not, moreover, become very abundant 
 even on those its favorite waters, until the cold weather 
 has fairly set in, about tke middle of ITovember, and a 
 month later it is considered to be in its prime. It is, 
 
326 AMERICAN GAME. 
 
 liowever, very remarkable, that I cannot discover tliat 
 the Canvas-Back is ever seen or known to visit the great 
 Upper Lakes, where the Eead-Head is also rare, though 
 "Widgeon and Scaup abound, and though the northern 
 tributaries of Lake Huron, as well as the flats of the 
 Lake St. Clair are overgrown with all the various plants 
 in which they most delight, both the Yalisneria A7neri- 
 cana^ and the zizania jpanicula effusa^ known as wild 
 rice, flourishing in wonderful profusion, and imj^arting 
 their peculiar qualities of flavor, tenderness, and juci- 
 ness to all the tribes of water-fowl, even the least worthy, 
 which haunt these deep, ice-cold, translucent waters. 
 The only solution I can ofler for tliis seeming anomrly, 
 for all the other ducks pause to recruit awhile in those 
 favorable feeding-grounds while on their southward 
 course, is that the Canvas-Back and Ked-Head do not 
 move 67i masse from the northern sea-shores, until those 
 great inland waters are girdled around their margins, 
 and winter-bound along their tributary streams by fetters 
 of thick-ribbed ice, and that the fowl in consequence 
 pass over without pausing or becoming known, to their 
 great detriment, to the red or white inhabitants of the 
 coast. Certain it is, that they are unknown to the 
 Indian tribes who dwell on the shores or islands of Lake 
 Huron, and that the officers of the English posts who 
 have known them elsewhere, ignore them here. 
 
 To compensate, however, for our ignorance concerning 
 their summer habits, haunts, and proceedings, we are 
 
THE CANVAS-BACK DUCK. 327 
 
 well aware of tlieir winter doings and sufferings, for, in 
 truth, from the day of their arrival on the waters of the 
 Chesapeake to that of their departure in the spring, they 
 have small rest by day or by night, in spite of the exer- 
 tions of the shooting-clubs to prevent their disturbance 
 by sailing-boats and punts with swivels on the feeding- 
 grounds. 
 
 One of their habits is so curious that it merits peculiar 
 attention, though it is shared by these birds with several 
 other varieties, the Scaups, or Black-Heads, and the 
 "Read-Heads especially, and sometimes, though rarely, by 
 the Widgeon or Bald-Pates; this habit is a strange 
 hallucination, or curiosity, which induces them to swim 
 directly in from their feeding-grounds, under tlie very 
 muzzle of the concealed gunner's weapon on the occur- 
 rence of any rare or unusual sight, such as an animal at 
 play on the beach, or the waving of a red handkerchief 
 by day, and a white by night. Advantage is taken of 
 this singular propensity to lure them to their doom ; and 
 I am assured by a good sportsman that he has known 
 the same flock toled^ as it is called, into easy gun-shot 
 and decimated each time, thrice successively within 
 half an hour. 
 
 The mode of doing this is thus related by Dr. Sharp- 
 less, of Philadelphia, who contributed the account to 
 Mr. Audubon, for his " Birds of America," from w^hom, 
 with due acknowledgment, I borrow it, never having 
 
328 AMEEICAN GAME. 
 
 myself enjoyed the pleasure of observing this singular 
 mode of sporting. 
 
 For this purpose, says the doctor, " a spot is usually 
 selected where the birds have not been much disturbed, 
 and where they feed at from three to four hundred yards 
 from, and can approach to within forty or fifty yards of 
 the shore, as they never will come nearer than they can 
 swim freely. The higher the tides and the calmer the 
 day, the better, for they feed closer to the shores and see 
 more distinctly. Most persons on these waters have a 
 race of small white or liver-colored dogs" — other writers 
 say red, and resembling the fox — " which they familiarly 
 call the toler breed, but which appear to be the ordinary 
 poodle. These dogs are extremely playful, and are 
 taught to run up and down the shore, in sight of the 
 ducks, either by the motion of the hand, or by throwing 
 chips from side to side. They soon become perfectly 
 acquainted with their business, and as they discover the 
 ducks approaching them, make their jumps less high, till 
 they almost crawl upon the ground to prevent the birds 
 discovering what the object of their curiosity may be. 
 The nearest ducks soon notice this strange appearance, 
 raise their heads, gaze intently for a moment, and then 
 push for the shore, followed by the rest. On many occa- 
 sions I have seen thousands of them swimming in a solid 
 mass direct for the object ; and by removing the dogs 
 farther into the grass, they have been brought to within 
 fifteen feet of the bank. When they have ai>proached 
 
