46 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Fkb. 1.5, 188S. 



ber. I have three okl ones in the same piano box, with glass 

 windows laid on top; they are healthy, and don't seem to 

 mind the cold. Jamios Wight. 



[The bird is a tree sparrow (8pi2t.Ua monticofa).] 



Snipe WdWertng ra Colorado.— Fort Lyon, Colorado, 

 Feb. 8, 1883.— A soldier brought me to-day a true snipe 

 (Qitlfuingo iPihonri) and stated it was in company with 

 another. It was !i tilale, in very tine condition. Size, aver- 

 age, Gizzard contained partly digested fish. In one of 

 Ibem (about, one-fourth of an inch long) the eyes and tail 

 could be plainly seen by the aid of a good lens". The bird 

 seemed more heavily piumaged than usual. 1 have skinned 

 and gtuflfed him. He. was shot at a spot, where a small 

 Underground si ream issues from the sand and the water 

 does not 1'n eze. It would seem an unlikely place to find 

 snipe at any season, being perfectly barren— all sand and 

 small stones. The ground here lias' been frozen solid for 

 two weeks. No rain since last July. Severe norther with 

 snow for the three days previous to this; temperature last 

 night. 22 below. As all the wintering of snipe North Of 

 winch 1 have heard described them as being found in 

 sheltered, springy places, I thought the fact of their being 

 found in winter 111 this bleak, ban-en countiy might bo of 

 interest. It is also, to me, a surprise to learn that "Wilson's 

 snipe sometimes goes a fishing. 1 would like to know if 

 this fish diet is adopted Irom necessity, or if the bird ever 

 eats (ish wlicn it can bore in the ground?— I. 



Pink Gtiosreaks In New York. — Lockport. Niagara 

 Co., N. Y.j Feb. 3.— In vour issue of this week I noticed 

 Ilairv D.e B. Page's mention of pine grosbeaks in New 

 Jersey. Last Sunday while taking an after-dinner stroll 

 in the western part of the city, I noticed a, flock of birds in 

 an evergreen a few rods from the street. 1 approached 

 within less than two rods of them, and watched them for 

 some minutes while they were feeding. 1 came to the con- 

 clusion that they musi have been pine grosbeak, although 

 I had never seen but one specimen before, which was se- 

 cured by a young friend some years ago, and the only one 1 

 ever knew of being taken here! On Monday, after banking 

 hours, I took my gun and went to the same place, and 

 found the birds within twenty rods of where 1 saw them 

 the day before. I shot among' them with a light charge of 

 No. 12 shot, and secured four of them, one male and three 

 female. My son Iras stuffed and mounted them in different 

 positions, as 1 saw them while feeding, aud they make a 

 fine addition to his collection. — J. L. D. 



OeossiMs on LoNfi Island.— We were shown Ibis week 

 an opossum which was killed at Wading River, Suffolk 

 county, L. I., on the fifth of February last, by a dog belong- 

 ing to Mr. L, G. Valentine. 



"Wren Tuf.v Gome anO Why."— In sixth line of the 

 paragraph Under this head, page 11, for "four or five years" 

 read "forty-live years." 



MINNESOTA SENATE RESOLUTIONS. 



tTNOEli 'late of February 8. conies the following dispatch 

 from St. Paul, of the proceedings in the Minnesota 

 Senate relative to the seizure of the Yellowstone National 

 Park: 



lu the Senate to-day Mr. Wilson offered a concurrent resolution 

 reciting the attempt of a parly of capitalists to secure control of the 

 Yellowstone National Park, ami die warning of Gen. Sheridan and 

 Senator Vest upon the topic, and requesting that the Senators aud 

 Representatives of Minnesota in Congress use. their influence to se- 

 cure this Park for the puhiic good, free from the extortions of 

 monopolists. The resolution also thanked (.Ten. Sheridan andSenator 

 Vest lor their timely efforts to prevent the securing of the Park for a 

 euttle ranch aud for the purpose of extorting money from the gen- 

 eral public. The resolution is u copy of ore- passed by the Legisla- 

 ture of Illinois. Some Inquiry was made as to the certain - }- of the 

 Charges, which Senator Wilson stated was a matter of general re- 

 port. 



