July 7, 1881.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



453 



above came the golden rain of harmony. Next in sarliness 

 with his pauan of song is the blackbird. At this time, the 

 merry month of May, he begins soon after two, and then the 

 thrush, then the robin, and soon, very soon, others join in, 

 and all Nature is in tune. The sparrows are nearly if not 

 quite the last. 

 Brenchley, Kent, Juoe 4 Grey Beard. 

 — ».».—. 



TREE-CLIMBING WOODCHUCKS. 



Locust Ghoyk, Lewis County, N. Y., July 1. 



In your Issue of June 1 (p. 340) "Rio" narrates the tree- 

 ing of a woodchuck {Arctumys vwnax) by a dog, and queries 

 if any of your readers have observed a like phenomenon. 

 Affirmative testimony appears in Forest and Stream of 

 June 30 (p. 427), and from no less a keen-eyed observer than 

 our ' ' Ruffed Grouse." ' ' Bonasa " tells us that his dog treed 

 three woodchucks. two of which took refuge in "low, lean- 

 ing trees," while the third, hard pressed, scrambled up a 

 small ash. 



Now, having been brought up, so to speak, among wood- 

 chucks, having smoked them out of hollow trees, poked them 

 out of hollow- logs, won ied them out of stone walla j having 

 stealthily hunted them in deep forest and open meadow, first 

 with the bow and arrow, and later with the rifle; having 

 trapped them from the first spring thaw till their disappear- 

 ance in autumn ; having broiled their tender young in the 

 East, and roasted them (till " ground hog," of the Rocky 

 Mountains) in the West ; having kept both young and old 

 alive in captivity for months at a time, or, in other words, 

 haviug hunted, trapped and dined upon woodchucks from my 

 enrliest boyhood, 1 trust I may be permitted to add my testi- 

 mony on this subject to that of "Rio" and " Bonasa." 



Woodchucks, when unmolested, particularly during their 

 youthful days, often climb up ten or twelve feet in shrub- 

 bery and young trees that abound in low branches, and not 

 infrequently scramble up the trunks of large trees which 

 have partially fallen or slant sufficiently to insure them against 

 falling. 



Occasionally, especially when hard-pressed by a fast-ap- 

 proaching enemy, they ascend large, erect trees wlnse lowest 

 branches ate some distance from the ground. But, in order 

 t ■} do this, they must take advantage of the impetus of a 

 rush, for they ctnnot start slowly upon the trunk of an up- 

 right tree and climb more than a few feet without falling. 

 Neither can they s> op and go on again before reaching a 

 branch or other resting-place. 



I once chased one up a large butternut tree in an open 

 meadow, and he was so terrified at my savage mien that he 

 halted not till the uppermost branches bent low with his 

 weight. He then began to show much consternation as to 

 how he should get down "whtn" (if a granite cobble may 

 be substituted for a " chunk of old, red sandstone," and a 

 grassy meadow for "the floor,") in the language of Bret 

 Harte s 



"A chunk w old, red sandgl one took nirji in the ahdomen, 

 And lie smiloci u Kind oi siekL.v smile, and ciiripit up on ttie floor 

 And the subsequent proceedings, loterebtcd him no more.'' 



C. Hart Meeriam, M, D. 



Johnstown, Penn.— Editor Forest o,ni Stream: It has 

 been my good, or bad, fortune to kill quite a number of 

 these animals, and I can assure "Rio " that upon more than 

 a few occasions I have seen the woodchuck take to a tree, 

 though not, so freely or with as much grace as a duck to 

 water. I have seen them ascend both small add large trees, 

 when assailed by a dog, and upon one occasion " treed" one 

 at night while hunting "coons." — C. L. D. 



Canandaigtta, N. Y. 

 I frightened a 'chuck which climbed a cherry tree in the 

 lawn, in preference to going forty feet further where there 

 was a good cover in a dense hedge. It climbed about twelve 

 feet and crouched in the fork of the tree. It did not see me, 

 and had about five minutes to hide before I came to it — 

 R. H. D. 



Guinea Hen Hybrids. — I noticed in last number of your 

 valuable paper a correspondent writing about a cross between 

 the guinea and dunghill cock asks if it is a common occur- 

 rence. I have seen it frequently, and it is almost certain to 

 occur where one has guinea hens among his chickens with- 

 out a guinea cock. I have a friend who had on exhibition 

 at the Aberdeen, Miss., Fair last fall, a pair of these hybrids 

 that were very beautiful. These were a cross between a very 

 fine game cock and a guinea hen. He said they would lay 

 as many eggs or more than a guiuea hen, but had no disposi- 

 tion to sit at all. He had frequently tried to hatch thdr 

 eggs under chicken hen?, but bad always failed, and did not 

 believe they would hatch. This pair were red and white, 

 speckled with white predominating, and had the head of the 

 guinea without comb or gills. They made a noise of their 

 own. It was neither like the guinea or chicken, but a kind 

 of cross between the two ; and. strange to say, they were 

 larger than either the game cock or guinea hen. "I saw on ex- 

 hibition at same fair at same time a cross between a pea fowl 

 and guinea hen that was the most beautiful bird I ever saw. 

