84 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



\Ava. %1, 1885 



Whittier AMD THE BiEDs.— It wos during one of tliese 

 delighlful pleasures that our friends proposed to call at Oak 

 Knoll, the rural residence of Mr. Whittier. The lateness of 

 the season had prevented iLe usual visit of the latter to the 

 White Mountains. We had, therefore, the pleasure of his 

 company during a short tarry. The gi'ounds at Oak Knoll 

 are exceedino-ly beautiful; so refined in the sense of land- 

 scape gardening, as well as naturally diversified in a marvel- 

 lously deligiilfnl miinner. Chat it becomes a matter of quite 

 unanimous feeliui;- to adjourn to them promptly. The sweet 

 notes of the song sparrow in the hedges near suggested to 

 Mr. Whittier the subject of song birds of America, and in 

 answer to a question he declared his preference for that 

 humble bird, adding though that he could not pass by the 

 woodthrush as in any degree less sweet. The woodthrush 

 seems to retain here more of the shvness traditional in the 

 history of this bird, since, though in Ccnti-al Park, it is one 

 of the most common, the ladies'^of this household were not 

 able to catch a fair view of the bird, though its musical 

 notes are constantly heai-d. Our host had a keen apprehen- 

 sion of the beauty of form as exhibited in single trees, 

 beveral large examples are here growing in all the perfection 

 of their natural typical forms. We have seldom seen such 

 charming diversity in such comparatively limited grounds. 

 There is room for the display of .several very choice trees in 

 their full sweep, their branches lying flat upon the ground; 

 notably the larch, but a chestnut of great size throws out a 

 limb horizouta]]3% which leaves the trunk at about five feet 

 fi-om the earth, and reaches according to our pacing forty 

 feet in length. Records of liglituing striking twice in the 

 same place are rare. Mr. Whittier pointed out a tree near 

 the house that has received such attentions. On going 

 through the delightful tangle at the rear of the house we ran 

 near a rabbit pen which contained several pure mate pets. 

 The loud gobbling of a turkey suggested to our host an. ac- 

 count of the fierce and persistent hatred manifested by a 

 turkey gobbler toward General Gordon, of Eastern fame, 

 which he had been reading, and which corresponds, he said, 

 with his own experience— this gobbler being so vicious as 

 when at liberty to make savage attacks on him, forcing him 

 when hard pushed to imitate the tactics of Gordon, which 

 consisted in seizing the head of the bird, forcing it under a 

 wing, and then rapidly whirling the body untillhe creature 

 grew sleepy or dizzy from the movement. A fine mocking- 

 bird, in captivity near the house, suggested again the sub- 

 ject of songsters, when Mr. Whittier related an incident new 

 to us. Haverhill, Mass., is his birthplace, at which place, he 

 says, the ornithologist Wilson, in 1812, during the war. 

 wh(m all were on the alert for spies, was found wandering 

 in the woods, dressed peculiarly and carrying a gun. The 

 authorities arrested 1dm as a spy, when the embarrassed 

 naturalist at first found it difficult to estabhsh an identity. 

 Mr. Whittier exprcbsed a fondness for Wilson's wiitings on 

 birds, as compared wiib Audubon's, the poetical featui-es of 

 Wilson's writings being of considerable worth. He related 

 an instance of unusual talent for picturing birds seen in the 

 case of an old farmer near his place. Late in life the farmer 

 had procured materials and had painted in water colors pic- 

 tures of a large number of native birds, that are of excep- 

 tional excellence both as portraits and works of art. — Corres- 

 pondeiice JV] T. Evening Post. 



Grass Plover Will kot Readily Decoy.— It has been 

 my experience that grass plover will not come to stool either 

 the wooden ones or dead specimens of the bird propped up to 

 resemble the living. They are not sociable, and I have no 

 doubt it will be found to be the same experience of other 

 spor tsm en . — Homo. 



"That reininds me." 

 165. 



A PARTY out on Bow Lake were pickerel fishing through 

 XJL the ice, when a big farmer boy strolled down to see 

 how they were doing. He sat down by the fire, when the 

 fishermen began to interrogate him about the best places to 

 fish, and how large fish he had seen caught. Among other 

 stories he told was one to the effect that his "dad," fishing 

 through the ice, had hooked a pickerel that gave him hard 

 work to pull in, and in trying to get it through the hole its 

 head pulled ofE, and his "dad" took it home and the head 

 weighed seven pounds. Thereupon Bill Blank, who was the 

 wag of the party, cut the head off from a four-pound pick- 

 erel, and unobserved by the boy hooked it on the trap near- 

 est to where the party were seated quizzing the boy. Bill 

 then went over among the others, and soon managed to get 

 the boy's attention drawn to the spruug trap, and boy-like 

 he jum'ped up and ran for it, and started' pulling it in, while 

 the party were tickling all over at the expected surprise the 

 boy would get in pulling out the head, "same as his dad did." 

