284 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



tliov. 4, 1886. 



flies, if allowed to increase unchecked for ten years, would 

 add more organic matter to the soil of the earth than the 

 progeny of a pair of elephaaits would in a thousand years. 

 The same area will support a greater weight of insects 

 than of elephants, and the former die and are renewed 

 daily. 



Birds maintain tlie balance of life by imposing checks 

 on the undue increase of insects, and in the exercise of 

 this function and in the free enjoyment of natm-e's gifts 

 have been the prime instruments in building up the soil 

 on which man is dependent for his existence. 



But even the rich soils of our Southern rice fields are 

 not inexhaustible. Northern fields, which yielded thuty 

 or forty bushels to the acre fifty years ago, now average 

 twelve or fourteen bushels. The rich cotton and tobacco 

 lands of the Soutli have been equally exhausted by con- 

 stant cropping. Every crop withdraws a portion of the 

 nitrogenous and ijliosi^hatic substances due to animal re- 

 mains, and, left to themselves, the rice fields of the South 

 would soon show signs of exhaustion. Every planter knows 

 that if nothing is retiu-ued to the soil the present rich 

 crops cannot be yielded i^ermanently. 



The bobolink or rice bud is estimated to devour three 

 to f oiu- million bushels annually at tlie home valuation of 

 one dollar a bushel for paddy. Tliis is not converted 

 into au-, but into sixty or eighty thousand tons of manm-e, 

 equal to guano. This conti'ibution to the soil of the rice 

 fields is sufficient to maintain the fertility of the soil in 

 perpetuity. Given a newly-cleared rice field, and the soil 

 needuag no stimulus, the bobolinks' ravages are a loss on 

 the first year's operations, but ia a settled counti-y. m 

 which the surplus richness of the soil is exhausted, birds 

 may eat ten per cent, of the crop in the ear and stiQ be 

 debitable ^-ith no more tlian tlieu- actual contribution to 

 the yield daring the period of their depredations. 



In the case of the bobohnks this period is confined to 

 three weeks, but they are performing the same useful 

 functions throughout the whole year, arresting the spread 

 of weeds and insects, and giving to both a high economic 

 value by converting them into plant food. If it be 

 asserted"^ that the services they render to the rice planter 

 are an inadequate set oft" to their depredations, it must 

 stiU be borne in mind that the value of the plant food re- 

 turned to the soil of the country at large is sixteen times 

 as much as is returned to the rice fields during the three 

 weeks of their depredations. 



The teeming millions of India exist on a soil wMch has 

 been tlu'ee thousand years under cultivation. The fields 

 are for the most part luimanured, but under the Hindoo 

 regime no hand was ever raised against the buds, and 

 while the grain is ripening the air is filled with the din 

 of shouting, while x^ellet bows are being discharged at the 

 marauding birds from dawn till dusk. And yet India 

 exports her surplus wheat to Em'ope and is able to devote 

 a large part of her area to the cultui-e of dyes, fibers, oil 

 seeds, etc., for export as well as for home consumption. 



Excepting Egypt and India, in which birds have been 

 allowed to multiply unchecked from time memorial, there 

 is no old settled country the soil of which is capable of 

 supporting its population without a liberal dressing from 

 year to year. The natural fertiHty of the soil of Em-ope 

 and Asia is exhausted. Crops can no longer be grown 

 without artificial stimulants. The plant food absti-acted 

 by the crop must be returned to the sod. 



It must not be supposed that birds contiaue to increase 

 in nmnbers in India. The rapid increase of their num- 

 bers, which presumably followed the spread of settlement 

 of the early Aryans, "was met by natm-al checks. The 

 small hawks increased in corresponding numbers, and the 

 balance, once established, has been permanently pre- 

 served. 



Nor must it be inferred that in a newly settled country 

 birds tend to increase in the ratio of spread of cultivation. 

