JW 18, 1883.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



467 



injustice has been done it, But is it certain that this is the 

 ' 'hoop snake ?" We have plenty of stories about the mythical 

 reptile which apparently originate iu the Eastern "' States 

 where Ophemaurus is not found.] 



The Nighthawk ln Cities.— Ill East 72d street, New 

 York City, July 7, 1882.— Editor Forest and Stream: In 

 • of July 6, 1882 (Vol. XVIII., No. 23), your cor- 

 respondent "Homo" states that he "never knew before last 

 week that what is known as 'the bull-bat,' or 'nighthawk,' 

 frequently build their nests on the flat rooftops of city 

 houses." This fact has been known for some time bv work- 

 ing ornithologists. As early as 1874 Dr. T. M. "Brewer 

 ("North American Birds," Vol. II., p. 403,) says of these 

 birds (Ohordcilex popHue, Baud): "Each summer "their num- 

 ber in Boston has perceptibly increased, and through June 

 and July, at almost all hours of the day, most especially in 

 the afternoon, they may be seen or heard sailing high in the 

 air over its crowded streets. The modern style of house- 

 building, with flat Mansard roofs, ' has also added to the 

 inducements, affording safe and convenient, shelter to the 

 birds at night, and serving also for the deposition of their 

 eggs. In quite a number of instances in the summers of 

 1870 and 1»71 they were known to lay their eggs and to 

 rear their young on the flat roofs in the southern and western 

 sections of the city. I have also been informed by the late 

 Mr. Turnbull, of Philadelphia, that the flat roofs of large 

 warehouses near the river in that city are made similar use 

 of." During the past June (1882) I have observed a pah- 

 breeding on the flat rooftop of a house on the north side of 

 Seventy-first street. This is the first case of the kind that 

 has come under my personal observation, but I have been 

 informed by others of similar instances in this city. In 

 watching this pair I have noticed one habit which is par- 

 ticularly striking. On leaving their eggs, they never rise 

 directly from them, but flutter along to the most distant 

 part of the roof, and then launching out with the customary 

 flight, go swooping and screaming about. — Loots A. Zerega. 



The Wren a Nest Robber.— Fort Wayne, Ind., June 

 12, 1882. — Editor Forest and Stream: Noticing an article re- 

 cently iu the Forest a^id Stream regarding the proclivity 

 of crow blackbirds ana bluejays for destroying the eggs and 

 young of other species, I have to relate a similar trait in. the 

 character of the house wren (Troglodytes domesticus). A 

 chipping sparrow had a nest in a Scotch pine afew feetabove 



f-Ound, which was just finished and a single egg deposited, 

 was watching for the return of the birds, when a male 

 house wren flew by and lit on a limb a few inches above the 

 nest. He peered anxiously into the nest for a few seconds, 

 and then bristling up his feathers, hopped directly down 

 into it and fiercely drove his bill into tne egg, which, after 

 apparently testing its contents, he flirted out of the nest and 

 down to the grass below, after which, uttering a low, angry 

 note (similar to the one made when they discover a rival 

 poaching on their domain), he flew away. I pi 'ked up the 

 egg and found that he had absorbed about half its contents, 

 puncturing it only once. I have taken much pleasure in 

 studying the habits of these dirtinutive birds, been amused 

 at their courage, in attacking cats and large birds, but to say 

 that I was astonished at the discovery of this (to me new) 

 phase in their character is hardly enough. I was amazed. 

 Now, if he will destroy the egg, would he attempt to kill the 

 young? I would like to know if others have observed these 

 small birds as nest robbers.— Dorris. 