 But he didn't surprise worth a cent, for in pulling it out, in 

 the most unconcerned fashion, he exclaimed: "Say, Mister, 

 you better put on a fresh bait ; he has chewed this one all off 

 but the head." A. Mac. 



166. 



Scene, a country general store, where everything is sold, 

 from a pin to a hoghook. The conversation had drifted on 

 to "imagination." "Speaking of 'magination," said old Ike 

 N., "I'll jist tell ye a little sarkimstance that once happened 

 to me. You see, I used to git a little 'off' sometimes, and 

 one morning when I got up feeling kinder 'owley' hke I 

 went an' looked out inter the orchard, and thar sat a blamed 

 big owl in one of the apple trees. Says I to Jim— that's my 

 boy. ye know, what's gone out west now — 'Jim, get me old 

 Williams' — that's that gun I sold to Gus Marshall — 'What do 

 you want her for?' says Jim. 'There's a big owl out in that 

 inedder sweet tree; and be quick about it.' That brought 

 the old woman up, too. Ye see, she had lost some chickens 

 lately, and she kinder took an interest in it. Jim brought 

 the old gun, I histed the winder kinder careful like 's to not 

 skeer him, and hang me if I could git that old churn to 

 pint at him. The old woman says, 'Where's your owl? I 

 don't see none.' 'Out there in the fust tree, don't you see 

 him?' 'No,' says she, 'nor you nuther, but if you'd had 

 about three more drinks of Jim Brown's whisky last night I 

 reckon you would see two owls.' 'Don't you s'pose I know 

 an owl when I see one? I haint lived sixty years in the 

 woods and then not know an owl when I see one?' 'Well, 

 you might see one but I can't,' she said, and she reached up 

 a picked the biggest hayseed out of my eyebrow you most 

 ever sot eyes on. 'Guess it must be,' says I, 'the owl's gone 

 anyhow,' and sure enough, there that blamed hayseed was 

 stuck up in my eyebrow, and I took it for a bird six rods off. 

 1 tell you, boys, 'magination's a great thing." Flicker. 



'^^if^ ^tjd §utj. 



Address all communications to the Forest and Stream Publish- 

 ing Co, 



WEAPONS IN GAME. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



A male swan was killed near here three years ago this sprino 

 on his migration north, that carried between the arm bones 

 (radius and ulna) of the right wing an arrow, bone-shafted 

 and copper pointed. The shaft, as nearly as I can explain, 

 is made from the foot bone (meta tarsal) of one of the seal 

 family, and is eight inches long, beveled at the string end so 

 as to be spliced to another portion in order to lengthen the 

 shaft. A slot in the other end contains the copper head, 

 which is riveted in place by a well-fashioned copper rivet. 



This arrow is vythout doubt entirely an Arctic produc- 

 tion. Copper in its pure state is found in abundance along 

 the borders of the Coppermine River, but the head of this 

 arrow did not come from this source as it is fashioned from 

 manufactured (rolled) copper. Arctic explorers of late years 

 in t,be vicinity of Back's Great Fish River, Boothia and 

 King William's Land, have often found among the Esqui- 

 maux weapons and utensils fashioned from various manu- 

 factured metals. Who knows but what this arrow head 

 might have been made of copper from one of Sir John 

 Franklin's ships, the stranded Erebus or Terror? 



The swan mounted, with arrow in place, is now an orna- 

 ment in a family house at Painesville, Ohio. Photographs 



were taken of the mounted bird, one of which was sent to 

 the Smithsonian Institute, Washington. I am now trying 

 to have the owners of this specimen of migration donate it 

 to the Smithsonian. 



For many years the fishculturist has marked his brood to 

 see if in the course of time the seed put in the water by him 

 would return again and recompense him for his labor. We 

 now know it to be a fact that industry in this way does not 

 go astray. The fish eggs hatched and cared for at the 

 fountain-head turned into the stream will give full satisfac- 

 tion in time; so fecund is nature and always pays her debts. 

