Jan. 11. 1888.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



467 



ZEUGLODON, AN EXTINCT CETACEAN 



THE editorial in Forest ajcd Stue.vm of the. 14Ui iust. 

 on the sea serpent, reminds me Of the skeleton of a 

 zeuglodon, seveuty feet Ions, which I obtained in the 

 Etgcfeue or older tertiary of Chirk county, Alabama, many 

 years ago. It was on the plantation of Judge Creagh, and 

 at from one to six feet below the surface. The Judge told 

 nu that when lie first went into that region, those bones 

 were so numerous on the. surface of the soil as to be in the 

 w ay of its cultivation. Hence, many of them were burned. 

 Judging Irom these remains, he thought some of the animals 

 must have been more than one hundred feet long. I had 

 dug up ;i vertebral column, fifty feet long, when the ver. 



ime displaced, and while we were searching for 



inuation, J received a note from the Judge, staling 

 that his man had. while plowing near his house, fouud a 

 skeleton near Ihe surface, which would be more easily oh- 



::•■ we were after, six miles di 



left Ihe fifty feet and instead found a continuous vertebral 

 column and jaw botrcs, seventy feet long. They were 

 shipped to New York, and are now in the Warren Museum 

 at Boston. 1 published two articles about them in SilUman's 



and also notices of them elsewhere. These 

 H the attention of a Mr, Koch, a German, who 



and obtained a large number of the bones 

 of several zeuglodons, took them to New York, 



and made an animal 125 feet long, which he ex- 



hiljjted a, (he H;.h;m-h rg:> :: The fraud 



was soon exposed, and the Koch collection of the bones of 

 b idon is now in a museum at Berlin m Germany. 

 B; B. BncKi^r. 



Acsris, Texas. Dee. ail. tsse 



of Fouest xsd SriiEAvi, I would say thai two, male and 

 female, were killed in Ravcnswood this summer. They 



had been chased into a cherry tree by the due- ! the 



night, and remained there until shot. Several were also killed 

 in Bowery Bay. or Stehiway's during the spring, i 

 female had ten young ones 'in her pouch. Mr. Eve 

 Smith, in "Maine Bird Notes," states that the robin ge 

 ally has five eggs in its nest. In my experience of birds' nest- 

 ing, extending over about twelve years, I have seen but two 

 or three nests containing live eggs* four being the usual num- 

 ber, at least in this locality.— 'Fosscm. 



use, X. Y.. Tan. 4, 18.38.— "While out rabbit, shoot 

 (ng on New year's Day, 1 shot and killed an opossum about 



three miles south of Weedsport, on the New York Central 

 Ft. 15. A farmer told me that there was one killed there 

 List year in the same piece of woods in which 1 killed this 



,'' here do they eoaie from?— F. A. Morehouse. 



Wgodside. L. 1., January 8, 1883.^There was an opos- 

 sum killed near Woodside, L. I., winter before last, and 

 another supposed to be in the same neighborhood. Early 

 last spring I fouud one (which had at some time lost about 

 hall' of its tail) lying dead about one hundred yards from 

 myba.ru, It appearedto have been mangled -by dogs. A 

 short time after I heard of tv. o having been killed at Bowerv 

 Bay, L. I., the skin of one of which, 1 was infoj 

 been given to Harry Hill, of your city, for mounting. 1 

 have lived here more than sixty years, but have never known 

 of opossums being found here until about three 



; oon end gray squirrels used to be plenty here, but 

 none of hit,.', years.— D. T. Bn.\e:,\w. 



