UfctKOB 19, 1885.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



146 



trunk. Its mode of securing its food from the crevices of the 

 bark necessitates this manner of hunting about the tree, and 

 although, apparently aimless in its course the creeper is in 

 reality instituting a most thorough search for its food; and 

 that this is a laborious and often painstaking tusk is suffi- 

 ciently evident when we observe several birds in succession 

 mounting the same tree, over apparently the same route, not 

 one of which pauses to feed, showing that nothing was 

 found by them. A few moments later a woodpecker ap- 

 pears and with the aid of his stronger bill tears loose a chry- 

 salis and devours it, where the delicate little creeper was too 

 weak to succeed. 



While writing this biography I was interrupted and called 

 to a distant part of the city, and in walking past an oak tree 

 the pleasant weep of this little fellow reached my ear. The 

 mercury is 24' below zero, and a stiff wind is blowing, mak- 

 ing it one of the coldest clays of the year. During the past 

 night the mercury indicated— 31 \ How is it possible for this 

 mite of flesh and blood, weighing less than one ounce avoir- 

 dupois, to exist in such an atmosphere? This question will 

 be answered further on, when we shall discuss the principle 

 of respiration in birds, with their powers of generating heat. 

 For the present we will leave the little fellow circling around 

 the rough cold trees, waiting, as we are, for the coming of 

 pleasant weather. 

 Kalamazoo, Feb. 11, 1885. 



HORNS OF THE FEMALE CARIBOU. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



In his letter published in your issue of the 5th inst., which 

 has just come to my notice, Mr. Grinnell states, in effect, that 

 because the books have laid it down, that, as a rule, the 

 female caribou carry horns, he will not accept the statements 

 made that this rule will not apply to those of this species 

 occurring in New Brunswick and Maine. 



Whether Mr. Grinnell considers my statements reliable or 

 not is not important. 1 have done my part in publishing 

 what information on the subject I have been enabled to 

 gather, and which includes the evidence of three observers 

 who have made a study of the deer occurring in this Prov- 

 ince, and the testimony of reliable hunters who have had a 

 widely extended experience, all of whom agree that it is the 

 exception and not the rule, for female caribou found in New 

 Brunswick to carry horns. Two contributofs to this journal 

 have recorded similar results of their observations in Maine. 

 If Mr. Grinnell will not accept these, and still maintains that 

 the book must be correct, so much the worse for Mr. Grin- 

 nell. 



It is important, however, that those readers of Fokesi 

 and Stream who may be influenced in the matter, should 

 not be led by Mr. Grinnell to consider that the books should 

 be taken as infallible guides. That our standard works are 

 in the main correct, no student will attempt to deny, but 

 that eminent naturalists have made mistakes, and that these 

 mistakes have been repeated again and again by subsequent 

 writers, while it may be a revelation to Mr. Grinnell (ana 

 from the contents of his last Idler one may fairly suppose 

 that"it will be) is a well known fact. As an example of 

 these errors, take the case of the position of the "hood" on 

 the hooded seal (Cystopltora eristnta) The specimen in the 

 American Museum of Natural History, Central Park, has 

 the hood placed on the top of the head— the position which 

 the bocks have assigned to it— but Dr. G. Hart Merriam has 

 lately stated that it is utterly impossible for the animal to 

 arrange its headgear in that manner. Will Mr. Grinnell 

 doubt Dr. Merriam's statement because It differs from the 

 books? 



Take another case. The crested grebe (Podiceps cristatw) 

 was placed among the birds of North America by Bonaparte 

 and by Audubon, and Richardson and Nuttall, and this was 

 repeated by Mr. Lawrence in 1859, and by Dr. Coues as late 

 as 1877, yet Dr. Brewer wrote of this same grebe that "there 

 is no authentic record of the capture of a single specimen in 

 America;" and I venture the assertion that few students of 

 to-day will hold to Audubon's statement in preference, to 

 accepting Dr. Brewer's. 



Numerous other instances might be cited, and each suc- 

 ceeding year, for many a one yet to come, will doubtless add 

 its contribution to the last, for a long time must necessarily 

 elapse before observers shall have definitely determined every 

 question relating to the natural history of this continent. 



But while protesting against the assumption that the books 

 are infallible, I must not be understood as presuming to 

 doubt the reliability of the statements of those who have 

 studied the caribou "of the northern regions. Whatever mis- 

 take has been made lies with the authors, who, while writing 

 of this northern section of the habitat of the caribou, have 

 repeated a rule which does not apply here, instead of limit- 

 ing their statements to the results of their own observations. 