THE CANVAS-BACK DIJCK. 329 
 
 to witliin thirty or forty yards tlieir curiosity is generally 
 satisfied, and after swimming np and down for a few 
 seconds, they retrograde to their former station. The 
 moment to shoot is while they present their sides, and 
 forty or fifty ducks have often been killed by a small 
 gun." 
 
 It is said that the tendency to overshoot large, solid 
 flocks is so great that the oldest and best shots recom- 
 mend that the nearest duck be brought into full relief 
 above the sight, when your shot will rake the mass. To 
 prevent the toling dogs from breaking, otlier dogs, 
 crossed between the Newfoundland and water-spaniel, 
 are used, which display even more sagacity than the 
 tolers^ crouching when the ducks come in, and springing 
 up eagerly at the discharge, in order to mark its efi'ect. 
 During a flight of fowl, these retrievers are said inces- 
 santly to watch the quarter of the heavens whence the 
 fowl are flying, and to indicate their approach by rest- 
 lessness of manner long before the human eye can detect 
 therm. 
 
 This toliiig is not, however, regarded by good and 
 gi'eat duck-shots as a very legitimate or sportsmanlike 
 method, and though the sagacity of the dogs, and the 
 gradual approach of the ducks in a way so curious must 
 give an interest and excitement to the business, it must 
 be confessed that blazing away into solid, stationary 
 masses of thousands cannot be compared to shooting on 
 the wing. 
 
330 AMERICAN GAME. 
 
 Tlie true and gnostic mode of shooting, however, is 
 from the points or islands, over which the ducks and 
 geese fly in going up or down the bay, according as the 
 wind may be, and on which blinds or screens are con- 
 structed, concealing a seat on which the sportsman 
 quietly and comfortably awaits the advent of the fowl, 
 the teams of which may be seen at a long distance, so 
 that their approach, and the doubt to whose stand they 
 will give the shot, renders the sport most exciting. 
 He trie vers of the same character with those described 
 above, are used in this flight-sliootin-g ; and the use of 
 two heavy fourteen or sixteen pounds single guns, carry- 
 ing 4 or 5 oz. of Xo. 1 to B shot, as I have recommend- 
 ed in my Field Sports for fowl shooting in general, is 
 greatly preferred to that of one double gun, heavier in 
 fact, but as regards each barrel, lighter, and, therefore, 
 neither so safe nor effective as the two singles in succes- 
 sion, and by far less easily managed. 
 
 The most celebrated of these stations is Carrol's 
 Island, long rented by a club of sporting gentlemen, and 
 famous for the astonishing sport it was wont to furnish, 
 year after year. The Narrows, also, between Spesutia 
 Island on the western shore, Taylor's Island at the mouth 
 of the Eumley, and Abbey Island at the mouth of the 
 Bush River, Legoe's Point on the last named stream, 
 and Eobbins' and Eicketts' Points, near the Gunj)owder, 
 are all favorite and famous stations. 
 
 The sport is greatly enhanced by the difficulty of the 
 
THE CANVAS-BACK DUCK. 331 
 
 sliootiilg ; and it is said tliat even the best of upland 
 shots, or fowl shots, accustomed only to stooling^ fail of 
 success at first in tliis flight-shooting, from the difficulty 
 of calculating the distance of the teams, and the rapidity 
 of their motion. 
 
 And now, gentle readers, for our time, our topic, and 
 our space, are all three exhausted, if you he bound in 
 this, the best month, for the fair Chesapeake, steady be 
 your hands, and sure your eyes ; use Brough's Hawkers' 
 ducking powder, and Starkey's central fire caps, so shall 
 your guns not fail you. May the winds blow, the tides 
 flow, and the flights fly as you would have them. And 
 so farewell to ye ; and oh ! that we were bound thither 
 likewise, to beat you or be beaten, as it might be. 
 
THE WINTER DUCK. 
 
