Mauch 26, 1885.1 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



163 



em a gris mill on them tails, an' Ethan Allen an' bis Green 

 Maountin Boys conic an' drove 'em off an' hove the inillstuns 

 over the falls", or some says inter a big poithole nigh the top, 

 'n' 't they're a layin' in the bottom on't naow. Right along 

 here where these 'ere wharfs an' stores be, McDonner's ships 

 was built time 0' the last war; ships a gre' d'l bigger 'n them 

 canawl boats be, Peltier. 1 worked here a haulm' timber to 

 build 'em on. an' 'twas hurryin' times, I tell ye, with the 

 British threateniu' the hull time. We hauled' a big stick 

 here aouten the woods, for a keel, it was, wi' three yoke o' 

 oxen, uu' at it the ship carpenters went full chisel, an' in six 

 weeks' I b'lieve, it wa'n't no more, from the day 't was cud- 

 daown, the ship was all ready to go hit' the water! That's 

 the way they did things in them times. A spell arter that 

 the British come iu their gunboats to destr'y the 'Merican 

 vessels here, but they didn't git no furder 'n the maouth o' 

 the crick, for aour folks hed a little fort there, a lefteuant 

 name o' Cassin coinmanditr on't, an' they drove the British 

 boats off They call it Fort Cassin' yit, "but 't aint nothin' 

 but some banks o J airth, an' wa'n't then. When aour ships 

 got all ready they went off int' the lake, an' bimeby come 

 Plattsburg tight." Wc all rallied aout, an' th' was lots o' 

 Green Maountin Boys tu it, me 'mongst the rest on 'em, 

 skeered 'enough, butno notion o' ruuniu'. We fit an' lit on 

 land, an' the ships fit on the water, till arter a good spell 

 aour ships licked their'n, an' then the. British we was lightin' 

 run, an' I tell ye the backs o' their 'tarnal red cuts was a 

 dum sight the best lookiu' side on 'em 't we'd seen yit. 

 That's all the folks-fightiu 't ever I done, or ever w r an' tu. 

 That 'ere big stun buildin' over yunder where the flag 's a 

 fiyin' is the gov'ment a'snal. The's muskits an' cannon 

 'nough in it tu rig aout a hull army. 'N' there! tbat pussy 

 ol' red-nosed feller comiu' a hossbaek 'long the road 's the 

 major 't bosses it. Nothin' to du but draw his pay, fo' five 

 hunderd dollars a year I s'pose, an' drink ol' Janiaky sperits 

 an' sweet wine, an' loaf 'raound." 



With such discourse Lisha entertained his friends till 

 nightfall, when he and Jerusha went to their berths in the 

 packet and they to their inn, excepting Antoine, who hav- 

 ing dug some worms and borrowed a pole and line of a com- 

 patriot, went fishing for bullpouts. 



Next morning came the sorrowful leave taking, and after 

 much bustle and shouting and swearing by the captains and 

 crews of the steamboat and caualboats, wherein the bold mar- 

 iners of the canal having had the practice and experience of 

 greater and more frequent opportunities, greatly outdid their 

 rivals, the little flotilla got under weigh. The fussy little 

 steamer coughed and churned its way down the beautiful 

 river, and as it dragged the packet out of sight behind a 

 wooded bend, the sturdy figure of the old shoemaker was 

 seen standing in the stem beside the bowed form of his wife 

 waving a last farewell with his red "bendina." 



"There they go,' said Sam Lovel, turning sadly away. 

 "There they go, julluk tew ol' trees tore up by the ruts an' 

 driftin' daown stream." 



Oue day, a little more than a year later, when the blue 

 September sky arched the valley and the afternoon sun 

 shone warm into it, Sam Lovel came slowly out of the 

 woods into the pasture above Uncle Lisha's old homestead. 

