484 
FOREST AND STREAM, 
OO ————— 
(Tan. 15, 1886, 
ing season, but in such cases the old birds are frequently seen 
to go through with the vernal courtship preparatory to build- 
ing or repuiring the old nest, : 
After mating, the pair at once begins the construction of 
anest. The site usually chosen isa small tree in a beech 
and maple woods, not too deep or dense, but oak woods are 
frequented, and I have often found nests in pineries in cen- 
tral and northern Michigan. Nests are also built in low 
tracts of sparsely covered land, or attheedges of deep woods 
near Jakes and rivers. However, in my experience, beech 
and maple woods are generally preferred, and I think that 
more nests have been found in beech trees during my trips 
than in all other trees together. The nest is placed from 
five to torty feet from the ground, and generally next the 
body of the tree, a beech, white oak, small maple, or rarely 
anelm. On June first of the present year, a number of nests 
were observed and the heights from the ground taken. One 
nest was seven feet from the ground, and others ten, fifteen, 
eight and twenty-five feet up respectively. The average 
height may reasonably be placed at from eight to ten feet. 
The nest isa compactly built structure, composed almost 
entirely of mud, dead leayes of the previous season, and 
some grass. A few small twigs are occasionally found in its 
makeup. The nest, withstanding the storms of the season, 
is sometimes reoccupied the following spring. d 
The nest approaches in construction that of the robin, but 
has less mud in its body and lacks the rags and string so 
commonly used by our familar bird, though the dead leaves 
are an addition 1o the material used by the civilized redbreast. 
The eves are usually laid from the 20th to the 25th of 
May: sets are taken, however, by the 15th of the month. 
In color the eggs are similar to the robin eggs, but in size 
are considerably smaller, approaching in this respect those 
of the catbird, from which they may be readily distinguished, 
however, the eggs of the latter being of a decided green 
shade, Three eggs seems to be the number usually Jaid, 
but many nests are found containing four. The finding’ of 
five young in nests at various periods caused me to think 
that occasionally five ege@s were laid, but never having dis- 
coyered five egv's at one time, the conviction became estab- 
lished that the odd young one was that of the cowbird, and 
the finding of so many nests of this thrush containing one 
and in some instances two eggs of Molothrus, only strength- 
ened the belief. 
If the nest is approached, the old bird only leaves when 
the hand of the despoiler is very nesr it. Frequently one 
may climb to the branch on which the nest is built and 
shake it before the parent will fy. After leaying the nest 
the old bird usually flies to some distance and then returns 
and makes a great fuss, but many pairs are in no way demon- 
strative. 
It is quite probable that two broods are reared in a season, 
as fresh eggs may be foundin July. After the vesting sea- 
son is over the singing ceases, and the birds are so silent that 
one can scarcely find an individual. In late sammer a few 
may be heard scratching among the dead leaves on the 
ground, and if disturbed will silently flit to the nearest 
thicket. 
By September 15 most of the wood thrushes have de- 
parted for the south. This species is, next to the robin, cat- 
bird and thrasher, the best known member of the family 
that visits our State, and is very common during the breed- 
ing season, A dozen nests can be found in a day’s tramp. 
Hardly a schoulboy’s collection but contains the mutilated 
epes of this interesting thrush, and I am sorry to say that 
yearly many eggs of the song thrush, as well as eggs of others 
of our common birds, are festooned on strings and adorn (?) 
walls to gratify the caprice of amateur collectors, very few 
of whom know the names of half the eggs in their miserable 
collections. 
KaLamazoo, Oct, 12, 1834. 
MOOSE AND BEAR NOTES. 
