264 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[Nov. 2, 1883, 



lions being made about, ipe, &roups'of men were here and 



there carrying sails,, masts 0: . ton number of Sinai] 



hoots lying mi the beach, and - were busy preparing 



gaff , that is an instrument with n s 6ul wooden handle and 

 an iron spike, etc., at the end. Others carried puns down 

 to their boats. The women mtil children bad turned out. 

 loo, and wire assisting the OMflc itdinbitsniK all till it I'.i, , 

 beaming' With extreme joyfulni 



As I wondered nl this commotion, my landlord informed 

 me Unit our proposed expeditions were "up" for the present, 

 that t in- ice-had pushed in &ha bay and was covered with 



"su ilrs." and dial, all bands were turning out to kill some. 



Tie kindly ottered me a place in the boat with himself and 



bis brother. It must not be thought bliQt wllal 1 am now lo 



describe is tin- re^flar seal fishery for which Nevt i i at 



is 1'ainous. Thn regular fishery is curried on by steamers 

 and largevessels out in tin ocean, lo tlie north of til ' In id 

 iu wide-extending fioea, but frequently a "ortibn of this 



large seal liet ■ Hoe bee a detached and drifts into the 



tans, bearing its seal freight along. Such a detached body 

 bad now come into the Plaoentia Bay. 



Though a strong breeze now blew landward we launched 



without danger out through the surf, for the ice bodyou the 



outside afforded a sMter. I tarried my gun, which -was 



lil ■ "i throwing' heavy shot, and my companions pro 



vided me with a gatT. Wc also i ome provisions, 



blanket-,, hauling' ropes, dag poles and other things needful 

 And then with loud cheering some of the little boats hoisted 

 sail, and we soon followed suit, heating out to the edge of 

 the ice tioc. 



clung the tee it wi 9 the aim of each boat, to get as 

 far into the body of the tloe as possible; and W6 catered 

 Ill w ide seam that led on to three or four lakes, ex 

 fending nearly a mile out into the thick jam. Wheu we 

 came to a heavy "pan" barring us from another lake, we 

 used our joint strength in pulling thcbOS upon tin sani 

 and running it across, in the outside of these "ice-ponds" 

 we found a swarm of eider duck, and among these 1 plied 

 my -hot, They left the lake in the most pelpless fashion, 

 some of them flying shoreward, Others simply becoming 

 stupefied, and perching a short distance out upon the ice. 

 After I hey had left the pond f pursued them upon the ice, 

 thinking they would rise and fly, but they actually allowed 

 me to go up and strike them with my gun. This of course 

 was not sport, SO I bad no heart Yoi' it; but everywhere 

 around me 1 saw a seal hunter With his gaff, dealing a blow 

 to one of the helpless birds. "Wo never waste shot on 

 these fellers," they had told me when 1 began firing' at them 

 in the lake; "We'll yet 'em wiri the gaff '"bumby.'"' 1 pro 

 tested that the gatf was a barbarous wav; but niv companion 

 truthfully observed that I lolled them 'for the' sport, they 

 killed them to eat. 



Some of the crew bad now pushed out a mile beyond upon 

 the ice. and looking with my glass 1 could see. a. number of 

 dark objects moving slowly about the held. Some of these 

 were in groups on a large' pan, others were scattered about 

 singly ; and 1 saw two or three other* far lsugi-r Ihan any 

 of the rest, each of these alone. 1 ii formed my hosts cif 

 :What I saW, ami after a good deal of fixing, leveling, study 

 ing and sweeping, I succeeded in getting one of them also 

 |i' ,"' ihc-.c things llirough the gloss. We bad no doul it that 

 they were seals, and tafeiug out '"Hag-pole, two gaits and my 

 gun, we set out to Where we saw them. We now could see 

 - some of the other crews busy at work striking, then 

 " skulping" upon the .-pot. 



