•Iax. 3, 1884.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



4S1 



legislators will see the importance of immediate action aud 

 \ word in regard to the deer in this State, and our 

 game laws. The deer on this side the woods have been 

 quite plentifttL.tyiitf fall, and still-hunters and hunters with 

 aogEfliaVe made good records. The law is partially unforced 

 q1 h-.df so ucll as it might lie. If a law could he passed 

 to prevent shipping deer to market from the Adirondack:-; at 

 any time of year, it would please the sportsmen of this 

 portion of the State wonderfully; Forbid, under a heavy 

 penalty, the marketing of deer and thus destroy the "markel 

 hunters'" trade and the deer, 1 believe, would men .. ; 



Thirty-eight deer were shipped from this plan one I tn 



1. 1 her— as many as would be killed by a dozen parties 

 of sportsmen or tourists. No one would be wronged by snob 

 9 law and the poor deer now slaughtered in large numbers to 

 Furnish meal Eor city markets, would be left for sport and 

 camo-fire roasts, for many years to come. This is my maiden 

 letter to Forf.ht m-d Stueam. excuse its length. Mr. Editor. 

 and give it space in your valuable paper 4 should you think 

 it. worthy, and perhaps when the open season again comes 

 round, 1 may toll you of the effect of my .40-BO-360 Marlin 

 upon the deer among the fountain waters of I he Oswegutebje. 



Orjl'VlfKHlTK, Nt*w York. 



Jntutid ]§i$torg. 



THE PURPLE FINCH AND HIS COUSINS. 



TST 'mi. ELLIOTT OOUEB.' 



3. — ( ,,, pogai frontalis. 



FROM the kia Grande to the Pacific hare I traced the 

 charming bird which T beg now to commend to my 

 readers' very distinguished consideration, as one whose cle- 

 i c of attire, agreeable address and musical proficiency 

 cannot fail to please. During the vieis-itud. a Of long years 

 passed in the study of natural history amid the semi-savage 

 peoples of our frontier, T have been thrown with many com- 

 panions less o iB oil ! ' • intelligent and decidedly less 

 agreeable than the birds Whose i iog iv.pher I aspire to be- 

 come; and the contemplation of objects so animated and so 

 interesting has not seldom restored u peace of mind disturbed 

 by rude hunian contact, The "burion" of Mexican thieves 

 and prostitute- ;!,i a. he (inch" of the Gringos ana .lews 

 who live among them, the "California linnet" of the Pacific 

 coast population, and the ••bouse finch" of the books — be the 

 latter frovtoMt or rhmlomlpiin— are one aud the same bird, 

 Which abounds in the region in mention, aud there plays a 

 part not unlike the agreeable role which I be bluebird "per- 

 forms in the Easl. Familiar to a degree that neither the 

 bluebird, the bam swallow nor the house wren surpasses, of 

 higher feather than any one of these, vivacious, melodious 

 aud ubiquitous, the crimson-fronted finch becomes an object 

 to which 00 Common interest attaches. 



Oil reaching Santa Fe, as I did in the spring of 1864, and 

 making known the object of the extended lour I was making 

 through the BoU.th.west, I was politely ushered into the court- 

 yard of my host's dwelling house, to be shown the burions, in 

 whose presence my Mend seemed to take no less pride than 

 pleasure. It was a bright, balmy morning, and at an hour 

 earlier titan I often turn nowadays to the contemplation 

 of nature — efieu fugaees! The sun was just touching the 

 roof of the adobe building, on the corners of which several 

 male burions were singing in concert with hearty emulation ; 

 while here and there, in recesses of the sun-dried walls, I Baw 

 the situations of the nests which were pointed out to me. 

