144 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[March 20, 1884. 



and may be termed full-grown about the fifth year. The 

 psluis are. on the widest part, on a moderate-sized mule, 

 about eleven inches wide. The space between the roots, sis 

 or seven inches. A very large pair measures over five feet 

 between the tips, and will weigh sixty or seventy pounds. 

 They begin to sprout in April and fall off in February. It 

 is said that their growth is complete in August; -when the 

 velvet peels off, and they are tfeen white, but afterwards be- 

 come brown or yellow. From one to three points or short 

 prongs are added to the palms each year, so that the age of 

 the animal is not indicated by the number of these prongs, 

 as is generally supposed. 



"In fighting with each other they use both horns and 

 feet, but in contending with dogs, only the latter, with 

 which they strike tremendous blows. Their pace is a long 

 swinging trot which they can keep up for several hours in 

 succession. " 



A wounded moose is a very dangerous animal to approach, 

 unprepared with the means of finishing him. From an eye 

 witness, I was told of a case in point. A shantyman, I 

 think on the Black River, at any rate at some place above 

 Pembroke, ran out in sight of a number of his comrades 

 close to the shanty, with a single-barreled muzzle-loader and 

 fired at and severely wounded "a large bull moose. Seeing 

 the animal wounded, he ran up to him with an empty gun, 

 when the moose rushed at him, knocked him down with a 

 blow of one of his fore feet; and before any of his friends 

 could effectually interfere, the furious animal trampled anil 

 pounded the unfortunate man to death. . I have also heard 

 instances where hunters have been treed by wounded moose; 

 and of one incident where a hunter escaped by dodging 

 round a large tree until he was enabled to get a charge into 

 his muzzleloader to administer the quietus. To shoot a 

 moose in December, or in the middle of January, when he 

 strides proudly alone beneath the weight of "his lordly 

 crowm, and wnen he is fat and heavy, is something that a 

 sportsman may be proud of; but to slaughter the unfortunate 

 animals in the latter end of February and March amid snow 

 five feet deep, when the females are heavy with young, and 

 the males are hornless and lean, is a species of assassin work 

 which ought to be put a stop to by thestrongarm of the Jaw, 

 if men are not ashamed of such improvident butchery. 



The moose, which at one lime was found in abundance in 

 all the Northeastern States of America, at the present time 

 "holds a precarious and short-leased existence," says Parker 

 Gilmore, "in the northern portions of Maine." They are 

 also, in decreasing numbers, however, still to be met with in 

 Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. Although diminishing 

 every year, the} 7 are comparatively plentiful on the north 

 side of the Ottawa River throughout its entire length, and 

 in some localities far west, on its southern side. In the 

 country lying to the south of Jame's Bay and stretching west 

 to Lake Winnipeg, "this giant deer can be found in greater 

 abundance than in any other portion of the American con- 

 tinent." Moose are also found in considerable numbers in 

 the country bordering on the St. Lawrence below Quebec, 

 particularly in the Labrador region. 



Audubon says the moose grows to the height of twenty 

 hands. Others who have made the subject a study, say 

 that they grow even much larger than that. The moose of 

 Labiador are smaller than those of the State of Maine or 

 Canada, owing doubtless to the severe winter weather and 

 the sparse vegetation of the former locality. 



The moose, when captured young, is easily domesticated, 

 and grows quite tame and docile; but the confinement of 

 civilization does not seem to agree with them, and after a 

 few years' confinement they pine away and die. AVitk a 

 park of sufficient size, well supplied with hardwood trees 

 and swamp, and well watered, doubtless the animals would 

 thrive. In a state of domestication the moose has been 

 trained to harness, but he does not like it; but when he 

 pleases to stretch out in a trot, the animal is exceedingly 

 fleet. I have frequently seen the young bull moose owned 

 by our late excellent Governor-General, the Marquis of 

 Lome, harnessed to a carriage ; but, although he could be 

 made to go at a pretty decent" trot with a little touching up 

 with a whip, he did not take kindly to the slavery, and 

 sometimes used to lie down flat and stretch out his neck at 

 full length, to show his repugnance to the idea of being 

 turned into a horse, a transformation, however, scarcely 

 po°sible in an animal so much resembling a gigantic ass. 

