146 



FOREST AMD STREAMT 



Btatkmbnts About the Wild Pigeon.— At a meeting of 

 the Monroe County Sportsmen's Club, held some time since, 

 Mr. Henry Knapp, an old sportsman and pigeon trapper, 

 made some remarks concerning the habits of the wild pigeon 

 (Ectopistes migratoria) which deaerve notice. Some of the 

 facts, if facts they be, have not previously been published, 

 and should receive the attention of field ornithologists. 



Mr. Knapp says that neither young birds nor eggs are al- 

 lowed to die of hunger or spoil in a pigeon roost it the parent 

 bird is killed. The voung ones are fed and the eggs hatched 

 by foster parents. The pigeon usually lays only one egg at 

 each hatching, but it food is very abundant two eggs are 

 sometimes laid. The nest is exceedingly rude, consisting of 

 a few twigs placed at the crotch of a limb, and so slovenly 

 that the eggs may be seen from below. In a thick roost trees, 

 are sometimes so densely covered with nests as to appear at a 

 distance as if in foliage. When the young ones have been 

 batched the parents make immense flights daily after food. 

 The hens all fly after food in the mottling, leaving thi 

 in charge at home, and the latter go nway In the afternoon 

 foraging. The quantity of "mast" a pigeon will carry back 

 On such excursions from a distance of one hundred miles or 

 more is enormous. Mr. Knapp counted the contents of one 

 pigeon's crop taken in flight, and round 28 beech nuts, 11 

 grains of Western corn, 100 maple leaves and a quantity of 

 other material. He has seen the crop burst open when the 

 bird was shot, and the bulk of food it, had contained was as- 

 tonishing. The parent bird has the power of ejecting this 

 from the crop to teed the young. When food is abundant, 

 and the you g birds have aquired sufficient strength to care 

 for themselves, the old ones play them a peculiar trick to 

 Btart them on the ;; battle of life" and teach them the 

 necessity of earning their own living. The old ones steal 

 away at^ night and do not return. The young remain a day 

 or so in the nests, expecting to be fed as usual, but soon find 

 themselves growing hungry, and fly out. If the parents did 

 not do this the youngsters wouk£ remain in the nests and 

 never exert themselves. 



Thb KiPiD Flight of Fuita.— dteie York, Fib. 27.— Mr. 

 C. LT Hope, of Somerset, Obio, seems to question iu your last 

 issue the abilirv of the partridge fly to keep up with the flight 

 of the ruffed grouse. Pshaw: lias he forgotten the common- 

 est incidents of his life? Don't the minute gnats iu the woods 

 keep up with his fastest walk, and the horse fly with the fast- 

 est gait of the horse? The rapid flight of the clumsy bee is 

 amazing when we consider the proportion of its wiugs to its 

 bulky body. If Stedmau's coming steam atrobat could he 

 fitted with" a propeller which could make revolutions as rapid 

 as the buzzing wings of the blue-tailed fly— why, zip! how 

 she would skip across the Atlantic ! Shoo. 



The point, as we understood it, which our correspondents 

 tried to make, was rather that it would be impossible for an 

 observer to traca the flight of the insect in company with the 

 grouse, than that the fly could not keep up. 



As a matter of fact, however, the flies do not leave the 

 birds but travel on the body of their protector. Their wings 

 are very weak and by no means fitted for long continued or 

 rapid flight. Indeed, some genera of the group are incapable of 

 any flight whatever. Moreover, Olferski does not feed upon the 

 excrement of the grouse, but upon its blood. The fly is pro- 

 vided withalongand exceedingly delicite and thin proboscis, 

 through which it sucks its fluid nourishment. It is very 

 doubtful whether the parasite, after it has once attached itself 

 to a bird ever leaves it until death parts the twain, or an op- 

 portunity occurs for its taking up quarters on a new and fresh 

 subject ; as in the case of the transfer from an old bird to new- 

 ly hatched youug. The life history of the partridge-fly, how- 

 ever, has not yet been clearly made out, and any additions to 

 it will be gratefully welcomed. 



