20G 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[April 14, 18S1. 



BRANT BOCK. 



THIS pleasant summer resort is situated on the eastern 

 const of Massachusetts, in the town of Marshfield, 

 Plymouth County, and during the hot mouths is visited by 

 ninny of the inhabitants of our inland towns and villages, 

 who find Test and enjoyment in boating, bathing and other 

 sports to be found at our seaside watering places. 



Brant Rock, from which the village takes its name, is a 

 rocky headland projecting several hundred yards into the 

 ocean, and connected with the mainland by a narrow strip of 

 he-tcb, which at high water is completely covered, making 

 the rock an island. I am not sure as to how it received the 

 name, but have been told that in olden limes great numbers 

 of brant were shot at this point., and on that account it was so 

 named. In the fall when the coots, geese and other wild 

 fowl commence their southward flight, Brant R"ck becomes 

 to mo a place of the greatest interest, and about the first of 

 November generally finds your correspondent upon the spot. 

 At. this point, are three good hotels, with their billiards and 

 bowling to pass away the dull days that will always be en - 

 countered at gunniug stations. Then, again, you can always 

 be sure of good accommodations, good boats, and men that 

 understand the business to handle them, if desired, at reason- 

 able prices. 



After an easterly wind there is generally quite a surf on 

 the beach, which makes it lively for the gunners and affords 

 much fun for the lookers on, who watch the boats land after 

 a day's shooting. It is exciting to Bee tbem come on in their 

 light dories, over and through the breakers ; some of them 

 coming to grief and wadiug ashore with their boats bottom 

 up 



The shooting is mostly from boits, although in rough 

 weather there is sometimes good shooting from the point of 

 the Keck. Jn boat shooting the boats are anchored in line 

 about two gun shots apart, the line extending a mile or more 

 to pea. Sometimes there are so many boats that they make 

 another line in the rear, or to the southward of the first Hue. 

 1 have counted fifty-one boats anchored in this way, and 

 have been told that, it is not uncommon to see many 

 more The boafs start about daylight, and after consider- 

 able matceuverine get placed in line, and if a good day the 

 shooting begins about "sun Up." Flock after flock of old 

 white-wings come down through the line, followed by shel- 

 drakes, quandies, and, in fact, all kinds of fowls that frequent 

 our shores. Occasionally an old loon comes bearing down, 

 and after receiving volley after volley, looks us calmly in the 

 eye and keeps on his v\ ay. 



An old gunner, if not used to this shooting, will look blue 

 after tning a few times. The motion of the boat in a sea, 

 together with the swift flight of the birds, make this kind of 

 shooting the most difficult I have ever attempted. 



You have made two or three poor shots and are getting dis- 

 couraged when down comes a bunch of coots. You make 

 up your mind you will redeem yourself, and lie low until 

 they are in easy gun shot. You raise the gun when a sea 

 cants the boat, and you wildly wave the muzz e of the gun at 

 tbem, and iii the jumble both barrels are discharged and the 

 chances are the charge comes nearer the next boat than the 

 birds*. Such is coot shooting as experienced by a green 

 hand in a heavy sea. Even the most expert will miss the 

 mn.i provoking shots, and it takes a good shot and a tre- 

 mendous sight of luck to make a decent show. Loon shoot- 

 ing is the handsomest shooting if one can only get the hang 

 of it. They are not wild, and give good shots, butare ex- 

 tremely hard to kill and will carry off a lead mine. 



