Identifier: floridagamewater00roos (find matches)
Title: Florida and the game water-birds of the Atlantic coast and the lakes of the United States : with a full account of the sporting along our sea-shores and inland waters, and remarks on breech-loaders and hammerless guns
Year: 1884 (1880s)
Authors: Roosevelt, Robert Barnwell, 1829-1906
Subjects: Hunting Shotguns Florida -- Description and travel
Publisher: New York : Orange Judd Company
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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gistered, the social pipe il-lumined, and we gathered in a circle round the fireof our parlor for improving conversation. How many birds have we killed this year ? in-quired a member. The record shows a goodly total of 2,351, re-plied the Secretary, turning to the register; al-most as many already as the entire return of lastseason, during which we only killed 2,908. And the better varieties seem this year to bemore numerous. In that particular there is surprising uniformityfrom year to year. Last season the return is madeup as follows: canvas-backs, 246; red-heads, 122;blue-bills, 395; mallards, 540; dusky-ducks, 108;wood-ducks, 001 ; blue-winged teal, 474; green-winged teal, 39; widgeons, 204; pin-tails, 50; gad-walls, G7 ; spoonbills, 11; ruddy-ducks, 2; butter-balls, 7 ; geese, 2 ; quail, 14 ; cormorants, 2 ;turkeys, 3; great hell-diver, 1 ; and this year theaverage is about the same. But I think, said the President, the canvas-backs and red-heads are earlier and better thanusual.
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I) UCIv SHOOTING. 3 G1 They arc rather earlier in making their ap-pearance abinidantly. Tiie variation is never great,however, and the birds appear in the followingorder: the wood-ducks first, being plentiful early inSeptember; the bluc-wmged teal begin to surpassthem about the 20th of that month, and soon after-ward the mallards arrive; widgeons are abundantby the middle of October, and canvas-backs andred-heads are the latest. Ah, burst forth the unlucky man, enthusiasti-cally, the wood-duck shooting is my favorite;when they rise from the lilies they are easier tokill than when flying past at full speed; and youhave a punter to pole the boat and help mark thewounded birds. October has my preference, responded thePresident, with glowing eye; the large ducks—the mallards, canvas-backs, and red-heads — havethen arrived; the blue-bills and teal are numerous;and, when a single teal flies past, a man has toknow how to handle his gun to keel him overhandsomely. But mallards dodge, when

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