Hybrid Dtjok— Editor Forest and Stream: A friend while 

 on b shooting trip with me last week killed what I suppose is 

 a hybrid between the black duck and the mallard. As I never 

 saw or killed one before iu twenty-five years' experience in 

 Shooting marsh fowl, I write to ask my brother sportsmen 

 through your valuable paper whether such cross-bred ducks 

 are not very uncommon. I am not ornithologist enough to 

 give the technical terms, but will give a rough description of 

 the duck. The bill is that of the drake mallard ; the upper 

 part of the head, down as far as the eyes, green ; from the 

 eye down the sides of the head and neck, gray, doited with 

 brown, as in the black duck ; upper part of the breast like 

 the black duck, but a shade lighter in color ; lower part of 

 breast and abdomen nearly like the duck mallard, with back, 

 wings and feet resembling those of the drake mallard. My 

 friend, who is a skillful taxidermist, will set the bird up. 1 

 would like to hear if any of the numerous Fokbst aud 

 Stream family (in which I include your whole list of sub- 

 scribers) have ever killed a duck of the above kind. 



Easton, Md., March 18, "1879. Sinkboat. 



Hybrid ducks are not very uncommon, and have been fre- 

 quently noticed in these columns. For very full information 

 about them let "Binkboat" consult Poeest asd Stream, 

 VoL I., pp, 312 and 374; Vol. II., pp. 5 and 54 ; Vol. IV., 

 p. 133; Vol. V., pp. 260, 270, 339 and 388. 



A Hnow White Dbgu— Wright, Ottawa Co., P. Q., 

 Canada.— Mr. Editor: Do any of your readers desire a live 

 deer that U suow white ? I am trying to arrange for the 

 proper care of such an animal until it cm be sent within 

 reach of a railway. The successful capture of this beautiful 

 creature was but recently effected, the deer proving to be a 

 young doe which is quite probably pregnant. Bo rare a 

 specimen should be preserved alive, and although I cannot 

 care for it myself I hope that some one as mucn interested in 

 Natural History, can and will do so. I iberefore would ask 

 attention through the columns of Forest akd 

 Stubam to the capture of this deer, especially that of the Zoo- 

 logical Societies. Everett Smith. 



Address, Portland, Maine. 



uninterrupted by auy thaw. Besides the pleasure of hunting 

 large game during the earlier portion of the present winter, I 

 have more recently enjoyed less exciting explorations in search 

 of the feathered winter denizens of Canada, and have added to 

 my ornithological collection some fine semi-arctic specimens. 



Although ravens remain here all winter, the crows migrate, 

 and only yesterday I first noticed the arrival of crows. A 

 red-winged starling (blackbird) was seen here yesterday. 



Although I am feasting on moose meat, it is only to the 

 novice that I need add that the antlers on a frozen head out- 

 side show that it would not be "fresh" meat but for the 

 weather, as no moose are to be found wearing antlers thus late 

 in the season. 



Although 1 have tramped many hundreds of miles in the 

 woods this winter, I have not; once suffered from chafed or 

 sore feet, nor from cold, owing to the use of a pair of snow- 

 shoe slippers. Without these I know, from much previous ex- 

 perience, I should have suffered grcatannoyance from cold toes, 

 chafing, and snow-balling under the feet. Not the least suf - 

 feiinglrom these causes ever occurs while using the snow- 

 shoe slippers . These slippers prove to be as great an im- 

 provement in the method of fastening snow-shoes to the feet 

 as is the modern appliance of skates over the old one-strap 

 method in vogue for so many years. 



I am now with my friend and hunting companion of three 

 years since, who is & constant reader of Foekst akd Stream, 

 and owner of the beautiful setter, Bang, own brother to my 

 Cora II., whose likeness has been honored by a place in ''The 

 Sportsman's Gaz.il leer," the best book of reference for sports- 

 men ever published in America. Eveebtt Smith. 



Our correspondent, "Quill Driver," writes from Milford, 

 Mass., saying, under dale. March 10, "I heard the first blue 

 birds of the season to-day." 