A Sii.ua* Tussle.— Cleveland, Dec. 30, 1883.— Editor 

 n: The- morning following the cold snap of 



the Hith rust., I was surprised to see a couple of male cow 

 blackbirds feeding about the house in company with the 

 i:y past, European sparrows. 1 would have 

 thought but little more of this unusual circumstance had no) 

 a shooting friend on the ISth inst. brought me number of 

 cow birds" that he shot that day on a hedge row, in company 

 with a flight of gray snow huntings (Puetroglumu 

 The weather at this time had moderated, averaging above 

 .the freezing point. A curious experience this same fowler 

 had on that day. Passing along the south side of a wooded 

 bill, hi? attention was attracted" by the gambols of a pair of 

 chipping squirrels. All at once one of them gave the usual 

 cry of alarm and dodeed into bis burrow; the other mounted 

 the upper side of an inclined tree trunk, and hardly reached 

 (ten feet from the ground before an active screech owl, hawk- 

 road daylight, seized him, and struggling with his 

 prey, fell to the ground. At this moment, to the surprise 

 of my friend, a pair of red squirrels made their appearance 

 and commenced an attack on the pigmy owl. A lord of 

 No. 8 shot from a Parker breech-loader finished the happy 

 family. It is to be regretted that the fight was not allowed 

 to terminate in the usual way— Da. E. Steulim;. 



A Scakuow Plan.— Troy. N. Y., Jan. 1, 1883. — Eil.it, „■ 

 : StniAUt: Apropos the sparrow crusade I would 

 [j : That tack city infc.ed by them 

 should have fl sparrOVt club e>r society which would make it 

 a point of obtaining eggs in preference to the bird; which 

 would give boys a chance to make money without the 

 danger attendant on gunpowder in Inexperienced hands, 

 besides being more humane, and at the same time ridding 

 us of the pests. Boys have a natural instinct for robbing 

 bird nests, and when (hey find that they can combine 

 pleasure with profit, they will leave the singing birds alone 

 Slid go for the sparrows. In regard to the egg money, I 

 should say that about six or eight cents a doffen would be 

 enough to stimulate them lo great aehie ■•ements in Ihe nest- 



robbrogline. If the clubs should desire to pay bounty on 



the birds, 1 think that they offer more for females than for 

 two cents apiece for females and one cent foi 

 n-uFs.—O, B. 8. 



JiPAKtESB Pheasants ix OiiEGOs;.— Vancouver Barracks, 



W. T.. Dae, 4, 1883.— Editor F-iivst n„d Slnuiu: The jap- 



phi -ants which were, introduced into Oregon four 



years si uce are known to have bred. Last week one was 



Killed on this side of the Columbia River about a mile below 



Vancouve; nd 1 ■ ; young female) has been mounted. 



Two birds were seen coming awoss the Columbia Kiver— here 



He wide— and being thought to be blue grouse 



. i oil ibly a mate, escaped, so there 



i least oar Japanese phea'sam in Washington Tcr- 



''.vcy of young birds weir M,n ihe past summer 



! : the! importation wfts set free four years ago. — T. 



fa$ m(d 



GAME SEAS' 

 A comprehensive statement Of tbe garni lav j t merlca will be 

 found in the i i lurnal Cor December r ana u, 1882. 



diviuuals and game claps are requested to inform us of the enact- 

 ment of new local Laws a n : pi changes that may be made tu the taws 

 of the several States and Territories. 



A DAY WITH THE GROUSE. 



THERE'S joy in brown Oetober. Up through the alders 

 the cock springs, a ruddy rocket, wtlistling like the 

 merry jingle of silver sleigh bells. A snap shot into ihe 

 alder top ahead, a feather floating down n woojtaiid vista, 

 "Hie oj, f : ory is complete, as Dash 



comes running in, his mouth full with Iho red-brown 

 beauty. 



Out on the wide marsh your dog comes to a dead point by 

 an oozy creek. "Sonipcfx-aipe!" up dip a brai 



e r away in their drunken flight. Bane! bang] 

 thud! thud land you lift your ha! after a rforious double 

 shot, the west wind coo's your brow and plays through your 

 hair, and you think God for life and health, keen 

 true hand' the blue sky and the bright sun. 