 For I maintain, there is not any evidence in what they have 

 written on the point at issue, to prove that it is not a mere 

 repetition, and it may be fairly supposed that at least the 

 majority of the authors cited did not examine into the ques- 

 tion at all. As Mr. Grinnell affirms, the rule has been so 

 often repeated as to be considered an established fact, and 

 being so considered, would naturally be accepted by these 

 observers without question. Most of these gentlemen- 

 Major King, Captain Cainpbell-Hardy, Dr. Leith- Adams, 

 Mr. Rowan— were English sportsmen— naturalists who spent 

 two or three years in this country, and who used part of the 

 time they could spare from other matters in endeavoring to 

 study the entire natural history of the locality, and they 

 could not possibly have collected sufficient data upon the 

 point in question to warrant them in attempting to contro- 

 vert it, had they been so disposed. 



Mr. Grinnell has quoted from Mr. Charles Ward's article 

 in the Century Magazine, but, while any statement that Mr. 

 Ward might make would, undoubtedly, command respect- 

 fid consideration, I fail to see that there is anything in the 

 words quoted to prove that Mr. Ward was not also merely 

 repeating that which he might have naturally supposed to be 

 an established fact. It may also be fairly questioned if Mr. 

 Ward gathered any data upon the point in question, for 

 being an artist and a sportsman, he would not be likely to 

 look into such a matter with the scientific precision of a 

 naturalist. I have inquired of numbers of our most intelli- 

 gent sportsmen about this matter of the horns of the female 

 caribou, and from all have received about the same answer. 

 When shooting caribou they usually select the males with 

 the largest antlers. Few of these gentlemen have seen many 

 specimens they could say with certainty were females. 

 They have seen herds with a large percentage of hornless 

 animals, but supposed they were young deer or those which 

 had shed their horns. 



Let me ask, in conclusion, is it wise to allow such evidence 



as has been cited against my position to outweigh the evi- 

 dence I have offered? To place the testimony of a writer 

 who has given the matter no special attention, or who has 

 had but little time to devote to it, against that of such an 

 observer as my correspondent, the mining engineer, who has 

 lived for twelve years in the heart of a caribou district and 

 made this species a subject of special study? Is it wise to 

 accept the statement of those who have examined a few 

 specimens and reject that of Mr. Braithwaite, who has killed 

 some four hundred? As to the opinions of the hunters who 

 have written to Mr. Gregory, they only prove that this ex- 

 ception to Richardson's rule does not obtain in theil' locality, 

 and I am not aware that any statement to the contrary has 

 been made. ' Montague Chamberlain, 



St. John, N. B., Feb. 28, 1588. 



PRAIRIE DOG WELLS. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



I have read with much interest the communication In your 

 issue of Feb. 88, by "C. D. P." on "The Prairie Dog as a 

 Water Witch," and am led to ask, Is there any positive 

 evidence that prairie dogs burrow for water? Has any one 

 ever actually met with a "prairie dog well"? The conject- 

 ure has often been advanced that prairie dogs must obtain 

 water in some way, and that as it is not always procurable 

 at the surface of the ground where they live, they must bur- 

 row to_ considerable depths to obtain it. But I am aware of 

 no positive evidence that Ibis is ever clone, uor have my own 

 observations among the prairie dog towns of the West ever 

 led me to suspect, that they ever burrow to obtain water. 

 However barren the localities may be in which their towns 

 are situated, their conditions of often extreme fatness shows 

 that they in no way suffer from lack of food, and it seems 

 reasonable to suppose that the vegetation on which they so 

 comfortably subsist may also afford them the requisite 

 amount of moisture for their support. 



But the special, and I fear misleading point, to which 1 

 wish especially to refer, is your correspondent's conclusion 

 "that the prairie dog burrows for water . . . and possi- 

 bly to great depths, and that where a dog burrows man can 

 bore. Consequently, that water can be found in the center 

 or vicinity of any prairie-dog town" by boring. Respecting 

 this point, I would refer your readers to an article by Dr. C. 

 A. White, of the United States Geological Survey, entitled, 

 "Artesian Wells Upon the Great Plains." published in the 

 North American Eevtar for August, 1882 (Vol. 135, No. 2, p. 

 186-195). After detailing the experiments already made at 

 government aud private expense in boring for water on the 

 Great Plains and elsewhere in the West, aud stating the geo- 

 logical conditions that have been found to obtain there — 

 showing the difficulty and almost hopeless attempts to get 

 water by boring, at least in remunerative quantity in the 

 "prairie-dog country" — he concludes that the facts are op- 

 posed to the hope of profitable irrigation of farming land 

 upon the plains by means of artesian wells, although wells 

 yielding a small supply of water may be obtained. But in 

 view of the great cost of boring wells, ranging 1,000 to 1,200 

 feet in depth — the depth hitherto found generally necessary — 

 Dr. White, in concluding his article, says: "But the risk of 

 failure has hitherto proved to be so great that no borine: 

 ought to be undertaken upon any portion of the great prai- 

 ries without the known results of a careful geological exam- 

 ination of the region by competent persons." This seems to 

 show that the prairie-dog "sign" might prove illusive. 



