126 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



[March la, 1865 



Downy woodpecker (Pk-vs pubescens). — This bird is a 

 fairly common winter visitor here. T only met with a couple 

 of specimens, however, during the whole winter. 



Yellow-bellied woodpecker (Sphyrapicus varius. — I think 

 that this bird is a rare, occasional visitor iu these parts. I 

 met with but one this winter, which I shot and now have 

 mounted. I procured this specimen during the first part of 

 January. 



Yellow shafted flicker (Colaptes auratus).— This is another 

 somewhat rare winter bird, although it is common in sum- 

 mer. 1 met with one specimen during the first week in 

 January. 



Belted kingfisher (Ceryle alcyori), — I have never before this 

 winter known this bird to stay with us through the year. 

 While out walking one day during the last week of 

 December, I was greatly surprised at hearing the rattling 

 note of one of 1hese birds. I thought it so remarkable to 

 see one at that time of year that I shot the bird and now 

 have it mounted in my collection. This is the only one I saw. 



Barred owl (Strix iiebiilosum). — This is, I think, our com- 

 monest winter owl. I myself shot two this winter, and 

 heard of a couple more being killed. I shot both of mine 

 in the daytime. They arc much hated around here on ac- 

 count of 'their great fondness for youDg chickens. 



Great horned owl (Bubo virginianus). — This is a rare winter 

 visitant here. One was shot last winter, and I was informed 

 that one had been seen this winter, but have not met with 

 any myself. 



Red-shouldered hawk (Buteo lineatus). — This is our com- 

 monest winter hawk. It is a constant visitor to the chicken 

 yards, and many are killed. 



Red-tailed hawk {Buteo borealis). — This is another rather 

 common hawk during the winter. It is also a great destroyer 

 of poultry. 



American quail. Bob White (Ortyx virginianm). — The 

 quail has been rapidly decreasing in numbers for the past 

 few years in this place. A few wild buds were let loose last 

 spring and seem to have flourished, as there is a covey of 

 about fifteen or twenty birds now in the vicinity. 



I close the fist here without going into the subject of water 

 birds. There is so much difficulty in properly identifying 

 the different clucks, gulls, etc., at a distance, that I have not 

 included them in the list. W. T. E. 



Westchestbk Co,, N. T. 



Tame Ruffed Grouse. — Toledo, O, — Editor Forest and 

 Stream: A friend of mine has a female ruffed grouse that 

 has been in his possession some months and is quite tame. 

 He says he has known several cases of female rutfed grouse 

 thriving in confinement, but never of male grouse. Occa- 

 sionally he has heard of men who claim at some time in the 

 past to have had tame male grouse in their possession, but 

 insists that I cannot point to a single case where such bird 

 is actually in hand at present. I confess that I know of no 

 such case. If what he holds is true, it is certainly a very 

 interesting illustration of the indomitable character of this 

 ga are bi rd. Perhaps some reader of the Forest and Stream 

 can cite existing facts which will upset this gentleman's 

 theory.— B. B." 



Snow Buntings.— Perth Amboy, N. J., March 1. — Last 

 week, for the first time in several years, the rare and beauti- 

 ful snow bunting (Plectrophanes nivalis) was seen here in 

 considerable numbers; searching for food in the middle of 

 the principal streets in company with the ubiquitous English 

 sparrows. The latter, by the way, is less numerous than 

 usual at this season, hundreds of young birds having been 

 ilrowned by a terrific thunderstorm last summer. — J. L. K. 



\mi\t J|## w\A 



IN GOSHEN'S HOLE. 



GRAHAM, Griff, Tuck and Doc were lingering over an 

 unusually late breakfast one December morning, loth 

 to make any movement even to aid digestion, for the air 

 without was full of frosty sharpness and accompanied by 

 one of Wyoming's famous zephyrs. There being no out of 

 doors duties requiring their presence or attention, the genial 

 warmth of the dining-room or kitchen held them down. This 

 sort of thing had been so for a couple of weeks and had 

 commenced to grow the least bit monotonous for four big 

 hulking fellows accustomed to active outdoor life in the 

 saddle. 