Away in the woodlands is a sunny glade. The white 



clad birch, bride of the I the lull slopes. On 



fb e,', v i: I ive towers the pi no j below, where tfii b ' 



tinkles down the run, nestles the alder. See! your pointer 

 halts, snuffs, swings his nose in air, then crouching crawls 

 up the hill side. At a thick clump of young spruces he 

 points. Soon the tip of his tail wags in uncertainty, hemffs 

 to right and left, then warily crawls, step by step, through 

 the thicket, his belly almost dre ground, his 



foot falls soft and velvety as a eats. You know the game 

 and their tricks, and with both barrels full cock run round 

 to the further side of the copse. 



There is Dash's head peering out of the thicket, motion- 

 less, on full point You carefully step forward. The 

 great ailettCC Of the forest oppresses you. You can hear 

 your heart beat. Whir — r-r-r-r-r-r: Iiiko a peal of thunder 

 it rumbles through the glen. Beyond a stunted fir a flash 

 of brown aed gray bursts into air. You fire a snapshot 

 into the thick branches, and thrjugh an opening ahead 

 downtumbles a grand old cock grouse. Inrning halfa do/.en 

 somersaults iu his slanting fall, ami striking tin- e i . , 

 ground with so heavy a thud that he bounds into air again 

 and rolls down the' slope. 



Aha! my friend. A joy tills your sportsman hearl 

 greater than victory over ruddy coek or wily snip , 



give. 



You have laid low the feathered king of the forest; shot 

 him faiily mid manfully, a good flying shot, over a dead 

 point. 



One day in early November 1 diove late and leisurely out 

 of Portland. .Maine, that ••beautiful city by the sea'' of 

 which Longfellow Inis sung. 



it was a "glorious, Ind.ian summer day, The winds were 

 asleep, the clouds at rest, a bright sun shone our of a clear 



blue -sky and. the maples and birches glowed red and gold 

 among'. he evergreen woods. 



In the straw behind the wagon scat nestled my good 

 old pointer Dash, ns staunch and careful a dog as ever drew 

 on game. -My horse struck a brisk trot and we rattled 

 merrily along. 



My object was a day's woodcock shooting, and 1 had 

 reasoned myself into the belief that I should strike the lost 

 "' :ht of this uncertain bird. 



soon reached the first cover, bitched mv horse to the 



histled to Dash, and plunged into the alders an 1 



ver and back again did I hunt but 



odcock could Dash find. Two more 



■u. but i hey were silenl and deserted a ■ 



woodcock had gone south, and 

 . were now furnishing sport to 

 m- in Massachusetts and Connecticut. 

 of woods Dash madegamc. By the 



swtod ahead, I knew he had struck a 

 , so I hastened and went on abreast of 



time to miss a grouse that rises from his point in thick 

 cover. Dash dram ps arid stiffens into another 



point. Up gets another grouse in the very thick tol 

 pines. 1 lire a snap s'.iot more by ear tli in eve. but this is a 

 lucky day and my bird falls stone dead. ' Now we work 

 along the narrow strip of woods in guest of the bird f 



missed. Dash works slowly. He trots ahead, pan 



around, snuffs the- air, runs ahead a few steps, stops, lifts 

 up one fore-leg trembling, and then crawls on again. I keep 

 abreast of him in the open creek. At the very end of the 

 strip of scrub pines Dash stiffens out into a point. The next 

 moment a noble grouse steps out beyond the forth st tree, 

 and, hiking wing, Hies across ih„ run like a duek directlv 

 over my head. Ah! what a rare open shot at this foxy 

 bird! 1 file, and he teeteis down on Inclined plane au'd 

 strikes the wet rushy snipe ground, dead. 



I drive on to Hanson's, whose house sits on a rocky knoll 

 that juts out into the marsh and overlooks the vast sulty 

 plain. Here 1 get a glass of milk, eai me lunch, and have a 



fl lod rest while my horse is munching his oats. Driving home 

 stop and hunt a gamy-looking bit of woods. Dashstrikee 

 - e. grouse and works on this scent slowly and 

 cautiously full quarter of an hour before he comes to a 

 point. 1 keep some twenty yards lo his light and abl 

 of him. The bird rises in front, of Dash, his whir sounds 

 like rumbling thunder iu the. stii! evening woods. He cuts 

 across me from left to right. 1 catch but a glimpse of hiin 

 through the pine tops and fix*. A moment's silence, then 

 "whack" oQ to the right. What was thai? Jt sounded 

 like some one striking a board fence with a club. 1 hasten 

 in the direction of the sound. There is the board fence,; 

 there is Dash on a point, and there, just through the rails, 

 lies the grouse wing-broken. A dainty little club was he to 

 slrike a fence with. 