 The Lake Hueon Scotee. 
 FuUgula himaculata ? Canard d^hiver. 
 
 This curious and interesting duck is -not described in 
 any book of natural history, relating to the birds of the 
 United States of I^orth America ; nor, so far as I can 
 ascertain, is it mentioned or named in any general or 
 local work of ornithology, unless it may possibly occur 
 in Kichardson's Fauna loreali Americana^ which I have 
 not had an opportunity of consulting. 
 
 It certainly is not to be found either in Audubon or 
 Bonaparte, much less in Wilson; nor could the latter 
 be expQcted to have known it, since in his day the 
 regions which it frequents were scarcely discovered, and 
 at the best visited only by rude frontiersmen and voya- 
 geurs^ or coureurs des hois, who are not expected to take 
 much note of generic or specific distinctions among the 
 varieties of game, w^hich is regarded by them as little 
 more than food. 
 
 It is quite certain, however, that this fine duck is now 
 at least fully entitled to a place in the Fauna of the 
 
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THE WINTER DrCK. 333 
 
 United States, as it has its habitat^ during a considerable 
 portion of the year, on waters within their frontiers, and 
 is well-known in the north western regions by the name 
 prefixed to this paper, "Winter-Duck," or among the 
 Canadian French as the Canard d^hiver^ being the 
 synonym of the term above used. By the Ojibwa 
 Indians, of Nottawasaga Bay, and the Matchedash, it is 
 kAown as the "Big Widgeon" — a most inappropriate 
 name, as, beside that it bears no earthly resemblance 
 to the proper widgeon, it entirely differs from that bird 
 in seasons and habits — the Widgeon or Bald-Pate being 
 a summer resident in the north-west and migrating to 
 the sea-coast southward during the cold, winter months. 
 This bird, on the contrary, comes down, as it would 
 appear, late in the fall, from the extreme north, and 
 winters on the great unfrozen lakes, its southern limit of 
 migration not varying much, so far as I can judge, from 
 the forty-fifth degree of north latitude. 
 
 My first sight of this bird was during a visit to the 
 northern shores of Lake Huron and the great Georgian 
 Bay, in company with Lieut. F. C. Herbert, command- 
 ing H. M. steam sloop, " Mohawk," then stationed at 
 Penetanguishine. Immediately on entering that beau- 
 tiful little harbor on a bright morning early in Septem- 
 ber, before the steamer was at her moorings, a Potawat- 
 tomie Indian, who could speak no English, came along- 
 side in his bark canoe, with some wild-fowl for sale, 
 which were bought, and handed on deck for inspection. 
 
334: AMERICAN GAME. 
 
 At first sight, I was satisfied that the bird in question, 
 one of which was included in the lot, among scanp, or 
 broad-bills, as "they are commonly designated on the 
 Atlantic seaboard, mallards, dusky-duck and wood-duck, 
 was a nondescript ; and 1 laid it aside to sketch and 
 describe at my leisure. I soon perceived, however, that 
 it had been much mutilated, all the secondaries having 
 been plucked out, and the upper tail-coverts torn away, in 
 order to get at the kemal, from which the birds preen 
 themselves, and which the Indians of that region inva- 
 riably cut awayj and appropriate, for what purpose I 
 could not learn. 
 
 In the meantime, I could learn nothing of the bird 
 among the settlers in the neighborhood, most of them 
 pensioners from the English army, except that it was 
 not uncommon in the fall, in the great bay to the north- 
 ward of the Manitoulins. The staff-surgeon at the post, 
 himself a good naturalist, was ignorant of the bird, 
 and we carefully examined our specimen by such au- 
 thorities as were contained in his library, Audubon and 
 Wilson, as well as some small English compendiums on 
 the subject among the number, arriving at the conclu- 
 sion that it certainly was not described in any of these 
 works. 
 
 Nearly a month afterward, being one of a sporting 
 party, which made a canoeing excursion of a week or 
 ten days, up the Matchedash or Severn river, which dis- 
 charges the waters of Lake Sincoe, lying midway of the 
 
THE WINTER DUCK. 335 
 
 peninsula between lakes Huron and Ontario, into the 
 great Georgian bay, I again came across this unknown 
 wild-fowl. 
 