 This bird was the color of the guinea fowl, but had the shape 

 and carriage of the pea fowl, but was not quite so large.— K. 



Wareenton, Mass., Juno 10.— I have just read the article 

 in your paper of June 9, 1881, from Natchez, Miss,, dated May 

 36, and signed "S. M. D." Early in the month of April of 

 the present year I had occasion to visit Mitchell's Station on 

 the Virginia Midland R. R. in Culpeper County, Va. Here 

 I saw in the possession of Mr. Taylor, au old sportsman fa- 

 miliarly calied "Judge" by his associates, a bird almost as 

 large as a female turkey, but with plumage pretty much that 

 of the guinea fowl, the only difference as far as I could 

 I could judge being that the feathers were barred instead of 

 spotted as the guinea's are. The plumage of the back and 

 neck was dark gray or black with white bars, while ihat of 

 the breast was barred with a dirty brown (I send you one of 

 the feathers I had from the breast. I had several others 

 from various parts of the body, but regret to say I have 

 lost them). It also had a peculiar crest very much like that 

 of the pheasant, which it erected when excited. It, seemed 

 to be very fierce, but not at all wild or frightened. Its his- 

 tory as told me by Mr. Taylor was this; Some time, in 

 March, I think, a man brought the bird to his store, and 

 wanted to sell it saying that it, fought his chickens, and 

 that his wife had determined to get rid of it. Be said 

 that he had one guinea hen and no cock. That at the usu- 

 al season for the guinea to incubate she disappeared, aud 

 did not return for some time, and when she did come she 

 was followed by the curious hybrid which is the subject of 

 this letter. The bird grew very rapidly, finally far surpassed 



its mother in siz». I think the bird was hatched during 

 the summer of 1880. When I saw Mr. Tayolr he spoke of 

 sending it to the Smithsonian Institution, butl do not know 

 whether he did so or not. Bis theory was that the bird 

 was s hybrid between the guinea and the pheasant, but 

 then comes the question if its size. Could it have been a 

 cross between the guinea and the turkey ? If so whence 

 the crest,— Observer. 



It would be difficult to conjecture from the information at 

 hand what the parentage of the bird is. 



Snakes as Tree Climbers. — It is very common in this 

 section to see black snakei and chicken snakes in trees. I 

 never saw a rattlesnake climb. I noticed to-day hanging in 

 a large post oak, fifty feet from the ground, the "shed" of a 

 large black snake, and presume his snakeshtp makes his 

 home in the tree. The tree was topped many years ago, and 

 where the body was cut off in topping would make him a 

 cozy berth. — K. 



The tree-climbing habits of the black snake are well known. 

 The point of inquiry was about the rattlesnake. 



Another Drumming Woodpecker. — There is a golden- 

 winged woodpecker that has about, every pleasant morning 

 for the last mouth, here in Nashua, N. H., given us a sere- 

 nade on the tin roof of the cupola of my neighbor's barn. 

 Perhaps he is trying to call a mate, but he appears to enjoy 

 the racket he creates and whacks away like a boy with a toy 

 drum. — Webb. 



Migratory Quail.— Mr. M. P. McKoon, of Franklin, N. 

 Y., reports the return of the migratory quail put out in that 

 vicinity last season. 



Cilifornia Quail Breeding in Confinement.— We had 

 last Saturday a pleasant call from Mr. W. 8. Kittle, of Cali- 

 fornia, who informed us of a most interesting experiment 

 with California valley quail now being made in New Jersey. 

 Four of these birds were sent to Mr. Phillips, of Lawrence- 

 ville, N. J-, some months ago and the female of each pair is 

 now laying. They are confined in a large coop, about 16 ft. 

 by 10 ft., aud Mr.' Phillips visits them only once in two or 

 three days, leaving them undisturbed as much as possible. 

 We shall watch the farther progress of this experiment with 

 interest. 



liolahlrrt Shooting: Suits. Upthegrcve £ MeLellan, Valparaiso, rnd. 



%m\\t |£## and (jj$nn. 



No Woodcock Shooting on Long Island permitted before 

 August 1, 



ARE THEY MONOPOLIES ? 



LAHGE GAME OI.TJBS CRITICISED. 



New York:, June 34. 

