2i6 



RECREATION. 



enough to give the young birds their lib- 

 erty. 



The house cat will be found their great- 

 est enemy; a cat tiiat wouid not disturb 

 domestic chickens will kill young pheas- 

 ants without mercy. In fact, in this 

 State at least, the homeless cat is the great- 

 est destroyer of game and song birds. 



The pugnacity of the cock pheasant will 

 never make him any friends among farm- 

 ers or poultry raisers. One of my neigh- 

 bors unconsciously paraphrased Josh Bil- 

 lings by saying with great earnestness : 

 "Pheasants are all right in their place, but 

 Hades is the place for them." The thickly 

 settled portions of the earth will never 

 be the place for the pheasant; he belongs 

 in the wilderness where there are no do- 

 mestic fowls to bully. 



The pheasant stands cold well. I never 

 knew them to suffer in coops on open 

 ground even when the mercury was 20 

 degrees below zero. 



Geo. O. Greene, Princeton, 111,. 



A TERRIER'S TRYST. 



The article in November Recreation 

 headed "Can a dog think?" recalls an in- 

 cident I had the pleasure of witnessing. 

 Often since I have wondered whether or 

 not dogs think. 



One July evening in 1898 it was so hot 

 that instead of retiring I decided to make 

 myself as comfortable as possible sitting 

 on a chair in front of the hotel at which I 

 was staying. The landlord owned a Skye 

 terrier named Mike. I saw Mike lying on 

 the pavement near the curb with his head 

 between his paws and his ears cocked, and 

 at first I paid no particular attention to him. 

 Finally I noticed that he got up every few 

 minutes and looked intently up the street, 

 always returning and assuming his previ- 

 ous attitude. This he continued almost an 

 hour. Finally a mongrel about his own 

 size came sauntering down the street and 

 stopped opposite the hotel. Mike immedi- 

 ately crossed over and greeted him as dogs 

 greet one another. They then started down 

 the street, and as I had nothing to do I 

 followed them to see what these canine 

 friends had in view. Their objective' point 

 was the Susquehanna river, which is near 

 the hotel. Arriving there Mike and his 

 friend proceeded to take a bath, swimming 

 about and chasing one another in the water 

 until tired. They returned together. Mike 

 stopped at his domicile, gave his friend a 

 dog good-bye, stretched himself out on the 

 pavement and soon was asleep. 



The circumstances were so unusual that 

 it looked to me as if these canine friends 

 had had a previous understanding to meet 

 and enjoy themselves in the cooling waters 

 of the river. 



F. M. Von Nieda, Harrisburg, Pa. 



NATURAL HISTORY NOTES. 



I am sorry to learn through your corres- 

 pondent C. W. Gripp, of Pacific Beach, 

 Col., that the road runner is becoming 

 scarce. I first saw one when I was a boy 

 in New Hampshire, where it was exhibited 

 as the chaparall cock. 



In after years I saw it in Texas and 

 New Mexico where it was known as road 

 runner, and I have heard, I think, 2 other 

 names for it, "paisono" and another which 

 I can not recall, but which I think was also 

 Spanish. 



What attracted my attention in Mr. 

 Gripp's account was his statement that it 

 was never killed to eat. I have never heard 

 of the road runner as a game bird, but I 

 have known of its being killed for food and 

 eaten with relish. This being the case I 

 have wondered why this bird, which is 

 surely larger than many game birds, is not 

 generally regarded as desirable for food. 

 Is there any assignable reason for this? 

 C. H. Ames, W. Newton, Mass. 



J. F. Cooper, of Half Rock, Me., who ex- 

 presses his opinion in October Recreation 

 of the Belgian hare, evidently does not 

 know much about his subject. The Bel- 

 gian hare is one of the few animals 

 that thrive better when confined than when 

 given liberty. I have been breeding them 

 some time. They furnish the most de- 

 licious and most digestible meat I have 

 ever eaten. They thrive and do well in 

 close confinement, if kept in a clean place. 

 I venture to say that of the 200 I now 

 have not one would be living in a month if 

 they were given their liberty and not fed 

 or protected. They are domestic animals 

 and have been so long kept in confinement 

 that they know nothing of self-protection 

 or support. I do not think "the man 

 who introduced them into this country" 

 would have much to be "responsible for" ini 

 the way of damage done by them. 



Dr. R. E. Franklin, Richmond, Va. 



The article on the Richardson weasel 

 recalls to my mind the following incident : 

 One autumn day a friend and I, while 

 skirting the edge of a wood, saw a large 

 hawk high in air. It descended and rested 

 on a stone pile a little distance from us. 

 It had been there but a moment when it 

 began to flutter its wings and appeared to 

 be snapping at something. Then, with 

 great effort, it took wing, but soon fell. 

 It was dead when we reached it, and as 

 we picked it up a small weasel fell from 

 its body. We found the imprints of the 

 rodent's teeth under one wing, where it 

 had evidently been sucking the hawk's 

 blood. 



T. S. R., Rochester, N. Y. 



