184 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[April 8, 1880. 



I pondered over the moral question of the sport, but 

 somehow the sorrow was sure to creep intrusively into 

 nil"'. II ii. iv however come homo to mo a lit- 

 tle closer than to other gunners, whose love for the pas- 

 time has sprung up within a few years, Mine has been 

 lifelong, and those scattered bevies now panting their 

 melancholy requiem below in the hollow were the com- 

 panions of my boyhood. I cannot forget their connection 

 with my happy but errant days, when, a reckless youth, 

 how far would I wander into the daisied and clovered 

 meadows of summer time and listen to the incessant 

 'Bob White,' and 'Ah! Bob White,' frequently to be 

 lulled to sleep beneath a cooling shade by the perch pond, 

 and awakening' to hud the float which I left bobbing 

 upon the. stream gone, line arid all gone. The recollec- 

 tion of those pleasant, halcyon days steal in upon me 

 now, as their many fanciful and sportive scenes have 

 Jong been obliterated by the flight of civilization. The 

 woodman's axe has ceased for many a long day in the 

 Chestnut groves, and the heavy trunks which bore their 

 mantling shade have been taken out one by one from the 

 woodpile, until their last flicker lias vanished from the 

 broad hearth. Ah ! so long ago, it seems so long to me. 

 Indeed, great aveniles now stretch and cross the heath 

 where I used to ramble. 1 cannot forgot them if I would, 

 Oscar, flow 1 would find the quail's nest in the spring 

 time, go to watch it every day : and finally, to go some 

 hazy summer and find all gone, mother and chicks. 

 They were companions in whose courts I were ever will- 

 ing to sojourn, were it possible, even now and then ; and 

 then there were wild schoolmates, few were they indeed : 

 but they, never hoping to become the possessor of a gun, 

 would set the snare for their little necks along some 

 hosky border, and wring them, too, when the noose failed 

 to strangle them. They are nearly all gone, sorrowful 

 to say. I love the hectic flush of autumn — her pallid 

 skies ; her scumbled copse and woodland, and even the 

 weird music of her tinkling leaves. The killing of a 

 few innocent birds is a secondary matter with me. I am 

 sorry I shot him. 



" Well," added he, with an atheistical swing of the 

 head, "if we all thought down here the way you do, 

 why,' the fact is, we'd starve. It's bread and water for 

 us, though we cannot, for the time being, forget the 

 Bport attendant. There's no one willing to deny that 

 fact, whether he pursues the quail, woodcock, grouse, 

 ducks, geese, hares, deer, or bears, if necessary, the pur- 

 suer cannot forget that the act is accompanied with 

 sport. Now I have, >is you know, many nights to spear 

 eels in the creek, and the thought has often struck me 

 that it was not the nicest way to catch a fish— to drive a 

 spear through him the wav I do, and leave him squirm- 

 ing in the boat ; hut Harry. I'm thinking of my break- 

 fast, it's a necessity, man. Now as you have broken the 

 spell by your first quail, look quick and mark down every 

 bird that rises after we get over the fence and into the 

 open buk v.l .: i ihio-. or the fellows will beat us sure : 

 they have fired full thirty shots now. We could not very 

 wed mark down any in the cedar patch, Guess you don't 

 feel well this morning, though you should ; it's a beauti- 

 ful morning. We'll start from this corner, Harry, and 

 trv all aloug the fence and then quarter the field ; dare 

 say we'll get a few among the heaps of wheat. Brace up, 

 a full hag is a glad heart to the sportsman. "Eight are 

 enough for me for a day's sport, though some meu whom 

 I know would shoot 'eight hundred in a day if they 

 could be found." "You're a queer coon, Harry, I do be- 

 lieve that if you were to meet a bear in the forest, or a 

 Bengal in the jungle, you'd try to persuade him from his 

 hunger sooner than satisfy him with the smell of pow- 

 der." , , . 



" Enough, Oscar, don't you remember how some of 

 the woodcock which we shot last July could not be used 

 on account of the putrefaction which set in despite all 

 our efforts to save them? Have you never read how 

 the curse of the Almighty came upon the Israelites when 

 they gathered too many quad, and how they stunk 

 and" bred pestilence? I'm uot preaching now, understand 

 nie correctly. I'm simply giving an illustration. Some 

 men shoot twenlv brace of quail in a day and cannot use 

 the half of them, and if they do not find their way into 

 the trash barrel, they are offered at "so much" per 

 head, and not unlrcqiiently do they turnout to bemarket- 

 Bhooters. I have known" such cases. Its a disgrace, to 

 be plain and explicit upon the subject, there will be a 

 limit ere long to a day's shoot. Let the dog in there and 

 I'll show you that 1 can kill a quail.'' We proceeded, 

 making first a circuit of, and then quartering Bennet's 

 lots knocking o\ er I he stragglers irom their retreating 

 flight, and anally reached a piece of swampish land, a 

 first-rate woodcock ground for mid-summer shooters. 