 Everything Mexican WSS new and strange to me then. 

 and the chords that bound nvj heart to distant, scenes had 

 been Stretched till many a pang would come unbidden: but 

 the scene was so cheerful, so cosy— in a word, so homelike— 

 that 1 fell reassured, and turned with zest to the breakfast of 

 ..■•■. rrhnlhijt, trirtiVo*. frtjoki ii d <'Ml< •■'ilfurido, which 

 awaited my leisure. 



i taring the next few days I traveled by singe coach along 

 the Kio Grande to Albuquerque, finding the Mime bird an 

 agreeable feature of the villages passed en route: and it was 

 no less numerous at the town of Los Piuos, where the party 

 to which 1 was attached delayed several days in final prepa- 

 ration for crossing the great river at this point, to take up a 

 long march westward into the very heart of the then almost 

 trackless wilds of Arizona. Every available nook and 

 cranny about the old quadrangular house with its verandahs 

 inside', its court-yard, aud queer little loopholes for windows, 

 was occupied by the nests of burions and barn swallows. 

 Two more vivacious, voluble and pertinacious birds it 

 would be hard to put together; incessant were the disputes 

 they had in .settling their respective rights, interminable the 

 argument with which these chancery suits were conducted, 

 Though the swallows were active" aud plucky birds, their 

 more amiable natures generally induced them to yield in the 

 end; even when il came, as I am sorry to say it did not 

 seldom, to actual dispossession of their chosen nesting places 

 by their determined competitors. Such a din o' mornings! 

 Such twitter and flutter and hiss! Such earnest protest fiom 

 llh-Hiiiln when Oarpodaoai grew intrusive! Such cheery 

 congratulations .when the coa-t seemed clear, and such tri- 

 umphant bursts of song from the house-top when victory 

 lurched on the banner of burion! 



There was a tree in the court-yard, where several "adobes" 

 had their nests, no swallow, of course, earing how many 

 finches saw fit to nestle there; and from these, as well as 

 from other similar receptacles, 1 extracted as many eggs fl I 

 desired — not, however, without protest. The birds remon- 

 st i aled, of course, aud had a perfect right to do so; bin 1 

 also came under the ban of several of the noble autochthons 

 of the establishment — those "forked radishes" which flourish 

 on the soil of Mexico, grow to a height of five or six feet, 

 acquire the dignity of sombrero and scrape, and become 

 distinguished for their dexterity in rolling cigarettes when 

 propped up against the sunny side of a mud-house, and for 

 the quantity of villanous tobacco they consume while wait- 

 ing for the chances of a dog fight in the street, or musing on 

 the luck ihcv had the night past at three-card monte. "jf(i 

 ,„t,. „</,■. SeHfl)'." Well, some people never do. Take, for in- 

 stance, tic following animated dialogue, addressed by a 

 breathless naturalist to one of these "blanketed thieves '"' us 



Randolph caiied them i 

 "Hi! hombrn! tfn}/ wW< ■ ViUhosihg along 



the ,;i„,),,.i \\ ilh :t r"»W I; /ewe, ii>, In 



"Confound a fellow who doesn't understand Ids own lan- 

 guage'" 



in the trees which stood here aud there through the village 

 were many nests of buiions which had failed to suit them- 



selves 



with apartments in the walls of the adobe buildings. 



Other 



pairs of the birds betook themselves to the trees along 



the a< 



equias that led into the streets and the surrounding 



kitchc 



i gardens; while yet others occupied cavities mthwtall 



umbra 



geous Cottonwood*, which formed thebo«que along the 



Truckee, where there was an abundance of cottonwood 



timber, their nests were nearly all built In the low grease- 



iod bushes. On Antelope island, in the Great Salt Lake, 



telf. Thus, thr 



life to the listlc: 



of bright 

 . __rl their endless snatches ,,| aong 

 seemed like the effort of nature to bring discordant elements 

 into harmony. 



The burions were not conspicuous features of the scenes 

 we next passed through in the toilsome journey to Fort 

 Whipple. At this place, however, 1 was eratifledto find 

 myself again in company which had proved so agreeable on 

 the Rio Grande. The birds were very common there, and 



ci ih , abundant during the vernal and autumnal shifting 



of tiie seasons, though resident the year around. But 1 

 missed the familiar demeanor they had acquired in the New 

 Mexican towns; they seldom came about the fort, and were 

 as decided! v f< <"' mkune as the jays, woodpeckers, or other 

 exclusive denizens of the forest. For Fort Whipple was 

 something that only took a "local habitation and a name" 