 There had been four or ^Ye nights of very sharp frost, 
 and ice had formed to the thickness of a dollar, even in 
 the river, which is swift, and in places much broken by 
 falls and rapids. We had cleared the river, and had 
 entered the northern extremity of the lake, Simcoe, 
 paddling as fast as we could toward the village of 
 Orillia, with two canoes running on nearly parallel 
 lines, perhaps a hundred yards apart, when we suddenly 
 saw several large plumps of duck coming from the north. 
 There were, I should think, thirty or forty fowl in each 
 plump, and long before they were nearly within gun- 
 shot, I observed that their flight was in itself peculiar, 
 and unlike that of any fowl I had ever observed ; for 
 they wheeled and swooped frequently, more after the- 
 fashion of plovers, tattlers, or other shore-birds, than of 
 any species of duck with which I was previously ac- 
 quainted ; and these movements were the more conspic- 
 uous, on account of the broad white bars across their 
 wings, formed by the secondaries, which were alternate- 
 ly seen and lost at every motion. 
 
 At length, one of the smallest flocks w^heeled in be- 
 tween the two boats, and got the contents of three 
 double-barrels, beside the charges of two or more long 
 north-west Indian pieces. A good many birds were 
 knocked over, quite dead; and a good many more 
 
336 AMERICAN GAME. 
 
 scattered away, and dropped, more or less severely hurt, 
 over the clear waters of the bright, sunny lake ; while 
 the main body, or what was left of it, settled down and 
 was marked by the Indians, on our course toward 
 Orillia. Some considerable time was occupied in taking 
 the cripples ; which were all dispersed, and which swam 
 away rapidly as the canoes apj^roached them, none of 
 thern making any attempt at rising again on the wing, 
 seldom diving except when very hard pressed, and then 
 only for a little time and short distance. 
 
 When the wounded were all fairly brought to bag, the 
 Indians were in great glee, and asserted that they could 
 paddle us upon them all; which I should have been 
 inclined to doubt, had I not learned how very rarely an 
 Indian hazards an assertion of which he is not perfectly 
 well assured, especially to a white man; for the duck lay 
 full in bright water, in the middle of the lake, whicli 
 was as clear and smooth as a piece of glass, with a briglit 
 sun shining ; and our canOes were large and full of men ; 
 nor was there a particle of wild-rice or sedge whereby to 
 cover our approaches. 
 
 Nevertheless, An-oon-ge-zhig, or the " Starry-Sky," 
 for so was our principal conductor styled, made his 
 prophesy good ; for he did paddle us directly on the birds, 
 and we slaughtered them, as they sat on the water with- 
 out offering to fly at our-approach, until we had bagged 
 the greater part of the whole plump. 
 
 On the following day, having attained the limit of our 
 
THE WINTER DUCK. ' 337 
 
 intended excursion, we put our lieads to the north-west- 
 ward, and bent our' way homeward, the cold weather 
 suddenly giving way on the noon of the second day ; 
 after which we enjoyed the most delicious Indian-sum- 
 mer weather I have ever witnessed. 
 
 During the whole of our run down the Matchedash, 
 and through the innumerable rice-lakes into which it 
 expands, we had great sport with these same birds, 
 which we killed in very considerable numbers, while 
 daily we could observe them coming in by great flights 
 from the north ; though, on our way up, only three or 
 four days previously, we had not seen a single bird of 
 the kind, though we had shot many scaups, mallard, and 
 dusky-duck ; and not a few buffel-heads, called by the 
 Indians spirit-ducks, from the rapidity with which they 
 vanish from the eye when diving at the flash. 
 
 The first thing which struck me on examining the 
 specimen shown to me on board the " Mohawk," was 
 the peculiar formation of the head and bill, and the 
 position of the wings and legs ; all indicating it to be of 
 the Q\?i^^ fuligulce^ or sea-ducks, and of that coarse, and 
 for the most part uneatable, species, generally known 
 along our sea-board as " Coots'^ — although the true coot 
 is an entirely different species, haunting fresh-water 
 pools, and belonging to the order of grallatores^ distin- 
 guished from the ducks by having only semipalmated in 
 lieu of webbed feet. 
 
