106 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Makch 8, 188S, 



Black Vm/rcrriE ra Xouttiern Dakota.— Minneapolis, 

 Minn., March 1, — I saw a few weeks ago an interesting 

 paper from "Byrne" about vultures, and perhaps it would 



iult-ivsl him and others to know how far north the black 

 vulture occurs. Last September, when shooting in North- 

 ern Dakota, about twelve miles north of Sanborn. I saw 

 quite a large number of birds I supposed to lie the common 

 turkey buzzard, omra, but, one coming near, I saw it to be 

 the Short tail species, afratu,-,. Soon another eium- near, 

 which 1 shot, a.s 1 winded to be sure there was no mistake 

 about its being a black vulture. The bird did not appear to 



have any 'ii i-l] 1 have found in the specimens 



taken in the South. 1" have also found the bird in the East, 

 nearly tliesnine parall. 1, in Northern Maine, New Brunswick 

 and Nova Scotia, where aura is very seldom found. The t.nr- 

 ard is common about Lake Minnclouka 'n summer, 

 but I never have seen atratui in Minnesota, and was much sur- 

 prised to find the bird in Dakota. In regard to the way buz- 

 zards sustain a flight so long', soaring in the air without any 

 visible motion of the wings, may it not be on something of 

 the principle o f a kite? The string, of course, holds the 

 kite: but the bird has intelligence, and by a certain curve of 

 its wingsand tail throws a weight upon the body, and causes 

 a. purchase upon the air, as the string to the kite. Hawks 



iy abundant in Dakota in September. They ap- 



i:. ■•;!■. I to be migfa ing by the hundreds. Marsh, rough-legs 

 and Swains. in's v.. e,,, runs, — Geo. A. BOAKDHAN, 



Shore Qakkb or T rises. —Troy, N. Y., Feb. 23.— While 

 shooting on a farm near this place, I saw a small flock of 

 horned larks (two of which I shot) alight in a tall tree, and 

 after visiting the surrounding fields, return to it T write 

 this to convince the gentleman who recently wrote concern- 

 ing Ihe horned lark, that he was mistaken about their not 

 alighting in trees. Also on the same hunt I shot, two bu teller 

 birds. There are thousands of snow birds near ne.re, of which 

 I have, shot a few. — Taxioehmist, 



Bird Ariuvals.— Rushville, N. Y., March -1.— A few 

 days since robins were in this vicinity, and yesterday 1 saw 

 five red-wing blackbirds, but they did not seem to enjoy the 

 cold weather very much. Geese are flying in greal num- 

 bers toward the north.— A. W. P. 



Winter Birds in WebierK Massachusetts.— The 



most interesting incident in the bird life of this vicinity was 



it capture of a line specimen of the great, gray owl 



, ,,,, Audubon; by Mr. E. A. Kellogg, in 



o ■'"" i ii iin ,i:\ Specimens of this species have 

 been seenal rare intervals in the eastern part of this State. 

 Dr. Brewer says that a fine specimen was shot in Lynn iu 

 the winter of 1878. Mr. Miuot. in his "Baud and" Game 

 Birds of New England." speaks of observing one near 

 "Milton in the early part of 1875, toward the end of an ex- 

 ceptionally severe winter." In the Forest and Stream of 

 fee I Mr. Everett, Smith says, "ii is only occasionally 

 taken in .Maine, where it probably occurs merely as a rare 

 and irregular visitor from the north in winter," " I can bud 

 no record of the capture or observation of this species in 

 this vicinity before the instance above mentioned, fke 

 gri Ril gray Owl is the largest of the American Hf.rifftlics. The 

 specimen recently captured here is fully up to the average 

 size of the species as given by the different authorities, being 

 nearly thirty inches in length ami five feet in alar extent. 

 A dock of pine grosbeaks "have -pent most of the present 

 ■ . : i ii of our city and were hereon the 

 first of this month. Quail an- reported as surviving the 

 iter in fair numbers. They seem to have suffered. 

 less than in former winters from the ravages of hawks.— - 



W. W. Coi.m n.\ (Springfield, Mass., March 3, 1883). 



Rewoli, Linnet in Com imaien r.— Taunton. Mass., 

 ■ ' Bile i in. collecting one day Last week ! 



