Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1883-04-14
FOREST AND STREAM.
A STROLL AMONG GAME AND BY
BROOK.
The Crusade Against Mud Hens, and Their
value-Carver and Bogardus-Mis-
ceIlaneous sporting Items.

VIC VI POooADAAAsy 49, 1900 S-NA>
ter and appearance is to be condemned.
To the casual observer it may seem, when
witnessing the activity and wide-awake at
tention of the mud hen while feeding in
deep or shallow water, that the duck would
have but little chance to pick up meal
after them. Conclusions based upon such
observations may be expressed by honest
convictions, and a firm belief enter
tanned of their correctness yet it is
more than likely they were fastened
by a feeling of injury, induced by
small bags of game and diminished profits
These hasty publications lead hundreds
into an erroneous belief, an error leading
to wanton and inhumane practice, that
would lead to the determination of most
valuable fowl. The mud hen. in degree,
| subsists upon the same food as do the
| ducks-both being species of scavenger,
devouring decaying fatty and other nu-
tritious Offal floating upon or lying
under the water. While the mud
hen can only with his sharp pointed
bill pick up the larger morsels and parti-
Giles, the duck has the same ability, with
the additional capability of taking up the
smaller in fact, particles of food too small
| for the eye to observe. His broad bill
takes in quantity of water, is closed, the
water elected therefrom automatically
| through the strainer like comb along and
upon the sides of his bill, retaining every
particle of solid matter the water may
| have contained. While the mud-hen is
more dextrous and quicker in its move
ment, he, in his eagerness, allows
much to escape his attention which
the duck, in his more deliber-
/ ate methods, observes and captures.
| Upon land the same advantages are to be
seen. The duck gathers the fine particles
and seeds washed to the borders of the
| water by its waves, while the mud-he
must content himself with the larger. The
duck will take up bill full of earth or
| mud, thrust his bill into the water, strain
| ing every particle of earth therefrom, and
retaining whatever of bug, worm animal
culse, germ or small seeds it may contain.
An army of mud. hens may have passed
over the same ground, plucked it bare of
vegetation and larger particles of food, and
were they compelled to remain there would
starve to death, while flock of ducks,
coming after them, would grow fat upon
| that which the former were unable to take.
| Let us reverse the order, however, and
place the duck upon the feeding ground
! before the mud hen. 1t is possible for the
duck to devour every vestige of food the
mud hen is capable of procuring. 1t is an
impossibility, therefore, tnst the ducks can
| be driven from the waters to which they
are in the habit of resorting Their nature
| brings them to the water, whether there is
| food there for them or not Provided with
superior means of flight, they seek in.
land feeding grounds upon the plain,
about the small ponds created by recent
rains, and returning again in due time to
| deep water. The fact that the duck does
| sometimes disappear from waters where
"bags of hundred or more could be
made most any day." is not the result of
the scarcity of food, nor yet the presence or
| increase of the mud-heD. While "bags of
hundred or more were being made of
| one, the other was unmolested and allowed
to increase, and the former diminished in
numbers-the one driven away by con-
slant attack, the other remaining in un-
molested security. All things in nature are
equalized, and hinge upon balance.
Whenever man interferes, believing he can
1t is an error, too, says an ornithologist, to
suppose that the mud-hen is not eatable.
Its meat is as tender, he continues, and not
as dry as that of the duck, it's succulence
approaching near to that of chicken. The
antipathy to them, and their unpopularity
as food, arose from an attempt to prepare
them without removing the skin, which
contains an oil or fat having fishy odor.
Prepared without this they are a delicacy.
Their value exists, too, in the vast numbers
of fish and other habitants of the lake wa.
tiers which are destroyed by them, pre-.
venting decay and putrid odors.
THE CARVER BoGARDUs CONTEST.
The contest between Captain Bogardus
and DR.. Carver for the championship of the
world as a wing shot, was in the beginning
stigmatized by some sporting journals as
gambling game, and it was stated that
each contest would be won by the party
against whom the most money was staked. |
Both these men have earned the reputs. |
tion of gentlemen, and no such reflection |
should have been made. Both are also in |
afHuent circumstances, and not driven to |
the extremity of dishonorable means to |
obtain money. Both have enviable repu. |
tations to sustain. DIR. Carver astouished |
all Europe with his skillful Workmanship,
giving exhibitions of his wonderful ability |
before crowned heads, and was everywhere
received and entertained with great cour-
tesy and consideration, not alone because
of his craftsmanship, for he enjoys an hon.
orable social standing as well.
Captain Bogardus has carried the title of |
championship far above the approach of
any competitor has earned the title Justly
and honorably and sustained it with the
highest degree of skill. Like the former,
he has enough of worldly wealth, and had
by beating DR.. Carver additional honors
and glory to gain, for he knew he had no
less peer with which to contend. That
he has been beaten does not detr act from
him as a good shot. He has found his
match, and has laid down his title to a
worthy adversary. He should be proud of
the fact that it required the skill and
science only to be found in DIR. Carver to
deprive him of his laureled title.
MISCELLANEOUS.
A correspondent in american Field,
from Faribault, Mimi, April I'd, says
:" Prairie chickens and quails have suffered
badly in this vicinity the past winter,
large numbers being reported by farmers as
found frozen" The above indicates to
California sportsmen the contrast between
that and our own climate, and as an evil
dence of what sportsmen in the East have
to contend with to keep up the supply of
game birds. Here in our mild winter
months the quail fourishes at his best
None are killed off by exposure we do
not have to trap and feed them during
winter in order to preserve a number for
as in many places at the East.
And yet their number is being diminished.
What reflection upon the people of this
State that, with all our advantages, we are
them by allowing the game
avs to be violated with IMMUNITY.
We hear curious law point discussed.
A man was driving across our lake re-
,ently, near where some holes had been