Editor Forest and Stream: 
I have been much interested in the articles of you corres- 
pondents ‘‘Nessmuk” and *‘Penobscot,” and while my ex- 
perience in the main agrees with theirs, there are some points 
in which it differs. I agree with ‘‘Penobscot” in his state- 
ments of moose running, and also that our Maine moose are 
not capable of taking any such strides as Mr. Phelps 
describes. If they had been I should not have been writing 
this today. In regard to scent I have never observed the 
acuteness that | have in deer, I remember five different 
moose which I approached with moccasins, on bare ground 
within thirty feet or less, in one instance being so near that 
I could almost touch an old bull which stood in the thicket 
rubbing his horns, I have had cne when shot at by another 
person come directly toward me when I was standing iu 
fair sight, and showed no sign of either seeing or smelling 
me till, finding she would run over me, I shot her when not 
over ten feet distant. It is very often the case that when 
feeding in the water on a dark night, or when called in, 
they will allow a canoe to come within a paddle’s lensth. I 
haye known a hunter on a bright moonlight night to lay a 
long time under the shade of the bank listening for moose 
in the water, and then have one of whose presence he had 
not been aware, spring entirely over his canoe into the water 
beyond. 
In regard to the ‘‘bell,” as “Penobscot” calls it, or ‘‘tas- 
sel,” as it is more commonly called, it has been my fortune 
in my business to handle some thousands of moose hides, 
and while Ihave seen them in the shape of a pouch, as de- 
scribed by ‘‘Penobseot,” the cases haye been very rare, 
Usually it is simply a tassel hanging from the throat with- 
out any enlargement whatever at the base: itis, when the 
hair has been shaved from it, merely an appendage of skin, 
as though a piece of green hide an inch wide had been folded 
and united at the edges. The hair can be erected at the 
animal’s pleasure, and is always so when he is enraged. It 
seems like the tassel on a turkey, intended for ornament. I 
have opened a great many, have neyet noticed that they 
contained anything, but they were wet on the inside as are 
all green skins, ‘The beil-shaped ones are like a pouch of 
two thicknesses of skin, which can be easily separated, and 
lhaye seen one so large Lhave pulled it on my head for a 
cap when green, Cases of this kind, however, are very un- 
common. Ihave known one to have a second tassel below 
the first, but much shorter. An extremely long one meas- 
ured to-day (Dec. 22) measures sixteen inches to the end of 
the hair and starts directly from the skin of the neck. Much 
to my surprise it was only eight inches by measure from the 
lower corner of the mouth, being almost under the jaw; 
without measuring I should have said they were much fur- 
ther down on the neck. 
“Penobscot” is right about bears hibernating. It depends 
almost entirely on food supply, A few years ago when there 
Pe. 
Were no beechnuts nor berries, bears, which were very 
plenty, denned early in October. Taking pains to write 
acquaintances, I found that they disappeared at about the 
same time all over Penobscot, St. Johns and Tobique waters, 
also in Nova Scotia and on the Gaspé coast in Canada east, 
This year, sofar as I haye been able to learn, few have been 
heard from since Nov, 1, and they are seldom plentier in 
this State than at present. In beechnut years it is very 
common for them to be out as late as this date. Of course, 
as all hunters know, there are exceptions to general rules, 
as there is now and then a bear that does not den regularly, 
but comes out at any time in thawing weather, when not 
hindered by deep snow. 
Last season, after seeing inquiries about white-breasted 
bears. I tried to ascertain the proportion by actual count. 
Most of my skins had been shipped, but an examination of 
thirty-seven, coming from yarious points between Range- 
ley Lake and Baie de Chaleur, showed eleven with white 
breasts. Those coming from east of here showed a greater 
proportion, though it might not always be so. One lot of 
five from Breadalbane, N. B,, contained three white breasts. 
Usually it is simply a straight mark of while three to six 
inches in length and one to two in breadth, sometimes it 
is in the shape of a Y, occasionally in @ perfect crescent with 
the horns pointing upward, as in one which the writer sup- 
plied to the Boston Natural History Rooms. 1 have seen 
them with a heart-shaped white spot. It may be safely said 
the much-talked-of whiteface bear exists only in imagination, 
as in many thousand skins handled, I have only in one in- 
stance seen anything approaching this. In this one excep- 
tion the face was thickly sprinkled with silver hairs, but not 
white. We occasionally get skins in this State or New Bruns- 
wick, which, if they came trom the Rocky Mountains, would 
be called brown bear, and I received one last year which 
was as good a cinnamon as I have ever seen. These were 
undoubtedly freaks of nature,as the last mentioned had 
white claws. Have seen one partial albino, the wool being 
mostly white, the long hairs black. 
