Apjiil 14, 1881.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



207 



obtain specimens for preservation, they seemed to learn noth- 

 ing from experience, but would allow me to approach as 

 closely as ever. 



After the snow became so deep that I was compelled to 

 wear snow shoes to get to them, the "crauuching" of the 

 crust under the shoes was a Source of great uneasiness to 

 them and 1 was unable to approach as closely as before. 

 They would feed as unconcernedly as ever until an unusually 

 loud "craunch" would cause the whole flock to take wing, 

 the flight being led by no one in particular. Indeed, during 

 my observation of this species I have never noticed any trace 

 of that tendency to follow a recognized leader, which is so 

 prominent a trait with many birds. They show no sympathy 

 for a dead or wounded comrade, often feeding within a few 

 inches of such without, manifesting any concern whatever. 

 There was in constant attendance upon this flock, the first 

 three times that I visited it, a small hawk, of which they 

 manifested a wholesome dread, but I gave hini a charge of 

 number eights upon a favorable occasion, after which I saw 

 no more of him. 



The grosbeaks are quite indifferent climbers, showing no 

 more agility on the small limbs than a crow. I have seen 

 them on the ground feeding on the seeds which had fallen 

 from the bushes above. 



Some writers have accused this bird of eating fhe buds of 

 fruit trees, and one at least has said that buds form their 

 piincipal food I have dissected many of these birds and 

 have yet to And the first sign of a bud of any kind. I have 

 watched them closely while feeding on apple trees and have 

 never seen them cat anything whi e (here hut the apples left 

 on the trees the fall before, and have even seen them descend 

 to the ground for these. I have never seen anything in the 

 habits of this beautiful and interesting bird which should 

 lead us to regard it as other than a very welcome winter visi- 

 tor. Chas. E. Ingalls. 



Mast Templeton, Mass., April 4. 



THE RATTLESNAKE AS A TREE-CLIMBER. 



Port Walla Walla, W. T., March 23. 

 Editor Fore.it and Stream : 



As I have not had anything to say to you for some time, 

 and now seeing a trood chance for an item, please note what 

 I know about rattlesnakes climbing trees. To put the matter 

 concisely, let us say about the rattlesnake commonly found 

 in the West— the Crotalus lucifer— of Baird & Olrard. This 

 species at any rate does climb, now and then ; if not on large 

 trees, at anj r rate on sage bushes and small willows. I don't 

 mean to say either that it is a constant habit of the species — 

 I do not believe it is, but rattlers are found now and then in 

 such situations. Here is one instance at least, and I have a 

 witness for it in First Lieutenant Chas. E. 8. Wood, Twenty- 

 first Infantry, now stationed at the Military Academy at West 

 Point, New York, who undoubtedly remembers the occasion, 

 as I showed him the snake in position on a small willow tree, 

 probably about five feet from the ground, before shooting it. 

 I told him at the time that I might want liini to verify the 

 occurrence, and here is your chance if you have any doubls 

 about the facts. Lieutenant Wood and myself were returning 

 from a hunt after dusky grouse in the vicinity of Camp Har- 

 uey, Oregon, some time in the latter part of August. 1875, I 

 think, following down a small mountain stream culled Rattle- 

 snake Creek, along the- banks of which a number of willows 

 and cottonwoods grew. The willow on which the snake was 

 found was somewhat leaning toward the creek and was 

 probably three or four inches thick. The snake had worked 

 its way up into a fork about five feet from the ground and 

 was coiled up there and rattled as I passed it. This attracted 

 my attention, and before disturbing it I showed it to the lieu- 

 tenant. 



What the particular inducement was to cause Ihe snake to 

 climb in this instance 1 can't tell, as there were no birds' nests 

 or anyhing of that s rt on the willow in question or in the 

 vicinity, as I examined the surroundings closely after shoot- 

 ing the snake. The Bnake was not over three feet in length, 

 and had only five or six rattles. 