 We'll catch a rabbit or two here if the dog is smart 

 enough. Walk down there a short pace. I put up a 

 woodcock in the middle of winter about where you 

 stand." 



" Indeed, a queer time of the year for the long-billed 

 beggar to be in this climate. Did you shoot him? 



" No, I waited too long. I wasn't mistaken though, it 

 was a Woodcock. 1 ' 



" Well, honestly. Oscar, I'd rather shoot them in Janu- 

 ary than in July. Even evading the moral and humane 

 yiew or the subject, there's far, far, more sense in it if 

 the birds could, or if they were so constituted as to be in 

 season at the period." 



" You're wrong, Harry ; they are as fit to shoot m 

 July as in October, November," or later on, and there's 

 more of them, too. Where can you find woodcock in 

 November? Answer that." 



" Answer ii. 1 will, then, and I emphatically affirm 

 tbat'auy man who could shout the mother of a brood of 

 woodcocks wnen she has, like other birds, her own family 

 cares, would do a .meaner act. There's now. oool 

 to shoot iu summer— no more than quail are fit for the 

 slaughter. Thev breed nearly at the same time ; they're 

 not half grown ;' but every tilth bird is matured : they are 

 lazv or languid would be a better word ; the blood is yet 

 mifkv in tlieil ' veius ' ; " ld auy mim who allies forth in a 

 scorching sun, and has a headache in half an hour, as 

 did three of as, cannot be prompted by any love for the 

 sport, and I cannot see, for the lite of me, what pleasure 

 there ' 



irseli and J 



; half to death. 



Mfolest then 



Until the lotb Of September, I'll 



concede that for, aMfrom that time on until lato in a 

 rusflms October, you 11 hud them fat. lull of vigor and 

 obiects" worth the skill of the sportsmen. Then they 

 have a chance for life, but shoot him m July, why. it's 

 butchery. " Find -woodcock in November," yousay. You 



don't want to shoot him then. Haven't you quail, 

 grouse, myriads of ducks, hares, etc. Fishing is a gen- 

 tleman's pastime for the summer months." 



" Well. I'll have a talk with you some other time upon 

 that subject. I want to get a rabbit, and then we'll make 

 tracks for home. I'm going to take the boys out on the 

 bay this afternoon, and we must have dinner over by one 

 at the least." 



We got the " bunnie/' and having half an hour to loi- 

 ter on the way. Ave made tracks homeward. As we trod 

 the moist, sombre sod, by leafy coombs which bordered 

 the swarnps, the scenery became picturesque. The warm 

 rays of the sun had dissolved the white frost into mil- 

 lions of pearly drops, and had also brought out myriads 

 of piping robins and screaming blue-jays. Presently we 

 gained the hill-top, and far off could be seen the tiny 

 white gables, among them, Bfll Simpson, and there also 

 towered, like great ghosts, the three poplars. 



Constantly did we hear the soft, distant crack of the 

 fowling pieces of the other parties; now threo or four 

 smothered bangs and then a lull, while the faithful dogs 

 were in quest of other bevies. 



Proceeding languidly toward the poplars an incident 

 occurred which I think of sufficient importance to chron- 

 icle, never remembering recording it before. We flushed 

 a bevy of quail whose instinct, led them to our right quar- 

 ters, where grew some cedars, leaving us in an awkward 

 position on account of their close proximity. I marked 

 them down in a hollow among a patch of sweet ferns 

 and bay-berries. Coming upon the spot where I had 

 surely marked them down, strange to say, the dog failed 

 to make a point, though we made him quarter every 

 yard of it. My friend insisted that they had ran off after 

 alighting, but I entertained different thoughts, and order- 

 ing off the dog proceeded to trample the low scrub, my 

 companion standing ready to shoot. It was not long be- 

 fore a brace got up, and then a single bird exactly from 

 my feet. Satisfied that the buds were there, I remained 

 at my work, which was amusement to me, until I had 

 cleared the patch of eight birds, which number I was per- 

 fectly satisfied did not exceed the quantity which arose 

 at first. 