Last fall 1 was at this place gunning and we had one day 

 thai. Andrew, Nat and Rube will not so in forget. We went 

 nut at daylight, and at sunrise loons commenced to fly. We 

 had them for two or three hours as fast as we could put the 

 shells into our guns, Andrew using a heavy ten bore, while 

 I u-ed a. twelve bore eight-pound Fox gun, altogether too light 

 for such shooting. Andrew killed three pair straight, but, 1 

 was nowhere. I emptied about fifty shells and got about six 

 loons, which was about one-fourth of what fell in the water, 

 but co lid not get. Andrew was more used to it, But bring- 

 ing Hem down and getting tbem are two different things, 

 and out of all he hit he probably got one-fourth. When 

 coots did not fly we took Andrew's old fox hound and in a 

 few hours' tramp generally managed to start a fox, which 

 would elude the dog during the day, leaving us to tranarj 

 home empty handed. But such was not always the case as 

 two skins hanging in Andrew's cabin will testify. At other 

 times we would tramp the pastures and stubbles for quail, of 

 which there was an abundance last fall. 



1 know of no place in this part of the country where a 

 man can enjoy himself better. It is distant from Boston about 

 thirty miles on the Duxbury branch of the Old Colony Rail- 

 road. G it off at Marshfleld depot and a coach carries you to 

 the Rock, about four miles. On arriving there Captain 

 Churchill or Mr. Brown, of the Brant Rock House will take 

 good care of you, and Bill Tallman or Rube Bates will carry 

 you out and give you as good shooting as the weaiher and 

 birds will permit. To a visitor this part of the country is 

 full of interest. The home of Daniel Webster is in sight, and 

 altbomtb the old house is gone, the very trees and stone 

 walls seem to speak of his presence. It is only a few days 

 ago we drove a fox directly through the little burying-ground 

 down the large orchard that was once Websler'B pride. From 

 the high cetiar hills near by we can gain a view not often 

 seen. To the southward in the distance we see the monu- 

 ment on Captain's Hill, erected in memory of Miles Standisb, 

 while beyond is the city of Plymouth. To the left is Clark's 

 Island, and beyond loom up the dark hiils of Manomet. 

 Looking seaward on certain pleasant days Cape Cod maybe 

 seen, eighteen or twenty miles distant, while to the north a 

 landscape of forest, stream and sea meets the eye. 



If all prospers, 1 hope in another year to meet my friends 

 at Branl Rr.ck, and try the white wing-? again, and give that 

 sly old fox a run. Ramkop. 



PUBLISHERS' DEPARTMENT. 



HolaDlrfl Shooting- Suits. Upthegrove & Mrxellan, Valparaiso, Ind. 



Hop Bitters gives good digestion, active liver, good circulation and 

 buoyant spirits. 



Mr E. Duncin Stiffen, the well-known advertising agent o£ this 

 city has removed to No. S Park Row, where all t-vi.lenees go la show 

 that his business is pj-ospeiiiiK. Mr. sr.iffen i-. .oxrgtfc, capable, 

 trustworthy anil, as a matter of course, popular and sue.ces.suu. 



Wisher's c.iuckbtkr's Almanac for issi. This record of the tuil 

 scores and nowiii,..- siunriito-i"s oi r,e ml n /'ion matches played hi 

 issn his he.en sent, us l)v i he publishers. Tlie Louie contains '2sis pages 

 replete with mmi. n ie.iin lmormatlon aud should be lathe hands of 

 all loveis of I In- game, nl cricket. John Wlsden & Co., London, Eng- 

 land. Price one shilling. 



How we -Feb ran Bast, to make her healthy and happy ; with 

 health hints. BrttJE-Page m 144 pages. 1'aper, 6U cents: 

 cloth, 76 cents. New York I Fowler & Wells, 753 Broadway. 



Domestication of a Sikrman Debb.— The young horns 

 of a certain Siberian deer (Genus maral) while they are 

 yet filled with blood and before they have become ossified 

 are highly prized by the Chinese, who purchase all that they 

 can obtain of them on the Siberian frontier, paying the high 

 price of from, six to twenty pounds sterling per 

 pair for them. In consequence of this demand for these 

 horns the Maral has been very eagerly hunted, so that it is 

 now rather rare. The Cossficks near Kiakhta, some time 

 since, attempted the domestication of this deer, and it is 

 said that the domesticated animals have of late greatly in- 

 creased in Wes'crn Siberia, and that some of the herds now 

 number seventy individuals. 



