ROD AND GUN.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume XIV, Issue 845, 17 May 1906, Page 13

ROD AND GUN.

The shooting season is now fairly under way, and those lucky individuals who are able to manage the time are now experiencing the exhilaration of being at it again. With a good dog and a good gun, the true Sportsman may have a glorious time, whether birds be plentiful or not, for, mark you, the true sport does not aim at making phenomenal bags, leaving this to that much-advertised' personage—the gun hog, who has already rushed into print with bags of three figures.

Indications from most parts of the -district record small bags, particularly with grey duck, these wary birds being scattered widelv among the iswamps, owing to the wet season. This Jis as it should be for the true sportsman who can have a good day’s outing with dbg and gun, and return with sufficient birds to mark his skill as a shot, besides the never-to-be-forgotten memories of a day in the field.

Messrs. G. and C. Bayly, who are doing some shooting in the Whangarei district, have bagged a fail - number of pheasants. The birds are reported fairly plentiful in some parts, and the two sports appear to have struck a patch.

Ducks are reported to be plentiful in the South Island this season, and' some good sport has already been obtained. The gun hog, however, has been busy with cylinder shooting in the midst of the sanctuaries, and the resulting havoc is not calculated to improve matters for sportsmen.

Some excellent sport has been obtained near Wellington with the game little Californian quail. Two sportsmen bagged a couple of dozen brace one day last week, and inform us that thev had some of the best shooting they have ever experienced. This merry little top-knotted bird makes the very best of shooting, being remarkably swift of wing and elusive to a degree.

Pheasants are reported fairly plentiful in the Helensville district, and one or two good bags have been made there. In most parts of the district they are reported as scarce and very wild’, flushing in most cases far ahead of the steadiest working dog. To bring, these wary birds down demands the utmost skill and patience, and this is whefe the true sportsman shines.

■ We are pleased to see that the little brown quail are being preserved this season. Tn many parts of New Zealand they have quite died out, or are found' only in isolated pairs. The scrub country around Auckland appears to suit them well, affording them plenty of heavy cover, and they would no doubt do all right were it not for that arch fiend the weasel and his kind, who.are playing sad havoc with them.

Four cases of wild ducks which had heen shipped on a steamer at Lyttelton were seized' recently by the Customs authorities under section 3 of “>The Animals Protection Act, 1900,” which forbids the export of game from the colony.

Owing to the fact that stalking in a herd of deer has taken place in Canterbury this season for the first time, more than the usual amount of interest has apparently been aroused in the sport (says the “Weekly Press”). The 14. 16 and 18-point heads that were shot at Albury have lead a number of those who are not fully conversant with the subject to make comparisons with the 13, 14 and 15-point-ers that were obtained' by Christchurch sportsmen in North Otago this season. It may be explained, however, that the deer at Albury are fallow, and those in North Otago are red deer.

The fallow deer are much smaller than the red, and instead of their antlers being branched, they are palmate, or shaped like the palm of one’s hand. The size and' shape of the palmation chiefly determines the quality of the head rather than the number of points,, though, as a rule, the larger the palmation the more points there will be. A number of fallow buck heads have been shot on the Blue Mountains, Tapanui, having 20 points and over, and there is no doubt that i i the course of time some of the Albury bucks will grow heads equal to the best of those at Tapanui. The term “royal,” by which a red stag’s head carrying 12 points is known, is not applied to a fallow buck’s head. When a report was published about a year ago concerning the deer at Albury it was mentioned' that they were fallow and Indian deer. It is probable