 Editor Forest and Stream: 



It is quite probable that we disagree on the ques'ion of 

 sporting monopoly, and you, being the autocrat of this break- 

 fast-table, may, in that case, refuse to have the dish served 

 up ; but I would like very much to know whether you, or 

 any of your correspondents, have good and sufficient reasons 

 for supporting your ground. 



This, as a free country, has always been the admiration of 

 people who have suffered from autocratic rule in Europe ; 

 but how long will it remain so ? In England a man may rent 

 a farm, but he does not dare to touch a hair or feather of the 

 game around him. All luxuries are for the ri<-h and favored 

 few. Under that system a thousand must suffer and forego 

 all pleasures in order that one man may revel in them. I be- 

 lieve in sensible game laws and in their strict enforcement, and 

 I believe in a man's prohibiting shooting and fishing on his 

 farm if he chooses to, but I deny that a few men, simply be- 

 cause fortune has given them the means, have the moral 

 right to buy up thousands of acres and monopolize the sport 

 to the exclusion of hundreds of others who are equally fond 

 of it, but have not the means to buy the privilege. I do not 

 adopt the standard of Calvert, who lmkes the chivalrous 

 Bayard the only perfect, gentleman of the world, but I do say 

 that a man is not a gentleman who cares only for himself. 



As a sample item for a free country, take the club at San- 

 dusky. A few men have purchased nearly every foot of 

 ducking ground in tl at .region, and that they may enjoy a 

 few days' sport all others are denied the privilege of shooting 

 a bird at any time. The club, as one of the members told 

 me, "is a close corporation, and they are rigidly restricted as 

 to inviting even their fiiends." If the main plank on which 

 that club stands is not pure selfishness, what is it ? 



If they would adopt the system of giving the privilege of 

 a day's shooting occasionally to outsiders, keeping out all 

 market shooters, they would not appear so glaringly obnox- 

 ious to the charge of selfishness. My wonder is, as it now 

 stands, that the people tamely submit to it. 



Some years ago I was invited by some members of the St. 

 Louis Hunting Club to go with them on a snipe-shooting ex- 

 pedition about sixty miles up the river to a prairie marsh, 

 where the birds were so plenty that if they had kept quiet it 

 would have been almost impossible to walk without treading' 

 on them ; and this ground is also now owned by a club, 

 though the region is wild and unsettled. 



As wealth increases every acre of good shooting ground 

 will be cut off from "the people," and where will be our 

 boasted freedom ? 



One of our great financiers— an ex-Secretary of the Treas- 

 ury — emphatically predicts that, in the not far future, this 

 countiy will see a terrible revolution, the result of the ten- 

 dency to Concentration and monopoly; and he may be right, 

 for we profess to be a free people, and will not tamely su li- 

 mit to oppression. Didsmus. 



N. B, — Argument from the opposing counsel is now in 

 order. 



Tub fi Jlowing letter was sent in to the last, meeting of the 

 State Associsition, but too late, we understand, for any action 

 to be taken upon it : 



New Y t ork, June 23. 

 To the New Y t ork State Association for the Protection 

 of Fjsii and Game: 



Gentlemen — You are Convened to consider the game laws 

 of the State and their enforcement. Haviug ai heart the 

 protection of game, I respectfully suggest for your consider- 

 ation the employment of a regularly accredited and paid 



game detective to watch the markets of New York city. 

 The demand for such an officer is imperative at this very 

 moment. Since you gfithered at Coney Island I have been 

 informed on what I consider good authority that woodcock 

 are sold in the New York market, also high holders, Thus, 

 right in the face of the New York State Association, the 

 market men and restaurant purveyors have defied the law 

 by, engaging in the illicit traffic in game. I respectfully sub- 

 mit that such a state of affairs imperatively demands your 

 earnest attention. The city markets are the outlets for the 

 work of the poacher, snarer and game thief. By checking 

 off this sale of game you will remove one chief incentive to 

 the illegal capture of birds. How can this be done ? By 

 employing a shrewd detective, and by retaining counsel. 



Detective work must be done— who shall do it? The 

 members of the association are all business men; the 

 claims of their business will not permit of their under- 

 taking this detective wc>rk. Some one must be employed. 

 Who can do it? The association can provide the needed 

 funds, cither by appropriating a certain amount or, if need 

 must be, by private subscriptions. 



As proof of the sincerity of my belief in the efficacy of 

 such a detective system, in the* name of my friends I will 

 pledge the sum of one hundred dollars toward such a f nnd, 

 provided the association contribute a proportionate amount. 



I would suggest that the sum. when collected, be placed in 

 the hands of a committee of three, namely, the president of 

 the Brooklyn Gun Club, the editor of the Forest *nd Stream 

 and Mr. Charles E. Whitehead, who, for several years, was 

 secretary of your association, and who is a gentleman 

 well fitted by his extensive experience to aid in this work, 

 this committee to report to you at your next session. 