 The known birds of this genus oi fuligulcB^ or sea- 
 
338 ' A3IEEICAN GAME. 
 
 ducks, as estaMislied by tlie autliorities, and belonging 
 to the United States, are sixteen in nnniber, all of which 
 are entirely familiar to me. Of these, seven have the 
 bill peculiarly formed, or I might say cZ^formed, with 
 curious protuberances at its base, and the feathered 
 forehead running far down the dorsal, or upper, outline 
 of the bill, almost to the nostril. 
 
 These seven are the Eider-duck, the Eing-duck, the 
 Harlequin-duck, the Pied-duck, the Yelvet-duck, the 
 Surf-duck, and the American Scoter ; of these, the three 
 last, to all of which this bird bears a very considerable 
 resemblance, are known as " coots" on the sea-shore, 
 and are distinguishable by w^hat maybe called the scoter 
 bill, high, and more or less carunculated at the base, 
 and often variegated with several bright colors. 
 
 It is remarkable, that of this genus of Fuligulm^ eight 
 are of the most, two of these the very most, delicious of 
 all water-fowl on the table ; I need not specify the 
 " Canvas-back," and the " Eed-head," as their names 
 will occur spontaneously to every sportsman, every gour- 
 met in the land — ^while the other eight, including 
 the Long-tailed duck. Old-wife, or South-southerly, are 
 fishy, rank, oily ; an uneatable abomination. On the 
 strength of the similarity of the Winter-duck of Lake 
 Huron, to the Scoter family of the sea-ducks, I at once 
 prophesied that it would prove, like its congeners, uneat- 
 able. My surprise may be imagined when it turned out 
 — ^not by the camp-fire, where, with the Spartan sauce, 
 
THE WINTEK DUCK. 839 
 
 all meat is appetizing — but at the comfortable dinner- 
 table, with all appliances and means to boot, at Penetan- 
 gui shine, whither we conveyed our booty, one of the 
 most delicious duck I ever tasted, and not unworthy to 
 be named alongside of the royal Canvas-back himself. 
 It was not, in the least degree, fishy or sedgy ; but rich, 
 succulent, delicate, and melting in the mouth, like the 
 flesh of the fattest duck that ever fed in the Gunpowder 
 or the Potomac — the cause of which undoubtedly is 
 this, that in both localities, the food of the fowl is the 
 same, the seeds of the wild-rice, zizania jpanicula effusa, 
 the wild- celery, valisneria Americana, and the eel-grass, 
 xostera onarina ; all which, or varieties of them, are 
 universally found in all the flats and mud-lakes of that 
 region. 
 
 On our return to convenient quarters, I immediately 
 set myself to work to dissect a sufficient number of these 
 fine fowl to satisfy myself as to the distinctions' of the 
 sexes as to plumage and coloring ; to take careful meas- 
 urements, and draw up accurate descriptions ; besides 
 making a close and correct drawing of the bird from 
 nature. From all that I have since been enabled to 
 collect, I am well satisfied that this is a new and unde- 
 scribed^ sea-duck from the arctic regions. I have never- 
 found any one, though I have consulted many sportsmen 
 and naturalists, who is acquainted with the bird south- 
 east of the straits of Mackinaw. At Detroit it is 
 unknown, as also on the Canada sht)res, and that to 
 
340 AMEEICAN GAME. 
 
 persons in tlie continual habit of shooting fowl on the 
 great rice-flats of Algonac on Lake St. Clair, on the 
 Chatham marshes at the mouth of the Thames river on 
 the same lake, and on the pine-swamps of the Aux 
 Canards, near Amherstberg, an affluent of the Detroit 
 river — all of which localities are literally alive with 
 wild-fowl at the proper season. 
 
 I have since heard from an officer in H. M. Koyal 
 Canadian Rifles of two of those birds being killed near 
 Prescott, on the St. Lawrence ; but they were utterly 
 unknown to the inhabitants there ; and he wrote to me 
 to make inquiries as to their species and name. During 
 the present summer I learned also, from my friend Mr. 
 Dotty, M. C. for Wisconsin, that during the whole winter 
 they are exceedingly abundant, w^herever open water is 
 to be found, on Lake Winnebago and the rivers of that 
 region, coming late in the autumn and disapj)earing in 
 the spring. 
 