" Buckeye," who dates his note Hudson, Ohio, March 8, 

 says: 



The birdB are beginning to arrive. Spring is fast removing 

 the last of Old Winter, and it soon will be a thing of the past. 

 The robin was the first to come, he being here on the 5th, the 

 blue bird and the crow on the Otb. Crackle and kill-deer be- 

 tween the Gth and 9th. Last year the robin was here the 

 2d of February, the blue bird the 4th, crow the 5th, kill-deer 

 the 8th. Tear before last, 1877, the robin was here Feb. 20, 

 blue bird the :!4th, crow the 35th, kill-deer 26th, Bnipe March 

 1 1, pigeon the 8ih of March. No snipe or pigeon yet, but the 

 snipe should be here by the loth; the pigeons some days sooner, 

 if we can take the appearance of the other birds as a guide, 

 and compare their arrival this year with their arrival in past 

 years. There are a few wild duck flying about, but only a few. 



Our valued friend, M. G. E., sends us from Blacksburg, 

 Va., a note on the arrival of the Wilsons snipe. He says : 



On the 9th inst. I found seven Wilsons snipe in the marshes 

 near this place and killed them all at seven shots. For six 

 years past these birds have arrived here from the 5th to the 

 8th of March, and by the 5th of April have all passed by. 

 Weather does not seem to affect their movements. Only a 

 very few stragglers return this way to winter quarters. 



Minnesota sends her contribution to this topic in a note 

 from S. B. D., of Lake City, dated March 9. He says: 



Meadow larks made their first appearance on March 8, blue 

 birds to-day. Snow all gone and some ducks flying. 



Chas. E. Scott, of Bristol. Penn., in a note dated March 

 10, says : 



A woodcock alighted on a woodpile in Doron's coal yard 

 this morning, and was captured by Eber Strembech. The 

 river at this point was closed by ice until last week. 



Capturing woodcock in March is poor business, we think. 



tiaiem, March 24— Field notes are slow, as snow and slush 

 have been in order lately. Woodchucks are out. A wood- 

 cock v, as seen lying dead on a sidewalk on rtantoul street, 

 Beverly, last week. Pomls and rivers, i. e., small ones, are 

 yet frozen up. Morgan, of Salem, got 7 nice pickerel in 

 Wenham Pond the 22d. Snow buntings, since last snow are 

 plenty ; before they were BC( ice. This i3 in accordance with 

 Field Notes by the" Nova Scotia gentleman that you are pub- 

 lishing. R. S. N. 



New Xoitk—ITorndlimlle, March 24. — Bluejays and pine- 

 finches have been here ail winter. English sparrows are get- 

 ing to be a nuisance; have just sent for some of Stone's bird 

 traps, and with a little help from the owls and shrikes I think 

 we will be able to hold our own. Blue birds arrived Feb. 28; 

 blackbirds, Feb. 28 ; robinB, Feb. 20 ; kingfishers, March 3. 

 All gone. now. Have had some heavy snow-storms in the last 

 two weeks. J. Otis Fellows. 



SPRING NOTES. 



Canada, Galineau River, P Q ,March18— The cold winter 



iroktn, and the temperature to-day Beems like that 



of May. Until within a week the deep snow in the woods was 



as light as in December, the result of continuous cold weather, 



PROFESSOR BHEWER TO DR. COUES. 



Editor Fohest ahd Stream 



After a few weeks absence from home, I find iu the 

 issue of the 27th ult. a communication in which unmis- 

 takable reference is had to your humble servant. As you 

 have thus devoted so much of your valuable space to person- 

 alities, which, as they stand, are one-sided and unintelligible, as 

 a matter of simple j ustice I ask you to publish also the inclosed 

 article, to which reference is made. It was published as edi- 

 torial by the Boston Journal, and for it the editor of that 

 journal is alone responsible. By so publishing it you will 

 enable your readers to understand the communication you 

 have given, and thus also to see that there was no occasion 

 furnished by this article for so much as a ripple along the sur- 

 face of your correspondent's equanimity. It is but a fair and 

 logical conclusion, from data furnished by your correspond- 

 ent's kinsman, and vouched for by your correspondent himself, 

 who now, like Fear in Collin's well-known ode, appears to 

 have 



" Back recoiled, he knew not why, 

 E'eu at the sounds himself had made." 