Puff -puff-puff — "What say to loading — puff -puff — the 

 wagon to-day and pulling— puff-puff— over to Goshen's Hole 

 in fhe morning— puff-puff-puff— for a few days' hunt?" says 

 Graham. 



"It's a good idea," answers Griff. "There's something in 

 it, as the fat girl said when she put her foot in the stocking. 

 It means sport, plenty of fresh meat, and a varying to some 

 purpose of the slow quiet days in the bunk-house where all 

 one hears is 'I beg, fifteen two, that's a go, make it next,' and 

 like nonsense. Yes, let's go." 



Puff -puff -puff— "Would you like to go, Tuck?" 



"Y-e-s," came from somewhere in Tuck's esophagus, but 

 to one who knew Tuck it meant, notwithstanding his 

 deliberate pronunciation, a most emphatic yes, which, so 

 far as he was concerned, settled the business, and Doc hav- 

 ing neither the courage nor inclination to assert his inde- 

 pendence by disputing so decisive a majority, mildly 

 acquiesced, and the bill was passed without a dissenting 

 voice. 



"Now, Tuck, if you and Doc will see to get the mules and 

 saddle horses up, Griff and I will have the wagon loaded and 

 everything ready for an early start in the morning." 



"Then there was Lurrying to and fro," 

 and ere 



"The shades of nigbt were falling fast" 



everything we needed was stowed away in the wagon and 

 sheeted down, and by my saddle girth, good friend, ere the 

 morning sun begins to gild the eastern edge of Boughton 

 Hill we*U be well into the sand canon, popping the buckskin 

 into the mules, else my name is Dennis." 



Bean Belly, Crook, Bodie and Lida, the mule power, were 

 early in their traces and not oue of them appearing as though 

 they relished the prospect before them. Crook, the off 

 leader, persisted in putting his crooked hindlegs outside the 

 traces, while his side partner, Bodie, a cunning rascal, was 

 eyeing the proceedings, doubtful whether to put his neck in 

 the collar and do good, honest work, or kick himself loose 

 and join the bunch on the divide. Bean Belly, as mild a 

 mannered mule as ever kicked a lung out of a hostler, was 

 temporarily on his good behavior, due no doubt to the good 



behavior of the gentle Lida, who kept the off wbiffletree 

 straight, but old Beans will bear watching. 



A half hour's hard and steady pull brought us through the 

 sand canon and on top of the flat between Bear and Fox 

 creeks. Four miles to the east was Phillip's Hill, just 

 enough of a hill to form a landmark amid the surrounding 

 flatness. Half a mile to the west of our road rose Boughton 

 Hill, with its ups and downs, its grassy sides and rocky 

 points, and fifty miles northwest, looming up in rugged 

 grandeur and dwarfing its scores of neighbors, was Laramie 

 Peak, its dark, intense purple rendered more so by contrast 

 with the light, fleecy banks of clouds that, were passing over 



All around us was the great waving sea of grass, dotted 

 here and there by little drifts of snow which the wind had 

 packed away into hollow and washout. Over in the direc- 

 tion of Fox Creek Gap an occasional pine tree relieved the 

 monotony of the scene, and on the roadside were scattered 

 at irregular intervals those well-known markers of the path- 

 way of civilization, tin cans and empty bottles. 



Now, with a good road before us, and with liberal appli- 

 cations of the buckskin, to which the mules tardily and 

 unwillingly responded, we go bowling along over the prairie, 

 the saddle horses under their lighter loads being hardly able 

 to restrain their impatience at the slow-going mules. How- 

 ever, the middle of the afternoon found us among the breaks 

 and timbered country, at the head of the road entering 

 Goshen's Hole, and by sundown we were at Sturgis's cabin 

 on Box Elder. 