-I " a rloclv of redpoll ; ■ . ■'!,)>* lumviu), killing 



' i fellow I wounded 



| i , - me quite a chase through the field before 1 succeeded 

 ring him, &,s be did not appear to be hurt much, 

 and I Could not find any blood on him, 1 took him home 

 and put him into a lar, ,, ire I ttge. The next moraine he 

 lag around lisping his little note very much like 

 the goldfinch, 'and eating some old canary seed front the 



i i lie cage, lie grew tjuitl tame, and up to the 



i >■ lit ' ri ascan.be. One. little habit he has 



is tbat or hanging with his back down from the top of the 



swinging himself from wire to wire, and then 



ii the bottom of the cage or perch, always landing 



l. I feed him on plain canary seed. — John (j. 



Cattook. 



Diit.MAUNG of the SRKUOe Giioise. — Attleboro, Mass., 

 There seems to be quite U difference in bhe opinion 



of vour coires])uje!i njts P nob Mltf and Mr. Everett Smith 



in "The Bu - if Haiuo ' Of .'- m rject "1 ' 



(Forest and Stream, Sept. 19, 1878), says: "Tins bird 

 seleeis a horizontal branch fifteen M twenty feet from the 

 ■j i ,u in , Mid drums in the air while descending from the 

 limb to' the ground." Whili Mi Smith says "The Canada 

 grouse perforins its drumming upon the trunk of a standing 

 tree of rather small size, preferably one that is inclined from 

 iin | ' |n iidicuiar. and in the following manner: Commenc- 

 ing near the base of the tree selected, the bird flutters Up- 

 ward with somewhat slow progress bu.1 rapidh beating its 

 w4ngs, which produce the drmnnting souiid ' Having thus 

 ascended fifteen or twenty feel it glide, quieil;, to i'i 

 ground and repeals tin- maneuver." Now who can inform 

 us of the correct method by which the spiu.ee partridge 

 drums! — 0. B. II. 



Tin, 80KEE0H 0W1 LS i. BUS 



School. Concord, N. JL. - i, I 1 ' 



Friday afternooij ■■■ eommo] 

 down into a large barnyard in 

 :: : i I l on the back of ti large hen 



.—St. Taul's 

 three o'clock 

 eh owl flew 

 lorhood and 

 'id times as large. 



Recent Arrivals . 

 Twelve common mai 

 macaques, Macacus 



:■:/,. e ■,„ ,,„•,' l.hl-ee h,,l 



Imtje j£## nyd (§mi. 



To insure prompt attention, communications should be ad- 

 dressed to the Forest, and Stream Publishing Co., and not to 

 individuals, in u-hose absence from the office 'matters of im- 

 portance are liable to delai). 



, i, , i attempting to carry it oft The claws of the owl 

 mgled in the f eal bera of the frightened hen, and the 

 owner of the farm was enabled to catch if. He squeezed it 

 so bard I hat he killed it and 1 got it from him about an hour 

 after. I skinned it and have the skin in my possession. 

 There was scarcely any llcsh on its bones and uo signs of 

 food in its Stomach. The snow is about three feet deep 

 sand it has been very cold, so 1 suppose that the owl 

 could catch uo small birds or animals, t have seen very few 

 grouse ami rabbit* heie this winter and no quail. — Night- 

 Hawk. 



.in.UAiiiiiv QrAii..— Dower, N. H., Feb. 28.— 



■■■: [have not the least doubt that 



:,,, dory quail note in your issue, of Feb. 32, is a mis- 



l , | us,,' in ver seen the migratory quail, but ltom the 



! ., i |,i em given ni this bird, those seen here Feb. 1 were 



not quail, and bore no kind of resemblance to the quai 



,,; They were und d tedly pine grosbeaks, which 



n quite common here this winter, i have seen quite 



isroi Socl '" twenty to forty each, and so far as I 



could iitdge about ail of them female birds. They are m 

 , , ,; winter bird with us. but are very tame, coming 

 Oor up crumbs and pieces of appli 



e iv them.- f B. G. 