On another occasion I saw a rattlesnake in a sage bush near 

 Owens Lake, Sage County, ('al., but the bush was not over 

 two and a half feet high. There are exceptions to every rule, 

 and here you can have at least one well-aulhentictiled instance 

 where a rattlesnake climbed, if not a tree, at least a good 

 sized willow. Ciiab. Bendike. 



Evening Grosbeak in Wisconsin— Fon du Lac, Wis., 

 March 23. — I send you as close a description of a bird recent- 

 ly shot here as I am capable of giving, and regret that J am 

 unable to send you a skin, but have ""already mounted mine: 

 Male bird; length, eight and one-half inches ; bill, greenish 

 yellow, very large and heavy. Top of head black, front of 

 head bright yellow extending in a narrow line over eyes. 

 Neck, dark olive brown extending down until blended with 

 the bright yellow of the belly and back. Rump, pure yel- 

 low; wings, four and one-half inches long, exterior cov- 

 erts black, those near the body pure white ; tail and upper 

 tail coverts deep black. 



Should I succeed in securing any more specimens I shall 

 take great pleasure in forwarding skins to you. I am an en- 

 thusiastic sportsman, and very fond of observing habits, etc., 

 of birds and animals. I shall in a few days send you a de- 

 tailed description of a strange bird shot here some time since, 

 and now in the cabinet of a local collector. It has so far 

 puzzled all our collectors in this vicinity. Should any other 

 interesting natural history notes occur 1 shall lake great pleas- 

 ure in sending them. Aoiles. 



We are inclined to think the bird was au evening grosbeak 

 (Hesperipliona vespertina). Shall be glad to indentify your 

 strange bird, and to hear from you when ever convenient. 



Large Moose Antleks— Halifax, Nova Scotia, March 24. 

 — I inclose the photograph of a moose head now in my pos- 

 session, which I consider the largest yet killed in this prov- 

 ince. I would like to hear if any of your readers have ever 

 seen one of equal size. I can find no record of any as larg e 

 ever before having been killed in Nova Scotia. The horns 

 are well proportioned and nearly equal, one side having nine- 

 teen points the other seventeen. The pan or palmated part 

 entends well on both sides and over the front. The head whs 

 killed last season in this country. The following are the di- 

 mensions of the horns spread from tip to tip : Five Teet six 

 inches (or sixty-six inches); from point of brow antler to 

 top of horn, three feet, four inches, or forty inches ; width of 

 pan from twenty to thirty-five inches. — Thomas I. Egan, 



The antlers form a pair of the most suberb specimens ever 

 coming to our notice. We should be pleased to hear of other 

 records. 



A SNAEtc-oAionise King- Fisuek. — The interesting ac- 

 count which we print below of the capture of a snake by tLc 

 "laughing jackass," a large Australian king fisher, is taken 

 from the No .v South Wales Albury Banner. It is as fol- 

 lows; 



It has long been a matter of popular belief that the great 

 king fisher was an enemy of the snake, perpetually warring 

 upon the tribe in general, and never happier than when din- 

 ing on serpent au naturel. It is not often, however, that even 

 persons habitually residing in the bush have 8" good an op- 

 portunity as that afforded a few days since to Mr. Christian 

 Westendorff, of Jindera, for observing the laughing jackass 

 when in the act of bagging the game referred to. Mr. Wis- 

 tendorff was engaged with another man in clearing some 

 land, and in the course of the day's operations it became nec- 

 essary to shift a large log. For this purpose levers were ap- 

 plied to each end, and after some straining the log was rolled 

 ironi its resting-place. The very moment it commenced to 

 move, a laughing jackass, which had hitherto heen 

 taking a deep but unobtrusive interest in the pro- 

 ceedings, made a swoop down from the limb of an ad- 

 jacent lice and seized a large snake which had been lying 

 under the log. The snake was gripped by the back of the 

 neck (if snakes can be said to have necks) and borne away 

 to the bird's previous perch, where the unfortunate reptile 

 was banged against the bough until the body separated from 

 the head and fell to the ground. The jackass then dropped 

 the bead, and seizing the body sailed away in triumph with 

 his prize. Whether* the bird had seen the snake go under the 

 log and was watching for it to come forth again, or whether 

 it knew by instinct that the reptile was there, is a question 

 which may be left for naturalists to determine, but we are 

 credibly informed that as soon as the log was shifted, and be- 

 fore Mr. Westendorff or his companion had any idea of a 

 snake being in their neighborhood, the jackass was down and 

 had made good bis seizure. 