Sbnse of Smell in Insects.— An interesting paper on this 

 subject has recently been published by Hon. Gustav Hauser, 

 of Erlangeu, in which he gives an account of a number of 

 experiments made by bim. A number of different species 

 of insects which had been induced to approach vessels con- 

 taining turpentine and acetic acid showed, by their evident 

 desire to retreat and by moving their antennae, a decided 

 perception of the odor but after the extremities of the 

 antenna? had been cut off the same insects, placed close to 

 the vessels, manifested no uneasiuess. A number of flies 

 which had approached a piece of putrid meat showed no 

 desire to return to it after the third segment of the antennas 

 had been cut off. 



Catalogue of the Bibds in the Bitirisu Museum.— It is 

 said that ihe fifth volume of the Catalogue of Birds in the 

 British Museum will soon be published. The families de- 

 scribed in it will be the Thrushes and Warblers, and the 

 work will be done by Mr. Henry Scebohm, who has devoted 

 several years of close study to these groups, and who is one 

 of the highest living authorities on them. 



Speinq Snipe.— A correspondent who writes from Wading 

 River, Suffolk county, N. Y., under date of April 4, Says:— 



T isday I fOUhd a 'brace of Euelisb snipe on ihe meadows 

 and killed them. The female contained the inclosed speci- 

 men which 1 bel ! eve to be the eggs. I would like to know 

 how many eggs they lay and when ibey neat, 



The Wilson's snipe builds its nests on the ground in 

 meadow land, usually not very far from a damp or wet spot ; 

 the eggs are four in number, clay colored, spotted with 

 black. By far the greater pari of the snipe which stop 

 with us in spring pass on beyond tho borders of the United 

 States to breed but a few remain with us, nests of this 

 species having been found in Connecticut, New York, New 

 Jersey' and Pennsylvania. The specimen sent us was a mass 

 of the undeveloped eggs of the, bird. We have seen snipe 

 killed late in Ihe spring which contained eggs as large as 

 the end of a man's ilunnh, and have heard of others in which 

 have been found eggs ready for deposition. 



birds will disappear. As tho common bird of America is 

 now the house sparrow all the others appear to have vanished 

 and as the house sparrow only lives in towns where there are 

 horses and stables the country places arc very bare of birth. 



I have no birds on my farm, aud the same complaint is 

 general wbh my neighbors, and during a hunt I made last 

 winter I only saw three partridges (ruffed grouse) in four 

 weeks. W. Rhodes. 



THE PINE GROSBEAK. 



A HAWK NEW TO THE UNITED STATES. 



Smithsonian Institution. 1 

 Washington, D. C, April C, 1881. | 

 KtliWr Forest aud Stream: 



It affords me great pleasure to be able to announce through 

 your columns the addiiiou to the United States fauna of a 

 species of hawk hitherto not. recorded from any point north 

 of Mirador, Mexico. The question of what name ihe species 

 should bear is one involving considerable investigation, 

 pending which I will call it, provisionally, Jjiiteo juliginosus, 

 Sclater. It is a siuad species, about the size of H. ptnnsi/l- 

 vanicits, but with longer wings, and of a uniform black color, 

 like B. abbrematus. It has been considered by various 

 writers to be a dark or melauistie phase of IS. hrachyurus, 

 but in this view I cannot concur, no specimens among ihe 

 many which I have examined, indicating that any light color- 

 phase exists: both young and old, thonsboibei-wi.se quite 

 different, being uniform black below as well as above. 



While premising that this bird may be the Jiut-eo ful-'gi- 

 ■nosus of Sclater, it should bo remarked that in "History of 

 North American Birds" (vol. iii., p. 266,)] referred this name 

 [oil. swamsoni, on 1he presumption ihat it was probably 

 based on a small example ot the latter species in the dark 

 phase of plumage: but I may have been wrong in this 

 determination. 