Woodcock and Teleouai'u Wires.— Newfoundland, 



N, J, — Yesterday, March 2, two woodcock were picked up 



that had been killed by flying against, telegraph wires. 



Had one of them in my hands. Bluebirds have put iu an 



rue.- -JjCWG Bile. 



HUNTING THE WILD HORSES, 



THERE is a strip of country between the Kansas Pacific 

 and the Atchison. Topeka, and Santa Fe railroads, 

 having Cimarron and Griunell.'in Kansas, and River Bend 

 and Pueblo, in Colorado, as its comers, thut is sparsely 

 settled. Broad, treeless prairies, small streams at long iii- 

 vals, a few small rain-water lakes, filled by local iidn- 

 rms that flood one section and fill every hole "so full that 

 water stands all winter, while, a few miles away deeper 

 hollows are bone dry. It is one of the last strongholds of 

 the mustang in America. They range all over it in bands Of 

 from two to one hundred, generally from five to twenty -five 

 in a band. They differ in color further west; in Western 

 Kansas the} are "mostly roan, on the Colorado line dark 

 in-own, and" further on' pinto or spotted black and white. 

 There is one band of thirty two head now on White Woman 

 Creek. Kan., all roans, called the Dry Ridge Band, because 

 they always strike- straight west on a dry ridge when pur- 

 sued; and'another band of twenty-eight that are all black 

 with white faces, called the Head-light Baud, that range in 

 the same vicinity. Tame stallions occasionally e-, ,,;,, u ,,,, 

 emisjrar.ts or stock men and take a band of marcs from Ihe 

 wild stallion and are not captured. In this manner lin- 

 stock improves. It is a common thing to find tame "branded 

 jinnies that formerly belonged to cattle men or Indians 

 i nudes with scars on their 

 ■ii i - i end seemed as wild 



among them, and I havi 

 shoulders from the collar 

 as their mustang compani 

 one or two stallions, al 

 colts and yearlings. Of < 

 and the oilier has to k 

 around and will cut the 

 run them off and set up a 

 are thousands of these 

 regular business during tl 

 It requires two or tin 

 ponies broken to harness, 

 saddle horses, a light stro 

 keg for water, tots of oat: 

 find a bunch of horses that suit- ym 

 them with two men, the water keg 

 The band will run off and travel sevi 

 day. Manage to keep in sight of the 

 is moonlight; by the next, day at m 

 Where the" horses started from. Mai 

 near water, and when he sees you c( 

 fresh team. Drive dowu to camp 

 team, leave your most, tired man to k 

 again another round of fifty to one i 



come near camp again in about twenty-lour hours wall the 

 mustangs badly tired. Change teams, mil one man on 

 horseback and 'make another round. It won't generally be 

 more than twenty-five miles, for the horseman can turn the 

 bunch a little. The next day with two saddle horses and 

 no buggy, vou can turn the band as you please, and every- 

 body go to'bed at night, if it is dark, after that keep at them. 

 In from seven davs to twenty-one days you will tire them 

 completely down, thev arc accustomed to the sight of the 

 man on horseback and are not much afraid of him, and he 

 can turn them where he pleases and get within one hundred 

 yards of the wildest. If you have no corral yon have to 

 snare the best 



sl.llllil 



men, two spans of good tough 

 ■ell shod and fat: about six fast 

 spring wagon, a twenty-gallon 

 nd a light .camp outfit: Then 

 and put the bugg; Ete-i 

 and a little feed in it. 