A Cat's Long Journey— Baneor, Me. — I am well aware 



that cats are not game, and are reckoned as "neither flesh 

 nor fish, nor good red herring," and so have no legitimate 

 standing in Forest and Stream, yet the recording of a 

 pedestrian feat recently performed by one in this vicinity 

 may interest you to admit her into your columns as a poach- 

 er on your manor. 



A gentleman in this city had presented to him a Maltese 

 cat with four young nursing kittens bv a former friend living 

 fourteen miles out "in the country. This cat and her kittens 

 were placed in a close covered basket inside of which was a 

 blanket in which they were wrapped, and the whole then 

 covered with a thick rug. The basket and its contents were 

 then brought in a waggon to this city the distance stated. 

 The cat and her kittens were kept in a room in their new 

 home, and carefully watched, fed and petted for seven days 

 she appealing ro lie wonted and content. On the morning of 

 the seventh day she and her kittens were seen at, their new 

 home for the last time and were missed very soon after. 

 The following day at noon she appeared at her old home 

 with all her kittens. She. did not, return by the road, the way 

 she came, a? she was seen by several persons going through 

 the fields with a kitten in her mouth. Allowing thirty hours 

 to have elapsed between the time she was last seen at, her 

 new home and the time she was first seen at her old home 

 she must have traveled a distance of 112 miles, carrying a kit- 

 ten one-half the same distance. J. C 



"Tailing" a Skunk — Rockland, Me. — A young man 



earned a quarter and made himself a hero by removing a 

 skunk from an entry at the head of the stairs in"n building on 

 Main street. The skunk was master of the situation, pre- 

 venting ingress or egress |,o ihe offices and tenements on that 

 floor. "Our hero comiug upon the scene, approached the pas- 

 sive end of the skunk, arid moving his hand in front of the 

 skunk's uose to take his attention, he reached over him, 

 seized him by the tail, carried him an eighth of a mile and 

 threw him into the dock where the boys'tinished him with 

 stones When I came upon the scene he had just returned 

 and was iuvitiug Ihe public to smell of him. I with a few 

 hundred other citizens accepted of his kind invitation, and I 

 can testify under oath I hat he was as sweet as a nut. — Ti:r<Tn. 

 [Take a hull by the horns and a skunk by the tail.] 



%nn\e §ng and (gun. 



CATCHING RABBITS IN SIBERIA. 



BY XIL TORE1S. 



E OMAN OFF is a Russian and a Nihilist. Banished to 

 Siberia he was fortunate enough to escape after a time 

 and became a diamond hunter in the south of Africa. He fail- 

 ed, however, to discover Koh-i-noors or great moguls, and went 

 to the. gold mines of Australia and from thence to the Black 

 Hills. Ho drifted over the. earth wherever he could hear of 

 gold or gems. A perfect cosmopolitan, thoroughly educated 

 and informed, a Hercules in strength and able to curse the 

 Autocrat of all the Russias in half the languages in Europe, 

 he was gentle as a child, and his voice was musical as run- 

 ning waters. I -believe he would have made his fortune as a 

 ginger. He was, of course, a fanalic, and capable no doubt 

 — if he thought it for the good of his cause — of committing 

 any deed of "blood. I met him for the first time in the San 

 Juan mountains in 1880. We became friends, and after a 

 time partners, and spent the summer prospecting near 

 Ouray. 



Weary one day from climbing over boulders 8,000 ft. above 

 the sea, we spread down our blankets in ihe hollow of a rock 

 for a mid-day rest. 



