NATURAL HISTORY. 



A LETTER FROM THEYOUNG CHIEF. 



Hartford, Mich. 

 Editor Recreation : 



I continue to receive Recreation month- 

 ly, and always read it with great interest. 

 I am getting out a second edition of my 

 dear father's last work, "Queen of the 

 Woods." I just received an order for a 

 shipment to the Hon. Mr. Planten, Consul- 

 General to the United States from the 

 Netherlands, stating he had read the book 

 and was so highly pleased with it that he 

 wished to send- copies to the libraries of his 

 native land. It was indeed kind of you to 

 give the book the fine review vou did. 



I have just returned from a visit to C. F. 

 Dey's, an old friend of my father's, resid- 

 ing at Lawton, Mich., and, bv the way, 

 one of the most successful hunters in West- 

 ern Michigan. He had just been fishing in 

 a small stream near his home in which 

 naw-me-goos (brook trout) were planted 

 a few years since. I asked him how many 

 trout he had caught? He replied. 



"Two, only." 



I remarked : 



"A small catch." 



"Yes,' he said, "but I read Recreation 

 and hate a fish hog." He then took the 

 trout from his basket. One weighed 3^2 

 pounds; the other 2 pounds. While dress- 

 ing them I informed him I understood he 

 had been raising a flock of English pheas- 

 ants and that I should like to see them. He 

 replied, smiling, that that sounded pleasant 

 to him, as he feared my mission might be 

 to scalp him. 



I was shown the wire net cage in which 

 the pheasants were confined. It was about 

 50 feet wide by 100 feet long, with the top 

 also covered with wire netting. In this 

 were confined 5 dozen birds. They were 

 the first of the kind I had ever seen. 



As I surveyed their beautiful coloring, 

 well moulded forms and quick, gamy move- 

 ments, it awakened in hin-o-daw (my 

 heart) an admiration I had seldom felt 

 before. In my interview I learned these 

 birds endure the cold and heat better than 

 any of our native birds, and when turned 

 loose are able to take care of themselves on 

 any of the waste lands in Michigan ; that 

 they lay, from April to September, 50 to 75 

 eggs each ; that a small domestic hen is 

 the safest to hatch and raise the young. As 

 Mr. Dey was packing some eggs for ship- 

 ment, I inquired the price, to which he re- 

 plied, "I get $2 for a baker's dozen" (13 

 eggs): I then inquired if they would thrive 

 with the native American grouse. He re- 

 plied, 



"Well, now, Pokagon, I can not say 

 as to that, but I think so. I am testing it. 



During last month Mr. Prindle, of this 

 place, told me he knew where 2 grouse 

 were sitting on 12 eggs each. I made ar- 

 rangements with him at once to take some 

 of the English pheasant's eggs, exchange 

 them for the eggs in the nests, bring their 

 eggs to me, and I would put them under a 

 hen that was sitting on English eggs. The 

 exchange was promptly made. In 2 weeks 

 the native eggs all hatched out, but I was 

 surprised to find the young weak and ap- 

 parently not afraid to have me handle them. 

 I had always been told they would run 

 off as soon as hatched, with the shell on 

 their backs. The little things ate well, but 

 they all died in 10 days ; I think for want 

 of their natural food. The native mother 

 birds have not yet reported what success 

 they had with the foreign birds, but in my 

 opinion they were surprised with their live- 

 ly broods and wondered how it all came 

 about." Mr. Dey is of the opinion that he 

 could raise successfully the American 

 species if he knew what to feed them. I 

 should be pleased to learn if any Recrea- 

 tion readers have any knowledge of our 

 ruffled grouse ever having been raised and 

 domesticated? 



Chief Charles Pokagon, Hartford, Mich. 



WATER SUPPLY FOR BIRDS. 

 Some years ago I made a wagon trip 

 of about 200 miles through the prairie 

 region of Southwestern Minnesota. The 

 abundance of bird life in the planted 

 prairie groves was one of the most inter- 

 esting features that attracted my atten- 

 tion. Nests of kingbirds, catbirds, brown 

 thrushes, Baltimore orioles, robins, and 

 others could frequently be located without 

 getting off the wagon. This was in the 

 latter part of June, when the ponds, 

 sloughs, and small prairie streams held a 

 fair supply of water. About 3 weeks 

 later, when most of the surface water had 

 dried up, the groves were silent and al- 

 most birdless, save for a few species of 

 sparrows, warblers, and vireos. One could 

 sit for hours in a grove of several acres and 

 scarcely see or hear a bird. A year or 

 2 later, I observed that the same time 

 of the year the birds had by no means 

 deserted the small towns that had water 

 works and where lawn sprinklers were 

 freely used. In those towns and along 

 streams and around lakes our birds stay 

 until they go South, and I have observed 

 a number of species bathing and drinking. 

 As there is a great abundance of insect 

 life and seeds and a fair supply of berries 

 around our prairie homes and farms in 

 July and August, I have come to the con- 

 clusion that the birds leave the prairie 



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