The ice was he i that you might bring an elephant, 

 bearing a _:nii. i. 1 eevr, all over the bay. Yet, some- 

 times a heavy swell would heave under, pas's along with a 

 Sound as if. some-giant, powerful beyond limit, were breath- 

 ing. Then the gTei mi would crack, crack, and some- 

 times a wide seam, ten feel across, would open, closing ngain 

 as the -well went past, Sometimes the unwary . , liuntet 

 traveling heedlessly upon the ocean ice, when the under. 

 i heavy, may step from pnq i-iVxv of the opening rem 



towards the other, just as the blench i.-. opening, lllisa he- 

 si ep and full in. Then before he can get out of the water 

 the rent will sometimes close and crush him — crush him as it 

 sometimes crushes the strongest ships getting inton like rent, 

 We found OUT way out slow enmesh as hni'.e mounds ot 

 ice. resembling Mils, had been formed by die floe grinding 

 outside against the cliffs, and sometimes you came "upon a 

 deej i ■ ii bole, where, getting down, the chance of getting 

 '! i : -in indeed, j'diad the ordinary heavy win- 



ter bOots On, but the rest had "skin boOtS," that is. the seal 

 -kin untanned made into a sort of moccasin with a leg 

 coming up to the knee. With these the fisherman would 

 pass over the most, "gUtSSy" places without slipping, While 

 1 made my way along only with the greatest difficulty. For 

 the first time my dogs found them- l\es upon an QCI u iec 

 pack, and whined and seemed timorous, and instead of 

 questing over the field as they "would upon the land, foi 



lowed at my heels timorously. An hOUI'U Haie;. lliii.ugh the 

 piercing wind, which, however, by the exercise >l rapit 

 walking upon the rough ice, brought us in the niiel -t of the 

 seals, where we found two other crews busily at work. 



VACATION. 



THERE is a great, diversity of opinion in regard to tile 

 subject of vacation as to w*ien is the best, and most eu 

 joyalile ,-eason for those who have i . - .'I.- ar, their dis- 

 posal and who arc obliged by force of oir< omstt I 



it all tit once. With those "who Ei llov rtiwd to Un- 



fashionable hotels and "flit, as it weii," from Saratoga to 

 the seaside, wear their best clothe.-, and come back at thl 

 expiration of their two weeks, having had an "immense 

 and chawming time," being obliged nevertheless thereafter 

 to economize on cigars ana lunch to strike an average, wi 

 have nothing to do. But to those who haves genuine uf- 



faction for FoHicsi ASTD .SlKBAM, With a fori night's relaxa- 

 tion of business cares each year, we would Bay, wait until 

 the latter part of September or the first of October, If 

 your general health is good you can work through the hot 

 weather in July, August and middle of September with- 

 out much discomfort, and when weary and exhausted after 

 a scorching; day, yon may board anyone of tho numerous 

 boats, and after ii trip down the bay, return to the city re- 

 freshed. There arc so many pleasant, afternoon and even- 

 ing excursions sit the. command of the JSew r Yorker during 

 the summer months, that life in the city during hot weather 

 is not the burden it used to be. Leaving in July or August, 

 the chance,- are that on reaching your destination, you will 

 find the weather there nearly as warm as that you have left, 

 and be compelled to keep shady during the middle of the 

 day, forexbO$tt« totheaun is just as uncomfortable and 

 dangerous in the country as it is anywhere else So you 

 fret and fume uud perspire your time away until you return 



to And the thermometer still among the nineties. I find 

 that I can work through the hot weather better than idle 

 through it; yoiidonol feel itsoHtuchif your mind is em 

 ployed. September is drawing towards its close, the davs 

 vary, bOW hot. now cool, awakening the migrating instinct. 

 A clear, cool, bright day arrives, a promise what autumn has 

 in store, it i- a positive pleasure to breathe tin- air, and you 

 long for the woods, another soorcherand they are forgot- 

 ten—so It continues until, the ecpiinoclial past, you find a 

 light blanket a necessity if yon wish to sleep comfortably. 

 Now you begin to realize that there is a something iu the 

 bracing air that tells you the tim< lus arrived. 



