346 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Jtthe 2. 1881. 



favorable breeze -which then prevailed. Our tent was pitched 



in ;i gn >ve of pines, the ground was covered with pine-needles, 



place for 

 long bofo 



WHS full 



tatingly 

 tasted. 



i.at th 

 33 of Indians in prev 

 B had a splendid lire 

 arm, and over which 

 The supper which 



had been the camping- 

 ons seasons. It was not. 

 icforc which we became 

 be soon had a kettle of 

 il< prepared for us 



ppreciated, and the piping hot tea was unhcsita- 



onounced by B- to be the best he had over 



inn assure von that we cnjoved our first evening 

 38. We sat and chatted by the bright light of the 

 od. and listened with wrapt attention to Joe's 



bough 



blazing 



recital c 



packer i 



the sew 



#0 wor 



waves 



did nut 



blankets 



early da 



hearty breakfast, with hot Doffe 



'or a days' sport of huuting 



game we were principally 



concluded to follow the riv 



miles perhaps in distance, a 



same. 1 Iim.I my dog, "Pr 



this season, I was a iitile ii 



he. would discover a track, 



pper, hunter, 



ll.cn, Michigan and in 



ly of British America. 



hat ihe noise of the 



plainly heard, but it 



i lay rolled up in our 



We arose in the 



miber. aud after a 



irepared ourselves 



,d fishing. The 



partridges, and we 



r up to " the meadows,'' two 



d try our luck in skirting the 



'Cc," and as it was his first trip 



xious 10 know whether or not 



follow it and "tree 11 the bird as 



well as in years ngone. 1 have known that dog to remain 

 under a. nee barking at a partridge among its branches for 

 over an hour at a time, and being half spaniel and half hound 

 he had I lie ecent Of the one and the deep, sonorous voice of 

 the other, which would enable one. to know him as much as 

 a mile away. In this region one can do no wing shooting 

 With partridges, the forests are so dense and the underbrush 

 so thick that it is rarely one ever sees the game. The first 

 we know of its presence is, if the bird is near, its whir as it 

 flies, which, if it be some distance away, the barking of the 

 dog indicates that he has it in a tree. 



We finally reached "the meadows" without bagging any 

 game on the way. "The meadows" covered a truct, of about 

 one hundred acres, through which ran a good-sized stream. 

 Into this wo past a fly, and were compensated with a half- 

 dozen trout, which weighed from a. half pound to a pouud 

 each. While enjoying this sport we heard Prince at our left 

 barking deep and loud. We soon found him at the roots of 

 ■ :i! :n i tree, and from his agitated manner we knew that 

 he had Hushed a covey. Looking up into the limbs I saw a 

 beautiful spruce partridge standing erect motionless, and ap- 

 parently with a sense of absolute security. Aiming at his 

 head he Ml With, a heavy "thud," and was soon bagged. 

 The dog i lien started to the right and was soon barking 

 up another tree, and B. brought down his first bird. In this 

 way we managed to get five plump partridges, while some, 

 frightened at the sound of the guns, (lew away. 



The shooting of ruffed gtouse during the Test of the day 

 was but a repetition of the above. After tramping eight or 

 ten miles we found ourselves at camp at four o'clock in the 

 afternoon, SOlnewbat fatigued and fully prepared to enjoy 

 the dinner which Joe soon placed before us. We killed fif- 

 teen birds in all since morning. Many more we might have 

 hail it we desired them, but game which is so easily shot 

 With the aid of a good dog should not be wantonly destroyed. 

 a I Hi eason they were quite lurge, weighing on an average 

 a pound each. 



We slopped in the vicinity of this river about a week, at 

 the expiraion of which time John and Frank hove in sight 

 and carried us back to Lac La Belle. The return trip was 

 somewhat more pleasant than the previous one. The wafer 

 was not so boisterous, while the breeze was from the right 

 direction and carried us aloug at the rate of five miles an 

 Jiour. 



We arrived home in due time, having had an enjoyable 

 trip from (lie beginning to the end 



While in the "woods we saw quite a number of bear and 

 deer trucks, and with trained hounds undoubtedly could 

 have had some splendid sport hunting them. The right 

 time to hunt hear, however, is later in the season, when 

 there are sis inches or more of snow on the ground, so 

 that they can he easily followed. 



A trip such as we took will hurt no one. If he be in- 

 clined to dyspepsia the exercise of threading the forest w ill 

 give him a keen appetite and aid him in digesting that which 

 he has eaten. It is wonderful how much one can eat in the 

 woods, undoubtedly much more than one does at home. 

 Everything conduces to make one hungry. Bazbam. 



THAT DUCK HUNT IN A STEAM LAUNCH. 



T im ENGINKtrt-AKD-FllUCMjU'J SPEAKS. 



