54 



RECREATION. 



elk and blacktail deer, and to judge from 

 its size I should think he was right, i im- 

 agine Mr. Lea killed his mule deer after the 

 horns were dropped, as they are not noted 

 for their large horns. I killed one near 

 Happy Camp, Cal., that had 15 points, and 

 1 saw the horns of one killed near Goose 

 lake that had 22 points. 



E. M, Gravett, Gravett, Ark. 



That California writer should have a 

 guardian and should be prevented from put- 

 ting out any more such twaddle. — Editor. 



NATURAL HISTORY NOTES. 

 One evening, about dusk, I thought I 

 heard the well known call of a quail. As 

 the house in which I live is in the heart 

 of the city, and almost adjoining a large 

 department store, I decided it was fancy 

 only, as all day my mind had dwelt on what 

 an ideal day it was to be afield. How- 

 ever, I opened my window and gave the 

 3 successive calls quails use in the fall, 

 when I was immediately answered. I re- 

 peated the call, and the answer came near- 

 er, till suddenly it ceased. I hurried out 

 to the street, only to meet my landlady's 

 little boy with a hen quail in his hands, 

 which he said he had just caught in Park- 

 way, it having apparently become dazed 

 by the electric light. It was in no way 

 crippled and is alive yet. It will be liber- 

 ated as soon as any of us go into the coun- 

 try. I am wondering how it got here. 

 Bunny, Allegheny, Pa. 



In August Recreation you defend squir- 

 rels against the charge of stealing corn, 

 and you ask for more evidence. A negro 

 in this State planted a patch of corn ad- 

 joining a piece of pine sapling land. About 

 the time he shocked the crop, domestic 

 trouble caused him to abandon his home 

 and the squirrels harvested his corn. They 

 carried all the good ears to the tops of 

 saplings and hung them there, turning back 

 the husks, but not cutting them off. I have 

 thrown seed corn in the cob on the piazza 

 of my house and watched the squirrels 

 carry it up into the live oaks about the 

 place. I protect squirrels so far as I can, 

 and if I testify against them in this case 

 it is merely to answer your question. 



C. S. Johnson, Beaufort, S. C. 



I have been a squirrel hunter many 

 years and have often been told that, es- 

 pecially in a dry season, I should go near 

 water to find squirrels. I have yet to see 

 a squirrel drink water and have never met 

 a man who had seen them drink. Should 

 like to hear from brother sportsmen on 

 this subject 



R. B. Stowers, Cupio, Ky. 



Inkie takes a good long drink every day 



of his life, often from a cup or a glass held 

 by some of his many human friends, and I 

 have often seen other tame squirrels drink. 

 — Editor. 



The strange noise described bv Mr. Co- 

 vert in March Recreation was certainly 

 made by a species of sucker. Some 4 years 

 ago my cousin and I were fishing just 

 above the Elkadei dam, on Turkey river, 

 in Iowa. A lot of foam and drift wood 

 had floated up to the dam. Under the 

 debris in one particular place we heard the 

 peculiar sound. My cousin struck the soot 

 with our canoe paddle and a good sized red- 

 horse came to the top, but before we could 

 pick it up it came to and darted away. 



J. P. Jaeger, Independence, la. 



In August Recreation Edwin I. Haines 

 tells of finding the grey cheeked thrush in 

 the Catskills. Is it not much more prob- 

 able that he saw, not the grey cheeked 

 thrush, whose breeding range is said to be 

 Labrador and Northwestward to Alaska, 

 but the sub-species, T. a. bicknelli, or Bick- 

 nell's thrush ; a bird which closely re- 

 sembles the other and is known to breed 

 on several of the highest points of the Cats- 

 kills? I. McC. L., Haines Falls, N. Y. 



I think it a fact that of a pair of mal- 

 lards, the duck generally takes flight before 

 the drake. I have noticed, when duck 

 shooting, that birds dropped with the first 

 barrel were seldom, if ever, drakes. 



I can match Mr. Thatcher's story of the 

 snake that ate corn. A few years ago, 

 while husking corn, I found a large garter 

 snake under a shock, and killed it. Its 

 stomach was completely filled with shelled 

 corn. H. C. Beahler, Chicago, 111. 



This week I went to a stationer's to get 

 a copy of a weekly sporting paper published 

 in New York and devoted to fish and game 

 topics, as there was some curiosity in my 

 mind regarding the stand the paper was 

 taking on the game hog question. I have 

 not taken the paper for some years. The 

 stationer told me there was so little call for 

 it that he had cut out his order. I never 

 miss a number of Recreation, but I was 

 looking for information, so I asked him if 

 he kept that magazine.. His answer was 

 pithy and to the point : "We certainly do. 

 Recreation sells." 



Henry A. Allen, Minneapolis, Minn. 



A yearly subscription to Recreation is 

 one of the most practicable and useful 

 presents you could possibly give a man or 

 a boy who is interested in nature study, 

 fishing, hunting, or amateur photography. 

 It costs only $1 a year, and would make 

 him happy 12 times a year. 