 Limitations to increase in the case of all small birds are im- 

 posed not by the measure of grain supply during the few 

 weeks in wiiich the grain is ia the ear, but by the limit of 

 food sup]Dly available at all seasons, and primarily by the 

 available supj)ly of insect food while the young are in the 

 nest. The laws of nature consequently render it im- 

 possible for small buds to increase beyond the measure 

 of their usefulness to man, as measured by the checks 

 they impose on the undue increase of insects. 



These are novel views, suggesting a new line of inquiry 

 and one wliich the specialists of the Agricultural Depart- 

 ment are competent to investigate with profit. The cal- 

 culation, based on the estimated depredation of the 

 boboliiLk during his three weeks, is, that this insig- 

 nificant little songster contributes anniially to the soil 

 of the country, a million tons of plant food equal to 

 guano. This million tons of bird droppings contains the 

 nitrogenous and jjliosphatic elements necessary to the 

 production of thr ee million tons, or say one hundred mill- 

 ion bushels of gi-ain; and in a wholly settled country 

 with the whole soil in course of exhaustion of its accu- 

 mulated plant food, no portion of these droppings would 

 be wasted: but being distributed over the land free 

 of cost would increase the average annual croj^s by the 

 amount indicated , an amount equal to the support of a 

 population of ten or twelve millions, while the tax levied 

 by the bobohnks is only three per cent., the balance of 

 the material for the creation of this annual supply of 

 plant food being drawn from weed seeds and insects, 

 which, but for the bobolink, would increase and prey on 

 our crops instead of providing plant food for them. 



The foregoing estimates suggest the i^ossibility that 

 man may err in his attempts to remodel creation if he 

 enter on the task without a moderate measure of insight 

 and a careful consideration of all the facts. There may 

 be some small mistakes in creation, but I do not think 

 the bobolink is one of them. Chas. F. A^iery. 



Office of the Audubo>" Society, New York, Octoter, 18SC. 



More Familiar Birbs. — Warner, 111.— Close to my 

 office ^vindow as I v^-rite this I see a wren's nest. Three 

 years since I drove some nails in a sheltered corner. A 

 pair of wi-ens built there nest there, and each year they 

 have raised a family their. The old birds often come 

 into my ofiice and sing. One of them has repeatedly 

 alighted on my desk as I have lieen writing, sayingplainly 

 byliis actions": "You won't hurt me. We are friends." 

 A few years since in a knothole in a dead ti'ee near a path 

 from niy oiSce to my house a family of wrens lived with 

 whom I formed a very intimate acquaintance. One day 

 as I was passing in a hiury I heard the two old birds 

 uttering cries of fear and anger, and as I got i>ast the tree 

 one of the wrens followed me and by its pecuKar motions 

 find cries induced me to turn back. I examined the nest 



and found the young birds all right; looked in the tree's 

 branches, but saw no enemies there and started away. 

 Both birds then followed me with renewed cries and when 

 I was a few yards away they flew in front of me, flut- 

 tered a moment, then darted "^back to the tree. Then one 

 one of them came back near to me fluttering and crying, 

 then darted from me near to the groimd under the 'tree, 

 I looked and there laid a rattlesnake, coiled ready to 

 strike. I secured a stick and killed him, the wi-ens look- 

 ing on from the tree, and the moment I did so they 

 changed then- song to a lively happy one, seeming to say 

 "Thank you," in every note.— W. W. W. 



The National Park Buffalo. —United States Na- 

 tional Museum, Washington, Nov. 1, 188G. — Ediior 

 Forest and Stream: In your issue of Oct. 14) p. 321, 

 editorial), you quote a Montana newspaper as author- 

 ity for the statement that W. F. Hornaby, Esq., 

 Chief Taxidermist of the Museum, has gone into the 

 National Park to himt bison. Will you kindly allow 

 me to say that Mr. Hornaby did not go into the National 

 Park, and that he had no correspondence with the Sec- 

 retary of the Interior relative to a j)ermit f orhunting in 

 that reservation? Frederick W, True (Curator of the 

 Department of Mammals). 