 Under his arm he carried his bee box, which presently he 

 set upon a small boulder, and after watching its two or three 

 little prisoners for a minute through the glazed top, carefully 

 opened the cover and backed a few paces away, keeping his 

 eyes constantly upon it. A bee climbed to the edge and 

 took wing, circling a few feet above it and then' sailed 

 straightaway toward the house, and then another and an- 

 other arose and went off in the same course, "Wal, naow. 

 that's curous, haint it, Drive!" said Sam, addressing his dog! 

 who was making himself comfortable on the grass near him, 

 and now answered his master with a lazy beat of his tail! 

 Sam had hardly got his pipe alight and begun to take his 

 ease beside the dog, when back came the bees with some 

 companions and settled into the box. "All right," said 

 Sam. "Le's move up," and going cautiously to it, he shut 

 the lid, tapped the side till the bees arose from the comb in 

 the bottom, when he shut the lower slide, took up the box 

 and moved on in the direction the bees had taken to within 

 a few rods of the house. Then he opened the slide and then 

 the cover, and when the bees had filled themselves again, 

 they sailed away with their freight as before. They^oon 

 returned and were again imprisoned till Sam had set the box 

 on one of the posts of the gardeu fence. Again he gave 

 them their liberty, and in ten minutes a hundred bees were 

 buzzing to and fro between the box and a knot bole high up 

 in the gable of the shop. 



"Yes, sir," said Sam, laughing softly, "the's a swarm 

 under the cla'b'rds o' the shop, jes' as sure 's your name is 

 Drive! Wal, they c'n stay there for all o' me." 



He went around to the front of the house, stepping care- 

 fully lest he should tread on Aunt Jerusha's posies, uncared 

 for now and running wild; China asters, sweet Williams and 

 pansies struggling in a matted tangle of May weed, posy 

 beans and morning glories wandering away from the posts 

 of the stoop to climb the tall pig weeds. Two squirrels 

 stopped chasing each other over the roof and along the 

 rattling clapboards to scoff at the intruder, and awoodchuck 

 sounded his querulous whistle and scuttled under the shop as 

 Sam approached it. The door was half open, and he almost 

 expected to hear the hearty hail of his old friend ; but a 

 chance-sown poppy growing in a crack of the sill, and the 

 fallen petals of its last flower withering undisturbed on the 

 worn threshold, told mutely how long it had been untrodden 

 by the foot of man. When Sam looked into the empty shop, 

 where nothing was left to tell of its former use but a faint 

 wait of the old, familiar odor, the sconce and its mouse- 

 nibbed candle end, a broken last and a rubbishy heap of 

 leather scraps, a partridge sprang from the floor and, 

 hurtling through the open, long window, went sailing away 

 to the woods. 



"The fog o' the ol' stories hangs 'raound here yet," Sam 

 soliloquized, "an' wild creeturs takes as nat'ral as tu the 

 woods. tu Uncle Lisher's shop! Come dawg.'" 



tni[al 1§i§tarQ. 



Protecting the Wheat. —Henrietta, Texas.— A wheat 

 field was being ruined by the geese. I had a good blind and 

 profile decoys out arouud it. Just as the well-known honk 

 was heard I crept into my blind. The first string of geese 

 circled around the field and made for the decoys. ' I had my 

 new Spencer six-shot repeating 13-gauge. The line lay on 

 my left, and sailed down within twenty yards, when I 

 raised my gun, and at the crack down went the leader. 

 Pumping in another load I downed the second, then the 

 third, then fourth, then the fifth, then the last of the strin°\ 

 The string had nine. I had six dead geese.— Aumo. 



HORNS OF THE FEMALE CARIBOU. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



It should not be necessary for me to say that Mr. Cham- 

 berlain, in his letter printed in your issue'of the 19th inst., 

 totally misunderstands my position, and attributes to me 

 statements which I have not made, and which no intelligent 

 ami well-informed person would be likely to make. Whether 

 this misconception, of Mr. Chamberlaiu arises from my in- 

 ability to make a clear statement of the way I regard the 

 subject, or his inability to comprehend my "statement if it 

 was clear, is not for ine to say. 