 mty-fivc miles the tirst 

 m,' follow all night if it 

 son you will be back 

 i No." 3 li 



ldred milei 



uade camp 

 eady with the 



• fresh 

 : them 



id i 



stop 



idi 



days. Tl 

 get hetwei 

 and you c 



trot, "am ' 



md the 



shack i 

 ,'ild c 



Let the colts and the dead lame ones 

 . up; they will be, only too glad to stand, 

 /hipping them along for the last two 

 oil a little way, bu) when you 

 d the cripples they will try to get back, 

 ound and round the cripples in a little 

 >es will make four miles to your one, 

 and'half a day will tire them dowu. Then lay ropi'E a the 

 ground close to the cripples and drive the others over them, 

 When they get used to them make nooses and eat< b I i m 

 by the lce't add hobble and side line them. To hobble is to 

 tie both fore feet together, so that a horse can only bobble. 

 Tq side line is to tie one fore n.ud one hind foot together 

 with about three feet space. The cripples need not be 

 touched. 



Now go home with your horses and you haven t secured 

 much alter all, for they are worn out and seldom recuperate. 

 It is hard to break thein gentle, and if they ever get away 

 and find a baud of mustangs vou must have to have all 

 your fun over again, if you want to catch them. There 

 were about twenty outfit's after mustangs last summer \\ ith 

 varying success. Wild Horse Johnson, with his three sons, 

 of Aubrey, Kansas, caught about 150 and got from $15 to 

 $20 apiece for them. 



' Fat colts are shot and eai en bv some people thai follow 

 them, and one of the wild hors. hunters Bhrpped six hind- 

 quarters of old stud meat to Kane buffalo, and 

 some people besides horse hunters' families know how wild 

 neat tastes by this time, 

 I have lain and watched them play for hours when I was 

 out antelope hunting. 1 had a band of eight run all around 

 rue at thirty yards three months ago, as W. F '■ 

 Livenuore." Pa., and I lay in a buffalo wallow watching 

 them, but \\ hen they got our wind they ran clean out of 

 sight in a bee line. ' " W ' 3T- J*. 

 Cimahbom, Kansas. 



I am 



Thirty ye 



andum to 



nd, whose coin- 

 trie field, 

 without memor- 

 early thirty years 

 vicinity, and my 



SMOKE MEMORIES. 



PIPE THE FIRST — A COINCIDENCE 

 "A pipe, which is so lily white, 



Is broken by a touch. 



Man's life is sucti j 

 Think of that when you smoke tobacco." 



"VV7HEN one is so fortunate as to possess many pipes, 

 > T there is in each an occult individuality that is sure 

 to assert itself when the pipe is being smoked. If the 

 smoker be in a meditative mood, associations of the past 

 mingle with the clouds of smoke, as the strains of certain 

 melodies curry one back to other days. You may lay the 

 pipe one side for an indefinite time, but on resuming its use. 

 if the mind be not preoccupied, it ib sure to recall some- 

 thing salient connected with its palmy days. No one can 

 sit down and write reminiscences of sport with a cigar be- 

 tween bis lips with half the gusto he would with the old 

 field brierwood, or clay, or well-browned meerschaum com- 

 panion of many a greenwood tramp, gently contributing its 

 subtle testimony to the subject iu hand by filling in the 

 background with its reminders — pictures "of the" past in 

 smoke. 



lo-nighl a very old friei 

 lis some pleasant re 

 I long time to look back to \ 

 b the memory; and it i 

 sit to Bridgeliampton and 

 acquaintance with its fauna, girls, birds and other things. 



My advent was anything but propitious, for I had the 

 misfortune to tear the only pair of pantaloons I had with me 

 baj ' s all hopes of repair, and was forced to borrow a pair 

 from a chance acquaintance, six inches shorter than myself, 

 ii i. led for not complying with the law. The style 



then was for large spring bottoms. Imagine, if you can. 

 the effect of several inches of spring-bottom projecting half 

 way from my knees, flapping- right and left as 1 walked. 

 The color was mush and milk. 1 got home with I hem all 

 right. 1 had a good time, notwithstanding my misfortunes, 

 and consequently wem again. 



