302 



RECREATION. 



plained the cause of the report I had heard. 

 To my question, Al replied, 



"He blundered into a trap set on a house, 

 chewed the stake off, started off with the 

 trap, and got fast in a brush heap. I heard 

 him smashing around, and when I got my 

 eye on him I cut loose from the boat and 

 laid him out the first shot, though he was 3 

 rods away." 



The coon was evidently an old resident. 

 His teeth were well worn, and one of his 

 tough feet was minus 2 toes, which had 

 long ago been taken off by some trap and 

 were now healed perfectly. 



We skinned enough rats to get bait for 

 coons and minks. For these, traps are set 

 in the mud or water's edge and a portion 

 of muskrat is posted on a prong over the 

 trap, which, when staked, is ready for 

 any hungry or inquisitive animal that may 

 inspect the lure. 



Forty-one rats, one coon and a mink were 

 the sum of the roundup. I. had guessed 

 we would catch 50, while Al, more con- 

 servative, had placed the number at 35. A 

 week spent on Nagley and its outlet afford- 

 ed 201 rats, 7 minks, 5 coons and 4 skunks. 

 The last named we caught in deserted fox 

 and badger dens in the hillside, by covering 

 the trap with dry. sand and placing a por- 

 tion of muskrat in the hole below the trap. 



Having trapped Nagley's, we packed up 

 and moved to Crooked lake, which is much 

 smaller, but affords good trapping while it 

 lasts. 



On the way we stopped to visit the own- 

 er of a skunk pen. It was the second 

 season of his venture and he was by no 

 means enthusiastic. He said that not only 

 did the adults devour the young, but that 

 animals in confinement do not acquire a 

 good growth of fur. 



"I sold 60 skins last December," he said, 

 "which were so thinly furred, as compared 

 with those taken in their native haunts, that 

 I was obliged to take 30 per cent. less. If 

 the animals do not fur better next season, 

 I shall give up the business." I have since 

 learned that, meeting with the same disap- 

 pointments, the experimenter has sold out 

 and given up his task. 



FOREIGN BIRDS FOR THE UNITED 



STATES. 

 A great German naturalist says it is a 

 universal law of bird life that all migratory 

 birds go from their equatorial limit toward 

 the poles to breed, never in the other direc- 

 tion ; that in migrating they never cross a 

 large body of water except where their re- 

 mote ancestors in former geological ages 

 passed over dry land. He gives as an in- 

 stance that the nightingale in crossing from 

 France to England does not cross at the 



narrowest part of the English channel, but 

 at the point where there was formerly 

 connection between the 2 countries. 



Captain Nathorn, in searching for traces 

 of Andre, the balloon explorer, on the 

 Liverpool coast of East Greenland, found 

 the European robin redbreast, Esithacus 

 rabecula, "breeding in incredible numbers" 

 on the cliffs of East Greenland. A glance 

 at the map will show that this brave little 

 bird must pass from Norway to Greenland, 

 following his ancient path, when he could 

 have crossed continuous land, except the 

 narrow passage of Baffin's bay, if he fol- 

 lowed the coast Southward to America. 



In my opinion, we have here the key to 

 the failure of the few attempts to acclimate 

 migratory birds in America. The birds fol- 

 lowed the Atlantic coast Southward, were 

 caught in a trap on the South end of Flori- 

 da, and lost at sea. 



The remedy is an international acclimati- 

 zation society, with headquarters at Tam- 

 pico, Mexico, a deep water port on the 

 verge of the tropics, close to a high and 

 temperate tableland, and, above all, with 

 a continuous land connection North and 

 South. The vast majority of European 

 and Asiatic migratory birds breed on the 

 Fundas, vast frozen marshes of Northern 

 Europe and Asia. These marshes are cov- 

 ered with berries in the short summer, 

 and they are preserved under the early 

 snow until the next spring, when the birds 

 live on them and raise their young. 



The birds successfully imported to Port- 

 land, Oregon, have been seen in Central 

 America in winter, but return in spring. 

 Here again there is unbroken land North 

 and South. The character of every bird 

 we would import has been known for ages ; 

 the blunder of the European sparrow need 

 not be repeated. I saw lately in a New 

 Zealand paper a resume of 25 or more 

 years' experience in bird acclimatization. 

 It regretted the importing of the European 

 sparrow, greenfinch and blackbird ; all the 

 rest, and those were many, were considered 

 desirable acquisitions. 



Of the enormous number of European 

 and other song birds imported every year 

 to New York, Recreation could easily give 

 us interesting statistics. I got what little I 

 could find out on this subject in English 

 papers. The starling, robin redbreast and 

 Pekin nightingale are imported to New 

 York. 



Following is a list of birds which we 

 might have had 50 years ago if we had 1-10 

 of the enterprise of every little colony in 

 Australia and New Zealand : Nightingale, 

 Dalias lacenca; blackcap, Sylvia atricapilla; 

 whitethroat, Sylvia cinerea; thrush, Fur- 

 dus musicus; *skylark, Alanda arvensis; 

 *woodlark, Alanda arborea; *grey linnet, 