The hotels (if you must go to a hotel) are not crowded, 

 as the thin-blooded guests have left ere Ibis, and you find 

 fori si and -ircsmiaml lake in perfection. You may leave at 

 sunrise, tramp until .-unset, and enjov every breath you 

 draw, roumay float on the clear water, catch pickerel or 

 perch, or lazily loll and enjoy the enchanting and ever 

 changing views, a sharp October frost sets the woods in a 

 blaze of glory. Paint at first, it gradually brightens until 

 the culmination surpasses your powers of description. 

 Your hounds will find deer on the mountains, and the 

 clear, thin air will throb with their resounding bay. The 

 partridge is waiting for you, and the squirrels lire at work 

 cutting -oil the chestnut burrs, and making the woods alive 

 wiih lii-ir chatter. This is the time for a vacation. After 

 two weeks of such life (and how quickly they pass) you re- 

 turn, improved in body and mind, with' no moiv hot 

 weather to steal your required appetite awaj . or placue you 

 with sleepless nights. Dick. 



New YoiiK, Oct. 84, 1888. 



THE PINE GROSBEAK. 



Piukohi envdeator, VieilL 



BY DR. ELLIOTT COUES. 



Tl I K earliest account of the pine bullfinch to which I can 

 refer the reader who may be anxious to start even with 

 the history of the bird is that" given by the great naturalist 

 Edwards, Who figured it on two plates, in bis famous "Nat- 

 ural History of Birds," 170*1. The species is said, however, 

 to be included in IbeFaunsi Suecica of the illustrious Swede, 

 published -at Stockholm in 1746, and again in 1761. These 





two quotations are the basis of "Loxia cnudwtm- L.," 1758, 

 and in the twelfth edilion of the Systema Naturae, 1766, 

 reference is made to a paper in the Transactions of the 

 Swedish Academy, 1757, p. 139. 



Very shortly afterward, in 1760, Brisson published an 

 original and independent description of the same bird, under 

 the name of the "Gros-bec de Ganada"— -'naMtaitt vn Can. 

 i«'i'." In- says, "und< misses sunt ad J). Anbn/, qui D. de 

 Reaumur iono dedit." Thus the American bird came in for 

 notice almost as soon as the Kurnpean. Brisson gave a recog- 

 nizable figure of the male, as well as one of bis usual elab- 

 orate descriptions of both sexes. He called it in Lat 



tbruustes canadensis— a nan 

 by those who attempted 01 

 American from the Europea 

 Another early synonym 

 Count I Buffon— a term w 

 be 



•ed in later times for use 

 ado believe distinguish the 



i found in the Dur-bec of the 

 lich became the usual French 

 in- grosbeak or pine builitnch 

 did the English one. Among the more prominent later 

 synonyms may bo noted /.".'•/•/ flamingo of Spamnonn, Pint- 

 cola ptbra of Vieillot, and Loxta ps&tacea of Pallas. As will 

 be seen from a glance at any full list of synonyms, various 

 other names have been imposed; but they arise either from 

 the assignment Of the species to different genera, or from 

 unsuccessful attempts to subdivide it into two or more, 



Brchin having no fewer than Jif of these nominations, none 

 of which are worth serious attention. No point- in the 

 synonymatie history of the species appear to require discus- 

 sion. :is the bst of names is perfectly plain, although quite 

 extensive. 



Though it is not my intention to treat the pine bullfinch 

 at any length in its character of an Old World bird, a few 

 word's respecting it : . general distribution in Europe and Asia 

 will not be entirely out of place. What I have to say is 

 mainly derived from Dresser's elaborate article upon this 

 subject. "This," as he says, "one of the most strikingly 

 beautiful of the Arctic birds, inhabits the high northern 

 poiliou- of both the Old and New World, only migrating 

 southward when driven down by the rigors of the Arctic 

 winter. It has occurred in Greal Britain, hut must be 

 looked on as one of the rarest of the stragglers that occa- 

 sionally visit our shores." The British authors are nearly 

 unanimous inattestmg its extreme rarity in the United 

 Kingdom; but various authentic instances of its occurrence 

 i la-re, among some open to grave doubt, are recorded by 

 llarting andDiess-er. It is common in Scandinavia, breeding 

 in the high north and wandering southward in winter. 