It is quite apparent that there is a conflict of testimony on 

 the subject, and with all possible respect for the evidence 

 brought forward by Mr. Chamberlain and his witnesses, I 

 submit that it is impossible to dismiss, as being of no value 

 whatever, the testimony of a number of observers, such as 

 Campbell-Hardy, Major King, Dr. Lieth Adams, Mr. 

 Rowan, Dr. Gilpin, Mr. Ward and others who have studied 

 the caribou in the region under discussion, and wliose testi- 

 mony is directly opposed to the view held by Mr. Chamber- 

 lain. To assume that all these men who have spent long 

 time in New Bruuswick, and who have recorded their ob- 

 servations — in several cases apparently With much care — 

 were all merely repeating the statements of naturalists who 

 have written of other localities, and that they themselves 

 never made any observations on the caribou, appears to me 

 to be takiug altogether too much for granted. 



Mr. Chamberlain appears to imagine that I wish to throw 

 discredit on the testimony brought "forward by him, whereas 

 the fact is that the question turns wholly on accuracy of 

 observation. 



It is very evident that the truth cannot be arrived at by a 

 continuance of this discussion. Facts are what we require 

 to settle it, not arguments, and as I am not at present able to 

 contribute these facts, and am besides much occupied, I may 

 perhaps be excused if I decline to continue the correspon- 

 dence, I may say, however, that T do not regret bavin; 

 taken part in it, since it has brought out a very considerable 

 amount of information and a possibly new fact iu regard to 

 one of our least-known deer. Geo. Bird Grinnetj,. 



New York, March 84. 



MONGOLIAN PHEASANTS. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



Several weeks since there were received in Portland, Ore- 

 gon, a consignment of living pheasants, of several species 

 and numbering sixty individuals, sent by Consul Denny, of 

 Tientsin, China, to the people of Oregon, in the care of a 

 sporting association of this town. The classified list of birds 

 is as follows: 



Copper pheasants, three cocks and three hens; green, five 

 cocks and seventeen hens; silver, three cocks and three hens; 

 tragopan, two cocks; golden, eleven cocks and fifteen hens. 

 The birds are a free gift to the people on the part of Mr. 

 Denny, and were sent with the desigu of stocking our woods 

 with them, the most beautiful of game birds. 



The Oregon Legislature, lately in session, was petitioned 

 to pass suitable laws for their protection, and was asked to 

 provide an appropriation of $2,500 for their safe keeping as 

 long as necessary. But the Legislature, with characteristic 

 stupidity, sharply refused to appropriate a dollar, and even 

 declined to pass the wished for legislation. Individual mem- 

 bers insolently asked if the organization referred to would 

 not like to have the State build huuting cottages for their 

 entertainment and provide hammerless shotguns for their 

 use while engaged in the exclusive sport of killing these 

 "tenderfoot" birds. This is considered a rather good'joke in 

 Oregon, the scrubby part of whose population have no sym- 

 pathy with such refinements as game preserving, the intro- 

 duction of new species, etc. 



The sporting club still lives, however, and have shipped 

 the birds to an island in Puget Sound, called Protection 

 Island, where they will be set free to breed at will, and can- 

 not be disturbed, as the islet is the property of one man, 

 apparently a philanthropic individual, wlio promises to en- 

 tertain the strangers without money and without price. It 

 was a stepmother's w T elcome that the poor feathered creat- 

 ures got in Oregon, and but for the kind fellow on his lonely 

 domain, they might have been adorning some taxidermist's 

 window now. Hang the Legislature, says everybody. They 

 only represented the mean side of Oregon human' nature, 

 and not a particle of its manliness and generosity. The 

 hunting club can exist without their aid, and the pheasants 

 may live to scratch the dirt over the graves of senators and 

 representatives. If you like to see handsome birds you 

 should have gazed upon these sixty. They are a bewildering 

 mass of silver, bronze, golden, speckled, green. They look 

 when moving like a dozen solar spectrums all mingled and 

 tangled together. Some of them have tails two feet long, 

 and like that of the bird of paradise. They look too gorgeous 

 to be eatable, but are said to be surpassingly good broiled 

 or roasted. May their beautiful tribe increase! "" Barron. 