DbabFokest and Stebam: 



1 am the "my brother" in that piece in a recent issue of 

 yourself entitled, "Duck Hunting in a Steam Launch." That 



i.ih of the expeditions that I did not with told to a great 

 extent. Knowing the writer's fondness for priat, I had pre- 

 viously expostulated with him in regard to ins publishing an 

 account of it. 



I talked of it but little here, except to a few who were dis- 

 posed to be charitable toward us in the way of joking But 

 with all my persuasion I had a strong suspicion that my 

 brother would leak the whole thing out after he packed his 

 household goods and moved to Nebraska. So I kept a ner- 

 vous watch out through your columns for his ink. Well, it 

 came very soon, it seems' to me, in a graphically and elabor- 

 . i] j i ii ten narrative, published May 5. 



Of course I do not deny anything said therein, for it was a. 

 hard, rough and almost perilous trip to us, with our dilapi- 

 dated craft and inexperience in steam navigation. Still I 

 desire to add a supplemental account by way of letting light 

 shine more, fully 



The enginecr-and-firemau (that's ihe writer) is represented, 

 when the launch was stranded on a hard lump and took a 

 great lurch from the waves of a passing steamboat, as leaping 

 into the skiff like n frog. Now, Ihe oniy reason B. H. P., 

 let it bo sta'ed, did not leap like a frog, or something else, 

 was that the skiff was considerably beyond his reach, and 

 nothing more inviting within reach than water about ice 

 cold, and of unknown depth, just outside the launch. This 

 was his visible predicament as the glare of the Bre through 

 the open f uruace door gleamed upon him, and of which I 

 pressed him to an open confession afterward. 



Now, a» to Delta being taken for Vicksburg. That was 

 entirely a matter relating to the pilot, i. e., B. H. P. himself. 

 I am described as " lireman-and engineer" with no lantern. 

 The night ia represented as dark, and I will add that the 



river was foggy. When the furnace door was shut darkness 

 reigned around the little engine, and nothing was visible 

 across the brond waters of the Mississippi save too dull lights, 

 seen very dimly, about the size of apples. This was just 

 ajter the misfortune at the mouth of Old River, while Hearing 

 the right bank of the Mississippi, and the two lights were 

 supposed to be electric lights on steamboats moored at low 

 water landing at Vicksburg, and so commented upon by both 

 pilot and engineer. Ordinarily, from the present position of 

 the launch at night, the Delta and Vicksburg wharfboats 

 were nearly in line, and the thousand lights which dotted the 

 hills of the historic city left no doubts as to the location of 

 that place, but at this time the fog obscured the view. The 

 engineer was husy with his coal of fire which he had burned 

 on the end of a broom-handle, watching the steam gauge on 

 one side of the upright tubular boiler and the glass water 

 gauge on the other, the passage being quite contracted and 

 made the more difficult to movements "by diagonal iron rods 

 which served to st»y the boiler. The question of lauding 

 was not strictly a part of his business, and it was only on oc- 

 casions of emergency that he proceeded to give his views. 

 He deemed it an occasion of this kind whe«i he found that 

 the pilot had mistaken Delta for Vicksburg and was trying 

 to make a landing ; and it took no little explanation to give 

 Slid pilot a clear insight into the nature of things, though 

 the fog had partially lifted and objects were more distinct. 

 This was the Delta banks, that tree there was a tall gum, 

 very familiar in daylight, but barely discernible now, those 

 lights over there were on Delta wharfboal, those pale buhls 

 down yonder were at the Vicksburg wharf boat, and those 

 still fainter lights to the left were along the shore at the foot 

 of the Vicksburg hills. "Oh, yes!" "Well!" ejaculated 

 the pilot, as he, began to grind* his little wheel, and dong, 

 dong went the gong, a signal to the engineer to let on more 

 steam. 



The remaining distance was easy sailing, as the term goes; 

 at least it should have been. Deep water, down si renin, 

 nothing in the way. But that pilot! Why, he ran the ves- 

 sel down to the Vicksburg bank, found the only bar there 

 was on a bank two miles long, and lan upon it, after Hist 

 having tried to hit an empty coal barge. W • syphoned to 

 no purpose; we backed and went ahead; we raised Steam 

 until it hissed through the safety valve, and tried all the mo 

 tions over and over again for half an hour. The pilot had 

 put the vessel this time where no efforts of her own could 

 release her. 