 According to Degland and Oerbe. it is a rare and casual 

 visitor in France, several authentic instances of its occur- 

 rence in that country being recorded, though Dresser finds 

 none from Spain or Portugal, and only doubtful ones from 

 Italy. It is said never to straggle so far south as the Black 

 Sea. To the eastward it. extends across the continent of 

 Asia, and has been found as far south as the Ainoor country. 

 In the Himalayas it is said to be replaced by the Pinieola 

 siibltemac/taiana. 



So little has been learned of the uidification of the bird in 

 America, that for this portion of my narrative 1 turn also 

 to the Work just mentioned, triad to transcribe so reliable 

 and interesting an account: 



"The mode of uiddieaiioti of this bird was unknown until 

 discovered in 1S5.", by the lale Mr. Wollcv; ;ind the parlicu 

 !ars were fir.-t published by Mr. QowiUton in the following 

 year(Bggsbf Brit. Bird-. -.M ed i.. p. 2i0. " pi. lib.*). Quot- 

 ing Mr. Wolley. Mr. Ilewii,i,n says: 'As the davs grew 

 longer I eagerly listened to the beautiful clear music of fiie 

 bird in more than one locality; and one snowy morning 1 



saw a hen watching me so very tine lernedry from a tree, 



that I climbed up to try to catch her in mv hand, ft was 

 not till I nearly .onched her that she flew off. as though She 

 thought I was earryihg the joke too far. bljt in a Way that 

 convinced me she had no nest. I had made arrangements 

 for working another part of thncounlW; but I lefts trusty 

 Lap in strict charge to \ isit a Spot in Finland where I had 

 ascertained that in previous yens the bird had bred. On 

 my return to that neighborhood at the end of Summer! I 

 watched day after day for the arrival of my faithful Lap. 

 The nigh is wen- already be omingdark, when one evening 

 I saw the well-known flgutrc in :i boat approaching our 

 strand. I had scarcely -shouted wcl ome before hi.-wnllet 

 was in my lumd and my English friends and myself were 

 in triumphal procession lo the house, [first made its ap- 

 pearance a grim wolf's head: then Same forth some reindeer 

 caflflies; next there was extracted an unknown nest, then a 

 skinned pine grosbeak; and at la-t were carefully unwrapped 

 from a little case the wished-f or eggs, and thote theylay 

 in all their fresh-discovered beauty before us. At midsum- 

 mer a nest was found with four fnily Hedged young about 

 a hundred yards from the spol where the former m-.-t had 

 been. It is now in the British Msi-nim. Kxn-ruallv ii is 

 made of remarkably open work of twigs and root-, generally 

 in very long nieces. In the center of the platform there is 

 an inner bedding of barklcss fibrous roots, with a little of 

 the hair-like lichen which grows so abundantly on the trees 

 in the Lapland forests.' 



"1 am indebted to Prof. Newton for the loan of a copy of 

 the late Mr. Wolley's notes on the breeding of this species, 

 from which I extract the following description of the first 

 nest obtained by him: 'The neM was found bv Piety, the trust- 

 worthy Lap, in company with Mikei Sadio. It was on the 

 evening of the Second Helun.isii (/. ,., 87th of May) that they 

 went to KottaMello, a little above Vli-Kyri',onthes;imesideof 

 the river. The place was a Utile kind of dell where there 

 were groups of small spnices. Piety first saw the bird fly 

 up from the ground with some sticks or nest lining in its 

 mouth. It remained quite quiet and Mill, and tliey were' 

 some time before they found the nest, apparently com- 

 pleted, but still without eggsi. and placed about two fathoms 

 from the ground in a young spruce three fathoms high. 