I drove home over Ihe freezing ground tire 1 and happy. 

 My dog hid fo'Dld and pointed six" grouse. 1 had shot them 



"ft 





birchi 



never a spt-ut of w 

 covers we ran noon 

 the lies!. Ths 

 the birds i was in 

 mv companion? in : 



In a level palel 

 stealthy way he c 

 fresh scent of grotje 

 him. 



At a bunch of alder bushes he stiff ens into a point, and 

 a moment, after a running grouse booms into the air some 

 thirty yards in advance. 1 (ired quickly ; down she tumbled 



d a moment after 1 heard her wings beating the death 

 tattoo on the ground. Cramming in a fresh cartridge, and 

 calling Dash to heel, f leisurely advanced to pick up my 

 bird, when to my astonishment she rose and flew away as 

 vigorously as ever. 



My snip risi w« so great that I stood and gawked at her, 

 rd never thought of tiling. She Hew about a hundred 

 yards and lb iusomi bushes outside the woods and close to 

 a house by the CO! Iside "I'll have her now surely.'' 

 thought I, "so working Dash very close, not permitting hiin 

 , ra iver twenty yards ahead, I advanced. Just, where 

 1 marked down the bird, Dash suddenly comes to a stiff 

 point. The Scrubby bushes came about up to his breast, 

 ids head, back and tail were stretched out into one stiff line 

 just above the bush tops. 



Fearing the bird might run again I circled round ahead of 

 Dash and then went on in the line of his point, but no game 

 got up. Puzzled, 1 retraced my steps toward Dash. There 

 stoud my good old pointer, rigid as a statue- carved from 

 marble, pointing directly at me. 1 advanced slowly lo- 

 ward him. There crouched the grouse in the bush under 

 his very nose. 1 put out, my hand and picked her up with- 

 out, resistance. She' had a fatal wound in her neck. 



I (trove on to a long strip of cover; through it ran a wood 

 road. Dash comes to a point on my right, then a running 

 grouse whirs up and Ufes across the wood rord on a diago- 

 nal. 1 miss bio w ith my first buttumble him with my s'ee- 

 Ond barrel, a ragged heels-over-head tumble, so ludicrous 

 that 1 laugh outright 



On to the scboolhOu.se cover, I hunt this thoroughly, 

 though a thick, disagreeable patch, but never n noi 

 there. At the further end, near ihe railroad, 1 lose Dash 

 amid the thick spruces. I whistle to him In Vain, then I 

 call aloud. 1 hear a whimper and a spring wiihiu ten feel 

 of me in the close cover, and the grouse- hu was pointing 

 booms across an opening in front, a clear shot. 1 cut' her 

 down cleanly, while a great mass of feathers float in the 

 sunlight and drift slowly down tie 



marsh and hunt up the inns for 

 ,-uipe; not a sniff of one is to u€ had. Dash soon leaves the 

 wet run and hunts along a thin strip of scrubby pines that 

 fringe, ihe'. creek. He makes game and I follow him, just in 



all over his point in rieht shots. The- best, grouse shooting 

 of my life. The six birds weighed right pounds. The 

 largest, an old cock full ruffed, weighed a pound and a half. 



A few days after I dropped in on my friend \Y. s.. whose 

 popularity as Mayor o! Portland is only equalled by his 

 fame a, a goo 1 fellow, fl delightful conversational 

 thoroughgoing sportsmau. To him 1 recounted my day's 

 sport. 



• - Six grouse in eight shots over ivmiis,'' he repeated, "the 

 best shooting round Portland this fall, and you'll never do 

 it again." And sure enough I never h ive. 