Senator l'cck remarked that the matter had been before Congress 

 and the people for thirty days. In Senator Vest's resolution the 

 matter was fully explained and widely published at the time. Sen- 

 ator Gilflllian moved to refer the resolution to the Committee on 

 Federal Relations. He held that the Senate would show Unseemly 

 haste in adopting a resolution upon insufficient knowledge, the 

 yeas aud nays were called for 011 Senator Gilflhiaa's motion to refer, 

 and the motion was lost by a vote of at) to ;J. Mr. (liliillian g 



1 m : ' i.-bate. Objection .vasniadebysomeSeuator to the words 



'cattle ranch," and Senator Wilson erased them. 



THE SEVEN-LEAGUE BOOTS. 



ICA"ME yesterday into possession of the Seven-League Hoots. 

 How this rare good foi tune was attained need not now be detailed; 

 but I beg 1.0 assure you it was no such infernal compact as that by 

 which the unhappy Peter Schlemihl once wore the same wondrous 

 leathers. 



Sitting in my easy chair before the grate last eveuing, Impatient 

 to test their magic, I pulled on the Hoots. Of what followed I shall 

 not attempt to give more than the barest 01 tline. Hardly were my 

 feet fairly encased in the Boots before I found myself two thousand 

 miles away to the North, amid the icefields of the Arctic, bagging 

 the reindeer with Lieut. Sehwatka and his faithful Toolooah. The 

 ohango in temperature was, us you may 'well conceive, something 

 tremendous, but parti} - because of the excitement of my novel 

 position and the exhilaration of the chase, aud partly because of cer- 

 tain properties of the Boots, 1 felt it not. With barely time to count the 

 LieuteuantV. game, I was whisked away another two thousand 

 miles, and as quickly forgot the reindeer, in company with '"Seneca" 

 putting up and bringing down the. Dob Whites in an out-of-the-way 

 spot in Western New York. But only for a moment—for quick as 

 ■ 1 mes ind goes the buck's (lag in the. opening of lh" brush, I passed 

 tvelve bun. Ired nules to the South, and with Dr. Heushall explored 

 the border-; ,,( tie- El erglades, where I was as much interested in the 

 sweltering Seminoles as but a few minutes before in the frozen Es- 

 quimaux three thousand miles away. 



From southern Florida it was but a bagatelle of fifteen hundred 

 miles to the Maine woods-, Thence to phelonfton Aquarium, three 

 thousand miles, and a like distance hack to (few Hampshire. Thence 



%%v\& §J<ig m \d 



'.vil.ll 1 



ed that I lui 



been all this time sitting here in my comfortable chair, before Ilia 

 tire, reading the pages of your last number, which came In my mail 

 yesterday. Neither you nor I would be so bold as to declare the 

 Boots themselves a myth, though I confess for myself that I never 

 expect to wear them; but do you know? I really don't care much 

 for them, so lung as. sitting m this chair, 1 can travel the » ..rid over 

 With such a companion as yourself. Meat-H,uvk, 



To insure prompt at'ention. communications should be ad- 

 dressed to the Forest and Stream Publishinq Co., ami not to 

 individuals, in whose absence from the afire matters of im- 

 portance ai;e liable to dclai/. 



RUNNING FOR LIFE. 



tT was three o'clock of (I starlight morning in November, 

 1848, that I mounted as fleet a filly of four years old as I 

 wer rode. I was to go down the river fifteen miles on an 

 irrand and to be back before breakfast. My father had a 

 large farm, and 1 was the chore boy for all; so I was always 

 at home in the saddle. 