The specimen in question was shot at Oyster Bay, Florida, 

 Jan. 28, 1881, by W. S Crawford, sod was secured for the 

 National Museum from W. H. Collins, of Detroit, -Mich. 



Very respectfully yours, Robekt Rmawir. 

 r-^r— 



MIGRATORY QUAIL AND HOUSE SPARROWS. 



Qitebbo, Canada, April 7. 



InAVE asain ordered 200 migratory cptail for this neigh- 

 borhood which, 1 have no doubt will arrive in good 

 order. The point, however, as to the fact of this variety of 

 quail returning with the other spring birds does not appear to 

 be clearly established, sol shall be obliged to some of your 

 numerous readers to record What they may observe this year 

 on this very r interesting subject. 



The winter in Canada has been less injurious to house- 

 sparrows than usual. < mr inhabitants have noticed this bird 

 is a good" bird. "It suit la religion, it -finite lea dockers, Us 

 convents et Us Presbyteres," and is therefore in a fair way for 

 salvation. 



The imported quail again recommends itself to our farmers 

 as a bird that lives in France. 1 bey do not kuow the word 

 "Caille," but they understand it is a little partridge and a 

 French bird, so on the principle of the Irish sparrow they are 

 quite prepared to give quail every ptolec ion. 



My idea is if we can once get quail established on the Lau- 

 rentides to the north of Quebec the bird may become as nu- 

 merous as robins or crows, but spring shooting must be dis- 

 continued all over this eonunent, otherwise all the migratory 



rnHIS interesting bird is, if we may credit the reports, an 

 1 abundant, although rather an irregular winter visitor 

 to Massachusetts. It must be remembered that very few of 

 the many persons who may have observed the bird are pos- 

 sess d of sufficient ornthological knowledge to tell to what 

 species it belongs, and but very few of these who know it 

 ever publish their notes. This, taken with the fact that, ex- 

 cept observations are confined almost exclusively to the 

 vicinity of dwellings, owing to the difficulty of getting about 

 in the woods at the only time that it is present with us, leads 

 to the conclusion that it cannot be other than quite an abun- 

 dant species in our pine woods and other places where it is 

 able to procure suitable food during the winter months. Dr. 

 C'oucs gives its habitat as follows : "In this country it occu- 

 pies the whole of British America, migrating regularly into 

 the northern tier of States in winter, and occa ionally to 

 Maryland, Ohio, Illinois and Kansas. Apparently resident 

 in the Sierra Nevada, of California, and certainly so in the 

 Rocky Mountains within the United Stales, south to Colorado, 

 where it breeds." 



' There are also well authenticated instances of its breeding 

 in Maine. I have observed the species in this vicinity every 

 winter for the last five years, w hile it is unusually abundant 

 this winter throughout the State. West of this village there 

 is a large tract of flowed land constituting part of the pond 

 known as the "reservoir." This tract contains a superficial 

 area of about two hundred acres, with an average depth of 

 about four feet of water, which is so completely choked 

 will) aquatic vegetation of many species, some flouting and 

 others firmly root- d, as to be impenetrable for any distance 

 for man, except, in two paths made in the winter, when the . 

 water in the reservoir was "down," by lumbermen for get- 

 ling out wood from the heavy growths beyond the "swamp," 

 as ibis place is locally designated. This makes a natural re- 

 treat for large numbers of wood ducks, black ducks and many 

 water and oilier birds that like the vicinity of water or find 

 here the food most suited to them. And the food which seems 

 to be the chief attraction is the seeds of the black alder 

 . o'ato), tlrU being the most abundant plant in the 

 swamp. It is so abundant as to present the appearance to an 

 observer on a neighboring bill of a level meadow covered 

 with this shrub, showing occasional patches of water. 