“Nessmuk,” in your issue of Nov. 20, page 323, asks: 
“And is the short-lezged glossy black bear the same as the 
dingy, long-legged brown bear?” On page 381, Vol. V., 
“Standard Natural History,” just issued by 8, If. Cassino, it 
is said; “‘Speaking of two tame black bears cubbed by the 
same dam, says Henry Clapp, ‘One was what is called the 
“ranger bear,” that is, it was long-legged and Jong-bodied, 
and not so black, with a little coarser fur than the other 
variety. The other was what was called the ‘‘hoe bear,” and 
was shorter-legoed and blacker. So lam sure the hog bear 
and the ranger are one species.’” 
The writer of the present article was intimately ac- 
quainted with Mr. Clapp, and also saw the bears above men- 
tioned from the time they were cubs till they grew up, and 
knows the statement to be true. I have had scores of sets of 
eubs brought in to me which were killed with the mother. 
Sometimes both are like the mother,, sometimes one, some- 
times neither. They neither invariably follow the mother 
either in stature or color of hair. It is just as correct to 
talk of a class of long-legwed, red-haired men as to speak 
of brown-nosed, long-legged bears. To proye the thing I 
have just sorted over a large number of skins, throwing the 
long-legged ones into one pile, and the short-legged into 
another, and then looked at them with reference to the noses 
and fineness of fur. There were in both those that had 
brown noses and those that had not; ibere were fine, soft- 
furred, short-legged, and others which were coarser: there 
were also the same differences among the long-legged. As 
a rule the long-legged are the coarsest haired, hut they are 
all of one breed, as ‘‘Nessmuk,” if he were to examine a 
large pile of skins in any furrier’s store, would be convinced. 
Many hunters hold the same opinion that ‘‘Nessmuk” does, 
but the positive proof that the two cubs of one mother can 
belong to both the so-called varieties, and haying many 
times seen the skins of cuds differing from the parent, 
obliges me to differ from one with whom I should prefer 
“to agree. MAINe, 
A Mun Brrp,—tlt was the good fortune of Mr, Herbert 
Brown, on Dec, 14, while collecting birds in the vicinity of 
Tucson, especially the gilded woodpecker (Colaptes chiryso- 
ides), to kill a bird which, while alive, he believed to be an 
individual of the aboye species, On picking up the bird, 
however, he at once noticed that while there were certain 
characteristics of that species apparent, yet on the whole the 
bird in question more closely resembled the Mexican, or red- 
shafted woodpecker (Colaptes mevicanus), an allied species. 
In fact, the bird had all the characteristics of an adult male 
Mexican wootlpecker, except that two of the secondary 
quills in one wing and four in the other, as well as the three 
outer tail feathers on each side of the tail, were identical in 
coloration and general character with those of the gilded 
woodpecker. There seems no reason to doubi that this bird 
isatrue bybrid between the gilded woodpecker and the 
Mexican woodpecker, ‘There are several reasons why it 
seems probable that this is the case, rather than to refer the 
bird in question to the so-called hybrid woodpecker (Colap- 
tes hybridus). First, the juxtaposition of chrysoides and 
mecvicanus during the breeding season, both species breeding 
in the giant cactus on the high mesas about Tucson. Second, 
the specimen in question has no tendency to fusion of color 
on the quills or tail featbers, and there is no admixture of 
black feather in the cheek patch which is so characteristic 
of hAybridus. The few feathers mentioned as being like 
those of chrysoides in the wings and tail are as clear and 
bright yellow as can be found, while the rest of the feathers 
of the wings and tail are typically those of menicanus, being 
reddish pink, with no tendency to an orange or yellowish 
cast. Curiously, too, the feathers of the chrysoides portion 
of the bird are in size like those of chryseides, and thus in 
strong contrast to the feathers with which they are associated 
which are so much larger. It is possible that the feathers 
spoken of are not full grown, though it is improbable, the rest 
of the moult being perfect and the season so far advanced. 