1 had to pass through a thick hemlock growth of about 

 four miles without a clearing. Soon after entering the 

 woods 1 was thrown forward on the neck of the colt, and 

 she snorted and made an effort to turn. I looked ahead and 

 discovered what I supposed to be a large dog. I was vexed 

 with the pony to think she should be afraid of a do?, so I 

 struck her with the stick, and she bounded by with a leap 

 that would have thrown me had I not been used to riding; 

 and as I passed the creature it leaped toward me and -razed 

 the colt on the hip, That made her about as frightened as it 

 did me, for I then discovered that the animal was a very 

 large catamount. The pony flew like the wind; and as I 

 recovered from my first fright I looked over my shoulder 

 and found the creature was right after me. My knowledge 

 of the panther's habits, furnished by the old hunters of that 

 day, was till crowded into a moment. 1 thought if I could 

 keep the colt at the distance now gained I might out-wind 

 the panther, but I had no experience to tell how long she 

 might follow. 



The filly hugged the ground aud flew like the wind. Every 

 moment I looked back to see if the creature was gaining oil 

 me; but I found I was holding my own. The time I passed 

 over that four miles was very much quicker than I need to 

 wish it, although it seemed aii age. 1 had been chased by a lot 

 of wolves one dark night through "a piece of thick hemlock 'tim- 

 ber in another part of Oxford county, and the filly had come 

 out all right.although I came near being left ; but this was quite 

 another kind of beast. The first three miles it was about 

 nip and tuck, but as we neared the first clearing I found I 

 was gaining on the panther, and I began to take courage. 

 The colt still hugged the ground, and the crust and snow 

 rattled behind her like hail; anil still we flew on, with the 

 panther in the rear. While I was thinking over what 1 

 should do if she still continued to follow, 1 came to the 

 clearing on which was a log house; but I knew it would be 

 useless to stop there, feo I made up mind to keep on; and as 

 I passed the house I looked back, and the panther had turned 

 off in the woods, perhaps thinking that I was not good 

 meat. 



I did not go back as soon as I bad intended ; but when I did 

 return I measured the track and found the leaps, which 

 averaged twenty feet. The creature was shot n few flay 

 after by a man named Spencer, in the town of Baldwin 

 Oxford' county, and I measured it. It was just nine tee 

 from tip to tip. I think that it -was the largest panther 

 there is any histoiT of being killed in that region. 



S. P. Huubaud, M. D. 



Tmiktiik. Mass. 



FREEDMAN vs. BOB WHITE. 



IT is funny to me that your correspondents, after telling 

 you of the almost universal scarcity of partridges, should 

 inform you the negro is in no wise responsible for that 

 scarcity, because, forsooth, he has lost all fondness for 

 hunting. I wonder it does not occur to those gentlemen 

 that the sable Ninuods have given up the sport (wherever 

 it may be) for the simple reason— 'It don't pay." ft gives 

 them no more pleasure' than it does us to carry a gnu all 

 day long, and come home with an empty bag. In autumn, 

 for weeks together, negroes, by scores and hundreds, go 

 out every night in fresh tide-water marshes after sora, 

 which they kill iu great numbers by torchlight; and this 

 they did in the time of slavery, when they had to w*>rk all 

 day ; now they are out all night if they choose, and sleep 

 during the day. Aud old Virginia, at this very time, would 

 be a 'possum paradise, but for the nocturnal darkey, who 

 would not swap a big fat 'possum for all the canvas-bucks 

 of the Chesapeake. 



No doubt Dr. Ellzey speaks correctly, for the part of 

 Virginia with which hc'is acquainted is the grazing section 

 of the Slate. But I apprehend he knows very little of the 

 system of farming, the physical condition of the country, 

 or of the habits of the negroes in tide-water Virginia, In 

 the counties of King William, New Kent and Charles City, 

 extending from the Mattaponi south to James River, farm- 

 ing is not done so carefully as before the war, but it is ex- 

 actly the farming partridges delight in. Hedge-rows, ditch- 

 banks and springy places all grown up in briers and flushes. 

 AVheat, oats anif peas are grown on every plantation that 

 pretends to be cultivated, and the manner of harvesting is 

 the same now as for the past thirty years. There is an 

 abundance of cover and of feed — Wheat, oats, peas, Magotha 

 hay-bean, and sometimes millet, but no birds. Whereas, 

 lot several years after the war, the whole low country was 

 alive with Bob White, notwithstanding there was not so 

 much of small grain then as now, particularly of peas and 

 the bay-beiin, a spontaneous growth in lower Virginia, 

 highly esteemed by birds and supplying excellent cover. 



