WILD PIGEONS AND DOVES 



623 



In Audubon's account of this dove we find several 

 slips, in the text as well as on his plate of the species. 

 Our space will not admit of noticing them ; but upon 

 the other hand he invites attention to an often over- 

 looked fact when he says : "When shot, or taken alive 

 in the hand, this and our other species of Pigeon, lose 

 the feathers on the slightest touch, a circumstance pecul- 

 iar to the genus, and to certain gallinaceous birds." 



When both species of birds were more than abundant 

 in this country, Audubon noticed that "a few individ- 

 uals mix with the Wild Pigeons, as do the latter some- 

 times with the Doves." 



In connection with the ease with which the Carolina 

 Dove parts with its feathers, I am reminded of an in- 

 cident that occurred many years ago or along about 

 1874. In those days I was living in Washington, and 

 connected with the Army Medical Museum in a civil 

 capacity. I was considered, since I was thirteen years 

 of age, to be unusually expert in the making of bird 

 skins for collections. This was well known to many of 

 my friends in Washington, the reputation having fol- 

 lowed me down from New England where I lived as a 

 boy, and where I had made a collection of some three 

 hundred bird skins of the species occurring in Fairfield 

 County before I was thirteen years of age. While living 

 in Washington about the above mentioned time, it was 

 my good fortune to have as friends many of the scien- 

 tific people whose homes were in the city, among them 

 Prof. Lester F. Ward, one of the country's best known 

 botanists, who, later on, through his work in various 

 lines, came to be classed with the philosophers of the 

 Western world. Professor Ward was possessed with 



the desire to learn how to make a scientific bird-skin, as 

 he expected to do some exploratory work. He came to 

 me for instruction, which I told him I would be pleased 

 to give; so, upon one very warm evening in the late 

 spring, he put in an appearance at the room where I 

 lived as a medical student, bringing with him a recently 

 shot specimen of the Carolina Turtle Dove. As we were 

 seated at a little table, it did not occur to me to first 

 inform him that that species of bird invariably parted 

 with its feathers upon the slightest provocation, and no 

 sooner had I made the ventral incision the initial step 

 in removing the skin than the feathers began to come 

 away in the most provoking manner. Professor Ward 

 begged to know if we "always lost that many feathers 

 in making up a skin ;" to which I replied that it was 

 only in the case of the wild pigeon tribe and in some 

 tropical species. I saw that the statement did not quite 

 satisfy him a fact that in no way lessened the trouble 

 or my embarrassment. However, I made up the skin, 

 and when it was dry presented him with it; but I al- 

 ways felt that it was hard for the Professor to believe 

 my tale about the feathers of wild doves and pigeons 

 coming out so easily, and I am strongly of the opinion 

 that he never made any use of the information I had 

 s'.ven him that evening, nor do I recall that he ever, 

 during the rest of his life, referred to the experience 

 again. Since then nearly half a century has passed. 

 Professor Ward died many years ago, and I am again 

 residing in Washington. It was only the other day that 

 I made up a fine skin of a male starling that had been 

 found on one of the city streets, having been frozen to 

 death. 



New Jersey's Forester 



CHARLES P. WILBER, who has been State Fire- 

 warden and Assistant State Forester of New Jersey 

 for the past twelve years, has recently been appointed 

 to the position of State Forester of New Jersey follow- 

 ing the resignation of Alfred Gaskill. Mr. Wilber is a 

 native of New Jersey. He was a graduate of Rutgers 

 College in the class of 1905 and of the Yale Forest 

 School in 1907. 



During 1907 and 1908 he was interested in lumbering, 

 and from 1908 to 1910 he was with the United States 

 Forest Service in District 4, working on the National 

 Forests in Idaho, Montana, and Utah. In 1910 he was 

 appointed State Firewarden and Assistant Forester for 

 New Jersey and since then has built up a wide-awake 

 forest fire service with a splendid record of achieve- 

 ment and public support. He initiated a division organi- 

 zation in 191 1, whidh provides for a trained state em- 

 ploye as firewarden in each of the three divisions of the 

 state, to supplement and supervise the local firewarden 

 force. In 191 3 the first lookout tower was built in New 

 Jersey; there are now 13 covering about half of the 

 state. Mr. Wilber comes to his new position while yet 

 a young man and no doubt will carry forward New 



Jersey's forestry policy in the same progressive and 

 constructive fashion which has characterized his work 

 in the past. 



A Snip s K-nees 



ONE of the minor and yet exceedingly important arti- 

 cles entering into the construction of a wooden ship 

 is the "knee." A ship knee is a right angled wooden 

 brace used to give strength to the framing, and is fash- 

 ioned from the natural crook of a tree formed by a 

 heavy, shallow horizontal root and a section of the trunk. 

 Knees when finished are some times as much as six or 

 seven feet high and many of them are four feet high. 

 The tremendous impetus to wooden shipbuilding brought 

 about by the war, has resulted in the establishment of a 

 sawmill at Portland, Oregon, designed exclusively for 

 the finishing of ship knees. The timber preferred is sec- 

 ond-growth Douglas fir, found growing in shallow soil 

 so that the roots turn off at right angles to the trunk 

 and thus give the proper shape. The standardized 

 wooden ship requires some 200 knees of all sizes, while 

 another type of wooden ship, also under construction, 

 requires more than 160 knees. 