 in earnest When we built it, having previously consisted of a 

 ley. tents. The neighboring village of Prescolt, capital of 

 that Apache stronghold which had but a little 

 while before been named Arizona, was but a mining 

 settlement of a dozen cabins or so, and the "house" finches 

 of the vicinity had not yet learned to adapt themselves to 

 their changeful "conditions of environment/' 1 found them 

 anywhere and everywhere, sometimes in the heavy pine tim- 

 ber, but oftener on the scant-wooded hillsides, in the gulches 

 half choked with shrubbery and seedy herbaceous plants, or 

 among the aspens, wiltews and poplars that infallibly fall in 

 each others' arms over the streams whose course, they mark, 

 iu whose waters they rejoice. 1 here had ample opportunity 

 to study /rwM/s in his pristine simplicity, before he had 

 caught from contact with Mexican hoodlums the, habit of 

 bullying and teasing swallows; and I saw enough of him. in 

 all his changes of plumage, from Ms leafy cradle in the trees 

 to his grave in my collecting chest, to make mc doubt that 

 rh^loclpiix is not' my friend under a forced alias. He has cer- 

 tainly a coat of many colors, which it not seldom suits his 

 whim to change. 



More than a year passed over my head at Fort Whipple; 

 pleasantly in some respects, less some others; and the autumn 

 of 1865 found me fretting with impatience at the delay of a 

 coveted permit from Washington to pass on to other scenes. 

 For that mysterious impulse which makes so many men 

 vagabonds was still strong with me, anel the spirit of unrest 

 had not yet been curbed by experiences that have since taught 

 me the sufficiency of ••forty days iu the wilderness." I 

 longed for fresh fields, and turned my eyes with yearning 

 toward the setting sun, which 1 wished once to see dip be- 

 neath a watery horizon. With November of that year the 

 wish was gratified. 1 had crossed the dreary alkaline desert 

 that separates Apache-land from the fertile slopes and valleys 

 of Southern California, and come down to the "Stilly Sea." 

 At my back, snow-capped peaks aspired to the azure; at my 

 feet, ihe broad bosom of the Pacific rose and fell in endless 

 rbyl Inn ; I was in a garden that seemed like that of Eden in 

 comparison with the scorching, biting sandstke desert so lately 

 traversed. The air was soft and balmy as a May morning at 

 home: vines and fig trees labored" with their luscious 

 burdens, and the How of the linnet's song made music that 

 melted with the current of my joyous mood. The place was 

 beautiful indeed, but there iti 'the offing floated lazily the 

 steamer that was to bear me to San Francisco, whence my 

 homeward voyage by way of Panama was to begin. 



A few days were passed very pleasantly with my excellent 

 friend, Dr. J. G. Cooper, whose name so often appears upon 

 my page as thai of a diligent and successful votary in the 

 cause we share. 1 saw many a bird to which I had hitherto 

 been a stranger, and prepared the last specimens that my 

 two years' wandering across a continent was to yield, Bur- 

 ions no longer, but "California linnets" then, were abundant 

 in this region, and no less confident of man's good will than 

 the adobe finches had become along the Rio Grande. They 

 eaine about dwellings wdlh all the heedless temerity of house 

 wrens; they fluttered along the hedgerows that divided con- 

 tiguous gardens and never hesitated to take their tithe of 

 the fruits that hung SO temptingly in sight. Much as I ad 

 mired aud enjoyed the birds, however, 1 could not hut con- 

 cede that the gardeners had reason to disagree with me, even 

 to the extent of abusing the whole tribe and destroying not 

 a few of them. 



The variety of taste shown by the linnets in choosing 

 then nesting places is remarkable. Dr. Cooper, whose op- 

 portunities of knowing have been ample, mentions so 

 many of their vagaries in this respect as would puzzle the 

 most ingenious wren to exceed. Speaking of the nests, he 

 says: "I have found them iu trees, on logs and rocks, the 

 top rail of a picket fence, inside a window shutter, in the 

 holes of walls, under tile or thatch roofs, in haystacks and 

 barns, in the interstices between the sticks of a hawk's nest, 

 and iu an old nest of the oriole. About houses they 

 always seek the protection of man, as if quite uncon- 

 scious of having made him their enemy. Heermann 

 mentions also, as locations of nests, the" thorny cactus 

 and deserted woodpeckers' holes. The materials are 

 usually coarse grass and weeds, with a lining of hair or fine 

 roots." According to this same writer these linnets are 

 easily kept in confinement, and frequently to be seen caged. 

 under which circumstances, however, their brilliant colors 

 gradually fade. He tells us that they sing all the year 

 round, and certainly those to which! listened in November 

 were as cheery and voluble as ever they could have been in 

 the hey-day of their tuneful lives. 