I never did it before citucr, nor anything like it, although 

 how many times I have tired eight shoes at grouse, without, 

 touching a feather I would not like to mention. 



If a man cau Ijagone groiue in three sliois every day in 

 the week, he is a crack shot, and cau hold his own with 

 anyone. One shot in live is good, and somehow long-experi- 

 ence has taught me to have a. respect for a man who- can 

 shoot a grouse Hying anyhow, regardless of the number of 

 shots fired. 



One reason of my exceptionally good luck doubtless was 

 tli.it 1 felt fully up. to shooting: brim lull of life and health. 

 Another equally important reason, 1 was able to take every- 

 tbiug I asily ami leisurely all day. 



But ot one thing I am sure, and many subsequent days' 

 spoil have proved it. 



A Haiti can have good grouse shooting on the wing and 

 over points almost anywhere in Xew lenghud. The prime 

 requisite is an old. thoroughly broken, cautions and staunch 

 pointer. For the rest, keep well up with your dog, for the 

 wily game wdl sometimes run and take to wing, just when , 

 your dog is coming to a point, utterly regardless of his feel- 

 ings or your own. I well know that, it is a great temptation 

 to see a grouse silling on the ground or in ;f tree, especially 

 after you have missed a half dozen shots flying, but 1 am 

 sure, no sportsman shoots this noble bird sitting but he is 

 sorry for it afterward. 



Of course 1 do not speak of the grouse found in the deep 

 WOOds of Northern Maine or Canada. There they tire so 

 tame thai if is almost impossible to drive them to take wing, 

 and the tourisl is compelled to bowl over on the ground as 

 many as he wants for the camp pot. 



But anywhere in Maine, whore chaired land is the rule, 

 and forest growth the exception, where the cover is in -mad 

 patches, along the runs and up the hill skies, and where the 

 grouse is compelled to frequently tike wing and make long 

 Bights from one cover to another, in such districts the 

 sportsman, with his staunch old pointer, may have through- 

 out our mellow autumn time as royal wing shooting as tills 

 continent affords, at the king of American game birds— Che 

 ruffed grouse. TtfAnaTBAlro, 



MARTHA'S VINEYARD HEATH-HENS. 



\ CORRESPOHDBNT, in a late issue of your paper 

 1 \. asks 

 Vineyard. 



who evidently is ion and birds. He will, 



the matter right, in 



obtained froih Lord 



as Martha's Vineyard 



In 1042 he sent bis only'son, 



pastor. Tin: elder Mayhew soon after came to Edgartown 

 and became Governor of Martha's Vineyard and the adja- 

 cent islands. Some years afterward Gov. Mayhew sold the 

 Island of Naushon one of the Elizabeth Islands) to Waitt 

 Wiuthrop. I: remained in the Winthrop family some years 

 and was afterward sold to a etntleriian named Uowdoin, 

 who was afterward Lieut. -Governor of Massachusetts. Mr. 

 Uowdoin succeeded in getting a law prohibiting shooting 

 on his possession except by special permission. ' This was 

 it more ago and the law is now in force. The 

 island (Nnushoii) has since passed through a number of 

 hands and is now the property of John M. Forbes, Esq., of 

 Boston. It is well Stocked with deer, but we doubt if there 

 are any heathihens there now, although some wer 

 from Martha's Vineyard and placed on the island many 

 years ago. 



So we are led to believe that "&. C. C" did not land upon 

 Martha's Vineyard but upon Nauahon. Edgartown has for 

 Sty years bean, until tbe decline; of whaling, a 

 thriving whaling peat, many ships being OWncd there "and 

 fitted lor voyages all over the world. Now about the 

 ... They are not the pinnated grouse or praiciu 

 chicken. They are a larger bud ami lack the bags of 

 yellow skin on Ihe fide of the neck which the male grouse 

 invariably has. At present the htath-heu is found nowhere 

 in the world except on Martha's Vineyard, and possibly on 



