The evening times., 1896-10-07
GET OUT YOUR GUN AND DOC
Season for Bird Hunters Has
Now Begun.
SPORT IN THE DISTRICT
Not Much Game to BE Found In the
Birds, Ortolans and Blac kbirds.
Forty Years Ago Canvasbacks We're
Shot on Pennsylvania Avenue.
IT is Autumn.


sword grass by Tie rill,
And the willUwsin the valley and The pine
upon the hill;
When The pippen leaves the bough and the
sumach's fruit is red,
Aud the quail is piping loud from the buck
wheat where he fed.
When tie sky is blue as steel, and the
river clear as grass;
WhcD the mist is on the mountain and the
network on uhc grass;
When the harvests all are housed and the
farmers work is done.
Aud the woodland is reSounding with the
spaDicis and the gun.
Never was the weather more propitiuus
for the sportsmen and gunners, for those
who all day long will tramp the hills,
woods and fields, or lie patiently in the
marshes and wait for the flutter of the
mallards' wings, or crawl through dense
underbrush for the slightest trace OF u
woodccck.
There are many srortsmen in Washing
ton. and already they are cleaning and
shining up their tru>ty guns for the sport
which will commence in dead earnest
within the next few weeks. They have
been for some time past slaughtcring the
little reed bird and The ortolan, but the
gunner like everyone else desires a change
lowing his dog over field and hill after
different game.
Washington aumers go to Maryland and
Virginia for their SPORT and to.h States
seem to vie with each other in enacting
laws which will exclude from its domain
all gunucrs, except actual residents. The
laws governing gaming are multitudinoas.
They are changed at every meeting OF the
eyny rat H.. p hA tutn I'm
lawsin each county are made To meet that
that county's special requirements. For
instance, in Fairfax county, Va, there is
to he no shooting OF rabbits this year, IN
fact, nearly III gaming is prohibited. TINS
law was enacted at the last legislature and
was to cover n period of two years, pro-
hibiting the killing of pheasants, wild
turkeys, partridgeS, rabbits, squirrels, wood
cock andquail In the counties Of Loudoun,
Clarke and Fauquier. however, the gunner
will meet with hut little resistance.
In Maryland the Washington man meets
with a law in Prince George county which
requires all non resident gunners TO pro-
cure a license before he can hunt at all.
This is, however, one of those regulations
which is persistently disregarded, because
every resident and property owner invites
his friends from the city to go cunning
on his own domain, and there is no in
reference. In Montgomery county there
Is no such enactment, but there is an I'M
derstanding between the farmers and own
ers that no one shall game on their prem
ises unless actually invited TO do so by
themselves.
NO RESTRICTION IN THE DISTRICT.
Around Washington, however, he who
would hunt waterfowl finds little or no
regulations governing him. The Eastern
Branch flats are open to him from morning
until night, from the LIST Of September
until the 1st of April, and the sports
man hunts when lie will and pretty much
what be Will.
outside Of the reed birds. "rtolans and
black birds, however, there is not much
;o find on the marshes around Washington
Fo&- Mile Run is stocked with the little
reed birds. hut the extraordinary Ugh tides
which have prevailed at different times
have driven the creatures from their nests
in the wild oats and compelled them 10 rise
in the air. where they furnish excellent tar
gets for wholesale Slaughter. There was
a time when mailard. teal, sniEc and can
vasbacks could he found in abundance
ington at the present day an old gentle
man who says that forty years a go he hunt
ed canvashacks right where Aliens Opera
House now stands.
tits down ON the Eastern Shore of Mary
land and To the Chesapeake Bay that TIE
gunners take themselves for large water
fowl. There they swarm In abundance
and with every shot the gunncr's mouth
b., . -, 10,
aad when his sport is done.
The ordinary mallard or wild dnck, is
aDdsome as well as lucious. Its piumage
is dense and elastic, and the middle OF oc-
toher finds it clothed in all its ma jesty OF
purplsh brown. 1t first makes its appear.
aDcc with the first coming of frost, and
lowering about the marshes feeds On the
wild grass and makes its nest in some
thickly growing tuft of sedge some little
distance from the water.
SINK BOATS AND BLINDS.
There is no sport more uncertain, but
when success comes there is no sport
which gives greater pleasure. Within
few weeks sink-boats and duck blinds will
abound on the Chesapeake. 1t is from the
blinds that the greater slaughter is com
mtted. The best and truest sportsman will
stand openly on the shore and await the
coming of his prey.
The wild duck has powerful sustained
and rapid flight. With one stroke of the
wing they raise themselves and mount
pcrpendicuiarly above the submits of the
trees, and then take horizontal course.
They are suspicious by nature. More so
than other water fowl, and will hover high
nm in the air circling around many times
before they will descend to the water.
Another water fowl is the common teal
which walks with ease, swims with dex-