 The male and female moose owned by Lord Lome have 

 been taken to the highlands of Scotland by him, and 1 have 

 been sorry to hear that they are not doing well in their new 

 home. 



No member of the deer genus produces finer venison than 

 does the moose. The flesh, although somewhat coarse in 

 grain, is juicy, and has a fine gamy flavor; and the fat, 

 which is abundant when the animal is in good condition, is 

 beautifully clear and wlite. A delicacy which only the 

 moose hunter can enjoy, is the marrow fromtheshank bones 

 cooked immediately after the animal has been killed. I 

 shall finish with the moose, with a quotation from Parker 

 Gilmore. He says: "The Virginian deer, the fallow deer, 

 the wapiti, and the red deer, are to me perfect in shape, 

 graceful in their movements, and ornamental to the land- 

 scape; but the moose, on the other hand, with his short, 

 thick neck, asinine head, protruding eyes, heavy, broad 

 ears, tremendous antlers, long, awkward, powerful legs, and 

 disproportionate withers, looking even higher than they are 

 from the mane that surmounts them, can never be considered 

 by an impartial judge, but an awkward and clumsy brute. 



"Of all the ruminants on the American continent, the 

 moose is the tallest. 1 doubt not a stall-fed ox can be made 

 to weigh as heavy, but not to attain the stature; and on this 

 continent, as well as others, it is ically a duty that the legis- 

 latures of the various States and Provinces, of which he' is 

 an inhabitant, owe to the country at large, to pass and en- 

 force such laws as will prevent his ultimate annihilation." 



Before leaving the moose, I may mention that, in any sec- 

 tion of country in which the Virginian deer abound, moose 

 are seldom found. It is said, and I believe truly, that the 

 moose, large and powerful as he is, is unable to withstand 

 the lithe and vigorous attack of the active and sharp-horned 

 buck of the smaller species. In the fall of the year, under 

 the natural impulses incidental to the season, desperate 

 battles take place between the male moose. Such conflicts, 

 however, rarely terminate so fatally as the struggles between 

 the males of the lesser breed ; the broad, blunt horns of the 

 great elk not being so well adapted to the purpose of infliet- 

 ing dangerous and fatal wounds as are the sharp-pointed 

 antlers of the former. In like manner tne red fox originally 

 imported into the United States (then British colonies) by 

 Sir Guy Carlef on, exterminated the smaller native grey fox. 

 The red squirrel, also, makes his hunting ground too hot for 

 his larger and stronger congeneric brother of the black species. 

 [to re concluded.] 



BIRD NOTES. 



I HAVE been over the same grounds not less that half a 

 dozen times since the day reported, and with about the 

 same success. Two days la"ter, in the evergreens, I saw a 

 flock of about a dozen pine litraets (Ghry&omitrk pinus), the 

 first I ever found here, and secured five specimens. A 

 week after observation reported I saw just one snowbird 

 (Junco hyemalis), and near by I found a field mouse impaled 

 on a limb of a pear tree, but did not see his executioner, the 

 great northern shrike. I was told by a friend who is better 

 posted on birds than I am that he had seen a shrike in his 

 yard a few days before. Since then I have visited the ever- 

 greens four times, and have not seen Junco, and came to the 

 conclusion that he had shared the fate of the field mouse, as 

 the latter was missing from the branch. To-day I went 

 over the same route, passing through cornfields, potato 

 patches and wheat fields, where I have always, until this 

 winter, found snow buntings, horned larks and tree spar- 

 rows, and examined the weeds on which they feed, and only 

 in the cornfield, where the weeds were best protected from 

 the frost, did I find any seeds, and then but very little. 