Death to Small Plunderers. — New York, July 7, 

 1882. — Editor Forest and Strewn: "Forest Field" complains 

 of the destruction of his grapes by summer redbirds. The 

 English sparrow annoys us in a similar manner. Selecting 

 the most luscious and* perfect clusters (the Delaware is their 

 especial favorite), they pick two or three, eating the pulp, 

 and then tear the skin of as many more ; these decay, and 

 the result is, the spoiling of all those in immediate contact, 

 and the ruin of the "tempting attractiveness" of the entire 

 bunch. Your correspondent says "a shotgun he does not like 

 to use among the vines, that the birds become shy, etc". We 

 found the same difficulty; but with a "Flobert" and patience, 

 we now have the upper hand. The report is alight, and with 

 a little practice he can "bowl them over" very nicely at 

 fifty or sixty feet. Let him station a boy or go himself to 

 the vines, remain quietly on the watch and after dropping a 

 few, tiy another position. They will soon grow suspicious, 

 and if he persevere, will avoid his vines to great a extent. — 

 Dick. 



The Mooneye. — A specimen of the lake mooneye, 

 Ilyodon elodalis, fifteen inches in length and weighing one 

 pound and six ounces, after over a day's exposure, wastaken 

 last week on the Niagara River with a bass fly and shown 

 as a curiosity on account of its unusual size at the. store of 

 our well-known game dealer and sportsman Mr. H. Roy. 

 Although this fish" is rarely seen and only then during the 

 short time of its migration to the waters of the Niagara 

 River, it is yet tolerably well known among the fishermen as 

 the mooneye on account of its unusual large eyes. It arrives 

 in early June, scattered sparingly among the immense, shoals 

 of the lake, herring, and takes to fly with the greatest 

 avidity. — C. L. 



Arrivals at Zoological Garden, Cincinnati, up to Jui/r 1, 1882.— 

 Two Angora goats, Capra .hi reus ear.; one raccoon, Procyon loior; 

 three ponies, Mquus eaballus; 1 hoj» deer, Cervus porcinus; sixteen 

 prairie tlo^s, Uynomyts hidoviriant, s; one red deer, Census elaphus; 

 one albino fallow deer, Varna vulgaris ear.; one black sea lion, Zaire 

 pints giUcspii; three fallow deer, Varna vulgaris; one Virginia 

 deer. Vermis virginianus; all bred in Garden. Forty-four silver 

 pheasams, Ewplocamiis n ye the merits ; two wild geese, Branta 

 canadensis; ten undulated grass parakepts. .l/W^ ■ .. 



dulatits; four hybrid pheasants, between a half-bred male 

 T. picta and 7'. amhersttoe and a female T. picta; one 

 Japanese ]>hr, ,■, r.iieolor; two Himalayan mo- 



aialu-ri-'iia-; r,y<. L-.,l' . .1 ■. -' -.!-.' I k : .i',inal',-a ')„via] all' hatched 'in 



one black-footed ferret, Futoriitx a. gripes; one horned toad, Vhry- 

 nosorna coriiutnm; one Central American agouti. Dasyprocfy 

 istlimiea: one snapping turtle, Ohetydra serpentina; all presented.— 

 Frank ,1. Thompson. Superintendent. 



$mqe J|#g m\d 



The Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad. — The ex- 

 tension of this road from Petoskey to the Straits of Mack- 

 inaw was completed for business on July 3, the first through 

 tram arriving at Mackinaw City on the* morning of July 4, 

 having over ninety passengers on board. 



A New Powder Company. — The American Wood Powder 

 Company filed articles of incorporation at Albany last week. 



NEW YORK WOODCOCK. 

 The open season for woodcock in New York State begins August 1 ; 

 in Oneida and Herkimer counties September 1. 



OPEN SEASONS. 

 A full list of open game seasons will be published in our nest issue. 



BEARS AND BEAR STORIES. 



I AM a little disgusted and a good deal discouraged. I 

 thought I had at last struck on a truthful bear story with 

 a dead man in it. But it was not to be. After more" than 

 forty years' experience I cannot say I know for a certainty 

 that any wild bear has killed his tormentor, the hunter, within 

 the range, of my observation, though I have seen men badly 

 scratched and bitten. 



Yes, my "sympathy was premature," if you put it that 

 way. 



But the story was served up to us in the leading dailies 

 and weeklies on the same terms as the. iceberg calamities and 

 the tornado rackets, all told "with the circumstantiality 

 belonging to fact," as my "Grandmother's Review, the 

 British," once remarked of Lord Byron. 