J. A. Allen. 

 Cambridge, Mass. 



Acadian Owl. — A fortnight since, during a driving snow 

 storm and toward dusk, I saw a sudden flight of wings 

 across the window by which I sat, and on looking out 

 beheld a small owl perched on a maple tree near by." For 

 a few moments it remained, and then took wing and was 

 lost to sight, and I was lost in wonder and admiration of the 

 strange and pleasing vision. Business called me away from 

 home for a week, and on returning I learned that a pigeon 

 had been found on the stable floor with its head eaten off 

 and its body still warm and supple — no blood on feathers or 

 about its body on the floor. In closing my stable on Friday 

 night (the 13th instant) I saw what 1 at first supposed to be 

 a pigeon fly from the loft to a window and there perch. In 

 the dim light I finally decided that it was no pigeon, but an 

 owl, and that a very diminutive one. The light of day re- 

 vealed the little fellow in ail his petite prettiness. On the 

 next day I caught it in my hands and transferred it to an 

 unfurnished room in the house, where it now holds court. 

 In all my experience and observation in forest and field, in 

 deserted houses and crumbling ruin, I never saw an owl of 

 this species before, aud would like to identity it. Is it an 

 Acadian owl? It is a trifle larger than .a robin; ears quite 

 prominent; breast mostly white, slightly mottled with deli- 

 cate brown; head a delicate tan color; back, wings and tail 

 nearly the same hue, the pinions being tipped with white. 

 Meagre though this description is and void of ornithological 

 technicalities, I hope the pretty prisoner may be classified, 

 and I shall be thankful to any brother sportsman who will 

 name this owl and give its habitat. — O. W. R., Feb. 16. 

 [We presume that it is a saw whet or Acadian owl (Xyctah 

 aeadica) (Gm.) Bt.]. 



A Screech Owl Attacks A Plymouth Rock Roos- 

 ter.— Lockport, N. Y., Feb. 26.— On Saturday last I re- 

 ceived a box containing a live screech owl (Scops asio) from 

 a young farmer friend, and on Tuesday received the follow- 

 ing letter from him : Dear Sir — " Friday morning I found 

 a large Plymouth Rock rooster, with his head and neck 

 badly torn and covered with blood, and, after some search, 

 I saw a small owl up in the barn. I caught it aud found 

 fresh blood on the feathers around its beak. To be sure it 

 was the owl that did the mischief, I put both the fowl and 

 the bird in a darkened place, and was at once treated to a 

 surprise, for the ow r l flew at the eock and lit on his neck, 

 and began to pick at his head in a very furious manner. 

 Being sure that I had the culprit, I boxed it up and sent it 

 to you. The rooster weighed nine pounds alive, rather 

 large prey for so small a bird." The owl was of the red-mot- 

 tled variety and w T eighed five and one-half ounces — truly a 

 small bird' to attack so large a fowl. This is the fourth 

 owl I have received from this party, and they have all been 

 of the red variety, two of which were young birds, secured 

 June 17, and an adult, secured the next day in the same 

 woods, and probably one of the parent birds. I have come 

 to the conclusion that I have the whole family, and that 

 the red is a separate variety from the black mottled. I 

 presume I have handled fifty Scops asio within the past five 

 years, aud these were the first of the red variety I had seen. 

 —J. L. Davison. 



Battle Between a Red-Neoked Grebe and a Dog. 

 —Buffalo, March 8.— A novel combat was witnessed the 

 other day between a pugnaciously- inclined little Scotch ter- 

 rier and a full-grown male specimen of the red-necked grebe 

 (Podiceps griseigena). The scene of the conflict was in the 

 yard of a house along the principal street of our city and 

 about a mile distant from the Niagara, where the bird had 

 evidently intended to pass the winter in its always open 

 waters. A fierce gale, at the rate of fifty or more miles per 

 hour, was blowing at the same time, which in connection 

 with an accompanying blinding snowstorm, accounts for the 

 strange surroundings in which the bird was discovered. It 

 would be difficult to surmise how long the battle between 

 these two curiously-matched contestants might have lasted, 

 as according to the testimony of the boys who put an end to 

 it by capturing the grebe, no special vantage had been gained 

 on either side, the bird holding well his own by dexterously 

 dealing telling blows with his sharp beak whenever the dog 

 attempted to make a charge. The red-necked grebe has thus 

 far not been noticed in this Vicinity, and would be least of 

 all expected to be seen on the 10th of February, when it was 

 taken. After capture it was put into a large tank filled with 

 water, where it lived for over two weeks, subsisting on small 

 fish. Being in good plumage, it was mounted and transferred 

 to the cabinet of local birds belonging to the Society of Nat- 

 ural Sciences in this city.— C. L. 