 Wh°n the weather permits, I always make such an excur- 

 sion every Sunday afternoon, and always examine birds' 

 nests in winter as well as summer. 1 reported only what I 

 did and did not see. Probably no man in Lockpbrt does 

 more tramping about the country than I do. My business 

 is such that I have many leisure * hours, and I derive much 

 pleasure in this way. I usually go alone and across lots. 

 in a December number, I think, of the Forest and Stream 

 1 read the report of the American Union in regard to bird 

 migration, and offered my poor services to Or. C. Hart 

 Merriam to report observations from this vicinity, and they 

 were cordially accepted. I have just made my report for 

 February, and it was an exceedingly meagre one. I will 

 inclose a copy, and if you think it of interest you can pub- 

 lish it. 



Feb. 22 being a holiday, I was out from daylight until 

 dark, and probably traveled from ten to twelve miles, and 

 you will notice the observations were few and only three of 

 them winter visitants. 



The golden eagle reported was sent to my son to be 

 mounted. I had never examined one before, and was 

 very much surprised at the size of the body after being 

 skinned, and I sent it to one of your correspondents to see if 

 he could identify the bird. His reply was "that he could not 

 be deceived bv coloration — "the bird is all of one color" — "had 

 no bird skeletons at hand for comparison and would give his 

 opinion offhand" — and say of the bird — "h'its not an 'en, an 

 'awknor a h'owl, but a h'eaglc." It was an immature bird, 

 and the. body was no larger than a great horned owl my son 

 skinned to-day. The feet of the eagle were full of porcupine 

 quills, which was probablv the last animal he had dined off 

 and about as hot a meal as he ever had. 



Birds seen at Lockport, N. Y., during February: 



PERMANENT RESIDENTS (P.R.) 



Feb. 22. Downy woodpecker — P. pubescent. 

 Feb. 26. Great horned owl — Bubo nrginianus. 



WINTER VISITANTS (W. V.) 



Feb. 19. Pine linnet — C. pinus. 



Feb. 22. Herring gull — L. argentatus. 



Feb. 22. Black-capped chickadee — P. alricapiUvs. 



Feb. 22. Tree sparrow — S. monlicola. 



Feb. 24. Snowbird — J. hyemalis. 



TRANSIENT VISITANTS (T. V.) 



Feb. 20. Wild geese — Heard them in the evening. 



BTJACMEK RESIDENTS (8. R.) 



Feb. 16. Robin — Turdus migralorius. 



Feb. 22. Cedar waxing — A. cedrorum. 



Feb. 22. American goldfinch — G. irislis. / 



Note. — The wild geese were reported to me from a com- 

 petent party, a golden eagle {Aquila canadensis), was sent to 

 my son to be mounted, from Plessis, Jefferson county, N. V. 



Lockport, March 4. J. L. D. 



During the past winter our most abundant bird, save 

 always the black snowbird and tree sparrow, was the white- 

 bellied nuthatch. Next to these were the cardinal grosbeaks 

 and bluejays in about equal abundance. Numbers of the 

 latter birds were trapped by the boys and sold in neighbor- 

 ing towns at twenty-five and fifty cents each. The follow- 

 ing species were also rather abundant throughout the 

 winter: The song sparrow, tufted titmouse, Carolina wren, 

 American goldfinch, red-headed woodpecker, flicker and 

 Carolina dove. I saw the bluebirds and a crow or two in 

 January with the mercury at zero. The first general appear- 

 ance of the crows was Feb. 4; that of the robins Feb. 11, 

 and of the bluebirds Feb. 12. 