An Albino Squirrel. — In answer to F.E.S. , of Halstead, 

 Pa., referring to a white squirrel in yom' last issue, I 

 would say that three years ago, in 1883, I had the good 

 luck to secure one of these rarities alive, though not 

 until he had received the enthe load of No. 8 shot, while 

 shooting in Livingston county, this State. It was shot in 

 one of the highest trees, after seekmg shelter in an old 

 deserted crow's nest, which probably saved its life. After 

 caring for it and nursing it for neaidy two weeks it gi-ad- 

 uaUy recovered until entirely well. I have seen them 

 gray and white many times, but never have seen them 

 the color he speaks of. — Tom Draw. 



The Otter in New England,— Agawam, Mass., Oct 28, 

 — A fine otter was capttu-ed near the upper reservoir, 

 Goshen, Mass., on the evening of Oct. 21, reports the 

 Northampton Gazette of Oct. 26.— Pine Tree. 



'^mne md 0ntj. 



Address aU commuvicatiom to the Forest and Stream Puh. Co. 



HALCYON DAYS.-IIl. 



'T^HROUGH our little village there ran an old canal 

 X feeder, heading at a point on Chemung Eiver, from 

 which it received its supply a few miles above, and 

 descending in a stiff cturent to the main canal fifteen 

 miles below. In its construction a natural water cotuse 

 had been taken advantage of. and in many places the 

 overflow extended far out over the lowlands, forming 

 eddies and bayotts of shallow depth, through wliich the 

 gi'owth of small water timber and bushes made excellent 

 cover and a good home for Tiumerous small fur-bearing 

 animals that abounded. The water was as clear as the 

 river from which it came, and the eelgrass-covered bot- 

 tom could be seen as plainly as through a glass. Alto- 

 gether it was a very pretty channel and afforded good 

 fishing and ti-apping. 



Prominent among the "solid men'" of the town was tlie 

 postmaster, a tall, lanky specimen of the Down East Yan- 

 kee, who, from an incessant habit of chewing gum had 

 acquired the appellation of "Waxy." In connection with 

 liis official duties he kept a little store of general merchan- 

 dise, wherein the good peoi)le of the town and surrotmd- 

 ing country were wont to take theu produce and sell for 

 whatever Waxy was pleased to allow them in cash or 

 "dicker." There being no competition Waxy made his 

 own prices, and they were seldom disputed, for, visiting 

 the city regularly once a month to dispose of his accumu- 

 lated country produce and lay in a fresh supply of "store 

 goods," he kept posted on the market quotations, and was 

 therefore considered authority. Whatever fluctuation 

 there might be in the mean time did not count, but Waxy 

 was supposed to be always on the safe side. Any advance 

 on the one side or depreciation on the other went to his 

 credit, consequently his business floiuished and his old 

 leather pocketbook waxed fat iu proportion. The store, 

 like all other country stores, was a general loafing place, 

 and in the evening, when the usual motley crowd had 

 gathered to discuss the day's doings and talk politics, the 

 characters were as varied as the number could make 

 them, and the subjects as mysteriously interesting to the 

 several youths who helped to make up the assemblage as 

 they could possibly be. Clup Mason was a regular attend- 

 ant at these nightly meetings, and generally chose liis 

 seat beside me on one end of the long pine' bench that 

 stood beneath the counter, and wliile the older members 

 of the party were eloquently debating the political situa- 

 tion, or discussing the corn and wheat crop, if we con- 

 versed at all it was in timid whispers lest we shotdd dis- 

 ttu-b the harmony of the meeting and bring upon otu 

 heads the righteous ^vralh and indignation of om- supe- 

 riors. Indistinctly through th e thick veil of tobacco smoke 

 could be seen the tall form of Waxy Latin, as he rocked 

 to and fro with his hands beneath his thighs while sit- 

 ting on the edge of the counter, his jaws industriously 

 working in unison with the motions of his body, and as 

 the debate grew more heated his nasal voice could fre- 

 quently be heard above the din of the others, always 

 preceded by "Naow look a here,'' and he was as often 

 cut short by the stentorian howl of some lusty wood- 

 chopper, whose arguments were given greater force by 

 the loudness of his voice. 