Now, Mr. Forest axd Stkeam, my individual feelings 

 were to get out of this dilemma as quietly as possible. We 

 had failed the previous day from the incapacity of our vessel 

 to reach the ducking grounds by two miles; had spent the 

 following night beneath a leaky roof in a cold rain; had 

 missed the opportunity of enjoying the evening and early 

 morning sport — the cream hours in duck shooting; hud aii 

 oasis at high noon of an hour of magnificent sport, during 

 which time about forty game birds were bagged, including 

 ducks, snipe, plover, and a large, unknown bird we wish to 

 learn the name of, and that night had lost all, including am- 

 munition, decoys, and other valuables, when the skiff bioke 

 loose and disappeared in the impenetrable darkness. 1 was 

 black almost be* ond recognition with soot from cleaning the 

 flues. 1 was also tired. I had fired on one side of t he- 

 boiler, and run a rickety engine en the other, and 

 had a tricky pump to watch. I had further stood 

 faithfully at the lead Hue between times and 

 sounded while m>/ brother slid the Gentle Savage up n the 

 bars. I shall never forget his genius to do that. True, as 

 he says, I steadily yelped "Hold her out, don't you see that 

 bar yonder ?" but the careful pilot as steadily held her in to- 

 ward the most dangerous places. His talent on the entire 

 trip had run in that way, so 1 was not only physically but 

 men' ally tired as we stuck in the mud on this last bar. I 

 was also reasonably chagrined at having had so many acci- 

 dents. I warned to slip off home in the dark wit horn dis- 

 turbing any one. Now, what do you think was done? Why, 

 it e pilot took an elevated position and yelled. Yes, yelled. 

 He yelled lor the fisherman for help. His tone bad the 

 strength of forty voices. He stirred up everybody within a 

 quarter of a mile: told them what we wanted and" whai, was 

 the matter with us. 1 thought of suicide, then of my wife 

 and Children, and deferred it. I think five or six skid's came 

 to our relief. We smouldered the tire, put out anchor (a use- 

 less precaution) and slipped off home with our guns, about 

 all we had saved. 



That night I swore my brother to future secrecy ; but the 

 next niprning he gave the whole thing away to a local editor, 

 who published a burlesque account in the following issue, 

 and, amongst other absurdities, stated that we bad killed two 

 bears, an alligator and a mule. I still held my peace, and 

 would have said nothing even yet to Fotskbt ano Stream. 



Tou know B. EL P.'s address. Please send him a marked 

 copy containing this, and tell him that though he has agreed 

 to Mtae back here next fall on the back of the first Southward 

 bound blue-winged teal, I can't hunt ducks with him agon. 

 He talks too much. W. L. P. 



ViekHburg, May 23, 1881. 



lutttml §i$torg 



WHAT IS A SPHCE BUCK? 



THE following extract from Hardwicke's Science Gossip, 

 written by E. A. Brunetti, shows very plainly that the 

 author, who in turn quotes Darwin, considers the spike buck 

 in this country to be a uew species, or that a spike buck of 

 the Dermis c'irginiamm variety has been enabled to propa- 

 gate bis peculiarity, and thus in time to have created that 

 which will be an entirely new species. We have always 

 been taught that a spike, buck was one with a two-year-old 

 head of horns, and that the branches or prongs did not ap- 

 pear until he was older. We may be wrong, however, and 

 would call upon those acquainted with the habits and growth 

 of our American deer to aid in the correction. 



If a spike buck could propagate his peculiarity of horns, 

 why should not the two-year old eagle of the bald variety, 

 which it is known does not gam his white head and tail until 

 three or four years after birth, and which begins nesting the 

 season after his being hatched in his dusky plumage, be ena- 

 bled to propagate offspring that will continue in dark 

 feather? But the young of these two-year-old eagles in their 

 turn change as their parents do when three or four years old, 

 and put on the white head and tail peculiarity of their race. 



Mr. Brunetti says : "Can new species originate by cross- 

 ing ?" In Mr. H. D. Barday's letter of October he says : 

 "There are some 30,000 species of animals, and not one in- 



stance is known of different species being crossed without 

 sterility ensuing in the animal thus begotten." 



In reply to this I would state that a new species of deer 

 has originated under our eyes in the United Sates, the fol- 

 lowing being extracted from Darwm's " Descent of Man," 

 vol. II. j pp. "255, 256: "A writer in an excellent American 

 journal (the American Naturalist) says he hashunted for the 

 last twenty-one years in the Adirondaeks, where Cervu* zir- 

 qi?iimus abounds. About fourteen yea s ago he first heard 

 of a spike buck. These became from year to year more com. 

 mon. About five years ago he shot one, and subsequently 

 another, and now they are frequently killed." The new 

 species has a horny spike projecting forward from the fore- 

 head more slender than amlers and about half as long, the 

 end being a sharp point. The same writer thus concludes: 

 "Undoubtedly the first spike horn buck was an accidental 

 freak of nature: but his spike horns gave him the advan'age 

 and enabled him to propagate his peculiarity. His descend- 

 ants, having a like advantage, have propagated the peculiar- 

 ity in a constantly increased ratio till they are slowly crowd- 

 ing the antlered deer from the region they inhabit. I think 

 we have here an unquestionable case of a new species arising. 

 Other species may have originated in the same manner. — E. 