Many of your correspondents have remarked about the 

 unusual occurrence of certain birds, as the robin, blackbird, 

 bluebird, meadow lark, snipe, etc., within their districts the 

 past winter, and when the ground was covered with snow 

 and the weather unusually severe. I believe it to be capable 

 of explanation, and would assign as the indirect cause the 

 very general and very extensive snowfalls in the month of 

 January, almost without a parallel in our country. For 

 nearly a week in that month, the ground was covered with 

 from six to thirty inches of snow, from the Attlanic to the 

 Mississippi, and from the Lakes to Georgia; and much the 

 larger portion of all this vast territory was under snow dur- 

 ing nearly the whole month of January. Now, it is well 

 known that many of our birds, as those mentioned, are but 

 partially migratory, and that the question of food supply is 

 the chief factor in determining their winter habitation; 

 hence it is the great bulk of them ordinarily are found win- 

 tering in the "'Carolina" districts, where their food supplies 

 are i arely cut off by snows. But during the period spoken 

 of above, these districts being almost universally under 

 snow, the birds, in seeking suitable feeding grounds, were 

 necessarily more widely and generally dispersed, which to 

 my mind sufficiently accounts for their appearance in certain 

 more northern districts at the time, and under the circum- 

 stances, noted by your correspondents. Rev. W. E. Hill. 



Faibview, Hancock County, W. Va., March 8. 



hunters. To-day is warm and spring-like once more, al- 

 though enough snow has fallen to insure good sleigh riding. 

 JSooue in these parts feeds or shelters quail; perhaps the 

 quail are so scarce they can't find them. Rome years a°n 

 quail were here in goodly numbers, but of late "years it's 

 pretty hard to find a bunch. Partridges are a bird of the 

 past with us almost; one being found occasionally a few 

 miles from here. 16-Bobb. 



Madison, N. J. 



I herewith send my mite of information concerning the 

 appearand! of our spring birds. I saw robins and bluebirds 

 for the first time on Feb. 13; saw several meadow larks hi 

 January, but that is nothing unusual here; saw the firs* 

 red-shouldered blackbirds about the loth of February; also 

 saw a few pintail, mallard and dusky ducks. The robins 

 are here yet and seem inclined to stay. The others men- 

 tioned appear to come and go, according as the weather is 

 warm or cold. I shot two specimens of what 1 called rusty 

 grackle (Scolecophagus ferrugineus), but am not certain. 

 Length, nine inches; color, head and neck of male black, 

 shaded on tips of feathers with gray or russet, and traces of 

 russet among the feathers on the* shoulders; general color 

 black changing to green. The female had a great deal more 

 russet and gray on head, breast and shoulders; otherwise 

 same as the male; iris light yellow; bill three-quarters of an 

 inch in length. I never shot any birds like them before, 

 and tnought they were common blackbirds when I first saw 

 them. Am I right in my conjectures or not, and is their 

 appearance at this season of the year (February) anythiug 

 unusual? S. E. 



Seville, Ohio, March 5. 



[The birds mentioned by ' 'S. E. " were rusty grackles, as he 

 supposed.] 



There is deep snow on the ground here everywhere, and 

 yet one of our taxidermists shot a meadow lark nut of a 

 flock of eight or ten March 5. Saw the bird and it was a 

 beauty. The pine grosbeaks appear to have left for the 

 most part. A flock of female and young purple finches 

 have been here during the latter part of February. 



Amherst, Mass., March 7. W. A. STEARNS. 



We have had a severe winter here. Snow covers the 

 ground yet to the depth of several feet. Giouse and quail 

 have about all disappeared within the last few years from 

 these parts, owing to their wholesale destruction by pot- 

 hanters and foxes. Pine grosbeaks have been quite numer- 

 ous in the towns, feeding on the berries of the mountain 

 ash. Rather an unusual number of crows have wintered 

 here, considering the severity of the weather. A few shore 

 larks and downy woodpeckers and a few solitary chickadees 

 constitute our winter birds. Canuck. 



Oshawa, Ontario, Can., March 10, 1884. 



Since the last cold snap and snowstorm our birds have 

 again made themselves scarce, excepting the plucky blue- 

 bird. Hawks have been unusually plentiful the past winter. 