 Portland, Oregon, March 5, 1885. 



GRUBS IN A DEER'S FLESH. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



An article in your issue of March 12 interested me, as I 

 have seen something of the same nature. A month ago I 

 was in the mountains and forced to kill a deer for meat. On 

 cleaning out the entrails I found under the angle of the jaw 

 on the left side a cyst, size of a goose's egg, crammed full of 

 large yellow maggots half an inch long. I have often tried 

 to account for it, but have hitherto failed. Could a blade of 

 grass or leaf covered with fly blow have become encysted in 

 some wound or otherwise, and thus get hatched out? It 

 can't be the result of decomposition of "a true tumor of the 

 salivary gland, as there would be no means by which a fly 

 could blow it. I am sorry I did not keep the cyst, but the 

 fact of the maggots is beyond doubt. The deer was fat and 

 in good condition. Medtcus. 



Colorado Sprinos, Col., March 18. 



[We have killed deer in August and September which 

 contained grubs in the upper throat and posterior nares. 

 These were no doubt the larvse of a bat fty somewhat like 

 the sheep bat fly (GEdrus oris, Linn.), which, during spring 

 and early summer, inhabit the frontal sinuses and nasal cavity 

 of the common sheep. We understand, however, that the 

 grubs described by our correspondent were encysted in the 

 flesh. We have seen nothing like this in Cervus marrotis, 



but reasoning from analogy we might expect it to occur. It 

 is well known that in certain regions cattle, reindeer and 

 even men are infested with a bat fly, the larva; of which 

 take up their residence beneath the skin. The egg is laid 

 on the hair, and the grub burrows through the skin and 

 passes the larval period in a sack there, finally making its 

 way to the surface and falling to the ground, where it passes 

 the pupa state. Among the animals known to be afflicted 

 with these parasites are man, cattle, reindeer, sheep, hares, 

 squirrels, mice, the opossum and frogs. Usually their pres- 

 ence does not appear to injure the host, nor even to be at- 

 tended with any very great inconvenience. We should be 

 glad to know the species of deer on which these observations 

 were made. Was it a "biacktail" (0. macrotis) or a white- 

 tail (C. nrf/imanv.s)\'] 



BELLS ON BIRDS. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



For a week or more, about the first of this month, the 

 good people near Justice's sawmill were much agitated by 

 the mysterious ringing of bells in midair. Once it seemed 

 to be near two men chopping in the woods. It would ring, 

 ring by the hour, baffling their investigation, until finally 

 they left the wood in a hurry, satisfied that, it was either an 

 angel or a spirit. But it continued to be heard for days, and 

 some heard it by Dight. The mystery was at last solved. A 

 farmer, who had been troubled with hawks, the other clay 

 set steel traps and captured a large hawk, with a fine-toned 

 bell attached to its neck by a strap. The bird was secured 

 by a toe and so was not hurt. It made no resistance to being 

 taken, aud the farmer was soon convinced that he had 

 caught a pet hawk. The bell was about 2.J inches across, 

 and on it was roughly engraved: 

 L. Perky, 



Athou, 

 Mass. 



Can anybody iu Athol give us any information as to when 

 the hawk escaped and how he came in Jersey? The bird 

 measures 3 feet 10 inches in spread of wing. It is tame aud 

 gentle, eating readily from the hands of the children. 



Some snipe, appeared on our meadows last week, but were 

 too wild for our sportsmen. C. D. L. 



Swedesboro, N. J., March 17. 



AN AERIAL COLLISION. 



'•And figuring bis flight, the mind is filled 



"With thoughts that mock the pride of wingless man. 



True, the carred aeronaut can mount as high ; 



But what's the triumph of bis volant art? 