The birds were evidently a portion of some bevy that 

 had been previously fired into that morning, and having 

 been put up the second time became frightened and with- 

 held all afliuvia, leaving an insurmountable task for the 

 dog. 



" Well done, Harry ; I'll inform the boys of the fact ; 

 but we are behind time now ; we must hurry.'' 



Chaining the dog we were soon at the poplars, later to 

 he Bure. 



Bob saluted us by holding up a rabbit by the ear, cut- 

 ting such a figure — his prey so small and be so volumin- 

 ous— that I am enforced to laugh even when I think of 

 it, to this day, 



"Well," proceeded Oscar, "count the bags, boys. How 

 many, you, Henry?" "Eight." "George?" "Ten." 

 "Bob?" "Six and a rabbit (still by the ears)." "Will?" 

 "Ten," "Charlie?" "Five." "Fen?' "Six." "Audi 

 eleven and a rabbit." 



" Good. And now eat like wolves, and Will and I will 

 get the boat ready and sail on the ducks." At the infor- 

 mation the boys set up a jollification, the horn blew for 

 dinner, and they separated. 



Hakry Fenwood. 



LINNEAN SOCIETY. 



AT the meeting of the Linnean Society of New York, 

 held March 6th. the annual election of officers took 

 place, resulting as follows : Mr. E. P. Bicknell, of River- 

 dale, New York City, was reelected President ; Mr. B. F. 

 Pearsall, of Brooklyn, was chosen Vice-President ; Mr. 

 C. H. Eagle, of New York City, Secretary ; Mr. N. T, 

 Lawrence being reelected Treasurer. Since the last re- 

 port, printed in these columns,several interesting meetings 

 have been held, and papers presented, notices of some of 

 which follow : Mr. Robert Lawrence, of Flushing, gave 

 a list of some additions to his cabinet during recent 

 years, among which the following were recorded from 

 near this city : Oyster catcher (Ilatmatopus palliatus), 

 New York harbor ; yellow, and little black rails (Porzana 

 noveboracemis and jamaicensis) ; red phalarope (Phala- 

 ropus fulicarius), and the gyr-falcon (Falco sacer), all 

 from Long Island ; black vulture (Cathartes atralus), 

 from Sandy Hook, and also the great grey owl {Symium 

 cinereum), from the Adirondacks. 



Mr. Pearsall read a paper on the breeding of certain 

 warblers at Grand Menan, and the Eangeley Lakes, Maine. 

 At Grand Menan the most common warblers were the 

 yellow-rumped (Dendrcsca coronata), and the black-poll 

 (D. striata). The nests of these species were found on 

 the small outlying islands, while that of the black 

 and yellow warbler (D. maculosa) was found only on 

 on the main island. The yellow-rumps chose for the lo- 

 cation of their homes the edges of clearings on the bor- 

 ders of some old wood path, rarely breeding in the low 

 swampy growths so congenial to the black-polls. By the 

 3d of June, 1878, it was found that many of the young 

 of the former were already half fledged, though eggs 

 were also found far advanced in incubation. With the 

 latter, ten days later, incubation had just commenced, 

 At Rangeley Lakes, on June 23d, a nest of the mourning 

 warbler was discovered, containing four young birds just 

 hatched. 



A paper read by Mr. Win. C. Wyckoff treated princi- 

 pal) v of the silk worm (Sericaria mori), Many interest- 

 ing "and curious incidents in the mythological history of 

 this useful insect were brought forward, followed by 

 quite an exhaustive review of the silk and silk-worm in- 

 dustry, both ancient and modern. The value of other 



worms of the same family as silk producers was also dis- 

 cussed. 



A paper by Mr, T. S. Roberts, of Minneapolis, Minn.. 

 was read by Mr. F, Benner, describing the eccentricities 

 of a pair of pluebe birds (Sayornis fusrus) in their choice 

 of a nesting place. A striking instance was given of a 

 pair of these birds choosing for their nesting site the sec- 

 ond floor of an unused house, only accessible from a 

 broken window pane on the lower floor and after passing 

 through several rooms. Here they attempted, though 

 unsuccessfully, to construct their nest on a narrow strip 

 of wood nailed to the wall, covering both it and the floor 

 with quantities of moas and mud. In this connection 

 Mr. Pearsall spoke of a nest of this bird built on the 

 horizontal limb of a willow, after several unsuccessful 

 attempts had been made to place it in a shed. 