How was I to know, I want to know? I do sympathize 

 with Mr. Milliken. He has missed his tip for 

 * * * "A name, • 

 To fill the future speaking trump of fame," 

 and gone home to Boston, to die of some ignoble disease, 

 induced by east winds, clam chowder, or green cucumbers, 

 after the way of the Modern Athenians. He has a right to 

 be mad. Had the story proved true, he would have gone 

 down to posterity more famous than if he had led the charge 

 of the Light Brigade. 



And I must needs pick up my fool pen and hasten to tell 

 five (no less) short bear stories, only to get polished off at the 

 end by "E. M. M.," of Boston, with the query, "Was there 

 ever a veritable bear story truthfully told?" 



Why, bless you, yes. Five of them iu Forest and Stream 

 right over your "query." Every one of them true and veri- 

 table, so help me John Rogers in my direst need, when lam 

 lost in the mountains, fifteen miles from any place, no com- 

 pass, one broken leg done up in an old gum overcoat, and 

 twelve miles from low whisky mark! — Yes; certainly. 



Why, my dear fellow, just reflect a moment. There are 

 more than" fifty bears killed yearly on an average in the 

 wilder counties of Pennsylvania. Suppose you were among 

 us and killed only one of these bears, do you think you 

 would have a "veritable story" to tell when ybu got back to 

 Boston? And the killing of each and everyone of these 

 bears includes a truthful bear story of necessity. Of course 

 any man may lie, but the truth, graphically told, is always 

 interesting enough. Natheless, ihere be liars. 



Again. My dear "E. M. M.," you are aBostoman; pre- 

 sumably of Puritan, possibly of Mayflower antecedents. 

 You do not go back on absolute statements of scripture? I 

 trust not. 1 hope better things of you. Please "take your 

 eye and throw it along" the second book of Kings, second 

 chapter, twenty-third and twenty-fourth verses. Is it a 

 veritable and truthful bear story? It is a pretty tough bear 

 story : but, it may be true. I dunno, I dunno. Forty-two 

 sharp village youngsters are a good many for two she bears 

 to get away with, by "tearing," "destroying," or "devour- 

 ing" as the different versions have it. 



It may be I am a trifle credulous when bear stories come 

 to the "front. Of the very many such stories to which I 

 have listened, I believe there were few that were not sub- 

 stantially true. Colored and embellished a little, perhaps, 

 but as true as most of that which goes by the name of his- 

 tory. And, I have another little bear story to tell, with a 

 conundrum at the end of it. 



In the autumn of 1866 I happened to be in the village of 

 New Lisbon, on the Lemonweir River, Wisconsin. It was 

 the cranberry season, and there was not a clay on which sev- 

 eral wagon loads of cranberries did not come into the village 

 from points varying from ten to twenty miles to the north- 

 ward. One day I was called on to go down to the hotel 

 yard, and inspect and examine and report on a strange 

 variety of bear, which had been killed in a marsh, some 

 twelve miles distant. I went at once. Some friend had 

 reported me as a hunter and rifleman — which I was; and 

 also as a naturalist — which I was not. At the first glimpse 

 of the ani m al I thought the boys were trying to run a roan 

 calf on me for a bear, but I climbed into the wagon and was 

 soon convinced I had found something very unusual, and 

 well worth investigating. The animal was a genuine bear, 

 about a two-year-old, I should say. Description, as I put it 

 down at the "time, roughly, as thus: "Color,' mainly a light, 

 foxy red. mixed with white hairs from ears to rump. Fur 

 coarse, like hair, shaggy and somewhat curled. To call him 

 a red grizzly would give a good idea of the color. Jaws, 

 claws, teeth and legs strong and muscular. General make- 

 up, thin, tall, and much longer-legged than any dark bear I 

 have ever seen." 



That is how 1 noted him. During the day he was seen 

 and examined by scores of people, some of them old, ex- 

 perienced hunters. With one exception, he was a new 

 animal to them all, as he was to me. 