Goshen's Hole lies between fifty and sixty miles east of 

 north from Cheyenne. It is really an enormous hole in the 

 earth, the western and southern sides abounding in magnifi- 

 cent canons, many of them independent of each other, well 

 wooded and watered, and rising abruptly in walls of some 

 hundreds of feet to the level of the prairie above. These 

 walls, under the action of storm and sunshine, of frost anrj 

 heat, have assumed many fantastic shapes — cathedrals with 

 their towering minarets and steeples, long lines of fortifica- 

 tions, castles and monuments. In one place is a. steam en- 

 gine which looks as though it might have been the handi- 

 work of man, and on another point a bath tub that might 

 have been built for a giant among the Brobdingnags, and alto- 

 gether, these miles and miles of rock would look to a magni- 

 fied and distorted imagination like the Alhambra, the Pyra- 

 mids, the Washington Monument, Windsor Castle, Sebasto 

 pol and the ruins of Moscow shaken up in a bag and emptied 

 between Lone Tree and Box Elder, while the addition of a 

 little native Wyoming scenery gave it a home-like and 

 natural appearance. 



Out from the canon the land is gently rolling as far as the 

 eye can reach, and furnishing an abundance of feed for the 

 many thousand cattle and horses which range there. Many 

 of these canons are the fountain heads of springs, forming 

 little creeks running out toward the open, and well wooded 

 with box elder and eottonwood. In August they usually go 

 dry at the lower end for a few hours in the afternoon, but at 

 all other times they furnish an abundance of water for man 

 and beast. Box Elder, our present headquarters, is one of 

 the largest of these creeks. Near its head is one of the cab- 

 ins of the Union Cattle Company. We pitched our tent a 

 mile above, and "we'll all go a-huntingto-inorrow." At sun-up 

 we were at breakfast, when below us we heard the bang, 

 bang of rifles. Running up out of the creek bottom we saw 

 four deer putting up the canon. Griff fired and brought 

 down one of them, while the others disappeared around the 

 hillside. In less than ten minutes we had our victim in 

 camp. We finished our breakfast and prepared to trail the 

 others, a very easy matter to do in the inch or two of snow 

 which had fallen during the night. 



Striking the trail where Griff had killed the one we fol- 

 lowed slowly for perhaps a half mile, when the leaps com- 

 menced to grow shorter, showing that the deer had slowed 

 up. A few miuutes more and there appeared before us a 

 grand specimen of a black-tailed buck. Graham and Doc 

 immediately opened hostilities and continued rapidly firing 

 until he was out of sight, but never a hair on him was 

 touched. In the meantime Griff had fired a couple of shots 

 close by, and said, as Graham and Doc were about to move 

 forward after the big buck, "Hold on a minute until I bleed 

 these two here," when sure enough on the side of the canon, 

 a hundred feet higher up, were two more of our early morn- 

 ing visitors which had fallen in answer to the two shots of 

 Griff's. It was quite a surprise party to Graham and Doc, 

 for though they had heard the shots they supposed they were 

 made at the same deer at which they were firing. The big 

 buck traveled but a little way further on when he lay down 

 under a low pine tree, when Griff dispatched him with a 

 bullet through the head. 



"Well, Griff, the honors are all yours, and I imagine 

 mainly due to your seeing qualities. That's the great secret 

 of deerstalking." 



"No, it's not altogether due to my quick eyesight, for you 

 all saw the first and last deer as soon as I did, but I reckon it 

 is partly due to the sights on my rifle. To be sure, it's an 

 antiquated old Henry, but its sights are better than yours 

 and admit of no mistake. Now, your Sharps and Winches- 

 ters and Remingtons, when you bought them were all right, 

 but you must needs have some patent sights recommended as 

 specially adapted to the country put on them, and sights 

 such as no old practical hunter would take to a dog fight. 