One night late iu the fall a cold, drizzling rain was 

 descending, and the wind, blowing in fitful gusts, beat 

 the rain drops angrily against the window panes, and one 

 more violent than any that preceded it caused Waxj- to 

 chew his cud more vigorously and turn his eyes anxiously 

 toward a httie stream that trickled from the threshold 

 across the floor. The big square box stove had been set 

 up in the middle of a large shallow box of sand, that 

 served equally well for a spittoon, as a protection to the 

 floor from the heat of the stove. A goodly supply of 

 beech and maple chunks lay piled up in the wood box, 

 and a cheerful fire was burning brightly. Four or five of 

 the usual crowd had assembled, and Waxy had taken his 

 accustomed place and position on the counter. Hank 



Bender, who had just entered, remarked as he shook the 

 water from his hat, "By gol, this 's a bad night to be aout.'' 

 Timothy Conner pressed the ashes of his pipe down more 

 firmly with his finger and said, "Be gob, Oi wudn"t loike 

 sthayin" out mesel, so Oi wudn't;" and Waxy ventured, 

 "There won't be much of a crowd to-night. I reck'n.'" 

 For want of a subject, or a leader to press it, the 

 conversation was broken and dragged monotonously along 

 and the prospect was not very good for anj-tJung' lilce a 

 regular meeting, Cliip's eyes began to grow heavy and 

 he was mentally debathig whether to remain longer or go 

 home, when the door opened and there entered a man of 

 low stature, whose stooped, broad shoulders, covered by 

 the long gray locks of his head, showed the biuden of 

 many years. As he took off' his black slouch hat and 

 shook the water from it the dim light of the thin bracket 

 lamp that hung on a post behind the stove disclosed a 

 face covered with a long gray beard and shaggy eye- 

 brows, fi-om beneath which, in spite of his age,' there 

 peeped a pair of handsome bright eyes, and from his 

 toothless mouth there protruded a short, black clay pipe, 

 whose inverted bowl had long since been smoked out. 

 Replacing his hat and approaching nearer the stove to 

 dry and warm himself, he was greeted by Waxy, who 

 had got down from the counter and grasped his" hand, 

 "Old Shack, by gum! Haow d'y'e du, old man?" and 

 Chip, now fully awake, exclaimed aloud, while his eyes 

 sparkled with pleasure, "By gosh! its Ole Shack,'' and as 

 each one present took the old man's hand, he replied, 

 "How be ye, boys? I'm toler'ble, "n' I'm glad to see ye 

 ah, I be. I jist tied up the old scow 'n' come up fer soine 

 tobacker. I ain't smoked sence I left Jackson's Lock, 'n' 

 thet's three mile 'r more back, I reckon." "Four on 'em," 

 broke in Hank Bender. "Mebbe 'tis: seemed like fifty 

 tho', 'n' the mud's 's sMp'iy 's snow, 'n' bout "s deep, tii. 

 Tell ye it's purty hard pullin' up agin the current. Waxy 

 ef ye'U gi me some tobacker I'll smoke while yer duin up 

 some other things 't I want,'" and having received it lie 

 filled his pipe, and taking a splinter from the wood box, 

 lit it at the stove door, and cocking his head aside to 

 avoid burning his nose, pufl'ed vigorously until the tobac- 

 co was well alight and waited for his order to be filled. 



"Be ye goin' tu stay long?'' inquired Hank. "Wal, I'll 

 stay 'round here a spell, mebbe all winter. It'saleetie tu 

 auiy er trappin', but I want tu get settled down 'n' ef 

 sign's good ril stay till spring. I'm goin' up tu the big 

 eddy 'n the morn'n". Thet used tu be a good place 'n' I 

 bed a nice shanty there last year, 'n' ef I can fix it up 

 comf'ble I d'no but it's 'bout 's good a place tu put in the 

 winter 's any."' By tliis time Waxy had iinished putting 

 up the few 'articles, consisting of 'coffee, a f)iece of salt 

 pork and more tobacco, and Old .Shack, Jiavmg warmed 

 himself and partially dried his clothes, said he would "Go 

 back tu the scow," and departed. 