 A. Brunetti." 



We would call upon the readers ol the Forest axd Steeam 

 living in sections of the country where deer frequent to like- 

 wise inform us if spike bucks are more numerous than for- 

 merly.— Homo. 



We well remember when the theory that the spike buck is 

 a distinct spec ; es was first published. It has never, we think, 

 received any general acceptance in this country, and we have 

 often heard it ridiculed by old hunters who believe that the 

 spike buck is simply a young male whose horns have not yet 

 forked. At all events, spike bucks are not confine I to Qsrmts 

 virgmiatms. We have killed spike buck elk (ft canadensis), 

 and have seen specimens of the mule deer (ft macrotu) that 

 would come, under the same category. 



The claim that the single spike is advantageous to the deer 

 is based on the belief that It is a more efficient weapon in 

 fighting than the curved and many pronged horn of Ihe older 

 buck. It roust be remembered, however, that while the stab 

 of a single spike would no doubt make a more serious wound 

 than the curved and branched horn, it is much less efficient for 

 defence than the latter. The branching antler protects the 

 face of the fighting deer, but the spike buck has no such pro- 

 tection. His horns would push through those of his opponent, 

 hut would not be long enough to reach the Opponent's face. 

 Every one who has seen two deer fight knows that they 

 come together head to head, push for a long time, and then 

 separate for another charge. Considering the method of 

 fighting, and that the horns of the spike huck arc very much 

 shorter than those of the larger horned deer, it would seem 

 that the spike horns would be a positive disadvantage to their 

 possessor. And lliis vic-n T is confirmed by the testimony of 

 hunters who state that the spike buck will always tlee from 

 the larger buck. 



VV 



TWO IPRD BOO.KH- 



E have recently received parts of two works now 

 publishing, relating to JSorth American birds. 

 irst of these is entitled "Illustrations of Nests and 

 Birds of the United States," with text by Tho-e 

 py. The author is '.veil known as au enthusiastic 

 igist and lias contributed two interesting volumes to 

 if his favorite science. If he f 



the li 

 isfacb 

 doubted boon i 

 tbi 



irk 



oology he will have conferred an un- 

 i all who are interested in our birds. A 

 bject is sorely needed, for although several 

 I some of them by those well 

 successful termination, none 



undertake! 



rry them I 

 nplet 



.edge 



Itch stand in 

 It would be 

 lory delinea- 

 most unusual 

 i one and the 

 work. It is 

 depict these 

 in details, he 

 rnbie without 



such have In 

 qualified to 

 has as yet been 



Every one will uck 

 the way of Ihe aut 



hard to select objects more difficult of satisf 

 lion than the nests and eggs of birds, and it i 

 to find the artist and the ornithologist united 

 same person, as they should be for such 

 almost impossible for the average artist t 

 objects: for while he may be Very accurate 

 will faii to catch the general effect, the en 

 which his pictures are hopeless failures. 



Five parts of Mr. Gentry's work have appeared, and 

 while some of the illustrations are deserving of great praise, 

 there are others of which so much cannot be said. The 

 plate of the nest of the Townee Bunting is not happy either 

 in treatment or in execution, nor do the nest and eggs of 

 the Cat. Bird at all resemble those that we a-c familiar v.ith. 

 The plates illustrating the nest of the Ruby Throat, the 

 Downy Woodpecker and the Red Eyed Vireo are, on the 

 other hand, very good. 



The text by which the plates are accompanied is inter- 

 esting, and written in a pleasing stylo, and ihe work is, 

 on the whole, one that we think will find favor with many 

 egg collectors. J. A. Wagenseller, 23 North Sixth street, 

 Philadelphia, is the publisher. 



Although Mr. Rathbuns " Bright Feathers " has no special 

 r-asou for being, yet it is a work that will find favor, no 

 doubt, with a large class who are interested in birds without 

 knowing very much about them. 



Mr. Ralhbun haB chosen the Rosebreasted Grosbeak for 

 the subject of the second part of his work, and he certainly 

 could have selected no more beautiful bird. The coloring, 

 however, in the plate before us, is not what it should be. It 

 fails to show the peculiar delicacy of plumage so noticeable 

 in this species, and the work on the plate seems alittle coarse. 

 The text Is very readable. 



A Ti:ee-Climt!1no Woodohuok.— Old Chatham, Jf. T., 

 May 23 —as I was out fishing to-day, we heard our dog 

 barking around the foot of an elm tree, and dunking he had 

 a cat up if, we paid no attention to it unlil we got up to 

 the tree, when what was our surprise in seeing a large wood- 

 chuck up in the branches, as nimble as a cat. He was up at 

 least 25 feel from the ground, and, as no one except the dog 

 desired to kill it, we let it go. I have seen many wood- 

 chucks, but never saw one up a tree before. Pexhaps your 

 readers have, but I doubt It. Rio- 