 Every thing, therefore, confirms me in my first idea, 
 that this is an as yet nondescript duck, nondescript cer- 
 tainly as a fowl of the United States, whose summer 
 haunts are far up in the arctic seas, and the winter limits 
 'of whose migrations do not extend below 44° 30' E". 
 latitude. In this view, I have taken the liberty of sug- 
 gesting, should it prove to be hitherto undescribed and 
 unnamed, the propriety of designating it the " Lake 
 Huron Scoter," from its locality, and its resemblance to 
 that class of ducks, and, in Latin, " Fttligida himacu- 
 
THE WIKTEE DUCK. 341 
 
 lata^'^ from tlie two white sjoots wliicli are its most distin- 
 guishing characteristics. 
 
 The wood-cut at the head of this article is mathemat- 
 icallj reduced from my own original sketch, and it may 
 be described as follows : 
 
 Bj^ecific Character. — Head elongated, elevated toward 
 the coronse ; forehead protrudirig, feathered one-third 
 the length of the bill ; bill much elevated along the, 
 dorsal outline, decurved and flattened toward the tip ; a 
 broad unguis on both mandibles ; nostril oval, pervious, 
 one-third nearer the tip than the base ; both mandibles 
 deeply lamellated along the gap. ISTeck short, stout. 
 Body broad, thick, and much depressed; wings short, 
 and placed far back ; legs stout, situate very far back, 
 scutellate in front, reticullate behind ; tail short, acutely 
 ovate ; two centre featliers longest. 
 
 Plumage. — ^Thick, soft, densely compressed, much 
 blended, and having an under-stratum of soft, blackish 
 down. ^ , 
 
 Colors. — Bill, bluish black, without any other tint ; 
 irides hazel ; legs, in the adult males, dusky crimson, in 
 the females dull orange ; claws black ; webs black and 
 grained like morocco leather ; crown of the head, nape 
 shoulders, back, upper tail coverts, and tail, sooty black ; 
 chin, cheeks, forepart of neck, and upper breast, sleek, 
 satiny mouse color. A triangular white spot at the base 
 . of the upper mandible, extending to the anterior angle 
 of the eye ; a larger, irregular, oblong white spot below 
 
342 AMEKICAN GAlilE. 
 
 and behind the posterior angle of the eye. Forepart of 
 breast, belly, and vent dull, silvery gray ; flanks and 
 •under tail coverts darkish, glossy, mouse colored. Scap- 
 ularies, wing-coverts and tertials, dull brownish black ; 
 secondaries broadly-banded with white, forming the 
 speculum ; primaries jet black, under- win^ coverts 
 silvery mouse colored.' 
 
 Measurements. — Head 5 inches, tip of bill to nape ; 
 bill 2 4-10 ; length, to tip of tail, 24 inches ; to tip of 
 claws 25J ; length of tarsus 1 T-10 ; length of middle 
 toe 2 6-10 ; length of wing 9 j ; length of middle tail 
 feathers 2 1-5 ; extent 27 inches. 
 
 The male bird weighs from .2i ta3 pounds ; and differa 
 from the female only in weight, size, greater distinctness 
 of colors, and hue of the legs. 
 
 This duck, for its size, weight and power on the wing, 
 when in full flight, is very easily stopped with moderate 
 sized shot: and is almost equal on the table as I have 
 observed above, to the canvas-back. "With decoys, 
 immense sport might be had off these birds in the rice- 
 lakes which they frequent ; and with or without them, I 
 would desire no better fim, than to be, under this clear 
 moon beneath which I pen these lines, in a fleet birch- 
 bark canoe, with my old friends An-oon-ge-zhig, and the 
 '' Young Owl," to paddle me upon the fowl among the 
 solitary rice-lakes of the lovely Matched ash. My life on 
 it, if we should sleep on hemlock tips with a camp-fire 
 
THE WINTEK DUCK. 343 
 
 at our feetj and no covering above us, but our blankets' 
 and the bonny lady moon, we should not fall asleep 
 without both play and supper ! Telenimicoon ! to thoso 
 who understand it ! 
 
 FINIS. 
 
HEADLEY'S 
 
 si^iPOEiiEssf Mm m3 mmmm% 
 
 ILLUSTRATED WITH 
 
 OVER SIXTY FIXE ENGRAVI^TGS. 
 