If Dr. Ellzey would only make one visit to these counties 

 he would never again in his description of the general 

 condition of Virginia talk about "the thicker settling of the 

 Country, and dealing of forests and swamps and brushlands," 

 lot I lu" reverse is exactly true in every particular as to nearly 

 every part of tide- water Virginia, away from the cities o"f 

 Norfolk. Hampton and Suffolk. The second day of Christ- 

 mas, 1882, three deer were distributed at King AVilliam 0. 

 H. among the huntsmen. Deer are not fond of a thickly 

 settled country where fore.-ts. swamps, etc., are cleared up; 

 yet they are largely on the increase in all the counties 1 have 

 nauied." And to-day I believe King William county is the 

 best ground in the whole State for partridges, taking climate, 

 soil, water, cover and forage together. Still I know of but 

 one farm in the county which affords good sport, and that 

 is owned by a gentleman who does not allow hunting or 

 trapping by his tenants. 



fn the country of which I am writing, most of the ne- 

 groes, wdio are heads of families, like to rent a piece of land 

 with a, cabin. On it, SO as to be masters of their own time. 

 They, with their wives and children, raise a crop of corn 

 and such vegetables as grow without much attention , tint 



not one »f them will hit a lick, Saturday, in his own crop. 

 For their meat they depend on hunting" trapping and fish- 

 ing, although they are always glad to sell what they catch 

 (except, 'possums),* themselves eating only what is not sala- 

 ble; and it is remarkable how little they eat when they have 

 their own food to find. For money they rely on wood-chop- 

 ping, loading vessels, working at "saw-mills and iu the har- 

 vest field, and gathering the ciops of corn on the large 

 farms. In this way they handle more money than those 

 who hire, themselves to farmers by the year, although they 

 arc not so well off when Christmas comes, because SO much 

 of their time has been spent loafing around the grogyreiy; 

 and "there's where the money goes." But the negro M go- 

 ing to hunt small game till the crack of doom, if the small 

 game will only abide with us. lie never goes for large 

 game. 



So I stand to my text that the partridge has been well 

 nigh exterminated by the ever active, eager, ingenious dc- 

 structiveness of man*. What has become of the bison on 

 the sunrise side of the Mississippi - / Done to death by the 

 fur hunter. And why are we propagating fish artificially? 

 Let seines aud gill-nets and fyke-nets and purse-nets ami 

 pound-nets and guano manufacturers answer. 



PiALT.VWOOD. 

 ViBonsrA, February s. 1883, 



fin issue of Feb. 1, article entitled "The Negroes and the 

 Birds," last line on page i , for - 'destructive as a sports- 

 man" read "destructive as a city sportmau."] 



IMPROVED SHOTGUN SHELLS. 



DURING the past year the English sportsman has been 

 investigating the merits of a shotgun shell recently 

 placed ou tlie market under the name of '"Kvnoeh's Perfect 

 Case." This shell is composed of very thin and flexible 

 brass iu order that when loaded the end way Ik closed h> 

 retain the charge as in paper shells. The Shells ure of 

 course, waterproof, but as regards .-hooting do not appear to 

 possess any special advantage over paper shells shot iu Ihe 

 same gun; (hat i- to -ay. there i-t very little - difference either 

 in pattern or penetration between a 12-gauge Kynoeh ami a 

 12 gauge p'aper shell each charged with the same load. 

 Continued and careful experiment, however, brought to 

 light the fact that a 14-gauge Kynoeh shot in a 12 -gauge 

 gun gave much better results than a 12-gauge paper shell 

 Shot under similar conditions. To shoot all-gauge K. in a. 