Old Shack was a trapper, whose business brought liim 

 on his animal visit to the village, where he would gener- 

 ally spend a month or two in the spring, trapping in the 

 adjacent swamps and bayous. This time liis arrival was 

 earlier than usual and unexpected, but no less pleasing 

 to Chip and myself, for he was our particular friend, in 

 whose society we had passed many happy hours, and his 

 coming was always looked forward to with especial inter- 

 est. ASHierevcr old Shack went he took his house with 

 him. This was an old scow or jo-boat, provided with a 

 comfortable cabin, partitioned off into a sleeping apart- 

 ment and a general storeroom, where he kept his traps 

 and stored his dried pelts. Its whole exterior was 

 painted black and it bore the somewhat suggestive name 

 The Dark Angel. By means of a small tow-hne and a 

 setting pole he was able to transport it from place to 

 place, and it made him a very comfortable habitation. 

 When he stayed long in a place he would build a shanty 

 of bi'ush or bark, thus providing an additional means of 

 comfort. 



That night, when Chip left me at the comer on our way- 

 home, we determined to visit Old Shack as early as possi- 

 ble in the morning, Chip promising to call for me on tho 

 waj-. When morning arrived it was still cloudy, but the 

 rain had ceased and there was every appearance of "a 

 clearing up," and soon after I had' finished my chores 

 Chip made his appearance and together we went down to 

 the canal, where, lying against the bank, we saw the 

 famihar old craft, and stepping aboard found the grizzled 

 old man deep in the musky odor of his little dtn, busily 

 engaged assorting his steel traps preparatory' to getting 

 them ready for the winter's use. As we entered we were 

 pleasantly greeted and informed "ef ye'd bin a little later 

 ye wouldn't ha' found me. I'm goin' up tu the big eddy 

 purty soon. Hev ye bin up there lately?" "Me and Snap 

 was ' up there huntin' woodchucks last Sunday," replied 

 Chip. "Sho! you shouldn't rim 'roimd huntin' on Sunday. 

 No good' 11 co'me out'n it. Did you see any signs?" "I 

 seed the gol dangdest biggest black mink yer ever seed. 

 It was as long as yer arm. I most hit 'im with a stone 

 an' Snap most ketched 'im. Did yer ever ketch a black 

 mink? I never seed one afore." 



The old man's eyes began to snap, but he volunteered 

 no infoimation, and only said, "Did ye, tho'? Mebbe 

 there's more on 'em. I'd like tu git two or three o' them 

 chaps, 'n' ef I du I'll show ye suthin' worth trappin' fer." 

 By this time Old Shack had finislied assorting 

 his traps, and reaching up he took from a small 

 <^helf his old black pipe, and as the fragi-ant 

 fumes of the tobacco pervaded the musky atmos- 

 phere, announced: "Ef ye want ter go 'long, boys, 

 ye kin, 'n' ye c'n help me pull the old scow up tu." We 

 gladly acce'pted. Getting out his tow-hne and throwing 

 it ove'r his slioulder he bent forward his body, and with Chip 

 and myself following stut closely in the rear we made 

 good progress, and soon covered the distance of a mile to 

 where the water began to spread out. This was at 

 the end of what was termed the big eddy, but which in 

 reality was a large swamp a quarter of a mile wide and a 

 mile or more in length. Thousands of tussocks and 

 miniature islands from which grew higli bushes and small 

 trees were scattered over its enthe surface. Old stumps 

 and decayed fallen trees were everywhere, and between 

 them all there were wide and narrow channels suffi- 

 cient to float the old scow. Through these we began to 

 work our way, pushing and pidling, sometimes getting 

 stuck on some" stuiken log or submerged stump, or en- 

 tangling the roof of the cabin in the overhanging branches 

 until we came to quite a large open space of clear, deep 

 water extending to the shore, where, between two large 

 maple trees, we found the shanty of brush, bark and small 

 logs. It was somewhat dilapidated by wind and storm, 

 but a few repairs would make it comfortable, and after 