" Do you know. Mr. Torris, how they catch rabbits in Si- 

 beria r" asked Romanoff. 



I was watching a niountaiu sheep standing on the summit 

 of a crag a long Way off, but boldly outlined against the sky, 

 and answered, carelessly, " As elsewhere, I suppose." 



" There you are wrong," said the Russian. "Let us light 

 our pipes and I will tell you. 



" Rabbits are very numerous in the wilds of Siberia, and as 

 you know, the winters are long and terribly cold. We select 

 a locality where we know they are abundant and; a night 

 when the Frost giants are abroad on the Steppes. Along the 

 frozen streams and sheltered valleys we place a number of 

 lighted lamps. The rabbits, poor things, freezing out in the 

 darkness see the welcome lights, and soon approach near 

 enough to feel the genial warmth. They collect around the 



lamps in immense numbers, and tears come into their iuuo- 

 cenf, beautiful eyes, and fall down as frozen pearls on the. 

 snow. Higher and higher grow the crystal columns, and 

 soon poor puss becomes a prisoner; bound by her own tears 

 to the ice-fettered earth. I caught in this way in a single 

 night 03.003 rabbits." 



I glanced fiercely at Romanoff ; I here was a merry twinkle 

 in his eyes, but not the. shadow of a smile. "Now, by the 

 iron rule of Peter the Great, and the beard of Ivan the Ter- 

 rible!" I exclaimed in simulated passion reaching for my 

 Winchester, " I'll"— 



"No you won't," said the Russian, curtly, as he coolly 

 placed the muzzle of his navy six agaiust my temple, a strange 

 glitter in his dark eyes that I had never seeu before, "No 

 man ever gets the drop on me." 



A WOODCHUCK GUN. 



AN inquiry for a woodchuck dog in your issue of March 

 24 leads me to write of a woodchuck gun or rather 

 rifle. Last spring I had some tree planting to do in a large 

 cemetery in a rough, hilly, but beautiful place. The Presi- 

 dent of the Cemetery Association told me that woodchuolis 

 were greatly injuring the beau'v of their place by their nu- 

 merous burrows, and asked me if I knew of any plan to rid 

 the grounds of them. I told him that I could dispose of a 

 good many of them by shooting them. He said that this 

 would not do, as they did not allow guns in the inclosure, as 

 their report, would frighten visitors (it, was quits a public re- 

 sort), especially the ladies. T at once showed him that my 

 rifle, a 30 inch, 22 calibre Ballard, made but very little re- 

 port with a 22 short, cartridge. He thought it might do to 

 hunt grasshoppers with if I could hit them, but that an old 

 woodchuck would laugh at such a gun. I showed him that 

 it would shoot through three inches of pine, and then he told 

 me to go ahead. 



Well, I am not a very gro it "slouch " with the rifle, but I 

 cannot shoot a grey squirrel's head off every time one hun- 

 dred paces as I heard once a fellow say that his brother could 

 do, but I shoot as well as any of the boys I have struck yet 

 at, short range. I went a woodchuck hunting in the ceme- 

 tery. I first looked over the ground, and found numerous 

 holes or borrows only a small portion of which were occupied 

 at the time, and made careful observations so as to distin- 

 guish the used from the unused holes, and soon learned to 

 tell an occupied from an unoccupied burrow, carefully watch- 

 ing, and soon as Mr. woodchuck protruded his cranium from 

 his burrow I flipped one of the little leaden pills into it, or 

 missed it as the c >se might be. Yes; I missed sometimes, 

 for a woodohuck's head is a pretty small mark for me 50 to 

 100 yards away against a bank of clay of almost exactly the 

 same color. And right here is where the joke comes in : the 

 rifle made so little noise and so unlike the ordinary gun that 

 the woodchu' ks would pay no attention to it, but they would 

 run into their holes from the stroke of the ball near them 

 and would generally come right out again to see what the 

 rumpus was and give me a fairer shot. 