 CHARLES 8CRIBNER 
 
 HAS ^UST PUBLISHED 
 
 A IS'ew and Illiistratcd Edition of iS^APOLEOISr AXD 
 HIS MAESIIxiLS. Br J. T. IIeadley. 1 vol. 
 
 8vo. Over sixty Illustrations. Price, $3.00. 
 
 » 
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 Napoleon as GoncraL 
 " at Craonne. 
 Bonaparte presenting to the Directory 
 
 the Treaty of Cauipo-Forraio. 
 Capitnlatlon of Ulni. 
 The Mob at the Tuillorios. 
 Napoleon reprimanding the Division 
 
 of Vaudois. 
 Napoleon as Emperor, 
 Arrest of the Duke DEnghien. 
 Return from Elba. 
 Departure from Fontainbleau. 
 Death of Napoleon. 
 Passage of the Bridge of Areola. 
 Marshal Davonst. 
 Napoleon at Krasnoe, 
 Death of Moreau. 
 Marshal Lannes. 
 
 His Soldiers proclaim him ••Corporal." 
 Buttle of Aboukir, 
 Charge of Cuirassiers at Eylau. 
 Insurrection at Madrid. 
 Marshal Massena. 
 
 " Victor. 
 Passage of the Beresiaa 
 Death of Duroc. 
 Battle of Lutzen. 
 Marshal Bessiores. 
 Passage to the Tagliamento. 
 
 Napoleon Dissolving the Council of 
 
 Five Ilundied. 
 Passage of the Groat St. Bernard. 
 Battle of Marengo, 
 Siege of Saragossa. 
 Death of Marslial Lannes. 
 It is a King of Homo. 
 Interior of the Invalided 
 The Funeral Car. 
 The Exhumation. 
 Marshal MacHonald. 
 Battle of Wagram, 
 Napoleon Visiting the Eulns of 
 
 Dierstein. 
 The Burning of Moscow. 
 Combat of Fere Cl.amp'^noise. 
 Marshal Soult. 
 Battle of Austerlitz. 
 Marshal Murat. 
 Passage to t!ie Niemcn. 
 Marshal Suchet. 
 Death of Poniatowski 
 The Forty-Third Demi-Brigade at 
 
 tlie Battle of ITohenlinden, 
 Napoleon at Montereau. 
 Marshal Ney. 
 Battle of Jena. 
 
 Napoleon Retreating from Moscow. 
 Lord Wellington. 
 
RURAL HOMES; Ob,S1^ETCHES OF HOUSES suited to A^merican Country life. 
 With over 70 Original Plans, Designs, &c. By Geevase Wheeleb. 1 vol 12mo. 
 Price, $1,25. 
 
 It commences \vitli the first foot-tread upon the spot chosen for the house ; details the 
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 concludes with final practical directions, giving useful limits as to drawing up written de- 
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 " In this neat and tasteful volume, Mr. Wheeler has condensed the results of an accom- 
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 " We can confidently recommend this elaborate production to the attention of gentle- 
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 " The cost of such establishments is carefully considered, no less than the comforts they 
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 " Mr. Wheeler's remarks convey much practical and useful information, evince good 
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 " This work should be in tlie hands of every one who contemplates building for himself 
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 "To all who desire a delightful rural retreat of "lively cottagely" of getting a fair equiv- 
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IL MARVEL^S WORKS* 
 
 THIBTEENTH EDmOK OF 
 
 REVERIES OF A BACHELOR? a Book of the Heart. By Ik. Marvei.. 1 M 
 12mo., with Illustrations by Dabley. 
 
 The Illustrated Edition, ■vnth Twenty-fire Illustrations, will be ready about the middle. 
 of October. 
 
 "Quotations give but a faint idea of the depth of feeling, the beantil'ol and winning 
 frankness, the clastic vigor of soul, and the singular fidelity of expression which charac- 
 terize this remarable volume. Its quaint ingenuity of arrangement is wholly lost in 
 extracts; and in order to enjoy the delicious adaptation of form to sentiment in which it 
 would be hard to name its equal, it must be read as a consummate, artistic, gem-like 
 whole."— iV^. Z Tribune. 
 