It is a very weak afterthought on the part of your corres- 

 pondent, after having paraded as something so very extraor- 

 dinary the large number and the great variety of small birds 

 breeding " in the very heart of a great city like Brooklyn," 

 to now asB-ime that, but for the sparrow, their number and 

 variety would be even greater. This is not only begging the 

 whole question, but is also contradicted by all our evidence, 

 If this were as your correspondent pretends, small birds 

 would be just as abundant in other citieB, and still more so in 

 cities where there are no sparrows, and your correspondent 

 would have had no occasion for his wonder at theii exceptional 

 abundance in Brooklyn. 



Your correspondent also contends that such birds are thus 

 surprisingly abundant in Brooklyn, in spite of the sparrows, 

 just as much as they are also thus abundant in spite of hawks 



and owls. Your correspondent seems to have lost sight of the 

 fact, that while sparrows are cited by his kinsman as abund- 

 ant in Brooklyn, hawks and owls are given as few and far be 

 tween. And can it be that your correspondent is not aware 

 cf facts so well established in natural history, as that while 

 hawks and owls are rupaces, and naturally destroy and devour 

 small birds, sparrows, being only granivores, do nothing of the 

 kind, but live in peace and unity with other small birds ? 



Is your correspondent aware of the indisputable fact, that in 

 many of our citieB, where no sparrows have obtained a foot- 

 hold there is a conspicuous absence of all native birds. Hali- 

 fax (Nova Scotia), and Gloucester (Mass. ) may be cited as 

 striking examples of this remarkable fact. 



The statement of your correspondent that the City Forester 

 of Boston finds it neceBsary to protect the shade trees against 

 canker-worms, like too many of the loose utterances made in 

 reference to the "sparrow question "is purely imaginative, 

 and is not "founded on facts." So far as I know, not a single 

 tree has been tarred or otherwise protected against canker- 

 worms in all the peninsula of Boston since the sparrows have 

 become abundant. There is not the slightest occasion. The 

 canker-worm, once such a pest in all the squares in Boston, 

 has become a thing of the past, and there is abundant evi- 

 dence that we are indebted to the sparrow for its extermina- 

 tion, and to no other cause. In Gloucester, on the other hand, 

 where the sparrows have not yet appeared, except a scattered 

 few, it is necessary to tar all their trees, both fruit and shade. 

 Respectfully yours, Thomas M. Beewek, 



233 Beacon street, Boston. 



[From the Boston Journal of January 17, 1S79.1 



In the January number of the Bulletin of the Nuttall Orni- 

 thological Club we find an article of more than ordinary in- 

 terest touching the abundance of birds in American cities. It 

 is remarkable in several respects ; remarkable in itself as 

 evidencing how large a number of our native birds, even 

 under unfavorable circumstances, may be found within the 

 territory of the largest citieB ; remarkable for its bearing upon 

 an important and much contested question, and, in this con- 

 nection, quite as remarkable in regard to its authorship and 

 its indorsement. The article is a list of birds observed in the 

 Naval Hospital grounds in Brooklyn, New York. These 

 grounds are an inclosure of twenty acres, abounding in shade 

 trees and shrubbery, contiguous to a considerable marshy 

 tract, and all in a populous neighborhood, full of manufac- 

 turing establishments. lis author is George Hughes Coues, a 

 nephew of Dr. Elliott Coues, and the latter, in anote, vouches 

 for the reliability of .his kinsman as "a close observer." The 

 list names sixty species of birds that have been " actually ob- 

 served and identified beyond question," in the very heart of 

 a great city. For this we have the authority of Dr. Coues 

 himself, as well as the statement of his nephew. 