The result of my rifle practice was, that I killed fourteen 

 "chucks" by this still hunting about three hours in each of 

 two days, and four more, making nineteen during the week, 

 while going to lunch at noon. I" found the best time to get 

 shots in the spring lime, just aB the buds were swelling, was 

 between ten and three o'clock of bright warm days. When 

 shot directly through the brain they hounded right out of 

 their burrows, but if hit in the body they could work them- 

 selves back into their burrows and die, and this appears to be 

 the most desirable way to get rid of them, for I have a theory 

 that the woodchuck, being' found dead in bis hole in this way 

 by his neiglib- rs, strikes the survivors wilh mortal terror and 

 they emigrate. At least the survivors all left this cemetery, 

 for I am Sure I did uot kill the half or the third of them, and 

 I could see no signs of any there a month after. 



While " working " these woodchucks 1 made one of tbose 

 wonderful shots we so often read about. Looking across a 

 ravine one day I saw a very large woodchuck coming 

 over the brow (if the opposite '"luff, full 200 yards away, run 

 a little way down the batik, stop and sit down on his tail, 

 bolt upright his full length, as they often do. I drew a fine 

 bead on a leaf about, f ur feet directly above his head, and 

 let go. I heard the little bullet whack on his "noggin" 

 plainly, and the "chuck " went tumbling heels over head to 

 the foot of the bluff, fully 150 feet, and then gathered him- 

 self up and, rtmnii g like a wild turkey directly up the bluff 

 to within a few feet of where he was when I shot, bounced 

 into his burrow. They can stand nearly as much killing as a 

 cat. I shot one "old rooster" directly through the head, 

 where the brain ought to be, half an inch behind the left eye, 

 the ball coming out at the base of the right ear ; he bounced 

 out of his burrow, cavorted arouud awhile and quietly died. 

 I picked him up, admired ihe beautiful shot I had made, 

 threw him down, and went on with my lunch. Pretty 

 soon he gave a sneeze, jumped up and started off quite 

 comfortably. I then gave him a roping shot in the 

 left flank, and out at the point, of the right shoulder 

 as he ran quartering from me. He lay down and died agaiu. 

 In about five minutes he began making rather too much of a 

 nickel — I was watching for another across a ravine — and I 

 shot him again right down through the cent re of his head, ihe 

 ball coming out at bis throat. In about ten minutes I got 

 the fellow across the ravine. Hi; was a bad one ; he would 

 just raise his head from the burrow far enough to see me 

 with the corner of his eye, and I could not see his heat I 

 against the clay, but I would see a movement every time I 

 would stir; so I drew a bead and held .it until I thought his 

 head was there and pulled, and out he bounced. I then picked 

 up the old fellow I had killed so often, put him in my basket 

 to show how big he was, and twenty minutes at least after I 

 had killed him last found him breathing as regularly as a 

 healthy babe. 



And now a few concluding words about the modern .23 Oil. 

 rifle. I have used and carried them of different makers, ac- 

 tions and lengths, almost continuously for the past live, 

 years, and have found them all to shoot first-rate and to be 

 big enough for any game we find in our older settled States; 

 grand for ruffed grouse, squirrels, rabbits, hawks, eats, etc. 

 I have killed a great many ducks with them, and killed lliem , 

 out of large masses 300 to 400 yards away. I have; found 

 their trajectory for the first 2u0 yards to be about the same 

 as that of a *38 cul. ritlc with the " .38 long" rim fire cart- 

 ridge. I have used al! lengths of harrel from 12 inches up to 

 30 inches, but found 1 could not hold a short gun. I there- 

 fore got a 30 inch Ballard, weighing lbs., same as my shot- 

 gun. This is the gun for comfort and pleasure. It makes 

 but little report, when fired, not near so much as the old-fash- 

 ioned porcussion cap. It cost but little to shoot it— twenty- 

 five cents per 100 shots; is no trouble to load. One can car- 