 "The dreamy, shadowy haze of reverie, its fleet transitions, its vivid and startling pas- 
 sages — ^more vivid, oftentimes, than anything of real life — are admirably reproduced on 
 these delicate pages. The dense and deliberate style, though nowise itself dreamy and 
 Insubstantial, dealuig largely rather in the tough and oaken Saxon, that makes the strength 
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 fancy* There are passages in it— as those descriptive of early separations, schooldays and 
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 aro essential ^and permanent qualities exhibited in it, both of intellect and of sensibility, 
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 The writer who can lure a few of his fellow mortals away from the bustle, and 
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 vho can peel off, here and there, the worldly rind that grows ever-thickening over the 
 heart, growing fastest and thickest in the hothouses of fashion, and in the rank soil of 
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 " Well has the author called it a book of the heart Not of a heart withered by selfish- 
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^^THS FALL OF POLAND.^^ 
 
 Containing an Analytical and a Philosophical Account of the Causes which Conspired In 
 
 the Kuin of that Nation ; together with a history of the country from its origin. By 
 
 L. C. Saxton. 2 vols. 12 mo,, pp. 563, 621, 
 
 The entire work is no hasty utterance of crude opinions, for the author has evidently 
 fitted himself for the task he has undertaken, by a study of history generally, and particu- 
 ]ar]y by a careful collation of all those writers that bear upon the subject 
 
 In order to be more complete, the various topics are arranged under diflferent beads, as 
 Eeligion, Government, Great Men, Civilization, Society, &c., tlms enabling the sttident to 
 refer directly to the subject which he may desire to see, and fitting it, with its appropriate 
 index, to make a valuable work for the library. — Newark Daily Advertiser. 
 
 He has gone into his subject with thoroughness and a scrupulous regard to accuracy in 
 detail, having been many years in gathering his materials, and giving them symmetry and 
 form, — Evening Transcript. 
 
 The work abounds with thrilling incidents and vivid, not to say gorgeous descriptions, 
 as well as in valuable historic ^etaW.— Albany Argus. 
 
 It is the product of great thought and research, and presents a complete and accurate 
 view of the History, Government, Laws, Eeligion, Popular Character, Literature, and in 
 short everything connected with Poland that can have an interest for the scholar or the 
 statesman. The author writes with great vigor and clearness, and his work is constructed 
 throughout upon the best principles of historical science. It is a solid, symmetrical, and 
 glowing incorporation of all the great points of interest of one of the most interesting 
 nations of modern tiines ; and deserves to be .placed among the enduring ornaments of 
 American literature. — Courier and Enquirer. 
 
 These volumes embody a full and continuous history of Poland from the earliest ages of 
 its existence, in which are included the several dynasties under which it has been gov- 
 erned, with reference to every subject which throws light on the principles of its govern- 
 ment, its varying prosperity, its literature, its distinguished men, its religion, and the char- 
 acter of its people. The author has consulted everything which has been written on the 
 history of Poland which was accessible ; has placed his materials under a clear arrange- 
 ment, and has subjected the whole to a careful analysis. There is no other book extant, 
 in which so much has been compressed on the subject of Poland, and which may more 
 safely be referred to as an authority. — Philadelphia Presbyterian. 
 
 A map and engravings add interest and value to a history which Mr. Saxton has pre- 
 pai-ed with gi-eat labor and care. We know not where else to look for so much in the same 
 compass, relating to a nation whose tragic career has drawn to it the attention and sym- 
 pathy of the civilized world. The construction of the work is in many respects a model 
 for books of this class, giving, as it d)es, an answer to the inquiries that are naturally sr^- 
 gested to the mind of the inquisitive reader, who will not rise from the perusal of so com- 
 plete a survey of Poland and its history, "without feeling himself informed at almost every 
 point to which his inquiries may be directed, — Watchman and Reflector. 
 
 The author's style is terse and vigorous ; his conclusions enforced by arguments based 
 upon well established facts and sound philosophy ; and the work, as a whole, we consider a 
 valuable accession to modern historical contributions. It is worthy the patient study of 
 the student of liistory, and eminently deserving a place in every private as well as public 
 Whraxj.— Troy Daily Whig. 
 
 It is a book which the statesman may read with profit while it is also well calculated to 
 Interest the general reader. Especially would we commend it to the perusal of the student, 
 who will find many things " both new and old" within its lids. — FreemaiCs Jaurnai. 
 
 This work recommends itself to public notice by its clear and concise history of a coun 
 
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