DOMESTICATING Native Birds. —Editor Forest and Stream; 

 How many varieties of our game birds would live and breed 

 in confinement? I have been informed that California quail, 

 prairie hens or pinnated grouse and other varieties of gab 

 linaceous game birds can be easily domesticated. 1 think if 

 they cannot be allowed their liberty, they might be reared in 

 inclosed yards successfully, and prove, if not a useful, a very 

 ornamental and grotesque acquisition. Will some of the 

 readers of Forest and Stream give their opinions on the 

 subject?— G. Buell (Grand Rapids, Mich.). [It is, of course, 

 impossible to do more than express an opinion on a matter of 

 this kind, for enough experiments have not yet been made to 

 demonstrate that many of our native, gallinaceous birds will 

 live and breed in confinement. There appears, however, to 

 be little doubt that the California valley and the Arizona 

 plumed quail will breed in confinement, and that the pin- 

 nated grouse are easily domesticated. We have owned 

 prairie chickens and valley quail which were as tame as 

 ordinary hens, and would scratch in the freshly-upturned 

 earth at the very feet of the gardner, who was preparing his 

 beds for planting. Audubon, we think, records the fact that 

 prairie chickens have been domesticated on quite a large . 

 scale. We have no doubt that the plan proposed could be 

 carried out with great pleasure and profit to any one who has 

 the time to devote to the matter. Let us hear fronrjour cor- 

 respondents on the subject.] 



What is the Present Distribution op the American 

 Bison? — Editor Finest and Stream: As is well known, the 

 American bison or "buffalo" has so rapidly decreased in 

 numbers during the last few years that few are now to be 

 found within the limits of the United States, or in the im- 

 mediately contiguous British territory. If we cannot pre- 

 serve the bison, we should at least secure a tolerably detailed 

 history of its extirpation. In former years I gave consider- 

 able attention to this subject, and in 1876 published the 

 results of my investigations, illustrated by a map showing 

 its gradual restriction to its then comparatively extended 

 habitat. Its destruction has since gone on at a fearfully 

 rapid pace, till now it is believed to exist within our terri- 

 torial borders in only very small numbers and over very re- 

 stricted areas. Any readers of Forest akd Stream who 

 may be able to give exact information as to their present 

 numbers and distribution, and likewise respecting their de- 

 struction and extirpation at particular points during the 

 last decade, and especially within the last five years, will 

 make a most welcome contribution to the history of the last 

 days of this doomed beast. 1 make the appeal urgently, and 

 in behalf of science, and in the hope that any one having 

 any facts at command bearing on the subject will feel "in 

 duty bound" to make them known.— J. A. Allen (Cam- 

 bridge, Mass.). 



> 



'•That reminds me." 

 148. 

 r pHEY were sitting around the evening camp-fire after a 

 J. successful day's sport with the trout. One had seen a 

 bear that day and was "yarning it" for all it was worth, 

 and that led to bear stories all around, with one exception, 

 "Rule" Crosby, the guide, kept silent, puffing away at his 

 T. D., at most vouchsafing a nod or grunt as approval, or 

 otherwise of the points stated. Finally, as he was a famous 

 bear hunter, he was urged to contribute something in that 

 line; so knocking the ashes from his pipe, he spoke to the 

 question last raised: "O yes, bars are skeery critters. I 

 mind the time once when I hunted the critters up in New 

 Brunswick, whar a railroad runs miles and miles through the 

 woods. I was comin' outen the woods wtm day with a 

 young bar on my shoulder just as a train haul'd by a bran 

 fired new engin', 'just outen the city on her fust trip, "nd just 

 as she come up to whar 1 wur standim she guv the orfuliest 

 snort, jurnpt off the iron into the ditch bottom upward and all 

 her wheels a pa win' uv the air. Yes, bears is skeery critters 1" 

 Kitt Carson. 



149. 



Going out home on the train one evening Frank S. began 

 to tell us about his gun ; how close she would shoot, etc. 

 He said: "One day I was out shooting and was walking 

 along the railroad track where it ran through a piece of 

 woods. Suddenly a partridge sprung up right under my 

 feet and flew directly away from me. I up and fired just 

 as it was in a line with the nearest telegraph pole. The shot 

 struck him in a lump and just plastered him against that 

 telegraph pole! He never dropped." 



Northern Michigan. — Roulette, Pa. — Camping out in 

 the northern peninsula of Michigan, in a part of October aud 

 about twelve days in November, I killed thirty deer, eight 

 beaver, one large' fat bear, of which I got six gallons of oil, 

 one lynx, one martin, one mink, three muskrats, two 'coons, 

 four skunks, five hedge togs, twelve partridges, one duck, 

 one large bald eagle, one raven, one owl; and trout, perch 

 and bass I did not count. The deer were very fat and 

 plenty. This last fall was the f ourth fall that I have huated 

 up there, — L. S, 