 12-bore gun necessitates hushing the chambers of the gun, 

 or obtaining a new pair of barrels specially chambered for 

 the 14-gauge Kynoeh. When this is done there is little 

 doubt that greaUy improved shooting results, as careful 

 trials by the editor of the London BW, by -Mr. Greener and 

 others testify. Our British cousin is now trying to make up 

 his mind whether he will have his barrels altered or new 

 ones made, or whether he will stick to his old barrels and 

 paper shells. We make these statements in view of the fact 

 that we have recently had an opportunity of examining an 

 American invention which promises to more fully meet the 

 requirements of sportsmen than does the Kvno'eh Theo- 

 retically the Shooting should be as good, if nut better, than 

 that of the English shell, and it can lie fleet! in guns 

 chambered in the ordinary manner. It appears to possess 

 the principal advantages of both brass and paper shells 

 Without their special defects. It will be reloadable, water- 

 proof, tight, capable of being crimped, but slightly more 

 expensive than the paper shell, and probably not more than 

 one-fourth the price of the ordinary brass shell. We hope 

 at an early day to lie able to give full details concerning it. 

 The improved" shell is the invention of our occasional eon 

 tributor, "H. G. F " 



ADIRONDACK WINTER NOTES. 



I FEW days ago 1 met one of our best stitl-hunters, wdio, 

 J\. in live days last full, had killed nine deer. 



"How many did you and the boys kill with the dogs?" 



"We hunted ten days," he replied, "unci got one big buck 

 and two does. The buck I killed on the runway; he had 

 got by all the other boys and was making for tin - swamp; 

 we had run him three or four different times, ami he always 

 gol away, but 1 smoked him.'' 

 " "Then you did better still-hunting than with the dogs?" 



■■Yes I" can kill five to one, when the snow is good, But 

 the deer are wild this season ; they have been dogged iO 

 much. I wish every dog was dead— no, 1 don't, either, Yve 

 guides get lots of days' work that, we would not get if we 

 aid nothunt with dugs, and if we did not hunt with dogs 

 very few people who come from Ihe cities n ould ever Bee a 

 deer." 



"That is so, and don't you think that the dogs are a pro- 

 tection to the deer in this way, that they make the deer 

 harder for the still-hunters to get up to?" 



"Yes; I used to kill ten deer where 1 do one now, and T 

 have to work harder every year to eel up to tbeiu. Four is 

 the most I ever killed in one day. Bill Danforth says he 

 has. killed seven iu one day. I h.ive known of his killing 

 five in a day, but he has been out a number of days this sea- 

 sou, and the last time 1 beard from him In - had not killed a 

 single one. He says he never saw them so wild." 



"Do you think the deer are growing scarce about here?" 

 No' I never saw the deer signs so thick as 1 did the duy 

 1 was in back of your house, where I killed the two 

 bucks. I could haye started a dozen deer that day. No; 

 I think the deer are on Ihe increase every year." 



"Do you think the dogs by tunning deer worry them so 

 many of them die after the dogs leave Mi 



"No; 1 never found but one that T thought would have 

 died. I found him in Ihe ice where he could not have gut 

 out, and I killed him ami took him home 'to save bin life!' " 



1 have given this conversation just as it took place, 

 showing the opinion of one of the best of our still-hun- 

 ters. There were very few deer killed by still-hunters 

 last fall; they all complained that flu - deer were wild; 

 there were lots of them, but they were bard to get up lo. 



I have read much about bears in the Fotiest AMD 

 Stiieam during the season, and have one little Story that, 

 has not been fold in print. About the first of last -> 

 "Linn i" Do Bar set a trap at Hayes Ibook to can h , 

 His first day's work was a three-mile trump to my shnuly. 

 and then seven miles with the trap of twenty pounds, and 

 meat twenty-live more. One week from 'that day he 

 visited his bail, and found the trap gone, with good signs 

 of bear. He followed the trail about one mile and found 

 the trap by the side of a stump— a "little hair, no bear. " 



"Lime" is naturally of a thoughtful turn of mind, 80 he 

 sat down to "study the signs" and satisfy himself as n how 

 the bear got away." He says that he sat there about an hour; 

 then he picked Up the trap and went hack to r, 

 house" to set the trap again, and found that the bear had 