The one exception was a grizzly, bare-headed old hunter 

 from the region lying south of Lake Superior. He called 

 flie creature a "mash' bear." He said: "You never find 

 'em anywhere onlv around big cranberry marshes, where 

 there are low sanely pints and scrub pine. I have hunted 

 Northern Michigan and Wisconsin ior thirty year, and 

 haven't seen more'u half a dozen. The skins' ain't worth 

 anything, and the meat is always lean and tough. How 

 they live I don't know, but they can run and fight." Twice 

 afterward I encountered the same animal : once, in Minne- 

 sota, once in Northern Michigan. He was always the same 

 — always a distinct type and a genuine bear. Now, he may 

 be described and well known by naturalists, but I have not 

 seen it noted.* There must be many persons in New Lisbon, 

 Wis., whu saw the animal I have tried to describe. Will 

 any one, who has positive knowledge of the above-described 

 animal, please send notes of the same to Forest and 

 Stream? 



And I know of more odd, strange incidents pertaining to 

 wood and wold than I shall ever tell. I do not want" the 

 reputation of a liar. I am writing on the little pine table, 

 where, thirty years ago, I wrote for Porter's Spirit of the 

 Times. Just in front of me hanais a fine fifty-cent portrait 

 of the Father of his Country, fieneath the portrait hantjs 

 my little hatchet, while the fresh morning breeze is wafting 



* Compare Audubon's account of Orsus americanus. 



the leafy and suggestive branches of a cherry tree almost to 

 my very face. With such pure and chastening influences 

 before and about me, is it likely I would turn bear-liar in 

 ray old age? Nessmxtk. 



Wellsboro, Pa., July 8, 1883. 



HINTS ON CAMPING OUT. 



IN your issue of June 29, I notice an article from the pen 

 of "C." m relation to camping out, in which he refers to 

 instructions given by an old hunter on the same subject in 

 issue of May 11. The doubts of "C." in relation to building 

 a comfortable shanty out of boughs, as advanced by "J. G. 

 R.," coincides with my views exactly. 



The first article brought to my mind an incident of camp 

 life that happened to two "tenderfeet," deer stalkers, in the 

 fall of 1865, on the head waters of Kinzua Creek, McKean 

 county, Pa. 



I and a boon companion had made that section our hunt- 

 ing ground for several falls, having good luck in securing 

 plenty of venison, with now and then a bear as trophies of 

 the chase. These two would-be hunters, unknown to us. fol- 

 lowed in on our trail, and put up a regular Indian brush 

 shanty almost under our noses, and got comfortably settled ere 

 we were aware of it. My companion as well as myself looked 

 upon such an act as rather intrusive at first, but concluded to 

 wait patiently for future developments. They had been 

 there a few days when there came a cold drenching rain, 

 lasting part of a day and continuing all night, soaking the 

 dry leaves up just right for still hunting Pard and I were 

 out early the next morning, and on our way thought we would 

 call and see how the wigwam withstood the rain, surmis- 

 ing that the boys would like to take a Uttle exercise for their 

 health if nothing more. Upon nearing their shanty we dis- 

 covered them standing, basking in the heat of as good a fire 

 as they knew how to build. We took in their situation at a 

 glance, and they felt just like unfolding to us the beauties of 

 such a camp life without being questioned. Being invited 

 inside, we could but wonder that they occupied it till day- 

 ught. Provisions, blankets, bunks, etc. , completely soaked, 

 guns covered with rust, and everything in confusion. Dur- 

 ing the day, however, they got dried out, packed their 

 goods and left. I doubt not but they engaged board and 

 lodging at some hotel on all subsequent hunting expeditions. 



"J. G. R.," in telling us "how to prepare for a camp-out 

 over night, when lost or following up the chase," describes 

 the mode of preparing fuel for the night. Of course such a 

 manner could be followed if the hunter had taken with him 

 an ax to cut down the trees and back-logs from. 