Both Mr. Ridgway and Mr. Henshaw have left us good 

 accounts of their experiences with these birds; and both have 

 likened its familiar ways to those of the Europeun house 

 sparrow. The former writer has been at the pains to note 

 the varied situations iu which he found nests in Utah and 

 Nevada; and I cannot forbear to continue this subject with 

 one more extract: "Few birds," says this accomplished orni- 

 thologist, "are more variable as to the choice of a location 

 for their nests than the present species, since it adapts itself 



the black-throated and 



Canon, near Salt Lake 



mahogany tree, while in 



jottonwood tree along a 



settlements, however, a 



Is of this species have 



S those described above, and 



e 'odd nooks and crannies' 



they preferred the sa^ 

 Brewer's sparrows; in City Creel 

 City, one was found in a mouutair 

 Parley's Park another was in a 

 Stream- At all the towns or large 

 large proportion of the ind' 

 abandoned such nesting place 

 resorted to the buildings, wl; 

 afforded superior attractions.' 



Numerous sets of burions' eggs which I have examined at 

 my leisure in Washington are easily distinguished from those 

 of" the Eastern purple finch by their smaller size and paler 

 color, which seems even more fugitive, in specimens emptied 

 of their contents. The average burion egg is near the mini- 

 mum size of a purple finch's; though the respective meas 

 uremeuts of the two kinds overlap. They are also more 

 globular, as a rule, tbe difference in this regard reminding of 

 the distinction iu the shape of the parents' bills. A fair 

 specimen measures 0.78x0.56; a narrow one, 0.75x0. ,Vt; a 

 small globular one 0.68x0.60. The ground color is 

 decidedly paler than that of a purple finch's egg 

 is usually found to be, and rather of a dull bluish 

 cast than of the quite greenish tint of the latter. In the col- 

 lection are several specimens which have faded so far as to 

 he nearly colorless, but others, comparatively fresh, and at 

 auy rate' as recent as some of the examples of O. purpvnu*. 

 placed side by side, still show the distinction here maintained. 

 While the character of the marking is the same in both 

 species, the spotting of the eggs of C, fronlaUx is sparser, 

 and immaculate eggs, or those nearly whole-colored, are of 

 more frequent occurrence. The full clutch appears to be 

 five, but many sets of three or four arc taken. 



It only remains to consider the geographical distribution of 

 the interesting bird before us, and that will depend a good 

 deal upon how we take the species. 



The typical/TOHta/i's of Say, as recently restricted by Mr. 

 Ridgway's discriminations, is the bird which inhabits the 

 United States from the eastern foothills of the Rocky Moun- 

 tains to the interior ranges in California aud Oregon, but 

 not to the Pacific slope itself. Both its northern and its 

 southern limits of extension remain to be ascertained with 

 precision. It is somewhat southerly; I doubt very much 

 that it Teaches our northern border in latitude 49 ', and 1 

 have no advices of its presence in the interior north of the 

 tier of Territories represented by Colorado, Utah and Nevada. 

 It reaches our southern border; but where it ends in that 

 direction I do not know. The bird may be found indiffer- 

 ently breeding or wintering in most, if not the whole, of the 

 range here indicated. 



The alleged variety r?w(toct>lpux is staled to be confined to 

 the Pacific, coast region of California, and thence southward 

 to Colima. Quotations of frmttalix from this region are prob- 

 ably referrabletotbis form. 



