The Game Outlook in Virginia

THE summer bay-bird shooting on the Virginia coast has been a failure this year; indeed. I for one, think that after June 1 all shooting should be prohibited until October, for an indiscriminate fusillade along the Atlantic mouths during July, August and September, will, in the end, effectually stop the migration of all kinds of bay-birds. I have noticed a great diminution of the flights in the past two years, and Mr. John Gaffigan, of the Cape Charles Lighthouse, an educated gentleman and a close observer in natural history, informs me that the flight of birds during the summer migration is getting less and less every year.

Another fact, the willets hatch out their young in April and May, and in summer shooting these young birds, just amounts to practical extermination. I would like to see this subject considered and acted upon, for unless some prompt decided action is taken, bay-bird shooting will be one of the sports of the past.

In May the robin-snipe, curlew, calico-backs and yellow-legs afford fine sport. By June the robin-snipe migrate northward, and then the shooting ought to cease until the fall, when a month's good sport can be had before the birds go south as the frost comes. Every sportsman feels that such a law ought to be passed, and would cheerfully observe it; but, as it is now, no one cares to withhold his fire when there are a half a hundred shooters in a mile square, blazing away as fast as they can shove shells into their breech-loaders.

Last fall the partridges (quail) had an exemption from sudden and violent death at the hands of the sportsmen, for they were so few in numbers and kept so much in cover that it did no pay to hunt them. In the early part of the season the general advance took place, but the result was so small that all the shooters in this State by tacit consent oiled their guns and placed them in their covers for a long sleep. The birds thus unmolested roved at will among the fields and became fat and in perfect condition to pass the winter hardily, and as that season was mild the spring found untouched coveys, and enough to propagate a full supply of birds. From every section of the State where I have been able to inquire by postal card and letter, the answer has always been the same -- birds unusually abundant and plentiful. In Piedmont, Virginia, there is a splendid prospect for fall sport, and guns are being put in order and dogs trained. In the Tidewater section the birds are about on an average, as the cold winter of 1882 did not affect them. In the valley I hear that there is a fine prospect, while in South-west Virginia the number of partridges are something phenomenal.

I would not advise strangers coming to this State to shoot to go either to Piedmont, Va., or the valley, unless, indeed, they went as the guest of the resident sportsmen, for the latter class have good dogs and guns as a general thing, and can take good care of the birds. I take it that every huntsman would like to get among the virgin flocks which have never seen the terrifying apparition of a standing pointer, or heard the crack of the breech-loader. To do this they should go where the country is not so thickly settled, and yet where there are rich bottom lands that the quail delight in. Along the James River low-grounds are famous places for this sport. In Sussex and Southampton counties, south of Petersburg, are some of the finest shooting grounds in Virginia. All through the southwest of Virginia, in the little valleys the quail are found in the greatest quantities and undisturbed. Few farmers in that section take to the pointer and shotgun. They prefer the hounds and old mountain rifle. The finest sport and the most birds combined that I have ever enjoyed, was in Franklin county. If I were going hunting for a couple of weeks I would visit that section, and cutting loose from the railroads and stage route I would go some fifty miles in the interior, that is of course
with a party, and travel along in a Jersey wagon and board among the farmers. A quartette could get the good will of the people, and thus find the game spots, and one could empty his gun a hundred times, day in and day out, between sundown and sunset.

As for the squirrels they are so plentiful in the mountains of the southwest that they are a positive nuisance to the farmers, eating their corn, beans and ground peas. Rabbits abound in every briar patch, and there is some fishing in all the numerous streams that flow through the valleys and windings of the mountains. For good sport, with good dogs and good companions, give me the southwest section.

CHASSEUR.

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Sept. 28.