 I have heard hunters who depended on their rifle for a living 

 say that you could not run fast enough to give them those 

 kind of sights. Do you pretend to tell me that Remington 

 and sharp and makers of that class do not know the proper 

 ones to use? Why, man, if those you use tire so superior, 

 you would find them used the world over. As it is, none 

 but a few dude hunters and men who shoot but once or twice 

 a year ever use them. I had as soon have a palm leaf fan 

 for my front sight, and a step ladder for rny rear sight, as 

 those things you have. What's that big hole in the bottom 

 of your rear sight for? To see your game through? 

 Why, man, half the time you are sighting through 

 it when you ought to be looking above it. There's 

 where you make your misses. It reminds me of an old clock 

 I heard of. The owner of it replied to a question, saying, 

 'It is a little queer, but one gets used to it. For instance, 

 when the hands indicate quarter past seven it strikes four, 

 and then 1 know it wants twenty-three minutes of twelve.' 

 Those sights require as much figuring on as the old clock, 

 and in the meantime away goes your game while you make 

 a clean miss, and my advice would be to plug the hole up 

 temporarily, and at the first opportunity, have them removed 

 and the original ones replaced. Don't throw them away, 

 for they are mighty good to have in a family that's out of 

 milk, that's all." 

 With our four deer suspended on stout poles resting on 



the trees, and a roaring and cheerful camp-fire, around 

 which the hunters were busily engaged in cleaning rifles, 

 keeping warm and preparing supper, made a pretty picture 

 of camp life. The gray of evening grows quickly at this 

 season into darkness, and to the barking of the covotes and 

 the hooting of the horned owl, we roll our blankets' about us 

 and "lie down to pleasant dreams." Millard. 



MOUNTAIN QUAIL IN ALABAMA. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



Looking over ah old issue of the Forest and Stream, 

 March 10, 1881, my eye encountered the letter of an Ogdens- 

 burg, N. Y., correspondent, on "The Oregon Quail." He 

 alluded to an importation of birds brought across by the 

 Hon. D. Magone, from Oregon, in the early part of 1880, 

 and which the editor of the Forest and Stream identified 

 from the description as being Oreortyx pictus. In the letter 

 mentioned the writer declares that serious thoughts of these 

 birds passing through one of the New York winters were 

 out of the question, and accordingly these mountain rangers 

 were sent, he tells us, to the care of a sporting club at Mont- 

 gomery, Ala., to be liberated in localities supposed to be 

 favorable to their increase. 



This was just four years ago, What became of these 

 adventurous emigrants to Southern climes? Quite an interest 

 was felt in their fate, but though the editor asked for further 

 reports regarding them, no word has come back to the read- 

 ers of the Forest and Stream (so far as 1 am aware) to tell 

 us whether they lived or died. Having felt a little more 

 than passing curiosity on the subject, in January I wrote to 

 Gen. Henry Semple at Montgomery, and had in reply a very 

 courteous letter under date of Feb. 4. Let me quote what 

 he says: 



"I handed the quail over to our gun club, and they were 

 divided into several bunches of six or seven each and placed 

 in the best positions. One part had a house assigned them 

 and were fed in it regularly. They afterward had the run 

 of a stubble field when they had become quite tame and gen- 

 tle, but after four weeks of liberty they failed to come up 

 one night, and were heard of more than nine miles off the 

 next day. One of this lot was killed by a negro when 

 twenty miles away. It was full of eggs, which were very 

 near maturity. The other lots were simply let loose in 

 favorable localities. In one instance they bred, and some 

 dozen or so were found the next fall with a" bevy of the Vir- 

 ginia quail, or 'partridge', as we were taught to call it in 

 Virginia. There is no doubt that these were the progeny of 

 those sent to that vicinity, as they were too numerous to have 

 been the original birds. Three of them were bagged by a 

 man who brought one of them to Montgomery to show it. 