As we have said, the entire statement, is very remarkable 

 for its own intrinsic interest. That no less than sixty differ- 

 ent species should have been observed "in the very heart of a 

 great city," like Brooklyn, with the assurance that " others 

 than those here given doubtless occur," as Dr. Coues in- 

 forms us, is of itself a most noteworthy fact. Of these sixty 

 species, sixteen include large visitors, such as hawks, owls 

 water birds, and others. Nineteen are either rare, occasional' 

 or only migratory visitors, leaving the large number of twenty- 

 five that are not only residents, but positively known to breed 

 within the inclosure. 



Now all these statements of facts, which we fully credit 

 are at once interesting and suggestive. Dr. Elliott Coues' 

 whose nephew has made these very valuable observations, and 

 which he so fully indorses, is well k nown to be the responsible 

 originator of the anti-house-sparrow theory. Long betore the 

 sparrow had anywnere become sufficiently numerous to afford 

 any evidence of their deportment, this gentleman, being both 

 oracular and prophetic in regard to them, predicted that they 

 would do here what it is well known they do not do in their 

 native country— molest, persecute and drive away other birds. 

 These predictions he has persistently followed up by positive 

 averments that have made up in, frequency of repetitions what 

 they lacked of actual evidence. Other writers have followed in 

 the same strain, and, as was but natural, these repeated itera- 

 tions and reiterations have not been without their effect upon the 

 public mind. Where there was all this smoke there must be 

 some fire was the almost inevitable conclusion. Nevertheless 

 as time wore on, and as our own experience has failed to afford 

 to our own senses any information of hostility on the part of 

 the sparrows to our native birds, and, more than this, facts 

 have come to our knowledge wholly inconsistent with this 

 theory, the conclusion has been forced upon us that these 

 charges are premature and unfounded. We can no longer 

 doubt that as the sparrow, by universal testimony, lives iu 

 peace and harmony with other small birds in its own land, it 

 has not changed its nature by its change of residence, but is 

 the same in habit here that it is in Europe. Here, in our own 

 city, it is an indisputable fact that we have more summer 

 visitors among our native birds than we have had for at least 

 thirty years. Their numbers as individuals have quintupled, 

 and the number of species that breed in the heart of our city 

 is at least threefold. The same, we are assured bv competent 

 authority, is true of Cambridge, Newton and other neighbor- 

 ing towns. The well-informed editor of the. Germantown 

 Telegraph bears the same testimony as to the remarkable in- 

 crease of wood thrushes and other song birds in the suburbs 

 of Philadelphia. And now we have the all-important testi- 

 mony of Dr. Coues and his nephew as to the even more re- 

 markable abundance of our native birds "in the very heart 

 of a great city " like Brooklyn. Surely, in face of such evi- 

 dence as this, it can no longer be pretended that the European 

 house-sparrow is driving away from us our native birds. 

 These facts demonstrate that this cannot be true, and compel 

 the belief that the sparrow is the same peaceful bird in 

 America that it is known to be in Europe, and that in cross- 

 ing the seas, as the old Latin poet has it, they only changed 

 their skies, but not their dispositions. 



But to return to Brooklyn and the remarkable variety and 

 abuudance of birds in the Naval Hospital grounds. Passing 

 by the larger forms, whose presence or absence the sparrows 

 cannot be supposed to affect in any way, and also those that 

 are simply migratory or stragglers, we find the very remark- 

 able number of twenty-five species that reside there in sum- 

 mer and breed within the grounds, and, as Dr. Cones' sug- 

 gests, " others than those here given doubtless occur." First 

 we have named the English sparrow, said to be " very abund- 

 ant," so that this harmonious assembly of birds cannot be at- 

 tributed to the absence of tbis species. Then we find the 

 downy woodpecker "common and breeding," the golden- 

 winged woodpecker, "common, breeds." The robin, 'very 

 common, breeds;" cat-bird, "common, breeds;" the blue- 

 bird the same. The same is also said of the wren, the yellow 

 warbler, the barn swallow, the chipping sparrow, the song 

 sparrow and several others, .toward all of which specie* the 