A rash intrusion on the realms of air, 



His helmless vehicle, a silken toy. 



A bubble bursting in the thunder cloud; 



His course has no volition and he drifts 



A passive plaything of the winds.'' 



— Campbell. The Dead Eagle. 



READING this poetic homage to the bird of Jove, sailing 

 "in gyres and undulations full of grace," iu the orient 

 sky. we might fancy that nature's winged aeronauts never 

 had collisions. You shall, however, be" told of a veritable 

 and amusing one, witnessed between two feathery murderers, 

 occurring, at that, in the uupoetic task of obtaining a 

 breakfast. 



I was hunting quail iu Richlands of Tazewell, the Valley 

 of Clinch. It was on one of those delightful and happy 

 October mornings. I had been slipping along the bank of 

 the river to shoot a gaudy little dude of a w-ood duck, and 

 not succeeding, stepped into a canoe, accompanied by my 

 setter— now iu the good dogs' happy hunting ground. " The 

 canoe's movement was so pleasant" and restful that I sat 

 down and let it float leisurely along. I yet remember that 

 morning. It was one of those that every lover of the field 

 remembers — of perfect peace — oblivion of the past; no 

 thought of future : elysiutn without bodily change to reach 

 it. The gentle flowing stream beneath was as clear as the 

 autumn canopy above. The birch and willows on the banks 

 twined their boughs, gently bending as if to see in the liquid 

 mirror their lovely habiliments of fall attire, sparkled with 

 the sunlit jewels of the melting frost. On all sides was a 

 panorama of valley, hill, the mountain and the wood. Noth- 

 ing can strike the gentle chords of perfect happiness like the 

 magic charms of nature. 



. Away high above me I saw, carelessly hanging and flit- 

 ting about, some distance apart, two of these keen and de- 

 spicable little hawks that kill each more quail in a year than 

 anyone man. I hoped that they would come in "range of 

 my gun, that I might fulfill the bounden duty of slaying 

 1hem. Presently 1 saw one dart down with half closed 

 wings, like an arrow, and give chase to a crying little field 

 lark. Over me they came, splitting the air with the noise of 

 a shrapnel. The other one saw the chase and flew directly, 

 meeting the darting fiend to supplant him, and just as the 

 pursuer caught the lark, a hundred feet above the ground, 

 the piratical aeronauts collided with an astounding thump 

 that stunned both. The lark was dropped, and it is need- 

 less to say that it made a yellow streak for the first covert in 

 the grass, and the hawks slowly sneaked away in a most 

 amusing manner, making the whole thing quite laughable. 

 My setter wanted to take a hand iu the melee, and I forgot 

 my gun, though 1 could have used it easily. Graeme. 



Southwest, Va. 



Tame Ruffed Grouse.-— Cortland, 1ST. Y., March 2. — The 

 mention of the tame grouse, owned by a gentleman living in 

 Poughkeepsie, coincides with the following: Mr. James 

 Haight, living iu Haight's Gulf, a wild and picturesque 

 ravine near Cortland, relates that a partridge selected for Its 

 nest a location by the side of an old log but a short dis- 

 tance to the rear of his house. Mr. Haight Avas much inter- 

 ested in the success of this confiding bird, and often stepped 

 over to see that she had not been disturbed. In time she 

 became very tame and would allow Mr. II. to approach to 

 Within a few feet of where she was setting. The greatest 

 trouble was to keep a spaniel dog from driving the bird away 

 and destroying the eggs. Often the dog frightened her from 

 her nest, but with maternal tenacity she was true to her pur- 

 pose, and would as often return and resume duty. In due 

 time the brood of young came forth and instantly disap- 

 peared. This was the last ever seen of the mother or her 

 chicks. — Mia. 



Bristol, Pa., March 17.— Seen to-day: Canada geese, 

 broadbills (lesser blackheads), bluebirds* robins, redwing 

 blackbirds, and yellow-billed loon. Thermometer 20°.— 

 Bat Snipe. 