The seeds and berries "of this pi ml form no inconsiderable 

 part of the food of the wood ducks which resort here in flocks 

 lor food and to roost, coming in from the ponds in the vicin- 

 ity after sunset, sometimes as many as fifty being counted in 

 a single nock. Although most writers tell us that the wood 

 duck is seen in flocks of from three to twelve only, yet I 

 have fin quently seen flocks of twenty to thirty fly in after 

 sunset anil leave again early in the morning. 



Besides the wood ducks there are many other species of 

 birds which feed on these berries, including the subject of 

 this sketch. I have noticed them here every year when the 

 berries were left in the bushes until winter. In the fall of 

 lo7'.l the berries were very plenty, and the water in the reser- 

 voir and swamp bavins: been kept " up," there were unusual 

 numbers of ducks there feeding on them After the patch 

 was covered with ice there were no berries and I saw but one 

 small liock of grosbeaks all winter. Whether the ducks 

 stripped the bushes so that there were none left for the Gros- 

 beaks or not 1 do not kuow, but I firmly believe this to be 

 the case, for last fall the berries were no more abundant than 

 in the fall of lo79, but the water in the swamp having been 

 down so that the place was dry or contained but very little in 

 the reservoir all the latter partof summer and fall, there were 

 no clucks, and the bushes have been loaded with berries all 

 winter and have formed almost the entire food supply of an 

 immense dock of grog leaks 



1 first noticed these birds on the 12lh of December, the 

 weather having been quite cold aud the ground covered with 

 snow for twelve days previously. From this time my visits to 

 this place were quite frequent, and I have never failed to 

 find them here at whatever time of day I came before 4 p. M., 

 at which time they usually retired to the woods to roost. All 

 the winter they have been here, although the cold has been 

 very severe, the thermometer registering below zero on four- 

 teen days during the month of January. The mean of three 

 observations each day — morning, noon and night — during 

 iliis mouth was l(i clegs. In spile of I he cold they spent most 

 of their time in this bleak, unsheltered spot, exposed to the 

 full force of the wind, subsisting entirely, so far as I was en- 

 abled to know, on Ihe seeds of the black alder. 



At the time of my first visit to the birds in the " swamp" 

 the tlock consisted of twenty individuals and had no mate- 

 i ial increase of numbers for three weeks, when they began to 

 receive additions until, about the 15th of January, the flock 

 numbered as many as three hundred. About the 1st of Feb- 

 ruaty they began "to disappear until, the 20 h of that month, 

 a diligent search failed to reveal a single bird of any species 

 in the swamps, but since then I have seen them in other sit- 

 uations. Saw a liock of seven feeding on the larch trees in 

 front of a residence on the main street of the village on the 

 18th of .March and, although there were teams and pedes- 

 trians constantly passing, they remained undisturbed for 

 nearly two hours, quietly feeding and uttering their peculiar 

 whistle, the only sound I have heard them make. 



The grosbeak is in many respecs a very peculiar bird. It 

 seems to be toi ally unsuspicious of man. I have been able to 

 walk up to within four feet of the flock when feeding on the 

 bushes, when I could easily have touched them with my gun. 

 1 tried ihe noose on the end of a pole, as described by Sir. C. 

 J. Maynard, and although I caught none, owing to the nu- 

 merous twigs and small branches catching in the noose, Ihad 

 no difficulty in touching them with the noose, they manifest- 

 ing no concern, but continuing to feed, although the pole to 

 which the noose was attached was only seven feet long. 



They seemed to regard my dog, who sometimes accompa- 

 nied me, with more distrust, often circling about him ami ut- 

 tering their plaintive whistle and seeming very uneasy so 

 long as he remained in sight. They are very sensitive to 

 noise. Although they manifested so little concern at my 

 presence, the report of a gun would send them into the air in 

 a body, to circle and manoeuvre about for several minuies, 

 wheu'tbey would alight, sometimes in the very place from 

 which they started, and at others in another par., of the 

 swamp | and although I sbot among them several times to 