 What if we could label every bird that takes his journey 

 from almost at the tropics to within the Arctic region, and 

 find out his story after he had raised his northern brood and 

 stalled for his warm winter home. What a wonder of 

 wonderful stories we could record; but unfortunately we are 

 limited in acquiring the workings of these winged wonders 

 of the air. A.nd so when we meet with a bird like this that 

 has carried in his wing the mark made by the Esquimaux 

 possibly in the spring and killed the following spring on its 

 way north after wdnging its way for many hundred miles in 

 its migration, we may well consider and begin studying this 

 that is little understood, the law on wonders of migration 

 which governs animal life. 



As a study in the way of the birds in the air, I think the 

 history of this noble swan with the Bsquimaux's arrow in 

 his wing worth recording. Dr. E. STjEULiNa. 



Cleveland, O. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



I inclose a slip copied some months ago from the Pioneer, 

 of Summerside, P. E. I.: "Last week a wild goose was 

 shot in Richmond Bay and sold to Mr. Benj. Tanton, of St. 

 Eleanors. While the bird was being prepared for cooking a 

 large leaden bullet was found imbedded in its liver, com- 

 pletely encysted or covered with animal tissue, indicating 

 that the bird had probably carried it for years. The bullet 

 weighs an ounce, and was hammered round and not cast, as 

 is usually done. The bird seems to have suffered no incon- 

 venience from the additional weight, as Mr. Tanron informs 

 us it was one of the best that ever came on his table." It is 

 remarkable that the bird, although handicapped with such 

 extra weight, was in more than average condition. I can 

 vouch foi-'the account being correct. D. H. Macgowan. 



Editor Forest and Stream: 



While skinning a male Mergus merganser for mounting I 

 encountered a round bony substance about the size of a No. 

 1 shot fast to the backbone next to the skin and appearing 

 as if a shot had been fired into the backbone and stuck into 

 it and then been encysted. Upon cutting off the enveloping 

 substance, I discovered the sharp end of a wire. Taking 



hold of this with the forceps and puUing with considerable 

 force I drew out a piece of steel wire one and one-quarter 

 inches in length encased in a bony cylinder. This wire, 

 which I inclose, I think is part of a fish-hook and was pointed 

 from the belly upward to and through the backbone." 



C. T. Richardson. 



EssKX County, New York. 



THE BIG MARSH OF THE TANTRAMAR. 



FOR abundance and variety of feathered game commend 

 _ me to the Big Marsh of the Tantramar. The Tantra- 

 mar itself is an oddity among rivers, and all the country 

 about it is peculiar, indulging itself in a certain air of 

 mystery. This country is the tidal region of New Bruns- 

 wick, of miraculous and ever renewed fertiUty, which is 

 slowly rising out of the sea into which it sank as slowly ages 

 ago. The Micniac Indians hunted and fished along the 

 scanty borders of these marshes, when first they began to re- 

 emerge. Then the Acadian French came, and hastened the 

 slow reclamation by long massive ranges of dykes. Then 

 came the English and helped themselves te the fair inherit- 

 ance. Now the Big Marsh occupies the greater part of the 

 isthmus connecting Nova Scotia with ISiew Brunswick. For 

 miles and miles in every direction stretch the bright green 

 levels, the heavj^ heads of the "timothy" bending before the 

 sudden breezes, with here and there a broad yellow patch of 

 salt salt grass, here and there a few acres of brown weedy- 

 mud, too wet for meadow, and here and there a chain of 

 sedgj^ pools. There are no dwellings to be seen save on the 

 far off skirts of the uplands, but a few barns dot the expanse. 

 Through the green winds hither and thither the river Tan- 

 tramar, of a tortuosity which Meander never attained to in 

 his most circuitous mood. At low tide the channel is a vast 

 yawning chasm of red mud, several hundred yards in width, 

 and more than a hundred feet deep, along the bed of which 

 hurries a brawling brook. Then the tremendous Fundy tide 

 storms in through Cumberland Basin, and presently the Tan 

 tramar is formed into 



"A full-fed river, winding slow ' 

 By herds upon an endless plain." 



It brims the confining dykes, and floats mighty ships on its 

 yellow bosom. All round the head of the Basin, outside of 

 the barrier of dykes the marsh is fringed with acres upon 

 acres of mud flat and sandy beach, of varying degrees of 

 dryness and firmness. Over these tiats fly swarms of rail, 

 and sandpipers, and diverse kinds of small snipe. Bere and 

 on .suitable ground inside are curlew. Great flocks of golden 

 plover settle on the salter meadows and close-eaten pasture 

 marshes. Yellowlegs drop everywhere by twos and threes 

 with their forlorn whistle, and the ducks haunt the reedy 

 pools at sundown. 