No railroad came nearer than Greenport then, and so no 

 one visited that portion of ihe island except for business, 

 sine a few who came down for shooting ducks at Shinnecock 

 or went out on Montauk for geese iu the fall: but as for 

 woodcock, they were almost overlooked. There were a few 

 sportsmen at S'ag Harbor who bad dogs, und occasionally 

 went out for a day's sport, hut they had no conception of 

 how fine a held they were in disputed possession of, 



The next year I came over via New London to puss mj 

 vacation, and one evening while talking birds, dogs and gun 

 |u the post-office and store of the village of B. H., I hap- 

 pened to mention that 1 should like to try for some wood- 

 cock, as 1 thought the country looked likely for them. We 

 made up a parly then and there for the next day to slart, at 

 early morn. There were four of us with tWo dogs, the lat- 

 ter anything but well broken for the birds we were to seek. 

 The result, if 1 remember aright, was sixty five birds when 

 we returned, the beet day I ever had a ("woodcock. The 

 next we went again, returning with a hag nearly as large. 



On Ibis second day I made my only right, and left shot at 

 Woodcock, and 1 am a ■\siivertop" at these birds. The cir- 

 cumstances were thoc: We were working a thick clump 

 Of bushes with some large tree; in their center on a point of 

 land extending into a pond. Back of this was quite a high 

 knoll on one side of which was a wheat lie-Id. the other Bide 

 the pond. One of the party was in the bush with the dogs. 

 We were sure that the birds would not go out over the pond, 

 for their flight would be loo long to cover, and that, natur- 

 ally thee would to, over the wheat to another cover beyond 

 that. My friend and myself siood on the knoll to attend to 

 those who were put up. ' Jim killed three before he worked 

 the thicket, through, iiinl at last, shouted '•Murk!" 



At that moment three birds swung out over the wheat 

 held side and one was knocked over bv my friend alnmsl lie 

 Eon taught sight of them. Two swayed by the shot of 

 my companion (who bad a single-barreled gun, or else he, 

 perhaps, would have killed another) and turned up more 

 toward me. when I dropped one as he came, and, partially 

 turning, "wheated" the other, much to my surprise, for I 

 had to lake a more than snap shot at the rate he was going, 

 for be knew where he wanted to go and was getting there 

 in a hurry. 



Five years later 1 was out with a Boston friend, and in 

 the course of our day's sport visited the same spot again, 

 One of the party was in the thicket and we two stood on 

 the knoll, and it" happened the field was again with wheat. 

 I was telling him the story of my famous double shot, five 

 yeais bet ore. and as 1 related the circumstances I pointed 

 "out Ihe particular point of cover from which the birds were 

 Bushed. While I was telling the story, a brace of wood- 

 cock rose from the same spot, and my friend, quickly bring- 

 ing his gun to his shoulder, killed first one with his right 

 then wh.ated" the other with his left, 



"This is a partial coincidence." said he; '-'will the dogs 

 and make ii complete, or shall we get the birds?" 



The dogs retrieved. The coincidence was complete. 



Rbionolds. 



Bostoh, Mass. 



THE OLD BILLINGHURST RANGE. 



rpHE ground on which the Rochester trap shooting re- 

 1. ported in your issue of March 1, took place, is probably the 

 ,,„..;,„, ■nli, , i,i:u,il -e any on the globe. It is a flat of 

 about rift ecu acres in extent at the bottom ol an ampin! healer 

 formed by the banks of the Genesee River, which are here 

 nearly a hundred feet high, and almost, perpendicular. The 

 upper and middle I' a lb of the river are about half a mile 

 each from the gronnd, ■ i.dif the shooters get tired 

 iug slass, thev can, if so disposed, turn their faces north and 

 Kazffou the few remaining beauties of the famed falls over 

 Which Sam Batch tooK the leap that ended bis mortal 

 career, but gave him an immortality of fame. This, too, is 

 i :ui' which Wei istei assured the people of Rochester 

 was a guarantee that they would "never lose their liberties. " 

 Athens and Rome had no waterfall a hundred feet high, and 

 they lost their liberty, argued the great, expounder, but as 