 None of the others have ever since been heard of. 1 regret 

 that I did not keep one or two pair in my garden, as we 

 could in that way have tested the question of their adapta- 

 bility to our climate." 



In a private letter from Hon. D. Magone, who imported 

 these birds, he expresses the opinion that they are not identi- 

 cal with the California quail, but are "both larger and hand- 

 somer." It is possible that he has in mind the valley quail 

 of California, Lophortyx c. If I might venture a guess i f 

 would be that these birds would have done better in the moun- 

 tainous portions of New York than in Alabama. My Arizona 

 quail have flourished entirely in the open air through the 

 severest winter known in Northern Ohio for thirty years, 

 and "smile" complacently on a temperature of "twenty 

 degrees below zero. J. B. B. 



Toledo, Ohio. 



The Tacoma News reports: "The Mongolian pheasants 

 brought from China to this country by Judge Denny, late 

 Consul to China, and committed to the care of the Portland 

 Rod and Gun Club, are to be colonized on Protection Island, 

 in Puget Sound. Mr, Powers owns the island and will 

 take charge of the birds until they are old enough to be 

 turned loose on the main land." 



COMMON SENSE ABOUT IT. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



A lady while reading a daily paper recently, saw notice of 

 the death of a well-known "sporting man" by the name of 

 Johnson. She very innocently asked if he was not a friend 

 of mine, knowing that I bad a friend named Johnson who 

 sometimes went fishing and shooting. The terms sportsman 

 and sporting man seem to many people to be synonymous. 

 Webster's definition of sportsman is "One who pui sues the 

 'sports of the field; one who hunts fishes and fowls. One 

 skilled in the sports of the field." He defines a sporting man 

 as "One who practices field sports; also ahorse racer, a 

 pugilist and the like." When spoken of as a sportsman, 1. 

 acknowledge the title as readily as I would any name; but 

 to be called a sporting man, to be classed with pugilists and 

 the like, makes oDe's blood boil, and we experience an irre- 

 sistible inclination to have the game as well as the name, by 

 knocking down the person so calling us. Shooter, gunner, 

 hunter or huntsman are all inappropriate. What shall we be 

 called? I see but one way; that is, to educate the ear and 

 understanding of people to know that a sportsman is not a 

 sporting man. A little discussion on this subject would en- 

 lighten many. 



Without going into sentimental rhapsodies over the ideal 

 sportsman, I will simply try to set the ball rolling by show- 

 ing him as he appears to me. Rough and ready, or of gentle 

 birth or fortune, rich or poor, honest or dishonest, business 

 man, farmer or preacher, is a spcrtsman if he is fortunate 

 enough to have the love of dog and gun, or rod and line, 

 born in him. Unless he has the gift, art will not make a 

 man a sportsman. He kills his game not in mercy and kind- 

 ness, but from an instinct in his nature to prey, implanted 

 from the first of creation, and a desire to overcome difficul- 

 ties by his superior skill and judgment. A sportsman is not 

 of necessity a gentleman, any more than all members of 

 any profession or occupation in life are necessarily gentle- 

 men. Yet the sport of shooting and fishing is in itself en- 

 nobling. It cultivates and develops nerve and coolness in 

 emergencies, quick thought and action. 



It is folly to excuse cruelty of taking life of fish or fowl, 

 if cruelty there be, on the score of procuring food. Rarely 

 if ever is a sportsman driven to it by hunger, or a desire 

 for a particular kind of food. Nor does he consider, while 

 in the field and game is plenty, the exact amount he requires 

 for food. In fact his mind is not likely to dwell on that 

 subject, until his shooting or fishing is over for the day, when 

 he is prepared to do it ample justice in the most practical 

 way. A sportsman cannot be a pot-hunter, for wheu there 

 is slaughter sport ceases. Shooting and fishing have become 

 so expensive that if food were the impelling motive we would 



the limbs of the box elder 'trees, the clean, wlaite tent among ' go to'the market rather than the field. If our markets had 



