THE query has more than once been put to OUTING: “Where can one obtain good shooting within Too miles of New York?” In reply, we wish to give the following advice to men who, while keen on sport, have not the time to seek it far afield.
In the first place, good shooting, with a variety of game (one correspondent mentions rabbit, quail, grouse, partridge, etc.), cannot be obtained within too miles of the city.
The rabbit, or American hare (Lepus sylvaticus) can be found everywhere outside and sometimes inside city limits. He seems to be a “pariah and an outcast” among sportsmen, although rabbit shooting with a couple of good dogs on a brisk, frosty morning, is a sport by no means to be despised. Rabbits are protected by the game laws during the close season. Quail (Ortex Virginianus, or, according to many ornithologists, Perdix V.), are in many places still further protected by farmers upon whose lands they breed, most of the stubble fields being posted to keep off intruders. The right of shooting in such cases is reserved for themselves, or for city friends visiting them in the fall, although we have known of cases where the farms were posted so that the farmer’s boys might eke out a few pitiful pennies by snaring the birds for market. Good rabbit and fair quail shooting may be had early in the season on the line of the Southern Railroad of New Jersey, particularly in the neighborhood of Tom’s River. Also on Long Island, from South Oyster Bay eastward.
Ruffed grouse (Tetrao umbellus), improperly called “partridge” in the Eastern and some of the Middle States, and as improperly termed “pheasant” in the South, may still be found in fair numbers among the wooded slopes and swales of Sullivan County, N. Y., and Pike County, Penn. But the class of sportsmen whom we are specially addressing should try that migratory bird, the woodcock, finest of all our birds of the fall flight, the English snipe, most luscious of all for the table, and the shore birds, or Limicolæ, a large class comprehending the curlews, marlins, plovers, tattlers and sandpipers. It is unnecessary to say that, except with shore birds, good dogs are essential to success.
A WORD TO LAWN TENNIS PLAYERS.
LAWN TENNIS has, within late years, taken so prominent a place in the list of our outdoor amateur sports that it behooves those who feel an interest in its future progress to guard well against the introduction of the semi-professional element. This influence has done much to injure and retard the growth of many outdoor amusements. It threw back amateur rowing for years, and at one time brought the open regattas into such ill-favor that it was feared that rowing would fall back into the position it was in before the establishment of the National Association of Amateur Oarsmen. Even after the establishment of that organization, it required the closest attention on the part of the executive committee of the association, with so active a man as Henry W. Garfield to keep it clear from the snags that beset it. It would be well for the lovers of lawn tennis to take this matter seriously in hand and take a lesson from the course laid down by the amateur oarsmen to keep the pastime clear from professional amateur players of this delightful outdoor amusement.
CYCLES IN THE RUSSIAN ARMY.
MR. J. H. BLOCK, of Moscow, who has been instrumental in obtaining the introduction of cycles into the Russian army, thus explains how he was able to bring the measure about:
“I was very kindly received,” says Mr. Block, “by the Commander-in-Chief here, and he took the greatest interest in all I had to say about cycling. An official test has been made here between a cyclist and a grenadier on horseback. A despatch of great importance had to be taken to a small town thirty-five miles outside of Moscow, and an answer to be received from there. One of our best and most ardent bicyclists, Colonel Firsoff, who is fifty years of age, undertook to start off with the grenadier at the same time, and try to receive the answer, and come back in less time than the horseman would. This he achieved in the best possible manner. He came back four hours sooner than did the grenadier, and it created quite a sensation. Since that time we have had very long and continuous conversations about this matter, and after two months, the official introduction has taken place.”