The rest of the plumage, even to the shading of the head, is 
typically that of mexteanus. The above notes are made from 
a careful comparison ot 4 number of each of the two species 
found here.— WW" E. D. Scott, in Arizona Daily Star, Tueson, 
Dee. 16, 1884. 
RECENT ARRIVALS AT THE PHILADELPHIA ZOOLOGICAL GAREDN.—Pur- 
chased—One male wildeat (Lana rufus), ome opossum (Didelpliys vir- 
gini), one bald eagle ((Haliaetus leucocephalus), two pairs of bull- 
finches (Pyrrhula rubicilla), one mountain inch (#ringilla monti- 
fringitla), one starling (Sturnus vulgaris), one red-throated diver 
(Colymbus septentrionalis), and one Canada goose |.Bernicla cana- 
denis), Presented—Three capybaras (Hydrochw@rus capybara), one 
hairy armadillo (Dasypus villosus), one raceoon (Procyon lolor), one 
screech owl (Scops asio), oné herring gull (Larus argentatus), one 
red-tailed hawk (Buteo borealis), one song thrush (Yurdus musicus), 
one white crow (Corvus americanus), and one water snake (Troepido- 
notus fusciaius), Bredin the Garden—One moor macaque ears 
meurus), and four male dingos (Canis dingo). 
Game Bag and Gui. 
IDEAS OF A QUAIL HUNTER. 
fiditor Forest and Stream: 
When our splendid Virginia autumn came, I dotted you 
down in rhyme 4 woodcock hunt, and the scenes and sur- 
roundings incidental, as nearly truthful as a little fancy 
would permit. I have not seen it since—found the waste 
basket, perhaps—but you have treated us to worse many a 
time. I concluded likely the piece (‘A Southland Autumn 
Hunt”) was not practical enough, especially for your lati- 
tude. Ishall now give you a rugged, practical sketch of a 
Southwest Virginia partridge (quail) hunter with dogs and 
fun in action in the field, 
My home is in the Clinch Valley, where we have sharp, 
straight, high mountains and beautiful valleys between, 
covered with indigenous blue grass, the mountains when 
cleared being clothed with grass to their very tops. To-day 
is the 13th of December, and while we see snow sometimes 
in the hish mountains, none to this day has been in our val- 
leys. Our country being strictly deyoted to grazing, we 
have no extensive grain fields, but partridges (quail) are 
nevertheless very plentiful in the !cover we have. They are 
strong, large, lightning-flying fellows, and when pursued do 
not tamely hang around the smooth, open ground. Sol 
have to deal with these birds just as we all do in briery 
wooded countries, shoot at them once or twice in the open, 
then in red brush, briers, briery fence rows, hedge, rose 
patches, saw grass and the like, This is “Bod White” as 
he is. 
I haye two dogs, about like other BeOp as dogs, or a little 
worse trained than newspaper dogs, ne about six years 
old, a rip-slashing, liver and white dog, hard-headed, and a 
dog of hisown head; never tires from morning till night; 
goes right where he knows birds stay; believes that he can 
go like the wind-and his nose never fail him; and will hang 
to a point as long as you want him, and in a day take every 
position, from a high-headed stand to a dead drop point, 
and now and then try his pluck on catching a bird I miss. 
He’s not perfection, The other is a puppy of the old dog; 
cross on a red Irish bitch [purchasedin Northern New York, 
now seyen months old and trained from the essays of Mr, 
Hammond—a staunch large fellow and beautiful retriever. I 
never trained the old dog, and no one else ever did. IJ storm 
at. these dogs and thrash them just as all truthful men do 
their dogs. They are both dreaming at my feet now about 
my slapping them for wanting to chase the ‘‘cotton tail” 
starling under their nose. 