 In my last I wrote you I was expecting the ducks, but since 

 then the cold put a stop to their coming, as everything is 

 frozen. However, it will not be long before they will be 

 here in full force. Quite a number of rabbits were left over 

 from last fall's shoot, and I noticed a great many tracks in 

 the snow lately. It's surprising how rabbits keep up their 

 numbers, since they are constantly hunted in season by men 

 aud boys, and in summer by hounds and curs, and I can readily 

 believe the dogs kill more rabbits, when they are young, than 



"We have been visited since the 1st of February by a large 

 number of pine grosbeaks, which enter our city without 

 any fear, being very tame; indeed, a friend of mine caught 

 one under his hat. The birds mostly are females and young 

 birds. I have seen only one male in full plumage. Is not 

 this queer? F. W. G. 



Hartford, Conn., March 7. 



CROWS. 



A GERMAN friend related the other day a novel method 

 of capturing crows, that was practiced in the "Old 

 Country," when he was a boy. They sewed some strong 

 horse hairs to the grains of corn, and tied them securely in a 

 place the crows were wont to frequent. The crows would 

 come and eat the corn without observing the hairs attached 

 to it, and thus would be held fast, much against their will. It 

 would doubtless be ludicrous, and perhaps a little pathetic 

 to see some grave old sentinel give the warning signal, and 

 endeavor to fly away as one approached, only to be held 

 down in this ignoble manner. Bui it was very ludicrous 

 and not at all pathetic to see our old friend (who ought to 

 be sedate, as he has children grown) try to imitate them. 

 He would jump, flop his arms, ca-wa-ik, ca-ea-rawk, ea-awk- 

 aw, duck his head as though it were being held down by the 

 bait, jump and flop until his head was drawn quite beneath 

 him; 'then exhausted he would lift a very red face, which 

 would grow redder with laughing at the remembrance. He 

 said that he, with his brothers and sifters, owned a tame 

 crow of which they were very fond; but one day while they 

 were away, their mother saw it deliberately walk up ami 

 "spike" a gosling in the head, killing it instantly. This 

 enraged the good "frau,"who ran out and picking up a 

 small stick, flung it at him; when, to her astonishment, the 

 crow, with a faint caw, toppled over and expired. 



She had her punishment, however, when the children 

 returned and tilled the house with wailings and lamentations, 

 and could not be comforted for the loss of their pet, Papa 

 W. had some fancy poultry in which he took great interest: 

 but he found that the young chickens kept disappearing in a 

 very unaccountable manner, until one day he discovered 

 Corviis f'rurjiiorvs flying away with one in his beak. A 

 charge of shot put an end to his career, and after that there 

 were no more missing chickens. Violet S. Williams. 

 Coral ville, Pa., March 4, 1884 



Bulletin of the Natural History of tue State of 



Massachusetts.— We have received from Mr.W. A. Stearns 

 a circular setting forth that it is proposed to establish under 

 the above title a monthly periodical devoted to the natural 

 history of Massachusetts. The periodical is to he published 

 at Amherst, Mass., is to contain from twelve to sixteen pages, 

 6x9 inches, of brevier type. It will be conducted, we under- 

 stand, by Mr. Stearns. Price is to be $1 per annum. 



Otjbiotjs. — On March 6 a specimen of the mottled owl 

 (Scops two] | Was brought to me that had been killed by the 

 person throwing a club at it. Upon dissecting it I found 

 the stomach contained wheat, buckwheat and seeds, nothing 

 else. This is the first instance that I have ever found ur.ua 

 in the stomach of an owl.— C. F. Carr (Waupaca, Wis., 

 March 13. 



Early Breeding of Horned Lark.— For severe! weeks 

 horned larks (Ereni opinio, alpest) , is)'hrxre been with us, and 

 some time since I noticed the males chasing each other as 

 they are wont to do during pairing season. I paid no par- 

 ticular attention to the circumstance, as my earliest cluteh 

 of eggs were taken March 83, 1883 (the chicks were nearly 

 ready to come forth). This morning a friend brought for 

 identification a young bird he frightened from the ■ 

 terday, which proved to be a young male of the above, men- 

 tioned species. How he managed to survive the late cold 



