NA TURAL HiSTOR V. 



227 



the red squirrel of the East. Those inhab- 

 iting this part of the country look larger. 

 E. S. B. is right when he says the reds 

 whip the grays. One time, while still hunt- 

 ing I, heard a great rumpus in the leaves 

 nearby and witnessed a battle between a 

 red and a gray squirrel. The red had de- 

 cidedly the best, of the fight all the way 

 through. It was a sharp tussle and the 

 fur flew for a few seconds, until the gray 

 started to run. The red had hold of him 

 and hung on as far as I could see. I have 

 hunted gray squirrels a great deal, and 

 have always noticed, that they never get 

 very near their red cousins. 



D. L. Ingalls, Albany, N. Y. 



In conversation with a friend the other 

 day the subject of lightning came up, and 

 I remarked that I had never known of but 

 one case where it struck a beech-tree. My 

 friend said it struck beech about as often 

 as other trees but never left a mark on the 

 trunk, so far as he had observed. The only 

 mark would be a hole through the foliage, 

 close to the trunk, which seemed to have 

 been burned through, as the leaves would 

 be withered and red. I have noticed the 

 withered red leaves many times but never 

 attributed it to lightning. Who knows 

 whether this is a fact? It is a new theory 

 to me and I have tramped the beech woods 

 more or less for 45 years. 



Chippewa. 



I was much interested in reading, in 

 March Recreation, the article on ' The 

 Pewee," by Anson Evans. It was well 

 written, but, I fear Mr. Evans has things 

 mixed a trifle between the pewee (Sayornis 

 phcebe) and the wood pewee (Contopus 

 vireus). From the description of the bird, 

 nest and eggs, I judge the bird to have been 

 Sayornis phcebe and not Contopus vireus. 

 All oological collectors know Contopus 

 vireus does not build its nest under bridges 

 and lay 3 white eggs. The description 

 would suit Sayornis phcebe, except, that 

 the latter lays 4 to 6 eggs which are pure 

 white. Occasionally some are taken with 

 reddish brown spots at the larger end. 

 L. Ernest Marceau, Dubuque, Iowa. 



My experience with the blue jay has been 

 similar to that of Frank L. Randal, of 

 Winona, Minn. When jays are plenty, 

 songsters are scarce. Two years ago I kept 

 the jays killed off, around my house, and we 

 had a great number of song birds; but last 

 year I did not molest the jays and in early 

 summer we could every day see rascals rip- 

 ping up the nests of other birds and scat- 

 tering them in all directions. We did not 

 have one songster where we had 10 the 

 previous year. I have all due respect 

 toward the Professors; but there are some 

 things they don't know. 



Nimrod, Portage County, Wis. 



I am much of Mr. F. L. Randall's way of 

 thinking, about the blue jay. There is lit- 

 tle shooting in our part of the country. 

 Chickens are getting scarce; there are al- 

 most no quails, and last winter, rabbit 

 shooting was a failure. There are, how- 

 ever, men here who wear bristles and use 

 ferrets. Have heard of 2 or 3 men getting 

 from 150 to 200 rabbits in a day. They claim 

 they use the ferrets to drive the rabbits out 

 and then shoot the bunnies. I think they do 

 shoot them, with a 2 bushel sack and a club. 

 Zip, Rochester, Minn. 



I was much interested in the article in 

 regard to rabbits swimming. It brought to 

 mind an incident that happened about 2 

 years ago. I was hunting ducks on the 

 banks of the James river. I had bagged 6 

 ducks and was just starting for home when 

 a jack rabbit came out of the brush on the 

 other side of the river, jumped in, and 

 swam across to my side, just as easily as 

 any dog could have done. That was the 

 first time I ever saw a rabbit swim and I 

 have only seen one do so since. 



L. K. Harvey, Huron, S. D. 



About 5 years ago, while a party of us 

 were camping on Fairhaven bay, in Con- 

 cord, Mass., my brother shot 2 large water 

 snakes, each measuring over 5 feet in 

 length. On examining them we found in 

 one snake 56 small snakes, and in the other 

 62. These small snakes averaged 8 to 12 

 inches in length, and were of 2 different 

 species. We kept them alive a number of 

 days but they would not eat. I had a num- 

 ber of them preserved in alcohol. 



Wilfred Wheeler, Concord, Mass. 



Wolves were bad in this locality last win- 

 ter, and killed a number of cattle. Follow- 

 ing is a list of stock known to have been 

 killed, and names of the owners: Charles 

 Stough, 13 head; John Arnold, 6 head; J. 

 A. Carr, 3 calves and one donkey; Shee- 

 han Bros., 23 head, and it is said that James 

 Graham and others on the Sweetwater lost 

 heavily. — Wyoming paper. 



Last year I shot an albino yellow ham- 

 mer. Have you ever heard of one being 

 killed before? I gave this one to a college 

 in Wisconsin. The professor of ornithol- 

 ogy there said it was the only one on rec- 

 ord, so far as he knew. 



Alvin Jones, Jr., Polo, 111. 



One of the keepers in Druid Hill Park, 

 this city, told me he saw a pair of wild 

 pigeons feeding in one of the oak groves 

 in that park, October 31, 1896. 



Wm. H. Fisher, Baltimore, Md. 



Four albino deer have been killed in this 

 locality in the past 10 years. 



B. Bristol, Traverse City, Mich. 



