220 : RECREATION. © 
z 
after right. I don’t think even a hog 
would act same as some of them do. I am 
happy to say you reformed me. Before 
I read ReEcREATION I thought I could 
hardly live if I didn’t get eggs, but shall 
never get any more. : 
David Pratt, Freeport, Me. 
It would not be at all wrong for you to 
collect a few good specimens of each 
species of bird and mammal in your local- 
ity for your own study. It is not that 
sort of work that exterminates wild species. 
It is the egg hogs and the skin hogs who 
collect in large numbers and sell them.— 
Ep. : 

While walking with a companion one 
day in the early part.of September I no: 
ticed a hole, evidently once the home of 
a woodpecker, in a telegraph pole. Just 
then a squirrel popped its head from the 
opening and seeing us, instantly popped 
in again..We could not get to him by shin- 
ning the pole, so we went home and got 
a pair of climbing irons. With these l 
managed to reach the aperture, but my 
hand was too large to enter it. My friend 
could not use the irons, but by climbing a 
tree near the pole and walking out on a 
branch he reached the hole. Putting in his 
hand, he drew out, one after another, 4 
young red squirrels. They were plump 
little fellows and old enough to climb 
about in a slow, uncertain fashion I car- 
ried them home in my hat and installed 
_them in a hollow stump, after making a 
bed for them of cotton. I feed them 
shelled nuts, which is their only food, and 
they scamper through nearby trees at will. 
They are now nearly full grown, with big 
bushy tails, and are so tame they run 
all over me. 
W. P. Kennard. 

CLARK’S NUTCRACKER. 
My first and only acquaintance with this 
interesting bird was made in the spring of 
92, near Bald mountain, at an elevation of 
: about 8,000 feet. I was spending a few 
weeks in that vicinity with my father who 
had been writing me all winter about some 
large, black and gray woodpeckers that 
were quite abundant near his cabin and I 
was puzzled to know what bird he meant. 
When I arrived, on May 15th, he told me 
they had disappeared within the last week 
or 2. We spent a week looking for them, 
and on the 22nd our search came to an 
end on the top of a high mountain 4 miles 
North of our cabin. There my father 
pointed out to me a bird, and said: “That 
is your woodpecker.” 
A shot from my gun, and a fine male 
Clark’s nutcracker lay before me. How 
the blood tingled in my veins as I gazed 
on what was to me a new bird. He now 
lies in state in my collection, prized above 
all others. 
W. L. Burnett, Fort Collins, Colo. 

HOW THE GROUSE DRUMS. 
Mr. D. I. Arnold wishes to know by 
what method the ruffled grouse performs 
his drumming. 
He selects a perch on some little emi- 
ence, log, or knoll, at a proper distance 
from where the female is nesting. When 
time is called he raises himself, stands more 
on his toes than his feet, brings his small 
but powerful wings in front of his breast 
with such force and such a. quick motion 
that there is a cushion of air formed be- 
tween them. The action of the wings on 
this cushion produces that well known 
sound which is called drumming. 
It is truly wonderful how birds of the air 
will utilize the air for their purpose. There 
is the bull bat. It is marvelous what a 
loud report or boom he will make, although 
he is a small bird, his long drawn bellow 
can be heard a mile. He produces this 
sound in the following manner. He as- 
cends to an altitude of several hundred feet 
then takes a dive toward earth; he puts on 
all the steam his wings can produce until 
he has attained great speed, then he turns 
slightly upward, bringing those long, slen- 
der wings under his body in such a position 
that they form a tunnel. The air passes 
through this tunnel with such force that 
a loud bellow is produced. 
Chas. S. Martin, Augusta, Wis. 

A YELLOWORABBER, 
On April 4th one of my colored ten- 
ants came to me and said he could show 
me a “red rabbit.” I shouldered my gun 
and went with him. We followed a nar- 
row path through the woods until my 
guide stopped, and, pointing to a yellow 
colored object under the top of a fallen 
tree about 30 yards distant, exclaimed, 
“Dar he is!” As the place was surround- 
ed by a thick growth of switch cane which 
would have made a shot at a running rab- 
bit difficult, I shot the little beast in his 
bed. He was a fine 434 pound male, about 
the color of a yellow cat and his eyes were 
the same color. His hair was as coarse as 
that of a coon and very long. 
He is now being mounted by Fred 
Kaempfer and will be ready for return in 
6 weeks. 2 
ca Robinson, Robinson Springs, 
iss. 
The rabbit was kindly sent to me-by 
Mr. Kaempfer, on the order of Mr. Rob- 
inson. It is now on exhibition inthis of- 
fice and is a real curiosity. 
EDITOR 