, 'w><podaeu* lumwrrlwus, which seems to be more decidedly 

 different, is a purely Mexican form, which has never been 



ud over our border, so far as I 

 be this species, and not the genu 

 bon figures for Say's bird; he h 

 received from Mi\ Gould, of Lo 

 from California.'' The frontalis 

 of Bonaparte's writings, cited 



im aware. 11 appeals to 

 ae fmii'jilis, which Audu- 

 viiig drawn an individual 

 idon, and "reported to be 

 f Swainson, and of some 

 from Mexico, is also this 



•eadily to any sort 

 Sacramento they usi 

 generally a 

 nest was placed lush 



a 'hanging-bird' IJct 

 r Tru iltee River, 

 Virginia Mountains, 

 nest of a cliff swallo 

 Lake numerous nest 

 shelves in i 



plae, 

 illy built 



along the ( 



ere found a 



if eaves, aloi „ 



swallow and Say's pewee, or in the crevices on the outside 

 of the tufa-domes, while in the neighboring valley of the 



ed. At 

 ig the" small oak trees, 

 izontal branch, but one 

 , basket-like structure of 

 u the narrow gorge of 

 am breaks through tbe 

 I inside the abandoned 

 ore of Pyramid 

 ong the rocks, placed on 

 th those of the 



form; though Bonaparte had the right bird before him when 

 he originally described Say's frontali» in his "American Or- 

 nithology." 



PINNATED GROUSE IN DAKOTA. 



T^HIS letter dates from beyond the range of the pinnated 

 A grouse, the prairie chieken, or prairie hen so widely 

 known aud industriously pursued throughout many Western 

 States. 



These birds are gradually approaching us in our sports- 

 man's paradise, away up" in this "ultimate realm of the 

 North, but there aTe "none here as yet. We have, however, 

 heard of them following the wheat fields to within fifty miles 

 of us, 



In two or three years our sportsmen wdll welcome them 

 with well-traiued d"ogs to hospitable points, "weslin birds 

 and slaughterin' guns." 



Can you tell your readers, if you have any like the writer, 

 ignorant concerning the matter, how long it is since the pin- 

 nated grouse disappeared from the great trad of half barren 

 lands that formerly spread over the interior of Long Island - .' 



In my boyhood, say forty years ago, i snared aud shot 

 ruffed grouse in Massachusetts, Connecticut and Ohio. 1 

 never saw the pinnated grouse until I became acquainted 

 with them in Michigan a few yeaTS later. They were, not 

 numerous there as compared with Illinois and States further 

 West. 



The occasion of writing to you for this instruction results 

 from a letter now before me, dated New York, Sept. 19, 

 1810. signed Samuel L. Mitchell, and addressed to Alexander 

 Wilson, the well-known American ornithologist, The latter 

 speaks of Dr. Mitchell as a well-known naturalist aud scien- 

 tific man of that day, to whom he had applied fot informa- 

 tion relating to the "pinnated grouse. Wilson inserts in his 

 beautiful volume, with Dr. "Mitchell's letter, a handsome 

 colored drawing of the pinnated grouse, and takes care not 

 to have it confounded with the ruffed grouse, of which he 

 also furnishes a life-like picture. The edition of W r ilson I 

 have to refer to was printed in 1832. 



Dr. Mitchell says: "The birds are known here emphatically 

 as grouse. They inhabit chiefly the forest range. This dis- 

 trict of the island may be estimated as between forty and 

 fifty miles in length, extending from Bethpage iu Queens 

 county, to the neighborhood of the court house in Suffolk. 

 Its breadth is not more than six or seven miles." 



The Doctor says further, that on each side of this rangi i A 

 the "Brusby Plains of Long Island," that is toward the 

 Ocean and toward the Sound, "there is a margin of several 

 miles in the actual possession of human beings.'" 



Also concerning the grouse: "The region in which these 

 birds reside lies mostly within the towns of Oyster Bay. 

 Huntington, lslip, Siu'ithtown and Brookbaveu" * * "* 

 Their territory has been defined by some sportsmen as 

 situated between Hempstead plain on the west and Shmiio- 

 cock plain on the east." 



He goes on to say the "popular name of these birds is 

 heath-hen;" and relates an amusing anecdote of a bill in- 

 troduced into the New York Legislature in 1791 "for the 

 preservation of heath-hen aud other game." The Speaker or 

 chairman of the Assembly, when he read the title to the bill, 

 read it "heatben and other game," and mistook it for a 

 friendly measure relating to the Indians, 



The law was made to protect the heath-hen from April 1 