A. communication from Dr. A. H. Atkins, of Locke, 

 Mich., read by Mr. Meams, spoke of the occurrence 

 there in January of the red-bellied and golden-winged 

 woodpecker (Centurus carolinus and Colaptes atiralus), 

 also the robin. 



At the meeting of Feb. 21st Mr. Ingersoll spoke on the 

 distribution of the oyster along our Atlantic seaboard. 

 The habits of this animal and its enemies were alluded 

 to, and various inter&stiug points in oyster culture 

 touched upon. Remarks on this topio elicited the fact 

 that both black and green oysters— not shells— were of 

 occasional ocourrence. 



At the same meeting Mr. Bicknell remarked on the 

 development of ferns. 



A paper read by Mr. N. T. Lawrence on the greater 

 long-beak (Macrohamplms scolopaoaus, Say) will appear 

 in the Bulletin of the Nuttall Ornithological Club ; so it 

 will be unnecessary here to more than allude to the fact 

 that the author brings forward some new points bearing on 

 the relations between the bird and M. griseus, which may 

 assist in clearing up the uncertainty which has long at- 

 tached to them. 



The migration of birds was treated by Mr. C. H. Eagle, 

 in a paper dealing primarily with the facts of this well- 

 known phenomenon, and incidents bearing upon them, 

 The paper provoked considerable discussion. 



Mr. Bicknell reported the following items from River- 

 dale bearing on the advance of the season before its re- 

 cent relapse : The flowering of the wild plants indicated 

 the season to be over a month in advance of that of last 

 year, and between two and three weeks ahead of the re- 

 markably early season of 1S78. Of trees and plants eight 

 species were in flower before the 1st of March, and up to 

 the present time fourteen have been observed. The liver 

 leaf (He2'>atiea triloba) was. in flower as early as Jan. 11th, 

 and skunk cabbage (Symploearpus) the last week of Feb- 

 ruary. Tadpoles were to be found at almost any time 

 during the winter, and frogs (Band clamitans) noticed, 

 and peepers {Hyla pinker ingii) heard, in every month. The 

 first Bnake found was on Feb, 29th (Eutcenia sirtaliti), al- 

 ways the earliest. Immature individuals of what were 

 unquestionably Spekrpea bilineutus — a salamander — 

 were found every month ; numbers of newts (Viemycty- 

 lui viridescens) were secured Jan. 4th. Other salaman- 

 ders found were Plethodon erylhronotiis, Feb, 15th, and 

 Amblystoma punctatum was abroad Jan. 25th, and 

 spawning March 7th. The phcebe bird (Sayornis fuseus 

 arrived March 5th, nearly two weeks earlier than usual. 

 Mr. Pearsall reported having seen tho bird on Long 

 Island on the 22d of February. 



A CHAT ABOUT OWLS. 



I HAVE always had a weakness for owls, and scattered 

 over the pages .of my note books for the last twenty 

 years are many anecdotes relating to these birds, for I 

 have shot and stuffed, trapped and petted owls in many 

 lands. One of my first reoorded adventures with these 

 birds was as follows :— 



In the belfry of a village church in the east of Eng- 

 land, a brown owl had reared its young. The church 

 stood in an old park, near a ball where resided (he old 

 Squire— lord of the manor and owner of the whole vil- 

 lage, Everything around was antiquated and venerable. 

 Again I see, in my mind's eye, the ivy-clad oaks, the 

 mossy fences, the park strewn with decaying timbers 

 that no one was allowed to touch. No boy dared to pluck 

 a daisy or chase a butterfly within sight of the hall, and 

 one would as soon have thought of shooting the fallow 

 deer that roamed the park as familiar as sheep, as to rob 

 a bird's nest ; for everything, living or dead, was pro- 

 tected, as individual property can bo in England alone. 



At last a dare-devil boy returned from sea, and one of 

 his first pranks was to rob the owl's nest, and I— misera- 

 sinner ! — I bought the two young ones of him for a shil- 

 ling. The outrage was discovered by the sexton ; the 

 Squire was notified ; the whole village was in consterna- 

 tion ; every one pointed to Jack ; he alone could have 

 done such a thing. Jack was found, interrogated, and 

 owned up. Then came my turn I — how weU 1 remember 

 the carriage driving to my door. I think I see the dear 

 old Squire, thin as a lath, face and hair as white as 

 snow; again I hear his voice, almost inaudible with ill- 

 suppressed excitement—" Where are those owls ?" Shade 

 of Washington I I couldn't tell a lie, I hadn't a chance, 



