5° 



RECREATION. 



and I met at the bridge where we had sep- 

 arated. We all had good creels of fair 

 sized trout, which had been like lightning 

 in the icy water, and had risen savagely 

 to any lure or bait presented. 



The black flies almost murdered us ; they 

 were the most vicious ruffians of the woods 

 I ever encountered. It was a peculiar day, 

 which had dawned raw and cloudy. At 

 times the sun shone brilliantly, raising 

 clouds of vapor and making the atmosphere 

 warm and close. Then a cloud, preceded 

 by a stiff breeze, would blow up from the 

 West and bring a shower of rain. The 

 trout apparently did not care whether the 

 sun was shining or not. They were hungry 

 all the time ; but during the periods when 

 the sun was shining myriads of the black 

 flies rose from the meadows. The breeze 

 brought them in clouds. They attacked any 

 part of our anatomy on which they made a 

 landing. The moment they landed they 

 were fast, and our guide said he had never 

 seen the pests so fierce. My forehead, ears 

 and neck were raw and bleeding at every 

 pore. We remained as long as we could 

 and then retreated before the attacks. 



It was a 15-mile drive back to Sam 

 Meiks', near Les Cheneaux club. Before 

 we arrived there my face was badly swol- 

 len. During the night the swelling in- 

 creased so that both my eyes were com- 

 pletely closed. My own mother would not 

 have recognized me. The captain of the 

 Sea Fox, a Detroit steam yacht, who is also 

 a physician, recommended a plaster of un- 

 salted butter, covered with a layer of pul- 

 verized chalk. A doctor from a camp near 

 prescribed epsom salts in large doses, cal- 

 omel, etc., and several merciful women 

 treated me with witchhazel and delicate 

 preparations for the skin. In 2 days my 

 eyes opened and the swelling disappeared 

 almost entirely. Six months later, after 

 a cold day in the open air, all the old symp- 

 toms recurred at night and my face again 

 took on gigantic proportions. 



Shag did not swell as I did, but for 

 weeks every bite showed on his skin and 

 about many of the punctures were fierce 

 little eruptions. He was everlastingly 

 scratching. His physician is still treating 

 him in an effort to eradicate the poison 

 from his system. 



I should like to know whether any other 

 anglers on Taylor creek were as unfortu- 

 nate as we, and whether the effects of 

 black fly bites are frequently as severe as 

 they were in our cases. The flies not only 

 spoiled my fishing for that day, but they 

 prevented my investigation of the beaver 

 dams, and I was exceedingly glad to see 

 the description given by Mr. Grover. It 

 was my first encounter with the flies, and 

 I should like some good brother to advise 

 me how to fight them successfully in case 



I should have any further experience with 

 the little fiends. 



I am a newspaper man, temporarily out 

 of the business, and Shag and I both want 

 to know something about the game we were 

 up against. None of the natives about 

 Taylor creek seemed to know much about 

 the fly except that he existed and that you 

 were bound to meet him at certain seasons 

 if you went into his haunts. Our guide 

 said he had never seen the flies so fierce, 

 but he seemed to carry something in his 

 system which made him proof against their 

 poison. 



C. C. G., Pittsburg, Pa. 



PERISHED IN A MINNESOTA BLIZZARD. 



I send you to-day 2 small birds that I 

 picked up on the snow, they having died 

 apparently from cold and starvation. Thou- 

 sands of these birds drifted in here during 

 the severe gale of March 26th and 27th, 

 and we fed I presume 10,000 of them, 3 

 days, as best we could ; but hundreds of 

 them died in nooks and corners where they 

 had gone for shelter. Can you tell me what 

 they are? We never saw any such birds 

 here before. 



The winter has no doubt been severe on 

 the grouse. As many as a dozen have at 

 various times come to our chicken house 

 to feed and have become almost as tame 

 as our brown leghorns. 



Snow is melting fast now and deer find 

 picking generally along the railway tracks, 

 but they are poor and weak. 



Trout fishing will be good, as the heavy 

 snows, in spite of the severity of the wea- 

 ther, has prevented streams from freezing 

 as deep as many had thought. 



J. W. Russell, Adolph, Minn. 



I sent the birds to Mr. Hornaday, who 

 writes : 



To the casual observer the birds sent by 

 Mr. Russell appeared to be sparrows, 

 strongly resembling the female English 

 sparrow, or, by the printed descriptions, the 

 clay-colored sparrow! To Curator Beebe, 

 however, the thick and conical bill at once 

 revealed the fact that the birds were finch- 

 es, and the rather rounded wing and the 

 presence of white on the outer tail feathers 

 showed the group to which they belong. The 

 unusual length of the hind claw revealed 

 the fact that the birds belong to the genus 

 Calcarius, the longspurs. The pure white 

 breast and the inner web of the outer tail 

 feather distinguished them from the Smith 

 longspur, and showed unmistakably that 

 they belong to the species Calcarius lap- 

 ponicus, known commonly as the Lapland 

 longspur. The spring plumage is just be- 

 ginning to appear. 



