Norwich bulletin., 1911-02-03
THE QUAIL TRAP
Snap Shots at Visiting and Resident BFds-Game at Close Range Sidelights on the Crows-American Eagles in the Lime Lght-Polly Parlevoos-Stuffed Turkey Turkey with Stufing

The Quail Trap. Feb. 1, 1911-The November icy blasts and advance snow squalls seemed to herald hard win ter. birdwise and otherwise But it was the mildest January since I stop ped paying city taxes. and since
 pajama- ed down cellar for the last time at o'clock a. m. to see if the boiler
 had burst or the bottom dropped out of Fairview. Yes the only wholly open aso) we set the Quail Trap afield to
 catch bird notes in the rough and to catch a million whiffs of the life-giving
 upland air of Woodstock--higher than Putnam Heishts-highsr than Pomfret
 street.
 But an open winter does not mean plenty of bird life. The few November and December stragglers from the north either passed along or went back to the snowbound Dominion. No pine grosbeaks. erossbills. shrlkes or goshawks raiding poultry yards. No punches of juncos, paabodies, tree sparrows, or other jolly beggars, come to our back door for their daily hand out. can record but single snowy owl, the awhet taken on the veranda by Mrs. Rawson, long cared owl actually stroked by hand. Jan. 29th, and a whitehead eagle trapped on an offal heap near Quineba ug. Of the stay -at- homes we note a single flicker, three bluebirds a dozen robins, score of tits, downies, and hatches, hun dred jays and thousand crows. This is close to the record. While quarter ing the dead flags in William Browns meadow on the 24th and 18th, for old fiatted nests of sora rail, flushed two meadow larks. A lark was heard sing ing in the Lippitt meadows one week ago.
 Tho large covey of twenty quail first reported on the Paine farm were seen later crossing the road with nineteen, noted on the Leavitt and Perrin farms with seventeen. and now in our own covers number fourteen lusty birds--a fair nucleus for next season. Four or five quail chicks were shot by an East Woodstock gunner to teach green setter to retrieve. But three well filled covies still live in the meadows be- tween East Woodstock and Muddy brook. Quail are not migratory, yet they have the ''wanderlust all right. One covey has been seen on every farm in the English neighborhood, and no man can say where they will be tomorrow. A bunch of fifty small, out in Worcester county, came across the state line, and were well marked down the first season in seven towns, looking perhaps for some place like home.
 Ruffed grouse cling to the woods
 where they were matched unless driven out by fire or trained dogs. After the shooting was over. three .'biddies" and two cock cartridges were left in our woods. Foxes have been well thinned out here, and in the absence of north ern raptores, and with no snow cov-' ering the protective earth. all game is a chancA fnr ayiStpnpR. And 1t is part of my daily routine to go through our woods and outlying groves and kick down all deadfalls and other traps which kill many jays and now and then useful bird. I took
 three crushed quail from stone trap
 on Rose Hill. Ledyard, and four half
 grown crushed bobwhites from a
 ''fgger-four" on Groton Long Point. I knew of a ruffed grouse from Noank
 dead dfall sold in Fulton Market. New York. for so cents by lohsterma n.-. q violation of game laws in both states.
 Not a Hurnsria, partridge has been
 reported in this region; but ring necis
 do breed rarely. for Mrs. Rawson has seen the hen pheasants leading their young across the woodland paths Mir. C. NJ. Perrin of Woodstock Is chairman Of the, committee for game protection, and. with other needed bird legisla- tion should see that the proposed change making September close month and December an open month should not be made. Instead of the snapshots in q leafy month, gunners wish the deliberate, deadly. straight away shots at unprotected grouse. Of course. bigger bags would be made, but why not give the birds their pres ent slight chance of life? The ill., iudg law allowing the use of ferrets should be repealed. The licensed crease of cottontails to proper limits without allowing whole neighborhoods to he wholly cleaned out by the for eigner. with his ferret. Since the open season closed in the Bay State deer are rarely seen here now: from which we l conclude that many of our deer were across the state line or that the Wor- | eester county stalkers poached in the town of Woodstock. Rarely in winter l have. roads been so long in condition 1 for farmers heavy carting woodlots | have been cleaned out of logs<and sea- soned firewood. hay. potatoes and ap- | p1es have been hurried to market, and | icellouses filled with clean ten-inch l cakes. On the lookout for waterfowl, 1 have slipped up. to the open places moving and surprised six sheldrakes 1 in Eddy's pond, three black ducks in l The bitches. and saw small string of ] Canada geese dip down towards Pond 1 factory and then wedge away to the i northwest.
 1 Massinu for roost towards Mason's ] Ledqes, thousands of crows pass over