THE OREGON 
My readers who have had any experience 
with this bird, can easily understand how easy 
itis to miss this sort of a mark, (that is with 
a rifle) at 40 yards; one minute on one side of 
the river, and the next dives and appears on 
the other, 
The Coot may be seen at nearly any time 
during its breeding season, on almost any large 
or small body or water sufficiently secluded and 
whose margins are overgrown with reeds or 
rushes, or on sluggish streams, swamps, pools 
or reedy sloughs, 
Many of our young ladies are’ frightened at 
the sight of a gun, and if you should shoot 
while they are around, they would go into 
“fits”. [admire a good marksman or ‘‘marks- 
miss,” and like nothing better thin to find an 
equal in the opposite sex. 
On May 29, I took a setof 10 eggs of this 
bird, 
composed of dead reeds anl grasses, placed 
The nest was on a small island and 
en the ground just out of reach of the water. 
‘They measured 1.77, by 1.40, 
FRED C. HUBBARD. 
WRITTEN FOR THE OREGON NATURALIST; 
NA SINE SS BODE VATE 
MOUND BUILDERS. 
TEE 
EB E. COLEMAN. 
the Mound 
I can find 
Where is the line fence between 
Builders and the Indians ? no evi- 
dence that sucha line ever existed. Perhaps 
‘my eyes are blinded by my own personal ideas. 
I have before me an imaginary portrait of a 
Mound Builder by a gentleman who has written 
quite an article upon the subject. The portrait 
represents a coarse, uncivilized white man. 
Who can prove that the builders of monnds 
were white ? Does the bones ofa horse indicate 
the color of the hair? Does the shape of the 
skull denvte the color of the skin? Let us look 
for a moment at the white race and see if it’s 
severa! nations bear exactly the same shaped 
skull, the same prominent cheek bone, the 
NATURALIST. 
same height, or do we find the same difference 
that we do between the mound builders, (so 
called) asl the Indians. Look again at the 
difference in Indians: while some are medium 
in statue throughout the whole tribe, another 
tribe is composed of very large men. Some are 
very warlike while others are quite peaceable. 
Close observaton of history teaches us this fact. 
We are toid of the rough, and polished stone 
ages, but which came first ? Polished tools are 
found in large mounds, graves, and upon the 
surface. I have found finely wrought points, 
rough points and copper points, all upon the 
same field, turned up at the first plowing. Let 
us reason in this way. A boy starts to make a 
toy, and the first does not look much like the 
thing he set out to make, but he keeps trying, 
each time gettimg new ideas, or using better 
miteral, and finally, as practice makes perfect 
he becomes a fine workman, This certainly 
will apply to the white race, and Isee no reason 
why it will not apply to the pre-historic race 
of America But it is claimed that the Mound 
Builders were more on the civilized order than 
the Indians, 
Does not history and science both tell us 
that every advancement of civilization has had 
would 
I believe 
Us draw-backs, that some other nation 
inke hold of it and give it a boost. 
Lean prove >y history thet civilization has had 
its upsand downs. and now that science is tak- 
ing the matter in hand, it is giving us greater 
proofs every day of this theory. 
The Young Naturalists Society, of Seattle, 
Washington, on the steamer W. F. Munroe, 
are dredging in. the waters of Puget Sound, 
and from all accounts are gathering a wealth of 
material for future study, while at the same 
time they are receiving that, for which the 
society was organized, namely; a more intimate 
acquaintance with objects of Natural History. 
A new variety of Helix has been discovered 
by a collector of Portland, Ore. 