 The branches near the nest, which was not quite touching 

 the bole, were thin, short and open. Several days after- 

 wards the nest contained one egg. at the next visit there 

 were two, and several days later there wen- four. The nCRt 

 and eggs were now taken, and it was found that the eggs 

 were slightly ssit upon. Bui first the old bird was snared, 

 horse-hair nooses being fixed into the bole of the tree so as to 

 stand out over the nest. . . . The Sadio lad says that hesaw 

 at least ten old nests thereabouts, and Piety says that he 

 has also seen nests in similar situations, but never anywhere 

 else; i. c, there is always some, favorite corner where they 

 are placed year after year. At midsummer the lad found 

 another nest, about a hundred yards off, containing four 

 young birds Scarcely ready lo tly. lie took it, and it is now 

 in my possession. The nest which contained the eggs was 

 pulled to pieces by the children iu his house at Sadioi' The 

 one before me is made externally of an extremely light net- 

 work of thiu trailing twigs laced into eacii other. " One of 

 tin -■■ twigs completely encircles tie nest and goes half way- 

 round it again, appearing to be about twa nty-eigbt inc as iii 

 length. This network ot twigs is suddenly changed into a 

 compact beddine of tine bare roots mixed with a "few spiigs 

 of hair-lichens, wbicli form together almost a Separate nest 

 inside the outer network.'' 



. According lo Mr. Wolley's notes, further cited by Mr, 

 Dresser, the nests tire nearly a\ ways made in spruce" trees 

 about twelve feet from the ground'. Others than thai just 

 described differed in being lined with fine grasses and tree- 

 hair, one wsis made entirely of line trailing branches or run- 

 ners, chiefly of binnoniborealis. The usual number of eggs 

 appears to be four. Several clutches described by Dresner, 

 all from MuOnioniska "arc pale blue, with ihi- odntesl 

 ereenish tinge, rather darker in shads than those of the com- 

 mon bullfinch, and an- spotted and blotched with faint pur- 

 plish underlying shell markings and dark brown .-iirbiee 

 spots, [n size thej average about l .-,; by ;,. inch.'' 



The nest and eggs of the pine bullliiieb in Ann-iiea s.-.-m 

 to have; been first noted by the -am.- author, lo whom my 

 readers are so much indebted alnady. The nest was in 11 

 tree ;md contained -ix eggs. It was di-i overed :U Musqun-h, 

 New Brunswick, July 0, 1863, by Mr. Dresser's brother Ar 

 thur, who saw both the parents, and described tin m so pajs 

 licularlv that no doubt remains respecting their identifica- 

 tion. They resembled those from Lapland, but were a little 

 smaller, measuring only ^S'by -,;, inch; the markings less 

 and the spots duller. According to Dr. Brewer, no positively 

 identified eggs of this bird from America were know n to 

 exist iu collections iu 1SJ7-I: but a ne-t found at Calais, 

 Maine, by Mr. Boardtban, was identified with little doubt, 

 though the parent was not seen. This was placed in an al- 

 der bush in a wet meadow, about four feet from ■ Ik- ground, 

 and contained two eggs "ii"t distinguishable from those of 

 the European enueteitor." it is somewhat si matter of sur- 

 prise that the investigations conducted by several nalu 

 ralists of late years in Alaska have not produced the desired 



.specimens, sis' the lard is yei'y Common in lhat countrv, 

 where it undoubtedly bn ed- 

 it has tallen within my own experience lo find pine gros- 

 beaks at home for ihe -uimner, .and catch a glimpse of their 

 bearing during the mo.-t interesting period of their lives. 

 This happened lo me many years ago, whin 1 paid a Hying 

 visit to Labrador. 1 saw birds of this kind on sevcrsd occa- 

 sions; once 1 happened upon a pair which 1 was sure had a 

 nest near bv. because thev acted so demurely, They were in si 

 lilllc thicket that grew in a sheltered pls.ee where the wind 

 did not blow strong enough to disconcert the insects iu the 

 least, and so, though I plunged in sevcrsd limes, each lime I 

 beat a quicker retreat, vanquished Sad disheartened; it was 

 simply impossible to scai.-h torn nest in that maelstrom of 

 mosquitoes. So, after watching the pair sit mv leisure from 

 a vantage ground where the wind blew fresh, Isccured them 

 both with my gun, and was glad lo leave the spot. The 

 birds displayed no fear at all, nor did they even seem dis- 

 concerted by my staring; very likely, neither of them had 



