The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-01-19


 days elapsed before the last of the feathered stragglers made their fare"
 well bow to the island.
 l The second largest slaughter that is 1 recalled at Faulkner's was on the fall
 flight, when sixty-two birds flew
 against the lantern and were killed.
 All were yellow throated warblerS save one, which was chick-a-dee.
 Sometimes birds get so ''rattled' by
 the light that they will fly about it for
 hours and it Is possible to so up to the
 lantern and catch them in the hapds. Partridge and quail are never taken by
 this government decoy, as they are not flight birds, but woodcock and duck are 1 frequently. On one occasion black
 duck flew against the outer glass of the
 lantern with such force as to crack tfe
 glass, although it was an eighth Of an
 inch in thickness. The ducks breast
 bone was driven into it's body by the terrific force of the blow.
 BIRDS ON GOOSE ISLAND.
 Another undertaking of the genial
 captain at Faulkner's was the preserva-
 ton of the birds on Goose Island. This is smaller and uninhabited island near
 Faukner's, which became a great re-
 sort for wild birds. In time it attract
 ed sportsmen, and finally the pot hunt
 CTS went there in such numbers as to
 threaten the extermination of the birds
 Captain Brooks prevented this by pur-
 chasing the island and banishing the
 hunters. The birds then increased in
 such numbers that, it is said, their
 cries of warning in thick weather were
 so loud as to successfully warn vessels
 which had strayed into that locality to
 keep off,. The region about Faulkner s
 Island and the adjacent Thimbles has always been famous locality for duck
 shooting in the winter. In the colonial
 days Faulkner's Island was known as
 Falcon Island, very likely from it's be- ing the ancient haunt of the peregrine
 falcon or duck hawk. Some say that it's present name has come down from corruption of the word falcon" or , ''falconer," Others claim that it's name comes from the Guilford family of
 Faulkners, branch of which, it is said, once owned it.
 HE SELLS SMOKED EELS. Lying among the pale green ducking boats in the smooth waters of Gull fords little harbor the past week has
 been the odd-shaped double-ended craft
 of Jonas Whitley, a Connecticut salt water fisherman, who, it is believed is
 the most extensive handler of cells for the New York market to be found in
 our waters. Whitley lives in his dou- ble-ender, which is little sloop-rigged craft such as was used twenty years
 ago at the Mantle and Mystic menha-
 den oil factories to transport menhader after they were trapped to the steam
 tanks to be converted into oil and fer
 tilizer., For years Whitley has chased the slippery eel from one end of Con-
 necticut's salt water front to the other . At the opening of spring in April = when the eels first come out of the mud , Whitley goes to the head waters ol !. small streams on the Housatonic, the Connecticut, the Thames or Mystic riv
 CTS and sets long strings of eel pots baited with fish or little minnoWs
 These spots or traps are made of white oak splnts. As the season grows warm s CT Whitley follows thS cells in their de
 scent down the rivers toward deeper ;, water, and then he baits his pots witt . pieces of the horsefoot crab of which oo oo cells are very fond and which will tempt . whole families of eels, both great anc ! small, into pots when nothing else will CATCHING HORSE FEET" Whitley's method of catching horse . feet" as he calls them, is interesting < On the full of every May and Jun, s :. moon the horse-feet crabs, which, bS . the way, are the most unwield1y look : ing but inoffensive of creatures (somt . of the females weighing at least ter ! baa at full sea after dark and deposit theil . eggs near the edge of the tide water A favorite resort for horse-feet is at th : sandy reaches of Giants Neck and o : historic Bride Brook in the town 0 East Lyme. They repair to these re ,1 sorts some seasons by the thousands = and Whitley goes there as regularly " = With his net he intercepts and takes il . the mating pairs of horse-feet as the,
 come from seaward, and in one night a work in this way he frequently catche
 eel bait enough to last him for months : Old Connecticut professional eel fisher " men have been going to Giants Necl = for horse-feet ever since the countr. ' was settled by the white man.
 WIGWAZZING FOR EELS.
 In the extreme hot season of the sum s mer Whitley catches cells by "wigwaz zing," that is, with a large ref1ecto
 lantern and spear. Feels will not g
 into pots in the hottest weather. Il ,4 the fall he baits his pots with blue clan = crabs cut up and with menhaden. H
 follows the eels up the streams to thei = winter beds in the mud and during tn = winter months he lies by until sDrin ', in the comfortable cabin of his sloor :, He spent last winter in New Have = harbor. Whitley sets his pots attache .o to long warp, fifty or sixty in line |, He frequently stretches out three o :, four lines of the pots in different direc N' tions, making his little sloop the cente = from which they are moored. By set :. ting pots in this way there is no evi :, dence above water of the whereabout o of an eel pot, circumstance which fire
 quently helps to protect the eel fisher
 mans traps from confscation, for it
 a somewhat remarkable fact that tn t., dwellers along the banks of rurs
 streams in this state have little sho, !, of affection for the professional eelel .e and his pots when found are quite com 5 monly destroyed Whitley finds the et = crop heavy this fall.
 i. "MORY'S" LEASED BY MRS