 Respectfully yours, G. Walter, 



Member of the Brooklyn Gun Club. 



KILLING THE DEER IN THE ADIRONDACKS. 



HOW CAN IT BE STOPPED? 



Near the Aoirondaoks, July 1, 1881. 

 Editor Forest and Stream' : 



The slaughter of deer in the northwest part of that portion 

 of the Adirondacks known as St. Regis district has been dur- 

 ing the two months just past exceedingly great ; and it is 

 still going od. 



During the above mentioned time there have been all of 

 twenty-five deer killed en the middle branch of the St. Regis, 

 md at ponds in that vicinity; and also a large number were 

 'tilled on the east branch, the exact, number I cannot state, 

 but certainly thirty in all. In hunting deer at night there are 

 full as many wounded which get away as there are killed out- 

 right, of which one-half, at least, will eventually die of their 

 wounds. Then in floating— or night hunting — two-thirds, at 

 least, of the deer killed are dees. 



I base these statements on information received from parties 

 who have been up and hunted by floating this season, and are 

 heartily tired of it. They are all reliable person?. Besides, 

 1 have not always been a saint in former years myself ; and I 

 claim to know something about night hunting deer. 



There were, in all probability, as many as "five young fawn 

 destroyed with the does— either by being unborn, at the time 

 that the does were shot, or by starving to death afterward. 

 Counting all together, the number of deer destroyed would 

 amount to sixty in one section of the Adirondacks before the 

 st of July. 



What is needed here is a State game protector. I was much 

 surprised when I first s.iw the list of those appointed by the 

 Governor, that none were appointed for northern New York. 

 These three counties — Clinton, Franklin and St. Lawrence— 

 are cut off from the rest of the State by the great Adirondack 

 or Northern Wilderness, into which a large portion of the 

 southern part of each extends. They have within their 

 borders all of one-half the numerous lakes, ponds and rivers, 

 with the thousands of small streams the wilderness contains, 

 thereby including a large portion of the best hunting aDd 

 fishing localities to be found within the State. The g-ime 

 protectors of Hamilton and Essex Counties, in order to re ich 

 the hunting localities here, would either have to tramp fo"'.y 

 or fifty miles or more through the wilderness, or go aroi nd a 

 distance many times farther. Besides, those two couoties are 

 many miles in extent, and the largest portion of them is a 

 Wilderness having hunting and fishing localities as numerous 

 as any in the State; and it would require, all their time to 

 attend to them. But I believe there were protectors appoint- 

 ed in other parts of the State where their services were not 

 needed nearly so much as here. 



I have conversed with a large portion of those residing in 

 this vicinity and elsewhere who practice early floating, and 

 have not met one who does not admit it to be wrong. "They 

 aay thai if the killing of deer out of season could be stopped 

 entirely, nothing would suit them better. Bui they say that 

 if they wait until the season opens in August the deer will 

 become so wild by being hunted so much throughout the 

 month of July by the hundreds of so-called sportsmen that 

 come in here at that time from all parts of the country, that 

 it is impossible to get a shot at a deer when the season opens 

 in August by floating; and that beiug the only way many of 

 them ever hunt deer, they are bound to get ahead of those 

 who come from abroad, and so they commence to hunt early 

 in the Eeason — as they have done in years past ; aud will so 

 continue, until something is done to put a stop to the whole 

 business of killing deer out of season. What they saj in 

 regard to those who come from abroad is true in a majority 

 of the cases. During the month of July there are hundreds 

 of such parties of so-cilled sportsmeu scattered over the 

 Adirondack region who kill deer whenever they can get a 

 chance. Your able correspondent, "B. A. M.," in his article 

 that was published in a late issue of the Forest and Stream, 

 very well describes a party of the kind who were camped near 

 him on Bay Pond while he was in that neighborhood on a 

 fishing trip. I have come across many such parties while I 

 was stopping in various parts of the wilderness. 



I don't wish to be understood as claiming that those who 

 practice hounding deer do not violate the game laws as well 

 those who hunt them by floating, or by any other method; 

 for I know many among them that would if they bad as fair 

 opportunity to do so aud not get caught at it, ; and some do 

 and run the risk. But what prevents hounding more than 

 anything else— in this vicinity, at least. — out of season, is that 

 good deer-hunting dogs are not any too plenty about here ; 

 and as any person has a right to shoot a dog when following 

 a deer out of season— and there are those about here who 

 would do it if tleir owners were not nnir— the owners are for 

 that reason careful about letting their dogs run deer during 

 the clos season, the dogs being too valuable to lose. 



I was camped on the sixteen-mile level nearly the whole of 

 last summer, and knew of feut one case of hounding deer 