Tuse aJ. Manton & Co. 74 pounds, 12-gauge, 30-inch 
double breechloading shotgun. It is a side lever, too. It is 
a beautiful gun and looks to me that it ought not to be so 
cheap, as it seems this make is now selling for. Now 4s 
this is a cheap make of gun, no one will accuse me of affec- 
tation; but I simply want to tell how a backwoods “‘hunter” 
goes armed. Bul this gun shoots, lei me assure you, in 
earnest. 
In my ups and downs I have acquired brass shells of the 
foliowing make, Remington, Parker and Winchester, Of 
these I prefer the Winchester, because the base is solid and 
strong and the primer is simply perfection, having its own 
anyil, and do not believe I ever had one to fail fire. See 
no difference in the shooting qualities. There is no question 
but what the brass shells far exceed the paper ones in shoot- 
ing qualities. They take a number larger wad, are thinner 
and suve the gas better, by properly fitting shell chamber, 
and are at last cheaper. I find the best shooting of my gun 
is had by 8} drams of No. 2 Latlin & Rand’s eagle ducking 
powder. Over this two wads are put. 1 pnt the wads oyer 
the powder with a rammer with convex end, which makes 
the face of wad, receiving shot, concaye, throwing them con- 
centric. ‘This I caught from a correspondent of your paper. 
The single wad on shot is sent home with smooth-faced 
rammer. The Ely pink-edge or Winchester felt wad pre- 
ferred, and just one kind used, for who wants to bother with 
different kinds in one shell? The inside of shell should 
never be cleaned, the better fo hold wad, which wad should 
be two sizes larger than shell, One ounce of No, 8 chilled 
shot is just the load. It is predicted that in afew years none 
other than chilled shot will be used. They break neck, 
wings and bone, and your dog finds the bird where it falls, 
It is astonishing what variety of game this load will kill and 
yet not tear up the smallest. I have actually seen gentle- 
men use the Barclay loader in loading brass shells. I don’t 
suppose it was made for this, since the springs inside so 
compress the wad as to render it liable to be loose in shell. 
It is perfection on paper shells, 
Let it be understood that I have to pay like the mischief 
for all ihe above described ammunition, am under obliga- 
tions to none of the makers, never saw them and advertise 
for none, and mean nothing of the sort, just give actual ex- 
perience, 
In apparel in the field I would teach as the elocutionist— 
be natural, Make as little change as possible, as it impedes 
walking, action and shooting. Corduroy pants of the best 
quality, brown color, are preferable. They completely resist 
briers, thorns and burrs, A pair of gaiters of best leather, 
that have been worn to the easy old shoe, with canvas- 
buckled leggings. are perfection tor the tramp. The busi- 
ness, old, well-worn, close-fitting, cutaway pattern of coat, 
Haye some pockets sewed below the cartridge belt to put 
empty shells in; have pockets larger at base than top to keep 
from losing contents. I use the cloth-woven cartridge belf 
that will safely hold cartridge without being stuck far in; 
shoulder straps. This beats pockets, which are in the way 
of quick handling of gun. Did you ever have full pockets 
on the breast, or just under arm, derange the breach moye- 
ment of your gun? Have all pockets below belt. Did you 
ever have your hips worn sore by pocket full of loaded cart- 
ridges? Did you ever walk with asthetic chap—tight-but- 
toned white corduroy breeches, heavy boots, cold nevk, 
chafing canvas coat, wholly new all over, and see him bang 
and miss—eurse his powder, lead, gun, and finally himself 
and wilt? See the heel blisters, the red, chafed neck, and 
badly done up fellow. Give me the old-fashioned network 
game bag; leather next you, partition in it, a place for game 
and lunch and—well, just anything. If you have this bag 
you can very frequently have some youngster along who 
can carry; and while I neyer owned the cout with game bag 
worked in, it dors not seem ‘‘hunter like” or agreeable, I 
want the low-crowned black slouch hat worn by us in the 
South, as it both screens the eyes and keeps off rain, while 
the cap inviles the latter down the back of your neck, is. not 
easily knocked off. : : 
I have truthfully aimed this for a practical sketch, tellmg 
our bunter friends that the every-day dog is not always the 
