54 



RECREATION. 



Had the amphibean songster found that 

 turtle already dead, or had he swal- 

 lowed him alive? I am aware that all 

 stories of previous unobserved animal 

 characteristics, if told to the average man, 

 are listened to with a most exasperating 

 air of incredulity, and are generously dis- 

 counted. Being encouraged, however, by 

 Col. Mather's observations, I venture to 

 lay my humble note before the brethren. 

 W. H. Nelson, Washington, D. C. 



A TINY FIGHTER. 

 I am a reader of Recreation and ad- 

 mire it very much. I am an ardent lover 

 of nature and spend all my spare time in 

 the woods and fields with God's creatures. 

 I noticed in your February number some- 

 thing about poisoning English sparrows, 

 which brought to my mind an incident 

 that occurred last spring. It was a case 

 wherein a sparrow met his match. There 

 is a small wood at the edge of town that 

 is a favorite resort of mine in the spring 

 and summer. Several times I had no- 

 ticed a humming bird sitting on a branch 

 of a large oak. Every time I passed there 

 it was sitting in the same place, about 10 

 or 12 feet from the ground, out on the 

 end of a large limb. I noticed that every 

 time I came near, it would flit around in a 

 nervous, worried manner, and as soon as 

 I left, it would go back to its perch. I 

 felt sure it had a nest near, but I could 

 not find it. One day I lay down under 

 the tree and kept still. The humming bird 

 flitted off as usual, but when I did not 

 move it soon came back. I had not 

 waited long when an English sparrow 

 came in sight and lit on the limb a few 

 feet from the hummer. Like a flash the 

 little fellow darted at the intruder and for 

 several minutes chased him all around 

 the oak, in and out. All at once the hum- 

 ming bird made 2 quick, fierce darts at 

 the sparrow, which flew violently against 

 the trunk of a tree and fell to the ground 

 stunned. As soon as the sparrow fell the 

 humming bird flew back to its perch as 

 if nothing had happened. I went over and 

 picked up the sparrow and both of its 

 eyes were pecked out. Both eyeballs were 

 punctured as if someone had stuck a 

 knife in them. 



Louis P. Zimmerman, 



Union City, Tenn. 



A GROUSE IN DOMESTICATION. 

 My father has a tame ruffed grouse. He 

 savs it is the only one he ever heard of 

 living in captivity, and many other sports- 

 men say the same. This bird, being 

 chased by a hawk, flew through a farmer's 

 window. The housewife caught it and kept 

 it confined in a cage about 6 months. 



Last fall the farmer presented it to my 

 father, who took it from its small prison 

 and placed it under our back porch, which 

 is quite high and is enclosed in lattice 

 work. My father is careful in feeding 

 the grouse, speaking quietly, so as not to 

 frighten him. When father scatters the 

 buckwheat the grouse comes to father's 

 feet and picks it up as tamely as a chicken 

 would. When my father drives to the 

 country he brings home twigs of birch and 

 poplar, and these the grouse seems to en- 

 joy, eating off all the buds in a few days. 

 We put an evergreen tree, left from Christ- 

 mas, in his little home and he roosts in it. 

 One day the servant girl let him out by 

 mistake. He took refuge in a corner of 

 the back fence. Father took him from 

 there and .returned him to his place of 

 confinement. 



He is a fine large fellow, with a ruff 

 about his neck which he ruffles up when 

 frightened or while he struts around. My 

 father intends to get a little game chicken 

 for a companion for him so he will not 

 be lonesome. He is an object of great 

 curiosity from the fact that those who 

 claim to know declare the grown birds 

 always die if kept in captivity, and that the 

 young, even if hatched by a common barn- 

 yard fowl, scamper away as soon as the 

 shell is broken. 



Mary V. Towner, Muskegon, Mich. 



MUSKRATS NOT CARNIVOROUS. 



I see that A. K. Boyles, of Salina, Kan., 

 and J. M. G., of Williamsport, Pa., have 

 dug up that old rat controversy. I should 

 not feel like standing sponsor for what a 

 rat or a rabbit might do in Kansas, for 

 Kansas is likely to produce freaks of ani- 

 mal shape as well as human and that 

 poor bunnie that ate the skunk, was in 

 all probability an animal freak evoluted 

 from the peculiar conditions that have ex- 

 isted a long time in bleeding Kansas. 



As to J. M. G.'s assertion that I know 

 as much about muskrats as a hog does 

 about peddling Bibles, I will not assume 

 to say how much a ^Pennsylvania hog 

 knows about peddling Bibles, but possibly 

 about as much as J. M. G. knows about 

 muskrats. I have trapped muskrats at 

 different times since I was a small boy in 

 the Buckeye State, up to the present -day. 

 I catch and kill them all the year round, 

 here at the hatchery, to keep them from 

 digging the dams and banks full of holes, 

 and to keep them from eating the fish in 

 the ponds. I am not guessing at what I 

 say or taking it for granted a muskrat will 

 eat meat because several men have told me 

 so. I have taken the trouble to shut a 

 muskrat up in a box, placing both meat and 

 fish at his disposal. The result was he 

 simply would starve to death, but would, 