But most of hunters only carry a light hatchet and would 

 undoubtedly travel till night before stopping to build bough- 

 houses and cut down trees for fire wood. For the benefit of 

 those that find themselves lost, or that travel till dark and are 

 compelled to camp, I will give my way, which I have found 

 to answer quite well when the snow was a foot deep on the 

 ground and I had nothing but my gun, hatchet, matches, 

 etc. I first find a dry hemlock tree with the bark on near 

 water if possible, then find a large log, and if snow on the 

 ground, rake it back, build a fire some five or six feet from the 

 log out of the diy bark, backing it up with any chunks that 

 may be found in the vicinity, cut or break a good armful of 

 green hemlock or spruce boughs, placing them on the round 

 along the side of the log next the fire. While they and the 

 log are drying off, 1 gather bark, etc., for fuel for the night. 

 If necessary I cut a pole twenty or thirty feet long to assist 

 in loosening the bark from the tree. By this time the bunk 

 is warm and dry, the log acting as a wind break on the one 

 side and holding the warmth in and around me on the other. 

 If it rains or snows, I lay a few poles on the log with the ends 

 extending a couple of feet over the bunk, shingle on some ' 

 of the bark and have a better protection than I could hope 

 to make from a wagon load of boughs, and all accomplished . 

 in the space of five minutes' time. Cap Lock. 



Frewsbdrgh, N.JY. 



> A NEW MEXICO STORY. 



Albuquerque, N. M., June 12, 1882. 

 Editor Forest and Stream: 



I have no exploits of my own worth relating, but send a 

 clipping from the Santa Fe JSfew Mexican, recounting the 

 wonderful story of the killing of a grizzly bear and big 

 deer at one shot. It reminds me qf the famous story of how 

 a negro servant explained the shooting of a deer through its 

 ear and hind foot by the same shot: "The deeT was a 

 sratching its ear wid its hind foot." The following story 

 ought to make Maj. J. Verity hang his head. T. S, S. 



On Sunday last one of the most curious adventures took 

 place, near the upper waters of the Pecos River, that has 

 ever been related. As the story was told by the hero of it 

 himself, who is recently from Chicago, and withal a very 

 modest man, it may be believed implicitly; and it is illus- 

 trative of how by combined bravery, coolness and marks- 

 manship two birds may sometimes be killed with one stone. 



Mr. H. J. Sheldon, the author of the story, left his camp 

 at Cooper City, on the Pecos, last Saturday afternoon in 

 search of game, in order, as he himself expressed it, in the 

 language of the board of trade, to cover his shorts in the line 

 of fresh meats, and especially induced thereto by the fact 

 that he had several times heard of an elk of enormous dimen- 

 sions having been recently seen a few miles up the river. 

 As Mr. Sheldon was renowned throughout the camp for his 

 skill with the rifle, much interest was manifested by the - 

 miners and others in the expedition, some of the more 

 sanguine even offering odds that not only did that particular 

 elk*"stand no mortal show for a prolonged existence, but 

 that Mr. Sheldon would bring back with him provisions 

 enough to supply the camp for the coming season. They 

 accordingly gathered around his cabin, drank his health 

 numerous times in the vintage of the Pecos and gave him 

 three rousing cheers, as armed with a Springfield rifle, 

 mounted on" his horse and accompanied by his constant 

 burro, he gallantly struck out for the unknow'n wilds of the 

 Upper Pecos. 



Saturday night he camped at the upper forks of the river, 

 and Sunday, bright and early, whs again on the march. 

 About four o'clock in the afternoon the burro which had 

 wandered ahead came running back apparently in great 

 terror, ears and tail erect, eyes glaring, making that peculiar 

 mournful sound for which i'ts species is noted and refusing 

 to be caught or comforted. Not being able to make out 

 from the report of the confused burro just what bad hap- 

 pened, Mr. S. cocked his gun and advanced slowly and 

 cautiously on the unknown enemy Crawling along on his 

 hands and knees for about a quarter of a mile he at length 

 doubled a bend in the river, and there, standing in full view 

 in the meadow and not more than one hundred and fifty 

 yards away, he saw a huge grizzly bear with three cubs. 