It was very soon after the arrival of the plover in force 

 that my friend C. and myself decided to commence opera- 

 tions. Our base was not far from old Fort Cumberland, the 

 Beau Sejour of Acadian story. An account of our first day 

 on the marsh will serve as' a specimen of the whole cam- 

 paign, which we carried on for a week with eminent success. 

 As in former papers for Forest axd Stbeaj,i I have had to 

 chronicle some rather humiliating failures, it is with the 

 more satisfaction that I come to record a day's sport with 

 which we were thoroughly content. 



It was late in the morning when we set out, and for lunch 

 we thrust but a biscuit or two and a craller into our pockets, 

 as this expedition was intended as a mere reconnoissance, 

 and we did not expect to be gone above three or foui- hours. 

 But the gods grant us our best days often when we are least 

 looking for the favor — sometimes when we are least pre- . 

 pared to make the most of it. But our only lack of prepa- 

 ration on this day was our lack of adequate lunch; and this 

 we in a way — a poor way — managed to remedy when the 

 remedy came to be needed, as shall further on appear. As 

 we made our wav down a steep upland pasture, studded 

 with clumps of the juniper shrub and huckleberry, 0. 

 shouted suddenh' "There they go!" and pointed eagerly out 

 over the marsh. ~ There was a cloud of plover, wheeling un- 

 certainly, disturbed by a team which we saw crawling along 

 the black marsh road a half mile away. The birds finally 

 settled in a wide muddy patch of salt marsh, whereon a herb. 

 of cattle was feeding. This ground was fenced off from the 

 meadow lands surrounding it; and a line of dyke led along 

 a small stream from the foot of the uplands to within fair 

 gunshot of the birds. We lost no time, but plunged through 

 a bad bit of swamp before us, gained the shelter of the dyke, 

 and crept noiselessly toward our prey. A dozen paces more 

 and we shoukl have been upon them, when there was a 

 trampling and bellowing among the cattle, and we lifted our 

 heads in time to see an amateur bull fight commencing, 

 which drove the plover ofl' in a pufl' of gray wings. The 

 flock swayed toward us, then swerved sharply to the right, 

 showing a flicker of white from their under wings and 

 pearly-tinted bellies. It was a splendid chance as they 

 swerved ; four reports rang out almost as one, and a bird 

 dropped headlong to each barrel. We sprang over the dyke 

 and rushed out into the field, ignoring the bull fight. How 

 plump and soft and dainty looked the beautiful birds on the 

 trodden mire of the field! How we admired them, and 

 smoothed their roughened feathers ere we dropped them into 

 our bags. The first spoils of the day, we knew no later ones 

 could seem so rare and fair. 



Meanwhile we had kept an eye on the departing survivors 

 — of whom there must have been several hundred. They 

 alighted near the borders of a tract whereon had just been 

 cut the late "broadleaf" hay. There was no cover by which 

 we could approach, but within range of the flock there was 

 a low pile of fence rails. The ground between was slimy 

 with showers that had fallen in the night, but we Jay dovm 

 flat and worked ourselves gradually into position behind the 

 pile of rails. Then, having made whispered arrangements 

 as to where each should fire, we sprang to our feet all pre- 

 pared. Imagine our chagrined countenances as we saw- 

 that this produced no marked efllect! In truth, the flock 

 was circling in a leisurely fashion hundreds of yards distant. 

 While we had been painfully worming our way through the 

 mud, not daring to lift our heads, the plover had resolved 

 upon departing for fresh fields and had departed forthwith. 

 We sat down blankly on the rails, and saw the flock settle at 

 last far off in the open. The only thing to do was for one 

 of us to endeavor to "circumvent" the wily birds, while the 

 other waited hidden behind the timber in the hope of a shot 

 on their return flight. C. volunteered to do the circumvent- 

 ing. He thought possibly the birds were in range of a hay 

 stack which we saw in the distance; and if not, he would 

 do his best to drive them in my direction. So I lay down, 

 covering the space before me, but in a very cramped position 

 between two large unsplit cedar rails, and C. disappeared. 

 3Iy waiting seemed for an age, but at last I saw him rush 



